Blog Tour: Descendant by Nicole Giles Book Review

Title: Descendant 
Author: Nichole Giles
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Pub Date:  May 1st, 2013
Publisher: Rhemalda Publishing
Pages: 278
My Copy: Courtesy of Rhemalda Publishing as Part of the Descendant Blog Tour

Book Synopsis:

Seventeen-year old Abigail Johnson is Gifted.

Blessed-or cursed-with Sight and Healing, Abby lives an unsettled life, moving from place to place and staying one step ahead of the darkness that haunts her. When she arrives in Jackson, Wyoming, she is desperate to maintain the illusion of normalcy, but she is plagued with visions of past lives mixed with frightening glimpses of her future. Then she meets Kye, a mysterious boy who seems so achingly familiar that Abby is drawn to him like he’s a missing piece of her own soul.

Before Abby can discover the reason for her feelings toward Kye, the darkness catches up to her and she is forced to flee again. But this time she’s not just running. She is fighting back with Kye at her side, and it’s not just Abby’s life at stake.

Book Review:

An interesting unique tale about a young woman who is gifted and the journey she takes on. I really found the character of Abby to be really interesting. This book was like an adventure that you get sucked into right from the start.

Right from the start, we see that Abby is in danger from unknown people. She is scared and rightfully so we learn when she suffers a tragic lost which causes her and her mother to move. Yet both Abigail and her mother feel like there were so many questions left unanswered, but they have no answers and lean on each other for support. I really liked the mother and daughter relationship in this book. I felt that there was a genuine trust between the two of them. This was one of the ways books really shine for me.

Also when they get to town, I was impressed with how the other kids welcomed her and that there were no mean girls in this book, but rather other teenagers who were welcoming and opening to her. I found that these girls were really nice. I really like Rose and her sparkling personality.

Yet the moment Abby meets Kye, there’s a spark between them and things get intense and they discover so much more about each other. Kye and Abby find out that they are both Gifted and have abilities.  These abilities make them special and hunted by a group that wants to have their abilities and unleash a terrible evil on the world. Also love the scene with the fairies. Thought it was vividly descriptive and well done. I also like how the fairies did a good job of explaining how their powers are part of them and how the dark forces are coming for them and how they must be viligant against those who would kill them.

Plus things get really crazy really fast. There are also things we learn about Abagail and Kye. How they were past lovers and that she is a reincarnated princess/descendant of the princess. This makes her kind of shocked and special and Kye too. We find that there adventure takes them to all kinds of places. Their adventure to find the keys to stop the bad guys comes at a heavy price as they have to wrestle with hard decisions about what to do and when to do things. They also have some really neat, but kind of unrealistic thing like scaling down the Statue of Liberty which was a far stretch even for me.

Overall I liked the book but found it at times to be a little bit long and sometimes a little bit dramatic at times. I really liked Abagail and Kye’s relationship a lot. I wanted them to actually have more romantic scenes, because that was where the book shined. The imagery and flashbacks were nice of their former lives was nice.  I just wish at times that the dialogue from the villains hadn’t been so corny. 

A solid book.

Rating:

Descendant Blog Tour Wide Giveaway

Sunday Love Affair #22: A Girls Guide to Man Hunting by Jessica Clare

Sunday Love Affair is a feature here at Books of Love which spotlights Romance and Urban Fantasy titles. I like reading them.


This week's feature is 

The Girls Guide to (Man) Hunting by Jessica Clare

Title: A Girls Guide to (Man) Hunting

Author: Jessica Clare

Series: Bluebonnet #1

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Berkley

Pub Date: May 1st, 2012

Pages: 236

My Copy: From the Too Be Read Pile

Book Synopsis: 

Once, Miranda felt a little exposed…

Miranda Hill can’t believe her eyes-her cocky ex-boyfriend, pro-hockey player Dane Croft, is back in Bluebonnet, Texas, after all these years. He  ditched her - and their little town - just as some rather shocking photos showed up on the internet for the whole town to see. Miranda wasn’t so lucky. Stuck in Bluebonnet and left to fend for herself, she’s never really shaken the scandal - or his betrayal. After nine long years, he’s back and she has the chance to turn the tables on Dane…

Its time she got even.

Former NHL hotshot playboy Dane Croft has returned home to open a survival training school on an old ranch, and reinvent himself. When his former high school girlfriend enrolls in his school, he has no idea that Miranda’s plan is to get him in a compromising position-not the one he’s imagining, anyway. But soon Miranda realizes that to carry out her deviously sexy revenge, she’ll have to get up close and personal with Dane all over again. Being a good girl got her nowhere for nine years, and now it’s time to be a little naughty. But falling in love with the man that broke her heart was never part of the plan.

Book Review:

This was a fun, energetic book that really caught my attention because of the cover. What I didn’t expect was how I really felt that the characters really sparkled for me in a way that just was so relatable to people I know in my real life.

Our two main characters have had not picturesque lives as some people think they would have lived. Miranda has had to live with the shame of the naked pictures of her on the internet. People in the small town of Blue Bonnet make fun of her. Often call her “boobs” which she finds very derogatory. She has had to live with the shame and agony of constantly being teased, mocked. In some ways the picture incident has always stayed with her. Miranda believes it’s her ex-boyfriend  Dane’s fault. Dane’s life is very different. He left town with a lot of issues unresolved between him and Miranda. Those issues have always haunted him. Plus Dane has made a lot of mistakes in his professional life as well. So much so, that he has come back to Blue Bonnet to start his life over. This can only lead to so many complications once him and Miranda see each other once more.

Miranda and Dane haven’t seen each other in a very long time and once they saw each other again, that old spark happens between them.  Miranda comes up with this crazy plan to get back at him. She attends his survival training course. Of course that leads to all sorts of interesting and fun things happening between our two main characters. Miranda and Dane quickly start talking to one another. Dane thinks that Miranda just wants to spend time with him, not realizing that she has an agenda of her own.

The sex scenes were really good and sexy. Like the kind that you really dream about. Dane really teaches and helps Miranda understand that she is very desirable and finds her to be that. Miranda and Dane really open up to one another during these scenes. Hot, steamy, also everything you desire in a good romance is that perfect sex scene. Plus Miranda realizes that she is falling in love with the man that has hurt her more than anybody else. Yet what I think is so true here, is the fact that only those people who we truly care for can hurt us on that deep of a level.

What happens later when their time is over at the survival camp training course is that Miranda lets him on what she thinks she has done. He is horrified to learn out that it was someone else he thought was a friend. Dane immediately wants to find Miranda, but can’t because she has left town and he is devastated by this news. Yet he is determined to make it right and boy does he ever make it right. He loves this woman and is determine  to fight for the one thing that makes him happy, Miranda.

Love the fact that the ending of this book was a happy one. I read romances for the happy ending.

Rating: 

Stacking The Shelves #20

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Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews

From NetGalley and Lerner Publishing

Shadowlark by Megan Spooner

From NetGalley and Victory Publishing

Reapers Notice by Cecilia Robert

From Netgalley and Kerry Taylor
The Bane by Kerry Taylor

From Edelweiss and Pocket Books

Heart of Venom by Jennifer Estep

E-Books Bought

Timespell by Diana Paz

For $2.00

Of Darkness and Light by Lily Cussell

For .99 cents

Written in the Stars by Jennifer Martinez

Free E-Books
Dancing with Deception by Andrea Heltsley

Remembrance by Michelle Madow

Super Dark by Tanith Morse

Book Review: Tall, Dark and Devine Book Review

Title: Tall, Dark, and Divine
Author: Jenna Bennett
Series: Bagging a Greek God #1
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Pub Date: April 21, 2013
Pages: 177
My Copy: Courtesy of The Publisher, Entangled Publishing for an honest review

Book Summary:

Being the Greek god of love doesn’t mean you believe or want anything to do with that sappy emotion. Sure, Eros runs his matchmaking business, Made in Heaven, but finding his own love has never been part of the equation. When he spots the sweet baker who works across the street, he vows to match her with someone else before she stirs his sullen heart.

Annie Landon has given up on finding Mr. Right. What she needs is Mr. Right Here, Right Now, and this so called “Greek God” she’s heard is on the rebound sounds like the perfect kind of distraction. But picking up the bitter workaholic is easier sad than done…especially when he seems unreasonably determined to match her with someone else.

Book Review:

A refreshing treat of a romance that I really enjoyed. This book really had a great fun feel to it. I liked this romance because the couple is not what you call traditional in any sense. It was like a perfect romantic movie with all the right sensibilities in place.

I really loved Eros, aka Ross in this book as he is trying to set up Annie Landon with Harry Mitchell who he thinks will be perfect, but nothing ever works out quite like he plans it to because of fate, timing or maybe something else. Ross is a matchmaker or the God of Love and wants Annie to be happy. When you want someone to be happy it is a sign that you yourself are falling for this person.

What happens is that Ross is still mourning the loss of Persephone, his wife. His wife has left him for a Viking and the rejection has hurt him in more ways than one. Ross was so in love with his wife that he really needs to move on with his life and things get mighty interesting when he agrees to Brita and his other employee to go to Dion’s club. Dion happens to be the god of Debauchery.  Yes the god of Debauchery runs a nightclub. Seems appropriate. Yet what Dion does is mix Annie’s drink stronger than usual. Then all kinds of things happen that Annie and Ross/Eros don’t expect.

Annie and Ross/Eros first sex scene together is hot, hot, hot. This is the kind of scene that would make anyone appreciate some much needed Tender Loving Care when neither of the two individuals have had it in quite a long time. What I like is that Annie and Ross/Eros have a very different dynamic to them than I’ve read.  What happens is one of the best scenes with heels on them. 

After they have sex for the first time, things get mighty interesting and we really see that Eros/Annie have chemistry even if the two of them don’t see it. He really tries everything to make Annie happy even if the two of them seem to land in each other’s arms no matter what they try to do to avoid it. Even when he tries to set her up with Harry Mitchell.

Harry Mitchell is the biggest douche in the world. Sorry I didn’t like his character at all in the book. Thought he treated the heroine, Annie like crap, and no one deserves that. There date was one of the worst kinds of date I’ve ever read. I think the author did this scene because it made me want Annie to be with Ross/Eros in a lot of ways. Harry Mitchell is like the guy you want, but find out the reality of this person isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in real life. It’s kind of disappointing in a way.

Through much trial and error, and Ross’s stupid pride getting in the way, he told Annie how much she means to him. She doesn’t believe that he’s a god, but does eventually at some point. This leads to much comedy when we the audience get to meet Zeus and Hera, which was one of the more comedic moments in the book. I really loved the happy ending that Annie and Ross/Eros has in this book. Really liked the way the mythology was mixed in with modern times.

A very nice romance.

Rating: 

Win A $25 Gift Card to Amazon or Book Store of Your Chooce

Okay, Everybody.

  I have decided to hold a giveaway. A lot of you love Gift Cards. So what better way to thank those who have followed me, than a giveaway.


     What am I giving away, 

      A Gift Card of $25 to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or $25 worth of books to Book Depository if you are an international follower. 

1. Follow the blog via Feedcat, Linky, or Network Blogs as I heard that GFC might be going away.

2. Leave comment with email address so that I can contact you.

3. Contest runs from now 5/14-6/3/2013

Grace