Charley Davidson Novel
Sixth Grave on the Edge
By Darynda Jones
Book Blurb:
Few things in life can come between a grim reaper and her coffee, but the sexy, sultry son of Satan is one of them. Now that Reyes Farrow has asked for her hand, Charley Davidson feels it's time to learn more about his past, but Reyes is reluctant to open up. When the official FBI file of his childhood abduction lands in her lap, Charley decides to go behind her mysterious beau’s back and conduct her own investigation. Because what could go wrong?
Unfortunately, another case has fallen into her lap—one with dangerous implications. Some very insistent men want Charley to hunt down a witness who is scheduled to testify against their boss, a major player in the local crime syndicate. If Charley doesn't come up with an address in 48 hours, the people closest to her will start to disappear.
Add to that a desperate man in search of the soul he lost in a card game, a dogged mother determined to find the ghost of her son, and a beautiful, young Deaf boy haunted by his new ability to see the departed as clearly as he sees the living, and Charley has her hands full. The fact that Reyes has caught on to her latest venture only adds fuel to the inferno that he is. Good thing for Charley she's used to multi-tasking and always up for a challenge…especially when that challenge comes in the form of Reyes Farrow.
Darynda Jones and her Charley Davidson series is on a very short list of mine where by I'll pay the huge ebook price for her books. They are so worth it. Never has a female protagonist been so funny yet so smart. The combination makes excellent reading. Thank goodness for authors like Darynda Jones who can write funny scenes without making them forced humour. If Charley was real, I'd want to be her friend and hang out.
The Charley Davidson series just gets better and better with each book. These books are not stand alones so you would be lost if you just picked up this sixth novel. Don't do it. Go and get the first book, First Grave on the Right, and then devour each and every chapter one after another. You will love them. With thousands and thousands of reviews, each book receives super high ratings. Mine is no different with a perfect 5 out of 5.
I love the slow progression with having Charley understand her abilities. In doing so, the author can plan out better novels as each book brings a new dimension to Charley's character. Charley's boyfriend, Reyes Farrow just gets more delicious with each book as well.
We are introduced to a new character, "The Dealer" in Sixth Grave on the Edge. I like him. A lot in fact BUT having said that, just like our beloved Reyes, there is so much mystery sounding him that we have yet to determine if he is evil or good.
The much loved secondary characters all reappear in at least one scene and each one is a scene stealer. Cookie, Charley's best friend, remains as cool as always and is still the number one best fictional BFF in my opinion.
There are a good many questions left unanswered in this installment. Things that I am just dying to understand. Great cliffhanger but not the sort of cliffhanger that is going to leave you restless until the next book is released.
Teasers: Is Mr Wong, Mr Wong?, wall gone, Ubie and Cookie?, What do the angels say?
Kate Daniels
Magic Rises (Kate Daniels book 6)
by Ilona Andrews
Book Blurb:
Mercenary Kate Daniels and her mate, Curran, the Beast Lord, are struggling to solve a heartbreaking crisis. Unable to control their beasts, many of the Pack’s shapeshifting children fail to survive to adulthood. While there is a medicine that can help, the secret to its making is closely guarded by the European packs, and there’s little available in Atlanta.
Kate can’t bear to watch innocents suffer, but the solution she and Curran have found threatens to be even more painful. The European shapeshifters who once outmaneuvered the Beast Lord have asked him to arbitrate a dispute—and they’ll pay him in medicine. With the young people’s survival and the Pack’s future at stake, Kate and Curran know they must accept the offer—but they have little doubt that they’re heading straight into a trap…
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOVE!!! OMG so good. So so sooooooo good.
Excellent. Fabulous. Can you tell I loved Magic Rises?
I am kind of like a broken record because each one of these Kate Daniels books are better than the previous one and I pretty much rate each on a perfect 5.
Why are these books the best? Kate. Kate is the ultimate. She is supremely badass as a warrior but she is 100% woman. She has no need to wear distracting sexy clothing or have to flirt and bat her eyelashes to get attention. That is one of the reasons I love her so. People, shapeshifters and even scum criminals can't help but respect her. She is witty, brilliant at martial arts and yet she still has so many of the vulnerabilities that women have. She can still get jealous even when she is talking herself out of those ridiculous feelings.
Now in Magic Rises, those jealous feelings aren't really all that ridiculous. Her mate Curran seems to be spending to much time with another female shapeshifter and he also seems to breaking a lot of shapeshifter social blunders with her. For most of the book, Kate takes the high road and knows that there is something more going on but Curran disregards her concerns. I have to say, if felt like Curran was cheating on Kate and ME! How dare he! This particular plot involving Kate and Curran was just the tip of the iceberg within Magic Rises. There was just so much much more.
The main characters spend the majority of the book across the sea in Europe in a castle sharing time with a couple of other packs. There is just so much going on in this story that my review would literally be pages long if I commented on each of the storylines. Now having said that, I don't mean that there is so much going on that your mind is spinning to keep caught up. Not at all. Magic Rises is written to Ilona Andrews' flawless standards and is perfectly executed. I was up to 4:23am until it was done! There was just no way I could put down the story. Besides, I'd just go to bed and dream about them anyways.
Teasers: boat voyage, jealous Kate/jerk Curran, big confrontation, Aunt B story
Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson book 7)
by Patricia Briggs
Book Blurb:
Mercy Thompson's life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman - the charismatic Alpha of the local werewolf pack - has made her a stepmother to his daughter Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy's life. But on the edges of humanity, a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more. After an accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can't reach Adam - or anyone else in the pack for that matter. They've all been abducted. Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from the most unlikely of allies: the vampire seethe.
I just love this Mercy Thompson series. A whole bunch of my favourite books recently came out in paperback and Frost Burned was one of them. I had to endure months and months of avoiding spoilers and book reviews while Frost Burned was only available in a hardcover issue or a really expensive ebook. Frost Burned was worth the wait!
The Mercy Thompson series are not stand alone books. Patricia Briggs provides great little reminders in each story so that the reader can quickly recollect where the last book left off but if you would pick up a book in the middle of the series, you'd not enjoy and understand the detailed and fabulous backstory.
One of the reasons I totally love this urban fantasy series is the continuity of the married couple, Mercy and Adam. I just love a book collection where the protagonists are strong, happily married and each book is a new adventure. This particular couple is top notch amazing because of the wolf pack mentality that is so ingrained into each book. Whether good or bad,a wolf pack is a wolf pack and the story doesn't deviate away from the characteristics of a pack of wolves. (Just to quickly mention that Mercy is not a wolf shifter but rather a coyote shifter) Patricia Briggs stays true to form and doesn't bend her own rules just to make the story flow in a different direction.
Mercy once again is the hero of the Frost Burned. She does so by being smart although no one is more surprised by Mercy's brilliance than Mercy. That is another trait that is so enduring about her. She has no idea how incredibly special she is. I could not possibly adore her any more than I already do.
As always, a fabulous cast of secondary characters adds to action packed and mystical world that Particia Briggs has created.
Teasers: baby question car crash, ghostly encounters, mating bond communication, silver puke
Cat and Bones final book
Up From the Grave (Night Huntress book 7)
by Jeaniene Frost
Book Blurb:
Lately, life has been unnaturally calm for vampires Cat Crawfield and her husband Bones. They should have known better than to relax their guard, because a shocking revelation sends them back into action to stop an all-out war…
A rogue CIA agent is involved in horrifying secret activities that threaten to raise tensions between humans and the undead to dangerous heights. Now Cat and Bones are in a race against time to save their friends from a fate worse than death…because the more secrets they unravel, the deadlier the consequences. And if they fail, their lives—and those of everyone they hold dear— will be hovering on the edge of the grave.
*whistles* *STANDING OVATION*
Well done Jeaniene Frost, well done!
Up From the Grave is the last book in the Night Huntress series. While I am trying to hold back the sobs because I won't be reading anymore full length Cat & Bones' novels, I completely applaud and respect Jeaniene Frost's bravery to end her beloved series. I imagine it is a super hard thing to do when you have created such amazing characters that scores of fans love. Cat & Bones are her babies. Oh how I wish more authors had series where the main protagonists were married and taking on adventures. We need more couples like that in our romance world!
Now comes the hard part for me. How do I write a review telling you how brilliantly awesome this story was without revealing some heavy spoilers????
Up From the Grave was chalk full of action and I think that Jeaniene Frost channelled to her fans some pretty deep emotions. I didn't cry or shed any tears but I felt the mirage of emotions deep down. Many heart strings get tugged. Having said that, there was a lot of anger being spewed and even a laugh out loud moment (surprisingly brought to us by Mencheres).
I loved that with Up From the Grave being the last book, Jeaniene Frost did a great job of incorporating all of the secondary cast of characters into the story. It didn't feel forced including them all in. Seamless really.
The intimate scenes were a little on the soft side and I can only recall one scene from memory. I think that that Up From the Grave had so much story to fit in that another intimate scene written in would have felt forced or just placed in for the sake of having another sex scene. I thought it was perfect. Bones was still very romantic and protective of Cat all throughout the story so it never felt off.
The plot was very clever and the story ended on a superb high note that still left the series open for a possibility of more books or a spin off.
Teasers: a captured Cat, a more powerful Bones, like mother like daughter
Kaleb Krycheck and Sahara Nightstar
Heart of Obsidian (Phy-Changeling book #12)
By Nalini Singh
Book Blurb:
A dangerous, volatile rebel, hands stained bloodred.
A woman whose very existence has been erased.
A love story so dark, it may shatter the world itself.
A deadly price that must be paid.
The day of reckoning is here.
Without a doubt, Nalini Singh is one of the best urban fantasy story tellers I have ever read. I don't care which of her series/books you pick up, prepare to be completely and totally sucked in. I just finished Heart of Obsidian (after waiting forever for it to come out in paperback) and I have no words. I can't explain how completely excellent Heart of Obsidian was. Definitely the best read of 2014 so far. I have avoided all spoilers for Heart of Obsidian since it came out so I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that it was finally Kaleb's story.
First let me start with saying, THESE ARE NOT STAND ALONE BOOKS. The good news is that the previous twelve books are also awesome so get going if you haven't started the series. If you can't afford to buy them, go directly to your library and borrow them.
The Phy/Changeling world is complicated to explain in a sole review. Now having said that, the world grows with you so if you start book 1, Slave to Sensation, you will not be lost and an overload of information is not dumped on you. I promise you.
Kaleb has always been a powerfully mysterious Phy man. As a reader you crave to know more about him and what he is capable of. Each and every previous book that Kaleb was in, the author Nalini Singh only delivered masterfully placed tidbits of information. After reading Heart of Obsidian you get the full story. Brace yourself, as there is a lot of backstory to absorb and thankfully all of the puzzle pieces finally fit. Also allow me to add, I love Kaleb. I. Just. Love. Him.
Sahara. Wow. There could be no one else for Kaleb other than Sahara. It is so hard to comment on Heart of Obsidian without mentioning spoilers. In fact, I don't want to. If you follow this Phy-Changeling series, you will be blown away with this twelfth book.
Nalini Singh wraps up the story in a most excellent style. Once I closed the cover, I had a slight panic that this was the last book. I immediately went to her website and was relieved to read that there are more coming. Fantastic!
Heart of Obsidian is the first book of 2014 that is awarded my 5+.
Teasers: memories buried in a mind labyrinth, one kiss practically broke a house, Pure Phy returns, the Ghost is revealed!!!!!
Archangel's Legion ( Guild Hunter book 6)
By Nalini Singh
Book Blurb:
Angels are falling from the sky in New York, struck down by a vicious, unknown force.
Vampires are dying impossibly of disease.
Guild hunter Elena Deveraux and the Archangel Raphael must discover the source of the wave of death before it engulfs their city and their people, leaving New York a ruin and Raphael’s Tower under siege by enemy archangels.
Yet even as they fight desperately to save the city, an even darker force is stirring, its chill eyes trained on New York…and on Raphael. Rivers of crimson and nightmares given flesh, the world will never again be the same…
Oh boy what a fabulous story. I could read about Elena and Raphael every day. They have grown so much as a couple and yet they remain true to the original characters that Nalini Singh created in the first book. I would love to add that I totally love Raphael's newly developed sense of humour. Archangel's Legion was outstanding. One of those books where I am sad it ended. I am suffering a book hangover.
One of the things that I just love about the Archangel Raphael and his Seven is that they are extremely bad ass and yet they are unapologetically, totally in love with their mates and aren't afraid to show it. Not all of the Seven are in a relationship but I just know that when they do each get their own books I can count on reading about that unconditional love.
Archangel's Legion had a lot going on. There are side stories, stories that have carried over from previous books and outstanding new stories forming. From the first page to the last chapter it was a true page turner. However there was some real head scratching moments and that happens near the end surrounding this new mysterious Legion. I am right confused. Probably just where Nalini Singh wants her readers.
The Archangel War, the Cascade is truly on. It has been building over the last few books but it was full blown in Archangel's Legion and it will be continuing in the next book. (Crosses fingers that the next book is Elena and Raphael again)
Teasers: a new facial marking on Raphael, Wildfire, The Legion, Raphael and Elena are aeclari
