Archangel’s Blade ( Guild Hunter 4) by Nalini Singh

Hello to all,

                      Nearly the end of the week already but i haven't forgotten you, in hope to stay motivated into reading despite all the  problems happening lately i decided to stay on safe ground with an author i've come to love and a series quite addictive

Happy reading!

Publisher: Berkley Sensation

Publication: 2011

ISBN:  0425243915

Genre: urban fantasy, paranormal romance
Violence: strong
Language: mild
sex: strong
Public: 18+

Source: gifted

Short description from goodreads :

 The severed head marked by a distinctive tattoo on its cheek should have been a Guild case, but dark instincts honed over hundreds of years of life compel the vampire Dmitri to take control. There is something twisted about this death, something that whispers of centuries long past...but Dmitri's need to discover the truth is nothing to the vicious strength of his response to the hunter assigned to decipher the tattoo.

Savaged in a brutal attack that almost killed her, Honor is nowhere near ready to come face to face with the seductive vampire who is an archangel's right hand, and who wears his cruelty as boldly as his lethal sensuality...the same vampire who has been her secret obsession since the day she was old enough to understand the inexplicable, violent emotions he aroused in her.


As desire turns into a dangerous compulsion that might destroy them both, it becomes clear the past will not stay buried. Something is hunting...and it will not stop until it brings a blood-soaked nightmare to life once more...

My opinion:

          DIMITRI! Oh my he just got a helluva amount of bonus point with this novel…. Until this point he was really dark, mysterious and we could feel it had more to his story but his attitude with Elena had me not liking him a lot. Now that we learn, part of, his past we can understand him a lot more, his reaction makes sense but we also discover another side of him I knew him, loyal, stubborn, vicious and cruel but protective ( for someone else than Raphael I mean) and attentive….. that’s new and he is so romantic as well….. I really felt his pain.

This story focuses on him and his past via his meeting with Honor, a guild member that was abducted and tortured not too long ago. Honor is loving character but she has been hurt so deeply that he partially changed her, she is terrified and hiding but as an expert in language her talent are needed when a tattoo need to be identified… she doesn’t go happily to say the least but it shows how loyal and courageous she is. The meeting with Dimitri doesn’t start really well as her terror affect her to the point she acts by instinct alone… however Dimitri is able to recognize that situation and he acts accordingly…. . He is surprised to be attracted so strongly to this woman and he doesn’t want to open its heart but her pain remind him of his own and he helps her .. with him we quickly discover the real Honor, the courageous, determined and compassionate one.

 The investigation about the severed head is done while in the meantime Dimitri goes on a search for the culprit on Honor’s case….it’s something deep rooted in him, he want to makes them pay… and since Honor is a fighter that investigation won’t be done without her, same as the first one… Dimitri perhaps wants to protect her but she wants to be active. I really loved their interactions and how it taught us about their respective past. The fact we get to see some others characters ( illium, Elena but also Ash and Vivek)is something is absolutely love in this series…it help to quick the action moving at adequate rhythm.

This is not my favourite book in the series but it gave me a totally new insights on several characters and just make me want for more. Definitively a fantastic series to be recommended.

Score:  4/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges::

Seven Kinds of Hell ( Fangborn1) by Dana Cameron

Hi!!
 i promised you one review this week so i'm glad i did manage to give you and even better one for a book that i enjoyed a lot!! Thank you Carien!!!

So i won't be long but here comes my opinion on Seven Kind of Hell by Dana Cameron

 Happy Reading

Publisher: North

Publication: 2013

ISBN:  1611097959

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Violence: mild
Language: mild
sex: mild
Public: 18+

Source: Gifted

Short description from goodreads :

 When archaeologist Zoe Miller's cousin is abducted by a vicious Russian kidnapper, she must come to grips with a haunting secret. Unknown to even her closest friends, Zoe is not entirely human. She's a werewolf and a daughter of the "Fangborn," a hidden race of werewolves, vampires, and oracles.

Zoe's attempt to rescue her cousin leads her on a quest for artifacts—including Pandora's Box, an object of world-ending power. With the fate of humanity in the balance, Zoe will be forced to renew family ties and pit her own supernatural abilities against a dark and nefarious fo.


At once captivation, deftly worded, and character-rich Seven Kinds of Hell expands vampire legend and werewolf noir in both intensity and charismatic bite.

My opinion:

          Wonderfully original!  I absolutely loved this book and I can’t believe I had to wait so long before discovering such a pearl. Dana Cameron has built a world so unique and yet so easily understandable that we are swept by the adventure and can’t let go.

If you love history , even just a little, and love suspense this is a book you have to try, no, don’t fear it’s not a historical novel by all means but Zoe is an archaeologist and thus she is confronted by the past, visit ruins and such but the talent of the author was to add that reality ( of place, some history) with a touch of paranormal, creating artefact that have been hidden sometime sin plain sight sometimes not….for her the representation of creature mi human-mi animal ( think about Anubis for example and all the others in nearly all civilisations) were in fact little proof of Fangborns’ existence. Hidden in plain sight it was way for them to leave a reminder. Really it’s so well done that we can guess all the works that came behind the story, all the necessarily research that’s fabulous.

So In this universe, among human live Fangborns…who can be vampires, werewolves, oracles, snakeweres etc, each of them have specialities( like hunting, healing, predicting etc) but one thing in common, apart from a few human their existence is secret and their goal is to fight true evil. When an evil human is on the verge of doing something they can scent him and immediately their instinct calls them to interfere to protect the innocent and destroy the evil.

Zoe doesn’t know she is fangborn, all her life she has been on the run with her mother hiding from her family but at the same time hiding what is happening to her. When adolescent she started to change to have strong urge and found herself as a wolf…afraid she thought she was crazy and hid even more. Now her cousin, Danny has been kidnapped and she is told she is fangborn….no real time to adjust to clock is tickling  and she must find some artefacts to save him, meeting enemies but also new allies along the way across Europe and Africa.

The pace is quite rapid and the tension building, we learn a little more about Zoe and the fangborn but there are still a lot left to be discovered and we do want more after the cliffhanger( not in a too critical moment thankfully). I really do want the next book as soon as I can because this is a series I recommend without hesitation, it’s a fantastic, original and captivating urban fantasy

Score:  5/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges:

Treasures and Finds+ May Recap

Hello to all,

                        June is already quite advanced but life happened and so i'm late to post my recap of the month of May but the essential is that it's on now. For those who didn't know  there was a big storm several weeks ago and unfortunately my computer and internet didn't survive ( despite a surge protector, seems it's not working when the lightening hit too closely)... internet is finally on again but my computer won't be repaired before several more weeks at minimum. 
My dog is still requiring all my attention, so far the antibiotic seems to work but there is good and bad day and today was a bad one. i'm keepingf my fingers crossed we will win this new fights, thank you for your well wishes, it's really appreciated

Now i will try to make a good recap but if i'm forgetting something i'm sorry, thankfully i had a draft on my paper bloc but i'm not sure it was complete in comparaison to what i typed already^^;;

Anyway thank you a lot for your patience and for your gifts and comments!

 Now let see May

Reviews

First some new to me authors

Negociation by Jeffe Kennedy
Free Agent ( Grimm Agency 1) by J. C. Nelson

then  a series  i'm following up with pleasure

Fury's Kiss ( Dorina Basarab 3) by Karen Chance

Au Delà de Minuit ( minuit 9) par Lara Adrian

Challenges:

goodreads : 21/50

The official 2015 TBR pile Challenge : 8/12

2015 TBR reading Pile Challenge: 17/10

New to you Reading Challenge 2015: 10/6

 This month i also joined the Paperback Summer in which we try to read as many as we can during the month of June, July and August ( so far i'm doing bad as you can imagine but thankfully it last 3months). It's hosted by Suze on her blog and you can still join us here 

TREASURES and FINDS

For REVIEW

none

WON

From MinnChica  at The Book Pushers in their monthly giveaway

 GIFTED

none

BOUGHT

none, no time to shop

So on bookish side, i did receive something so i'm happy

On the crafting side,nothing as i did not had any free time or nearly but i did send 3 happy mails

 I hope May was a good month for you and that June will be even a better one

Unexpected and unwanted Break

Hello to all,

                         i'm sorry to have disappeared without notice but two weeks ago  we had a very bad storm which destroyed computer and internet.
Internet was only put back yesterday but the computer will take months ( need the insurance's answer, the pieces are not standard etc)... i don't plan to be away that long as i will ask for a computer to lent but i don't know when it will be possible ( and posting at the library isn't easy here with the restrictions)

 and because bad news don't come alone, my dog is really unwell and needs me 24/24 right now.

 So to be short, i will try to get you one review posted and may wrap up as well curent of this week if i can  but if i can't or if i don't answer quickly i ask for your patience

 thanks for your understanding and see you soon

Written in Red (The Others 1 ) by Anne Bishop

Hello to all,

                       A new month has started and i summer isn't far ( even if you can't tell by looking throught the window)...i've joined a challenge to read paperback during the summer ( will tell you more in my wrap up soon)  and i decided to start with one i received for my birthday after oogling it for far too long, a new author to me, new series but one i do plan to follow up as soon as possible

Happy reading!

Publisher: Roc

Publication: 2014

ISBN:  0451417909

Genre: urban fantasy
Violence: strong
Language: normal
sex: none
Public: 18+

Source: gifted
 

Short description from goodreads :

 No one creates realms like "New York Times "bestselling author Anne Bishop. Now in a thrilling new fantasy series, enter a world inhabited by the Others, unearthly entities--vampires and shape-shifters among them--who rule the Earth and whose prey are humans.
As a "cassandra sangue," or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn can see the future when her skin is cut--a gift that feels more like a curse. Meg's Controller keeps her enslaved so he can have full access to her visions. But when she escapes, the only safe place Meg can hide is at the Lakeside Courtyard--a business district operated by the Others.


Shape-shifter Simon Wolfgard is reluctant to hire the stranger who inquires about the Human Liaison job. First, he senses she's keeping a secret, and second, she doesn't smell like human prey. Yet a stronger instinct propels him to give Meg the job. And when he learns the truth about Meg and that she's wanted by the government, he'll have to decide if she's worth the fight between humans and the Others that will surely follow.

My opinion:

          Awesome! I have been recommended this book since it was released and it caught my interest but somehow it was not a priority since it was not easy to get them either… however the want has been growing with each release when I saw my friend enthousiam…I was really lucky when one of them decided that it was time to step in and offered me the first book “ Written in Red “ for my birthday.  I could not be happier, not only this book is as good as I was told but it’s even better. Oh it’s violent, there are a lot of blood and deaths but it’s not a dark book either.

Anne Bishop created a complete new world with its own rules, all kind of creatures and she was really thoughtful. This world makes sense so much in fact that it seems like only being a foreign, dangerous, but not so far country. In this world the deity created human beings but also others, called “terra indigene”, that includes shifters, vampires, elementals and so many others, some we are not told a lot about it yet. The particularity in this universe is that, for once, it’s the others who are dominant; humans are seen like invaders, preys and others only allow them some lands but at soon as troubles arise, humans are simply disposed of… ( to put it lightly^^). Some others have decided to keep watch on the human, learn a little from them and they created cities ( courtyard, part of the city, where only others live and where only their rules apply) with shops, restaurant etc… in the Lakeside courtyard, some job are open to human and some have access to restricted place  for example to the bookshop (;))… to be functional courtyard receive shipment from abroad but delivery can be difficult if you think you will be eaten when delivering a package, so the human liaison was established….to be a link between human  delivery men mostly) and the resident a little like a postman but so much more and of course this isn’t an easy job as others aren’t entrusting anyone with info about them.

When Simon, the leader of the wolf and courtyard, see Meg for the first time she isn’t looking much…nearly frozen she is intriguing him because she doesn’t smell like a prey….upon instinct he decide to hire her not knowing she fleeing from very powerful men using her to make profit until she dies from it. Soon frustration evolve in something else and the whole community start to get attached….and others protect fiercely who is their.

Really it was simply perfect, the world, the pace the characters building, I just want more!. The plot is wonderfully constructed and we get surprises along the way, the choice of creatures and their specificities is astounding . It was fabulous and it’s too hard to resist the cute Sam , really too cute  my heart went for him along the way ( and for Hurricane). Simon was amusing when he tried to be human polite and just ended frustrating or insulting his clients. Meg with her innocence and kindness wins the reader over in mater of minute and secondary characters like Henry, Jester, Nathan, Jake and the humans ( Merri jean, Ruthie, Monthy) were fantastic in their own way and we do want to see more of them ( what are the crows building?).

 Really if you love urban fantasy and haven’t gotten this series yet don’t hesitate any longer, you won’t regret it! For me, I will try to get a copy of book 2 ( and 3) as soon as I can manage

Score:  5/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges: