Book

Hunting Season (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #4) By: Annie Bellet

Hunting Season

Hunting Season (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #4) By: Annie Bellet

Plot:

Demons. Assassins. Angry druids. Just what gamer and sorceress Jade Crow needs to help her days feel complete. All her hits will have to be crits to get out of this one.

Review:

So happy with this series. I love all the gaming and pop culture references, even though I don’t always get them. I love the magic and world that’s been created. I love the characters, major and minor. I’m so happy I found these books.

Hunting Season progressed the over arching story of the evil ex-boyfriend sorcerer Samir by a lot, but it still had its own story that was the normal fast paced, butt kicking, magic filled adventure.

The only negative I had was that since it’s been a little while since I read the previous books it took me a little while to remember who everyone was. There wasn’t really a catch up or introduction for people. You just had to know.

Still really looking forward to the next installment.

4.5/5

Kings of the World By: Matt J. Pike

kings of the world

Kings of the World By: Matt J. Pike

Plot:

The galaxy is on the brink of war and only four dysfunctional, hormone-driven teenagers from Earth stand in its way. God help us all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbx3us… It didn’t take Cooper long to come to the conclusion that space sucks. It seems everyone there despises humans, everything’s too far away and the travel makes you heave. Worse still, Cooper’s stuck there with his best mate, The Ginge – who can’t tell where games end and reality begins – and two other former classmates who want to beat the crap out of him. Oh yeah, and people, well… alien people are trying to kill them. Space does have some good points. The boys can have anything they wish for, all they have to do is ask it … or think it. Plus they are now, somehow, Earth’s leaders – as in, more important than the President of the USA. If Cooper can only stop the other boys from gorging on their every desire, chasing the most human looking alien women and fighting each other he might convince everyone humans aren’t the galactic equivalent of white trash. But things are about to get a whole lot worse. War looms and Cooper and his inept sidekicks are caught in the middle. They, the Earth and the Galaxy will never be the same again.

Review:

I was pretty apprehensive about whether or not I would like this book. The plot sounded interesting but the protagonist were all teenage boys. I hate teenagers, they’re all emotional and in the case of boys they’re obsessed with one thing.

That being said, oh my god I want to read the next book NOW!

Pike did a great job portraying teenage boys, right down to the obsession with sex, but it never became so overwhelming that it derailed the story. Each boy had their strengths and weaknesses, and while there was plenty of character growth, none of the boys ended up being perfect. They still had their weaknesses and the areas of growth they had were entirely believable.

There were a couple parts that seemed kind of farfetched that teenage boys could accomplish, oddly enough not the parts where they saved the political future of the galaxy, it was more the space battle following that part.

The world created was interesting and I really want to know what happens with Knuckles, surprisingly he started out as my least favorite of the boys. The next book comes out in 2015 and I’m excited to see what happens next.

4.5/5

The Change (Unbounded #1) By: Teyla Branton

The Change

The Change (Unbounded #1) By: Teyla Branton

Plot:

There are only two ways to kill Unbounded, and fire isn’t one of them—as law school dropout Erin Radkey learns the hard way. By fluke of a recessive gene, she has become Unbounded, a nearly immortal being with paranormal abilities. Erin’s Change separates her from her loved ones and alters everything she believes to be true. A week earlier she was considering a marriage proposal; now she contemplates the best way to stay alive. Caught in a battle between two Unbounded groups, she is also hunted by a secret mortal society sworn to eradicate the Unbounded gene. Worse, a new identification software could mean death for all Unbounded—or enslavement for the entire mortal world. As Erin plunges into this dangerous new life, she must carve out her own place in the madness, protect her mortal family, and decide which group she should join. Her powerful attraction to Ritter Langton, whose family was massacred by opposing Unbounded two hundred and forty years ago, complicates her choices. There are no second chances. Death, life, or love—Unbounded always play for keeps. Non-stop action, terrifying consequences, and powerful romance make this an exciting addition to the world of urban fantasy.

Review:

I put this book down several times in the first few chapters. I love urban fantasy but I didn’t like this heroine and that’s one sure way for me not to enjoy a book.

Erin started out like normal, then she almost died a fiery death, then she found out she was pretty much immortal, and started to develop a kind of empathic power. That’s just in the first week. The whole story took less than two weeks and by the end she was able to do things with her power that the more experienced could. I really didn’t find her progression believable.

She also flip flopped a lot. These people are liars, no these people are liars. I love this man, no I love this one. I thought at first the man thing was just her power and not knowing how to control it, but nope. At the beginning of the book she was all about one dude then with almost no notice she was all about another one. Every now and then her feelings for the first one would show up but that didn’t stop her in the end.

Pretty much everyone lied to her, on both sides of the war, and everyone was her father. Not really, but by the end of the book there were three men that thought she was their daughter.

I thought there was too much going on and the character and story progression could have been written better. I could see what Branton was trying to do but she didn’t pull it off for me. Since there are almost 600 reviews and it’s got about a 4.25 rating I’m very obviously in the minority, but that’s ok.

I want to clarify, this was not a bad book, it just wasn’t for me. That happens.

2.5/5

Pack of Lies (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #3) By: Annie Bellet

Pack of Lies

Pack of Lies (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #3) By: Annie Bellet

Plot:

Let sleeping dogs lie. Wolves, on the other hand… Recovering from a broken heart and coming to terms with her family history, all sorceress Jade Crow wants is to resume running her comic book store and gaming with her friends. With a town full of strange wolf shifters, a hundred-and-fifty-year-old peace accord hanging in the balance, and the Justice who broke her heart back in her life, Jade’s plans go out the proverbial window. Wolves are killing wolves, innocent human lives are caught in the crossfire, and not everyone in town is who they appear to be. As the bodies stack up and the doubts build, Jade and her friends race to find the true killer. And then Jade’s evil ex-lover makes another move…

Review:

So much going on in this book. Jade and Alek are having relationship hiccups, there’s a Japanese assassin after Jade, and about two hundred and thirty wolves are in town to select a new head alpha over all plus renew their Peace treaty. Wow. Definitely jam packed and something was almost always happening.

Jade is still practicing her magic and she’s getting back into her peak shape, magically. The people in town finally found out she’s a sorceress and the reaction has not been friendly. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

After that ending I was immediately online looking for the next book, even though it was one o’clock in the morning.

5/5

Murder of Crows (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #2) By: Annie Bellet

Murder of Crows

Murder of Crows (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress #2) By: Annie Bellet

Plot:

They say you can never go home again. If only that were true… Game store owner and nerd sorceress extraordinaire Jade Crow knows death stalks her in the form of her murderous ex-lover, Samir, a sorcerer who wants to eat her heart and take her power. With the help of her friends, and sexy tiger-shifter Alek, Jade trains for the inevitable confrontation. Until her estranged father shows up begging for help. Someone or something is murdering the crow shifters of Three Feathers ranch and her father believes sorcery is the only way to stop the killings. Faced with an unknown foe, a family that exiled her decades before, a deepening relationship with Alek, and Samir’s ever-present threat, Jade will need all the power she’s gained and then some to stop the Murder of Crows.

Review:

We learned more about Jade’s biological family in this book. They leave a lot to be desired. She was raised in a cult, basically, which is interesting and sad. She also found out she’s got a younger sister and the man she thought was her father is not. So lots happened in this book.

Really loving this series and all the geeky references, it feels like it was written specifically for me, because of them. The pacing was great, never a dull moment, but I didn’t feel like there was too much going on. Can’t wait to read the next one.

5/5