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Books, fantasy, Out of the Box Blogs, paranormal romance, Reviews, Romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

News about our blogging team

Karen

Book 1

First we wanted to start out by letting everyone know some sad news. Debra, one third of our blogging trio, is very ill and we will be losing her soon. Debra is the kindest of the three of us, even when she had a “harsh” criticism she would send it to me and I always would say “you’re too sweet” but that’s just her nature. She loves books, cares for people and made Les and I a little bit better. Because of this we think it’s appropriate to give someone else the gift of a book, from Debra to you. We know we have been sporadic bloggers over the years but you guys stick with us through some crazy times, hard times, and downright unthinkable times.

If this gift card goes to someone who’s been reading as long as us we say great, you get to have whatever book you want and it won’t be an ARC so there is no pressure in your review. If you are new or struggling, that’s great too, here is a chance to get a book without guilt. Believe it or not we’ve been blogging now for three years and we will miss Debra’s unique voice, but we thank you all for listening and always being kind to her. She loved blogging, so thank you for making it special.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Click the link to enter for your chance at winning. The winner will be chosen on Friday August 3,2018.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Books, fantasy, paranormal romance, Reviews, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

Burn Bright by Patricia Briggs

Karen

Wow. I am so sad because Patricia Briggs has been one of my top 5 authors for a long time. This is going to be hard. First the blurb..

They are the wild and the broken. The werewolves too damaged to live safely among their own kind. For their own good, they have been exiled to the outskirts of Aspen Creek, Montana. Close enough to the Marrok’s pack to have its support; far enough away to not cause any harm.With their Alpha out of the country, Charles and Anna are on call when an SOS comes in from the fae mate of one such wildling. Heading into the mountainous wilderness, they interrupt the abduction of the wolf–but can’t stop blood from being shed. Now Charles and Anna must use their skills–his as enforcer, hers as peacemaker–to track down the attackers, reopening a painful chapter in the past that springs from the darkest magic of the witchborn…

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Alright now that everyone has been warned let’s talk about the book.I didn’t like this book and allow me to explain why.I felt that characters I have grown to love were changed on a whim or to suit a new plot, let’s go through them each:

Anna was mean in the beginning of the book though she has always been kind and sweet. She does something to Leah (I know Leah is suppose to be the bad guy, but Anna is suppose to be the Omega and above all this) to hurt her emotionally. She knows it will make her feel terrible,and she does it for spiteful, petty reasons. It makes her appear bitchy and childish. Then she has a conversation with Charles that makes her appear manipulative. Isn’t Anna suppose to be sweet and kind? But wait we are constantly reminded how smart she is, at nauseous amounts. By chapter two I started to dislike her and she started to grate on me.

Leah the lead bitch is suddenly dumb though she has survived as the Alphas mate for centuries. I liked Leah better horrible. And the destruction of other characters to try to defend her was worthless.

Charles is a murderer, he killed a submissive without even talking to him and we all know submissive wolves can’t disobey dominant, and is a complete ass. That everyone is so terrified of him is getting old, aren’t dominates suppose to protect those weaker than they are? So why does everyone live in fear of him?

Bran is a pedophilia who at some point fell for a 2-16 year old. That is when Mercy lived in his pack. And if you are thinking I read to much into the story or that’s not what Patty meant, nope a Goodreads reviewer emailed her assistant and someone asked her during a signing. It’s exactly what she meant. Basically, everyone should have stopped asking for more on Bran and we got what was coming to us. Oh and he is suddenly too weak to handle problems in his own pack? Seriously..this is Bran now???

Then the rules of the world keep changing, Charles tells a story of how he couldn’t disobey his father because he’s alpha. Then Charles gets mad at another wolf for not disobeying his alpha. What? Literally the same thing. It’s like in this book Anna and Charles live by a different set of rules and judge people who do the exact same things that they did.

I thought that this might be a fluke, I know Patty has had some terrible emotional things happening but all the feedback I’m getting is it’s not, Mercy will never know but everything is true and it won’t be changed. This is a second series/author that I have followed for over 10+ years that I might be losing. I hope she changes her mind.

Books, funny, great reads, Out of the Box Blogs, Reviews, Romance

“Mr. President” By: Katy Evans

Les

mr-president

Hey everyone! I was reading this book, and thought how fitting that I finished this book the day before we officially get a new President. *This is not a political post!*

Here we go!

Charlotte is a young girl when she meets the President of the United States and his son. Her father is a Senator. Her mother says she should write a note to thank the President for being at dinner. She instead writes a letter to his son Matt, telling him if he ever runs for President she would help him. (His dad told her one day Matt would be president) Fast forward eleven years, and Charlotte is working full-time, her father and mother are still in politics, the President she met was assassinated, and his son Matt is now running for President.

Matthew Hamilton is America’s sweetheart, they have watched him grow, lose his dad, and he has decided the country needs change and is going to run for President. He hasn’t forgotten Charlotte, and still has her letter. He plans on keeping her to her word to help him win.

And this, ladies and gentlemen is where the fun begins. Charlotte realizes that her childhood crush on Matt hasn’t gone away and is as strong as ever. Matt realizes that Charlotte has grown up into a beautiful, and smart woman.

Problem: Matthew doesn’t want a First Lady. He doesn’t think it is fair, because he watched his mother take a back seat to the country. He refuses to do that to anyone he loves.

And….. the shit gets real hot! They are sneaking around, trying not to get caught by anyone. They are campaigning and traveling together and sneaking off to remote locations, so the staff, and the press don’t find out and ruin the campaign.

You will have to read the book to find out if they get caught or not!

So, my opinion. I really liked this story. I like the characters, the story line and the idea behind it. Charlotte is an honest, smart girl, who realizes the truth in her situation. Matt is a strong man who has always been in the public eye, and who is very close to his mother. Charlotte’s parents are strange to me, however their concerns and views make sense, since they are also in the public eye.

Let me be clear, if we ever have a super hot, young smart man running for President, I will be signing up to work on that campaign. Matt is super hot! I love him. He is a guy next door type (well I wish he lived next door to me!).

What I really like about this story is that the sex, and the sneaking around is coming as a secondary thing to them working and campaigning. This book is about the entire journey, not just their relationship.

This is a series and I am going to buy the second one as soon as I am finished writing this. It ends in a cliff hanger, so I NEED to know what happens next.

Give it a chance, go read it!

Peace,

Les

 

Books, indie author, Out of the Box Blogs, Reviews, scifi, Urban Fantasy

The Pre-Review

Karen

I have a conundrum. I hate pre-reviews. You know the reviews that people put up on books before they are released. The 5 star ratings that say “I CAN’T WAIT!!!” with unicorns and rainbows, but they haven’t actually read the book yet. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. They make me so crazy for these top three reasons:

  1. They dilute any real ARC reviews. If I’m looking at reviews to purchase a book, I can’t trust the rating because who knows how many 5 stars are just people that are excited to get a book. The ARC readers could be rating it 5 stars but now the true average is skewed.
  2. It hurts the authors and publishers. They tend to get alot of likes, so they are at the top. This is a problem because when I’m looking for an actual review, all I find is…OMG when am I going to get this book!!!! and not anything with substance. After awhile I get sick of shifting through them all and sometimes just give up. The sad part is after a book comes out, some of these 5 stars will get changed to lower ratings once the book is read.
  3. They use the likes later for a real review. You see people like those “I can’t wait reviews” because neither can they. And they can build up to a 100 likes in a year. But here is the twisted part, the reviewer can then edit it to a real review and keep the likes automatically becoming a top review, without any work (or sometimes without a good review) because they keep those likes. Then they get more for the actual review, it’s like getting double points, or let’s just call a spade a spade it’s like cheating.

But here is my problem, you have sites like Amazon that “fixed” this problem by just not allowing reviews of any book before its release. Now when I go to review any ARC I receive I can’t put a review on Amazon. I always intend to go back, but you know what they say about good intentions.

So which way is better, let anyone review anytime or only allow reviews once the book is released to stop all the 5 star previews that haven’t read? Les suggested giving the ARC readers a code to allow them to review, but who would we get the code from and would you need  one for every site? I don’t know the solution or which way is better, frankly I see pros and cons in both system but you guys always have the best feedback so I figured I’d put it out there and see what you have to say…