Kristen Painter

Her First Taste of Fire by Kristen Painter
Shadowvale series, book 5. Paranormal romance. Can be read as a stand-alone.
Nasha Black is cursed. She can’t taste anything. Everyone living in Shadowvale is or was cursed in some way. The magical town welcomes those that need the haven or solitude or peace. Charlie has lived in Shadowvale for 5 years, mostly staying in his shop and making chocolate with his dragon fire. Nasha discovers that something in his chocolate allows her to actual taste show more for the first time. She wants the recipe and if that means she’d poses as his fiancée for a short time, she’ll do that.

Captivating romance with a woman realizing her own power with confidence and finesse. I enjoyed the deep friendships that Nasha and Charlie cultivated and the strength they all gave each other. The flying colorful dragons just made it more fun: “Charlie in his human form was a very handsome man. In his dragon form, he was epic. ”
My favorite of the series to date.

Excerpt:
“She closed his stammering mouth with a soft kiss that lit sparks all through him. His head went funny. Like he’d suddenly lost altitude.”
Excerpt From Her First Taste Of Fire: Shadowvale, Book Five by Kristen Painter show less

The Vampire’s Sunny Sweetheart by Kristen Painter
Book 14 of the Nocturne Falls paranormal romance series. Can be read as a stand-alone but better if you’ve read at least the first few. Each book has a different couple and there are some recurring characters and family throughout the series.
A town that celebrates Halloween all year so the paranormal residents can live openly.
Sunni travels to her Aunt Alice for training where she discovers she’s not a witch at all, and she can control show more the shadows that she always hated in the past. She knows getting involved with Ren will likely break her heart in the end but he’s irresistible.
Ren is visiting family in Nocturne Falls hoping to keep a low profile but his past has some dangerous aspects he can’t outrun.

Loved the attraction between Sunni and Ren. And Sunni is impressively willing to learn and control that which she’s been hiding from for ten years. Sunni is sunny and bright and a joy to read.
A new attraction, a bit of danger, some unknowing, and a town of powerful helpers and family equals love and an HEA.
I want to visit this funky town even if I forget all about it after leaving because of the magic spell on the local water. It’s certainly a grand adventure reading about Nocturne Falls with all the romances and the just escaped danger. A wonderful ride I can take over and over again. show less

I’ve spent so many books with Jayne Frost now that each one feels like coming back to chat with an old friend. In book seven, Jayne is getting married to Sinclair up in the North Pole. There are disastrous dress fittings. Her mom and aunt want to be a bit too involved (because of course) and when Bertie Caruthers come up to help with the planning and they go to inspect the royal coach, they find… duh duh duh… a skeleton. So now we have a bit of wedding planning, a bit of mystery. And show more wherever Jayne goes, tons of food. That winter elf likes her sugar! The story turned away from wedding plans for a while as the mystery was investigated. There was a mysterious disease similar to Black Lung in miners, but for snow elves, a mother and son, old equipment that hasn’t been used in decades… the mystery gradually unfolded! And of course, lots of time with cats! I liked how this mystery had plenty of surprises. We finally got to meet Sinclair’s family, and the wedding was sweet. This was a great (maybe?) conclusion to the series, though I confess I wouldn’t mind seeing more cozy mysteries. This series and the Nocturne Falls books are my favorites.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

The Forgettable Miss French by Kristen Painter

3rd in the Shadowvale series. Paranormal romance. A town that hides itself to protect its paranormal residents. The gate decides if it will open for you. If you can find it.

I didn’t want to put it down to sleep.
The heroine: A curse that makes everyone forget you as soon as you are out of sight. A lonely existence through no fault of your own. I think it would be very difficult not to be depressed all the time.
The hero: a werewolf that was show more hit by lightening and not able to control his wolf form. He’s a famous writer. He moves to Shadowvale to hide and hopefully figure how to get rid of his curse.

Maybe the Cursed together can join forces.

werewolf problems Excerpt:
“Problem was he never knew if he was going to end up a wolf or not. Crazy. He’d never realized he was such a mutt until the lightning strike.

Now it was anybody’s guess what he was going to turn into because, apparently, he was cycling through every random bloodline ever introduced into his gene pool. So far, he’d seen himself become a pack’s worth of different wolves, a fox, a coyote, a Siberian husky, and, most curious of all, a beagle.

Whichever one of his relatives was responsible for that indiscretion, they had a lot of explaining to do.
A lot.
It was embarrassing.”
Excerpt From The Forgettable Miss French by Kristen Painter show less