Monthly Archives: January 2013

Shimmer of Angels (by Lisa M. Basso)

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His wings jerked, their immeasurable wingspan opening so quickly I didn’t have time to look away. The breeze they created shifted my hair into my eyes. I looked up at him from beneath its cover. With trembling fingers, I reached up and pushed my dark hair aside. Surprise jolted him.

Rayna sees angels. She has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. Now sixteen, the doctors have finally given her the all clear and she returns to live with her father and sister at their home in San Francisco.

Her only desire in life is to go to school, make a few friends and lead a normal life. So when she sees an angel in one of her classes she thinks the crazy has returned and she desperately tries to hide it. When students at her school start dying and she is never far from the scene, she discovers that her visions are real and that she is right in the middle of a battle for the souls of her classmates. She joins forces with two very different angels in an attempt to stop an even greater evil.

Shimmer of Angels is great young adult paranormal fiction. Lisa M. Basso delivers a polished book with great characters and an entertaining story that I didn’t want to end. I’ll be eagerly waiting for the next instalment in this series.

Many thanks to Month9Books and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Just Breathe (by Janette Paul)

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Dee leads a simple life. She doesn’t have any plans that are more than two weeks into the future, her idea of a bank account is tucking money into the pages of a book, and she teaches yoga. Feeling the pressure to get her life together she takes a job modelling for a health insurance company and meets millionaire businessman Ethan.

With his help she navigates the business world but she is terrified of long-term. Just thinking about the future causes a panic attack, and as Ethan tries to get closer she pushes him away.

Just Breathe felt a little like two books. For two-thirds the book was measured and felt a lot like chick-lit. The last third was very much contemporary romance. I really enjoyed this book but I think it was a little longer than it needed to be. The author went to a lot of effort to tie off every loose end and personally speaking, I think she really could have just left a few of them dangling.

Many thanks to Random House Australia and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

The Water Witch (by Juliet Dark)

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“Ah, there you are! We got worried when you didn’t answer the door and went looking for your key. Only it doesn’t seem to be under your gnome.”
“It’s here,” I said, nudging a flowerpot full of geraniums with my toe.
Liz and Diana exchanged a puzzled look. “Why would you put it there? It belongs with your gnome,” Diana said, as if it were the most obvious fact in the world. “Everyone hides their key under their gnome.”
“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of hiding the key if everyone knows where it is?”

 

 

Half fairy and half witch, Callie has a lot of magic. As a doorkeeper it’s her job to protect the doors between Faerie and the human world. But with a vengeful water nymph on the loose and looking for a mate, two men trying to get her into bed, and The Grove an ultra conservative group of witches plotting to close the door to Faerie forever and banish all other worldly creatures she has a lot on her plate.

With some help from her friends, including a succubus, a fairy, a Norse demigod, and her former lover (an incubus) she needs to unlock her powers if she is to have any hope of saving the people she loves and keeping the door open.

There is a lot going on in this book. At times I wondered how it could possibly work but Juliet Dark manages to pull all the threads together in an engaging and suspenseful book about witches and fairies, gods and demons, magical creatures of the forest and the water. Occasionally The Water Witch reads a little like a young adult novel but this book is definitely for more mature readers.

Many thanks to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Troll or Derby (by Red Tash)

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I originally reviewed this book as a guest reader for The Indie Bookshelf. The Indie Bookshelf is a blog created and run by a group of frighteningly talented women who support independent authors. It is something like an Aladdin’s Cave for book lovers and a great place to find your next book. 

http://www.theindiebookshelf.blogspot.com

 Roller Deb

“Roller Deb is a fighter. Debra, you were born a protector. You were born of Protectors. You have the blood of warriors and chiefs in your veins.”

Roller Deb lives with her mother who despises her and her beauty queen sister in a trailer park. She is the regular target of town bullies, including the sleazy son of a local mobster.  After her sister is kidnapped she sets out to find her and set her free, but with what seems like the whole town hunting for her things aren’t looking so good for her.

Harlow

“Interrogating a pixie isn’t as fun as it sounds. I tried to keep it nice, but the little guys are vicious biters, and I may have squished one.”

Harlow is a troll. He lives at the local dump where he has everything he needs except any memories. Strange (for a troll), but he feels a deep compulsion to protect Roller Deb. Time is fast running out and Deb needs to trust Harlow for there to be any hope of finding her sister, defeating a mobster and maybe even saving a unicorn.

The Fairy Tale 

Troll or Derby is fairy tale but it’s not a children’s story. When the first edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales was published in 1812, it was widely criticized for the violence and even sexual content. In ensuing editions the tales were edited to make them more suitable for children.

This is a dark fairy tale about a fairy and a troll who fight the only way they know how…with Rock ‘n’ Roll and Roller Derby. It’s packed with bikers, gangsters, drug dealers, amish and a whole bunch of other worldly creatures.   I’m pretty sure your parents won’t want you reading this book. Read it anyway.   (★★★★★)

Many thanks to Red Tash and The Indie Bookshelf for providing me with a review copy of this book.