Review: The Forever Watch by David Ramirez

Posted on April 21, 2014April 20, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genre: science fiction
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin’s/Macmillan)
Date Released: April 22, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

All that is left of humanity is on a thousand-year journey to a new planet aboard one ship, The Noah, which is also carrying a dangerous serial killer…

As a City Planner on the Noah, Hana Dempsey is a gifted psychic, economist, hacker and bureaucrat and is considered “mission critical.” She is non-replaceable, important, essential, but after serving her mandatory Breeding Duty, the impregnation and birthing that all women are obligated to undergo, her life loses purpose as she privately mourns the child she will never be permitted to know.

When Policeman Leonard Barrens enlists her and her hacking skills in the unofficial investigation of his mentor’s violent death, Dempsey finds herself increasingly captivated by both the case and Barrens himself. According to Information Security, the missing man has simply “Retired,” nothing unusual. Together they follow the trail left by the mutilated remains. Their investigation takes them through lost dataspaces and deep into the uninhabited regions of the ship, where they discover that the answer may not be as simple as a serial killer after all.
What they do with that answer will determine the fate of all humanity in this thrilling page turner.

My Review:

If you threw Gorky Park, Blade Runner, one of Robin Cook’s medical thrillers and Anne McCaffrey’s The Ship Who Sang into a blender, you might come up with something like The Forever Watch–but it probably wouldn’t be half as good.

Not even if you added in elements of The Matrix and Madeline Ashby’s Suited. It’s not just that all of those elements are in The Forever Watch, but that they are melded into a single story that left me gasping in marvel at the end.

I’m having a hard time letting this one go. I’m having an even harder time figuring out how to encapsulate the experience.

The story starts with familiar concepts. Hana Dempsey is a City Planning engineer on the generational ship Noah. Her job, her entire department’s job, is to make the city more energy efficient, while still being livable, so that the ship will have enough resources to reach Canaan. In other words, the promised land.

The mission is to save the human race. The ship is over two centuries out from a destroyed Earth, and has eight centuries yet to travel. That’s a long time for hundreds of thousands of human beings to be trapped inside a flying tin can — no matter how big or well designed the can might be.

Perpetuating the human species is not even left to chance. Every woman is assigned Breeding Duty, where she spends the entire pregnancy in a medically induced coma. She is supposed to remember nothing of the process. The child might not even be hers. She’ll certainly never see him or her.

Hana Dempsey comes back from her Breeding Duty with a sense that her life is as empty as she is. Duty is no longer enough.

Her friend, Leonard Barrens, tries to help her fill that void with helping him on a personal quest. Barrens is a cop, and he’s been quietly looking into a series of gruesome and inexplicable murders that no one seems to be investigating. Instead of being looked into, or even merely filed away, all trace of these murders is being systematically wiped from the system.

Barrens needs Hana’s skills to help him hack the vast computer system, the Nth Web, in order to find whatever traces are left. His mentor was one of the victims of what appears to be a serial killer named “Mincemeat” for the way he leaves his victims, and Barrens feels compelled to discover why the evidence keeps disappearing.

Hana gets involved because she needs something to absorb her. And because she has always cared for Barrens more than she is willing to admit. In the testing enforced caste system on the Noah, the differences between a cop and a manager in the City infrastructure are huge.

Hana and Barrens only know each other because Barrens rescued her after an assault. He makes her feel safe. She makes him feel cared for. But she’s used to Barrens being there in her darkest moments, and she’s in one now. His quest gives her something to do, something to be take her out of her empty self.

And finally a way for them to reach out from beyond their society and self-imposed barriers for each other.

Until the secrets that they uncover tear not just them, but their entire world, asunder.

Escape Rating A+: I loved this book so much that I immediately started inflicting it on other people–my husband read it in one sitting (it’s 500 pages!) and now a friend has started to devour it.

The Forever Watch exemplifies some of the best of science fiction, in that as soon as you read you start thinking about the society and what might have brought the race to this sorry pass, and it drives you crazy because the way things have worked out make you uncomfortable. Yet it’s impossible to stop reading, because that same discomfort makes you desperate to figure out why this is the way that society went.

It doesn’t seem logical, and yet it all hangs together perfectly. Even more amazing, every single bit of where it seems that things make no sense within that society, are all resolved at the end, and in a way that upholds the willing suspension of disbelief.

What lengths would we go to in order to save the human race? How far do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? What secrets are so horrible that suppressing them is better for society than full knowledge, and who has the right to decide? How much can be justified by the cold equations of survival?

You will end up with more questions than answers, but you will not be able to get this book out of your head.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 4-20-14

Posted on April 20, 2014April 20, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

We spent the weekend at Norwescon. It was fun, but one thing I’ve noticed is that Dealer’s Rooms have gotten considerably smaller (and slightly less fascinating) since book buying over the Internet has become ubiquitous. There used to be practically acres of big book booths, and now they are few and relatively small.

I attended lots of great panels, and a couple that were absolutely fabulous; one on Medieval Women and the roles they really occupied in history, and the other about what a Heroine’s Journey would look like, as opposed to the classic Hero’s Journey we’re all familiar with. Awesome!

But now we’re back to regularly scheduled life as we know it, so here’s the Sunday Post.

Coming Next Week:

The Forever Watch by David Ramirez (review)
Ice Red by Jael Wye (blog tour review)
Guest Post by Marcella Burnard + Giveaway (for Nightmare Ink, previously reviewed at the Book Pushers)
Dash of Peril by Lori Foster (blog tour review)
Sing for the Dead by PJ Schnyder

Stacking the Shelves (85)

Posted on April 19, 2014April 18, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

It was so crazy, I didn’t see anything I wanted on either NetGalley or Edelweiss until Thursday–then boom!

Maybe this will leave a few spaces on my shelves for whatever I pick up at Norwescon this weekend?

dragons and dirigibles by cindy spencer pape

dont blackmail the vampire by tiffany allee

For Review:
Assassin’s Way (Qolari Diplomatic Corps #1) by K.S. Augustin
Court of Conspiracy (Tudor Enigma #1) by April Taylor
Don’t Blackmail the Vampire (Sons of Kane #2) by Tiffany Allee
Dragons & Dirigibles (Gaslight Chronicles #7) by Cindy Spencer Pape
Supreme Justice by Max Allan Collins

Borrowed from the Library:
The Collector by Nora Roberts

Review: Bite Me by P J Schnyder

Posted on April 18, 2014April 20, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, audiobook
Genre: paranormal romance, urban fantasy
Series: London Undead #1
Length: 89 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: June 24, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance

Few people walk the streets of London since the zombie outbreak, but that’s not an issue for Seth. As a werewolf, he can handle himself and save humans reckless enough to take a nighttime stroll. While on patrol he comes across a group of people under attack. The one woman brave enough to take a stand against the zombies catches his eye—and not just because of her way with a gun. Learning the beautiful woman is homeless and fends for herself only intensifies his urge to protect and care for her.

Maisie can’t help but admit that she’s attracted to her werewolf rescuer. She’s drawn to Seth’s strength and ferocity, and finds herself opening up to him in ways she never imagined, even though she’s determined to not rely on Seth or anyone else. She doesn’t want another person to get hurt—or die—for her sake. She has enough scars, physical and emotional, from the last time…

But when Seth realizes something is drawing the zombies to Maisie, there may be nothing he can do to save her…

My Review:

Bite Me is a very cool little novella, with some neat worldbuilding and a sweet/hot romance at its center.

It’s also gritty, post-apocalyptic and absolutely a tease for the next books in the series.

There are lots of stories where the vampires come out of the coffin or the werewolves stop hiding behind the full moon, but this is the first one I’ve seen where it feels like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies got thrown into the mix, and I mean that in a totally good way (I loved the first one, but the joke went on too long).

In Schnyder’s dangerous new world, an absolute pandemic of zombies is hunting London in mindless, flesh-eating packs. No one knows how the plague started, but now there seem to be only two options; you run or you fight.

What little law and order is left to hunt the zombies has been augmented by the London werewolf pack. Weres are immune to the zombie virus. So are fae and vampires, but those supernatural creatures have yet to expose their existence in the light of day (or night, as the case may be).

So the werewolves are attempting to protect what’s left of the city’s inhabitants, along with the help of the police. Most of society’s infrastructure is pretty much gone. The people who remain inside the quarantine zone hang onto life by their bloody fingernails.

Maisie operates a veterinary clinic. A surprising number of insane idiots come from America and other less-infected places to go “big game hunting” for zombies in London, bringing their pets and their hunting dogs.

Seth is the alpha of the London werewolf pack. Their worlds shouldn’t connect. But when Seth finds Maisie calmly shooting down a zombie horde in Hyde Park with pistols in both hands, he’s intrigued. He likes her practicality, and he’s appreciative of the excellence of her aim.

He intervenes, not because she needs help as because he can’t resist her blend of death and moxie. He thinks he has all the time in the world to court her the way she should be.

Then he discovers that the zombies have not only evolved, but that they are targeting her.

Escape Rating B: I always want more worldbuilding. This novella is both short and the first book in the series, so as much as I enjoyed it, I kept wondering how the zombie plague manifested, when, and what happened in the first few years of reactions. Also what was the reaction when the werewolves pitched in to patrol.

I didn’t say “how the zombie plague started” because people don’t see to know that. I can accept that it might not be known, and that part of the longer story arc is the hunt for both cause and cure.

The London that is being overrun by the zombies feels like it is dying. It almost felt like the story was steampunk or alternate Victorian, not because there is steam technology but because life is reverting back to historic patterns as the standard of living falls precipitously.

There isn’t a lot of time for character development, but there are hints. Both Seth and Maisie carry deep emotional scars, and neither of them is used to relying on others for assistance. They wake something up in each other, mostly because neither of them wants to need another being, ever again, and yet they are both achingly lonely. Two practical minded, independent people who are perfect made to face danger together.

I’m glad I started this series after three books are out; it means that I can dive into the next one (Sing for the Dead) right away!

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews

Posted on April 17, 2014March 22, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook purchased from Amazon
Formats available: ebook
Genre: science fiction romance
Series: Kinsmen #2
Length: 96 pages
Publisher: NYLA
Date Released: September 16, 2011
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance

Claire Shannon is a killer. She uses no weapons, only her mind.

Born on a planet locked in a long war, Claire is a psycher, a woman with the ability to attack minds and infiltrate a biological computer network where psychers battle to the death. But when the war abruptly ends, Claire must hide her psycher’s ability to survive. She is deported to a new planet, a vivid beautiful place, where she meets Venturo Escana, a powerful psycher, whose presence overwhelms both her mind and her body.

She thought she had left war and death behind, but now she must fight for her new life and this battle might just cost her everything…

My Review:

Silver Shark is set in the same universe as Silent Blade, but tells a much different love story and shows us a much different side of this particular future.

It’s also twice as long, which gives the reader not just more world building, but also more character development.

And it’s still too short.

This is not a peaceful future that we see. Resources are scarce, and interplanetary conflict is a fact of life. Brodwyn has been at war with Melko for all of Claire’s life. Each faction claims the planet Uley, and neither will give up.

Everyone contributes to the war effort. Claire is drafted at age 14, forced to leave her terminally ill mother behind so that she can put her “psycher” talents to use for Melko. Claire is extremely powerful, able to infiltrate and kill on the bionet. She fights because that’s all there is to life in her world.

Then Melko surrenders. The talent that has been her biggest asset suddenly paints a target on her back. The conquerors will be certain that she is too dangerous to live. So she hides her abilities, making herself seem like any other refugee, no matter what painful tests are administered to smoke out psychers like her.

As an ordinary refugee, she is sent to Rada, the home planet of the first book, Silent Blade. Her shielding is so perfect, she appears mind-blind, making her the perfect candidate for a job with Ventura Escana. His firm specializes in security, and he is a powerful psycher.

He thinks Claire’s mind is restful because it’s so quiet. He has no clue that the woman he has hired to be his administrative assistant is nearly as powerful as he is. He doesn’t discover that the reason she is so capable, that she is so perfect at anticipating his needs, is because she is just like him.

Ven just thinks she’s perfect.

Until she is forced to open her shell and save her fellow refugees. Ven is as fascinated with the female psycher he battles on the bionet as he is with the admin he is not supposed to touch.

Then he finds out they are one and the same.

Escape Rating A-: This story goes into more depth about this futuristic world. We see Rada through Claire’s eyes, as she learns to adapt to a life that has a future other than war and more war. She wants to live, and maintaining her shield is a requirement, but we see her struggle.

There’s also an element of the classic love trope where the admin or secretary falls in love with the boss, and it’s done very well. Unlike so many stories of this type, Claire and Ven really are equals in power, even if he doesn’t know it. He needs someone who will challenge him, and Claire is more than capable of being very challenging on every level.

We see more of Claire’s perspective than Ven’s, but both of them are interesting, likeable characters and the reader wants to see their happy ending. But the ending was a bit sudden, and Ven is way too accepting of the fact that Claire has been deceiving him all along. I’d love to have seen them take a bit more time to work things out.

While it isn’t necessary to read Silent Blade before Silver Shark, reading both does provide more background for the world, and it makes the scene where Ven brings Claire to meet Meli and Celino that much more fun.

*This review originally appeared in the Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Under a Silent Moon by Elizabeth Haynes

Posted on April 16, 2014March 29, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: mystery, police-procedural
Series: DCI Louisa Smith #1
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Released: April 15, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Two women share a grisly fate in the first entry of this exciting new British crime series—a blend of literary suspense and page-turning thriller that introduces the formidable Detective Chief Inspector Louisa Smith—from the New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Haynes, “the most exciting thing to happen to crime fiction in a long time” (Sophie Hannah, author of Kind of Cruel).

In the crisp, early hours of an autumn morning, the police are called to investigate two deaths. The first is a suspected murder at a farm on the outskirts of a small village. A beautiful young woman has been found dead, her cottage drenched with blood. The second is a reported suicide at a nearby quarry. A car with a woman’s body inside has been found at the bottom of the pit.

As DCI Louisa Smith and her team gather evidence over the course of the next six days, they discover a shocking link between the two cases and the two deaths—a bond that sealed these women’s terrible fates one cold night, under a silent moon.

In this compelling new detective series, Elizabeth Haynes interweaves fictional primary source materials—police reports, phone messages, interviews—and multiple character viewpoints to create a sexy, edgy, and compulsively readable tale of murder, mystery, and unsettling suspense.

My Review:

This is the first book I’ve read by Elizabeth Haynes, but based on this outing, I will definitely be looking for her in the future.

I always enjoy a good police procedural, especially British police procedurals–probably because I watch too many BBC mysteries on the “telly”. Under a Silent Moon reminded me particularly of some of those series, as there is a side-character in the book who seems like a younger and less foul-mouthed version of Andy Dalziel in Dalziel and Pascoe. He’s even named Andy, but he doesn’t have Dalziel’s nose for pulling a solution to the crime out of his hat (or his arse) in the nick of time.

The lead detective in this case is Louisa Smith, and it’s her first case as DCI (Detective Chief Inspector). She’s the supervising investigator into a particularly messy murder at a farm. The case is complicated enough by the victim’s life, it seems as if she was in or had broken up a relationship with every adult in the village, married or single. The number of ex-lovers and cheated-on spouses seems to be legion.

But Polly Leuchars isn’t the only dead body in the neighborhood. Barbara Fletcher-Norman committed suicide by driving off a ledge into a rock quarry on the same night that Polly Leuchars was murdered. Two unrelated deaths on the same night in the same small village is a bit much for the long arm of coincidence.

The story is in the evolution of the investigation and the unraveling of the myriad secrets and lies that link the close-knit inhabitants of this small community. The more that the investigation pulls itself together (sometimes because of, and sometimes in spite of the investigators) the faster that relationships fall apart in the village.

The way that the course of the investigation changes and morphs as the team pokes at all the holes in every witness’ story is fascinating. First it seems as if it’s all about sex. Then the tide turns, and it’s all about a cover-up. At the last moment, it turns into something else entirely. But the readers are just as caught up in following the trail of evidence as the police, and are just as surprised at the end.

Escape Rating A: Under a Silent Moon definitely puts the “procedural” in police procedural, but in a way that makes the reader feel as if they are a part of the investigation. The device of showing the reader the police reports as they are being written draws one compellingly into the action as it happens.

Louisa Smith is a sympathetic point-of-view character with a whole bunch of flaws that make it easy to identify with her. She’s smart and capable, but also has realistic self-doubts about leading a team for the first time, especially with the Deputy Chief Constable believing that he is her sponsor and mentor and has boosted her career.

Unfortunately, Louisa’s big flaw is not that she is a workaholic, although she is, but that she looks to her co-workers to serve as her dating pool. It was a problem when she was just a Detective Inspector, but now that she’s a boss, there’s big trouble up ahead. And behind, as one of her former lovers is on her team, and it makes a mess for both of them.

Still, I really liked her as a protagonist, and particularly the way she let her team members be the experts in their respective fields.

The way that the case continued to reveal more and more layers of the town’s secrets, and how that pushed the investigation into different directions kept me picking up the book every spare minute to see what happened next. I truly hope we’ll see more of DCI Louisa Smith and her team!

This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Posted on April 15, 2014April 13, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Format read: print book borrowed from the Library
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genre: young adult science fiction
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3
Length: 550 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Date Released: February 4, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

My Review:

The Lunar Chronicles are marvelous and suspenseful fractured fairy tales; taking the stories that we all know and love and transporting them into a brave new future with considerably altered versions of the heroines (and heroes).

Cinder was, of course, all about Cinderella, complete with wicked stepmother and footwear difficulties. Scarlet’s version of Little Red Riding Hoodie was considerably more kick-ass than the original (see review). But Cress takes Rapunzel to new heights–her tower is a satellite orbiting the Earth! She’s so lonely that she programmed a younger version of herself into her computer systems as a companion.

Cress’ purpose on that satellite is both deadly and heartbreaking. It’s Cress’ programming skills that keep the Earthen governments from detecting Lunar ships in orbit. It’s Cress’ hacking skills that let her read the camera feeds from surveillance on all the Earthen officials.

And it’s Cress who was so desperate for approval from her keeper that she allowed the infiltration of Earth by Lunar special operatives who murdered 16,000 people, all to show that the Lunars were unstoppable.

But Cress has been left alone for much too long with only the entertainment and news feeds from Earth to keep her amused, or perhaps that to help her keep her hold on her sanity. She has come to identify with the Earthens, and to see Linh Cinder and her crew of misfits as the only hope for preventing Lunar Queen Levana’s terrifying reign.

And she’s fallen in love with the daring Captain involved in Cinder’s rescue, even though Cress and Carswell Thorne have never met. So Cress uses her programming skills to contact Cinder, to aid and abet Cinder’s continued evasion of the security forces, and to arrange for her own, much needed, rescue.

The rescue turns into a SNAFU of epic proportions. Cress’ evil keeper swoops in at the last moment, and everything goes to hell in a handcart. When the dust settles, Thorne and Cress are left on Cress’ satellite in a dying orbit, Wolf is seriously wounded, and Scarlet is captured. Only Cinder remains relatively unscathed, but it becomes her energy-sapping task to keep Wolf from going on a killing rampage at the loss of his alpha Scarlet.

Cinder still has to stop the wedding of Queen Levana to the unwilling Emperor Kai before she is crowned Empress, while the security forces of every Earthen military and all of Luna are out to find her.

First she rescues Thorne and Cress, then she musters all her available allies for one last chance to save the Emperor, knowing that she will start a war. Leaving Scarlet in the clutches of the Lunars to face a fate that might be much, much worse than death.
As the clock ticks down to doomsday, Cinder takes up the mantle of leadership that she was born to wear.

Escape Rating B+: While this is Cress’ story, the arc of The Lunar Chronicles series means that it is always Cinder’s story, no matter what else is going on. Cinder has grown a lot from the young, scared, insecure cyborg mechanic we met in Cinder (reviewed here).

It feels important that Cinder is planning to rescue her prince, and not the other way around. This is a story where the females don’t just have agency, but are generally stronger than the males. Cinder rescues Kai, Scarlet is Wolf’s alpha, and Cress, in spite of her awkwardness, is a gutsier person than Thorne.

Not many people would have kept any semblance of sanity under the conditions that were forced on Cress. She managed to keep herself together, and shake off the Stockholm Syndrome of bonding with her jailor and only contact. Her social awkwardness can be overcome, but integrity is forever.

As the story is told, the perspective frequently jumps from one part of the scattered crew to another, from Cinder to Cress to Scarlet and back again. The narrative switches can feel a bit disruptive during the sections where they are all far apart. As the action coalesces into the final plan, the fast changes add to the breathlessness of anticipation.

Poor Scarlet’s fate is still up in the air (or on Luna) but we know where the rest of the crew of leading, even if we have no idea how they’ll make it. We’re left on pins and needles waiting for the final installment, Winter.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Trinity Stones by L.G. O’Connor

Posted on April 14, 2014April 13, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: paranormal romance
Series: Angelorum Twelve Chronicles #1
Length: 366 pages
Publisher: She Writes Press
Date Released: April 22, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Anxiety-ridden New York investment banker, Cara Collins, has little to smile about on her twenty-seventh birthday between a hostile work environment and her impossible romantic situation with her longtime friend and first love, Dr. Kai Solomon. But before the day ends, she learns she has inherited $50 million—a windfall that must remain secret or risk the lives of those close to her.

As Cara unravels the truth surrounding her inheritance, she makes a startling discovery: angels walk among the living, and they’re getting ready to engage in a battle that will determine the future of the human race. In the midst of these revelations, she meets mysterious and sophisticated Simon Young, who offers her the promise of romance for the first time since Kai—but when Kai and his daughter are kidnapped by dark forces, Cara must choose: accept her place in a 2,000-year-old prophecy foretold in the Trinity Stones as the First of the Twelve who will lead the final battle between good and evil . . . or risk losing everything she holds dear.

My Review:

Trinity Stones is the first book in what could be a twelve book series. It has a LOT of weight to carry to set up this slightly alternate version of our world where angels walk among us, waiting for the proverbial Last Battle between angels and demons.

Of course, they aren’t just waiting around, sitting on their feathered wings while humanity marches on oblivious. Although most of humanity is oblivious.

Mixed in with the prophecy of that last battle are signs and portents. The story of Trinity Stones is what happens when the first of those portents finds herself part of something that she was never prepared for.

Cara Collins is an investment banker who hates her boss and is in love with a man she can never have. Life sucks, right up until the point where she inherits $50 million and a whole lot of otherworldly trouble.

$50 mil certainly solves the “hate the boss” problem, but doesn’t do a thing for the loving someone she can’t have bit. Although it certainly provides one hell of a distraction–including visits from demons who really do reside in hell.

It’s not just that Cara finds out that her belief in a supreme deity has to expand to encompass more classes of angels than she thought imaginable, but also that she is going to be a front-line fighter in the war between heaven and hell–if she can manage to get out of her own way.

Her new life leads to danger, but also to fantastic new friends and a purpose bigger than she ever dreamed of. She even finds someone she can love, a man who makes her forget all about the one that got away.

Until she finds out that Simon Young is even more forbidden to her than her first love. Simon is assigne to be her Guardian as she fights the demons, and they aren’t permitted to let love get in the way of definding mankind against evil.

Escape Rating B: There were a lot of things to like about this story, and a few that drove me a bit crazy. YMMV.

There are, and there need to be, a lot of explanations for how this world is set up. Cara is supposed to be the first of the “Final Twelve” that portend the upcoming battle between good and evil. Which means there has to be tons of setup for the angels who help in the fight, and the people who are “assigned” to Cara as backup.

The portrayals of the growing friendship between Cara and the people assigned to help her, particularly Cara’s platonic friendship with Michael, are beautifully done. It is terrific to see a friendship between a straight man and woman that is clearly never going to tease at a possible romance. You don’t see that often, and it’s refreshing. Also Michael is just plain a great guy.

But there is a lot of necessary worldbuilding, to explain the angels, the soul-seekers like Cara, and the support network that they need. Occasionally there is quite a bit of info-dumping, and I still didn’t get the relationship between Cara’s “trinity” and the cornerstone, which is a person she needs to save from evil.

The angels are almost a military organization. That Cara wasn’t allowed to be involved with her guardian felt a lot like the military anti-frat regs. They can be involved with anyone but each other, so of course they fall for each other. And there was a bit of fated-mate in the relationship that pushed things along faster than would have happened otherwise.

Trinity Stones is a fascinating start to a series. I’ll be very curious to see what directions it goes in. On the one hand, I liked the fact that any belief system could lead to heaven, as long as the person lived a good, moral life. On that other hand, the story does presuppose acceptance of a lot of other traditional Judeo-Christian concepts, and I want the story to always be of primary importance. So far, so good.

This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 4-13-14

Posted on April 13, 2014April 13, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Giveaways> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

This was a busy week at Reading Reality, and the upcoming week will be too. Especially since next weekend I’ll be at Norwescon for most of the weekend (YAY!)

I don’t know about the rest of you, but my procrastination has bitten me in the butt, and we have to do our taxes this weekend. Even though we know we’ll get a refund, we always wait until the last minute to do the damn thing. It’s hard to believe, but this is the first time in 3 years that we don’t have moving expenses to deduct. We actually managed to stay in one city for an entire calendar year.

For those who are in the same boat we are, good luck with the task. Thank goodness for efiling, the whole line up and wait at the post office thing used to be the perfect ending for a dreadful chore. I don’t miss it at ALL!

Current Giveaways:

The Last Time I Saw You by Eleanor Moran (print or ebook, US/CAN)
Black Chalk by Christopher J Yates (print or ebook, INT)
The Ophelia Prophecy by Sharon Lynn Fisher (print, US/CAN)
2 signed copies each of City of the Gods: The Descendant and City of the Gods: The Betrayal plus 5 ebook copies of the winner’s choice of Descendant or Betrayal from S.J. McMillan

Winner Announcements:

The winner of the $10 Gift card in the Fool for Books Giveaway Hop is Elaina W.
The winner of the paperback copy of Four Friends by Robyn Carr is Natasha D.
The winner of the paperback copy of Waiting on You by Kristan Higgins is Bridget H.
The winners of my Blogo-Birthday giveaways are Ann V., Joy F., and Brittany M.

Blog Recap:

B+ Review: The Time Traveler’s Boyfriend by Annabelle Costa + Giveaway
A- Review: The Last Time I Saw You by Eleanor Moran
Q&A with Author Eleanor Moran + Giveaway
B+ Review: Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates + Giveaway
B+ Review: The Ophelia Prophecy by Sharon Lynn Fisher
Interview with Author Sharon Lynn Fisher + Giveaway
B Review: City of the Gods: The Betrayal by S.J. McMillan + Giveaway
Stacking the Shelves (84)

Coming Next Week:

Trinity Stones by L.G. O’Connor (blog tour review)
Cress by Marissa Meyer (review)
Under a Silent Moon by Elizabeth Haynes (blog tour review)
Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews (review)
Bite Me by P.J. Schnyder (review)

Stacking the Shelves (84)

Posted on April 12, 2014April 12, 2014 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

NetGalley is clearly my downfall. Or NetGalley and Edelweiss combined. I like nothing better than to get lost in a good book, preferably with a cat on my lap. What I often get instead is a cat perched behind me, cleaning my hair. Sophie clearly thinks I need help with the job, but it feels very strange when she does it!