The Good, The Bad, and The Undead – Kim Harrison 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Picking up where the first book left off, we find Rachel struggling to make rent in her new life as an independent runner, learning how to handle her vampire roommate, and enjoying spending time with her boyfriend Nick. All hell breaks loose when Trent’s secretary goes to the FIB because her boyfriend is missing.

Loved it, loved it, loved it. We get to see the struggles Rachel is going through as an independent runner, from getting stiffed on her payments, to running out of money, the humor of the situations, the balancing she has to do with her roommate Ivy, all while trying to find a serial killer, and figure out how to get rid of her troublesome demon.

I have to say I REALLY like the bad guys. We have Trent, who followed from the first book, still love that guy. I’m not sure why. He seems to have a moral code, even though it doesn’t fit into conventional morals, and actually, in this book, he’s not really the bad guy, which gives you more of a chance to like him. I also really am enjoying the demon. Big Al, as Rachel calls him, has decided to make his presence known and is a dominating force throughout the entire story. You can feel the present danger he emanates, whether he’s around or not, but I truly looked forward to him showing up.

All throughout the book, the larger storyline progresses as well. We get the answers that were not included in book one, Rachel has new problems developing and she has a new, albeit grudging, working relationship with Trent. We meet new characters that I hope to see in future books, as well as original characters from the first book, whom I love.

Suffice to say, I am looking forward to the next book. Two thumbs up, five stars, and just plain great. Go read it already!

Her Dear and Loving Husband – Meredith Allard 🌟🌟🌟

Sarah, recent divorcée, needs a fresh start and decides that Salem, a place that has always fascinated her, will be perfect. There, she meets witches, vampires, and even the random werewolf. Meanwhile, someone has decided to expose the evil in Salem, and has centered their attention on James as the subject of their vampire hunt.

It sounded fascinating and adventurous, full of mystery, interesting characters and excitement. Yeah, not so much. While the premise of the story is compelling, there was zero excitement. For a story full of preternatural creatures and past life regression, it was pretty dull. We have James, who lived through the Witch Hunt in Salem, who gives a first hand perspective of what it was like to live through that terror, and being witness to losing friends and loved ones during that time. So basically, you are reading a story of a vampire telling a story of a historical event. That has a big part of the plot.Then you bring in the journalist who wants to expose James as a vampire, which will bring on a new Hunt. This was not exciting, not frightening and certainly not worrisome. It seems like more of an extra subplot to give the reader something more to focus on than just Sarsh wading through this new life, trying to figure out what everything means. Personally, I don’t know why they didn’t just have the journalist killed in some fashion. This would have solved the problem, and let’s face it, vampires really don’t have a problem killing, so even if for some reason James didn’t want to kill him, there are plenty others that could, would and should have.

The truth is, I enjoy reading about historical events, and the Salem Witch Trials have always drawn me, so reading this gave an interesting perspective to a dark chapter of American History. But truthfully, I had to force myself to read it. It was slow going and I have no idea how the author stretched out this tale to include two more novels.

I am am giving this 3 stars solely for James’ storytelling. Reading his firsthand account of the Witch Hunt made this worth reading. The rest of it I could have done without.

Special Offers – M. L. Ryan 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Quintessential bookworm Hailey was spurned by love 3 years ago, so decided to delve into her books and enjoys her solitude with her cat Vinnie. This all changes when she decides her very small home has no more room for more bookshelves or books, so opts to finally get a Kindle. To save a few bucks, she gets the version with special offers.

When I first read the description of this book, I thought, ehh, not my usual type of book, but for variety’s sake, I’ll try it. I did not have high expectations. But as I started reading about Hailey, I very quickly identified with her. She very well could have been me (minus the chinchilla cheese making job)! So with that, I was sucked into the story and loved every word.

Besides the very bookish Hailey, we also have some other amazing characters that make the story just take on a life of its own. To start with, Sebastian, who is for the most part, just a voice throughout the entire book, is intelligent, funny and one tough guy, Alex is smart, handsome, and has a quiet gentleness about him that is appealing.

My only complaint with the book was literally the last page. EVERYTHING in the book was tied up, the bad guys caught, all the wrongs righted, happily ever after. Then you read the last page. The author threw in a non-ending so that she had a place to pick up the story for her next book. All well and good, but it feels more like an afterthought. She could have easily bended it into the last chapter so it didn’t leave you thinking “what the heck just happened???”

Despite the shoddy last page, the story was amazing. I loved every second of it and will definitely be reading the next book. Just goes to show ya, give something new a chance because you never know if you will find a new favorite book.

King’s X: Visions – Stephen T. Harper 🌟🌟

I don’t know how the author did it, but this book, which had so much potential and was filled with action, drug out, making it dull and listless. I found myself skipping almost full pages trying to find where the story picked up and moved forward. This is not to say the story was bad, not by any means, however, in my opinion, the author could have skipped some of the inner dialogue and the long drawn out descriptions, and actually put the next two books in with this one, and probably made a standard length novel, filled with excitement and adventure.

I love the premise of the story. Templars and assassins have always piqued my interest. It was kind of like reading the book version of Assassin’s Creed. It’s exciting, and interesting and the plot should have sucked me in, but there was so little dialogue and so much description, I couldn’t connect with the characters.

Then, just like Assassin’s Creed, you jump back to the past with two different characters, seeing their struggles, then poof, next chapter your back in the late 60’s, trying to figure out what the heck just happened. While this is a good tactic for the game series, I don’t think it was a good one for this book series.

And my biggest pet peeve: It’s a cliffhanger. No proper ending and what really ticks me off is that since the author was jumping back and forth between two time periods, BOTH ended in a cliffhanger. It’s a friggin’ novella! There is NO excuse for ending the story so short without a proper cut off point. To me, that just screams “This is just to catch your interest! To find out what happens, give me money!” I don’t mind buying books. I spend money on books all the time. But I do NOT buy books where the author doesn’t feel like the reader should get a whole story for free. At least write in the description the free book you are offering is a cliffhanger.

All in all, the potential is outstanding, but the story fell flat. As much as I love the premise, I’m note even remotely interested in reading the next book.

Marked – Elisabeth Naughton 🌟🌟🌟🌟

First, I will give my opinion. In my opinion, this was a good read. I liked the structure, the characters, the flow, the storyline. Almost like it followed a… Formula… Hmmm…

For those of you out there who are avid paranormal romance readers, you KNOW the formula: The strong, masculine, warrior type man, full of testosterone, always alone, not a single weakness in sight. Enter the story heroine, the strong, willful, competent young woman who, upon meeting the warrior, awakes him to his emotions, and huge amounts of uncontrollable lust/love. Add in the dramatic story arc that flows through the background of the series of books, be it a swelling army hellbent on destroying the warrior’s people and way of life, a mysterious bad guy seeking world domination, or some kind of impending apocalyptic event looming on the horizon.

Yes! THAT formula! since this wasn’t my first paranormal romance to follow this plot outline, I recognized it immediately, and was almost bored with it. I mean how many times can you read the same thing, different names and be excited as a reader? While I love the series I read that follow this, I do like variety.

But this isn’t a review based on the originality of the series. No, this is a review of the story. So back on point. While I was a little bored through about 2/3’s of the book, it got exciting at the end. You get to meet Hades, and Persephone, ant let me tell you, Persephone is nothing like what I would have expected. I was not a fan of Isadora either at the beginning, she grew on me by the end. I also LOVED the little we saw of Orpheus and Nick. Two amazing men, flawed and rough, that I would completely love to read more about. As for our main story couple, Casey and Theron, ehhhhh. Again, I was a little bored.

But in general, the story was well written, flowing very well. I enjoyed the story, and even though it’s similar to a lot of of other paranormal romance books out there, the series plot is very interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.

Magic Bites – Ilona Andrews 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Kate is one tough cookie. She doesn’t scare easily, and when she does get scared, she gets mouthy. Add in a very scary sword that oozes magic, power words, and monsters, you have a good recipe for a story.

Murder and mayhem start the book running almost from page one, putting Kate on course for the fight of her life, seeking vengeance against the monsters who took her only remaining family. She meets new friends along the way, like Curran, his majesty of the beasts. 

This book is raw and gritty, foul language, lots of blood and gore, monsters and death. Kate packs a wallop in the first book of her series. Worth the read.  

Dead Witch Walking – Kim Harrison 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Hook, line and sinker. This first book in the Hollows series was amazing. The story development went from unhappy employee to a family/friends gained in independence as a free self employed woman. Of course, there was a lot more in the journey than just quitting your day job.

Pixies battles, death threats, demon attacks, transformations, drug smugglIng, illegal fights, and one heck of an amazing bad guy that you can actually like. Rachel’s adventures after she quits her job in her quest for a better life has left me wanting more, to know what wasn’t answered in this first book.

While not all the answers to all the questions were given, all loose ends to the story have been tied up. No cliffhangers, and that to me is a huge upside. I really hate cliffhangers. 

All in all, an amazing first book to the series. I’m really looking forward to reading the next!

Coping – J. Bennett 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

While I’m not usually one for novellas, I did enjoy this quick read that is in line with one of my favorite books. It picks up one month after book one ends. We see that Maya is still struggling with her new life, but is learning to be apart of her new family.

She is involved in her first mission, and while she falters, it’s completely expected. I mean you can’t expect her to be completely mentally ready for that big of a life change after only a month.

All in all, a nice short story, to keep you in touch with Maya and her struggles.

The Turning – April M. Reign 🌟🌟

I found this book entirely boring. The story started out great in the prologue, but as you moved through the pages, it very quickly stopped being exciting. And unfortunately, the characters where completely off-putting.

We’ll start with Apollo. First off, no GIRL would be better than him. Really? And isolated in the middle of nowhere, with super vampires as family, including a female vampire, and his twin sister being his only constant companion, WHERE did her develope this mentality? Dispite what the author thinks, this is a learned behavior and i don’t see anyone of his immediate contacts teaching him that. What drives me batty most is his whiney, petulant attitude, acting more like a 13 year old rather than an 18 year old.

Amaya had more promise. However, without giving spoilers away, seeing her utter horror for what her vampire family is, she then changes her mind and is more nervous than horrified. I’m sorry, but considering the scene she was privy to, I can’t imagine her flipping her conscience off like that.

Dear ole’ dad. For someone who supposedly loves his kids, I find his fathering quite lacking, selfish, and just plain contradictory to what a father who loves his kids would do. Right from the prologue, you can see what backward morals he has. Maybe it’s the vampire in him, so maybe I can forgive hims some of his selfishness.

It was just a tough read. I had to force myself to get through it. And the reason it has 2 stars instead of one is because there’s potential, and the prologue was pretty spectacular.

Breathless – Scott Prussing 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

As I settled in to read this book, I was expecting something completely different. Something darker, something more heated. I was surprised, and not unpleasantly, that it was a lighter tone yet still rich in detail and story.

Leesa, who is only 18, holds a maturity that is not seen in the stereotypical college student. She is shy, quiet, doesn’t drink excessively and is in general a strong female lead. I liked her quite a bit.

Then we have Rave. Tall, dark and handsome, and our resident vampire hunter. He falls for Leesa and is more than a little determined to keep her safe, and see that she is happy.

Stephen is the book’s bad-ass vampire/bad guy. Although I don’t know if he really IS the bad guy. He is also tall, dark and handsome pops up now and again, and also seems to have a thing for our leading lady. While vampires in this book are not really the a-typical vampire heart throbs that seems to be commonplace in vampire stories today, I did not find them completely soulless monsters either. In short, I really liked Stephen.

The story itself was well written, flowing smoothly and not jumping around or lagging. It was well thought out, and drew me in. I loved the interactions between all the characters and truly, there wasn’t really any character or plot line I didn’t like.

Overall, I have to admit, I liked the book. It concluded nicely, but totally guides you into the “what’s going to happen in the next book?” state of mind. It’s definitely worth the read.