Tag: blog review

Books, fantasy, funny, great reads, paranormal romance, Reviews, Romance

Some Girls Bite: A Chicagoland Vampire Novel by: Chloe Neill

Les

So I don’t even know how I came across this book! But, I did so here you go.

Grad student Merit has her life pretty much where she wants it. She’s a geek and working on her dissertation in English Literature. Then one night she is attack and everything changes….

Merit is attacked and almost killed, a vampire Ethan saves her life by turning her into a vampire. Plot twist, humans know the vampires exist. The vampires run by select houses have come out of hiding and are living among the mortals. There are also other supernaturals in the story just for shits and giggles. Kidding, they are important too.

Now she must decide if she wants to be an outcast vampire, or pledge allegiance to Ethan and his house. The vampires are run by houses and Ethan is the master of his, one of the oldest houses. She must come to terms with the fact she can never have the future she planned and decide whether to accept her new life or become a rogue vampire cast aside. Also, she will need to help figure out why humans are being murdered just as she almost was.

Ok now that I got that out of the way. I can tell you my thoughts. This is actually a good story. It has a good bit of whity humor. I like Merit most of the time. I think sometimes she is whiny, but I got over it. Most of this story is leading up to what Merit will decide and how her future will be formed. Of course, her and Ethan have the hots for each other. I wouldn’t have expected anything else. I must inform you that this is not a “oh my gosh he saved my life, I love him” story. Thank you for that!!!!

Merit is strong willed and spunky and sometimes gets herself into trouble, but she is not in need of someone to save her. That is refreshing.

I did however think that the human murders seemed really important in the beginning then got pushed to the background, so that made the ending feel rushed.

THIS IS A SERIES!!!!! I will be reading the second book.

So go check it out and see how it all plays out.
Peace!

Les

Books, fantasy, great reads, Reviews, scifi

Ready Player Two…

Karen

Ready Player One

Okay so the book is called Ready Player One by Ernest Cline but (and I know many of you will find this shocking) I have played a few video games from my childhood on and ALWAYS when its been an option I am player two. So when I realized what this title meant I could actually see the words READY PLAYER TWO blinking behind my eyes and I got that old rush of adrenaline. Now if you’ve played the old video games you know the anticipation I’m talking about, the one where you been waiting for your friend/sibling,  cough, cough..SISTER to finally die off you you could get your turn. It was fun to take a walk down memory lane and Ready Player One will definitely remind you of any old games, movies, tv shows, etc from the 80’s. But lucky it proved to be more than that. First the blurb!

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

I liked this book. A lot. And I was really nervous to start it, first because everyone was talking about how amazing it was, which whether you want it to or not, set my expectations higher, and then I had decided to read it myself. Normally that would be a good thing but other problem was I was reading the book not listening to it. It sounds silly when I type it but that’s how I felt. Many of the reviews that I read included the fact that they loved Wil Wheaton’s audio version and I’m not the biggest audio book person so I went back and forth on this one. Queued this book a few times in both formats. It got kinda ridiculous. But finally I buckled down and just got the read copy of this book, and took it seriously. Here’s my official thoughts.

I loved the concept of this book. I’m not talking about all the 80’s stuff that reminded me of being a kid, I mean the actual story. In fact I found this idea interesting, I loved the fact that gamers (or gunters as they were called in this book) didn’t solve the puzzle instantly. In fact some puzzles took years to solve, love that! Also I really like the main characters, Wade/Parzival, Aech, Art3mis, Daito and Shoto. I found them funny and geeky, easy to read, most of the time, and liked their interaction.  I even loved the evil Sixers and their leader Sorrento (as bad guys of course) thought they played their part well and loved cheering against them. Okay I also enjoyed some of the 80’s references. I’m not sure how realistic it is to think that all these kids in the future would love everything 80’s, but it was fun to remember things from my childhood and IT’S FICTION PEOPLE..that means made up. So it’s okay that not everything is realistic.

So what didn’t I like. Well I think that Ernest Cline is a fantastic writer. There where parts that were like poetry to me in his book, he could paint a picture in my head with a few sentences. So that’s why I know that he didn’t have to go off on three page rants about random things, or I felt he didn’t have to, he just wanted to rant and then summarize the whole thing at the end of the chapter. I let him get away with it because I loved the story, enjoyed the trip down memory lane, and had fun with the character. Had this book not been firing on all cylinders for me, this review might be very different. Also this was a rare occasion when I wish there was zero romance. I get that he’s a hormonal boy so it made sense I guess but I would have preferred if it wasn’t even in this book, and I’m always the one hoping someone will get together so that just shows you how much I was into the actual quest.

In the end I think this is a very worthy read, especially if you like the blurb. I’ll be curious to see though what I think of other books by Cline. I might love them, I’ll never know until I read!

 

 

 

Books, fantasy, great reads, paranormal romance, Reviews, Romance, scifi, Urban Fantasy

The Beast by JR Ward

Karen

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I loved this book! There I said it. I thought it felt like the books of old when the original brothers were getting together, and I’m kinda partial to the originals. But blurb first, let’s follow the rules!

 

Nothing is as it used to be for the Black Dagger Brotherhood. After avoiding war with the Shadows, alliances have shifted and lines have been drawn. The slayers of the Lessening Society are stronger than ever, preying on human weakness to acquire more money, more weapons, more power. But as the Brotherhood readies for an all-out attack on them, one of their own fights a battle within himself…

For Rhage, the Brother with the biggest appetites, but also the biggest heart, life was supposed to be perfect—or at the very least, perfectly enjoyable. Mary, his beloved shellan, is by his side and his King and his brothers are thriving. But Rhage can’t understand—or control—the panic and insecurity that plague him…

And that terrifies him—as well as distances him from his mate. After suffering mortal injury in battle, Rhage must reassess his priorities—and the answer, when it comes to him, rocks his world…and Mary’s. But Mary is on a journey of her own, one that will either bring them closer together or cause a split that neither will recover from…

 

This book delivered as a good read. But for me it was more than that. The more I read this the more I realized that there were two other reasons that this book was so good. (1) I like Mary and Rhage. It makes a difference because I haven’t really liked the couples pretty much since books 9, I didn’t like Tohr/Autumn, Payne/Manny, Qhuinn/Blay love the boys just not my thing, and I despised Selena sooo yeah. Found the princess weak and pointless. Yeah I guess it’s nice to read about people I like. Problem I see in the future? I love Assail (and he is AMAZING in this book!!!) but his chick?? Eh I could take her or leave her. In fact I never really saw what the big deal was about Assail, then take that chick away and Bamn! he became interesting! But put them back together in a book? More boringville for me. Oh and don’t even get me started on Layla….seriously guys I don’t think I can read a book about her if Ward writes one I dislike her that much. (2) Things actually happened in this book, the plots carried and some story lines actually got completed. Lately I’ve been feeling like new stuff been added but nothing is getting resolved. Finally this fixes some(not all but that’s okay) of those loose ends.

All and all it felt the Warden of old and I LOVED EVERY BIT OF IT!

So in my opinion if you have read part of this series or all of this series go and get it, you’ll like this one. If you’ve never read any of the BDB and you’re a PNR fan or someday want to grow up to be a PNR author just remember this when deciding if you should pick it up. The USA Today said about JR Ward “J.R. Ward’s urban fantasy romance series is so popular I don’t think there’s a reader today who hasn’t at least heard of the Black Dagger Brotherhood” just get the book.

The first book in this series is Dark Lover if you want to begin at the beginning:

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Books, fantasy, great reads, Reviews, scifi

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Karen

Six of Crows

I just finished this book and I must discuss! I loved it…loved, loved, loved it! But this book broke two of my rules as a reader so it leaves the question, can a book be good enough that no matter what the author does we will forgive?  Let’s talk about the book first because frankly this book deserves it.

This blurb: Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

If you feel like this blurb doesn’t give you enough information don’t feel bad, the whole book is like that. Getting info is like squeezing water from a rock, you are always desperate for more and never feel as though you have enough. But it’s so successful in this sorry because it keeps you in suspense the whole time, always wondering what is going to happen next, always curious about the main characters themselves. It’s beautifully done too, I never wanted to put the book down because I was lost, I always wanted to find out that next secret or see what the next part of the plan was.

The characters themselves: they were so dark, damaged and honestly somewhat bad that it was refreshing. They rarely did what I wanted them to do, or reacted the way I expected them to at first, so I was forced to really get to know them and once I was fully committed to what they were doing and truthfully…I liked them. Ugh the anxiety! The odds are always against them and no matter how smart Kaz is, things don’t always go their way, I felt like I need an anxiety pill halfway through this book (or some Vodka) I was so stressed, and dedicated to knowing what happened.

******THIS PART MAY FEEL LIKE A SPOILER***** Though I don’t spoil any of the story itself I do make a reference to the ending, if you don’t want to read about that be done with this blog, thanks for reading! Otherwise read on but you have been warned!! If you decide to stop here hey that’s okay I recommend you read the book, you can always come back..

 

 

 

Now let’s talk about the things I usually hate that this author did that I forgave or overlooked. (1) The multiple POV. This is a personal preference for me but usually I DNF books that are written from multiple POV’s. I don’t care if it’s in the first person or third person but when it jumps from person to person to person and I’m constantly having to adjust to a different personality and style per chapter I usually get frustrated. For some reason it worked in this book, because the characters are so closed off I feel I would have never learned anything personal if we didn’t jump between people. (2) The cliffhanger. Ugh this is a deal breaker for me. Now there are degrees of a cliffhanger and as far as this one goes it’s borderline. I feel like authors write cliffhangers for two reasons, because they can’t decide/or can’t write an ending or they want you to read the next book. This felt like the latter. I hate that. I’m going to read it anyway, 90% of the book is resolved, why, why, why?? Maybe you read it and don’t feel like it was a cliffhanger? I did. That being said I will still read the second book, I fact I just preordered it on Amazon. I just like it when my stories are tidy, all finished up with no lose ends.

Okay that being said this book was still amazing, you need to get it and read it. Now!