Shadows by J. Dorothy

Shadows The Eternal Curse by J. Dorothy(Cover picture courtesy of Authors to Watch.)

An intimate, gripping Fantasy Romance you will want to savor even as you race through the pages to find out what is really going on.

Jo is about to marry James.

He is standing outside, waiting for her to come down for the ceremony to begin. She can see him through the window. Jo’s brother, Spencer, is there too, talking and joking with James to calm his nerves.

Then Jo’s sorceress aunt, Rowellyn, appears and informs Jo she will never marry James. She must go back in time and undo everything that has happened between them.

Whatever Jo does, her life will be unbearable, but if she does exactly as Rowellyn asks, the lives of her friends and family will be spared. If, however, she refuses to go back, or tells anyone what is happening, James will die.

Jo has no choice. She takes one last longing look at James through the window. She will now have to arrange for James to fall in love with someone else – the vengeful Rowellyn demands it.

But, as Jo will soon discover, in the land of illusion, nothing is certain.

If you enjoy ‘Shadows’, you might also enjoy the prequel, ‘Reflections’, the story of how Jo and James fell in love and of Jo’s first encounters with Rowellyn’s dark magic.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from J. Dorothy in exchange for an honest review.]

Sorcery?  Time travel?  A realistic romance?  Shadows had pretty much everything going for it in terms of what I like to see in fantasy, but it fell flat in some respects.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it overall.  I loved how even though Jo was broken-hearted at being sent back to the past to break up her relationship with James, the man she was going to marry, she stayed pretty strong.  Jo was a great character in that despite her best efforts, she could not let go of the man she loved.  That’s loyalty right there!  And her desperate attempts to defeat Rowellyn definitely made me cheer for her every single step of the way.  Along with other three dimensional characters like James, Spencer and Beth, Jo really gave it her all and it was such an enjoyable story for that reason alone.

I liked the whole time travel aspect, but I felt it wasn’t adequately explained at all.  How did Rowellyn come by these powers?  What on Earth does the curse do to make someone a sorceress and why does it always isolate the other sister?  What’s the history behind making sorceresses?  Is there some sort of reason the other sister has to suffer as well?  These were all touched on, but definitely were not explained to my satisfaction.  I felt that there was so much more potential for world-building and giving Rowellyn depth here that J. Dorothy missed out on.  At the same time, the things that were explained like sorceress’ time travel powers were fascinating and felt like a glimpse of the potential of the novel.

For the most part, the pacing was awesome.  We still got to see Jo suffer and develop as a character but the plot did move on fairly constantly.  There was enough action to keep me interested, but not so much that the character development suffered.  However, when it came to the climax J. Dorothy seemed to be rushed to finish the book because after the reasonable pace of the rest of the book the frantic pace of the end was a let-down.  Of course the climax should be faster, but I still don’t fully understand the ending.  I would have loved for a little more explanation of well, everything.

Overall, Shadows was good but maybe it would have been a good idea for me to read Reflections (the prequel) first or for J. Dorothy to explain a little more.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

Amazon*

*Only available as a Kindle ebook

Reign of Blood by Alexia Purdy

Reign of Blood by Alexia Purdy(Cover picture courtesy of Alexia Purdy’s Blog.)

“Never tease anything that wants to eat you. My name is April Tate and my blood is the new gold. Vampires and hybrids have overrun my world, once vibrant with life, but now a graveyard of death shrouded in shadows. I fight to survive; I fight for my mother and brother. The journey is full of turns that I am quite unprepared for. And I’m just hoping to make it to the next Vegas sunrise…”

In a post-apocalyptic world, a viral epidemic has wiped out most of the earth’s population, leaving behind few humans but untold numbers of mutated vampires. April is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the remains of Las Vegas one year after the outbreak. She has become a ferocious vampire killer and after her family is abducted, she goes searching for them. What she finds is a new breed of vampire, unlike any she has seen before. Unsure of whom she can trust, she discovers that her view of the world is not as black and white as she once thought, and she’s willing to bend the rules to rescue her family. But in trying to save them, she may only succeed in bringing her fragile world crashing down around her.

[Full disclosure: I was sent a free ebook by Alexia Purdy in exchange for an honest review.]

With the vampire over-saturation of only a couple of years ago, it’s difficult to write about vampires.  What’s even harder in general is reading about vampires as I love vampires that are portrayed as stone cold killing machines.  Most YA vampires at not like that at all.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by Alexia Purdy’s vampires.  There are rabids, which are stone cold killing machines with few emotions or thoughts and then there are vampires as we’ve come to know them: sophisticated, intelligent and strong, but still undeniably human.  Both types of vampires drink blood, but with humans in short supply how they adapt is fascinating.  The thinking vampires also have a few more traits I found interesting but won’t really get into because they’re spoilers.

What I liked the most about Reign of Blood was April herself.  In the beginning, she sees the world in black and white: humans good, vampires evil.  Simple, right?  Obviously by the end this viewpoint has changed drastically but I love how she changes over a longer period of time.  April doesn’t wake up one day and think “Hey, vampires are okay”.  No, she gradually comes to befriend some of them and learns that maybe she isn’t entirely innocent herself in this world.

Characters like Blake and Rye were interesting and just when I was getting ready to cringe (two males, one female = love triangle), Alexia Purdy spared me.  She even sort of inverted the love triangle trope by the end, but I’m not going to get into that.  Either way, Reign of Blood was action-packed but still slow enough that character development and world-building were present.  My only complaint about the book is that the dialogue can be quite stiff at times.  I don’t know any seventeen-year-old, let alone one that lives with only her mother and baby brother with no human contact, that speaks like that.  But the dialogue problem was minor compared to the world-building, character development and pacing.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

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Catnip by Valerie Tate

Catnip by Valerie Tate(Cover picture courtesy of The BunsyDawg Diary.)

What can go wrong when an elderly matriarch leaves the family fortune to her cat? Just about everything, including ‘catnapping’ and murder! CATNIP is a mystery set in the picturesque town of Dunbarton, Ontario, and tells the story of what befalls the dysfunctional Dunbar family, and the chaos that ensues, when the matriarch of the clan leaves the family fortune to her cat. That formidable feline proves to be more than a match for the humans in his life, until one fateful night when, caught unawares, he is stuffed in a sack and carried away. A nosy neighbor with a nasty, suspicious mind points the finger of suspicion at the Dunbars and Christopher Mallory, the young attorney who is the trustee of the estate, and under the terms of the will, they face losing everything. When a murder occurs, Christopher finds himself confronting a ruthless killer who would do anything to conceal his or her identity, including to kill again.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy from Valerie Tate in exchange for an honest review.]

I’ll admit that I was more than a little skeptical about this book.  I mean, mystery novels really aren’t my thing in general but such a cliché-sounding novel definitely didn’t sound like my thing.  Still, I gave it a try because I’ll give practically any book a chance.

Imagine my surprise and delight when Catnip was nothing like I expected!  Sure at first the Dunbar family seems like your typical dysfunctional rich family, but they do actually grow out of that mould.  Alice, the constantly complaining but beautiful wife actually grows up a bit after Amanda Dunbar (the grandmother) dies and she’s allowed to be free.  James Dunbar grows out of his role as the henpecked, spineless husband and takes charge in his business which until that point had been doing poorly.  And Alicia stopped waiting for her prince charming, waking up from her daze.

Chris, the sort of main character, also changes quite a bit from his role as impersonal lawyer and executor of Amanda Dunbar’s estate.  At first his relations with the Dunbar family were tense to say the least, but I was so happy to see him grow out of that role as he began to see things from their perspectives as well.  Marmalade the cat behaves like a typical cat, leading me to believe that Valerie Tate either owns or used to own a cat (as much as one can ‘own’  a cat).

Not only did I get a kick out of the characters and how they all grew, I absolutely loved the plot.  In the beginning I thought I would easily be able to predict the end because it sounded a lot like other catnapping mysteries having to do with inheritance.  I was wrong!  Thankfully, Valerie Tate mostly stayed away from clichés and put her own twists on the ones she did use.  Trust me, it will be hard to predict the ending after the twists and turns she puts you through.  Overall, Catnip was an unpredictable whirlwind and if you do pick it up (which I highly recommend) you won’t be able to put it down.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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Feyland: The Dark Realm by Anthea Sharp

Feyland The Dark Realm by Anthea Sharp(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

WHEN A GAME…

Feyland is the most immersive computer game ever designed, and Jennet Carter is the first to play the prototype. But she doesn’t suspect the virtual world is close enough to touch — or that she’ll be battling for her life against the Dark Queen of the faeries.

TURNS REAL…

Tam Linn is the perfect hero — in-game. Too bad the rest of his life is seriously flawed. The last thing he needs is rich-girl Jennet prying into his secrets, insisting he’s the only one who can help her.

WINNING IS EVERYTHING…

Together, Jennet and Tam enter the Dark Realm of Feyland, only to discover that the entire human world is in danger. Pushed to the limit of their abilities, they must defeat the Dark Queen… before it’s too late.

[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback copy from Anthea Sharp in exchange for an honest review.]

After reading Janet McNaughton’s Tam Linn retelling, An Earthly Knight, I didn’t think any other retelling could compare.  Still, I gave Feyland: The Dark Realm a try and went in with an open mind.  In the end, I’m so glad I did.

At first we’re just introduced to Jennet, who gets a part of her stolen by the Dark Queen inside Feyland the game.  Unfortunately this has real world consequences and when she switches schools she’s desperate to find another gamer, a champion, to help her defeat the Dark Queen and get her soul back.  So when she finds out that Tam Linn, despite being incredibly poor and with little access to a simulation game despite, is an excellent gamer you can really feel her desperation to get him on her side.  When she finally does they both still don’t trust each other’s motives but eventually do become friends.

What struck me the most about Feyland: The Dark Realm was not only the amazing world of Feyland itself, but the plot twists Anthea Sharp gave her story.  Just when you think you know what’s going to happen, something else happens instead.  She’s definitely not one of those authors that goes easy on her characters and both Tam and Jennet get put through the proverbial wringer.  At the same time, these plot twists allow her to develop all of her characters thoroughly.  Jennet starts out a little spoiled and naive about the tough side of life and Tam is thoroughly suspicious of this apparent spoiled rich girl and her motivations.  Still, they change throughout the story as Jennet feels the Dark Queen draining her life’s essence and as Tam learns to trust and maybe even love Jennet.

The world of Feyland is fantastic.  Within the game you have all kinds of creatures you would expect to see in a world with fairies and a few that you wouldn’t.  Some creatures will be familiar to people who like fairies (the Wild Hunt) and some will throw you for a loop completely.  And of course, being a fairy world, nothing is as it seems.  It’s just amazing!

I like how Anthea Sharp chose to end Feyland: The Dark Realm on a gentle sort of cliffhanger.  It makes you want to read the next book, but you’re not furious at the author for failing to complete the story.  I can’t wait to read the next book, Feyland: The Bright Court.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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The Oracle of Delphi Blog Tour Kick-Off and Giveaway

Oracle of Delphi Blog TourWell folks, I’m excited to announce I’m one of the many bloggers participating in Diantha Jones’ four week long book tour which will include interviews, reviews and guest posts on various blogs.  I’ll personally be posting two reviews on July 22 and July 30 and was going to do an interview but had a serious case of brain fog and completely forgot about it until the last minute.  Moving on…

As part of the blog tour Diantha Jones is also hosting two giveaways with absolutely amazing prizes.  I’m so jealous!  So here are the giveaways for everyone to enter:

Oracle of Delphi Giveaway
Prizes are listed
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Prophecy of the Author’s Genius Contest Solve the prophecy, win a $25 Amazon Giftcard (must guess the classic book title and author) a Rafflecopter giveaway