Review: The Winter Witch

Source: elibrary

The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 14 hours and 51 minutes
Narrator: Marisa Calin
Author's Website | Blog |  Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

In her small Welsh town, there is no one quite like Morgana. She has never spoken, and her silence as well as the magic she can't quite control make her a mystery. Concerned for her safety, her mother quickly arranges a marriage with Cai Bevan, the widower from the far hills who knows nothing of the rumours that swirl around her. After their wedding, Morgana is heartbroken at leaving, but she soon falls in love with Cai’s farm and the rugged mountains that surround it, while slowly Cai himself begins to win her heart. It’s not long, however, before her strangeness begins to be remarked upon in her new village. A dark force is at work there—a person who will stop at nothing to turn the townspeople against Morgana, even at the expense of those closest to her. Forced to defend her home, her love, and herself from all comers, Morgana must learn to harness her power, or she will lose everything.

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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.

Review: Wicked Appetite (Audiobook)

Wicked by Appetite by Janet Evanovich
Series:  Lizzy & Diesel #1
Genre:  Paranormal, Chick Lit
Length: 6 hours and 13 minutes
Narrator:  Lorelei King
Source: eLibrary
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

Life in Marblehead has had a pleasant predictability, until Diesel arrives. Rumor has it that a collection of priceless ancient relics representing the Seven Deadly Sins have made their way to Boston’s North Shore. Partnered with pastry chef Lizzie Tucker, Diesel bullies and charms his way through historic Salem to track them down—and his criminal mastermind cousin Gerewulf Grimorie. The black-haired, black-hearted Wulf is on the hunt for the relic representing gluttony. Caught in a race against time, Diesel and Lizzie soon find out that more isn’t always better, as they battle Wulf and the first of the deadly sins.

With delectable characters and non-stop thrills that have made Janet Evanovich a household name, Wicked Appetite will leave you hungry for more.

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Review: Foreshadow

Foreshadow by Brea Essex
Series: The Shadow Emperium
Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance, Angels
Pages: 217 (ebook)
Source: Author
Author's Website | Twitter
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N

Description:

Imagine discovering that your boyfriend was out to kill you—and that the annoying boy from school was your guardian angel.

Rae Davenport has already lost her mother. The only thing keeping her sane is her new boyfriend, Andrei—that is, until she finds out that he wants to kill her. Andrei is a devil, and he wants to use Rae as a sacrifice to get back into Heaven. The only one who can save her is Logan, her guardian angel. He’s only annoyed her in the past, but now he will be her savior.

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Review: Come the Shadows

Come the Shadows by Wendy Young
Series: The Campbell Creek Mysteries #1
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Pages: 232 pages (paperback)
Source: Author
Author's Blog | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N

Description:

Campbell Creek, North Carolina has not seen a murder in seventeen years. When bones are discovered in the old bread factory Officer Will Harmon is determined to investigate, no matter who stands in his way. His wife Laura knows there is more troubling their town than one dead body, though, and the more she digs the more she finds. It's all up to them - and they will do whatever it takes to win against the darkness invading their town.

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Review: Raferty's Wife (Audiobook)

Rafferty's Wife by Kay Hooper
Genre: Romance
Length: 4 hours 59 minutes
Narrator: Parker Leventer
Source: eLibrary

Description:

Sarah Cavell is a beautiful, brilliant cryptographer with the uncanny ability to crack any code. But her most daunting challenge may be reading the true feelings of her new “husband,” Rafferty Lewis, the secretive federal agent to whom she’s just been assigned. Sent on a perilous mission to a Caribbean nation teetering on the brink of revolution, the two must go undercover as husband and wife to make contact with a shadowy informant passing on cryptic messages that could trap a terrorist.

Pilot, sharpshooter, and accomplished yachtsman, Rafferty prides himself on being the epitome of coolness under pressure. But in the aftermath of a marital tragedy that exposed his vulnerable core, the prospect of pantomiming intimacy with a woman of Sarah’s intoxicating allure has him unnerved, to say the least—and that could prove deadly for both of them. Dodging danger at every turn even as passion’s magnet draws them closer to each other, these two make-believe lovers will learn that the heart is a puzzle they can only solve together.

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Review: Hotel Angeline

Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices by Jennie Shortridge, Garth Stein
Genre: Collaborative Novel
Pages: 177 (Ebook)
Source: Marketing Manager, NetGalley
Book Website

From Goodreads:

Thirty-six of the most interesting writers in the Pacific Northwest came together for a week-long marathon of writing live on stage. The result? Hotel Angeline, a truly inventive novel that surprises at every turn of the page.
Something is amiss at the Hotel Angeline, a rickety former mortuary perched atop Capitol Hill in rain-soaked Seattle. Fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin is fixing the plumbing, the tea, and all the problems of the world, it seems, in her landlady mother’s absence.
The quirky tenants—a hilarious mix of misfits and rabble-rousers from days gone by—rely on Alexis all the more when they discover a plot to sell the Hotel. Can Alexis save their home? Find her real father? Deal with her surrogate dad’s dicey past? Find true love? Perhaps only their feisty pet crow, Habib, truly knows.
Provoking interesting questions about the creative process, this novel is by turns funny, scary, witty, suspenseful, beautiful, thrilling, and unexpected.

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Review: Almost Home by Pam Jenoff

Almost Home by Pam Jenoff
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 290 (Ereader)

Product Description From Amazon:

Ten years ago, American Jordan Weiss's idyllic experience as a graduate student and coxswain at Cambridge was shattered when her boyfriend and fellow crewmember, Jared Short, drowned in the River Cam the night before the biggest race of the year. Since that time, Jordan, a State Department intelligence officer, has traveled the world on dangerous assignments but has managed to avoid returning to face her painful memories in England. When her terminally ill friend Sarah asks her to come to London, though, Jordan finds herself requesting a transfer to the one place she swore she'd never go again.

In London, Jordan attempts to settle into her new life, pushing aside her haunting memories and taking on an urgent mission beside rakish agent Sebastian Hodges. Shortly after her arrival, just when she thinks there's hope for a fresh start in England, she is approached by a former college classmate who makes a startling assertion. He tells her that Jared's death was not an accident, but that he was murdered.

Jordan quickly learns that Jared's death was indeed not an accident, and that his research on World War II had uncovered a shameful secret. But powerful forces with everything to lose will stop at nothing to keep the past buried. Soon, Jordan finds herself in grave peril as she struggles to find the answers that lie treacherously close to home, the truth that threatens to change her life forever, and the love that makes it all worth fighting for.

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