Reckoning (Silver Blackthorn #1) by Kerry Wilkinson

Series: Silver Blackthorn #1
368p.
Published: July 1, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: ARC from publisher for review

One girl. One chance. One destiny. 

In the village of Martindale, hundreds of miles north of the new English capital of Windsor, sixteen-year-old Silver Blackthorn takes the Reckoning. This coming-of- age test not only decides her place in society – Elite, Member, Inter or Trog – but also determines that Silver is to become an Offering for King Victor.But these are uncertain times and no one really knows what happens to the teenagers who disappear into Windsor Castle. Is being an Offering the privilege everyone assumes it to be, or do the walls of the castle have something to hide?Trapped in a maze of ancient corridors, Silver finds herself in a warped world of suspicion where it is difficult to know who to trust and who to fear. The one thing Silver does know is that she must find a way out . . .The heart-stopping first book in a new trilogy by UK author Kerry Wilkinson, Reckoning is the story of one girl's determination to escape the whims of a cruel king, and what she must do to survive against all odds.

My thoughts:
The story to me was a mash other other YA dystopians especially in the beginning. You can easily see a mix of The Hunger Games paired with Divergent. The rest of the story, while engaging, was not surprising. I'm sure with that opening you think I didn't like the book. Even though it was quite predictable and seemed more like a retelling of popular dystopians, I still became engaged and rooted for the kids in this story.

I think my favorite parts of the books were the characters. I did like Silver because she questioned things constantly despite being brought up to think the king and his rule was infallible. I've always liked a character like that and there is always room for growth. I also did like some of the world building. Often you don't quite get the feel of how impossible questioning dystopian authority could be, but in this book you are able to really see and understand the impossibility of it. I think these are the reasons I became so engaged in this book.

I give this story 4 stars. While it may not be original, the writing of the characters and the world seem to really help pull this story together. I recommend it to those that enjoy YA dystopians.

Smexy Reads: Eternity and a Day by Aline Hunter

Series: Desires of the Otherworld
250p.
Available Now
Source: From author for review

Dreading the one night per tide he’s forced to travel between the realms, Draigen Eric Locke has only one desire on Samhain – to retrieve the fae transporting daemon relics through the realms and escort her to the Dark Court to face the sidhe king. When he mistakenly recovers the wrong fae, the dragon under his skin responds in a way he never could have predicted, and he discovers he’s found the woman destined to him by the Fates – his Chosen. 

Runa Charon is an anomaly among her kind, the mortal offspring of a human and a fae. Unlike other sidhe, she longs to experience pleasure instead of pain, love instead of lust. Immortally strong but mortally fragile, she’s been sheltered all of her life. When the opportunity to meet a Draigen from the Otherworld arises, she can’t resist the temptation and travels to meet the man who will change her destiny. 

Unlike other netherworld creatures, Draigen mate for life, choosing to follow the path of their beloved mate in this reality or the next. Knowing a future can only span one lifetime, will they settle for less than an eternity? Or will they be grateful for the gift of each day?

My thoughts:
This series is considered erotic, but there is much more here. To me this was more UF and fantasy with a side of erotica. So, I enjoyed it more than I usually do with this kind of genre. I often want more plot, more world building and not just the smexy and you get it with this book.

 I did enjoy Eric (dragon shifter!) but there were times when I wanted to kick his arse. Yea, a common problem with a lot of alpha males, but he does recognize when he is an arse and he does try his best to rectify it by giving Runa control of the relationship until she is comfortable. They also have a lot of smexy times but it doesn't run over the story.

My fave characters are actually the secondary characters. In fact Runa's brother and best friend seem to have a bigger role than expected. I would love to read their stories. Still, in some ways they outshined our couple in this book but not so much I didn't enjoy Runa and Eric's romance.

I enjoyed this first book in the series and I give this book 3 1/2 stars. I recommend it to those who enjoy fantasy with a side of smexy. :)

Author Interview: Sarah Beth Durst

I enjoyed the book, The Lost (my review) recently and had an opportunity to interview the author. Hope you enjoy!

The Lost
Series: Lost #1
by Sarah Beth Durst
352p.
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Available Now

It was only meant to be a brief detour. But then Lauren finds herself trapped in a town called Lost on the edge of a desert, filled with things abandoned, broken and thrown away. And when she tries to escape, impassible dust storms and something unexplainable lead her back to Lost again and again. The residents she meets there tell her she's going to have to figure out just what she's missing, and what she's running from, before she can leave. So now Lauren's on a new search for a purpose and a destiny. And maybe, just maybe, she'll be found. 

Against the backdrop of this desolate and mystical town, Sarah Beth Durst writes an arresting, fantastical novel of one woman's impossible journey and her quest to find her fate.

1. I felt that the book was a retelling, or had some aspects of several beloved stories. Could you tell me which ones you intentionally put in the Lost?

Lost is a town full of only lost things and lost people.  Lost socks, shoes, umbrellas, library books, keys, dogs, dreams, minds, lives, innocence, childhoods...  It's made up of leftover bits and forgotten moments.

THE LOST not a retelling, but I did deliberately reference familiar and beloved childhood touchstones: Wonderland, Peter Pan, Wizard of Oz -- yanking them out of their comfortable childhood corners and infusing them into this rundown desert town, in order to create an off-kilter, disoriented feeling.

The feel of Lost was also inspired by the feel of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the Eagles' "Hotel California," various Yeats poems, and the terrible creepiness of the Island of Misfit Toys from that old Rudolph Christmas special.  I used to have nightmares about that place.  *shudder*

2. What kind of research did you do for this book?

Mostly random Google searches: abandoned towns, top 10 most frequently lost items, strangest items ever left behind in a train station... etc.  I then spent a lot of time carefully building the town of Lost.  It's as much a character in the book as Lauren, Peter, and Claire.

3. Peter, Lauren and Lauren's mother are all readers. What books would they recommend?

Great question!  Peter loves poetry.  He's read and memorized tons of Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, etc.  He loves the way words can both capture and obscure -- and he uses poetry as both a way to cope and a way to hide.  So he'd recommend books of poetry.

Lauren treasures art books that she's had since she was a kid, but lately, she's been reading travel memoirs, like Under the Tuscan Sun and Eat, Pray, Love and North of Ithaka.

At the start of the novel, Lauren's mother is into self-help books.  She likes to pass them on to her daughter, though Lauren never reads them.

4. Is there anything you can tell us about the up coming book, The Missing? 

You'll get some answers.  A lot of answers, actually.  But more questions.  (I know, I know, I'm being vague, but I'm trying not to give spoilers!)  I can tell you that it takes Lauren to places that she never imagined existed.  And that she must find light in even the darkest of places.

And you will find out what's in room twelve.

5. Anything you would like the readers to know about The Lost?

Writing THE LOST was a wonderful experience.  I felt like I was discovering Lost alongside Lauren, and I fell in love with her town.  It feels as real to me now as any town I've visited.  And I feel lucky that I'm able to live there for three books.  THE LOST will be followed by THE MISSING in December and then the final book in the trilogy, THE FOUND, in April.

Thanks so much for interviewing me!

Bio (from Sarah's website):

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of eight fantasy novels for teens and adults. Her YA titles includeConjured, Vessel, Drink Slay Love,Enchanted Ivy, Ice, Out of the Wild, and Into the Wild. Her first book for adults, The Lost, came out in June 2014 from Harlequin/Mira and will soon be followed by The Missing, in December 2014, and The Found, in April 2015. Sarah's next book for teens, Chasing Power, comes out in October 2014 from Bloomsbury. She was awarded the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature and has been a finalist for SFWA's Andre Norton Award three times.

Sarah was born in Northboro, Massachusetts, a small town that later became the setting for her debut novel. At the age of ten, she decided she wanted to be a writer. (Before that, she wanted to be Wonder Woman, except with real flying ability instead of an invisible jet. She also would have accepted a career as a unicorn princess.) And she began writing fantasy stories. She attended Princeton University, where she spent four years studying English, writing about dragons, and wondering what the campus gargoyles would say if they could talk. Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her two children, and her ill-mannered cat.

Thanks for coming on the blog and answering a few questions! I enjoyed this book and I think others will as well. :)

Evening Stars (Blackberry Island #3) by Susan Mallery

Series: Blackberry Island #3
368p.
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

Small-town nurse Nina Wentworth has made a career out of being a caretaker. More "Mom" than their mother ever was, she sacrificed medical school—and her first love—so her sister could break free. Which is why she isn't exactly thrilled to see Averil back on Blackberry Island, especially when Nina's life has suddenly become…complicated.

Nina unexpectedly finds herself juggling two men—her high school sweetheart and a younger maverick pilot who also wants to claim her heart. But as fun as all this romance is, Nina has real life to deal with. Averil doesn't seem to want the great guy she's married to, and doesn't seem to be making headway writing her first book; their mom is living life just as recklessly as she always has; and Nina's starting to realize that the control she once had is slipping out of her fingers. Her hopes of getting off the island seem to be stretching further away…until her mother makes a discovery that could change everything forever.

But before Nina and Averil can reach for the stars, they have to decide what they want. Will Averil stay? Will Nina leave? And what about the men who claim to love them? Does love heal, or will finding their happy ending mean giving up all they've ever wanted?

My thoughts:
 I had not read the other books in the series, but there was no problem as it can be read as a standalone. Each book is about different characters on the island. In this book we follow 2 sisters and a mother with a Peter Pan complex. Each sister has her own issues stemming from the way they grew up. All in all this is a story about finding what you truly want in your life and then taking the steps to achieve the new goal.

In this story we do get a love triangle, but in the story it is used more as a way to break one kind of habit and really putting a magnifying glass to the life Nina was living. So, in this book it works because it has a purpose. I did enjoy the characters in this book and did root for them, but I didn't feel as connected as I really wanted. I had a better connection to Nina who took on more than her fair share of the responsibility despite the life lessons it costed those around her. Her sister seemed more bratty to me, but toward the end of the story, when she really started to find herself, is where I started connecting to her. I never really connected to the mother, but she was more of a side character so it worked out fine.

I give this book 3 stars. It is a nice chick lit kind of read where epiphanies reign and romance is found. I recommend it to those who enjoy small town stories.

A Barricade in Hell by Jaime Lee Moyer with Giveaway!

Series: Delia Martin #2
384p.
Publisher: Tor Books
Available Now
Source: From publisher for review

Delia Martin has been gifted (or some would say cursed) with the ability to peer across to the other side. Since childhood, her constant companions have been ghosts. She used her powers and the help of those ghosts to defeat a twisted serial killer terrorizing her beloved San Francisco. Now it's 1917—the threshold of a modern age—and Delia lives a peaceful life with Police Captain Gabe Ryan. 

That peace shatters when a strange young girl starts haunting their lives and threatens Gabe. Delia tries to discover what this ghost wants as she becomes entangled in the mystery surrounding a charismatic evangelist who preaches pacifism and an end to war. But as young people begin to disappear, and audiences display a loyalty and fervor not attributable to simple persuasion, that message of peace reveals a hidden dark side.

As Delia discovers the truth, she faces a choice—take a terrible risk to save her city, or chance losing everything?

My thoughts:
I enjoyed the first book, Delia's Shadow, and I think that this book surpasses the first. While you could probably skip the first and dive into this book, I wouldn't suggest it. The first introduces you to these characters and besides you would miss a pretty great story. So, in this case, I would suggest that you read them in order.

The same kind of twisty ghost mystery is the plot of this book as well. We catch up with Delia a short time after the last book ended. We easily discover what has happened in her life and that discovery helps to bring us back into this world with Delia. The mystery also keeps Dora, their psychic friend and Delia's mentor, quite involved in this story. I was pleased as I wanted to know more about her after the first book. We don't really get much in the way of her friends closely involved, but we get a new side character in Mr. Sung as well as Delia's new kitten, Mai. Yes, I'm counting the kitten as a character because I have a feeling she will become more involved as the series goes on.

I don't want to reveal too much as it is a mystery and I need to let it reveal itself. If you haven't read this series I highly suggest you put this on your list. I give this second book 4 1/2 stars. I am looking forward to the next installment of Delia Martin!

I enjoyed this book so much I thought I'd pass one on to you! This is such a good series and I do think you will enjoy it. Since I'm footing the shipping, it is US only.

To enter just fill out the rafflecopter form below: