A bunch of stories that were all (I think) parts of bigger series. So if you liked the individual story you could go and read more, but honestly while a couple were enjoyable, none of them dragged me in with enough interest to purchase more.
FEATURED STORIES, AUTHORS AND REVIEWS
THE THOUGHT READERS by Dima Zales
Darren has a unique ability - he can go into his own personal version of reality into something he calls "the quiet" and he can then explore his surroundings while everyone else stays still. He thought he was unique until he sees another person - a girl. This how he learns that he is a Reader and is not as unique as he thought.
A good start to a series, but there was some confusion because we only knew what Darren knew and he didn't know anything. Very fast paced, whole story only took place over a couple of days.
VENGEANCE BE MINE by Louisa Lo
Megan Aequitas is the first ever hybrid between a vengeance demon and a trickster. She is trying really hard to keep her trickster half under control and concentrate on the co-op program she is doing at the University of Demonic Studies. She finds a plot to unleash a very fundamentalist force that means that most creatures would be deemed too unworldly to exist. Can she balance her sides well enough to save everyone?
Unique take on the supernatural genre. Megan is likable, smart and even though she is 'special'she is not a Mary-Sue which is refreshing. The only thing is, I've read the blurbs for the next couple of books in this series and it seems like the whole identity issue is going to do a 180 which has not inspired me to continue reading.
SECRETS OF THE HOLLOWS by Nicole Morgan
Xavier Currington is the leader of the Hollows and lurks in Los Angeles' crime riddled streets. Elizabeth Hawthorn has escaped the life of her abusive step-father and is working as a waitress while living in a dive of a motel. Xavier sees Elizabeth and is drawn by her beauty and innocence. Can he save them both from danger from different directions and can they have a chance at happiness?
Confusing mythology and a cliffhanger ending with no questions answered.
DISCERN by Andrea Pearson
There is to be a university-led expedition and there is a competition among the undergraduates to be involved. Austin is talented and seems the obvious choice, but there is also Nicole. She struggles to control her magic and needs advice and encouragement from her friends and professors. Who will win the competition to be included and will this trip of a lifetime be their last?
What a fun ride! I did get a bit confused towards the end with the introduction of the different creatures, but the whole plot/story idea was original. I'm just hoping that Nicole doesn't turn into a Mary-Sue and that we get some answers about the damn book! edit: just read the blurbs for the next 4 books and i'm disappointed in the direction it seems to be taking, i.e. more sci-fi which isn't my cup of tea. Going to stop reading this series here.
WINGS OF HOPE by Pippa DaCosta
Mammon is the Prince of Gree and has the services of a half-human, half-demon called Muse for three nights from her ruthless owner Da'mean. During that three night period Mammon gives Muse hope for freedom in her soul and although demons are harsh a violent Muse has a more formidable weapon - humanity.
This is book 0.5 of a series and honestly it could have been included as part of book 1 as just a chapter (or even just a paragraph) it was that useless/pointless.
ANGEL VINDICATED by Viola Estrella
Abigail is a Demon Control Agent tainted by the thing she had with half-breed demon Simeon Keller five years ago. She has avoided him ever since but the stain of it is still on her character. A demon rebellion is threatening the existence of Angels and she is forced to trust him to help her stop it.
For a supposedly 'virtuous'angel who swore off men 5 years ago, Abby comes across as a bit of a whore. She has one guy madly in love with her, who she sleeps with, while also lusting over his cousin (and considering sleeping with him) plus she's having a 'kissing'relationship with another guy! Very off putting which is a shame because the story idea is original and intriguing.
FERAL by Laxmi Hariharan
Maya feels that she doesn't fit even though she loves Luke she needs to go and find out about her roots so she can be happy with him. She travels into the city and gets a job while investigating her birth family. Will she meet someone else or will she find herself and come home to Luke?
Pointless? Maya goes to the city, finds her birth family, doesn't tell them, the goes home. This was the whole story. Not very well written either, with several allusions towards deeper issues that are then ignored.
TUTORING THE WOLF by Jacqueline Sweet
Cassie Blake is studying at the Penrose Academy of Magical Excellence and just has to keep her grades up and she can then have her dreams come true upon graduation (including marrying her handsome and successful fiance). However she is forced to be a tutor to werewolf Malcolm Sheppard who would rather live like a rock star than study. Even worse is how he looks at her and the effect that has on her.
A weird tale. It was almost like 2 different books smooshed together, the plot changed so much so quickly. It just wasn't consistent. Certain ideas were good and entertaining but they were either dropped quickly or not explained properly and we ended up with a bit of badly written romance.
WOLVES: I BRING THE FIRE PART 1 by C. Gockel
Amy Lewis is travelling to her grandma's house but is being chased by something bad. Loki is in a prison cell but has no idea what he did that was wrong. Amy and Loki need to join forces to outwit those that would stop them. Loki is also trying to remember something but can't quite get it (but knows it is important).
DNF, I consider myself a fan of mythology so I wasn't confused but any layman would be. The writing and the characters just kill what should have been an interesting story and it seems like the author is borrowing a bit to much from the current day movie series (inside jokes about Thor, etc.).
SOUL TIES by LJ Swallow
Ava retrieves souls from demons and this should be just like the others. However Kier is a Nephilim (half angel half demon) and very good looking. A human called Dahlia also has a strange hold over him so Ava needs to get to the bottom of that. Having discovered what happens to the returned souls Ava finds herself in the middle of a battle between good and evil (with lots of blurred lines). What will she choose (and bare the consequences) - betray Kier or join him in the fight?
A bunch of headless chickens running around. The chickens' breeds and origins are not explained well and neither is the overall point of the story,
ROMANCING THE NULL by Tina Gower
Kate Hale is fateless so statistics are her profession. She has finally made it to the Accidental Death Predictions Department but an oracle has delivered a death prediction and insisted she help him to solve it. Latent werewolf Ian Becker is the police liaison assigned to her department and is Kate's only hope. However he is a loner with a dodgy past. If Kate can't solve this before it is predicted to occur she'll lose her job and have the blood of an oracle on her hands/conscience.
It took me three tries to finish this story and I can't put my finger on why. The story idea was novel, the writing was ok and the characters were likeable but something just didn't click.
CRIMSON SHADOW: NOIR by Nathan Squiers
Xander watched his abusive step-father murder his mother when he was a boy and has been trying to kill himself ever since but is always denied that relief. He is then faced with a choice between a continued miserable life as a human or continuing his lineage and becoming a vampire prodigy. He might have a little support but is this new life any easier than his old human one?
A TOUCH OF DARKNESS by Yelena Casale & Tina Moss
Cassie Durrett deals with excruciating pain that is a mystery to doctors while working at a New York diner. Then Gabe walks into the diner and tells her it is because she is a mythical creature - no way! Then his predictions start to come true and she ends up travelling across the country looking for answers. Can she find the answers and keep her heart intact?
DNF, got bored and gave up. As I write this review ONE day after I read the story I have already forgotten what happens. That forgettable.
SEE YOU IN HELL by Demelza Carlton
Melody Angel is working as a temp for HELL Corporation trying to find out Lucifer's current evil plans so they can be stopped. However the CEO Luce Iblis is hot and determined to claim her body and soul.
Funny little tale, main characters not your bog standard which was refreshing. This is actually the second book in a series but you wouldn't know.
THE SORCERY CODE by Dima Zales
Blaise is a member of Sorcerer Council and has developed Gala - a beautiful and intelligent being created in the Spell Realm. Blaise's former fiancee Augusts sees Gala as an aboination and it determined to destroy her even if she has to use ruthless warrior Barso to help her.
Oooh, magical guy creates magical girl, bad guys come after them, they escape and run off to safety without admitting their love for each other yet. Basic story which has been done to death and this one was not done well.
In a village of masked men, each man is compelled to love only one woman and to follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. A man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.
Seventeen-year-old Noll’s childhood friends have paired off and her closest companion, Jurij, found his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever chosen her. She is in fact the goddess of the mysterious lord of the village, a man who refuses to let Noll have her right as a woman to spurn him.
Thus begins a dangerous game between the choice of woman and the magic of man. The stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither Noll nor the veiled lord is willing to lose.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
SPOILERS
OMG Noll was a stupid Mary-Sue. Complaining about the situation she's in only to find out that she caused it! She was completely unlikable, in fact everyone in this stupid book was.
The only reason I finished it was because stupid me kept thinking that it would get better.
No. It didn't.
Don't waste your time. I can't even remember what happened in the end and I consider that an improvement.
Reality sucks. Make-believe rocks. That's been Fate Floyd's motto for as long as she's been a fantasy geek. But now she can hardly tell what's real and what's not. She's been spelled and mysteriously trapped within a deadly fairy tale world bound by the Book of Fables. Her only way home is to travel through the book's 8 unfortunate fairy tales and change them into happily-ever-afters. And if dealing with scheming sorceresses, greedy goblins and heartless faeries isn't enough to test her sanity, there's Finn. The Scottish boy who looks like he stepped straight out of her dreams. As it turns out, make-believe isn't as fun as Fate thought it would be. The reality is, her road to freedom isn't straight, and danger lurks around every bend.
For the full long winded version of the blurb (explaing each of the 8 stories) go to: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33006224-fate-s-fables?ac=1&from_search=true
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
This was a collection of 8 originally short stories and I have to say it felt very long winded. It took me quite a few times to get through it and I think the only thing that saved it from the DNF list was the fact that the premise was original and the writing wasn't that bad.
I'm not going to individual review each of the 'tales', lets just say some were better than others.
ZENA SKALA is freed from an asylum at age eighteen after serving time for a crime she didn’t commit—the presumed murder of her missing brother.
Unwanted attention from the police and media ensues. Zena’s only hope resides in the deserted Skala Estate and memories from her odd past.
Secrets await in her family home. Some more dangerous than others...
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
Warning Spoilers because the blurb gives me nothing to work with.
Confusing but interesting. Turns out that Zena is some sort of alien hiding on earth because her dad is an alien refugee. Only she doesn't know this. Her friends are also descendants of different aliens, (one knows, one doesn't).
In a very short space of time (a couple of days?) we learn all this and more. Everyone seems to have secrets and by the end of it we still don't really know what's going on or who is good and who is bad. Seriously, her parent's are messed up, but at least she got her brother back.
I would read the next book in the series but there better be some answers! What is the information hidden in Zena? How is it hidden/part of her? What is the floating head and why can her dad and her brother see it but no one else? Did Zena and Dom hookup or were their nights together platonic? ;)
Playing around one night, jokingly building a Wiccan altar in the dead of winter, Jacob accidentally summons the Spirit of Fire. And it has a message: the world will end unless a human sacrifice is made to the Old Gods.
He has two nights to find a willing candidate who doesn't think he's crazy. If he doesn't, his terrifying visions of flames will become horrifyingly real.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
A short story where nothing much happened. The writing pace was strange though. The first 2/3rds were written slowly and spaced out like it was a novel, then the last 3rd was rushed with a twist in plot. The twist was clever and stupid at the same time.
Without giving away any spoilers I think this book would have served better if the start had of been edited, then the book as a whole was presented as a '0.5 book' to a series. Kind of a way to introduce the main character and how he got his powers.
Saving the world, one tour stop at a time.
Eighteen-year-old Bitsy Butler has never quite fit in, not with the dragons who raised her, the druid who took her in, or even with the non-human members of the cirque noir punk band she thinks of as family. Her chance to prove she can make it on her own comes with her band's first big solo tour. It’s all going according to plan when an angel walks into a bar and demands help with his demon problem.
If she doesn't step up, a magical war will break out, threatening Arizona and all those who call it home. With the help of a human, a sexy dragon, and the members of her band, Bitsy must stop an angry mob of chaos demons before the band leaves for their next tour stop.
It’s nice to be needed, but Bitsy has no idea how to defeat the demons and she just might get herself killed trying. But then, at least one problem would be solved...
Fitting in doesn’t matter if you’re dead.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
Warning: Spoilers due to rant. ;)
The blurb is very misleading. Bitsy was the support/comedy element who got upgraded to main band member when the someone got injured. The dragon's who 'raised' her were apparently a cult that should not be mentioned. And the druid was mentioned and featured in a phone call but that was all. The plot was basically Bitsy trying to get out of stopping demons because she has shows to play.
My biggest problem with this book was lack of information.
- WHAT is Bitsy? She gets some clues but generally even she doesn't know what she is or what she can do. Her powers are not consistent, some times she can do magic spells, some times she can 'call' her sword, etc, etc.
- The current plot is very rushed (whole thing takes place in a couple of days) and its filled with lots of throwbacks to previous events with no explanations. Example: The whole 'Jule's Demon' story. Constantly mentioned, never explained.
- The world rules are confusing. Do humans know about magic or not? Is it just some of them? How many different types of magic/magical beings are there? How do they work?
Finally my biggest issue? THE ENDING. There wasn't one. The book just stopped. I initially thought I might have a gotten a bad copy because it was so abrupt. It was as if the author didn't know what to do upon reaching the climax so she just gave up and finished it as "to be continued". So glad I didn't pay for it.
Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of the world's greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, she was trying to keep people from finding out she's transgender. But then her second-hand superpowers transformed her body into what she's always thought it should be. Now there's no hiding that she's a girl.
It should be the happiest time of her life, but between her father's dangerous obsession with curing her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he's entitled to date her, and the classmate who is secretly a masked vigilante, Danny's first weeks living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined.
She doesn't have much time to adjust. Dreadnought's murderer, a cyborg named Utopia, still haunts the streets of New Port City. If Danny can't sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
< Minor Spoilers >
I feel like the idea of having a transgender main character was good, but the actual execution just made it feel cheap and gimmicky. It left the main character (and all the others actually) more annoying than anything. Danny was somehow very one dimensional and while she was young (15) she acted a lot younger which was annoying and off putting.
I love the whole superhero genre, but in this book, the world 'rules' were not explained and the heroes were not explained or fleshed out. What are their powers? How did each of them get it? How did Valkyrie's reincarnation work?/
Neither Graywytch nor Danny's father got their comeuppance and both got away with everything completely scot free which just pissed me off. Especially in Graywytch's case because she caused the deaths of innocent people by protecting herself and hiding while the battle was going on.
I might read book 2 if I got it for free, but I definitely wouldn't pay for it.
Kikeru, the child of a priestess at the sacred temple of Knossos in ancient Crete, believes that the goddesses are laughing at him. They expect him to choose whether he is a man or a woman, when he’s both. They expect him to choose whether to be a husband to a wife, or a celibate priestess in the temple, when all he wants to do is invent things and be with the person he loves.
Unfortunately, that person is Rusa, the handsome ship owner who is most decidedly a man and therefore off-limits no matter what he chooses. And did he mention that the goddesses also expect him to avert war with the Greeks?
The Greeks have an army. Kikeru has his mother, Maja, who is pressuring him to give her grandchildren; Jadikira, Rusa’s pregnant daughter; and superstitious Rusa, who is terrified of what the goddesses will think of him being in love with one of their chosen ones.
It’s a tall order to save Crete from conquest, win his love, and keep both halves of himself. Luckily, at least the daemons are on his side.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
This book was stupid and confusing.
- The descriptions of people and places were confusing and hard to follow. I couldn't picture anything in my head which really ruined the experience.
- God's were both real and not real, depending on the situation. Make up your mind on the cannon and world rules and stick to them!
- The whole man/woman business, WTF? Kikeru was born a man, he has man parts, however he can choose to be classed as a woman (which seems to be a reward of some sort?) because his mother supposedly got pregnant by a god.
- The end. Sub-par solutions where everyone is living a lie just so two men can have a regular sexual relationship. Would NOT class this as a HEA, all it would take is one snoopy neighbour, or one of the four main people saying the wrong thing, or Rusa leaving the house in women's garb for the whole ruse to be exposed and people to be punished. Stupid.
On a frigid winter night, college freshman Will stumbles into the shelter of a church during choir practice. His father has just discovered that Will is gay, and has beaten him and thrown him out of the house. But right now Will’s interested only in getting warm.
Will’s college roommate Quinn is a soloist in the choir, which is practicing for a Christmas program. He discovers Will in the church—and his friend’s condition. Will, who has grown up in a repressed environment, including church school, an abusive father and a passive mother, is taken aback by Quinn’s enthusiasm and determination to take care of him.
Does Will have a future after all, especially one that will include Quinn?
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
This was one of the classic short stories where nothing happens. The actual plot has been done to death and nothing new was added in this one.
The secondary characters that were Quinn's family were a lot more interesting than Will or Quinn himself, wish the book had of been about them/featured them more. The only real emotional response I got from this book was an annoyance that yet again the bad guy, in this case Will's dad, got away with his abuse. Nobody stood up to him and nobody called the damn cops! I mean the guy put his son in hospital, in the real world wouldn't someone on staff call the police?! Stupid.
Eddie Rodrigues doesn’t stay in one place long enough to get attached. The only time he broke that rule, things went south fast. Now he’s on the road again, with barely enough cash in his pocket to hop a bus south after his (sort-of-stolen) car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Midwest, USA.
He’s fine. He’ll manage. Until he watches that girl get hit by a car and left to die.
Local shop owner Grayson Croft isn’t in the habit of doing people any favors. But even a recluse can’t avoid everyone in a town as small as Clear Lake. And when the cop who played Juliet to your Romeo in the high school play asks you to put up her key witness for the night, you say yes.
Now Gray’s got a grouchy glass artist stomping around his big, empty house, and it turns out that he . . . maybe . . . kind of . . . likes the company.
But Eddie Rodrigues never sticks around.
Unless a Christmas shop owner who hates the season can show an orphan what it means to have family for the holidays.
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My Review: (Thanks to NetGalley)
The whole basis of this book, the girl getting hit by the car, fell to the wayside and everyone just forgot about it until right at the end when it turned out that the 'bad guy' wasn't really bad, just stupid and the main characters felt sorry for him and took him under their wing. Weird and pointless with no repercussions for actions.
Both main characters, Grayson and Eddie are annoying and angsty. Lots of miscommunication, plain lying and no character development made me lose interest very quickly. I am actually surprised that this book didn't' end up as a DNF. The introduction of a new and different hobby/skill (glass blowing) was probably the only saving grace and there wasn't enough of it in the story to really learn anything.
