Tag: reviews

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.

 

 

Books, Reviews, Romance

Winter’s Heat by Cristin Harber

debra

This is the first book in the Titan Series and the first book I have read by this author.

The Blurb: After putting her life on the line to protect classified intelligence, military psychologist Mia Kensington is on a cross-country road trip from hell with an intrusive save-the-day hero. Uninterested in his white knight act, she’d rather take her chances without the ruggedly handsome, cold-blooded operative who boasts an alpha complex and too many guns.

Colby Winters, an elite member of The Titan Group, has a single objective on his black ops mission: recover a document important to national security. It was supposed to be an easy in-and-out operation. But now, by any means necessary becomes a survival mantra when he faces off with a stunning woman he can’t leave behind.

When Titan’s safe houses are compromised, Colby stashes Mia at his home, exposing his secret—he’s the adoptive father of an orphaned baby girl. Too soon, danger arrives and Mia lands in the hands of a sadistic cartel king with a taste for torture. As hours bleed into fear-drenched days, Colby races across the globe and through a firestorm of bullets to save the woman he can’t live without.

What worked for me: The action scenes. I thought they were written fairly well. The action scenes were fast-paced and reminded me of what I would expect to see in a special ops story. There were enough in the book to keep me reading.

What didn’t work for me: I felt the book was rushed throughout the story. My first issue involved the whole insta-love thing. Insta-attraction: sure. Insta-love: not so much. The next thing was that if one of my clients told me if they died then I needed to retrieve a package in their place, my response would be “NO”. I would call the police–not go get the package! The other thing that did not work for me was that Colby (because of the whole insta-love thing) wanted to protect Mia (fine), but at the time he had known her not even a full day (even though they had already hooked up after only 4 hours), and he didn’t really know her part fully in the whole special ops escapade that went sour. Yet, he took her to his home to protect her where his infant daughter lived! These three things were too out of the box for me.

I think if perhaps the book had been extended some (only 262 pages), these issues could have been fleshed out more and the book stronger. The story was not bad–it would have been fine–just needed more oomph to it and some additional details, I think.

Happy Reading,

Debra

 

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

Outtakes from the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

debra

The series for Cat and Bones is over and Ms. Frost has given us a book of outtakes and deleted scenes.  I have always enjoyed reading deleted scenes and outtakes from books that authors choose to share. I like finding out why they were deleted or re-written. I like seeing if things might have been different for our characters in some way. I think it is just fun. Jeanine has shared with us some great deleted scenes and she gave us the context of the story at the time of the scene so we would understand where the characters were at story wise as well as why the scene ended up on the chopping block. If you enjoyed the adventures of Cat and Bones, you will enjoy this collection.

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