Iron Crowned and Shadow Heir - Richelle Mead

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham is the best at banishing entities trespassing in the mortal realm. But as the Thorn Land's queen, she's fast running out of ways to end the brutal war devastating her kingdom. Her only hope: the Iron Crown, a legendary object even the most powerful gentry fear...

Who Eugenie can trust is the hardest part. Fairy king Dorian has his own agenda for aiding her search. And Kiyo, her shape-shifter ex-boyfriend, has every reason to betray her along the way. To control the Crown's ever-consuming powers, Eugenie will have to confront an unimaginable temptation - one that will put her soul and the fate of two worlds in mortal peril... 

My thoughts:

These do keep getting better and better, even if I did not like the events in book 2. Why does that always happen?

Also she does change between her lovers...a lot! I am Team Dorian, I know he will loose, but the Fox can not be trusted. Not that Dorian can be trusted either, but he is hot.

And Genie is a mess, sure she can be kick-ass, but she also gets her ass kicked...a LOT.

BUT, I like her, I like the love triangle, even if I am Team Dorian, and even if he only is using her so that their kid could take over the world one day.

And when she is in Faerie she can kick ass, and I like that her dark side wants to take over. I like how fast I could finish the book.

Conclusion:

'All in all, great book. I hope the series ends with a great one too

Cover

Cliché

Mass Market Paperback, US, 375 pages
Published March 1st 2011 by Zebra
Dark Swan #3
UF
OWN

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham strives to keep the mortal realm safe from trespassing entities. But as the Thorn Land's prophecy-haunted queen, there's no refuge for her and her soon-to-be-born-children when a mysterious blight begins to devastate the Otherworld. . .

The spell-driven source of the blight isn't the only challenge to Eugenie's instincts. Fairy king Dorian is sacrificing everything to help, but Eugenie can't trust the synergy drawing them back together. The uneasy truce between her and her shape shifter ex-lover Kiyo is endangered by secrets he can't—or won't—reveal. And as a formidable force rises to also threaten the human world, Eugenie must use her own cursed fate as a weapon—and risk the ultimate sacrifice. . . 

My thoughts:

Hmmm, what to write. It was still passable for good, but was it a good ending to the series? Not really.

It did not feel like closure, we never got a real ending set in stone. It was more oh time will tell. F time! I want to know for sure what happens. I guess she goes with X but knowing her she might be doing the nasty with X down the road again. She does seem to slip in and out of love easily. Still...Team Dorian!!! :D But he sure mellowed 

The big finale was like over and out! Way too easy.

Most of the book was about something else, there is this blight and the land suffers, so the book is about them going there and trying to fix it and I was all...use the x darn it.

The babies, no real conclusion there either.

Sure, some endings are more open, but it feels like there was meant to be more books and it did not happen.

Oh then there is this one thing XY says. And then something else happens. And I am all why even write that? It was perfect before. Sigh

Cover

Good

Mass Market Paperback, 390 pages
Published December 27th 2011 by Zebra
Dark Swan #4
UF
Own

Urban fantasy Tuesday: Thorn Queen and Dark Alchemy

Eugenie Markham is a shaman for hire, paid to bind and banish creatures from the Otherworld. But after her last battle, she's also become queen of the Thorn Land. It's hardly an envious life, not with her kingdom in tatters, her love life in chaos, and Eugenie eager to avoid the prophecy about her firstborn destroying mankind. And now young girls are disappearing from the Otherworld, and no one--except Eugenie--seems willing to find out why.

Eugenie has spilled plenty of fey blood in her time, but this enemy is shrewd, subtle, and nursing a very personal grudge. And the men in her life aren't making things any easier. Her boyfriend Kiyo is preoccupied with his pregnant ex, and sexy fey king Dorian always poses a dangerous distraction. With or without their help, Eugenie must venture deep into the Otherworld and trust in an unpredictable power she can barely control. Reluctant queen or not, Eugenie has sworn to do her duty--even if it means facing the darkest--and deadliest--side of her nature. . .

My thoughts:

I do think I liked this one better than book 1, with book 1 I liked it, but it never packed a punch. This one was better, but of course those things that I did not really care for where still here, but here they did not bother me for some reason.

Let's start with the love triangle. Now I do not really see it as a love triangle anymore. Sure she is dating Kiyo. All is well. But every time she meets Dorian she goes all dang! And who can blame her, Dorian sounds like sex on a stick, wile Kiyo is so boring. Not to mention about to become a father to a fairy queen's kid. Eh. Maybe they both are wrong for you. She will surely end up with Kiyo in the end, but at the moment he bores me, he turned into the nice guy. While King Dorian is mmmm, and that dark side of his, mmmmmmm.

The smexy scenes I skim, who cares, get to the real action!

She is queen . So lots of things to deal with there.

There is one part that I wish that had not been there...why? Really why?!

Conclusion:

All in all it was good. I wish she would just kill her sister, and I will totally read more.

Cover

ok

Mass Market Paperback, 374 pages
Published August 1st 2009 by Zebra (first published July 13th 2008)
Dark Swan, #2
Urban fantasy
Own

Geologist Petra Dee arrives in Wyoming looking for clues to her father's disappearance years before. What she finds instead is Temperance, a dying Western town with a gold rush past and a meth-infested present. But under the town's dust and quiet, an old power is shifting. When bodies start turning up - desiccated and twisted skeletons that Petra can't scientifically explain - her investigations land her in the middle of a covert war between the town's most powerful interests. Petra's father wasn't the only one searching for the alchemical secrets of Temperance, and those still looking are now ready to kill. Armed with nothing but shaky alliances, a pair of antique guns, and a relic she doesn't understand, the only thing Petra knows for sure is that she and her coyote sidekick are going to have to move fast, or die next. 

My thoughts

I can't decide whether this was a 2 or 3. Yesterday it felt like a 3 for the reason that if the library got book 2 I'd read it. Today I am more like, if the library got book I would just say meh. I'd say 2,5 then, but give it a 2. Because I do not really want to read more. I could just leave it like this and be fine with it.

Petra come to Temperance to find her dad. She meets a coyote. I never got if the coyote is magical or not. She makes friends. She does not do much for her work, the reason why she officially is there. She meets a hunky weird guy. She finds a few corpses.

There is a bad Rancher, a real asshole. There is a bad alchemist, I never really got him,

There are strange...stuff.

Conclusion:

So all in all...meh? Yeah meh. I still read it and all, I was never omg, boring! But still, meh.

c over

meh

Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Published April 28th 2015 by Harper Voyager Impulse
Dark Alchemy #1
Urban fantasy
Own

Storm Born - Richelle Mead

Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants. . .

Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl's got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy—one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie's first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne'er-do-well, and the ones who don't want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her...

My thoughts:

I have been trying to find a new UF series to read and this was a gift. Better get started then.

Eug, ugh, I forgot how to spell her name, Odile as she likes to call herself is a shaman. She is pretty kick-ass and sends and kills fairies off to fairieland. A lot of Others are suddenly after her cos of a prophecy. Ohh, I do like my prophecies, and hers was a dark one.

What I did not really like was this wannabee love triangle. She hooks up with a cutie with secrets. Kyo was nice, but yeah, secrets. And it's not really a love triangle at first. She also meets Dorian, a fairie king who wants to get into her pants. But then he really really wants to get into her pants cos of..spoilers. So it's not like he is all LOVE. But I can not say what the future will bring. Will the love triangle deepen, or will it fade away? *wishes for fade away* I can deal with a love triangle as long as she does not love both.

The book takes place in the real work and in the Fairie lands. And I did like the latter part. They are so lusty, angry and love their games.

Conclusion:

A promising start, as long as she does not keep on collecting men ;) I will def give book 2 a go. 

Cover

ok

Mass Market Paperback, 361 pages
Published August 1st 2008 by Zebra
Dark Swan #1
Urban fantasy
Own