Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Rampant Vol. 1 

SERIES: Little Goddess #4

AUTHOR: Amy Lane

PUBLISHER: DSP Publications

LENGTH: 280 pages

RELEASE DATE: October 10th, 2016

BLURB:

Lady Cory has carved out a life for herself not just as a wife to three husbands but also as one of the rulers of the supernatural communities of Northern California—and a college student in search of that elusive degree. When a supernatural threat comes crashing into the hard-forged peace of Green’s Hill, she and Green determine that they’re the ones in charge of stopping the abomination that created it. To protect the people they love, Cory, Bracken, and Nicky travel to Redding to confront a tight-knit family of vampires guarding a terrible secret. It also leads them to a conflict of loyalties, as Nicky’s parents threaten to tear Nicky away from the family he’s come to love more than his own life.

Cory has to work hard to hold on to her temper and her life as she tries to prove that she and Green are not only leaders who will bind people to their hearts, but also protectors who will keep danger from running rampant.

First Edition published as Rampant: The Fourth Book of the Little Goddess Series by iUniverse, 2010.

REVIEW:

Oh how I love this series….

There is too much history at this point for me to go over it, if you have read the other books in this series you know who these characters are by now. If you haven’t, you need to just go get the first one and dive it!

Basically this is the first half of the fourth book in an epic series by Amy Lane. The series centers around a woman named Cory, who by this point, has three husbands. Green, a very old Sidhe, Bracken, a fairly young Sidhe, and Nicky a bird shifter. Lots of drama has happen by now, good stuff, bad stuff, and sexy stuff.

In this book, Cory and crew have several issues to deal with. One starts with the report of a murdered family and a missing child, which leads them to a child vampire making vampire pets in the wild. They bring the girl back to the hill to see what can be done for her, but the underlying issue is who did this to her. This sends the folks of Green’s Hill off to Redding in the heat of summer….

Issue number two is a nasty reporter that has begun stalking Cory and taking photos. Green tries to deal with the situation on his own, leaving Cory out. Which does NOT go over well with Cory! Eventually Hallow, another old Sidhe gets involved.

Then there is poor Nicky and his crappy family. So Nicky was accidentally bound to Cory, as bird shifters bond for life with the first person they have a  sexual encounter with. Oops, he’s mostly gay, but bound to a girl, with two husbands already. Nicky has always taken third position to the other males, but has finally started to get a life. He has a lover for himself, and has begun to take a larger role with Cory, Green, and Bracken. We see him really step up in this book, even though he has to deal with his nasty parents.

We also have the inclusion of Teague, Jack and Katy, a werewolf threesome. They have their own books, which I understand are being re-released by DSP eventually. I’ve read them, they are wonderfully angsty. So the three wolves are now becoming part of the inner circle. Well, Teague is, as their alpha, with Jack and Katy as sidekicks. I liked the inclusion of all three of them in this bigger story…

As you can tell this is a complex story, and it’s hard to get too much in to the plot in a review, and I’m trying to avoid spoilers. It’s also volume one, so we are left with some unresolved issues at the end of this one, that will pick back up in volume two. Then that is the last of the re-releases, and we GET A NEW BOOK!!!

I just love this series and how all of the characters are so tied up together. Green’s Hill is like this wonderful commune, which is appropriate since they are in California, home of the hippy communes! But even better, it’s a commune with magic… Green keeps the temperature just right, the rain just right, the land and landscaping just right, with a bit of redecorating by Cory and her sex magic now and then. I love the diversity of the characters, all sorts of fae, little ones and big ones. All sorts of paranormal types too, vampires, were creatures of every stripe. I love the adaptations the crew has made to handle any situation, from cars that have been washed with salt water so the Sidhe can travel in them, to a hearse with a compartment built-in to it to protect the vampires during the day. I love that Cory and the younger folks are attempting to go to school, but keep having issues… creepy stalker guy, allergies, and menstrual issues in this book, bad guys, death, and illness in other books. Yet they stick with it! I love that they all knit, watch movies, play chess, eat, and hang out together like a normal family. I love that some characters are stronger at times than others, then it’s reversed. Everyone has a chance to be a hero, and have an emotional breakdown!

These books aren’t m/m, although there are some same sex pairings. There are also opposite sex pairings, and in the case of Cory, multiple partner groupings. There is some on page sex, it’s not overly graphic, but there are males touching males, in the group sex scenes. There are mentions of Cory’s girl parts, so true fans of m/m that don’t like vaginas may not love these books. These are definitely not “romance” books, but they do have romance in them. They are urban fantasy at it’s finest, with some romance as well. Amy Lane is a master writer, and these books are amazing, if UF is your thing!

This is not a standalone book, it is part of a big-ass series and you need to start at book one. I do most definitely recommend the whole series!

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

DSP Publications 

Amazon