Sunday Cover Scramble [17]

Let's have some fun! I am going to post covers on here every Sunday that are scrambled up graphically, making it hard to tell what cover it is. I would like your guesses on what cover you think I've posted. I won't answer you until the end of the day to let you know if you are right, allowing other to guess as well. Some will be hard, and others may be easy. If you need hints, I will only post covers of series talked about on my blog previously. Here we go:

Tour Review: The Circle - Book One of The Sidhe by Cindy Cipriano

 

Welcome to my stop on  The Circle Blog Tour hosted by I am a Reader, not a Writer

Publisher: 2013 Odyssey Books

Genre: Fantasy, YA

Format: ebook

Source: Netgalley for an honest review

The Circle Calum Ranson is sure of three things: his cousin Finley is alive, Calum will find him, and no one knows Calum and his family are Sidhe. No one until Laurel shows up at his mother's bookstore wearing a dark clan's mark. When Calum learns the details surrounding the disappearance of Laurel's brother, he suspects the evil Hobayeth clan. Calum and Laurel work together in the Realm of Man and the Otherworld to rescue her brother - revealing a connection between Calum and Laurel that may cost Finley his life.

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Goodreads

Fairies in a Book Store and Pluto is a Fairy Planet

It doesn't get much better than that, folks. OK so this is a Middle Grade book that I enjoy as a lighter read sometimes in between adult reads. I also like to find good books for my son, and this one fits the bill.

The Good

I've always enjoyed fairies or the Sidhe and this book has a different spin on them which I greatly like. I also really found the thought of children as fairies to be a new aspect that I haven't yet read in books. Mostly, I've read pretty dark stories with fairies in them and although this one had some bad fairies as well as good ones, the overall characters were good in nature.

The setting is a book store which is familiar for me as a reader and fan of books. Calum works there with his mother during the summer vacation until he goes back to school. He meets a new girl, Laurel, who happens to believe in fairies and becomes fast friends with her even though she doesn't know his secret. There are missing children and other weird things happening in the background that keep the story going.

The writing was very well done and will keep anyone entertained no matter their age. There are quite a few characters to follow, but each have their own traits and are fun to learn about in their own right. The story itself is a new one and executed well with a few nice surprises.

The Bad

There were some details included in the story that really had absolutely no impact, but seemed to be important while reading. I'm wondering if they will come up in future books because I thought they would be going somewhere in the story line and they were dead-end points.

The Romance

As a middle grade book, there really is no romance to mention. Calum does get jealous of Laurel's apparent infatuation with his cousin Hagen, but they really acted more like best friends throughout the book than a crush of any kind. They had a nice friendship all in all though and it could lead somewhere in the future.

Conclusion

This is a magical, well-thought out and executed book about children doing all they can to save the ones they love surrounded by fairies and their own rules. If you enjoy light-hearted, fun reads then I would recommend you give this one a try. I also see children very much liking this one.

Excerpts

"You're kidding. We're going through that?" asked Laurel.
"It's easy, watch." Calum moved his hands in a sweeping motion. "Amplifico." Nothing happened. Calum blushed deeply. He was so anxious to get Laurel away from Donnelly, he couldn't focus. Got to get a grip on my nerves. He sucked in a deep breath and tried two more times before the tile stretched wider and taller, rising on its edge perpendicular to the floor.

"I think it's cute," said Tullia.
"It is," said Kenzie, "But they're growing up so fast. There was a girl we met during our last trip to South Carolina who thought Calum hung the moon."
"Hung the moon?" whispered Calum.
Hagen shrugged his shoulders. 
"Of course, he was blissfully unaware of her attentions," said Kenzie. "Has Laurel said anything to him?"

Author Cindy Cipriano 

Cindy Cipriano lives in NC with her husband, son, and 27 pets. Okay, more like one cat, three dogs, and many, many fish. Cindy is an award winning science teacher, who this past August celebrated her 12th first day of sixth grade.

Website * Twitter

  Tour Giveaway$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 5/31/13

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Sidekick Saturday [23] - Loyal

Sidekick Saturday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in this week's type
• Share a picture (if possible) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• Put your link in the Linky thing and comment

Saturday the 25th - Bad Turned Good

This week is Loyal

My choice is Jack Twist
House of Night by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast

Jack Twist drawn by Jaclyn Canada '04

Jack Twist picture created by Jaclyn Canada

Jack Twist was a student at the House of Night and was immediately brought in by the main group of characters in the book because of his knowledge of technology. He was the AV guy when they would hold their rituals. He was always there to offer help and was a constant by their side whenever there was trouble. He also took care of Dutchess when her owner was gone even though dogs are a misnomer in this world and not looked at in the same way as cats. The only way I know to describe him besides incredibly nice is staunchly loyal. 

Quotes:

“What more could you want? How about dominion over this 'beautiful place'? Beauty doesn't last. Friends and family decay. Power is the only thing that goes on forever."
Jack answered with his gut. "No, love goes on forever.”

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Feature and Follow Friday [19] - Summer Reading

This is a weekly blog meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read.

Here are the general rules to Follow Friday:
1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts and any one else you want to follow on the list
2. Follow our Featured Bloggers - This week's feature is: Picture Me Reading
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments
5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can
6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers
7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

This week's question is: School is out! What is your favorite Summer Reading Book?

I don't notice much of a seasonal pattern in my reading. I will say though that because school is out, a lot of good children's books come out at this time and I do enjoy reading Middle Grade and YA books as well as Adult. Books such as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson for instance. Rick Riordan is one of my favorite authors who has been coming out with new books almost each summer.

Review: Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels #4) by Ilona Andrews

Publisher: May 25, 2010 Penguin
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
Format: Kindle
Source: Purchased

*Please note that it is very hard to review books past the first one in the series without having any spoilers at all. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as I can, but if you haven't read the first book in this series, you may just want to read that review instead of continuing with this one.

Goodreads Summary
Kate Daniels keeps the peace in Atlanta for the Order, humans caught between the vampire controlling People led by her biological father and best kept secret, Roland, and the shape-shifter Pack, led by her mate-to-be Curran, the Lord of the Beasts. But her look-alike aunt Erra, Babylon's god of chaos and terror, has come to town controlling seven naked warriors: Deluge (flood water), Tremor (earth quake), Gale (hurricane wind), Torch (fire inferno), Venom (disease poison), Beast (animal monster), and Darkness (overpowering dread).

"Whatever, Your Furriness"

The beginning of this one was a little different since they normally start with Kate on some sort of mission or errand. This time apparently her heart is cracking into pieces. There are some factions of the shifters that don't approve of Kate and they cause quite the upheaval throughout the book. What I love about a heart-broken Kate is that she resorts to name-calling in her head and surprises me by being the responsible party.

Three weeks later I see her back on a crazy assignment that hits very close to home. While on this assignment, she finds the next awesome character addition to the series, Grendel the attack poodle. 

The Good

I think there may be too many good things to list them all.

First, Magic Bleeds is highly centralized on Kate and Curran and I can't get enough of that. While they may be arguing in the first half of it like they do best, I love Kate's internal dialogue in the middle of the arguments.

I stared at the ceiling and growled.
"Cute," Curran said.
Die. "Why don't you come over here and I'll show you cute?"
"I'd love to, but he's in the way. Besides, you had your chance to show me anything you wanted to. You'd just run away again."
For the love of God.

Just the words "Die" and "For the love of God" had me giggling up a storm. She does this often in the middle of their back-and-forths.

Then, even though they are arguing, Curran can't help being protective of Kate while at the same time letting her stand on her own two feet. This shows such an excellent understanding on his part for who she is. Kate is as much of an Alpha as Curran is in my opinion. While he may slide in to caveman mode in one sentence, in the next, he was trying to be a gentleman. It was pretty funny watching him battle his nature and also trying to be the man that she deserves.

The big bad in Magic Bleeds is really scary.  The assignment that she's on is so important that is had my heart pounding. There are some characters incredibly hurt and others that don't make it in this book. It was an adventurous read for sure. Also, it foreshadowed an even bigger baddie on the horizon so that's something to look forward to in future books.

Yes there are even more good things, but I could be here all day listing them all.

The Bad

Yeah - no.

The Romance

I adore their romance. No other couple has me laughing almost every time they have a conversation. As Kate says, he is a control freak and she hates authority so it should work, right? Well, I do know that the romance level went right off the map this time around. So great!!! It was worth the wait. I just hope all the future books are just as good.

Conclusion

So what makes this a 6 star book over the others so far in this series? More Curran, more Kate, and more romance = more sexy, more snarky, and more yummy. My advice is to read this series!! You are incredibly missing out if you haven't.

Excerpts

"Do you honestly think your toothpick can hurt me?"
"Let's find out."

"Thank you for killing my suspect before I could talk to him."
"Don't mention it."

"Big mistake, Your Majesty. You want me to act like a shapeshifter? Fine, I can do that."

"That's right. Come let me kiss you with my fist, baby."

"He bared his teeth in a happy feral grin. My own personal psycho."

Waiting on Wednesday [21] - Out of this world

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Obsession by Jennifer Armentrout

Publisher: May 31, 2013 by Entangled Publishing LLC
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Science Fiction

Goodreads Summary

He’s arrogant, domineering, and... To. Die. For.

Hunter is a ruthless killer. And the Department of Defense has him firmly in their grasp, which usually doesn’t chafe too badly because he gets to kill bad guys. Most of the time he enjoys his job. That is, until he’s saddled with something he’s never had to do before: protect a human from his mortal enemy.

Serena Cross didn’t believe her best friend when she claimed to have seen the son of a powerful senator turn into something... unnatural. Who would? But then she witnesses her friend’s murder at the hands of what can only be an alien, thrusting her into a world that will kill to protect their secret.

Hunter stirs Serena’s temper and her lust despite their differences. Soon he’s doing the unthinkable—breaking the rules he’s lived by, going against the government to keep Serena safe. But are the aliens and the government the biggest threats to Serena’s life…or is it Hunter?

Review: Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels #3) by Ilona Andrews

Publisher: April 2009 Penguin
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
Format: Kindle
Source: Purchased

*Please note that it is very hard to review books past the first one in the series without having any spoilers at all. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as I can, but if you haven't read the first book in this series, you may just want to read that review instead of continuing with this one.

Goodreads Summary
When magic strikes and Atlanta goes to pieces, it’s a job for Kate Daniels…

Drafted into working for the Order of Merciful Aid, mercenary Kate Daniels has more paranormal problems than she knows what to do with these days. And in Atlanta, where magic comes and goes like the tide, that’s saying a lot.

But when Kate's werewolf friend Derek is discovered nearly dead, she must confront her greatest challenge yet. As her investigation leads her to the Midnight Games—an invitation only, no holds barred, ultimate preternatural fighting tournament—she and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, uncover a dark plot that may forever alter the face of Atlanta's shapeshifting community…

What's on the menu tonight?

Love, love, love. These just keep getting better as I read further into the series.

The Good

It starts out with action and humor (hello - a banshee on a telephone pole), and continues with more emotion and a harder hitting plot throughout.

Let's start with characters. I love the characters in this series so much. Derek the werewolf is one of my favorites and is pretty central to this story. Then Julie who was a new addition in the last book shows some great growth. Some other side characters I've grown to love along the way are Jim - the surly security guard to Curran. Doolittle is the doctor to the shape-shifters who makes tea like syrup. Andrea is Kate's best friend who is handy with a gun and chews men up and spits them out. She is often seen with Raphael who makes every girl other than Andrea swoon so naturally she is the one he pines after. So far there has always been one new addition that captures my heart and I'm hoping this trend doesn't end. This time around, it is a half-blind vegetarian tiger named Dali. I get the feeling that she's somehow captured Jim's heart as well, but we shall see. I very much hope to read more of her in the future because she is such a fun character. Each and every single character in this series has something that sets them apart and makes them endearing or uniquely terrifying.

I also got to learn more about the back-stories of Kate, Derek, Jim, and Curran. It was fascinating to learn the heritage of Kate finally since this has been a big mystery. I also really enjoyed delving a little deeper into the other's histories. Saimon, who can look like anyone he wants to, was more fully explained as well. He has a very unique heritage and true form. I got more information into how shifters behave as well like their mating habits and their signs of aggression. This was fun and interesting to read about.

Now let's talk about the plot of this one. I was taken aback by a lot of what happened, almost like a gut-punch. I'll tell you one thing, these are not predictable books. My heart-strings were pulled a little but thankfully Kate doesn't sit still long enough to wallow over anything and immediately gets into action to set things right. She makes some hard choices  but I agree with how she went about things. Especially an odd confrontation with Jim. I was thrilled with her tactful and brave stand in that circumstance.

The Bad

Not one thing.

The Romance

The slow build-up in this series has worked wonders for my attachment to Kate and Curran. I love these two together. The chemistry is off the charts and the smallest interactions and witty banter along with the universe moving due to a kiss causes me to melt just as Curran accused Kate of doing. I love everything about how this relationship has gone so far. The ending in this book was absolutely spectacular.

Conclusion

This series has everything that I adore in a book: action, lovable take-charge characters, laugh out loud moments, truly scary bad guys, and amazing world-building and back stories. Not to mention my absolutely favorite things to be found: snark, strong independent female characters that find their honest matches in strong perfect-balance men. Absolutely 100% recommended.

Excerpts

"Beast Lord, a man beyond mundane niceties like good-bye and thank you."

"Since when do you give a crap about my welfare anyway? I think you're confused as to the nature of our relationship. You and I, we don't get along. You're a psychopathic control freak. You order me around and I want to kill you. I'm a pigheaded insubordinate. I drive you made, and you want to strangle me."
"Once! I did it once."
"Once was plenty. The point is, we don't play nice, we -"
"He jerked his arms out from under my knees, pulled me to him, oblivious to the dagger, and kissed me."

"I understand why you do things, Kate. It's how you do them that occasionally pisses me off."
Occasionally? "I want to assure you, Your Majesty, that I spend long nights lying awake in my bed worrying about your feelings."

"His Majesty needs a can-I girl anyway. And I'm not it."
"A can-I girl?" Andrea frowned.
I leaned back. "'Can I fetch you your food, Your Majesty? Can I tell you how strong and mighty you are, Your Majesty? Can I pick out your fleas, Your Majesty?"