Review: Twisted Miracles by A.J. Larrieu

Title: Twisted Miracles (The Shadowminds #1)
Author: A.J. Larrieu
Publisher: Carina Press
Acquired Via: NetGalley
Release Date: April 7, 2014
Cass Weatherfield’s powers come with a deadly price.

Cass knows it was her telekinetic gift that killed a college classmate five years back, even if no one else believes her. She’s lived in hiding from her fellow shadowminds ever since, plagued by guilt and suppressing her abilities with sedatives. Until the night her past walks back into her life in the form of sexy Shane Tanner, the ex-boyfriend who trained her…and the one she left without saying goodbye.

When Shane tells her that his twin sister, Mina—Cass’s childhood friend—is missing, Cass vows to help, which means returning to New Orleans to use her dangerous skills in the search. But finding Mina only leads to darker questions. As Cass and Shane race to learn who is targeting shadowminds, they find themselves drawn to each other, body and soul. Just as their powerful intimacy reignites, events take a terrifying turn, and Cass realizes that to save the people she loves, she must embrace the powers that ruined her life.

My Review

I might be a little biased because I love a good Louisiana story, but I really enjoyed A.J. Larrieu’s first novel Twisted Miracles. One of the best parts was that the dialogue between the characters felt real and true. There was no over-the-top fake southern accents and drawls. I didn’t have to see the word “cher” for every endearment. I could tell the book was written by someone who had lived in Louisiana.

Author Interview: The Ghoul Archipelago by Stephen Kozeniewski

Title: The Ghoul Archipelago
Author: Stephen Kozeniewski
Publisher: Severed Press
Release Date: October 16, 2013
After ravenous corpses topple society and consume most of the world’s population, freighter captain Henk Martigan is shocked to receive a distress call. Eighty survivors beg him to whisk them away to the relative safety of the South Pacific. Martigan wants to help, but to rescue anyone he must first pass through the nightmare backwater of the Curien island chain.

A power struggle is brewing in the Curiens. On one side, the billionaire inventor of the mind-control collar seeks to squeeze all the profit he can out of the apocalypse. Opposing him is the charismatic leader of a ghoul-worshipping cargo cult. When a lunatic warlord berths an aircraft carrier off the coast and stakes his own claim on the islands, the stage is set for a bloody showdown.

To save the remnants of humanity (and himself), Captain Martigan must defeat all three of his ruthless new foes and brave the gruesome horrors of...THE GHOUL ARCHIPELAGO.

Interview

1. Let’s start off getting to know you – what is something about you that very few people know or suspect?

I am an unabashed slave to the needle. I have nine tattoos after thirteen studio sessions (confusing hint: only one was a cover-up.) Most people who meet me think either, “Oh, he’s a marshmallow,” (in personal situations) or, “Oh, he’s a stick-in-the-mud,” (in professional.) I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that wasn’t shocked by all my ink.

2. Please tell us a little bit about The Ghoul Archipelago in your own words but with a Twitter twist – 140 characters or less.

Oh, fun. Dammit, I just wasted 8 characters. Now it’s 43! OK, it’s about smugglers trying to save zombocalypse survivors from pirates and...

3. What makes The Ghoul Archipelago stand apart from other zombie apocalypse type books?

Review: Night Diver by Elizabeth Lowell

Title: Night Diver
Author: Elizabeth Lowell
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Release Date: April 8, 2014
Acquired Via: Publisher
New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell plunges into the adventurous and deadly world of underwater treasure hunters in a heart-stopping tale that superbly combines atmosphere, action, romance, and suspense.

After a family tragedy, Kate Donnelly left the Caribbean behind forever. But a series of bad management decisions has left her family's diving and marine-recovery business drowning in red ink. Now her brother pleads with her to come back to the island nation of St Vincent. Without Kate's financial expertise, the iconic treasure-hunting enterprise started by her grandfather will go under. Unable to say no to the little family she has left, Kate heads back to the beautiful and terrifying ocean that still haunts her nightmares.

Holden Cameron was addicted to the adrenaline rush of active duty—including narrowly surviving an underwater explosives accident. The last thing the former British military diver wants is to babysit a family of thieves on a tropical island—even if they are the world-famous Diving Donnellys. But in his new civilian job, Holden must investigate the suspicious activity surrounding a Donnelly dive to recover treasure from the ancient wreck of a pirate ship.

When equipment, treasure, and even divers begin to disappear, Kate and Holden form an uneasy alliance to uncover the truth. But the deeper they plummet into the mystery, the closer they come to each other. Soon they are sharing their deepest fears and darkest secrets—and a combustible chemistry too hot to ignore.

My Review

I'll admit - I went into Elizabeth Lowell's Night Diver with not a little trepidation. I don't read a lot of romantic suspense, and what I have read makes me turn my nose up like the book snob that I am. However, being over adult services at my library branch requires me to be a more diverse reader, whether I like it or not. Luckily, I enjoyed Night Diver very much once the hormones of the protagonists got under control.

Epic Recs: April 2014

I've been loving doing Epic Recs (hosted by Books of Amber) with Becca of I'm Lost in Books, and she's graciously agreed to another go in April, though I just recently posted my review from February. (I know, I'm awful.) Here are our reviews:

Becca's review of Cinder
My review of The Madman's Daughter
For April, I recommended a few of my favorites to Becca, and she chose this one because she already own it. I'm so happy she did because it's one of my all-time favorites, and one that doesn't get enough publicity by half:

Skylark by Meagan Spooner

Sixteen-year-old Lark Ainsley has never seen the sky.

Her world ends at the edge of the vast domed barrier of energy enclosing all that’s left of humanity. For two hundred years the city has sustained this barrier by harvesting its children's innate magical energy when they reach adolescence. When it’s Lark’s turn to be harvested, she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish web of experiments and learns she is something out of legend itself: a Renewable, able to regenerate her own power after it’s been stripped.

Forced to flee the only home she knows to avoid life as a human battery, Lark must fight her way through the terrible wilderness beyond the edge of the world. With the city’s clockwork creations close on her heels and a strange wild boy stalking her in the countryside, she must move quickly if she is to have any hope of survival. She’s heard the stories that somewhere to the west are others like her, hidden in secret—but can she stay alive long enough to find them?



I also got to choose from a few of Becca's favorites, and I chose to go with some historical fiction.

The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
In ancient Egypt, a forgotten princess must overcome her family’s past and remake history.

The winds of change are blowing through Thebes. A devastating palace fire has killed the Eighteenth Dynasty’s royal family—all with the exception of Nefertari, the niece of the reviled former queen, Nefertiti. The girl’s deceased family has been branded as heretical, and no one in Egypt will speak their names. A relic of a previous reign, Nefertari is pushed aside, an unimportant princess left to run wild in the palace. But this changes when she is taken under the wing of the Pharaoh’s aunt, then brought to the Temple of Hathor, where she is educated in a manner befitting a future queen.

Soon Nefertari catches the eye of the Crown Prince, and despite her family’s history, they fall in love and wish to marry. Yet all of Egypt opposes this union between the rising star of a new dynasty and the fading star of an old, heretical one. While political adversity sets the country on edge, Nefertari becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great. Destined to be the most powerful Pharaoh in Egypt, he is also the man who must confront the most famous exodus in history.

Sweeping in scope and meticulous in detail, The Heretic Queen is a novel of passion and power, heartbreak and redemption.


Anywho, if you're interested in participating in Epic Recs, you can sign up for it HERE. If you participate, let me know in the comments - I'd love to check out your recs!

Cover Reveal (Giveaway): Birthright by Nichole Giles

Title: Birthright (Descendant #2)
Author: Nichole Giles
Publisher: Jelly Bean Press
Cover Reveal Organizer: Blog Tours by Elana
Release Date: May 1, 2014
Two months ago, Abigail Johnson saved the life of the boy she believes is her destiny and defeated an army of demons that have pursued her ancestors for centuries. Now, she and Kye should be taking their place as leaders of the new generation of Gifted. But the curse they thought was broken has returned, and every minute together brings them closer to death.

When remaining shadow demons attack again, the Dragons send Abby to Mexico. Being apart from Kye is slowly killing her soul, and it turns out she isn’t any safer here than she was back home. The shadows have tracked her, the locals expect her to help with their own demon problems, and the more time she spends away from Kye, the more she doubts the destiny that ties them together.

When the demons destroy her safe house, Abby has no choice but to take the fight to them. But the arrival of an old nemesis throws their careful plans into disarray, and Abby and her friends find themselves facing new adversaries in a battle that turns fatal. This time, not everyone will make it out alive.


About the Author

Review (Epic Recs): The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Since January, I've been doing Epic Recs with Becca of I'm Lost in Books. (She read and reviewed Cinder by Marissa Meyer at my suggestion.) Here is my teensy bit late review for February.



Title: The Madman's Daughter (The Madman's Daughter #1)
Author: Megan Shepherd
Narrator: Lucy Rayner
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Release Date: January 29, 2013
In the darkest places, even love is deadly.

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

My Review

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd is a difficult book for me to review. It's one that was not a bad book, just not something that swept me off of my feet. I think this may be a problem that I have sometimes with reimaginings that are infused with quite a bit of romance. And, truth be told, I don't have a lot of luck with YA horror. That being said, The Madman's Daughter is a reworked classic that stands well on its own.

Cover Reveal (Sneak Peek & Giveaway): Rewind to You by Laura Johnston

Title: Rewind to You
Author: Laura Johnston
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Release Date: September 15, 2014
One last summer before college on beautiful Tybee Island is supposed to help Sienna forget. But how can she? This is where her family spent every summer before everything changed, before the world as she knew it was ripped away.

But the past isn’t easily left behind. Especially when Sienna keeps having episodes that take her back to the night she wants to forget. Even when she meets the mysterious Austin Dobbs, the guy with the intense blue eyes, athlete’s body, and weakness for pralines who scooped her out of trouble when she blacked out on River Street.

When she’s with Austin, Sienna feels a whole new world opening up to her. Austin has secrets, and she has history. But caught between the past and the future, Sienna can still choose what happens now…

Sneak Peek




Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble


About the Author

Waiting on Wednesday (49): The Falconer by Elizabeth May

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: The Falconer (The Falconer #1)
Author: Elizabeth May
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Release Date: May 6, 2014
Heiress. Debutant. Murderer. A new generation of heroines has arrived.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1844

Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother.

Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways.

But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge?


This looks like it combines a lot of things I love to read about - fantasy, fairies, and Scotland/England high society pre-1900. I cannot wait to get my hands on this - Aileana just seems like she's going to be my kind of bad-ass heroine!

What are you waiting on this week?