Dozens of different diseases and pests have suddenly infected the California winery’s grapes in a biblical-scale blight. The warmonger she thought was a one-night stand has shown up uninvited with an indecent proposal. And now she finds she’ll be working side-by-side with an elf—a horticultural “expert” brought in to heal the plague-ridden vines, who would just as soon kill her as pass her the pruning shears.
The final blow comes when she’s assaulted in the vineyard while trying to heal the infected vines under cover of darkness, and threatened with worse if she continues. Heal the vines and risk her life by angering two plague demons, or turn her back on the winery and the dying plants, and walk away? For a half-elf/half-succubus, there’s only one clear choice.
Debra lives in a little house in the woods in Maryland with three sons, and a Noah’s ark of four legged family members. She has a corporate job during the day, and writes novels at night, after the kids are tucked in bed.
She drives an Excursion affectionately called The Beast, couldn’t carry a tune if you duct taped it to her back, and enjoys an occasional cosmopolitan (heavy on the vodka). On a good day, she jogs and horseback rides, hopefully managing to keep the horse between herself and the ground.
Her only known super power is ‘Identify Roadkill’.
Oh my... how much trouble can the incubus get into let loose on the world? This is the steamiest of all the books thus far and Ms Dunbar did not disappoint!
Amber is interning at a Nap Valley vineyard. Then, everything is going wrong all at once. Competing diseases are thriving in the same place, and there are plague demons around. An elf is called in to help, but Amber is still living under the threat of death if the elves find out what she is. Plus, after her excursion into Hel in the last book, she is now being chased by a warmonger demon for a breeding contract.
This was a good book, I enjoyed myself while reading it. There are a lot of plot threads that happen in this one, but they don't compete for time and they don't really merge together, either. I think this was a pretty well done book. Best of the series so far.
I think what I like best about this book is how it finally has drawn elements from the rest of the world into the book. The last two books were pretty disconnected from the rest of the lot except that it had some characters in common. Now we can clearly see that Half-Breed is connected to the rest of the series. I also really enjoyed the subplot of the elf trying to figure out how to live in this new, human world. I just overall enjoyed the plot of this book.
I still don't really care for Amber, but she is young. She'll grow into herself. She's just..really young and I don't care for her. I really like Irix but I still don't know why he is with her. She causes him so much damn trouble. It is frustrating. I don't understand at all why he is with her. Dunbar never makes it clear. Other than "luuurv".
Pretty good book in the series, I enjoyed it. It felt like I was reading a novel in the Imp World this time around.
Another fun installment of the adventures of Amber, the half-elf/half-succubus. Amber scored her California internship so she is off to wine country to learn about the wine business from the ground up. It doesn't take long before Amber's elf side becomes suspicious of the myriad diseases and pests attacking the vinyard. To complicate matters further, Irix, the love of Amber's life, arrives with a breeding contract for Amber from the ancient warmonger she met on her excursion in Hel. And then the local wineries begin hiring elves to combat the rampant disease problem. It all seems like way more than an early twenty-something half-breed can handle. Luckily, Amber has Irix by her side and her human upbringing to fall back on to help her problem solve.
The half-breed books keep getting better and better. They have taken on a life of their own apart from the Imp series and Amber has matured into a solid main character in her own right. The chemistry between Amber and Irix never disappoints and it is always wonderful to watch their relationship develop. Apart from the sexy scenes with Amber and Irix, hello incubus and half-succubus, the book has a great storyline and a lot of tension as Amber and Irix try to figure out what is going on at the winery and put a stop to it. I can't wait to see what adventures the two of them get up to next!
Debra Dunbar is pure genius at writing a story that is very enjoyable to read, yet provides depth. She has excellent character development, coupled with her gift for plotting with a poignant theme. You basically get the best of reading- she creates great stories that are steeped in action, romance, humor, and the paranormal. This is all smoothly told with characters that are complex and she manages to frame it with deep philosophy, lessons on interesting subjects, while readers laugh at her witty way with words.
The book is quite explicit in some chapters, so this is not for kids. I find this a great boon, as most paranormal literature of any kind is often written to appeal to teens. This is very appealing and teens are NOT the target audience for this or any of her half-breed books ( all of which I have read and loved).
We get to see Amber and Irix continue to work out their relationship, Amber is growing into herself and the plot is twisty, fun, and satisfying. I really like Dunbar and happily read anything she writes. I bet even her grocery list is engrossing and hilarious!
As Always, I Wish Happy Reads to All from the Unapologetic Book Junkie 😉!
I could almost make this really short and say "Debra Dunbar!" That and 5 stars seems like enough but you'll want more.
If this is your first run at the Half Breed Series, stop. Go back to book 1 if you really want to understand book 4. If you really, really want to enjoy it fully, go back to book 1 of the Imp Series. It will take a while but you will absolutely enjoy it.
In this one, Amber continues to grow and her "relationship" with Iris gets better and more complicated. The only real downer part to this whole book is when Sam pops up. Why is that bad? Because it makes you want more Sam! That whole thing is awesome.
You can’t go wrong with the imp series/world novels. A cameo from Sam which was soooo funny, and a new character ‘Hallwyn’ who at times melted my heart, then had me laughing out loud other times with her multiple personalities. Debra really does come up with amazing and endearing characters. I really enjoyed the story, there was action, mystery and comedy... and it’s quite educational if you’re in to agriculture.. definitely a big thumbs up from me.
Great read! This series is always well written, and this was awesome! I love Irix and Amber and am hoping for more Hakel! This book definitely had one of the hottest, weirdest sex scenes ever, but it was still smoking hot and was even wrapped in a great plot! Excellent read!
Thank you Debra for another entertaining story. Amber is such a great character and this story contains excitement and drama and mystery and adventure. ... and, naturally, sex ...! Or unnaturally as the case may be!
This series just gets steamier & steamier!.. Looking forward to reading the next addition to this collection.. Debra Dunbar is definitely on my list of favourite authors <3
Well if you have read rest of these books this one won't disappoint more of the same bad decisions laughs and rough sex with the Desmond with a few twists along the way it's a good read with the sex deamons always a problem
Amber goes to Napa for her internship at a vineyard. Something is attacking the vines. The company hires an elf to fix it but every night it comes back. Read to see what happens.
I hope I can carry on reading about the wild adventures (and the red hot sex and intimacy!) Of my friends. Irix and Amber. I hope their story will never end
I'm starting to really like this series. Amber does put herself in very compromising positions when it comes to her identity and keeping it safe. In that aspect she is sometimes TSTL but... I love how she is true to herself even when her people are trying to push her square self into a round hole. She is not completely demon yet Irix tries to put her there while also protecting her fragile self. She cannot act like a demon because her human raised elf side definitely interferes.
So she has finally accepted that she is half succubus and has to give into that part of herself. She has started enjoying in her own way and it makes these book so much better. Yes, she is still confused because she wants the human ideal too, family. But she is who she is. Now a war demon has petitioned for her, not knowing who she is. She wants him and demon politics will enter since he doesn't know who she really is.
She is interning on a vineyard trying to save the grapes that are getting diseased at and alarming and statistically impossible rate. Elves are hired to combat the blight, which is out of the ordinary. Now, Amber has to hide her abilities from the elves at the same time as wonder why these incompetent elves are here. Are they trying to help or hurt the plants.
There was some real humor in this one though not like the Imp series. It was better than book 1 & 2 and about as good as 2.5 Cornucopia. I almost didn't go on with this series but glad I did.