Solid Story, Not that Dark
924132
As a huge fan of the tv show Dexter, I was instantly drawn to the quirky Sebastian. Celia Aaron gives her readers a rich, handsome, romantic in his own way guy and then shakes his brain up a little bit to make him that much more interesting. This review will be vague to protect the storyline.

"She was mine. Even if I had to steal her."

See? Not quite the romantic words most girls want to hear. Sebastian has all the tools he needs to land that perfect girl, he just has no idea how to use them. It's not the way his brain works. He is the I see it, I want it, type of guy and he could care less what she wants.

What he sees from afar is Camille. She's perfect. Everything he wants, except she belongs to someone else. In Sebastian's world (and mind) that isn't a problem. He is a man without a conscience, so how she feels about the situation is irrelevant and the plan is hatched.

"She was made for me, just as I'd been fashioned from the darkest materials for her."

But she doesn't know that. There's a clash between Sebastian and Camille to put it lightly. I enjoyed the struggle/change in Sebastian's personality and how his mind worked. There was something about this slightly damaged guy that kept me interested.

The book is well written from dual points of view. There is a lot of talk about dark and light, however Sebastian isn't what I would consider a dark character. He's a little "off" in his thinking sure, but he's more talk than action, which was fine, but a little misleading about this being a dark read. The Bad Guy is a standalone with a bonus chapter from Sebastian as well.

Reviewed for Renee Entress's Blog.
1796249
I really enjoyed this tale, and Im glad I read it. The characters were well created and introduced. The chemistry between the characters was plausible and drew my interest. Their personalities meshed well, without being overblown. I loved the occasional shout outs to some of my favorite books and movies, such as Princess Bride. The mysterious past bit got a little annoying, but Im glad it was strung out because it worked. The Australian accent was nicely subtle, just a few phrases here and there to remind the reader where the main character was from. I loved the end note about the different versions of the story, especially as one critique would have been for Jason to have a deeper menace in the story. But it seems the author already explored that option and it was too dark. I recommend this book who like romances with lots of tangles and happy endings. The biggest quibble I have is that the paragraphs had big chunks that weren't indented. That inconsistent formatting made it difficult to read and keep track of the paragraphs, but the overall editing was good.
1986510
Compared to the first book, Night is Darkest, this one is pretty mainstream. There is one brief scene that is unconventional, but SPOILER ALERT the heroine remains a vigin throughout the first two thirds of the book. Her status is important to the plot, so it works for the story. When the big moment arrives it's tame to the point of being almost sickly sweet. I don't have an issue with these types of books, but they're a dime a dozen and not what I expected after reading the first book in the series. I gave this one 4 stars (actually 3.5 but I rounded up) because it is a decent story. Hopefully the heat-o-meter will be turned back up for the next book.
2593441
Good, but slightly less than the usual effort to keep the reader fully engaged and vested in the story
1733465
Good story, very few odd points that didn't make sense from the readers point of view, but better than most.
4065483
This book does not center on sexual fantasy, no matter how dark. Some of the scenes do have more of an "R" rating than most of MechWarrior or BattleTech, but nothing really over the top.

A major part of this book involves a psychotic killer, and we do spend some time inside his head -- which is not a pretty place-- but he's not a patch on, say, Hannibal Lechter. As killers in the BattleTech universe go, he's much tamer than Kali Liao. She, if you'll recall, loved to nerve-gas civilians and was known for torturing people to near death then nursing them back to health only to torture them back to the edge of death. Repeated the cycle with some of her "favorites" for years. (I will grant that Loren Coleman did not go into the detail Ilsa Bick does, so to that extent Kali Liao may be less disturbing to some readers. But as pure evil goes, this guy isn't in her league.)

His big mistake is focusing on Katana. Sort of like Hannibal Lechter becoming fixated on a veteran Navy SEAL and black ops agent instead of a recent FBI academy grad. Won't spoil it by telling you how it comes out.

If that was all this book was about, it wouldn't be the MechWarrior novel it is. However the book is rich in the culture and politics of the Dark Age. Particularly House Kurita and the Draconis Combine. Though there might not be as much 'Mech action and combat in general as some would like, what's there is choice.

While darker than some MechWarrior and Classic BattleTech fiction, "Daughter of the Dragon" is a solid read and an excellent addition to the MechWarrior: Dark Age canon.
1488155
I love a good old fashioned ghost story. But they're surprisingly thin on the ground. The horror genre tends to be full of gory gross-outs, or the classic bait and switch: "We're selling this as a ghost story, but in the last act, it turns out IT WASN'T A GHOST AT ALL!" The M. Night Shymalan "twist ending" has ruined a lot of really solid stories, IMO, but that's a rant for another day.

The characters are a fun and engaging group, and half the fun of this story was the road trip parts in between the spectral events. Towards the end, the story had acquired a bit of an urban fantasy feeling, but still remained fairly grounded in the ordinary world (at least, as much as you can in a ghost story without a Scooby Doo, guy-in-a-rubber-mask reveal).

In "Four Til Late," Eric Garrison serves up a solid spooky tale that builds tension and raises the stakes to an unexpectedly satisfying conclusion. That said, there's still a *bit* of a twist, but it's deftly handled, and doesn't negate _anything_ about the story up to that point.

In other words, Garrison stuck the landing nicely, which I think is the hardest thing to do in a ghost story like this. Well done, and I'd definitely pick up other work from this author.
2296887
Travis Adkins has developed a pretty solid, if fairly short, zombie story.  The main character, Courtney, grows and develops with the story; this is something that seems difficult to do for some other writers in the genre to do.  She is strong and tough, which is to be expected given that she accepted the training to become a black beret-a zombie killer, but she wasn't always that way and she still is human and vulnerable.  She is not superhuman by any means, which means that she is extremely appealing.  The combat techniques described in the book are plausible and there is some depth of detail you simply do not get in most other works as to what you would have to do, how you would have to adjust when combating an enemy that feels no pain and essentially only has one real kill spot.
Certainly, the cast of characters here are fairly young, which drives the story in certain ways; their personal problems are something I can remember but perhaps cannot fully relate to at nearly 40, but I still appreciated it.  I think Mr. Adkins does a good job of describing the moodiness of some teens/young adults and and I saw it all as realistic given the circumstances they face.  Growing up in a dead world would be a unique situation, especially for a people of this age vs. someone older, fully matured, and entangled with family and responsibilities beyond your own self development.
While I was not totally appreciative of metal sheathed zombies or a madman who somehow thinks of zombies as the next stage of evolution (a preposterous concept to me, but one that an insane mind might wrap itself around, I suppose), I did appreciate the challenges the main character faces and has to overcome with these enemies.  It made for an entertaining story that was a fun read.
I also enjoyed the other tidbits after the main story was complete-the return to the past with other characters besides Courtney as well as what essentially amounts to a flashback with the main character and the black beret crew of Eastpointe on a past mission.  It further fleshed out the story and given that there will be a sequel gave even more insight into both the main character and her "boyfriend", Leon.
This is a well written book that was a fun read.  The ghastly editing and plot hole errors of some other books of this genre that are self published or slapped together haphazardly are not present here-the story was well thought out, the characters three dimensional, and the scenario fairly plausible.  The editing is solid and the storyline is tight.  Again, I am not sure I would say I loved the bad guy and his creations, but they were creative and different.  This story focused on our main character and not necessarily the baddies as key players, so my issues with that aspect of the story were not strong.
If I were to gripe it would be that I would have liked even more character development-more details on Courtney's experiences with Gordon Levi and perhaps even more back story on Leon.  Not that the story is short on understanding of the characters, I just think this book could have delved even further.  But if this is a gripe, it is a minor one and I am not complaining to emphatically about it.
A enjoyable story that was worth the read and I look forward to the sequel when it is published.  Travis Adkins has a good voice and one that I definitely enjoyed here.
2784822
Contains very minor spoilers:

Like many other reviewers, Fellside, for me, is a bit hard to describe.  I liked it more than I disliked it though, which is the reason for 4 stars.

The basic premise is that Jess, a heroin addict, accidentally kills a boy in a fire.  She winds up in jail, where her life intertwines with the inmates in unexpected ways.

I would not classify this book as horror at all, as I never really felt that anything truly frightening was going on.  I would say it's more of a suspense novel with some supernatural elements.  Unlike others, I did not actually view the "twist" with any surprise, having figured it out fairly early in the novel (the author leaves plenty of clues).

The writing is solid, and overall the book moves at a decent pace.  It does slow down in a few areas and could have used some slight editing, but it wasn't anything too hard to get past.  The tone is completely different from The Girl With All The Gifts, which I didn't view as a bad thing, but if you're looking for more of that style of novel, you will probably be disappointed.

Overall, I liked this book and look forward to more from this author.  Only the slightly slow pacing in some areas caused me to knock it down to 4 stars.
1877945
For some reason I didn't realize this was a YA book before  I bought it. But putting that aside, it was still a good read. The characters were more developing than developed and this is something I like to see. Character development as well as plot development makes you want to keep going with the book, and may help overlook other flaws. Sometimes the pace did lag. There was some angst, but it did not overwhelm. While dark, it is not as "brutal" as the title leads you to believe, or least compared to other dark fantasies. After reading this I'd want to go on to the next book too.
494631
WARNING  SPOILERS MAY BE CONTAINED WITHIN THIS SPOILER

Another solid cover and solid book from Lindsey Pogue and Lindsey Fairleigh. Its been some months since I read and reviewed the first book of The Ending series, but when I was given a chance to take a look at the sequel, I jumped at the chance. Like its predecessor, Into the Fire didn't disappoint.

The story at its heart is about two friends, Dani and Zoe, as they both try to survive the apocalypse with their band of supernaturally-powered refugees. Unfortunately, not only do these two girls have to survive the day-to-day of living in a post-apocalyptic world with no electricity or running water, but there are also crazy cannibalistic creatures, roving bands of thugs and bandits some with their own unique powers, and last, but not least, so-called scientists and officials who think its their god-given duty to experiment on the survivors in an attempt to make a perfect society. These girls have it rough.

Personally, going into this story, it was a little bit of a difficult read. Not because the story was ill-written or slow-paced, but because it had been such a long time in between the books for me (I read them both before they were officially released), it became a push in the first few chapters to remember what had happened in the previous book, and catch up to the story. Which is the main reason I marked this story down to 4 stars rather than 5. Though this is an obvious sequel, and I was warned before-hand that this was not a stand-alone book, I do hold a firm belief that even in a series, there should be some re-telling to help ease readers into subsequent books in a series. This installment to the series, had no re-telling what-so-ever. Books are generally released with large (sometimes a year or more) gap between them, and if you're like me and you read several books a week, its easy to lose track of where you were in a series during that down-time. It would have been nice to have a few hints here and there to remind me of where I left off.

Still, by the third or fourth chapter (minus some momentary lapses where I couldn't remember who certain characters were), I fell back into the story like clock-work. The book was well-written, fast paced, and the characters were genuine. Before I realized it, I was done, and wishing there were just a few more chapters to enjoy. Alas, Ill have to wait for the next one. My only true negative complaint, or rather, Ill call it an observation, was that while present, the romance really took a back-seat in this installment of the story.  I certainly wouldnt place this firmly in the romance category (Id tag it as an action/adventure this time around), but theres still some tidbits in there for people who enjoyed the romance from the first bookJust don't get your hopes up and skim for the sexual tension.

Overall? Id recommend it to anyone who liked the first book of the series. It was a fun, action-packed read, and it didn't let me down. If you enjoy Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, or Sci-Fi adventures, youll probably like this book, and love the series.
925731
The Kid Sensation stories are good, solid storytelling.  This one would be all five stars except for some places where the editing isn't quite tight, and the sense of peril isn't quite as strong as in the previous book.  That's not really necessary, we all need a 'down issue' or two in our comics between major arcs, but usually that's so you can build on the characters with more interaction, and that doesn't really happen to the degree that it should.  There could also be a bit more 'show' and a bit less 'tell' even though the story IS being narrated from the POV of the hero.

Still a good read.
1243199
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest, it took me a few chapters to really get into this book. Once Hester and company defeated the troll in the beginning, my interest in the characters and the story picked up. I liked that the relationship between Hester and Inanna wasn't all roses. It made for some nice internal conflict that added to the overall tension. I also liked the backstory that Inanna and her followers brought to the story, though after one questionable scene, I'm not sure if I still like Gil. Dub-con makes me a little twitchy, though that's a personal taste. The author wrote the scene, and the rest of the steamy scenes rather well, which is why I'm a bit conflicted about it. The plot though, had a lot of twists and turns that I didn't see coming, and I hadn't guessed whodunit, though I was close!

The plot was well-done, and dealt with a lot of hard issues and the characters were well-formed. I just wasn't in love with the writing. It was good, fit Hester well, but there were also a lot of little issues, dropped words and punctuation issues that could have been resolved with another set of eyes giving it a quick read through. Overall though, I recommend this book and will read the next in the series when it's out.
2907355
The story has a dark theme. Violence and death and sex in weird constellations (not as graphic as to insult, but you do have to be fairly tolerant not to be disgusted). The characters feel at home in dark dead-end sub-cultures, self destruction seems to be part of the story. But I guess that's normal in vampire stories (I'm not really into them).
The story is lightened by two remarkable characters, the musician Ghost who has a sense for the supernatural and Nothing, a screwed up, lonely kid and vampire apprentice. They're believable even though they're set in a strange world; I found myself rooting for both of them. What attracted me was the portrayal of this dark world Nothing and his (vampire) friends move through and Ghost's tries to rescue Nothing from it. The relationship Ghost/Nothing is done nicely and brought to a neat conclusion. The whole story is actually carried by these two characters.
It's also amazing how the author managed to create such a dark setting and make it appear a perfectly normal place to live in (at least as long as the book lasts - then you wake up in the real world again, thank goodness)
Definitely an interesting read. It does feel very modern to me, as another reviewer said. No cobwebs, no garlic, no wooden stakes. There's cars and hitchhiking and (a single) gun instead.
2969961
Jelly goes to magic school. Sounds a bit cliche, but not all that much attention is paid to class part. Mostly on what happens outside and the interaction between the pupils. Jelly definitely is growing up as is the story. It is bit darker and the plots become a bit more complicated. A good end, no cliffhangers, more is sure to follow even if Jelly might very well stop being a royal pet. We do get to see a bit more of the world, and especially the magic system (which remains a bit vague). Jelly gets some new friends as well.

Solid sequel which I enjoyed reading. Not a big fan of prophecy type of story, but at least this one is rather simple and they actually stipulate that the prophecized heroes can loose. Looking forward to the third part.
317063
This was far better than I thought it would be, far better than I was expecting.
It's a dark, fast paced story with some pretty action.
I do have to say that the main character did not grew completely on me, I don't hate her but I don't love her either. I just think she's a little bit plain and naive.
I wish the book was longer than it is but it's still enjoyable and it can be read in an hour or two. I will definitely look out for the next book.

. I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review, this in no way affects my review.
4436022
This was another Kindle choice I made on the strength of favorable reader recommendations.  For once, I agree.  The story was well-written, the plot was engaging, the action frequently amusing, the main character likable, and the other characters, even though they moved to the tune of the plot, were well-drawn and dimensional enough that they did not present as the awkward plastic stock characters that lesser authors produce.  I might have given this five stars, but unfortunately some elements of the jinn world and its interaction with the human world were never explained even though they were crucial to the storyline.  Overall, it was a solid novel if you are looking for lighthearted entertainment.