Tracker: A Rylee Adamson Story by Shannon Mayer

This is only the second book I’ve read since having my baby on December 12th so that alone should tell you how good it is! I was so excited to get started reading the next installment in Rylee’s life. This book pretty much takes up where the last book left off. Dox and his friends are dead (skinned alive by trolls) and Rylee is grieving for them. With Pamela and Milly in tow, Rylee, Alex and Liam make their way to Giselle’s house as a home base for now.

Faris is coming to take Rylee on her oath to kill the Child Empress (Rylee’s sister, Berget) and to install Faris as the ruler of the vampires. Rylee needs information from Doran first and heads there. Faris comes for Rylee and she embarks on this journey which takes them to Australia to find the Bloods (the first vampires). Of course, nothing goes as planned and Rylee ends up battered and bruised.

Alex is changing. He is becoming more dominant. I’m happy for him of course, but I love, love, love Alex. He is one of the reasons why I keep coming back for more. I am reading his short story now and reading this makes me appreciate that he is not as submissive as he started out. I don’t know what that means for him yet.

They are still on the Liam-must-die kick. Liam and Rylee didn’t spend much time together in this book and I wonder if that is a mechanism to get the reader distanced from Rylee/Liam love fest. I hope that Liam dying is perhaps the guardian taking over fully and not really that Liam will die, but who knows.

Both Doran and Faris were quite tolerable human beings (um…vampire beings?) in this book.

I loved this book and even being sleep deprived with a new baby and knowing I was going to get less than six hours of sleep last night I still wanted to stay up to finish this book!

Why it has been so long...

You will notice that there is a large amount of time between my last two posts.  I will explain.  I had my first baby on December 12, 2013.  She is a bit temperamental and reading has been scarce.  That is hard for me since reading is my stress release and a new baby is stressful.  There is a huge learning curve.  I feel like I am catching my breath now, but I have a huge pile of books that I want to read.  Everyone says, "nap while the baby naps" but I can't help but want to read during this time.  In truth, she is sleeping right now.  Her naps are so tiny that I have no chance to fall asleep so reading seems like a good choice.  I don't know how often I will be able to post reviews, but I suspect my little girl will slow it down a bit.  I will try to post relevant reviews.

Beyond Neverland by Heather Killough-Walden (Sequel to Forever Neverland)

I have been looking forward to this book for a long time.  I loved “Forever Neverland”.  I admittedly can’t remember much of that story line anymore, but when Beyond Neverland came out I bought it instantly. 

This book was written in a way that it sounded like poetry.  It makes sense for this type of book more than the author’s other works.  It was beautifully written.

This book takes up two years after the end of the first book.  Neverland was destroyed by Wendy’s story to save their lives.  Hook and Peter Pan had worked together to defeat the Never Bird.  Hook is transported back to his world where he is the pirate king.  Wendy, Michael and John all go back to their world where they are each separately going to either boarding school or university.  Wendy is about to turn twenty.  Peter Pan and Tinkerbell are somewhere together (perhaps London) trying to survive. 

One night a strange fog arrives and all the players know that it is not normal.  Someone is after revenge and everyone is drawn together again.  New villains are introduced to the reader and we learn more about Tinkerbell’s past. 

Favorite quote:

“Sometimes, if you’re lucky, fear leaves as monotony sets in.” –Michael Darling

Caller of Light by T J Shaw

4.5 stars

This is the first book I have read from this author and indeed I believe it is the first book published by this author.  I will continue to follow her whether she continues this series or not. 

Carina McKay is the half royal daughter of King McKay known in this series as “half blood”.  He has a full blood that he dotes on.  Carina, he treats like a servant.  King Duncan has come to King McKay to court the full blood daughter, but ends up meeting Carina first.  It is believed that Marissa (full blooded sister) is the next “Caller of Light”.  The Caller is someone who can call to critons.  Critons are, from what I can understand, essentially dragons.  King McKay’s land has an abundance of unbounded critons which is why it is thought to be Marissa and this is why King Duncan is courting her.  But he can’t resist the half blood sister and ends up taking her for a mistress.  Half bloods, and especially Carina, are treated poorly.  Everytime Carina turns around he finds an enemy: her father, her half sister: Marissa, the King’s captain of the guard, King Duncan’s mother.  But for all this she does make allies and they are good and powerful allies. 

There were times I wished Carina would stop getting pooped on, but alas this was not to come to pass.  I did read this book in one day.  It was very good and kept my interest, but I was also having a lot of contractions and trying to rest so I found myself with an abundance of time.  I think my favorite part was all the emotion pent up in Carina’s past.  She believed herself lower than everyone else because that is how she was treated and that pain came out clearly in the story.  She apologized for things beyond her control when she felt unworthy.  These parts brought tears to my eyes.      

One more thing,  that cover is so hideous it would normally stop me from even reading the summary.  I'm pretty sure King Duncan has a mullet! 

This book was provided in exchange for an honest review.  

Lhind the Thief by Sherwood Smith

3.5 stars

I liked the story line of this book, but it was lacking some of the usual Sherwood Smith intensity.  The author relates it to A Posse of Princesses.  It has been too long since I read that to agree or disagree.  I do know this isn’t among my favorites from this author. 

Lhind is obviously a thief as the title states, but she is also so much more.  We don’t find out exactly what until much later in the story.  The other main characters are Rajanas, Hlanan, and Thianra.  Thianra is immediately likeable, but the other two aren’t the same.  Even at the end of the story I am still not sure how I feel about Hlanan.  He is obviously is a nice person, but there was something lacking from his character that Smith’s other heroes possess.  Not sure I can say what it is. 

So Lhind is abducted by Rajanas and Hlanan and want her help procuring an item of power.  She doesn’t trust anyone and in fact can be quite annoying in her attempts to drive others away.  There are so many other plots afoot here that even at the end I am not sure who all the different players and what their intentions are. 

I will read the next installment in this series.  It seemed to end a bit abruptly, but its works.  

A Little Bit Sinful: A Forbidden Love Novel by Robyn DeHart

 3.5 Stars

I am apparently reading this series backwards.  There is no designation in the title to indicate this, but I first read the third book in the series.  I didn’t realize this until I started reading this book and realized that this one takes place prior to the one I had just finished and that there is another one which is the first book.  Not that it has ruined anything for me.  It is obvious when reading this type of book that you will get a HEA for the hero and heroine. 

Summary:

Clarissa is the little sister of Justin Rodale’s best friend.  She is off limits.  Justin is the owner of a gaming hell in London and the illegitimate child of the Duke of Chanceworth.  Being illegitimate puts him just on the fringe of proper society.  Clarissa is bound and determined to marry herself off to George Wilburton whom her deceased sister-in-law recommended.  Clarissa realizes she needs some help and goes to Justin for guidance.  Both Justin and Clarissa agree they are unsuitable, but they can’t keep their hands to themselves. 

Thoughts:

The third book has more action/adventure than this one did.  They are both short and sweet so I enjoyed that.  Overall, the writing was well done, but the storyline could have used a bit more fleshing out.  Like we never learned what happened to Lady Manchester’s will and her nasty cousin!  It also took me forever to finish.  I would read a bit, then read another book, then read a bit more.  

Dead Spots by Melissa F. Olson

Hmmm…how many stars…I’m torn…I’ll go with 3.5 stars

I’m torn because the writing is really good and the idea, while not original was very interesting.  The problem is that I kept switching to other books.  There didn’t seem to be anything pulling me back to keep reading.  I think the problem was the main character.  I didn’t find anything in her personality or character to identify with.  I would rarely have made the same decisions and found her interactions with others (especially Eli) annoying. 

Brief Summary:

Scarlet Bernard is a null.  This means that the three main factions of supernaturals (vampires, werewolves, and witches) become human again when they are within her null radius.  Nulls are rare and Scarlet is the only one in L.A.  Her job is cleaning up crime scenes for this supernatural community.  I’m not really sure why her being a null has anything to do with her cleaning up their messes, but that is that.  In the beginning she is called to a crime scene that is so brutal she is caught off guard and ends up there when the police show up.  This is how she comes to be connected to a L.A. detective named Jesse.  She has to bring him into her world and soon they are teamed up to solve this and other cases with a deadline. 

Thoughts:

As mentioned above I just didn’t connect to Scarlet.  I’m also not a huge fan of love triangles and there is a small one in this book.  I’m not sure if I want to continue reading this series.  I’m not against reading other books from this author though because I said at the beginning the writing was good and the idea was good.