Book Review : Wind And Shadow by Tori L. Ridgewood (Talbot Trilogy #1)

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title:  Wind And Shadow 

Author:  Tori L. Ridgewood

Publication Date:  June 2013

Publisher:  Melange Books

Goodreads – Amazon – Barnes & Noble

Summary:

 Rayvin Woods, photographer and natural witch. She just wanted to start her life over again after a series of misadventures. She didn't count on rekindling a lost love when she came home to Talbot...or battling a malevolent vampire and his coven for her life.

Grant Michaels, police officer. He thought Rayvin was a murderer. He will do whatever it takes to protect the community he loves from danger...but will he learn to trust his heart, and the word of a witch, before it's too late?

Malcolm de Sade, cunning vampire, imprisoned underground for a year by Charlotte Fanning and Pike Mahonen ("Mist and Midnight", Midnight Thirsts). His accidental release unleashes his hunger and ambition on a small, sleepy town…

***

Facing the past can be a nightmare. It's worse when a vampire is stalking you.

My Thoughts:

The review first can also be seen on CoffeeTalkWriters' Blog.

Good old paranormal. I have actually missed this kind of books and was really delighted while reading this one. it gives us some interesting characters and a plot to think about. And the cliffhanger, which I seriously hated, because the next book is coming out I don’t know when. So I am left sulking. This book has everything a person needs in a book: action, a good mystery and some amazing chemistry between two main characters. Oh I forgot, an amazing villain.

The book follows Rayvin Woods back to her home town and through her adjusting time there. Rayvin has a secret – she is a witch. She left Talbot, because she was different and because she was accused of murder, but now she has nowhere else to go, except to return home. But will she be able to live in Talbot, or will the past be still in a way of her future? While driving to Talbot she meets her high school crush – Grant Michaels. The sparks fly and attraction is even more intense between them than it was back in high school. But Grant is still on the side of community and is still under prejudices, will he be able to choose between his “best friend” and a woman he has been lusting after for more than 15 years? But nothing is simple in town like Talbot. As soon as Rayvin crosses the welcome like of Talbot, the vampire is released from its tomb and he’s not one of those who will lay low. He has his own agenda, and he wants only one thing – revenge and a woman he wants to be mother of his children. First animals are murdered, and then people disappear. And everybody blames Rayvin for it. Now she has to seek Grant’s help to stop the vampire to wreak more chaos, but first will be believe her?

I liked Rayvin the most, I think she was one of the best characters in the book. I can agree with all choices she has made. I liked how the author described the prejudiced community. How everybody was judging Rayvin for what was an accident and not even her fault. In the beginning I really wasn’t a fan of Grant. He was living in the past and wasn’t seeing farther than his nose. He just was accustomed living with Ray being guilty and he didn’t want to change his mind at first. I liked how Tori described his changes, how from a narrow-minded person he became more open-minded and saw the truth and accepted ray for what she really was – an amazing person. Another great and intriguing character was de Sade – the vampire, we don’t get to read about him much, but he definitely gives a book a good twist and an amazing mystery to solve.

The only characters I was confused about where Charlotte and Pike, somehow there’s not much told about them and that leaves a good chunk of mystery to unravel in the next books. This book is a interesting view on 3 species: humans, witches and vampires. And it is a really good read. You get sucked into the whole suspense and mystery from the first page and it holds you to it throughout the whole book. I am waiting for next books and finding time to read a short prequel about Charlotte and Pike. I hope you will consider reading it, and will have great time while you are at it. I wish you happy reading, and don’t forget to share your thoughts.

Xoxo

Katie

My Rating:

Book Review : Grave Destinations by Lori Sjoberg (Grave #2)

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title:  Grave Destinations

Author:  Lori Sjoberg

Publication Date:  January 2, 2014

Publisher:  eKensington

Goodreads – Amazon – Barnes & Noble

Summary:

 She’s sexy-fierce, resourceful—and will do anything to protect victims as innocent as she once was. But this kick-ass reaper never bargained on meeting her not-quite-human match…or putting their very souls on the line.

A luxury Caribbean cruise is Ruby Dawson’s idea of hell even under the best circumstances. Too many bad memories bubble up—especially of the wrenching injustice that made her a reaper. It doesn’t help that Jack Deverell is making this routine soul-collecting job twice as difficult with his devilish good looks and not-so-innocent questions. Now, as several unscheduled, unexplainable deaths throw passengers and crew into a panic, Jack becomes the prime suspect. The only way Ruby can save him is to challenge the decades-old curse threatening his soul. And as a malevolent unstoppable force turns their immortality into a fatal weakness, Ruby and Jack must risk their fragile humanity to save Fate’s delicate balance and their own unexpected destiny…

My Thoughts:

 The review first can also be seen on CoffeeTalkWriters' Blog.

This is the second book in Grave series by Lori Sjoberg. But the first one I read by this author. Somehow I was anticipating a little bit more from it. The story follows a stunning, sexy and resourceful reaper – Ruby Dawson on a luxury Caribbean cruise. For all of the population of the liner it’s a vacation but not for Ruby. She has a job to do and survive the hell aka the cruise. Why? That’s a mystery a reader has to unravel for himself. Everything should be fine, but then Jack comes into her life and turns it upside down. There’s no place to run from him. She is attracted to him, but he has a secret of his own. It’s curse which makes his life unbearable. He wants to get rid of and somehow Ruby is the answer. Will Ruby be able to do her job and save Jack? Is it in her power?

Maybe it was not my cup of tea, but I didn’t get all those amazing vibes from the book. It was average: a good read to keep you occupied, and take your mind off something for a bit, but it got boring in parts. All characters were standard. Well maybe except Dmitry, but mostly they were just telling a story not living in it. And that left me not satisfied. I, myself wanted to dig deeper into their past, understand them more. It was more like giving us a shell of a person, a tiny bit to form some kind of an opinion about him or her, but not to understand him fully. Somehow in the end of the book I still didn’t understand the ultimate motif of the villain which was frustrating.  What I mean is that the existence of the main character is a doing of a villain, and somehow the mystery is still not revealed thought out the book. It was interesting in the beginning, compelling to read further, but when nothing interesting happens in the first half of the book it’s quite annoying and disturbing.

One of the things I always look for in the book is how everything is described and if while reading I can “see” it all in front of my eyes. Somehow I had a little difficulty with that with this book. On one hand I had all the information I needed, but somehow I was just reading the book not experiencing it. I always knew what, when and how was something happening but somehow I had a hard time seeing it all. The book has its good sides too, like dialogues between the characters. They felt real. But somehow the characters and the dialogue didn’t go together. It was like characters were one units and what they spoke completely different.

 To sum up everything, this book is a good one time pick. It takes the mind off current problems and wives an intriguing mystery. It is good to read while you are at your own cruise and serves as a good guide what to and not do. I do hope I didn’t crash your hopes to read this book. I do think that the book is a good read just not my type. Hope you will consider reading it, and will go on an interesting cruise with Ruby and Jack, who knows, maybe you will get sucked into their world more. Happy Reading. 

My Rating:

Book Review : Temptation by Fire by Tiffany Allee

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title:  Temptation by Fire

Author:  Tiffany Allee

Publication Date:  December 30, 2013

Publisher:  Entangled Ignite

Goodreads – Amazon – Barnes & Noble

Summary:

Visions of death haunt her . . .

Ava Keller sees the future. When she suffers a horrifying vision of a man's violent death, she knows from experience nothing she does will stop it from becoming a reality. But when she meets a strong, broken man, he makes her want to believe in second chances.

Vengeance consumes him . . .

Tortured by his past, Karson has worked tirelessly to wreak vengeance on the demons who murdered his family. But when Ava inadvertently disrupts his intricate plan for revenge, his focus shifts to an all-consuming need to keep her alive and in his arms.

Love could save their souls . . .

Thrown together by fate, Ava and Karson explore their new feelings and discover hope for the future. But they must battle the demons threatening humanity to find a destiny worthy of their love.

My Thoughts:

Okay, first of all there are demons and demon hunters. Okay, there’s a very unique psychic woman, but who cares about that right now? Apparently me. This story is full of action, it is well written and sucks you into it from the beginning. Maybe in the beginning there’s a little confusion, but it evaporates after some chapters. And you are left with an amazing romance and breathtaking action scenes to live through. And no, I didn’t make a mistake there, I literally lived beside the characters in the book.

Meet Ava Keller, a psychic who can see future by touching you. She is quite a good character and I liked her, but as always she hates her gift and wants to get rid of it. I seriously don’t understand such characters, but maybe I don’t know how it is to have “a touch”. Everything changes for her when she meets Karson and sees his “friend’s” Thomas’s death. Karson is not your average human, he’s a demon hunter who has tattoos in demon blood, and Thomas is his next prey – a demon, who Karson wants to exorcise. But everything changes for him too when he meets Ava. They’re drown to each other, but will he overcome his need for vengeance to keep Ava safe? Karson is a very interesting character to read about, and he never disappoints. You can feel him inside out. Understand his desires and emotions.

The book doesn’t disappoint, it has amazing scenes and a betrayal which nearly made me fall from couch, because I never could have thought about that person. That’s what I call awesome writing and plot. But I would have loved to add a little intrigue about Ava’s powers. Something like she is part demon or something like that. How cool that could have been? I really hope you will consider grabbing this book, it was an amazing read for me. I liked every part of it, but well if there was that little intrigue I would have definitely given the book 5 mugs, but as I have already said it lacked intrigue.

I wish you all happy reading. Did you make up your mind? Then what are you doing here? Go, grab your copy now. Enjoy your read. And don’t forget to share your thoughts with us.

XOXO

Katie

My Rating:

Book Review : Hearts by Fire: Archangel Princess by Melissa De Olmos

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title:  Hearts by Fire: Archangel Princess

Author:  M.A. De Olmos

Publication Date:  November 15, 2013

Publisher:  Self-published

Goodreads – Amazon – Barnes & Noble

Summary:

 Patricia Allenz was a somewhat typical girl. For the past few months, she’d been busy counting down the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until her first day of college at Port Townsend University, in Washington. Patricia’s life was a simple one as far as she knew. Most of her memories involved her family, which consisted of her younger brother Kellen, and her Abuela Viola. After her grandmother’s death on her sixteenth birthday, Patricia was convinced that day had been the worse day of her life. 

Wishful thinking, on her part. On the night before her first day of college classes, her grandmother visits her in a dream. What starts out as a reunion between the two rapidly turns into a complete nightmare. 

From that night, forward her path changes from a straight and narrow one to a totally different realm all together. It does not help that along the way the men that she’d loved at one time, or rather centuries ago, are so conflicted that she cannot decide who to trust. Her body craves them both, but her heart only sings to one of their souls. 

Patricia is forced to face truths she cannot understand, betrayals from loved ones, and a love so powerful she would die to keep him safe. A new world of archangels, demons, and witches threatens to swallow her whole. She has the choice to run away from the unknown or live up to the title Archangel Princess of Alpheratz forever. 

Will Patricia stand up to her fate or will she crumble and fight against what is destined to come?

My Thoughts:

The review first can also be seen on CoffeeTalkWriters' Blog.

I really liked the book. It was quite interesting to read. Mostly what held me glued to the book is the intrigue and the whole mystery Melissa created.  I would have liked to see more intrigue at some places, but it is what it is. The story follows Patricia on her quest to unravel what she really is and to find out if she is able to rein her rage and help her kingdom. On this journey we meet some very interesting and intriguing characters, who are either after destroying or helping Patricia. Will she be able to find out who is friend and who is for in her new life? Will she be able to survive? It’s up to you to know. Go, grab your copy now to join Patricia, Kellan, Ethany, Elijah and many others in this compelling story.

To get you a little more interested I will shed a little light in the story. Mainly Patricia is Archangel Michael’s daughter; she is destined to be with Ethany, who is Archangel Gabriel’s son. What all species we are dealing with here? Let’s see. We have Angels, Demons, Witches and … okay, you will still know it from first pages: Angel/Vampire hybrid. But I am keeping my mouth shut and not saying who that is. All of the characters are interesting to read about, but the whole intrigue of the love triangle was too short. It died within 10 minutes of reading and well, I would have loved to read more about it. Melissa makes it a habit to write from many POV-s and actually hat makes a story really interesting and it’s not a bit confusing. Nobody is left out, everybody contributes. One of the best things in this book is Patricia’s reaction to all of this. It was the most real thing to me, it wasn’t pretended. Everything she felt and said was believable.

It will be only fair if I say why I gave the book 3.5 mugs and not more. Firstly, I didn’t get the whole concept of Kingdom. I mean, there was nearly no description of it. What I gather was: there are caves, mountains and it feels better than paradise. That’s all. But maybe it was just cryptic me. The next thing was a lack of steam between characters. Have you ever had that feeling when a tension between two characters is getting bigger and they are going to make it and you get all juicy details and you hear beats uncontrollably while reading? Well, all those “tension” moments were crashing all of my dreams with a awesome phrase: ”… and he made love to me”. I mean it. When I read it for the first time I said okay, I will see something more later. But when each time this “tension” was crashed down on me without even beginning I just told myself to read on because the book has an amazing mystery in it, forget the romance.

I think that’s all wanted to tell you now. I hope you will get a free hour or two, and grab this book for your collection. It’s awesome at taking you mind if and giving you something to think on. And well you will be amazed with Patricia, you even may find yourself in her while reading other books where the main character is coping really well with her/his new life. Happy Reading, and don’t forget to share your thoughts with us.

XOXO

Katie

My Rating: