Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
Hunter
Jacquelyn Frank writing as JAX
Published: May 2, 2013 (Kensington Digital)
Purchase at: Amazon
Reviewed by: Candace
Rating (out of 5): 2.5 stars
Jacquelyn Frank won me over many, many books ago with her Nightwalker series. With this new series, I expected the same appeal. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Tatyana Petrova happens upon Willow House by accident. Her car breaks down while she is... 
Werewolves Be Damned (Magic & Mayhem #1)
Stacey Kennedy
Published: April 15, 2013 (Entangled)
Purchase: Amazon
Reviewed by: Jo
Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars
Nexi Jones is hell bent on revenge after witnessing the savage werewolf attack that killed her parents. Saved from the same fate by sword-wielding, kilt-wearing warriors, she learns two things. Firstly, there are two worlds: The Earthworld and The... 
One for the Wicked (Dark Mission #5)
Karina Cooper
Published: April 30, 2013 (Avon)
Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon
Reviewed by: Chelsea
Rating (out of 5): 4 stars
Note: This review does not contain spoilers. (Yay!) However, it does make reference to events from earlier books. While I’ve tried to minimize spoilers for those titles, I do suggest you begin with the first Dark Mission novel. Read... 
I adore Karina Cooper’s Dark Mission books. They’re dark paranormal romance. There’s magic and witches and government shenanigans. Oh, and lots of tension-fueled romance. The final book, One for the Wicked, comes out in April, but there will be a sexy, all-money-goes-to-charity novella called Wicked Lies releasing on March 5. It features Jonas (you’ll see him below) and gets him an... 
Every year, I compile the standard year-end best books list—read 2012′s best reads list—and it’s a hard task narrowing things down. What’s harder though is picking the ten heroes from novels published this year to make my annual swoon-worthy list. Last year Eve Silver’s Lokan took top honors and the year before Stacia Kane’s Terrible was causing fevers all over the... 
From Chelsea/VBC: Today we’re turning the blog over to the fantastic Diana Pharaoh Francis. Her latest Horngate Witches novel Blood Winter releases on Dec. 18. Like me, she’s excited about all the food that comes with the holiday season. Turning it over to Di…
Hi everyone!
Thank you for having me here. I’m really excited! I was pondering what to write about for awhile and I realized... 
From Chelsea/VBC: A couple weeks ago I started our new Keeper Shelf feature by singing the praises of Claudia Grey’s Evernight series. Today, I’m turning it over to associate reviewer Jo to tell you about the series that turned her into a paranormal fiction reader: L.J. Smith’s Night World series. As always, feel free to add your Keeper Shelf suggestions in the comments.
Since this is my...
Sacrifice the Wicked (Dark Mission #4)
Karina Cooper
Published: Sept. 25, 2012 (Avon)
Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon
Reviewed by: Chelsea
Rating (out of 5): 4.5 stars
Note: This review, as always, is spoiler free for the current title. However, it assumes you’ve read the earlier books in the Dark Mission series. If you haven’t, please check out my review of Blood of the Wicked... 
Note from Chelsea/VBC: I adore Karina Cooper’s novels. Her Dark Mission series offers excellent world building with a huge wallop of sexy. I strongly suggest starting with the first book in the series Blood of the Wicked (VBC review), and continuing from there. Today Karina agreed to stop by and talk about the volatile nature of the couple in Sacrifice the Wicked (Dark Mission #4): Parker and Simon.... 
Grave Witch (Alex Craft #1)
Kalayna Price
Publisher: October 5, 2010 (Roc)
Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon
Reviewed by: Jo
Rating (out of 5): 4 stars
Alex Craft is a Grave Witch, using her powers of raising Shades (echoes of the dead) to aid the police and try and pay the bills as a P.I. When the head of the Humans First organization is found dead, Alex is drafted to get some answers. What she... 
