Review: Wolf With Benefits

Shelly Laurenston's Pride series is expansive. First, I must say that each one is better than the last. They always have me nearly rolling on the floor in laughter and her latest installment is no different. If you want to read a book that is filled with humor and really dynamic characters, this is the one for you.

Wolf With Benefits is centered around Ricky Lee Reed (one of them Reed boys) and  Toni Jean-Louis Parker. He's a wolf and she's a jackal. Ahhh canine heaven.  BUT we get to see tons of our favorite pride/pack members. That's one thing I adore about the universe Laurenston created. They are people you know. The wild dogs are your crazy fun cousins/siblings/neighbors. Blayne is that girl you love to death but maybe want to tie to a tree so she'll stand still, of course there's the dangerous Dee who you're glad you're her friend b/c you'd be fearful if she wasn't.

Ricky Lee spends most of this book following Toni around either because it's entertaining and he likes her, or to protect her because ya know, he likes her and she needs protecting. I love those Reed boys. Toni is a great character. She's the one normal siblings amongst ten prodigies. She's spent her life, managing their lives. I felt so bad for her a point when even she knows she deserves to break away and have her own little piece of life, but her siblings inability to take care of anything for themselves keep tugging her back. She has this overwhelming sense of responsibility. Which is admirable to me. We've not really seen the inner working of a jackal family in the series before and I found them rather interesting.

I won't spoil this too much, but when they bring in Novikov to handle the children because they're essentially just like him, had me in a fit of giggles. I guess one narcissistic psychopathic adult knows them all. Plus how could you not laugh when the 11yr old sculter/artist keeps following him around asking to do a nude study of Novikov because his body is perfection. Freaking hilarious, I tell you!

Anyway, I love Shelly Laurenston, her books keep getting better and better. I suggest you read them all because laughter is awesome for the soul and you'll feel ten lbs lighter after all the ab workout you'll get from reading her books.

I definitely give this book an A (or ya know 4 cups of sugar)

Book Review: House Rules

House Rules is the seventh installment of the Chicagoland Vampires series by Chloe Neill. Publication date: Feb 5, 2012.

I adore this series. There is a ton of humor and snark loaded into every book. Each book follows grad student turned vampire, Merit, in her duties as Sentinel for Cadogan House.

There is a lot going on in Chicago in this installment. Cadogan is breaking up with the GNP, rogue and affiliated vampires alike are being taken down, and the human population is becoming more and more weary of the supernatural community. There are several twists and turns in this installment.  But my favorite part is Merit's rekindling of her friendship with her former roommate turned sorceress, Mallory Carmichael.

When she and Ethan inevitably have some issues, she has a nice dose of girl talk with Mal. It felt... right. Mallory has a lot of atoning to do, but she's working toward some sort of recovery. I like that Ms. Neill has some sort of redemption for this character. I was so afraid she'd go the way good girls gone bad and we would never hear from her again after she nearly destroyed Chicago a few books ago. I don't know about you, but in my opinion, too many strong female lead characters are left without a strong female relationship/friendship. They may depend on their man, but a true friendship that feels natural/organic is lacking.

If you haven't already, go pick up this book. It's one of my favorite series. You'll need to start at book one or most of the book won't make sense.

Favorite Part:
We find out about the animal Jeff shifts into.

Least Favorite Part:
stupid fairies and Lacey showing up.

I give this a big ol A

MIA....

So, the sister and I have been completely negligent to this blog for a few months. We lost our father back in August and it seems that we both just kinda lost our mojo. I know the winds were completely taken out of my sails with the sudden and unexpected, heart wrenching loss.
 
If anyone still checks us out to see what we've read and read our thoughts, I'm sorry for the absenteeism. Not only have I not posted on any of my blogs, I've not even worked on my own stuff that I'm writing.

So, here and now, let it be known, we will return. If anyone is still checking in, I promise there will be an update within the next week. I have read a few things, just haven't posted my thoughts. I know Dy has read a few books herself as well. Also, I'm getting back to work on my own book, and as I promised months ago, I will be sharing some samples here.

  So, if you're still out there, we'll once again be clogging up the interwebs with our thoughts and ramblings soon! Be well and blessed everyone...


P.S. ROLL TIDE!

The Island-Michael Stark

I was perusing the free books available on Nook and Kindle last week and I came across Micael Stark's The Island. It was broken down into 5 parts, with the first 3 being free and the last 2 installments only being 99 cents. The description grabbed my interest enough to read for free and I figured that at less than 2 bucks, it was worth the investment to finish even if it sucked in a most royal fashion.

That being said, I actually liked the story. It got a bit slow and redundant at times, but I kept on reading. I'm just having a bit of problem with my review. I don't know how to review it without being spoilerish. I could just give a synopsis, but that's not reviewing, that's more like screening(and cheating). So, I guess I'll say what I can, without giving too much away, but start with.....

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT....

The island starts off with William telling about how he is leaving the world behind to die in peace. He's not harboring some death wish or anything, he knows all is lost and he'd rather spend his last days, as well as that of humanity, doing something he wants to do. There's a viral outbreak spreading through Mexico and William can read the signs and he knows that all is not as it seems. He doesn't believe the media and the government when they assure everyone that all is ok and there's no need to worry. He sees this as an apocalyptic scourge about to wipe out most of humanity. He also knows that with his own chidhood health issues that he has no hopes of being one of the few that survive. So he pretty much empties his life, cuts ties and heads out to this island off the Caronlina coast, not to run away so he can live, but so he can die as he wants.

 Stark does a good job of fooling you into thinking that this is another zombapocalypse story. But as the story goes on, you find out that there is much more going on than some random case of 28 days later. I really like the development of characters and the back story he built, although he does get a bit sluggish and repetitive at times. He also does a good job of tossing in some gore and creepy. He leaves you hanging somewhat at the end, but then, that's what a writer should do when he wants you to read the next installment. Another thing I really liked was the way that I was able to "see" everything. He wrote the story to where it was very easy to visualize the places and characters. Of course it helps that he used some actual places to reinforce the scenic imagery and any southerner could picture the exact people he was writing about. Overall, I was pleased with the time I put into reading this and will defintely read The Rock when it comes out in early 2013.

 I give it a B-.

Finally read Awakening

I'm not going to do a in depth review since the sister did one months ago and also, it's "chick lit" and I have a manly ego to keep inflated. :)

All b.s aside, I enjoyed the second installment in Nicole's MacDonald's Birthright Trilogy. She picks up a couple of months after the explosive ending of The Arrival and continues to move the story and characters forward.  There was a couple of twists that I really liked, especially the addition of a new pet/friend(speaking of pets/friends, my massively huge cat, patches, aka fathead, is trying to crawl up on my chest as I write this). 

This book was a lot putting pieces together. It was like the first book started us on a journey, and the second one was like the road trip. We didn't see the "big stuff" happen, but we got filled in on a lot, saw some great development and she kept it interesting enough that it reads real smooth. I feel like its a book of revelations, because some pretty important things were revealed and I just can't say too much without being a big ol' story spoiler.  But, even though this is the transit story getting us to the real treat, she did toss in some excitement.

One thing I will comment on is the POV. Nicole writes this with changing POV's. A lot of folks don't like it and for those that lay the book down, it's their loss. I mentioned in the first book that it was a tad confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, and get to know the characters, it levels out fine. But, all that being said, she did tackle that issue with this book. She still has the ever-changing POVs, but its better organized and she even explains it up front for us thickheads.  At first, I thought it was a crazy style, but she makes it work and she does it well.

All in all, I definitely recommend picking it up. If you haven't read the first book in the series, she has it for free on her website and the second book is definitely worth the 4 bucks I shelled out for the Nook version.
Thanks Nicole for sharing your story with us and I look forward to Feel the Burn.

Two ravens and a very badass crow

Just finished Kevin Hearne's Two Ravens and One Crow.  It was brief, quickly read, and as always entertaining.  My calling it brief was not a complaint or form of criticism, it is as intended a novella, about 52 pages(not counting the sneak peek at Trapped) long(Nook pages), and fills in some blanks.  You see, between the last installation about everyone's favorite druid and the next, 12 years in the story and several months reader wise will have passed, so Mr. Hearne, being the awesomely cool guy he is, decided to provide us with a wee bit of filler on both accounts.

The story takes place 6 years after Tricked and gives us a little insight to a few things.  We learn about the Morrigan's unique perspective of baseball, a peek at the progression of the dynamic between Atticus and Granuille and what I am sure will be some background to explain some of how Atticus will be interacting with the Norse in Trapped.

One nugget of detail that I really appreciated was the dive into how the druid gets his ink repaired. That was definitely interesting. 

There wasn't as much banter with Oberon, but there wasn't much opportunity with the length of the story.  As always, I was left wanting more, not in a dissatisfied, the story needed more way, but in a, darnit, I love this story and could just keep reading on and on about anything Kevin Hearne writes kind of way.

All in all, I'm happy that he took the time to pen it for us to read. I hope Kevin knows how much we all really love his story and I for one appreciate him for giving us some filler.  Now I'm ready Trapped. 

I will add one more thing, if you haven't read the other books in this series, you will be lost if you just pick this one up. It's not intended to be a stand alone read, so don't try it, you will be doing yourself a huge injustice.  Buy the books, all of them, start at the beginning. They aren't expensive and they are well worth the time. 
-Del

http://www.kevinhearne.com
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Today Sucks

I got up early and put a yummy sunday meal into the crock pot. Thinking that YAY something good to have later and I didn't really even have to work at it very hard.

Then about an hour later, I get a call from my brother.

BAM

My dad's in the hospital.

Luckily I have a best friend who works in that ER. She's at the beach in florida but that that did not keep her from calling up there  and making sure they knew who he was and to take care of him.

I have nothing but respect for nurses. Their job is hard, they work very hard and get little thanks. They see so many patients that it gets to be routine and sometimes people can start to become numbers. I don't ever want someone I love to be just another number on a chart. I wanted them to see him as a person.

So she called up there, made sure he had a good doctor and made sure he got a on a good floor with good nurses.

Have I mentioned that I love my best friend.

Well I do, she's amazing.

Dad's CHF has flared, his kidneys are sucking. He's stable but we don't really know what is going to happen. If it's good, his CHF will straighten out, his numbers will come down and he'll be able to go home.

Let's pray for that outcome.