Waiting on Wednesday #128

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine where you can spotlight an upcoming release that you're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on....  

The Darkest Torment by Gena Showalter
Releases on: May 31st 2016

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Driven to his death by the demon of Distrust, Baden spent centuries in purgatory. Now he's back, but at what cost? Bound to the king of the underworld, an even darker force, he's unable to withstand the touch of another...and he's quickly devolving into a heartless assassin with an uncontrollable temper. Things only get worse when a mission goes awry and he finds himself saddled with a bride—just not his own.

Famed dog trainer Katarina Joelle is forced to marry a monster to protect her loved ones. When she's taken hostage by the ruthless, beautiful Baden immediately after the ceremony, she's plunged into a war between two evils—with a protector more dangerous than the monsters he hunts. They are meant to be enemies, but neither can resist the passion burning between them...and all too soon the biggest threat is to her heart.

But as Baden slips deeper into the abyss, she'll have to teach him to love...or lose him forever.

Thoughts:
I'm a massive fan of Gena Showalter and her Lords of the Underworld is Showalter at her best. I'm super excited for the prospect of another instalment even if I'm dying for Cameo's tale to be told already. I'm keen to get to know Baden and Katarina however and I can't wait for this to be released.

What are you waiting on this week?

 

Book Shelf: Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) by Nalini Singh

In a world that denies emotions, where the ruling Psy punish any sign of desire, Sascha Duncan must conceal the feelings that brand her as flawed. To reveal them would be to sentence herself to the horror of "rehabilitation" - the complete psychic erasure of everything she ever was...

Both human and animal, Lucas Hunter is a changeling hungry for the very sensations the Psy disdain. After centuries of uneasy coexistence, these two races are now on the verge of war over the brutal murders of several changeling women. Lucas is determined to find the Psy killer who butchered his packmate, and Sascha is his ticket into their closely guarded society. But he soon discovers that this ice-cold Psy is very capable of passion - and that the animal in him is fascinated by her. Caught between their conflicting worlds, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities - or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation.
More info on Goodreads.....


Review:

Slave To Sensation is the first book in Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series and is a well told, well written and deeply sensual start to what looks like a promising Sci-Fi/PNR series!

I'm almost a little ashamed to admit that this is the first novel of Nalini Singh's I've read, although I'm well aware that she is a prominent name in the PNR genre. I've heard nothing but good things about her and I was excited to discover for myself what makes her so popular. Slave To Sensation certainly didn't disappoint and if it's anything to go by I expect nothing but great things from Singh in the rest of the series.

Slave To Sensation introduces readers to a really beguiling world and to some really unique races of people. Sascha Duncan a member of the Psy, a race of people who long ago turned off their emotions and who have since ruled their world with complete control of themselves. Psy's are unfeeling, icy people who live through logic and reason.....only Sascha is flawed. Her whole life Sascha has fought the feelings and sensations that battle logic and reason within her. Hiding the truth from her people, Sascha's hope to remain uncaring is left in tatters when she meets Lucas.

Lucas Hunter is a Changeling; an Alpha panther who is hoping to track down the Psy responsible for murdering members of his pack. Fierce, sensual and unrelenting, Lucas can't deny that Sascha arouses something in him he never expected and soon both he and his panther are determined to prove that Sascha isn't the icy individual she pretends she is and soon both Lucas and Sascha find themselves falling for the last person they ever expected; each other.

I really loved this book. The PsyNet was an interesting concept and I absolutely loved the characters Singh has introduced. Both Sascha and Lucas were fabulous to follow and read about, and I found the other characters were fantastic too. Sascha and Lucas had brilliant chemistry and featured a well told romance--I'm already dying to read about the other DarkRiver and SnowDancer members we met, as well as the few Psy's we learnt are different from the rest. Dorian, Hawke, Sienna, Mercy, Vaughn, Brenna....I'm super excited to read their stories in the future and can only imagine what Singh has in store.

Slave To Sensation was wonderfully written and I have to commend Nalini Singh on allowing there to be a real storyline within this book that didn't focus solely on Sascha and Lucas's romance; although that was certainly sexy and cheeky. They made a great pair and really suited each other.

Slave To Sensation was a novel I powered through and I can't wait to read the rest of the series to get to know the other leopards, wolves and Psy's! A great start to what I have no doubt will be a brilliant series--I'm ready and eager to dive straight into the next book!

Rating:
Source: Purchased by me from The Book Depository
Format: Paperback
Buy it: Bookworld | The Nile | The Book Depository | Amazon
My Recommendation: PNR lovers will not want to miss this series!
Cover: I like it, although the cover model isn't how I envision Lucas.
Will I read sequel/continue with series: Yes.

Book Blitz: The Witchling Apprentice by B. Kristin McMichael

The Book Blitz for The Witchling Apprentice by B. Kristin McMichael is on The Rest Is Still Unwritten today with an excerpt and tour wide giveaway for you to check out and enjoy :)

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Witches, potions, and magical spells—that all made sense, but men turning into animal-like monsters in the middle of the night? That had to be fiction, right? Wrong. Cassandra Booth thought her world of witches would be complete when she joined her coven.

Fate didn’t plan to let that be the case for her. Joining the coven brings new knowledge, like mates and men as animals, all things Cassie would rather not know. As her plans unravel she must find a way to join the coven without committing her life to a guy she once was friends with and now hates.

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Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Smashwords
 

 

From The Witchling Apprentice......

Tick … Tick … Tick …

Cassandra Booth tried to ignore the clock as it clicked away from above the desk beside her. It was nerve-wracking enough knowing that if you wanted to take the test to be an apprentice witch you had to do it in front of at least fifty people. However, the clock reminding her it was just about to start was driving her nuts.

Tick … Tick … Tick …

Cassie tried to go over each step of the potion she was making in her head. She needed to concentrate and ignore the noises around her as the room began to fill up with high schoolers.

Tick … Tick …

The sound was lost in the now-growing sound of students talking. Unfortunately, that wasn’t any better. She glanced up at the room in front of her. Mistake. It was almost half-full of people. No one was looking directly at her, but that didn’t make it any easier. Cassie was anxious enough sitting in the lecture area alone, on display, but now there were students who would be watching and talking about her.

Cassie kept her eyes locked on the table and all her supplies. Taking inventory was easy. Doing the actual potion and saying the spell correctly was supposed to be the hard part. No one in her high school, let alone grade, was even attempting to make the protection spell that had been assigned to her and which would move her from witchling up to the level of junior apprentice. Most people were shocked when she’d asked. It had been many years since a high school student had apprenticed, but that wasn’t going to stop Cassie. She was ready to get out of her boring classes. She was ready to join everyone in obtaining the great knowledge that came with being a full-time member of the coven. Cassie was ready to belong.

 

Originally from Wisconsin, B. Kristin currently resides in Ohio with her husband, three small children, and three cats. When not doing the mom thing of chasing kids, baking cookies, and playing outside, she is using her PhD in biology as a scientist. In her free time she is currently hard at work on multiple novels. Every day is a new writing adventure. She is a fan of all YA/NA fantasy and science fiction.

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Book Shelf: Annabeth Neverending by Leyla Kader Dahm

At first, teenager Annabeth Prescott thinks she’s found quite a deal when she talks down the price of an ankh pendant she discovers at a flea market. She soon wonders if the bauble is more than she's bargained for when she faints and glimpses images from a past life in ancient Egypt.

The discovery coincides with another new find: Gabriel, a handsome young man who takes an interest in her. When she meets his twin brother C. J. at a Halloween party, she realizes they look exactly like two boys who figure prominently into her memories.

Does C. J. share the heroic qualities held by his past incarnation Sethe, her bodyguard when she was Princess Ana? Does Gabriel possess the same evil powers he wielded as Kha, the black sorcerer who sought her affection?

Love meets the supernatural in this gripping young adult paranormal romance. Readers with an interest in reincarnation, as well as ancient Egypt, will be drawn to its mystical mixture of history and hesitation as Annabeth sways between the two brothers.

Will her reincarnated soulmate win out? Or will Kha finally find the way to her heart?

More info on Goodreads.....


Review:

Annabeth Neverending by Leyla Kader Dahm is a nicely woven tale of reincarnation, the power of love and the strength of destiny.

Annabeth Prescott has never been a normal teenager. At sixteen, she’s already had her fair share of health issues and having been adopted has left her with plenty of questions about her heritage, but when Annabeth picks up an ankh pendant from a flea market, the last thing she expects is for the pendant to bring about memories--memories of a past life where she was the daughter of a great Egyptian Pharaoh and promised in marriage to a powerful dark sorcerer named Kha. Wanting to learn about her past life as Ana where she was deeply in love with her slave guard Sethe, Annabeth draws on the ankh’s powers to delve into her past while at the same time finding herself drawn to Gabriel, a handsome and kind young man she quickly comes to realise is the reincarnated version of Kha, and C.J, Gabriel’s twin brother who is Ana’s lost love Sethe come back to life. Torn between her feelings for the two brothers in the present, Ana must discover the truth about her previous life as strange and dangerous things begin happening in the present…..

In all honestly Annabeth Neverending started out slow for me. I’m not quite sure why considering author Leyla Kader Dahm does a great job jumping straight into the story and beginning to detail both Annabeth’s present and past. Leyla Kader Dahm does a fantastic job with detailing a lush and vivid Ancient Egypt and she has clearly spent a lot of time researching different aspects. Eventually I found myself quite invested though and eager to learn what happened to Annabeth in her past life.

Annabeth was a decent heroine, although there were a few moments where I struggled to connect. Leyla Kader Dahm’s prose is beautiful and although Annabeth is quite literally an old soul, there were a few moments where I thought Annabeth’s voice and internal monologue seemed too old for her seemingly sixteen years. Whether this was intentional or not, it seemed at odds with the teenage drama and romances Annabeth was going though. Leyla Kader Dahm is clearly a stunning writer though; her writing technique is lyrical and detailed, and very thought invoking.

With Annabeth Neverending at its base focusing on Annabeth’s reincarnation and subsequence romances with Gabriel and C.J, I was really hoping to absolutely adore Annabeth’s love interests and to be absorbed in her romances, but this unfortunately wasn’t the case….at least not all of the time. Personally I struggled to connect with C.J. but I really liked Gabriel. He was a sweetie and I did genuinely like him. Who doesn’t love a good intellectual type—I know I do!

There were some moments in this story I enjoyed more than others and found myself extremely interested from about halfway onwards. Leyla Kader Dahm certainly surprised me with some twists in this novel, especially towards the end. There’s one big reveal I was not in any way expecting and I commend her on managing to keep her readers on their toes.

At this point in time I’m not a hundred percent sure whether Leyla Kader Dahm intends to write a sequel and turn Annabeth Neverending into a series, but with the novel ending how it does, I’m very intrigued to see what happens next!

Rating:
Source: Sent for review by the author (Thank you Leyla!)
Format: Kindle ebook
Buy it:  The Book Depository | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
My Recommendation: Fans of Ancient Egypt will certainly enjoy this.
Cover: I think it's very pretty and very clever.
Will I read sequel/continue with series: I'd like to read more if there's a sequel yes.

Book Blitz: Daughter of Magic by Teresa Roman- Excerpt & Giveaway

The Book Blitz for Daughter of Magic by Teresa Roman is on The Rest Is Still Unwritten today thanks to Xpresso Book Tours. Check out the excerpt and tour wide giveaway I have to share with you today :)

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Lilli sees things no one else does.

Desperate to make sense of the dreams and visions that have plagued her since childhood, Lilli confides in Devin, her closest friend, and the boy she's fallen for.

Instead of questioning her sanity, Devin confesses to secrets of his own, which are far darker. His revelations about magic, witches and demons stun Lilli. But it's what he knows about Lilli's mother, long believed to be dead, that leaves her feeling betrayed. Despite her anger, Lilli will have to learn to trust Devin again, because he is the only one who can protect her from a dark danger that's coming for her from a world away.

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Purchase:
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From Daughter of Magic.....

“Everybody needs a hero, Lilli. I want to be yours. You just have to let me.” He reached out to brush my hair over my shoulder.

I didn’t know what to make of his words. I wanted them to mean something—that he’d begun to feel about me the way I did for him. But it was probably wishful thinking. Knowing Devin, the reason for his extra kindness was because of what happened to my father.

“After all the things you’ve done for me, I think you hit hero status quite a while ago.” I kept my voice light, even though I meant every word. Not only did he get me a job—not an easy feat in Crescent City where unemployment was rampant—but he was the first person besides my aunt that I ever felt comfortable talking to about my mother. And if he hadn’t been with me when I found my dad, I don’t know how I ever would’ve gotten past the shock. 

He lifted my chin and looked into my eyes. “You’ve been crying.” His hand moved to my cheek. “I’m sorry, that was a stupid thing to say; of course you’ve been crying.”

Staring into Devin’s eyes, feeling his hand on my cheek, made me feel better and worse at the same time. He had no idea how impossibly hard it was to be around him when all I wanted was for him to kiss me, to tell me he needed me as badly as I did him. I lowered my gaze and he dropped his hand.

Want to know what happens next? Grab your copy today to find out!

Teresa currently lives in beautiful Sacramento, CA with her husband, three adorable children and a dog named Parker that her son convinced them to adopt. When she's not at her day job or running around with her kids, you can find her in front of the computer writing, or with her head buried in another book. If you'd like to find out more about her, she can be found at www.teresaromanwrites.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter to receive exclusive book release information.

 

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Book Shelf: Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst

Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name—but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember.

At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.

More info on Goodreads......


Review:

Conjured is a deeply mysterious novel that weaves together surprising magic and even more surprising revelations and will keep readers guessing until the very end.

Conjured follows, and is told through the eyes of Eve, a mysterious teenage girl who has no memory of who she is, or what happened in her past. All Eve knows, is that she’s a witness to some kind of heinous event and is in the custody of an agency hell bent on bringing the perpetrator to justice. Suffering numerous bouts of amnesia every time she uses the magical abilities she seems to have, Eve finds herself loosing time with days and months often lost to her. In Conjured, Eve must rely on her instincts to find out how to stop the killer and to determine just who she can trust.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure how to wrap my head around Conjured. Even now that I’ve finished it. To begin with I was so excited to read this novel seeing how enticing the brief description was and when I received a copy I dived straight in. The mystery surrounding the main character and the constant bouts of amnesia she featured kept me reading, even if not a lot was happening, because I needed to know what it was Eve was being protected from and who she was. The eventual revelation made by Durst at the end basically had me thinking, "HUH!" At the end of the day there’s no way you’ll expect the revelations about who and what Eve is.

Practically everything within this novel is vague and while that isn’t always an issue, I feel Conjured could have benefited by Sarah Beth Durst detailing and explaining the workings of this world a bit more. Durst details the bare minimum and while this helps to keep the mystery and intrigue at its highest it doesn’t help to layer the story, especially at the end when the big reveal is made. I feel like Durst let something down that could have had amazing potential.

I liked Eve, but she didn’t blow me away either. She was sufficient as a main character and gets the job done but I struggled to connect to her at times, especially where Zach was concerned. I thought her relationships with Malcom and Aunt Nicki were sweet, but even they could have been a little deeper. Eve and Zach were sweet and fit within the story, but even then their romance could have been left out of the story and I don’t think it would have made much of a difference.

I did like Conjured; I just felt it had so much more potential. While the big revelation is a shocker, I wish there had been a bit more depth to Durst’s world, or worlds, I should say. A bit more backstory would have made things a lot easier to understand and I think that would have been possible without losing the mystery—it just wasn’t utilized.

Overall Conjured may be worth a read, but be prepared for a surprising ending.

Rating:
Source: Sent for review by Bloomsbury (Thank you guys!)
Format: Paperback
Buy it: Bookworld | The Nile | The Book Depository | Amazon
My Recommendation: If you enjoy unique tales and being kept guessing, this is the novel for you.
Cover: I do like the cover--it's simple, but actually really fitting.
Will I read sequel/continue with series: This is a standalone novel, but I'll keep reading novels by Sarah Beth Durst--I do enjoy her novels.

Waiting on Wednesday #127

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine where you can spotlight an upcoming release that you're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on.....  

The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
Releases on: May 3rd 2016

Add on Goodreads!

 

How do you punish an immortal?

By making him human.

After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favour.

But Apollo has many enemies - gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

Thoughts:
Rick Riordan has another book coming out?!?! SQUEEEE! *dances around* This book sounds super good and I looooove Rick Riordan so incredible much. Honestly, as long as he keeps writing, I'll keep reading. Like seriously.

Are you a Rick Riordan fan?
And what are you waiting on this week?