Summer Court

This was my first time reading any book from the Summer Court series. I knew about the witch courts and sidhe and all that but I never just WANTED to read it. Anyway ... This was a fast read, and since this is an ARC, I won't give many details. The Breaking is happening. A void is swallowing up the world and some witches have received Tarot cards from God. This story focuses on Samita, a young Hindu woman who receives the Death card. Unfortunately, I never connected with Samita or her 'boyfriend' Slater. No. I did, but not until the very end. I loved that Samita was Hindu and became wheelchair bound. I hadn't yet read anything with anyone who was differently-abled and was excited for this. I'm not a huge fan of erotic books. I don't think this one falls into the category of Erotica but the witches had to use sex magic. For one, when the witches' wolf mates changed shape, sex made it shift easier. I think the major complaint I have is that the sex, outside of the witch/wolf orgies, really wasn't needed to further the story. That time could have been used to fill in more story, details, character development, anything except sex, anything that mattered. SOME backstory was given for a couple of the characters in the form of a viewpoint change with flashback. But even that felt like filler. The story would have been really good given a more appropriate page count. I could have been all in even if I didn't like Samita because of how things turned out. It's really the only thing that kept me reading it and even then it took me over a week. Overall, the book was decent. Because of the length, a lot of meaty things for the characters were left out. I really had no idea what anyone looked like other than basic physical description. One woman was described as having bronze skin, someone had a mohawk, Samita has light brown skin, Slater is a pretty nicely built guy and ... If you're going to write a character that has a rich cultural background, I like for something to be included. This felt generic. The world building wasn't there, but there was enough seeing as how the book was short. I don't know ... I really liked the story, the ending with Ben brought it all home, especially THAT reveal, but I wanted it full-length and minus the extra sex scenes (the ones between Samita and Slater ... Well maybe 1 could stay). A rating for this is hard. Damnit. I love SM Reine so much but this one was a miss for me.

*Was given a copy from the author in exchange for my honest review* I really wish I started this series from the beginning then I think I would have connected to it a lot easier. Yes, within each book of this series you follow a different set of couples so you don't really need to start from the beginning (as the only other book I read of this series was the second one) but I think you should just so you feel like you didn't miss anything and you can connect to the story better. The story was easy to follow and I would get hooked but it was also easy for me to put it down and go do other things. I also wasn't dying to pick the book back up either even though I was enjoying the story. I really did like the story, even though some times I felt it moved a little too fast. Mrs. Reine is great at making you sit on the edge of your seat in anticipation and she sure knows how to write a scene that'll make you have to fan yourself ;). Overall I think if I was able to connect to the story better then I would have loved it. I did love realizing that some of the characters are from other books from Mrs. Reine, like Rage and Violet from The Mage Craft Series. You get to see who they were before they became the King and Queen of the summer court even though they're not the main characters of this book. I love seeing how Mrs. Reine weaves all these stories in the world she's created, I'm truly amazed by it and excited to see how many stories she'll create in this world! There's so much she can do that she hasn't done already!

I Love Shifter/Paranormal Romances, but this book just didn't keep my attention. I couldn't get a feel for the characters or the story.