Early Review: Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: Apollyon

Series: Covenant #4

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Publication date: April 9th 2013

Source: Received an ARC for review from SHP.

From Goodreads: 

Fate isn’t something to mess with… and now, neither is Alex.

Alex has always feared two things: losing herself in the Awakening and being placed on the Elixir. But love has always been stronger than Fate, and Aiden St. Delphi is willing to make war on the gods—and Alex herself—to bring her back.

The gods have killed thousands and could destroy entire cities in their quest to stop Seth from taking Alex’s power and becoming the all-powerful God Killer. But breaking Alex’s connection to Seth isn’t the only problem. There are a few pesky little loopholes in the whole “an Apollyon can’t be killed” theory, and the only person who might know how to stop the destruction has been dead for centuries.

Finding their way past the barriers that guard the Underworld, searching for one soul among countless millions, and then somehow returning will be hard enough. Alex might be able to keep Seth from becoming the God Killer… or she might become the God Killer herself.

My Review

Now, there’s every chance the following review will be full of random ramblings due to the fact I have merely minutes ago finished reading Apollyon before sitting down to write. However, I shall do my best to stay focused and make at least a little sense.

First up, here are my feelings on certain aspects of the book.

Aiden. *Le sigh* ‘Be still my beating heart.’ Gush. Mush. Kissy-kissy. To be honest, I don’t normally lean toward Mr Perfect. And make no mistake, Aiden St Delphi is certainly that. He’s strong. He’s loving. He’s protective. He’s (to quote Alex) a ninja. He’s (did I mention?) loving. But I am totally and utterly Team Aiden and have been since Deity.

Seth. Initial thought: Seth is nothing short of a silly w****r! Hopefully though, if one looks deeper, as I have somehow managed to do throughout most of the series, and just as Alex is obviously able to, you have surely got to see the truly messed up and lonely guy within the f’d up exterior. He believes himself strong. ‘Well, I see your weaknesses, Seth baby.’ Because he’s nothing short of 100% vulnerable without even realising it. And I ‘feel’ for the guy, even though I probably shouldn’t. Just as I still hope for redemption for the guy, even though I probably shouldn’t.

Alex. I enjoyed Alex’s character development in this a lot. And whilst my head is arguing with itself a little because it believes her loosing Seth’s hold on her came a little too easily & too soon with not enough after-glitches, it was also relieved when I realised I wouldn’t have to spend half the book with the frustrating & deluded Alex that was stuck in the cage. And by the end of the book? Yeah, she’s bad-a$$. She believes herself a failure for what happened. I’m hoping she’ll eventually recognise her heroics for what they truly are—seeing as she really did ‘take one (or twenty) for the team’ (and not in the sexual sense of the term).

The god behind it all. I’m not going to name him and this is as much reference as I’m spilling to avoid as many spoilers as possible. But, let’s just say: I had my suspicions from pretty early on. It might have been subtle but the foreshadowing was there and I’d tied all the dangling threads together to create the bigger tapestry, so the reveal didn’t come as that much of a surprise. Just as I already knew who the visitor was pre-glimpse, and what he would turn out to be.

So, why the 4* rating? Normally, I wouldn’t consider a 4* worthy of questioning, but as I raved and raved about Deity, for Apollyon, it is. And I think Deity is wholly to blame for the 4*. Because, whilst most of my reads and how I view them are rated in comparison to other books out there, for some reason, I can’t help but compare JLA’s books to others in her own series. I did the same when I reviewed Opal (Lux #3), and I know I’m doing it again but can’t seem to help myself. Because as far as pacing and excitement goes, Deity leaves Apollyon choking on its literal dust. I get not all books in a series can hold the exact same level of action/intensity/pacing/whatnot, but Apollyon didn’t tear me through it like Deity did. Plus, the writing wasn’t as clean/crisp/tight as it has been in previous books in the series (BUT [disclaimer for the author/publisher]: this WAS an ARC, and so not a finished copy). But the comparisons aside, there’s absolutely no denying Apollyon was a great read, and a great addition to the story of this series. Not to mention, the pacing which hadn’t been particular speedy throughout suddenly went epic at about the 85% mark, and the excitement ratcheted up, and my a$$ was being hauled toward the finish line without warning. But then, whilst I felt the book ended in the ‘right place’, and it couldn’t exactly have been wrapped up tight because the story is far from over, I do love the cliffhangers JLA so often tosses at her read7ers and I kinda missed that. That being said, I’m still 100% totally and undoubtedly looking forward to Sentinel with a major case of the eager beavers.

Have you read this title? What’d you think?

Early Review: Silent Echoes by Aimee Laine!

Title: Silent Echoes

Series: Games of Zeus #2

Author: Aimee Laine

Publisher: J.Taylor Publishing

Publication date: March  11th 2013

Source: ARC received from publisher.

From Goodreads: 

For years, Ian Sands has enjoyed his life as a bachelor, taking advantage of singlehood and exploring his own definition of passion—whoever she may be. Blonde. Brunette. Tall. Short. Hot. Not. Five months ago, all that changed.

Ian’s been celibate, frustrated and desperately seeking answers to why one woman, who doesn’t play by girls’ rules, haunts his every waking moment.

As a renovations specialist, Taylor Marsh lives, works and breathes construction—a profession her southern belle of a mother would rather Taylor not touch. The same goes for Ian; Mama Marsh would never approve of him.

Like Ian, though, each time he and Taylor draw near, something compels her to get closer.

Something else tells her to run away.

Fast.

As much as their histories suggest they shouldn’t be together, neither Taylor nor Ian can deny the pull, and the two succumb, indulging in a relationship that brings pleasure to body, mind and soul.

Doing so, though, also ushers in a series of events both should have foreseen as well as one final outcome neither expected.

Cover comment:

The covers for this series are frickin’ awesome. I loved the Hide & Seek cover and didn’t think it could be topped, but it certainly has met its match with the Silent Echoes cover.

My Review

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Ms Laine’s writing, and I’m certainly a big fan of the first book of the Games of Zeus series: Hide & Seek. To be honest, when I picked Silent Echoes up to read, I was somewhat concerned about it living up to the first book. Because Tripp Fox is pretty much my ultimate book boyfriend and has been for a while. However, I needn’t have worried, because Silent Echoes turned out to be everything I wanted it to be and then some. I would even go so far as to say Tripp almost had a replacement—almost (come on, this is Tripp!).

Yep, SE has a lot going for it, and I shall attempt to organise what I think that it in my words.

Strong MC’s. Check. Taylor is tough whilst being vulnerable, relatable, charming, and there were a good few moments where I wanted to be her (I’ll let you guess which ones). And Ian? Oh, yeah, baby. Bear with me whilst I ramble (coz I’m always all about the guys). We get an introduction to Ian in Hide & Seek, and he comes across as sarcastic, a little brash, maybe conceited but not in an unattractive way, and if he hangs around with Tripp Fox, then he has to be cool and hot (in my head, anyway). In Hide & Seek, he was kinda Tripp’s witty sidekick. In Silent Echoes? Yeah, total role reversal, because Ian 100% holds his own in the spotlight.

Mystery and intrigue. Check. Yep, there is mystery throughout this book that unfolds slowly, with twists and turns, and the reader can’t help but trying to figure it out right up till the very end.

Thriller-ness. Check. Tying in with that mystery, there are a few moments of revelation that lead to excitement and action and keep the reader on the edge of their seat.

Romance. Massive check. That mystery and intrigue and thriller-ness I mentioned? Yep, the romance is all a-tangled up in every bit of that because the romance aspect of it is the biggest mystery of all … until everything becomes clear. And boy, does Ms Laine know how to write romance. She’ll have you swooning and mooning and sighing and … you get the picture.

Ian. What? He deserved another mention.

To wrap it up: Silent Echoes is a GREAT addition to this series and has left me mightily eager for more.

Have you read this title? What’d you think?

Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Title: Everneath

Series: Everneath #1

Author: Brodi Ashton

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication date: January 24th 2012

Source: Gifted a copy.

From Goodreads: 

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned–to her old life, her family, her boyfriend–before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance–and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

Everneath is a captivating story of love, loss, and immortality from debut author Brodi Ashton.

For the record:

I read this one back when it was released, but am only just getting around to posting my review here.

My Review

Okies, so I’d seen Everneath about. Liked the cover. Hadn’t read the blurb—nothing unusual there. And a friend offered to send me a copy, so of course I said YES!

And then I started reading.

Now … to be honest, the opening didn’t really wow me. Actually there were a few things that bugged me about the book, so I’m thinking I might just get those out of the way before I head forward into ‘why I ended up enjoying this book’ territory.

Here goes.

POV breaches. Though most of them were fairly subtle, POV breaches are one of my biggest eye-twitching bugbears, and there were a LOT of POV breaches to someone who knows what even the most subtle ones look like. Way too many times, the MC assumed to know the motivations of other characters. She also, on a few occasions, knew what other characters were doing right after telling us she was looking down, or she didn’t look up, or whatever. These bugged me.

The HUGE mentioning of mythology right in the opening. At the time I thought we were being given a massive foreshadowing moment sans shade about what was about to come. I even ranted to a couple folk about it. I’ll forgive the story for this, though, because the connection to the foreshadowing at the beginning was nowhere near as straightforward as I initially imagined it might be (not yet, anyway), and so I ended up being happier about it. But I still think it shouldn’t have been there, and we should have learnt AS she did without those clues. Because that wasn’t the only time we get a big slap of what might be coming up, and thanks to that *cough* Meredith *cough* I already knew exactly how the book was going to end before I got there.

The openings of each scene. I didn’t have an issue with telling us WHEN it was (like: Then/Now), but I did have an issue with us constantly being told WHERE she was. So we’d get an opening of X weeks left alongside something like ‘In Jack’s car’ and then the opening sentence of the scene would tell us she was in Jack’s car. It bothered me.

However, let’s nudge those niggling bits aside for a moment and discuss what kept me reading.

Nikki. I liked her. I was floored by her ‘voice’ but I liked her character, and her character development.

Cole. I kinda like how the reader has no idea what to make of him for a little while. He shows up on the Surface fairly early on, and I wasn’t expecting him to be there (because we don’t have a full understanding of how it works at that point), and I’m already wondering if this is going to be a love triangle and if I’m going to end up falling for both fictional guys. Whilst Jack was convinced Cole was in love with Nikki, I kinda couldn’t help but wonder if it was a love of power Jack was seeing in Cole’s face, because he’s definitely manipulative, and he certainly has his own agenda, and when that appears more important to the guy than the girl herself then I’m going to be questioning the honesty of his love. See?

So what about Jack I just mentioned? Dude. Loved him. From the word go. I felt a little sick when I suspected he might have behaved in a manner he needed a good beating for, but the more I got to know him and learned about him, the more I realised it had to have been a misunderstanding. And it was. Phew. Because I didn’t want to end up hating on this guy. His behaviour, from start to finish, his patience and quiet determination? Yeah, he won me over, for sure.

Now, what about the storyline? I liked it. In the end, I did kinda like it, even though the foreshadowing did ruin what I’d have preferred to be a surprise (because I love surprises when I read). The plot was certainly original (to me, anyway) and fresh, and didn’t just go the straightforward route it so easily could have. The world building was pretty neat, too—clear, concise, and easily understandable. Even the back and forthing between timeframes was cool once I’d gotten over the jarring feel of it, and seemed to add depth to the weaving of the tale.

So yes, I enjoyed it. And I shall most likely read on.

Have you read this title? What’d you think?

Review: Hide & Seek by Aimee Laine!

Title: Hide & Seek

Series: Games of Zeus #1

Author: Aimee Laine

Publisher: J.Taylor Publishing

Publication date: March 1st 2012

Source: I own a copy.

From Goodreads: 

Lie, cheat or steal, no one can catch Tripp Fox. Except one woman.

Lexi Shepherd’s knack for finding whatever is asked of her isn’t sheer luck. It’s a gift from the Greek god Zeus.

That Lexi doesn’t use her ability to search for “Mr. Right” comes from one of many personal rules she has set for herself. Number one is not to let fate dictate her future.

Falling in love with Tripp breaks all the others.

Despite her principles, Lexi’s unable to stay away from the bad boy, and she finds herself toeing the grey line of the law for him.

Zeus, though, didn’t give Lexi and Tripp their talents to make their relationship a simple, easy alliance. He designed it to be exactly the opposite. Impossible. Always.

With their separation, Lexi expects Tripp to forfeit love in favor of destiny. He, on the other hand, intends to beat Zeus at his own game. With a plan in place, Tripp challenges Lexi to take the one action no one else can.

Find him.

The question isn’t can she … but will she?

For the record:

I read this one back when it was released, but am only just getting around to posting my review here.

My Review

Some books? It’s just impossible to review them without sounding like a blathering imbecile. Most the time that happens to me, it’s because I’ve fallen hook, line and sinker for the main male character and still have starry eyes whilst trying to write my review.

Everyone has a favourite type of male character who’s their ultimate fictional guy. Tripp Fox is mine.

MINE, I say! *cough*

Anyway, Hide & Seek may not be due out for a little while, but I’m the lucky sucker who had an early sneak preview. This is one of those books I can read, read again, and then read again and still not be bored of Tripp (<<see a pattern emerging here?). I don’t even know what it is about him that has me sighing and crying and sighing and smiling and sighing and … you get the picture? It might be his slightly Alpha-male ways. Or his total romantic side that shows its face. Or it could be his abilities that have the potential to make an intimate relationship with this guy a little more exciting than … (that’s enough of that spoiler). Who knows? All I do know is Tripp Fox is my sort of man. 100%.

Tie him in with Lexi, who I actually wanted to win the guy (which is saying a lot considering how I feel about him), and this novel is a definite winner.

I’m not going to say too much, due to my hatred of spoilers–especially for works so new still to the world–but just know love must, can, will, and does conquer all.

For those who love a dose of PNR, but are looking for something other than supernatural creatures to give you a fix, then this just might be a decent choice for you.

Have you read this title? What’d you think?

Review: Touch of Death by Kelly Hashway

Title: Touch of Death

Series: Touch of Death #1

Author: Kelly Hashway

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Publication date: January 15th 2013

Source: Arc received from publisher (thank you)

From Goodreads: 

Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.

After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he’s not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she’s part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins.

Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.

My Review

I’m actually not 100% sure on my thoughts about Touch of Death. I mean, I obviously enjoyed it because I read until the end, and wanted to see how everything would work out. But, there seemed to be something slightly lacking—though I can’t quite pinpoint what.

I don’t know if it was the young tone to the writing when there are so many more maturely written YA books available now. Or if it was the MC, and the fact she became slightly less likeable as the book went on rather than more. Or the way she randomly decided she had feelings for Alex when she barely knew him, and some of that hadn’t been in a positive context, and she’d not long killed her last boyfriend who just might have been the first boy she’d ever loved—dunno, but the speed their relationship developed at was a bit off without some kind of background to strengthen the reasoning (though, I guess that could still come in later books). Or it could just have been that I pretty much predicted everything that was going to happen before it occurred—and anyone who knows me knows how I love to be surprised by a tale.

Yet, as I said in the opening, I didn’t dislike the read and something in it certainly compelled me to read on.

Closing comments: I’ve seen a couple of reviews that describe this as being awesome due to it blending both zombies and mythology. This is sort of true, because there is mythology, and there are zombies—but don’t go into this expecting to be reading about mindless monsters out of control rampaging the city and taking over the world with their brain-chowing ways. Go into it with an open mind, accept it for what it is, and you’ll no doubt enjoy the read. Whilst it didn’t blow me away, I was still entertained, and it’s certainly wowed a tonne of other folk out there.

Have you read this title? What’d you think?

Review: Marked by Elisabeth Naughton

Title: Marked

Series: Eternal Guardians #1

Author: Elisabeth Naughton

Publisher: Love Spell

Publication date: April 2010

Source: I own a copy

From Goodreads: 

THERON—Dark haired, duty bound and deceptively deadly. He’s the leader of the Argonauts, an elite group of guardians that defends the immortal realm from threats of the Underworld.

From the moment he walked into the club, Casey knew this guy was different. Men like that just didn’t exist in real life—silky shoulder-length hair, chest impossibly broad, and a predatory manner that just screamed dark and dangerous. He was looking for something. Her.

She was the one. She had the mark. Casey had to die so his kind could live, and it was Theron’s duty to bring her in. But even as a 200-year-old descendent of Hercules, he wasn’t strong enough to resist the pull in her fathomless eyes, to tear himself away from the heat of her body.

As war with the Underworld nears, someone will have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

My Review

Okay, I kind of swayed between 3 & 4 stars for this one as I couldn’t decide how much I liked it, and ended up going toward the generous end.

Why?

Well, I’ve recently read a few different tales that have involved mythology and gods and descendants of gods. And the majority of them seem to rely on the fact that these dudes are … well … gods … in the bedroom department, rather than a full bodied and decent plot. Also, in the majority of those I’ve read, the female mc tends to be below par on the old intelligence scale.

That wasn’t really the case with this one.

Theron was obviously somewhat worthy of a second glance and had all the attributes one might expect from this kind of tale, but whilst his libido made its wishes known it didn’t seem to drive him. I enjoyed his character development and quite liked him from the off.

Acacia was likeable, relatable, and (whilst I question her initial decision to get it on with a perfect stranger she just happened to be nursing in her home) seemed to have a solid head on her shoulders. Even when she pushed her own safety aside for the sake of others, it didn’t seem to be a brash decision made so we could see her running around screaming and running headlong into trouble. All of her actions appeared to be pretty rational.

The supporting cast was a decent enough mixture: the ones I suspect might be important later brought to the forefront and those in the background kept there yet still developed just enough at the same time.

On top of this, the plot seemed to have a little more depth than these novels often do. PLUS, this one lacked cheesiness. A big plus. There’s nothing worse than getting eye ache from all that eyeball rolling, eh?

So, all in all, not a bad read at all.

Have you read this title? What’d you think?

Review: The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Title: The Goddess Test

Series: Goddess Test #1

Author: Aimee Carter

Publisher: Mira Ink

Publication date: April 2011

Source: I own a copy.

From Goodreads: 

EVERY GIRL WHO HAS TAKEN THE TEST HAS DIED.

NOW IT’S KATE’S TURN.

It’s always been just Kate and her mom–and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate’s going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear that her mother won’t live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld–and if she accepts his bargain, he’ll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he’s crazy–until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she suceeds, she’ll become Henry’s future bride and a goddess.

IF SHE FAILS…

My Review

**WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Okay, I’m not quite sure where to start other than to say I was disappointed. Though, really, my initial thoughts are pretty much that the relationship between Kate & Henry makes Edward’s & Bella’s look text-book perfect.

There was a lot of hype for this book. I’d seen reviews for it. Heard other book bloggers chatting it up—even raving about it. And my curiosity got the better of me.

So I nabbed a copy.

Admittedly, I had the copy quite a while before getting around to reading it.

Maybe, deep down, my head knew it shouldn’t go in there.

This is one of those books I have no idea how to rate.

Why?

Well, I can’t deny I’m almost swayed by the enthusiasm of so many bloggers which Is hindering my opinion, but to be honest (if left to my own devices), I’m pretty much stuck between a 1 and a 2.

2—because I made it through to the end.

Or 1—because I’m not sure I’m glad I did, though the book does have 1 good thing about it (which I’ll come to at the end).

Right, so now I guess I better justify my words, eh?

So here’s what didn’t work for me.

This is labelled as YA. Why? The majority of this book doesn’t have a young adult setting. It doesn’t have young adult themes. It certainly doesn’t have relatable young adult content. The only thing in there that sounds even remotely YA is the writing. Because the voice it’s written in wouldn’t wash in an adult novel.

The tone in it is so dreary. It’s almost a shame the entire novel wasn’t created with a young adult theme—all of those things I mentioned that stalled it from being YA, should have been altered to MAKE this YA, because that would have made this a much better read. Because the opening of the book, when it was treated as a YA, and the setting was YA, and the characters acted like young adults was possibly the best part of the book.

Then I hit around the 25% mark. This is pretty much when it all started going downhill. And it shouldn’t have. Because this is the point where Kate enters the mansion—so this is where things should have started to get interesting.

But they didn’t.

From this point onward, I simply grew more and more bored.

The writing didn’t wow me. The characters were predictable (though I’ll come to all of them in a moment). And we were constantly given streams and streams of paragraphs filled with 100% tell of the passing of time. And given that her time in the mansion was just so boring, there wasn’t even anything interesting in those paragraphs (or chapters) of ‘tell’. But this also added another major flaw to the story: the fact we ended up being ‘told’ of her growing feelings for Henry. We were ‘told’ Kate found herself falling for him.

Um … why?

How can a reader be expected to follow along in the romance of a novel when they’re not allowed to journey it alongside the MC?

We barely got to see ANYTHING with regards to their relationship development, and what we did see was rocky or questionable at best—which leads me onto my next two points.

Henry. He has got to be the dreariest male counterpart I’ve ever read about. He barely speaks, and when he does he sounds about as emotional as a kernel of sweetcorn. Where was this guy’s personality? He really just didn’t have much of one at all—which makes the ‘telling’ of Kate falling love with him all the more unbelievable—because he gave her no reason to.

And then there was the pinnacle moment of the sex scene. We’re finally ‘shown’ a decent moment between them, with their spending some quality time together with actual actions and dialogue involved …. And then cut to the next morning.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t what bothered me. It’s an author’s decision whether or not to make their sex scenes behind closed doors scenes. It was the discovery.

That’s right, people, we find out that both Kate and Henry were drugged.

With an aphrodisiac.

Which basically means they only had sex (the first time for BOTH of them) because they were manipulated into doing so.

But that isn’t the end of that. Nope.

Whilst Henry acts fairly affronted and disgusted by it all, Kate’s more worried about Henry being upset than the fact she was ASSAULTED, with the attitude of ‘Oh well, it would have happened between us eventually anyway’.

*shakes head*

And this is YA. What a moral lesson to be teaching out teens.

I’ll move on now (before this review ends up as an entire rant over the sex scene) to the (insanely obvious) foreshadowing.

Yep, near the end, we learn who the council members are.

Damn, from Kate’s ‘buddy’ to James (we learn of him earlier), to Dylan (think that’s the dude from school’s name) to Kate’s mother … I was not in the slightest surprised to discover they were a part of it.

Because I suspected them from so early on.

Which meant the big reveal wasn’t a big reveal at all. It was pretty much a confirmation that almost fell flat because I wanted something to wow me at the end.

I also didn’t fully understand the why of it all. Yes, I get that Henry’s lost Persephone. Yes, I get that he needs someone to help him rule. But why does it have to be another female—one who is manipulated into being there—one who has to agree to be his wife if she passes all the tests and agrees to stay? Why? It reads like he has no choice but to find a replacement for Persephone—yet I didn’t feel as though this part of it was explained enough. And if I didn’t get it, then maybe Kate didn’t get it (though she should have asked waaaaaaaaaaaay more questions on the matter), which again only goes against the credibility of the tale.

And before I quit with my negatives, I also feel the need to point out the dodgy formatting of my Kindle copy. There were paragraphs mixed up—at least I hope they were mixed up. Because there’d be one character’s dialogue in another character’s action paragraph to the point I was often left guessing who’d just spoken because it didn’t always make sense. And on top of that, there was something seriously screwy happening alongside the word ‘page’. Every single time the word ‘page’ was used, some text was missing after it and in its place were random numbers (which I’m assuming are page numbers for the PB version of the book). These numbers even showed up after the word ‘rampage’. Pretty distracting.

Okay then, and onto that 1 redeeming quality of the book I mentioned way up near the opening:

James.

He was, by far, the best character in the book. I liked him at first meeting. I liked him by the end.

And whilst I felt sorry for him for obviously having a ‘thing’ for Kate and knowing she’s now committed herself to Henry, I couldn’t help but want to give him this piece of advice: “Dude, you’re better off out of it.”

Sorry, but this one just wasn’t for me.

 

My rating: seriously no idea

Have you read this title? What’d you think?

Review: Pandora’s Key by Nancy Richardson Fischer

Title: Pandora’s Key

Series: The Key Trilogy #1

Author: Nancy Richardson Fischer

Publisher: Nancy Richardson Fischer

Publication date: November 18th 2011

Source: I own a copy.

From Goodreads: 

When everything you believed about yourself is a lie, how do you unlock the truth…
Evangeline Theopolis has nightmares about the violent deaths of women she has never met. Her single mother, Olivia, suffers delusions she can’t hide. And Malledy, a brilliant young man, may have a disease that will leave him paralyzed and insane. Their lives are about to collide.
On Evangeline’s 16th birthday her mother gives her a necklace with an antique key charm—a family heirloom, though no one knows what the key unlocks.
Everything changes. Her mom is hospitalized. Her godmother attempts murder. An ancient Order tries to kill Evangeline, and a lethal sect to kidnap her.
Nothing makes sense—especially Evangeline’s own face, which has morphed from geeky to eerily stunning; the ancient key that feels strangely alive against her skin; and the magical abilities she begins to possess.
Evangeline must use her wits and supernatural powers to fight her deadly adversaries and discover her true identity. But can she accept who she really is and save the world?

My Review

The author very kindly gifted me a copy of this one so huge thanks to her. My first thoughts were: rocking cover and cool blurb.

I should maybe point out that I rarely read blurbs as most of my books come as recommendations, mostly because I like to head into a book not knowing what to expect, but I did read this blurb and yeah, it did make me want to read on.

Here’s what I thought:

-          Editing: it’s a minor one because there are VERY few errors in this book, which is awesome to see in a self-pubbed title. However, the couple of instances I spotted were dodgy moments like gender issues (his for her, etc), and missing closed/opening speech marks—so, even though few and far between, they stalled my reading flow so I double-checked the spot I was reading. But heck, you get typos in Big6 published books, right?

-          Pacing: the pacing started off awesome in the beginning, but throughout there were moments were the pace seemed to lull. I get that novels can’t always maintain the exact pace all the way through, but when the pace slows to suit the scene, it needs to be picked back up again before the calm extends too long. There were enough POV’s happening in this book that speeding scenes up wouldn’t have had to result in shortening the novel. Because the author could have given us more scenes from a ‘certain someone’s POV (who I’ll come to next).

-          Raphe: No, no, no, before you all get your knickers in a twist—I’m not dissing the guy. My complaint is that there simply wasn’t ENOUGH of him. Because I LOVED Raphe! LOVED that the story opened with a potential love interest on the scene. And so was disappointed when that kind of fizzled out almost. I think this is one of the reasons why more POV’s scenes for Raphe would have done heaps for the novel. Because we’d have gotten to know him better, gotten to understand his motives better, would have ‘seen’ what happened to him during/after a certain scene where we’re left to wonder, and I think some kind of desperation on his behalf (and actually ‘seeing’ that desperation first-hand) would have added an immense amount of tension to the book that all the young readers would have loved. I LOVED the opening scene where an interest is first shown and I LOVED the ‘healing’ scene, and NEEDED more like that. I can already imagine hoards of teen girls sighing over Raphe and sulking over the fact we didn’t get more time with him. I also would have liked to ‘see’ him right at the very end. All I can say is: PLEASE LET THERE BE MORE RAPHE IN BOOK 2!!!!!!!!!!!! BECAUSE THE READERS NEED HIM!!!!!!!!!!! *cough* Moving on ….

-          Malledy: I didn’t suss him. KUDOS to the author for that. And that’s all I’m going to say on that one so I can keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. J

-          The tone: For the most part, there was consistency to the tone of the writing/dialogue, but there were also moments when it felt as though the dialogue slipped away from whoever’s persona it was supposed to be reflecting, which leads me to …

-          The dialogue: It’s hard, when writing so many characters into one scene to keep all of their personalities separate and to ensure each and every dialogue reflects who is speaking. However, I did feel as though this slipped slightly in places—mostly with members of the pact and with the doctor. I think the strongest character portrayals were in Evangeline, Raphe (love him!—just in case you didn’t get that above), Samantha, Malledy and definitely Juliette.

-          Believability: there were some dodgy moments where I didn’t feel that certain character’s behaved in a believable manner, which almost made some spots seem too convenient (more inner conflict would have easily fixed that)—though that’s mostly because we didn’t get to understand their motives until later on—but, for the most part, it was pretty well thought out.

-          The concept: I LOVED the concept. Great idea. I do think there were certain areas of it that could have been explored a little more, or certain scenes that could have been made bigger to reflect the enormity of the situation, but overall, this story has a GREAT concept.

-          The plot: As mentioned above, this book has a great concept, which is why I almost found myself wishing it was bigger. That the intricacies of it all had been expanded upon to make it more a race to the finish; more arc’s; more red herrings; more escape attempts—which would have led to more settings/scenes and potentially more Raphe (ha! Had to get that one in there!); a little less of the prologue (because I didn’t think it was needed when we learned of it all later through the book) so we could have had more from the god’s throughout—could even have had scenes from their POV’s … or am I getting carried away with myself?

-          Anyhoo, even for all of its minor flaws, there is no doubt that Pandora’s Key is a decent read, and if the idea of Pandora’s Box intrigues you, you should definitely check it out.

My rating: 3 stars

Have you read this title? What’d you think?

Author Interview: Steve McHugh {Crimes Against Magic}

Today on my blog, I’m excited to welcome Steve McHugh, debut author of new urban fantasy Crimes Against Magic. Before we go on, let’s take a quick look at the goods:

It’s been almost ten years since Nathan Garrett woke on a cold warehouse floor with nothing but a gun, a sword, and no idea of who he was or how he got there. His only clue … a piece of paper with his name on it. Since then, he’s discovered he’s a powerful sorcerer and has used his abilities to work as a thief for hire. But he’s never stopped hunting for his true identity, but those who erased his memory have never stopped hunting for him. When the barrier holding his past captive begins to crumble, Nathan swears to protect a young girl who is key to his enemy’s plans. But with his enemies closing in, and everyone he cares about becoming a target for their wrath, Nathan is forced to choose between the life he’s built for himself and the one buried deep inside him.

Crimes Against Magic is an Urban Fantasy set in modern day London with Historical flashbacks to early fifteenth century France. It’s the first in a series of books called the Hellequin Chronicles, which shows the life of Nathan (Nate) Garrett, a sixteen-hundred year old sorcerer.

I dunno about you, but I think Crimes Against Magic sounds pretty cool and I’ll deffo be sticking it up on my to-read list (clicking on the image will take you to the book’s Goodreads page if you want to do the same). And I LOVE the dude on the cover. I’m looking forward to learning more about him.

So why don’t we learn a little more about the author. 

Hey, Steve, and welcome to my blog. Congratulations on the new release. What can you tell us about the book that the blurb doesn’t tell us? Preferably without giving the entire plot away?

Crimes Against Magic is an action-packed, fantasy adventure that mixes the present day with flashbacks to fifteenth century France, in a story that sees Nate fighting against an enemy he can’t remember, but one who will stop at nothing to destroy the man he’s hated for millennia.

How about the characters? What three words best describe your MC? 

The three best words to describe, Nate? There’s a sentence in the book which sums up Nate pretty well. What monsters fear.

Sounds like my kinda guy. How about one of the supporting cast? 

I’d go with Dani. She’s the sixteen year old daughter of his neighbour and someone who looks up to Nate as an escape from her crappy home life. She probably has the biggest transformation throughout the book too.

Love that kind of character development.

What inspired you to write this specific storyline?

I love mythology, and always have done. And I’m a big fan of history too. So, I always wanted to do something that included them both. I also wanted to write a book which I would buy, something I’d enjoy reading myself. Crimes Against Magic fits that.

Yeah, a book’s first love always has to come from the author, right? Do you have plans for future books? Will this title be part of a series?

Crimes Against Magic is the start of a series called the Hellequin Chronicles. I have notes for about a dozen books, and ideas for a lot more. Book 2: Born of Hatred, is almost finished and then I’ll be doing book 3: With Silent Screams.

Sounds great. Folk love finding out there’s more to come for character’s they fall in love with reading about.

How did you come up with the idea for the cover?

There’s a part in the book where Nate walks out of a building with a whip of fire trailing down from each hand. I thought the image was striking, and wanted something like it for the cover. Fortunately, I have an excellent artist for a friend in Eamon O’Donoghue who agreed to do it for me.

Excellent artist indeed. And I don’t know about others, but I love when I hit a scene in a book that the cover art allows a visual for.

If you were to write yourself into this book, what kind of role would you play in it?

Somewhere as far away from Nate as possible.

Hahahaha.

He has a tendency to get those around him in trouble, so I’d quite like not to be there when that happened.

Stick giggling, hehehe. Okay, which character from your book would you most like to meet?

That’s a really hard question.

And that’s a really intriguing non-answer, lol.

And now for a little bit of randomness about you:

Favourite spot to write?

My office. I can write anywhere, but that’s my favourite.

What book(s) are you reading now?

Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick. It’s an excellent fantasy book, about a spy who’s trying to prevent a war between rival gangs. It reminds me a lot of Joe Abercrombie.

Steak: rare or well-done—how do you like your meat?

Medium-well done. A little pink is fine, but I don’t want it mooing as it lands on my plate.

Pizza toppings: the entire works … or the plainer the better?

I like pepperoni on my pizza and a bit of extra cheese, but that’s enough. Although, if I’m honest I’ll eat any pizza so long as it doesn’t have pineapple or olives on it.

Cats or dogs?

Dogs. One day I might get my own. Just have to convince my wife. Which will probably take many years.

And finally … in no more than three sentences, tell us why we should buy your book? What about it will grip us by the shirt scruffs and drag us along for the ride?

You should buy it because, underneath the monsters and magic, the action and humour, this is a story about one man who will go to any lengths to protect those he cares about. Even if that means the loss of who he is.

Okay, I think I may be sold. How about you. Crimes Against Magic will be available through Amazon UK & US from 30th April 2012. Be sure to check it out.

And if you want to know more about the author, you can stalk him here:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Although originally from a small village in South-Yorkshire, Steve McHugh lives in Southampton, England with his wife and two (soon to be three) daughters. Crimes Against Magic will be his first published work, although he’s been writing since he was at school.