Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Series: Unearthly #1

Publication date: January 4th, 2011

Pages: 

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees...

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

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Review:
I picked up Unearthly for the simple fact that Angels seemed to be an ongoing theme and I wanted to see what all the hub-bub was about. What better book series could I choose than one that toes the line between fantasy and religion. To be perfectly honest, I am not into books with a highly religious air to them that so many angel books can have. When I got into Unearthly it was with a resonated sigh and a thought process that was more so to the theme of "Well... I better be prepared for a healthy dose of the bible, the devil, and especially God." This book was not what I expected at all.

Yes, God is mentioned. Yes, there are mentions of heaven, hell, God's divine purpose, and, of course, angels. There is not however an overdose of it. It was just enough to show it was a book about angels without religion being thrust upon the readers.

I did not fall in love with Clara from the first pages of the book as some fictional characters I have read before. She seemed a little too uptight in the beginning. That how she was meant to feel, I surmise. As I read on and started watching Clara deviate slightly from her all-mighty purpose and start following her heart more and more, she started to grow on me. I watched her awkwardness that I always find so endearing in characters grow into a certainty and strength I wouldn't have thought she would have been capable of early into the story.

When the love triangle started I groaned. I was so sick of all the "I love you! No... wait... I love you! No, I'm sorry I love..." blah blah blah. Sometimes love triangles to me are just too forced and uncomfortable. This love triangle was not as well developed as I would have thought. It was blatantly clear that Clara cared for one more than the other so her struggle wasn't as believable as it could have been. At least not to me. Others may have found it completely believable and the stuff of dreams. I am a tough critic.

With any love triangle I have to give my siding of course. My choice is a bit bias I must confess. I am a southern girl and have grown up knowing country boys rather well. So, without a doubt when presented with a pretty boy jock or a down-to-earth country boy, it's no surprise my heart skipped a beat when Tucker came onto the scene. He is so different from Clara that it is an intersting match. Throughout the book I didn't know if Clara and Tucker were a good match or if I just found Tucker completely swoon-worthy for myself.

Unearthly is a story of a girl with angel-blood coursing through her veins who was taught to always follow her God given purpose that presents itself in visions. While realizing her visions of her purpose in bits and pieces she struggles with doing what is expected of her and what her heart tells her to. It really speaks to reality: Who hasn't had to struggle with something they are supposed to do or something they feel is right for them personally? It is that connection that makes Clara's struggle between head and heart so touching. This book gripped me from the very beginning and stuck with me. I hadn't even reached the middle of the book before I was searching for the next installment feverishly. If you never feel the need to read a book on angels, read this series at least.

Review: Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck

Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck

Series: The Tiger Saga #2

Publication date: June 7th, 2011

Pages: 479

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):

Back in Oregon, Kelsey tries to pick up the pieces of her life and push aside her feelings for Ren. Kelsey Hayes's eighteenth summer was crazy. The kind of crazy nobody would ever believe.

Aside from battling immortal sea monkeys and trekking the jungles of India, she fell in love with Ren, a 300-year-old prince.

When danger suddenly forces Kelsey on another Indian quest, with Ren's bad-boy brother, Kishan, the unlikely duo begins to question their true destiny. Ren's life hangs in the balance--so does the truth within Kelsey's heart.

Tiger's Quest, the thrilling second volume in the Tiger's Curse series, brings the trio one step closer to breaking the ancient prophecy that binds them.

Available at:

Review:
As seen in my review of the first book Tiger's Curse, I was not a fan of this series or the characters within it. I found Kelsey to be incredibly annoying and her constant damsel in distress routine to be tiresome. the only thing that kept me powering through the book was Ren and his brother, Kishan. If they had been as irritating as Kelsey, I would have had to write the entire series off as a loss and never find out what happened to the Tiger princes.

What a loss that would have been. I came into Tiger's Quest with a teeth grit and a "just do it and get it over with" attitude. That quickly changed as I became engrossed in the story. I started to find Kelsey less and less of a burden and found Kishan, who was the main male protagonist in this volume of the series, to be utterly swoon-worthy. I found myself flipping back to the cover of the book to make sure I was really reading the second installment of the series.

Colleen Houck totally changed how I felt about Kelsey. She made her start learning to fight and gave her cool new powers thanks to the goddess, Durga. She seamlessly turned Kelsey from a bumbling idiot in need of saving all the time, into the type of kick ass female lead I am accustomed to. Granted, she still blubbers about her love for Ren and the complication of growing feelings for Kishan, but I was able to overlook that since she didn't seem like such an infant anymore. She was even able to save the boys a time or two instead of depending on them to do the saving all the time.

Kelsey wasn't the only one that changed. In the first book, Kishan was the secondary character with nothing going for him except good looks and a smug attitude. The second book delved deeper into Kishan since Ren was taken out of the equation fairly early in the book. I loved getting to see a new side of Kishan. Yes, he was still smug and yes, he still had that air of a bad-boy, but there was more emotion than that beneath the surface. Kishan, as he put it, is a "man of action". He wants Kelsey and he is going to pursue her whether she wants him to or not. I like possessive, can-do attitudes in men, so of course, I fell head-over-heels for Kishan even if Kelsey tried to deny she did the same.

Between Kelsey's growth and the deeper look into Kishan, this book completely made up for the rocky start of the first book. I found myself immediately searching for the third book in the series so I could find out what happened next. That wasn't the case after the first book by any stretch of the imagination. I have a feeling that love triangle is going to become more and more interesting as time goes by, let's just hope Kelsey doesn't sob too profusely or slip into mental breakdown after mental breakdown. Her depression depresses me. Colleen please don't torment me with "whiny little girl" Kelsey again. Pretty please?

Review: Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Series: The Tiger Saga #1

Publication date: Januarty 11th, 2011

Pages: 403

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she'd be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that's exactly what happened.

Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Packed with magic, action-adventure, and romance, the epic Tiger's Curse series will keep you breathless and yearning for more.

Available at:

Review:

Meeting a tiger and befriending it while working a temporary job at a circus was probably the furthest thing from Kelsey's mind when she took the job. Getting offered an all expense paid trip to India to a reserve for her beloved tiger, probably even further. Finding out the sleek, white tiger who has become her best friend is actually a drop-dead-gorgeous prince with a 300-year old curse? Who would think that would ever enter their realm of reality? That is what happened with Kelsey and instead of being skeptical or struggling with their new found information, she embraces it completely and takes it in stride. That may have been my first indication that I was not going to find this book enjoyable.

Ren and Kelsey venture into adventures of various proportions to find ancient artifacts to offer to an Indian goddess and break the curse. The adventures entail such bizarre things as booby-trapped temples, vicious foliage, and... vampire monkeys? Some of the things that they enountered on their trips were interesting and even something I could imagine of an ancient Indian quest, but others were just too far-fetched to keep from laughing at.

Of course, along the way Ren and Kelsey develop a love affair. Ren is very understanding and gentlemanly and Kelsey is whiny and self-destructive. I completely grasp the concept that in any good love story there needs to be obstacles for the main characters to overcome and, really, the whole being a tiger more often than human would have sufficed, but then to add in a girl who narrates every step she takes, talks to the man in the tiger form as she would a pet dog, and decides she's "not pretty enough" for Ren is just frustrating.

I found Kelsey incredibly hard to tolerate. Half the time I really wanted to jump through the pages and shake her. Not only did she have the full attention of Ren but she also sparked the interest of Ren's brother who is also suffering from the tiger curse. Yet, she still feels she is unworthy of such delectable male specimens. Very frustrating.

Kelsey truly ruined the book for me. Her character was immature and more trouble than she was worth half the time. I don't see what Ren and Kishan see in her. As I am a glutton for punishment and do wish to see how the train wreck of a romance and curse play out, I will be reading the rest of the series. I really hope this is not a foreboding sign of what the rest of the series holds.

The one good thing I will say about this book is the cover and inside filigree on the pages was absolutely beautiful. I have considered purchasing a brand new hardcover copy simply because of its outside appearance and not for the story written across its pages.

Review: Nightkeepers by Jessica Andersen

Nightkeepers by Jessica Andersen

Series: The Nightkeepers #1

Publication date: June 3rd, 2008

Pages: 452

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):

The end of time looms, and Mayan demons have surfaced from the underworld to trigger an apocalypse. But as the final day approaches, the descendants of ancient warrior-priests prepare to fight back...

As a Miami narcotics detective, Leah Daniels never knows how her day will turn out. But she certainly doesn't expect to be strapped to a stone alter as the human sacrifice in an ancient Mayan ritual meant to coax a demon from the underworld--or to be saved by a handsome warrior-priest king, who claims to recognize her from his visions.

Striking Jaguar thinks he is the last of the Nightkeeper warrior-priests, but as the end-time approaches, his mentor reveals there are twelve others. In reuniting them, Strike--king by birthright--gains the power to summon a Mayan god to combat the demons. But the woman of his visions is the gods' chosen sacrifice. Now he must decide between love and duty... or find another way to invoke otherworldly magic in a death-defying race against the end of time.

Available at:

Review:

I started reading this book for my local Paranormal Romance Book Club. I went into it expecting the same type of paranormal romance as all the others. I am nothing if not a fan of paranormal romance books but this one was a little different. I have not done any adult paranormal romance series reviews because normally they are kind of the same thing with different characters. The hero and heroine meet during some random paranormal emergency, fall in love instantly and spend the rest of the book trying to resist those feelings for one reason or another. Most paranormal books fous more on the romance aspect and less on the paranormal parts, which makes them little more than the historical romance books most little old ladies fan themselves and swoon over. "Mercy that bodice ripper was amazing, wasn't it Ethel?" Okay, so maybe not ONLY little old ladies read historical romances... but that is neither here nor there...

This book opens on a police detective attempting to track down the leader of a 2012 doomsday cult that her brother got roped into before he was mysteriously murdered. Leah sets out to put an end to this nasty cult before the kool-aid gets passed out and more deaths ensue. I am not 100% sure why a NARCOTICS detective is investigating HOMICIDES... but her actual job is of no relevance really...

She dreams of a mystery man (hot and steamy dreams, of course) and suddenly he appears. TAA-DAH! They have the insta-connection thing that most romance books have, but the difference is, they get down to business relatively fast THEN do the oh-no-we-can'ts as per usual. I was only in a few chapters, the characters didn't even know each other's names yet and already they were getting horizontal... I exclaimed a few "mercies" and fanned myself as well, Ethel, you're not alone.

The thing that interested me the most was how much research must have gone into this book. The storyline was absolutely astounding as far as the Mayan history and the elaborate rituals and traditions of the Nightkeepers. Although I did have a few "omigawd stop with the history lesson and cure this insufferable sexual frustration!" (The characters... not me...)

I liked the fact that the book didn't just focus on one single couple the entire time. It introduced a whole SLEW of characters who had their own little love affairs going on behind the scenes that I hope (fingers crossed!) get discussed in greater detail in the following books in the series.

Jessica Andersen you did an amazing job. I find myself writing this review in astonishment. I haven't even written any reviews for my favorite author J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series and yet here I stand gushing over Nightkeepers. Brava, Jessica, Brava!