Showing posts with label Meh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meh. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Review: The Raven King







Source: eLibrary

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #4
Genre: YA. Paranormal
Length/Pages:
Narrator: Will Patton
Author's WebsiteFacebook | Twitter
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle
Description:
All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.
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Thursday, July 13, 2017

Review: The Midnight Star






Source: eLibrary

The Midnight Star by Marie Lu
Series: The Young Elites #3
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Length: 9 hours and 7 minutes
Narrator: Lannon Killea and Carla Corvo
Author's Website | Instagram |  Facebook | Twitter
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle

Description:

There was once a time when darkness shrouded the world, and the darkness had a queen.

Adelina Amouteru is done suffering. She’s turned her back on those who have betrayed her and achieved the ultimate revenge: victory. Her reign as the White Wolf has been a triumphant one, but with each conquest her cruelty only grows. The darkness within her has begun to spiral out of control, threatening to destroy all she’s gained.

When a new danger appears, Adelina’s forced to revisit old wounds, putting not only herself at risk, but every Elite. In order to preserve her empire, Adelina and her Roses must join the Daggers on a perilous quest—though this uneasy alliance may prove to be the real danger.
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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Review: The Dream Thieves


Source:elibrary

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #2
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Length/Pages:
Narrator: Will Patton
Author's Website |  Facebook | Twitter
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle 

Description:

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after…
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Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Review: The Young Elites (Audiobook)





Source: eLibrary

The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Series: The Young Elites # 1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Dystopia
Length: 10 hours and 9 minutes
Narrator: Carla Corvo, Lannon Killea
Author's Website | Instagram |  Facebook | Twitter
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle

Description for Goodreads:
I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.

Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Review: Stud




Source: eLibrary

Stud by Cheryl Brooks
Series: Cat Star Chronicles #8
Genre:  Science Fiction, Paranormal Romance
Pages: 416 (ebook)
Author's Website
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
THEY'RE GALAXIES APART...

Even for a Zetithian, Tarq Zulveidinoe's sexual prowess is legendary. Believing it's all he's good for, Tarq sets out to perpetuate his threatened species by offering his services to women across the galaxy...

BUT ONE FORCE CAN BRING THEM TOGETHER...

Lucinda Force is the sensitive dark horse in a self-absorbed family, repeatedly told that no man will ever want such a plain woman. Lucy longs for romance, but is resigned to her loveless lot in life-until Tarq walks through the door of her father's restaurant on Talus Five...
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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Review: The Body Finder





Source: Bookshelf

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Series: The Body Finder #1
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Pages: 327 (paperback)
Author's Website | Blog |  Facebook | Twitter
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.
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Sunday, February 2, 2014

Review: Love Me If You Must




Source: Book shelf

Love Me If You Must by Nicole Young
Series: Patricia Amble #1
Genre: Mystery, Romance, Christian Fiction
Pages: 379 (ebook)
Author's Blog 
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
Professional renovator Tish Amble decided long ago that staying in one place is about as exciting as peeling wallpaper from plaster. So before the paint in each newly transformed home is dry, Tish is researching her next move. This time she chooses a small town in Michigan with a dilapidated Victorian that challenges her imagination. But Tish's idyllic small-town dream fizzles when she finds more in the creepy basement than what was revealed on the seller's disclosure-what looks like traces of foul play. With a hovering police officer living next door and a possible love interest just two doors down, Tish has her hands full. Will she discover the truth before it's too late?
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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Mini-Reviews: The Twilight of Avalon, Requiem, and The Things We Cherished (DISAPPOINTMENTS)

Here are a few reads I've been reluctant to share.  Each have disappointed me one way or the other so I decided to just group them.




Source: e-book shelf

The Twilight of Avalon by Anna Elliott
Series: Twilight of Avalon #1
Genre: Fantasy, Medieval, Historical Fiction
Pages:  448 (ebook)
Author's Website | Blog | Twitter
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
In Twilight of Avalon, Anna Elliott returns to the roots of the legend of Trystan and Isolde to shape a very different story -- one based in the earliest written versions of the Arthurian tales -- a captivating epic brimming with historic authenticity, sweeping romance, and the powerful magic of legend. Source

Review:  While grieving the death of her husband, King Constatine, Queen Isolde must also watch her back as she is sure Constatine was murdered.  A power struggle as erupted as many want both Constantine's thrown and Queen Isolde as a wife.  In the mean time, a different betrayal is brewing and the Queen must work to unveil the truth to save the lives of many.

This read was just okay for me.  It was longer than I wanted and I didn't get all the way into it.  I love historical fiction but I've always struggled with this time period.  The back-stabbing and mystery was interesting.  I expected this to be similar to Game of Thrones (which I've only seen and not read) so maybe that's why this one didn't meet expectations.  Here the drama was depressing and not exciting.  I wasn't rushing to get to the end and a few parts dragged.  This is one where the end doesn't matter as much as the path to get there.  If you like fantasy, you might like this one.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Review: Promised (Audiobook)




Source: eLibrary

Promised by Caragh M. O'Brien
Series: Birthmarked #3
Genre: YA, Dystopian
Length: 10 hours and 6 minutes
Narrator: Carla Mercer-Meyer
Author's Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
After defying the ruthless Enclave, surviving the wasteland, and upending the rigid matriarchy of Sylum, Gaia Stone now faces her biggest challenge ever. She must lead the people of Sylum back to the Enclave and persuade the Protectorat to grant them refuge from the wasteland. In Gaia's absence, the Enclave has grown more cruel, more desperate to experiment on mothers from outside the wall, and now the stakes of cooperating or rebelling have never been higher. Is Gaia ready, as a leader, to sacrifice what--or whom--she loves most?
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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Review: June Bug




Source: Bookshelf

June Bug by Jess Lourey
Series: Murder-by-Month Mystery #2
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 229 (eBook)
Author's Website | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
Mira James never imagined life after college would be a doublewide trailer outside Battle Lake, Minnesota. Then again, maybe the North Country has more to offer than mosquitoes and broasted chicken. Local legend claims that a diamond necklace was lost nearly a century ago in Whiskey Lake, not far from the present day Shangri-La resort. Mira, a part-time reporter, goes fishing for the story behind the legend, but her dives turn up more than missing jewelry. Buoyed by frozen Nut Goodies and a diminutive circus performer, the exhilarating search leads to a new mystery to unravel, and puts her face to face with the surfacing of a menacing foe from her past.
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Friday, August 23, 2013

Review: A Shade of Vampire





Source: Review Copy from Author in exchange for an honest review

A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forest
Series: A Shade of Vampire #1
Genre: Vampires, YA, Paranormal
Pages: 149 (ebook)
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake. A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood. She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine. An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains. Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince. Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night. Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?
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Thursday, June 20, 2013

Review: The Registry




Source: TLC Book Tours

The Registry by Shannon Stoker
Genre: YA, Dystopia
Pages: 321 (paperback)
Author's Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
The Registry saved the country from collapse. But stability has come at a price. In this patriotic new America, girls are raised to be brides, sold at auction to the highest bidder. Boys are raised to be soldiers, trained by the state to fight to their death.

Nearly eighteen, beautiful Mia Morrissey excitedly awaits the beginning of her auction year. But a warning from her married older sister raises dangerous thoughts. Now, instead of going up on the block, Mia is going to escape to Mexico—and the promise of freedom.

All Mia wants is to control her own destiny—a brave and daring choice that will transform her into an enemy of the state, pursued by powerful government agents, ruthless bounty hunters, and a cunning man determined to own her . . . a man who will stop at nothing to get her back.
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Review: Revolution (Audiobook)





Source: elibrary

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
Genre:  Historical Fiction, Time Travel, YA
Length: 15 hours and 1 minute
Narrator: Emily Janice Card and Emma Bering
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
From the privileged streets of modern Brooklyn to the heart of the French Revolution, Jennifer Donnelly, author of the award-winning novel A Northern Light, artfully weaves two girls’ stories into one unforgettable account of life, loss, and enduring love. Revolution spans centuries and vividly depicts the eternal struggles of the human heart.

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.
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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Review: To Katie with Love





To Katie with Love by Erica Lucke Dean
Genre: Romance, Chick-Lit
Pages: 225 (ebook)
Source:  Red Adept Publishing
Author's Website | Pinterest | Wattpad
Buy it: Kindle | B&N

Description:
Banker Katie James has a serious thing for romance novels. She’d almost rather settle for a fictional boyfriend than risk her heart on a flesh-and-blood man. Besides, the only real guy she’s remotely interested in is her rich, unattainable client, the mysterious Cooper Maxwell. Looking less like the ultra-conservative man she knows and more like a drop-dead sexy character from one of her books, Cooper crashes Katie’s 29th birthday party. But one too many drinks lands Katie in uncharted territory… Cooper’s bedroom! Drunk on love, Katie dives headfirst into the relationship only to discover that Cooper is keeping secrets… dangerous ones. As if things couldn’t get worse, her meddling mother makes a surprise visit, digging up a whole new set of problems. Who would have guessed having an assassin for a boyfriend would be the least of her worries?

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Friday, April 12, 2013

Review: The Kill Order (James Dashner)




The Kill Order by James Dashner
Series: Maze Runner #0.5
Genre: Dystopian
Length:  9 hours and 59 minutes
Narrator: Mark Deakins
Source: eLibrary
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
The prequel to the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series.

Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth and mankind fell to disease.

Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived. But surviving the sun flares was easy compared to what came next. Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there’s something suspicious about its origin. Worse yet, it’s mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees.

Mark and Trina are convinced there’s a way to save those left living from descending into madness. And they’re determined to find it—if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price. And to some, you’re worth more dead than alive.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Review: The Scorch Trials (Audiobook)




The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
Series:  Maze Runner #2
Genre:  Dystopian
Length: 10 hours and 22 minutes
Narrator:  Mark Deakins
Source:  eLibrary
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.

The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?
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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Review: The Raven Boys (Audiobook)






The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #1
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Length: 11 hours and 8 minutes
Narrator:  Will Patton
Source: eLibrary
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
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Monday, March 25, 2013

Review: Gossip



Gossip by Beth Gutcheon
Genre: Women's Fiction, Chick-Lit
Pages: 278 (paperback)
Source: TLC Book Tours
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
Loviah “Lovie” French owns a small, high-end dress shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Renowned for her taste, charm, and discretion, Lovie is the one to whom certain women turn when they need “just the thing” for key life events: baptisms and balls, weddings and funerals. Among those who depend on Lovie’s sage advice are her two best friends since boarding school days: Dinah Wainwright and Avis Metcalf. Despite the love they share for their mutual friend, there has always been a chilly gulf between Dinah and Avis, the result of a perceived slight from decades ago that has unimaginably tragic echoes many years later.

An astute chronicler of all that makes us human, Beth Gutcheon delivers her most powerful and emotionally devastating novel to date. Gossip is a tale of intimacy and betrayal, trust and fidelity, friendship and motherhood that explores the way we use “information” — be it true, false, or imagined — to sustain, and occasionally destroy, one another.
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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Review: The Tale of Lucia Grandi






The Tale of Lucia Grandi by Susan Speranza
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 418 (paperback)
Source: TLC Book Tours
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
When an old woman is asked to tell the story of her life, she tells is an intense and poignant tale about growing up in and surviving an irrational, warring suburban family during the 1950s and 60s. The narrative is told from Lucia’s perspective as the second child where she and her siblings are caught in the middle of a lifelong war between her mother, Ruth, an overbearing, unhappy homemaker, and her father, Leonard, a manipulative, sometimes violent New York City cop. Lucia is the silent, thoughtful eyewitness to her parents’ constant and sometimes life-threatening battle.

The story is told as a memoir; each chapter describes a particular incident in Lucia’s life which shows the constant struggle between her parents and the perverse effect it has on her and her siblings. From her complicated and unwanted birth, to her witnessing a suicide at age 3, to her stint as a runaway at age 14, the story progresses to the final crisis where as a young woman, she is turned out of her house and banished from her family forever.

This timeless story of one woman’s courageous attempt to come to terms with her past and the troubled family that dominated it is powerfully and poignantly told
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Monday, March 11, 2013

Review: Children of Liberty



Children of Liberty by Paulina Simmons
Series: The Bronze Horseman (Prequel)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 418
Source: TLC Book Tour
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:
At the turn of the century and the dawning of the modern world, Gina from Belpasso comes to Boston's Freedom Docks to find a new and better life, and meets Harry Barrington, who is searching for his.  The fates of the Barringtons and Attavianos become entwined, on a collision course between the old and the new, between what is expected and what is desired, what is chosen and what is bestowed, what is given and what is taken away.  As America races headlong into the future, much will be lost and much will be gained for Gina and Harry, whose ill-fated love story will break your heart.

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