Book Review: Fire Burn & Cauldron Bubble

Book Title: Fire Burn & Cauldron Bubble
Author: HP Mallory

Publisher: Smashwords
Format: ebook

Cost: $0.00

Pages: 255

How I got it: Kindle Freebie

My Rating:★★★☆☆
Erotica Rating: N/A
Synopsis:

Life isn't bad for psychic Jolie Wilkins. True, she doesn't have a love life to speak of, but she has a cute house in the suburbs of Los Angeles, a cat and a quirky best friend. Enter Rand Balfour, a sinfully attractive warlock who insists she's a witch and who just might turn her life upside down. Rand hires her to help him solve a mystery regarding the death of his client who also happens to be a ghost. Jolie not only uncovers the cause of the ghost's demise but, in the process, she brings him back to life! Word of Jolie’s incredible ability to bring back the dead spreads like wildfire, putting her at the top of the underworld’s most wanted list. Consequently, she finds herself at the center of a custody battle between a villainous witch, a dangerous but oh-so-sexy vampire, and her warlock boss, Rand

My Review:
Ghosts, witches, warlocks Oh My!! Psychic Jolie has gained a smoking hot new client with an odd coloured aura.  hired for a new job, Jolie is surprised to discover something new about herself.  And eve more shocked to discover that there is a world that runs parallel to out own world one that has all the nightmare creatures in it. What is a witch to do??

Sounds good doesn't it?? I at first enjoyed this book, it started off pretty amazing, the cover art is amazing;  because I never read the previews I had no idea what the book was supposed to be about.  As I was reading i vacillated from loving rand & Jolie to wanting to slap both of them & wondering why I was reading the book. then something would happen to pull me back in.  Jolie as a character annoyed me, she refused to 'grow' or change. 

As I was reading these things stood out to me:

1. the lead character refused to have any kind of self confidence AT ALL, which of course blocked her gifts immensely & then she began to whine that she wasn't anything special O_o. Why why the hell should I keep reading if your not special??
2. She was seriously a very cautious & reserved character without explaining why. What happened?? Why doesn't she trust men?? *Sidebar* why do authors create female characters that are seriously undersexed until the meet their perfect guy, then BOOM they become sex kittens?? I need a character that is confident in her decision even if it is the decision to wait until she is with the perfect partner or married or in a committed relationship.  Please write characters that are confident in their sexuality ^& aren't so damn CRAZY.  

After a while I got really annoyed with Jolie. She just didn't grow in the book. She just allowed things to happen.  Everyone kept telling her she was better than she actually was and she just refused to believe it.  On Goodreads i kept updating:

• dear authors  =either put sex in or leave it out entirely, stop trying to be a prude and a normal healthy woman at the same time it just doesn't work. it's irritating and clearly shows that the character has no sense of self
• please somebody kill her and be done with it. whyy?? whhhhhyyyy am i still reading this. I'm going to finish even if it kills me *which it just might*
• Would I be wrong to punch Jolie in the head?? " i didn't come here to have sex with you" *takes off clothes* ~~~ this teasing ass heffa, lookie here. either have some or don't have some but stop being such a freaking tease, your getting on my nerves.
• Trent is an idiot he dated You, that's what makes him an idiot, not punching Rand, the dating you makes him an idiot.
• Jolie= idiot. I just can't with these characters that have such low self esteem but are supposed to be the saviours of anything, umm listen if you don't believe in yourself I'm not following you across the room much less into war.
• oh Gawd Jolie, i need you to grow some serious cajones

It's a fun mindless read, it doesn't add anything new to the genre but it's still an okay read.  I didn't like that her friend Christa wasn't a fully fleshed out character.  I get that there are four other books in the series so she didn't want this one to have all the fun, but I need a reason to come back to your series.  Jolie kinda reminded me of MaryJanice Davidson's Betsy ( & I stopped reading  that series a while ago).  

Although the story started off strong and had me hooked; I just wanted to be done & I especially wanted to smack Jolie especially about Trent.  By the end of book I was just happy to be done & move on.  If you just want a mindless read then have at it.  Others seemed to love the series, I'm going to read another and find out if it's just the first book that wasn't to my liking.

 Add to Goodreads

Book Review: Skye's Trail

Book Title: Skye's Trail: The Angelini Book 1
Author: Jory Strong

Publisher: Ellorascave
Format: ebook

Cost: $5.78

Pages: 242

How I got it: Purchased/Kindle Freebie

My Rating:★★★★☆
Erotica Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis:

For Skye Delano, the hunt and the kill are sometimes inexorably tied together. Her origins shrouded behind an impenetrable wall of mental pain, Skye has survived and evolved into a tracker, a hunter who metes out justice to those who prey on the helpless. Alone but not lonely, she's been content with her life. But now her body is changing and there's an underlying craving that's left her restless. She needs to take a mate - or rather, two mates...
Detective Rico Santana wants and needs Skye - for himself, and to track a couple of kids who have gone missing. In all the centuries that Giovanni Banderali has been alive, he's never desired any woman enough to bind her to him as a companion. That changed the moment he saw Skye. She's a threat to the fledgling vampires he's searching for, but nothing will stop him from claiming her - not even the Angelini blood that flows through her veins. Adversaries, natural enemies - dangerous allies - the bond that links them is stronger than lust, more powerful than love. When an Angelini chooses a mate, no man can resist.

My Review:
I haven't read any of the Angelini series, of course being an EC addict I have seen the books numerous times and thought "nah, I'm not into the vampires stuff".  Then I got this one, man, if my foot could get back there and do it proper I would kick myself.  I got it as a freebie because I love Jory's other books and have her on Goodreads as a friend. For her followers she was giving a freebie and I gladly accepted it.  I have been an avid read of Jory's books (many of which I repeat read when I have nothing new to read) she was & is one of my favorite writers. Actually she's one of my fave writers period.

Even though I'm doing the RCCleanup. I couldn't help but jump a the chance for a freebie from Jory.  So freebie, beloved author & no previous knowledge of the story...sounds like a recipe for potential disaster doesn't it?? Well....it wasn't, yeah I know I know I wax poetic about so many books but it's all true...this book had it all smoking hot men, a kick ass woman...batshyt crazy people & a pretty good plot line.  The characters were well written, they weren't flat or boring.  It took me two days to read this only because I read it while at work (shhh don't tell). LOL I snuck & read it as often as I could.  I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I so have to make room on the pile for the rest of the series because the other characters were interesting to say the least...

IJust kept imagining Giovanni as Erik Northman from True Blood, Yeah he just sounded that hot.  Definite burn rubber to get it.
Happy & delicious reading my loves!!!

Book Review: Secret Christmas Ciphers

Book Title: The Secret Christmas Ciphers
Author: Carolynn Carey

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Format: ebook, paperback

Cost: $2.99, $6.79

Pages: 134

How I got it: Free Kindle via Pixel of Ink

My Rating:★★★★☆
Erotica Rating: N/A
Synopsis:

A Regency Christmas novella. Abigail can’t explain, even to herself, why she married Derek after he’d asked her to wait for him and then became engaged to someone else. If his poor fiancée had not died, he would now be wed to her instead of Abigail. But then Abigail begins uncovering some of the secrets that are a part of her husband’s life and wonders if perhaps there is hope for their marriage after all. Derek, Lord Westdale, wasn’t sure why Abigail married him; she obviously despised him. On the other hand, he knew exactly why he was marrying her: she was the only woman he would ever love, despite his having offered marriage to another. Unfortunately, he can’t seem to convince Abigail that he never really betrayed her after all. Can their decoding of a secret Christmas cipher bring an end to their misunderstandings and help them create their own special Christmas tradition?

My Review:
A quick read this regency romance follows a couple who met & fall in love as children & then life intervenes and they drift apart.

 OMGosh, this reminds me so much of Matthew & Mary *from Downton Abbey, not the being in love since children part but the rest* they were so in love but let other things come in between them.   Abigail loved her friend's older brother, and they learnt together all about each other as they grew up, he asked her to wait for him when he went to school and she did. Everyone expected them to marry, then came the news from London, Derek was engaged to another woman. Abigail has been dealt a blow she hasn't found a way to recover from, then Derek returns home and she finds herself standing at the altar marrying him even though she has no idea why.   She's decided to make him pay for everything; but the Derek she knew & the one she is married to are two different men.  this new Derek is more secretive than before she then discovers that her husband is working for the government and decodes ciphers as part of the war effort. With this she decided to help him & slowly they begin to bond.


 I enjoyed reading this & feeling like I was there.Well written, engaging a very good Christmas read. It was both good & sweet, It gave me a bit of a break from high suspense novels I'm a huge fan of & made me love the characters even more.  I really loved the epilogue, with the future Lord & his wife. Very endearing. I hope there are more from this author, she's new to me but I like her writing.

Hope you enjoy!!

 Buy on Amazon                            Add to Goodreads

Book Review: South Hills Sidekicks: Uninvited

Book Title:  South Hills Sidekicks : Uninvited Book 1
Author: Leah Speigel

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Format: Ebook

Cost: $ On sale for 0.99, normally 7.99

Pages: 302

How I got it: Shut Up and Read, Read It and Reap Program On Goodreads.

My Rating:★★★★☆
Erotica Rating: 
Synopsis:

When Alley started her senior year at Upper East High in the South Hills area, it was supposed to be the usual drag of hanging out with people who spent more on one outfit than Alley did on her entire wardrobe. That was until Kirsten, a girl in their clique, suddenly goes missing and the only people who seem to care are her friends. All evidence leads to the new comer Shane, a cocky and self-pretentious person in Alley’s opinion, but the police seem uninterested so she and the rest of the girls start a little investigation of their own. But they are nowhere closer to finding Kirsten than when they started and now they had the police’s attention; just not in the way they expected. The girls have to start over and discover that maybe it wasn’t an outsider who took Kirsten, but someone within their own clique who has something to hide; a secret that just might have gotten Kirsten killed.

My Review:
Yes go ahead and give the cover a mean side-eye O_o. when I accepted the book the cover wasn't listed, so I didn't see it. The book premise sounded very much like a Nancy Drew meets Pretty Little Liars so I was all for it. 

When I first started reading the book, Alley actual grated on the nerves, her insistence that she wasn't a member of the group and that she was a hanger on kinda annoyed me. Then the book started moving along and you realized what Alley saw and what really took place were two different things, she very much is an integral part of the group, she's not just Val's friend, they actually know her name and they actually care about her as well. She just doesn't always see it.

Oh my Godh Val??!?!?!? I laughed so hard when she was in the scenes, she just was so funny without trying to be, she wanted so hard to help her friend which means her heart was in the right place but she just went about it wrong which meant there where so many funny incidents all because of Val. That scene where they followed him home, and Val was RIGHT behind him??!?!? I Laughed so hard, she was just too funny. 

Shane was the quintessential bad boy, from jump I tagged him as a love interest and little different from the group, but when the mystery started I didn't know what to do with the new info that was unraveling. Trust the girls to get into the mix of it and get it all wrong.

I haven't laughed this much in reading a book in a good way in a long time, mostly I'm laughing that author would think this is how someone would react but in this book it was at the antics of the girls, much like in a good comedy show i laughed right on cue. I had so much fun reading and will make space on my TBR pile near the top for the other books. Can't wait to read them. 

Book Review: Coexist

Book Title: Coexist: Keegan's Chronicles Book 1

Author: Julia Crane

Publisher: Valknut Press

Cost: $2.99

Pages: 202

How I got it: Kindle Freebie

My Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Keegan is struggling to keep her huge secret from her friends--she's an elf, descended from a long line of elves that live in secrecy alongside humans. In elfin society, mates are predetermined but not allowed to meet until they are eighteen. Against tradition, Keegan's brother Thaddeus told her Rourk's name because his visions warned him she'd need Rourk's protection, especially since Keegan will play a key role in the coming war between the dark and light elves.

Rourk finds himself drawn to Keegan's side every time she thinks his name. He wants to talk to her but remains in the shadows, silently guarding her every time she mentally beckons him. A twist of fate thrusts the two of them together when Rourk is forced to step up his protection and make his presence known. An ancient prophecy deeply entwines Keegan's family and the future of their society. Somehow they must find a way to thwart fate and win the battle...without losing Keegan. With war brewing, and dark forces aligning, will Keegan and Rourk ever have the life together that they both desire?~~~~ From Goodreads.

My Review:

I loved this book. I'm so going to get the other books like right now. I'm not normally a huge fan of YA books, I tend not to read them anymore, because well I'm no long a young adult. I like my books with a little more raunchy than YA can give me, but I saw this one the cover looked cool and it was a free kindle download, so clicked and read in my spare time. Let me tell you how happy I am that I did so, this book was pretty freaking awesome.

It's about the Fae!! I LOVE reading about the Fae, and this author's interpretation of the Fae was pretty cool, intense, and engaging. I did have a few little issues with the story, more editing issues than anything else, in the very first page actually the very first sentence, it's states that "Keegan's call echoed in his head" then a few pages (page 4) later while he's watching her, Rourk states "he doesn't even know her name"; um but you just said it a few pages ago, that doesn't make sense.  There was another scene were he was told to follow her and an incident happened he called her dad to let him know, then a few pages later when her dad pulled him from the case Rourk wanted to know if he was being punished because her dad figured out what he did, he already told Keegan's dad so the continuity there is off.

I also found it odd that the Fae would battle in such a way, it was organized and with rules, it kinda didn't go with the story, like slightly off tune; before the end of the story I was  wondering what made the 'light elves' better than the 'dark elves' if they are both on the battlefield wholesale slaughtering each other simply because they were different. That elf showed up for his people just like you showed up for yours. And of course as I continue to read she answers these questions. I knew the last few chapters of the book were going to be heartbreaking from she heard the roar; I knew that the price she would pay would be horrible, and yet I couldn't feel sorry for her, she was a bit of an idiot. I did shed a few tears for Rourk, but I won't tell you why, you have to read to find out

It's a very engaging, quick read, the author managed to build her version of the Fae world without bogging the book down in chapters of information that wasn't pertinent to the story.  The way it was written, you didn't feel like this was the first book, more like your peeking to the world of Keegan & Rourk and when you stop reading there story still continues. I loved that the dialogue flowed well, her parents clearly were in love and shared that love with their children.  I thought it was awesome that her parents were willing to break the rules about soul~mates and allowed them a great little time together,

I can't wait to read the other adventures of Keegan & Rourk and what happens now to their world, once the battle has begun.

I hope you enjoy it too
Happy reading