SINISTER MAGIC

Sinister Magic by Lindsay Buroker
Book 1 in the Death Before Dragons series
Narrated by Vivienne Leheny
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Sinister Magic:

I’m Val Thorvald, and I’m an assassin.

When magical bad guys hurt people, I take care of them. Permanently.

This doesn’t make me popular with the rest of the magical community — as you can tell from the numerous break-ins and assassination attempts I’ve endured over the years. But thanks to my half-elven blood, a powerful sword named Chopper, and a telepathic tiger with an attitude, I’ve always been able to handle my problems with aplomb. Maybe some cursing and swearing, too, but definitely aplomb.

That changes when my boss is afflicted with a mysterious disease, a government agent starts investigating me, and a godforsaken dragon shows up in the middle of my latest job.

I’ve taken down vampires, zombies, and ogres, but dragons are way, way more powerful. And it doesn’t look like this one is going to like me.

Worse than that, he wants to use his magic to compel me to do his bidding, as if I’m some weak-minded minion.

That’s not going to happen. I’d die before being some dragon’s slave.

But if I can’t figure out a way to avoid him, save my boss, and get rid of the government spook, I’m screwed. Or dead. Or screwed and dead. And that’s never comfortable.

Source: Info in the "About Sinister Magic" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51474324-sinister-magic on 15/08/2021.

Buy Link(s):
 

My Thoughts:

I was beyond bored so a trawled amazon for something to read. As if my TBR piles are not taller than me! Anyway, I came across this book and it has an audiobook version so it got bought. I was glad I did because I enjoyed it. However, it also had the same pitfalls a lot of the urban fantasy books I've read before, i.e., Sookie Stackhouse. Meaning the heroine has a tendency to run headlong straight into trouble and had to be rescued. **sigh** But, she is kind-hearted and honorable. All gristle and raw hide on the outside and a big softie on the inside. Plus, the story also got dragons and magic and Sindari the magical silver tiger sidekick! So the next book got bought. Besides, I also wanted to know if Zav and Val finally killed each other or fall in love!

This is my first Vivienne Leheny listen and she is not too bad at all!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4
Story itself = 3
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 5
Pace = 4
Plot = 3
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In Death Before Dragons Series:

                   

Meet The Author

About Lindsay Buroker:

Full-time indie fantasy/scifi author who loves hiking, tennis, and vizslas.

lindsayburoker.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Vivienne Leheny:

For over two decades, Vivienne Leheny has worked professionally in New York City and Los Angeles as an actor, voiceover artist and writer. She’s appeared on Off-Broadway and regional theatre stages, been screened at numerous film festivals (including Sundance in the 2019 opening night film: AFTER THE WEDDING), toured the northeast doing stand-up, and her writing has been published in national publications.

Vivienne has built a successful audiobook narration business, reading under her own name as well as under the pseudonyms, “Nola Zandry” and “Lily Collingwood.” She has a home studio and records using punch & roll software. Currently narrating six ongoing series, she also has numerous stand-alone book narrations, all of which are doing brisk sales on Audible, Amazon and iTunes. She’s narrated titles for Harper Collins, Macmillan, Recorded Books, and Simon & Schuster, among other audiobook publishers.

Vivienne will soon be recording her 150th audiobook narration.

Her audiobook narration course, The Voice in their Ear, has been a sell-out Maine Media Workshops+College, where she’s also taught her Putting Your Voice to Work: Building a Career in Voiceover curriculum, while her Breaking Into Audiobooks seminar for the SAG Foundation fills up quickly and with long wait lists. She’s also taught audiobook narration at the Caymichael Patten Studio.

She’s recorded over a thousand promotions for NBC programming (Saturday Night Live, Nightly News, Days of our Lives, Late Night with Conan O’Brien), including over a decade with The Today Show. She’s also done promotional spots for HBO, Showtime, and Bravo. Vivienne has voiced numerous national commercial campaigns, including Coca Cola, Fruit of the Loom, Florida Orange Juice, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Maxwell House and Revlon.

Her narration work has run the gamut, from Chain Gang Girls on Oxygen to Charles and Di: Once Upon a Time on TLC, from Fine Living’s Esquire’s Man at His Best to the six-part series Killer Outbreaks on Animal Planet, where she was the voice of the Bubonic Plague and West Nile Virus. She’s also the voice for the mysterious and disturbing “Phoenix Project” in the popular video game Assassin’s Creed, Unity.

www.vivienneleheny.com | twitter | facebook | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

THIEF'S GIFT Book 2

Thief's Gift Book 2 by James Haddock
Book 2 in the A Thief's Gift series
Genre: psuedo-victorian fantasy
Format: ebook

About Thief's Gift Book 2:

Jamethon Trent’s retirement is not going as planned, and working for King Arcus and General Mallet is not as easy as he had hoped. Jamethon tries to keep his family safe by changing his guise, name, and occupation. But the harder he tries, the more he is pulled into situations that put him and his family in danger. Jamethon and his family become targets when he stumbles into plans involving the royals, less-than-honest businessmen, and an organization that wants to take over countries by any means necessary. Trying to maintain his anonymity is proving to be a challenge, as those who seek him are willing to kill, steal, and destroy to find him. His enemy sends entire armies and powerful mages against him. They destroy his businesses and kill those around him to draw him into the open so they can end his interference in their plans once and for all. Jamethon must adapt to fight an evolving enemy that uses magic and military technology against anyone who opposes them or their agenda. Unfortunately for them, their attempts to stop Jamethon only strengthen his resolve to find out why they want him dead so badly and who is behind it.

Source: Info in the "About Thief's Gift Book 2" was taken from amazon on 21/07/2025.

Buy Link(s):

Alan Niles' brand

My Thoughts:

I've been a fan of this author for a bit now and I know that he is fond of starting serieses without following up on them. Imagine my surprise when I saw that A Thief's Gift has a book 2! Which lead me to a hard thought. I've wondered how Jamethon would end up in the end seeing that all the holders of the "gift" ended up alone and poor... And now here is book 2 which would probably tell me that Jamethon did ended up alone and poor! That made me not want to read this book. That compulsion was strong enough that I dragged my feet about reading this book... As it is, I should have re-read the first book before reading this one.

Perhaps now we will finally get to know Ani's history...

What does the "T" mean in Alan Niles' brand?

It took me a while to remember things from the first book that this second book is talking about and taking it for granted that the readers already knows what it is talking about. I therefore do not recommend reading this book before reading the first book, A Thief's Gift, because you will get royally confused. Like the manor's caretaker's first appearance in this book in chapter 3. I know who he is from book 1. Although it took me a while to recall who he is. But to somebody who hasn't read book 1, that will be very confusing!

Again there are clerical errors or typos which are irritating! James Haddock needs a better proofreader.

As all James Haddock books, same powers. Same theme. Same ideas and same elements to the story, pinched from this author's previous works. But different place and different names. Same old tune, different day. But you know what? I still enjoyed every minute of it!!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 5
Plot = 4

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries

 

Books In The A Thief's Gift Series:

 

The Author

About James Haddock:

My first career was as a Warrant Officer in the US Army, I am now retired with 22 years of service under my belt. Moving into the next phase of my life, I am a full-time author and RV'er. After seeing everyone else's Country during my first career, we decided to see our own. My wife and I enjoy traveling to see the wonders of America.

I love reading and watching Sci-Fi books, television shows, and movies. To think, "what if" and "why not." I am a pantser writer, I'll get an idea, or see a photo and think, "that would make a great story!". Writing as a pantser, to me, is like reading a new story. I have no idea where the story is going to end up. Writing the way gets me excited to pick up a pen; I look forward to writing each time, and can't wait to write many more.

www.jameshaddock.us | facebook | instagram | audible | amazon | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

BITTEN SHIFTER

Bitten Shifter by Brogan Thomas
Book 1 in The Bitten Chronicles series
Narrated by Poppy Royana and Peter Wicks
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Bitten Shifter:

Betrayed, shattered, and transformed. Sick of everyone’s crap, can this snarky lone wolf find belonging, respect, and love?

Lark Emerson vaguely remembers being happy. After catching her husband and her sister in the sack, the IT professional walks away from twenty-seven years of marriage and takes a job on the border of a shifter community. But after a rogue pack storms her office and attacks, to her horror she’s captured and savaged.

Wounded and ill, the forty-something limps home and is shocked when her injuries rapidly heal, her eyesight sharpens, and noise hurts her ears. And taken to a facility to ease the transition from human to supernatural, she’s completely thrown when her comfortable middle-aged body alters to something unfamiliar and exquisite.

Struggling with a temper as hot as her new figure, can Lark learn to trust when the handsome packmaster comes calling?

Source: Info in the "About Bitten Shifter" was taken from amazon on 01/03/2024.

Buy Link(s):

 

My Thoughts:

The book starts with the betrayal scene and it took perseverance on my part and forever, to get into the book at all. But I am an old Brogan Thomas fan so I plodded on.

I wonder which part of the UK that the author has designated as the shifter territory? Is it somewhere in London?

I can't wait to read the next book in this series because I want to know if the Wizard House is going to appear again. And what else can it do?? I love magic houses! Gertrude Hunt in Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews. Abhorsen's house in Sabriel by Garth Nix.

As usual, Poppy Royana did a wonderful job of bringing this book to life!

This is my first Peter Wicks listen. I would buy his audiobooks again.

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (8 hrs and 52 mins listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Creatures of the Otherworld Series:

 

Books In The Rebel of the Otherworld Series:

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Books In The Bitten Chronicles Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Brogan Thomas:

Brogan lives in Ireland with her husband and their eleven furry children: five furry minions of darkness (aka the cats), four hellhounds (the dogs), and two traditional unicorns (fat, hairy Irish cobs).

In 2019 she decided to embrace her craziness by writing about the imaginary people that live in her head. Her first love is her number-one favourite furry child Bob the cob, then reading. When not reading or writing, she can be found knee-deep in horse poo and fur while blissfully ignoring all adult responsibilities.

broganthomas.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | bookbub | pinterest | youtube | amazon | goodreads

The Narrators

About Poppy Royana:

Born and raised in the South East but finding her home in the North, Poppy is a bi British Narrator based in not too sunny Manchester. With experience in musical theatre, Poppy is both a singer and a book lover and teaches singing when she’s not found narrating in her booth.

Poppy’s voice could possibly be mistaken at times for Olivia Colman’s so we’d like to think that, in our opinion, Poppy has an award-winning voice. She sounds warm and uplifting whilst being articulate and crisp; and not only that but she can nail sarcasm to a T. There’s really not much Poppy can’t do!

www.poppyroyanaaudio.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | linkedin | goodreads

About Peter Wicks:

Peter Wicks is a voice actor located in Isle of Man. He has been actively working as a voice actor since 2022. He has worked for a diverse pool of clients and brands, such as Marvel, Yamaha and Citizen Watches. Listen to 46 voice over samples that showcase his best work.

Peter Wicks (he/him) is a multi-award winning UK actor and voiceover artist working from his professional grade, broadcast quality home studio.

Warm and articulate, his voice can be heard in a variety of global commercial campaigns, corporate productions, audiobooks, and more.

A versatile character performer, he has featured in various audio dramas, animation and video games as vampiric demigods, wise old weasels, and everything in between.

AWARDS
VOX Awards 2024 WINNER - Best Performance in Gaming
One Voice Awards 2024 WINNER - Best Audiobook Performance (Fiction)
One Voice Awards UK 2024 Nominee - Male Voiceover Artist of the Year / Best Gaming Performance
VOX Awards 2024 Nominee - Best Male VO Performance of the Year
One Voice Awards UK 2023 Nominee - Male Voiceover Artist of the Year / Best Radio Commercial Performance / Best Gaming Performance
VOX Awards 2023 Nominee - Audiobook Performance of the Year

linkedin | twitter | facebook | instagram | youtube

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook copies of the book were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.