Not as good as "The Elementals" by far
926703
Very Suspenseful.  Not as good as "The Elementals" by far, but still very well written.
1906158
I absolutely loved the first book as it was filled with both action and adventure! However, this second installment pretty much threw me. We left off the first book with Nina and Eddie coming into a relationship that seemed very promising. We come into the second book where they seem like totally different people. I mean the first half of the book they were literally squabbling like teenagers. It was tiresome. To be quite frank if I were either of the two characters I would have dumped myself immediately had I been on the receiving end of either one of them.

I think the synopsis doesn't give a very clear picture for this book because Nine and Eddie didn't starting "searching" for the Tomb of Hercules until 60% into the book. They found some clues here and there but the majorette of the book seemed to revolve around Nina and Eddie's deteriorating relationship and the fact that he is going out of his way to help his ex-wife. OH yes, his ex-wife makes an appearance and wouldn't you know it SHE HAS NOT CHANGED. But naturally men are too gullible for their own good.

I think what really killed me with this book is that Nina and Eddie seemed to have such a promising relationship! I was routing for them all through The Hunt for Atlantis. Then towards the end you kinda got that "aww how cute!" Which I fully expected to continue into this book. WRONG. Now I don't need things to be all HEA, this is an Action & Adventure Fiction book and not a Romance. However, it was literally watching teenagers yell at each other the whole time and argue about nonsense. They refused to communicate and when they did it was just a yell fest! It is honestly like the author didn't want them to be together. Which again, wouldn't necessarily care but it is called the "Nine Wilde & Eddie Chase" series. Put that into perspective and you kind of just assume they will be together...Also, if you read the synopsis of the future books (I know, I know. Shame on me.) you know they will be because "Fianc" and "Husband" are in the back synopsis so clearly they are together. Which at one moment is like "YAY" but at the same times they are so honest to god mean to each other in this book!

Yes I know I am talking a lot just about their relationship but, no joke, that is what the entire first half of the book is about. There is some action here and there, like Eddie going to rescue his ex-wife...wait really? Send someone else to do it don't spur of the moment leave your current girlfriend, not tell her why, and then bring back your ex-wife. Suspicious much?!

Spoiler below...

About 50% through (I used percentage because I'm reading them on my kindle), we finally see the story actually proceed to some sort of climax! Guess who is behind all the stealing, cheating and killing? Eddie's ex-wife. So had he not helped her in the beginning all would shave been fine! But no, he helped (clearly didn't learn his lesson the first time) and now she is in control of the whole situation. She is also psychotic because she kills two of her husband the same exact way.

When they did finally get to the tomb, it was sadly very, very quick. We found it the entrance, went through some trials and ta-da! We found it. I will admit the trials were fun and gave a quick little history lessons for those of us not as well versed in Hercules mythology.

End Spoiler...

I did enjoy the story to an extent because I did love Nina and Eddie in the first book and I'm a sucker for myths and archaeology. I just really wish it had more to do with the actual discovery and adventure and less about their crappy beginning relationship problems. Regardless, I will still read the next in the book because I do oh so love discoveries! Hopefully, Nina and Eddie have finally worked out their problems and we can continue with the expeditions!
3986105
I recently read the first book in this series, and while Blood Shadows wasn't what I normally prefer (I'm not typically into angsty and dark), it was well-written enough that I wanted to read more in the series. However, I've found that this book is a definite letdown after the first one.

My primary issue with the book is the lack of difference in the characters from this book versus the characters in the first book. For the most part, our hero and heroine (Caleb and Leila) are very similar to those in the first book (Kane and Caitlin). Both males are tall, dark, powerful, and old vampires who run their section of the city with ruthless authority. They tend to be brutal, analytical, and focused on survival at all costs while still protecting those they love. They even resemble one another, even though Caleb is a touch shorter and their eyes are slightly different colors. The females are both repressed, damaged, and completely unable to manage their responses to the male vampire they are supposed to hate, but who ultimately takes their heart. Both relationships play out in very similar ways, with the male capturing the female and holding her against her will while both the male and female in the relationship spend inordinate amounts of time angsting over their feelings, plotting how to one-up the other, and fighting both themselves and each other. To me, it was like reading about the same couple in different circumstances.

I was also disappointed in the significant lack of world-building that has occurred so far. We are now two books in and there are still huge holes in the history, culture, and politics of this world. I wasn't even sure where in the world they were supposed to be set, and finally had to assume that it's somewhere in England, based off of the British turns of phrase used so often by the characters. There are incomplete references to events that happened in the past, which caused the humans and "third species" people (supernaturals) to create treaties and constitutions outlining rules for co-existence, but that's really all that's been said. There are repeated references to councils and politicians and events that are never really explained, so the reader is left with a sense of being the one on the outside of an inside joke for the majority of the books. The author should have replaced some of the incessant internalized dialogue with just a little history.

The author also has some ongoing grammatical tics that frustrate me. For example, she often says, "disorientated" rather than "disoriented" and also says, "different to" rather than "different from." I realize that these are also British grammatical habits, but without the background and placement that I mentioned above, it simply comes across as poor grammar, especially since those are not standard usages. My mother was a fervent Anglophile and I am a prolific reader, but I have heard those phrasings so rarely that it still sounds incorrect.

Perhaps if I had read this book as a stand-alone, I might be inclined to give it a higher rating, but it falls significantly short when placed in context with its predecessor. This story doesn't feel as if it progresses the story arc very well and left me feeling frustrated, especially with the author's penchant for dropping in clues out of nowhere, with no lead-up. At some point, I will probably check out the next book in the installment in order to see if the author can create different characters when she shifts to the lycans and their leader, Jask, but the lack of creativity shown thus far has pushed her books to the lower end of my reading priority list. The author has definite skills when it comes to examining a person's feelings, motivations, and needs, and I really enjoyed the fact that all of the characters have logically traceable thought processes rather than just irrational flights of emotion that don't fit the story. Based on that, I will probably come back to her, but not any time soon.
2107957
I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com.  This is the second book in the Gone with Respiration series.  I really enjoyed the creativity of the first book in this series (Dearly, Departed).  I was very disappointed in this book because of the huge number of POVs.  I almost didn't finish this book because as the story went on I just didn't care anymore.

Tensions are rising between the humans and the "good" zombies.  Nora, Bram, and company are trying to figure out the motives behind a group called the Murder; a mysterious group targeting good zombies and zombie sympathizing humans.  Also a new pro-zombie group called The Changed are causing even more increased tensions in the city.  Add to this the fact that a new strain of the Laz has been uncovered and Nora's dad is frantically trying to find a cure for the Laz.

All I have to say about this book is "Ugh!" There are 6, yes that is 6, POVs in this book (we hear from Laura, Nora, Bram, Michael, Vespertine, and Pamela) This fractures the story horribly and turns what could've been a decent 200 page story into a horribly boring and slow nearly 500 page one. The story is all over the place. I had some problem with the multiple POVs in the first book, but really enjoyed the creative world. This story didn't even have that wonder to it anymore...it's just a mess.

If you like politics you might enjoy this book more than I did.  There are a ton of politics between various groups going on.  There's The Murder (anti-zombie human group), the Changed (anti-human zombie group), most normal humans who are neutral/confused and Nora and friends who are pro good zombies.  This book is mainly about how these groups interact, attack each other, and make the city less and less safe.

There is a lot of Nora and Bram talking about how much they love each other as well which gets old over time.  What happens between Nora and Bram at the end of the book felt contrived and forced to me.  Not to mention you kind of have to not think too hard about their relationship in general because...well...it's kind of creepy.  I mean Bram is dead and Nora talking about how much she loves to kiss his cold lips is a bit odd.

Nora also does a million really stupid things that made me want to slap her.  I mean how many times do you need people to tell to definitely not go there, then you go there and cause a huge mess.  She does this multiple times in the story and it makes her come off as stupid and selfish.

I don't have much else to say about the side characters.  Pamela has a bigger role in this story and is definitely more interesting than Nora and Bram.  The other part of the story that really intrigued me was the mystery behind Patient One.

The book was very readable and the writing style easy to read.  I had trouble being engaged in the story because it was so fractured.  At the end of the day when I think back to what this book was about, I have trouble really saying because it was just such a mess.

Overall I did not enjoy this installment in the series.  Too many POVs fractured the story and made the plot move at a crawl.  There are tons of politics between various factions and Nora does a million really stupid things.  I almost didn't finish this book at all.  The only redeeming quality was Patient One, the mystery behind him is intriguing and would be interesting to find an answer to in the next book.  Will I be reading the next book?  Probably not, I am worried that Habel might add in another 3 POVs and make it an even more fractured and lengthy story.  If you like this type of steampunk/victorian zombie story I would suggest,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Something-Strange-and-Deadly/dp/0062083260/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Something Strange and Deadly</a>&nbsp;by Susan Dennard...it is a much better story.
1144244
What may be one person's treasure may well be another's . . . well you get the gist. After all the raving and 5-star reviews, I decided to join the crowd. But for me, this one just didn't live up to its hype and hit its mark. In fact, it was an epic disappointment.

This book is written in two-parts  with a seven year separation between. Greta and Elec (every time I read his name I wished it had just been Alec ) are step-siblings and meet for the first time when they are seniors in high school and then it picks up again when they are 25. In much of the book the h/h are apart  Elec in California and Greta in NYC. Both find new relationships and life moves on. A family death brings them face-to-face once again.

The whole premise of forbidden love truly wasn't even an issue here in my opinion. They are step-siblings  no blood relation  and didn't even meet until they were 18 years old. And Elec lived in the same house for several months only. Basically, they were total strangers. So take out that taboo element and youve just got two teenagers living under the same roof with a bad case of lust. They toss around a lot of trash talk and play silly tricks on each other. The parents are oblivious to all the nonsense and there are certain instances where they should have been front and center. They seem to completely ignore their kids and offer no supervision. I was astonished at their lack of intervention. To me, that was the biggest forbidden issue.

Elec had some pretty good lines of dialogue. He definitely had the tormented bad boy image going on. And his reasons for the bad behavior he exhibited were to some extent justified; but in others not so much. And it didn't matter whether or not he was 18 or 25.

Same goes for Greta. She had little respect for herself. She took about anything Elec threw at her as a teenager and then again when she was 25. I wanted to yell at her to get a grip and dish his crap back at him. Instead she stood at the ready for any tiny scrap of attention he tossed her way. She gave it all away and he let her.

And the way Elecs POV is exposed is entirely a repetitive redo of what has already been read  only now its in italics! Waste of time and does nothing to move the story forward or shed new light on Elecs feelings.

I just didn't find much of anything realistic or stimulating. There was sexual chemistry and lots of vulgar and sexual innuendoes floating around throughout but meaningless. Nothing seemed real or meaningful  even when the HEA is unveiled.

Stepbrother Dearest is a standalone novel.
4210831
Im going to preface this review with the fact that I love Chaol. Hes always been my favorite Throne of Glass character, so I was excited but apprehensive about this book. Id heard that Tower of Dawn redeems his character, so my expectations were high. Id even heard that if you didn't like Chaol, youd still love Tower of Dawn and Chaol by the end of the book.

I guess everything was just too hyped for me, though, because I didn't love it. I was actually fairly disappointed. And now comes the SPOILERY part of this review because this is the sixth book in a seven-book fantasy series.

Because I love Chaol so much, and I will continue to love him despite what happens to his character, I honestly think he deserves better than the storyline that we got. The entire plotline and the new main character introduced in Tower of Dawn are just so obvious and clich. Point 1: Yrene Towers is the most famous healer in the land (cue Maria V. Snyders Touch of Power vibes), and she doesnt want to heal a certain injured, former captain. It was just too obvious what was going to happen between Yrene and Chaol at that point. Point 2: The royal family Chaol needs help from won't be swayed to his side until something awful happens. Surprise! Something awful happens.

Also, there were aspects of the plot that I don't fully understand the point of. Most of this has to do with Nesryns storyline. Nesryn went off with a certain character to find some ancient beings (that I won't mention by name for fear of too much spoilage), but its not entirely clear why she went off to find them when everyone already knew they were a threat. Also, the plot was oftentimes very slow which is unusual in an SJM book. The action didn't come until the end.

Then, theres the fact that there was a LOT of Aelin adoration in this book. It seems like every other page was Aelin is fearsome, Aelin is sooooo powerful, Aelin is the most beautiful, kick-butt queen in the world. I just grew very tired of hearing how awesome she was, especially considering Dorian is Chaols king, not Aelin. Oh, and I also randomly noticed how similar some elements of this series are to Game of Thrones (i.e., the Narrow Sea and warrior horse riders).

Okay, despite my complaining, there were a few aspects of this book that I did really enjoy. I thought the Antica royal family was absolutely amazing. The way the family functions and how their lineage is decided was fascinating. I wish we could get a story just about the sons and daughters of the khagan. I also very much enjoyed the ruk riders. Very cool introduction to the series.

All in all, I didn't love this book. It was slow-paced and predictable. However, it was a decent addition to the Throne of Glass world. I just wish it would have had more. More action. More surprises. And way more Chaol.

3/5 stars

*Note: I borrowed a copy of this book from my local library. This in no way affected my opinion/review.
2097421
Dragon Soul by Katie MacAlister
Book #3: Dragon Falls Series
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 2/5 stars
My Review:

And Im right back to being disappointed . . . .

Dragon Soul is the third installment of the Dragon Falls series and like the first book, it falls short of meeting my expectations.

Sophea Long has been tasked with escorting the delightful kleptomaniac known as Mrs. P to Egypt.  Mrs. P. seems to defy all logic and stereotypes, she hits on anything even remotely male, and is quite insistent that Sophea is her guide and her protector and will be needed on every leg of her journey to her beau.  Given Mrs. P.s age, Sophea tends to ignore much of the ramblings and twittering and does her very best to return each and every item the old bat steals from others.  Though the trip has been somewhat exhausting, Sophea has generally enjoyed herself.  Right up until the moment two men try to kill Mrs. P.  Enter Rowan Dakar, the single bright spot in this read.

Rowan Dakar has spent the better part of his adult life hiding from dragonkin.  Thanks to a total and complete clusterf*^$ when he was far younger, Rowan is known throughout dragonkin as the Dragon Breaker and should he be found, his life will likely be forfeit.  When circumstances involving a dreaded red dragon spiral out of control on a plane to Germany, Rowan is forced to get involved which effectively outs him to the world.  Mrs. P. may be a pain in his ass but Sophea is something altogether different.  Rowan is sure Sophea is a dragon but she seems to have no clue about what she is and what she is capable of.  Additionally, to Rowans ears Mrs. P.s ramblings aren't just ramblings but lore and truth about the world beyond humanity.  According to the old bat, Rowan must stay involved and continue to accompany she and Sophea on their journey.

As the journey continues, things get weirder and weirder.  Sophea not only accepts that she is, in fact dragonish, Mrs. P. acquires a gaggle of gorgeous girls to accompany her at all times, and Rowan gets a few little (and not so little) surprises from the First Dragon himself.  To complicate matters, Sophea and Rowan are wildly attracted to one another, they have to continuously complete certain terrifying tasks on Mrs. P.s behalf, and they have to figure out how to solve the Bael problem that is still plaguing everyone.  Oh, and Mrs. P. seems to be getting younger the longer the trip goes on.  Yeah, thats not weird at all.

The Bottom Line:  Other than Rowan and his particular story, there was little of value in this read for me.  The plot wanders almost aimlessly, Sophea is one of the single-most annoying characters in the history of literature, and the final explanation of everything is severely lacking.  Honestly, I am not at all sure what happened with this read and if it weren't for Rowan and the reappearance of some of the older characters, including the most delightful, Gary, I probably would have DNFd this book.  I don't want to give up on Katie Mac because I have historically quite enjoyed her dragon books but two of three books in this latest series have fallen dramatically short of the standard set by the earlier dragon books.  Clearly, Im going to have to rethink my love affair with Katie Mac and that makes me one very, very sad panda.
2118860
I enjoyed Ethan and Autumn's story in the first book.  Claire was a meanie in that one.  She's still a meanie in this one. I don't get onboard with Jamie's unending love for her.  The characters didn't develop well.  There's a lot of drama, and she's an awful person.  She's even awful 2/3 through the next book.  Goodness !  She loses $90.000.00 to her stealing ex-partner in the design business and never called the cops !  That's grand larceny !!  The other characters are still worth reading about.  They all have upcoming stories in the series.  This pair just isn't lovable.  Rob was a prankster, but we sense something good coming from him.  Loved the next book about him and Morgan (Cowboy Imports a Bride.)
2918017
Shanna Abe is an extremely talented author, who makes romance novels worth reading (i.e. there's actual substance).  However, I didn't feel that this novel was particularly worth reading, especially since some of the content was predictable.  Then there were other parts which didn't make sense to the reader.  The stars are supposed to be watching over the dragons, not interfere directly with fate (the part where Lora changes Armand's destiny by making a promise to the stars).  What?  And then, for the better part of the novel, Jess is not able to communicate with Lora as he is able to do with Armand.  But towards the end of the book, suddenly, voila (!), he speaks to Lora and she hears him.  Also, why did Jess instruct Lora to love Armand?  This just feels very wrong.  Finally, Shanna Abe is clearly thinking of a 3rd book, since we now have Armand AND Aubrey to compete for Lora.  And then probably a neat ending with Aubrey/Armand finding a mate in one of the dragons that Armand saw in this book.  The anticipation of this coming 3rd book just falls flat.  As for this 2nd book?  Not worth $10.99 on kindle for sure.
2865754
Spoiler alert!
  I was really looking forward to this book, but I was a little disappointed. I liked Blaze's story a lot, and I LOVED Axe's story, but Hammers story didn't even feel like it was part of the series. Hammer has been widowed two plus years when this story starts and he's still suffering emotionally. He floats through life without the MC he's retired from, and struggles with raising his daughter. He literally feels like a failure, and so he sends his daughter off to her maternal grandmother in Puerto Rico.
  I get being this distraught over the death of the love of your life, and not knowing how to deal with it. What I didn't like was how quickly he figures it all out and finds a purpose in life once he meets the heroine. She crosses paths with him several times, and he knows she's with a guy who treats her badly. He becomes almost obsessive with Meia as soon as he meets her, and makes it his mission to save her from her captor and get her son back. If he had worked half this hard on himself and his own daughter, he might not have slipped so low. I didn't like how this woman became his whole reason to live, when he had let his own daughter go to Grandma's while he figured out how to make their lives better.
The story just got cheesy for me when he rejoins the MC and asks them to go Thailand with him and get Meia's son and her too, back from her sadistic captor, who has since kidnapped her. She had been a child sex slave/bride, but had been living in Vegas when she met Hammer. Again, this plot was almost ridiculous. The author also chose a dark back story for the heroine, but glosses over any sexual encounter scene she has as though she is uncomfortable with writing about it.it made it hard for me to feel empathy towards the heroine, in fact I felt little to no emotional connection to her at all. This whole book just felt off to me, and it seems, based on the epilogue that this is the end of the series, with the mention of her next series about four brothers.
  This book just tried to be too much and to many things in my opinion and just fell flat.
653715
Having thoroughly enjoyed "Highlander Untamed", I was eager to begin "Highlander Unmasked" and for the first chapter I was delighted.  However, as the story progressed or should I say as the subjective thoughts of the characters progressed, I could barely get through the book. I found myself skipping page after page filled with nothing more than the Alex's and Meg's personal musings about how they felt about themselves and each other. This type of non-dialog between the characters made up the bulk of the book.  What a disappointment after reading the first book!  What made "Highlander Untamed" so good is the story was the focus of the book and the subjective thoughts and feelings of the characters were well balanced within the story.  Not so with "Highlander Unmasked" - this book was burdened down with redundancy, restating the same thoughts and feelings over and over and OVER again, the same trap most, but not all, (never Julie Garwood) romance writers seem to fall into.  This constant restating of personal subjectivity seems to be a cop out on writing the STORY.  What a shame, this book showed such promise. Had the story focused more on Alex and less on Meg, it would have worked much better and grounded the story; it was after all called "Highlander Unmasked".  Although in the beginning Alex was strong and manly, as the story unfolded Alex was basically dazed and confused most of the time, and the easy charismatic nature brought out in the first book was gone. Meg was nosy and pushy, with little discrimination and undermined Alex's efforts to the point he was more in danger from her meddling than from his enemies.  In the first book, Rory and Isabelle were strong defined characters.  You got a strong sense of Rory as a man and  Isabelle faced her flaws and made conscious decisions to come up against herself and work through them. In this book, Alex and Meg are fragmented, whiny, and constantly conflicted characters for the most part, and there's way too much of Meg.  What showed great promise disappointed greatly.
4528447
Ok let me say first, I love the Fury books... They put Dragons in a whole new perspective with a lot of Male banter between each other to crack you up..  I do have to say though I was kind of disappointed with this one... I was looking forward to reading because of Venoms "type" of female, but where as all the other books went into detail about their relationships, Venom and Evelyns, didn't go like the rest of them did... Where there would be at least 10 or 15 scenes in the book between each Nightfury and their mate, this one at best only had 4 for me anyway, They met, he rescued her from the hospital, they are in the safe house for a night, and then He takes her to Black Diamond. Now don't get me wrong I liked reading Gages POV and I can't wait for him and Haider, Azrad is becoming a favorite of mine as well, But this book was supposed to mainly be about Venom and Evelyn like Bastian and Myst, Rikar and Angela, Mac and Tania, and of course Wick and J.J... I really hope if another one comes out just focusing on the action, let it just be about that... It takes too much away from the love story that's being built....
4350079
This is the second in the Series about a demon hunter finding love with a human, and of course fighting demons.  The main characters are the best friend and the hunter's "brother" from the first book.  He returns her to life and makes her an immortal like the main characters in the first book.

I spent the first half of the book pouting because the main characters in the first book were so strong and I had wanted to follow their lives in the sequel.  But instead we have a self-deprecating lead sharing her misery even more by using italicized self-talk in addition to her regular thoughts.  In the second half of the book, she finally comes into her own and the pace, mystery, and demon hunting gets stepped up.  There are also ghosts/shades in the book that add some amusement, and more development around demonoid characters (part human and demon). The next book is about the demon hunter leader whose character has internal conflicts regarding feeling strongly attracted to a demonoid was introduced in the second half of this book, and hopefully get some story line continuity about the prior characters.

The cover art on this book didn't match the lead characters either.  This hunter is blond with a bow not a sword and Evie has golden red hair.

Format: Borrowed ebook
418855
Love the Twelve Olympians series.  This one was not up to par with the others
372342
This book was a a bit of a let down, and full of holes.  I still liked the series as a whole, but the ending left something to be desired.

Just as an aside, did anyone else notice that this book contained a character named Griffin who is a shapeshifter, who likes to end sentences with the word, "Yeah".  I wonder if this is a nod to the Rylee Adamson series and Elemental series by Shannon Mayer.

***Warning Spoilers follow***

The first issue I have is that in book 3 it was very important that they not allow Griffin and Greer to have their minds open to the Other's or they would be tortured and killed. They release them, and suddenly that's not a problem anymore.

They know ahead of time that the Other's will find Greer, Griffin, and Nat, and yet do nothing about it, nor even discuss it.  Purposefully making your characters forgetful or uncaring about each other just to make sure the plot line lands with the most impact is a disservice to the readers.

The theme that the four dissidents combined would be more powerful is repeated through out the series, and they spend a great amount of time trying to get their fourth, and yet once they are all together and working together, the only thing they do is transport themselves. Which they had done already with only 3 of them together.  Deshi himself never really contributed much other than a sample of the powder, which didn't seem to be all that necessary to the weapon they built.  At the end, he goes to his corner of the world and does whatever it was that was needed to put the earth back to rights, but it could be argued that he would have done that anyway, if they didn't try to rescue him until after dealing with the Others.

Griffin's death was completely pointless and done in such a way that it did not have much emotional impact. He is killed right in front of 3 of the Dissidents and they do absolutely nothing to help one of their most powerful allies. Again, it feels like overt manipulation to force the plot to place that was desired by the author despite how unnatural that outcome was.
2374926
I've read all the Elemental Assasin book to date and this is first time I was disappointed. I know there was a lot of emotional turmoil going on in the story but Gin just didn't seem like the assassin I've come to know and fear, lol. She seemed off her game for most of the book and not the badass she usually comes across as being. I hope she rebounds and comes back ready to take names and kick ass.
1134076
I was hoping for more of an adventure story - but this book seemed to focus on the exaggerated chemistry between the protagonists, with the adventure coming second.  Had to wade through all the "his touch gave her an electric shock" kind of dialog to get to the story. Just not my cup of tea, didn't finish.