Review: Ignite, Erica Crouch

Ignite by Erica Crouch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read an a lot of fallen angel paranormal romance/urban fantasy in both YA and adult forms, and Ignite has one of the most original mythology takes I've seen all year. Including a fresh reinvention of the Michael/Lucifer story that was impossible to put down.

Particularly engaging as told from the demon girl's point of view. Pen was a fantastic view point to read from as she started of being completely unapologetic about who she was. She was a demon and damned proud of it, she liked to kill and reap souls for the bad guys along side her twin brother. When things get more complicated and supposedly dead archangel Michael turns up and things change.

Pen is given the assignment of convincing Michael to join Hell's forces or kill him, while her twin brother goes off to help kick start a demon disease project to bring on the Apocalypse. Sounds simple enough, but of course it isn't. The story is told from Pen's view point as she tries to complete her assignment and realises things aren't black and white as they seem.

She's full of conflict regarding her own choices when she starts to fall for Michael who seems convinced there is good inside of her. As the novel progresses Pen and Michael's relationship does. The writing is descriptive and vivid and its easy to identify with Pen's inner turmoil. Even when things go hideously wrong and seem to be bleak and hopeless, I found myself routing for Pen to get it together and fix things.

It ended on a rather killer cliffhanger, so I'll definitely be looking out for the sequel. The one thing that bothered me particularly was over use of poetry and classic literature references particularly to poets like Milton, Byron, Blake, Frost. 'Paradise Lost' was quoted a lot, and Frost was quoted a lot, and several Shakespeare references. Personally, I love Shakespeare, but the poets, not so much. Might just be me, but there was too much poetry reference.

That being said, it was still a very well written book with great characters and a fresh take on the angel/demon mythology. Thank you Netgalley for approving my request to view the title.

Review: All Together Dead, Charlaine Harris

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On a personal note I gave up with the True Blood series about half way through season five deciding I much prefer the world of the Sookie books to the Tv show. I had an idea to read each book before each new season but I loved the books more so that idea went pretty quickly. This book was one of the better ones. The last two felt sort of fillers building up to more vampire action, of which there was plenty in this book. It started off quite mundane I suppose a reminder that life in Bon Temps goes on regardless of vampires, we're sand whatever this wonderful mystical book world throws at us.Then we get to the vampire summit and there's murders, bomb plots, hidden agendas and all sorts going on. Very little focus on Sookie's complex love life, and more into the vampire politics side of things. Which is always fun to see, as much as I like turmoil of Sookie's love life, every now and again it gets a little much so this book was a nice break from it. Plenty of unanswered questions in this one which I hope will focus into the next few books, and not everything was wrapped up neatly, but it did have an ending that wasn't necessarily a cliff hanger, which was good to see. Book Sookie is one of my favourite female paranormal romance heroines. Very honest and down to earth, I love her inner voice and how she acts and behaves and while her choices haven't always been what I would agree with, I love her all the same. So a really good book in the series and looking forward to the next one.

Review: The Salbine Sisters, Sarah Ettritch

The Salbine Sisters by Sarah Ettritch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars. This review contains some spoilers. Spoilers are hidden behind the +. Click to read.

A very enjoyable, well written story. I enjoyed it immensely. I found the setting quite fascinating, a middle age monastery following an Order of Sisters who worship the goddess Salbine, who gives them the ability to draw on the elements, giving them great power. The story starts off with the budding romance between the main character, initiate sister Maddy and her teacher, much older Mistress Lillian, a very powerful mage.

The characters are vivid, and the writing wonderfully descriptive, bringing the monastery and the setting to life so its very clear to picture what's going on. both Maddy and Lillian are very likeable characters with their own voices and own conflicts and inner turmoil about their relationship.

Though when Maddy discovers she can't draw the elements and is what they term a "malflowed" sister, it throws her completely out of whack, leaving her to question everything about her decision to be part of the Order, and the impact on her relationship with Lillian. Maddy sets off to discover more about her condition in another abbey where their records show of another Sister with the same "malflowed" condition. And she runs into many hardships during her journey. Until news gets back to the Sisters in her order and Lillian comes to rescue her.

There were a few twists on Maddy's journey, which surprised me, but all in all the theme of the novel seemed to be about finding yourself and where you truly belong. Some of it was rather emotional and actually made my eyes mist over, particularly towards the end.

My only real issue with the novel was it was rather repetitive in some aspects, particularly of Maddy's inner turmoil and a previous relationship of Lillian's that ended badly that was mentioned numerous times, and a will they won't they wind up together after everything for Maddy and Lillian.

Even so, a really good book. Thank you to Netgalley for approving me request to view this title.

Review: Rogue, Rachel Vincent

Rogue by Rachel Vincent
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found myself liking this one much more than the first book in the series, I liked the first. The plot was better and Faythe as a main character seemed to be much improved (even though the spelling of her name annoys me to no end). The writing was engaging and I was quickly drawn into the world of the Pride and how everything worked. I even liked seeing more of Marc and Faythe's relationship, though some times it amazes me how much of her bullshit he can take. Some of her decisions in this book were stupid, but at least she did finally man up to her own mistakes and refuse to take the easy way out. And I believe we see the consequences of this in the next book.

One other thing that particularly annoys me - a grown woman calling her father "Daddy". Might just be a personal thing, but I find that a little....creepy. And annoying.

Other than a few little things, its a series a I very much enjoy.

Review: Dark Secrets, AM Hudson

Dark Secrets by A.M. Hudson
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

THIS POST CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. SPOILERS ARE HIDDEN BEHIND +. CLICK TO READ. This was a freebie I picked up for my kindle from amazon.co.uk. I was initially a little dubious about it, sounded like an overly familiar plot. It did have a gorgeous cover though. So I read the sample chapters. The sample chapters were actually pretty good, I was even able to over look all the Twilight similarities. So I downloaded and kept reading.

Unfortunately, the more I read, the more I disliked it. I quite liked the two main leads at first, though David did use some rather irritating and odd terms of endearment for Ara which I think might have been deliberate hints that he was older and mysterious, but frankly, it was annoying. I was even able to over look the insta love.

But the plot dragged on and Ara became very whiny, selfish and extremely annoying and in the end she needed punching after becoming a complete Mary Sue. The book was very long winded and repetitive. At first I had a lot of sympathy for her, I couldn't even begin to imagine going through anything like she had. But her constant focus and crying and whining dragged and made her irritating.

Her best friend Mike from her home town in Perth was actually a pretty awesome guy. But that just lead to the inevitable love triangle when he finally came over to see Ara. Who by then was completely obsessed with David.

Who turned out to be a vampire. It took so long to get to that point, that by the time the big reveal came it was like, really? Yawn! One thing I did like however, was the rather unique take on vampires this book had. Not seem them done that way before.

But of course he's not supposed to love a human and wanted to change her which left Ara with a big dilemma. Give up her life for the boy she loved or not? Which lead to repetitive inner turmoil made worse when Mike showed up and was crazy about her.

Urg.

 It dragged and dragged and I started to hate the characters more and more and skimmed through large sections just to get to the end. Even after a big incident with David's mean revenge seeking brother didn't make the story any better. By the time I finished I almost felt like I deserved a star myself for finishing this thing and not giving up half way through.

I love Twilight-esque vampire stories, but this one didn't do anything for me.

Review: Silence of the Wolves, Hannah Pole

Silence of the Wolves by Hannah Pole
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Request to view ARC approved by Netgalley.

Turned out I loved it. Fantastic start to a new paranormal romance. The beginning was a little choppy for me, odd use of words in some cases that didn't seem to sit right in my opinion and a little repetitive, but I'm so glad i stuck with it as it turned out to be awesome.

I loved the world building. So diverse and original with a mix of all sorts of supernatural beings. Even the Pack structuring had a rather unique feel to it. Bonus points for being set in the UK, and even more points for not being set in London.

Plenty of action, with a mix of sizzling romance and a healthy dollop of angst. There were several times I wanted to shove Tamriel and Leyth together and say just kiss already! The tension between them and the will they won't they pull was a little annoying at first. Leyth started off reminding me of a Kresley Cole male alpha - me big strong man. You female need protecting. Let me man do the work. It was another thing that got better as the story developed.

Tamriel was an immensely likeable lead female, thrown into something she was completely unprepared for, and had to learn to cope with it. Which she did pretty well. She grew throughout the book and really came into the world of the pack and came out head held high.

The ending was perfect, and even made my eyes mist over. Until the cliff hanger lead into the next book. I can easily see myself becoming very addicted to this series.

Review: Slumber, Tamara Blake

Slumber by Tamara Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was nothing like I thought it was. I thought from the blurb I was going to get a Cinderella retelling or something, but was totally wrong. The story was so surprisingly dark and twisted. And I loved it. Once I got into it it was impossible to put it down.

I loved Ruby as a main character. Her voice and demeanour throughout was so together for a teenager thrown into the situation she was. And also liked that she refused to be swept off her feet into Tam's world with his obvious good looks and nice guy in a dark place routine.

The use of fairy magic was incredibly twisted and kind of morbidly fascinating to read about at the same time. One thing I particularly liked about Ruby was how she refused to get sucked into their debauchery and obscene life style of parties booze, drugs, anything. Even though she became tempted, she managed to keep onto her morals.

And the ending had a fantastic twist to it.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. I loved it.

Review: Susie's Choice, Barbara Elsborg

Susie's Choice by Barbara Elsborg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My first indulgence in an MFM romance. I liked it. The sex was sizzling, and there was a smidgen of plot if you looked, the characters were well written. After the abysmally bad 50 Shades I never thought I would be able to read a romance novel with a Christian character without descending into fits of (immensely immature) giggling and comparing since I hated that character so much. Thankfully though the Christian in this book was my favourite character. He was sweet and hot and extremely likeable. I didn't like the character of Joel much at all. Too stubborn and bossy for my tastes.
I found this book on my goodread.com recommendation list and picked it up from amazon immediately as Susie is my favourite girls name and I hardly ever find books with a Susie as a main character. And she turned out to be pretty awesome in this book. A little on the naive side but that worked with her character and the story and she opened up and developed throughout the story.
A lot of fun and very enjoyable.

Review: Swans & Klons, Nora Olsen

Swans and Klons by Nora Olsen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received a copy from Netgalley.

The premise of this book sounded really good. And at first it was, I quite liked the idea of an all female futuristic society, and there was some logical explanation as to how the female society is divided and where they came from. The basic purpose of the humans seems to be live a rich and full live, and all the manual works and dull jobs are done by what appear to be genetically engineered slaves called Klons,

Females grow up at an academy and when they are sixteen they are paired with a mentor from the city. The story starts off promising, we meet the main character Ruberic, she's creative and artsy and dying to get a well known artist as her mentor. We also meet her love interest, Salmon Jo (that name drove me nuts) who was more sciency and quite bold and smart.

They uncover a secret about the Klons that shatters Ruberic's world and the rest of the novel is about them trying to deal with it. It...wasn't as good as it could have been. Ruberic got to be a very annoying character, she seemed quite shallow...and got annoyed when people didn't seem to like her way of thinking. And while she and the girlfriend complimented each other well, I didn't get the feeling of closeness between them other than a very close best friends with some major kissing. Ruberic talks about how much she loves SJ, and several occasions does stupid things to choose her over all others...but, meh. I didn't feel it.

Whole I liked that both girls wanted to do something about the secret they discovered, and Ruberic's idealism in dealing with the problem...they seemed to dive into their mission without much thought other than feeling it along as they went. It worked for a while but got quite irritating that a lot of it seemed to be luck.

By the end I wanted to slap Ruberic several times. She wound up grating on my nerves with her decisions.

The writing itself was flawless, and the story was nicely fast paced, I read it in a few days and would very much like to read something from this author again. Unfortunately, with this one, the characters just didn't do it for me.

Review: The Red Queen Dies, Frankie Y Bailey

The Red Queen Dies: A Mystery by Frankie Y. Bailey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An enjoyable police procedural, reminded me while reading it of a Law & Order Criminal Intent episode. An interesting choice of setting, 2019, with some much improved technology in the world, but well done and realistic rather than being over the top. Nice to see a future setting without too much sci-fi techno stuff in.

The novel focuses on three murders, two of which seem related and a third of a famous Broadway actress which has a few traits of the others but not all and the novel focuses on the two detectives putting together the clues and figuring out who is responsible.

It was interesting enough, focusing on the detectives research efforts and talking to various suspects and putting it all together...and there was a enough mystery and clues thrown in to make it engaging. Though I did find it dragging a little towards the end.

The story was good enough that I didn't actually guess who the killer was until it was revealed but it felt...a little bit...sort of...oh that's it? when they were finally caught.

Over all, a good read and I would definitely read something from this author again.

Review: The Testing, Joelle Charbonneau

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started reading this one and Veronica Roth's Divergent at the same time and must admit I had my reservations about it as both had very similar Hunger Games-esque plot and had my doubts about both of them. and was very pleasantly surprised on how much I loved The Testing when it turns out after half way through Divergent in the same genre I didn't really like it much. But I'll put more on that when I get round to my Divergent review.

The Testing was surprisingly awesome. Bit of a slow start but it really builds up to a great story. Yes, it does follow a bit of a YA Dystopia cliche list - world destroyed, new factions with certain purposes, test for the kids to prove themselves, tacked on romance, over bearing watching everything government with hidden agendas.

But none of that really seems to matter as it was such a good story. True it doesn't have the shut in feeling of violence that HGs did, but it does have some particularly good shocking moments, especially once the Fourth test gets going.

Basic plot of the novel is when students graduate high school they have the potential to be chosen for Testing to determine whether they make it to the University to study to become one of the country's leaders. The testing starts of pretty benign then get start to get worse and the tension starts to build. There was some fantastic world building in this story, explaining a lot of history and background which I did like to see.

The characters are interesting, the romance side of things isn't the main focus of the male and female lead. its not insta-love. Which is another big plus. The two already know each other and build something together gradually.

Different things keep cropping up throwing a spanner into what we think we already know is going on. Especially towards the end of the story.

All in all a fantastic book and I look forward to the next in the series. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Review: After The Ending, Lindsey Fairleigh

After The Ending by Lindsey Fairleigh
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Not for me. Barely made it past 20%. I didn't like the two main characters, they seemed far too girlie and silly to be dealing with something on the magnitude of apocalyptic mess this novel was trying to convey. The idea was an interesting one, but I just did not like it. The tone was too flippant and I did not like the emails switching back and forth between the two girls which made them sound like tweens bitching about bad days and boys. I like the idea of trying to stay in touch with a loved one - but urg.

Thank you Netgalley for the Arc, but since I can't stomach any more of this novel, on this one, I will not be providing a full review.

Review: Midnight Alley, Rachel Caine

Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read the first two books in this series in paperback then got a huge ass iBooks collection of books 1 to 8 which I'm working my way through however, I'm adding each one separately rather than in a bundle because the bundle is taking me forever to get through and I'm going to have different views on different books. Where as I loved the first two, this one was only an okay one.

I liked the story, there are characters I love, characters I hate and things about the plot I liked and didn't like but since it was a while ago when I read it I can't remember off the to of my head. I remember reading it pretty quickly in about a week and going immediately into the next one as it had a pretty good cliffhangery ending.

Review: The Necromancer's Seduction, Mimi Sebastian

The Necromancer’s Seduction by Mimi Sebastian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A really good urban fantasy novel. The world building was top notch, and the plot was fresh and original. The characters were well written. Ruby, the main character was pretty awesome. A necromancer unsure of her power trying to maintain a normal human life and not get too involved in the supernatural world around her. She was a little attutidey, but not over the top bitchy. Smart and likeable and not over the top powerful. Granted she was supposed to be very powerful but she was unsure of herself and didn't flaunt it, needing to be rescued on a few occasions before coming to terms with her abilities.

I found the take on demons in the supernatural world here really interesting. Generally speaking I always tend to think demons = bad guys. But while they're certainly not the good guys, the hierarchy is interesting and there's some definite grey areas. The love interest Ewan was a great flawed demon hero. Again, not completely a good guy, but not a bad guy either. He had really good chemistry with Ruby and the romance scenes were spicy and hot.

The plot twists were well executed, the story was faced paced and even nicely gory in bits. A satisfying ending leaving the possibility for a sequel. I know I would love to see more from this world.

A very good read.

Review: Ink, Amanda Sun

Ink by Amanda Sun
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW. CLICK ON THE + TO READ SPOILERS

The idea of this story is a brilliant one, a YA paranormal romance set in Japan based on Japanese Mythology. And the blurb of the book sounds incredible and makes you want to pick it up right away.

The start of the story - the heroine Katie Greene moves to Japan after the death of her mother, thrown into a different world and culture. Its easy to see how difficult it is for her to try and fit in, and it was an interesting start to the story, and we meet Tomohiro, the love interest when she has to go back to get something she's forgotten and needs to pass through somewhere he is when he's arguing with his girlfriend. Right off its a oh look, bad boy warning. He's gorgeous, he's dangerous and he's a complete jackass. But of course, she's fascinated by him when. And he has strange powers.

The moving drawings were interesting, and the story itself wasn't actually a bad one. It kept me going enough so I read it reasonably quickly because, like Katie, I wanted to know more about the drawings, why they moved and what his powers were and how the mythology came into it.

Katie was likeable enough, Tomohiro was kind of flat with his stay away I'm dangerous, but I can really care about you and you see the real me kind of thing. The love connection and the whole romance thing was unfortunately, way too cliched for my liking. Katie's friends Yuki and Tanaka were quite fun and entertaining.

There's also a potential for a love triangle as well, and danger from the Yakuza.

I did find the Kami quite fascinating, even though they are powerful, they are also quite dangerous, which leads to oh noes!! Forbidden love when Katie realises she's the reason Tomo's powers and drawings are going haywire.

I enjoyed the book, even though it is full of annoying YA Paranormal romance cliches, and in certain parts of the book, even though he annoyed me, even Tomohiro was quite likeable particularly towards the end of the novel. Same with Katie.

I read the book on a Kindle and a Kindle for iPad/iPhone app and found the drawings inserted in random paragraphs very distracting and annoying. It broke up the flow of the story. I would have liked to see a section at the back with the glossary maybe five or ten pages with the drawings all together. Maybe they work better in an actual paperback.



View all my reviews

Review: The Geneva Decision Seely James

The Geneva Decision by Seeley James
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The blurb on the book sounded great, and every now and then I enjoy a fast paced thriller with a strong female lead and thought this would be perfect. Unfortunately, this book was just not for me. While it was well written with an intriguing murder mystery with promises to be on an international scale, I just can not stand the main character. Usually i love strong women trying to prove themselves but Pia just grates on my nerves too much, and therefore I just can't see myself finishing the book and giving it a good review, so I'm afraid on this one, I am bowing out.

Review: Earth Shauna Granger

Earth by Shauna Granger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Somewhat torn on this one. On the one hand I started yesterday during a hair appointment, and quite enjoyed the beginning, then I read the rest in an afternoon. The way the magic was explored with the three main characters was really good, refreshing and original to see aspects from different religions playing into magic use. Very well written and engaging.

The plot was reasonably fast paced, and for a YA novel focused on magic, no real romantic subplot, which was slightly surprising. My main issue with the novel was I didn't particularly like the main character Shayna. She came across to be as being obnoxious and something of a know it all. And too powerful. And even though she and her two friends were supposed to be in the magic thing together she did a lot on her own without bothering to get their input and that annoyed me. And she was rather rude to the new guy she was trying to pretend she didn't have a crush on several times. And she kept referring to her home town as "my city" "my town". Particularly when dark magic rituals were showing up. I can understand being pissed off at dark magic when you're a white witch, but from her tone it was like she and her friends were the only ones who had the right to be doing any magic and having her talk about her town came across as stuck up for a seventeen year old.

Also, over use of the word "dude". Do seventeen year old girls really use that word in every other sentence?

But the plot itself was compelling enough for me to read the bulk of the novel in an afternoon. I would definitely like to read more by this author, but I don't know if I'll be reading the rest of this particular series.

Review: Bones of the Lost Kathy Reichs

Bones of the Lost by Kathy Reichs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy from Netgalley.

My first Temperance Brennan book. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. An extremely well plotted mystery...well, two mysteries wrapped up into one with seemingly no connection whatsoever.

Intriguing and fast paced, and while there was a lot of technical information in both the forensic side and military side, I particularly liked that it wasn't over bearing and info dumping. It fit well with the tone of the novel and voice of Dr Brennan.

I found Dr Brennan herself to be an extremely likable, relatable and respectable character. Evident immediately in the first body found, a nameless girl on a dark road, dismissed by the police as an illegal, probably a hooker. She's determined to find a name for the girl and an answer to what happened. Second case involved a trip to Afghanistan and a shooting by a military lieutenant that was questionable - self defence or on purpose? They need Dr Brennan to look at the bodies and find out which.

Quite interesting to see an outsiders POV on how everything with the military works over there and how the forensic stuff was carried out amid great danger.

Then back into the US to pick up on the Jane Doe.

Everything works together really well, and I loved the tone of the novel and the pacing. It had a proper ending and a logical one as well.

Will definitely be looking at more of these.

Review: Angel on the Ropes, Jill Shultz

Angel on the Ropes by Jill Shultz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I originally read the synopsis for this book on a Librarything.com member give away, which I applied for. My initial fist impression was ooh scifi futuristic version of The Night Circus with leopard shapeshifters. And of course I was completely and utterly wrong. Then I got excited when I found the book on Netgalley with a read now available. And as it turned out, I won the librarything.com member give away too.

As it turned out my interpretation of the synopsis was wrong, but that didn't matter as I fell completely in love with the book anyway. A vivid, engaging story with a wonderful human cast of characters set in a futuristic world. Turns out the "leopards" in the books were people with spots on their skin supposedly held responsible for a deadly disease. The main female character is one of these leopards and a brilliant trapeze performer.

I won't go into too much detail of the plot as it would be spoilerful and basically rehashing the story. It was incredible, dark in places, and fascinating future world to read about with some social issues and problems that made you pay attention and want to know how everything came out in the end. Gripping characters, beautifully written, vivid and engaging. I loved it from start to finish.

Thank you Netgalley for the read now ARC, and thank you Librarything.com for the member giveaway.

Review: The Silver Chain Primula Bond

The Silver Chain by Primula Bond
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was initially very skeptical when an invite to view the title from Netgalley popped up in my inbox. I tend to like my romance of the paranormal/urban fantasy blend. And I like my billionaire heroes to have secret super hero identities. Or be some kind of supernatural creature.

I was even less enthused to see "for fans of 50 Shades and Sylvia Day's Crossfire series". I detested 50 shades and the Crossfire series doesn't appeal to me at all. Even so, I figured what the hell. I'd give it a shot and if I hated it, I hated it. I might get a kick out of it being laughably bad.

So after I sent it to my kindle I started reading...and didn't hate it on the first few pages. In fact, I was quite impressed with the tone and the way the female lead presented herself. She wasn't a drip, she seemed quite strong and likeable. And by the end of the first chapter, I was very impressed.

As I got more and more into the book, as it turned out, I completely loved it. It was very wordy, and Serena sounds a lot older than 20, but she's got a good head on her shoulders and right away knows what she wants.

From some reviews I've read of other billionaire hero sweeps innocent girl off feet into new world of sexy delights, the hero always seems to be a jackass. Gustav's first appearance was mysterious and intriguing. He was extremely charming and seductive and their whole first encounter left me wanting more.

It took a while for things to get going and the first sexual activity they engaged in while hot, was a little on the tame side. But as the novel progresses there's a wonderful scene at Serena's first photography exhibition describing some very voyeuristic photos in Venice which describe some of Serena's dark hidden desires. Which ultimately leads to the BDSM aspect of the novel. And was it sexy as hell.

While exploring their sexual sides, the novel focuses heavily on the trust issue between Serena and Gustav. Both are very damaged in their own way, and while they desperately want each other, they can't seem to find away to connect. Made worse by their own personal issues and the over bearing presence of Gustav's abysmal ex wife. Serena doesn't want to be compared and her emotions go into overdrive in dealing with the problem leading to some rash behaviour.

The novel wraps up nicely, and I enjoyed even more delicious hot sex and how the couple pull themselves together and just when you think all is going to be smooth with an end for that particular part of the series and a new book to follow on....a surprising cliff hanger is thrown at you. (I read a few other reviews so I knew there was a cliff hanger and from about half way through I was trying to guess what it was) but I didn't get it or see it coming.

So all in all a brilliant read and I can't wait for the next one.

Review - Pretty Dark Nothing Heather L Reid

Pretty Dark Nothing by Heather L Reid
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW, SPOILERS ARE HIDDEN, CLICK ON THE + TO SEE. Unfortunately, this book turned out to be rather disappointing. The blurb on Netgalley sounded really interesting, and not like the type of YA paranormal books I usually go for so I thought it would be a good change of pace to read something dark and angsty. So when my request to view was granted I started reading right away.

The start of the book was really good, Quinn's state of mind, her nightmares, and her falling apart. And some of scenes of the despair were very powerfully and emotionally written. Both Quinn and Aaron were damaged and there was no insta-love (a plus) but one thing I did not like was Quinn's constant whining over her ex boyfriend. Yes, I can see why she would be in love with him still, after being together for four years and being dumped for resident mean girl Kerstin (who was delightful trash and a complete and utter bitch) but enough is enough. He was constantly in her thoughts when she had Aaron save her and be there for her on several occasions.

The about half way through....it got stupid. She finally gets together with Aaron, he can tell her his secrets, but she can't reveal hers, the demons tormenting her. And then when she goes back to the ex and everything goes down hill from there. Why couldn't she just man up, and talk to Aaron instead of giving into the monster voices and going back to the stupid cheating ex?! Big drama at the high school homecoming leads Quinn to run away and decide not to deal with anything anymore by throwing herself into a river and killing herself. She's emotionally drained and can't cope anymore.

The running away bit was actually quite vivid and descriptive. And thankfully its Aaron who comes after her and not Jeff. Then we get some answers to what the demons in her head are and who Aaron is. In the last ten percent of the book with an info dump. This scene would have been better if little tid bits of info had been filtered into Aaron's story more maybe through his own dreams and flashbacks. We're told early on due to a terrible car accident Aaron woke up with no memory and this last minute info dump explains why.

Quinn is told also in the last few pages about her own destiny and she can either die or live and face her destiny. She finally mans up and chooses to live which means she has to go back and deal with all her problems and her destiny.

Whilst some of it was well written, it all got a bit messy and all over the place for my liking. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this, but I don't think I'll be looking for the sequel.

Review: Runes, Ednah Walters

Runes by Ednah Walters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Surprisingly good. Wasn't sure what to expect with this one, as while it sounded good, it also sounded a very familiar story, but once I started...I couldn't put it down.

Raine's coping with ordinary teenage life and finally owning up to feelings for the boy who's been her best friend forever, and then sexy mysterious Torin moves in next door....and everything changes. The fantastic thing about this book is the hints dropped of the supernatural storyline. You know right away there's something not normal about Torin, and he's well written and exciting and whilst there are hints throughout the book until about half way through the answer isn't revealed until almost at the end...and its great because it's not obvious. The clues are there, and I was thinking one thing, then turned out to be something else completely.

The romance between Raine and Torin is also very well done for YA paranormal love triangle. She's finally got her best friend turned boyfriend Eirik and she really really wants to hold onto him and not have anything to do with the dark and dangerous world she finds herself involved in with Torin. And even though I found myself actually really liking Eirik, he's a good guy...but Torin is just so much more sizzling. So I could easily see why Raine was having difficulty choosing.

I loved the Norse mythology use as its not something I've read before and the use of rune magic was different and fun to read about as well.

Raine is a smart heroine, she finds out about a supernatural threat and does the research on it, even though she's drawn to the bad boy. She doesn't want to be involved, but as the novel progresses her feelings to do.

The story is exciting and well written with a good clearly thought out plot. The ending was a brilliant cliffhanger and I can't wait for book two.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Review - Ghost Trio Lillian Q Irwin

This was the first book I got to review from Netgalley.

  Ghost Trio by Lillian Q. Irwin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got a copy of this through NetGalley for a review.

The story is about musically talented couple Lee and Devorah who have been together many many years, Dev an opera singer and Lee a pianist. When Dev gets the chance of a life time to play Carmen through eccentric Annajean Eggers initially Lee is reluctant to let her go but does seeing the fantastic career making opportunity that her beloved has been yearning for for years. The story starts out as Lee mourning the death of her beloved Devorah, who has perished in a tragic fire whilst staying with Annajean whilst preparing for the role of Carmen.

The opening is beautifully depicted and Lee's heart ache is so raw and painful it almost hurts to read at times. Lee is on the beach by the castle where the fire happened when she hears what she believes is Devorah singing to her. Convinced Dev is still alive the novel takes the reader through Lee's journey to convince her friends and help her rescue her beloved.

This story is engaging and impossible to put down, its so easy to connect with Lee's yearning to be with her lover again and her refusal to accept her demise. The world of classical musicians and singers is a fascinating one to me so I loved being immersed in that side of Lee's profession along with her friends also classical musicians. It only took me four days to read this and I will definitely be reading it again.

Review Policy

This year I actually started reviewing the books I was reading rather than just reading, rating and leaving it. I read other reviews, mainly on Goodreads.com, why not do my own? Mainly to get a feel of whether or not I will love or hate something on my to be read list. Eight times out of ten, I read through reviews, and then have own opinion anyway.

In fact, half the time when I read reviews from favourite bloggers/reviewers a lot of the opinions are mixed, they have different ratings for books I love and different ratings for books I hate. Its fascinating to see all kinds of different opinions whether you agree or not. My favourite genres to read are Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, YA, Horror, Crime - detective stories/forensic mysteries/court room dramas, Epic Fantasy, and romance. Occasionally I dip into erotica, and maybe the odd historical.

I review based on whether or not I like the main characters, if the romance works, whether or not I feel chemistry between the two main characters, what I think of the plot and sometimes whether the style of writing works for me. I like to stick the goodreads.com star rating systems, 1 star - hated it, 2 stars its okay, 3 stars, I liked it, 4 stars, I loved it, 5 Stars I really really loved it.

 Most of the books I review are Kindle Books/iBooks/ Paperbacks or hardbacks I own. I joined Netgalley earlier this year and every now and then I'm very lucky to get approved for their ARCs. Occasionally I also win books from member give aways on Librarything.com  but when I get these ARCs or if its something I've won, I do say so at the start of my review.

 Spoilers - personally, nine times out of ten I love spoilers. But I do understand not everyone does. If I do include spoilers in my reviews, which I try not to, I do make it clear they are there. I'm not html savvy enough yet to figure out how to hide spoilers under cuts, but I'm looking into learning how. 

Books and Stuff

This will be a blog about books. Since becoming active on goodreads.com I've seen a lot of favourite authors have blogs and a lot of my reviewers have blogs too. I love reading both and this year I started doing my own reviews, rather than just reading and rating, so why not do a blog too? I read a mixture of YA and Adult books. I read mostly paranormal romance/urban fantasy and horror. I do also enjoy crime thrillers and court room drama, epic fantasy, and the occasional erotica novel. Sometimes I read historical, SciFi, and even though its not really my thing, I do try contemporary romance every now and then for something different.

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2013 Reading Challenge

Heather has read 88 books toward her goal of 150 books.

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