Smoke Bitten

Smoke Bitten

by Patricia Briggs

Mercy has survived miniature zombie goats, vampire attacks, the fae, angry werewolves, a rapist, and her own bad luck. Now she needs to survive an unknown fae who has escaped Underhill, a rogue group of werewolves, the tension in her own marriage, and killer bunnies. (Monty Python would be so proud.)

For some reason, Adam, her husband and werewolf mate, has shut down their mating bond, while also spending late nights at work and sleeping in the guest room, effectively cutting Mercy out of his life. Mercy is trying to be patient and wait him out, but some people need a little offense instead of waiting in defense.

Tilly, the physical manifestation of Underhill, has dropped a door to her land in the Hauptman backyard in order to be closer to their semi-adopted son and former Underhill resident. Upon entering this world, she lets out an unknown fae who can take over the minds of its victims and make them do evil things to the people around them. 

There is a group of werewolves who have decided that now is the perfect time to try and take over their pack.

There's Wulfe, who has become radically changed after the events of the last book and who is now even more scary and unstable than ever before.

And there are killer bunnies...

With all the juggling that Mercy must do now, she should probably join a circus. 

Final thoughts: I love new Mercy books and this is no exception. She is such a strong character who knows her own mind and heart. She also seems to be the focus of a lot of bad juju, compliments of her father, Coyote. I hope that she gets a few days off of the crazy someday, although that will probably mean that I won't have anything to read and that would be sad. As with all of her books, Briggs has a complicated and convoluted story that makes sense at the end and makes better sense after a reread or two. I LOVE the return of some characters that we haven't seen for a while. I can't wait for the next book.

Rating: 4.5/5

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Elsker

Elsker

S.T. Bende

When Kristia decides to take a leap of change and take a year of university courses in Cardiff, Wales, she never thought she'd end up on a course to save all life everywhere.

It helps that there's a literal Norse God there to help her out.

Final thoughts: Ugh! This is almost a literal plot point by plot point retelling of Twilight with Norse gods instead of vampires. Why?? It's dull, repetitive, plodding, and the "insta-love" has no chemistry whatsoever. 

Rating: 2/5

Join or Die

Join or Die

by J. Adrian Ruth

Alex Ayers is a regular kid with a bit of a temper, a best friend, a single mom, and a pretty good life in Las Vegas. That all changes when his absent father's best friend shows up and tells him he has to leave to attend an exclusive magic school before he Changes into some sort of mythological/magical creature.

At 14, he doesn't have any choice, so he's sent off to Fios Academy to learn about his past, his present, and his possible future as the next Scion who, with his ciorcal of friends, keeps the Creature community in line.

He's got competition for the Scion job, though, and also a few Creatures who aren't happy with any Scion being in charge. 

Alex has to learn about his own half-Creature self and history before things get out of control.

Final thoughts: I enjoyed the book while reading it, but I can't help comparing it to Harry Potter. He's about the same age. He si half-human (Muggle) and half-Creature (Wizard). He's a Chosen One. There are forces against him from the start from competition in the school to dangers from without. There's a barrier to protect the school from outside harm. There's a mysterious headmaster. He's forming a circle of friends who all specialize in different things that he'll need as time passes. The list goes on and on. But, again, I enjoyed the read. If I see the sequel pop up, I'll probably read it, too. And it does look to be at least a few books if it goes year-by-year at the school.

Rating: 4/5

Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the ARC.

Of Silver and Shadow

Of Silver and Shadow

by Jennifer Gruenke

In a world of magic, the magicians have been all but wiped out. 

Generations before, the king purged all the silver wielders from the land except for his own family. Since then, the only magic in Erdis has been hoarded by the the royal family and used to keep the rest of the land and the surrounding countries in line.

But things are changing.

A new silver wielder has grown and she may be what the rebellion needs to finally take the country back and keep the king from destroying everything.

Final thoughts: I wanted to like this much more. The characters had a lot of depth and it was fun to read from four different character points of view. However, that multi-view did get a little confused from time to time and story had to backtrack more than once to cover the viewpoints. I also struggled with some of plot as ideas seemed to be thrown in after the fact to cover for plot holes. Why does she have this power when no one in her family did? Let's use this idea to over that hole. How are you going to convince the people to overthrow the king? Here's something to cover that hole (and we've been planning it for years so just go with it). And there were other issues here and there that bugged me like the repeating over and over at how skilled someone was at something. She's good with a bow and arrow. We get it!

I'm not sure if there's a sequel since the ending could be considered final by some. It is nice to see a fantasy novel that doesn't necessarily automatically have to be a trilogy.

Rating: 3/5 

Thanks to NetGalley and North Star Editions for the ARC.

Spontaneous

Spontaneous

by Aaron Starmer

For some people, Pre-Calculus is difficult enough to make a person feel like her mind will explode, but no one expected that to literally happen... Until 3rd period pre-calc when Katelyn Ogden goes BOOM!

Literally.

Blood everywhere. 

One-time fluke, though. Nothing to worry about.

Until Brian Chen explodes in the middle of a group therapy session for the pre-calc survivors.

Suddenly all bets are off and seniors start exploding pretty regularly.

The government has no idea what's happening. The doctors are confused. The parents are panicking. And no senior is safe.

But Mara and her fellow seniors can't just sit there. They have to do something. They can't just wait for the day to come and they go BOOM. They need to live what little life they have left.

And they do.

Even if it kills them.

Final thoughts: I am not sure what the author was going for beyond a live each day to the fullest message. Otherwise, this book is just weird. I also don't think this author should be writing a teen girl point of view because he doesn't really know what he's doing. Maybe he should have gone with Dylan instead. The ending is a little ambiguous and leaves room for a sequel, but doesn't really feel like there will be one. Overall, meh.

Rating: 3/5