Title: All That Has Flown Beyond

Series: Natural Magic 02

Author: Marina Vivancos

Genre: Paranormal, Werewolves & Shifters

Length: Novel (404pgs)

Publisher: Marina Vivancos (December 3, 2018)

Heat Level: Moderate

Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖 3.75 Hearts

Blurb: Kaiyo’s bloodline has been part of the Garrow pack for generations. He has been destined to be shaman, to anchor the werewolves to the land, and lend aid with the force of his Ousía. When Kaiyo is fourteen, however, an attacking group kills all of the adults in the pack, leaving young Ahmik, only fifteen, as leader.

Their worries don’t end there.

Smelling blood in the water, enemies hunt the decimated pack from all sides. Kaiyo grows increasingly reckless in his desperation to defend his pack, to finally grow into his shaman powers, and to protect Ahmik: the boy he loves.

In the end, Kaiyo loses his pack anyway.

Packless, landless, Kaiyo drifts. For ten years, he fights to remake himself into the shaman, and the man, he was meant to become. One phone call from his old pack, though, and he is forced to return.

Something is killing children and Kaiyo is the only one strong enough to stop it.

Kaiyo never thought his journey would take him back to his old land, his old pack, and to Ahmik. Forced to face his past, and the wounded love that still aches for Ahmik, Kaiyo will be tested like never before.

Content Warning: This story contains themes of depression and associated thoughts and behaviours. However, as always, it focuses on recovery and strength.

This book takes place in the Natural Magic world but can be read as a standalone.

ISBN: B07KWQH35D

Product Link: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Reviewer: Shorty

Review: This story is about Kaiyo and Ahmik but from Kaiyo’s POV. It’s an emotional, telling story of suffering, loss, tragedy, struggles and love. Kaiyo and Ahmik suffer unimaginable loss at the beginning. This sets in motion Kaiyo’s journey in helping others and accomplishing his goal in becoming a shaman of the pack.

I loved the journey and the details. Though I understood Ahmik’s reason for doing what he did I would have liked his POV as well to better to understand him and where he was coming from. The characters from the first book do not make an appearance in this installment which was a pity.

I loved how Kaiyo reconnected with the pack after being gone so long then called back to help with a mystery and not being able to leave for year. It made my heart happy after all the depression scenes and therapy sessions in the book.

This story was an emotional roller coaster. Good read.

Title: In This Iron Ground

Series: Natural Magic 01

Author: Marina Vivancos

Genre: Paranormal

Length: Novel (322pgs)

Publisher: Marina Vivancos (September 3, 2018)

Heat Level: Low – Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 3.75 Hearts

Blurb: Damien is nine years old when his parents die. What should have been the worst moment of his life begins a journey shadowed by loneliness and pain. The night of a full moon, four years and seven foster homes later, Damien flees to the forest, desperate to escape everything.

Instead, he finds the Salgado pack, and the earth beneath his feet shifts. Damien has seen the Salgado children in his school: Koko, who is in his class, and Hakan, two years older and infinitely unreachable. Damien is suddenly introduced into a world that had only ever existed in his imagination, where there is magic in the forest and the moon. He meets creatures that look like monsters, but Damien knows that monsters have the same face as anybody else.

Over the years, Damien and Hakan grow closer. First, just as friends and foster brothers in the Salgado house, and then into something heated and breathless when Damien joins Hakan at college. Despite what he may yearn for in the darkest part of the night, Damien knows, deep down in that bruised and mealy part of his core, that he’s not good enough to be part of the Salgado family, their pack. He’s not worthy of calling Hakan his home.

Even though he knows in the end it’ll hurt him, he’ll hold onto this for as long as he can.

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains themes of emotional and (nonsexual) physical child abuse and the subsequent emotional, cognitive, and behavioural impacts.

This story contains sexually explicit scenes between consenting adults and is meant for an adult audience.

ISBN: B07GNS5MZ4

Product Link: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Reviewer: Shorty

Review: This is a story about a young man overcoming abuse and other issues due to the way he has been treated. I loved how Damien blossomed under the care of the Salgado pack after he runs away to the forest. I was happy he seemed to be accepted and learned that yes he is someone.

Hakan for his part was confused by his feelings and it showed when the two young men did not get together until near the end of the book. At times there seemed to be a poetry to the writing by the author which threw me a little as I’m not into poetry myself. But it seemed to work for the story.

I loved that there was no real pack dynamic like in most shifter stories. There was no ‘well you’re an omega so you are at the bottom of the pack’. Everyone was treated equally to an extent. It made me happy that Damien flourished and grew in his new surroundings.

Good read.