Liv Zander: Feathers so Vicious

In the first of a series, Liv Zander shows what happens when a women is just a pawn in a war:

Galantia has never felt love, never felt wanted in her own family. Her mother hates her, her father mainly avoids her and other than her maid she has no companions. Now she has figured out her value, she is to be a pawn and sold off to marry the Prince, to strengthen the alliance between them and finally be able to end the war against the Ravens. But the Ravens have other plans, they have seen that Galantia is important person in this war and they will do whatever it takes to get her, keep her and if need be destroy her.

This is the first book I have read by Zander and it will not be the last, minus the fact I NEED to read the next book in this series, Zander knows how to not only get you invested in the characters but an interesting plot, story and spice. Now with all that said this book is DARK, and not just a touch dark, it is probably one of the darkest romances that I have read (I will admit I have not read a lot). You will need to check your trigger warning for this book and take them seriously.  if you are looking for Emotional Damage then this book is for you.

I have not read many books where the shifters are birds and not just one bird for several birds and each bird represents a different part of the person and their power. Due to the fact that one changes into several birds, if one bird is killed does not mean that the person dies. It was also interesting the different forms of powers that they birds were afforded, and not all were battle related. From the ability to wield shadows, see the future, be a pathfinder there were also more subtle forms of magic like being a fabric weaver. 

I loved that this had three POV, felt like I really got to know the characters more, but Malyr is still very much a mystery to me, but I think that Zander does this on purpose for what he had suffered. You really get to know Galantia the best in the book as she is much more open as a character and is very honest in her search for acceptance and love. 

If you are looking for a book that will give you emotional damage look no further than this book, you will have some many feelings throughout this book and many of them are not happy ones. I will say that I predicted one part of the ending, but this did not take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

I don’t think you can end this book and not need to pick up the other. I personally liked how Zander wrote this dark romance and not so much in the spiciness in the book but along the lines of the plot and what each character has suffered.

Enjoy!!!

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Rachel Harrison: Such Sharp Teeth

Rachel Harrison shows what happens going from human to werewolf in a modern world:

Rory never wanted to return to her hometown, she thought she had put the place behind her and the memories along with it. But her twin sister Scarlett is pregnant and wanting her help as she is now estranged from the babies father. For Scarlett Rory would do anything. While on a night out, Rory runs into an old friend who has always had feelings for her and Rory thinks what if? While driving home that night she hits a large animal with her vehicle. When she goes out to investigate suddenly Rory is now the prey and finds herself in the woods and bitten. When Rory wakes up in the hospital, she is happy to be alive but things do not feel right. She's changing, changing into something else, something new, something that shouldn't exist.

I was not sure what to expect with this book as i have not Harrison before. I will say that in order to enjoy this book you need to like books that are more character driven than plot driven. This book is very much an exploration of Rory coming to terms of now being a werewolf and what that entails, the good, the bad and the downright ugly. I appreciate that Harrison did not make being a werewolf glamorous (other than some amazing hair and super strength). Rory's transformation is pretty gory, with just enough description of being disturbing and have you cringe a bit here and there. Also what happens after the night of the full moon is not fun either.

Rory is reluctantly back in a town that she does not make a habit of visiting and basically tells everyone she fled this place for something more. Rory is trying to not only figure out herself but also this new self that she is at and I cannot think of a worst time to start dating. Trying to date in regular life is hard enough, then trying to do it after being bitten by a werewolf adds a whole new level. But Rory handles it as well as I think all of us would, panicking and binge eating certain foods (though in Rory's case it is A Lot of Protein).

Not sure if it was just me but i liked the juxtaposition between Rory becoming a werewolf and Scarlett being pregnant, as both were stating the same things about changing bodies and their bodies feeling like they don’t belong to them anymore. Only for Scarlett, she will no longer be pregnant as some point, but still her life and body will be forever changed.

I was also able to figure out who the werewolf was / who bit Rory.

This was a good read and i enjoyed going along with Rory as she tries to figure out how to be a werewolf in the modern world. I would read another book by Harrison.

Enjoy!!!

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Kate Alice Marshall: A Killing Cold

Kate Alice Marshall takes readers on a journey of a woman who doesn't know who she is:

Theodora Scott cannot remember anything before she was 4 years old. All she remembers after that is that she was not a good child and that she was not worthy of love. Theo has been searching for it ever since. When Theo and Connor have a whirl wind romance that leads to an engagement, Connor tells Theo that she has to be accepted by his wealthy family as well. At an isolated winter retreat, Theo begins to remember things of her past, memories she thought were long lost. But there are secrets in this family and those who will go to any lengths to keep them hidden.

I have enjoyed the previous Marshall books that I have read and this is no exception. This book had me hooked from the beginning. Give me a domestic suspense where everyone has secrets they are trying to hold on to, plus an isolated place where anything can happen and you have me sold in reading the book.  I think that Marshall did a great job with the mystery aspect as to how Theo's mom passed away and who was responsible. I was guessing quite a bit on this aspects as the plot was unfolding.

I felt invested in Theo right from the beginning. Her questions about who she is and where she came from and then being thrown in to meeting a family that is well about her socially and financially is one that would stress anyone out. The pointed questions some of the people ask her is horrible and just shows how much people will believe what they want to believe no matter the circumstances. None of the side characters are really likeable especially when they interact with Theo, even Connor has times when i don’t really like him and his insistence on being there with his family.

I found the book a little drawn out, we know who Theo is, but her letting others know that she has discovered something important in her past takes quite a few chapters. And I just felt like getting on with it.

Another book I really enjoyed by Marshall and she is fast becoming an author i look for in the domestic suspense/thriller genre. I look forward to see what she comes out with next.

Enjoy!!!!

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Derek Shupert: Broken Horizons

In the first of a series, Derek Shupert show the length a man, woman and dog will go to get back to those they love:

Seina receives a call from her brother that he can no longer stand to be at home with his step parents, she is determined to go see him and set things right. Along she gets into an accident as the grid mysterious fall and now she has to travel on foot to get to him. In the forest she meets Ryan and his Dog Dutch and they want to help her to get back, get to her brother. No one knows what caused the grid to fall, but that it always the first step in the fall of civilization.

I'm a fan of dystopia and I do enjoy when I get there to be there from the beginning with the characters to see how they react and to see the fall of civilization with them. This what I thought was going to happen in this book. We have our two main characters that happen to find each other in the forest, and they realize all is not right in the world, but they do not know why or how the world has changed. And that is basically all the happens in the story. 

Literally nothing of interest happens in this book. There is no suspense or terror. There is a slight mystery of how the power went out, emp would be the main guess but nothing about who the culprit was. There is an interesting aspect in the prologue but other than finding the drone, not knowing what to with the drone, there is no hint of who may be behind it. Normally there would be some sort of news report or Military official that would have one POV chapter to explain things but nope, nothing.

I'm not even joking that Nothing happens, it takes almost to 50% for them to lose power / cell service and before that the book is very much character driven, but i don’t feel really anything for the characters because for the majority of the book they are not in danger as NOTHING HAPPENS. I'm not even sure why we have Max's POV in the book, other than to make Siena a little more desperate to get to her brother, but his POV does not fill too much of a role of discovering things that Siena and Ryan could have discovered once they made it back to a town.

Dutch, the Dtuch Shepard, is the best part of the book. That dog is loyal to a fault.

This book was not for me. I think there are better dystopian books out there and even ones that use an EMP as the reason for it. I will not continue on with this series

Cheers!!!

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Benjamin Stevenson: Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone

In the first in a series, Benjamin Stevenson show that families have secrets worth killing for:

Ernest Cunningham has not been welcomed by his family in many years, but with a family reunion set to occur he has been given a pardon to attend. Ern knows that this will be one reunion to remember as someone decided that it needed to be at a ski resort (he could kill someone for that), and well everyone in Ern's family has killed someone so not the best idea to bring them all together, especially when someone is hellbent on bringing up the past and some of those deaths. 

This was such a clever book (and you can tell that Ern knows how clever he is) and I loved that it had more of the classic feel of a who-don it. While the title may imply that there is death happening everywhere in the book, they do not happen all at once, or even the main timeline of when the book occurs. This kind of muddies the waters a bit (but in a good way) as you try to puzzle out who has the most motivation for murder in the present time as they have all killed someone at one point or another. I was able to figure one of the twists before the end but not the Main twist that was very well done.

In order to enjoy this book you have to like that the narrator of the story is going to be talking directly to the reader. Stevenson uses this to give the readers some additional hints throughout the book as to who the murderer is as well as to recite little tidbits that he gave at the beginning of the book. I have not read too many books that use this to engage the reader, but I liked it in this book and thought that it worked well with the story.

You will also need to keep all the characters straight in this book as there are quite a few and well they all have some skeletons in their closets that they would not only like to forget but not let you know about as well. I will point out that the title says killed and not murdered.

Personally think this book was worth the hype a few years ago and really enjoyed the way that Stevenson decided to tell this murder mystery. I'll be checking out the other books in this series to see if they can hold up to this one.

Enjoy!!!

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CJ Leede: Maeve fly

In her debut novel, CJ Leede has a love letter to Los Angeles and the horrors that happen there:

Maeve Fly knows that she has to hide her true self from everyone else in the world. By day she works as the Ice Queen at the happiest Place on Earth and she LOVES her job. Being a Princess helps keep her grounded. By night, Maeve likes to haunt the seedier areas of LA, but still keeping her mask in place. When she meets her best friend's brother, Gidion, something shifts, something changes, something new, a new person and Dynamic Maeve has never had before but one that might just be deadly.

I will admit I went into this book almost blind, the cover drew me in and I saw some review that stated it was dark and disturbing but the first half of the book I wasn’t sure if we were reading the same book as everyone else. Yes, Maeve is a little odd but it felt like I somehow ended up in a hockey romance, a weird one I will give you that but still a hockey romance. However, one you get to the 75% Leede finally lets the gloves off.

Once you get to the 75 % part, this book becomes unhinged deranged and psychotic, honestly Leede does not hold back past that mark. Part of me wishes that it would have been this dark from the beginning but I get that Leede was trying to show how much Maeve has been pretending to be the Monkey the whole time but I wish the mask had come out a bit sooner.

Maeve is such an interesting character. She loves working as a Disney Princess and that is how she wants people to see her and it such a juxtaposition of what she thinks and what does with Gideon and then when the mask fully comes off later in the book it’s pretty crazy.

The romance aspect with Gideon sweet at times, as he just seems to get Maeve (or at least what she shows him) but also messed up and they have some same kinks and weirdness in the bedroom but to each their own. As I said I was not expecting so much romance in this book. I also wish there was a chapter or two or a new book that was Gideon’s POV to see what he truly thought of Maeve and his motives with her.

What an ending. It is one of those that you either like or dislike, and for me I liked the ending as it was not so typical but at the same time I want to know more. What will Maeve do next?

This book was a bold move for a debut novel, but I am here for it. I enjoyed the character Leede created n Maeve and I look forward to seeing what Leede comes out with next.

Enjoy!!!!

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