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A Shield of Blood & Honor
I'm just a girl who wants to make something of myself without having to sacrifice my morals or without spilling my deepest secrets. Especially since they aren't just mine to keep. When a mass murder puts a spotlight on me that I'd spent a lifetime trying to avoid, at the same time as other unfortunate events, I'm forced to let a stranger in to help keep my sins hidden. The problem with that is, I don't have a good history with people keeping my secrets and leaving knives lodged in my back. Oh yeah, and my best friend just signed me up on the latest dating app. Between meeting and yeeting a new guy every night, I'm dodging a hothead investigator and trying to find a killer.
349 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 21, 2025
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7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 11, 2025
Needs a proofreader. The beginning was really rough, which is understandable as the first in the series and it’s a new world being introduced. Those are hard. Angel was mentioned in the first chapter 1st she’s walking across her law office towards the courtroom and then the second chapter. She’s a baker. We’re leaning towards Baker because you’ll see if you read. There was several mistakes sometimes the wrong words being used, no misspellings that I’ve noticed. Author does warn that there is stalking involved, which is the MMC. He falls into Insta love within 5-10 minutes of meeting Ros and he hacks into everything he can to watch and follow her even in her house. I had a hard time liking these characters, especially MMC. I’m glad he stopped with the controlling from when they first met up after the initial introduction. Picking her drink picking her food. I like morally gray men, but he was starting to rub me the wrong way, but this does not continue.
Some things are not worded, right
(( I lived with Manny long enough to know that there was no way in Dubnos that the dragon couldn't smell my arousal. Ignoring it, he turned to take Ros’ shoulders, pressing a kiss to her forehead.))
Seeing how there is two dragons in this room, I felt like names or titles should’ve been used Manny is not the one they’re talking about here. There was a few times my brain glitched, and I was trying to figure out the puzzle instead of going with the flow of the story.
Only scene I really hated and I think it’s cause we’re just trying to hurry up and get to fun times
There is a scene where Ros is drugged and she wakes up in her savior‘s bed and he goes “calm down you were drugged at the pub. I found you before they did anything “ they even described that she’s scared and starting to hyperventilate then he thrust his hardness against her and then she’s immediately hot and bothered. Mind you, they have not hooked up before this. Barely interacted. I just felt this was distasteful and rushed. Maybe if we had dragged out the conversation a little bit waited till she calmed down and then proceeded on.
Another scene that I kind of feel she needs to go back and rewrite or maybe it’ll be in the second book is that they have all of them Mmc, Ros, Angel and Manny coming back from the mission and the roommate is freaked out and goes to her room And the two main characters go off to her room but it was like the author forgot Manny ( who I like and if he is the next book, I would read it ) was there cause nobody said do you wanna stay, make yourself comfortable or showed him out the front door they just act like he was not there
I will watch out for the second book to see who the new characters are and give it one more try because now that we have the world built maybe things will go more smoothly
Some things are not worded, right
(( I lived with Manny long enough to know that there was no way in Dubnos that the dragon couldn't smell my arousal. Ignoring it, he turned to take Ros’ shoulders, pressing a kiss to her forehead.))
Seeing how there is two dragons in this room, I felt like names or titles should’ve been used Manny is not the one they’re talking about here. There was a few times my brain glitched, and I was trying to figure out the puzzle instead of going with the flow of the story.
Only scene I really hated and I think it’s cause we’re just trying to hurry up and get to fun times
There is a scene where Ros is drugged and she wakes up in her savior‘s bed and he goes “calm down you were drugged at the pub. I found you before they did anything “ they even described that she’s scared and starting to hyperventilate then he thrust his hardness against her and then she’s immediately hot and bothered. Mind you, they have not hooked up before this. Barely interacted. I just felt this was distasteful and rushed. Maybe if we had dragged out the conversation a little bit waited till she calmed down and then proceeded on.
Another scene that I kind of feel she needs to go back and rewrite or maybe it’ll be in the second book is that they have all of them Mmc, Ros, Angel and Manny coming back from the mission and the roommate is freaked out and goes to her room And the two main characters go off to her room but it was like the author forgot Manny ( who I like and if he is the next book, I would read it ) was there cause nobody said do you wanna stay, make yourself comfortable or showed him out the front door they just act like he was not there
I will watch out for the second book to see who the new characters are and give it one more try because now that we have the world built maybe things will go more smoothly
December 19, 2025
⭐️⭐️ | 5 stars
I’ve gone back and forth over my rating of this book for a fair amount of time before going ahead and writing a review.
Firstly I want to start off that this book shows great promise and initially the plot had me immediately interested with the murder mystery vibes, we have the fantasy vibes with the characters including dragons, mer and fae (all the good stuff) with the FMC being a “shield” working for the king similar to how police work.
I struggled with getting through the book after the initial excitement which was largely due to errors with plot consistency, the way characters are written about which can be confusing of which character we are supposed to be referring to and in some cases forgetting characters are in the “scene” altogether which led me to have to re-read some sections a few times to understand. There are quite a few spelling mistakes which overall wouldn’t necessarily affect my rating however they would be easily resolved with an editor.
It feels at one point that the murder mystery aspect becomes second to the romantic aspect of the book which felt abnormal as at points this felt forced. The premise of the relationship is confusing for the reader as when we’re introduced to the FMC she is strong, independent, no nonsense and doesn’t need anyone to take care of her. This is completely flipped around with limited interaction with the MMC, there is stalking involved but in my opinion we don’t get to see the relationship build, they have minimal interaction and then suddenly the FMC become very damsel in distress who needs saving and is almost immediately dependant on him.
A lot of the book feels very “wordy” there are some parts which have quite a lot of explanation where it feels unnecessary and doesn’t come into the plot and doesn’t seem to be mentioned again so could probably chop some of this out.
In short, the book has really great promise with the plot and with an editor could easily have some small amendments to make the book more cohesive to really bring it all together.
Finally I’d like to thank the author for the opportunity to receive this as an advance review copy for free - all thoughts are voluntary and my own views
I’ve gone back and forth over my rating of this book for a fair amount of time before going ahead and writing a review.
Firstly I want to start off that this book shows great promise and initially the plot had me immediately interested with the murder mystery vibes, we have the fantasy vibes with the characters including dragons, mer and fae (all the good stuff) with the FMC being a “shield” working for the king similar to how police work.
I struggled with getting through the book after the initial excitement which was largely due to errors with plot consistency, the way characters are written about which can be confusing of which character we are supposed to be referring to and in some cases forgetting characters are in the “scene” altogether which led me to have to re-read some sections a few times to understand. There are quite a few spelling mistakes which overall wouldn’t necessarily affect my rating however they would be easily resolved with an editor.
It feels at one point that the murder mystery aspect becomes second to the romantic aspect of the book which felt abnormal as at points this felt forced. The premise of the relationship is confusing for the reader as when we’re introduced to the FMC she is strong, independent, no nonsense and doesn’t need anyone to take care of her. This is completely flipped around with limited interaction with the MMC, there is stalking involved but in my opinion we don’t get to see the relationship build, they have minimal interaction and then suddenly the FMC become very damsel in distress who needs saving and is almost immediately dependant on him.
A lot of the book feels very “wordy” there are some parts which have quite a lot of explanation where it feels unnecessary and doesn’t come into the plot and doesn’t seem to be mentioned again so could probably chop some of this out.
In short, the book has really great promise with the plot and with an editor could easily have some small amendments to make the book more cohesive to really bring it all together.
Finally I’d like to thank the author for the opportunity to receive this as an advance review copy for free - all thoughts are voluntary and my own views
November 5, 2025
⭐️ You have to read this book. This is Alainna’s best book by far. I am a big fan of everything she has written but this one had intrigue, suspense, comedy, love and so much more. The genre of this book should be Fantasy Murder Mystery, it is so different from other Fantasy books I have read.
👼 Angel, Ros’ best friend, has to have a book of her very own. Whenever she came up in the story I knew I was going to love it. Their friendship has blossomed into an almost sisterly relationship. They know each others secrets and desires. There is such a deep loyalty and respect between them you can almost feel it through the pages.
🐉 Then there’s Manny, a dragon shifter. His relationship with Cuin is just as deep, maybe more so. He would sacrifice anything to keep his best friend safe. The dialogue between these two is filled with banter and brotherly love when they aren’t even related.
Book Sirens always has the best recommendations for me and they did it again with A Shield of 🩸 and Honour. (Also the perfect title for this work of perfection).
👼 Angel, Ros’ best friend, has to have a book of her very own. Whenever she came up in the story I knew I was going to love it. Their friendship has blossomed into an almost sisterly relationship. They know each others secrets and desires. There is such a deep loyalty and respect between them you can almost feel it through the pages.
🐉 Then there’s Manny, a dragon shifter. His relationship with Cuin is just as deep, maybe more so. He would sacrifice anything to keep his best friend safe. The dialogue between these two is filled with banter and brotherly love when they aren’t even related.
Book Sirens always has the best recommendations for me and they did it again with A Shield of 🩸 and Honour. (Also the perfect title for this work of perfection).
October 24, 2025
The blurb for A Shield of Blood and Honor solidly gives an early Evanovich number series vibe (when they were still solidly tongue in cheek, and before the quality dive); and as I enjoyed those, this sounded like a good bet.
The setting is a fantasy Earth-like environment, where main character Roz is sort of an investigator / crime-fighter for the kingdom working alongside the local police force, so tending to like these genres I think again that this bodes well.
Roz is full of sass and has plenty of banter to share around, but I felt that much of it seemed to have quite a mean streak. It is toned down quite a bit as we progress through the story, and is sort of explained away with a plot point near the end, so... ok.
But I have many, many issues with primary male character and love interest Cuin. When chapters from his point-of-view started, I honestly thought "this adds nothing to the story"; and while we do get some character growth, it's more about uncovering his history rather than actual growth. Also... dude is portrayed as a good guy, but is an out-and-out full-on, controlling creep.
I could not imagine such a strong character like Roz turning into a bag of goo over such a problematic person. Perhaps some people enjoy reading about a voyeur with female-controlling tendencies winning the girl; but not me. I just cannot get past this concept.
However, the portion of the story dedicated to the investigation were well written, the action sequences especially so. You could feel the urgency of the action coming through in the impetus of the writing. It was also good to see a variety of being-types, and how each of them seemed to have little quirks associated with them.
I think this book would have benefitted by focussing more on being a fantasy police procedural, and relegating the "romance" solely to encounters brought about by the meet or yeet app. It would also benefit from a more thorough copy-edit process, as I felt there were more than an acceptable number of typos.
Many thanks to the author and BookSirens for the complimentary copy on which this review is based.
The setting is a fantasy Earth-like environment, where main character Roz is sort of an investigator / crime-fighter for the kingdom working alongside the local police force, so tending to like these genres I think again that this bodes well.
Roz is full of sass and has plenty of banter to share around, but I felt that much of it seemed to have quite a mean streak. It is toned down quite a bit as we progress through the story, and is sort of explained away with a plot point near the end, so... ok.
But I have many, many issues with primary male character and love interest Cuin. When chapters from his point-of-view started, I honestly thought "this adds nothing to the story"; and while we do get some character growth, it's more about uncovering his history rather than actual growth. Also... dude is portrayed as a good guy, but is an out-and-out full-on, controlling creep.
I could not imagine such a strong character like Roz turning into a bag of goo over such a problematic person. Perhaps some people enjoy reading about a voyeur with female-controlling tendencies winning the girl; but not me. I just cannot get past this concept.
However, the portion of the story dedicated to the investigation were well written, the action sequences especially so. You could feel the urgency of the action coming through in the impetus of the writing. It was also good to see a variety of being-types, and how each of them seemed to have little quirks associated with them.
I think this book would have benefitted by focussing more on being a fantasy police procedural, and relegating the "romance" solely to encounters brought about by the meet or yeet app. It would also benefit from a more thorough copy-edit process, as I felt there were more than an acceptable number of typos.
Many thanks to the author and BookSirens for the complimentary copy on which this review is based.
December 27, 2025
review coming soon.
November 8, 2025
DNF because I couldn't get into it and kept finding typos.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I'd like to first thank the author for the opportunity to read this book as an arc reviewer!
The premise of this book is great. Urban fantasy with a slew of fantasy creatures like dragons, fae, mer, etc. They all have their own dealings and sub-rulers where we get to know the squabbles between species in this somewhat futuristic city. We get a badass FMC who works as a 'Shield' for the king; essentially like their own police force. They work in what we would call police stations independently to ensure things are running smoothly and take any info back to the king. She's set to work out a murder mystery which we're quickly thrown into at the start of the book.
The plot itself is something that caught me right away, but it gets a bit muddy and confusing as the book goes on. There are a great deal of errors throughout the book and not just small spelling mistakes, though there are quite a few. The writing is simple enough to follow, but at times is written in a way where you aren't sure which character the words are being written for and about. Especially at the end of the story where characters are being mixed up or completely forgotten about. It desperately needs an editor.
The FMC is a take-no-ish from anyone personality. Very independent but has one bestie that's also her roomie. Her life is work and she has her guarded secrets.
The MMC. Well, he's an IT geek of the police dept. who also has secrets, a bestie/bodyguard, and is drop dead gorgeous. However, he's actually an enormous red flag. I get the light stalking, but the fact is, this is the definition of insta-love and eyebrow-raising obsession. Once they are introduced, he is CONSTANTLY having to save her. It's a miracle she's lived so long given the attitude she throws around at everyone and her literal occupation. So much for strong FMC. He orders her food. Shuts her down when she gives her opinions. Bites her to use his venom and control her emotions when she tries to put a little distance between them. BUT, the worst is when she's been drugged by 'enemies' at a restaurant and moved to his apartment where he's lying in bed with her. She wakes in a panic to which he gives a quick one liner about being drugged and he is instantly reaching for her to have a sexual encounter. Um, what? I'm sorry, but that is in horrible taste. This just seems so unrealistic and rushed. They don't even really know each other at all and I don't see the FMC ever going for someone behaving like this.
Overall, the book has the workings for something great, but it's just missing a good editor and a little more streamlined story to make it into an engaging read.
The premise of this book is great. Urban fantasy with a slew of fantasy creatures like dragons, fae, mer, etc. They all have their own dealings and sub-rulers where we get to know the squabbles between species in this somewhat futuristic city. We get a badass FMC who works as a 'Shield' for the king; essentially like their own police force. They work in what we would call police stations independently to ensure things are running smoothly and take any info back to the king. She's set to work out a murder mystery which we're quickly thrown into at the start of the book.
The plot itself is something that caught me right away, but it gets a bit muddy and confusing as the book goes on. There are a great deal of errors throughout the book and not just small spelling mistakes, though there are quite a few. The writing is simple enough to follow, but at times is written in a way where you aren't sure which character the words are being written for and about. Especially at the end of the story where characters are being mixed up or completely forgotten about. It desperately needs an editor.
The FMC is a take-no-ish from anyone personality. Very independent but has one bestie that's also her roomie. Her life is work and she has her guarded secrets.
The MMC. Well, he's an IT geek of the police dept. who also has secrets, a bestie/bodyguard, and is drop dead gorgeous. However, he's actually an enormous red flag. I get the light stalking, but the fact is, this is the definition of insta-love and eyebrow-raising obsession. Once they are introduced, he is CONSTANTLY having to save her. It's a miracle she's lived so long given the attitude she throws around at everyone and her literal occupation. So much for strong FMC. He orders her food. Shuts her down when she gives her opinions. Bites her to use his venom and control her emotions when she tries to put a little distance between them. BUT, the worst is when she's been drugged by 'enemies' at a restaurant and moved to his apartment where he's lying in bed with her. She wakes in a panic to which he gives a quick one liner about being drugged and he is instantly reaching for her to have a sexual encounter. Um, what? I'm sorry, but that is in horrible taste. This just seems so unrealistic and rushed. They don't even really know each other at all and I don't see the FMC ever going for someone behaving like this.
Overall, the book has the workings for something great, but it's just missing a good editor and a little more streamlined story to make it into an engaging read.
November 15, 2025
Fantasy & Firepower: Alainna's Latest is a Must-Read
A genre-blending triumph. Alainna delivers a fast-paced and highly engaging Fantasy Murder Mystery that is arguably her best work.
The core narrative is built on high-stakes character conflict: a protagonist desperate to guard her secrets while simultaneously battling a murder investigation and a chaotic personal life.
The emotional depth is anchored by powerful friendships, particularly the fierce loyalty between Ros and Angel, and the steadfast, brotherly bond between Cuin and the dragon shifter Manny. This novel is thrilling, complex, and highly recommended for readers seeking deep character dynamics within an addictive suspense plot.
A genre-blending triumph. Alainna delivers a fast-paced and highly engaging Fantasy Murder Mystery that is arguably her best work.
The core narrative is built on high-stakes character conflict: a protagonist desperate to guard her secrets while simultaneously battling a murder investigation and a chaotic personal life.
The emotional depth is anchored by powerful friendships, particularly the fierce loyalty between Ros and Angel, and the steadfast, brotherly bond between Cuin and the dragon shifter Manny. This novel is thrilling, complex, and highly recommended for readers seeking deep character dynamics within an addictive suspense plot.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews