RELEASE DAY: "Ashen Rayne (Shadowlands Book 1)" by Skye Knizley

Young women are vanishing from Miami’s club scene, most disappearing without a trace, others found suffocated in plastic bags, their battered corpses filled with a deadly cocktail of narcotics.
There are no suspects and few clues.
When exotic dancer Rayne is taken, her sister Blaze calls the ladies of Shadowlands to find her.
With only five days before Rayne is found dead or never found at all, Smoak and Ash dive into Miami’s underworld of drugs, prostitution and slavery, using every skill they have to find her before the clock runs out.
Alone? 
Afraid? 
Lost?
In trouble and have nowhere to turn?
Call Shadowlands. We’re here to help.

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kick ass women in fiction. Ever since I started reading, I always gravitated towards books where the heroine needs no man for help: Nicki Styx, the lead in Terri Garey's urban fantasy series. Raven Madison, in Ellen Schreiber's Vampire Kisses series. But those kinds of women are hard to find. Most of them fall short of what I'm always looking for...except for Smoak. Now there's a female lead!
She's too good to even be called bad ass. From page one you know there's something different about her and Ashley. Ashley is actually deaf, and you wouldn't know it except that they use TTY phones and in the first chapter it is mentioned. Skye didn't write her as disabled. Instead, she uses her disability to her advantage. Smoak is not disabled...she is actually too capable, if that's possible. It's her seeming invincibility that makes you love Ashley more: for showing her scars and her handicaps. But you learn that Smoak is not invincible, and that she does not have a heart of stone.
I don't like to review good books, because I am always afraid I'll run off at the mouth and post spoilers! I'll just try to stick to the basics.
The story should be in the dictionary for "fast paced". But it is not lacking in any department. There is no shortage of emotion, nor is there any detail missing. They define "women's fiction" as being targeted towards women by talking about women's experiences. If they put books like these down as "women's fiction", I bet we'd have had a female president by now. Reading this book was not just exhilarating for me, but as a young woman it makes me feel empowered to read a story about girls like these.
It's vigilante justice without a mask, leaving nothing and no one in her wake. This is not a book by a woman for women. This is a book by an amazing writer for anyone who wants to read real, action-packed fiction.

5/5--put this at the top of your TBR list immediately!

Purchase Ashen Rayne on Amazon!

RELEASE DAY: "Chosen Thief (Forever Evermore Book Four)" by Scarlett Dawn

The second saga in the bestselling, groundbreaking Forever Evermore series begins with , where the life of a skilled lawbreaker becomes much more than she ever wanted...
Caroline Jules knows death is imminent. She’s only 22, but as an inmate of Death Row in the most secure Mystical jail, what else could her future hold?
Caro has no idea. Her solitary, transient life is about to get flipped on its head when it is revealed that she is the new Prodigy Elemental, and she has responsibilities and ties that she can’t ever escape. Caro is attempting to run from a brutal past, but the Rulers have other plans for this thief’s future.
But the transition from a self-contained existence to life with the other Prodigies, the Kings and Queens, and even the Elders was never going to be easy, and Caro has secrets she’s loath to share. Suddenly she has friends, mentors, lovers — and they all want to know more about her than she is willing to reveal.
Will Caro ever escape the darkness of all she is, or will she fall deeper into the life that has been chosen for her?

I admit, I didn't finish the first saga of Forever Evermore, due to scheduling issues. But what I did read, I enjoyed. Now, reading Chosen Thief, I know that I will be following this saga till the end, and going back to finish the first one, too!
Number one, Caro is a badass! She's an excellent character, and not typical to this type of story. She's defiant, deadly and sassy with an identity of her own and has no need for a male partner, like many other women in NA fiction.
Now, the paranormal elements are perfectly balanced. I think my biggest problem is that silver can hurt vampires here, when usually it's only werewolves who are vulnerable to the metal. You have a vast array of creatures, from Vampires, Shifters, Mages and more. It's magical, dark, violent and a little sexy, mixing to make a novel many will enjoy.
An addtion, Caro is bisexual, in love with a female Vampire who is a lesbian. It's a healthy, LGBTQA relationship (for a time), and gives a nice nod to the fact that gay love is normal and can be used here, in a supernatural book where there are mostly heterosexual relationships.
Scarlett Dawn is a wonderful storyteller, and Chosen Thief is no exception!

4/5--I read it in a single sitting!

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