opinion – Page 3 – Geek Sneak Peek

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

Heart of Fire by Bec McMaster

March 24, 2018 Karen

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I love dragons. I love the concept, I find them fascinating and always find myself picking up books when they are involved. The problem? Dragons must be hard to write, especially in romance, or maybe what I expect from them because usually I’m not as excited when I’m finished. So how did this book do? Let’s see what it was all about first, here’s a hint..there will be dragons.

The old eddas speak of dreki—fabled creatures who haunt the depths of Iceland’s volcanoes, and steal away fair maidens.

Freyja wants none of such myths. Dreki seducing young ladies? Ha. They probably eat such foolish girls. But when the local dreki steals her last ram—costing her any chance of feeding her ill father through the winter—Freyja intends to confront the fearsome myth.

Sentenced to a life of exile from his clan, Rurik is fascinated by the furious woman who comes to claim her ram. She reeks of mysterious magic and challenges him at every step. He intends to claim the passionate firebrand, but to do so, he must take mortal form.

It’s the only time the dreki are vulnerable, and with a dragon-hunter arriving on the shores of Iceland, he can barely afford the risk—but lonely Freyja, with her elf-cursed eyes and pragmatic soul, tempts him in ways he’s never felt before. Is she the key to reclaiming his heritage? Or will she be his downfall?

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Okay so they call them dreki in this book but they are dragons, and I love them! I think the hardest thing is to write a believable romance with a dragon character without the dragon losing what makes it a dragon (you know all those very inhuman qualities) yet I thought this book did a great job. I liked Rurik as a dreki and still wanted him a Freya to end up together.

My verdict?

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Well done! Well done! I would say the world was well built, the romance was steamy, and the characters were interesting. All together a good read. I will be getting book two of this series.

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

“Shelby” by: Katie Murphy

March 22, 2018March 22, 2018 Les

35438429 Hey Everyone! I have to say first, this is a book that I have waited for since the first little snippet I got to read a year or so ago. I was intrigued, and wanted more. I got it and it is great! So here we go!! I am excited, aren’t you? Well you should be! Ha!

Enter Shelby, the Secretary of State’s daughter. She is the complete socialite. She has an assistant, stylist, maids, money, and is one of the most unlikable characters I have ever met. Her father calls in a favor with a friend to be her bodyguard. He is Jesse, and he is likable, down to earth and hot! Shelby treats him poorly and tries to play games with him, but then again she plays games with everyone, including her douch-tacular fiancée Jack. She thinks it’s so funny when Jack treats Jesse like the mere paid staff, so like crap. Okay, so its obvious I do not like a few characters in this story.

Then, you realize Shelby has no real friends, her fiancée is cheating, and when a tragic accident happens she loses everything, except Jesse’s vow to protect her. He continues to do so, and she eventually has an epiphany. She realizes how meaningless her life was. Now there are people trying to kill her and she sees that she needs to actually live life, and do something meaningful. She had to go into hiding and Jesse’s reputation was ruined, because people assumed he was to blame for her being missing. You would think after she changed her behavior and mind I would start to like her. NOPE! NOT AT ALL!

I’ll tell you why I still don’t like her. She is better, but she is still kind of dumb and blind. How can she just dismiss Jesse, or just pull unassuming people into her crazy paparazzi and dangerous world without warning, just because she likes them. To me she is still selfish. She can’t just be herself, like that isn’t good enough.

Okay, we know I won’t give away any spoilers, but I will say that I really did enjoy this book. Anyone who knows me, knows I usually hate the girls, unless they are awesome. This book is written in different point of views, and has a cliffhanger!

WHY KATIE?!?!?! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WITH JESSE!!

Seriously, I may be a little delirious, but go read it! Let me know what you think.

Peace,

Les

Books, fantasy, great reads, indie author, Reviews, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

Ferromancer by Becca Andre

March 20, 2018 Karen

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I really loved this cover so when this book was recommended to me and I found it on KU I thought, why not? Here’s what it’s all about…

Solutions aren’t always black and white—sometimes they come in shades of iron gray.

Captain Bridget “Briar” Rose wants for nothing. Each day is a new adventure, living the life she loves, running cargo on the Ohio & Erie Canal. That is, until her cousin decides to sell the family boat to finance a new business venture. He wants to build locomotives for the railroad—the very industry that could put the entire canal system out of business.

Not one to give up without a fight, Briar does a little snooping into her cousin’s new business partner. When she gets a sneak peek at the locomotive plans, she suspects that the man is either a genius, or a ferromancer—one of the dreaded metal mages of Europe’s industrial revolution.

Determined to reveal her suspicions, Briar takes the plans and heads for the newspaper office in Columbus, stealing the family boat in the process. Kidnapping her cousin’s handsome business partner wasn’t part of the plan, but when he shows up, demanding the return of his property, she can’t let him go. After all, if Briar can prove that the railroad is using ferromancy, she could save more than her boat. She could save her way of life.

I’m going to break this into three parts, the world building, the characters, and the story.

First the world, I really liked it, steampunk for me can be confusing and I don’t like it sometimes, in fact I don’t even know if I would consider this steampunk probably more of a fantasy to be honest. I understood the concept, liked the world and started to follow along pretty quickly. Check.

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The characters. I didn’t like Briar, though she did get better, I dislike lead characters who can break any rules and are almost shocked when they have to face consequences. I also didn’t like the way she treated Grayson for most of the beginning of the book, without and real proof that she should. She stole from him and when he came to get his property she kidnapped him, blaming him! I had a hard time forgiving her. That’s a lie, I never did forgive her, she continued to do as she please to the detriment of others. Speaking of the others, I liked them and really helped me enjoy the book. So the characters where at times great and a times annoying.

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The story. Without giving too much away I found it interesting. I found the end fell a little flat for me but I found the flow wasn’t too fast or slow and I stayed entertained.

Bottom line, I got thus book free with KU (I think it’s $1 if you want to buy it) and I don’t regret it, it was a fun read.

Books, fantasy, Mystery, Out of the Box Blogs, Reviews, scifi

Artemis by Andy Weir

March 19, 2018March 19, 2018 Karen

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I love the cover of this book, I loved The Martian, and I usually enjoy Andy Weir, so how was Artemis?

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Ugh! Why, why, why?? First what was this book about:

Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she’s stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.

Alright now let’s discuss it. First the world itself. I didn’t have a problem with the concept of this world, I found a lot of it believable I just thought it lacked depth. There were so many different cultures or places and I felt they were there just to add variety but not really delved into. It felt very shallow. What wasn’t shallow was the math and science, which was also a problem. I come from a big geek community and I felt it was excessive. There was just too much techno blabber that means nothing if your not a specialist in that field. Cool for one character to do but not for so many or so much of the book.

Speaking of characters..

I disliked Jazz, a lot, which was a problem. I found her inconsistent and unlikable. She used people with no remorse, who cares if they lost their jobs or lives she had a plan. Also she would inconsistently have confidence issues, one moment she had none and the next she was James Bondish. I was finding it hard to believe who she was let alone get behind her ideas. The other characters, the ones she spurned and used however, the always seemed to come around to supporting her. It got so bad I kept hoping she would fail.

Ultimately I was disappointed with this book. I’m not giving up on Andy since I did love The Martian so much I’m hopeful the third book will be the charm.