What can I say. I loved this series.
How great is it that you can get all three stories in one book, never having to wait for the next release.
When you start reading Welcome to Adelheid and meet all of the exciting characters, you’ll see how great this is.
Welcome to Adelheid
Books One -Three
Mia Darien
Genre: Paranormal Suspense
ISBN: 9781476224244
Number of pages: Approx 375
Word Count: Approx 160K
Cover Artist: Mia Darien
Smashwords Amazon Kindle Amazon Print BN
Book Description:
Welcome to Adelheid, CT. Freak central. Unofficial capital of legal preternatural creatures in the Northeast. Focal point for anti-preternatural sentiments in the United States.
Who would ever guess that this otherwise sleepy New England town houses many of the most powerful beings known to exist?
* * *
In “Cameron’s Law,” meet Sadie Stanton, vampire poster girl for preternatural rights. She’s just trying to start a business to help the community, but when vampires and werewolves start attacking each other, she gets thrust in the middle.
My Review
Right from the start you are thrust into the action.
Her name is Sadie Stanton and she owns the Stanton Agency, where she serves all things preternatural.
When Cameron’s Law was passed, making all supernatural beings citizens, Sadie saw the opportunity and offered her services for paranormal investigations.
She’s perfect for the job, after all, she’s a vampire.
While helping a client in the graveyard, a crazed woman runs up and stakes Sadie. As quickly as she appeared, she ran away. Lucky for Sadie, the woman didn’t know her anatomy. It hurt like hell, but healed quickly. And the night is still young.
Following proper procedures, she files a complaint and has the bad luck to have her complaint taken by Detective Johnston, a shifter. There is no love lost between these species and he is being a jerk, or is she just reading him wrong. He definitely gets under her skin, and as her receptionist, Madison, said, “He was tugging on her pigtails.”
Soon enough, Sadie has to deal with Johnston again. It appears that young vampires are attacking werewolves and this could have an adverse affect on the new law. Sadie wants to avoid that at all costs and begins to work closely with Detective Johnston. They need to see who or what is behind this before there is an all out war between the vampires and the werewolves.
There are so many awesome characters in this book. Each one, even the ones with only small roles, stand out as individuals and their voices are strongly written.
My favorites are Sadie and Dakota. Can’t wait for you to meet Dakota. If you think Sadie is tough, wait until to see Dakota in action. She is a hunter and even Sadie isn’t sure of just what she is, maybe something shifty or fae.
The author left me wondering about that in this first book.
I also really liked the view of Sadie’s everyday life while being a vampire, her normalness.
“It was a standard evening. I showered and dressed, had breakfast and checked to see if I had any messages. After that, I ran a few errands, which were ultimately very banal. Just like all the other myths, being a vampire did not automatically make your life exciting or glamorous, and you didn’t come equipped with servants. Vampires still had to do things like go to the bank, buy food and do their laundry.”
Of course, her breakfast must have been some type of blood and her day started after dark. I wonder what the grocery stores are like, having to stock edibles for all types of supernatural beings.
There are more attacks and the race is on to solve this case before all hell breaks loose.
You’ll meet some very interesting characters, good and bad.
You’ll get to see how Sadie interviews demon summoners, and lawyers for her agency, which was a fun way for the author to introduce new characters.
And you get to meet Dakota, the bounty hunter from hell. Still not sure what she is.
I had a really fun time getting to know the characters of Adelheid, the largest supernatural community in all of New England.
For a not so long book, this one is packed full of back story mysteries, budding romance, lethal investigations, and a look at the politics of a preternatural town.
A great beginning to this series which the author wraps up nicely, but hints at answers to some lingering questions, which leads you to the next book.
5 Stars
~~
In “When Forever Died,” Dakota is a rare shifter and hunter who has lived a long, hard life. But the past never sleeps and two simultaneous cases are going to test the personal defenses she’s built over the centuries.
My Review
I love it. This book features Dakota, bounty hunter extraordinaire. She is one of my favorite characters.
Dakota hunts the NHF, or Non-Human Form creatures. She’s the one police call when they can’t handle a particular supernatural being. Cameron’s Law may have made all preternaturals citizens, but just like humans, you get your bad seeds and that’s when they call Dakota.
Dakota now kind of works for Stanton at her agency. She has a long way to go to be a team player and she’s kind of scary.
She’s working a case for Myles Bail- Bonds. A fight ends in death and the vampire, wanted for manslaughter, has bolted.
Then she gets a phone call to come down to the police station. The Captain has a case he needs help with.
It seems he needs an ancient, a vampire over 1000 years old, found and brought in.
Dakota doesn’t usually work more than one case at a time, but she’s intrigued. She’s never hunted an ancient before.
And Detective Moore, the visiting detective, has caught her eye. When she learns the detective is looking for a mysterious being, the name slaps her in the face. She’ll need to stay close to Moore in order to monitor her hunt for this being, which happens to be Dakota’s sister.
Someone is following Dakota, things are heating up, people are being torn apart, and bodies are disappearing.
What I really enjoyed about this second book, is Dakota finally opens up, as much as she can, and tells what she is, or thinks she is. She starts to let others in, to trust a few people, to get this ‘friend’ thing.
The authors flashes you back into time so you can see Dakota’s origins and why she is like she is. You also meet her deadly sister. Not someone you are going to like at all.
The writing is so fluid. The characters and situations feel normal, not fictional. You forget they can’t really exist and just go with it.
All I’ll say about the ending is it left me grinning.
And, of course, wanting more.
5 Stars
~~
In “Voracious,” the life D wants isn’t what it seems. He certainly never planned on the fangs, but he’s going to need a lot more than the pointy teeth to survive the first weeks of his new existence.
My Review
D is a reluctant vampire. He is lured by a mysterious and beautiful woman to a vampire bar. He really should have known better.
I guess a few too many drinks left him with his guard down. He hates fangs, his name for vampires, and certainly wouldn’t have let this female turn him into one.
Their night of passion ends with a quick snap of his neck and now he’s that thing, a fang.
D is haunted by a dark hunger, has been for a long time, and now he has a hunger even greater, a hunger for blood.
As he gets the hang of it, of being a fang, he feels the need to find out why Ceille did this to him, why she thought he could help her. So he returns to the scene, to the vamp bar 5, and asks the owner, Quintus, what Ceille’s story is.
What Quintus tells him leaves him hanging. Ceille was beheaded by another vampire. She is now truly dead.
When he turns Cassandra, a young woman dying after being attacked, he has a new bunch of problems. She can’t be left on her own, like he was, and he is her sire, he is responsible for helping her adjust.
There is something special about Cassandra, something that draws vampires to her. D takes her to the vampire coven lead by Jade. They will help her adjust and learn to control her abilities.
Now, a vampire is after him and her and he has no idea why. Too bad Ceille is dead for good, but maybe, just maybe, she can still tell him what he needs to know.
What I liked best about D is how at first, he came off as callous, as a drunk wandering aimlessly through life.
Then, when he’s turned into the thing he despises, only then does his humanness come out. That’s when I started to like him, to pull for him.
Dakota makes a boisterous appearance, as does Sadie, Johnston, and several other characters from the first two books.
I like that you could read these as stand-alones, but why would you want to. You can get all three books individually at a very affordable price, or you can get all three stories in one book!
I read one book each night and had a fun time doing it. I never had to wait for the next release and all of my favorite characters made appearances, like old friends stopping by to visit.
I caught myself wishing there was a town like Adelheid, a town of supernaturals and humans living side by side. I think I’d like it there. Who knows, maybe there is.
5 Stars
~~
I gave each of these books 5 Stars because I just couldn’t get enough of the characters. I was really sad to reach the end, but had such fun getting there.
As I can’t give Welcome to Adelheid 15 Stars I give it 5 Stars
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Quotes I liked:
“You can’t learn stupid like that. It’s got to be genetic.”
~~
He stared openly. “Is there some way I can get rid of you?”
“Not really, no. Except by telling me what I want to know and not lying to me. Believe me, you will not like me when I’m angry.”
~~
“I’ve been known to go to church from time to time, and the walls never came falling down.”
~~
Somehow, I heard her grin.
~~
The place was filled with shift work shifters. Say that three times fast.
~~
About the Author:
Mia Darien is an indie author of speculative fiction, and a New England Yankee transplanted into Alabama clay. No matter her geography, she continues to stubbornly and rebelliously live the life of her choosing along with her family and pets. She doesn’t miss the snow.
http://www.twitter.com/MiaDarien
http://www.goodreads.com/mia_darien
http://www.facebook.com/author.miadarien
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