Release Day Review: His Consort by Mary Calmes (Giveaway)

Title: His Consort
Author: Mary Calmes
Release Date: November 20, 2018
Category: BDSM, Paranormal
Pages: 284

Dreamspinner Press


A new life in New Orleans is all Jason Thorpe had hoped: his quaint little store attracts a devoted staff and his warm, loving heart grants him a loyal circle of friends. He's perfectly content, having left behind the chill of a confusing and danger-filled night in Washington, until he discovers something unbelievable lurking in the steamy darkness of the shadowy streets of the Vieux Carré, something that turns out to be terrifying... and utterly mesmerizing.

The prince of the vampyrs, Varic Maedoc, is visiting New Orleans when he finds out the man who once helped his counselor is there in the Quarter. He thinks to simply meet and thank Jason—until he lays eyes on him. Varic’s devoted himself to protect the honor of his race, and he's never wanted a mate before... but he immediately knows he must have this man, and no one else will do.

Varic may want to bring Jason safely into his world, but someone who doesn’t like the human's soothing influence on vampyrs has deadly plans that would disrupt Varic's dreams. Now, unable to tell friend from foe, Jason finds himself wondering how to hold on to the prince’s heart when he’s fighting for his life.

3.75 Stars!

Jason Thorpe is an ex-marine that tends to find himself in all kinds of dangerous situations. He has a great heart and wants to help out people as much as possible. He eventually finds himself surrounded by a surrogate family that takes care of him when he moves to New Orleans. The prince of vampyrs, Varic, is visiting New Orleans and wants to meet with the man who once inadvertently saved his counselor. Their meeting doesn't go the way either expects.

I liked Jason. He has a heart of gold and seems to have a knack for meeting the right people at the right time. He's the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. His instincts and gut feelings rarely lead him wrong. His friends and makeshift family in New Orleans are colorful and interesting. Varic is harder to get to know. The story is told from Jason's perspective and he doesn't meet Varic until a little over a third of the way through the book. Jason and Varic have such a strong reaction to each other that its hard to get a sense of the kind of person Varic is. We learn about him in his actions and more once they finally really talk, which is late in the book. It's not that I didn't like Varic, I just felt like we learned more about him from others than we did from him or Jason. I really didn't understand why they didn't have guards with Jason after they bonded, but then we wouldn't have gotten to see just what Varic would do for his man.

In some ways, I didn't want to set this book down because I had to see what was going to happen next. However, there were several things that bothered me as well. My biggest issue was with the ending. I really hope that there's going to be another book following this one to see how things go from here. It's not a cliffhanger or anything, but there were a lot of small things that fell by the wayside once Jason and Varic bonded.

If you're a fan of the author and liked Romanus and like vampires, this book will probably be right up your alley.

*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by Dreamspinner Press for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***

3.5 Stars

I love a good paranormal romance, especially vampires. I was intrigued by this story by Mary Calmes. For the most part, I enjoyed the characters. Triago and Hadrian were my favorites and I really hope they get a book. There seemed to be a lot of storylines, characters and plot points in this book. And, I’m a bit disappointed that it seemed many of them were unresolved by the end. In fact, the end felt more like a beginning. I’m assuming this is going to be a series and this book was the setup.

40% of this book was world-building… The romantic leads, Jason and Varic, don’t even meet until about 40% in. This is a paranormal, fated mates storyline, so the romance heats up quickly thereafter, but it took a while to get there. I liked them together, their banter and chemistry are fantastic. It just took a while to get there…

As part of the world-building, there was A LOT of information about vampyrs. This is “masked” as Jason being intellectually curious, but his constant questions and research really don’t make sense because it happens well before he meets his vampyr mate, so he has no reasonable expectation to be immersed in the vampyr world.

All in all, this is a good read and I’m hoping for more.

*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by Dreamspinner Press for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***

3.75 stars 

I was quickly pulled into this book with the first chapter. Jason was endearing and while a little naive at first, it was easy to connect to his integrity as a MC. The author did a great job of showing how genuine and thoughtful he was in pretty much all situations that we saw him in. I was intrigued after that initial chapter and wanted to get more from the story.

There was a lot of dialogue describing the world of vampyrs when I really wanted to get to the meat of the story. For me, it was a little slow moving to the romance side of this book. I was so interested in who Varic was after first hearing about him from Tiago but we really did not get to meet him until much later.

I love the idea of fated mates so I was all about Varic being possessive over Jason and wanting him immediately. There was also a bit of humor in this book that I appreciated. Many of the side characters were pretty sassy and even Jason was not afraid to be a little bit snarky every once in a while. It helped break up some of the seriousness in this story.

*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by Dreamspinner Press for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***

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