Tag: Geek

Books, fantasy, great reads, indie author, Out of the Box Blogs, paranormal romance, Romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

What are YOU reading?

Karen

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Is it wrong that my dreams consist of planet size libraries? I would love an endless supply of books wouldn’t you? But really there are so many books out there today so it’s not finding a book but finding the RIGHT book. I always found January to February to be hard months in my favorite genres, for some reason all my authors love to publish around the same time. This year Patricia Briggs and Anne Bishop are again putting their books out on the same day! Why can’t we have spacing?!?! So I need some new discoveries, something to freshen my reading pallet as it is. So I ask you what are you reading? Or even better, what is your favorite book that you go back to over and over again when you just can’t find anything else?

Tell me your favorite book, books or series and it doesn’t have to be just one, I’ll take a list!

Books, fantasy, great reads, Reviews, scifi, Urban Fantasy

*Audiobook* Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Karen

magic-bites

I LOVE THIS SERIES!! I didn’t want there to be any doubts. But I’m not a huge audio book person, and I will admit when it comes to the first two books of this series I tend to skim some when I reread, so when give the opportunity to review this, I thought this was a great chance to be objective. First and foremost, the blurb..

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for the magic…

When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.

Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles.

The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she’s way out of her league—but she wouldn’t have it any other way…

This book is a well written, has fantastic world building and some of my all time favorite characters in it, but when forced to actually listen to the whole thing I must admit it isn’t the strongest in the series. That’s not to say it isn’t amazing, how about we just break it down..

Pros: The book leaves no doubt where you are and what the world is about. You are in this post magic Atlanta and you never doubt the world building in it.

There are some fantastic character introductions in this book, and a lot of them remain key for many books to come. I understand who Kate is and I get her purpose. Also it is so nice to have a strong female lead that doesn’t have to be mean or crazy. She just kicks ass, I love her.

Story. I love that, though this becomes a 10 book series, this is a self contained story. It has a beginning (will talk about that) a middle and an end. No cliffhangers or underdeveloped plots.

Now remember I said this wasn’t the best of this series, so let’s talk about what I didn’t like about it.

Cons: It can be very slooooowww, especially the beginning. I’ve developed a very deep liking for Kate and her band of misfits so I have patience for anything she is doing but if you don’t know her (and for all intent and purpose you don’t since this is book one) the beginning does tend to drag. Hang in there!

World building. Wait wasn’t that on my pros list? I know this is one of those quirky things that was both a pro and a con. You see when I originally read this book there was already three books out and I knew I was going to read them. This world building is A LOT for just one book. Is it necessary for the series? Hell yes! Is it too much if this is the only book you read? Maybe. So just don’t let it be the only one, you are only hurting yourself.

This was an audio book so I would also like to comment on the narrator Renee Raudman. I thought she was fantastic! I thought a first she was a little dramatic, but then the more she read the more I fell in love with her. What an amazing job, I hope to hear her again soon.

If you like to listen to your books grab this audio here http://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=magic+bites+kate+daniels&sprefixRefmarker=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11&sprefix=magic+bites

Books, fantasy, Mystery, Out of the Box Blogs, paranormal romance, Reviews, Romance

Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by: Darynda Jones

Les

Hey everyone! Look I got lost, but I found my way back. I will save you the details of my absence, but I will say Step mom is battling Breast Cancer, Dad has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Cirrhosis of the Liver. So, 2016 has been a hell of a year for Karen, Debra, and I. I got so caught up in the illnesses that I missed out on a lot this past year. I am working on getting back to normal. Truth is, I have only read 2 books in the past 6 months. I know right, What the hell? Well Lets change that.

I was so excited to receive this book. As you all probably know I love the Charley Davidson Series. Karen introduced me to it and that was it for me. Bad ass girl grim reaper, really hot son of Satan and all kinds of fun stuff happening. What is not to love.

We have made it to the 11th book in the series. I was super excited, because it seemed like this one is coming out not long after the 10th. I think that is more my warped perception of time, than actual truth.

Lets get to the exciting part: THE ENTIRE FREAKING BOOK. She jam-packed this book with action, and a lot of Reyes Farrow. Oh, how I love Mr. Farrow.

Charley is still Charley, she does dumb stuff, and is still learning about who she is. Reyes now knows he is a God as well, and he is determined to teach Charley about her abilities. He is also his dominating self, and is handing out orders and of course Charley is laughing at that. We are also finally finding out other people’s roles in Beep’s life. Of course Swopes is still there, and as usual Cookie is horribly dressed and still amazing at helping Charley.

There are some new bad guys, humans, Gods, Angels , and ghosts. Michael is making his appearances, as well as other Angels that seem to be everywhere Charley is. Of course, she did threaten to take over the world.

Those dang Fosters  (wow they are creepy) and the fake adoption agency are still causing issues. Something is wrong with Uncle Bob, and Charley wants to unmark him since he is slated for Hell, since he killed some people to save Charley.

Charley is as usual having trouble coming to terms with the fact that she is a God and has some amazing abilities. She realizes that when she is angry, she can do cruel and amazing things if she doesn’t learn to control it. She needs to learn control.

Charley and team solve the case. She also is told she is a God eater, and 13 Gods in one, so she is the most powerful God in this dimension. She puts this theory to the test.

And at the end, she does something Reyes asks, which is a surprise. However, it may be the worst thing they have ever done.

As you know you have to read the book to find out. I need the 12th book right now, because of course its a cliffhanger. Go read it! If you haven’t started this series, then you should do so now! you don’t know what you’re missing.

Peace!

Les

Books, fantasy, great reads, Reviews, scifi, Urban Fantasy

Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs

Karen

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I read this book twice back to back it was so interesting, and I never do that. I have been following the Mercy Thompson series for awhile but the last two books have changed, with the plots having more twists in them, but not in a bad way, breathing new life in this series for me. First the blurb.

Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form, Mercy escapes only to find herself without money, without clothing, and alone in the heart of Europe…

Unable to contact Adam and the rest of the pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, and she needs to figure out which is which. Ancient powers stir, and Mercy must be her agile best to avoid causing a war between vampires and werewolves, and between werewolves and werewolves. And in the heart of the ancient city of Prague, old ghosts rise…

I want to be straight up honest with you guys, even though I loved book nine I still went into this book with a lot of doubts. I really didn’t like a lot about this preview into the story: (1) I don’t like Adam and Mercy being split up. Look I get that this series is about Mercy, but at this point they are accepted in my mind as a team and honestly I’m getting fatigued with them having trouble in their relationship no matter if it is physical or mental. I just want them to be together and happy already! (2) New characters. The one complaint I’ve had with the last few books is that characters have been bleeding over from Patty’s other series (Alpha and Omega) or just new people are constantly be introduced. I like the core characters and when we are always meeting others they don’t get enough, or any, page time. (3) Personally I didn’t like the idea of this series going to Europe. Just didn’t. I don’t have a good reason except maybe too much change to fast? I don’t know I just was not excited for this idea either.

So when I got an ARC from netgalley of this book I actually went into with more of a critical eye than I’ve ever gone into any of Patricia Briggs books. I had decided if this book fell flat that this might be the end for me and the Mercy Thompson series which would be sad since this is the longest standing Urban Fantasy series that I still read. I’m happy to say this book was fantastic, it made me a believer again. Chapter by chapter all my doubts went away, I became so engrossed in the story that I just didn’t care that Adam and Mercy were separated, or that all new people were in it..and this is the brilliant part. I noticed that Patty has started to evolve as a writer, she is still an amazing Urban Fantasy author but she has taken what she does so well and built on that making her stories richer and more complex. It has forced someone like me, who was comfortable with our relationship as reader/writer to pay attention again, even to the point with this book, reading it twice to make sure I got everything out of it. That is a great story.

If you are new to this world I suggest starting with Moon Called but if you know these books you need to preorder this now, it releases on March 7,2017

Here is the Amazon link https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Fallen-Mercy-Thompson-Novel-ebook/dp/B01H17UAF4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=