Review: Flutter (My Blood Approves #3) by Amanda Hocking

Being undead doesn't make life any easier for Alice Bonham.

Her younger brother's love life is heating up, while hers is...more complicated. Mae is falling apart, her best friend Jane is addicted to vampire bites, and if Alice doesn't get her bloodlust under control, someone will end up dead.

Alice volunteers for a rescue mission with Ezra. But going up against a pack of rabid vampires might be too much, even for him.

I liked him, I hated him, felt sorry for him, than I wanted to smack him. You name the emotion and when Peter was on the page I was probably feeling it. Amanda Hocking has created a character I honestly can't make up my mind about. I'm not sure I've ever been so wishy-washy (if that's a real term) about another character before. Bottom line is, Peter drives me crazy.

In Amanda Hocking's third installment readers get to know some of the other less mainstream characters. Peter is one of them, but others took the spotlight too which was nice for a change. Milo's boyfriend is introduced and Bobby (said boyfriend) was not my favorite at first. I was in agreement with Alice for the most part when she was feeling overprotective of her brother rushing in to the relationship. Mae, who was one of my favorite characters in the first two books kind of starts to fall apart and I felt terrible about that. I also felt bad for Ezra because he didn't seem to be able to fix "it" for Mae.

With things of course getting rocky for Alice and Jack (no author likes a perfectly happy couple) I was stressed for them. Authors may want to keep readers guessing and entertained, but I just wanted the happy ending for those two. One of the new characters introduced, a Lycan, Leif turned out to be someone I really liked and hope to see more of. I'm not sure what his connection is with Alice (or why everyone feels connected to her really) but I am curious to learn more.

Another fun installment in the series that had me rushing to get the fourth and I believe the final book in the series, Wisdom to see how things turn out.

I gave Flutter (My Blood Approves #3) 3 shamrocks!!!

Review: Fate (My Blood Approves #2) by Amanda Hocking

Alice Bonham thinks she's finally found a balance in her life between the supernatural and real life with her brother Milo. Jack - her sorta vampire boyfriend - keeps her at arm's length to keep her safe. As for his brother Peter... she's not sure where he's at, or what he wants with her. Worse still, she's not even sure what she wants with Peter.

When tragedy happens, Alice finds herself struggling with a terrible choice. Her decision has consequences that reach farther than she'd ever imagined...

After reading My Blood Approves, the first installment in this series I jumped right into Fate, excited to see what would happen next to Alice and the Townsend family. With everything that happened and all the revelations presented to Alice I was hoping some more of my questions would be answered. Just like the first, I flew through this one in a day. This series is very easy to lose yourself in and not realize the time flies.

With Peter going off to who knows where I was hoping that Alice and Jack would be able to really start a real relationship. That didn't seem to be the case. Ezra and Mae were still adamant about being able to find a way to solve the problem of Alice and Peter's bond and Alice and Jack's connection. In the meantime Jack and Alice have to maintain a safe distance and not get carried away. Peter may be gone for the moment but Alice is still technically "his" and that means death to anyone who gets too close, even his "brother" Jack.

And then there's an accident and plans change. In the first novel I admit to disliking Peter because he was keeping Alice and Jack apart. In Fate, Peter wasn't the enemy in my eyes. Someone else became the obstacle and it shocked me. It also got on my nerves. I know that's terrible but I just wanted Alice and Jack to catch a break.

The ending or last quarter of this book was really great for me. There was a lot of suspense and action and readers will really get the feeling that lines will be crossed and actions will be taken that did kind of become somewhat endearing to me, or at least less hateful. I could see he was struggling and really does have the potential to be a great guy. But with the way Amanda Hocking left things in this installment I'm not sure what to think or hope for. I'm anxious to get into Flutter, the third installment of the series!

I gave Fate (My Blood Approves #2) 3 shamrocks!!!

Review: My Blood Approves (My Blood Approves #1) by Amanda Hocking

Seventeen-year-old Alice Bonham's life feels out of control after she meets Jack. With his fondness for pink Chuck Taylors and New Wave hits aside, Jack's unlike anyone she's ever met.

Then she meets his brother, Peter. His eyes pierce through her, and she can barely breathe when he's around. Even though he can't stand the sight of her, she's drawn to him.

But falling for two very different guys isn't even the worst of her problems. Jack and Peter are vampires, and Alice finds herself caught between love and her own blood...

Not very often do I find a book by luck alone anymore. I have so many great series' I follow and authors I've come to favor or new releases I'm looking forward to that I don't struggle for material too much. This book found me. My kindle recommended it and it was only $.86 so I thought why not? Thank you kindle! I flew through this one in less than a day and immediately went in search of the rest of the series' installments. I knew I would want to read them all.

Many have compared this series to be similar to the Twilight series and while I can see how some of the elements are very much alike, it's also got it's own unique flavor to it that helped it stand out enough for me to enjoy as a fresh new series. The main character Alice finds herself spending tons of time with Jack who she later learns is a vampire. He lives with his "family" who are also vampires. Truthfully this book had a lot of set up and plot information/explanations but I was OK with that. It wasn't tedious, but instead I wanted more information and was glad when it unfolded. With the transformation of going from being human to becoming a vampire, I thought Amanda Hocking's different take on this (or at least in some ways) was pretty interesting. The bonding created problems that drove me crazy, but I still found them all fascinating. Jack's family is connected to one another very deeply because of this bonding. Because of all this, Alice has a connection that she can't explain to Jack's "brother" Peter. I was not a fan. I've been told I may come to change my mind but at the moment I'm not loving Peter. Jack is wonderful and seems like such a great character that at the moment I'm thinking I'm going to be firmly on his side. But hey, when there's a love triangle of any kind everyone chooses sides eventually. So for the moment I'm on Team Jack. I do like a good love triangle though.

So if you're looking for a good vampire story that may remind you at parts of Twilight, but won't feel like a re-read, I'd say pick this one up. I've started the second installment, Fate and I'm still hooked. I'm thinking that won't be changing anytime soon.

I gave My Blood Approves (My Blood Approves #1) 4 shamrocks!!!!

Review: Fire Study (Study, #3) by Maria V. Snyder

The apprenticeship is over— now the real test has begun.


When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder—able to capture and release souls—spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set her apart. As the Council debates Yelena's fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before.…

Honor sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills, and the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Her journey is fraught with allies, enemies, lovers and would-be assassins, each of questionable loyalty. Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself—and save the land she holds dear.

How Snyder keeps coming up with these new twists and turns for Yelena is beyond me! Now Yelena's a soul finder and although it's a huge testimony to her amount of power and strength, not everyone finds this to be good news. This of course complicates her already complicated life even more. I think the girl deserves a break, but as the last installment in the series I think one way or another things will be tied up in her story.

With some being weary of Yelena's new power status readers have to read on to discover her fate, as it is in the Council's hands at the moment. With blood magic threatening her, her home and those she loves and holds dear, Yelena faces her greatest test yet. Although she has friends and family to help her she's still very much on her own. Her relationship with Valek is tested. He wants to help and hates to be left out of an adventure, while at the same time putting the commander and Ixia first and foremost in his priorities. Yelena needs help and trusts no one as much as Valek but she also doesn't want him to get hurt.

Ari and Janco are back to be in the thick of things and I fell in love with them even more. They're the two big brothers I never had but always wanted. Prince Cahill made me like him against all odds with the exception of his hatred towards Valek, and he does test my patience but still there's something about him that's infectious. Opal Cowan plays a larger part in this one and mainly I think that's to set up her own series that Snyder wrote to follow the study series. I enjoyed her and loved the way Snyder set everything up and then delivered the results to perfection. I'm anxious to get in to the Glass series, Opal's story and hope I get to see and hear more about my favorites in those books as well.

I gave Fire Study (Study, #3) 4 shamrocks!!!!

Review: Magic Study (Study, #2) by Maria V. Snyder

Yelena is a survivor. Kidnapped as a child, held prisoner as a teen, then released to act as a poison taster, she is now a student of magic. But these magic skills place her in imminent danger, and with an execution order on her head, she has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the land of her birth.

But nothing in Sitia is familiar. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her powers, a rogue magician emerges and Yelena catches his eye. Suddenly she is embroiled in a situation not of her making. And once again her magical abilities will either save her life or be her downfall.

With her greatest enemy dead, and on her way to be reunited with the family she'd been stolen from long ago, Yelena should be pleased. But though she has gained her freedom, she can't help feeling isolated in Sitia. Her Ixian background has changed her in many ways and her new-found friends and relatives don't think it's for the better.

Despite the turmoil, she's eager to start her magic training especially as she's been given one year to harness her power or be put to death. But her plans take a radical turn when she becomes involved with a plot to reclaim Ixia's throne for a lost prince and gets entangled in powerful rivalries with her fellow magicians.

If that wasn't bad enough, it appears her brother would love to see her dead. Luckily, Yelena has some old friends to help her with all her new enemies.

I was so sad to see Yelena forced from Ixia, Valek, her new friends Ari and Janco and what she finally considered home at the end of Poison Study. Now I know the necessity to avoid an execution order, and to learn more about her family and magical capabilities was important, but did her and Valek have to be split apart after it took them so long to get together? Sheesh!

Yelena is reunited with her Sitian family that she was stolen from as a young child, but it's not exactly a hallmark movie's happy, homecoming. Her parents are nice but she doesn't know them and they can't understand her Ixian clothes and ways, let alone the possibility of her love and friendship with Ixians - they're the enemy! Aren't they? Then she meets her brother Leif, who for lack of a better word, is a real jerk.

She does have Iris on her side and as her personal mentor in her magical training she could be worse off. But she still has the hard tutorials to work through and despite her power and potential it's really hard work. She's not fighting general Brazell anymore but Prince Cahill of Ixia is dogging her for Ixian military secrets and accuses her of being a spy more times than I can count since she's unwilling to betray Valek and her friends. Not all the master magicians are loving her presence at the Keep, let alone in Sitia, and there's a murdering and of course very dangerous magician out there with his sites set on Yelena as his grand prize. Yet again she struggles, goes through so many obstacles and hurdles that you don't know if she'll be able to come through alive, but she's not all together alone and new and old friends comes together to help her out. Still loving this series!

I gave Magic Study (Study, #2) 4 shamrocks!!!!

In My Mailbox (26)

This is a meme that I first heard about from Kristi over at The Story Siren and immediately wanted to jump on board.

I'm working on being less negligent with the blog and I'm crossing my fingers that work will slow down enough for me to get more reading time in, I mean come on, don't they understand that I'm getting more and more frazzled the less books I get to read on a weekly basis. So the problem becomes even more stressful because I've been getting some great books and all I want to do is tear through them. So here's what I got...how did you guys do? Anything you're going to recommend I add to my TBR list? Start throwing suggestions my way!

ARC Tours

Sisters Red (Sisters Red #1) by Jackson Pearce (We Love YA Tours)

Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris-- the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.

Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax-- but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they've worked for.

Bought/Received

Wildwing by Emily Whitman (thanks to Greenwillow Books)

Addy knows there's so much more to life than what she has. She must be destined for more than being a maid to an eccentric elderly man. And so when she finds a mysterious contraption in the gentleman's study, of course she steps inside. Of course she bumps into the wrong button. Suddenly Addy is in medieval England, mistaken for the young woman betrothed to the lord of the nearby manor. It's destiny. But is it home? And will she ever find her way back to her own time? Will she want to, once she's met the shy, handsome falconer's apprentice?

Blessed (Tantalize #3) by Cynthia Leitich Smith (thanks to Candlewick Press)

Quincie P. Morris, teen restaurateur and neophyte vampire, is in the fight of her life - or undeath. Even as she adjusts to her new appetites, she must clear her best friend and true love, the hybrid werewolf Kieren, of murder charges; thwart the apocalyptic ambitions of Bradley Sanguini, the seductive vampire-chef who "blessed" her; and keep her dead parents' restaurant up and running. She hires a more homespun chef and adds the preternaturally beautiful Zachary to her wait staff. But with hundreds of new vampires on the rise and Bradley off assuming the powers of Dracula Prime, Zachary soon reveals his true nature - and a flaming sword - and they hit the road to staunch the bloodshed before it's too late. But even if they save the world, will there by time left to salvage Quincie's soul?

The Way It Is by Donalda Reid (thanks to Second Story Press)

To Ellen Manery, a brilliant, introverted, socially isolated fifteen-year-old, there is nothing good about the summer of 1967, especially when her parents decide to move to a small town in the interior of British Columbia. All the big ideas of the 1960s—the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, women's rights—have not had much of an effect on this small community. Ellen has always been more interested in studying than a social life, but that begins to change when she meets Tony Paul, an eighteen-year-old who belongs to the Shuswap Indians and lives on the nearby reserve. When school starts it is Tony's friendship that gives Ellen the strength to endure the loneliness, racism, discrimination, and antifeminism she must face during her last year in high school. As Tony and Ellen's friendship turns into something deeper, they must decide if they can break free of society's rules and forge their own future.

Contagion by Joanne Dahme (thanks to Running Press)

In her fourth novel Joanne Dahme creates another page-turning tale in which a youngwoman named Rose strives to rid Philadelphia’s water of the deadly typhoid bacteria. Set in the late 19th century, Rose Dugan is a young wife who is actively involved in her community. But when her best friend is killed while working at Philadelphia’s Water Works' gardens, the mystery around her death pulls Rose in. Will she save the city from a deadly typhoid outbreak that is threatening the city’s water system? Will Rose unravel the mystery behind her best friend’s murder—a fate that was actually meant for her?

Review: Poison Study (Study #1) by Maria V. Snyder

Choose: A quick death and hell or slow poison and hell.

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear.

Oh how I love Maria V. Snyder's books, her writing, basically all things Maria V. Snyder. I totally and completely fell in love with the world she's created in the Study series and I just can't get enough of the whole kit and kaboodle. Yelena acts as our tour guide in this first novel and introduced readers to the territories of Ixia and the background of the turmoil between Ixia and Sitia, the neighboring territory. As a victim of bad circumstances its impossible to not immediately be on Yelena's team. Kidnapped as a child, held prisoner for the killing of said kidnapper/torturer, and that's only the highlights reel version.

We meet her as she's about to be executed and Ixia's chief of security, Valek offers her an out, of sorts. She takes the position of the commander of Ixia's food taster. Sounds great until you realize she's tasting for poisons and will be dead before she knows it if she isn't a quick learner. But I guess any chance is better than no chance at all, right? And she's got Valek, the best of the best as her personal tutor. So as she studies with Valek she still has to fend off anyone who could possibly detect her secret. Well one of them at least. She has magical powers developing and the penalty for magic users in Ixia is death. Like this girl doesn't have enough to stress her out!

But can we please now focus on Valek!!! I don't even know where to begin. I didn't expect to like him and ended up loving him and I don't know when or how that happened. He's talented, smarter than just about everyone and is fiercely loyal to the commander. He's definitely someone you want on your side and someone you don't double cross...unless you want to wind up killed. Let's not forget that when he sets his mind to something you can pretty much assume that he won't let it slip from his grasp. So is he determined to protect Yelena? Ixia? Or both? So after being introduced to these fantastic characters in this amazing world I was thrilled that there would be two more books in their story.

I gave Poison Study (Study, #1) 4 shamrocks!!!!