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Book Review: Speechless by Ava Cates

Posted on by bookishnerdygirl

Hey everyone I’m coming at you with another book review. Check out my blog and my other book reviews to get a feel of how I review things. Today I’m dropping a review to the book called Speechless by Ava Cates.

It’s Julia’s first day attending a “regular” high school. She just wanted to know what it felt like to be normal for once. But Julia quickly begins to realize, her high school experience is anything but regular.
It all begins when an attractive guy suddenly shows an interest in her. Then wait. . . could she actually hear him? She thinks she did, but just as quickly as the sounds came, they vanished, and with them so did the guy. How was this even possible? Was she getting her hearing back? Plus, there’s a fire no one can remember but her. (Maybe her mind is going too?) But that is not all: a ‘mean’ girl has also taken an interest in her, a symbolic mark appears down Julia’s back that she can’t explain, and not everyone is who they say they are.
Julia’s life will never be the same after this year. And definitely, not like how it was before. It’s enough to leave a person. . . Speechless.

The book starts with the audience getting aquainted with the main protagonist named Julia entering her first year of high school. She isn’t considered normal by herself or her peers because of her disability. She is a shy girl who only has one or two friends and is nervous to form frienships with people no matter how desperately she wants to. The reader meets her aid named Helen and then her friend named Jill who is the opposite of Julia in her mind, Jill is beautiful and popular. Julia is not an only child as she has an older brother named Brian and they both live together on a farm with thier mother.

The book starts off fairly normal and very highschool as the reader gets a sense of all Julia’s insecurities and her personality then the book starts filling to the brim with action because Julia can do something she hasn’t been able to do in years and wants to find out how and why she can all of a sudden do it. She of course tells the people around her about the strange phenomenon and they don’t believe her.

After Julia starts snooping around for more answers the reader is introduced to other characters like Jeremy, Luke, Madeline, Meg, and Jacob. Every character has their own personalities that the author Ava Cates does an amazing job mixing in with Julia’s, whether they clash or get along each character is memorable and doesn’t feel like a lose end.

The plot continues to build at a steady pace where we get some action and well described fight scenes as well as character growth from Julia and Luke. But of course this is a paranormal romance novel so in comes the love triangle between Luke, Jeremy, and Julia. To protect her family Julia needs to keep all the paranormal and the romance aspect of her life a secret which proves to be a challenge since they are both so overprotective of her. Julia learns some devastating truths about who she is and in the end she ends up with some strange marking on her back and a mindful of questions.

I rate this book 4/5 stars.

Speechless is a great start to a series that develops the characters well, keeps the plot interesting leaving the reader wanting answers, and confusing romance aspects that rival any other paranormal romance novel I have read. If you are someone like me who is always interested in paranormal romance or fantasy this an easy book to devour. I’m excited to see how this series develops as this is only part 1 of a six book series. So don’t wait go check out Speechless by Ava Cates for yourselves and let me know what your opinon of the it is!

Book Review: The Ghost Seekers by Devon Taylor

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Synopsis:

There are worse things than death.

The Harbinger is lost, sunk to the bottom of an otherworldly sea. Every soul that ever died and was protected within its hold has been lost along with it. But at least that precious cargo is out of reach of the demon Urcena and her army of soul-devouring monsters.

For now.

The soul keepers are broken, scattered, and barely clinging to existence without their ship or any way to collect or protect the souls of the newly dead. If they are to have any hope of stopping Urcena’s horrifying plans to destroy the fragile balance between living and dead, they will first have to survive long enough to locate the ghost of one of their own, who sacrificed himself to save the rest of the crew.

Devon Taylor’s cinematic and pulse-pounding duology comes to a thunderous conclusion in The Ghost Seekers.


My Review: I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. This book is filled with an even blend of despair and hope and keeps the reader at the edge of their seats after the ending of the first book. The world building is imaginative and mirrors an afterlife that mirrors our very own while incorporating interesting parts of different beliefs attributed to death from different cultures. The book is definitely a slow burn and takes some time to get into but if you wait patiently you’ll find yourself unable to put this book down and will finish it needing more.

While the world is creative and the characters are all different and lovable in their own unique ways this book suffers in part of the deadly second book syndrome. So much has happened since the first book so I expected this book to be filled with more information and mythology building with the Syllektors but the reader does have to be patient as nothing seriously interesting happens until about 30% of the book. If you stick with it and can get past the more informative parts of the book you’ll definitely eat this read up in one sitting I know I definitely did.

One thing I wish had stayed the same was the lovable qualities of the characters. The characters are facing some seriously messed up things so I can understand not having a cheery disposition but what made me connect with the characters in the first book I was missing from this one.

I know this book ended the duology but I want so much more and while I wasn’t left with any question I wish a 3rd book was going to be coming out.

Overall this book was very good I just wish that some of the elements of the first novel found it’s way further into this book.

Devon Taylor was born in Las Vegas, Nevada and currently lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and two daughters. His day job consists of sneaking around the house with ninja-like stealth to avoid waking up his kids. When not writing, reading, or tediously typing out text messages with all the correct spelling and punctuation, he spends his time with his family. THE SOUL KEEPERS is his debut novel.


Author links: https://devontaylorauthor.wordpress.com/https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17100470.Devon_Taylorhttps://www.facebook.com/taylor.devonwrites/https://twitter.com/devontwrites

Purchase:Amazon: https://books2read.com/u/mBOGAD?store=amazonB&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ghost-seekers-devon-taylor/1129098201#/iBooks: https://books.apple.com/ca/book/the-ghost-seekers/id1451507388?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-ghost-seekers-1Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=WFmGDwAAQBAJ

Well thats all for this review I hope you guys enjoyed this review. If you did hit that follow button on my website and also check out my second blog that I am a coauthor on called Pencliff. Peace out!

Never Fade meets Time Travel in Paralucidity by Stephen H. Provost

Posted on by bookishnerdygirl

Hey gang how are you all doing this fine Monday morning? College has been a little crazy this first week but I’m really enjoying it. I hope you all had a relaxing weekend but it’s Monday which means it’s time for a fun book review. And the book I am reviewing is called:

Paralucidity

Summary: Somebody wanted Minerva Rus dead. They succeeded. But Minerva isn’t letting a little thing like death stop her.
After the dangerous adventure that killed her in Memortality, Minerva Rus has reconciled herself to being dead. She and her also-dead boyfriend Raven share an amazing gift that allows them to bring the dead back to life―including each other. Now that Jules, their most dangerous enemy, has been banished from reality and trapped inside her own mind, Minerva and Raven plan on enjoying the eternity of their unnatural lives.
But immortality isn’t safe. Minerva and Raven’s life-giving powers mysteriously fade, forcing them to take refuge in The Between, a shadowy realm of memories that lies between life and death. What’s more, their old adversary Jules is on the loose, partnered with a resurrected Nazi scientist planning a monstrous experiment that will change the destiny of the human race. And now it’s up to a 21-year-old dead girl to save the world―again.

My review: I give this book 5🌟’s. So after reading the first book in the saga I knew that the second book would also be amazing but I didn’t know how amazing it would truly be! This fantasy is filled with devastating plot twists, time travel, stopping some villains, and a heart filled romance!

So this book was told from multiple perspectives and I’d have to say my favorite perspectives were from Minerva and Carson. I feel like I liked them the most because they were so different but the same as well. It’s not something I can go into full detail about because spoilers, but when you read it for yourself you’ll know what I mean.

The plot twists in this book are beyond crazy, I’m talking like crazy rollercoaster ride. Each time I suspected something to come it pulled a 180 on me and did something else. And the ending of the book was perfect but dangled you right over for a cliff hanger. Like I said in the first book Memorality, I cannot wait for the 3rd installment of this brilliant saga.

I hope you all enjoyed this review if you did and want post notifications via email just hit that follow button and have a great day!

AUTHOR BIO:

Stephen H. Provost is a veteran editor, reporter and columnists with more than 30 years of experience at daily newspapers in California. He’s currently the managing editor of The Cambrian on the Central Coast, as well as a columnist and assistant city editor for The Tribune in San Luis Obispo.

As an author, he has written historical nonfiction (“Fresno Growing Up” and “Highway 99: The History of California’s Main Street”), novels (“Memortality” and “Identity Break”), while also exploring the realms of mythology, fable and ancient history.

Purchase:

Book Review: The Great Library series meets These Rebel Waves in The Soul Keepers by Devon Taylor

Posted on by bookishnerdygirl

Hey everyone! How are you all doing this fine Monday morning? I hope you all had an awesome and somewhat relaxing weekend, summer is almost over and people who are still in school like myself have alot of things to get done. I plan on posting as much as possible, but for now enjoy this fun book review!

The Soul Keepers

Summary:

Death is just the beginning.

After dying in a terrible car accident, Rhett awakens in the afterlife and is recruited to join the crew of the Harbinger, a colossal seafaring vessel tasked with ferrying the souls of the dead. To where exactly, no one knows. But the crew must get the souls there, and along the way protect them from vicious soul-eating monsters that will stop at nothing to take the ship and all of its occupants.

Rhett and his new friends have a hard enough time fighting back the monsters that grow bolder and more ferocious every day. But then a new threat emerges, a demon who wants something that Rhett has. And if she gets it, it could mean the end of everything… for both the living and the dead.

My Review: I rate this book 4/5⭐’s. The plot was very interesting and it was like ghosts meet pirates. As far as opening books go this was a very good introduction to an interesting series. The plot was really good and fast paced and the characters interesting and different. And because this book talks alot about death the majority of the time some people may have a hard time reading this.

I definetly recommend that people check out this book. The concept of the story was fresh and something I can say with 100% honesty say I have never read before. I was pretty skeptical of this book as I’ve never really read a pirate book before but I was pleasantly surprised how much of a Great Library vibe this gave me.

Each character was different in their own way. Mak was very prickly yet sensitive if you got past her guard reminding me of Spinelli from Recess. Rhett was the new guy who hadn’t yet accepted or understood his death, and Basil was a cool but cocky and loyal British guy who followed orders. Each character in the book fit into a small puzzle, and that’s usually who they worked with.

The plot for this book was very intense. Sometimes it could be a bit on the morbid side as Rhett and the readers had to picture how someone would die. It’s definitely a darker toned tale with some satire to get rid of the gloomy atmosphere. My personal favorite part of this book was the training sessions Rhett went through. It’s also nice because there is a bit of romance in this book between two characters I didn’t even think liked each other. But I digress this book was very interesting, and for people who don’t mind reading darker toned tales I definitely recommend it.

If you enjoyed this review and want post notifications via email just hit that follow button and have a great day!

AUTHOR BIO:

Devon Taylor was born in Las Vegas, Nevada and currently lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and two daughters. His day job consists of sneaking around the house with ninja-like stealth to avoid waking up his kids. When not writing, reading, or tediously typing out text messages with all the correct spelling and punctuation, he spends his time with his family. THE SOUL KEEPERS is his debut novel.

Book Review: Shadow Children meets Evading the Dark in Magic Borne by Rayanne Haines

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Hey everyone how are you all doing this fine Monday morning? I hope you all had an amazing weekend, but because it’s Minday it’s time for another awesome book review! And this week I’m reviewing:

Magic Born

Summary: Maria Del Voscova is a powerful witch with a past. When she’s asked to become a member of the elite Guardians she knows she can’t risk sharing the truth about her messed-up family. But we don’t always get what we want. Sometimes, we don’t always know what we want.
Though Mar absolutely knows she doesn’t want Neeren, King of the Parthen. She alone sees the darkness in him and it reminds her too much of the past. She knows better than to fall for his stoic, tortured soul façade.
She’s training to be a Guardian, a shadow; tasked with keeping the balance between good and evil in the world. It’s what she wants—to be better than her family was.
But the past has a way of catching up to Mar and the future has a morbid sense of humor. On her first mission, she’s kidnapped by the enemy she’s been running from her entire life. Thankfully the guardians look after their own. As it turns out, so does Neeren.
As Mar finds herself caught between the past and the future; between blood and bond; between the light and the dark, she realizes her only chance at surviving may be in trusting a man who is the most dangerous of them all.

My Review: I rate this book 5/5 🌟’s. This book is filled to the brim with plot twists, magic, unexpected romance, and a plot filled with characters that you can’t help but love!

So the characters in this book are all characters we have met in the first book but instead of it just being in Collum and Alex’s perspectives, it’s in multiple perspectives. The characters have all grown quite a bit since the first book. Alex and Neeren are still as powerful as ever always practicing fighting as well as magic. Collum isn’t in the book in the beginning due to the ending of the first book, and all the other characters like Gray and Quinn are all still the same. Each one is likeable in their own way the only character that might take some getting used to is Neeren. He totally comes off as a Rhysand in A Court of Thorns and Rose’s but thanks to major characterization things are not always as they seem.

And because all the characters were on point like in the first book the plot pacing was perfect. Lots of drama and will they or won’t they moments between two characters that totally kept me on the edge of my seat until the last page! Not to mention the raunchy love scenes in this book, if you’re the shy type when it comes to sexual things definitely might want to be careful with this book. I never found the plot to be too slow and nothing felt forced or over dramatized. They’re is alot of drama and plot twists but I find it to be very enjoyable because it gives us a look into the characterization of the main girl in this story.

There were times in this book that I could feel myself tear up. It’s very emotional at times as we have quite a few characters with tortured souls. All in all this was a very solid read and I can’t wait to read the Third installment to the series! So if you love sexy men, a great plot, and memorable 3 dimensional characters definitely read this series!

I hope you all enjoyed the review if you did and you want post notifications via email just hit that follow button and have a great day!

AUTHOR BIO:
Rayanne Haines grew up on a small horse ranch in Alberta. She spent most of her youth re-enacting scenes from Anne of Green Gables to attentive audiences that included pygmy goats and roan stallions. The horses were thrilled. Her father could never figure out why it took her three hours to clean the barn.
Her mother is an avid reader and instilled a love of literature in her at a young age. She has always been fascinated with learning people’s stories.
She has a fondness for mountains and rivers and all the creatures that live within them.
She believes in magic and the search for great love. She loves to write about strong women who will accept nothing less.

Author Links:

http://www.rayannehaines.com/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17118123.Rayanne_Haines https://www.facebook.com/rayannehaines/

Book Review: Redemption’s Blood meets Dust and Shadow in The Devil’s Standoff by V.S. McGrath

Posted on by bookishnerdygirl

Hey everyone how are you all doing this fine Mondauy Morning? I’m happy to say that I was chosen for another book tour. This of course no way shape or form changes my opinion of the book that I am reviewing. And the book I’m reviewing today is:

The Devil’s Standoff

Summary: Welcome to the birthplace of the Devil’s Revolver, where untold danger lurks for Hettie Alabama and her companions…
The second book in the epic, magic-clad Devil’s Revolver series follows Hettie and her sister south of the Wall into Mexico, where they must unmake Hettie’s infernal mage gun while confronting a magic- and land-hungry army and a monster from hell drawn to the powers of the weapon. Hettie wants nothing more than to break her bond to the cursed Devil’s Revolver and find a way to keep her sister safe — but Abby’s indigo powers are growing stronger, and in the gated, walled village where they take refuge, nothing is exactly as it seems. Pursued by the Pinkertons, left without allies or guardians, Hettie has to rely on her own grit and determination to do the right thing, no matter the cost.
This second installment of V. S. McGrath’s sweeping and high-stakes saga draws its truly unforgettable gunslinger heroine to her limits and ends with a satisfying bang.

My Review: I rate this book 5🌟’s. This book had everything from the first installment and so much more! I started reading it one day and was sadly finished with it the next. I’m very excited to read the 3rd installment whenever it is released!

This book had absolutely everything that I was hoping it would have and more! Amazing character development, questioning one’s true purpose, letting go if power, keeping your loved ones safe, and learning not to hold you’re loved ones back are only a handful of the themes in this amazing second installment.

The characters were already amazing to begin with but they got even more interesting in this book! After everything Hettie has learned and endured I don’t blame her for being cautious and weary of people. She’s still very mistrustful but she grows while using the mage gun, El Diablo. She’s made many sacrifices and continues to help people as best she can even when they don’t want her help or shun her. This story also introduced many new and amazing characters that were also filled to the brim with deep characterization.

The magic was of course one of my favorite things in this book. The reader’s as well as the characters are introduced to new magic no one even thought capable making one of the characters an even bigger target then Hettie herself!

The pacing of this story was also perfect it lead into deep characterizations and kept the story going without feeling forced.

All in all this book was absolutely amazing and I will definitely be buying this book! If you enjoyed this review check out the links below and see for yourself how great the book is.

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-devil-s-standoff

And if you want to get to know the brilliant mind behind these amazing books, take a look at the author bio.

AUTHOR BIO:
Vicki So, writing as V. S. McGrath, is a published romance author (as Vicki Essex) and has six books with Harlequin Superromance: Her Son’s Hero (July 2011); Back to the Good Fortune Diner (January 2013), which was picked for the Smart Bitches Trashy Books Sizzling Book Club; In Her Corner (March 2014); A Recipe for Reunion (March 2015); Red Carpet Arrangement (January 2016); and Matinees with Miriam (November 2016). She lives in Toronto, Canada.

Well that ends another fun book review, I hope you all enjoyed it. For post notifications via email just hit that follow button and I hope everyone has a great Monday!

Book Review: Defy the Stars meets Gunpowder Alchemy in The Devil’s Revolver by V.S. McGrath

Posted on by bookishnerdygirl

Hey everyone I hope you all had an amazing weekend but it’s Monday morning and time for another fun book review! So the book I’m reviewing today is:

The Devil’s Revolver

Summary: The first book in an epic, magic-clad series featuring the Wild West reimagined as a crosscultural stereoscope of interdimensional magic and hardship, The Devil’s Revolver opens with a shooting competition and takes off across the landscape after a brutal double murder and kidnapping — to which revenge is the only answer. Hettie Alabama, only seventeen years old, leads her crew of underdogs with her father’s cursed revolver, magicked to take a year off her life each time she fires it. It’s no way for a ranch girl to grow up, but grow up she does, her scars and determination to rescue her vulnerable younger sister deepening with every year of life she loses.

A sweeping and high-stakes saga that gilds familiar Western adventure with powerful magic and panoramic fantasy, The Devil’s Revolver is the last word and the blackest hat in the Weird West.

My Review: I rate this book 4/5 ⭐’s I rated this book 4 stars out of five because this book is filled with amazing characters, dazzling magic, nail biting gun fights and an amazingly strong sisterly bond.

So I absolutely loved this book! The pacing is amazing and the plot was very imaginative. I’ve never read Western’s before because I found them to be boring. They lacked the fantasy and the magic I was looking for until I found this book. This book was really interesting and from the first page I was immediately hooked!

I think what really drew me into the story though was the characters. Each character had an emotional depth that really allowed the readers to get to know the characters. And for any of the extra characters that we didn’t really know they filled the story with an amazing mysteriousness that made the story more intense.

The magic definitely made me keep reading this fantastical Western. A crazy mysterious weapon that can kill a man as soon as you wish it is crazy and like nothing I’ve ever read before.

The reason for my removal of one star is because of the racial slurs in the book. Considering the time period and it being a Western I can understand why the terms were used to make the time period more authentic but I still didn’t necessarily like it.

But all in all this book was great and I would definitely recommend it to everyone who loves Young Adult Fantasy! If you enjoyed this review I’m glad, if you would like to get post notifications via email hit that follow button and have a great day!

Blog Tour Book Review: 1984 meets New York in The Gathering by Bernadette Giacomazzo

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Hey everyone how are you all doing this fine Wednesday morning? I have generously been given the oppurtunity to host another blog tour! And the book that I will be reviewing is called:

The Gathering

Summary:

The Uprising Series tells the story of three freedom fighters and their friends in high — and low — places that come together to overthrow a vainglorious Emperor and his militaristic Cabal to restore the city, and the way of life, they once knew and loved.
In The Gathering, Jamie Ryan has defected from the Cabal and has joined his former brothers-in-arms — Basile Perrinault and Kanoa Shinomura — to form a collective known as The Uprising. When an explosion leads to him crossing paths with Evanora Cunningham — a product of Jamie’s past — he discovers that The Uprising is bigger, and more important, than he thought.

My review: 3.5⭐’s out of 5. I rated this book 3.5 stars because while I found the Dystopian story interesting, there were times where it was really raunchy.

The characterization of Jamie is what really pulled me to keep reading this book. He was an insanely talented and tortured man, losing everything important to him. The heroine of the story I found to be quite dull most of the time. It was only in the end did I really start getting interested in her perspective and opinions. But the whole fixation she has for Jamie is majorly cringy.

The plot while dark and interesting really stalled for me anytime Jamie had a flashback. I understand the necessity of said flashbacks as we needed a deeper understanding of who Jamie was before all this: but man did they drag for me. I mean most of his flashbacks were about the places him and his band played at, or they were about the multitude of groupies he was able to get into his bed.

The evil villain of this book also fell a bit flat for me as well, I always love looking into the mind of these evil characters but anytime Emperor had a perspective it was boring. His character for the book was mainly an evil jerk getting off on his own control and power. He really didn’t get a back story, and while the way he weasled his way into becoming president is very true in today’s politics I just didn’t get anything important from him.

All in all I think this series has a great potential and hopefully I’ll get a more three dimensional characterization of the heroine and the villain. The storyline is definetly an interesting one and gives me a creepy 1984 vibe.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post if you want post notifications via email just hit that follow button. If you’d like to purchase this book simply click on the picture below. For more info on the author click the links!

AUTHOR BIO:
With an impressive list of credentials earned over the course of two decades, Bernadette R. Giacomazzo is a multi-hyphenate in the truest sense of the word: an editor, writer, photographer, publicist, and digital marketing specialist who has demonstrated an uncanny ability to thrive in each industry with equal aplomb. Her work has been featured in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and many, many more. She served as the news editor of Go! NYC Magazine for nearly a decade, the executive editor of LatinTRENDS Magazine for five years, the eye candy editor of XXL Magazine for two years, and the editor-at-large at iOne/Zona de Sabor for two years. As a publicist, she has worked with the likes of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and his G-Unit record label, rapper Kool G. Rap, and various photographers, artists, and models. As a digital marketing specialist, Bernadette is Google Adwords certified, has an advanced knowledge of SEO, PPC, link-building, and other digital marketing techniques, and has worked for a variety of clients in the legal, medical, and real estate industries.

Based in New York City, Bernadette is the co-author of Swimming with Sharks: A Real World, How-To Guide to Success (and Failure) in the Business of Music (for the 21st Century), and the author of the forthcoming dystopian fiction series, The Uprising. She also contributed a story to the upcoming Beyonce Knowles tribute anthology, The King Bey Bible, which will be available in bookstores nationwide in the summer of 2018.

Author links: