Blood Trails

Deadline

It was about a witch. That was what got me to pick it up at first.
This witch wants to be a private investigator. Like Alex Craft? Of course, I had to see these mysteries she would be solving.

Someone stealing something from an impregnable vault? Definitely interesting. Skeptical FBI agent that is possibly seeing a ghost? This could be seriously interesting.

It was, somewhat, but I wasn’t impressed at all. Honestly, it’s NOT SO GOOD: there was a lot of that ”helpless chick at the mercy of more powerful creatures” thing that I hate so much.

For a moment there, I would have advised Shade Renard to forget this PI thing and stick to being a village witch. At least she didn’t suck at that!

I really like this blending of magic and modern tech-filled life. It really gets my imagination flying. I think that’s the only reason why I got through Deadline.

Monster

But my curiosity got the better of me and there I was, starting Monster. I blame that title. Who wouldn’t be curious?

This one was better than the first one. Definitely.

There are werewolves and a murder. Shade does some actual investigative work, even when it becomes obvious that she’s not actually a trained investigator. She’s trying, that’s all it can be said in her behalf.

My favorite magic creature investigator, though, is Peasblossom. And she’s a pixie!

She would make an excellent PI, and possibly even a mind-blowing spy. She’s the best part of the story, no matter what you Bigjobs say about it. She totally stole the show.

To make a long story short: the tiny people make this book GOOD.

Soul Marked

by C. Gockel

The wonders of the weekend. it all started with a free massage, brunch out and a stop by the bookstore. And, of course, it ended at the coffee shop.

I picked up this book because the name seemed familiar. Turns out it was recommended to me by one of those random because-you-read apps.  I LOVED IT!

I read a couple of chapters while sitting in a not-so-comfy chair at a quiet coffee place, and I was totally hooked.

There’s magic, but also technology. There is a damsel in distress, that still has time and the will to save a magical immortal. There are a couple of different worlds and societies. That by itself is interesting, but my absolute favorite part of this book is the language and cultural barriers and all the fun that it ensues.

There’s also a bit in there about people’s fear of interracial pairings and prejudice. I thought it was very interesting as something for the two very different main characters to have in common.

There was also a part that I didn’t quite enjoy but thought it fit great into the story, about the exploitation of those some feel are inferior, and their mistreatment. It is both powerful man, both influential and magically gifted, who enjoys manipulating and hurting others.

I think there were quite a lot of social references an critiques (the kinds I enjoy finding) without losing the magical and somewhat romantic feel the story has. I really loved this book, and I truly recommend it.

The Twenty-sided Sorceress (8)

Dungeon Crawl

By Annie Bellet

For a whole minute there, after finishing Magic to the Bone, I feared that the story would end there and leave the loose ends to my imagination.

Then I remembered there was a book #8.

And while Samir is defeated, he’s not actually dead yet. He’s still wreaking havoc inside Jade’s mind, and something is bound to go wrong with carrying such a formidable foe on your neck.

Then, there’s also that whole owing-an-unknown-favor-to-a-vampire thing. Can he really be trusted? He helped her, true, but it wasn’t free.

Thankfully, Dungeon Crawl addresses all these little loose ends, although not all of them.

We get to see Jade’s recovery after the big confrontation with Samir, and how she hasn’t quite recovered. She’s still having nightmares and paranoid feelings, that you can see reflected in how she designed her house when rebuilding after the fire: Extra exits everywhere.

Of course, is it really paranoia when people ARE after you? She is living with what can be considered former law enforcement. There’s bound to be people trying to kill Alek after god-knows how many years of being a JUSTICE.

Thus, a sniper shooting him in the head.

Does he die? You will have to read the book. But do you honestly think I wouldn’t be raving and tearing things apart if my favorite character in this whole series would’ve died so nonsensically!?

I’m always up for getting more Alek. Extra chapters from his perspective are my absolute favorite. But I DO feel like I’m missing something. There’s this whole thing happening in New Orleans, that I don’t have my detail from and jeeps getting referenced. I need the deeds! Especially if they will answer all questions about the Council of Nine.

All in all, I really really liked this book. It was GREAT! Even with the zombies and other strange undead creatures.

And I’m not even bothered by the fact that this is NOT the end of the story yet. There are, at least, two more books coming out soon. I’m actually excited about it.

Definitely looking forward to reading more about Jade Crow and her band of friends.

Magic to the Bone

by Annie Bellet

Bombs, hostages, mercenaries, and magic! How can that not be GREAT!?

I really liked that ending.  I think it was totally appropriate until I realized there’s another book yet to come. What’s up with that?

I wish the had been more Alek, as always. Too much Harper, again. And there wasn’t even a big explosion, even when there were lots of explosives.

And, of course, I could’ve used more magic…

Spoiler Alert

… Isn’t she supposed to be a mythical creature made of pure magic? Or something like it? I was expecting her to wipe the floor with Samir, but I guess that would’ve been too much after their first fight ended up lopsided.

There was a lot of opened questions, though. Like, what happened to the shifters and what0’s gonna happen to the town after they were totally abandoned like that. And the Fae, what’s up with them? Will they try another way to break the seal?

Is that why there’s another book?

And now, Jade Crow is the savior of the whole town of supernaturals!!

Jade Crow for president!!

No. Make it…

Queen Jade Crow!!

The downside of binge reading, though, is that I almost capped my monthly book-budget. It means I’ll have to wait a week before I can get the last book in this series. In the meantime, there’s a couple of books waiting.

It’s just a matter of picking one.

“It’s magic. (…) If it made sense we’d call it science”.

Magic to the Bone by Annie Bellet

The Twenty-Sided Sorceress (7)

Thicker than Blood

Annie Bellet

Not as awesome as the previous one, I have to say. And I was totally disappointed that we didn’t get more Aleksei. Too much Harper, for my taste. I don’t hate her anymore, true, but she’s still not my favorite person.

Uh! I might see the point of all those Harper excerpts now. I’d still leave at simply GOOD, though.

This whole book feels like a slight detour from the actual story, the one that has me so caught up… but I absolutely loved all the dragon ball references. I totally see it.

And we at least got a glimpse at what is happening with Samir, and Jade‘s friends, otherwise I would be totally annoyed.

Spoiler alert, though…

Dragon! That word made this book totally worth it. Even if it was only the final chapters. I totally love dragons. And, of course, mystery dad is totally awesome. He hid his heart and guarded it with a monstrous giant snake! How much cooler can he be? He was my absolute favorite part in this book, and that’s even considering Aleksei‘s sister and the know-it-all vampire.

Magic to the Bone. On to book #7 we go!

Our shifter friends are hiding in the forest, trying to stop Mr. Evil-ExBoyfriend from rising some serious bad ancient power and becoming stronger, while our heroine is trying to get her mojo back with the help of her totally unexpected dragon bio-daddy. this ought to be getting super exciting now.

Deep breath. I just had a good night sleep. I’m ready.

Let’s level up!

 

The Twenty-Sided Sorceress (6)

Heartache

by Annie Bellet

OMG.

Boss fight, it is right!

This is honestly the most exciting book in this series by far. This is going to be full of spoilers. Beware.

I have been waiting for Samir to finally show his face for five books now, and I don’t think he disappoints. What does disappoint is Jade’s fumbling response. She was supposed to be training for a while now, and had learned a lot of new things from the older witch who she just ate! Why is she acting like a newb?! It’s frustrating!

I understand she not being able to save her friend the first time she managed to use Tess’s magic to do something unique and unexpected, but she’s supposed to be smart! Why not stop to analyze what happened and how can it be used to her advantage? Ok. She got arrested, that could have occupied her mind for a while, but she spends a long while locked in a prison cell… couldn’t she have taken a moment to think about her options?!

And don’t get me started on the complete narrowmindedness of not contemplating for a moment that something besides herself could be at play.

Also, someone put a leash on those friends of hers! Especially Harper. She’s starting to rub me the wrong way. She never stops to think, just changing ahead and getting herself mauled. She, and the twins, totally dismissed Jade’s fears of Samir without stopping to consider there might be a reason to have a healthy level of fear and caution. 

Don’t take my ranting wrong, though. I absolutely loved this book. The bad guy is seriously bad, the love interest is perfectly lovely and not overpowering, the surrounding story is adequately complex and there is more than one character to be into there. It is a fantastic book. I completely LOVED IT!. Seriously looking forward to book #6.

There’s only three left, but this whole series has gone crazy fast. I think I might easily finish it before the month is over.

The Twenty-Sided Sorceress (5)

Hunting Season

by Annie Bellet

Two on one, how is that fair?!

Ok, this was book number four of The Twenty-Sided Sorceress series and it was action packed! Full of new and exciting magical and mythological creatures. There were even unicorns!

This story has way more exciting magical battles and creatures, and two of Samir‘s apprentices to contend with. There’s a druid, and a leprechaun, and even time-manipulating. It’s simply GREAT!

Jade is starting to show real leadership talent and the friendship and loyalty are heartwarming. And I really like this kind of love story: the one where not everything is perfect, but there’s trust and communication and they both can admit that they are faulty and work on it. It makes me think that this an actual real couple that can work through their problems in a mature way. I hope they can make it through all the evil coming their way.

I really liked this one. It is full of action and a lot of magic, and things seem to be gearing up for the great final battle. The big bad, Samir (aka evil exboyfriend), is down two apprentices, so we’re definitely expecting him to show up at any minute.

And that ending! Talk about exciting.

And of course, that’s why I hadn’t even stopped to consider what that ending meant, hen I was already getting started on book #5: Heartache.

Like Jade and Harper would say:

Boss Fight!

The Twenty-sided Sorceress (4)

 

What can I say? I could stop myself.

I might use up all of this month’s book budget on this series.

The fourth part of Jade Crow’s adventures is Hunting Season. And it even has unicorns in it! and maybe even some witches.

Things with the Council are not looking good, Alek is back to stay. Jade‘s power is growing and Samir has sent his apprentices to kill her and bring back her heart. thinks are looking quite exciting.

Let’s see where we go with this.

Pack of Lies

by Annie Bellet

Ohh! Things are starting to get really interesting!

I really liked this one. So much that I basically read it not stop until I had through, I even had a very unproductive day… totally distracted.

Alek is back after leaving and not calling for a while, and things look like improving between him and Jade. If it weren’t for the murders getting in the way, we would have a great romance novel!

I’m joking, of course. the murder mystery is one of my favorite parts.

What could possibly make it better, you ask… magic! There is new magic, and even a magical assassin coming into the picture. And that on top of a massive pack of wolves that might be killing each other.

It is all full of excitement. Definitely a GREAT book.

Why couldn’t my life be full of sex instead of violence?

I really enjoy the light and funny way Annie Bellet writes. The humor and funny references to popular culture. There was even a Matrix reference! How nerdy! I loved it.

Why can’t my life be more like a porno than a horror movie?

And if all of this is not enough to draw you in… We finally got a taste of that big bad guy that had only just been mentioned until now!

I’ll just have to read Hunting Season, d maybe finally get to know Samir, the evil ex-boyfriend.

 

The Twenty-sided Sorceress (3)

 

I had to! I couldn’t help myself! I wanted to continue with another Curious Book, this one about space travel, but I just bought Pack of Lies, and it was sitting there on the shelf, just calling at me. I had to know what happened between Jade and Alek.

It is those damned teasers at the end of these books before you realize it, they have already dragged you into a new crime mystery. This time there were blood and entrails right up from the beginning! Whose were they? I have to know. I’m a total sucker for a who-did-it scenario.

This is the third book in this series. it looks like there are about 8 now. Let see how far we get.

Justice Calling & A Murder of Crows

by Annie Bellet

First, I started by reading Justice Calling in a matter of hours. I really liked it. It remained me a lot of Grave Witch.

There is magic, mystery, a handsome law-enforcer and a witch (of sorts). What’s there not to like?!

There are missing people and a race to find an unknown witch doing horrible stuff. It sounds just like an Alex Craft book, doesn’t it? Of course, I liked it!

It all starts with nerds and shape-shifters. And then, there’s a handsome moody man with a scary prediction. It is a fast-paced book with enough explanation so we all get to know this world Annie Bellet has created for us, without being repetitive. (Except for the “Jury, judge and Executioner” thing). And of course, it leaves you wanting more. And that’s why I binge-read the first two books in a day.

The second book, A Murder of Crows, has more magic, more shape-shifters, and more crime-mystery. While during the first book, our main character, Jade Crow barely starts to show her true powers, for the second book, we can see her experimenting with them and trying to gain more an more power in order to finally come face to face with nemesis that, so far, we only know by name.

The ending of the second book is way more exciting and unexpected than the first, and a bit sad. After the last chapter, my book has a teaser for the next book in this series, that just swallows you up and there’s no way for you not to be looking forward to the next book in this series.

I had to slap myself in the hand and make myself go back to Bonk, that while I am enjoying it, it is absolutely nothing like these books. I’m torn.

The Savage Dawn

by Melissa Grey

I can certainly say that I am now a fan of Melissa Gre’s writing. I loved the references and the dialogs and even the characters, but I cannot say that I absolutely loved this book.

The individual parts were awesome. Bird people with feathers for hair? Loved it! Dragon people with scales on their faces? Loved it! The lonely human stuck in the middle of an ancient war only to have ended up uniting them all to fight a common stronger enemy? Absolutely amazing! But still… somehow, I feel there was something missing. Something that is not there and keeps me from loving it all as a whole.

 

First, let me tell you about all the things I adored. OK, it is mostly to things that I adored in this book, and why it is my favorite in the whole series… Jasper and Dorian.

That was just simply one of the cutest couples I’ve ever read about. I was hanging from every page waiting to know what was to be of them. From the whole “I cannot be happy without my prince” thing at the beginning, through the whole “you cannot have him” bit, and all the way to the new Dragon Prince and his Avicen consort. That was simply the wildest love story! Absolutely one of my all-time favorites. I would totally read this whole trilogy over and over, just to experience them, time and time again.

And maybe that’s one of the reasons I was left a tad unsatisfied. For a moment there I was biting my nails out of my fingers thinking that my favorite couple will be split apart irrevocably and how totally depressing that would be.. and then, no! They both survived the war and can live happily ever after. Except… that they come from two very different societies that have been at war with each other for centuries and they are both needed at their respective homes for the reparation and rebuilding… but we wouldn’t know anything about it, because the book ends without letting us hear from them. At all.

I understand that the main story there was about the Firebird and all this magic that she supposedly had (that she ended up not knowing how to use and not needing to save the world), and her ill-fated romance with this prince whose throne was stolen, whose sister went homicidal, who has been tortured and still jumps into battle with her…

But I needed more Jasper & Dorian!

And even a little bit more Ivy or Rowan… or even some more of The Ala. I feel like a lot was going on behind scenes that we missed and would’ve been awesome to read about.

On the other hand… I think Echo and Cauis’s ending was great. That huge sacrifice and pain, and that tiny and slim ray of hope barely out of reach. Genious! I really like that.

What did you think?

Who id you prefer, Caius and Echo or Jasper and Dorian?

Grave Ransom

It took me only one day to read through the whole thing. It is that easy to get into it.

Grave Ransom by Kalayna Price

The whole idea of Alex’s castle and the mixed reality of havin it just pop up in the backyard is fascinating. I loved that. I think we are finally getting to know the extent of Alex’s magic powers, the ones that everyone has seemed to find so game-changing.

There were some downs, like that crazy violent and annoying special agent, and the apparent last appearance of my favorite character: death. Of course, their relationship was doomed to end from the beginning, so their break up was expected and inevitable, but still… That was my favorite character.

I understand, though. Alex is getting more and more into the fae world. Even living in a fae castle. She is basically immortal now, right? So, it makes complete sense to have her move away from the guy that cannot come into that world with her.

But besides the whole series story arch, the mystery this time is great. Dead bodies walking around! It was really good, specially when it had nothing to do with zombies. I’m not that big a fan of zombies.

I’m still confused about Rihanna’s lover/protector/friend/pet. What’s going on there? And is the winter queen losing her mind? Will she be a less annoying and paranoid without the poison she was being fed?

I guess I’ll have to wait for the next book. Yes. Another endless series. Good thing I’m still enjoying it.

Shades of Magic (2)

A Conjuring of Light.

I really really liked this book. This whole series, actually. Even when it took me waaaaaay to long to actually finish it. I blame it all on this the most inefficient year I had when it comes to my reading. Only to my reading, though, because work has been crazy busy.

But, even when there were quite a few of forced pauses in between my chapters, this book was amazingly grabbing. I loved getting to know Holland, who until now seemed only as a secondary character, especially that last chapter from his point of view. His whole story, though, it was all heartbreaking and enlightening as to why he does as he does and is as he is.

And I loved, even more, getting to know Rhy and the complexities of his relationship with Alucard.

And Alucard, and his messed up family!

And the Queen and her inability to express herself to Kell…

And that is all before we even get to the Shadow King and the growing relationship between Kell and Lila., it was honestly a great book. I will totally recommend this series to anyone who may listen.

So, why only a 4/5? You might be asking… Well. It was the ending.

No. I’m not trying to say that the conclusion/solution to their problem was anything but great, but I do think that the last chapter… The emotional wrap-up… Felt a bit brushed over. Too fast, too superficial.

After everything the brothers now share, there was no conversation, no reunion, no normal goodbye. And with Lila! When did they agree to leave to follow HER dream of being a pirate? Wasn’t she toying with the idea of settling down? And what happened to Kell’s promise to be by his brother’s side when he became king?! And to Holland’s world? And what I’d the letter to King George say?

Again, too rushed. I wasn’t satisfied.

But really that was my only qualm. Besides that, the book was real. The whole series was awesome.