Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale

4 STARS

What a yummy book! Ginn Hale has created two wonderful protagonists in Belimai Sykes, a Prodigal descended from ancient demons and Captain William Harper who is a member of the constabulary aka the Inquisition.

Captain Harper seeks out Belimai's help to solve a series of murders and disappearances and the tale begins. And isn't Belimai Sykes the most delicious of names? The two men don't seem to have much to draw them together at the beginning, but as time goes on, things change... as they will. Their banter, even in the darkest of situations, is immensely enjoyable.

Watching the relationship between these two men grow is delightful. There is not a lot of overt sexytimes to be had, but that's okay by me. I'm not convinced that it would have fit with the atmosphere that the author created. The world building is fascinating. I wanted to know more and more about the Prodigals and how they were descended from the one-time angels cast out of heaven and the other-wordly powers they have. Fascinating.

I do hope that Ginn Hale brings us more of this world and these characters. They are WONDERFUL!

Champion of the Scarlet Wolf (Book 2) by Ginn Hale

4.5 STARS

Cadelonian Series - Book 4

I loved this 4th book in the Cadeleonian series. I loved the magic in it. I loved the old gods and the feel of history. I loved the characters, main and secondary and even the characters that got little more than a walk-on. I loved the animals... I swear, Elezar's stallion, Cobre, was one of my favourite characters in the whole book and I was ready to do the author a violence on his behalf on more than one occasion! *LOL*

The love story between Elezar and Skellan was very satisfying to me. They were both so different for the most part, but they complimented each other perfectly. And they were similar in their ... fundamental beliefs about life. I loved how their intimacy and feelings grew and matured over both Scarlet Wolf books. And that there was humour in their relationship as well. And with Javier and Kiram as well. I'd love to see these 4 on an adventure together. *LOL*

My only complaint, I think, was that the whole epic story got wrapped up so quickly. Not the final 'battle', per se, but the resolution of the various interpersonal conflicts. In some ways it felt as if the author was finished with telling the story and that was that. Maybe she's planning a return to this universe - which I have absolutely NO PROBLEM with! - and in that case, some unanswered questions are warranted. I did want more of a final scene between Skellan and Bone-Crusher.

One last thing... the last line, IMO, was a weak one. But I find that I'm very persnickety about last lines and often authors aren't at the top of their game with them. This time, it just felt... lacking.

Anyway... maybe it's wouldn't be a 4.5 star book for some people, but I loved it in spite of the caveats!

Champion of the Scarlet Wolf (Book 1) by Ginn Hale

4 STARS

Cadelonian Series - Book 3

Wonderful fun book! Terrific characters that I can quickly to love. I'm so glad to be reading Elezar's story - I always thought there was more to him than we were allowed to see in the Lord of the White Hell books.

And as with the Lord of the White Hell duology - there's an insane cliffhanger that makes me very happy that I learned from my previous experience and waited until I had both books to begin reading.

So, contrary to what I usually do with series books these days, I'm diving right in to Book 2!

Lord of the White Hell (Book 2) by Ginn Hale

4 STARS

Cadelonian Series - Book 2

Fun, fun, fun! I really enjoyed this second half of Lord of the White Hell. Enjoyed it enough to go checking right away to see if there were more books in the same world. And there are!

But, to concentrate on this one. Book Two picks up... 10 minutes after the end of Book One. Seriously, this wasn't a duology by any means. It was one huge volume snipped in half. If I can offer any advice to folks that want to read it, read them back to back in one complete experience. I read Book One back in January and I found, especially with the amount of reading that I do, that I could have used a bit of a reminder on certain things in the beginning of Book Two to make the first couple of chapters more comfortable for me. I kept having to pause and try and remember the whys and wherefores and whos of the narrative.

That being said, this half of the story of Kiram and Javier and the Hellions and Kiram's family seemed to me to move along a little faster and be a little more action-packed than volume one. At the same time, our main location moves from the Sagarda Academy to Kiram's home in the Haldiim part of his home town. Ginn Hale has created a wonderful world that's familiar until it's not. We get to see a lot of Karim's family as well as more of his best friend, Nestor's family. I enjoyed that because it brought out another side of Karim that brought him, to me, to full 3-dimensionality. (I know it's not a word, but you understand what I mean.)

Kiram and Javier's personal relationship is taken to what could best be termed the next level and while there are a few lovely sexytimes scenes, they're more romantic than erotic and suit the story perfectly.

If I have one problem, aside from the splitting into two volumes thing, it's that the end of the book felt a bit rushed. The race to beat the Big Baddie was fine, but the actual climax of the 'battle' seemed over rather swiftly and I felt it needed more gravitas. I almost felt like the author saw the end coming and couldn't wait to type the words The End. I wanted more.

Still, this was a terrific read and I'm looking forward to reading the next duology in this world - The Champion of the Scarlet Wolf - Books 1&2. I'm going to get them at the same time in case it's the same case of cliffhangeritis as with this one. :)

Lord of the White Hell (Book 1) by Ginn Hale

4 STARS

The Caledonian Series - Book 1

This is another book that I've had in the TBR pile for a while. What caught my attention first was the blurb:

Kiram Kir-Zaki may be considered a mechanist prodigy among his own people, but when he becomes the first Haldiim ever admitted to the prestigious Sagrada Academy, he is thrown into a world where power, superstition and swordplay outweigh even the most scholarly of achievements. 

But when the intimidation from his Cadeleonian classmates turns bloody, Kiram unexpectedly finds himself befriended by Javier Tornesal, the leader of a group of cardsharps, duelists and lotharios who call themselves Hellions. 

However Javier is a dangerous friend to have. Wielder of the White Hell and sole heir of a Dukedom, he is surrounded by rumors of forbidden seductions, murder and damnation. His enemies are many and any one of his secrets could not only end his life but Kiram's as well.

To be honest it was the second paragraph that caught me. Then, I saw a couple of positive recs for the author as a good fantasy author, so I picked it up. It really didn't register with me that it was probably considered a YA fantasy, which is a good thing because I tend to stay far, far away from YA books in general, reading only the rare fantasy novel in the genre. And that would have been sad because I ended up really enjoying the book, the world the author created and her wonderful characters.

I like the author's voice. I like the world she created and the people she populated it with and the story she's telling is intriguing. What is the white hell really? What is the malevolent force that's cursing Javier's family? What's really going on in the depths of Javier's cousin, Fedeles? How can Kiram help? How will his gift with mechanical things help? Lots and lots of questions, none of which were really answered in this book.

That's the only bad thing. This book is basically about setting up the story, meeting and getting to know two young men and their circle of friends and teachers. Establishing some kind of relationship between them and well... that's it. The cliffhanger is HORRID! I hate them at the best of times if I'm honest, but this one... Yes, it's the perfect end for Book One... but Book Two should be in the same damned book! It is an incredibly frustrateing ending - especially for someone like me who is trying to budget her reading $ and time/schedule. Had the cliffhanger been less... um... totally cliffhangerish, I would have given this one at least 4.5 stars if not 5.

But that being said, I will definitely pick up Book 2 and unless it's totally awful, will pick up other books by Ginn Hale.