Look Both Ways (by Carol J. Perry)

Posted on November 1, 2015 by setaian

Mystery / Paranormal

After buying an antique bureau, Lee finds herself embroiled in two murders that occurred years apart. Hours after buying the bureau she discovers the antique dealer who sold it to her dead and a priceless pink diamond missing.

It becomes apparent that the killer will do anything to get the diamond but with so many suspects the police don’t know where to look. Lee begins investigating, using her unique witch powers to puzzle out the crime, but the killer remains at large and knows exactly where she lives.

Look Both Ways is a bit of a mixed bag. There were things which were driving me to distraction. Things like the heroine would do something, then she would go home and explain to a friend what she had done in detail. Then she would explain exactly the same thing again to her boyfriend. Take out all those repeated explanations of the same thing and I’m pretty sure this book would be a third shorter.

But then there is the ending. How the killer got his comeuppance was beautiful and creepy and perfect. And everything witchy about this book is superb. In some ways it’s like two different books. The cozy mystery part of it wasn’t great, but the paranormal parts were amazing.

I think the author needs to really forget about the mystery and just focus on the witchery because that’s where her writing moves from mundane to sublime. So, it’s a 3 Star book with some 5 Star moments.

Many thanks to Kensington & Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

Orange, Red, Yellow. What it means: YOR-Guide

The Source (by J.D. Horn)

Posted on June 13, 2014 by setaian

Paranormal Fantasy

When Mercy came into her powers at the end of book one, The Line her almost normal life ended. Now she has gone from being the one with no powers who was routinely dismissed to being at the centre of a seething maelstrom of plots and counter-plots.

When her mother who she thought was dead shows up telling her to trust no-one she doesn’t know where to turn. Together with the one person whose motives she fully understands, Aunt Ginny, she tries to find the truth in a whole haystack of lies.

The Source is a much better book than The Line. It feels like a more well rounded book, the story feels stronger and all in all it’s more entertaining. It’s not perfect, it felt like it was wandering off in the wilderness in the middle section and there was really too much going on, but taking into account that this is the author’s second novel (the first being The Line) it’s quite an impressive effort.

Yellow / Orange / Red –– What it means. http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

Becoming Alpha (by Aileen Erin)

Posted on November 26, 2013 by setaian

Young Adult / Paranormal Fantasy

Tessa has a gift, though she would call it a curse. When she touches people or objects people have used, she is bombarded with visions. She goes through life avoiding touching anything that has been handled by others. Labelled as a freak, her family takes her from California to Texas in the hopes of fresh start, but the town they have moved to is also home to a pack of werewolves.

After escaping a disastrous party, she gets her first kiss from Dastien, and then Dastien’s wolf decides to claim her with a bite. Suddenly all her problems are multiplied ten fold with pack politics piling on top of schoolwork and being a new werewolf, and as an alpha strong enough to rival the other alphas in the pack she is definitely causing a stir.

Becoming Alpha is pretty damned good. As you expect of a debut novel the author has thrown everything into it and that occasionally doesn’t work, but it’s done with such enthusiasm…almost approaching glee that it’s hard to hold it against her. It’s a good fun story about werewolves and witches with interesting characters. It’s a lot of fun.

(I should note that while this book very much reads as young adult there is a bit of bad language which might make it unsuitable for younger teenagers.)

Many thanks to Ink Monster LLC and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

Shimmer of Angels (by Lisa M. Basso)

Posted on January 28, 2013 by setaian

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

No Peace for the Damned (by Megan Powell)

Posted on July 21, 2012 by setaian

I crushed his hand instantly, the bones breaking to bits under my grip. I slammed a quick extended-knuckle fist into his larynx, no more than bruising his windpipe, but incapacitating him nonetheless. Then I swung him completely out of his chair, twisting him to his knees in front of me, his back pressed to my front, his broken-handed arm pinning him in place. The Glock 34 he’d had tucked into the waistband of his jeans now rested nicely in my other hand. I pressed the gun to his temple.

Magnolia was born into a sadistic and cruel family. Gifted with off the charts supernatural abilities, including a body that completely regenerates no matter what damage is done to it, her father, uncle and brothers spend their time using her as a guinea pig to fine tune their sadism. After one particularly brutal night she escapes from the family estate and lands in the lap of Thirteen, leader of the Network, a shady organization fighting against supernatural terrorists. At first all she wants is to escape the violence and be left alone but when those she has come to love are kidnapped by her family, she has no choice but to return to the location of all her nightmares in a desperate bid to save them.

No Peace for the Damned is supernatural fiction at it’s best. Megan Powell writes a book that sucks you in from the first page. It is a brutal and terrifying battle between good and evil. Thoroughly entertaining.

Recommended for fans of Jennifer Estep, Laini Taylor and Richelle Mead

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