Top 5 Tuesday – Magical Creatures

Good morning my lovelies,

A number of blogs that I follow take part in Top 5 Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm and I thought that I would join in the fun this month too; today the theme is Top 5 Magical Creatures.

Shanah comes up with the topics a month at a time so that we’ve got some thinking space. If you’re interested in participating in Top 5 Tuesday, all you have do is write up your post and pingback to one of Shanah’s posts. Make sure you pingback to her posts and not just her blog so she can add you to the list.

So without further pre-amble, here is my thinking on this week’s topic…

I must confess, I was in a bit of a quandary about this week’s theme. I mean, what would you class as magical creatures? Are we talking the creatures of classic legends like the Cyclops or Minotaur? Would the category include more modern legends like Big Foot, the Yetti or The Loch Ness Monster? Do you see Magical Creatures as purely mythical animals like dragons, phoenix and unicorns or would you include the likes of vampires, merfolk and shapeshifters into the category? There are absolutely hundreds of creatures that could qualify for this meme!

Well as this is a book blog, I’m going to share with you the magical and mythical beings that have appeared in some of my favourite series *phew* decision made. So…

 

I can’t have any top 5 about books without including vampires somewhere in the list. 😉 Kate Baxter’s Last True Vampire series is one of my favourites.

This is a paranormal romance series featuring vampires, vampire half breeds called dhampirs, the berserkers (vampires’ mortal enemies), mages and witches, shapeshifters and other creatures that go bump in the night.

Each book brings us a turbulent romance between a new couple in this amazing paranormal world, while the story arc of rebuilding the vampire race and the fight to survive, evolves and continues as the backdrop to the romance throughout the books.

These are the purchase links to the Last True Vampire series at my affiliate retailers:

 

 

Shapeshifters who morph into wolves and Werewolves are the next on my list. Are wolf shapeshifters and werewolves one in the same thing? I had thought so but In The Legend of All Wolves they are definitely not.

I think that The Legend of All Wolves series by Maria Vale has a unique perspective within the shapeshifting genre; her characters are beings that are born wolf cubs and have to learn how to wear a human “skin” and fit in with the human world rather than humans who have an animal beast within themselves, or animal spirit, a voice/presence in their head and a second being that they morph into that they resist and/or fight.

The Legend of All Wolves series is set in the modern world – the Adirondack Mountains of Northern America to be precise – and features the werewolf pack that live there, hidden from view. I feel that whole series is closer to the urban fantasy genre than a classic paranormal romance due to its grittiness and some of the content within its pages.

These are the purchase links to the The Legend of All Wolves series at my affiliate retailers:

 

 

 

While we’re talking about shapeshifters, I want to include those Shapeshifters who morph into Dragons.

There are a growing number of these books on the market; I’ve had to add another Goodreads shelf to accommodate the dragon shifters. 😉 I haven’t read a whole series of just dragon shifters yet but I’ve read some of Donna Grant’s Dark King series and G.A. Aiken’s Dragon Kin series and loved what I read.

 

I don’t think there’s a species more magical than the Fae, do you? So they had to be on my list too.

The Reapers series by Donna Grant is a paranormal romance series within her Dark World universe that includes; the Dark King series, the Dark Warrior series and the Dark Sword series and is about the Fae who are tasked by Death herself to collect the souls of those Fae she has judged to die. Each book centres around the romance of one Reaper but the stories actually feature lots of different supernatural and mythological beings including; dark and light fae, dragon shifters and magic welding druids (the mies who use light magic, dark magic users the droughs and the druid Warriors who have the powers of the old gods). These various species can be found inhabiting our world as well as in their own magical realms hidden from the knowledge of humans.

I haven’t read all of the books in this amazing series yet, I’ve got a couple left to read but they’re waiting patiently on my Kindle so I hope to get to them before the end of the year.

These are the purchase links to the Reapers series at my affiliate retailers:

 

 

My last choice this morning is the Blood Trails series by Jennifer Blackstream. Our main character is a witch – definitely magical – who has a pixie familiar called Peasblossom, who’s magical through and through.

Blood Trails is an urban fantasy series set in America about, Shade Renard, a village witch turned private investigator and F.B.I. consultant. As a witch with a dark past, she knows the Otherworld isn’t always successful at policing itself. Humans don’t believe in magic any more and their ignorance renders them easy prey.

The Blood Trails world is a place inhabited by a host of mythical and supernatural beings – witches, vampires, wizards, sorceresses, pixies, dwarves, trolls and various species of fae – that are living, unseen, alongside us mere mortals.

These are the purchase links to the Blood Trails series at my affiliate retailers:

 

 

What magical creatures would you put on your list? Leave a comment below, I’d love to know.

Now that you’ve read my post, why don’t you hop along to some of the other amazing blogs taking part in this week’s Top 5 Tuesday. If you’re taking part too, don’t forget to leave your comment below with a link to your T5T post so I can visit your blog and check out what your top 5 are.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Bye for now. x