Can you call yourself human if supernatural forces control your every breath, every emotion, every desire?
Posing as a folklore tour guide, Valya Svetlova takes a group of American college students and their professor, Chris Waller, to her summer home in the Russian village of Vishenky for a few nights of supernatural phenomena. She plays the perfect hostess. For Valya doesn’t want anyone to discover she harbors selfish motives when it comes to one participant, the only person who can refute a tale declaring her a stillborn resurrected by a paranormal entity.
Within hours of their arrival, Valya learns that the students foster some dangerous agendas of their own. Her nascent feelings toward the handsome professor inhibit her ability to control the supernatural manifestations and her inquisitive guests. When her unforeseen affection turns Chris into a target, Valya faces an excruciating reality. It’s no longer in her human power to ensure her guests’ safety. Yet to keep them alive, Valya must brush off her humanity and become the thing she fights so desperately to prove she is not—a soulless monster.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
This was a red hot mess. It was all over the place and the same chapter felt like it was constantly being repeated without anything actually happening. I was never sure what was going on, bits and pieces were thrown in half-hazardously, and the whole paranormal element was never really explained. Entities, Russian monsters, a witch that was goodish then bad and something to do with portals? And probably my biggest gripe SPOILER ALERT, if you were stillborn, then brought back to life thanks to an entity, that has to feed on portals to stay alive (I think) how do you magically turn into a normal human when you get rid of said entity? Wouldn't you just be dead with nothing to sustain you?
Wish I hadn't wasted my time.
Silent night, holy hell.
Thaddeus and Sarasija are spending the holidays on the bayou, and while the vampire’s idea of Christmas cheer doesn't quite match his assistant’s, they’re working on a compromise. Before they can get the tree trimmed, they’re interrupted by the appearance of the feu follet. The ghostly lights appear in the swamp at random and lead even the locals astray.
When the townsfolk link the phenomenon to the return of their most reclusive neighbor, suspicion falls on Thaddeus. These lights aren't bringing glad tidings, and if Thad and Sara can't find their source, the feu follet might herald a holiday tragedy for the whole town.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
I requested this book because I read somewhere that you didn't need to read the first book to understand this one. And that's true, you don't. However I don't feel like I enjoyed it anywhere near as much as I would have if I had of read the first book. The characters were good (though Thaddeus' self-righteousness and what he considered a sin was annoying. Having consensual sex with your boyfriend is a sin, but basically mind raping someone to control their mind is fine?) The story was a bit of a non-event though. That's the problem with in-between books, you can't have any type of change or growth that will confuse or annoy the people who only read the main books and that can leave them a bit dry.
If you've read book 1 'Vespers' definitely give this a go, otherwise I wouldn't bother.
Uncovering The Truth…Will Take An Exorcist
Jimmy Holiday, defrocked priest turned exorcist, is trying to get his life in order. With his on-again off-again witchy girlfriend moving in, the spirit of the little girl from his last exorcism hanging around, and a secret organization of exorcists hounding him, Jimmy equals stressed.
When a stranger calls in the middle of the night asking for help with a possession, Jimmy is about to land in a mess of trouble. Especially since the man on the phone claims to have gotten his number from Jimmy’s old mentor. Too bad his mentor has been dead for years.
After a mysterious silver flask arrives at his doorstep, Jimmy is left with two options: either ignore the newest enigma the universe has tossed him, or listen to Lucy and travel to Arizona to solve the mystery before all hell breaks loose…again.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
SPOILERS!!!!
I don't know how I feel about this book. Nothing really which is weird. I'm not in love but I'm not hating it either. Kind of a 'eh'.
I would say that it is probably a good idea to read book 1 (Sorrow's Point) first because a lot of this book was dedicated to Lucy who was the victim of the first book. Then the rest of the book is focused of Nicholas Vespa. That bit just left me confused at the end. Was he or wasn't he aware of his demon half? Was it like a split personality? Why did he say he spent a year summoning the demon if it was always part of him? Was it? The end was kind of rushed, especially compared to the slow pace of the rest of the book. And it seemed like a bit of a cop out when the Devil just turned up to fix everything and then told them to 'be careful'.
Obviously a lead on to the next book but I don't think I'll bother.
