Tabs’ Duckies Do Series review of The Maggie’s Grove Series by Dana Marie Bell
Paranormal Romance published by Carina Press
Do you want to read an entire five-book paranormal romance series featuring dryads? Because Dana Marie Bell can hook you the hell up. I’ve heard the series mentioned over the years but didn’t dive in until I saw that a long-awaited new book was being published. The series takes place in a secret town inhabited by a variety of paranormal creatures. Each book features a dryad and their fated mate falling in love, while trying to keep the town safe from various forces out to destroy them – some external and some frighteningly internal.
The first book, Blood Of The Maple, is the wackiest of the bunch and features a vegetarian vampire who has been cursed by a vengeful witch and an outcast dryad, who is ready to pull some damn weeds and vanquish the bitch. Also, there is a very memorable sex scene that snuck up on me, because I had sort of started skimming and, all of a sudden, butt stuff was happening in a parking lot while the heroine is bent over the open trunk with her upper body inside, and, OMG, was I confused. So confused.
I feel like the rest of the series, while still having a sense of humor and appreciation for bonkers things, is a little more balanced in tone. The rest of the books follow the four ruling dryads as they bond with their mates.
In contrast to the humor, the series can be pretty violent and unexpectedly scary. The main characters in the third book, Of Shadows and Ash, have to deal with demonic possession – and I’m a wuss, so it freaked me the hell out. There was a point where I was reading in bed with the blankets over my legs, and then the heroine wakes up in bed, unable to move as an invisible force moves up her legs. And, boy, did my kindle get shoved in the night stand so damned fast. This is not appropriate bedtime reading material for scaredy cats.
I enjoyed these books enough to binge them all in a two-week period, but they also aren’t without some flaws. The first two books have crazy stalker ex-girlfriends and it was a bit much, especially back-to-back. The magic rules also seemed inconsistent and continuity could be a problem sometimes. It wasn’t infrequent that I would have no earthly idea what was going on while reading, but just went with the flow anyway.
The fated mates trope is one I really enjoy. Sometimes I want mate-bond angst and other times I want things easy. Most of the mate bonds are angst free, but there is one notable exception. I also really appreciated the inclusion of paranormal creature types who don’t often, or ever in some cases, get much spotlight. There are shifters and vampires like you’d expect, but also witches, psychics, ghosts, elementals, and more. If you’re looking for something a little different and/or you’re intrigued by the bonkers sex scene that caught me unawares, I recommend you give these books a try.
Favorite In The Series: Of Shadows and Ash (even though it scared me)
Overall Series Grade: B
Books in this series:
