A Lush Betrayal (Lush) by Selena Laurence Review

Series: Lush #1
Publish: February 22nd 2014 by C.P. Writes
Format: ebook, 234 pages
Rating: 5 / 4

Synopsis: Joss Jamison has it all. He's the lead singer for the world's hottest rock band, Lush. He's wealthy, sexy, talented...and miserable. Twelve months ago, Joss lost his finely honed control and made a mistake he can't undo. A mistake that could end up costing him his best friend, his band, and maybe his heart.
Mel DiLorenzo has it all. She's been hired to document the world tour of her sister's fiance's rock band. She's gorgeous, talented, loved...and sick of being the little sister. When she agrees to the summer job, Mel has no idea she's walking into a minefield of friendships lost and hearts destroyed. She also has no idea what it means to be the object of Joss Jamison's affections.
One hot rock star plus one life-altering mistake, add a dash of sexy younger sister and a handful of broken hearts, and you've got a recipe for fire. Life on the road can be hot, but for the boys of Lush, it's about to get a whole hell of a lot hotter.

Review:
  This is my first read from this author so I don’t really have anything to compare with. Alone the cover, the synopsis and the fact that it’s about rock stars convinced me to read it. The story is basically about three friends and a lot of heartbreaking emotions.

  Joss is the leading man of Lush, a pretty famous rock band so you would think that he is a typical rock star persona. However as we get to immersed more and more into the story it became obvious that he is much more than that. He has a very deep And complex personality; he betrayed one of his best friends and keeping his action takes a lot out of him and the guilt slowly eats him away. He is afraid to confess the truth because he fears the consequences. So he is not himself when we first meet him. The truth is that he didn’t plan on doing what he did, but it doesn’t make it easier. But everything changes when he meets Mel. His guilt stays and the consequences only grow, but for the first time for a while he feels god in his skin and becomes his old self.
  Mel is beautiful, who was around Lush from the beginning since her sister is the long time girlfriend of one of the members. Somehow they still didn’t notice her presence, simply see through her. She was the invisible little sister. That’s why when her sister asks her a favor she has mixed feelings about it. For one, she is excited because it’s a fantastic possibility in regard of her carrier. On the other hand she doesn’t know if she can work with her sister, she had enough of being in Tammy shadow where nobody sees the real Mel. When Joss starts to show interest in her she doesn’t know how to respond since she knows well about his reputation with woman. In addition to this everybody around her tries to keep them apart, especially Tammy, who acts like a lunatic every time Mel and Joss are close to each other.
  Tammy is not my kind of a girl; I didn’t like her a bit. She is really conceited, extremely jealous and infuriates me a lot. The reason behind this comes to light but if she could keep her mouth shut there wouldn’t be a problem.
  Unfortunately the other characters stay in the dark; we don’t really get to know them. It’s a pity.

  The author interlinks the fascinating characters and the rock stars’ word in an exceptional way. I laughed a lot during reading thanks to the amazing writing. It’s easy to read and relate to the story. My only problem is that the big betrayal comes to light very soon in the storyline and because of this and the characters background it’s obvious that their relationship is doomed from the very beginning. After finishing the book I feel I didn’t get what the synopsis promised.

Broken (Broken) by Kelly Elliott Review

Series: Broken #1
Publish: November 17th 2013 by Kelly Elliott
Format: ebook, 354 pages
Rating: 5 / 5

Synopsis: Layton Morris and his brother Mike grew up not knowing what it would be like to live in a normal home. With no running water or electricity in their home, no parents around to protect them, they quickly learned how to survive and depend only on each other.
When a tragic accident takes Mike away from Layton, and the only other person that he ever let into his heart walked away from him, leaving his heart shattered, Layton focuses all of his time and energy into the ranch he and his brother dreamed of. He makes a vow to himself to never let love in again. The last thing Layton needed or wanted was more heartache.
Whitley Reynolds grew up in a privileged home in upstate New York. When she landed the star football player in high school no one was surprised, not even Whitley. She dreamed of a life with Roger living in New York City and happily followed him there.
The first time Roger hit her for arguing with him about a dinner party, she forgave him. The more it happened, the further Whitley withdrew from her friends and family. One fateful day things go to far. Whitley makes a promise to herself and finds the courage to do the one thing she thought she’d never be able to do.
Fleeing with her best friend Courtney, Whitley was determined to put her past behind her and start a new life in the small town of Llano, Texas, where no one would ever find out about her past.
Will they both ever learn to trust and love again, or will their pasts come back to haunt them, keeping them both alone and...
Broken.

Review:
  Kelly Elliott has an outstanding talent to create stories which are extremely sweet and steamy at the same time. Okay her books are a little bit predictable but not so much. She can create exceptional situations and can make the same situation a bit different every time giving them a novel feel, atmosphere. There is little bit of a similarity between this series and her Wanted series. Both takes place in Texas with cowboys and loveable best friends, whom stir up the events. But there are plenty of differences between them. First of all that in this book there is an older cast and has a more mature and darker topic.

  Both of the main characters have a lot of emotional and physical scars. They come from very different worlds, backgrounds still they have a similarly hard past.
  Layton’s father left him and his brother so they had to grow up really fast and only could rely on each other. If it wouldn’t be enough he lost his brother and the love of his life left him, too. While Whitley has a beautiful and good childhood but her taste in boys is not the best. The man she chooses for husband slowly turned into a monster and completely broke her. They hit rock bottom and thought there is no way out they met.

  Their first meeting is not roses and love; they are constantly at each other throat. However these little disagreements and the banter between them turn into attraction somewhere along the line. They learn to love again with each other help and thanks to this they get over the obstacles. The sexual tension and the chemistry are palpable. It’s impossible to put down the books until the two main characters confess their feelings and take the road to emotional healing.

  The plot is built typically in Kelly Elliott style, makes a full circle. It’s a fluidly flowing story that sucks the reader in completely. It’s full of romance, amusing little events, emotional debates and a lot of pleasant moments in the company of a freshly formed circle of friends. Of course there is a lot of drama and a bad guy too. The author not only endears her characters but makes the reader an addict. I can’t wait to read the next book, however not because of Courtney and Reed but because I hope there is more Layton and Whitley in it too. Courtney and Reed behavior with each other makes it hard to like them.

  About the cast? There is an extremely sexy cowboy, who is a bit closed up in the beginning but slowly opens up and shows his true personality. He is really passionate, caring and sweet and all of this without losing his masculinity. I couldn’t help myself; I constantly smiled during reading his point of view.
  Then there is Whitley who is the perfect damsel in distress, but still a very strong and persistent character. She is really honest and loveable; it’s easy to relate to her.
  We also get a very detailed description about the secondary characters too. And they are the levers for the main characters, whom on the edge of giving up in the beginning of the story. Despite this Courtney and Reed couldn’t get along, in each other presence they act like completely different persons and most of time it’s an ugly change. I know it supposed to prepare their story but it’s not really appealing.

  I absolutely love this book and hope there are a lot of people who agree with me. A fantastic story, I can recommend it to anyone who likes light romantic books.

By Viki

Spun (Kings of Chaos) by Shyla Colt Review

Series: Kings of Chaos #1
Publish: April 12th 2015 by Hot Ink Press
Format: ebook, ? pages
Rating: 5 / 3.5

Synopsis: Born to a King of Chaos patch holder with a case of wanderlust and a self-centered mother, twenty-one-year-old Nevada Weber is used to taking care of herself. She's spent her life skating by on her wits and pure determination. When she lands in a situation, she can’t haggle her way out of, she’s forced to rely on another brother for help.
Club enforcer Gage “Wizard” Carmody has done his job too well over the years. Icy and numb on the inside, he walks around in a prison of his making. When the bright green-eyed girl he helped raise winds up unclaimed and in need of protection he steps in seeking redemption. In a life where destruction lurks around the corner, they discover something with the potential to bring healing and happiness.
But when you live in Chaos nothing goes as planned.

Review:
  I randomly choose this book from my TBR list without rereading the synopsis and since I couldn’t remember it I ‘went in’ kind of blind. I even was contemplating to abandon it after it became obvious that there is a huge age difference between the main characters. I can tolerate a lot of gruesome thing in books but for some reason I don’t like books where is a huge age gap between the characters in a relationship, especially one where they could be parent-child and the older character helped raise the other since birth. That’s my limit. However this book has a really great writing style and the story sucked me in from the beginning so I continued. I didn’t regret it.

  The book has a very good structure and the story flow fluidly. It’s kind of short but it spans in a sufficiently long time. There is a bit jumping in the timeline but way it’s go by in it just makes the story more believable, more realistic and not as insta that in other similar stories.
  The book is narrated from two different points of view. We see thing from Nevada and Wizard side, too.

  Nevada is 21-years-old but has an old soul. She had a lot of hardship while growing up so she is a pro survivor but besides surviving she doesn’t do much else. She’s not living just existing or as she states in multiple occasions she floats through life. It’s hard for her to trust in anybody or even just enjoy herself. But she has a clear picture about life and a quite different personality under the hard, quiet and shy outer shell she formed around herself. It’s time for happiness. Oh, and I think she is the first character who doesn’t make a fit about how ‘her man’ treats her, she knows her place. Don’t get me wrong I don’t agree the way they treat woman in MC books, but if you willingly enter a relationship like that then don’t whine about it.
  Wizard is older than Nevy and known her form birth. He also had to grow up fast and had a hard and unusual childhood, but he found a family with the club. He is quite levelheaded, respectful and reasonable but also has a harder, scarier and more dangerous side he needs when dealing with club business. He is not a saint but not too bad after you get to know him.

  My only problem is that I think the story has a lot more potential in it than the author used up. It could have been more detailed. I also think that the ending is rushed.
  There is plenty of action, emotion and twist and my heart almost break a couple of time.

  I liked the, it gone full circle, has a beginning and a satisfying ending but still short. I liked how it relays emotions in times it’s almost palpable. It’s an MC book but not that harsh and crude than others. I think I’m gonna check the author other works, too.

By Viki

Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels) by Anne Bishop Review

Series: The Black Jewels #1
Publish: March 1st 1998 by Roc
Format: ebook, 416 pages
Rating: 5 / 4

Synopsis: The Dark Kingdom is preparing itself for the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy the arrival of a new Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But this new ruler is young, and very susceptible to influence and corruption; whoever controls her controls the Darkness. And now, three sworn enemies begin a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal...and the destiny of an entire world is at stake....

Review:
  I usually read books that are recently released, but some of the times I find little jewels from the past like this one, most of the time they are high fantasy and quite edgy. I found this book after finishing Murderer of crows, one of the authors other books. I really liked her style so I searched for her other works and I got The Black Jewels series.

  Anne Bishop has a unique talent to create interesting and original worlds for her stories and she did it with this book to. Although in this case we get an extremely complicated and dark world and it takes quite a while to really get an understanding about how the society works. So you don’t get a clear picture about the structure of it until almost the end of the book and even then you only see the life of the higher ups in the hierarchy. It’s an amazing world but incredibly deprived and most of the time disgusting. During reading it I often thought that there isn’t as many pervert, ugly and abusive people in the whole world as in this book. Even so I just couldn’t stop reading it. The story simply sucked me in and it was impossible to stop reading it. I can’t call the story beautiful because there is too much graphic negativity in it but it’s certainly fascinating and well developed. There is so much sexuality in it, savagely and vividly described but in case of the more crude words Bishop uses symbolism.
  The whole story is built around a really twisted, pleasure based politics but not the good kind of pleasure. They use it as a punishment, and all of the leaders have a sadistic, pervert and arrogant personality, so in my opinion their world is doomed.
  One of the strangest thing about it, that despite the fact that the story’s told from a couple point of view, maybe even from too many, but neither of them is Jaenelle side, yet we get a full picture. We don’t get into her head so it’s harder to connect with her but with a bit of persistence you got there. It’s a new solution at least for me, and I think it’s harder this way to give a balanced and complete story. Well the author executed it perfectly. So yeah, maybe there is a couple of unnecessary point of view in there which makes it feel like that the story has too much different angle, but as I mentioned previously in the end the writer balanced it out perfectly. But it’s true in the beginning this kind of multi- leveled plot makes hard to follow the storyline.

  Daughter of blood is a quite long book and covers a relatively long period of time, namely years if I remember correctly. Overall I would say that the whole first book of the series is about character introduction and world building, but there is a little bit action too.
  However I had a serious problem with it. There is a list of jewels and a short description about some of the titles in story, but honestly a world map or even just a detailed characterization about the people from different realms would have helped more in regard of following and understanding the story. It’s a minor oversight on the writer part.
  Thanks to the multiple POV there is a lot of important character. Almost all of them is dark, intense, and original and has a strong presence. Sure some of them are terribly arrogant and power hungry but the main characters still loveable despite their shortcomings. My favorite was Daemon with even with his cruel and mean moments. I think he has perfectly justifiable reasons for his actions. I think I would have loved Lucivar too, but unfortunately he has a really short appearance and in the end his accusations pissed me of.
  I surprisingly liked the book. It’s very well done even more so since this was the author debut novel. But I have to mention that you need a really strong and resilient mind if you want to read it since there are a lot of taboo and cringe worthy elements in it. The story is very dark, savage and harsh. The writer is extremely talented and has a twisted imagination, but I like her style. I’m certainly going to read the next book.

By Viki

Night Broken (Mercedes Thompson) by Patricia Briggs Review

Series: Mercedes Thompson #8
Publish: March 11th 2014 by Ace
Format: ebook, 352 pages
Rating: 5 / 5+

Synopsis: An unexpected phone call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam’s ex-wife is in trouble, on the run from her new boyfriend. Adam isn’t the kind of man to turn away a person in need—and Mercy knows it. But with Christy holed up in Adam’s house, Mercy can’t shake the feeling that something about the situation isn’t right.
Soon, her suspicions are confirmed when she learns that Christy has the farthest thing from good intentions. She wants Adam back and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, including turning Adam’s pack against Mercy.
Mercy isn’t about to step down without a fight, but there’s a more dangerous threat circling. Christy’s ex is more than a bad man—in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies start piling up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her whole world apart.

Review:
  I'm a hard core Mercy Thompson fan so it was a no brainer that I would read this book. But when I saw the cover and the synopsis .....well, that sealed the deal.

  Night Broken is the eight installment in the fantastic Mercedes Thompson series. My favourite supernatural creatures are shifters and I have to admit that this book has one of the best shifter based world. Especially , since there are a lot of other creatures in it too, but the shifters still stay in the limelight. I love how the books discusse the other paranormal races problems, too but it is always the shifters, mainly Mercy who solves their problems. And the most interesting part in this series that there isn't an underlying thread, connection between the books, but every intsallment is about different story, still the books strongly fit together. Probably because of the excellente characters.

  I really was looking forward to reading this book, I was curious about how Chrissy reappearence will distirbe the balance in the book. However, I'm a bit disappointed because I really expected more drama from it. I mean, Mercy simply doesn't react to anything that bitch does. She is the bigger person and all tis just evidence for the stability of her and Adam relationship, but still a girl can dream. Beside this little disturbance the first part of the book is little on the slow side, but interesting and gives the whole book a kind of intensity. I liked the plot and how things turned out at the end. There is everything in it that an incredible urban fantasy needs: excitement, a little mystery, romance, action and all of this merged together perfectly. And even there is a few new pieces from Mercy myterious history. There is a lot of original idea showcased in this book which makes it even more enjoyable to read it. Despite the fact that Night Broken is a bit slower than the other books in the series, it is one of the best, too.

  Patricia Briggs contuines her phenomenal work with character developement, the already fantastic characters just became more and more detailed during the series. I love Mercy personality. She is far from perfect but willing to learn and work on her methods. She starts to learn more about the Pack politics, no matter how hard it is.She is really loyal, presistent, smart, quite confident in her capabilities and in this book she shows an incredible amount of restraint. I admire her self restrain but still hoped she is going to say enough is enough and pits Chrissy in her place.
  Mercy and Adam are one of my favourite book couple, they somehow balance out each other and they have a really mature relationship. They support each other but Adam has a couple of really stupid decision in the book. These could have destroy them, fortunately their marriage is resilient enough.
  There is a lot of surprise from the the secondary characters, too. Firts there is Chrissy, who is quite the annoying and selfish bitch, still almost everyone supported her opposed to Mercy. Her presence just undermined Mercy authority even more. However Honey surprised me in a good way.

  In the end everything back to normal and Mercy prived her strenght in every way. This book is a bit more relationship based and more emotional than the others but worth the time. The only problem it is another year before the nex installment.

Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels) by Ilona Andrews Review

Series: Kate Daniels #7
Publish: July 29th 2014 by Ace
Format: ebook, 400 pages
Rating: 5 / 4.5

Synopsis: As the mate of the Beast Lord, Curran, former mercenary Kate Daniels has more responsibilities than it seems possible to juggle. Not only is she still struggling to keep her investigative business afloat, she must now deal with the affairs of the pack, including preparing her people for attack from Roland, a cruel ancient being with god-like powers. Since Kate’s connection to Roland has come out into the open, no one is safe—especially those closest to Kate.
As Roland’s long shadow looms ever nearer, Kate is called to attend the Conclave, a gathering of the leaders from the various supernatural factions in Atlanta. When one of the Masters of the Dead is found murdered there, apparently at the hands of a shapeshifter, Kate is given only twenty-four hours to hunt down the killer. And this time, if she fails, she’ll find herself embroiled in a war which could destroy everything she holds dear. . .

Review:
  Finally, after almost a whole year waiting here is the next installment in the Kate Daniels series. There are only 5 or so 'long' series that I follow and this is one of those and probably my favourite one. My only problem is that there is whole year long waiting between books. It's a fantastic story but in this and the previous book I started to notice really small changes in the general direction of the plot, I don't say that these changes are bad just different. I'm curious where it's headed.

  In the beginning of the series there were different main stories, what didn't really related and behind those run Kate own background story. Where Kate parentage and abilities were a bit hidden from the readers and gradually came to light through the first 5 book. I really liked those because there was a sense of mytery behind the whole, otherwise interesting, exciting and adventurous plot. However in the sixth installment everything became clear and started to focus on Kate mission, the one she got from Voron. This is true for Magic breaks, too. Don't get me wron I still love the series, mainly because of the characters and the world the story is playing, but between the pack politics and the problems with Kate father there is too much drama for me. It's still interesting and action packed but if you doesn't pay attention you can miss something importat and became a little confused in the end. I loved a bit more when Kate came and after a minimal investigating work, she fought her way through the bad guys. Beside this little detail story wise everything else stayed the way I love it or became better. Although I think the plot is bit rushed here and there and drawn out in the beginning but that can be easily overlooked.Oh and another thing, for some reason the writer duo started to use mor detailed retrospections, which I think is not necessary since anybody who wants to read the book will stast with the first and not the seventh.

  Kate is my all time favourite female character.I love her personality, she is a real badass. Sure there are quite a few obstacle in her way and most of them pack related since she doesn't really know how to handle those problems, still her head is always held high and if it necessary she pulls her killer persona out and put everybody in their place. She has a hard and not quite friendly childhood, she became a trained killer and due to this she was a little emotionally closed of in the beginning. Well until Curran and Julie, sure she cared about people that she didn't show it. Since her family came into the picture however, Kate started to change. And in this book this change reached a whole new level. I would say that Kate shows the most emotion in here. In my opinion Kate character developed a lot and became more human . I just love her more.
  Curran is still supporting Kate in everything she needs. Their love is really strong and beautiful. Unfortunately, he isn't present most of the book, I missed him really much. But when he is there he is one of the most caring and protective man, but he has a hard edge, if somebody gets in his way there is no telling what is gonna happen. I always liked him but after this book I absolutely love him. There is a huge and surprisisng decision on his part, which just strengthen his relationship with Kate.

  There is a lot of surprise in this book, mostly from the pack side. They, as a whole, don't really like Kate, they don't think that she is a capable leader mainly because she isn't a shifter. And they show their disapproval every chance they get. Sure there are a few invidual, who know and suport Kate and I love them. One of my favourite character is Dreke from the very beginning. But in the last two book there was a lot of changes supportive charavcter wise, too. For example some of them took a whole one-eighty or just simply became irrevelant. Some of them dissapeared from the limelight. I miss Julie. Howeve I can't wait to see Hugh die. He transformed from the feared warlord to a maniac with an unhealty obsession with Kate. He just simply annoying.

  In the end of the book we we can see a lot of surprises. There is a part in the plot I'm a little dissapointed in. I won't say in which because it plays a huge part in the whole but I expected a bit more from it. Especially based on the previous books. I'm dissapointed in the how but not in the outcome. I think it is a more acceptable than what I was expecting. I love how it turned out and can't wait for the next book. I got an absolutely fantastic, beautiful and magical story again.