It's Monday! What Are You Reading #368, June 25th

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Date where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week...and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well...you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!

What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes:
It's Monday! What Are You Reading #367
Teaser Tuesday #375
WWW Wednesday #375
WOW #371
Will the Time Come #368
Third Sentence Thursday #358
Random Reads #343
First Lines Friday #371
The Reward Challenge Update #353
Book Blogger Hop #37
How Well I Stuck to It #205
Wrote that Review Update #202

Week 25 Reviews:
Night's Honor
Midnight's Kiss
Dragos Goes to Washington
Pia Does Hollywood
Shadow's End
Liam Takes Manhattan
Dragos Meets Stinkypot
The Chosen
Planet Dragos
#MurderTrending
Joshua II
Swamp Bones
Bones Never Lie
Bones on Ice
Speaking in Bones
Sex and the Single Vampire
Find You in the Dark
Fury

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings

OK, so I got 20 posts in 7 days, and had a pretty fantastic week, read some really amazing week, and some really amazing books coming this week! So excited! What about you guys? Happy reading!

So this week I want to read The Darkest Warrior, Iron and Magic, Moonshadow, Spellbinder, Now You See Her, Shadow of the Fox, Wild Blue Wonder, and 99 Lies.

A searing Lords of the Underworld tale by New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter, featuring a beastly prince and the wife he will wage war to keep.

He is ice...

Puck the Undefeated, host of the demon of Indifference, cannot experience emotion without punishment, so he allows himself to feel nothing. Until her. According to ancient prophecy, she is the key to avenging his past, saving his realm, and ruling as king. All he must do? Steal her from the man she loves—and marry her.

She is fire...

Gillian Shaw has suffered many tragedies in her too-short life, but nothing could have prepared the fragile human for her transition into immortality. To survive, she must wed a horned monster who both intrigues and frightens her...and become the warrior queen she was born to be.

Together they burn.

As a rising sense of possession and obsession overtake Puck, so does insatiable lust. The more he learns about his clever, resourceful wife, the more he craves her. And the more time Gillian spends with her protective husband, the more she aches for him. But the prophecy also predicts an unhappily ever after. Can Puck defeat fate itself to keep the woman who brought his deadened heart back to life? Or will they succumb to destiny, losing each other…and everything they’ve been fighting for?

No day is ordinary in a world where Technology and Magic compete for supremacy…But no matter which force is winning, in the apocalypse, a sword will always work.

Hugh d'Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers, served only one man. Now his immortal, nearly omnipotent master has cast him aside. Hugh is a shadow of the warrior he was, but when he learns that the Iron Dogs, soldiers who would follow him anywhere, are being hunted down and murdered, he must make a choice: to fade away or to be the leader he was born to be. Hugh knows he must carve a new place for himself and his people, but they have no money, no shelter, and no food, and the necromancers are coming. Fast.

Elara Harper is a creature who should not exist. Her enemies call her Abomination; her people call her White Lady. Tasked with their protection, she's trapped between the magical heavyweights about to collide and plunge the state of Kentucky into a war that humans have no power to stop. Desperate to shield her people and their simple way of life, she would accept help from the devil himself—and Hugh d'Ambray might qualify.

Hugh needs a base, Elara needs soldiers. Both are infamous for betraying their allies, so how can they create a believable alliance to meet the challenge of their enemies?

As the prophet says: "It is better to marry than to burn."

Hugh and Elara may do both.

Her past is a blank, her future uncertain….

Recovering from a shooting, LAPD witch consultant Sophie Ross leaves her job and travels to the U.K. to search for answers about her childhood. When she encounters a Daoine Sidhe knight of the Dark Court, she becomes entangled in an ancient hatred between two arcane forces.

He has given his body and soul to fight for his people….

Barred from his homeland along with his surviving brother knights, Nikolas Sevigny is embroiled in a conflict that threatens everything he holds dear. Only by uniting his people's resources can they hope to prevail against Isabeau, the deadly Queen of the Light Court. He will do anything and use anyone to return home to Lyonesse.

When Nikolas encounters Sophie, he sees a tool to be used. The insouciant witch might be the key to unlocking every passageway that has been barred to the knights of the Dark Court, even as a fascination for her takes root in what’s left of his soul.

Sophie has no intention of becoming anyone's pawn, yet the fierce Nikolas is so compelling, she can't deny the temptation that endangers her guarded heart.

As magic threatens Lyonesse, Queen Isabeau unleashes her merciless Hounds, and Nikolas and Sophie become embroiled in a race for survival. Meanwhile, the passion that ignites between them burns too hot to be denied and quickly turns into obsession.

Thank goodness they both know better than to fall in love…

From author Thea Harrison comes the latest story in the New York Times bestselling Moonshadow trilogy….

Kidnapped while on tour, musician Sidonie Martel is transported to the mystical land of Avalon. A human without magical ability, she is completely vulnerable to the deadly forces surrounding her.

When she defies her captors and refuses to share her music, an act of violent cruelty leaves her broken, her ability to play silenced, maybe forever. Her only hope is a whisper in the dark, gentle hands that offer healing, and a man who refuses to show her his face yet who offers advice she dare not ignore.

One of the most feared and powerful sorcerers in history, Morgan le Fae serves a Queen he despises, Isabeau of the Light Court. Once a famous bard and an advisor to kings, Morgan has been enslaved to Isabeau for hundreds of years, acting as enforcer and the commander of her deadly Hounds.

Sidonie's music touches Morgan in places he had abandoned centuries ago, and her fiery spirit resurrects feelings he had believed long dead. For Sidonie, trapped in captivity, passion offers a comfort she cannot resist.

But Isabeau holds Morgan bound in magical chains that only Death can break. And in the court of a cruel, jealous Queen, the only thing that burns hotter than love is revenge…

AMELIA has always felt like a happy life is just out of reach. Having moved every few years with her mom and sister, she's always had a hard time making and keeping friends; there's never enough time, and never enough money to stay in one place. And now, in her senior year, right before tennis season, Mom wants to move again.

SOPHIE has a perfectly curated, Instagram-ready life, from her first singles wins to her cute, long-term boyfriend to the beautiful, landscaped home where she lives with her parents. Though they're tennis teammates, the two girls almost never speak.

But then one night changes everything. When Amelia's car breaks down on the side of the road in a rainstorm, a man she thinks is a Good Samaritan pulls over to help her. When he tries to abduct her instead, she escapes into oncoming traffic.

In one inexplicable moment, Amelia and Sophie switch bodies. Amelia wakes up in Sophie's body. Amelia's body is in a coma. Now Amelia needs to find a way to switch back into her own life—but before that, she must retrace her steps to unravel the mystery of the accident, her attempted abduction, and how it's all tied to her mother's secret past.

Once Every Thousand Years...

Every millennium, one age ends and another age dawns...and whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers holds the power to call the great Kami Dragon from the sea and ask for any one wish. The time is near...and the missing pieces of the scroll will be sought throughout the land of Iwagoto. The holder of the first piece is a humble, unknown peasant girl with a dangerous secret.

Demons have burned the temple Yumeko was raised in to the ground, killing everyone within, including the master who trained her to both use and hide her kitsune shapeshifting powers. Yumeko escapes with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll. Fate thrusts her into the path of a mysterious samurai, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan. Yumeko knows he seeks what she has...and is under orders to kill anything and anyone who stands between him and the scroll.

A wish will be granted and a new age will dawn.

There are two monsters in this story. One of them is me.

Ask anyone in Winship, Maine, and they'll tell you the summer camp Quinn's family owns is a magical place. Paper wishes hang from the ceiling. Blueberries grow in the dead of winter. According to local legend, a sea monster even lurks off the coast. Mostly, there's just a feeling that something extraordinary could happen there.

Like Quinn falling in love with her best friend, Dylan.

After the accident, the magic drained from Quinn's life. Now Dylan is gone, the camp is a lonely place, and Quinn knows it's her fault.

But the new boy in town, Alexander, doesn't see her as the monster she believes herself to be. As Quinn lets herself open up again, she begins to understand the truth about love, loss, and monsters—real and imagined.

Getting kidnapped over spring break was definitely memorable. But now that the surviving hostages are home, they want life to feel normal again: high school, dating, million-dollar galas.

But there's no escaping the spotlight--or the truth about the ways they betrayed each other in the jungle. And this time, the real threat isn't kidnappers--it's what the "friends" might do to each other.

Week 25 Review: Joshua II

From Goodreads:
Joshua II (Einherjar - A Dead Embers Companion Novel) should only be read after Dead Embers to avoid major spoilers. 

For Joshua O'Connell, life in Craven was the picture of small-town perfection. 
Until Bryn Halbrook walked into his life. 

Though smitten from day one, he knew she was way out of his league. 
And then Joshua died. 

But that wasn't the end of it. 

JOSHUA is a view to what happened off camera during the Valkyrie Series. While Bryn went off on adventure after adventure, Joshua's story continued on its own trajectory. 

This novel is best read after reading Dead Embers as it contains spoilers and crossover scenes in which we get Joshua's POV and get a feel for what was going on in his mind and heart. 

My Review:
Yeah, more of Joshua and Bryn! And this time, we got to see more than him becoming a Warrior. We got to see him out on missions, and the one that I was most interested in was the final one, where Bryn is kidnapped by the bad guys. It was really great to be able to see what happened while she was held hostage.

There were some really great moments in this book. From when Bryn kinda went beserk on him, to when Odin talked to him and Aimee, to when Aimee leads him through the whole Bryn saw the light on him and thought that meant that she responsible for his death thing. Yeah. That was great to read!

Dead Embers and Dead Chaos were the hardest books in the series for Bryn, what with her wings and all, and while we only got a brief time at the end of this book of Joshua reacting, we'll have plenty more in the next one, which I can't wait for, sadist that I am for book characters!

I do have one complaint. For at least half of this book, Joshua was suspicious, and rightfully so, of Mika. But she wasn't in the first book and I did search multiple times, and we saw their faux introduction both in this book and in Dead Embers and that was after multiple mentions of his distrust. It's not until their Middle East mission that we find out what happened. I wish we could've been shown that, like at the beginning of the book, and not told about it near the middle. It was just this nagging, "what's going on?" thought in my head. Yeah.

This book was awesome, and I can't wait for the next one!

Author: T.G. Ayer
Series: Valkyrie #7
Read: June 19th, 2018
Source: Author for Review
Reason Why: Love this series, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2018 Book!
Publisher: T.G. Ayer
Published: May 15th 2018

5/5 Hearts

4/5 Books

4.5/5 Stars

WWW Wednesday #375, June 20th

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?

Thanks to MizB of Should Be Writing now A Daily Rhythm for starting this meme!

I'm currently reading Swamp Bones, and it's a fantastic story and I'm really enjoying it!

I read Joshua II, and it was fantastic, I just wish it was longer and we had more!

I'm going to be reading Bones Never Lie, and I can't wait because this series is just fantastic!

What about you guys? Happy reading!

Teaser Tuesday #375, June 19th

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Today's teaser comes from Joshua II by T.G. Ayer, page 54.

"Still, one should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Or a gift god, either."

Yeah, that's pretty good advice for life! Unless it's a Trojan horse! What about you guys? Happy reading!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading #362, May 14th

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Date where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week...and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well...you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!

What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes:
It's Monday! What Are You Reading #361
Teaser Tuesday #369
WWW Wednesday #369
WOW #366
Will the Time Come #360
Third Sentence Thursday #351
Random Reads #337
First Lines Friday #365
The Reward Challenge Update #346
Book Blogger Hop #31
How Well I Stuck to It #199
Wrote that Review Update #196

Week 19 Reviews:
The Goddess Test
The Goddess Hunt
Goddess, Interrupted
The Goddess Legacy
The Goddess Inheritance
Joshua
Ocean Light
Beast
The Return
The Power
The Struggle
The Prophecy
Strange New World
Cast in Deception

Tours:
Black Star Renegades: Review

OK, so I got  20 posts in 7 days, a nice week, with some really good books, so yeah, I'm happy with it! And I have my doggies sleeping and cuddling with me as I'm writing this, so it's a good day! What about you guys? Happy reading!

So this week I want to read All of This Is True, Queen Song, Steel Scars, Red Queen, Glass Sword, Harvest Song, and Ink and Bone.

Miri Tan loved the book Undertow like it was a living being. So when she and her friends went to a book signing to meet the author, Fatima Ro, they concocted a plan to get close to her, even if her friends won't admit it now. As for Jonah, well—Miri knows none of that was Fatima's fault.

Soleil Johnston wanted to be a writer herself one day. When she and her friends started hanging out with her favorite author, Fatima Ro, she couldn't believe their luck—especially when Jonah Nicholls started hanging out with them, too. Now, looking back, Soleil can't believe she let Fatima manipulate her and Jonah like that. She can't believe that she got used for a book.

Penny Panzarella was more than the materialistic party girl everyone at the Graham School thought she was. She desperately wanted Fatima Ro to see that, and she saw her chance when Fatima asked the girls to be transparent with her. If only she’d known what would happen when Fatima learned Jonah's secret. If only she'd known that the line between fiction and truth was more complicated than any of them imagined. . .

We're the D'Artigo sisters: savvy half-human, half-Fae operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. My sister Camille is the Queen of Dusk & Twilight and married to three hunky men. Menolly is a vampire married to a gorgeous werepuma and a vampire prince. And me? I'm Delilah, a Death Maiden werecat, and I'm about to marry the love of my life. But in the midst of joy, we are facing the escalating war with Shadow Wing. About to attempt one of the most dangerous acts we’ve ever considered, can we keep the demon armies at bay while luring the demon lord into one final, coordinated attack?

My wedding day to Shade arrives, and somebody invited Murphy’s Law along to the ceremony. But the chaos only extends from there. Camille and her Keraastar Knights are finally united and ready. Menolly and Roman are aligning the vampires. And the dragons have pledged their help as the final battle with Shadow Wing draws near. But best laid plans go awry. As our plans fall apart, we must align ourselves with Trytian and the daemons. Will they be able to help us corner Shadow Wing when several of the portals fail and demons begin pouring into Seattle? Or are we too late and will Shadow Wing manage to break through, even without the help of the spirit seals?

In an exhilarating new series, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time…

Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.

Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family's spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library's service.

When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn…

Week 19 Review: Joshua

From Goodreads:
For Joshua O'Connell, life in Craven was the picture of small-town perfection. 
Until Bryn Halbrook walked into his life. 

Though smitten from day one, he knew she was way out of his league. 
And then Joshua died. 

But that wasn't the end of it. 

JOSHUA is a view to what happened off camera during the Valkyrie Series. While Bryn went off on adventure after adventure, Joshua's story continued on its own trajectory. 

This novella is best read after reading the Valkyrie series as it contains spoilers and crossover scenes in which we get Joshua's POV and get a feel for what was going on in his mind and heart.

My Review:
Oh, I really enjoyed reading this book! The Valkyrie series is on of my favorites, and I was really excited to see things from Joshua's POV! I do wish that I'd reread the Valkyrie series, or at least book 1 before reading this book because then I would've had more details, but oh, well. The book was still awesome!

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, because Joshua was alive, for one, and we got to see him and Bryn interacting. We got more details and it was interesting to see what Joshua was thinking, to see his side of things! And then he died. Bah!

While Bryn was off having adventures, Joshua was first recovering from dying, and then he was starting training to be a warrior. I really enjoyed this process, and I can't wait to see more! It was interesting to see scenes that we got in from both of them, and how they interpreted them differently. Plus see more of these fantastic characters, Aimee in particular!

What was one of the best scenes for me, was when Bryn comes to the room where all the future warriors are recovering, and Aidan lies his butt off. We know that he wasn't a really great guy, but I hadn't realized the extent of his lies until then!

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait to read more!

Author: T.G. Ayer
Series: Valkyrie #6
Read: May 8th, 2018
Source: Author for Review
Reason Why: Love this series, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2018 Book!
Published: March 27th 2018

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

It's Monday! What Are You Reading #357, April 9th

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Date where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week...and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well...you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!

What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes:
It's Monday! What Are You Reading #356
Teaser Tuesday #364
WWW Wednesday #364
WOW #361
Will the Time Come #355
Third Sentence Thursday #346
Random Reads #332
First Lines Friday #360
The Reward Challenge Update #342
Book Blogger Hop #26
How Well I Stuck to It #194
Wrote that Review Update #191

Week 14 Reviews:
Vici
Feast of Famine
Black Powder War
Bite the Hand that Bleeds
Blood Guard
Blood Veil
Unseen
Dark Queen
Death's Rival
Skinwalker
Cross Bones
Immortal Bound

Random:
We Have the Title of Throne of Glass #7!!!!

OK, so I got 19 posts in 7 days, a good number of posts, and some really great books, so I'm happy with that! What about you guys? Happy reading!

So this week I want to read Ace of Shades, Beyond a Darkened Shore, Break No Bones, Empire of Ivory, The Kept Woman, Notes from My Captivity, What Are You Afraid Of?, and The Wild Dead.

Welcome to the City of Sin, where casino families reign, gangs infest the streets…

and secrets hide in every shadow.

Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother's trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted.

Frightened and alone, her only lead is a name: Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he's a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn't have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne's offer of compensation, however, could be the solution to all his problems.

Their search for clues leads them through glamorous casinos, illicit cabarets and into the clutches of a ruthless mafia donna. As Enne unearths an impossible secret about her past, Levi's enemies catch up to them, ensnaring him in a vicious execution game where the players always lose. To save him, Enne will need to surrender herself to the city…

 The ancient land of Éirinn is mired in war. Ciara, Princess of Mide, has never known a time when Éirinn's kingdoms were not battling for power, or Northmen were not plundering their shores.

The people of Mide have thankfully always been safe because of Ciara's unearthly ability to control her enemies' minds and actions. But lately, a mysterious crow has been appearing to Ciara, whispering warnings of an even darker threat. Although her clansmen dismiss her visions as pagan nonsense, Ciara fears this coming evil will destroy not just Éirinn, but the entire world.

Then the crow leads Ciara to Leif, a young Northman leader. Leif should be Ciara's enemy, but when Ciara discovers that he, too, shares her prophetic visions, she knows he's something more. Leif is mounting an impressive army, and with Ciara's strength in battle the two might have a chance to save their world.

With evil rising around them, they'll do what it takes to defend the land they love…even if it means making the greatest sacrifice of all.

Kathy Reichs explores another high-profile topic in Break No Bones -- a case that lands forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan in the middle of a gruesome international scheme. Summoned to South Carolina to fill in for a negligent colleague, Tempe is stuck teaching a lackluster archaeology field school in the ruins of a Native American burial ground on the Charleston shore. But when Tempe stumbles upon a fresh skeleton among the ancient bones, her old friend Emma Rousseau, the local coroner, persuades her to stay on and help with the investigation. When Emma reveals a disturbing secret, it becomes more important than ever for Tempe to help her friend close the case.

The body count begins to climb. An unidentified man is found hanging from a tree deep in the woods. Another corpse shows up in a barrel. There are mysterious nicks on bones in several bodies, and signs of strangulation. Tempe follows the trail to a free street clinic with a belligerent staff, a suspicious doctor, and a donor who is a charismatic televangelist. Clues abound in the most unlikely places as Tempe uses her unique knowledge and skills to build her case, even as the local sheriff remains dubious and her own life is threatened.

Tempe's love life is also complicated. Ryan, her current flame, has come down to visit her from Montreal, and Pete, her former husband, is investigating the disappearance of a local woman -- and he and Tempe are staying in the same borrowed beach house. Ryan and Pete compete for her attentions, and Tempe finds herself more distracted by her feelings for both men than she expected.

Tragedy has struck His Majesty's Aerial Corps, whose magnificent fleet of fighting dragons and their human captains valiantly defend England's shores against the encroaching armies of Napoleon Bonaparte. An epidemic of unknown origin and no known cure is decimating the noble dragons' ranks– forcing the hopelessly stricken into quarantine. Now only Temeraire and a pack of newly recruited dragons remain uninfected–and stand as the only means of an airborne defense against France's ever bolder sorties.

Bonaparte's dragons are already harrowing Britain's ships at sea. Only one recourse remains: Temeraire and his captain, Will Laurence, must take wing to Africa, whose shores may hold the cure to the mysterious and deadly contagion. On this mission there is no time to waste, and no telling what lies in store beyond the horizon or for those left behind to wait, hope, and hold the line.

Husbands and wives. Mothers and daughters. The past and the future.

Secrets bind them. And secrets can destroy them.

The author of Pretty Girls returns with an electrifying, emotionally complex thriller that plunges its fascinating protagonist into the darkest depths of a mystery that just might destroy him.

With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.

Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI's newest medical examiner and Will's lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn't belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished . . . and who will die soon if she isn't found.

Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city's most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who's already gotten away with rape, despite Will's exhaustive efforts to put him away.

But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will's troubled past to the case . . . and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.

Relentlessly suspenseful and furiously paced, peopled with conflicted, fallible characters who leap from the page, The Kept Woman is a seamless blend of twisty police procedural and ingenious psychological thriller -- a searing, unforgettable novel of love, loss, and redemption.

Girl meets boy… and the family holding her hostage.

Adrienne Cahill cares about three things: getting into a great college; becoming a revered journalist like her idol, Sydney Declay; and making her late father proud of her.

So when Adrienne is offered the chance to write an article that will get her into her dream school and debunk her foolishly optimistic stepfather Dan's claim—no, belief—that a legendary family of hermits is living in the Siberian wilderness, there's no question that she's going to fly across the world.

After all, it is the trip of a lifetime.

But the Russian terrain is even less forgiving than Adrienne. And when disaster strikes, nothing—not the flirtatious guide or her stepdad's obsessively detailed preparations—can protect Adrienne from the sheer force of nature. Now, Adrienne's being held captive by the family she was convinced didn't exist, and her best hope for escape is to act like she cares about befriending them, even if it means wooing the youngest son.

SHE'S LEARNED ALL ABOUT KILLERS
They aren't the kind of women anyone misses. Truck-stop hookers, runaways . . . no one would even notice they'd disappeared if the killer didn't photograph their lifeless bodies, posed in the back of a
semi-trailer. Exactly like the infamous Trucker murders. But this isn't just a copycat. It's a vendetta.

NOW HE'LL TEACH HER
Carmen Jacobs interviewed the world's most terrifying serial killers for her bestselling book, The Heart of a Predator. The police might not believe her, but she knows there's a monster out there, paying homage to other murderers. The only person who can predict where he'll strike next is Griffin Archer--a reclusive software millionaire with ample reason not to help her.

HOW TO DIE . . .
Carmen has charmed her way past Griffin's defenses before. He didn't intend to let it happen again. But with a psycho sending her trophies of his kills, he has no choice but to get involved. The clues point to a killer obsessed with Carmen--someone who knows her work, her past, her secrets. Someone who won't be satisfied until he has made all her deepest fears come true . . .

A century after environmental and economic collapse, the people of the Coast Road have rebuilt their own sort of civilization, striving not to make the mistakes their ancestors did. They strictly ration and manage resources, including the ability to have children. Enid of Haven is an investigator, who with her new partner Teeg is called on to mediate a dispute between households over an old building in a far-flung settlement at the edge of Coast Road territory.

The investigators' decision seems straightforward--and then the body of a young woman turns up in the nearby marshland. Almost more shocking than that: she's not from the Coast Road, but from one of the outsider camps, belonging to the nomads and wild folk who live outside the Coast Road communities. Now one of them is dead, and Enid wants to find out who killed her, even as Teeg argues that the murder isn't their problem.

In a dystopian future of isolated communities, can our moral sense survive the worst hard times?

Week 14 Review: Immortal Bound

From Goodreads:
Against the rising horde of the underworld, the gods have one weapon: Vee Shankar. Special Agent. Supernatural CSI. 

Beneath New York's cosmopolitan veneer lies a darker truth--a concrete jungle of the supernatural kind. But humanity is protected, their souls guarded by ancient and powerful Hindu Gods. 

The Shankars deal in death--demons, evil spirits, possessions, and even the odd rogue God or two. But Vee's power to read life essences is a gift and a curse. She's a Warrior of the Gods, but she's also in the crosshairs of powerful demonic forces. And from the shadows, dark things come, dogging her every step, threatening her every move. 

She doesn't know it, but Vee's power means more than just a quirk of her DNA. Her true identity is a secret better left untold. But as both her alliance with a mystery informant and her strange powers grow, Vee must confront a truth that will make her question her very existence. 

Before all hell breaks loose. 

Literally. 

My Review:
I was really hooked by the synopsis, I thought that it sounded very good. So yeah, I was really excited to read this book. Vee was a great character, smart and stubborn, and it was really great to read about her adventures!

I enjoyed this book, but it's not my favourite of her books. The problem was, that the Hindu gods, I don't know much about them, besides V and ish in their names. So a lot of names were introduced and I was totally confused, trying to keep track of them. Sure, most of them were mainly just mentioned, but still, they caused some confusion!

The relationship that Vee had with her remaining family, her grandmother and step-dad (though her mom's still alive, that relationship isn't as good) they were very tight knit, living in the same house. Of course the bad guys totally disrupt everything!

This book is only the beginning of the series, so there will be other mysteries to solve, thought hopefully not as personal as this one was, with her grandmother being kidnapped and her eventual fate. So yeah for more books!

This book was really good, it just wasn't the most wonderful book in the world for me. Which is OK, not every book is for every person!

Author: T.G. Ayer
Series: Aspara Chronicles #1
Read: April 6th, 2018
Source: Author for Review
Reason Why: Sounded really good and I enjoy her books, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2018 Book!
Publisher: Infinite Ink Books
Published: May 31st 2017

4/5 Hearts

4/5 Books

4/5 Stars

WWW Wednesday #364, April 4th

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?

Thanks to MizB of Should Be Writing now A Daily Rhythm for starting this meme!

I'm currently rereading Death's Rival, because I needed more Jane, and I wanted when she met the Younger brothers!

I read Dark Queen, and yeah, wow, it was so fantastic! So much happened, and I just absolutely loved it!

I'm going to be reading Immortal Bound, and I can't wait, it sounds excellent!

What about you guys? Happy reading!

Emergency Review-a-Thon Update 37

OK, so I've written my next review, Blood Magic and Demon Kin, and I'm going to review The Problem With Forever next!

Reviewed: A Deeper Darkness, Edge of Black, When Shadows Fall, What Lies Behind, These Things I've Done, This Is Where the World Ends, The Mystery of Hollow Places, Masked, The Here and Now, Just Kill Me, Spectacle, Songs About a Girl, Monstrous, Mind Games, Seeker, The Afterlife of Holly Chase, The Art of Feeling, Dark Legacy, The Glass Spare, The Good Daughter, Dark Rites and Wicked Deeds, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Into the Night, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Intensity, Among the Red Stars, Tower of Dawn, Secrets in Death, Godsgrave, Even the Darkest Stars, Apex, A Conspiracy in Belgravia, The Trouble With the Twelfth Grave, How to Disappear, The Becoming of Noah Shaw, Body Parts, If There's No Tomorrow, Ringer, Joined, Blood Magic and Demon Kin.

Week 34: A Deeper Darkness, Edge of Black, When Shadows Fall, What Lies Behind, These Things I've Done, The Mystery of Hollow Places, The Good Daughter, How to Disappear, The Becoming of Noah Shaw, Body Parts, If There's No Tomorrow, Ringer.

Week 35: The Art of Feeling, Dark Legacy, The Glass Spare, Dark Rites and Wicked Deeds, Into the Night, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Week 36: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Intensity, Among the Red Stars, Tower of Dawn, Secrets in Death, Godsgrave, Even the Darkest Stars, Apex, A Conspiracy in Belgravia, The Trouble With the Twelfth Grave.

Goal: 81
Reviews: 37

Emergency Review-a-Thon Update 35

OK, so I've written my next review, Ringer, and I'm going to review Blood Magic and Demon Kin next!

Reviewed: A Deeper Darkness, Edge of Black, When Shadows Fall, What Lies Behind, These Things I've Done, This Is Where the World Ends, The Mystery of Hollow Places, Masked, The Here and Now, Just Kill Me, Spectacle, Songs About a Girl, Monstrous, Mind Games, Seeker, The Afterlife of Holly Chase, The Art of Feeling, Dark Legacy, The Glass Spare, The Good Daughter, Dark Rites and Wicked Deeds, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Into the Night, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Intensity, Among the Red Stars, Tower of Dawn, Secrets in Death, Godsgrave, Even the Darkest Stars, Apex, A Conspiracy in Belgravia, The Trouble With the Twelfth Grave, How to Disappear, The Becoming of Noah Shaw, Body Parts, If There's No Tomorrow, Ringer.

Week 34: A Deeper Darkness, Edge of Black, When Shadows Fall, What Lies Behind, These Things I've Done, The Mystery of Hollow Places, The Good Daughter, How to Disappear, The Becoming of Noah Shaw, Body Parts, If There's No Tomorrow, Ringer.

Week 35: The Art of Feeling, Dark Legacy, The Glass Spare, Dark Rites and Wicked Deeds, Into the Night, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Week 36: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Intensity, Among the Red Stars, Tower of Dawn, Secrets in Death, Godsgrave, Even the Darkest Stars, Apex, A Conspiracy in Belgravia, The Trouble With the Twelfth Grave.
Goal: 81
Reviews: 35

Random Reads #302, September 7th

Random Reads is a monthly meme (that I'm going to do weekly) hosted by I'm Loving Books to read some books that have been on our TBR piles for a long time. Using Random.org, I got 3660 which turned out to be Skin Deep by T.G. Ayer! It's been on my TBR pile since April 21st 2013, and I added it because I love her books! Happy reading! 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading #322, August 7th

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Book Date where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week...and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well...you never know where that next "must read" book will come from!

What happened in the past week:

Weekly Memes:
It's Monday! What Are You Reading #321
Teaser Tuesday #329
WWW Wednesday #329
WOW #326
Will the Time Come #320
Third Sentence Thursday #311
Random Reads #297
First Lines Friday #325
The Reward Challenge Update #307
Follow Friday #299
How Well I Stuck to It #159
Wrote that Review Update #156

Week 31 Reviews:
Micah
Danse Macabre
The Harlequin
Blood Noir
Skin Trade

Flirt
Bullet
Dragonsworn
All Rights Reserved
Wild Justice
Double Play
Reset
Royal Replicas
Blood Magic
Demon Kin

ARC August:
2017 ARC August Sign Up
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4
Update 5

Random:
We Have the Cover of The Illuminae Files #3!!!!

OK, so I got 25 posts in 7 days, so yeah, another pretty fantastic week! Can't wait to read this currently week! What about you guys? Happy reading!

So this week I want to read Hit List, Beauty, Kiss the Dead, Dancing, Shutdown, Affliction, Jason, Dead Ice, Wounded, Crimson Death, Blackwood, Hexed, Charmed, Blight, If There's No Tomorrow, Mind Game, Secondborn, The Secret History of Us, and These Things I've Done.

 A serial killer is hunting the Pacific Northwest, murdering victims in a gruesome and spectacular way. The local police suspect "monsters" are involved, and have called in Anita Blake and Edward, U.S. Marshals who really know their monsters, to catch the killer.

"You'd think I'd get used to seeing such a beautiful man and knowing he was mine, but it never grew old, as if his beauty and the fact that he was mine, and I was his, would forever surprise me."

With a vampire like Jean Claude around, it's far too easy for Anita Blake to doubt her own appearance--and the hold it has on those who love her. But one hot tub and two incredibly sexy men--Jean Claude and Asher--will make her feel like the most lusted-after woman alive...or undead. Not bad for a mere human...

When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it's up to U.S. Marshal Anita Blake to find her. And when she does, she's faced with something she's never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people - kids, grandparents, soccer moms - all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving a master. And where there's one martyr, there will be more...

But even vampires have monsters that they're afraid of. And Anita is one of them...

For most people, summer barbecues are nothing to be afraid of. But Anita isn't exactly plain vanilla—and neither is her love life. So it takes a special kind of courage to attend a barbecue thrown by her friend Sergeant Zerbrowski. Walking into a backyard full of cops and their families with wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel both looking gorgeous on her arm won’t be easy, even with almost-four-year-old Matthew Vespucci to break the ice…

Anita is determined to have a good time with her family, just like everyone else. But it doesn't take long for tensions to rise among the adults and kids. And Anita will learn that gossip and innuendo can be just as dangerous as anything the undead can throw at her…

This story is for all my readers who have been impacted by the current political SNAFU – and for anyone else who might need to enjoy a free story in these difficult times.

"Shutdown", will be available free for the duration of the government shutdown. Once the government is back in business then the short story will no longer be available on line, at least not until my publisher and I figure out what we might want to do with it. But for right now, while we're all wondering how it got to this point, here's a brand new Anita Blake short story, featuring our favorite bad boy werewolf, yep, I mean Richard Zeeman. Hey, I've been telling you, he's been working his therapy: read on to see the results that hard work and being brave enough to own your whole self can get you.

Some zombies are raised. Others must be put down. Just ask Anita Blake.
 
Before now, she would have considered them merely off-putting, never dangerous. Before now, she had never heard of any of them causing human beings to perish in agony. But that's all changed.
 
Micah's estranged father lies dying, rotting away inside from some strange ailment that has his doctors whispering about "zombie disease."
 
Anita makes her living off of zombies—but these aren't the kind she knows so well. These creatures hunt in daylight, and are as fast and strong as vampires. If they bite you, you become just like them. And round and round it goes…
 
Where will it stop?
Even Anita Blake doesn't know.

"Enjoying pain with your pleasure is something you either get, or you don't. If you get it, then you don't really need it explained, because you know how good it feels, and if you don't get it then no amount of talking is going to convince you it makes sense."

But sometimes you have to explain the unexplainable, especially if the love of your life needs to understand, or she'll leave you. Jason Schuyler is one of Anita Blake's best friends and favorite werewolves, with benefits. J.J. is his lady love, an old flame from childhood who dances at one of the top ballet companies in New York. She's accomplished, beautiful, and she's crazy about him, too. Neither of them wants to be monogamous, so what could go wrong?

J.J. is enthusiastically bisexual, with an emphasis on the female side of things. She plans to keep sleeping with women, because Jason can't meet that need, just like she can't meet Jason's need for rough sex and bondage. J.J. doesn't understand why Jason isn’t content to go elsewhere for a need she can’t fulfil, so Jason asks Anita to help him explain.

Anita is having her own relationship growing pains with her only female lover ever, Jade. Jason suggests that J.J. might be able to help Anita with her girl problem, while she helps him with his kinky explanations. With some encouragement from a few other lovers in Anita's life she reluctantly agrees, and J. J. makes plans to fly into town for an experience that none of them will ever forget.

Anita Blake has the highest kill count of any vampire executioner in the country. She's a U.S. Marshal who can raise zombies with the best of them. But ever since she and master vampire Jean-Claude went public with their engagement, all she is to anyone and everyone is Jean-Claude's fiancée.

It's wreaking havoc with her reputation as a hard ass—to some extent. Luckily, in professional circles, she's still the go-to expert for zombie issues. And right now, the FBI is having one hell of a zombie issue.

Someone is producing zombie porn. Anita has seen her share of freaky undead fetishes, so this shouldn't bother her. But the women being victimized aren't just mindless, rotting corpses. Their souls are trapped behind their eyes, signaling voodoo of the blackest kind.

It's the sort of case that can leave a mark on a person. And Anita's own soul may not survive unscathed . . .

Be proud of Life's battle scars, it means you were stronger than whatever hurt you, and you didn't die—and Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter and U.S. Marshal will be the first to show you hers in this sweet and sexy story of celebration and connection from #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton.

Anita attends the wedding of her close friend but finds that even on the happiest of days there are wounds that need healing. She and the wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel are asked to talk to the bride's thirteen-year-old brother, Tomas, who is struggling to recover from a recent gunshot wound. Depressed and demoralized, Tomas isn't doing his physical therapy and could spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair…

How can Anita, Micah, and Nathaniel convince Tomas that he can heal when he's given up? They tell him about their own scars and how they took back their own lives after they were wounded. And Anita will realize how lucky they are to have not only survived their pasts, but to now be able to make their own formal commitment to each other— and the vampire in her life…

In her twenty-fifth adventure, vampire hunter and necromancer Anita Blake learns that evil is in the eye of the beholder...

Anita has never seen Damian, her vampire servant, in such a state. The rising sun doesn't usher in the peaceful death that he desperately needs. Instead, he's being bombarded with violent nightmares and blood sweats.

And now, with Damian at his most vulnerable, Anita needs him the most. The vampire who created him, who subjected him to centuries of torture, might be losing control, allowing rogue vampires to run wild and break one of their kind's few strict taboos.

Some say love is a great motivator, but hatred gets the job done, too. And when Anita joins forces with her friend Edward to stop the carnage, Damian will be at their side, even if it means traveling back to the land where all his nightmares spring from...a place that couldn’t be less welcoming to a vampire, an assassin, and a necromancer.

Ireland.

Lena Wise is always looking forward to tomorrow, especially at the start of her senior year. She's ready to pack in as much friend time as possible, to finish college applications and to maybe let her childhood best friend Sebastian know how she really feels about him. For Lena, the upcoming year is going to be epic--one of opportunities and chances.

Until one choice, one moment, destroys everything.

Now Lena isn't looking forward to tomorrow. Not when friend time may never be the same. Not when college applications feel all but impossible. Not when Sebastian might never forgive her for what happened.

For what she let happen.

With the guilt growing each day, Lena knows that her only hope is to move on. But how can she move on when her and her friends' entire existences have been redefined? How can she move on when tomorrow isn't even guaranteed?

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a new explosive thriller.

Mind Game takes Jane MacGuire back to Scotland where she continues her search for the treasure she's been chasing for years. But now she's being plagued by dreams of a girl in danger. Who is this girl, and what is she trying to tell Jane? And will Jane figure it out before it's too late—for her and the mysterious young woman? Things are further complicated when Seth Caleb comes back into Jane’s life. This time he's the one in trouble, and Jane will find herself pulled unexpectedly into his world as she fights to save him.

With the adventure, intrigue, and explosive energy that Iris Johansen fans love, Mind Game is a high-octane thriller that readers won’t be able to put down.

Firstborns rule society. Secondborns are the property of the government. Thirdborns are not tolerated. Long live the Fates Republic.

On Transition Day, the second child in every family is taken by the government and forced into servitude. Roselle St. Sismode's eighteenth birthday arrives with harsh realizations: she's to become a soldier for the Fate of Swords military arm of the Republic during the bloodiest rebellion in history, and her elite firstborn mother is happy to see her go.

Televised since her early childhood, Roselle's privileged upbringing has earned her the resentment of her secondborn peers. Now her decision to spare an enemy on the battlefield marks her as a traitor to the state.

But Roselle finds an ally—and more—in fellow secondborn conscript Hawthorne Trugrave. As the consequences of her actions ripple throughout the Fates Republic, can Roselle create a destiny of her own? Or will her Fate override everything she fights for—even love?