Clio

Review: Archangel’s Legion by Nalini Singh

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15808767 I’ve gathered a few authors over the last few years or so that are complete auto buys for me ut as I get burned by each author I slowly have been dropping the auto buys. Just not worth the pain my bank account feels every time one of my much awaited books lets me down once again. But my romantic heart was sure that Nalini Singh would not let me down. For once I was not wrong!!

Singh writes the Psy-Changeling books of which there are 12 so far and all beloved by me. But my favorite of hers is the Guild Hunter series. The world in this series is dark and gritty and a hard one to live in, all of the characters have an intense back story that one glimpse makes you want to know everything about their past. Book #6 Archangel’s Legion is an excellent addition to the stories in the series that have come before this one.

Elena returns as the heroine and the reason I love these books so much. She is a fierce warrior and although she’s lost a lot in her young young life, she is the Archangel’s Consort and is definitely up for the task. There is upheaval in the angelic world as the Archangel’s are evolving and getting additional powers that are unexpected to all. When angels drop from the sky without warning and the vampires in Raphael’s territory begin to get ill from tainted blood, answers need to be found.

This was a fantastic addition to the growing series. The world remains just as cold, dark and gritty as always, which is what I wanted to see. With each book that comes out and as one more person in this world gets their HEA there is always the fear that the edge of that hero or heroine will be gone. That has not been the case with these characters at all. While Dmitri has gotten his HEA, he certainly doesn’t seem to be any less blood thirsty or will to defend the Archangel.

The most surprising and unexpected part of this book was the humor. It’s definitely not something I would ever associate with Raphael or even this world. Elena has a dark sense of humor we often get to see come out when she is with her best friend Sara or with her other Hunters like Ransom but in this book we see the Archangel himself and the other angels be funny for once.

“Wave to the nice tourists, Sparkle. I promise it won’t cause pestilence and firestorms.”
Elena bit the inside of her cheek at Aodhan’s glare-she’d never seen anyone crack his reserved shell. “Sparkle and Bluebell, nice.”
“Never,” Aodhan said, hands stubbornly on the girder, “ever repeat that. Illium seems to have forgotten I promised to separate his tongue from his mouth should he utter it again in this immortal lifetime.”

Raphael gets into the bantering with Elena, which caused me to giggle more than a few times. But the one thing the series does well and always has done well is action. This is action packed and the last quarter of the book had me unable to put the book down and had me telling my husband to SHUSH while I finished. I highly recommend this series and this is a great addition to it. Then again, I highly recommend anything Nalini Singh writes ever. She is quickly becoming that author that never lets me down. Ever.

5 stars.

~Clio

Buy it Now Archangel’s Legion (Guild Hunter)

Review: Waterfell by Amelie Howard

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17397760 This is a young adult otherworldly book but with a feel that I hadn’t really seen or read before. Nerissa Marin is royalty of an undersea kingdom but is in hiding on land until she comes of age and can return and claim her birthright. She lives with her guardians, goes to high school and plays sports like her best friend Jenna does. However she has to be careful around the ocean as she has major pull over the creatures in the water and over any water actually.

When a new boy at school, Lo, is drawn to Nerissa, she can’t seem to fight her attraction to him. She’s been told her whole life that while she can date humans she definitely can’t fall in love with one. Nerissa is meant to bond for life with one of her own kind. At the same time she’s dealing with finding out the mother she’s always thought was murdered has really been held hostage by someone who wants her crown.

I really loved so much about this book, I have a thing for books that have their own mythologies and then build on them. The author did a good job in not bogging down the reader with a ton of details but revealing things slowly over the course of the book. I also really appreciated that there wasn’t a love triangle in here, as there is with the majority of young adult books that are out right now.

There were a ton of twists and turns but they were not too convoluted to follow. The plot was fast paced and made me want to keep reading and not want to put it down any time soon. I love that there were surprises that I didn’t see coming and I love that there wasn’t a cliffhanger for me to freak out about. I was excited to see that this seems to be the first in a series, although it doesn’t say of how many. I’m looking forward to reading more.

I received this ARC from Harlequin TEEN via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

4 stars

~Clio

Buy it Now Waterfell (The Aquarathi)

Review: The Art of Flying by Judy Hoffman

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17428642Fortuna Dalliance aka Tuna aka Charlie (the Tuna) is a very practical girl who finds herself on the edge of adventure and she decides to go with it. Her neighbors, the Baldwin sisters have a reputation of being witches, one that turns out to be well earned. They have turned a bird into a young boy and require Fortuna’s assistance in finding him and convincing him to be turned back.

Fortuna really doesn’t believe in magic but when she meets Martin, the bird-boy, she’s not so sure. It turns out the sisters weren’t exactly allowed to turn Martin or his brother from birds into boys and they will have some consequences in the magical world if they don’t turn them back by a certain time. Fortuna finds herself having so much fun with Martin that she’s unsure if she wants to return him to the sisters at all.

This is a fun children’s book that would be best for ages 8-12 I think. I found the book to be very lighthearted and magical in a good way. The magic is very innocent and the possible negative consequences are glossed over in an appropriate way for this age level. It was enjoyable to see Martin trying to master being a human and funny to see him trying to eat or speak when he has been a bird for so long. There are also some beautiful illustrations. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with kids age 8 and up.

I received this ARC from Netgalley via Disney Publishing in return for an honest review.

4 stars.

~Clio

Buy it Now – this book releases tomorrow!! The Art of Flying

Review: Heating Up the Holidays 3 Story Bundle

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18283138 Heating Up the Holidays is a 3 story bundle with Play With Me by Lisa Renee Jones, Snowfall by Mary Ann Rivers, and After Midnight by Serena Bell.

I want to devote this whole review to Snowfall because I overwhelmingly loved this novella. I count myself as incredibly lucky to have read Mary Ann Rivers’ debut of The Story Guy just a few months ago. I fell in love with her intelligent and humorous writing then but hoped that it wasn’t just a one time thing. This second novella shows me that I’m not to be disappointed!

Jenny Wright moves into her new housing in Ohio where she is doing research as a Microbiologist. When she moves in she gets mail for the previous tenant which leads to online communication between herself as “Lincoln” and “C’. They begin to flirt online back and forth less and less innocently. Meanwhile Jenny is dealing with slowly losing her sight due to a degenerative disease. She’s horrified at this idea and cannot wrap her mind around this. Jenny is working with Evan Ford, her Occupational Therapist to try to make her life a little more manageable while the changes happen.

I cannot express my love for this book and this author in the right way. Yes there are scientific and technical terms throughout the book due to Jenny’s technical occupation. Halle-freaking-lujah! I, for one, was so happy to read a book, even a novella, that had an intelligent woman, with a scientific job as the main character. I’m not a scientific person but I was able to read this just fine. There are many books that tend to be dumbed down in general and I didn’t feel like this at all with this book. I was racing to get to the end of the novella, the last 20% or so I finished and then immediately re-read because I was doing my speed reading to get to the ending.

Jenny and Evan are so very real, very funny people. Jenny does not take slowly losing her eyesight very well and tends to throw fits, which I can only imagine would be the case in the real world. I just really appreciate the intelligence and humorous insight that this novella seems to have.

So obviously, I am supposed to be having some kind of therapeutic moment here, where my other senses get honed on the strap of this exercise and maybe later I’ll finger-spell W-A-T-E-R into his ginormous hand and we’ll embrace with joyous laughter.

Also there is a small piece at the end of the story that just about killed me. A very small detail which will probably stick with me for a very long time.

I absolutely cannot wait for the full length novel debut of Mary Ann Rivers, Live, coming in January of 2014. I have a feeling that she will be an auto buy for me for pretty much ever.

Buy it Now Heating Up the Holidays 3-Story Bundle (Play with Me, Snowfall, and After Midnight): A Loveswept Contemporary Romance

Review and a GIVEAWAY#1!!!!

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Are you wondering what book??? One word……..SLAMMED. Are you excited??? Not only that but it is a SIGNED copy!!!

This is a book that is really hard to describe for me because it’s one of my favorites, by one of my favorite authors. Okay, I’ll start with a summary and try to go from there and see if I can make any sense.

At 18, Layken, her mother and her younger brother pack things up and relocate to Michigan after her fathers’ death. The first person she meets there is her neighbor across the street, Will, and his little brother. They have a sudden, intense attraction to each other that only intensifies after a fantastic first date. Layken is thrilled that this move isn’t turning out to be as horrible as she feared.

However, almost immediately after the first date they are shocked to discover they cannot see each other anymore. Layken and Will are both miserable, which is made even worse by having to see each other daily as neighbors and as their odd little brothers become best friends. They try to deal as best they can but Layken is ready to explode.

That description does absolutely nothing for the book because the book is awesome. The dialogue is incredibly funny between the little brothers who are both nerdy and ridiculous but adorable. The slam poetry is amazing. I found myself reading and re-reading each slam, trying to get the intonation that would make it sound best. Layken’s best friend Eddie, is great and provide both an outlet for Eddie and more laughter the book needs to balance out the seriousness it has.

I literally both laughed and cried while reading this book. I don’t cry a lot when I read. I mean, I did cry reading Little Women and Gone With the Wind at certain points if you know what I mean…not to give any spoilers away. But I don’t cry at the majority of books, and I read a lot of angsty stuff. This one made me cry, but I was laughing while I cried. It’s so hard to explain. But other Colleen Hoover fans get it because once you read Slammed you will want to read Point of Retreat. Then you realize she’s written a few other things. Then you’re pretty much hooked. You’re welcome for that!

A couple of us muses were lucky enough to go to a book signing this week and we have a few signed books to giveaway. In case you didn’t notice the #1, there’s more to giveaways to come. The first will be this wonderful, awesome, gut wrenching book. We’re also including some swag Atria Publishing was kind enough to give out at the signing! With the SIGNED book you will also receive a great Hopeless bookmark, an I ❤ Atria Authors card and a great purple Colleen Hoover bag! You know you want it. So we'll make it easy, just like our Facebook page and comment on this post and that's it. We'll keep it open til next Thursday. Good luck!!!

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Review: Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

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13539044 Although this book had been made into a movie and one of my favorite actresses even won an Oscar for her portrayal in it, I still had no idea what this was about or if it was a good book. So I picked up the audiobook completely blind to what this was about, which I much prefer to seeing the movie and then reading the book.

Pat is just getting out of a psychiatric hospital and he’s back living in his parents home. He is unclear on exactly what has transpired to land him in the psych ward, how much time he spent there or what has happened out in the real world since he’s been gone. All Pat knows is that he wants “apart time” from his wife, Nikki, to be over now. He doesn’t get along well with his father, his mother is protecting him from reality and when Pat meets Tiffany, a troubled woman just like himself, he doesn’t know what to make of this new life.

During the first few chapters of this book I was confused as to what exactly was reality and what was not. But as I read on that seemed to be the point of the book – to be as confused as Pat was and to not be able to discern what was past or present. Pat struggles to maintain his grip on what is happening in the present and comes to realize that he has been away for closer to 4 years. He wants to see his wife Nikki more than anything and can’t understand why that isn’t happening. He becomes friends with Tiffany and as that friendship grows, she helps him in ways that he can’t quite grasp, coming to grips with everything that’s happened.

This book was surprisingly funny and touching. There was an awful lot of sports references and as one who really hates sports I thought that would bother me but instead I saw it as what it was – the bonding between men when there is no other ways to bond.

4 stars

~ Clio

Buy it Now The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel

Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

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12813630 Tana wakes up the day after a party in a bathtub, afraid to find out how embarrassed she should be about the previous night. She makes her way out to the front room only to discover a bloodbath in the living room. Immediately Tana knew without a doubt what killed all of her friends. Vampires.

She finds Aidan, her ex, tied to a bed with a vampire in chains in the room as well. Before she knows what she’s doing, she finds herself rescuing them both. Aidan has been bitten and as Tana escapes she gets grazed by a tooth of one of the vampires in the house. This means they have the potential to go “cold” and have an 88 day time period where the symptoms can get worse. Tana has personal experience with this from an awful time at a very young age. They head to the closest Coldtown – towns that are cordoned off, vampires rule and regular people go there in search of eternal youth.

This book was outstanding. The very first chapter grabs on and does not let you go at all. It was bloody and creepy but not overwhelmingly so. The world building in this book was dreary and hopeless, yet also integrated the technological world that we know so well. Coldtown is filled with bloggers and attracts people who are coming there to connect with their “people”. This part of the world felt very real to me and was something that I could easily imagine to happen in this kind of situation.

On top of the technological and present world the author did a great job of building her own mythology of vampires into this world. Gavriel is an old vampire who is integral to the plot. These vampires are gritty, bloody, and creepy, just how I like my vampires.

I loved this world. I loved this book. I would highly recommend, it had been way too long since I had read a good vampire book!

5 stars

~Clio

Buy it Now The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Guest Joint Review: Come As You Are by Theresa Weir

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18491762 My awesome book friend, Vi, and I wanted to do a joint review of this book when we both got approved and we had some differing opinions.

Molly Young’s father has just died at the opening of this book. She’s not dealing well with it at ALL. He was a very well respected professor at the local college, while she personally despised him. Molly gets drunk and meets Ian who takes care of her that night. When she meets him the next day at the reading of her father’s will she is thrown for an even bigger loop.

Clio: At the beginning of the novel I was a fan of the premise and how the couple meets. I always like a hero or heroine who is falling apart for some reason and Molly definitely was. I liked how Ian took care of her even while he drank too but nowhere near as much as she did. I thought the idea of Ian being a good guy right from the beginning and not taking advantage of Molly at all while they were drunk was sweet even while she was doing everything to push him. The banter while drunk also made me laugh the whole time.

Vi: I liked the initial banter between Molly and Ian at the bar. It was cute. But the interaction in the hotel room was awkward. Molly was drunk. She wanted to have sex with Ian to forget. Ian doesn’t want to have sex. She gets mad then passes out before she can leave.

Clio: I thought Molly came off right away as a hurt girl who was trying to push people away and take care of herself. She seemed dark and angsty but not extensively so.

Vi: I was really worried for Molly when she said she had attempted to commit suicide in the past. As she was crossing the Mississippi River, she was contemplating jumping off the bridge into the river. “No, I wouldn’t kill myself today.” “The bridge would always be here. I could always kill myself later.”

Clio: Good point, I take back my not extensively so comment.

Clio: I’m conflicted about this book because I really loved about 75% of it, and the last 25% I was torn between liking and hating at different turns. What I really enjoyed about this book is Molly dealing with her father’s death in a relatively normal way. She was conflicted, she hated him when alive so how is she supposed to feel about him after he’s dead? I’m not a fan of painting someone in a phony way after they die and obviously neither is Molly. I enjoyed Molly’s experiences with college and her not being entirely sure about what the hell she wants to do in life. That was another realistic thing to me.
I also really liked Ian. He was a good guy, wanting to do the right thing but he didn’t come off as weak. Ian was able to go toe to toe with Molly in some arguments and not roll over. He made me laugh with some of his comments and him drunk was cute and funny in a non obnoxious way.

Vi: I liked Ian as well. I just didn’t see the connection between him and Molly. I didn’t feel the chemistry.

Clio: Now for what I did not like. Unfortunately, while I did like the name of the book, I just did not like the Nirvana references throughout the book. A few were fine. The class was extensive, the paper she had to write about the song didn’t even make sense to me.

Vi: I agree. I like Nirvana. I just didn’t get all of the Nirvana references either. The title of this book is a Nirvana. It’s also the song picked to write her paper on. I get that the meaning behind the song was be yourself. But why was it necessary to be included in the book?

Clio: The last 25% or so felt kind of out of left field. Obviously there was something going to be revealed about Molly’s dad but what it turned out to be was rather huge, yet dealt with way to quickly for my taste. If the last 25% of the book turned into the last 50% with this part being more fleshed out I can see where it could have been a 4.5 star book for me.

Vi: For such a short book, there were secrets after secrets. My head was spinning. Because there was so much happening, I felt that the romance was lost amidst all of the revelations. In the end, I wondered if Molly and Ian were really going to make it together. Molly, who’s already feeling suicidal, has even more crap to deal with. I hope she finds herself a good therapist.

Clio: As it is I would recommend it for NA genre lovers like me. Especially at the price it is currently it is worth it! The romance and the relationship between Molly and Ian was great. There is definitely angst but to the same level some of these books have.

Vi: I liked the first chapter. Then it quickly spiraled downhill for me. I like this author. I will not give up on reading her books. But I cannot recommend this book. Here’s hoping her next NA is more enjoyable. In the meantime, I look forward to her next adult book in Cool Cat trilogy, coming in 2014.

Thank you to Vi for doing the joint review!

We both received ARC’s from Netgalley in return for our honest reviews.

~Clio

Buy it Now Come As You Are

Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

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11958033 The premise of this book seemed interesting to me – suspenseful, horror-ish YA book. The book description seemed very Scream like to me, a movie which I loved and have seen a dozen times at least.

Best friends Minnie and Meg get a secret invitation to a private party on an island. When they get there they realize that there were a total of 10 people invited to this party – from different school and from different cliques in those schools. From the beginning it’s obvious things are not quite okay between the best friends who are both interested in the same guy – T.J. He’s at the party and that makes Meg nervous.

When the party gets going and a movie is put in the party takes a quick turn to the twisted when a bizarre video plays and Vengeance is Mine scrolls across the screen. From there things get much, much worse. Out of nowhere one of the teens die and a huge storm hits. Things are crazy and scary – the girls have no idea who to trust.

While this book deals with a scary topic and is a young adult book I did not get either of these feelings from this book. There were a few twists and turns that were unexpected but none that were scary in any sense. The relationship between the two friends also seemed a little young younger than the young adult books that I read. I would suggest this to maybe a 10-13 year old who likes a little darker books. There was not a ton of gore. Overall just not a book for me.

2 stars.

~Clio

Ten

Musings: The problem with Romance Critics

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books-20167_640If you read any of my reviews here (and I hope you do!) you should notice I read a variety of genres. I read Young Adult, New Adult, Dystopian, Romance, Sci Fi, Literature, Horror, LGBT and the list actually does go on from there. I don’t review everything I read because not everything is worthy of a review. I read a lot of 3 star books and in general those reviews would be pretty boring so I try to stick to the 4 and up or the 2 and below. So if it seems I read only a certain genre on here that would be why!

But one genre that I do read a ton in is romance. I love romance books. Which is why I get so incredibly annoyed and quite honestly pissed off when I hear over and over about how dumb romance books are or how predictable and fluffy they can be. I assume those people have never read the romance books that I am reading because I don’t read predictable or dumb romance books – those would be the ones I pick up and put down immediately.

I love romance books because they are so all encompassing. They can include literally every genre there is, so you have paranormal romance, the urban fantasy romance, contemporary romance, historical romance, sci-fi romance, inspirational romance, Christian romance and the list seriously goes on and on and on from there. A ton of young adult books can be considered romance because most of them are centered around a romantic triangle of sorts, even while other dramatic events are taking place.

What I hear over and over again is – oh romance is fluff. REALLY? Not the stuff I read. I read Nalini Singh’s captivating Psy/Changeling series with it’s great world building and a build up over 12 books as of now with 3 different races – the Psys, the Changelings, and the Humans trying to coexist. I read Singh’s Guild Hunter series with it’s insanely complex mythology, and a gritty world where archangels guard over their cities. I read Sarah Mayberry’s and Shannon Stacey’s contemporary books with real life settings and real life problems that are so incredibly well written, laced with humor and with intense feeling that I don’t see how it’s any different from any other “normal” book.

I read Ruthie Knox and Tessa Dare. Jill Mansell, Mary Balogh, Jeaniene Frost. I was super excited to read new author Mary Ann Rivers and fall in love with her writing. I just discovered Elyssa Patrick and Sabrina Elkins and absolutely loved their recent releases. Ruthie Knox and Nalini Singh both recommended Laura Florand and off I went to discover yet another author I loved with a totally new twist. I discovered the New Adult genre by reading romance and fell in love with Colleen Hoover, Jessica Park, K.A. Tucker, Tammara Webber.

That’s the other thing I’ve discovered about the romance genre – the people. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a group of book lovers online and then even more lucky to discover a small group of romance lovers within that group. I love having friends who read some of the same books I do. They suggest great books for me to read and we have excellent book discussions on who to read next. We band together because when people get asked what genre they read what we hear most often is anything BUT ROMANCE or I don’t read fluff. We have long discussions about how our favorite books are so not fluffy, they’re emotional and intense, hilarious and suspenseful. I love my romance book friends – they are ridiculously awesome!

But I’ve found that the authors are also just really amazing. Maybe that’s true with all genres, I don’t know. But I find that these authors are kind and funny on Facebook and Twitter. They interact with their fans, give recommendations and get them. Quite honestly, it makes me like some of them even more than I did before.

So the problem with romance critics is that they don’t get it. These books definitely have romance in them obviously. But there is SO much more to them. There is humor, suspense, action, mystery and so much more. But you know what? If you don’t want to read romance that’s totally fine with me. I’m cool with that, I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi either. So don’t read it.

But please do me a favor. Shut up about how stupid or vapid Romance books are unless you read them and want to review them – because obviously if you do so that’s your prerogative to not like something you’ve read. But if you don’t read them then just shut up already. Say you don’t read romance. Leave it at that.

And stop using the word fluff. My books are not fluffy, my cats are fluffy. Get it straight.

~Clio