Tag: great read

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

The Curse of the Tenth Grave by: Darynda Jones

Les

 

Ok I just finished this like 5 minutes ago. I couldn’t wait to share it!!!

It’s no secret, I obviously got the ARC for this book, since it won’t be out until June 28th.

If you are a fan of the Charley Davidson series, then preorder it and clear that day on your schedule, because you aren’t gonna want to miss a single moment.
I loved this book!!!!!! Darynda Jones has done it again!! I usually lose interest in a series around book 3 or 4. This is book 10 and I am no where ready for this series to end!!!!! I love the ending!

In this book Charley is kicking asses. She is coming into her powers and it shows. She is still funny and quirky, but she is more self aware this time around.

It’s like in the beginning of the series when Charley was comfortable with herself and knew what she was at that time. She was amazing. Then, in later books I feel like she lost herself because she didn’t know who or what she actually was, or what she is capable of. Now I feel like she is back to being comfortable. And boy is she enjoying her new tricks!!!!

Reyes is as hot as always!!! Sometimes I wish I was Aunt Lillian, so I could check Reyes out while he is using George.

Read this book right now!!! I couldn’t put it down. It won’t disappoint!!!
Peace,

Les

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, great reads, paranormal romance, Reviews, Romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

The Irin Chronicles by Elizabeth Hunter

debra
  • The Irin Chronicles is a series of three books that are titled (in order):

The Scribe
The Singer
The Secret

I am going to review all three as a set because all three have to be read to get the whole story. Book one is a real cliffhanger!

This story evolves around 2 distinct cultures (or are they distinct?). You learn throughout the story that the cultures involved are the offspring of the Fallen and the Forgiven. Twenty-one angels fell from heaven. Seven died, seven returned (Forgiven) and seven stayed on earth (Fallen). The offspring of the Forgiven are the Irin and the offspring of the Fallen are the Grigori. Both sets of offspring have inherited magic abilities from their angel fathers. The Irin’s stated role on earth is to protect the humans (who are unaware of what is going on) and to hunt/kill the Grigori. The Grigori are vicious hunters and users of the humans (but are all of them this way?). The Irin society’s numbers are decreasing because two centuries ago, the Grigori attacked the Irina (the females) and decimated their numbers. However, all is not what we think it is throughout the story. Actually, what we learn in Books 2 and 3 totally turns the story upside down and nothing is quite what it seems in the early stages of the story. The author does this very well. There were several spots in books 2 and 3 (I was reading these on my Kindle), that I had to stop and put in a note so I would make sure I remembered a few things. Many passages are highlighted. I normally do not do these things—a good indication of how the story evolves over the life of the books.

My thoughts: I loved this trilogy. I found book 1 because it was the monthly selection of an online book club I am in some time ago and I really enjoyed it. I had other reading obligations at the time so I could not get to books 2 and 3 until now. But the story just would not leave my head and others recommended it to me that I knew I had to finish the series. And I am so glad I did. The author has created a rich and complex world and is very good at the world building. Her world is very descriptive in the narrative but not so descriptive that she bogs us down with it. A lot of the world building is also done in the character interaction/dialogue which the author did a great job with. I am very critical when it comes to dialogue. If I don’t feel that the dialogue is believable for the characters to say to each other, the book falls flat for me. Sorry—that’s just the way I roll. It’s a quirk. The main characters in this trilogy are Malachi, a centuries old Irin scribe, and Ava, a current day very special human (or is she?),  and of course, they are going to become fated mates. The secondary characters are wonderful and add so much life to the story. Much of the story takes place in the Istanbul and Vienna areas and these locations also add a lot of life to the story.

We learn in a note to the readers after the story concludes in book 3 that the author is now planning more books in this world for some of the other characters and I for one, am looking forward to reading them also.

 

 

Reviews

My Kind of Wonderful by Jill Shalvis

debra

My Kind of Wonderful is the second story in the Cedar Ridge Series by Jill Shalvis.  I enjoy Ms. Shalvis’ work.  She writes contemporary romances and excels in writing stories set in small towns usually inhabited by a great group of characters with some interesting locals thrown in for comic relief and I am a sucker for these types of stories.

First the blurb:

UNEXPECTED AND UNDENIABLE…

Bailey Moore has an agenda: skiing in the Rockies, exploring castles in Europe, ballroom dancing in Argentina. Now that she has a second lease on life, she’s determined not to miss a thing. What she doesn’t realize is that item #1 comes with a six-foot-one ski god hot enough to melt a polar ice cap. She doesn’t want to miss out on him either, but Hudson Kincaid isn’t the type of guy to love and let go. And as gorgeous as Cedar Ridge is, she’s not planning to stick around.

As head of ski patrol at his family’s resort, Hud thinks he’s seen it all. But never has he run into someone like Bailey. She might look delicate, but her attitude is all firecracker. And her infectious joy touches something deep within him that he’s been missing far too long. Now he’ll just have to convince Bailey to take a chance on her biggest adventure yet . . . something rare and all kinds of wonderful.

My review:

I liked both leads in this story.  Bailey is recovering from a terminal illness and has started working on her bucket list.  The first item to tackle is doing a mural.  She has been commissioned (although she is doing it for free) by Hudson’s mother, a delightful character in a nursing home suffering from memory problems.  Hudson wants nothing to do with the mural.  While Bailey is painting the mural, she and Hudson’s relationship develops.  During the course of the book, Bailey finds out why Hudson is so withdrawn from everyone on an emotional level which is really very sad for his character.   How they overcome the obstacles of their relationship is the true story.

Ms. Shalvis writes well and her characters engage me from the beginning.  Not every author can do that.  Another character in this book I enjoyed was the mountains of Cedar Ridge.  Ms. Shalvis’ descriptions of the mountains and the ski lodge and the joys and dangers (with humor thrown in also) is enjoyable.  Of course, as a resident of  the Tahoe area, I sure she understands this aspect of her story very well.