Tag: romance

Fantastic Hope laurell K Hamilton and William McCaskey

I have had the pleasure of getting an advanced reader copy of Fantastic Hope, the new paranormal anthology that was released on April 7, 2020. This arc was provided via Netgalley, the best place for reviewers and avid readers to get and review new books.  This anthology is a great way to be introduced to a wide variety of authors and writing styles.  You may just buy it for one author and find a whole new library to read during this uncertain time.  With a wide variety of bestselling authors this anthology has a lot of bang for your buck.
While I could go crazy with this book review and write pages upon pages and bury you in paper, time is at a premium.  This anthology is a great way to get acquainted with a number of authors and their writing styles.   You may buy it for the latest in one series and end up with a new series to read, to love, and maybe even obsess about.  These authors each have unique backgrounds and those backgrounds inform each story with details that will delight readers,   .  Rather than going through each story and providing spoilers that might make longtime fans and new readers alike angry, I will cede this space to a part of the Foreword and the words of the editors.
“It’s a place where the hero wins, the bad guy is punished, and the monsters are only real while you’re reading the story. You can close the covers and be safe. Unlike the real terrors of the world online and in the news lately…welcome to a collection of stories where you can find hope, happy endings, loyalty, freedom, love, all the positive things that make the best of us. Welcome to thrilling adventures and a modern take on two-fisted adventure stories…Have faith in yourself, in the people who love you, in magic, in religion, in Deity, in science, and in things harder to label with just one word. Believe that there will be smiles after the tears, joy after the pain, and that it will all work out, that good will triumph and evil will not win forever…You’re holding people’s dreams in your hands, dreams made real for you to read and share. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.”   Laurell K Hamilton
“Laurell is a big proponent of people doing their therapy and working through their shit. We sat over lunch and talked about the depressing stories that seemed to be everywhere, in the news and in fiction, and lamented that there weren’t more uplifting stories…  Laurell and I are both survivors and we know that the world is not all unicorns, rainbows, and glitter. but we also know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that the darkness can be pushed back, even if it starts with a spark….I hope that in this book you find a story that speaks to you that reminds you that tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities.” William McCaskey
Believe again.  Dream again.  Know that you have the power to do the impossible and conquer your demons.  Start a new relationship with favorite authors and new voices.  Start here.

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a Quote along with some Other Things

“She’d called him a coward, running away whenever she pulled him toward something he didn’t like. It was not so much cowardice as ego, and not even so much protecting his ego as safeguarding the supports that kept it intact. Success bolstered his ego. Doing what he was good at and avoiding failure in every possible way. He’d first realized that in high school, when he’d dropped out of geometry, not because he disliked it but because he wasn’t good at it. Algebra came easily.  Calculus was also fine. But there was something about geometry that he could not wrap his mind around. So he dropped the course. The moment he discovered he did not have the knack for something, he stopped trying to do it. Empathy, friendship, dating, relationships in general. He embraced a challenge only if he knew he could succeed. The hard truth of the matter was that Gabriel was spoiled. He got what he wanted, and did not want what he could not get. “ Kelley Armstrong Rituals

I am thoroughly enjoying my quest through Cainsville this time around.  It never ceases to amaze me that every time I read one of my favorite authors my mind finds little parts of the story to delight over.  The plot of each novel, for the most part remains the plot.  There are a few slight deviations from that rule where knowing the plot in its entirety changes the substance of the story.  This happens with Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series, when the overarching hatred between mages and the Carpathians leads to the discovery that their lack of fertility comes from an evil wizard’s working of a spell.  It definitely happens in Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series.  I think it is beginning to happen in the Anita Blake Series as we see more challenging foes as well as more powerful allies.

Sometimes, I find myself amazed though how much knowing one of the larger series in paranormal romance leads to the calm acceptance (to some extent) of fantastical creatures from myth and lore.  One of the things I have greatly enjoyed in the Cainsville series is the interweaving of some pretty obscure Celtic imagery, characters and lore.  Would the imagery of the Wild Hunt as a biker gang be so easily accepted had it not sort of appeared that way in the Dresden files?  And now, Kelley Armstrong has introduced the slaugh which plays a large role in Laurell K Hamilton’s Meredith gentry Series.  This Slaugh is a very different incarnation from the one in Merry Gentry’s world, but the idea itself is more easily accepted since it plays such a large role in Merry’s world.

I guess that the point of this general ramble is that everything is connected and , no I am not going into deep philosophical questions of identity or politics.  I am just remarking upon the fact that so many have before–everything is possible and yet nothing can ever truly be new.  And now I go back to Cainsville a little bit sad because I know the end is near but a little bit happy to as I never know quite what to expect until a story actually reaches its end.






Rituals Book Cover




Rituals





Kelley Armstrong





Fiction




Random House Canada




August 15, 2017




496

The fifth book and the exciting conclusion to bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's "impossible-to-put-down" Cainsville series, in which she mixes hard-hitting crime writing with phenomenal world-building to create a brand of fiction all her own. When Olivia Taylor-Jones found out she was not actually the adopted child of a privileged Chicago family but of a notorious pair of convicted serial killers, her life exploded. Running from the fall-out, she found a refuge in the secluded but oddly welcoming town of Cainsville, Illinois, but she couldn't resist trying to dig out the truth about her birth parents' crimes. She began working with Gabriel Walsh, a fiendishly successful criminal lawyer who also had links to the town; their investigation soon revealed Celtic mysteries at work in Cainsville, and also entangled Olivia in a tense love triangle with the calculating Gabriel and her charming biker boyfriend, Ricky. Worse, troubling visions revealed to Olivia that the three of them were reenacting an ancient drama pitting the elders of Cainsville against the mysterious Huntsmen with Olivia as the prize. In the series' fifth and final novel, not only does Gabriel's drug addict mother, who he thought was dead, make a surprise reappearance, but Kelley Armstrong delivers a final scary and surprising knock-out twist. It turns out a third supernatural force has been at work all along, a dark and malevolent entity that has had its eye on Olivia since she was a baby and wants to win at any cost.

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A little irony, given the Hugo’s came out just recently

From Kelley Armstrong “Bad Publicity” 

He wrote paranormal romance. The chances of him getting an award for literary merit were about the same as the chance of the sun colliding with the earth tomorrow.

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What I am Reading Now…

So, given the release of Rituals yesterday, I am rereading the Cainsville series.  I am thoroughly enjoying spending time reconnecting with Olivia, Gabriel and Ricky…and to be quite honest I am not sure who I am rooting for in this triangle.  I love Olivia and Ricky as a couple, but Gabriel needs her so badly…

He is so broken and yet so fixable…

Sigh…I guess I will have to read through the end of Rituals to find out how it all works out!

But, Oh my–I am quite enthralled in the story which reminds me how much I love Kelley Armstrong!

This series starts as contemporary fiction and yet there is so much more to the story and Kelley Armstrong seems a little bit incapable of writing without some sort of paranormal twist in there…

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How you can Help…

I’m a reader-always have been. What does that mean? It means that from Kindergarten through eighth grade, my favorite day of the month was when the scholastic book order forms came in and then the day the books actually arrived. I always ordered way more than I could possibly read and lugging those boxes of books home was like the eighth night of hannukkah and my birthday all rolled into one…

When my children were younger, it meant reading books sometimes a word at a time, but I always had a book with me and I will admit to great pride that I finished any books at all with my children at toddler age. Now it means always having a book loaded on my phone to play or read every opportunity I get.

For me, books are a necessity. I cannot imagine a world without books. If something was wrong in my life, most times being swallowed into a story would make it better or at the very least put off the problem until I could find a solution. Reading gave me time to assimilate, a place where all my life’s problems could be put on a shelf for a while. I could visit fantastical worlds where magic and all things were possible. I could bear witness to amazing legal battles and see fancy balls from all the ages. I could see love triumph over incredible odds. There was no end to what I might find between the covers of a book.

As I have grown older and my burdens have become heavier, I have found that sometimes books bring me a simple distraction and I have also found that the characters in these books can become friends in a way. I am fully aware that the characters in my favorite books are fictional, but I worry over their lives as I would a friend. And I have found that having these books I love so very much has brought me some true friends along the way. Those friendships start with a conversation when we notice we are reading the same book or author and can develop into deep discussions and speculation.

And that love of books brought me to this blog. In reaching out to my favorite authors I found that they were struggling. Niche Publishing Houses had gone out of business, and the big publishing houses were mismarketing the books{marketing an urban fantasy book as a traditional romance, leaving the consumers of both urban fantasy and traditional romance unhappy)-so that when contract negotiations for more books began, the publisher could point to bad sales. The publishing house has complete control over when the books are released as well–and with a few different authors, they keep announcing dates, then pushing them back with no communication. That led to a number of angered fans, some of whom have sworn off the authors entirely. Also, some of the authors had felt very comfortable with the niche houses and so left broad areas in their contracts because of the level of trust that existed. Now those broad areas are leaving them with little contractual wigggle room, allowing the big houses to do many things without the authors input or consent. Bad pairings were being made between authors and editors which led to bad books and a loss of loyal fans.

A few of those authors told me that the best thing I can do to help is write reviews and generate buzz around their latest releases. This led me to this blog and now I am finding that I need to generate followers in order to get electronic ARC’s so I can create bigger buzz leading up to the release of the books.

So, I need your help. First, find my facebook link at the end of this post and like the page. There is also a twitter account associated with the blog. In order to raise my Search Engine rankings, please search for my website address in whichever search engine you use whenever you have a chance.

If you should decide to buy one of the books or anything else, try using one of my amazon links so I get a small commission. Or leave a donation using the link below-every little bit helps!

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/

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Chloe Neill’s Blade Bound

I have to be completely honest here.  I just couldn’t see it.  I mean we all knew going into Blade Bound that it was going to be the last Chicagoland Vampires book.  And yet, how could we possibly say goodbye to Ethan and Merit, Jonah and the Red Guard, Mallory and Catcher or Gabriel and the North American pack?  And, as with so many of the books in this series, the villain seemed unbeatable and the craziness just plain off the charts.  We got to see a vampire wedding, a warning from Gabriel that the vampire child may not be coming and we all knew that we had not seen the end of Sorcha.

About halfway through the book, I started to get really scared though.  Ethan had already returned from death, much to all our surprise.  But I started to wonder if maybe the way this book ended the series was with everyone’s death or confinement.  And so it took me a while to wrap my head around finishing this book, come what may.  I had carefully avoided all reviews and spoilers while I wrapped my head around the fact that this ending was here.  But about halfway through, I had to have a little faith–in Chloe Neill and in myself.  I could take whatever came in the series.

I won’t spoil the ending.  But I will say that my faith paid off in ways unimaginable.  And that is the key to this whole series.  Despite being a jaded paranormal romance reader who thought she had seen everything, this series constantly came out of left field.  Consistently, we found ourselves wondering how all our heroes could possibly pull this one off.  And they always, somehow did.   It’s sad to be saying goodbye to our intrepid heroes but the series ended on a high note rather than disappointment.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I highly recommend this book, and the series itself.  It’s lighthearted and campy and unbelievable at times, but these characters will soon hold a piece of your heart, as they did mine!

 

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/

If you want to help support this website, donations are accepted at paypal.me/Bestbooklover/






Blade Bound Book Cover




Blade Bound





Chloe Neill





Fiction




Penguin




2017




384



"Continuation of New York Times bestselling author Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series"--

The thrilling final installment of Chloe Neill’s New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series sees sinister sorcery advancing across Chicago, and it might usher in the fall of Cadogan House....
 

Since the night of her brutal attack and unwilling transformation into a vampire, Merit has stood as Sentinel and protector of Chicago’s Cadogan House. She’s saved the Windy City from the forces of darkness time and again with her liege and lover, Ethan Sullivan, by her side.

When the House is infiltrated and Merit is attacked by a vampire who seems to be under the sway of dark magic, Merit and Ethan realize the danger is closer than they could have imagined. As malign sorcery spreads throughout the city, Merit must go to war against supernatural powers beyond her comprehension. It is her last chance to save everything—and everyone—she loves.

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A chance to read a great book for free! 

http://www.tor.com/2017/07/19/kushiels-dart-is-the-sex-positive-fantasy-we-need/

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/

If you want to help support this website, donations are accepted at paypal.me/Bestbooklover/

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Review Of Karen Chance’s Ride the Storm

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.






Ride the Storm Book Cover




Ride the Storm




Cassandra Palmer





Karen Chance





Paranormal




Berkeley




August 1, 2017




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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Book Review of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Deadmen Walking

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Book Review of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Deadmen Walking

I’m usually a big Kenyon fan.  I looked forward to this release because it promised more information about the Hellchasers and Thorn.  We’ve seen glimpses of them in other books, but this was supposed to explain things a little more clearly.  It really didn’t.  We had a lot of new character introduced who were given a second chance after being damned and some new species to learn about.

These creatures fight the worst of the worst out of the sight of humans.  But, the romance between the two main characters fell flat and there just wasn’t enough to keep interest in the story.  It was complicated by an ex wife who was the sister of the main heroine, who is also the ship.  It was an ok read.  I give it 3 out of 5 stars since it really disappointed.

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Deadmen Walking Book Cover




Deadmen Walking





Sherrilyn Kenyon





Fiction




Tor Books




May 9, 2017




384

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon debuts a sweeping new epic saga sure to appeal to her millions of fans! Deadmen tell their tales . . . To catch evil, it takes evil. Enter Devyl Bane—an ancient dark warlord returned to the human realm as one of the most notorious pirates in the New World. A man of many secrets, Bane makes a pact with Thorn—an immortal charged with securing the worst creations the ancient gods ever released into our world. Those powers have been imprisoned for eons behind enchanted gates . . . gates that are beginning to buckle. At Thorn’s behest, Bane takes command of a crew of Deadmen and, together, they are humanity’s last hope to restore the gates and return the damned to their hell realms. But things are never so simple. And one of Bane’s biggest problems is the ship they sail upon. For the Sea Witch isn’t just a vessel, she’s also a woman born of an ancient people he wronged and who in turn wronged him during a centuries long war between their two races—a woman who is also sister to their primary target. Now Marcelina, the Sea Witch, must choose. Either she remains loyal to her evil sister and almost extinct race against Bane and his cause, and watches humanity fall, or she puts faith in an enemy who has already betrayed her. Her people over the totality of humanity—let’s hope Bane can sway her favor. Deadmen Walking is the first historical fantasy title in New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Deadman’s Cross series. It is a tale of passion and loss, emotions that wound and heal...and ultimate redemption

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Book Review of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Deadmen Walking

Book Review of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Deadmen Walking

I’m usually a big Kenyon fan.  I looked forward to this release because it promised more information about the Hellchasers and Thorn.  We’ve seen glimpses of them in other books, but this was supposed to explain things a little more clearly.  It really didn’t.  We had a lot of new character introduced who were given a second chance after being damned and some new species to learn about.

These creatures fight the worst of the worst out of the sight of humans.  But, the romance between the two main characters fell flat and there just wasn’t enough to keep interest in the story.  It was complicated by an ex wife who was the sister of the main heroine, who is also the ship.  It was an ok read.  I give it 3 out of 5 stars since it really disappointed.

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