Review: Kiss at Your Own Risk - Stephanie Rowe

Genre: Paranormal romance
Pages: 384
Published: Jan 2011 Sourcebooks Casablanca

Trinity Harpswell is a cursed Black Widow-death and mayhem are all part of the job description. If she can manage to go just one more week without accidentally killing someone, she'll break this killer curse and put her Black Widow days behind her. When sexy Blaine Underhill III shows up at her door and asks for her help rescuing his friend from the clutches of Death's evil grandma, Trinity gets pulled into a daring high stakes adventure. As Blaine and Trinity join forces to take down a series of underworld assassins, they may just learn that love is the deadliest game of all.

Plot:

Trinity is cursed, and if she kills for the 5th time she will be unstoppable, every time she falls for a guy she kills him, but if she only makes it one more week she will be free. But then her dad gets into trouble, and there is a serial killer in town, on top of it all sexy Blaine shows up and offers her a deal. Now she must try to hate him for a week so she wont kill him by accident.

My thoughts:

There was sure a lot going on in this book, and I liked that. It was strange, funny and utterly weird sometimes.

Trinity is really sweet and she hates her curse. Every time she falls for a man she goes into killing mode. While Blaine is angry tormented and hate women. He has been tortured for 150 years by an evil witch. Here is the funny part, I kind of understood Angelica, the evil witch doing the torturing. She just wants to create nice men that are kind to women. Ok wrong method, but still, not even when she sent her cute killer dogs after Blaine and his friends I could hate her.

It was a strange world that I would have liked to explore more. There seems to be magical dimensions, and our world. Death, or Prentiss that is his real name, took over the Death contract and got that job that way. There are nasty assassins running around killing, there werewolves, vampires, trolls, it's a full world. By the way, I liked Death, sure he was an utter ass-hole that had a harem of women, and they never got any satisfaction from him, but still he was so funny.

Among all this magic, there is humour and that really sets the tone for the book. It is just so amusing.

One problem I had thought was that Blaine was so angry and male, did he learn nothing while tortured *coughs* silly question. But the whole I will kill you think, meh, then again it had to be that way. But he did lose a few points there.

Recommendation and final thoughts:

I was so amused, I do like funny paranormal romance, so I would recommend this to others. It's a 3,75, that could have been a 4. I would sure like to read more from this world and explore it, and meet Death again. Perhaps he will learn a lesson about dealing with women.

Reason for reading:

Sounded fun

Cover: 

Not to my liking, but it fits cos he can make fire

Review: The Water Wars - Cameron Stracher

Genre: YA, dystopia
Pages: 240
Published: January 2011 Sourcebook Fire

Welcome to a future where water is more precious than gold or oil-and worth killing for

Vera and her brother, Will, live in the shadow of the Great Panic, in a country that has collapsed from environmental catastrophe. Water is hoarded by governments, rivers are dammed, and clouds are sucked from the sky. But then Vera befriends Kai, who seems to have limitless access to fresh water. When Kai suddenly disappears, Vera and Will set off on a dangerous journey in search of him-pursued by pirates, a paramilitary group, and greedy corporations. Timely and eerily familiar, acclaimed author Cameron Stracher makes a stunning YA debut that's impossible to forget.

Plot:

Good blurb

My thoughts:

Things have gone really bad in this book. The polar ice has melted and been harvested, dams have been cut off, and rivers are dry. The world has been through wars and what once was the US is now a couple of smaller countries. Vera and her brothers live in Illionowa. They are normal kids, except for being thirsty all the time, eating bad food, and worrying about the future. But they still seem hopeful, and love to watch YouToo. Kai is a mystery kid that Vera meets. He keeps his secrets close, and I like him.

You will also meet a pirate (liked him too), bad people who blow up things, and hear tales about the evil Canadians..what?! Oh yes, Canadians are really really bad in this book. I found that really fun actually.

One thing though, these kids are way too lucky, but then again if they weren't lucky they would have been dead long ago during their little adventure. So I can deal with that, they are kids, it's a YA book, and there are some really bad people here. They need friends on their side and get out of situations more easily.

I liked the take on water in this book. Because it is a very likely scenario that plays out in this book. It could happen, it is also critical of the government and even of those trying to save the nature, the paramilitary group, everyone have something to gain, and the goals are not always in the best interest of the many.

The end is an end, but still there is an opening, for things to get better, or get really really bad.

Recommendation and final thoughts:

An easy YA book that gave you something to think about at the same time. I could see teens reading this one in school and discussing afterwards why things went bad, how to stop them, and different scenarios.

Ps. There is a map, I love maps, yay for the map.

Reason for reading:

I like dystopian YA

Cover:

Kind of ..meh

Review: The Conqueror's Shadow - Ari Marmell

Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 480
Published: December 2010 Gollancz

They called him the Terror of the East. Hidden beneath a suit of enchanted black armor and wielding a demon-forged axe, Corvis Rebaine carved a bloody path through Imphallion, compelled by a desire to see the land governed with some degree of honesty. Yet just when victory was in his grasp, Rebaine faltered, then vanished, taking a single hostage, a young noblewoman named Tyannon, to guarantee his escape.

Seventeen years later, Rebaine and Tyannon are married and raising their children. Rebaine has given up his dreams of conquest. Not even news of the upstart warlord Audriss can stir the retired warrior to action, until his daughter is assaulted by Audriss's goons.

Now, to rescue the country he once tried to conquer, Rebaine once more dons the armor of the Terror of the East and seeks out his former allies. But Davro has become a peaceful farmer. Seilloah has no wish to leave her haunted forest home. And Khanda . . . well, to describe his feelings for his former master as undying hatred would be an understatement.

But even if Rebaine can convince his onetime comrades to join him, he faces a greater challenge: Does he dare to reawaken the part of him that gloried in cruelty, blood, and destruction? With the safety of his family at stake, can he dare not to?
 

Plot:

It says what it should say

My thoughts:

I liked it, a lot. There was something light over the whole book, even in the darkness. Corvis is not someone you should like, but how could I not like him. At the beginning of the book he does his name credit, he is not a nice person, quite the opposite. The he disappears and marries, haves children, only to see the world break again. And again he shows that he truly is The Terror of The East. But sometimes you just have to love the evil guy, because at least this time he wants to protect his wife and children. Marmell sure does a great job creating this character you just fall for.

There is humour and a streak of light through out the book. Much comes from Khanda, his "pet" demon. That demon has a tongue on him and says what he wants. To my horror I like him too, even when he is feasting on souls. There is also his once trusted friends, great sidekicks there.

The book does what fantasy should do. It sweeps you into a new world and make you feel right at home there. A kingdom that can not stand together, the guilds wants one thing, the nobles another thing, and a new enemy that wants to have it all. There are battles, death, destruction, and one good plot that had me guessing.

But the thing I did like the best was how much I liked these characters, and how I wanted to read more about them. The book ends where it ends. A nice conclusion and that is it. But it leaves an opening and there will be another book, and I want that book.

Recommendation and final thoughts:

Of course I am recommending this book, I could not put it down, and I did not want to put it down either. It was fun, it was light, it was dark, it was a great ride. I have to give it a 4 and I hope he keeps up the good work.

So go read it, and I promise you will like Corvis too.

Reason for reading:

I love fantasy

Cover:

Not what I like, but it does say fantasy

Review: A Quick Bite - Lynsay Sands

Argeneau, book 1

Genre: Paranormal romance
Pages: 400
UK PB: Published: December 2010 Gollancz

That hot guy tied to Lissianna Argeneau's bed? He's not dessert - he's the main course!

Lissianna has been spending her centuries pining for Mr. Right, not just a quick snack, and this sexy guy she finds in her bed looks like he might be a candidate. But there's another, more pressing issue: her tendency to faint at the sight of blood... An especially annoying quirk for a vampire. Of course it doesn't hurt that this man has a delicious-looking neck. What kind of cold-blooded vampire woman could resist a bite of that?

Dr. Gregory Hewitt recovers from the shock of waking up in a stranger's bedroom pretty quickly - once he sees a gorgeous woman about to treat him to a wild night of passion. But is it possible for the good doctor to find true love with a vampire vixen, or will he be just a good meal? That's a question Dr. Greg might be willing to sink his teeth into... If he can just get Lissianna to bite.

Plot:

The Blurb does say it all.

My thoughts:

This one was on the lighter side of paranormal romance. Sure there was some passion and danger, but there was also this light vibe and some humour.

I liked the plot idea. Lissianna is an 200 year old vampire, she has no problem biting down on a neck but in these modern times most blood comes in bad. And Lissi has one big problem, she faints at teh sight of blood. Her mother kidnaps a hunky men and leaves him on her bed, the doctor to fix her problems. A sexy doctor that makes her long for a bit more.

Lissi was nice, and after delving deeper into her past I understand her fear of blood. Greg was understanding, well, after a while, and they seemed to good for each other. But being immortal is not that easy when it comes to men.

And there I come into the best part of the book, the vampires. Not silly cross fearing, no shadows bloodsuckers here. No there is a good scientific reason; Atlantis, scientist, nanobots into bloodstreams to cure illness, and those same nanos were just too good. Which left the people almost immortal, but in a need of blood not to die. The same nanos can be transferred from mother to child, and if you find you perfect mate. There you got, vampires created by mistake by a superior people. I loved the originality of this.

The tone is light, and had me reading fast. One thing did bother me, a certain danger that emerged and that was so obvious but that Lissi did not see. But then she did have Mr Hunk on her mind so I forgive her.

My recommendation and final thoughts:

I liked this book, and it is a series that I would recommend. There are still lots of single vamps that need to find true love, and I wonder what dangers might emerge. A 3,5 with a promise of more to come. I enjoyed this story, and I sure enjoyed the background for the story. It was a sweet story, throw in some passion and mix with one big nosy family.

Reason for reading:

Sounded fun

Cover:
She does look really sweet and that fits Lissi.