Review by Melissa: Kaitlin's Tale

Kaitlin's Tale by Christine Amsden
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: May 16th, 2016 (ebook), July 15th, 2016



Book Description:

Kaitlin Mayer is on the run from the father of her baby – a
vampire who wants her to join him in deadly eternity. Terrified for her young son, she seeks sanctuary with the Hunters Guild.

Yet they have their own plans for her son, and her hopes of
safety are soon shattered.

When she runs into Matthew Blair, an old nemesis with an
agenda of his own, she dares to hope for a new escape. But
Matthew is a telepath, and Kaitlin's past is full of dark secrets

she never intended to reveal.

*Companion to the Cassie Scot Series

♥ ♥ ♥

I'm really excited that Christine Amsden is traveling outside of her original Cassie Scot stories in favor of shedding some more light on characters who were previously only in the background. It's interesting to see the same conflicts and events going on through different perspectives, and Amsden is great at making sure everything weaves together nicely.

"Kaitlin's Tale" is actually Amsden's second time branching off from her original series. I had read the previous book, "Madison's Song", and enjoyed it, so i knew that "Kaitlin's Tale" was also going to be enjoyable for me. And thankfully I was correct. Like Amsden's other books, I found this one hard to put down and read the whole thing in one weekend.

Book Blitz: Rose Petal Graves (The Lost Clan #1)

Rose Petal Graves (The Lost Clan #1) by Olivia Wildenstein
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Faeries
Release Date: May 15, 2016
Buy Links: Amazon
Summary:

I thought losing my mother would be the greatest shock of my life, but the greatest shock came after her death.


Founded two centuries ago by an aloof and powerful tribe of Gottwa Indians, Rowan was a quiet town, so quiet that I fled after graduation. Staying away was the plan, but Mom died suddenly, so I rushed home. 

Dad said she suffered a stroke after she dug up one of the ancient graves in our backyard, which happens to be the town cemetery. Creepy, I know. Creepier still, there was no corpse inside the old coffin, only fresh rose petals. 

As we made preparations for Mom’s burial, Cruz, the new medical examiner, arrived. I should have felt relieved, but how could I? He was unnervingly handsome, glowed like a human firefly, and knew absolutely nothing about examining dead bodies. 

But, he did know what killed my mother…or rather who.

  

Book Blitz: The Neverland Wars

The Neverland Wars by Audrey Greathouse
Genre: YA Fantasy/ Fairytale Retelling
Release Date: May 9, 2016
Buy Links: Amazon│Barnes & Noble
Summary:

Magic can do a lot—give you flight, show you mermaids, help you taste the stars, and… solve the budget crisis? That's what the grown-ups will do with it if they ever make it to Neverland to steal its magic and bring their children home.

However, Gwen doesn't know this. She's just a sixteen-year-old girl with a place on the debate team and a powerful crush on Jay, the soon-to-be homecoming king. She doesn't know her little sister could actually run away with Peter Pan, or that she might have to chase after her to bring her home safe. Gwen will find out though—and when she does, she'll discover she's in the middle of a looming war between Neverland and reality.

She'll be out of place as a teenager in Neverland, but she won't be the only one. Peter Pan's constant treks back to the mainland have slowly aged him into adolescence as well. Soon, Gwen will have to decide whether she's going to join impish, playful Peter in his fight for eternal youth… or if she's going to scramble back to reality in time for the homecoming dance. 

Excerpt:

Hey landed and moved slowly through the jungle for the last few hundred feet, giving Peter time to explain to Gwen as she walked at his side.

If you’ve never met a mermaid before, there are a few things you should know about them.ȑȐLike what?ȑȐLike they are the most cunning and conniving creatures you will ever cross paths with.ȑȐReally?ȑ Gwen asked, astounded.

I would have thought mermaids would be... I don’t know, beautiful and sweet.ȑȐSirens, all of them. They’ll do anything to get what they want. Mermaids have no qualms about the means to the end, so long as it’s their end they get to. Well, what do they want?"

It’s always some kind of trouble... not that they’ll ever tell you what they want.ȑPeter barreled through a clump of vines, hanging low in his way. Gwen followed after him, her curiosity compounding with every moment. ȐAre they dangerous then?ȑȐTerribly,ȑ Peter responded. ȐSo there are three rules for whenever you confront mermaids. 

Book blitz: Everafter (The Immortals of Westchester Prep, #1)

Everafter (The Immortals of Westchester Prep, #1) by M. Lathan
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Release Date: May 15, 2016
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

After years of battling leukemia, seventeen-year-old Sydney Long has made peace with her impending death. She expected pain, she expected tearful goodbyes, but she never expected to be turned into an immortal monster who can, with the slightest touch, control life and death.

Now, flowers are stirring when she walks by, she’s oddly drawn to death and the dying, and she must wear gloves to keep her living parents safe.

While her family toils with this supernatural nightmare and finding a way out of it, Sydney falls for magic and an equally as enticing boy who she can’t seem to stay away from.

But nothing comes without a price. When Sydney is targeted for her illegal magic, she’ll learn a whole new meaning of fighting for her life.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

I’d always wondered if Heaven looked the same to everyone or if it changed to fit our versions of paradise.

My version would be a recreation of my grandparents’ garden in Trinidad, and I would sit there and read poetry forever. But instead of a garden, I opened my eyes in my bed at the resort, still wearing the gloves Sarah had placed on my hands.

Someone had removed my oxygen tube, and they’d taken the IV out of my arm without leaving any puncture wounds. My usual marks from blown veins and years of being a pincushion had also disappeared.

So had the heart monitor and every other sign that a sick person had lived in this room. Pale gray light floated in through the curtains and illuminated the dust particles in the air. As I watched them, I lay perfectly still on the bed, waiting for something cosmic to happen.

Book Blitz: A Criminal Magic

A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Release Date: February 2, 2016
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

THE NIGHT CIRCUS meets THE PEAKY BLINDERS in Lee Kelly’s new crossover fantasy novel.

Magic is powerful, dangerous and addictive – and after passage of the 18th Amendment, it is finally illegal.

It’s 1926 in Washington, DC, and while Anti-Sorcery activists have achieved the Prohibition of sorcery, the city’s magic underworld is booming. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters’ crime sprees. Smugglers funnel magic contraband in from overseas. Gangs have established secret performance venues where patrons can lose themselves in magic, and take a mind-bending, intoxicating elixir known as the sorcerer’s shine.

Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from Norfolk County, Virginia accepts an offer to work for DC’s most notorious crime syndicate, the Shaw Gang, when her family’s home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, a first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws.

Through different paths, Joan and Alex tread deep into the violent, dangerous world of criminal magic – and when their paths cross at the Shaws’ performance venue, despite their orders, and despite themselves, Joan and Alex become enchanted with one another. But when gang alliances begin to shift, the two sorcerers are forced to question their ultimate allegiances and motivations. And soon, Joan and Alex find themselves pitted against each other in a treacherous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.

A CRIMINAL MAGIC casts a spell of magic, high stakes and intrigue against the backdrop of a very different Roaring Twenties.

♥ ♥ ♥
QUIZ:

What Role Would You Play in A CRIMINAL MAGIC?

Lee Kelly’s A CRIMINAL MAGIC takes place during the Roaring Twenties, the age of guys, dolls, molls and crime bosses. But in this story’s Jazz Age, magic instead of alcohol is prohibited. Sorcerers work hand in hand with gangsters in every aspect of their illegal dealings – from hiding robberies and murders to underground performance magic shows – as Prohibition Unit agents struggle to uphold the letter of the law.

If you were around during the Prohibition of magic, which type of player would you be? Take our quiz and find out!

QUIZ

1. Which one of these vacations most appeals to you? 

a. A week at an all-inclusive resort in Hawaii with my family, with beautiful beaches, golf courses and lots of down time.
b. A long weekend in Las Vegas with a handful of my closest friends.
c. A ten-day backpacking trip by myself through New Zealand.

2. Most Friday nights I can be found: 

Book Blitz: Cloaked in Blood (The Wulfkin Legacy #3)

Cloaked in Blood (The Wulfkin Legacy #3) by T.F. Walsh
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Parnormal
Release Date: May 9, 2016
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

The daughter of a sultan alpha, Selena Kurt agrees to an arranged wulfkin mating to protect her sister from a dangerous alpha from the enemy clan. 

To her surprise, her match is Marcin Ulf, the next in line for the Hungarian throne . . . and the wulfkin who broke her heart years ago.

Marcin is just as shocked to learn he'll be matched to the enemy's daughter and the woman he's never forgotten. 

Before they can be paired, however, they're drawn into a tournament where Marcin will compete to free his estranged imprisoned brother, while Selena battles for the life of another wulfkin alpha. Both intend to seize this chance to save those they're fighting for - even if it means facing off with one another just as their romance rekindles.

Will tribe loyalty triumph, or will they realize they're better off as a team before it's too late?

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

Selena

My response wouldn’t come at first. It was jammed inside my libido, too consumed by the temptation to have my way with Marcin. Alone in a cavern. No family nearby. Yet, the truth of the upcoming battle of innocence, and me having to go back home afterward, sat on my mind like an unmovable mountain. I wanted it gone.

“Well, I hope me saving you doesn’t make you feel emasculated.”

His hand slipped a strand of hair behind my ear, his touch sending goose bumps down my back. “Never. If anything, I was wondering how I could ever repay you.” A devilish grin split his mouth.

A tingle spread below my stomach. The kind of repayment I had in mind might make even Marcin blush, though considering the mischievousness behind his eyes, I somehow doubted it. Still, it went against everything I’d been telling myself to do.

Book Blitz: The Midnight Sea (The Fourth Element #1)

The Midnight Sea (The Fourth Element #1) by Kat Ross
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: May 10, 2016
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

They are the light against the darkness.

The steel against the necromancy of the Druj.

And they use demons to hunt demons….

Nazafareen lives for revenge. A girl of the isolated Four-Legs Clan, all she knows about the King’s elite Water Dogs is that they bind wicked creatures called daevas to protect the empire from the Undead. But when scouts arrive to recruit young people with the gift, she leaps at the chance to join their ranks. To hunt the monsters that killed her sister.

Scarred by grief, she’s willing to pay any price, even if it requires linking with a daeva named Darius. Human in body, he’s possessed of a terrifying power, one that Nazafareen controls. But the golden cuffs that join them have an unwanted side effect. Each experiences the other’s emotions, and human and daeva start to grow dangerously close.

As they pursue a deadly foe across the arid waste of the Great Salt Plain to the glittering capital of Persepolae, unearthing the secrets of Darius’s past along the way, Nazafareen is forced to question his slavery—and her own loyalty to the empire. But with an ancient evil stirring in the north, and a young conqueror sweeping in from the west, the fate of an entire civilization may be at stake…

♥ ♥ ♥



Despicable You: Writing Great Villains

I have a confession to make—one that some of you might share. My favorite characters are usually the awful ones. The ones who do terrible things without a shred of remorse. The ones that I'm dying to see get their comeuppance, but not before they push our beloved protagonist to the very edge and nearly destroy everything in the story we care about. Yes, I'm talking about the villains.

Think the viscerally creepy Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. The icily elegant Mrs. Coulter from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Elizabeth Wein's SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden in Code Name Verity, who we only meet second-hand but is terrifying nonetheless.

Villains can make or break a book. When they're boring or one-dimensional or clichéd, there's no tension and the plot deflates with that sad wheezing noise balloons make when you stick with them with a hatpin. But when they're done right, meaning that they are an actual character and not simply a clunky device to test the hero, they help keep the stakes of the story high and the reader turning pages late into the night.