Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Kellen’s Awakening

SERIES: AURA #3

AUTHORS: Bellora Quinn & Angel Martinez

PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing

LENGTH: 214 pages

RELEASE DATE: May 3rd, 2016

BLURB:

The staff at AURA has had a busy summer. Between chronic understaffing, dealing with warring goblin factions and an unusual number of hazardous Events, everyone is overworked. Sinistrus the incubus, newly hired as an AURA medic, actually enjoys his busy new life of responsible employee and faithful lover to his gorgeous police sergeant, Ness the centaur. Life would be perfect, except for a niggling suspicion about a colleague. Everyone else seems to disagree, but Sin’s certain something’s not right with that pixie.

Kellen, a pixie crossover, loves his job working in AURA medical, even if he is something of an outsider. His job and the friends he manages to make are happy spots in an otherwise dark and secretive life. As the rest of AURA tries to discover the root of the inexplicable rise in violence and large scale Events, Kellen fights to preserve his own life and what dignity he has left.

These two unlikely heroes must put their differences aside and navigate tragedy and ever-escalating disaster together in order to stop the sinister forces that hold Kellen in thrall.

REVIEW:

Ugh! Bellora and Angel are cruel women! I was so looking forward to this book, and it was hard to read, but didn’t disappoint…

This is the third book in an ongoing urban fantasy series, following the drama surrounding a group of magical beings living in New York City. Most of the main characters are from other realms, pulled against their will into our mundane world from magical worlds due to a cluster fuck of an accident. The big issue in this story is the increasing number of Events bringing beings in to the city, and the increasing unrest between existing residents. Something is happening, but it’s not clear what, for some time. Our main characters are Kellen and Sin, both working in the medical department of AURA. Sin doesn’t like Kellen, he thinks there is something fishy going on with the Pixie, but he can’t figure out what. Kellen does actually have some serious issues, and he’d love some help, but he can’t ask for it.

We follow Kellen as he deals with his normal life, going to work and dealing with some low self-esteem issues among many stronger personalities, going home and dealing with a stinky troll living in his apartment basement. We also see the bad shit he is involved in, against his will, and see why he has issues. As the book progresses, him grow stronger, earn some respect at work, and gain some confidence. He even helps Sin when he has something catastrophic happen. The two pull together even more as they play a part in the big bad thing going on.

Yes, I’m being vague in the plot department, but there are things that happen that I can’t talk about! I knew going in to this book that I was going to cry, but I didn’t know why. I won’t say and mess it up for anyone else! But yah…. bad things happen, there is tragedy and angst, and I did cry. But it was so damn good! I love the world these authors have created, all of the details are just amazing.

There are certainly big things I loved about this book, the obvious stuff like the plot and new characters, but I get caught up in the little details. Both Kellen and Sin have wings. I’ve read books with winged characters before and not much is said about the day to day living with big ole wings. We get that in this book! How they work, where they go, how you dress with wings. We also got some sex involving a centaur. I loved the solution they came up with to make that possible. Those are the things I love too, the little details. There’s also a sweet little squirrel! I loved her, and about the time I was wondering where she’d gotten to, she popped back up. So anyway, small details, big details, it’s all just so perfect!

I’ve rambled on in other reviews about how much I love Angel, and Bellora is now getting a nice cozy spot in my heart as well. This whole series is the perfect example of what I love about urban fantasy.

I’ve loved all three of these books, they are a series and need to be read in order. If you are a fan of urban fantasy, give them a try. If you have read the other two, wait until you read this one! You’ll love it!

Here are my reviews of the first two books in this series, Quinn’s Gambit and Flax’s Pursuit.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Pride Publishing

Amazon

ARe