Little Morning Star

Wicked Crown #1

by May Sage, Erin Bedford

After 19 years of being treated like a time bomb by the witches who raised her, Lily Star Morgan decides to try her luck in the human world.

She doesn't fit in, but she's determined to stay, until a gorgeous stranger with a tendency to shift into a terrifying, fire-breathing hellhound turns up. Unlike anyone she's ever met, he knows what she is.

Some will stop at nothing to see her dead, leaving Lily with an impossible embrace her heritage despite the risks, or turn her back on it and pay the price.

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Demons, Paranormal Romance, Angels, Urban Fantasy

263 pages, ebook

First published November 22, 2016

About the author

May Sage is a USA Today Bestselling romance writer dabbling in different genres.

When she isn’t writing, she spends her time with her German Shepherd and her two Savannahs. She loves reading, ballet, running, and cake. Mostly, cake.

May Sage also writes longer fantasy romance novels as Alexi Blake.

Reviews

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apart from the fact that this cover is incredibly beautiful, I was also quite curious to read a story like this cowritten by Erin Bedford. So, when I could get this book on BookSprout I didn't hesitate. And after reading this book, and knowing that a big part of it is by May Sage, I'm really curious to check out more of her books too! I love how that works. How I get into the work by one author and discover new authors because of that.

The first thing that stands out in this book is the plot. Although we don't get to see much of the bigger story arc that will surely span over the entire series, we do feel very clearly that there's something going on, something big, something that can change everything. It's amazing how this knowledge and promise keeps the tension and excitement in this book. There's constantly a sense of danger, even during those moments the danger is not actively there.

On top of that I really enjoyed the world building and mythology. I've read quite a lot about angels, demons, heaven, hell and such and yet this interpretation of the lore felt really original and fresh. There were a few really nice details making the world and mythology quite unique. Since our heroine has to learn everything from scratch, it feels very natural for the other characters to explain things to her and therefore to us. I can't wait to see the places we've heard about now and I can't wait to meet all the characters involved.

And last but not least there are the characters. I would have loved to see a little more of Ash and Raven, but Lily is such a lovely character to follow. She has something kind and endearing and in a way also timid, and yet she doesn't feel spineless. It's not that hard to believe that she has quite a lot of power and only has to learn how to use it. In a way she feels a little naive at times, but considering her upbringing I understand that part. And then there's Roth. I have the feeling there's a lot more story to tell when it comes to Roth and I can't wait to get to know him much better. He seems quite charming and protective at least.

[Joyffree · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic start to a new series

Lily is doing the best to keep her head down and appear normal
🙄 easier said than done
She's always been the odd duck
A little different - A little more
She just wants to blend

Roth is on a quest to find the missing heir. As an old immortal, and right hand to Lucifer he approaches everything methodically. He is about to have his simple life flipped around into complete chaos

Ash has a job to do - seek out the scent and report has findings back to his employer. Easy.
Until a dark haired beauty calls to his beast.
Figures she's the enemy

Raven is rebelling. Life is meant to be lived. Savored. Enjoyed.

This rag tag bunch of heroes had me laughing, crying, cheering and releasing the occasional "OMG"
A fantastic first in series packed with action, adventure, suspense, frictional romance ( you'll see) and just a touch of mystery

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I- … Look. I read this on a plane after a stuff my kindle day so I had no context of the Goodreads lore for this and BOY HOWDY do I not understand the 4/5 star ratings. This book had my 100% attention for 3.5 hours and I still don’t understand a good chunk of the plot bc of pacing issues & poor descriptions and then it was over. And the descriptions it does include are cursed. I’m so confused. Is it me??? Am I THE DRAMA? Damn. 5/5 for entertainment value tho - this was out of pocket as HELL.

[Coco.V]

🎁 FREE on Amazon & on iBooks today (10/16/2020)! 🎁

[C.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need the next book right now - if not quicker. This story gave a great twist to the whole angel/demon genre. I love all the characters and Roth particularly. I don't want to guess where the story is going but I know it's going to be brilliant. Recommend.

[Brittany Schulz | Fiction & Friction · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Astaroth,” he introduced himself. The way he said his name drew her eyes to his lips and the peek of his tongue, sending another rush of dampness through her. Get a hold of yourself, Lily. She pushed down her sudden need to do a cavity search on him and pretended that she actually had two neurons to rub together right now.

I am so here for this book! If you haven’t seen the new cover check it out. It’s beautiful. I loved this, great mix of action and humour with all the other good stuff. I’ve already dived straight into book two.

[Punkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short

I liked the characters but it was too short. It was empty and they didn't really connect. It seemed kind of flat. Not enough mystery or action or even interactions beyond history.

[Marta Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half
I really wanted to like this but sadly I didn't particularly connect with Lily the main character. Perhaps because I'm a lot older although admittedly I do read a lot of YA but her attitude felt forced. I'm sure many will enjoy this book but if I'm honest I'm quite relieved that it was a freebie when I spotted it.

[Brenda Moser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written book with strong characters and an interesting story line. It's an entertaining paranormal story filled with tons of action as well as a bit of romance ,anxiety and uncertainty. The authors do a great job building the story and pulled me in with all the happenings. The scenes are described in vivid detail and they move the story fluidly and delivering a great read!

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own and freely given.

[Pearl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Umm....I didn't even finish the story. I was interesting at first but then it got confusing. This seems like a second book in a series. I wish there was a book that showed her life before she went to high school, then this book would have interesting..through the whole way. But that's what I think. The thing that you read on a back of a book was good that's why I decided to read it. Anyway that my opinion. If you want to read it and it sounds good then go ahead and try it just consider my review.👍

[N.N. Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wickedly delicious tale from May Sage. She's becoming quite the multi-genre storyteller and I freakin' loved it! This story grabbed me from the first page and didn't let go until the end.

My Rating: 5 stars

[Shieldmaiden Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm such a May Sage fan girl, but that said, this one just wasn't for me. I've tried several times to slog through. I've tried to love it. I just don't really care about teenagers feeling feelings, even if they happen to be a couple centuries old.

[Angel Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @44%. Cliffhanger. I. Don't. Do. Cliffhangers. I realized it would be a cliffhanger so skimmed ahead.

[Vik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Granted, what can you expect from stories that you get for free off amazon? I try not to get my hopes up. But in the first third, I actually found myself enjoying this. I mean who is reading an angel vs demon book in 2021? Me apparently and you know what? I even really enjoyed it in the beginning and the demons being the good guys for once and the main character siding with them was actually refreshing. And also the detail that Hell looked like Earth, with the same cities and rivers and all, I liked that from worldbuilding aspect.
There was also the discussion of Lily's lack of sexual desires except for the main protagonist who she has sex dreams about in the beginning. Lily tells us she can't be asexual because of these dreams and her actually getting aroused in Roth's presence - sounds like she could be graysexual tho and therefore still on the spectrum. (If you don't know what that is graysexual is when one experiences sexual attraction very rarely, or with very low intensity; in this case the first might be the case for her but Idk, was just a thought.)
But then there was the aspect of the breaking into a girl's flat and shifting into a beast/hellhound to sniff out if she's the chosen one/the Heir everyone is looking for. Did we really have to bring back the creepy shit from Twilight back in 2017? That bothered me. Also this is another age difference story and while it has a "by our laws we are mature by the age of 25 and you're only 19" talk (which I found good that it that was mentioned but in the end didn't change the fact that they were probably a few centuries, also Roth is counting down until her 25th birthday, so no, yikes), there's still the age difference and the characters thinking "fuck. He'd known torture and pain in his time, but none compared to seeing his mate like this and having to prevent himself from throwing her over his shoulder and taking her against the nearest surface" (at 69%). I mean if you've been reading supernatural stories that shit comes up a lot and yes, I have also liked reading some of those but Idk, my interest in this story was already dwindling at this point when the main paring showed interest in each other. Also Lily has naturally violet hair, yeah, no, not my cup of tea. Then again I could have deduced that from the cover but the fact that it's natural ???.
Idk, I have mixed feelings about this book and I kinda lost interest in it at some point. That being said, for 237 pages, it has really short chapters and get through it really quickly. Could have been fleshed out more tho.

[Ava · Rating 4 out of 5]

First - I’m actually kind of annoyed with myself, but also the authors. I checked before if the next book is available and I should have checked in more detail, but looking at the date I though - great, just two books in this series, since it’s been years, it’s probably concluded. Riiiiight.... the next book is not even published and seeing how it takes them ages, that makes me dread another one after that

Apart from this very annoying fact, the book itself was great! A very engaging and fast flowing story. I never felt like it was dragged out at all and there were definitely some new ideas in there, which is rare these days.
The characters are interesting, as much as we get to know them. I’m hoping for some more character development in the following book, as I’d love to know more about them, but as I said - fast flowing - nothing wrong with that for a start to a possibly sloooowly published series

You get that I’m annoyed about that, yes? I usually don’t start series, that aren’t finished, for I know this fault of mine! It doesn’t help that this book ends with THE BIGGEST cliffhanger.....

My advice, wait until the next book is finally published, but it’s a very good read, so keep it on your list 😉😉😉

[hollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
I was in a massive reading slump and this was the perfect book to get me out of it! It was a quick and easy read and had everything I wanted in a book to get me out of my slump and I also feel like I downloaded this ages ago for free, so there's a plus.
The characters were well developed and I liked our alternative points of view. Roth was very mysterious and brooding and I liked his attitude, Lily was firey and held her own and I liked her perspective of the world and how she wasn't completely blind to the supernatural world.
The writing was good - and I didn't expect much from a free book but the authors were very descriptive and the story flowed well. I thought the pacing was great and I feel like any gaps in the plot are definitely the kind of ones that I could see being filled in the rest of the series.
On the other hand, I feel like this is the kind of book I have read so many times before and whilst I enjoyed it, the book didn't feel very original.

I would recommend if you wanted a light, fun romance!

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, the incredibly unsexy position of meeting your fated mate before they’re over the legal age of majority for your species but they are adults by the standards of the species they were raised as. The MMC makes out with the FMC all the time in her dreams where she thinks it isn’t real, and also a couple times in real life right before telling her she’s the equivalent of a fourteen-year-old to him, and I wish he’d either come back in 5 years or just get over it, because the wishy-washy stuff was doing my head in.

Then of course there’s the issue of this being a series starter so the book just ends when it’s starting to get good, and I’m still trying to decide if I care enough to purchase the rest of the series or should I just imagine the rest of it in my head. FMC presumably becomes a badass fighter queen and the MMC probably makes a few more “mistakes” with his 20-year-old child bride. The end. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Nan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lily is a 19 year old NYU student who was raised by a coven of witches but is now lying low and not using magic. She’s a loner who is happy to actually make a couple of friends in Ash and Raven and then meet the literal man of her dreams, Ash’s friend Roth. Except things aren’t quite what they seem. Ash is a hellhound, Raven is a Nephilim and Roth is a Duke of Hell. Roth is also Lily’s mate and she’s the Heir to Hell. Lily can’t be told the truth yet, just to make things more complicated, so she has to be taught how to protect herself while the others keep her safe. She’s also trying to pass her classes. I received an advance copy of this book and voluntarily left a review.

[Catknipnd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lily is an orphan and a witch. She was raised by a coven though she was stronger than any of them. She is now attending college in NYC when strange things start to happen.

This book will keep you on the edge of your seat. The world building is really done extremely well as are the characters. You know you’ve got a good writer when even the characters that only appear briefly are sketched out as real people and not just throwaways,

The book does end on a cliffhanger. I can hardly wait for the next book in the series,

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Christy deSade · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written

I don't read anything by May Sage any longer due to glaring issues in her books, but I thought that maybe the addition of another writer would help. It didn't. There were grammar issues that a seventh grader wouldn't make, and they were all over the place. The world building was handled via a few info dumps rather than actual storytelling. There was no character development by the 50% mark (where I stopped reading as I couldn't make myself continue). This was an all around failure, so I'm completely giving up on May Sage and have added Erin Bedford to my list of authors to be leery of.

[Velinda Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

I found this story interesting but sometimes confusing. I’ve read May Sage before and I generally like her books. I’m afraid I’ve never read anything by Erin Bedford before so I really can’t comment on her writing style in this book as compared to her other works. While I don’t plan to continue this series, I will say the storyline was interesting enough that I finished the book. However, and I hope I’m not giving too much away by stating that I’m not a fan of Heaven and Hell scenarios in my paranormal romance reading. Take what you can from this review and good luck.

[Cindy Neary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really good

Lily is Lucifer's daughter. Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel are members of an advanced sentient race who arrived on Earth just as man started evolving from apes. They did some tinkering and created shifters, witches, vampires and one perfect woman, Lilith. They split when Lucifer decided to marry Lilith and heaven and the underworld were created. Lily's soul was kidnapped and held in heaven hostage and in stasis for two thousand years, but Lilith broke her out twenty years ago and fostered her in a witches' coven. Now she goes to NYU.

[Margarita Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lily is a witch trying to live a normal life going to college. She meets a guy who is wanting to get to know her and meets another student who warns her to beware of this guy. When she goes on a date they are accosted and it is eventually revealed to her that angels are trying to find her and kill her. Demons protect her. She meets Roth and he's her dream man. Sparks fly all over the place. This is a non-stop read. Am excited to read what happens in the next book.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This year I've challenged myself to read genres I would normally not reach for, so this was my first paranormal/urban fantasy book. I really enjoyed these aspects of the story and I don't this it'll be my last paranormal.

The romance left me kinda underwhelmed. For the better part of the book I though there would be a twist on the soulmate trope and she'd get with the guy that is, you know, actually in the story and I couldn't quite warm up to the romance when he finally did show up.

Besides that this story had nice world building and a fast paced, engaging story progression.

[Nancy]

I liked this book, it’s a quick easy read. Some things bothered me though like the “age difference” thing. It feels like it’s an issue just for the sake of having an issue and honestly it’s kind of creepy. And then the fact that Lily is described as so smart but she’s been so easily lied to and doesn’t ask herself the most basic question. Like, why are you going to such lengths to protect me when the other girl are being murdered. Or how her name is a play on both of the parents of the heir names.

[Dahlia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I genuinely enjoyed this read, and literally made my husband jump when I finished cause I was upset it ended. I had gotten so lost in the story I didn't see the end approaching until it just stopped, and all I wanted was more. Most likely grabbing the next in the series, I mean, you really have to because there's so much left unfinished. It's really my sole note: this is a book that has trapped you into the series, because you have no ending without continuing. I feel it's important to know that upfront before starting it.

[KL Barn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slow at first...but this is only the first book...it provides a great back story and let's you know everyone's part and how it will affect STAR! GREAT BOOK

I would so read this again...and I will since I purchased this novel. I look go reward to each installment to the series. This appeals to my basis nature of sex and dominance. Yet, the women are strong and the men accept their truth...anyone who does not...well...they are turned to ASHES...

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book! Familiar trope (she can save the world but must become powerful and survive attacked by those who want her dead), but so well done! I liked how the different chapters were in the point of view of multiple characters. It kept it fresh and provided more information about the situations the characters faced than if it had just been told by one character. I cannot wait to read the next book and see what happens!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Beginning to a New Series

Lily is an average orphan girl who happens to be a powerful witch. Roth, Ash and Raven are there to try to teach her the skills that she will need to confront the dangers ahead of her. The writing is excellent and keeps the story moving along at a good clip. There’s plenty of action and drama and humor. This book was a very enjoyable to read and I can’t wait for the next installment.

[Caroline Doig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic story by Erin Bedford and May Sage and I loved Lily Star Morgan’s story she believes that she doesn’t fit in anywhere until angels and demons believe that Lily is the answer to heaven’s and hell’s war. Sorry guys no spoilers so I’m not going to get too much into this story but I loved it and the characters and I can’t wait to read book 2 and I highly recommend this book.
This book is for free on Amazon.