Review: Seers by Heather Frost

My Rating: 3 out of 5

Synopsis
For Kate Bennett, surviving the car wreck that killed her parents means big changes — and even bigger problems. As she begins to see auras and invisible people, Kate must learn to trust Patrick O'Donnell, a handsome Guardian, or risk her life being overrun with Demons. She soon realizes that both she and her heart are in big-time trouble.

Review

Firstly I would like to say what a sterling book for a debut author and one so young. Heather Frost is only in her very early twenties but writes as though she has been at it for years. Her use of english and sentence structure is exemplory. 


The title of this book threw me. The book is called Seers yet as far as I could tell Kate, our main character, can only see auras which tell emotions. In history a Seer should be able to tell the future and the see back into the past so...I would have preferred another title.


The story (unfortunately for me) starts off so similar to many other YA books i've read of late i.e.the book is based around the school scenario with the high school jock as a boyfriend,  parents suddenly die, lots of grief and trauma, cute new guy shows up at same said school, turns out he's an absolute hottie, girl can't tear her eyes away from his piercing pools etc. Yeah, you know the drill. I forgot the 'woe is me' theme too.


Then we have the ''confession''. Where cute boy tells damsel in distress that he's her Guardian. Here to save her life when it needs saving...


Half way through the book I began to feel like this was STILL nothing new but I kept going to see if it would pick up. 


What held the book together for me was the narrative. Except there was far too much of it. Frost spent about 20 pages writing about how the character, Kate, feels about new boy Patrick. And it went on and on and on...I did skip lots of pages here while scanning still just to check I hadn't missed anything. The build up between Patrick and Kate is over half the book and personally just lost its edge and became dull with a hint of...JUST GET ON WITH IT...


The actual story theme was okay but lacked any oommff and towards the edge it was all a little too nice and easy for a story plot.


I probably won't read this book again but as I said in the beginning Heather Frost is an excellent writer. I just hope there's less narrative and more story in the next one.

Review: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I absolutely ADORE Ash from the previous books so I hoped this would be one of those rare treats that we could finally see into his mind.
But I was a little disappointed. Apart from a few stories such as how his sword was created there was very little in the way of his court life except when he was with Ariella. I would have liked to read more about his childhood, if he had any friends (obviously not, except Puck) and get more of his personality. Little was ever revealed.
I was a little disappointed with his reactions to Ariella. I really didn't want him to have second thoughts about Meghan, especially as the quest they were all on was to win the final prize. So his constant 'should I-shouldn't I' did irk me a little.
That being said he did prove to be the true to his word.
The last thing that annoyed me was the last scenes were too short. We all wanted time for them to be together finally and to see how happy they were. I guess we'll have to leave that to our imaginations!

Marks knocked off for:-
Story - didn't like Ariella (thought the author could have come up with something else instead)
Story - Lack of background, I mean, we've got Ash here!! Tell us!! But no.
Ending - To end the series I wanted a little bit more. We've already gone through the books and ebooks to get here. Just a few more pages?

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Review: Chaos Tryst by Shirin Dubbin

Chaos Tryst by Shirin Dubbin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Thank you to Net Galley and Carina Press for allowing me to read this book!


Synopsis:
A chaos magic Goldilocks and a Russian bear-shifter team-up for a rollicking fairytale retelling--and maybe a little romance.
Ariana Golde may be known for breaking and entering but she's no thief, she’ s a returner. She retrieves stolen objects and gives them back to their rightful owners. Her latest job: retrieving a statue from the Medveds. But Ari is having an off night, and she's caught red-handed by the three brothers, who don't just get mad—they turn into bears.

Maksim Medved is outraged — the statue belongs to his parents. But Ari's returner magick doesn't lie: the heirloom has a new rightful owner. Ari is drawn to the surly, handsome Maks — maybe because he possesses the same chaos magick she does. But while Ariana enjoys a touch of chaos, Maks hates its destructive power.

When Ari and Maks team up to find her mystery client, their chaos magicks ignite even faster than their attraction. Can Maks learn to love a little chaos, or will the havoc they cause among the faebled creatures drive him away for good?

Review:


This has to be one of the most exciting reads I’ve read in a long time. The retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is brought up to date with the authors humour and modern tricks to boot.

Enter Ariane, a Faeble, and her magic stick! Bring on Three Medveds who can turn into Russian Bears and you have a light hearted, skilled new story-telling at its best.

The intricate way that Dubbin writes will have you hanging on to every word, sentence, and page. Before you know it, you’ll be so into the tale you won’t want to put it down.

Quality writing at its best!

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Review: Kiera's Moon by Lizzy Ford

Kiera's Moon by Lizzy Ford

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review:
I like a sci-fi romance as much as anyone but few people can really pull it off without the story sounding like an excerpt from an old Star Trek episode.
I've never read Lizzy Ford's books before and didn't even read many reviews for this book before downloading. I was captivated by the cover and the pretty eyes of the girl so I thought, well, she looks interesting, why not?
So the story starts in modern day. I must admit I nearly put the book down after the fourth page. I found the dialogue a little jerky between Keira and Evelyn and found it hard to find an anchor. But soon we begin to learn that Evelyn's soon to be husband is actually from another planet and because Keira has no prospects (in Evelyns eyes) and Evelyn needs a friend on her travels she asks Keira to join her on an adventure to another world.
Of course Keira hates it. She see's six legged spider-cats and freaks out. She hates the male attitude to the women (women should be seen and not heard kind of thing). Except during an event she trips and falls into the hands of A'ran. Now A'ran doesn't sound, if I imagined, like the stereotypical hero. He has a crooked nose for one thing, but when Keira falls she has a vision which captivates her.
From here on in I couldn't put the story down. I HAD to read it to the final ending.
Lizzy Ford's writing is exceptional. She captures the moods, the moments, the dramas, and the exquisite imagery of the planets incredibly well. Yes, you really do feel like you are there.
You can pretty much guess from the start who the bad guys are, even Evelyns betrayal. Keira and Evelyn's relationship gets strained as they spend little time together and even right at the end when Evelyn does the right thing you get the impression that she isn't doing it for Keira's sake, more for the good of her husbands people.
A'ran and Keira are both emotional and strong in different ways so they really are the yin and yang and eventually they find the balance.
To go back to the beginning of this review, I've read a lot of sci-fi romance but I must admit this is one of the best I've read.
I've given it 4 out of 5 purely because a) I wished Keira and Evelyns relationship had had more input. For supposedly being such good friends I felt strains right at the start and would have liked to read more backstory on why. b) I felt it ended too soon. Yes, they were brought back together and the war was finally over but I would have liked to read how Keira healed Anshan AND Keira and A'Rans relationship finally flower. A'Rans final statement wasn't enough - but hey, that's just me!

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Review: Two Moon Princess by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

Two Moon Princess by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review:
Our story takes us on an adventure of Princess Andrea. Stubborn and hearty she wants to be a Page only to have her father turn down her request. He wants her to join her mother and learn to be a Lady as is fitting of her status.
Andrea is gutsy, intelligent and quick witted. She meets her Uncle at some rocks near a beach and is soon to discover that the cave/archway is actually a portal to another world.
Andrea resumes her life and learns her Lady skills to a degree but she is not completely happy in her world.When she accidently goes over to the other side she meets her Uncle again and discovers his other life, meets his daughter and gets to know John, a boy that catches her fancy.
This book captured me from the beginning and I was expecting something else if I'm honest. It started like Alanna by Tamora Pierce and ended completely NOT like Alanna.
I thought the descriptive writing was superb, this author has such a flare for english and can captivate you with the story.
It doesn't matter that some of the characters are downright annoying (Kelsey for instance) I think that was the authors intention.
Andrea does at times act much younger than her age, she is sometimes a little slow (but we can forgive that) and she's impulsive. But that's what I like in a heroine. She's still growing up after all.
 Altogether I thought it was a great read. I'm not sure about the target market as originally I though 10-12 years, but then ended up being 14-16 years, however I'm sure the older audience will enjoy this book also.

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Review: Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to review this book

4 out of 5

Synopsis:
Every other day, Kali D'Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She attends pep rallies. She's human.

And then every day in between . . .She's something else entirely.

Though she still looks like herself, every twenty-four hours predatory instincts take over and Kali becomes a feared demon-hunter with the undeniable urge to hunt, trap, and kill zombies, hellhounds, and other supernatural creatures. Kali has no idea why she is the way she is, but she gives in to instinct anyway. Even though the government considers it environmental terrorism.

When Kali notices a mark on the lower back of a popular girl at school, she knows instantly that the girl is marked for death by one of these creatures. Kali has twenty-four hours to save her and, unfortunately, she'll have to do it as a human. With the help of a few new friends, Kali takes a risk that her human body might not survive. . .and learns the secrets of her mysterious condition in the process.

My Review:
So. I had no expectations about this book. I haven't read anything by the author before so this was completely new. However the storyline intrigued me and I started reading.

The start was slow and a little vague. You actually had to read every word just to grasp what was happening and understand who Kali (our narrator) is. We find out soon that she's a hunter, a predator of preternatural beings. From this point we're thrown into a world of beasties and other mythical beings - Kali has the urge, need, thrall to kill them all. She smells blood, she 'feels' weapons and she contantly counts down the time to her next change.

Then - pow - just like that she's sat on her school bleachers next to a girl she doesn't know who turns out to be Skylar, her new friend. And Kali is a human. From here the story really starts and we meet Bethany, high school hottie and the IT girl.

Without repeating the story and writing spoilers the bizarre things start to happen for Kali, Skylar, Bethany and soon Skylars brothers all begin to become involved with the story.

The narrative is first person POV from Kali, and I liked her as a character, Skylar is a loveable character that I think we'd all like to have as a BFF and Bethany comes up trumps also by going against the grain and sticking with Kali.

As written earlier, while I found the book very difficult to put down until the very end, I DID find that a lot of the narrative (particularly ¼ in) was repetative - Kali questions who she is, where she came from, what she is etc to the point where it gets a little bit boring and self-centred. There is only so much of the constant explanations about what she can do, how she can kill, how she feels no pain (which she actually does), and about how she can't die (although again she almost does). This spoilt it as I kept wanting to shout at her to shut up - I've heard this already before, get on with it - and it dragged until we reached Beths house and met her weird mother.

I think the descriptions were good but a little under-rated, I definitely think the book could do with stronger creativity as again I was left almost feeling that Zev was a figure of her imagination and NOT an actual person (silver eyes, dark hair and sharp cheek bones is really all we know about what he looks like). I like to create a definitive image in my head of the characters and felt it was almost impossible in this story, apart from Kali herself.

I loved the storyline of Chimera and the experiments. Clearly the author has done her scientific homework. I'm not an expert on this area so everything I read was absolutely believable.
I thought the action was the highlight of the book and really held everything together. I love a strong female warrier-like character and Kali is all this.

The end was a bit of a surprise in the way that I hoped for a stronger relationship and more interaction with Zev...its almost left to the last page to discover what happens and then we're left hanging a little.

I wonder whether the author is thinking of a followup because I really felt that the story was meant for a follow on. I mean, we've all had to wait until ¾ into the book to 'get' it and now its almost over?? I want to know what happens next with Kali, Zev, Eliot and Bethany!!!!

A good read - 4 out of 5.

Review: Altered Destiny by Shawna Thomas

Altered Destiny by Shawna Thomas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Thank you to Net Galley and Carina Press for allowing me to read this book.


Altered Destiny - mmm, to be honest, the title of this book does it no justice whatsover. This book was SO much more and I loved it from start to finish.

Synopsis:
Selia has run her family's tavern since she was fifteen and can hunt and fight the equal of any man. When she rescues a badly wounded man and nurses him back to health, she has no idea she's about to change not only her life, but also the destinies of two peoples…


The battered warrior is Svistra—a race of bloodthirsty savages determined to destroy her homeland. Or so the stories claim. Jaden reveals a different truth: how his ancestors were driven into the barren northern mountains. Now they are strong and war parties are pushing south wanting their land back.

The son of a Svistra Commander, Jaden is looking for a way to bring peace to both humans and Svistrans. He tries to ignore his growing passion for Selia, but when she is captured he has to decide what he would be willing to sacrifice to save the woman he loves…

Review:

Selia, our heroine, is as gutsy as the toughest woman you know, but she's soft and feminine when she needs to be, not that she wants that way of life.

Jaden is a Svistra (blood dependent savage enemy to all) who Selia rescues from three thieves about to end his life.

Enter the magic! From the moment they laid eyes on each other they know they were fated to be together. But this strong a connection was never going to run smoothly.


In a world where Kings occupy thrones and are reluctant to enter the fray of battle, mayhem and chaos takes over the lands and war is imminent. It can only be stopped if leaders drop their guards and allow an enemy, a Svistra, to take things into his own hands.

The characters in this book are all brilliant and true to life. You shared moments with each and every one including Nathan and Leisle.

But most of all the adventure shared with Jaden and Selia is awesome.

Shawn Thomas has written such a marvellous book that would be enjoyed by anyone seeking a story of romance, high adventure and a kick-ass sword-wielding heroine! I LOVED it!

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