Bea Evans Books

Tag: Books

  • March 2025 Reads

    March brought me to the end (maybe?) of the Gillian St. Kevern series “How to Raise Your Werewolf” and “Read by Candlelight.” I say maybe because I’m unsure of reading order and might have missed something inadvertently.

    I’ve also found a couple of new series. I like to have a few different going so I don’t read too much of any one author in a row. Sometimes I can’t resist, but I like coming back after reading something else. A.M. Rose’s “Cursebreakers, Inc” looks to be an interesting series. I really enjoyed the first and the preview of the second looks promising.

    I’ve also enjoyed the first couple of books of Jax Stuart’s “Sweetwater Pack” series. Not a huge mpreg fan (or anyone preg, really) but I’m a sucker for those fated mates, I guess.

    I like to throw in a little “real world” romance, too, to cleanse the palate between supes and magic and bears, oh my!

  • February 2025 Reads

    Uh-oh. Someone found a new series to read!

    As you can see, I continued with the Gillian St. Keven series. I also started on TJ Nichols’ “Familiar Mates” series. Those, along with a reread of KJ Charles’ “A Charm of Magpies” series, pretty much took over my month. Though I’m realizing I forgot my book club book, so that means I had 28 books in February!

  • JANUARY 2025 READS

    I am a little bit behind, so I’ll post a couple of pictures from earlier this year before March is done. When I wonder why I don’t get a lot done in my life, I look at lists like this and go, “Oh, yeah. Reading.”

    Have you read any of these? I was trying to pick a favorite from the month of January and I’m not sure I can. KJ Charles is a perennial favorite. A definite buy for me. Allie Therin has a couple of series I really enjoy and have read a couple of times. The latest in the “Sugar & Vice” series ends with a cliffhanger and ahhh! I know patience is a virtue, but this is why I like coming to a series late.

    I’ve been making my way through Gillian St. Kevern’s “How to Raise Your Werewolf” and “Read by Candlelight” series (so you’ll definitely see more in February’s collection). The two series are really interconnected and I have no idea what the reading order is. But if you like gothic romance, give them a try. They’re not long books, which I appreciate so I can still get some sleep at night.

  • Rattling Bone by Jordan L Hawk

    You’ll want to read the first book in the series, The Forgotten Dead, to get a better sense of the characters here (plus it’s spooky and worth the read). 

    In some respects, I enjoyed the second of the Outfoxing the Paranormal series a little more than the first, because the first was essentially an alternate-universe fanfic for The Magnus Archives (a podcast). Since that’s something I got into big time during the pandemic, I enjoyed it but it took a while for me to settle into Hawk’s story, which is completely original.

    I didn’t have to overcome that in this second book which follows a paranormal researcher and his boyfriend, an accountant who has a ghost hunting show with a couple of compatriots, as they go visit the boyfriend’s parents.

    While there, they dig into his family’s history with the paranormal, something his dad suppressed in his son after his mother spent the end of her life in a psychiatric facility. They uncover a family curse that strikes every 25 years… and it’s due to hit any day now.

    Exciting, but not too overwhelming. If you like Hawk’s other writing, this series fits in perfectly with the tone he sets in other series. If you like this and want more, his SPCTR series is also set in modern times, but check them all out.

  • The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

    I am probably not the target audience here. As originally a comic series, it’s episodic, with a story developing in a longer arc. This is the first 8 comics in the series in one book. I don’t really like the art, but it’s evocative, dark and gross. The level of detail is impressive, however, and I probably missed a few things.

    The story, of the accidental imprisonment of Dream, his eventual escape, and his quest to get back his tools, makes me wonder what the rest of the series is about. “The sound of her wings” is perfect, to me, because I thought, “okay what now,” and Morpheus was at the same place.

    The other episodes are occasionally very violent and sometimes sexual. Definitely not for younger viewers, as they say. I’m sure the genre affected the storytelling. The inclusion of other DC characters was odd, to me. And, since I’m not a comic reader, I wasn’t always sure who was who. The myth and classical allusions are more my speed.