Influential Magic by Deanna Chase

Synopsis from Goodreads:
It’s tough being a faery in New Orleans, a city fraught with vampires… especially when their very existence drains your life-force.

Willow Rhoswen, owner of The Fated Cupcake and part-time vampire hunter for the Void is having a rough week. Four years after her twin brother’s mysterious death, Willow’s life is threatened and the director saddles her with a new partner—her ex-boyfriend, David. To her horror, he’s turned vamp, which causes her physical pain whenever she touches him… and any other specimen of the undead.

In order to save Willow’s life, David agrees to turn double agent against the most powerful vampire organization in New Orleans. Or so he says. And she’s convinced they know something about her brother’s death. Unsure where David’s loyalties lie, she turns to Talisen, her childhood crush, to help her solve the mystery.

Caught between two gorgeous men and a director who’ll stop at nothing to control Willow’s gifts, she’ll have to follow her instincts and learn who to trust. Otherwise, she risks losing more than just her life.

My review:
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, other than it might be a YA book, but it wasn't at all. I actually really enjoyed it - it's fast paced, nerve-wrecking in places with a fair amount of romantic tension too.

Willow is a fae, with sparkly wings and a sweet nature. She runs a bakery well known for its heavenly goodies that are bespelled to do a range of things and she also works for the Void agency, a supernatural police force. After a trip back to her home town, she returns to find out that her pathetic ex-boyfriend, who dumped her by text, has been turned into a vampire and he has a dire warning for her: someone wants her dead. There's no real indication of whom that might be nor why, but Willow's not one who wants to die easily.

Her aunt is the Director of the Void agency, but she's a nasty piece of work, or is she? There's more to her than we know until the end. Her best friend Phoebe is a witch and loves taking on dressing up roles to find the information she needs. Talisen is her brother's best friend that Willow has had a crush on for years, but with the reappearance of David and old feelings returning, will Willow make any decisions about which man she wants? But the best side character has to be Link, Willow's shih tzu dog who turns into a hulk of a wolf when he's angry or if Willow is being threatened. Love it!

In order to find out who's behind the murder plot, Willow makes some rash, sometimes stupid, decisions that seem to end her up in more trouble than she was. The vampires are all involved and the Void agency is not a good place for Willow to be either. Many secrets are revealed at the end of the book,, some of which were a great surprise.

Willow was an odd character to like - she wasn't your usual kick ass heroine. She was much more peace loving than everyone else around her and really didn't like the idea of using violence to get the information she needed. However, sometimes you got to do what you've got to do. I much preferred Phoebe's feisty nature.

I will read the next book in this series and hope that the love interest between Willow and Talisen picks up. I did receive a copy of this book from Netgalley and would like to thank the author and publishers for letting me have it!

Apocalypse Rising by Maria Zannini

Synopsis from Goodreads.com
The only place left to hide was in the past.

Fire Elemental Leda and her plainfolk companion, Grey, are running from a demented time traveler, a man obsessed with creating a creature who can read thoughts. Convinced that Leda can produce this unnatural child, he has threatened to hunt her down to the ends of the earth—and he has kept his word. Their only escape is a one-way trip through the time portal.

With death on their heels, salvation appears in the form of two strangers. Seemingly ordinary people, Tom and Cassandra assure Leda and Grey that they are here to help. They claim they are repaying a debt—Leda and Grey helped them once, 1200 years ago.

The trip through the portal offers no escape, as Leda and Grey discover that evil transcends time. Can their presence in the past stop the eventual apocalypse that forms their future?
My review:

This book starts off right in the middle of the action - Leda and Grey, our two main characters are running for their lives from a fire lord Senosai. Not realising that this book was in the middle of a series meant that I was lost initially, but the story soon unfolds and it was easy enough to work out some of what had happened previously.

In order for Leda, a fire elemental, and Grey, a plainsfolk (i.e.a non magical person) to escape from being captured and killed they jump through a portal that sends them back in time 1200 years, to our current day. They find it rather strange and difficult to adapt initially as everything is done by machines, whereas in their future machines no longer exist. They meet a group of witches who help them and Cassandra, one of the witches, is the same Cassandra who helped them in the future. How you say? Read it and find out :P

The fire lord Senosai is also in this time, not as a fire lord but as a scientist performing experiments on a large group of children who have all been created to be elementals. Leda knows she has to save her ancestors from Senosai, but things don't strictly go according to plan. Once the children are freed, with the help of some priests and nuns, Leda begins to teach them how to control their talents and how to live together. Gaea, an Earth elemental with the power of foresight, is chosen as the one to lead them all and although she is only a teenager herself, Leda knows she will become the most powerful of all the elementals.

Leda also has dealings with a demon Beleth, who actually comes in quite helpful later on, even though what he does is not actually meant to be helpful. However, he inadvertently sets the ball rolling to start the apocalypse that will destroy the world as it now is. The elemental children are immune to what is happening due to the demon blood in them, but the plainsfolk are not, so they have to be transported through the portal back to Leda and Grey's time. And with a bit of help from Gaea, so are Leda and Grey, even though the portal is meant to be a one way trip only.

I really liked the characters of Leda and Grey. She definitely had the upper hand in the relationship but when she realised that she couldn't produce any heirs for Grey, she offered him to another woman who would be able to bear him children. This idea is not something I would do, but in the time they came from this was what was done. The whole idea of giving Grey away killed Leda and you could see how much turmoil she was in every time she thought about him and Cassandra. Luckily another man saved Grey from sleeping with Cassandra and having children with him.

I liked this book and enjoyed how the story unfolded. I would also like to go back and read the books before this one to find out the events leading up to this book.

I got this book to review from NetGalley and would like to thank the author and publishers for the opportunity.