Not my kind of book.
Was very hard to finish. Very. Hard. 1 out of 5 stars (sorry)
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Spoiler Free Section (For those who haven’t read the book and for those who don’t have dead people telling them what’s going to happen)
I enjoyed reading this book though admittedly it wasn’t a page turner like I expected it to be. I felt like I could put it down and do other things if I needed to but I didn’t feel like I had to put it down just to get to the end. The characters were interesting though sometimes the point of view would get a little disorienting. In the end, I recommend this book to people looking for an easy read with a positive message and a touch of the paranormal. I give the book a three out of five stars. Spoiler Section (Only go past this line if you’ve read the book or if you are prepared to risk being spoiled) This book did several things well. For starters, I liked Caleb and Charity and Gracie as characters. They were well developed and interesting and I wanted to root for them. The villain, Colonel Samuel Herrington, seemed like a flat troupe for majority of the book but there were two moments in which I practically shouted, “Yes! That’s what I was looking for!” In those moments, he defined himself beyond his troupe and became an interesting character. The first was when he was both saving and seducing a woman at the bar and the second was right before he killed himself. The moment where he was reduced to his scared, child-like self in the face of the ghost of his abusive father, he seemed so much like a real character to me. I applauded Seago in his crafting of that scene in particular. I had a couple of issues with the book. For starters, just about everyone in this book was psychic. It seemed like a weird thing for so many people to have in common despite the fact that all of them think they’re the only ones. That means that in this universe, psychic abilities aren’t known as common yet here is a whole group of people clustered in the same situation, who are psychic. That just seems unbelievable. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure that the psychic thing was necessary to the story because the characters seem able to handle everything in a more mundane way instead of using their abilities. I think the main reason they even had the abilities was just to affirm to the reader and the characters that they were on the right path and to give paranormal foreshadowing for the attack by Herrington. The other minor issue I had was the shifty pov and when I say this was minor, I mean that really only the fact that the dogs were given their own pov segments bothered me. The rest seemed rather logical and done well but then suddenly Solomon and Chauncy were given a chance to comment on the story. I understand that they were important to the story and helped to characterize Charity and Caleb but their pov didn’t enhance the story nor did it really make sense in this type of book. Again though, this was a minor issue because this only occurred a couple of times. The main issue I had was with the ending. The fact that Caleb was actually Rick and that the real Caleb had been the one to die during the war didn’t make sense. It made more sense that Caleb would take on Rick’s identity to maintain a life for Rick’s child and wife but not that Rick would take on Caleb’s life when Caleb was an unattached bachelor and Rick was a father and husband. Beyond that, he kept in contact with his wife as Caleb but never seemed to show the type of love towards her that one would expect from a husband. In fact, he feels free to start dating Charity despite the fact that he knows he still has a wife and child even though the wife doesn’t know. It just feels illogical. It makes me question whether or not he wanted to stay in his relationship with his wife. Did he even love her? Did he even want to be a father? Then other questions are raised. How did Caleb’s blind sister not notice that the voice of Caleb wasn’t Caleb’s? That he acted slightly different? How did the wife not know it was her husband? Finally, my final issue with the ending is that Caleb told the daughter that Rick was her father parading around as Caleb yet the girl isn’t upset by it and manages to keep it a secret. For her age, I would expect her to be hurt that he didn’t appear to want to be a part of her life and was marrying another woman instead of her mother. At the very least, it would be on her mind a lot and thus she might slip to her mother. The end seemed to me like it was designed for shock factor instead of being a logical plot point. It didn’t feel real. I do want to read the second book though I feel like the ending of this book made it appear that the book was a standalone so that I don’t feel compelled to read it right away. Still, I am interested to see how Seago continues to develop this world and the situations in it. Spoiler Free Section
Admittedly, I struggled with this book. It read too much like Twilight without being overly original. It wasn’t a bad book, though. It just needs work but there are exciting plot points that are brought up that could lead to exciting following books. In the end, I give this book a 2 out of five stars. Spoiler Section This book read like Twilight. I feel like the only difference between Twilight and this book was that the vampire was female and the human was male. Otherwise, I felt like I could take the characters names and change them to the Twilight character names and the story would be the same. I’m alright with a fanfiction but when I read one, I expect the author to take the original story and show something new about it that might not have been highlighted in the original story. Give me a reason to read the book instead of just rereading the original. I feel like the main issue with this book is that the wrong point of view was used. Sophia could have been a more interesting first person narrator if she wasn’t always bouncing back and forth about whether or not she could trust people or herself. As a result, she really didn’t react to anything or make a lot of decisions for herself. I mean, she’s a vampire and has been for quite some time. I would play with that. Show the ways that time has changed but she has not or talk about the things she misses from society that modern society has lost. In the end, her only concern seems to be Nathaniel who himself is written flat. I would recommend deciding what genre this book is trying to be. It has all the starting points of romance, action, and mystery but I would pick just one. Once that’s been decided, choose the main character that would develop the story in that genre in the most interesting way. To be honest, I felt that the vampire brother Caspian would have made an interesting pov. Between his backstory of having killed his human girlfriend by mistake and then running away from the family to his present situation in which he follows his family and works to protect them from an evil they don’t know about, he just seems to have a more interesting story than the one currently being told where the main character doesn’t even know about the dangers she faces. I think this book has a lot of great potential but as it sits, I could only get about 80 percent through it and then gave up. I have high hopes that this could be rewritten in a better way and if it ever does go through a rewrite, I would be glad to read the new story. Until then, I don’t think I want to continue on with this series. Spoiler Free Section (For the unaware mundane people who haven’t delved into this realm of magic yet)
This book started off slow but definitely picked up the pace to meet and exceed my expectations. Once the ball started rolling, I was at the edge of my seat, turning the pages, and fearing for the fate of our heroine. It was an exhilarating ride and I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a fast paced young adult fantasy. I give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars. Spoiler Section (Beyond this line, you’re in the coven. No turning back) Initially, I wanted to smack Syd. She seemed super whiny about her situation but didn’t seem overly motivated to do anything to change the situation. It isn’t until later when she starts to realize just how much danger she and her family are in and decides to do something about it that the story gets really interesting. We get to watch her grow as a character while still keeping with her base personality. The plot was exciting and I especially appreciated that the choice between the two boys – the one who is human and the one who is a witch – wasn’t the main plot point but rather got woven into the main plot. It was done well. I loved the little sister Meira. She was amazing and I think one of my favorite moments in the whole book is when the grandmother (who otherwise is off her rocker) says “Meira looks more like a demon but is more human. You [Syd] look more like a human.” That moment gave me goosebumps. Seriously, I loved it. I also liked how Larson was able to mix fantasy with actual witchcraft practiced in the real world so that the two blended together seamlessly. Obviously, real wiccans aren’t summoning demons and getting married to them but the rituals were similar enough to real wiccan rituals that I felt very satisfied. I think that is one thing this book did really well: it blended reality with fantasy so well that the reader becomes entranced. I seriously can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series (all 20 books – let’s do it!) I feel like this will be the next greatest series I’ve followed for more than ten books since the House of Night books.
This is the first time that I’ve read a book in an adult male’s perspective in a really long time. I found it really refreshing to read some paranormal romance from a guy’s perspective and as a whole I would rate this book a 3.5/5 stars. I liked the main character, Caleb Armstrong, and the love interest, Charity Sandcastle (even though I think her name is ridiculous).
Though I felt that at times it was going too fast or that time was going too fast, I did enjoy how it seemed to be cinematic when the points of view changed. As one character left a scene the point of view would change to another character. The most fantastic point of view was of course from Solomon the dog and I do believe that everyone should have a dog point of view from now on. The main villain, Colonel Samuel Alexander Harrington, was an awful man and, to quote the book, “a textbook sociopath and pathological liar.” There’s surprises here and there that I did not expect and so many questions that didn’t make sense to me in concern to the surprises. I won’t give those away but I’m sure you’ll have the same questions once you read it because I totally recommend it if you’re in the mood for a little ‘I hear dead people’ in your life. This book was provided by RL Seago for The Book Cove for an honest review. I’m going to start off saying that from the moment I read this book that I expected it to be fantasy because that’s usually what I read and the title was what I was basing all my assumptions on the book being fantasy. It took at least five chapters of me being confused and expecting vampires or werewolves to start showing up and they never did. But don’t let the fact that it’s not fantasy throw you off! It’s a fantastically steamy book and just as good as any erotic fantasy book out there. There are no werewolves or vampires but there are debts to be paid and just as skeevy men that these debts have to be paid to.
The main character is Juliette Romero who owes a debt so huge that no matter how many jobs she has she’ll ever be able to pay. She’s a strong woman and she is so independent that it sometimes becomes detrimental to her well-being. She was absolutely my favorite character in the entire story and a good chunk of the time at the beginning all I wanted was to give her a hug. Overall I would rate this book a 4/5 and I hope to read more from Airicka Phoenix again because I absolutely loved the writing style and reading out of my comfort zone of fantasy and paranormal romance. Transcending Darkness was provided by the author for The Book Cove for an honest review. I’d like to first start off to say that I’m not a fan of the whole ‘love at first sight’ concept in books and that’s probably the reason why I disliked the book from the beginning; I was, unconsciously, determined to dislike it for this reason alone. The romance with the main characters seemed rushed and I was hoping for a little more of getting to know the characters before being fully immersed in them. It did seem to have a strong hint/resemblance to Twilight (which I’m not a fan of but I did read all of them), and that might have also colored my thoughts on it as I read. If it had been more original and more character development I would have rated the book higher but overall, I give this book a 2/5. Immortal Embrace was provided by the author for an honest review.
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