Green Frog Umbrella

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Closed Hearts (Mindjack Trilogy #2) ★★★★★

Closed Hearts (Mindjack Trilogy, #2)Closed Hearts by Susan Kaye Quinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have to say now that I have finished this book I feel like my mind has been jacked! Wow what an action-packed and emotionally draining book! Now, if you are looking at this book and wondering if you can skip Open Minds I would strongly suggest against it. You would be lost. This book is so action packed and has so much going on you won't be able to put it down!

I love Kira but I actually expected her to be different in this book somehow. More like Anna, which is ironic because Kira even looks at Anna and thinks she should be more like her. I think this is what Julian was expecting Kira to be like too. But really why should an author do what we expect? What fun is there in that??? So she's struggling with everything and isn't living up to the person that she could be. She's so bogged down in fear it's holding her back. I think we'll see a big change in the next book. I have to admit I was totally team Julian from the moment they met. I sooo hope there's something there! Now, don't take my comments about Kira badly. Kira is cool. Like how she can't park. Or her names for people and things... Camp of Flies, Granite Guy, Mr. Muscle, ect. I thought all the new mages in this book were great. I was shocked by all of the anti-jacker technology that turned up so fast and Jackertown coming together.

Did I mention I am team Julian? Well here are my favorite quotes from the book to go along with that. Hehe.

"What about when they realize we're jackers? What are you going to do? Give everyone a sudden urge to fulfill the mating instinct?"
"Julian was a puzzle that was hurting my brain."
"Oh man-now I was starting to think like Julian." One more book left in the trilogy, but first I want to read the Mindjack Origins series... they are novellas. Oh and fyi, when you read the book: grab a box of tissues!

View all my reviews

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Open Minds (Mindjack Trilogy #1) ★★★★☆

Open Minds (Mindjack Trilogy, #1)Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was much more than expected. Kind of a mix between the Psy-Changeling series and the Divergent series. I'm having a hard time even describing it. Basically chemicals were put into the water in our time that made people able to read others minds. In the time of the book, which is about 90 years later, everyone can read minds. If you can't you're an outcast of society. The world that the author created is pretty cool. They mind-link to their technology and run everything through thought.

There's no way to give a long review on this book without giving away the best parts of the book so you'll have to read it for yourself.

View all my reviews

Friday, September 27, 2013

Circle of Fire (Damask Circle #1) ★★★★★

Circle of Fire (Damask Circle, #1)Circle of Fire by Keri Arthur
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm not sure why but I thought this was a YA novel. It was not. The book is about Maddie who is a powerful psychic with an abusive past and Jon, a shape-shifter who works for a secret society that polices the paranormal. Maddie's nephew Evan has been kidnapped and she is the only one who can help him. With the help of Jon of course.

I loved this book from start to finish. Normally I'm not as interested in books with an insecure heroine such as Maddie. I knew that she would have to get over her fears in order to help her nephew. It was waiting to see her and how she would evolve that had me hooked. That and the sexual tension between her and Jon. I think this is the first book I've read with a bird shifter other than Iron Druid. Jon isn't your average big alpha male shifter. But hey I'm all for something different!

I loved this book and plan to read the rest of the Damask Circle series. This was my first Keri Arthur book as well and I plan to check out her other books.

**Book provided for review from NetGALLEY**

View all my reviews

Thursday, September 26, 2013

One Lucky Vampire (Argeneau #19) ★★★★☆

One Lucky Vampire (Argeneau, #19)One Lucky Vampire by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For those of you who have read previous Argeneau books and are now thinking "who on earth is Jake Colson?"... Think back to book 5 A Bite to Remember when Vincent Argeneau used his one turn on his mortal cousin that had been stabbed. Stephano Notte is Jake Colson or vice versa? If you are worried that you need to re-read book 5 again, no fear, Lynsay Sands fills in all the blanks quite nicely. I really enjoyed this book. I am a bit biased as the Argeneau series in one of my favorites. I love reading about characters in previous books and I especially love Marguerite. My only complaint is the book seemed a bit short. I am disappointed that it's over already. Now I have to wait and wait for the next book!

The cool thing about this book was it was a bit of a mystery as well as a romance. That was a nice surprise. Kind of a "who done it". Trust me, you'll think you have it all figured out but you won't. I loved Nicole, she was very sweet. Jake was great too. Also in this book quite a bit are Jake's cousins Dante and Tomasso Notte. I'm hoping they get the next book. I believe they are twins. I thought they were funny. Especially when they kept calling Jake Pinocchio. The romance was a whirlwind as usual with the Argeneau books. I never mind because there are always obstacles and they make it interesting. All in all in was what I have come to expect and why I love these books so much.

View all my reviews

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Xander's Chance (Damian Eternal #1) "War of Gods" saga ★★☆☆☆

Xander's Chance (Damian Eternal, #1)Xander's Chance by Lizzy Ford
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

First of all let me make sure you understand this book is not the first book in a series as you might think by looking at the Goodreads page. It is a spinoff of another series. A series I did not read and would highly recommend that you read before you read this book. I ended up reading reviews for the other books trying to understand who people were and what was going on but even with that I was so confused for most of the first part of the book. The reviewers who have read the other series seemed very pleased with the way things turned out in this book.

I would say I enjoyed 20% of this book. I liked the by-play between Xander and Jessie. Other than that I didn't like Jessie much. Her decisions didn't make sense to me. I was angry at her through the whole last part of the book. I didn't understand why Xander was an actor and how it really fit into the rest of everything. Yes, Xander the vampire is a famous actor. That plot actually sounds like something I'd really enjoy. Famous actor and temp assistant who doesn't know he's an actor who he cannot sense with his vamp powers. But it didn't fit with the rest of everything going on. I really wanted to like this book but other than the short courtship between Jessie and Xander I had to force myself to read.

Despite this review I do plan to read the other series because I think I would have liked this book a whole of a lot better had I read that.

**Book provided for review from NetGALLEY**

View all my reviews

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Dearly, Departed (Gone With the Respiration #1) ★★★★★

Dearly, Departed (Gone with the Respiration #1)Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My kids will say that I speak zombie blasphemy but it must be said: I liked Dearly, Departed more than my favorite tv show The Walking Dead! There, I said it, whew. I loved this book. What's not to love really? There's zombies, steampunk, victorian, it's futuristic, romantic ect, ect. I swear I highlighted the hell out of this book there were so many good quotes. I shared a lot of them on my updates. I always say that the perfect book will make you laugh and cry. It will make you feel such deep emotions that you connect with the characters. This book did this and more. The chapters are set up similar to The Song of Ice and Fire series. Each chapter is titled by the character that is narrating that chapter. This confused me quite a bit through the book because I had to stop and remember who the chapter was about, it was especially confusing when Bram, Pam and Nora were in the same place.

Lia Habel created such a unique world. I am extremely impressed. I too love victorian books but find them terribly boring. Boring this book was not. Her take on the zombies was captivating. If something happened simialar to how it is set up in the book I can totally see there being people like the Punks and their steampunk creations. I never would have thought that an author could fit so many different things into a book but she did it perfectly.

My favorite character was Bram. He took what had happened to him and made the best of it. I can't decide if I liked Pam or Nora better. I loved how Pam took charge of her family and did what had to be done. Nora was so strong despite everything that happened. I'd rather not talk about my other favorite character due to that being a spoiler. All of Z company was great. I could just gush about this book! But you would be better off reading it than my review. :)

View all my reviews

Friday, September 20, 2013

Ellie's Wolf (After the Crash #5) ★★★★☆

Ellie's Wolf (After the Crash, #5)Ellie's Wolf by Maddy Barone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been going back and forth with myself over my rating for this book. I absolutely loved the first 80% of the book. The last 20% seemed unnecessary... or mabye it was just me. Also it was like she realized oh yea Ellie is supposed to be from a religious commune I'd better throw a bunch of religion in there at the end. As you can see, I'm torn over this review. I'd say 3 1/2 stars if we could, so I upped it since I liked majority of the book.

Enough of that... on to the review! So my first thoughts since I did not read any of the rest of the series is that this reminds me of a brainstorming exercise they would make us do in language arts in school. Imagine that terrorists wiped out most of the women leaving a ratio of 1 to 200 men, what would happen? I would say exactly what happens in this book. Bride fights, women stealers, women marrying young and remarrying soon after being widowed. Since I didn't read the first books I'm not exactly sure why they live like the wild west but I liked it.

As far as characters go Quill was my favorite. I can't say enough about how much I loved him! If I lived in this world I would say Quill is the perfect mate. Ellie I liked as well until she started with the religious internal dialog. I can understand why it was in the book due to her character profile but it just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. I loved Jelly/Stone, Snake and Mel as well. Sara annoyed me at first and then she grew on me. I even liked Tommy and Connor! Seriously I loved the characters in this book and I think the whole concept is unique and I plan to read the rest of the series.

So... if you like shifter romances, western-type romances or are just looking for something different you'll like this book. Quill is sooo worth the read. :)


My favorite quote, I didn't want to add it to quotes and ruin the surprise!(view spoiler)

*Book provided by the Author through PNR NaUBA group Author/Reader Exchange*

View all my reviews
Blogger Widgets