December 14, 2016 · 6:51 pm

Tiger Magic (Shifters Unbound, #5) by Jennifer Ashley

Tiger Magic (Shifters Unbound, #5)Tiger Magic by Jennifer Ashley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Title: Tiger Magic
Author: Jennifer Ashley
Series: Shifters Unbound, #5
Pages: 308
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Date: June 4, 2013

Summary:

He was once a captive, but his urges were never caged. Now he’ll release them on a beautiful stranger whose own secret desires are longing to be sated…

He doesn’t have a name. He doesn’t have a clan. The humans who held him prisoner for forty years have taken them away. He knew nothing but captivity until nearly a year ago, when he was released into the light. Now Tiger lives in the Austin Shiftertown, where he struggles to belong and searches for an identity.

Carly Randal thinks her fabulous life is complete—until her car breaks down on the side of the road, and a wild-looking Shifter is the only one to help her. Tiger takes one look at Carly and knows instantly—she will be his mate. As Carly is drawn into his Shifter world, she risks everything she has for that forbidden something she still wants: passionate love.

Review:

Jennifer Ashley (AKA Allyson James, AKA Ashley Gardner) is a wonderful author. It doesn’t matter if she is writing historical, paranormal, or science fiction, I love her books. I discovered her Tales of the Shareem years ago, lucked into the Mackenzie series much later, and most recently found the Shifters Unbound.

I have read many, many Shifter books, so I am very familiar with the genre. Ashley, however, has managed to give it a twist that keeps it fresh.

And Tiger Magic is the most unique (and yes, I know that is poor grammar, but it really is) of them all.

Tiger (that’s his only name) was introduced in Mate Claimed. He was rescued from a human compound where he had been kept captive in a cage for forty years. He suffered torture and experiments his entire life which makes him unpredictable. Even the other Shifters are nervous around him.

Except for the cubs . . . the cubs love him.

Enter a human female with no experience with shifters, so of course they are mates.

Tiger’s tragic background makes me cringe, but the book does not dwell on it. It’s not just about him overcoming his past or dealing with current problems. There is happiness and humor and that is all because of his human mate Carly. She comes to love him and is just as protective of him as he is of her.

She’s also funny.

SPOILER ALERT

 

 

 

Tiger knows after only one night together that Carly is pregnant. She is on birth control, so she doesn’t think it’s possible, but . . .

Shifter sperm, especially Tiger’s, was probably stronger than a human’s. Even if her birth control was meant to keep eggs from falling where they could be fertilized, she wouldn’t be surprised if one of Tiger’s sperm had found one and dragged it out of hiding.

I love it!

I read this book when it was released in 2013, but failed to review it. It deserves a review. In an already wonderful series, it stands out as exceptional. Try it and be sure and read the others in the series as well. It really is a series that needs to be read in order.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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December 12, 2016 · 1:45 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Blood Kiss (Black Dagger Legacy, #1) by J. R. Ward

24903031I’m not sure how it has taken me a year to read this book.  I love the Black Dagger Brotherhood and somehow have managed to get three books behind if you include the books in the Black Dagger Legacy.  Yes, this book is not about the Brothers, but the Brothers are definitely integral to the plot.  The main characters are new trainees to fight against the Lessers, so of course, they are being trained by the Brothers.

Anyway, there is lots of violence and lots of sex, not to mention some really humorous scenes.  In this one, the main male character Craeg has been watching one of the other trainees Paradise.  He’s not supposed to be.  He should be concentrating on his training.  However, . . .

This couldn’t be happening to him.  The hardest part of training to become a soldier under the Brotherhood so he could avenge his family . . . could not possibly be some blonde female.  He just refused to believe this.

Not possible —

With another kick under his uniform, his erection seemed to be laughing at him.

Glaring down at his hips, he barked, “Shut up, idiot.”

Like all the BDB books, the language is harsh, the violence is disturbing, and the sex is explicit.

And I love them.  The Legacy series is going to be just as good as the originals.

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup. Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

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December 11, 2016 · 11:13 am

Blogger Shame Review Challenge

Blogger Shame 2016
This challenge is being hosted by Anna @ Herding Cats & Burning Soup. This is for all those review copies that you received but haven’t reviewed yet! There are no set levels, so you choose your own. I am aiming for:
Twelve books from my NetGalley shelf.

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December 5, 2016 · 1:20 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Time Thief (Time Thief, #1) by Katie MacAlister

Time Thief (Time Thief, #1)Time Thief by Katie MacAlister
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Title: Time Thief
Author: Katie MacAlister
Series: Time Thief, #1
Pages: 341
Publisher: Signet
Date: May 7, 2013

Summary:

Outcast due to their ability to manipulate time, shunned by the mortal and immortal worlds alike, a Traveller’s life is anything but easy.

Peter Faa is a member of the Watch tracking down a murderer, and unfortunately, all clues seem to point toward his own estranged family of Travellers. Any of his cousins could be guilty, but which one? They’re all experts in the art of stealing time…

After surviving a lightning strike, Kiya Mortenson is determined to get just one thing in her life right. And if that means taking a job as nanny to five pugs on a campsite in the Oregon wilderness, then so be it. It doesn’t hurt that the job comes with some spectacular male eye candy, including her new boss’s gorgeous grandson. If only she didn’t keep having this strange sense of deja vu…

When Peter discovers his own family is stealing time from Kiya, all bets are off. While she may drive him crazy at times, it’s clear that it’s not just lightning that’s creating some serious sparks between them. And he’s not going to let secrets, lies, or a devious murderer keep Kiya from where she belongs: at his side.

Review:

I love Katie MacAlister because her books are funny. It doesn’t matter if they are historicals or paranormals, they are funny. This one however, may have slipped over the edge from funny to silly.

Make no mistake. I like it. It is funny, but it’s also almost too much. I am going to offer up a random quote which really was just thrown in there. I laughed when I read it, but it doesn’t actually have a bearing on the story.

“From a troll who runs a home for unwed poltergeists.”

Okay . . .

I don’t know what to say about that.

The funniest parts to me are Kiya’s conversations with her own mind. Her foster mom is a psychologist and Kiya knows far too much about her id, ego, and superego. They argue with each other after all and she argues with them. Yes, that’s as insane as it sounds.

One last thing: the description states the Travellers are outcasts. It’s more like they consider themselves better than anyone else and shun the rest of the world, both human and Other. They come off as real jerks.

There are two more books in this series and all three were published in 2013, so I doubt there will be anymore. I am still debating with myself (I have no idea what my id, ego, or superego think I should do) on whether to read them. The book was fun. It just wasn’t all that great.

If you are already a fan of MacAlister, give this one a try. If not, check out one of her other series. I highly recommend her Aisling Grey books.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup. Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

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November 28, 2016 · 1:16 am

Quotetastic Monday: Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup. Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

Sweep in Peace is the second book in a new-to-me series by Ilona Andrews.  The title of the series is Innkeeper Chronicles and if that doesn’t sound very exciting, it’s because you don’t understand about Innkeepers.  They are very powerful, at least while they are in their Inns.  And yes, I capitalized that on purpose.  The Inns are sentient or very close to it.

I read the first two books in the series in less than 48 hours.  Was I supposed to be getting other stuff done?  Of course.  Was I supposed to be reading another book?  Of course.  It didn’t matter.  These books are just so good that I couldn’t resist them.

I am a long time fan of Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series and I think these may even be better.  The only problem is that there are only two books published right now.  Book three, One Fell Sweep, is due out December 20th.  It has been serialized on her website, but I would rather wait for the published book just in case there are differences.

It’s hard to state with certainty about the genre of this series.  They are definitely science fiction, but the science appears to be magic in our world.  This is not a quote (simply because I am too lazy to look it up right now), but Dina does mention the fact that advanced technology on one world would appear to be magic on another.

Anyway, a quote since this is supposed to be a Quotetastic Monday post.

There were few universal principles in this world. That most water-based lifeforms drank tea was one. That we

fear what we cannot see was the other.

Need I mention that tea features rather prominently in these books?  And there are a lot of things to fear that are just out of our sight?

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November 27, 2016 · 6:32 pm

When All the Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz

When All The Girls Have GoneWhen All The Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Title: When All the Girls Have Gone
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Series: None listed, but I really think there will be two sequels.
Pages: 304
Publisher: Berkley
Date: November 29, 2016

Summary:

When Charlotte Sawyer is unable to contact her step-sister, Jocelyn, to tell her that one her closest friends was found dead, she discovers that Jocelyn has vanished.

Beautiful, brilliant—and reckless—Jocelyn has gone off the grid before, but never like this. In a desperate effort to find her, Charlotte joins forces with Max Cutler, a struggling PI who recently moved to Seattle after his previous career as a criminal profiler went down in flames—literally. Burned out, divorced and almost broke, Max needs the job.

After surviving a near-fatal attack, Charlotte and Max turn to Jocelyn’s closest friends, women in a Seattle-based online investment club, for answers. But what they find is chilling…

When her uneasy alliance with Max turns into a full-blown affair, Charlotte has no choice but to trust him with her life. For the shadows of Jocelyn’s past are threatening to consume her—and anyone else who gets in their way…

Review:

Okay, this book is definitely a romantic suspense . . . or maybe, a suspenseful romance? Either way, there is plenty of both in it.

One of the things I really liked about Max and Charlotte is they are ordinary people. Neither one is “stunningly attractive.” They both have to work to pay the bills. And they both have broken relationships in their past. They have problems, just like everybody else.

Max is definitely the strong, in charge type, but he doesn’t try to tell Charlotte what to do. Probably because he realizes it would be a waste of time. They both consider themselves plodders and use the phrase “one foot in front of the other” to describe themselves.

They are just likable people.

Now, the mystery. All I can say is Good Grief!

I had it figured out half way through the book.

I thought.

Nope. I was totally wrong.

Then, I decided it was someone else. How could I have missed that?

Nope, that wasn’t it.

And the plot continued to twist and turn. When the mystery is finally solved and all the questions are answered, I had an “oh, yeah” moment. There was nothing that came out of left field. I felt like I should have seen it all along.

And that makes for a great mystery. It kept me guessing, but all the clues were there.

Jayne Ann Krentz is a great romance author. I have been reading her books for years. However, she is also a wonderful suspense writer. I read her books for the romance and humor, but the plots completely grab me.

I haven’t seen anything that says there will be any sequels, but Max is one of three brothers. I really think (hope) we are going to get a trilogy at least.

When All the Girls Have Gone comes out November 29th. Give yourself an early Christmas present, but make sure you have time to read it. You will not want to put it down.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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November 21, 2016 · 1:59 am

Quote-tastic Monday: I Agree Stephanie!

Turbo 23

I am going to have to start with the quote on this one.  I’ll give you short review at the end.

Grandma Mazur wants Stephanie to go with her to the viewing of a murder victim and she doesn’t want to go.

Plus, I don’t share Grandma’s enthusiasm for viewings.  The flower smell makes me nauseous.  I don’t like looking at dead people.  And I’m not all that excited about talking to live people.

And that’s where she nails it in my opinion.  The flowers give me a headache.  Dead “things” and that includes people creep me out.  And I don’t particular like to talk to a bunch of people at once.  Particularly in situations of high emotion.  I just don’t deal well with a lot of drama.

Having made my quote contribution for the week, I have to say a little about the book.  I was really disappointed in it and I am not sure why.  From the first page, it just didn’t read like a Stephanie Plum book.  I am a huge fan and always preorder the books, but this one just didn’t do it for me.  I kept thinking that there is no way Evanovich wrote this book.

Again, I don’t know why.  All the regular characters are there:  Joe and Ranger, of course, Lula and Grandma Mazur, and a few that we met in previous books.  The lines were right.  She destroys a car.  Everything is normal Stephanie.

It just wasn’t right.  Did I enjoy it?  Yes, but it didn’t have the magic I expect from Stephanie Plum.

Will I buy the next book?  Of course, but I’m looking forward to the new Knight and Moon more.  The title is Dangerous Minds and it is scheduled for publication in June.

Anyway, read Turbo Twenty-three if you already a fan.  Just don’t expect much.

 

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup. Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

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November 14, 2016 · 1:56 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Thirst (Energy Vampires, #1) by Jacquelyn Frank & REVIEW

Thirst (The Energy Vampires #1)
Thirst by Jacquelyn Frank

SPOILERS!  SPOILERS!  SPOILERS!

 

 

Title: Thirst by Jacquelyn Frank

Series:  The Energy Vampires, #1

Pages:  np (It took me about three hours to read.)

Publisher:  Loveswept

Date:  January 17, 2017
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Summary:

A hidden society of vampires—and the humans they love—are at the heart of this opening novel in a biting, all-original series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightwalkers saga.

Rafe DaSilva is an energy vampire, soaking up nourishment from the sun—and, only when necessary, drawing sweet sustenance from humans who are pure in body and spirit. As the right-hand man to his queen, Rafe is a key player at a historic peace summit in New York City, which will unite the vampire nations against a common threat: the sycophants, who feed on humanity and kill indiscriminately. But Rafe’s fascination with a beautiful blond police detective may put everything at risk.

Detective Renee Holden has never worked a homicide quite like this. The victim has twin puncture wounds on his neck, and the only eyewitness swears she saw a vampire. Now’s definitely not the time to get distracted by a seductive stranger. But the suave, darkly austere, exotically handsome Rafe DaSilva is a hard man to deny, and as Renee falls under his spell, she also falls prey to his enemies. Desperate to protect her, Rafe lifts the veil on a shadow realm she can only visit—a world of intoxicating power, terrifying dangers, and forbidden pleasures.

Review:

Okay, I am combining the review for this book with my regular Quote-tastic Monday post because I cannot bear the idea of having to think about it twice . . . and that should tell you my opinion if the one star does not. I am not sure I have ever given one star to a book and I know I have never given it to a book written by an author I normally like.

My very favorite book by Jacquelyn Frank is Jacob which may have been her first published book. It had an interesting, unique to me, premise of demons in our world and their interactions with humans. AND it was funny. I love funny books.

Thirst is not funny, at all. It also has a unique to me paranormal species: energy vampires. And if that name isn’t bad enough they are referred to as e-vampires. I don’t know why that bothered me so much, but it did. Anyway, they don’t drink blood, they draw energy from their “resources” by biting them on the back of the neck.

Oh yeah, good vampires only feed from good resources. A good resource is someone who lives clean, as in eats healthy, exercises, doesn’t smoke, or do drugs. The reader gets an entire section on organic food just to make it clear how important a clean resource is to a good vampire.

Obviously, bad vampires only eat from the rest of us and it makes them evil.

I can’t even say anymore about that.

As you can tell, I didn’t like the book from the beginning and it never improved. If I hadn’t promised to review it for NetGalley, I would have never finished it. And it got worse. I’ve never had the occasion to use the phrased “jumped the shark,” but now I can.

At the very end, where Rafe is explaining where e-vampires (cringe, cringe) come from, he states that they are actually descendants of aliens whose spaceship was struck by lightning over 500 years ago.

Really? REALLY!!??

Please do not waste your time with this book. Read her Nightwalker series instead. It’s wonderful. This one just isn’t.

Okay, a quote.

Renee, who is a homicide detective, has a chance to infiltrate the bad e-vampires and Rafe thinks it is too dangerous. He has told her that he will not allow it and she reacts as expected . . . badly.

Rafe realized he was going about this all wrong. She was an intelligent woman. He had to appeal to her intellect. And the more he told her what she couldn’t do, the more she would want to do it just to spite him.

Because all intelligent women do things just to spite their lovers. -sigh-

I’m done. So done.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup. Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

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November 13, 2016 · 5:43 pm

Is Pumpkin a Fruit or a Vegetable?

Halloween in Atlantis (Warriors of Poseidon, #8.5)Halloween in Atlantis by Alyssa Day
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Short, sweet and really makes me want to reread the Atlantis series. I think my favorite part was Jaime trying to explain that Jack-o-Lanterns weren’t dangerous and needing to be destroyed. Liam was quite a bit embarrassed to find out he was trying to vanquish a fruit.

And who knew pumpkin was actually a fruit and not a vegetable? Not me!

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November 7, 2016 · 12:02 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop

“Quote-Tastic Monday” is a meme hosted every Monday on Herding Cats & Burning Soup. Head on over there to see what everyone else is posting about this week.

This is the third time I have read/listened to this series and I love it more every time.  The plot line is unique to me and that is saying something.  I have read so many books over the years that nothing ever seems to be really new to me.  There may be a twist, but nothing is completely new.  The Others series is an exception.  The entire concept is new.  And yes, I know I have used the word “new” three times in this paragraph.

Anyway, even though I have read/listened to the series three times, I cannot give you an exact quote because I am listening, not reading in print form.  It’s just really hard to find an exact phrase in an Audible book.  The two phrases that have stuck with me so far are when Simon (wolf shapeshifter) wants to play with Meg (special type of human, not prey).  She is furious with him and he realizes that the only game she probably wants to play is “whack a wolf.”

I love that.  For some reason it cracks me up every time I hear it.

The other phrase was coined by Simon to describe Meg and her human pack.  Simon came up with the idea, but the other Others have taken to using it as well. (And again yes, I know that I have just typed other Others.)  He calls them “exploding fluffballs.”  Need I say, he does not call them that to their faces?

These books have become some of my all time favorites.  Anything and everything is put aside for a new Others book.  I cannot wait until March for Etched in Bone.  As the wolf puppies said on their Facebook page, those aren’t etchings, they’re teethmarks.  And I can’t wait to get my teeth into the next book.crowsquote-tastic final with green border

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