None of these books piqued my interest as I had hoped they would. Still, they sound good, just not straight up my alley.

Thank you! I love Paranormal Romance so much. This Sampler was a fantastic read and now I'm ordering my own ebook copies so I can finish reading the stories. I love these stories & I highly recommend them!

A sampler of several forthcoming paranormal books. Looking forward to reading the full books of each and reading these very interesting books!

Her Wolf in the Wild by Rien Gray:
I've been looking for some good sapphic werewolf romances, so when I saw Her Wolf in the Wild as part of the Paranormal Romance Sampler from Carina Press, I was intrigued.

Romances are well-known for their tropes, and queer romances are no exception. We use them to define sub-genres within Romanceland - the Second Chances, the Forced Proximities, etc. One trope that I've noticed in a lot of (predominantly sapphic) queer romances featuring a bisexual lead is My Ex is Literally the Worst. Ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands being human garbage is nothing new in the world of romance, but it seems particularly prevalent when you've got a bisexual lead. The bi lady can't just be dating a woman because she's attracted to her. She's dating a woman because she's attracted to her but also because her ex-boyfriend is a literal stalker who plants a GPS chip in her phone.

So begins Her Wolf in the Wild. There's some promising stuff here - hetero werewolf romances are so jam-packed with testosterone-hemorrhaging Alpha males (the bane of my reading enjoyment, tbh) that having a functioning pack with a leader who is a Type A personality but not some macho posturing assault-charge-waiting-to-happen is a breath of fresh air. What I've seen of the biker gang/werewolf pack (which is a concept I love, thank you very much), it feels more like a family than a strict hierarchy. Found family is a common theme in queer literature (and queer lives, in my experience) that this feels authentic and also deeply personal. Micah (the sapphic alpha-werewolf) is strong, sexy, but doesn't seem to flex on her subordinates more than absolutely necessary. Christiana is your typical damsel-in-a-distressing-situation, and three chapters aren't enough time to get a feel for her beyond that. Much is made of her having been a dancer in college, so I assume that will be relevant later in the novel.

I'm willing to give the rest of it a try since this is something I've been looking for - a paranormal romance with queer leads. Hopefully, Micah and Christiana's chemistry evolves through mutual attraction and interaction, rather than because they're Fated Mates or whatever (another trope I'm tired of, tbh).

House on Fire by Jenn Burke:
First things first, this is a great opening sentence.
I'm not really interested in reading further than that. I guess vampire romances have to try a little harder to pique my curiosity these days. Perhaps because this is the second in a series (and I haven't read the first), I just found myself turning the last page of the excerpt and thinking "Oh well, on to the next thing." If vampires are your preferred flavor of paranormal romance, this is probably way more your speed than it is mine.

Two stars because it was fine, really, but I'm not going to read the rest of it.

Crooked Shadows by M. A. Grant:
The last excerpt in the Paranormal Sampler had a better opening, but that's a relatively small complaint. A larger complaint would probably be the speed at which this novel crawls along. I only had three chapters to review, so it's possible that it picks up significantly after chapter 3, but I found the pacing of the excerpt intolerably slow. It takes 3 chapters to get to Romania and have a couple of long conversations with old vampires? Okay, sure. But I guess I expect a little bit of action in my paranormal romances, and three chapters of exposition, dialogue, and little else? Pass.

I'm generously awarding two stars because it's not THAT bad, it was fine. And if you're into vampire romances that move at the speed of someone who doesn't have to worry about time, then this is probably your kind of book. It wasn't for me, and I won't be reading any further than the excerpt.

Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin:
This is one of only two excerpts from the Carina Press Paranormal Romance Sampler which I think are actually worth pursuing. I haven't read any of the Magic in Manhattan series (of which this is a spinoff), but nothing felt overly dense or poorly explained. While there wasn't a lot of action in the three chapters that made up the excerpt, plenty of characters and their relationships to one another were introduced. The setting seems interesting, and although vampires do appear to feature in the story somewhat, it's refreshing to see a PNR with a cast of magical people who aren't vampires, werewolves, or fae. There's so much room for exploration and innovation within the paranormal romance sphere, and Therin's worldbuilding seems like a breath of fresh air, especially after two vampire-romance excerpts that nearly put me to sleep.

I'll probably seek out the rest of the book, so I can see if it holds up to the promise of the first three chapters. Recommended for paranormal romance fans who, like me, enjoy the occasional break from the over-saturated field of vamp/werewolf/fae romances.

Really interesting selection of stories. Will definitely buy the full books for a couple of them .

They left me intrigued as to want would happen next.

Really glad I took a chance on them as they are probably not something I would automatically buy. Thanks for introducing me to some new authors.

This is a solid fall 2021 paranormal romance sampler. I'm intrigued by Her Wolf in the Wild and would like to read more of Proper Scoundrels.

Okay so I'll admit I downloaded this sampler primarily for the glimpse into Crooked Shadows. I'm a huge fan of Grant's previous work and this new series does not disappoint! I really enjoyed being back with Crstian and Atlas, however short a time it was and am even more excited now for the book's release in a few weeks time. Bring on the angst and vampires!

Regarding the other samples I did skim over Jenn Burke's because it's a series I do want to read one day and I was wary about possible spoilers with it being the second book. I did like the parts I read however and will definitely look forward to reading more by her.

The first book in the sampler, HER WOLF IN THE WILD, is by an author I've not heard of before but I'm very grateful to Carina Press for including their work in this sampler and introducing me. It was a wonderful opener and there was a lot that intrigued me and I'm very interested in learning more about Micah and reading about their developing relationship.

The last sample is from PROPER SCOUNDRELS which I believe is a spin off of another ongoing series? It did stand alone okay but there was a lot of background I felt I was missing out on. I did enjoy Wesley's caustic wit and found Sebastian's dark past to be interesting.

All in all I greatly enjoyed this look at Carina Press' future titles and have definitely added a few more books to my wishlist!

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for the chance to read this sampler!

I enjoyed the first sample so much that I bought it, but the remaining three samples were second in series and didn't stand alone very well.

As soon as I saw "werewolf MC" I thought about skipping the sample of HER WOLF IN THE WILD. But I'm so glad I didn't! The excerpt had me fully invested--some suspense, an inclusive, diverse and welcoming but secretive society, and no alphaholes--yes please!

HOUSE ON FIRE and CROOKED SHADOWS are both second in series and both follow a couple that seems like they got together in the first book, so these were not very effective samples because I felt totally lost. PROPER SCOUNDRELS was similar, but at least followed a different couple than the first book; however, there is still a lot of reference to previous events and I felt lost even having read the first book a while ago (I remember the premise but apparently forgot all about the climax).

In terms of a sampler I would have hoped for books that would entice brand-new readers and worked better as standalones, but I am happy that I found HER WOLF IN THE WILD because I'm not sure I would have encountered it otherwise.

3 stars for Book 1
2.5 for book 2
4 for book 3
3 for book 4

I thought I would jump on this cool option to read 4 excerpts from this collection, and it’s definitely outside my comfort zone, but needless to say I would definitely read book 3 out of all of them. Blood curses intrigue me so I would like to see where it goes