Review: Seers by Heather Frost

My Rating: 3 out of 5
Synopsis
For Kate Bennett, surviving the car wreck that killed her parents means big changes — and even bigger problems. As she begins to see auras and invisible people, Kate must learn to trust Patrick O'Donnell, a handsome Guardian, or risk her life being overrun with Demons. She soon realizes that both she and her heart are in big-time trouble.
Review

Firstly I would like to say what a sterling book for a debut author and one so young. Heather Frost is only in her very early twenties but writes as though she has been at it for years. Her use of english and sentence structure is exemplory. 


The title of this book threw me. The book is called Seers yet as far as I could tell Kate, our main character, can only see auras which tell emotions. In history a Seer should be able to tell the future and the see back into the past so...I would have preferred another title.


The story (unfortunately for me) starts off so similar to many other YA books i've read of late i.e.the book is based around the school scenario with the high school jock as a boyfriend,  parents suddenly die, lots of grief and trauma, cute new guy shows up at same said school, turns out he's an absolute hottie, girl can't tear her eyes away from his piercing pools etc. Yeah, you know the drill. I forgot the 'woe is me' theme too.


Then we have the ''confession''. Where cute boy tells damsel in distress that he's her Guardian. Here to save her life when it needs saving...


Half way through the book I began to feel like this was STILL nothing new but I kept going to see if it would pick up. 


What held the book together for me was the narrative. Except there was far too much of it. Frost spent about 20 pages writing about how the character, Kate, feels about new boy Patrick. And it went on and on and on...I did skip lots of pages here while scanning still just to check I hadn't missed anything. The build up between Patrick and Kate is over half the book and personally just lost its edge and became dull with a hint of...JUST GET ON WITH IT...


The actual story theme was okay but lacked any oommff and towards the edge it was all a little too nice and easy for a story plot.


I probably won't read this book again but as I said in the beginning Heather Frost is an excellent writer. I just hope there's less narrative and more story in the next one.

Review: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa


The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I absolutely ADORE Ash from the previous books so I hoped this would be one of those rare treats that we could finally see into his mind.
But I was a little disappointed. Apart from a few stories such as how his sword was created there was very little in the way of his court life except when he was with Ariella. I would have liked to read more about his childhood, if he had any friends (obviously not, except Puck) and get more of his personality. Little was ever revealed.
I was a little disappointed with his reactions to Ariella. I really didn't want him to have second thoughts about Meghan, especially as the quest they were all on was to win the final prize. So his constant 'should I-shouldn't I' did irk me a little.
That being said he did prove to be the true to his word.
The last thing that annoyed me was the last scenes were too short. We all wanted time for them to be together finally and to see how happy they were. I guess we'll have to leave that to our imaginations!

Marks knocked off for:-
Story - didn't like Ariella (thought the author could have come up with something else instead)
Story - Lack of background, I mean, we've got Ash here!! Tell us!! But no.
Ending - To end the series I wanted a little bit more. We've already gone through the books and ebooks to get here. Just a few more pages?



Review: Chaos Tryst by Shirin Dubbin


Chaos Tryst by Shirin Dubbin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Thank you to Net Galley and Carina Press for allowing me to read this book!


Synopsis:
A chaos magic Goldilocks and a Russian bear-shifter team-up for a rollicking fairytale retelling--and maybe a little romance.
Ariana Golde may be known for breaking and entering but she's no thief, she’ s a returner. She retrieves stolen objects and gives them back to their rightful owners. Her latest job: retrieving a statue from the Medveds. But Ari is having an off night, and she's caught red-handed by the three brothers, who don't just get mad—they turn into bears.

Maksim Medved is outraged — the statue belongs to his parents. But Ari's returner magick doesn't lie: the heirloom has a new rightful owner. Ari is drawn to the surly, handsome Maks — maybe because he possesses the same chaos magick she does. But while Ariana enjoys a touch of chaos, Maks hates its destructive power.

When Ari and Maks team up to find her mystery client, their chaos magicks ignite even faster than their attraction. Can Maks learn to love a little chaos, or will the havoc they cause among the faebled creatures drive him away for good?

Review:


This has to be one of the most exciting reads I’ve read in a long time. The retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is brought up to date with the authors humour and modern tricks to boot.

Enter Ariane, a Faeble, and her magic stick! Bring on Three Medveds who can turn into Russian Bears and you have a light hearted, skilled new story-telling at its best.

The intricate way that Dubbin writes will have you hanging on to every word, sentence, and page. Before you know it, you’ll be so into the tale you won’t want to put it down.

Quality writing at its best!


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Review: Kiera's Moon by Lizzy Ford


Kiera's Moon by Lizzy Ford

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review:
I like a sci-fi romance as much as anyone but few people can really pull it off without the story sounding like an excerpt from an old Star Trek episode.
I've never read Lizzy Ford's books before and didn't even read many reviews for this book before downloading. I was captivated by the cover and the pretty eyes of the girl so I thought, well, she looks interesting, why not?
So the story starts in modern day. I must admit I nearly put the book down after the fourth page. I found the dialogue a little jerky between Keira and Evelyn and found it hard to find an anchor. But soon we begin to learn that Evelyn's soon to be husband is actually from another planet and because Keira has no prospects (in Evelyns eyes) and Evelyn needs a friend on her travels she asks Keira to join her on an adventure to another world.
Of course Keira hates it. She see's six legged spider-cats and freaks out. She hates the male attitude to the women (women should be seen and not heard kind of thing). Except during an event she trips and falls into the hands of A'ran. Now A'ran doesn't sound, if I imagined, like the stereotypical hero. He has a crooked nose for one thing, but when Keira falls she has a vision which captivates her.
From here on in I couldn't put the story down. I HAD to read it to the final ending.
Lizzy Ford's writing is exceptional. She captures the moods, the moments, the dramas, and the exquisite imagery of the planets incredibly well. Yes, you really do feel like you are there.
You can pretty much guess from the start who the bad guys are, even Evelyns betrayal. Keira and Evelyn's relationship gets strained as they spend little time together and even right at the end when Evelyn does the right thing you get the impression that she isn't doing it for Keira's sake, more for the good of her husbands people.
A'ran and Keira are both emotional and strong in different ways so they really are the yin and yang and eventually they find the balance.
To go back to the beginning of this review, I've read a lot of sci-fi romance but I must admit this is one of the best I've read.
I've given it 4 out of 5 purely because a) I wished Keira and Evelyns relationship had had more input. For supposedly being such good friends I felt strains right at the start and would have liked to read more backstory on why. b) I felt it ended too soon. Yes, they were brought back together and the war was finally over but I would have liked to read how Keira healed Anshan AND Keira and A'Rans relationship finally flower. A'Rans final statement wasn't enough - but hey, that's just me!


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