Looking forward to Friday

So I thought about what I would like to post this week and there really isn't a book that I want to read for about the next two weeks. I don't have any ARCs either so I am stuck waiting it out. So I decided to come up with Forward Friday (Graphic to come soon hopefully). We all look forward to friday so I thought it made sense to post the books that I am looking forward to not necessarily waiting on. So this week I am looking forward to:



The next Mercy Thompson book by Patricia Briggs. I was really bummed when she postponed her release dates last year. This book releases on Feb. 1.



My sister actually read the first book Deception and gave it to me. Great book! It had some big events happen that I didn't see coming and now I'm looking forward to the sequel on Feb 1 also.



I'm a huge Rachel Caine fan. I love all of her books. I was really sad to see her weather warden series end so I am really looking forward to the next Unseen book on Feb 1.

So it appears either I will be reading around the clock on Feb 1 or I will be deciding which ones to read. Luckily I don't have much planned for that weekend :)

Shadowspell by Jenna Black

I must say that this series continues to impress me. I think it gets better and better. I really enjoyed the first book in the Fairiewalker series and this one just increases my opinion of the series. Here’s the description from amazon:

On top of spending most of her time in a bunkerlike safe house and having her dates hijacked by a formidable Fae bodyguard, Faeriewalker Dana Hathaway is in for some more bad news: the Erlking and his pack of murderous minions known as the Wild Hunt have descended upon Avalon. With his homicidal appetite and immortal powers, the Erlking has long been the nightmare of the Fae realm. A fragile treaty with the Faerie Queen, sealed with a mysterious spell, is the one thing that keeps him from hunting unchecked in Avalon, the only place on Earth where humans and Fae live together. Which means Dana’s in trouble, since it’s common knowledge that the Faerie Queen wants her – and her rare Faeriewalker powers – dead. The smoldering, sexy Erlking’s got his sights set on Dana, but does he only seek to kill her, or does he have something much darker in mind?

I really enjoyed Dana and Ethan’s relationship in this book. I feel like she is suitably cautious after the first book and her first experiences with him. Despite the fact that she spends a lot of time in hiding there is still plenty of action in this book.

The Erlking brings a whole new side to the fey and brings a level of adventure to the books that wasn’t in the first book. I really enjoyed the angle that it brought out in the book. The dangerous side to the wild hunt added to the suspense of the story.

I did miss Kimber in this book, There is very limited interaction between Dana and Kimber in this book. I am hoping that the next book will have more interaction between the two friends.

I really enjoy this series and personally am already waiting for the next book to come out. Maybe I can get my hands on an arc….. :) I like the reality between Dana and her mom and how there is such a complexity to Dana’s character. She doesn’t fall in love with everyone or fall too quickly for one person. I give the story a 5/5.

Hexbound by Chloe Neill

First off let me say that I have been waiting for this book since Firespell’s release date a year ago and it has been a long wait! Here is the summary from amazon:

Lily Parker is new to St. Sophia's School for Girls, but she's already learned that magic can be your best friend-or your worst enemy. That's why Lily has to learn how to control her newly discovered paranormal abilities while fighting the good fight with her best friend Scout as they take on Chicago's nastiest nightlife-including the tainted magic users known as Reapers...

This book was definitely worth the wait. Lily’s character comes into herself and becomes a very dynamic force within the dark elite group. Her narration is more enjoyable as she gains confidence in her new powers and her new identity.

I am still left wondering about the whole Sebastian situation and what he has to gain from attempting to contact Lily. Sadly that wasn’t really resolved in this story. I do look forward to figuring it out a little more in the next book as it is a conflict throughout the book as you wonder why he would have helped her in Firespell in the first place and why he is attempting to contact her.

The one thing that I really didn’t care for (SPOILER) is the fact that Jason reveals that he is somewhat promised to marry another. I know there has to be a complication in the love story but this for me seemed to be a little bit of a stretch and one that has been made a few times. While it was quite a shocker as you anticipate more of a problem with the fact that he is a werewolf, I did not really like it in the story. But that’s why I don’t write I just read J

Overall I give Hexbound a 5./5. It kept up the trend from the four books that I have been reading since shortly after Christmas! 

Awakened by PC Cast & Kristin Cast

So I finally decided that I should start with Awakened. I actually just finished reading the last of those four books in the previous blog I just haven’t had time to write anything up yet with my new online adjunct position starting this week. So here’s the description of Awakened from Amazon:

Exonerated by the Vampyre High Council and returned to her position of High Priestess at Tulsa’s House of Night, Neferet has sworn vengeance on Zoey.  Dominion over Kalona is only one of the weapons she plans to use against Z.  But Zoey has found sanctuary on the Isle of Skye and is being groomed by Queen Sgiach to take over for her there.  Being Queen would be cool, wouldn’t it?  Why should she return to Tulsa? After losing her human consort, Heath, she will never be the same – and her relationship with her super-hot-warrior, Stark, may never be the same either…

And what about Stevie Rae and Rephaim?  The Raven Mocker refuses to be used against Stevie Rae, but what choice does he have when no one in the entire world, including Zoey, would be okay with their relationship?  Does he betray his father or his heart?

Awakened was a pleasant surprise from the House of Night Series. I have been having some trouble with wanting to continue the series from the last two books. They just haven’t interested me as much as the first few. I believe this is for several reasons. It always seems like very little happens in the story and Zoey was beginning to get on my nerves with her “boy” problems. However, in this book I was able to focus on the issues going on in the book and not the constant boy drama that seemed to surround her in the previous two books. This was a nice departure from the previous two books.

I also really liked what was going on with Stevie Rae. Her and the raven mocker made an interesting story that is resolved in this book. It doesn’t dominate the story but makes an interesting sub-plot.

I think this book had the best ending that I have see recently in the series. There was no major cliffhanger and while there isn’t a complete resolution  a lot of the story is tied up. The only thing I am beginning to wonder is how long these books are going to go on for. Very little time has passed and there are quite a few books in the series.

While this wasn’t my favorite book it did redeem the series for me and I am looking forward to the next book which I believe is out next fall. Overall I give the story a 3/5.   

What to read...

I sooooo enjoyed my holiday as I was able to spend tons of time with my kids and squeeze in reading a few books that were released right before Christmas. My new dilemma that four book came out yesterday that I want to read and I am stuck in training for two little online gigs that I took for the spring and trying to finish my chapter 3 of my dissertation. However, I do plan to sneak some periodic reading time in over the next few days but am not sure where I will start. I hate when all the good books I have been waiting for have the same release date. This seems to happen in Jan & May/June. Here are the 4 titles:

Which one would you read first????

Review of One Hundred Candles by Mara Purnhagen

Whew what a crazy holiday! My holiday has been really crazy with traveling to see family and grading my students final exams. Thus I haven’t had much time to write up reviews. I am currently working on a list of the top books that I read in 2010 to post on here. In the mean time here is my review of One Hundred Candles by Mara Purnhagen.

The summary from the galley is: It’s taken a long time for me to feel like a normal teenager. But now that I’m settled in a new school, where people know me as more than Charlotte Silver of the infamous Silver family paranormal investigators, it feels like everything is falling into place. And what better way to be normal than to go on a date with a popular football star like Harris Abbott? After all, it’s not as if Noah is anything more than a friend...

But my new life takes a disturbing turn when Harris brings me to a party and we play a game called One Hundred Candles. It seems like harmless, ghostly fun. Until spirits unleashed by the game start showing up at school. Now my friends and family are in very real danger, and the door that I’ve opened into another realm may yield deadly consequences.

I was a little more impressed with this book. I wasn’t a huge fan of past midnight but I found this plot to be a lot more intriguing. The plot is somewhat reminiscent of a mystery book as you are trying to puzzle together what exactly Charlotte has done that is causing all of the strange happenings and also what the repercussions are going to be for her actions.

I found Charlotte’s character to be a lot more dynamic in this book. We see a lot more of her interacting with her peers and not just her best girl friend. Although throughout the book I wasn’t a fan of Harris I was rooting for Noah despite the way things ended in Past Midnight. I was quite happy with the resolution of the story although it is not an ending for your passive YA paranormal readers. It is not the sweet happy ending that is typical of this genre. Charlotte has to deal with a lot in the ending of the story. However, I respect the author for changing that up and for creating this interesting new perspective in paranormal. The Silvers are still holding onto science but there is a bit more mysticism in this book.

Overall I give it a 3.5/5. I liked the plot a lot more from the last book but it was still missing something for me. I’m not quite sure I can put my finger on it but it just didn’t hook me in the same way as most paranormal books do. 

Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

Dead Beautiful was an amazon recommendation and honestly the description intrigued me greatly. Here’s the description:

“On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder.

After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.”

It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems.

Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life.”

Dead Beautiful is not your average paranormal book. It has a subgenre all to itself. I give Yvonne points for being able to shock me with a whole new type of paranormal or at least one that I haven’t ventured out to read yet.

Renee is full of life and as a main character she has a certain magnetism to her. It is that magnetism that draws Dante to her. Personally, I found a lot of humor in the names in the context of the story J As per the usual Renee falls for Dante and the process of piecing together what he is begins. However, where Bella would have usually declared vampire Renee stumbles upon something unique.

The death of Renee’s parents is a unique way to begin a book. It sets a somewhat dark tone that follows throughout the book. Despite the dark tone the romance that develops is charming and intriguing. The dark tone to the book simply draws you in. For those that aren’t looking for a “happy” paranormal romance this might be your choice.

I give the book a 4/5. It kept me interested but I am not entirely sure what to think of the ending especially since I couldn’t find anything concrete about a sequel. For those that don’t like to not have resolution I recommend waiting until an announcement is made about whether or not there is a sequel.