Shadowborn (Light & Shadow Book 1)

Shadowborn (Light & Shadow Book 1)

by Moira Katson

“You, Catwin, no longer exist. You no longer have a fate of your own, a will of your own, or indeed a soul of your own. You will go where Miriel goes, you will watch instead of being watched, you will hear instead of being heard.”

Catwin has always been good at being unseen…that is, until one fateful mistake brings her to the attention of the Duke of Voltur: the commander of the bloodiest battle in living memory, a man of legendary ruthlessness who is determined to be the power behind the throne. To this end, he has chosen Catwin to be a Shadow—spy, shield, and blade—to his niece Miriel as she works to catch the eye of the King.

But the Duke’s carefully laid plans are only a piece of the intrigue swirling within the royal court. Shadows gather: legacies of the centuries-long rivalries for power, old betrayals, the endless plots of the courtiers, and the murmur of rebellion in the southern provinces.

Greater forces than Catwin can imagine are massed against her, determined to eliminate Miriel and impose a new order of their own. If Catwin and Miriel are to survive, they must learn quickly who to trust, and when to turn their skills against the very people who have trained them...

***

3 Stars

I liked this book but I didn't love it. I have a huge soft spot when it comes to books with assassins, especially if it is in a medieval kind of setting. I really did want to love everything this book offered me, and for a while I did, but I gave up on love and settled on a like eventually.

The biggest problem I had with this book is that it is so repetitive. In the beginning it was interesting to watch as Catwin learned new skills, how she changed as a person, her fight within herself on if she should support Miriel or turn against her. But when you are faced with this so many times it gets annoying. I just wanted her to hurry up and get on with it. It was also quite trying when it came to her observations of Miriel as well. It was once again the same thing over and over again.

The time frames seems slightly off to me. I would think that more time had passed then what actually did just because so much was happening all at once. And at other times think that no time had passed at all when a large amount would.

Other then that I liked everything else. Though it was trying when Catwin went through everything over and over again I understood that she is still a child, though I was keen to forget this a lot because she was way more mature then what a 14 year old would be. But in her case it was required of her to be that way or she would have not made it far in her life.

I also liked that she didn't just pick everything up like it was nothing. It was a realistic pace that she learned her new skills. She wasn't some kind of wizard like prodigy that you tend to find in books like this. She struggled and practiced and get better with time. She also reacted with, what I would assume, a realistic reaction to the first time she had to protect Miriel.

I liked all the different characters we are shown. They all play their parts well and don't come across as anything other then what they are.

After really thinking about this I can't really put my finger on what it was that I liked so much about this book. The way its written is good enough that you are left biting your nails wondering what going to happen next and though everything repeats itself you for some reason just want to keep reading. Honestly it feels like some spell was placed on me when I started reading this, normally I wouldn't wonder so much about a book like this but it is the next day and it is still on my mind making me wonder and wanting to know more. That is some seriously talented writing skills in my option.

Would I recommend this book? Eh, I'm not sure if I would or wouldn't. It would honestly depend on the person.

Angie and Her Irrational Fears

I was doing my dishes, which is something I really don't like to do, and it came to the part where I had to stick my hand down the garbage disposal to make sure none of the silverware thought that it would be fun to hide down there. As I was doing this I started to think about all my irrational fears, and boy to I have a lot of them. So I thought it would be fun to write a blog post about them and why I'm scared of some of the most pointless things. After I reread this I noticed that some of my fears might not be so irrational themselves, but the reasons the fear developed are the irrational part.

Please don't use this post against me in the future, because they are irrational fears I do act quite irrational when confronted with them, this includes screaming while looking for places to punch that will inflict the most pain. If you don't believe me just ask my husband how many times he has been slapped, punched, and kneed in his precious parts for thinking it would be funny to scare me. Its never pretty.

I'll start off simple.

Spiders. Now I'm sure you are thinking "A lot of people are scared of spiders what makes you so freaking special?" Well the reason I'm so damn scared of them. I clearly remember being a small child covered in band aids and dirt laughing while all manner of spiders crawled on my arms and face, shit I used to pretend that the daddy long legs in my Granddaddy's back yard where my pets. Then one day my older sister showed me a book that had scary stories in it, she has just gotten back to me with the title which is "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." The only thing I remember about that book and story was that a girl had a spider lay its eggs in her cheek and then one day they all hatched and there was a horrific picture to go along with that. So since that day spiders were a huge no for me. It has only gotten worse for me, when I lived in South Carolina I was convinced that the huge quarter sized spiders in my backyard where out to get me because I killed one, because every damn day there was more of them hanging around by the back door literally waiting for me to open it so the could run inside.

Ha I found the picture and the name of the story. It is called
The Red Spot. If you aren't scared of spiders now, you will be
after looking at this.

Towels. Now I'm sure you are scratching your head at this one. Well needless to say I had a horrible experience that involved a towel, me getting out of the shower and a bug being places that it should never go. Now towels are looked at with fear of what they might be hiding in their fluffy softness.

Garbage Disposals. Not that someone will turn one on while my hand is in it. . .no I'm scared it will turn its damn self on while my hand is in it. I blame this one on to many horror movies.

Basements. This one I think might not be so irrational to some people. But I grew up bouncing between my Grandparents house and my own home and both of them had the scariest basements you will ever find. My home basements door used to rattle all on it own, try being between the ages of 4 and 6 and knowing you had to go down there to help with the laundry and standing before the door as it rattled away all on its own. To make matters worse the stairs were so steep that you risked breaking your neck every time you used them and you knew damn well if what ever kept rattling the door decided to come and get you that you were never going to be able to run up them without killing yourself before whatever it was got you. Now my grandparents basement had those nice stairs that had no backing to them and it was the size of the entire house with lots and lots of creepy toys that my dad and aunts stored down there once they out grew them. My Grandad use to tell us a story about bones under the cellar steps, we loved it, but when faced with those stairs I would have swore there really was bones under them waiting for me.

Ticks. Not the kind that you get when stressed out, the ones that latch onto you and suck your blood. I clearly remember exactly how old I was when this fear developed. I was 7 and had just had the time of my life tricker treating the night before. At the time I shared a room with my second oldest sister and she was already up doing her own thing when I woke up and had a nice stretch when I realized my hand brushed against something odd. I pulled the collar of my shirt down to look at what it could have been and there it was, big and bloated on my innocent blood. Needless to say I screamed bloody murder and will never forget the look on my dads face when he ran into my room with half his face shaved and still in his boxers. All he got out of me was incoherent mumbles while I flung my hands in the general direction of the terror. So I ended up having to be held down by my sister while he used what we all called his gerber tool, that had a very sharp knife as well as other things attached to it, to dig the damn thing out of my boob. Not only was I scared to death I was mortified that my dad had to do it in the first place. I had a nice size hole there for a long time after that.

That is just to name a few of them. There are perfectly normal fears I don't have that really I should. Like being afraid of dogs, I had one attack my face as a child, but I still go to every dog I see to give it a pet and stick my face in its for a doggy kiss. Heights, I was once convinced at a young age to climb out of a second story window on bed sheets tied together. The magic words that convinced me were "they do it in cartoons." I fell before I even got half way down, only to fall two more times trying to get back up, but heights don't bother me in the slightest.

This is why I think most of the fears I have are irrational. There might be a good reason for them in my mind, but for everyone else not so much. There are many many more of them, and mostly when I look back at them I know a lot of them are from my dearly loved Grams. Most of my family has theses weird fears as well, and we laugh about them all the time, while really hoping that we will never have to confront them ever again.

A Lesson for the Cyclops

A Lesson for the Cyclops

by Jeffrey Getzin

Dare to Hope?

Maria leads a lonely existence of silent misery. Horribly disfigured, she earns a meager living as a sideshow freak. Her very existence is one of mockery, contempt, and ridicule. She has no hope, no dreams. No future.

But when a dashing swordsman stumbles onto the circus grounds, wounded and feverish, Maria is able to imagine a life beyond the confines of her dreary world. Could a swashbuckling hero ever fall for a freak like her?

*****

5 stars

What a delightfully fun book. I have to admit that I have a habit of downloading lots and lots of books all at once and then days later looking through them and randomly picking one out to read. And because my memory is way worse than a goldfish I never remember what the book is suppose to be about when I start reading it. Sometimes this is a bad thing because I get a chapter in and start thinking to myself that I must have been crazy when I downloaded the book or, like the case with this book, I get a wonderful surprise and then wonder why I didn't start reading it sooner.

With that out of the way even rereading the synopsis of this book I still wouldn't haven't have expected everything that happened. It was how I would imagine a circus to really be run, especially the treatment of the freaks. Then of course there is always that one woman that thinks to much of herself and makes life harder on those around her, and her poor husband that can't see past her. 

D'Arbignals character was amazing, I loved everything about him. He did just the kind of things I like to read about, and had a great personality. I didn't expect much from him in the beginning but the more I read the more I grew to really like him, and by the end I wanted to swoon with all the rest of the women that followed him around.

Then there is poor Maria, I felt so bad for her and how she had to live, but I would have never in a million years guessed at her back story. It really opened your eyes to understand to why she was the way she is, and honestly I really did think she was a freak right up til she told me other.

The ending was unexpected, though I did think that there was going to be something surprising, just not as surprising as it was. I have no complaints with it at all, mainly because it made me smile right up to the very last sentence.

If I had one thing to complain about it would be that it was to short, though that is me being picky because really it was the perfect length. To much more would have ruined it, I just wanted to read more about D'Arbignals, which I can because there are more books with him in it.

Would I recommend this book? Sure, its a fun read short read that is packed with all the things I love to read about.

I'm going to but my playlist of music that I was listening to when I wrote this review up, this is something I just spur of the moment that I decided to do, and I will only be doing it on my blog cause its mine and I can do anything I want with it, well really it is because one of the songs that popped up on Pandora while I was writing this review gave me pause and then I laughed cause it seemed to fit a few of the characters found in this book.

Bright Lights- Matchbox Twenty

Caress Me Down- Sublime (this is the song)

Heart-Shaped Box- Nirvana

Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin

Under the Bridge- The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Born On The Bayou- Creedence Clearwater Revival

It's an Angie Rant, Watch Out

It seems like I have finally gotten my reading steam back. Last month was just filled with way to many things that had me distracted.

I'm glad to be back.

So to celebrate this I've decided to have a little rant and rave.

Sounds fun right? Well I think it sounds fun and really I'm only assuming that you guys are really out there, something akin to the belief in aliens. You know its quite possible they are out there but there is really no proof.

Right time to get to the good part. I'm sure all of you reader/reviews *cough* aliens *cough* will know exactly what I'm talking about, and hopefully feel the same way I do about this.

You ever have a book catch your eye, I'm sure you have. You slowly make your way over to it peeking over now and then to see if it looks any better up close. You read the synopsis and your interest gets peeked even more, you are now think about how attractive the book in the corner of your eyes is. Then you turn to the people around you to see what they think about it and you get 20 reviews that are a long the lines of. . .

"OMG! OMG! OMG! I lllllooooovvvveeeed this book so much I want to marry it and have 30 half breed babies with it!!"

And I'm standing there screaming "WHY! Please tell me why you loved this book so much you want to create a new species with it."

It drive me bonkers, especially because I rely so hard on reviews to really decide if I will read a book or not. I don't care if you want to get it on with the book and cry your undying love to the world. I want to know what was good about the book, I want to know if the editing was so bad that you can feel your brain starting to leak out of your ear because you are trying so hard to make sense out of nothing, I want to know what was bad about the book, what was okay about the book.

Then I want to cry because I still think the book looks so attractive and I have no one telling me that the book is going to break my heart or not. I then crumble and knowing I'll probably regret it get the book. And sure enough it stabs me through my fragile little heart and slowly kills me. This is when my anger acts up and I rampage through my house cursing the cat, cursing the fact that I can even read in the first place, and then finally cursing all of those weird book fetish people that led me astray.

That very angry gorilla looking thing is what I turn into, and
all those running people are everything that gets in my way.

Once the rampage is done I sit down crack my knuckle and pound out the rest of my anger in a review that explains as clearly as I can why this book was no good.

Then I get the backlash, people mad at me because how dare I not possible want to love and make many babies with this book. And I just don't understand it, not at all.

To me a review is someones honest thoughts on a book about what they liked and what they didn't. I will never ever ever claim that I am some kind of review goddess (though sometimes I like to pretend that I am) because I know I'm not. I just try my best to let all those people *cough* aliens *cough* out there know what I thought was good and what I thought was bad. And I totally love it when people give me tips about how I could have made a review better, and love it even more when someone lets me know my review helped them decide if they would get that book or not. I also understand that every ones tastes are different, its one of the reasons why I rarely read out of the genres that I like.

Rant Done.

Ha I feel so much better now. I'm sure some of you aliens are going to read this and disagree with my thoughts and I'm also sure there are other aliens that will know and agree with exactly how I feel.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you feel the same way as me, or does it not bother you at all?

Just One Damned Thing After Another

Just One Damned Thing After Another

by Jodi Taylor

A story of History, time-travel, love, friendship and tea. 

Meet the disaster-magnets at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History, observing, documenting, drinking tea and, if possible, not dying.

Follow the catastrophe-curve from 11th Century London to World War 1 and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria.

Discover History - The New Sex!

*****

5 Gleaming Stars

I picked up this book for two reasons. First the title made me chuckle to myself and second what at a quick glance was a cup of coffee, though I know better now that it is a cup of tea. I didn't even read the synopsis, I just clicked download and moved on looking for other little tid bits. At about 10 pm last night I cracked open my kindle and shuffled threw those tid bits and set myself to read this oh so very wonderful book. I haven't slept yet (its about 4 in the afternoon now and you will have to excuse me if I ramble, I get like that when I'm over tired and hyped up at the same time), my kindle died in the middle of a very exciting paragraph ( I threw a minor tantrum at that) and I have consumed way to my caffeine (this is something that is actually pretty normal), all because I just couldn't get enough.

I should have known before I even started the first chapter I was going to like everything about it. Jodi Taylor had just one thing to say, "I made all this up. Historians and physicists - please do not spit on me in the street." I got pulled in and wasn't let go until my eyes just about bled from being open for much to long.

I barely even know where to start, Max is just the kind of person I would want to be around all the time. She cracked me up just about all the time. She was perfect and perfectly flawed at the same time, she seemed real, someone I could look up and then possible stalk. There is not one thing I didn't like about her.

The story build up, the cleverly left hits that you notice but think nothing of until they all link together to expose the bigger picture. I didn't even care that the time travel wasn't explained, I didn't want to know how it work I just wanted them to hurry up and do their thing and entertain me.

Just about anyone could be satisfied reading this book. There is romance, mystery, action, comedy, tragedy, science fiction stuff, fantasy, and even horror. This book could fall under all of those categories and be comfortable while sipping a nice cup of tea. The emotional spectrum is just as broad as well. You feel everything that Max goes through all the ups and downs.

The plot itself was brilliant there are so many different story arcs, one would end for another to begin. And when the end finally snuck up on me I felt like I had read a series instead of just one book and I wanted more so much more, but at the same time was happy with the way it let you go. There are no cliffhangers, no unfinished business, everything is wrapped up neatly. The story itself is so good that you don't need any of those things to want more.

Would I recommend this book? Yes Yes and Yes! I will be closely following Jodi Taylor ready to pounce on the next book she releases out to the teeming masses.

Viper's Creed (The Cat's Eye Chronicles #2)

Viper's Creed (The Cat's Eye Chronicles #2)

by T.L. Shreffler

Sora is having visions. Strange, terrifying visions brought on by her Cat's Eye necklace, an ancient and magical device. Spurred to action, she leaves her mother's cabin to find Crash, the mysterious assassin who once changed her life. She is certain that together, they can discover what the necklace is trying to tell her.

Crash is still on the run from the dark sorcerer, Volcrian, but now a plague is spreading across the land. Volcrian's quest for vengeance has awakened something far more evil than himself; a force that could destroy the entire kingdom. Together, he and Sora must harness the power of the Cat's Eye and kill the sorcerer before it's too late....

*****

5 Stars

I fully enjoyed this book, its just as good as the first one, if not better. I really like Sora a lot more this time around. She was a little more confident in herself, though she did doubt herself at times she still stuck to her guns. I liked that she was better prepared to take care of herself as well. Not so dependant on the people around her, and more at ease with the Cat's Eye as well.

If I had to pick one thing that I didn't like about this book it would be the addition of Laina to the group. She didn't really seem to play a big role in anything thing other then getting on Sora's nerves a lot. I also never really got a feel for her either, she just seemed to be there. Though at the same time I can see how her addition helped to bring Sora and Crash closer together as well as she took up a lot of Burns attention.

I liked that we got a little more background information on Crash and better understanding as to why he is the way he is, and that we found out why Burns is traveling with him as well.

The romance, if that is what you can call it, between Sora and Crash is very refreshing as well. No one is confessing undying love to each other or anything annoying like that. Its like a slow burn with them, they get closer together at a great pace. They get angry with each other, and act like normal people that don't quite understand their feelings. I feel like I can expect so much more from them in the third book and I'm really looking forward to seeing how things unfold for them in this aspect.

Once again this book is told from a few different point of views, though it still mainly focuses on Sora. I liked being able to see the inner workings of Crashes thoughts, and to see how he was being slightly changed by Sora into a better person.

The journey itself has a clearer goal to it then the first book as well. Sora knows exactly what she has to do and where she needs to go. It isn't just them running from Volcrian, though that still plays a major role in their goals.

I also liked learning more about the Dracians. I didn't think there would be an opportunity for the races to really play a part other than just history and stories, so it was pretty neat to see more show up. Especially since they are so much fun.

I'm not to sure how I liked the ending, it felt like it could have continued on for at least an other chapter or two to close up a few loose ends to me.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, I'm really enjoying this series a lot and can't wait for book three to come out.

Sora's Quest (The Cat's Eye Chronicles #1)

Sora's Quest (The Cat's Eye Chronicles #1)

by T.L. Shreffler

A noblewoman, an assassin, and a soul-stealing necklace....

Sora planned on running away from her wedding, but she never expected to be kidnapped! Dumped into a world of magical races, arcane jewelry and forgotten lore, she finds herself at the mercy of a dangerous assassin, haunted by an even darker past. She yearns for freedom, but he won't let her go -- not when her Cat's Eye necklace is the only thing that can save his life.

But the necklace itself presents a problem. It is an ancient device from the long forgotten War of the Races, and its magic has the ability to steal souls. Can Sora learn to wield its power -- or will the power wield her?

*****

5 stars

I've read this book once before and never wrote a review for it. I don't know why I didn't, sometimes that just happens. Being in a little bit of a book funk I decided to look through my kindle library to see what I had, I remembered that I liked this one so I opened it back up. Its pretty rare for me to actually read a book more then once, even if I really liked it, and if I do start to reread the book I end up stopping a few chapters in. I now remember why this book made such an impression on me. Not only it is a plot set up that I love, its a damn good story.

I know some people might not like it so much, especially since it seems our main heroine, Sora, seems to get a case of Stockholm Syndrome towards our other characters. On first impression this does seem true, but as the story progresses we see that she always has escape in the back of her mind. Even if she is starting to get use to the people around her and to really like them. Its not like she is seriously mistreated by them or that she really has any other choice but to continue on with them, there is nothing left for her where she came from. She kept pretty solid with her dislike of Crash, though she does get a little confused by her feelings for him towards the end, and I think anyone would be hard pressed to not like Dorian and Burn.

There is plenty of action going on, and I liked the way the different races where described. Just when you start think nothing interesting was going to happening things would start to pick up again. There is just enough of this going on in the book to keep you wanting to read.

After some thought there doesn't seem to be much of a goal for the group, its pretty amazing that I was able to burn though the read so fast. I mean sure they are trying to stay one step ahead of a bad guy, and Sora wants to find her mother, but there is no other explanation as to what Crash is doing hanging around with Burn and Dorian in the first place. Oddly enough I was totally okay with that. Everything worked really well for me. Just enough questions are answered that I was satisfied in the end, and want to read the second book in hopes of getting more of the answers I want.

This book had me laughing out loud, made me feel sad and I got angry. When a book can pull out emotions like that from its reader you know it is something worth reading.

That brings me to the bad guy, Volcrain, I wasn't sure if I wanted him to win in the beginning or not. He has a very good reason to be out for revenge against Crash and you feel for him because of that. But as the story progresses and you get the chance to peek into his mind you start to realize he is taking this just a little to far and you can see how he is lost to his revenge and not thinking of the consequence of his actions. He truly turns into something bad.

There is a few different point of views you get, but mainly you are in Sora's head. This is done very well, and I love when there are point of view shifts as it gives you a chance to see things from different angles.

All in all you aren't going to find some helpless damsel in distress in the book. You going to find someone that stands up for the things she believes in, though she isn't perfect Sora is a great character and I look forward to reading more about her.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, this is the kind of book I love to read and if you are like me and enjoy a quest with some not so human people thrown into the mix you will love this book too.