Book Review: The Queen's Flight (The Emerging Queens #2) by Jamie K. Schmidt

The Queen's Flight (The Emerging Queens #2)
by Jamie K. Schmidt

ebook
November 16th 2015

by Entangled: Select Otherworld

Courts, queens, and sexy dragons with wings...

Viola Pierce has never had particularly great luck with guys. That is, until the day she shifts into a glorious, deadly, three-headed dragon. As it turns out, Viola is a dragon Queen. But when she's abducted by a greedy dragon who wants to breed with her, Viola begins to realize the dragon world is filled with betrayal, deception, intrigue, and danger...

As a rule, Sergei hates Queens, but Viola's beauty and humanity reach something deep within him. Something he should not be feeling. When she names him her protector and consort--quite by accident--Sergei has no choice but to accept. Now they are bonded for life...with a growing attraction neither of them could have imagined.

But the dragon court is ruthless...and what doesn't kill Viola will only make her more dangerous.

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In the world of Emerging Queens, dragons are the celebrities du jour. Humans who shift into dragons are at the top of the heap and, as one would suspect, dragon politics and power plays abound. When a curse is lifted, unlucky in love administrative assistant Viola Pierce finds herself shifting into a three-headed dragon queen at the most inopportune time. Dragon queens are the key to survival of the species, and they’re rare. In need of protection against users and abusers, Sergei is charged with being Viola’s protector. For his part, Sergei detests dragon queens. With a troubled past of his own, Sergei must set aside his own prejudices to help an otherwise clueless Viola survive.

The Queen’s Flight is a fantastic read. I entered this series at book two, but I don’t feel that disrupted the reading experience. Original, romantic, and clever, this book is a great story. The action erupts immediately and doesn’t let up until the ‘tail’ end. Viola is strong and witty. I loved that she is a real woman, with real curves, as a human, and a lethal powerhouse as a dragon. Sergei’s gruff biker demeanour was on point and he’s a well-written fit for his assertive queen. Viola and Sergei’s romance is explosive and erotically written. This series has a great foundation concept with loads of storytelling potential.

Four fiery sheep

Bianca Greenwood

About the Author:

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USA Today bestselling author, Jamie K. Schmidt is a hybrid author who has over thirty short stories published in small press and ezines, and a variety of novellas and books online. Her Club Inferno series from Random House has been in Amazon's top 100 ebooks sold, Barnes and Noble's top 10, and has over 200 four and five star reviews on Goodreads. Jamie has collaborated with celebrities on books and novellas, and her work is available in several countries. Her hard cover debut was with adult film star, Jenna Jameson's SPICE, the third book in the Fate series. A past president of the Connecticut Romance Writer's of America, Jamie conducts several writing workshops a year and has a social media Klout score of 62.

Author Anecdotes: Ewe won’t believe this! Lisa Kessler (Ice Moon book tour)

Author Anecdotes

Ewe won’t believe this!

So in January of last year, I took another trip to Reno, Nevada to research for the next books in the series.

We flew into the Reno airport and I immediately found a new friend! LOL

But who knew that Yeti advertising the Mt. Rose Ski Resort would come back to haunt me…

The next day we set out for Lake Tahoe. It’s normally about a 45 minute drive from Reno. I wanted to see the lake and the forest surrounding it since that’s where the wolf pack goes up to run during the full moon.

So we started up the Mt. Rose highway in our little Nissan Sentra rent car. I was driving and excited, and Ken, my hubby, was navigating. It was sprinkling a little as we headed up, but all was well.

Until the sprinkles turned into snow!

I’m a San Diego native. I don’t do snow. But at first it was pretty. I loved all the pine trees and the snow stuck in patches along the highway.

Gradually the incline on the mountain grew, and so did the snow until I was trying to stay in the tire tracks on the highway. It reminded me of Autopia at Disneyland, only if I didn’t follow the tracks here I could skid into a ditch or off the side of the mountain… Yikes!

My knuckles were getting white on the steering wheel and Ken (Who is an east coaster and snow veteran) kept calm and told me I was doing just fine.

We rounded a corner. There was a sign. Ken calmly encouraged me not to look at it. Too late. AVALANCHE AREA! Ack! By now my heart is racing and my rental car has a helpful dashboard light showing a skidding car to warn me that the tires have no traction.

I’m ready to turn around at this point, but there wasn’t anywhere to go on this two lane mountain highway. I was stuck. My mental mantra of “We’re almost there” began. We passed a sign reading 8,300 feet above sea level. The next sign was completely covered in snow. We rounded another corner and a Jeep 4X4 was in a ditch, stuck. My pulse rate kicked up a notch.

And remember those Autopia tracks for me to follow? Yeah those were all gone now. Just me and white snow… Oh and the handy dashboard light!

We passed the Mt. Rose ski resort. The yeti was smiling at me. Yeesh!

Around the next corner the hazard lights are flashing on the “MUST HAVE SNOW CHAINS” sign. I’m pretty sure my finger dents will be in that steering wheel forever. I reminded myself we must be almost there, so I asked my navigator how much further.

Ken was still completely calm and used his most soothing voice to tell me we still had NINE MORE MILES!!!!

I almost cried. And thankfully I found a place to turn around. When we got to the bottom of the mountain I almost jumped out of the car and kissed the ground! I don’t know how all of you who live in snow drive in it! YIKES!!! You all have my respect… Scary!

But I wouldn’t let that ruin my day… We took off across the valley and up the mountains on the other side to get to Virginia City.

But I had to stop at a turn out and take a picture of the Blizzard that tried to kill me on the way to Lake Tahoe! LOL

Yep I was up in those angry clouds over there in a Nissan Sentra with no snow chains…

Such a San Diegan! LOL

And all in the name of book research!

ICE MOON is out now, and that blizzard did make it into the book… LOL

Lisa Kessler

Ice Moon (Moon #5)
by Lisa Kessler

ebook, 330 pages
November 16th 2015

Entangled: Select Otherworld

One touch and she is his…

Jared Ayers works outdoors, embracing a solitary life, hiding from his inner demons. But after so many of his Pack brothers have found their mates, he starts wondering if there might be a mate in his future too. His world turns upside down after he's hired by the "Ice Queen of Lake Tahoe". One touch is all it takes. One touch to send the wolf howling within...

A gifted psychic with pyrokinesis, Taryn Goldstone wields fire beyond her control– sometimes with dire consequences. With Jared, she discovers that some flames are meant for passion–and healing. She has enemies who covet her powerful gift, but they are about to learn just how far a wolf will go to protect his mate.

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About the Author:

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Lisa Kessler is an award winning author of dark paranormal fiction. Her debut novel, Night Walker, won a San Diego Book Award for Best Published Fantasy-Sci-fi-Horror as well as the Romance Through the Ages Award for Best Paranormal and Best First Book.

Her short stories have been published in print anthologies and magazines, and her vampire story, Immortal Beloved, was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award.

When she's not writing, Lisa is a professional vocalist, performing with the San Diego Opera as well as other musical theater companies in San Diego.