Blog Tour (Review): The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter #TLCBookTours #Giveaway @genashowalter @HarlequinBooks

Happy Friday! Thank you so much for visiting my stop on the tour promoting Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series! Today I'm reviewing The Darkest Night, the first book in the series. There is also a great giveaway at the end of the post, so be sure to check that out before you leave!



Title: The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld #1)
Author: Gena Showalter
Publisher: HQN (Harlequin)
Tour Organizer: TLC Book Tours
Release Date: May 3, 2008
All her life, Ashlyn Darrow has been tormented by voices from the past. To end the nightmare, she has come to Budapest seeking help from men rumored to have supernatural abilities, not knowing she'll be swept into the arms of Maddox, their most dangerous member--a man trapped in a hell of his own.

Neither can resist the instant hunger that calms their torments...and ignites an irresistible passion. But every heated touch and burning kiss will edge them closer to destruction--and a soul-shattering test of love....

My Review

I've never considered myself a romance reader. True, I'll read the occasional historical romance as a palate cleanser, but it's never been my go to genre-of-choice. I haven't read paranormal romance in years, as I tend to prefer high or urban fantasy. However, as I read The Darkest Night, I realized that there might be a romance reader inside me after all.

Review: Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire #BibPleaseReview #scifi @dawbooks @seananmcguire @nita_basu

Title: Chaos Choreography (InCryptid #5)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: DAW (Penguin Random House)
Release Date: March 1, 2016
Acquired Via: Publisher
Verity Price is back on the West Coast and getting back into the swing of the family business: cryptozoology. She’s rescuing cryptids from bad situations, protecting them from monster-hunters, and generally risking life and limb for the greater good, with her ex-Covenant partner/husband, Dominic, by her side. Her ballroom dance career is behind her…or so she thinks.

When Verity gets the call from the producers of Dance or Die, the reality show she almost won several years before, she finds the lure of a comeback impossible to resist, and she and Dominic are off to L.A. for one last shot at the big time.

Of course, nothing is that simple. When two of her fellow contestants turn up dead, Verity will need every ally she can find—and a couple she wasn’t looking for—in order to navigate the complicated steps of both the tango and a murder investigation without blowing her cover. It doesn’t help that her official family backup is her grandmother, Alice Price-Healy, who thinks “subtle” is something that happens to other people.

Winning this competition may have just become a matter of life and death.

My Review

You can read Kim's review of Pocket Apocalypse (InCryptid #4) HERE.

Chaos Choreography is the fifth book the InCryptid series. For this book we go back to Verity Price and what has been happening in her life after the events of Midnight Blue-Light Special.

I have struggled in writing this review, mostly because I think you will like something more in-depth that squeeing and chants of “I love it, I love it, I love it!”. I loved everything about the book; the spacing, the plot and the action scenes. But there are two things that I loved in particular: the respect that the Price Clan has in regards to information preservation and that Verity is self-aware enough to recognize her personal opinion is not the last word in all situations. Verity is aware of the fact that not everyone feels comfortable with her choice of husband, and she understands their reasons and respects them!

Blog Tour (Interview): The Dirt on Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones #giveaway @darynda @StMartinsPress

Thank you so much for visiting by Bibliophilia, Please for my stop of the The Dirt on Ninth Grave blog tour - which is out TOMORROW! Today, I'll be featuring an exclusive interview with Darynda Jones, and there's also a giveaway of the book!



Title: The Dirt on Ninth Grave (Charley Davidson #9)
Author: Darynda Jones
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (Macmillan)
Release Date: January 12, 2016
In a small village in New York Charley Davidson is living as Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she's more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half-truths. Soon, she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it. Her saving grace comes in the form of a new friend she feels she can confide in and the fry cook, a devastatingly handsome man whose smile is breathtaking and touch is scalding. He stays close, and she almost feels safe with him around.

But no one can outrun their past, and the more lies that swirl around her-even from her new and trusted friends-the more disoriented she becomes, until she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. A force that absolutely will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. But that doesn't help in her quest to find her identity and recover what she's lost. That will take all her courage and a touch of the power she feels flowing like electricity through her veins. She almost feels sorry for him. The devil in blue jeans. The disarming fry cook who lies with every breath he takes. She will get to the bottom of what he knows if it kills her. Or him. Either way.

Author Interview

Kayla: Hi, Darynda! Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to interview you. You have a lot of fans here at Bibliophilia, Please. Do you mind telling us a little bit about your Charley Davidson series and newest book, The Dirt on Ninth Grave?

Darynda Jones: I’d love to! Charley Davidson is a female PI who was born the grim reaper. In every story, she solves a case for a living client and one for a departed, not to mention all the side cases thrown in for good measure. The books are packed with lots of mystery and lots of sexiness in the form of our love interest, Reyes Farrow. He has daddy issues (mostly because his father is public enemy number one in both the tangible realm and the supernatural one), but that’s another story.

In Ninth Grave, Charley has lost her memory due to a traumatic event (involving Reyes’s dad, no less), and we find her working at a diner in Sleepy Hollow, NY, where she has her whole brood looking out for her. She just doesn't know it’s HER brood. Trust is coming hard for her, especially since she can see into the supernatural realm but has no idea why. And when one of her regulars is cloaked in shadows and fire, she’s both scared and intrigued by him.

This book was so fun to write because it is almost like starting over. Charley gets to learn to trust her closest friends once again and fall in love with Reyes all over again, once she can get past his brooding darkness.

Kayla: You’ve been working on this series for quite a while. How have you changed as a writer since you wrote the first book in the series and debut novel, First Grave on the Right?

Review: The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson #UrbanFantasy #BibPleaseReview @KHeniadis

Title: The Witches of Echo Park (The Witches of Echo Park #1)
Author: Amber Benson
Publisher: Ace (Penguin Random House)
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Acquired Via: Library
First in a “spellbinding”* new series about a coven of witches living in L.A., from Amber Benson, author of the Calliope Reaper-Jones novels.

Unbeknownst to most of humankind, a powerful network of witches thrives within the shadows of society, using magic to keep the world in balance. But the witches are being eliminated—and we will all pay if their power falls...

When Lyse MacAllister’s great-aunt Eleanora, the woman who raised her, becomes deathly ill, Lyse puts her life in Georgia on hold to rush back to Los Angeles. And once she returns to Echo Park, Lyse discovers her great-aunt has been keeping extraordinary secrets from her.

Not only is Lyse heir to Eleanora’s Victorian house; she is also expected to take her great-aunt’s place in the Echo Park coven of witches. But accepting her destiny means placing herself in deadly peril—for the world of magic is under siege, and the battle the witches now fight may be their last...

My Review

I would have given this book five stars, but the ending was just a bit too unbelievable for me. I know, I know, with witches and other supernatural things it shouldn’t be too far for me to stretch, but it was.

I’ll go into why it was too much for me at the end of the review, so you don’t get any spoilers if you don’t want them.

Blog Tour (Review): The Visitant by Megan Chance #giveaway #TLCBookTours

Title: The Visitant: A Venetian Ghost Story
Author: Megan Chance
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (Amazon)
Release Date: September 22, 2015
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
A crumbling palazzo in nineteenth-century Venice holds a buried secret.

After she nearly ruins her family with a terrible misstep, Elena Spira is sent to Venice to escape disgrace and to atone by caring for the ailing Samuel Farber. But the crumbling and decaying Ca’ Basilio palazzo, where Samuel is ensconced, holds tragic secrets, and little does Elena know how profoundly they will impact her. Soon she begins to sense that she is being watched by something. And when Samuel begins to have hallucinations that make him violent and unpredictable, she can’t deny she’s in mortal danger.

Then impoverished nobleman Nero Basilio, Samuel’s closest friend and the owner of the palazzo, arrives. Elena finds herself entangled with both men in a world where the past seeps into the present and nothing is as it seems. As Elena struggles to discover the haunting truth before it destroys her, a dark force seems to hold Samuel and the Basilio in thrall—is it madness, or something more sinister?

Praise

“Chance’s Venice is glittering, mysterious, sophisticated…” – The Seattle Times on Inamorata

“…provocative and haunting. Chance’s quietly powerful tale will appeal to fans of well-detailed, mysterious, and romantic historical fiction.” – BookList on Bone River

My Review

I wanted to read The Visitant: A Venetian Ghost Story because I am always interested in a spooky or gothic historical, especially if there's also a mystery involved.

My problems with The Visitant started with my wrong assumption that the story was set in the late 1700s rather than the late 1800s. The entire first third of the book resulted in my shaking my head because I couldn't believe how progressive the Venice in the story was. When I realized that the story was in the late 1800s, I began to like the story better, but I still didn't think that Venice was that progressive. Toward the beginning of the novel, Samuel attempts to make a deal with Elena, swearing if she reads a racy novel he will stop acting like a spoiled child. I was a little worried that my hopeful Italian gothic mystery would then change into an erotica novel, with naughty passages filled with nurses and patients and nuns and priests. Thankfully there are only a few sex scenes, and none of them are out of the ordinary of the run-of-the-mill historical romance. However, I just couldn't believe that men and women were that outspoken about sex in the late 1800s, even in Venice.

Review: ZED by Jason McIntyre #BibPleaseReview @KHeniadis

Title: ZED
Author: Jason McIntyre
Publisher: Booktrope Editions
Release Date: July 26, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
It’s the waning dog days of August, 1975 and Tom Mason’s in Dovetail Cove for the last few weeks of his summer job at the group home. His boss and the home’s owner is Karen Banatyne, one of the wealthiest folks in town. It seems like she’s got it in for Tom; she’s the only one standing in his way as he scrimps for a new camera. But Karen has her own problems. A regulatory agency might cut off her funding, plus her hubby hasn’t been seen in a few weeks, and she’s not saying why. Most ominous of all, it seems as though something’s hiding in the hot spring north of the main beach and one of Karen’s ‘houseguests’ is about to come face to face with evil. Tom is too.

My Review

I really enjoyed the nostalgia in this book. Jason McIntyre’s reference to Jaws, slathering oneself with baby oil while sunbathing, and other things from the 70’s, made me feel like this story could have taken place during my childhood. I do think these references would have been unnoticed from readers in their 20’s. They are not needed to understand the story, they just make it a bit more enjoyable.

Library of Souls #STAYPECULIAR Tour Information & #Giveaway!

Did you see Ransom Riggs's tour announcement? If not, he's headed out on a 5-city LIBRARY OF SOULS #STAYPECULIAR TOUR visiting NYC, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Each event will have surprises and awesome guests. And since Ransom's only visiting 5-cities and not everyone lives close by, Quirk is running a sweepstakes for a chance to win a VIP trip to see Ransom at one of his tour cities! (How exciting is that?!) It's an easy sweepstakes to enter, peculiarize yourself, post it on Instagram, Twitter, etc. with #staypeculiar, and share your link with Quirk at www.quirkbooks.com/los.

The Tour




The Book



Title: Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #3)
Author: Ransom Riggs
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: September 22, 2015
Time is running out for the Peculiar Children. With a dangerous madman on the loose and their beloved Miss Peregrine still in danger, Jacob Portman and Emma Bloom are forced to stage the most daring of rescue missions. They’ll travel through a war-torn landscape, meet new allies, and face greater dangers than ever. . . . Will Jacob come into his own as the hero his fellow Peculiars know him to be? This action-packed adventure features more than 50 all-new Peculiar photographs.

Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Fishpond
Google Play | iTunes | Kobo


About the Author

Blog Tour (Review & #Giveaway): #TheUninvited by Cat Winters #historicalfiction #TLCBookTours #BibPleaseReview

Title: The Uninvited
Author: Cat Winters
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (HarperCollins)
Release Date: August 11, 2015
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
Twenty-five-year-old Ivy Rowan rises from her sickbed after being struck by the great influenza epidemic of 1918, only to discover that the world has been torn apart in just a few short days.

But Ivy's lifelong gift—or curse—remains. She sees the uninvited ones—ghosts of loved ones who appear to her, unasked for and unwelcomed, for they always herald impending death. On that October evening in 1918, Ivy sees the spirit of her grandmother, rocking in her mother's chair. An hour later, she learns her younger brother and father have killed a young German out of retaliation for the death in the Great War of Ivy's other brother, Billy.

Horrified, she leaves home and soon realizes that the flu has caused utter panic and the rules governing society have broken down. Ivy is drawn into this new world of jazz, passion, and freedom, where people live for today, because they could be stricken by nightfall. She even enters into a relationship with the murdered German man's brother, Daniel Schendel. But as her "uninvited guests" begin to appear to her more often, she knows her life will be torn apart once again, and terrifying secrets will unfold.

My Review

I know I've said before that I tend to avoid American historical fiction when I'm choosing my reading materials, but I had no problem with picking up The Uninvited by Cat Winters because I enjoyed her writing in her debut, In the Shadow of Blackbirds. The writing in The Uninvited was just as good, if not better, because putting the book down and doing other things (like work) made me pretty angry.

Review: Mariposa by Kim Wells

Title: Mariposa
Author: Kim Wells
Publisher: Daydreams Dandelions Publications
Release Date: December 24, 2014
Acquired Via: Author
Murdered, then trapped between worlds as a ghost, Meg is surrounded by other lost souls, some seeking to make peace with their past, while others… others fear a killer in the netherworld, who feeds on what ghosts most treasure: memories. Each time he feeds, the killer grows stronger, and he begins to threaten both the dead and the living, including Meg’s grieving step daughter.

Now a dead woman must fight the battle of her life, for the sake of her friends and family, and find out for herself if love can indeed be stronger than death.

My Review

The beginning of Mariposa is very slow. I understand the reader needs some back story, and to see how strong Meg’s love is for Tony and his daughter, Amelinda, but I almost stopped reading. That along with how many times Meg mentions that she can’t believe she slept with Tony on the first date, really put me off.

Review: In the Air Tonight by Lori Handeland (ARC) @SMPRomance

Title: In the Air Tonight (Sisters of the Craft #1)
Author: Lori Handeland
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (Macmillan)
Release Date: June 2, 2015
Acquired Via: NetGalley
Four centuries ago, in a small Scottish village, three baby girls escaped the wrath of a witch hunter. Today, one young woman will learn about her secret history, her heart's destiny, and the sisters she never knew she had...

With her blue-black hair and dark eyes, Raye Larsen has never fit in with the Scandinavian community of New Bergin, Wisconsin. Being adopted is part of the reason she feels like an outsider, but what really sets Raye apart is her ability to see dead people. Everywhere.

She’s learned to keep her visions to herself . . . until she stumbles onto the ghost of a murder victim who needs Raye’s help. Enter Bobby Doucet, a distractingly handsome homicide detective who has been tracking a killer all the way from New Orleans. Could this be the break in his case he’s been looking for all along?

Meanwhile, the deeper Raye gets involved with the case—and with Bobby—the closer she comes to unlocking the mystery of her own origins. What she discovers about herself could destroy everything she knows . . . and everyone she loves. Is finding the truth worth the risk?

My Review

It should come as no surprise that I immediately wanted to read In the Air Tonight, as it involves three sister witches. As it has more than a few commonalities with my guilty pleasure Charmed, In the Air Tonight was a quick and entertaining read for me.

Review: Spider's Trap by Jennifer Estep (ARC) @Pocket_Books #UrbanFantasy

Title: Spider's Trap (Elemental Assassin #13)
Author: Jennifer Estep
Publisher: Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster)
Release Date: July 28, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
Keep your friends close but your enemies within stabbing distance.

One important lesson I’ve learned in the assassination business is that to be the best you have to roll with the punches. Now that I’m queen of Ashland’s underworld—by default, not by choice—a lot more punches are being thrown my way. But I suppose that’s the price of victory for taking down some of the underworld’s top dogs. Good thing I have my Ice and Stone magic to help me survive my volatile new position. Just when I think things are finally settling down, someone tries to murder me during a hush-hush underworld meeting. But the real surprise is how strangely familiar my shadowy assailant seems to be.

My job is to maintain order among killers, crooks, and thieves, and soon I’m embroiled in a bloody game where the ability to keep secrets could be the greatest superpower of all. My enemies have all sharpened their knives and laid their traps, waiting for me to fall. But this Spider weaves her own webs of death…

Audio Excerpt


My Review

Spider’s Trap is the thirteenth book in Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series. Being lucky number 13, I was hoping it would be spectacular, but that wasn't the case. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book, but it didn't have the pop that some of the past books in this series did.

Waiting on Wednesday (111): Sweet Ruin by Kresley Cole

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: Sweet Ruin (Immortals After Dark #12)
Author: Kresley Cole
Publisher: Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster)
Release Date: December 1,2015
A foundling raised in a world of humans
Growing up, orphaned Josephine didn’t know who or what she was—just that she was “bad,” an outcast with strange powers. Her baby brother Thaddeus was as perfect as she was flawed; protecting him became her entire life. The day he was taken away began Jo’s transition from angry girl . . . to would-be superhero . . . to enchanting, ruthless villain.

A lethally sensual enforcer on a mission
Whether by bow or in bed, archer Rune the Baneblood never fails to eliminate his target. In his sights: the oldest living Valkyrie. Yet before he can strike, he encounters a vampiric creature whose beauty mesmerizes him. With one bite, she pierces him with aching pleasure, stealing his forbidden blood—and jeopardizing the secrets of his brethren.

A boundless passion that will lead to sweet ruin...
Could this exquisite female be a spy sent by the very Valkyrie he hunts? Rune knows he must not trust Josephine, yet he’s unable to turn her away. When Jo betrays the identity of the one man she will die to protect, she and Rune become locked in a treacherous battle of wills that pits ultimate loyalty against unbridled lust.


On the paranormal romance to urban fantasy spectrum, I'm firmly on the urban fantasy side, but this series is dirty dirty book crack, and I LOVE it. The first couple aren't as great, but by book 4 or so, I had to restrain myself from devouring them all in one binge-reading weekend.

First, Cole's humor is spot on sarcasm that is laugh out loud funny for me. Also, while the males are the normal Neanderthal me-Tarzan-you-mate variety, the women don't take any bull. And, there are quite a few more gender stereotypes thrown on their head (like men virgins).

I also like the way the series is set up. There's this huge apocalypse coming, but the first couple of books are like paranormal Amazing Race. It's quite entertaining. Cole also sets up the storyline in sets of books, so that multiple books run the same storyline concurrently. It has to take a ton of outlines, research and just hard work on her part.

The cover to Sweet Ruin is a complete diversion from the rest of the series, and I am so so glad. The other covers were so cheesy, but this one is just classic and simple. Though, I'm sure other die-hard readers were upset about the drastic change. Those covers screamed paranormal romance, where this one doesn't.

What are you waiting on this week?

Review: Grave Phantoms by Jenn Bennett

Title: Grave Phantoms (Roaring Twenties #3)
Author: Jenn Bennett
Publisher: Berkley (Penguin Random House)
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Acquired Via: Library
Feisty flapper Astrid Magnusson is home from college and yearning for the one thing that’s always been off limits: Bo Yeung, her notorious bootlegging brother’s second-in-command. Unfortunately her dream of an easy reunion proves difficult after a violent storm sends a mysterious yacht crashing into the Magnussons’ docks. What’s worse, the boat disappeared a year ago, and the survivors are acting strangely...

Bo has worked with the Magnusson family for years, doing whatever is needed, including keeping his boss’s younger sister out of trouble—and his hands to himself. Of course, that isn’t so easy after Astrid has a haunting vision about the yacht’s disappearance, plunging them into an underground world of old money and dark magic. Danger will drive them closer together, but surviving their own forbidden feelings could be the bigger risk.

My Review

Grave Phantoms is the last book in the Roaring Twenties trilogy by Jenn Bennett. The first two being Bitter Spirits and Grim Shadows. I have read all three, and this one is unfortunately not up to par with the others.

Each book centers around a different Magnusson sibling. The first one being Winter, and the second is Lowe. The first two had a really strong romance/sexual vibe, whereas this one just felt lukewarm. It could be that the first two felt more intense because the relationships were just beginning. Whereas in Grave Phantoms, Astrid and Bo have known each other since they were kids, and have turned a friendship into love.

Blog Tour (Guest Post): Night of the Highland Dragon by Isabel Cooper #giveaway @SourcebooksCasa

Title: Night of the Highland Dragon (Highland Dragons #3)
Author: Isabel Cooper
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: June 2, 2015
“They say,” said the girl, “that people disappear up there. And I heard that the lady doesna’ ever grow any older.”
“The lady?” William asked.
“Lady MacAlasdair. She lives in the castle, and she’s been there years, but she stays young and beautiful forever.”

In the Scottish Highlands, legend is as powerful as the sword—and nowhere is that more true than in the remote village of Loch Aranoch. Its mysterious ruler, Judith MacAlasdair, is fiercely protective of her land—and her secrets. If anyone were to find out what she really was, she and her entire clan would be hunted down as monsters.

William Arundell is on the trail of a killer. Special agent for an arcane branch of the English government, his latest assignment has led him to a remote Highland castle and the undeniably magnetic lady who rules there. Yet as lies begin to unravel and a dark threat gathers, William finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Highlands...and the woman he can neither trust nor deny.

He prays she isn’t the murderer; he never dreamed she was a dragon.

Guest Post

My Typical Writing Day
Isabel Cooper
This is very prosaic, I’m afraid.

A typical day of writing for me is just a typical day. I wake up, swear a lot because for some reason it’s morning *again*, work out, shower, eat some variety of breakfast, catch a train, hate everyone on the train for taking up too much space, get to work, and so forth. Usually either during my lunch break or sometime later in the afternoon, when I’ve gotten my work done and am waiting for people to send me email, I’ll get my day’s worth of writing in.

Review: Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

Title: Pocket Apocalypse (InCryptid #4)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Acquired Via: Library
Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family—no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice. Still, he’s starting to feel like he’s got the hang of things...at least until his girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport. From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers, and yes, rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much.

Australia is a cryptozoologist’s dream, filled with unique species and unique challenges. Unfortunately, it’s also filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America. And then there are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own. The continent which currently includes Alex.

Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground. Alex Price is very far from home, but there’s one thing he knows for sure: he’s not going down without a fight.

My Review

I came upon Seanan McGuire’s books when I read the first one in her October Daye series, Rosemary and Rue. The title caught my attention, which is often why I choose a book. I knew rosemary I used in spells, and it's meant for remembrance, so I figured this book would have something to do with the supernatural. While it’s not about witches, it does have to do with Fairies and their Courts, along with some other supernatural creatures.

Blog Tour (Excerpt & Giveaway): Powerless by @TeraLynnChilds & Tracy Deebs @heroagenda @SourcebooksFire #yalit

Title: Powerless (The Hero Agenda #1)
Author: Tera Lynn Childs & Tracy Deebs
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: June 2, 2015
Kenna is tired of being "normal."

The only thing special about her is that she isn't special at all. Which is frustrating when you're constantly surrounded by superheroes. Her best friend, her ex-boyfriend, practically everyone she knows has some talent or power. Sure, Kenna's smart and independent, but as an ordinary girl in an extraordinary world, it's hard not to feel inferior.

So when three villains break into the lab where she interns, Kenna refuses to be a victim. She's not about to let criminals steal the research that will make her extraordinary too.

But in the heat of battle, secrets are spilled and one of the villains saves her life. Twice. Suddenly, everything Kenna thought she knew about good and evil, heroes and villains is upended. And to protect her life and those she loves, she must team up with her sworn enemies on a mission that will redefine what it means to be powerful and powerless...


Excerpt

“You never answered my question. What are you doing down here so late?”

Those bright blue eyes sear into me as he takes a step back. “I have to go.”

His sudden evasiveness makes me suspicious, so when he starts to move past me, I sidestep into his path. “Excuse me,” I say, “but this is a secure level. Are you even authorized to be down here?”

Review: The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker (ARC) @TheNovl #TheWitchHunter #yalit @littlebrown

Title: The Witch Hunter (The Witch Hunter #1)
Author: Virginia Boecker
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (Hachette)
Release Date: June 2, 2015
Acquired Via: NOVL
The magic and suspense of Graceling meet the political intrigue and unrest of Game of Thrones in this riveting fantasy debut.

Your greatest enemy isn't what you fight, but what you fear.

Elizabeth Grey is one of the king's best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. But when she's accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake.

Salvation comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful and dangerous wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will save her from execution if she can break the deadly curse that's been laid upon him.

But Nicholas and his followers know nothing of Elizabeth's witch hunting past--if they find out, the stake will be the least of her worries. And as she's thrust into the magical world of witches, ghosts, pirates, and one all-too-handsome healer, Elizabeth is forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies, and of love and hate.

My Review

I was really excited to read The Witch Hunter, obviously, because my favorite paranormal creatures are witches. While it didn't exactly wow me, The Witch Hunter was a solid historical and paranormal YA.

The beginning is slower than the rest of the story, which may have been why I was a little underwhelmed. Although I did enjoy the beginning, I wasn't sucked in to the point of not being able to put the book down. When I picked it up again, I enjoyed myself, but there was no compulsion that I NEEDED to be reading it at all times. Once the prophecy comes out, the story starts to unfold rapidly, and the last third of the book goes by in a blink of an eye.

Audiobook Review: Charming by Elliott James #UrbanFantasy @orbitbooks

Title: Charming (Pax Arcana #1)
Author: Elliott James
Narrator: Roger Wayne
Publisher: Orbit (Hachette)
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
John Charming isn't your average Prince...

He comes from a line of Charmings -- an illustrious family of dragon slayers, witch-finders and killers dating back to before the fall of Rome. Trained by a modern day version of the Knights Templar, monster hunters who have updated their methods from chain mail and crossbows to Kevlar and shotguns, John Charming was one of the best--until a curse made him one of the abominations the Knights were sworn to hunt.

That was a lifetime ago. Now, John tends bar under an assumed name in rural Virginia and leads a peaceful, quiet life. That is, until a vampire and a blonde walked into his bar...

Charming is the first novel in a new urban fantasy series which gives a new twist to the Prince Charming tale.

My Review

I feel a little bad that I didn't read Charming sooner than what I did. I've recommended this book to numerous patrons and fellow librarians, yet I never read it myself. (The Kevin Hearne Seal of Approval was an instant purchase when I used to be in charge of collection development.) One of my coworkers spent several days going on about how much she enjoyed it and how I should read it since it reminded her of Hounded by Kevin Hearne. Two years later, I finally picked up the book.

I feel like I've missed out on so much by being late to the Charming party.

Review: To Kill a Warlock by H.P. Mallory

Title: To Kill a Warlock (Dulcie O'Neil #1)
Author: H.P. Mallory
Publisher: Self
Release Date: July 3, 2010
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
The murder of a dark arts warlock. A shape-shifting, ravenous creature on the loose. A devilishly handsome stranger sent to investigate. Sometimes working law enforcement for the Netherworld is a real bitch.

Dulcie O’Neil is a fairy. And not the type to frolic in gardens. She’s a Regulator—a law-enforcement agent who monitors the creatures of the Netherworld to keep them from wreaking havoc in the mortal world. When a warlock is murdered and Dulcie was the last person to see him alive, she must uncover the truth before she’s either deported back to the Netherworld, or she becomes the next victim.

Enter Knight Vander, a sinfully attractive investigator sent from the Netherworld to work the case with Dulcie. Between battling her attraction to her self-appointed partner, keeping a sadomasochistic demon in check, and fending off the advances of a sexy and powerful vampire, Dulcie’s got her hands full. As the body count increases, Dulcie finds herself battling dark magic, reconnoitering in S&M clubs and suffering the greatest of all betrayals.

My Review

I had come across H.P. Mallory’s other series, Jolie Wilkins, whose main character is a witch, about eight months ago and ordered it for the library where I work. I started reading the first book in the series, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, but I just couldn’t get into it. So when I came across Mallory’s Dulcie O’Neil series, I was a bit apprehensive, but I thought I would give it a chance. I am pleased that I did.

Review: The Novice by Taran Matharu (ARC) #yalit

Title: The Novice (Summoner #1)
Author: Taran Matharu
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
When blacksmith apprentice Fletcher discovers that he has the ability to summon demons from another world, he travels to Adept Military Academy. There the gifted are trained in the art of summoning. Fletcher is put through grueling training as a battlemage to fight in the Hominum Empire’s war against orcs. He must tread carefully while training alongside children of powerful nobles. The power hungry, those seeking alliances, and the fear of betrayal surround him. Fletcher finds himself caught in the middle of powerful forces, with only his demon Ignatius for help.

As the pieces on the board maneuver for supremacy, Fletcher must decide where his loyalties lie. The fate of an empire is in his hands. The Novice is the first in a trilogy about Fletcher, his demon Ignatius, and the war against the Orcs.

My Review

The Novice felt like it was a video game trying to be a book, which should have been perfect for me. Every time I picked up the book and read about orcs, mana and demons in the students' roster, I picked up my newest gaming obsession - Final Fantasy Record Keeper. This meant that this book took me about three times longer than necessary to read.