Novella Review: One Solstice Night

To the cozy little town of Benevolence, the Wolf of Winter is a distant memory. Two generations ago, this nightmare creature crept through the streets and brought with it a blizzard of catastrophic proportions.

So goes the story. Isabella Fox finds the legend hard to believe. A witch for hire, she's just moved to Benevolence because it's the only place in the world where nothing ever happens. As the new village magicmaker, she's expected to cast only one spell a year--freeing up her time to pursue new dreams, and perhaps love.

As the Winter Solstice celebration draws near, Benevolence flurries with the magic and wonder of the holiday season. But not all are welcome to partake in the town's festivities. Outcast shapeshifter, Emily, lives alone in the mountains. She is a mystery to Isabella, until they happen upon each other by chance in the snowy wood...

On the night of the Winter Solstice, love is in the air...but so is the cold, sky-piercing howl of the Wolf of Winter.

I read One Solstice Night by Elora Bishop back just before the solstice. It was such a lovely, fun read. If you read my Q&A with Sarah Diemer, then you saw that she and Elora Bishop are the same person. While One Solstice Night is not a YA book, it's perfectly fine for teen readers.

Young witch, Isabella, is run out of town because of her failure at being a witch. When she finds an add for a job as the town witch for Benevolence, she snatches it up. And when she finds out that her only job is performing one spell, at the winter solstice, she knows she can succeed with that. It's just one simple spell. Isbella isn't in Benevolence long before she starts finding trouble. She falls for a young woman who is an outcast who is not allowed in town due to mistakes made by her ancestors. You'll root for Isabella and Emily right from the start.

This was such a beautiful, wintery tale. You'll want to snatch it up right now to read snuggled up by the fire. You can pick up a signed copy from Sappho's Boutique. Or if you'd prefer an ebook copy, it's available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

Novella Review: Elemental

Earth, Fire, Air, Water – they are more than you dream.

As an air Elemental, 17-year-old Emily Morgan doesn’t have much power. That’s okay—she knows what happens to kids who do.

Like Michael Merrick. He’s an earth Elemental, one with enough power to level cities. Which makes him sexy. Dangerous. And completely off limits. At least according to Emily’s family.

But her summer job puts her in close contact with Michael, and neither of them can help the attraction they feel. When forces of nature like theirs collide, one misstep could get someone killed. Because Emily’s family doesn’t just want her to stay away from him.v
They want him dead.

I must admit that I picked up Elemental by Brigid Kemmerer because I was curious about this new series. As a pagan, I know what true elementals are, and I was curious as to how they were being written in novels. I wasn't sure what to expect, but this novella surprised me. I really enjoyed it.

Emily is an air elemental with little power and Michael is an earth elemental, the strongest around. And they are forbidden from associating with each other. Many of the elementals want to kill Michael. They fear his power and are sure the world would be better off with someone who wasn't so powerful. Emily has been warned to stay away from him, as he's incredibly dangerous, but when he walks into her place of work, the two are forced to be around each other. And neither of their families want them going back to that location.

Michael might be as powerful as Emily's family believes, but is he as dangerous? Emily begins to think not, as she begins to fall for him. This was a quick, cute read, and it surpassed my expectations. I definitely recommend checking this one out. I plan to read the first novel of this series, Storm, soon.

Novella Review: Never to Sleep

Don't Close Your Eyes.

Sophie Cavanaugh is not going to let her freak of a cousin's strange psychiatric condition ruin high school for them both. Not after all the work she's put into cultivating the right look, and friends, and reputation. But then, Sophie sees something so frightening she lets out a blood-curdling scream—and finds herself stuck in a bizarre parallel world where nothing is safe and deadly creatures lurk just out of sight, waiting for her to close her eyes and sleep...forever.

Could this world be real? Or does insanity run in the family...?

Never to Sleep is Rachel Vincent's newest novella in the Soul Screamers series. I am sooooo in love with this series and Rachel's writing. It's one of my favorite YA series ever. So I may end up gushing a bit. Never to Sleep is narrated by Sophie Cavanaugh... Kaylee (the regular main character's) cousin. Kaylee, her father, and her uncle are all bean sidhes (banshees). Kaylee's mother was as well, but not Sophie's mother. And it seems to have skipped Sophie as well.

Sophie doesn't like her cousin. To her, Kaylee is a freak who screams uncontrollably for no reason. And she believes Kaylee has something to do with, or at the very least knows something about, her mother's death. The supernatural world is around her and close to her, and finally she's introduced to it. While at Eastlake High, trying to escape another instance of being embarrassed by Kaylee, she crosses over into Netherworld... with new hottie Luca. While trying to escape the crimson creeper, hellions, and more, Sophie and Luca grow closer. But who and what is Luca? And how did they cross into the Netherworld?

I wasn't sure if I'd like this one very much. I don't like Sophie in the series, so I was pleasantly surprised to find I liked reading through her POV here. If you haven't read the Soul Screamers series, definitely check it out. If you have and haven't picked this one up... what are you waiting for?