Thorn and Fangs is the first book I’ve read by Gillian St. Kevern, and it was a pleasure to read. Filled with action and creative world-building, it hit many of the buttons that make for a great read for me. While I love a great vampire story, and this book definitely satisfied that, this book contained so much more. Necromancers and something different that I’ve never experienced before. Perhaps we could call it an elemental supernatural. In any event, this was a fresh and new take on paranormal world-building that had me captivated.

Let’s start with the plot. The action was fast-paced and intentional. Each segment of the book (and this was a long book) lent itself to propelling the storyline forward. As we got to know the two main protagonists, their relationship grew and expanded in a believable and heart-felt way. Each character was fully developed, equipped with charisma as well as a large set of personal baggage. This made for a satisfying journey. Nate has a dry wit which had me laughing, and Ben has a sweet, tormented way about him that made my heart bleed for him. You can’t help but root for these two guys to work things out in the end.

Now, to the sex. While not piping hot in terms of the actual acts (although I will admit the earlier scenes had me fanning myself), the love between the two protagonists is more powerful than the satisfying of physical needs. It transcends release and enters a realm of mental connection, which is really what we’re all looking for in a romance, right?

In terms of the writing style, the author keeps us firmly rooted in the center of the action. There is no moment when we are ripped from the story by a lengthy description or internal scene (I call these telling versus showing since instances when those two things happen are when the author is telling you how to feel instead of letting you figure things out for yourself). Instead, we are left to our own, intelligent devices as we process the story and figure out what’s going on with the wide range of characters.

This was a very long book. It took me several sittings to complete it. So, if I had any warnings at all, it would be to carve out a good chunk of time and commitment to read this one. But if you do, you won’t be disappointed.

Reviewed by Taz

Thank you to #Negalley and the publisher. I received this for free in exchange for a honest review.

I rated this book a 3 star. But not because the writing wasn't good. It just wasn't my type of book.

This book is the first in a new series called "Thorns and Fangs"

We are met with Nate that is an escort at a club in New Camden. He is caught up in a world of vampires. Full of lust, love, and sex. The book did take a confusing turn for me. I got lost a some points. It left me laying the book down and then picking it back up days later. NOW, with that being said, there were some great parts, where you were holding your breath to find out what was going on, but with that being said, this book still wasn't for me. I don't normally read a lot of books with sex involved. The concept was good but I think it just fell short for me. I may give it another read later on and see what my thoughts are then and if my rating changes. But I don't see that happening at this point. I am not sure if I will continue on with the series but you never know!

Thorns and Fangs is the first book in the Thorns and Fangs series by author Gillian St. Kevern. This book is extremely well written. I liked the pacing and the characters a lot. The one drawback to this book is there is a ton of information. At places, it feels like information overload. Like being forced eat just one more bite when you are full.
I can see where this is a set up for future books though. This is a paranormal but had a real fantasy feel to it.
The one character who was the clearest to me is Nate. He is an escort. He is doing this to pay off his student loans and to help his family with money. He is such a good soul. I liked his sense of humor and he really drew me into this story.
Ben, he is more complicated. I felt like I didn’t get a good feel for him. Like there is a piece to the Ben puzzle I am still looking for to make it complete.
Ben is a good character, he is a vampire. He has to learn to accept himself and his duties. What they mean to him both personally and professionally.

Overall this is a good but not fast read. You should read this one when you have time to really sink into a book and absorb what you are reading. But I think this series is worth exploring more. I know I would love to read them.



Four Twinkling Stars

Okay, so this book was great!
This book is also not suited for those under the age of 18, or if you don't like mature themes (PSA: not a book to read on the train!)

So for one, I absolutely loved this world. Kevern avoids the common information dump and explores the background between mortals and supernatural beings, topped with integration and discrimination – not that the latter was a high point, but the existence of it gave the book a sense of realism.

Nate was adorable (you know, for a male escort) and I loved his character. He had a quiet strength about him that I thought really developed as everything continued to happen in his life. I think I would have enjoyed more backstory on Ben, and Hunter, and I think I could read a book just on that relationship.

The pace was great for a lot of the book, though there were plateaus between main plot points, and I enjoyed the constant mystery of it all. I was kept guessing a lot of the time and that was a great motivator through those plateau points.

Okay, but wow, the sex at the start – it was the one thing that I was not expecting. It was also those parts that I found were no good for train reading. Later on though, I was glad that Kevern integrated it into the book tastefully so that yes, I could read the most of the rest of the book on train, but the sex also didn't detract from the actual storyline.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will be looking around for book 2 as soon as possible – there were so many questions left unanswered.

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4/5

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This book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4,5 stars | 18/20.

I LOVED that first book.

I even fell completely in love with the serie.

I could talk about it for hours. It was addictive to the point that I finished it in one day and started the second book right after (it didn't take me long to finish it as well).

Thorns and Fangs begins like an erotic love story and this is where we all think wrong at first.
There's so much more than sex! And as soon as we go further into the story, the plot reveals itself and it's AMAZING.

The universe is huge, with lot of surpernatural creatures and mysteries, it is so very interesting.
Ben and Nate are two deep and sensitive characters that make me too emotional for my good sake. They are everything but cliché and their love story is mature, precious, with a lot of tenderness. They are sweet and complicated and adorable and afraid and... Well, I loved them so much I'm ready to protect them against every threats -surpernatural or not- like a proud mom.
But they are not the only interesting character we meet. There is a lot: Ben's family, Nate's family, friends, supernatural detectives, colleagues... They are all essential to the plot and worldbuilding They don't just "exist". They meant to be here. They belong here. It wouldn't be the same if they were not that important.

In conclusion: Now that I read this first book (and the second), I know this serie is one of my fave. I got the characters under my skin and I just want to know more. More about them, more about the universe, more about their stories.

There are elements of this book that I liked and possibly would have enjoyed if I felt anything for the characters. This is one that you have to read and decide for yourself it's not bad so no need for me to warn you off. It just was not for me the sexuality of the characters is irrelevant.

I’m not quite sure why I didn’t connect with this particular story. I feel like I had really high expectations but in the end I just felt blah about it all. Maybe at a later date I will give it a reread in hopes that my outlook on it will have changed.

There was so much going on in this one it's almost hard to rate. I'm giving it three stars because
1. it was beautifully written - the author has a fantastic style which was really easy to read
2. it started off so well! freakin' hot MCs and the whole sex industry story and why Nate was in it to begin with. His need to 'serve' which winds into the story throughout the book and creates some interesting motivation.
3. the supporting characters are so interesting!

What kept me from giving 4 stars were
1. 9/10 of the book I was like, "wait, what? Nate and Hunter were incredibly hot together and I was wishing for them to be together instead of Nate and Ben.
2. I didn't like Ben... I liked HUNTER.
3. I know the author left a bunch of loose ends to pave the way for the sequel, but I really didn't think the ending fit the rest of the book.
4. The pacing of the whole thing was odd - it went from fast to slow to medium to fast to slow.

I'd definitely recommend the book to fans of vampires and witches because the author weaves an interesting story, and as I said above it was truly well written.

Initially, this book delivered on what it promised: lust, hunger, and sex.

It starts off with a bang as we meet Nate in this alternate universe where prostitution is legal and vampires are real. Nate is an escort/rent boy/prostitute at a high end club. And the beginning of this book very explicitly shows us Nate at work. It’s hot, specially when we meet our first vampire.

After this, I started to get a bit confused. The whole sex club angle fell away and in came the mysterious vampire scheme. There were lots of things going on, and Nate didn’t understand any of them, but I was lost as well. Very lost at times. I’m all for letting a mystery unfurl itself little by little, giving the reader just enough to keep hanging on. But I was starving here, what I was given wasn’t enough for me to put together enough to frame the narrative. True, this could have just been me. Yet, I’ve read another work by this author which also held that sense of secrecy, but I didn’t feel lost or starved out of the story like I did in this one.

Still, there were enough parts of this story that did hold together, that did work that I was able to enjoy it piecemeal. Yet, I cannot but lament at the fact that I wasn’t able to enjoy a full repast. (OK, I know my metaphors need work, forgive me).

I will, however, continue to give this author the benefit of the doubt because I so thoroughly enjoyed Deep Waters.

*I requested a copy of this book via Net Galley and voluntarily read it *

While this took a good 20% to really hold my attention and learn all the characters, once I did I was hooked into the book. It can be a bit confusing in the beginning to really understand what is going on and where it takes place.

Nate leaves his small farm town to come to the monster capital of the world, where being normal is rare. When he gets caught in a murder mystery between a vampire family and a necromancer, he isn't sure who he can trust, be he knows that he is strongly attracted to the vampires.

I enjoyed this start to the series, it will be interesting to see who it continues, the biggest negative for me was the abrupt ending, it just felt like the book end all of a sudden without wrapping up a couple story plots, which leaves it open for more stories to be told, just left a little hurried. The main conflict is resolved to a satisfactory point for me.

I struggled with how to rate and review this book because it had potential, a good story, and decent characters... but it was so hard to get into because I spent so much time being confused, rereading paragraphs, just trying to figure things out. So I'm just going to make some lists.

Things I Disliked:

- My main issue was how confusing the writing was. It kept jumping or describing things in a way that threw me off, and sometimes I just felt like I was missing something. Other times, someone would say something or Nate would think something, THEN he'd explain. Like, the first thing would confuse me because it had no context yet or was missing a step in between from the last thing that happened. I needed the context first. I also needed more dialogue tags.

- All the deep conversations about Ben's control were lost on me. I didn't understand what Nate was trying to get Ben to do or feel in regards to that, I didn't understand why his control was a bad thing, and it seemed odd that they literally just met and slept together and then Nate was suddenly an expert on the psychology of Ben.

- The blurb tells you almost the entire plot and is a little misleading since it makes it sound like there will be menage romance, but there's not (just one menage sex scene).

- The first 18% was basically just sex, and it fell flat because I didn't know the characters yet. Also, I enjoy sex scenes as much as the next person, but I wanted to get to some actual plot already.

- I don't know what the setting was supposed to be. The future? An alternate version of our world? They seemed to have some pretty high-tech stuff, and people all knew about the supernatural, but I don't recall it being explained (though it's possible I just missed something).

- This is nitpicky, but I hate to think someone would see it and think it was accurate. You can't get tested for STDs the day after you have sex and expect an accurate result. Unless this was a highly advanced test (which maybe it was since I don't know the setting), there's a length of time you need to wait.

- At one point, Nate described his brother as an "obsessive compulsive weirdo." I don't know if the brother actually has OCD (he seemed to me like he might be neurodivergent), and I get that it's a realistic thing a person might say, but that comment sounded offensive to anyone who does have OCD and maybe anyone who's neurodivergent.

- It was never explained why Ben in particular couldn't compel Nate. That was very deus ex machina, unless it's explained in later books.

Things I Liked:

- Vampires! (No sexy biting though.)

- Nate's abilities were interesting and unique, something I'd never read about before. That was my favorite thing about the book. *SPOILER* He could command plants and was kind of part plant himself. There was one part where his mind went full plant even and he forgot he was human, so that was really unique to read about. *END SPOILER*

- The book got more gripping in the second half when the villainous necromancer really came into the story and more stuff started happening.

- As I said, the plot seemed pretty good, and the characters weren't bad.

So overall, the writing in this book was confusing for me, but I did still enjoy it somewhat, and maybe the confusion was entirely a "me" issue. At least I got to read about some interesting supernatural abilities, and maybe other people will enjoy this more.

This was a better-than-usual vampire story with a lot of hot sex and good danger and suspense. Although there was too much sex but it wasn't boring. This is the first time I've seen double penetration in a novel. It was definitely not formulaic. The book went in several different directions which made it unpredictable and interesting.

When I started this, I did not expect the journey I’d be in for. I loved every second of it!

When you begin reading, you meet Nate. He’s an escort and living in a city full of all the creatures that go bump in the night. Hunter, hires Nate for his brother, Ben. It is everything that Nate is attracted to. He’s gorgeous, kind and he does his best to control every aspect of his vampiric nature because he doesn’t want to be the monster he thinks he is.

The first few chapters are full of some amazing sex scenes. Like, *fans self* I didn’t think it was going open up like that but whoa. As an aspiring writer I would love to be able to write sex scenes like St. Kevern does. That sounds really creepy now that I’m reading this back but it’s true. It was full of lust, need, want, and overwhelming reaction/response from the characters.

What I really loved was the entire storyline. It wasn’t just about sex. It was about Ben and Nate fighting through everything that life through at them. And a wild Necromancer who sets his sight on the Saltaire sire and his sons using Nate to get to them, well, that was a lot to handle.

This story becomes a full on paranormal thriller and you can’t put the book down. It seems like in every chapter there’s a new twist and it keeps you on your toes. I loved the fact that all the twists happened. Nate, finds out more about himself as the story progresses and you’re just like, “GIVE ME ANSWERS NOW!”. You know that feeling you really get into book and you have to know what happens? Yeah, this is what happened as I read Thorns and Fangs.

I love that their story isn’t ending here. Ben and Nate are set to move back to Nate’s home with his brother. I’m already wishing I had that book in my hands. I want to see how Ben and Nate’s relationship progresses. I want to know more about Nate and his family!

Thorns and Fangs is a book over whose rating I struggled. On the one hand, I love the concept behind the story, and, taken individually, the characters are interesting and engaging. However, there was just something about it that didn't quite come together for me. I think the main difficulty I had was the pacing. The opening was really slow and comprised mostly of sex scenes. That wouldn't bother me if it had been linked to the plot, but the real 'story' didn't commence until about 25% in, and by then my interest had started to waiver. However, once things finally got going, I did get into the story more... until the end, when all the action concluded but there followed another bout of sex and a 'final threat' that didn't amount to much. To my mind, the story would have worked better had there been some trimming at the start and finish. Nevertheless, I am still giving it 3.5 stars, because I did enjoy the premise and the world building, and when the action was in full swing, it was an enjoyable read.

This is a paranormal MM story. It is a great story. It is very detailed with twist and turns all over the place. The main characters are well developed and a little mysterious as their characters and powers unfold as the book progresses. The story moves at a great pace and keeps the reader very involved. Wonderful book.

4 stars

Sexy and suspenseful supernatural story.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy.

I voluntarily read an Review Copy of this book through Netgalley. The book deals with a male prostitute, Nate, in a time where prostitution is legal and the world has paranormals living among humans. In the beginning of the book I thought the book would be about a close relationship between Hunter and Nate but it turns out Hunter is scouting, you might say, for a surprise for his vampire brother Ben. The surprise becomes a menage between them but in the end the story deals more with the attraction and attachment between Nate and Ben.
Someone wants to harm Ben and Nate appears to be his best savior, even though things go wrong for Nate. The book is a good read but it is rather lengthy and I almost quit reading. I would have but the story was so intriguing and it kept your interest. I would recommend this book but it is not a book that is easily read in a day or two.

Nate is caught between two dangerously hot vampires who can compel people to do whatever they want and a ruthless necromancer who wants Nate for all the wrong reasons.When I started reading I couldn't put it down I read the book i couldn't put it down.Gillian St. Kevern is magnifysent writer.I cannot wait to read more of het books.Keep up the great work.

Wow! Amazing book! Great plot with twists and turns I didn't anticipate. Normally I'd skim through most of the sex scenes to move back to the plot but the scenes were super hot. Can't wait to read the rest of the series.