Review - The Daylight War (The Demon Cycle, Book 3) by Peter V. Brett (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Size: 656 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: February 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0345503824
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Demon Cycle
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 2.5/5 stars


This is the third book in the Demon Cycle by Brett. The fourth book will be titled, The Skull Throne, and is scheduled for a 2014 release. I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the chance to review this book. Like the previous book, this book was incredibly slow moving until the last 100 pages or so. There is a lot that I didn’t really enjoy about this book.

The story starts out following Arlen and Renna as they journey back to Cutter’s Hollow. Then it flashes back to Inevera’s past. From then on we bounce between Inevera’s past and present; while occasionally hearing from Arlen or Leesha in the present.

The story about Inevera’s past recounts a lot of events we have already been present for, but this time we see them from Inevera’s perspective. These parts are lengthy...but still seem rushed...like Brett is trying to give a quick outline of a whole series full of events from Inevera’s perspective. The book would have been better without this back story...it just bogged things down so much.

Much of the book is spent basically getting everyone back to Cutter’s Hollow. We hear from Arlen and Renna as they travel back. We hear from Leesha and Rojur as they travel back from Jardir’s conquered city. Then we spend a ton of time listening as Cutter’s Hollow is expanded and fortified.

Additionally we visit Jardir’s new capital and listen as he deals with bickering between his sons and people, and as he tries to make plans to conquer the rest of the Northern lands. Mostly it’s fairly boring and slow moving stuff.

Having Arlen and Renna proclaim their love for each other was cute in the first couple chapters. Having them repeat “Love you Arlen”, “love you Renna” continuously is just silly and obnoxious. Seriously it felt like half of these two characters’ dialogue through the entire book was “Love you Arlen” “Love you Renna”. Ugh...it got to be too much.

There is also way too much in here about Leesha’s love life and her struggle to find men to have sex with. Also I am not impressed with how our chosen few characters keep gaining more and more unbelievable powers (Arlen, Reena, Rojur). Arlen, Reena, and Rojur are gaining seriously crazy powers at a very rapid rate.

Additionally new types of demons pop up randomly with no previous explanation or structure. It’s like “Oh look there is lightening...hey let’s make that a lightning demon”...it’s never even been mentioned before but they must exist!...so whatever.

As with the previous book the last part of this book features a huge epic battle with mind demons and mimics. This part is very engaging. There are a couple of surprises right at the end that will really grab and engage the reader.

Just be warned this story ends on an absolutely horrible cliffhanger. After spending forever wading through this excruciatingly slow story and finally getting to the good part at the end....then to be left how Brett left his readers....well...it really pissed me off. I hate it when authors depend on cliffhangers to engage their readers. They should really just work on making the story tighter and more engaging.

Overall not my favorite installment in this series. I am so sick of unnecessary flashbacks into random characters’ pasts. It just drags out the story forever. The characters that were so heartfelt and complex in earlier installments are turning into superpowered caricatures of themselves. The pace is excruciatingly slow...after nearly 700 pages we aren’t all that much further along in the story than we were in The Desert Spear. Then there is the horrible cliffhanger that the book ends up. Seriously, I am done with this series. Just absolutely done.

Check out Brandon Sanderson’s books, Robert Jordan, Brent Weeks, or Michale J. Sullivan for excellent epic fantasy that is entertaining and actually goes somewhere. I would personally skip this series...it started out pretty good...but has just degraded from the first book on.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge

Review - House Rules (Chicagoland Vampires, Book 7) by Chloe Neill (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade
Release Date: February 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-0451237101
Stand Alone or Series: 7th book in the Chicagoland Vampires series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the seventh book in the Chicagoland Vampires series. The eighth book will be titled Biting Bad and is scheduled for an August 2013 release. This book was a bit of a transition book again and not as engaging as previous books.

Cadogan House is finally, formally breaking away from the GP. This will make them the first House to claim Rogue vampire status. Things are uncomfortable to say the least. Then a rash of vampire murders start happening and Merit is called to help figure out who is killing these vamps. To add to the complexity Merit is finally called in to formally join the Red Guard.

This was an okay installment in this series. Basically this is the book about Cadogan House breaking away from the GP. A lot of time is spent trying to find legal loop-holes and in the original contract with the GP in order to ensure that Cadogan can break away from the house cleanly. Things get complicated when Dorian tries to make a grab for the house in a power play. Additional complications arise when Ethan invites his ex, Lacey, over to smooth things out with Dorian.

I did like that Merit was finally inducted into the Red Guard. I also liked that she ended up coming clean with all her secrets to Ethan. Having Lacey there to throw Merit and Ethan’s relationship into turmoil was obnoxious and made me roll my eyes a bit. Still I was impressed with how much Ethan and Merit have grown as characters and how reasonable they were about everything.

The vampire murders added a heavy investigative bent to the story. It seemed like a very interesting plot line, but I felt the way it was all resolved felt a bit anti-climatic and contrived.

Mallory was in the story a bit, she is making progress in dealing with her addiction to black magic. Still she is far from the entertaining and bubbly person we meet early in the series. She isn’t in the story much but when she is the tone is tentatively hopeful.

While this book was an okay read, but I felt like nothing all that interesting happened. This felt like another transition novel for me and I am beginning to wonder exactly where this series is going. I feel like after the whole Mallory/Tate storylines were resolved this series lost a lot of momentum that it has yet to pick up.

Overall an okay addition to the series. The whole plot around Cadogan House leaving the GP felt like something that had to be done, but wasn’t all that interesting to read about. It was nice to see Ethan and Merit acting like mature adults, but I felt like a lot of the heat between them was missing. I did enjoy that Merit was finally and formally inducted to the Red Guard. I am curious to see what will happen to Cadogan house as it tries to stand on its own.

The last couple books in this series have been somewhat disappointing to me. I will probably read one more book in this series before I decide whether or not to stop reading it completely. I tentatively recommend this series to fans of urban fantasy featuring vampires...the first four or five books in the series are very good.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- Paranormal Reading Challenge

Waiting on Wednesday - 3/27/13

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week my Waiting on Wednesday book is

Breath (Riders of the Apocalypse, Book 4) by Jackie Morse Kessler.

Click on the image to go to Amazon and read more about this book.

Breath (Riders of the Apocalypse, Book 4) by Jackie Morse Kessler
Release Date: April 16th,  2013

Publisher: Graphia
Length: 336 pages
ISBN: 978-0547970431

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

Contrary to popular belief, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse aren’t just harbingers of doom—they actually keep life in balance. But what happens when their leader and creator, Death, becomes suicidal?

Before the first living thing drew its first gasping breath, he was there. He has watched humanity for millennia. And he has finally decided that humanity is not worth the price he has paid time and again. When Death himself gives up on life, a teenager named Xander Atwood is the world’s only hope. But Xander bears a secret, one that may bring about the end of everything.

This heart-pounding final installment of the Riders of the Apocalypse series looks at the value of life, the strength of love, and how a small voice can change everything . . . forever.
-------------------------------------------------------

Review - Dinosaurs Before Dark (The Magic Tree House, Book 1) (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Children’s
Genre: Adventure
Size: 80 pages
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Release Date: July 28, 1992
ISBN: 978-0679824114
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Magic Treehouse Series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

I read this book with my six year old son. He was very excited to get the first Magic Tree House book and I was very curious since I have heard a ton about this series. This is a great read for younger children and children just learning to read.

Jack and Annie find a magic tree house in the woods near their house. When they go up in the tree house they find it’s filled with books. When Jack takes down a book about Dinosaurs and starts to read it when him and Annie are magically transported to a land filled with dinosaurs.

This was a very short beginning chapter book suitable for young kids. The plot is straightforward, yet still engaging, interesting, and magical. Beginning readers should be able to follow along and even read some of their beginning sight words throughout.

I would classify this mainly as an adventure book with elements of magical realism (since they travel from a magic tree house).

Each chapter has a couple pages of pictures, so this makes wonderful transition book between picture books and chapter books. The pictures are well done and fun.

The book is also a bit educational since the book Jack brings along on their time traveling trip has interesting facts about Dinosaurs in it.

The story seems to be aimed a bit more at young boys because Jack is really the main character. But Annie is there too (his younger sister) and girls should find it easy to engage with her character as well.

Overall my son really enjoyed this book. It was a bit too simple for an adult, but I didn’t mind reading it and thought the story was decent. Definitely recommended for reading with young children, or for children who are ready to transition to reading beginning chapter books on their own. I am glad that we picked this up and foresee many more Magic Tree House books in our future!

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge

Fairy Tale Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Fairy Tale Giveaway Hop hosted by I am A Reader Not a Writer, The Book Rat, and A Backwards Story.

The giveaways for this blog hop are two books (both advanced reading copies) shown below:

I thought both of the above books had a very fairy tale feel to them, both books will go to one person. 

To enter to win these books please fill out the form below.  Then make sure to check out all the other great blogs participating in this hop via the linky below.

Lunar Love Giveaway Hop

The winner of the Lunar Love Giveaway Hop was...

Sarah from Howling Books and Design

Thanks to everyone who participated in this Giveaway Hop!

There were 64 entries into this giveaway and winners were chosen using Random.org.

-----------------------------------

Audiobook Review - Storm Born (Dark Swan, Book 1) by Richelle Mead (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 384 pages
Publisher: Zebra
Release Date: August 1st, 2011
ISBN: 978-1420125795
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dark Swan series
Source: Swapped
Rating: 3/5 stars


This is the first book in the Dark Swan series by Richelle Mead. There are four book in this series: Thorn Queen, Iron Crowned and Shadow Heir. It was an okay read but neither the characters nor the world really grabbed my attention much.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook quality was very good. The narrator wass pleasant to listen to and distinguished between different character voices well.

Eugenie Markham is a powerful Shaman who makes a living banishing spirits and fey. When she takes a case to recover a girl that has been stolen by the Fey she is forced to journey into the Other World. There she discovers startling things about her past and a prophecy that says that her first born will rule the Fey. Suddenly every Fey is interested in being the one to sire a child on her.

I usually love books about the Fey, I love the mythology behind it and the interesting world built around it. Unfortunately this book wasn’t as much about Fey as it was about sex. Every Fey thing is trying to rape and/or have sex with Eugenie for a good portion of the book. Seriously there is a lot of sex in this book...so yeah...I guess just be aware of that.

Eugenie is a pretty one dimensional character. In the beginning she dislikes Fey and can’t remember her past. We never really learn why she can’t remember her past just that eventually she starts to. It would have been nice to have this better explained. The other things we learn about Eugenie are that she likes rough sex and bondage sex. Believe me the sex thing is a major part of her character.

There are two males that feature in this story. The first is Kiyo a gorgeous shapeshifter that Eugenie is very attracted to. He falls in love with Eugenie very quickly and for reasons that aren’t really ever explained. The second is Dorian, a fairy king with a taste for bondage. Eugenie is willing to have sex with Dorian in exchange for favors that will help her case to rescue a human girl from Fey hands.

I didn’t really like any of the characters all that much. They were just so 2D and so very driven by sex. I don’t mind sex in my books, but none of these sex scenes were even all that good. The whole thing was just kind of ho-hum.

There are some positives to this book as well, the book does have some awesome action scenes. I also really enjoyed watching Eugenie learn to use her storm magic. The world is an interesting one and I wish we had got to spend more time learning about that than reading about Eugenies luke-warm sex life. I also wish we had gotten to see more different types of Fey, there are some interesting races introduced in this book...but they are talked about so briefly.

This is by far the worst of Mead’s books. The book is easy to read, but the characters were hard to engage with and the story was predictable and lacked something to really drive the story forward.

Overall a very mediocre urban fantasy. I love fey urban fantasies, but can’t really recommend this one. If you want to read an excellent fey urban fantasy series check out Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series...it is an absolutely stunning series featuring Fey. I won’t be reading any more books in this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Audio Book Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- FEY: Paranormal Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge