Full Review: Elle is happy running her organic soap shop by day and stealing priceless artifacts from her father at night. She’s got a hot male employee who catches her in the act of stealing, but rather than turn her in, he helps her get away! Turns out Jax is not human, but neither is Elle, she just didn’t know it yet. Dad is an evil master manipulator who deserves to be punished.

I am not one to start new series anymore; I hate waiting for the next one and prefer to read them all in one fell swoop. I enjoyed this story until I realized there was no way to get everything wrapped up well with the short amount of material left. While I am glad that Ms. Macallan didn’t just hurry up and end it, I would have liked a bit more resolution, rather than the semi-cliffhanger she left us with.

While this story does rely on many of the same conventions seen in romantic fiction lately, such as two hot guys that are interested in her, and memory loss. I like the new spin on light and dark elves, with gargoyles and phoenixes tossed in the mix. I especially loved Elle’s own comment, “Please tell me the Twilight series isn’t based on real people.” Jax’s answer, “Vampires and werewolves are myths.” Nice to know the conventions are recognized and made fun of even as they are useful. Elle and her best friend, Teryl, not gay men (yeah!) have a great relationship steeped in humor and sarcasm. I could get along with Elle quite well myself. I’ll be looking for the next one!


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3.5/5

Egalley thanks to Entangled Publishing, LLC

Stone Cold Seduction is fairly light, amusing urban fantasy. Elle has this wry sense of humour which captivated me straight away.

"I jerked at the unexpected male voice, sloshing coffee on my hand and the table. “Damn! MacLean, what are you doing here? And why do you always sneak up on me when I’m holding hot coffee?”
MacLean didn’t answer. I noticed his copper eyes were streaked with flame.
“Guys, can we tone it down? Please? Can we have one conversation where no one loses a shirt, is on fire, turns to stone, or growls uncontrollably?”

She is this artsy new age woman, owner of a spa products shop, products which she creates herself. Her only drawback is her evil dad. She thinks he is some sort of mafia man and from time to time she steals some precious stones or antiques from him to donate the money to the families of his victims.

However, reality is much more complicated. Dear daddy is a king of shadow elves, and Elleodora is his heir.

On the night of her latest burglary, Elle is saved from being seen by her hot new employee Jax who suddenly sprouts wings and drops them from multi-storied building. Bewildered, Elle finds out that her world is not what it seems. Her best friend is an oracle, Jax is gargoyle and she actually has an ex-fiance phoenix whom she can't remember because dear dad wiped her memories...

Elle starts manifesting powers unusual even for her new world and her time is running out as everyone wants to either use or kill her, and the only way to save herself is for Elle to read her fate...

Loved everything in the book, but love relationship between Elle and Jax. I'm not a big fan of soul mates idea as I said before, and here it's done particularly badly. Everything happens super fast, unbelievably fast, and all these smoochies and swoons were making me gag. He was calling her his "little gem" for God's sake! It's even worse than "ma petite"!

Other than that I loved that Elle's character develops really well and she finally grows a pair to stand up to her dad. I'm looking forward to the next installment and well done to Jess Macallan for such an interesting book!

Verdict: refreshing, fast read, full of humour and drama. If you like Mary Janice Davidson and Kerrelyn Sparks, I think you'll like this one as well. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.

Quick & Dirty: Elle is just a mere mortal or so she thought. In one day all that changes. Now she is confronted with gargoyles, elves of both light and shadow, phoenixes, oracles and more. Now she has to find her fate and save many from her father’s evil doings. On top of that she has to choose between her first love and the man she now loves.

Opening Sentence: The worst day of my life began with a double mocha, extra whipped cream.

The Review:

This was a wonderful book to read. It is about a woman named Elleodora Fredricks who thought she was just an ordinary soap maker and part-time burglar. Then after stealing some gems from her father and almost getting caught she realizes that she is much more. In fact she is part shadow elf and part demi-god. Her father is the evil shadow elf king and she is his heir. Unfortunately for Elle, the items she had been stealing from her father turned out to be souls from other creatures. How does she learn the truth of all this? Easy, her boyfriend who is actually a gargoyle, and her best friend who is an oracle, tells her. Now these three, along with Elle’s ex-fiancé, who is a phoenix, must find Elle’s fate and stop her father from using her for his evil deeds.

There were times that I really liked Elle and then there were other times when I did not. I did like the fact that she held it together fairly well when she found out that she was part of a whole other world that she previously thought was all myths. She did have a few times where it overwhelmed her, but who wouldn’t be overwhelmed? I also liked how she stole from her father to help those people who he had harmed in some way. The part of her I didn’t like was that she was sometimes rather reckless. She knows there is a price and a death warrant out for her and she still had a tendency to take off on her own. This usually gets her into trouble and sometimes the guys also. My favorite part about Elle was that she stood up to her father and her worst nightmare rather than just giving in when she is confronted by them.

Elle’s father was a horrible being and Jess Macallan did a good job when she wrote up this villain. To the outside world he was a great business man and an honorable man. Those who knew him better knew about the evil that was in him. He had people killed just for looking at him wrong. Even though Elle was his daughter, he never had a problem handing her over to Luke, a sick disgusting man, who loved to torture Elle.

The three men in Elle’s life were so different from each other, but all were very important to her in some way. First is her best friend Teryl, who is an oracle. They have been best friends forever. Whenever she is feeling down Teryl is there with a smile and comfort food. He is also her partner in crime. He finds the shipments and the items that Elle steals. When Elle learns who she really is he is right by her side the whole way supporting her and trying to help her learn about herself. Secondly, is MacLean Douglas, Elle’s former fiancé, unfortunately she does not remember him because of the memories her father has stolen from her. Mac is back in her life as a hunter looking for the souls that Elle accidentally took. He believes in her innocence and wants to help her prove it and protect her from other hunters like him. Mac has copper colored hair and eyes and is a phoenix that has a tendency to burst into flames around the last guy in Elle’s life. His name is Jaxon West and he is a gargoyle and the new love in Elle’s life. He is the complete opposite of Mac. Where Mac has copper hair and eyes, Jax has black hair and gray eyes that have a tendency to go silver when he is experiencing high emotions. Whenever Mac and Jax are around you can expect a fight and they battle for the woman who was fated for both but meant to be with only one.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was hard for me to put this story down. I wanted to know if Elle succeeded in retrieving her fate and to find out which man she ends up with. I was on the edge of my seat as I read page after page of action. I do have to say I was not a big fan of the end because it was a cliffhanger leading up to the next book. I cannot wait to read the next one and find out how Elle’s story will play out. If the second book in this series Stone Cold Revenge is even half as good as this one I will thoroughly enjoy it.

Notable Scene:

Her eyes flicked to him for a moment before coming back to my face. “She knew how her life would end. She told me her death would be for a great cause, for a worthy individual.” She raked me with a contemptuous look. “You are not worthy. She was wrong about you.”

FTC Advisory: Entangled Publishing provided me with a copy of Stone Cold Seduction. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

STONE COLD SEDUCTION establishes the start of a new series, and it is a mixed bag to begin with. Elle seems to move backwards throughout the book, starting out as a leather-clad cat-burglar robbing her father to help his victims, and ending up as a victim herself. While there is obvious potential for her to grow into her birthright, Elle's resistance and anger is her own worst enemy in book one. Even her love life is hard to get excited about, as the two handsome, charming, and wonderful men in her life are obviously pitted against each other in a love triangle decreed by Fate.

Though the end of STONE COLD SEDUCTION gives hope for future books, there is no incremental triumph to celebrate at the close of this one. Elle's strength in the face of childhood trama is admirable, and she is able to fightback against her tormenters for the first time, but ultimately we are left with the prospect of an uncertain love life, an uncertain home life, and a battle against her sadistic father to look forward to. I'm interesting in finding out more, but I think I'll wait until I can read the rest of the series is one sitting. Elle will come out on top in the end, I just want to make sure I can get to the end as soon as possible.

Full review at All Things Urban Fantasy.

Sexual Content: Several sex scenes. ( )

2.5 stars

***This is posted at Paranormalhaven.com as a guest review***

I picked up Jess Macallan’s Stone Cold Seduction thinking that it sounded like a good mesh of UF and PNR, plus it included elves! I’m a huge lover of elves, one of my top favorite series of all-time has an elf heroine. Unfortunately, the book itself has more clichés than you can shake a stick at.

Elledora Fredricks makes her living by selling perfumed soaps at her shop while stealing from her rich, evil father at night. She’s at her father’s estate, in the middle of a “job”, when she runs into one of her employees, Jaxon West. Precariously perched on a ledge of eight inches, we’re treated to Elle ogling Jax as if she’s run into him on the street. After nearly being discovered out on the ledge by her former tormenter and father’s right hand man, Luke, Elle beats a hasty retreat. When Elle returns home, Jax starts badgering her with questions about her abilities and her best friend, Teryl shows up conveniently for certain revelations to be made. We come to find out that Elle is the daughter of the Shadow elf King and she shares certain abilities that her father possesses.

I will say this, the book reads very easily. The dialogue flows, there’s humor and interesting creatures other than elves to be found in Stone Cold Seduction. My problems stem from the clichés that pop up throughout the story. The newfound (and growing) powers that Elle accepts pretty much without question, the men that want her, and the dastardly father that would like his own daughter dead. I would’ve liked to have seen more development with her and Jax rather than her just jumping into bed with him, but that’s my preference as a reader, not so much a flaw with the narrative.

Elle is tasked with finding a particular oracle and learning about her fate. Along with going to Scotland on her quest, she is also avoiding the hunters that are out there looking for her. Elle has inadvertently been stealing souls that are locked inside various articles and jewels, and she’s wanted by the King of the Shadow Elves, the gargoyles, and assorted otherworldly creatures. She has to deal with Teryl and Jax keeping pertinent information from her at the time when she needs it the most.

I appreciated the flashbacks of the memories with her father, I wish there had been more of them included throughout the book. It gave me a better picture of her father and how she came to despise him, but the glimpses that I saw were few and far between. The pacing throughout the novel is pretty well done, and I can see how this would appeal to many fans of urban fantasy and paranormal romance, but unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

My rating 2.5
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