February 3, 2023 - fundinmentalfundinmental

I can’t remember how I got so many of Ashley Fontainne’s novels, but I think I won them in a giveaway. I have been trying to pick them off one by one as I also read/review her newer books. She is always a must read author for me since I cracked open the very first book.

I love this fabulous cover. What do you think about it?

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MY REVIEW

Ashley Fontainne is a must read author for me since I picked up the very first book. That being said, Empty Shell is not one of my favorites, though I did enjoy the mystery. She has an ability to start her books with a fantastic hook, making me continue flipping pages.

Over the years, I had watched too many of my friends go through this nightmare. Held them while they wept, hearts ripped apart.So many strong women turned into empty shells, nothing but former husks of themselves.

I was lost inside the empty shell of my womb, unable to find my way out of the darkness.

Secrets, betrayals, mystery, murder and loss fill the pages. Good friends can make life easier, so it’s a good think Melody as a couple. I didn’t see the biggest betrayal of all, and I love when an author can sneak in a surprise that leaves me shaking my head because I didn’t see it.

Ashley Fontainne has included many Christian references and I found, at times, it slowed the reading down for me. That may not be the case for others, so keep that in mind if Empty Shell sounds like a good fit for you.

I am looking forward to the next Ashley Fontainne story.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Empty Shell by Ashley Fontainne.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos — 3 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

A pair of pink, silk underwear…

The quiet world of Melody and Jack Dickinson is about to be turned upside down. Twenty years of marriage hangs in the balance when Melody finds out about Jack’s infidelity. The betrayal is made worse when Melody discovers his lover is Serena Rowland, a young woman who works at Melody’s law firm.

A receipt from an overpriced hotel…

Harsh words are exchanged before Melody storms off to work, determined to have Serena fired. But when Melody hears Serena was murdered over the weekend, everything changes. Serena’s body is found beaten and strangled with a pair of pink, silk panties, in the same hotel that Jack had admitted staying at over the weekend. Within seconds of hearing the news, Melody’s life spins out of control when Jack calls in a panic. The police are at their home to arrest him for Serena’s murder.

Pictures of a young woman’s scantily clad torso on a cell phone…

Was she married to a monster? One who beat and strangled the young woman to death, or was Jack set up? Did Melody’s own dark secret, hidden inside her heart for years, have something to do with the nightmare they suddenly find themselves in?

Melody and Jack are about to discover that one fateful mistake will destroy many.

ABOUT ASHLEY FONTAINNE

Award-winning and International bestselling author Ashley Fontainne enjoys stories that immerse the reader deep into the human psyche and the monsters lurking within each of us. She writes in numerous genres including mystery, suspense, horror, sci-fi and sometimes poetry.

Ashley lives in Arkansas with her husband and is the proud mother of one son and grateful daughter of co-author, Lillian Hansen. To learn more about her books please visit https://ashleyfontainne.net/

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Queen of the Underworld
Felicity Heaton
(A Guardians of Hades Series Prequel)
Publication date: January 31st 2023
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

Hades, the wickedly dark god-king of the Underworld, needs a queen…

And he’s chosen Persephone.

All Persephone has ever desired is control of her own life, and someone noticing her once in a while. Kept in her mother’s shadow, and overlooked by the entirety of Olympus, her dream seems impossible… and now she’s doomed to wed a dull god of her mother’s choosing…

Until she crosses paths with a handsome, dark warrior who rouses wildfire heat in her veins—a male whose immense power is unmistakable, and who matches the fearful tales whispered in Olympus—stories of a cruel, heartless king who rules his realm of death with an iron fist.

When Hades abducts her and imprisons her in the depths of the Underworld, a dormant part of her awakens. And as she slowly discovers the truth about him, Persephone isn’t sure whether the snarling, dark beast of a king is her doom… or her saviour… but she knows one thing…

She will embrace the fire he awakens in her with every heated glance, and every vicious growl.

And use it to tame him and forge her dreams into reality.

Because, Persephone, the quiet, gentle goddess of nature, desires a king.

And nothing will stop her from claiming his black heart.

Queen of the Underworld is a forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers paranormal romance novel retelling the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, and a prequel in my Guardians of Hades series. In the vein of an adult beauty and the beast, it features a grumpy-sunshine pairing that will steal your heart, with a secretly cinnamon roll hero and a secretly fiery heroine, and a powerful forever kind of love. All Guardians of Hades books have no cliffhangers, a guaranteed happily ever after, and some strong language.

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—

EXCERPT:

Feminine voices curled through the trees, a trio of them speaking while one continued her siren’s song, luring him towards her.

Hades stilled where rock met grass and tried to pinpoint their owners with his senses. One was closer to him than the other three, who were all grouped together at a distance. He edged to his right, his focus on that single female, curiosity rising within him again to have him trying to catch a glimpse of her.

That desire to catch just a glimpse transformed into something else—something powerful and demanding—as her soft voice grew closer, her song growing clearer, and he smelled the faintest hint of lilies.

Heat curled through his veins, that scent rousing a fierce need that thrummed in every inch of his body and had the darkness writhing harder, violently attempting to wrench control from him and make him find the owner of it. He needed to see her. He couldn’t remember the last time he had smelled such a delicate scent. His world was ash and smoke and blood, and death.

Everything about this female seemed to be the opposite of what he knew.

Her song teased his ears as her scent teased his nose, and his breath caught in his throat as he was swept up in her—a female he hadn’t even seen yet. Not just the man in him either. The darker side of him burned with a desire to see her too. He needed to know if her beauty matched her voice and her scent. He loosed a low growl and took another step forwards, remaining just within the shadows of the cave, the powerful need to see her colliding with a wariness of disturbing her.

He inched further to his right and straightened to his full six-eight height, the hard black plates of his armour shifting as he strained to catch a glimpse of her. He felt as if he wasn’t master of his own body as he tried to spot her, but it wasn’t the darkness in control of his actions.

It was the pressing desire to see her.

She was moving closer, but no matter where he moved, the trees blocked his view. His claws itched with the need to attack them until they were nothing more than splinters of wood and his view was clear of the obstruction.

He moved the other way, tracking her with his senses, and discovering something intriguing.

She was strong.

Not mortal.

There were mortals near to her though. The other three females. Were they her servants?

What goddess had come to this place, so far from Olympus or Poseidon’s realm?

Her power caressed his, grazing it lightly in a way that urged him onwards and made him forget about the mortals as it cranked up the desperation to see her.

Because he had never felt anything like her power.

It was light. Warmth. Goodness.

It was everything he wasn’t.

Hades edged closer, a predator stalking his prey, his mind churning with dangerous thoughts that roused the darker side of his blood and brought it to the fore again. Perhaps the Moirai had brought him here after all, seeking to give him something he desired for once, an attempt to appease him. Poseidon had his new queen. Zeus had his. Hades hadn’t even seen this female, but already his blood burned for her. The brush of her power against his and the delicate beauty of her voice were enough to entrance him and rouse his desire to an unbearable degree.

He wanted this female.

The thought of her warming his bed had his blood quickening.

It had been too long since he had taken a female, his duties keeping him too busy to indulge in such things as his brothers did. But he had the feeling it wasn’t his ignored physical needs that had his body aching for this female.

It was something else.

He growled low, baring his fangs, and his breaths came faster still as he moved to his right. He glared at the trees that continued to deny him, blocking his view. There had to be a better vantage point, one that would allow him to see more than tree trunks and the leafy scrub that covered the ground in places.

He froze, his entire body locking up tight.

His breath gusted from him.

A striking scarlet-haired maiden stepped into view.

She was beauty and light wrapped in flawless pale skin and rosy cheeks and pink lips that beckoned him, awakening something fierce in him as her tongue poked out to wet them. His breath lodged in his throat as he gazed at her, his awareness of the world destroyed and something fundamental inside him changing from just the sight of her. She was perfection, and she roused not only the man in him, but the darkness. It growled at him, sharpening his fangs and his nails as it whispered a fierce demand that echoed the desire that thrummed in his blood and beat in his heart.

Take her.

Author Bio:

I’m a NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY and International Best-Selling Author writing passionate paranormal romance books and series for adults.

I love to create detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! All of them alpha as you would expect in paranormal romance, and every book with a guaranteed HAPPILY FOREVER AFTER!

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Fans of paranormal romance books by authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, Larissa Ione, Kresley Cole and Christine Feehan will love my books too.

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