Tag: Paranormal (Page 23 of 51)

BLOG TOUR + REVIEW + GIVEAWAY – Reflection Pond (Reflection Pond #1) by Kacey Vanderkarr

BLOG TOUR + REVIEW + GIVEAWAY - Reflection Pond (Reflection Pond #1) by Kacey Vanderkarr

I am so excited to be a part of Reflection Pond's Blog Tour because this was such a fun book to devour! Below you will find my Review, a Giveaway and go grab a copy of the book today, because it is free on Amazon. Enjoy!

BLOG TOUR + REVIEW + GIVEAWAY – Reflection Pond (Reflection Pond #1) by Kacey VanderkarrReflection Pond (Reflection Pond #1)
by Kacey Vanderkarr
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Sometimes you find home, sometimes it comes looking for you.

Callie knows a lot more about pain than she does about family. She’s never belonged, at least, not until she falls through a portal into her true home. The beautiful faerie city of Eirensae doesn’t come free. Callie must find her amulet and bind herself to the city, and most importantly, avoid the Fallen fae who seek her life. Seems like a small price to pay for the family she’s always wanted.

Then she meets cynical and gorgeous Rowan, who reads the darkness of her past in her eyes. He becomes Callie’s part-time protector and full-time pain in the ass. He has secrets of his own for Callie to unravel. What they don’t know is that the future of Eirensae lies with them, and the once peaceful city is about to become a battleground for power.

Book One - Reflection Pond (FREE on Amazon):
AmazonBarnes & Noble

Book Two – Poison Tree:
GoodreadsAmazonBarnes & Noble

Review:
Reflection Pond was such a fun book to devour.  It twinkled with excitement, mystery and a possibility for a beautiful relationship between two broken people.  Err Faeries.  What started out as journey to find ones true home, slowly morphed into a landscape built to incite a war.  And Callie and Rowan are smack dab in the middle of it.
Faeries, murder, magic.  How  the hell did she end up in the middle of it?
Callie is running away from the horrors of having her boyfriend touch her.  She doesn’t want him touching her body, she doesn’t care how crazy looks, she just needs to escape.  Lost in her rash decision and being caught up in the moment, she dodges an oncoming vehicle and falls into a pond.  The pond is a portal for her kind, and it leads her to Eirensae and two boys, Ash and Rowan.  Callie is now on a path to discover who she is and what the future already has in store for her.
And maybe she was crazy, but was it so wrong of her to be curious?  To ask, what if? She glanced again at her reflection.  They’d pinned flowers in her hair and covered her eyelids with glitter.
Maybe she wanted this.
Maybe this was the most excited she’d been.
Ever.

Callie has the most beautiful heart, but sometimes she struggled seeing what was in front of her.  Her innocence made me laugh, but some of the decisions she choose made me so proud.  I was so happy that she wanted to learn to physically defend herself.  There are Faeries and other beings that will want to hurt her for the powers and the possibilities she holds, so a big round of applause to Callie for learning to protect herself!  But at times, I wanted to shake her.  I desperately needed her to make up her mind for who to trust and be with, because I had already decided that in the first chapter of the book (a little obsessed with Rowan over here).  So it didn’t sit well with me when she View Spoiler », but keep in mind that two of my favorite Heroines did similar actions, and I still completely love them.  Thankfully, by the end of the book she was closer to the Callie I knew she deserved and wanted to be!  Sometimes it takes a little while to get your footing and grow up, so I can’t wait to see how her actions in the next books will play out.

I always choose debauchery over death.  It’s my basic nature.  Remember that. – Ash

Rowan is a Faerie that Callie meets when she lands in Eirensae, and let it be known that I love Rowan!  He is dark, sarcastic, and dangerously addicting.  He is everything I love all wrapped up in a sexy body!  Ohhh and add the fact that when he is angry and frustrated he trains his body while using weapons, you have a recipe for a truly amazing man.  Every time he graced a page, I had a smile on my face.  He liked to mess with Callie, and it constantly made me laugh.  I know it’s obvious, but I loved everything about him.

This book was such a wonderful surprise!  It was light enough, yet the mystery of amulets, immortals and a prophecy made for an interesting book.  And I love that we got to alternate between being in Callie and Rowan’s mind.  It was refreshing knowing where both of them stood and what they each thought of not only each other but also of the events that took place.  After that ending, I look forward to following Callie and Rowan on their journey and finding out what the future has in store for them.

Reading Order:

  

About The Author:
Kacey VanderkarrKacey Vanderkarr is a young adult author. She dabbles in fantasy, romance, and sci-fi, complete with faeries, alternate realities, and the occasional plasma gun. She’s known to be annoyingly optimistic and listen to music at the highest decibel. When she’s not writing, she coaches winterguard and works as a sonographer. Kacey lives in Michigan, with her husband, son, and crazy cats. Along with her novels, Reflection Pond and Antithesis, Kacey’s short fiction can be found in Sucker Literary Vol 3, and the upcoming Spark Vol 7, Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things, and Out of the Green: Tales from Fairyland. Author Links: WebsiteGoodreadsTwitterFacebook

Giveaway:

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Book Tour Organized By:

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BOOK REVIEW – Shadowfever (Fever #5) by Karen Marie Moning

BOOK REVIEW – Shadowfever (Fever #5) by Karen Marie MoningShadowfever (Fever #5)
by Karen Marie Moning
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

MacKayla Lane was just a child when she and her sister, Alina, were given up for adoption and banished from Ireland forever.

Twenty years later, Alina is dead and Mac has returned to the country that expelled them to hunt her sister’s murderer. But after discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, Mac is plunged into a secret history: an ancient conflict between humans and immortals who have lived concealed among us for thousands of years.

What follows is a shocking chain of events with devastating consequences, and now Mac struggles to cope with grief while continuing her mission to acquire and control the Sinsar Dubh—a book of dark, forbidden magic scribed by the mythical Unseelie King, containing the power to create and destroy worlds.

In an epic battle between humans and Fae, the hunter becomes the hunted when the Sinsar Dubh turns on Mac and begins mowing a deadly path through those she loves.
Who can she turn to? Who can she trust? Who is the woman haunting her dreams? More important, who is Mac herself and what is the destiny she glimpses in the black and crimson designs of an ancient tarot card?

From the luxury of the Lord Master’s penthouse to the sordid depths of an Unseelie nightclub, from the erotic bed of her lover to the terrifying bed of the Unseelie King, Mac’s journey will force her to face the truth of her exile, and to make a choice that will either save the world . . . or destroy it.

Review:

*Spoilers for the previous books in the series*

Shadowfever was rich, imaginative and perfectly wove characters and questions, from the four previous books, throughout.  At nearly 700 pages, this book was excruciatingly painful to put down!  The trials they faced are always taken to that next level, leaving you on the edge of your seat. The mystery completely inundates your senses.  And the Mac that unfolds in front of our eyes is horrifying and enticing all at the same time.  How could we ever expect her to be the same after what she did?  We can’t.

Every time I think I’m getting wiser, more in control of my actions, I go slamming into a situation that makes me excruciatingly aware that all I’ve succeeded in doing is swapping one set of delusions for a more elaborate, attractive set of delusions – that’s me, the Queen of Self-Deception.

She did it.  She killed Barrons.  Her protector.  The one who would never let her die.  And she has no one to blame but herself.  Mac has to leave Barrons’ body.  The GM is on the hunt for her and she has to figure out how to get back to her world and find the Sinsar Dubh.  But along the way, she keeps coming across situations, places and even people that she knows.  Yet as far as she can recall, she’s never been there or met them in the past.  How is that possible?  And as Barron once asked, who is she really?

Call me anything you like-I sleep fine at night.  But you will look at me when you say it.  Or I’ll get so far in your face you’ll be seeing me with your eyes closed.  You’ll be seeing me in your nightmares.  I’ll scorch myself on the backs of your eyelids.  Get off my back and stay off it.  I’m not the woman I used to be.  If you want a war with me, you’ll get one.  Just try me.  Give me an excuse to go play in that dark place inside my head.

Mac is cold, deadly and she has a plan.  Nothing and no one is going to get in her way.  The risks she takes and the games she plays are phenomenal.  She was fascinating and so much fun to watch!  And then when something humongous happens….Oh. My. Gosh!  I’m going to put the next section in a spoiler, so please don’t peek if you haven’t read Shadowfever yet, because it’s a HUGE spoiler!!

With Barrons, you aren’t sure if you’re going to get fucked or turned inside out and left a new, unrecognizable person, adrift with no moorings, on a sea with no bottom and no rules.
I was never immune to him.  There were merely degrees of denial.
View Spoiler »
There was something very cold inside of me.  Always had been.  I wanted to welcome it now.  Let it chill my blood and frost my emotions until there was nothing left in me that was haunted because there was nothing left of me.

Betrayals, lies, secrets and an unstoppable amount of action made for an epic book!  AND I am beyond overjoyed that the majority of my questions got answered!  Each time I reached another page that checked off one of my previous questions, I was elated.  I was not going to be left in the dark!  I still can not believe how much I enjoyed this series, how much I fell for the characters and how my mind is already working on all of the possibilities of what can happen in the future books.  I will definitely be finishing this series, but most likely when the remaining books are all released because her cliffhangers are amazing and torturous.   For now, Shadowfever leaves you at a place where you can step away and not be struggling to breathe.  It’s a perfect place to stop and take a break before you continue on with the series. I am so happy that my lovely friend got me addicted to this series and I can’t wait to read the remaining books in the future!

Reading Order & Links:
Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
karen marin moning darkfever
Darkfever #1
Reviews:

Jen

Chelsea
bloodfever karen marie moning
Bloodfever #2

Reviews:
faefever karen marie moning
Faefever #3
Reviews:

Jen

Anna
dreamfever karen marie moning
Dreamfever #4
Reviews:

Jen
Anna
karen marie moning shadowfever
Shadowfever #5
Reviews:

Jen
Chelsea

Anna

Iced #6

Burned #7

Feverborn #8

BOOK REVIEW – Dreamfever (Fever #4) by Karen Marie Moning

BOOK REVIEW – Dreamfever (Fever #4) by Karen Marie MoningDreamfever (Fever #4)
by Karen Marie Moning
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

MacKayla Lane lies naked on the cold stone floor of a church, at the mercy of the erotic Fae master she once swore to kill. Far from home, unable to control her sexual hungers, MacKayla is now fully under the Lord Master’s spell.…In New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning’s stunning new novel, the walls between human and Fae worlds have come crashing down. And as Mac fights for survival on Dublin’s battle-scarred streets, she will embark on the darkest—and most erotically charged—adventure of her life.

He has stolen her past, but MacKayla will never allow her sister’s murderer to take her future. Yet even the uniquely gifted sidhe-seer is no match for the Lord Master, who has unleashed an insatiable sexual craving that consumes Mac’s every thought—and thrusts her into the seductive realm of two very dangerous men, both of whom she desires but dares not trust.

As the enigmatic Jericho Barrons and the sensual Fae prince V’lane vie for her body and soul, as cryptic entries from her sister’s diary mysteriously appear and the power of the Dark Book weaves its annihilating path through the city, Mac’s greatest enemy delivers a final challenge.…

It’s an invitation Mac cannot refuse, one that sends her racing home to Georgia, where an even darker threat awaits. With her parents missing and the lives of her loved ones under siege, Mac is about to come face-to-face with a soul-shattering truth—about herself and her sister, about Jericho Barrons…and about the world she thought she knew.

Review:

No, no, no, no, NO!  That did NOT just happen!  I started the book sobbing, and well now the same can be said about the end.  Here I thought the beginning was petrifying and that nothing could be more devastating and crushing.  I was wrong, SO unbelievably wrong.  Ironically after everything I’ve been put through, I finally get the obsession.  Through all of the tears, sweaty palms, smiles and laughter, I finally transitioned from like to love.  And now, I’m beyond terrified that I could lose that foothold in Shadowfever.  But rest assured, the majority of this book was a lot of fun to read!  Be prepared for a whole lot of craziness, gasping out loud, and being crushed into the ground while reading Dreamfever.

Who’d’ve thought destruction could be so beautiful?  Seductive.  Consuming.

I don’t want to revisit the beginning of Dreamfever.  It’s just too depressing.  How about I touch on my favorite things instead?  Yes?  Ok, here we go…..

★ Barrons.  THIS is the Barrons I have been begging to see.  I was driven insane with torturous hints and glances of his caring side in the previous books.  Lucky for us, many of his inhibitions and dickheadedness (Yes, I swear that is a word when one is talking about Barrons!) are down for a period of time.  Happy Barrons, silly Barrons, sexy Barrons…..Yes please!  I want and need more!  I don’t believe that he’s just trying to find a means to an end. View Spoiler »  Barrons has a heart, I just know it has to be true!

★Who Mac becomes.  As I’ve said, she is kick ass, ferocious, and powerful.  I loved that about her. But what she becomes in Dreamfever is even more than that.  Knowing what to sacrifice, how to gain exactly what she wants, and how to control are now tools that she uses with ease.  She is magnificent, beyond brave and bold.  Mac is a sight to see and a truly terrifying opponent for her enemies.

★Dani.  Shockingly, she’s in this list.  We get to be in her head for some of the chapters and my goodness, Dani is immature, naive, crass and would do actions without thinking of what the ramifications could be.  Of course she annoyed me.  BUT, when I tore off my annoyances for 2  seconds, I realized that the girl isn’t even 14 years old.  If I think back to how I was at that age, she is doing a hell of a lot better than I ever would have been able to do!  Dani then became funny, a tremendous amount of help and a good friend to Mac.  She became like the little annoying sister that I never had and couldn’t help love.

★The peril!  It was shocking and nothing could strip me away from these pages. I was terrified, fascinated and then overwhelmed. It was perfection. It was everything I was desperately hoping to find in the first three books. And I’m so glad it finally made an appearance in this series!

And I had to wonder: Was this the whole point?  Was it about taking everything from me there was to take?  Was that what life did?  Made you lose everything you cared about and believed in, then killed you?

Truly beautiful things can come out of such horrific situations.  Mac is one of the lucky ones.  So keep continuing on with this series.  Even though you may go through the emotional wringer and have a huge long list of questions, it is more than worth it.

P.S. I was beyond ecstatic when  View Spoiler »

P.P.S. After sleeping on that ending, I woke up in the morning with a HUGE realization.  I think that View Spoiler »

Reading Order & Links:
Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
karen marin moning darkfever
Darkfever #1
Reviews:

Jen

Chelsea
bloodfever karen marie moning
Bloodfever #2

Reviews:
faefever karen marie moning
Faefever #3
Reviews:

Jen

Anna
dreamfever karen marie moning
Dreamfever #4
Reviews:

Jen
Anna
karen marie moning shadowfever
Shadowfever #5
Reviews:

Jen
Chelsea

Anna

Iced #6

Burned #7

Feverborn #8

BOOK REVIEW – Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

BOOK REVIEW – Angelfall  (Penryn & the End of Days #1)  by Susan EeAngelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1)
by Susan Ee
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Why an experiment?

Basically, because I’m so stubborn I wanted to try new books with all the creatures that made me cringe in the past. I mean, my only experience with angels was my struggle to read this crappy abomination that is Hush, Hush (I think I deserve a huge chocolate box for that one, don’t I?)

That’s why I’m here. Thank you amazing Kat (click here to read her beautiful review) for reading it with me! I don’t know what I’d have done without you to share our WTF?!!

You don’t want to live there. Good to know! Angels target big cities. Follow my example, my nearest neighbors are sheep. Woot-woot!

Every food is your friend. Sometimes energy bar is the only thing you can grab. Other times that’s cat’s food. Don’t be vegetarian. Don’t be allergic. You don’t know what you’re going to eat.

Instant-jerk reactions are welcome. If you see an handsome wounded angel, go help him. I know what you think, how in the world am I supposed to carry him and all that? But trust me : I just learnt they weight almost nothing. And, icing on the cake, if you manage to do that, you might win a sarcastic and swoon-worthy partner in crime from whom you can collect useful evidences about your enemies, and whose package involves :

✔ Warm hugs when you have a nightmare

✔ Witty comments to decrease the tension

✔ Fighting backup. That’s freaking useful when you walk in the world after (don’t count on it too much though, the help isn’t always coming)

Improve your survival instincts. If someone tells you to run,  you run. No hesitation. Being able to climb a tree is definitely a plus. And you have to run fast, because action never ends in an Apocalyptic world.

A good preparation leads to success. You are way more likely to survive if you took self-defense classes in the past. I guess you have to start right now. One is never too careful.

Don’t be a stupid brat. If your mother starts to talk about daemons, listen carefully and don’t do that children thing that is to say “Hmm hmm” without actually listening. Every information can be important.

Remain focused on your goal. You’re not here to save the world, so just keep this in mind. Ah, you do. Good girl.

↬ Anyway, the most important thing you have to know, you new inhabitant of the world after, is the fact that the Angels are fucking stupid. And that’s that lack of pertinence or explanation for their presence on Earth that prevented me from truly loving this book. I mean, hey, I’m pretty cool with weird stuff but COME ON. In my opinion the world-building wasn’t that original but rather a strange combination of creatures who don’t fucking know why they’re here. ← That killed me. At some point, the whole world seemed just random. So fucking confusing. Not to mention the dystopia vibes with the Resistance. Been there. Done that.

Verdict : Penryn is an awesome heroine who deserves to survive : she has everything mentioned earlier, and above all that, she cares about her family and never loses hope. I loved her.

Verdict (2) : There’s no way I could survive. I can only hope apocalypse isn’t coming.

To sum-up : That’s safe to say that I couldn’t relate to Penryn. FORTUNATELY. This might have save her life – and save the book for me.

And Raffe. I really liked that witty angel.

Reading Order & Links:
Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
angelfall susan ee
Angelfall #1
Reviews:

Jen
Chelsea
Laura
Anna
world after susan ee
World After #2
Reviews:

Jen
Chelsea
end of days susan ee
End of Days #3
Reviews:

Jen
Chelsea

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BOOK REVIEW – Faefever (Fever #3) by Karen Marie Moning

BOOK REVIEW – Faefever (Fever #3) by Karen Marie MoningFaefever (Fever #3)
by Karen Marie Moning
Purchase on: AmazoniBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

He calls me his Queen of the Night. I’d die for him. I’d kill for him, too.

When MacKayla Lane receives a page torn from her dead sister’s journal, she is stunned by Alina’s desperate words. And now MacKayla knows that her sister’s killer is close. But evil is closer. And suddenly the sidhe-seer is on the hunt: For answers. For revenge. And for an ancient book of dark magic so evil that it corrupts anyone who touches it.

Mac’s quest for the Sinsar Dubh takes her into the mean, shapeshifting streets of Dublin, with a suspicious cop on her tail. Forced into a dangerous triangle of alliance with V’lane, a lethal Fae prince, and Jericho Barrons, a man of deadly secrets, Mac is soon locked in a battle for her body, mind, and soul.

Review:

*Spoilers for Fever #1 & #2*

Addictive?  Yes!  Infuriating?  Yes!  Will I continue on?  Of course!

Faefever was intense, action-packed and I tore through the pages as fast as possible!  As in the past, we finally get to learn a little bit more about some of the questions that are unanswered.  History and a few tidbits for some of the characters, finally have some light shed on them.  Thank goodness!  I soaked up every single tiny detail that was delivered, but ultimately I felt as though I was lost in the dark.  I still only have a handful of puzzle pieces laid out in front of me.  And in all honesty, I’m not entirely sure they are even correct.  Learning who characters are inside and out is shockingly not something that is going to happen to you by the third book.  My list of questions continues to grow exponentially and it’s kind of driving me insane.  I want to know exactly who each character is and what they stand for!  But as I was nearing the end of the book, those annoyances got blown far from my mind with that ending.  Twenty-four hours later and I am still terrified to open up the 4th book, Dreamfever!  Deep breaths!  I’m going to need them!

Nobody looks good in their darkest hour.  But it’s those hours that make us what we are.  We stand strong, or we cower.  We emerge victorious, tempered by our trials, or fractured by a permanent, damning fault line.

Mac is on her way to meet Christian MacKeltar.  He claims to have known her sister, and Mac is thrilled with the possibility of learning anything she can.  But on her way to meet him, she crosses  paths with the Sinsar Dubh.  Horrifyingly, she watches and learns what the book truly is.  From here, you get taken on a wild ride of  lies, threats, deceit, hotness and of course more ass kicking!

When Barrons looks at me like that, it rattles me.  Lust, in those ancient, obsidian eyes, offers no trace of humanity.  Doesn’t even bother trying. Savage Mac wants to invite it to come out and play, I think she’s nuts. Nuts, I tell you.

I still love Mac, but you know what I’ve come to realize?  She’s a little crazy.  Hmmm, actually she’s ferociously brave.  Let’s go with both.  I love that Mac is a crazy, ferociously brave woman!  The things she did SHOCKED me.  They were ingenious moves on her part that I never once saw coming.  Whether she realizes it or not, she is becoming a powerful, manipulative, controlling being like Barrons.  It’s funny because I can rationalize every which way for all of Mac’s actions.  But when Barrons does the exact same thing, I just call him an ass.

Why, oh why, do we find the most dangerous, forbidden men the most irresistible?

Barron is still a sexy, mysterious man that runs from hot to cold in the blink of an eye.  V’lane is still a sexy, mysterious man errr Faery that runs from hot to cold in the blink of an eye.  Ha!  They do have more distinctions and differences, but for now that is how I am going to view both of them.  While I’m not falling for any of V’lane’s little tricks or lies YAY, I no longer feel guilty for liking Barrons BOO.  The boo exists because I don’t like his barbaric actions and I still want to punch him in the face.

If you enjoyed the two previous books, you can easily count on being entertained in this one as well.  Mac continues to be our favorite kick-ass heroine and Barrons is still a sexy, brutal, jerk (that may be too kind of a word) that keeps racking up even more questions.  Fingers crossed I’ll learn some more answers in Dreamfever.  Now don’t mind me as I go hold my breath and wish that I could just close my eyes and skim over the first few pages or chapter in the next book!

P.S. I LOVE the View Spoiler »

Reading Order & Links:
Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
karen marin moning darkfever
Darkfever #1
Reviews:

Jen

Chelsea
bloodfever karen marie moning
Bloodfever #2

Reviews:
faefever karen marie moning
Faefever #3
Reviews:

Jen

Anna
dreamfever karen marie moning
Dreamfever #4
Reviews:

Jen
Anna
karen marie moning shadowfever
Shadowfever #5
Reviews:

Jen
Chelsea

Anna

Iced #6

Burned #7

Feverborn #8

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