Helpful Score: 8
From my book blog...............
Title: Inked Magic
Author: Jory Strong
Type: Contemporary paranormal erotic
Genre: Ménage
My Grade: B+ (4.2*)
Rating: NC-17
Length and price: Novel over 100,000+ discounted at $10.05 Cover price $15.00; ebook available $9.99
Where Available: Available online and at bookstore
FTC Disclosure: purchased through an online bookstore
Jory Strong is one of several writers to come out of Ellora's Cave stable and make a very successful transition to larger print houses. The big advantage there is a wider audience and promotion. Lauren Dane, Christine Warren, and Shelly Laurenston (Samhain) have all been really successful on the bigger publishing stage. Jory Strong is one author that can blow hot and cold for me. I love some of her stuff and some of it is just too much 'tear jerker' for my taste. Inked Magic was a very good blend of characters, romance, drama, and action. It was well paced, though I found some plot devices a bit annoying at times in the way the information slowly leaked out through elven Lord Eamon, and it has a nice, strong lead female character.
Etaín in a tattoo artist in San Francisco. She is estranged from the family that partly raised her after her mother abandoned her. After shaky teen years when she got 'scared straight', she turned her considerable artistic talent to tattooing, a job she loved, even if it drained her. Etaín is an empathic psychic. Touching clients, even with gloves, means she can read their memories. It's exhausting and she's slowly learned to block the links as much as she can, but she loves her job and has no intention of quitting.
At a graveside service for a young teen girl, Cathal Dunne, a club owner, stands with his father Niall and Uncle Denis, charge him with getting Etaín to help them find the gang that raped and drugged Denis's daughter, Brianna, and killed her best fried Caitlyn. Niall and Denis are mobsters and Cathal has done his best to stay clear of their life, but what happened to Brianna can't be ignored. He also fears what Niall and Denis will do if he doesn't find a way to gain Etaín's cooperation.
Once Cathal sees Etaín he wants her and the attraction seems mutual. He takes her to eat at Aesirs, a elegant place not that far from the tattoo shop. As they approach, Etaín sees the designs on the doors are very like the vines tattooed on her wrists and arms and as they enter, she hears bells. The entire staff seems composed of the most handsome males she ever seen, all of whom seem to be staring her. She writes off their interest to her shabby biker outfit isn't exactly what their upper crust patrons usually wear.
Eamon feels her the moment she passes thru the wards on his restaurant. A changling. More than that - a seidic - a 'soul seer'. valued and feared, seidic are usually put in a kind of golden prisons by eleven kings and queens and access to them is highly controlled. They are also often murdered. Here's one living among humans, with no protection, unaffiliated. And Eamon is instantly determined to make her his consort-wife, and he's willing to accept Cathal as part of the bargain. But then, he's never even met Etaín, but that's about to change.
The story moves in several directions without becoming incomprehensible, and played out against not only the Dunne's desire for revenge, Etaín's FBI brother's need for help catching a violent serial rapist, Eamon's desire for her and need to control her, Etaín feels her gift growing and changing, as Eamon warned her. She knows she's different and Eamon is more like her, but the elemental attraction between her and Cathal is not to be denied either. And all the time, she's being stalked by the rapist turned murderer.
The story is complex and the biggest annoyance was realizing at the end that this is NOT a stand alone novel, but book 1 in a series. I nearly screamed in frustration. Had I KNOWN that at the start, I wouldn't have been so surprised and provoked. It kept the book from being given an A- rating. TELL YOUR READERS IT'S A SERIES. I don't want to have to figured it out at the last chapter!
Is Inked Magic worth $10.05? YES! Rich, complex, and not a retread, it was a good read, but go into it knowing nothing will be resolved in the core romance as it is a series.
Title: Inked Magic
Author: Jory Strong
Type: Contemporary paranormal erotic
Genre: Ménage
My Grade: B+ (4.2*)
Rating: NC-17
Length and price: Novel over 100,000+ discounted at $10.05 Cover price $15.00; ebook available $9.99
Where Available: Available online and at bookstore
FTC Disclosure: purchased through an online bookstore
Jory Strong is one of several writers to come out of Ellora's Cave stable and make a very successful transition to larger print houses. The big advantage there is a wider audience and promotion. Lauren Dane, Christine Warren, and Shelly Laurenston (Samhain) have all been really successful on the bigger publishing stage. Jory Strong is one author that can blow hot and cold for me. I love some of her stuff and some of it is just too much 'tear jerker' for my taste. Inked Magic was a very good blend of characters, romance, drama, and action. It was well paced, though I found some plot devices a bit annoying at times in the way the information slowly leaked out through elven Lord Eamon, and it has a nice, strong lead female character.
Etaín in a tattoo artist in San Francisco. She is estranged from the family that partly raised her after her mother abandoned her. After shaky teen years when she got 'scared straight', she turned her considerable artistic talent to tattooing, a job she loved, even if it drained her. Etaín is an empathic psychic. Touching clients, even with gloves, means she can read their memories. It's exhausting and she's slowly learned to block the links as much as she can, but she loves her job and has no intention of quitting.
At a graveside service for a young teen girl, Cathal Dunne, a club owner, stands with his father Niall and Uncle Denis, charge him with getting Etaín to help them find the gang that raped and drugged Denis's daughter, Brianna, and killed her best fried Caitlyn. Niall and Denis are mobsters and Cathal has done his best to stay clear of their life, but what happened to Brianna can't be ignored. He also fears what Niall and Denis will do if he doesn't find a way to gain Etaín's cooperation.
Once Cathal sees Etaín he wants her and the attraction seems mutual. He takes her to eat at Aesirs, a elegant place not that far from the tattoo shop. As they approach, Etaín sees the designs on the doors are very like the vines tattooed on her wrists and arms and as they enter, she hears bells. The entire staff seems composed of the most handsome males she ever seen, all of whom seem to be staring her. She writes off their interest to her shabby biker outfit isn't exactly what their upper crust patrons usually wear.
Eamon feels her the moment she passes thru the wards on his restaurant. A changling. More than that - a seidic - a 'soul seer'. valued and feared, seidic are usually put in a kind of golden prisons by eleven kings and queens and access to them is highly controlled. They are also often murdered. Here's one living among humans, with no protection, unaffiliated. And Eamon is instantly determined to make her his consort-wife, and he's willing to accept Cathal as part of the bargain. But then, he's never even met Etaín, but that's about to change.
The story moves in several directions without becoming incomprehensible, and played out against not only the Dunne's desire for revenge, Etaín's FBI brother's need for help catching a violent serial rapist, Eamon's desire for her and need to control her, Etaín feels her gift growing and changing, as Eamon warned her. She knows she's different and Eamon is more like her, but the elemental attraction between her and Cathal is not to be denied either. And all the time, she's being stalked by the rapist turned murderer.
The story is complex and the biggest annoyance was realizing at the end that this is NOT a stand alone novel, but book 1 in a series. I nearly screamed in frustration. Had I KNOWN that at the start, I wouldn't have been so surprised and provoked. It kept the book from being given an A- rating. TELL YOUR READERS IT'S A SERIES. I don't want to have to figured it out at the last chapter!
Is Inked Magic worth $10.05? YES! Rich, complex, and not a retread, it was a good read, but go into it knowing nothing will be resolved in the core romance as it is a series.
Helpful Score: 1
The book was a decent erotic romance and fantasy. It set up the characters well as well as the ongoing story. However, I did not like that it used the c-word instead of other words during the erotic scenes.
