Elizabeth Stephens (2)

Elizabeth Stephens is a master of literary foreplay. The Hunted Rise achieves a perfect balance between action, erotica, love and all the bits in between. The action scenes are grippingly intense. The violence is intense without being nightmare inducing. The love scenes! Oh the love scenes! They are graphically gorgeous. Every moment of passion is precisely calibrated to tug at your heartstrings along with your clothing. Other books might torture you with laughable descriptions of sex, or show more gloss over it and just skip over it entirely. The Hunted Rise dives in deep. Cheek blushing, heart achingly deep!

My only negative issue: the book ended.

Why did it have to end?
Why isn't this on the bestseller lists?
Why isn't there more by Elizabeth Stephens?

I read a lot. I rarely re-read books. This is one book that I know I will be reading again.

I highlighted 27 passages in this book. The best one, the one that continues to run through my head, weeks after I turned the final page is this one: 'There is only this. Me. You. Here. Now'. 8 words which gripped my heart and forced me to forget the world around me.

This is why I read. show less

Vanessa is the shy CEO of her own PR firm and, despite her desire to personally avoid other people, is very good at her job. The Pyro (Roland) is a supernatural being and free agent, neither villain nor hero at the beginning of the story (but leaning towards villain in the public eye). He works with Vanessa's firm to rebrand himself as a hero. As shy Vanessa and ultra-grouchy Roland get to know one another professionally, the line between work life and personal life blurs dramatically, show more especially as forces out of their control conspire to threaten their world. This was such a great premise! I thought the superhero/civilian tension worked well. And Roland and Vanessa work very well together as a couple (but I also really liked them both individually). Roland and Vanessa's initial meet-cute gone bad masks strong feelings between two individuals who both think themselves incapable of love and of being loved. Vanessa and Roland were sweet together as each learned to let down their guard. Dual POVs. Open-door, very insta-love (but because he's a sexy alien you roll with it), with a very fated-mates feel. Great supporting characters, Vanessa's family was fantastic and very believable as her dedicated support system, as was her employee and best friend Margerie. I wish Roland had more social support of his own, but then I guess he has Vanessa and her family/friends for that.

This is a new-to-me author, I would definitely read her again! With the mystery of who the Forty-Eight really are and where they came from (and why they came to Earth in the first place), there's a lot of leeway for the author to get creative, which she did. This kind of sci-fi is perfect for me, there's minimal world-building to follow since it's really just an alt-universe Earth that has supernatural superheroes and villains. (It also helps that they all seem to be ridiculously stunning.) Do pay attention to content warnings, as there are some heavier themes that the author handles with care. Written with wit, this was just a lot of fun to read, and there was an HEA for Roland and Vanessa that satisfied my mushy side. This book made me want to abandon all responsibilities and read all day instead. And it feels like the start of a series, so I really hope there's a next installment! Publishes May 27, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for providing an eARC of this story, all opinions are my own. show less

This is book #2 in Elizabeth Stephens' "Supers in the City" series; the first book came out earlier this year (and was my first read by this author) and I thoroughly enjoyed it! So much so that I was excited for this one, and it did not disappoint. Fast-paced and engaging, this story picks up shortly after the 1st book ended and is just as entertaining. Monika is our FMC, a former war photographer and adrenaline junkie now employed for a PR firm that works with superheroes. (She and the PR show more firm were introduced in the first book, so here is where I need to add that these are not standalones and you really need to read that book first for peak enjoyment.) Our MMC is one of the "supers," Taranis/Darius, who puts on a facade in public that masks his disdain for humans. He's also self-serving and a bit ethically gray when it comes to humans. (I found him a little hard to root for, especially in the beginning and definitely during one particular scene at the end of the book. I trusted the author on this one, since we know that the alien superheroes don't necessarily have humanity's best interests at heart, despite some of them acting as defenders. And I can definitely enjoy a book without loving the main characters, it actually makes things more interesting.) I do love how this author writes characters! She does an amazing job making everyone so distinct. The main characters are well-developed, and there are no generic cookie-cutter supporting characters. She clearly puts a lot of thought and effort into everyone who populates her stories, which makes them so much more engaging than your average contemporary romance/fantasy/sci-fi book. I love her strong focus on body positivity, and there's great multicultural representation and sexual identity acceptance. The dynamic between Monika and Darius was interesting, and while I don't normally love the enemies-to-lovers vibe when it's overtly antagonistic like they were at times (especially Darius towards Monika), their intentional aggravation of one another was a lot of fun to read. I felt this book was a lot more sexually explicit than the first one, although YMMV. In terms of relationship development, the speed with which their physical relationship grew (and the volume of sexual content) seemed to pre-empt some of their on-page emotional bonding. The on-page relationship development leaned very heavily on their strong physical attraction as well as on their fated mates status (and some trauma-bonding thrown in), and I personally would have liked to see a bit more rationale for why Monika would even want to stay with Darius had everything else been equal. But it wasn't really that kind of book, so I was willing to suspend some disbelief. (I should also mention that this book is darker and edgier in some ways than the first one, so definitely pay attention to content warnings before reading.) But overall I found this to be a great read and I enjoyed it a lot. There are lots of characters among the supers and the villains, so I can see this series going for awhile. I'm really looking forward to the next book! Publishes November 25, 2025. This review is based on a complimentary eARC of the book, all opinions are my own. show less

Amusing. Clever. Sexy.

‘Taken to Sasor’ has everything from intense battles to scorching hot love scenes. I had intended to read this over a couple days. Once the story got going, I couldn’t put it down. It is a page turner!

Throughout the book various battles were fought. The alpha males vying for mates and status. The amusing battles between Mian and Neheyuu. The internal struggle between Neheyuu and his altered forms.

Elizabeth Stephens cleverly includes themes of diversity and show more empowerment within her stories. Mian’s freedom to choose was stressed throughout the book. Mian is appreciated for her strong character throughout the book. Things like this make me wish I had books like this when I was a young adult.

One aspect in particular made ‘Taken to Sasor’ a great read: humour. Bits of laugh out loud hilarity were interspersed throughout the story. Below is one of my favourite lines:

“From the moment you hit me in the face, I liked you.”

All in all it was sviking awesome book! show less