The Romanceaholic

Expected Release Date: Available Now!
Publisher: Self Published
Author’s Website: http://kaitnolan.com
My Source for This Book: Amazon.com
Part of a Series: Yes, Book 1.5 Mirus
Series Best Read In Order: Yes, but would work well as a standalone
Steam Level: Warm

Official Blurb:

Trouble. That’s what wolf-shifter Mick thinks when a beautiful woman appears in his New Orleans bar with a hurricane at her back. His first impression is confirmed when Sophie starts asking questions about his missing waitress, Liza. Mick will do anything to rescue a member of the pack he’s made for himself, including forming an unlikely alliance with a woman with a badge.

I hate myself a little right now. You see, I bought this short story in December, when it was a new release, and somehow it got shoved to the back of my TBR pile on my Kindle and I just now realized I hadn’t read it.

What a fool I was.

Devil’s Eye is book 1.5 in the Mirus series, which started with Forsaken By Shadow (which was a 4-star book by itself, actually), and continues to flesh out the world of the Mirus.  That said, it has been quite a while since I’ve read Forsaken by Shadow, and I still felt that I had all of the pertinent information without having to review the previous book.

Mick is the wolf-shifter owner of Le Loup Garou (literally, “The Werewolf”), a bar in New Orleans where both humans and Mirus mix without the humans ever being aware of the Mirus’ existence.   In the middle of a “Hurricane Party”, with the storm raging outside, he realizes that one of his waitresses, Liza, never showed up for work.

Before Mick can further investigate Liza’s whereabouts, he’s interrupted by the lovely Sophie, a gorgeous stranger who not only emanates a sense of power, but who is also asking questions about Liza.  When he discovers that she’s a member of the IED — the Investigation and Enforcement Division whose job it is to make sure that humans never become aware of the Mirus’ existence — he immediately goes on the defensive, because human or not, Liza is Pack.

What worked for me:

• Oh Mick. Mick you are delicious. *swoons*  Incredibly hot, Mick is a lone wolf (pun intended) who is incredibly loyal and protective of those he loves.  Yet, even though Sophie doesn’t immediately appear to be someone considered to be “on his side”, he can’t help but feel protective of her as well.
• I really liked Sophie’s background. I won’t give a spoiler, but suffice it to say that both her powers and her parentage were incredibly cool.
• Setting this story in NO, especially during a hurricane, was a touch of genius. Both the location and the storm added so much atmosphere to the story, and combined with the sense of urgency set forth by Liza’s disappearance made the world feel so much more real than is common in novellas.
• The Dragon Forge.  ’Nuff said.
• There were zombies (!), and not just zombies, but Mirus zombies (!!!), which was incredible.  So not only do you have creepy dead things after you, but you have magical creepy dead things after you Freaking. Awesome.
• I was very happy that this worked so well as a standalone. Too many “point fives” in various series depend too heavily on the reader having extensive knowledge about the world in which the story unfolds, but Devil’s Eye gives just enough detail that you won’t be lost, but not so much as to bog down the story with pointless worldbuilding.

What didn’t work for me:

• As you can probably tell by the designation of the story as “1.5″ in the series, there is no HEA, but rather a HFN.  While this is much more realistic given the incredibly short amount of time that Mick and Sophie knew each other, I couldn’t help but be disappointed that there was so much more of their story left to be told.
• I felt that the Devil’s Eye itself was a bit anticlimactic.  Again, this is due to the story being left open-ended for the next novel, but there was so much unresolved with the Eye that it almost didn’t seem to be as big of a deal as it really should’ve been.

I had (ashamedly) forgotten just how much I enjoy Kait Nolan’s writing. She has a way of taking “the same old same old” of paranormal romance and completely setting it on its head, and I adore her for it.

While I would suggest reading Forsaken By Shadow first (and c’mon, it’s only $2.99 at Amazon, and free on her website if you want to read the serialization there) simply because the Mirus world is so entertaining, I do think that Devil’s Eye works beautifully as a standalone.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. While I wish that it had been a full-length novel, simply so that I would know what was to become of Nick and Sophie, it ended at a good stopping point and didn’t feel like a complete cliff-hanger which I liked.  Given the space constraint of a $0.99 novella, however, I think Ms. Nolan did an absolutely fantastic job of keeping the action going, of creating characters that a reader could care about, and the beginnings of what I would imagine will be a beautiful relationship.   I sincerely hope any PNR fans reading this will pick this one up in support of a fantastic indie author; a very solid 4/5 Stars

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