Demons, Angels and Shifters oh my. . . diving into the middle of this series, I quickly came up to speed. Ms. Bauer creates many different types of worlds and each of them are unique if a bit dark. Usually YA books make me want to run away from them. When it comes to Ms. Bauer, I only wish one thing. That she was writing these books over 30 years ago when I was a teenager, looking for great sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal books.

This book can be read as a standalone as I read it with nary an issue. The first couple of chapters helped me sketch out a frame of reference. The way characters relate and how Angels, Shifters and the Fallen work together and against each other is interesting. I liked seeing an interpretation of Lucifer, the Fallen Angel. It is as good as a supposition as I have read. This is probably blasphemous, but I understand why Lucifer fell and why he did it. I can't exactly blame him when I look around at my fellow humans and think, "God loves us so much? Why?"

Myla may only be 19 years old in this story but she comes across more mature than many 19 years I have seen in the media. All she lacks is years of hard learned lessons through experience, disappointment and betrayals. Good news? She is well on her way to gaining these lovely moments. Myla shoulders more responsibility than expected and in this story, she needs to figure out why Walker has disappeared and what the Viper is trying to do. The plot is pretty straightforward and the path to the mystery Myla needs to solve takes a few twists and turns. Still, it was easy for me to predict the villains, the motivation and the unfortunate sequence of events. There are several nice surprises as subplots are tied off. This is a happily ever after story even if it is dark and a bit gothic. I must admit, I really like the gothic feel of it.

Overall, this is a smooth read with spunky characters, angry fallen angels, large sacrifices - everything wonderful about youthful energy, naivety and idealism. This paranormal fantasy is recommended to readers who enjoy dark young adult books with strong female lead.

Walker, the ghoul and Grand Scala's honorary older brother, Myla Lewis, has disappeared. And unsurprisingly, Myla sets out in search of him, not without finding another series of action-packed adventures in the underground world of Purgatory.
I loved this story! It's the kind of book that you can't stop reading until you get to the last page.

What have Myla and Lincoln gotten in to this time around? They are up to getting dirty with some inhabitants of the dark lands, for the sake of a good friends, someone dear to them. The book you can follow pretty well without having read the previous installments, but for the best entertainment you should read the previous books and enjoy them for the thrill of this world it gives. Myla is and was a handful. She has not slowed down much. Wife, mother, soul mover. She has much on her young plate.

Monster House Books and Christina Bauer brings on the action, adventure, romance and a bit of a mystery in the Dark Lands. Myself and the children (teenagers) have loved this series from the beginning. This latest installment has provided us with a deeper respect for Myla and her role as Queen of the Thrax and her love for Lincoln.

Oh My Gawd!
Myla, Myla, Myla! I love the crazy warrior queen! Haha

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of this author and this series. I totally love the dynamics and relationship these two share. They're a one of a kind couple. The balance they bring to whatever darkness they are trying to fight back is amazing.

This story shows a new level to their relationship. Myla and Lincoln have to balance being royalty, fighters and parents. Not to mention that their daily lives are full of utter craziness on a good day. So when Walker, Myla's honorary big bro and Linc's BFF goes missing after leaving Myla with a cryptic message... things get real, real fast.

The race is on to locate Walker, find out why the events of the book are happening and find a way to fix it all. Myla and Linc come into contact with a lot of 'new' people in this story. As things unfolded in the Dark Lands I was pulled further and further into the story. To say I had NO idea what was coming from page to page was amazing. With each new person, power and oddity they came across the level of "wtf" moments increased. There was more than once I blurted out "oh snap". I didn't see that coming!

NOW, on the funny side of things... can we just say that baby Maxon is freaking adorable!!! His little self gets into all kinds of messes and I love that his parents and grandparents are victims of his utter cuteness. Babies are messy, it’s just how they roll. To see little Maxon charm them as he smooches bananas into everything... I died. More than once. Let’s not mention the big, bad, archangel, aka, grandpa, trying to deal with diaper rash. Y'all, I spit my drink out everywhere while I howled in laughter. THAT WAS EPIC! I swear, I read and listened to that part more than once.

Whoooosa! I am so ready for the next installment into the Angelbound world. It's safe to say, if she writes it, I will read it. Period.

I would like to thank Monster House Books and the Netgalley website for this partnership.

I love the cover of this book.

We find Myla who at 19 years old is married, mother and queen of the Thraxes and she crunches life to the fullest. It is a half goddess who moves souls to heaven or Hell. As for his brother Walker, he returns to the Black Lands where the ghouls live and disappears.

Myla will do anything to find her brother. A criminal would have kidnapped him to free Lucifer.

A fifth book that I loved and read in one go with such a captivating, addictive story filled with suspense and twists and turns with engaging characters. Looking forward to reading the full series.

I still need to read this series, first I shall finish the Beholder series which thus far I have really enjoyed.

I cannot get enough of this series, From the very first book i loved getting to know Myla and Lincoln, If your looking for a new PR series to read then give these ago.

I received this eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

Myla is getting used to being the Great Scala, the Queen of Thrax, and now a mother to her beautiful baby boy Maxon. But when Walker needs her help, she's not prepared for the idea of losing her honorary older brother.

A new enemy is in town: Viper. And it seems that he has the ability (from one of Lucifer's many magic items) to take abilities or sins or anything from another person. And it seems that Walker has to face this person, because Viper hurt someone very close to Walker.

But when Walker disappears, Myla has to figure out all of Walker's secrets in order to find him and save him - without Walker disappearing out of her life forever.

This was a great novel. Myla has totally figured out life and has everything in control. I especially loved how Myla's dad was trying to train Maxon, a 6 month old boy in military format. Too cute and funny! The relationship between Myla and Walker was very strong in this novel, which is great because it gives the reader a chance to really see how much they mean to one another. We haven't really gotten that feeling during the series yet.

I loved how Armageddon was not the focus of this story, but a whole other side of the backstory came into play to show another side of the history of these characters. It was a nice change of pace, and I definitely enjoyed it! :)

And now here is the sad part... Amazon says the next book gets released in September 2019?? Sigh, that's 9 months of waiting to see what other great adventures Myla will go on. Oh well, I will just have to fill that space with other novels and hope they are as enjoyable as this series :)

The dark lands by Christina Bauer.
This was a great read. With great characters I just couldn't put it down. Loved the cover too. Love a book that takes you away for a while. 4*.

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Actual rating of 3.5

Myla is now the Scala Mother, Queen of the Thrax, and has her baby Maxon and her husband Lincoln by her side. While appearing on Good Morning Purgatory, she is ambushed by the host as to what she is planning to do about the Viper attacks that have been reported. Leaving the show rather abruptly, she heads off to find out what exactly is going on, as her honorary brother was the one that gave the tip off of the recent Viper attack. Once she finds Walker, she finds out that he is in a bit of a pickle, the Viper is trying to free Lucifer, they've already found his cage and poisoned the guard, Walker knows how to help so has given Myla a watch, if it shows the time everything is fine, but if a countdown begins, something's gone wrong and he needs her to finish the job. So it's a race against the literal clock as the countdown starts and Myla and Co have no idea what exactly what is going on. Will they be able to beat the countdown, save the guard, Walker and keep Lucifer locked up? Or will Lucifer be free to rain hell on Purgatory?

So when I requested this book, I had no idea it was part of a series. This has happened to me quite a few times now, netgalley really needs to put something into series linked books so that the readers know! I'll admit after it happened twice, I began looking up the books I was requesting on goodreads, 1. to find out if they're part of a series, and if so are they the first book and 2. to find out more about the title itself, the average score out of five as well as the length of the book. I've had the displeasure of accidentally requesting books that are over the 600 page mark, and while the length doesn't bother me, I feel like it'd take me longer than I'd like to be able to get through the story and be prompt at getting the feedback in. So yes, I had no idea this book was part of an already established series, so I haven't actually read any of the other books. This was my first book by Christina Bauer, and my first book in the Angelbound series. While I've obviously missed out on a lot of back story, I didn't feel that this impacted my ability to enjoy and understand what was going on in the story.

The pace was quick, and it made for a light and easy read, which was nice. The writing style I incredibly enjoyed. I love how sarcastic, quick witted and just all around sassy Myla is. Bauer has fun with her characters and you can tell, I find that it really makes a story more personable if the writing isn't 'polished' and proper, I guess you'd say. The banter and sass just added an extra layer to this story that I think was absolutely brilliant and was probably the main reason it dragged me in so easily.

The characters were likable and relatable. Myla is just a chick trying to do her best for her son, herself and her husband (and the rest of her family of course) she's trying to adjust to life as the Scala Mother and Queen, and just get to be herself. I absolutely love the little extra personality that Bauer gave Myla's tail. I can honestly say that the tail was my favourite character. I love that it acts independently of Myla, and actually HAS a personality of it's own. It's like a faithful pet and I absolutely love it, it makes me a little giddy I have to say. Lincoln goes alright, he's her husband, father to her child and her King (see Consort for those that worship her), I found his character to be sort of background to everything else. This is probably because I haven't read any of the other books, so I don't have the feel of him at all, this was my first introduction to all of the characters, so I can understand if I totally have things wrong about them. I found the addition of Happy, Jamie, and Obsidian really cool as well. And who doesn't love an all powerful Archangel who has no idea if nappy rash is fatal. I just honestly can't get enough of how personable Christina has made all her characters and their interactions. Nothings super broody, or drama filled, I mean don't get me wrong, there's a lot of drama happening and shit is absolutely going down, but the characters are all pining and whining over how unfair everything is and how devastated they will be when the thing they fail to stop comes to fruition and blah blah blah, cry me a river. Bauer has not written her characters or story like this at all, she has made you feel for the characters, she has the characters worrying about everything of course, but they're not breaking down and having inner monologues about how terrible everything is. These characters worry while they're getting shit done, and if that doesn't make for strong characters then I don't know what does.

The story itself was good, I love that there was the added stress of the countdown to think about, as well as Myla never actually having a gameplan before something happens, she just wings it (a woman after my own heart). I hadn't a clue who the Viper was so that reveal was great, as well as how it was done. I almost feel like the ending was a bit too easy, but as I said previously, I haven't read any of the other books in this series, so I don't know if the characters are OP or that's just how powerful they really are. I also love that the world it's set in is purgatory, not surface Earth, that was a nice change.

All in all, a satisfying urban fantasy read which likable characters and a decent enough story line. I'll be interested to check out other books in this series for sure.

Hello happy readers! So today I have for you a new release from the end of September and a new addition to a favorite series of mine, The Dark Lands (Angelbound Origins #5) by Christina Bauer. So this series is a bit out of order as I’ve already read some into the spin-off series as well as book 7 in the series, but that is just because the author is non-linear and wrote the original series with some time jumps between them and is now writing from those time jumps and all the adventures and shenanigans we missed out on. I like to think this is because fans like myself wanted more, and that’s what I’m going to tell myself. Anywho Goodreads makes things so easy for knowing the proper order as of now and here are my reviews leading up to this title: Duty Bound, Angelbound, Scala, Acca, & Thrax.

Rating: 5 Stars

Myla’s life has changed for sure now a wife, mother, Great Scala, and Queen of the Thrax, she has her hands full. Things seem to be going pretty well…until it hits the fan like always. Her honorary brother Walker is being more secretive than usual and when he disappears into the Dark Lands leaving her a countdown and a promise to uphold they have another mission to complete, stopping Lucifer from escaping and all, and save not only Walker but all of the after realms. So you know…no big deal.

So in this we have another adventure with our favorite quasi, Myla. She and Lincoln are always finding some trouble they have to stop. They are trouble magnets. This time it is Lucifer and someone trying to break him free to reign down all sorts of evil and honorary brother Walker’s disappearance is connected. Meaning if they weren’t involved to begin with they are now for Walker. I love these stories. They are such fast paced books they fly on by. You have a huge mystery and suspense and tons of action carrying you along. Still no matter the seriousness of the matter Myla never loses her trademark sarcasm and I love her for it.

I will always read these books for more Myla and Lincoln. They are relationship goals. Plus added bonus baby Maxon time was just precious. Seriously this kid is totally adorable and how he brings complete hard core kick butt characters to a panic is epic. This is another fun adventure as we delve deeper into the world and make new discovers about the past. I enjoyed getting to see more of how things used to be as well as learning about this whole new area and distant/reclusive House full of new characters you can love.

All in all this was a great addition to the world and I loved seeing Myla and Lincoln fight so hard for Walker. He has done a lot for them over the years/series and they love him for sure and to see them go to bat for him like he always has for them was just epic. This is a beautiful world I always look forward to getting lost in, magma demons and all if Myla and Lincoln are there too!

If I could live in this world forever with Myla always kicking demon ass, I'd be happy. Yeah, I know. She has to be a mum. And the Great Scala. But she's so much more fun and interesting when we see her in all that in between period. Even with Maxon as a baby, we still see her kicking ass and taking names. That's the chick I want to read about the most. I want to read her adventures and go on them with her, not see how she longs for the action while the kiddos are off being just as troublesome as she was ;)

Bauer just keeps getting better...with each book she surpasses the last. In this one, Myla has to save her honorary brother from Lucifer and keep him from taking over earth for himself and his legion.

Nineteen year old Myla Lewis loves her job of moving souls to heaven or hell and being a wife and mother. Her life is going great until she learns that her older brother Walker is missing and everyone thinks he is on vacation but Myla and Lincoln know better.

Walker has been taken by the ghouls into the Dark Lands. They want to use Walker in some way to help release Lucifer from his prison. Lucifer was locked up a long time ago. Lucifer is the ex-king of the angles and really needs to stay locked up forever. Lucifer is a bad mean person who likes to have everyone under his thumb and use them and their magic to do his bidding. The ghouls can’t reach Lucifer where he is locked up because it is warded with spells to keep anyone from just walking in and rescuing him.

Can Myla and Lincoln find Walker in time to save him? Can they stop the ghouls from releasing Lucifer from his prison?

I just love Myla and her tail who likes to get in on the action from time to time and Lincoln as well as all the characters in the Angelbound series. Myla is just so cheeky talking like she will say things sort of like she would not do that under any circumstances and then turn around and think well I am doing that right now or something like that.

Myla will be checking out Lincoln during an important conversation or just as they are about to time warp to another section of Purgatory and Lincoln will say my eyes are up here. I love these two they make such a great couple.

I love the world of the after-realm, Purgatory, the Dark Lands and all the other cities in Myla and Lincoln’s world. I have read all the books in the Angelbound series and loved them all. Each book just seems to get better and better. I can’t wait to check out more books in the Angelbound series. The Dark Lands is filled with twist and turns that will keep you hanging on for more and more.

Come join Myla, Lincoln, Walker and the rest of the crew on their journey through the Dark Lands, a world filled with angels, demons, ghouls and part human, part angel and part demon all rolled into one.

I definitely recommend The Dark Lands to all fans of the paranormal with angels, demons, ghouls and an all-around brilliantly written story.

Great story for young adults and young at heart.
Love the well developed characters and the action sequences, and the world crated by the author.

I always wonder what new trouble Myla and Lincoln can find, but they always manage to find it. Love seeing the family grow as well as the interactions between family members.

Slow down and Savor. Some really sweet moments. As well as some kick butt ones.

“You’ll be interviewed by our new host . She’ll ask you fun questions about your baby and that’s it. There’s no way she’ll ambush you with some surprise just so she can get an exclusive.”

“What a very specific thing for her not to do,” says Lincoln dryly.

Myla feels like life is exactly what she wants it to be- that is until a televised interview goes very wrong, and all signs point to her close ghoul friend Walker. After hunting down Walker, Myla realizes that he is in more trouble than she ever could have guessed, the kind of trouble that could end the world as they know it. With a timeline that is not nearly long enough, Myla and Lincoln must enter the Dark Lands to find the truth.

I loved how much action there was crammed in the pages of this book, it was so jammed packed there was never a dull moment and I had to keep reading to see how everything would play out. If it is not battling crazy fans of the "Scala Mother", strange worm farming brothers, or a scary lava angel who is basically indestructible, it just would not be a regular day for Myla. Side note here, I love that this plot was something so very different from the rest of the books in the series, unpredictable and random and I loved the mission, the new characters and the change of worlds and problems. Mad props to Christina for mixing up the adventure level, while at the same time keeping Myla and Lincoln together (couples that battle together stay together?).

"Folks say that a romantic dinner with candlelight and champagne is the sign of true love. I disagree. In my opinion, if you find a guy who’ll pick valuables off a dead body for you, that’s a keeper."

I like that there were interactions with baby Maxon in the story, even while on a very short time frame to save Walker, we get a small dose of Myla and Lincoln's reality. And he was hysterical and so sweet, the scenes with him in it or about him were my favorite and so human and real (yes, half demons and half angels can be human, shush you!). The dynamic between Myla's badass Archangel father and grubby, busy little Maxon was hysterical- who knew a banana could do so much damage? I find Maxon's whole development to be interesting and crazy so I look forward to seeing what will be in store for the couple and their baby next.

"Lucifer: bloodthirsty psychopath and yet, talented armor designer. Who knew?"

Yet again this series is one of my favorite, full of personality, action, supernatural randomness and the characters that I have come to root for. The internal monologues full of snark that spill out of Myla make everything worthwhile and I can't help but to laugh all the way through the book. There is no doubt that I will read any and all books in this series, they really are just too much fun for me to resist.

I reviewed a complimentary copy of this title. Come visit me at https://smadasbooksmack.blogspot.com/

This is a terrific series and I love reading any books by this author. This one continues the story of Myla and Lincoln. In this book they are fighting to save Walker and keep Lucifer in prison. Always an interesting read.

I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC for an honest review. - Try this author - she's great.

This is a great book! I love the Angelbound Origins series! The dialog, characters, storyline and action are awesome. Christina is a very talented writer! I highly recommend checking this book series out!

Well who would want to live on anywhere but Earth after reading the descriptions of Purgatory, Antrum and the Dark Lands in these novels? Light in short supply, lots of grey clouds and rain, and no flowers to speak of? And worm farms? Actually, the latter is not so bad as we have a worm farm in our charity garden - but it is very small and the worms live in a hut like a hive with lots of trays, making compost and fertiliser from our kitchen waste.

So some imaginative worlds here with the 4 realms - and even earth is not so good, as you know that migraine you've had for years? Seems it might just be a demon living on your neck.

I went back to the beginning here and read the current 5 novels in order, as starting from novel 5 it is often difficult to pick up the story - and loved them.

I'm always a sucker for stories with some angels, demons, and kick-ass heroines, and this Myla beats all of them hands-down as she has a semi-independent tail with an arrow on its end that can think for itself and helps her fight! I want one... It waves and high fives and all sorts of stuff, all on its own without Myla controlling it. So cool...

I enjoyed the writing style and found the books easy to read. With a fun style  and sense of humour, and mostly grammatically correct - a few small errors that an editor should have picked up. Well suited to the age range, but still good for older adults - if you like this type of writing - which I do as a fan of Eve Langlais and Robyn Peterman who also write about Hell, Demons, Angels and feisty heroines.

I'm now waiting for books 6 and 7 to come out - and intend to read the spin-off series about the children. Maxon sounds like a fun baby to have and he should join in nursery classes with Astrid's son (Fashionably Dead Down Under series by Robyn Peterman) as they would be a match for each other in precociousness and trouble.