Author: Dannika Dark

Review: Five Weeks by Dannika Dark

Posted August 4, 2015 by Holly in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: Five Weeks by Dannika DarkReviewer: Holly
Five Weeks (Seven Series #3) by Dannika Dark
Series: Seven Series #3
Also in this series: Seven Years, Six Months

Publication Date: September 4th 2014
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, New Adult
Pages: 317
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating: three-stars

Paranormal Romance, Book 3 by USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHORRock Star Shifter Romance. Destiny will find you.
Izzy has always loved the freedom and adventure of life on the road, but she's recently decided to settle down--as much as a rogue wolf can. When her boyfriend gets her a job working at a hot Shifter bar, she runs into the last person on earth she expected to see again.
Jericho isn't the famous rock star he once was, though he still plays in a local band and loves to party. Beautiful women come and go, but music is his only passion--until a sassy redhead named Isabelle Monroe shows up unexpectedly.
Fate reunites two former friends living with one foot in the present and the other in the past. But will they have a future when one of them is forced to choose between life and death? Old habits die hard, and sometimes the toughest addictions to shake are the ones that control our hearts.
18+Full-length novelCliffhanger-freeHEA
SEVEN SERIES READING ORDER:Book 1 - Seven Years (Seven Series #1)Book 2 - Six Months (Seven Series #2)Book 3 - Five Weeks (Seven Series #3)Book 4 - Four Days (Seven Series #4)Book 5 - Three Hours (Seven Series #5)Book 6: Two Minutes (Seven Series #6) MAGERI SERIES READING ORDER:Book 1 - Sterling (Mageri Series: Book 1)Book 2 - Twist (Mageri Series: Book 2)Book 3 - Impulse (Mageri Series: Book 3)Book 4 - Gravity (Mageri Series: Book 4)Book 5 - Shine (Mageri Series: Book 5) Final Installment!
OTHER BOOKS:Closer: A Novella
Keywords: alpha male, hero, paranormal romance, romantic comedy, urban fantasy, wolf, wolves, werewolf, shifters, pack, supernatural, alpha, biker, rocker, rock star, native american, guitar, hero, singer, love story, heroine, sweethearts, best friends, hea, cliffhanger free, series, family, brothers, romance, heroine, pack, novel, action, adventure, vampires, mages, fantasy, novel, series, mageri, sexy, steamy, brilliant, southern, texas, bestseller, lad, bloke, naughty, mage, vampire, realistic love story, tattoos, tatted, hot cars, fairy tale

I wasn’t a big fan of Jericho in the previous books, but I was pleasantly surprised by him here. At first he was kind of an immature jerk, but as the novel wore on he grew up and I ended up really liking him. Izzy was a good heroine for him. She was funny and independent and I liked how quick she was to stand up for herself.

I really wish the author didn’t include the silly side plots featuring drug runners or crazy exes or loan sharks or whatever. In this case it was a crazy ex and a nasty drug kingpin. The plots do nothing to further the story and honestly just confused me half the time. The story would be going along great then, BAM, she was getting kidnapped out of nowhere for no reason. Lame.

One of the things I like about this series is that the shifters can’t remember anything while their in animal form. The animal takes over completely and it’s like the human blacks out. It makes for some interesting tales and confusing antics, but it’s a good spin on kind of an old tale.

I like the family ties the brothers have with each other, and I like the world. I actually binge-read this entire series. Though I like certain aspects better than others, and some books didn’t work for me at all, overall it has good bones.

3.5 out of 5

 

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Review: Six Months by Dannika Dark

Posted July 30, 2015 by Holly in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: Six Months by Dannika DarkReviewer: Holly
Six Months by Dannika Dark
Series: Seven Series #2
Also in this series: Seven Years, Five Weeks (Seven Series #3)

Publication Date: September 4th 2014
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, New Adult
Pages: 342
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
two-half-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Paranormal Romance, Book 2 by USA Today Bestselling Author, Dannika Dark
Destiny will find you.April Frost is a compassionate young woman with a steady job and ambitious goals. But the harder she runs away from her past, the more it threatens to destroy her. When three strangers enter her life, April is forced to face her demons and it's a battle she may not win.
Private investigators in the Breed world are men who take risks, and Reno Cole is no exception. As a Shifter, he's expected to control his inner animal. But lately his wolf has been venturing dangerously close to the city, and he's about to discover why. When Reno is reintroduced to a family friend, the attraction is immediate. April captivates him with her secretive eyes and resilient spirit. She's also in trouble, and despite the fact she's a human, Reno can't turn his back on her.
April is caught between two worlds: One that threatens to bury her dreams and another that could fulfill them. Can she trust the wolf at her door and find the courage to overcome her demons?
18+Full-length novelCliffhanger-freeHEANew Adult PNR
SEVEN SERIES READING ORDER:Book 1 - Seven Years (Seven Series #1)Book 2 - Six Months (Seven Series #2)Book 3 - Five Weeks (Seven Series #3)Book 4 - Four Days (Seven Series #4)Book 5 - Three Hours (Seven Series #5)Book 6: Two Minutes (Seven Series #6)
MAGERI SERIES READING ORDER:Book 1 - Sterling (Mageri Series: Book 1)Book 2 - Twist (Mageri Series: Book 2)Book 3 - Impulse (Mageri Series: Book 3)Book 4 - Gravity (Mageri Series: Book 4)Book 5 - Shine (Mageri Series: Book 5) Final Installment!
OTHER BOOKS:Closer: A Novella
Keywords:
alpha male, hero, paranormal romance, romantic comedy, urban fantasy, wolf, wolves, werewolf, shifters, pack, supernatural, alpha, biker, rocker, rock star, native american, sweethearts, best friends, hea, cliffhanger free, series, family, brothers, romance, heroine, action, adventure, vampires, mages, fantasy, novel, series, mageri, sexy, steamy, brilliant, southern, texas, bestseller, lad, bloke, naughty, mage, vampire, realistic love story, tattoos, tatted, hot cars, fairy tale

I struggled more with this book than the first. The heroine made some questionable decisions that really took me out of the story.

When her grandmother died, April inherited a crappy trailer and a mountain of debt. She worked hard to pay her grandmother’s debts, but just when she thought she could see the light at the end of the tunnel a loan shark showed up out of nowhere to call in yet another one.He isn’t the kind of guy you say no to, so she ends up stealing money from her job (the heroine of book 1 owns the candy shop where April works), then borrowing from another loan shark to pay it back.

She meets Reno, the brother of her boss’s boyfriend, and he becomes really protective of her. She’s surprised at how good it feels to have someone take care of her and be there for her. But when another of Reno’s brothers discovers that she stole money from her work (even though she put it back), she knows she can’t expect Reno to stay with her.

I wanted to like April, but her thoughts and feelings after being caught stealing from her company didn’t really work for me. She felt bad for doing it, but aside from a thought or two about how she shouldn’t have done that, she just kind of brushes it aside. Since the book is written in first-person from her point-of-view, I expected to see her thoughts be filled with guilt and remorse. Not that I wanted the entire book to be nothing but her being eaten with guilt, but I don’t think we really saw any remorse for what she did.

I could have gotten past that, but from there things just go downhill. She constantly makes questionable decisions that put her in danger. She refuses to accept help even when it’s freely offered. She constantly pushes Reno away. Every time I’d start to like her or feel sorry for her, she’d make another dumb choice that would kill all sympathetic feelings.

I liked the family ties we felt in the first book, and I thought that was missing here. The romance was well built in the first half of the book, but I thought it fizzled some in the latter half.

I plan to continue on with the series, but I hope the next book is better than this one.

2.25 out of 5

 

two-half-stars

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Review: Seven Years by Dannika Dark

Posted June 4, 2015 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Seven Years by Dannika DarkReviewer: Holly
Seven Years by Dannika Dark
Series: Seven Series #1
Also in this series: Six Months, Five Weeks (Seven Series #3)

Publication Date: September 4th 2014
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy
Pages: 331
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Paranormal Romance: Book 1. USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Seven years ago, my world ended.Seven years later, my new life began.
It's been seven years since Lexi Knight lost her brother in a tragic accident. On the anniversary of his death, her brother's best friend shows up unexpectedly - a man she hasn't seen since the funeral. He is no longer the boy Lexi once knew, but a dangerous-looking man with tattoos and dark secrets. He broke her trust and abandoned her family, yet what he reveals makes it impossible to stay angry. Lexi has been secretly infatuated with Austin since childhood, so finding out he's a Shifter just makes him sexier. Dammit.
Austin Cole has returned to the city where he grew up, and just in time. He's lived a hard life these past seven years, and the shadows of his past are threatening to destroy Lexi's family. It's time that she learned the truth about her brother, but there is a shocking twist that Austin never saw coming. Now he must protect her family when her mother and sister wind up in mortal danger. Will Lexi learn to accept the truth about who he is, and can Austin salvage a relationship from the ruins of their past?
18+Full-length novelCliffhanger-freeHEA
SEVEN SERIES READING ORDER:Book 1 - Seven Years (Seven Series #1)Book 2 - Six Months (Seven Series #2)Book 3 - Five Weeks (Seven Series #3)Book 4 - Four Days (Seven Series #4)Book 5 - Three Hours (Seven Series #5)Book 6: Two Minutes (Seven Series #6)
MAGERI SERIES READING ORDER:Book 1 - Sterling (Mageri Series: Book 1) USA Today Bestseller!Book 2 - Twist (Mageri Series: Book 2)Book 3 - Impulse (Mageri Series: Book 3)Book 4 - Gravity (Mageri Series: Book 4)Book 5 - Shine (Mageri Series: Book 5) Final Installment!
OTHER BOOKS:Closer: A Novella
Keywords:
alpha male, hero, paranormal romance, romantic comedy, urban fantasy, wolf, wolves, werewolf, shifters, pack, supernatural, alpha, biker, rocker, rock star, native american, sweethearts, best friends, hea, no cliffhanger, series, family, brothers, romance, heroine, action, adventure, vampires, mages, fantasy, novel, series, mageri, sexy, steamy, brilliant, southern, texas, bestseller, lad, bloke, naughty, mage, vampire, realistic love story, tattoos, tatted, hot cars, fairy tale, thriller, new adult, interracial, coming of age, suspense, comedy, humor, bad boy, motorcycle, rock star, tattoos, protagonist, heroine, family, dangerous, action, unrequited, love hate relationships, stripper, pole dancer, prince, billionaire,

Seven years ago, Lexi’s older brother died in a motorcycle accident and her world imploded. Her mother got pregnant and her father left. Since then she’s been struggling to deal with the pain of her loss, helping her mother raise her younger sister, and working a dead end job at a candy shop. When her brother’s best friend suddenly returns on the eve of his death, Lexi is angry and hurt. She hasn’t seen Austin since the night her brother died. Since they were just as close and she and her brother were, and since her mother considered him a second son, his disappearing act hurt all of them.

Austin had a good reason for disappearing seven years ago, though he wasn’t able to share it with Lexi or her family. He’s actually Breed, a shapeshifter that takes the form of a wolf. He was born an alpha, and he adopted Lexi’s family as his pack to sort of practice on (his family’s explanation for his connection to them). To protect them, he had to leave after Lexi’s brother died. He didn’t accidentally die in a motorcycle accident as Austin let Lexi believe; he was actually murdered because he was working for a powerful Mage with the hope of being turned into an immortal.

Now Austin and his brothers have returned to town permanently, and he can’t keep away from Lexi. Especially when it’s revealed that Lexi is a Shifter, too. She had no idea and neither did Austin. Now she needs protection from the local packs who want to claim her and her brother’s old enemies.

I liked the story and the world. The Shifters were different in that once the animal took over, the human was no longer present. It was actually like they blacked out. They remembered nothing of their time as a wolf (except Alphas who sometimes remembered and sometimes didn’t).

I struggled a bit with how accepting the heroine was of her new situation. I wanted her to demand answers, but a lot of the time she brushed it aside when someone refused to answer her questions or the subject was changed. She’d ask a question, get blown off, and just go on her merry way. That’s not to say I didn’t like the story. I just wish there’d been a bit more skepticism on her part, and a little more force in getting answers.

The romance was pretty good, though I thought the hero read as a bit young and hotheaded at times. I’d have liked to see him as a more mature alpha, which is one of the reasons I marked this as New Adult. He has a long way to go. I liked them together and thought they had good chemistry, but they both need some maturity. Actually, the entire pack needs maturity, even those who were centuries old.

The writing is pretty inconsistent. Sometimes flowery and meandering, other times choppy and disjointed. I was pulled out of the story several times because of minor continuity issues, and others because of major plot holes, typos and grammar issues. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading, but the story needed a good edit.

3.25 out of 5

three-half-stars

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