Karen chance Dorina Basarab and Cassandra Palmer quotes

Posted on July 14, 2019 inUncategorized

Since the next book is currently in arc form I decided to do a reread…these are the things that spoke to me…

Touch the Dark

I usually did the Goth thing, or as close as I could get without looking truly awful—strawberry blondes don’t wear black well—but that was when I was working. I found out pretty early that no one takes a fortune-teller seriously if she shows up in pastels. But on my days off I reserved the right not to look like I was going to a funeral. My life is depressing enough without help.

My parents were an obstacle to his ambition, so they were removed. Simple.

. I was like some kind of poison—get anywhere near me, and you’re lucky if you just die.

My only thought was that, in a room full of vampires, it would be my luck to get killed by the only other human.

… it wasn’t a surprise. Where my life was concerned, I’d learned long ago that everyone wanted to use me for something.

Claimed by shadow

gave myself a mental slap. At the rate things were going, I was going to need therapy.

At this rate, I was going to be the youngest person ever to die from a stress-induced stroke.

“The only thing I want is a nice, uncomplicated life. With no one trying to kill me, manipulate me or betray me.” And where, if I messed up on the job, I didn’t get anyone killed

Embrace the night

Tomorrow there would be trouble and danger and pain, and I didn’t know if I would be smart enough or strong enough or capable enough to handle it all, especially now that I understood what I was up against. But I knew one thing: today, finally, something had gone right.

Buying Trouble

Gamelans don’t merely speak the truth, they rip away all the happy little lies we tell ourselves to mask it, forcing us to acknowledge it deep in our very souls. They make us face the raw facts about our lives, and most of the time, they’re not pretty.

Death’s Mistress

, I just stood there, swaying a little on my feet and wondering how paranoid a person had to be before she decided the toys were out to get her. But in the end, I shrugged my shoulders and just

. I realized that I wanted it to be real, all of it, wanted him to have cared about her, wanted him to care about me. And I was so very afraid that he didn’t. It was easier not to ask, to let the possibility last a little longer

A Family Affair

A lot of people believed that John had a death wish. Even some of those closest to him acted like they suspected it, despite denying it when anyone else brought it up. But it had never been true. There had been times when he could honestly say he hadn’t cared much, either way, but he’d never been suicidal.

Ride the Storm

You have to let go, Cassie.” Yeah, people had been telling me that all my life, too. To the point that I’d started to tell it to myself: don’t care, don’t love, let everyone and everything that matters slip away. Let life take them, let it have them, because it’s going to anyway, because that’s all it does: take and consume and destroy. It lets you feel happy so the pain hurts more, lets you have hope so it can crush it, lets you have loved so it can rip it away. You can fight against it, but it’s a trap, the whole damn thing. Better get used to it. But I wasn’t used to it. I’d never gotten used to it. I was tired of it, sick to death of it, and furious, so furious I could barely see.

Why I Read… And Who I am Reading…

Posted on February 11, 2019 inUncategorized

I am a reader. The thought of going without my books is inconceivable. For the most part, I have my favorites, books that are a comfort no matter what my life throws at me. When I was little, the books were something I needed. I travelled with a copy of “Little Women”. Jo and Beth, Meg and Amy were very real to me. I read that book until it literally fell apart – but it did not matter since they became a part of my brain. I know that they came from another persons brain. I know how much they meant to me. But it wasn’t just them. It was Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking and Cutter and Leetah. It was Amelia Bedelia and Bedknobs and Broomsticks and a magical doorway to Narnia that kept my imagination in thrall. It was the thought of Tesseracts and the pagentry of fantasy novels and the words of a bard. Its the words of Elizabeth Dickinson and the words of Keats. And, slowly, it became what was the fabric of my life. The threads I can remember, as well as the ones that I didn’t incorporate into my world view.

As an adult, I read everything and found myself finding more companions. Around other things that happened in the real world, there too were the characters of Anne Rice, Nora Roberts and Guy Gavriel Kay. And something amazing came from the books. It was friends who were only a few pages away. They were never too busy. It was the knowledge that, just by reading a book 📖, I could recapture where I was when I read it the first time as well as some of the minutia I had missed the first time around because I wanted to know what happened. Knowing what happened meant I could pay more attention to the characters that were secondary. And, there were times in my adult life when I had to read those treasured pages one word at a time. It was harder that way.

All of this was a little bit away from my main point. I said I was a reader and I am. It means that I escape into those other worlds and learn the rules… Whether it is based on mythology or vampires, society or shapeshifters it gave me an escape and a place to hope and dream about, while my body betrayed me. I also, somewhere along the way, developed a rule that if I started a book, I finished it. And, then, I found myself feeling a drive to finish a series, even if it wasn’t up to my standards. But, I started this blog to highlight one of my favorite authors and the two heroines of her novels. Karen Chance reminded me why she held a place among my favorites with Dragon’s Claw. It’s the latest release of the Dorina Basarab plot line which is a companion to the Cassandra Palmer series. I realized that I had missed Dory and Marlowe. And, reading it, I felt that excitement that comes from a new adventure and some old friends. I cannot wait for the next story.

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Karen Chance has Released a few more Q & A to go with the release of Ride the Storm

Posted on August 25, 2017 inBook Review, Books, clairvoyant, Death, Demon, Evil, Fae, Fairy, god, goddess, good, grief, Incubus, Karen Chance, love, Lust, mage, Magic, Paranormal, Romance, Sex, Succubus, time travel, Vampire, Werewolves, Witch

http://www.karenchance.com/news/2144-2/

http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-61/

http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-63/

http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-63-2/

http://www.karenchance.com/news/qa-64/

Title: Ride the Storm
Author: Karen Chance
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: 2017-08
Pages: 608

Cassie Palmer can see the future, talk to ghosts, and travel through time--but nothing's prepared her for this. Ever since being stuck with the job of pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world, Cassie Palmer has been playing catch up. Catch up to the lifetime's worth of training she missed being raised by a psychotic vampire instead of at the fabled pythian court. Catch up to the powerful, and sometimes seductive, forces trying to mold her to their will. It's been a trial by fire that has left her more than a little burned. But now she realizes that all that was the just the warm up for the real race. Ancient forces that once terrorized the world are trying to return, and Cassie is the only one who can stop them...

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A Book Review or two and a Little Respect

Posted on August 24, 2017 inAdrian, Jeaniene Frost

A couple of days ago, I warned that my posts might seem to be a little surreal because I was starting Jeaniene Frost‘s Night Prince which was the fourth and final installment in the that series. The reason that required a caveat was that Vlad is the hero int that series and he has a stepson and blood nephew named Mircea. Given that most of my posts revolve around the Cassandra Palmer and the Dorina Basarab series in which Mircea is a hero and Vlad a villain. I have to admit that it was difficult even within my own mind to make the switch. Eventually, though, my brain successfully made the switch and I came to really enjoy the return to the Night Huntress world. I have to give Jeaniene Frost some mad props. Mencheres plays a large role in the book and they throw in a stay at Kat and Bones cabin. What amazes me about this is that Jeaniene Frost is able to successfully end each series and then start another tangential story, one for which the foundations were laid in the process of telling this hero/heroine story. This means that when the next series, which will revolve around Ian, starts we know that some of our old friends will play a part and, in a way, each successive series is a continuation of the one before.

I also greatly enjoyed the Sweetest Burn, the second story in the Broken Destiny series. This series is truly unrelated to the other world. This series revolves around a battle between good in the form of Archons (Angel like beings) and Demons. These Demons have realms that are just a slight bit misaligned with reality and the heroine, Ivy has long been able to see glimpses of these realms and has a long history of psychiatric treatment due to this ability. When her sister disappears and her adoptive parents are killed while investigating the disappearance, Ivy decides she will fin and rescue her sister or die in the effort. This leads to a discovery of the Demons, their realms, minions (humans enlisted by both Archons and Demons to do their will on Earth since there are agreements in place limiting what can be done by the demons and Archons) and the fact that there is something quite special about Ivy. Ivy is the last descendant who has the blood of David from the biblical story of David and Goliath. The Archon who informs Ivy of all this brings someone to hep her Adrian, a man who was brought up in the demon realms and switched sides and who also has an illustrious ancestor as well-Jude, the man who betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver and who is prophesied to betray Ivy as well. Apparently there are 3 artifacts that can only be wielded by one of David’s descendants and have become necessary as the walls between the realms are weakening. Anyways, this second book revolves around a search for a magical staff, the one that Moses used. When Ivy used the slingshot at the end of the first novel, it became a tattoo embedded in Ivy’s skin and it comes as a great surprise when she learns that it can still be used although not to the same effect as before. This installment shows Adrian and Ivy’s partnership going to the next level, with a number of ramifications that, of course, only become apparent AFTER the events have occurred.

I look forward to discussing all of this with fellow fans at my site bestbooklover.net and at the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BestBookLover/

If you want to support the blog and keep getting great content make a donation at paypal.me/Bestbooklover/

Title: The Sweetest Burn (Broken Destiny)
Series: (Broken Destiny)
Author: Jeaniene Frost

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Review Of Karen Chance’s Ride the Storm

Posted on July 21, 2017 inEvil, Fae, Fairy, good, Karen Chance, Magic, Paranormal, Romance, Sex, time travel, Vampire, Werewolves, wisdom, Witch, Zombie

I have long been a fan of Karen Chance’s body of work. I am a loyal fan and have remained undaunted in the face of all the machinations of the publisher and publishing machine. Karen Chance has long kept the faith with her readers. She often offers free stories that add to her published works to create a more complex, multifaceted and fulfilling world in which all her novels take place. Readers who only read the novels from the publishing house lose a lot of the details and the joy of seeing the characters in multiple lights. All that being said, Karen Chance’s Cassandra Palmer novel Ride the Storm has been one of the most anticipated novels in my memory. This is not the fault of Karen Chance and that cannot be said firmly enough. The publishing house has been moving dates on this novel for over a year with little to no explanation.

The previous book, Reap the Wind was judged too long by the publisher when submitted by the author. This led to a quick rewrite and the split of the book almost in half. This also left an unfulfilled feeling at the end of Reap the Wind. Many plotlines were left hanging, which left some readers unhappy and the continuous manipulation by the publishers with moving dates and little communication lost even more of the fan base. Ride the Storm is the second half of the previous book with a little bit of newer information which furthers the plot of the Cassandra Palmer novels.

I was recently asked by a friend to explain the Cassie Palmer novels and I drew a bit of a blank—how do you explain such a complicated and multifaceted storyline as the one Karen Chance has created? I told her she just needs to read it and we will talk about it once she has. To say that all of the Cassie Palmer novels are fast paced is kind of like saying a quadruple shot espresso is a little bit energizing. These books move along at a frenetic pace and always have plot twists that are unexpected to say the least. It is impossible to have predicted where the main characters end up at the beginning of this book, let alone at the end of the book.

So much happens in this book to move the plot along that after reading it 3 times, I am still finding new details to enjoy. This is not a book to start when you have a deadline coming up or really anything planned. Depending on your reading speed and availability, you should plan to be unavailable until you can finish the book. This is not one you are going to want to put down as there are no really good stopping places. My recommendation is to start it on a Friday so you can have the weekend to take a break from reality and a trip into the Cassandra Palmer universe.

This book brings resolution to a lot of the ongoing plot lines that readers have been gnashing their teeth to know. We find out why MIrcea is so interested in Pythias. We get to see Pritkin rescued. We get to see Cassie find her feet and establish her own space independent of all the forces tearing at her. We learn more about Cassie’s parents. Dorina and Cassie finally meet. We go careening through the story and learn so much along the way that it’s hard to even begin to summarize it so I am not going to even try. Despite this, there is a seeming resolution to the love triangle between Cassie, Mircea and Pritkin but it is open ended enough that I see it more as an affirmation of the fact that Cassie has complicated emotions and feelings for both men.

This book is a solid addition to the Cassandra Palmer world and yet leaves a lot of storylines open for more exploration. It is my sincere hope that Karen Chance continues to publish Cassandra Palmer books for a very long time. In order for that to happen, fans have to not only buy this book, but review it. Talk about it with friends and build it up so that the publishers contract with Karen Chance for more Cassie Palmer books.

I look forward to discussing all of this with fellow fans at my site bestbooklover.net and at the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BestBooklovernet-336745780072074/

In the interest of full disclosure, I received an ARC ebook in return for this review.

Title: Ride the Storm
Series: Cassandra Palmer
Author: Karen Chance
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: Berkeley
Release Date: August 1, 2017
Pages: 606

The New York Times bestselling author of Reap the Wind returns to the “fascinating world”* of Cassie Palmer. Ever since being stuck with the job of pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world, Cassie Palmer has been playing catch up. Catch up to the lifetime's worth of training she missed being raised by a psychotic vampire instead of at the fabled pythian court. Catch up to the powerful, and sometimes seductive, forces trying to mold her to their will. It's been a trial by fire that has left her more than a little burned. But now she realizes that all that was the just the warm up for the real race. Ancient forces that once terrorized the world are trying to return, and Cassie is the only one who can stop them...

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booksthatbleeds Review : Midnight’s Daughter (Dorina Basarab #1)

Posted on April 20, 2017

booksthatbleed:

Mircea has a daughter! That’s who Cassandra saw in the photos in the “Cassandra Palmer” series.
Dori Basarab is quite the rebel. She drinks beer and smokes weed, in part to quiet down the negative side effects that come with being a Dhamphir. Dhamphir’s are susceptible to blackouts and uncontrollable rage. In the book, her best friend goes missing. Along with a friend of Mircea, she sets out to find that friend and do her father a favor that can cost her, her life. Another great K.C. novel.

4/5

(review from May 31, 2010)