Tag: female characters

Books, fantasy, great reads, Reviews, Urban Fantasy

Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop

Karen

Marked in Flesh

Oh wow this was an emotional roller coaster for me. I actually waited 24 hours before I wrote this post. First the blurb and then I’ll tell you how I feel, and keep it spoiler free.

Since the Others allied themselves with the cassandra sangue, the fragile yet powerful human blood prophets who were being exploited by their own kind, the delicate dynamic between humans and Others changed. Some, like Simon Wolfgard, wolf shifter and leader of the Lakeside Courtyard, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn, see the new, closer companionship as beneficial—both personally and practically.


But not everyone is convinced. A group of radical humans is seeking to usurp land through a series of violent attacks on the Others. What they don’t realize is that there are older and more dangerous forces than shifters and vampires protecting the land that belongs to the Others—and those forces are willing to do whatever is necessary to protect what is theirs…

The first 50% I spent just wanting anything to break the suffocating tension. And the last 50%? It wasn’t like a bubble bursting, more like something dropped down a steep incline, you never will stop it but at first you think you can catch it then it moves faster and faster until you just have to let it go. And the end, ugh just a touch of sweetness. Amazing! I would tell you more but I feel it’s impossible without discussing something that might spoil it for you.

If you follow the series read the other three don’t short yourself and miss this. I would not recommend starting this series with this book though, start at the beginning with Written in Red

trust me it’s amazing!

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!

indie author, Out of the Box Blogs, paranormal romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

The Waiting Game

Karen

Recently I’ve noticed that a lot of the authors I’ve been following for years are spacing the time between books in a series more and more. Now sometimes it’s a health or other personal issues which I completely sympathize with and understand, hey as much as I’d like to have that new book real life and family is a priority, but sometime it’s not. Here are some of the reasons I’ve been consistently running into:

  1. The new series. Authors want to start new series, which I get creatively they get bored, so the old series which is the cash cow and the one I love starts to have longer and longer wait times. I have a few that publish like clockwork once a year but now with new series (still only publishing once a year) the series I follow only comes out every 2-3 years. Sometimes I actually have forgotten what’s going on it’s been so long.
  2. The publisher. Apparently the publishers like the publish certain genres certain times of the year. One author missed her deadline by a month and now her book is slated to release a year later. This is a NYT best selling author and this will make it a three year wait on the book. Really? You couldn’t find a spot?
  3. The deadline. As mentioned above deadlines seem to be getting tighter and tighter for writers and when they miss them then books seem to get pushed not weeks buts 6,8,12,18 months out.

The saddest part is that some new series I’ve picked up are really interesting but there has been no follow up..and its been 12-18 months for some of these books. Honestly I’ve lost interest in anything that’s not my core reading, as far as series are concerned, that aren’t indie authors. Do you think it’s over stressed authors, publishing houses that think people will stay loyal no matter what or an over critical me?

 

Books, Out of the Box Blogs, paranormal romance

The Dirt on Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones

Karen

ninth grave

Wow! Les and I are at polar ends with this book so we decided to do a tandem blog. That’s right you get not just one but two opinions! But wait there’s more, we can’t just leave it at that, we have to comment on each others opinions because we feel so strongly different so we left a open draft for 24 hours (we are 6,000 miles apart so we had to give it some time) so we could give a proper rebuttal to the others unbiased and honest comments, because netgalley was crazy enough to give us both copies for that exact purpose. Yup, that’s why they did it, and that’s why they’ll never do it again 🙂  But first as always the official blurb..

In a small village in New York lives Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she’s more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half-truths. Soon, she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it. Her saving grace comes in the form of a new friend she feels she can confide in and the fry cook, a devastatingly handsome man whose smile is breathtaking and touch is scalding. He stays close, and she almost feels safe with him around.


But no one can outrun their past, and the more lies that swirl around her—even from her new and trusted friends—the more disoriented she becomes, until she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. A force that absolutely will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. But that doesn’t help in her quest to find her identity and recover what she’s lost. That will take all her courage and a touch of the power she feels flowing like electricity through her veins. She almost feels sorry for him. The devil in blue jeans. The disarming fry cook who lies with every breath he takes. She will get to the bottom of what he knows if it kills her. Or him. Either way.

Kar: I’m pretty disappointed in this book. I want to start out by saying that I loved this series. Charley and the gang always made me laugh, had great adventures and her and Reyes were hot! But then came book seven, I felt like the story line took a hard left turn without warning. I hated it, raged about it, even called up my friends, that are fellow fans and cried to them. And book eight came out, I felt vindicated, total redemption! Characters were back to their crazy, snarky, entertaining selves. Oh and Reyes practically smoldered off the page, I loved it, so when I had a chance to get an advance copy of the ninth book I jumped all over it. I’m so sad right now. Let me break it down for you.

First 1/4 of the book Charley doesn’t know who she is or who anyone else is. Everyone is there but no one is tell her or interacting with her (except Cookie, she at least talks to her) so it is literally Charley aka Janey (that’s her new name) working in a diner. No, I’m serious that is it. NOTHING else is going on, okay you get one or two matrix slow mo looks from Reyes but nothing else. For like 75 pages….

Next section Janey decides that she’s going to solve a mystery. Finally something to read about! Oh and she decides she is attracted to Reyes (seriously!?! who isn’t???) so she might like to kiss him. Also she starts to discover what she can do. If you never read any of the other books this is a great way to learn all about Charley/Janey’s abilities. Unfortunately I have so this is just more boring for me.

Next part. Finally we get some Reyes action, but to be honest it feels a little rushed, like it’s just thrown in there cause there would be riots in the streets if it wasn’t. Even this mystery isn’t really getting much attention.

The last part. Book seven took a left turn. This book just DROVE OFF THE ROAD!! Really, can’t that Earl guy die??? And seriously, could this story be any more convoluted? I feel it’s so far from the original plot line I don’t even think I’m reading the same series. Which brings me to my ultimate point, I’m done. This isn’t anything like the books I loved and I refuse to continue to cling to this series hoping for the past. Will Reyes continue to be smoking hot? Absolutely! But these books are just too far from where they started. I can’t recommend this book, I hated it.

Les: I really enjoyed this book!! Even though she has no memory she is still Charley. The whole gang is there and they are funny and witty. Reyes is as hot as ever!!! Uncle Bob gets a new name and there is a new ghost in the corner. I admit Garrett wasn’t his normal self. He didn’t insult her once. I disagree with Karen, yes it took a turn in book 7 &8 and this is where it was always headed. They told us a lot in book 8 so some wasn’t a shock to me. The whole deal with an angel thing I admit is weird but makes the perfect conundrum. As per usual I think Darynda Jones did a good job. Would I have liked more Charley and Reyes time well duh, who wouldn’t? Earl was in a paralyzed state in the hospital, so he was up for grabs, and who was paying attention to him in book 8, they had a lot going on at the time. Look she is Charley she does dumb shit that almost gets her killed and that didn’t change. I must say I missed Mr. Wong.

And she starts her first detective work in the first 11% of the book. Give her some credit she doesn’t remember anything and she sees dead people and all this stuff is happening and she doesn’t understand it. At least she isn’t whining like in book 7.

Needless to say we don’t agree I loved it Kar hated it I will go on to read book 10 while Kar is done.

But Kar, we found out who she was in book 8 and what she was capable of and also beep, so why didn’t you think it would go this route?

Kar: Because this route is pure insanity! By the way it’s really hard to fight with you spoiler free..Anywho the best part of this series is that, though she is crazy and a bit dumb, there is a pattern. Charley does her grim reaper thing, solves a crime (usually getting hurt in the process), has crazy hot sex with Reyes, and there is some hilarious banter in between with the rest of the cast of characters. Somehow we have veered waaay off course, now basically Charley can do anything she wants, everybody lives and breathes for her (in the whole universe), she has the power to make everyone stop breathing but is too dumb to figure that out still and there is some funny banter with the cast of characters. See the difference?!!? Yeah not what I signed up for…

Les: SHE HAS AMNESIA!!!!! It does get explained to her and then she understands what she can do and what she is capable of. They do not live and breathe her if they did she wouldn’t have gotten her ass kicked in the woods. No I don’t see the difference. The route was exactly where it was always headed. I don’t think it was just pulled out of the air. I was not even suprised by it. She can’t do anything she wants, they almost arrested her. They get mad at her as usual and then they get over it, because at the end of the day Charley will always do dumb shit and get hurt.

Clearly Les and I don’t agree on this book (trust me this could go on for DAYS) but I will end the torture and publish the review. Let us know what you think once it’s release. I say if you must read it get it from the  library, Les says buy, I guess we are leaving this one in your hands…the book releases January 12,2016 and can be preordered at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Ninth-Grave-Charley-Davidson/dp/1250074487/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450575163&sr=8-1&keywords=Ninth+grave+Darynda+jones