Gris-Gris & Graveyard Ghosts by Brenda Trim

 I love this series but I'm noticing some changes that I don't like. There is barely any romance in this series now. Which makes the books so much better. Not just the love between the spouses either. I want to see some time spent with the sisters with their kids again or grandkids. And what happened to the UIS agent who was in love with Cami? He hasn't been mentioned in several books. I want to hear about Family adjusting to the modern world & having a boyfriend. They briefly mention Came teaching the Twisted Sister's kids. I would love to hear in more detail how the kids powers are developing. What chaos they accidentally get into. And my last complaint is that there is way too much action in the books now. 

This book is all about an evil entity that was bound by Cyran's relatives. They all have different kinds of unique magic. That part was cool to learn about. People start disappearing & even bodies disappear. That made it hard to explain to the police. This ancient evil is trying to escape his magical bonds by any means necessary. That includes draining spirits, draining people, and possessing people to do it's bidding. The Collector (entity)  even manages to convince one of the family members that helped cage it to help his break out. Over 170 years now his descendents have infiltrated the other family lines. To make it harder on the Twisted Sisters. The worst part is that about 4 lines of the family have disappeared. Did the Collector manage to kill them off or did they go into hiding? And if so how will they ever find them? They need all 7 family descendants to strengthen to prison bond over the entity or it will break free & start feeding on souls. And it won't stop with New Orleans. Last time it killed 11,000 people in various cities.

Of The Curse For The Crown by V. B. Lacey

 This book really sucked me into it. I'm new to the author and officially on her street team but I didn't read the first in this series. That being said I had no problem reading it & didn't feel like I was missing anything. Right away a world that is divided by the ocean and one portion has magic but the other is a magic less land is intriguing. Now add to that a shifter empress on probation trying to earn her fathers legacy. However, her father had to abdicate the throne. Therefore, Clarissa, Leo, and their parents moved to a cottage on the poor side of town. They were in the woods because Clarissa had trouble controlling her shifter side because of her strong emotions. And Clarissa was made fun of & beaten by bullies. On top of that she struggles to look like everything is perfect all the time. However, during the fighting for the throne Clarissa goes through something very traumatizing. It causes her to suffer from guilt over what happened & panic attacks. The incident was not her fault. What she went through sounds close to PTSD to me. Anyway, it causes our normally strong Empress to feel inadequate, unworthy, broken, and weak. The King of the land without magic invites Clarissa to ally with his but there is a catch. She has to agree to marry him. Now it will be a marriage on paper only because they will both go back to running their own territories. Clarissa wants to ally with their country because she wants her people to hold no prejudice against anyone. She dreams of a world with acceptance & trade. A place where people can live where they choose to live. And not suffer hate & blame for what happened in the past. The results of war with the non magic territory caused a lot of death on both sides. Some of the non magic people are racist & scared of the magic wielding people. Clarissa has always put her duty in front of what she wants so she accepts the engagement. She has to spend 4 weeks in King Helen's territory. Then they will marry & she can return home. None of the magical are prepared for the feeling of being cut off from their magic. It happens when they get to a certain distance from the magical territory. When Clarissa arrives at the non magical territory odd things start happening. It puts her on immediate alert that something is definitely wrong on this territory. Clarissa is introduced to a arrogant hh of guy named Thorne. It turns out he's King Talents best friend. And he immediately rubs Clarissa the wrong way. Clarissa is snarky & strong willed. And she wants to get to the bottom of what's wrong in this kingdom. Clarissa has a fix it mentally. And Thorne won't answer her questions which infuriates her. When Clarissa meets King Galen she starts noticing his odd behavior & she knows he's lying about things. He won't address her questions about the incident. The next day they start their journey. The kingdom is split up into 4 sections with revenge running each section. As time passes it becomes obvious that the King doesn't take action, the revenge run their own sections, and the King pretty much hides from his responsibilities. Then Clarissa learns of a blight that is destroying the land. She insists on seeing it. Thorne caves & takes her to see it. She discovers how it is not just killing the land but anyone caught in its path. This has Clarissa furious because she was lied to. Galen didn't tell her what she needed to know. She gets Thorne to tell her what's really going on. And it's shocking. Very few people in the kingdom know the truth. Clarissa storms into Caleb's bedroom in the middle of the night to get the truth. Thorne is with her & he finds out his friend has been keeping secrets from him to. As Thorne takes Clarissa and their entourage to tour the villages nearby the encounter more of the blight. Only this time they notice it's moving fast towards an unsuspecting village. They rush to evacuate the people & save as many as they can. Two of the regents are opposed of Galen marrying a person who has magic. They think that she has ulterior motives. And there are assassination attempts in every regent territory. Thorne is a regent and he brings his family with him. Thorne lost his wife 4 years prior but he has a 7 year old daughter. His mother & nanny helped him raise her. There is an undeniable magnetic pull between Thorne & Clarissa. Especially, when Clarissa has a panic attack & Thorne calms her down until it passes. And Clarissa is instantly drawn to seeing Thorne interact with his daughter Marigold. He's A different person with her. As Clarissa learns to trust Thorne she starts to see glimpses of who he really is. And it's not the cocky flirty persona he slips into so easily. The truth is he's not been interested in another woman since his wife died. Until the day he meets Clarissa. Thorne sees through Clarissa and calls her out numerous times when she doesn't want to admit something to herself. He can't help being drawn to her. And she is in love with his daughter from the moment they meet. Galen keeps throwing them together because he's been neglecting his regents for so long he doesn't have time to properly court her. He's running damage control. Eventually Clarissa will have to choose to marry to save the people from a blight or give into the love she's been looking for all her life.

Inked In Ashes by Shannon Mayer

 I loved this totally unconventional retelling of Cinderella. For once the story was so different you could hardly tell it was the same story. But that's what made it such a better retelling! There is a trigger warning with this story. For good reason too. If you've ever been violated this way please be careful in deciding to read. For me I was okay reading it. And yes, I have had this unspeakable horror happen to me. However, this was tastefully done without a lot of details of what happened to Molly. There are some assumptions until Molly & Ella talk at the end of the story & she straightens Ella out by telling the truth without going into details. I love Duncan! He was such a sweet prince. He was very overprotective of Ella. The thought of anything happening to her was so unbearable to him. I wish he could've gone with Ella. I am mad that Ella couldn't figure out the simple advice the Whisper gave her to trust the people that came into her life. How dumb do you have to be to not understand that meant Duncan? He repeatedly tried to save her. It wasn't until he caught up with her at the tunnel that she realized she could've trusted him. Molly is a real piece of work & I would've never been friends with her! She's got her head in the clouds so much she can't come back down to reality until she's attacked. But her stupidity in talking to people when she's supposed to be mute & wondering around outside when she should be hiding almost got them caught. She never uses her brains! She really needs to take some training on surviving from Ella. Without Ella Molly would've been caught & killed. I did find it interesting there were hints to other fairytales in the story. If I'm guessing right the Wizard of Oz is the next retelling. I loved the stark differences in the tiers of the hierarchy. The Hollows who are the lowest tier think the Smudges have a much better life but when Ella sees it she soon realizes there's barely any difference. The only thing is they can use their magic openly. But they have masters that they serve & their food situation isn't much better than the Hallows.