Love Bites

A terrible tableau splashed across my mind. Pictures, details, descriptions. The other women. The other murders. One idea rose quietly above the cacophony of panicked, useless thoughts. I could be next.

Love Bites

Title: Love Bites (#1)
Published: November 4, 2019
Pages: 288
Pacing: Fast
Moods: Funny, Lighthearted, Mysterious
Content Warnings: Blood, Gore, Violence, Vomit

A girl’s gotta eat—and so do her three cats. Recently divorced art history grad student Hanna Harvey has just fibbed her way into a job as the assistant to dangerously drool-worthy art gallery owner Mark Abernathy. For Hanna, working in the field she desperately loves provides the perfect opportunity to begin putting her life back together. Soon her cheese budget is in the black and her feline life partners are no longer eyeing her like a six-foot can of Fancy Feast.

But when her boss’s lady friends start turning up dead, Hanna finds herself in the cross hairs of a murder investigation. Even worse, hunky homicide detective James Morrison fears hers might be the next body he discovers.

With the “help” of the gallery’s quirky cast of resident artists, Hanna will have to hunt down the truth about Abernathy’s dark secret—before it hunts her.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a paranormal romance, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into this. But despite the slightly dark-sounding summary, Love Bites is a surprisingly witty and lighthearted tale.

Hanna is a delightful and relatable heroine—sassy, practical, and no-nonsense with a deep love for cheese and her three cats—and her banter with her love interests was witty and fun. The side characters are wonderfully quirky (especially Steven), and I loved the setting of the chaotic art gallery. I also liked the ending, which (without spoilers) was suspenseful, and I didn’t see it coming.

The only part that I didn’t really like was the love triangle because it’s not usually a trope I go for. However, it’s done well enough that I’m interested in seeing where it goes.

If you’re new to the paranormal romance genre, this is a great place to start. It’s got enough supernatural elements, but not too much, that the lore becomes hard to follow. Just a warning, though, while the main plot is wrapped up by the end, there is still a cliff-hanger!

Love Sucks

“Oh my God!” I shot up from the couch. “Vincent Van Gogh is a werewolf!” I looked from Abernathy to Vincent and back again. “You’re a werewolf!”

Love Sucks

Title: Love Sucks (#2)
Published: May 19, 2020
Pages: 322
Pacing: Fast
Moods: Funny, Lighthearted, Mysterious
Content Warnings: Blood, Gore, Violence, Murder

Someone is killing werewolves. At least, that’s the way Vincent Van Gogh tells it when he shows up at Mark Abernathy’s art gallery seeking protection. For gallery assistant and art history addict Hanna Harvey, meeting Van Gogh is a dream come true—until death follows the troubled artist to town and Hanna becomes the murderer’s next target.

When Alpha Wereboss Mark Abernathy goes missing, a new wave of murders draws the attention of drool-worthy Detective James Morrison, further complicating Hanna’s epic dating dilemma. Only absinthe-swilling bodyguard Toulouse Lautrec stands between Hanna and the malevolent murderer whose grudge runs deep and appears to be connected to the mystery of her bloodline.

Damning evidence convinces Morrison that saving Hanna’s life requires ending Abernathy’s, and she’s forced to choose between protecting the man who holds the key to her past, or spilling her secrets to the detective who could promise her a future.

Cynthia St. Aubin does it again with another hilarious and gripping installation of the Tails from the Alpha Art Gallery series. I was thoroughly immersed in Love Sucks, and now I’m hooked.

Everything I loved about the Love Bites was in this one. Hanna is a delightfully strong and sassy heroine, but also a little bit of a mess which makes her that much easier to relate to. There’s still the same witty banter, a plot twist that I didn’t see coming, and lovable side characters. We also get additional side characters (Shayla is amazing) and more of Hanna’s backstory. I loved the chemistry between Hanna and Mark and all of the campy appearances from werewolf artists (I mean, Van Gogh? Freida Kahlo? Amazing) and actor or writer vampires (Oscar Wilde as a vampire was not something I thought I needed until I read it, but now I’m obsessed).

The only complaint I have is that I could have used more fighting back against the creepy alpha wolves on Hanna’s part. Besides that, though, I loved the balance between romance and mystery and can’t wait to see how Hanna’s relationship with Abernathy evolves.

Love Lies

Discovery number one: My boss is hot. Discovery number two: My boss is a werewolf. Discovery number three: If I bang my super-hot werewolf boss, I’ll become a werewolf too. Why? Enter, discovery number four: Even though I’m not a werewolf, I am the female heir of a super old and infinitely powerful werewolf bloodline. Weird, right?

Love Lies

Title: Love Lies (#3)
Published: October 27, 2020
Pages: 330
Pacing: Fast
Moods: Funny, Lighthearted, Mysterious
Content Warnings: Blood, Gore, Violence, Murder

It’s bad enough that the world’s most powerful vampires are following gallery assistant Hanna Harvey like a cloud of undead mosquitos. But finding one of their heads in the trunk of her Mustang? There’s not enough cheese in the world to unsee that. Her stud-muffin alpha werewolf boss, Mark Abernathy suspects that someone stashing vampy bits in Hanna’s immediate vicinity is part of a plot to set-off an inter-species war…with Hanna’s own destiny at its heart.

Getting to the bottom of Hanna’s headless guests will mean fending off the dogged investigation of Detective James Morrison—now suspended from the force and hell-bent on exposing the secrets that could not only destroy Abernathy, but everyone he’s sworn to protect.

Now facing a force older and more sinister than any she’s encountered, the stakes have never been higher for Hanna, who must finally decide to ascend to her rightful place in the pack, or risk losing everything—and everyone—she loves.

Love Lies was slightly different from the previous two, focusing more on Hanna’s struggle with her potential werewolf status, but I loved the change in pace. There was still the mystery aspect I’ve come to love with this series, but it kind of took a back seat as Hanna struggled to decide between her life as a human and her life as a werewolf (and consequently, who she would be with: James or Mark). It made for a lot of emotional tension, especially between Hanna and Mark. Bringing the context of choosing between being human or a werewolf really added an extra layer to the love triangle and actually made me enjoy it just a little more. I loved learning more about Mark’s history, especially the exploration of his Scottish heritage between actually visiting his castle in Scotland and the appearance of him in a kilt at Steven and Shayla’s wedding (which was also a high point of the novel. Paranormal weddings are a never-ending source of entertainment.)

The introduction of more paranormal lore—with the appearance of gods and demi-gods and the history of werewolf and vampire relations—was really well done. The only complaint I have is that the antagonist reveal at the end didn’t exactly surprise me this time. I still enjoyed it, though. Based on the ending, this very well could have been the last book in the series, but it’s not, and I’m so excited to see where it goes.