Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Teaser Tuesday (216) Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 
“I’d always thought of the monsters as my own sort of standoffish pets. If, you know, you thought pets that could eat you were cool. Which I totally did.”

Saturday, July 28, 2018

{eARC Review} Bound Together (Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart #6) by Christine Feehan

Bound Together (Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart, #6)
Bound Together (Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart #6) by Christine Feehan
For five years, Viktor Prakenskii has put his life on hold in order to take down the world’s most feared motorcycle club from the inside. But carrying out the insane violence and seeing the club’s exploitation of the innocent has brought his traumatic past roaring back. And there’s only one cure: to see the wife he left behind...

Blythe Daniels thought she’d never see Viktor again after he murdered her stepfather and left without a word. She rebuilt her life without him, becoming a personal trainer and physical therapist...becoming strong enough for others to lean on. But when Viktor comes back to Sea Haven, he’ll make Blythe question everything she thought she knew about good and evil—and the dark desires of the heart... (Blurb via Goodreads)
{Details} eARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Published 
March 21st 2017 by Jove

{Rating} 4/5 - I really liked it

{Review}

Bound Together wraps up the Sisters of the Heart series as well as tying up some loose ends from the Sea Haven series. I'm sad to leave these series behind but also excited to be introduced to the new series, Torpedo Ink, and the characters populating that world.

I've read this book twice now but I'm still struggling to write a review and I'm not sure why. I'm a huge Christine Feehan fan. Over the last two or so years I've read/listened to almost every Christine Feehan book I could get my hands on. I've really enjoyed the Sisters of the Heart series, I'm currently re-listening to Earth Bound, to show how much I love it.

While all the Sisters of the Heart series have their dark moments - a lot of bad things have happened to both the heroes and the heroines - Bound Together is definitely the darkest. Blythe has been the 'mother' of the Sisters, the caretaker and level headed one, and finally we get to see the past that made her into the woman she is. I liked Blythe even more after learning of her past, the heartache and heartbreak, her huge heart, her capacity to forgive. Viktor was hard to like but easy to understand once you see everything he's endured. He sacrificed so much to protect both the family he was born into and the family he created.

I was engaged in the story from the beginning, cried along with the characters, celebrated with them, shook my head when Viktor did something stupid (he's a serious alpha male who is not used to being questioned or challenged and Blythe is no pushover), and smiled when they finally got their happily ever after.There's lots of action and drama, we get to see all the sisters and all the brothers together and using their various gifts to battle their enemy.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday (232) Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte






"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week I'm waiting on:

Four Dead Queens
Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte 

A divided nation. Four Queens. A ruthless pickpocket. A noble messenger. And the murders that unite them.

Get in quick, get out quicker.

These are the words Keralie Corrington lives by as the preeminent dipper in the Concord, the central area uniting the four quadrants of Quadara. She steals under the guidance of her mentor Mackiel, who runs a black market selling their bounty to buyers desperate for what they can’t get in their own quarter. For in the nation of Quadara, each quarter is strictly divided from the other. Four queens rule together, one from each region:

Toria: the intellectual quarter that values education and ambition
Ludia: the pleasure quarter that values celebration, passion, and entertainment
Archia: the agricultural quarter that values simplicity and nature
Eonia: the futurist quarter that values technology, stoicism and harmonious community

When Keralie intercepts a comm disk coming from the House of Concord, what seems like a standard job goes horribly wrong. Upon watching the comm disks, Keralie sees all four queens murdered in four brutal ways. Hoping that discovering the intended recipient will reveal the culprit – information that is bound to be valuable bartering material with the palace – Keralie teams up with Varin Bollt, the Eonist messenger she stole from, to complete Varin’s original job and see where it takes them.
(Blurb via Goodreads)
Expected publication: February 26, 2019 

What are you waiting on?

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Teaser Tuesday (215) Wildcat by Max Monroe




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 
“It only takes one minute of bravery. One minute of insane, embarrassingly crazy courage to change your life. Sometimes, it only takes that one minute for something great to happen.”  

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday (231) Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes






"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week I'm waiting on:


Little White Lies
Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother's "society" might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father's identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn't expect to find is friendship, but as she's drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn't the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother's glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer's search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.

Set in the world of debutante balls, grand estates and rolling green hills, Little White Lies combines a charming setting, a classic fish-out-of-water story, and the sort of layered mystery only author Jennifer Lynn Barnes can pull off. (Blurb via Goodreads)

Expected publication: November 6, 2018

What are you waiting on?

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Teaser Tuesday (214) Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 
“Maybe, just maybe, two broken people could manage to create something whole.”



Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday (230) Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith






"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week I'm waiting on:

Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith

 
Aurelia is the first princess born to the Renalten crown in two hundred years, destined to fulfill a treaty by journeying to marry Valentin, the prince of Achelva – Renalt’s greatest enemy. Rumors of an unwell, cruel prince abound, and the only thing that eclipses Aurelia’s apprehension of her impending marriage is her fear of those who’d kill her to prevent it.

When an assassination attempt forces Aurelia to use forbidden magic to save a stranger, she is driven from Renalt by the witch-hunting Tribunal and a mob out for blood. But before she can claim asylum in the court of her betrothed, her travel party turns on her, forcing her to trade places with her treacherous lady-in-waiting, Lisette.

Now penniless in Achleva and bereft of her identity, Aurelia must decide if she wants to surrender to her new life or fight for her old one, all while navigating the complicated ties binding her to the enigmatic prince, the unquiet ghost of an ancient queen, and a poisonous plant called bloodleaf.

Aurelia is a pawn in a centuries-long game of love, power, and war— and if she can’t extricate herself from it before Lisette marries Valentin in her stead, she may face losses far more devastating than her crown.
(Blurb via Goodreads)
Expected publication: March 5, 2019

What are you waiting on?

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Teaser Tuesday (213) Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) -- or less or more -- “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 
“I almost let the best thing that ever happened to me slip away because I was hung up on ideas of what I ‘should’ want. Sometimes there is no ‘should,’ there’s only a single chance to grab on to happiness.”



Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Waiting on Wednesday (229) Freedom Trials by Meredith Tate






"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, created by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week I'm waiting on:

Freedom Trials

Freedom Trials by Meredith Tate

Evelyn Summers is imprisoned for a crime that was wiped from her memory.

In order for Evelyn to be released, she―along with other “reformed” prisoners―must pass seven mental, physical, and virtual challenges known as the Freedom Trials. One mistake means execution and, with her history of being a snitch, her fellow inmates will do everything they can to get revenge.

When new prisoner Alex Martinez arrives, armed with secrets about Evelyn’s missing memories, she must make a choice. She can follow the rules to win and walk free, or covertly uncover details of the crime that sent her there. But competing in the trials and dredging up her erased past may cost Evelyn the one thing more valuable than freedom: her life.
(Blurb via Goodreads)
Expected publication: October 2, 2018

What are you waiting on?