HOLLOW (THE IMMORTAL ARCHIVES #4) Surprise Release!

The fourth installment of the Immortal Archives is finally here!

They won't even see it coming...

The pure line has flourished silently for thousands of years, their secrets unbeknownst to even their closest fellow supernaturals. But the force that wiped out their numbers in the beginning has returned to finish the job, striking against the pures with invisible monstrosities only Emily and Ruby can see. Badly outnumbered and short on time, this battle will bring about a dark and deadly reality no one is ready for.

New Adult Urban Fantasy
Release Date: May 14, 2018

Now Available!
eBooks: Amazon US, UK, DE, IN, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, Nook, Kobo, Google Play. 

Paperback pending.

Stardust (Of Dust & Darkness #2) : Synopsis and Release Week Sign-Ups

I know, I know. This has been a long time coming. I'm sorry it took so long to get this out and I promise you won't have to wait that long for the final book. As soon as I'm done writing Nearly Undone, I'm going straight to Ashes & Dust so I can have both of these trilogies wrapped up. Below is the synopsis, and if you're interested in participating in the Release Week Giveaway, sign up here.

Releasing February 15, 2016

He took my wings, my freedom. Degraded me in every way possible. Deep inside me a fire burns, awaiting the day I get to return the favor. Break. By break. By break.

Wrongfully imprisoned and brutally savaged by the warden of a secret slave camp, Rosalie craves vengeance. She may have been the only pixie to escape the compound, but she’s anything but safe. Alone in the forest, grounded with broken wings, her journey to find help is long and perilous. And Jack is nowhere to be seen. Forced to stray off their agreed upon path, Rosalie feels more lost in the dark than ever. Home is but a dream, and when she learns things are not as they seem, even those closest cannot be trusted. The rules of the game are changing, desperation is winning out. And unfortunately for Rosalie, she finds herself on the verge of losing a lot more than love and cherished wings.

See it at GoodReads.

Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham (ARC)

Mr. Kiss and Tell
Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
Exp. Pub.: January 20, 2015

The Neptune Grand has always been the seaside town’s ritziest hotel, despite the shady dealings and high-profile scandals that seem to follow its elite guests. When a woman claims that she was brutally assaulted in one of its rooms and left for dead by a staff member, the owners know that they have a potential powder keg on their hands. They turn to Veronica to disprove—or prove—the woman's story.

The case is a complicated mix of hard facts, mysterious occurrences, and uncooperative witnesses. The hotel refuses to turn over its reservation list and the victim won’t divulge who she was meeting that night. Add in the facts that the attack happened months ago, the victim’s memory is fuzzy, and there are holes in the hotel’s surveillance system, and Veronica has a convoluted mess on her hands. As she works to fill in the missing pieces, it becomes clear that someone is lying—but who? And why?

Sassy detective Veronica Mars is back - yay! - along with the gang, plus Logan - double yay! - to find out what exactly happened to a young woman who was discovered badly beaten in a remote area. She vaguely remembers what happened, but since she deliberately took the route without cameras in the hotel, no one can be sure how she got from a random room to the field several miles away. As Veronica delves deeper and deeper into the investigation, she learns no one is who they seem, including the woman who was raped and left for dead. But even if Veronica can learn the truth, will the angry, anti-Mars, out-with-a-grudge sheriff be willing to do anything about it?

Sigh... Gotta love the sweetness between Veronica and Logan. Makes me really miss the show. Even though they both have careers the other wished they didn't, they suck it up and let it go, somehow finding a way to make it work. Keith is recovering from the attempt on his life, and determined more than ever to help Eli beat the wrap charge the sheriff's office tried to pin on him. And Mac and Wallace are still around to help their favorite gal pal. And though I loved the story, this particular book seemed to lack the Veronica Mars sass I've come to love, hence the doc in star rating. Still a good read if you're a fan of the series.

ARC provided by Vintage for honest review.

The Wicked Awakening of Anne Merchant by Joanna Wiebe (ARC)

The Wicked Awakening of Anne Merchant (The V Trilogy #2)
Joanna Wiebe
Exp. Pub.: January 20, 2015 (TOMORROW!!)

Life and death, light and dark, spirit and flesh - on Wormwood Island, the lines are always blurred. For Anne Merchant, who has been thrust back into this eerily secretive world, crossing the line seems inevitable, inescapable, destined.

Now, as Ben finds himself battling for the Big V and Teddy reveals the celestial plan in which Anne is entwined, Anne must choose: embrace her darkly powerful connection to a woman known as Lilith and, in doing so, save the boy she loves...or follow a safer path that is sure to lead to Ben's destruction at the hands of dark leaders. Hoping the ends will justify the means, Anne starts down the slippery slope into the underworld, intent on exploring the dark to find the light. But as the lure of Lilith proves powerfully strong, will Anne save others - only to lose herself?

 

***If you haven't read The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant,

there be spoilers ahead!***

Unique, mysterious and heartbreaking. Anne Merchant proves even the darkest of souls can be selfless when it comes to saving the ones you love.

Right when Anne Merchant thought she had Villicus beat, she's cruelly ripped from the mortal world and forced to return to Wormwood Island, where the residents are anything but living. Even though Anne's the only student attending Cania Christy who is selectively different, she can still be put in her place by blackmail. Her actions have not only backfired on herself, but her father and Ben as well. Her father is now forced to do the same work as Ben's father, and Ben is now forced to attend the school and compete for the big V as well. And for those of you naughty readers who are breezing through my review before reading the first novel, the V doesn't stand for what you think it does, obviously. :)

But Anne's problems don't end with being nicknamed Murdering Merchant by her heckling classmates. Villicus has been replaced by yet another headmaster, one who has way too much interest in Anne and scheduling special mentoring sessions to occupy her time. But with Ben's time ticking away until graduation and him making no effort to win the elite prize, Anne must do the unthinkable to force him to try, and the repercussions are even worse than she anticipated. So the return of a lost friend couldn't come at a more opportune time, though her reason for being there is bittersweet.

With the arrival of a group of unusual female teachers, it doesn't take Anne long to realize who they are, and as she does what she's told and begins to look more closely at everything around her, she begins to realize there's a bigger game at play, and that Anne herself has a history that could unravel Cania Christy's very way of life on a permanent basis.

4.5 dreamcatchers. If you read the first, the second is even better. If you haven't read the first novel yet, check it out. For awhile you'll think their competition is downright silly until you learn what they're really competing for, then it all seems to make sense why they go about it the way they do. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how the final installment of this paranormal trilogy plays out, and whether or not Anne will be able to fix the heartbreaking nightmare we're currently left with.

 

ARC provided by BenBella Books for honest review.

When by Victoria Laurie (ARC)

When
Victoria Laurie
Exp. Pub.: January 13, 2015 (TOMORROW!!!)

Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?

 

Maddie's never been a true fan of seeing the random numbers on everyone's foreheads. Especially once her father died on the exact same day that matched the sequence on his forehead. Now riddled with guilt, she moves forward always wondering if she could have some how stopped his death had she only understood what she was seeing. These days, she's a teenager who accepts money to tell people their death dates. When a client comes in asking about her daughter, Maddie realizes it's her son she needs to worry about, with a death date just a week away. Unfortunately, the mother takes her remark as a scam and leaves in a huff, calling Maddie a fraud. Even more unfortunate, when her son goes missing and dies by means of torture, she's quick to poke the finger at Maddie, who now becomes the number one suspect in his murder, despite a bunch of evidence pointing elsewhere.

 

Her lawyer uncle runs interference, but Maddie is unable to keep her death dates to herself like he asked. When she spots that her best friend's crush is going to die soon too, he becomes obsessed with finding a way to save her, which only drags him into the suspect pool as well. With her alcoholic mother falling apart even more than usual, the teachers and students turning on her at school and the FBI breathing down her neck, Maddie finds it exhausting to keep her head above water, especially once the serial killer begins taking an interest in her.

 

I'm not really sure if I'd go around telling strangers their death dates if I had that special ability. Would you? Neither would Maddie, but thanks to her alcoholic mother, they needed the extra money to make up for all the vodka bottles. Bad luck really, because it's responsible for spotlighting her gift to naysayers and doubters and attracting attention where she could've gone without. Gotta feel for the girl, especially when she continually tries to get her mother to beat her addiction just so she won't have to continue doing the readings.

 

As for the serial killer, I guess I found it a bit unrealistic that the FBI would focus so hard on as Maddie as a suspect when it was clear that the evidence was screaming someone else did it. Not to mention she was just a female teenager with good grades and not a strike of red on her permanent record. I guess I could've found their interest in her more plausible if at least some of the evidence had a legitimate chance of being left by her before testing results came in... I don't know. It seemed discrimination drove their investigation instead of the hard facts, which I don't see the FBI doing against a teenage girl. This lack of realism is the main reason I've docked it a little in the star department. Otherwise, it was a pretty good read that kept my attention, and I think most people will find it an enjoyable quick read with just enough mystery to keep you guessing.

ARC provided by Disney-Hyperion for honest review.

This Shattered World by Amie Kauffman and Meagan Spooner (ARC)

This Shattered World (Starbound #2)
Amie Kauffman and Meagan Spooner
Exp. Pub.: December 23, 2014

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.   

This Shattered World follows two more opposites fighting it out thanks to the messed up experiments by LaRoux Industries. Flynn grew up on Avon, where their world was supposed to be terraformed to make them a more contributal planet. But decades later their world is no closer to achieving that than the day they agreed to it. The rebellion has been well underway, with Flynn's sister already dead ten years, who was once their leader. A great majority look to her brother Flynn as the next leader, but a man named McBride has an itchy trigger finger to start attacking the military and break the cease-fire. He has good reason - military personnel has to be constantly changed out every one to two months because they're susceptible to something they refer to as the Fury, where the officer loses control and goes murderous. The military tries to get them off planet in before that can happen by monitoring the signs, but sometimes it happens too fast, and native residents of Avon seem to be the only victims of this curious disease. While McBride believes it's just an excuse to kill their people, Flynn begins to believe in the possibility that something more supernatural is going on. But for the most part, his attention is more focused on a secret base he's sure he saw out east, and also on a high ranking officer named Jubilee, who seems to be immune to this so-called Fury and has been on Avon for a year now. Surely she has the knowledge he seeks.

 

Desperate for answers and to stop McBride from convincing his own people to attack the better equipped military, he seizes the opportunity to abduct Jubilee off base. But she holds no answers for him, or at least isn't willing to share them. And when his plan to trade her for supplies is rejected, he knows killing her will only unleash the military's wrath, so he goes against his people and allows her to escape. Ready to go after the rebel leader who abducted her, certain events take place that begin to make Jubilee question the things Flynn interrogated her about, and as both their worlds become more deadly, two sworn enemies soon realize working together is their best chance for saving both sides.

This was a good follow-up to These Broken Stars, which I absolutely loved. Flynn and Jubilee didn't win my heart as much as their predesecors, but I still adored them by the end. And before you ask, yes, you'll get to see Tarver and Lilac again, who have an intimate knowledge at dealing with the shady side of LaRoux industries, but only for a small percentage of the novel. But if you loved the first novel of the Starbound series, you'll love the second one too.

ARC provided by Disney-Hyperion for honest review.

A Darker Past by Jus Accardo (ARC)

A Darker Past (Darker Agency #2)
Jus Accardo
Pub: November 11, 2014

The past is Darker than they thought...

Between helping her mother with the Darker Agency and laying the smack down on monster baddies, Jessie Darker puts the “normal” in paranormal. But lately, things have gotten a little crazy...even for a smart-assed half-demon teenage girl.

For starters, Jessie’s been contracted into fifty-five years of annoying servitude. To a demon. Then there’s Lukas Scott, her sexy new boyfriend. Once the former incarnation of Wrath, he’s been going through some...uh, changes. Like residual anger. And trading chaste hangouts for lusty make-out sessions.

But it’s when Lukas and Jessie accidentally release a Very Nasty Demon that things get really bad, setting into motion a chain of death and mayhem that threatens both Earth and the Shadow Realm. Jessie has exactly four days to fix it...before all of Hell breaks loose.

First off, I'll admit I haven't read the first in this series, but I didn't let that deter me from diving right in. I loved Jessie's sarcasm, especially in the first quarter of the book. Her snarkiness seemed to fade a bit from there, but she occasionally graced me with something sassy to lift my mood. Her boyfriend Lukas is recovering from being Wrath's b*tch for way too long, forced there by his crazy ex, and is now under the tutelage of Jessie's Father in hell, but can go back and forth freely. Well, mostly freely like Jessie, who finds herself being sucked into hell every the demon she's now in servitude to decides to beckon her to his semi-creepy side to do a job for him.

While checking out something for her family's demon agency, Lukas' crazy ghost of an ex goes mental and ends up setting loose a demon that had been trapped. And since Jessie's family had a hand in putting him there, he unleashes his vengeance on every member of the Darker family and the ones they love. Who will survive his wrath before he can be trapped again?

A Darker Past started off strong and was a decent story, though it began to drag for me about half way through. I think that might've just been me though. I was enjoying Jessie's sarcastic thoughts so well, that when her sassiness began to fade a bit, it made the story come off a little more ho-hum for me. But I think most people who like this genre will be more than happy with Miss Accardo's world of demons. And romance lovers will be sated with the lustful-yet-still-respectful relationship between Jessie and Lukas, who find being similar in the fact that they're both demon-newbies just a little stressful on the ole love life.

3.5 Dreamcatchers. ARC provided by Entangled Teen for honest review.

This Is Your Afterlife by Vanessa Barneveld (ARC)

This Is Your Afterlife
Vanessa Barneveld
Pub.: October 21, 2014

When the one boy you crushed on in life can't seem to stay away in death, it's hard to be a normal teen when you're a teen paranormal.

Sixteen-year-old Keira Nolan has finally got what she wanted—the captain of the football team in her bedroom. Problem is he’s not in the flesh. He’s a ghost and she’s the only one who can see him.

Keira's determined to do anything to find Jimmy's killer. Even it if means teaming up with his prickly-yet-dangerously-attractive brother, Dan, also Keira's ex-best-friend. Keira finds that her childish crush is fading, but her feelings for Dan are just starting to heat up, and as the story of Jimmy’s murder unfolds, anyone could be a suspect.

This thrilling debut from Vanessa Barneveld crosses over from our world to the next, and brings a whole delightful new meaning to "teen spirit".  

Keira Nolan seems to face the problem most teenagers do in high school. No, not the ghost thing, but the part where she always had such a crush on one guy she didn't realize there was another worth having until it was too late. Jimmy was the star athlete every girl wanted, but it was his artistic brother Dan who had eyes for Keira. And when her best friend tried to kiss her for that lovely game of Seven Minutes in Heaven, Keira blurted the stupidest thing possible - next thing she knew, she'd lost her best friend and the guy she aparently had a thing for.

A few years later, Keira's finally inheriting her late grandmother's gift - the ability to see dead people. And her first official ghost sighting? None other than Jimmy himself, who can't remember how he died, nor can he seem to keep himself grounded the farther he travels away from Keira. So not only will Keira have to help Jimmy figure out how he mysteriously died, but he's begged her to tell his brother he's still around. Wouldn't be such a feat if he didn't hate her so much.

 

It's been a while since I read a YA book that was this cute and kept my attention because of that. Don't get me wrong, the story was simple and I figured out right away why Jimmy died, but it didn't bother me moving forward with the novel. Let's just call This Is Your Afterlife simple and sweet. If you need a light, easy read that'll make you smile and come down from one of the more emotionally heavy novels out there, this is your gem.

 

 

ARC provided by Bloomsbury Spark for honest review.

Anomaly by Tonya Kuper (ARC)

Anomaly (Schrodinger's Consortium #1)
Tonya Kuper
Pub.: Nov 25, 2014

Reality is only an illusion.
Except for those who can control it…

Worst. Birthday. Ever.

My first boyfriend dumped me – happy birthday, Josie!- my dad is who knows where, I have some weird virus that makes me want to hurl, and now my ex is licking another girl’s tonsils. Oh, and I’m officially the same age as my brother was when he died. Yeah, today is about as fun-filled as the swamps of Dagobah. But then weird things start happening…

Like I make something materialize just by thinking about it.

When hot badass Reid Wentworth shows up on a motorcycle, everything changes. Like, everything. Who I am. My family. What really happened to my brother. Existence. I am Oculi, and I have the ability to change reality with my thoughts. Now Reid, in all his hotness, is charged with guiding and protecting me as I begin learning how to bend reality. And he’s the only thing standing between me and the secret organization that wants me dead… 

Hmm. Anomaly was just okay for me; didn't love it, didn't hate it. I will say that I enjoyed the geekiness of Josie and the way she could refer to stories like Star Wars and Thor and compare them to the new version of her everyday life. I also liked that her superpower involved pushing and retracting objects in and out of existence. Definitely a cool ability to have. But the storyline of girl with new abilities training and falling for her hot new trainer has become a bit of a bore for me - I've read it too many times already, so it made the story really drag on until the last fifteen percent. She just spent way too much of this novel learning how to push things into reality. I prefer to read about spontaneous conflict, not the manufactured kind to teach a new skill.

 

Give it a go if you like, and so long as you don't go in expecting to be blown away, you'll probably be content enough with Anomaly.  2.5 Dreamcatchers.

ARC provided by Entangled Publishing for honest review.

The Body Electric by Beth Revis (ARC)

The Body Electric
Beth Revis
Pub.: October 6, 2014

The future world is at peace.

Ella Shepherd has dedicated her life to using her unique gift—the ability to enter people’s dreams and memories using technology developed by her mother—to help others relive their happy memories.

But not all is at it seems.

Ella starts seeing impossible things—images of her dead father, warnings of who she cannot trust. Her government recruits her to spy on a rebel group, using her ability to experience—and influence—the memories of traitors. But the leader of the rebels claims they used to be in love—even though Ella’s never met him before in her life. Which can only mean one thing…

Someone’s altered her memory.

Ella’s gift is enough to overthrow a corrupt government or crush a growing rebel group. She is the key to stopping a war she didn’t even know was happening. But if someone else has been inside Ella’s head, she cannot trust her own memories, thoughts, or feelings.

So who can she trust?

Ella's life wasn't completely easy. Her father died in a terrorist attack and her mother has an incurable illness that's slowly withering her away. Ella soon learns that her mother's invention - a machine that allows users to relive their happiest memories - no longer works to give her mother peace. So Ella doses herself with an insane amount of nanobots to allow herself to hook up and help her mother through the process. But now her body seems to be able to do things she never should've been able to, like staying underwater for way too long without breathing.

Once the government realizes what Ella can do with her mother's machine, they enlist her help to read the mind of a man they suspect is aiding a terrorist organization. The internal hacking leads Ella to the name of a man who used to work for her father, who is also suspected of leading the terrorist group. But when Ella finally comes face to face and mind to mind with him, she discovers the awful truth - that not only does that man have intimate moments of the two of them together that she can't remember, but that he nor the government leader she's been aiding are what they seem.

 

I really enjoyed Beth Revis' Across the Universe books, so I figured I'd probably really like The Body Electric too. This dystopian society relies heavily on technology to advance their lives, hence the nanobots circulating their systems. Ella thought she had a relatively low number, but soon learns that she has way more than she thought possible without suffering from bot brain, which basically makes your body go kaput. And once she learns it's probably because of her own father's research, her life will never be the same.

Reading through this, there were a few things that were obviously coming, and a few things that actually surprised me - and I'm hard to surprise. I think my one dissapointment was with the ending and its lack of closure on the romance front. It was left in a way that wasn't satisfying for me. These two characters had a past and I would've liked to see them acknowledge it a little more and choose a path before cutting me off, but other than that it was a pretty interesting novel. So if you're into mystery science fiction, this is a pretty good one to pick up.

 

3.5 dreamcatchers.

 

 

ARC provided by Scripturient Books for honest review.

Crane by Stacey Rourke

Crane (The Legends Saga, #1)
Stacey Rourke
Pub: May 26, 2014

The Horseman is unending,
his presence shan’t lessen.
If you break the curse,
you become the legend.

Washington Irving and Rip Van Winkle had no choice but to cover up the deadly truth behind Ichabod Crane’s disappearance. Centuries later, a Crane returns to Sleepy Hollow awakening macabre secrets once believed to be buried deep.

What if the monster that spawned the legend lived within you?

Now, Ireland Crane, reeling from a break-up and seeking a fresh start, must rely on the newly awakened Rip Van Winkle to discover the key to channeling the darkness swirling within her. Bodies are piling high and Ireland is the only one that can save Sleepy Hollow by embracing her own damning curse.

But is anyone truly safe when the Horseman rides?

Ichabod Crane's descendent has returned to Sleepy Hollow, and the moment she does, residents suddenly become victimized by beheadings. And the residents aren't shy about showing their distrust of Ireland and her familial connection to their small town. But when a mystery dude from the past shows up and her dreams start becoming a little prophetic, Ireland Crane is forced to believe that maybe, just maybe, those murdered were selected on her behalf. 

 

I thought I was really going to like this, as I love the Sleepy Hollow storyline in general, but I guess I felt this particular version was lacking as I read through it. I will say it's got a pretty cool cover, which is what drew it to me to begin with. Crane takes readers back and forth between Ireland's present to the past with what happened on Ichabod's end, and I dare say I actually preferred Ichabod and company to the modern day story. So much I would've liked to have had the first book dedicated to the past and a second following up with Ireland, just so their stories flowed more smoothly. I wasn't a huge fan of how someone from the past awakened in the future as the Horseman became active again, because it was too similar to what's been done with the popular TV show. But I will admit I enjoyed Rip's character immensely. He definitely stole the show from the alternating main characters.

Though it was an interesting story, I felt several things were left unanswered. Like why did a Crane have to return to Sleepy Hollow in order for the character responsible for the Horseman to suddenly make itself known (I'm using it to hide the gender). Did Ireland's presence set off a chain reaction? Did it need a Crane around, or did he or she just want to inflict more pain on that family, for messing with it in the past? I didn't think Ireland being there had anything to do with the magic that caused that spell, so I'm just left to wonder why this particular spirit didn't try the spell whenever it wanted, long before a Crane ever returned, because this second time around, the Horseman didn't seem controlled by this individual. Or was it? It wasn't clear as I read through. Also, I found the romance a bit underwhelming, both between Ichabod and Katrina and Ireland and Noah. Ichabod and Katrina seemed a little silly, but given the historical time, their behavior and attraction was probably pretty close to what happened back then, so I found myself forgiving that they seemed ready to have each other soon after meeting. But that's no excuse for Ireland and Noah, who hardly interacted at all before he confessed his willingness to love her despite the evil lying within her. I don't know...just this day in age, it screams insta-love and was just put there to make the two time periods mirror each other.  And Noah is so nonchalant about suddenly sharing a bed even though the Horseman could rise as she slept, no matter how much she claimed she had a hold on it. I sure the hell wouldn't be able to sleep so easy! Or in the same house! And I'm not even sure of what to make of the fiancé Ireland left behind. Forget me asking why she was ever involved with such a snooty douche to begin with, but what relevance did all that drama have to the storyline, other than giving the Horseman someone to play with? All this so-called romance was just plain frustrating.

If you're into Sleepy Hollow or other suspenseful horror stories, might be good to go with Crane. Lots of people have four and five-starred this, so don't let my ho-hum-ness deter you from checking this out. It certainly had some moments here and there that were pretty entertaining.

This is more like a 2.5 for me.

 

Novel provided by Anchor Group Publishing for honest review.

UNBREAKABLE and UNMARKED by Kami Garcia (ARCs)

Unbreakable (The Legion #1)
Kami Garcia
Pub.: October 1, 2014

I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon — a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night.

Now Kennedy has to take her mother’s place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon — battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way.

Life was normal and easy-going before Kennedy came home to find her mother dead. She thought it was natural causes until she awoke to find her possessed cat sucking the life out of her. And the only reason she survived? Because two brothers were close by keeping an eye on her, and when she screamed, they came running in to help. They claimed to be part of a legion of modern day ghostbusters, a group which the next successors are chosen by the five current members. When all five were killed by the minions of a demon named Andras, the brothers and two others were activated. And so was Kennedy, if she could believe their wild tale. Though not entirely convinced, having a poltergeist blow up your home is pretty good motivation to give their crazy story a chance.

Enter Alara and Priest, the other two members of Legion. Going through their predecessors journals, they learn of a weapon called the shift that could take Andras down, but it's been separated into several pieces and left in the possession of vengeance spirits. Following the clues left at each site, the members one by one kill a vengeance spirit using their specialty skill and earn their fifth of the Andras seal on their forearm. But once Kennedy fulfills her part, its not the seal she earns for killing the ghost and completing the weapon, but something none of them could see coming.

If you're looking for paranormal story that reads a lot like the hit show Supernatural, you'll probably be happy enough with this novel. There is the workings of a love triangle between Kennedy and the twins, but still pretty light on actual romance in this first installment. Unbreakable was a really fast read that'll keep your attention from beginning to end, so check it out if ghostbustin' tops your genre list. 

ARC provided by Little, Bfor honest review.

Unmarked (The Legion #2)
Kami Garcia
Pub: October 1, 2014

He is here... and he could be anyone.

Kennedy Waters lives in a world where vengeance spirits kill, ghosts keep secrets, and a demon walks among us–a demon she accidentally set free.

Now Kennedy and the other Legion members–Alara, Priest, Lukas, and Jared–have to hunt him down. As they learn more about the history of the Legion and the Illuminati, Kennedy realizes that the greatest mystery of all does not belong to any secret order, but to her own family. With the clock ticking and the life of someone she loves hanging in the balance, Kennedy has to ask the question she fears most: what is it about her past that has left her Unmarked?

Kennedy Waters would love nothing more than to hide away and pretend she wasn't directly responsible for releasing a horrible demon from his entrapment, but unfortunately, no one will let her - including the other members of Legion and Andras himself, who continually kills girls who resemble Kennedy. The Legion is at least willing to share in the mistake, but Kennedy is stubborn to let go. All they can do moving forward is to figure out why she hasn't gotten her mark, so the Legion seeks out clues to Kennedy's family past. 

Turns out her family lines clash - she's both Legion and Illuminati, and though she wants nothing more than to be Legion with her newfound friends, it's impossible to taint their line with Illuminati blood, so what's an Illuminati girl falling in love with a Legion boy to do? And to make things even more difficult, Andras has taken possession of someone who's become dear to her heart.

Unmarked was another quick read by Kami Garcia, but lacked a little in the action department compared to Unbreakable. It was good to get a better idea of where this series is going, but I didn't feel this installment was written in a way that resolved anything other than learning why Kennedy didn't get her mark, which happened long before the story ended. I don't know...this novel and it's direction was just weird for me. 

ARC provided by Little, Brown for honest review.

 

Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis (ARC)

Stitching Snow
R.C. Lewis
Pub.: October 14, 2014 TOMORROW!

Princess Snow is missing.

Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back—but that’s assuming she wants to return at all.

Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.

When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane’s arrival was far from accidental, and she’s pulled into the heart of a war she’s risked everything to avoid. With the galaxy’s future—and her own—in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival. 

Stitching Snow was a fresh take on the popular fairy tale that had a cool Star Wars kind of vibe to it. Essie (Princess Snow) has been in hiding the past eight years in a remote part of Thanda, a mining planet where only those in need of work ever travel. She's learned to survive by tinkering and stitching her own set of robots which are used to help keep the miners from going too deep into dangerous territory, and for extra money, Snow takes part in fighting matches with the men transitioning through.

 

Essie was good with this life. It was predictable, and in a way, safe. At least until a ship crashed nearby. With no mechanics nearby, it's up to Essie to stitch up Dane's ship to get him back in the sky. But he's not who he seems, which Essie figures out all too late, and she's forced to return to a dangerous world where everyone has a hidden agenda and the royals are only all too happy to pick up where they left off - needing Princess Snow dead.

Unique and engaging, Stitching Snow will keep you glued to the pages as Essie tries desperately to survive this messed up universe of greed and power, all while struggling with these romantic notions suddenly sprouting for the most unlikely suitor. And best part of all, it's a standalone so no pesky waiting period to see how it all unfolds.

ARC provided by Disney-Hyperion for honest review.

Whisper the Dead by Alyxandra Harvey (ARC)

Whisper the Dead (The Lovegrove Legacy #2)
Alyxandra Harvey
Exp. Pub.: October 9, 2014 Tomorrow!!!

Gretchen is struggling with her newfound gift as a Whisperer; the constant buzzing in her ears from detecting spells is more frustrating than fun, especially when she is spending time with one of the Order of Iron Nail's Keepers, the icy but strikingly handsome Tobias Lawless. But while Gretchen tries to hide the truth and resolve her feelings for him, London fades from beautiful and bustling to deathly silent ...Something evil is once again menacing Mayfair, and Gretchen and her cousins must use their powers to prevent a horrible sacrifice.

The Lovegrove cousins are back after bottling the Greymalkin sisters into magical containments. Whisper the Dead focuses more on Gretchen this time as she tries to learn her craft - whispers tell her what type of spells are being cast and if anything can be used to make a particular spell stronger. She tries to focus her power into discovering why the wards in the city are going haywire and why elements once contained in certain areas are expanding their turf. But having constant supervision by the Keepers isn't helping her become more attuned to anything other than her rising agitation for her personal new shadow, Tobias Lawless.

 

Hmm... Where to begin. I liked this story, I did. But something felt off about it. I had no problem putting it aside to read other books, which is rare for me when I actually like the story enough. I love Gretchen and Emma especially, and I have the feeling Penelope will get her turn to shine in the third installment. And I love their beaus. Cormac is perfectly sweet for Emma and Tobias is just the kick in the skirt Gretchen needs, and vice versa. Quite honestly, the relationships are what keep me intrigued enough to continue the story, because there are so many things thrown at me I just find confusing. Especially all the magical charms and spell ingredients. Every time I turn around some obscure object is used to ward off something else. Pretty soon I'm sure an chocolate-coated acorn will be used to scare away a squirrel. How the hell do they keep it all straight, because it lacks consistency. Still, the main plot circling the Lovegrove cousins and the Greymalkin sisters is interesting enough to see where this is going to go.

ARC provided by Bloomsbury Childrens for honest review.

I Am The Weapon by Allen Zadoff

I Am The Weapon (The Unknown Assassin #1)
Allen Zadoff
Pub.: May 13, 2014

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die -- of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target.

When his own parents died of not-so-natural causes at the age of eleven, Boy Nobody found himself under the control of The Program, a shadowy government organization that uses brainwashed kids as counter-espionage operatives. But somewhere, deep inside Boy Nobody, is somebody: the boy he once was, the boy who wants normal things (like a real home, his parents back), a boy who wants out. And he just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's next mission. 

Boy Nobody lost his parents when he was just a kid, his father by the same assassin who took him to the program he worked for. There Nobody was given a choice to either work for the Program or die. Hard choice, right? Several years later he's been working one case after another, where he goes in, befriends the kid of the target, kills their parent, then disappears into thin air, just to start the process all over again. He's kind of the perfect assassin. Because really, who would expect a kid? Not too many.

Now, Nobody's newest case has him targeting the governor of New York and his very opinionated young daughter. But all is not what it seems, and Nobody begins to question his assignment - which just isn't smart when you work for a group with assassins at the ready - because they may just turn them on you.

 

Sorry, but I'm keeping my plot summary vague on this one, as very little could be said without revealing the mystery behind it all. This was a good YA read with mild spy antics. The story focused more on Nobody's growing relations his target's daughter and learning to think for himself than actual spy stuff you'd expect to get from the adult novels. But it's definitely one worth checking out for the younger readers.

 

Novel provided by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

 

My Wolf's Bane by Veronica Blade (Indie)

My Wolf's Bane (Shapes of Autumn #1)
Veronica Blade
Pub Date: January 28, 2013

Different species. Mortal enemies. It'll never work, but they'll die trying.

Autumn Rossi thought she was a normal teenager. Suddenly, she can outrun every critter in the forest, making her wonder if she’s even human.

When the new guy at school, Zack de Luca, witnesses a questionable scene, he unfairly pins her as stuck-up. He acts like he hates her, yet he keeps bailing her out of trouble. Not only is Zack both insufferable and irresistible, he seems to sniff her anytime he gets close.

As passion flares between them, Autumn isn’t sure which is more dangerous: her psycho ex-boyfriend, or falling for Zack — who’s risking his life just by being near her.
 

Freaky things are happening to Autumn Rossi. All of a sudden she can hear sounds in the distance, her smell is more refined and sensitive, she's able to run at speeds she shouldn't be able to reach, and her body heals way too fast. Even this teenager knows these aren't the kind of symptoms you go running to the doctor about, so she has no one to ask. Her parents, you ask? They've been suffocating her for years. Constantly in contact, even texting her in school, never leaving her alone for more than an hour at a time. And they move her several times a year. So telling them about these things when they're already itching to move once more, Autumn decides to deal with it on her own. She likes it where she is. She'll turn eighteen in less than a week and is ready to stop following her parents so she can graduate high school where she is. The only thing she doesn't like? The new guy who always seems to be behind her trying to be her freakin' savior.

 

Zack de Luca may be hot, but Autumn's getting whiplash from his mood swings. Always short and snippy with her, if he wasn't helping to fix her sorry excuse for a car or putting himself between her and her crazy of an ex, she'd think he completely hated her. But when Autumn negotiates with her parents to stay while they leave town for work for a week, she finds herself forced to spend more time with him. Not only has the local mechanic put Zach in charge of helping her find a new car within her budget, but her ex becomes more aggressive, and Zach feels compelled to sleep on her sofa and be a little more attentive at school. Which would be all fine and well if that jerk didn't start growing on her. And it seems he had the same problems with her. When she finds out neither she or Zach are even human, Autumn thinks she's finally found someone she can relate to. But there's an expiration on this so-called camaraderie, because both of their lives are in danger, and being together is not only forbidden but to puts a deadly target on both their backs.

If you're a fan of forbidden romance with a taste of the supernatural world, this is a goody to pick up. But these characters are still high school, so you better prepare yourself for some additional teenage drama. I'm curious to see what happens because there's something more going on with her parents, and I've got it in my head that they're either a part of a certain secret society or that they might just be guilty of having one of these forbidden relationships themselves.

Copy provided by Crush Publishing for honest review.