SOS: Serious Overload of Series discussion
Archive: Past Team Challenges
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R5: Team #8 ~ Serial Slayers
I think we can, I think we can ... Go, Team, Go! :DHope everyone enjoys their reads and has a good week!
Enjoy, Sara. I really liked that spin-off.
The h in mine is wishywashy with her feelings for this hot reaper and it's frustrating me. LOL! Funny how I can look right past and accept that a character can change between forms (human, reaper, other) and instantly create anything outta nowhere, but when a chick is "oh, I'm glad you love me, but I'm just not sure yet" one second and "oh, yes, of course, I'll marry you" the next it's just too much. >;) But, there ya have it in a nutshell. It's a quick read, thankfully, so I should be finished soon.
I haven't started mine yet! However, I am nearly done with
. And I still need to do my review on
I finished The Awakening and want to finish another book before I start Pleasure Unbound. Almost completely caught up.
Go, Meghan, Go! How's it goin', Sherri? How are you liking Lethal Rider? I need to read that one. I'm anxious for more Demonica actually. I'd heard something, somewhere about her returning to that series after the 4th horseman. :)
I've finished Dark Kiss Of The Reaper. I'll post my review soon (3★)
Sarajayne wrote: "Stayed up past my bedtime tonight and finished Wicked Nights. It was ok, but it didn't rock my world. I new to the pnr genre, but I think I'm a bit burned out on it already. It seems like a lot of ...":( Sorry it wasn't great, but glad to hear it wasn't terrible either. I'm a sucker for Gena's Demon Lords and Angels.
I finished Wicked Nights on 7/22. I rated it 5 stars. I have been reading Gena's other series so it was nice to see Zacharel again. Cant wait till the next in the series.
:D Glad you enjoyed it, Emily. I really liked it too. I liked seeing Zach in his world, since up until then we'd only ever seen bits of him while in the Lords' (of the Underworld) world. I'm really looking forward to K's book next.
Dark Kiss Of The Reaper by Kristen Painter
Shelf: 'demons'
Read: 24 July 2012
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Review:
Dark Kiss of the Reaper was a nice introduction into a present day world that has not one, but three Reapers. I have read about the three Fates (the Virgin, the Mother, & the Crone) in other books, but never three Reapers. I liked this new spin on Death. These three are brothers, but while two of them have "known the pleasures" of women, Azrael, our Hero, has not. Seems he's been a nose-to-the-grindstone kinda boy and simply focuses on his work.
All of that changes when, while at the hospital to reap a soul, he's seen by a mortal. Sara, an oncology ward secretary, can see Azrael. Initially she thinks him to be a singing telegram because who else would be dressed in such a getup. But, as she reaches him at a patient's bedside, they are both surprised - Azrael because Sara can see him when no human (other than those being reaped) should and Sara because she thinks she just witnessed a murder.
* Azrael is the Reaper of Mercy. He reaps the souls of those "that are ready and deserving of a merciful death."
* Chronos is the Timekeeper. He reaps the souls of those "who've reached their allotted end but have earned no special consideration or condemnation."
* Kol is a Thresher, "the deadliest kind of reaper", who "culls the souls of that no longer deserve a mortal existence."
The Reapers' world was very interesting to me and I enjoyed the boys' characters. (view spoiler)
Like any good book-boyfriend-ho, I was more drawn to the boys and their story. ✣Sara, the heroine, not so much. I feel like I should be embarrassed to say that the issues I had with her character are RL-based. I realize how silly that is because this is a PNR and I've already accepted Azrael and his Reaper brothers. But, her character is living in today's world, so she gets judged on her actions and reactions as if she were in my world.
Nevertheless, I did enjoy the Reapers and their world that Kristen created. If this were to be a series, I'd read the Reaper brother's books because I'd love to learn more about them.
✣ Read my full review for the deets on why I didn't care for Sara.
Off to read about Sara. ROFL
Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh
Book Completed: 16 July 2012
Rating: ★★★½
I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the Changeling series. Pure paranormal romance and we learn a little bit more about the psy-net and how it evolved and what it means. In Mine to Possess, street children are disappearing and then turning up murdered. Several of the children are the responsibility of Talin and to find them she will do anything, even return to Clay, who she is terrified of.
As far as characters; loved Clay, not so keen on Talin. She had that whiny heroine thing going on and I just can’t get past. However, there are sides to Talin that I enjoyed; her loyalty to the children and her stubbornness in find them. She’s not the whiniest character I’ve read, but her unease and disgust and what Clay had done in the past for her, just rubbed me the wrong way.
Clay is leopard shifter who also has had a rough past. Based on how he ultimately handles Talin, I think the guy should be sainted. I loved his character and kept reading just for him.
Overall, a good read and it was nice to read more of a romance book than a urban fantasy one. Probably not my favorite of the series so far, but a nice summer read.
Also, for my ghosts shelf I changed my book to
. I had to read for a game at PBS and although it has no ghosts in it, someone labelled it as ghost. So in order to catch up with my progress, I'm going to switch to it.Now to pick a demon book.
Last review for now. This one rung me out. :-)
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire
Book Completed: 18 July 2012
Rating: ★★½
Discount Armageddon features Verity Price. Verity’s family used to be members of the Covenant, an organization that hunts and kills cryptids to “keep” humanity safe. The Price family broke away from the Covenant, due to a philosophical difference in that the Price’s believed cryptids are essential “people” and didn’t deserve to be hunted to extinction. Anyway, that makes the Price Family traitors to the Covenant and although the Covenant thinks the Prices are dead, if they are ever found they would be killed on sight.
Enter Verity, a Price that would rather ballroom dance than join the family business of watching over the cryptids. Long story short, she ends up in New York, watching out for cryptids, ballroom dancing and waiting table at a cryptid strip club owned by the boogie man. Verity notices that cryptids are disappearing from New York and starts to investigate. Enter hunky demon killer Dominic De Luca and everything went downhill for me from there.
Be forewarned, there is a lot of world building and background story development in Discount Armageddon. The “real” story really doesn’t kick in until around Chapter 11. Although the world building was interesting, Seanan McGuire is a genius at that, I was left wondering if it all needed to be done at this stage of the series. It just seemed to slow the pacing down.
I didn’t particularly feel invested in either Verity or Dominic’s characters. I felt they a lot of the character development was superficial and there were contradictions they I just didn’t believe. Although there were certain characteristics I enjoyed about Verity, overall I could not relate to her. She’s stubborn, a bit selfish, and reckless. That recklessness endangers not only herself, but her family at multiple times through the book.
Dominic’s “change of heart” at the end of the book, didn’t fit the character that had been portrayed. It happened way too quick for me and I would have liked them to be friendly enemies at the end of the book and then develop into something else in future works. As with many things in Discount Armageddon it just wasn’t believable for me.
Lastly, I became annoyed with the repetition in the book. We are constantly reminded that Verity is a waitress, that she is a dancer, that the Prices would be killed if news they were alive came out, etc. I can’t count the number of times I thought that I had just read that sentence a few pages back. For myself, it interrupted the flow of the story and I kinda felt that the author had no confidence in me as a reader – as if I couldn’t remember a couple of facts.
So what did I like about Discount Armageddon. Well, initially, I was drawn to the uniqueness of the characters and story. It had that goofy/satirical comedy/paranormal vibe to it. It does, but where other series excel at that style of presentation, this one fell flat for me. There was not depth of character insight or character development to support the goofiness or make things believable to me.
I will probably give the next book, Midnight Blue-Light Special, a read. Sometimes a series will settle down with the second book and it works from there. Overall, not a stellar read for me, just not a “squee” read. If you can’t abide silliness in a book, you probably should just avoid this one.
This really is the last one for this morning. I see we need this one for a stamp so I wrote a quick review.
Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
Book Completed: 09 July 2012
Rating: ★★½
Sookie, Sookie, Sookie…… That’s what I felt after reading Deadlocked, just plain weary. This book just went nowhere. I did enjoy it more than Dead Reckoning, but frankly that isn’t saying much. Deadlocked had the feel of a book in transition with several threads tied up neatly and very little interaction between the main characters. In all, it was very underwhelming.
Deadlocked is mostly about Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana, visit in order to find out what happened to his subject that was killed by Eric, Sookie and the Scooby gang in the last book. During his visit, a woman’s body is discovered on Eric’s front lawn and the police are called in. Of course it's Sookie to the rescue; she must get to the bottom of the mystery to save Eric. Everyone thinks the King is responsible for planting the body for revenge against what’s his name (the dead vamp), but is he really?
So what did I dislike about Deadlocked. There is very little face time, and no romance, between Eric and Sookie. Their relationship was undimensional and uninspiring and flat out boring. Throw in the arranged marriage that Godric had secured for Eric and all of their responses to it and you are left with a WTF moment. Why did Charlaine Harris build this relationship up for 11 books to tear it down in such an unemotional manner? ARRRHH, it just doesn’t make sense.
There are some minor story threads that are played out; but most of them were apathetic. I don’t want to give any of those plots away, but most of them just show Sookie how uneventful her life is, even with the vampires and monsters involved in it. What does she really want from her life?
So what did I like about Deadlocked. Hmmm, Sam and Uncle Dermot. They were about the only characters that I didn’t dislike by the end of the book.
In the end, the culprit is revealed (and we should have known (s)he was trouble), but we are left feeling that Charlaine Harris is setting us up for the big fall; that Eric and Sookie will not get their HEA. The next in the series, Dead Ever After (DEA), is due out in May 2013. Will Sookie and Eric find a HEA or DEA, all of us enquiring fans really want to know.
I'm tired and unispired by my recent book choices. (can you tell). -( Hoping Blood Before Sunrise is better.
I swear I will get to my reviews soon. I haven't slept much lately. And every time I do try to sleep, I can't so I lay in bed doing nothing... sort of depressing. I literally slept 1 hour yesterday and worked 12 hours after that due to having a meeting in the middle of the day and then having to working from 10p-9a. So today, I sleep about 8 hours (normally get 4-6 max) and I am still tired. Now I made sure I ate before I go to work tonight. I am now going to catch another hour before I go into work...
P.S. Sorry for my little bout of venting. I am getting frustrated because it is affecting my reading :)
Wow! Go, Sherri! You're rockin' the reviews, though I'm sorry to see they weren't great reads. That sucks. I keep picking up Deadlocked and putting it back down. Just can't motivate myself to read it, which is sad b/c it used to be one of my Top 5 series. :/Sorry you're strugglin', Meghan. I find that, even though I'm dog tired, the more I sleep the worse I feel. Hang in there, hun!
Thanks for keeping us updated, Sara. :D I'll be stamping cards in a few minutes.
CONGRATULATIONS, Slayers! We now have an updated BINGO card with a stamp on 'favorite-series' and 'shifters'.
[Our updated BINGO card can be viewed on page 1]
Good Job!! :D
Congrats on both stamp Slayers!
:D Thanks!WTG, Slayers! Keep it up!
Our next shelf announcement is up ~ 'urban-fantasy'. It's a BIG shelf with over 78K books. So many choices. I'm not sure which I'll pick. Be back in a bit w/my decision.
Happy Weekend, Slayers!
If you're watching the Olympics, hope your team/country does well! :D
I will be reading
for Urban Fantasy!
Still deciding ........
I am going to read
or
. Not sure which one I will read.
I haven't decided yet. Still working on my Demon book.
Ok, I finally decided and started reading my 'urban-fantasy' book. YAY! :DI'm reading
and I'm enjoying it so far. Hope you're able to find something you'd like to read and wrap up your 'demon' book, Sherri.
Emily, of those two, my vote is for BITTEN! :)
Emily wrote: "I am going to read or . Not sure which one I will read."I vote for Bitten!!!! It was my first audiobook and I absolutely LOVED it!
Sherri wrote: "I haven't decided yet. Still working on my Demon book."I am also working on my 'demon' book. I just have been in a weird reading mood lately. But I need to get my butt in gear because I have to get multiple points for a challenge that ends at the end of August.
My UF book is going to be
.I have to read it anyway and it counts as UF so might as well kill two things with one read. :-)
Weird, the title you have in your post Sarajayne is different then the one in mine. Hmm, GR is acting a bit odd lately.
Don't you love when GR does that :)
I ended up reading
. I finished last night 7/30. At first I wasn't to sure if I was going to like it. I ended up really enjoying the read. I like the different twists in the story. I liked that the werewolfs didnt have any extra powers and were still mortal. It was a nice change from the other shifter books I have read. I rated it a 4 and have placed the next book on hold. Looking forward to seeing where the series goes.
Haha just realized I am extremely behind on my reviews. I need to start catching up. I am just behind in general. Been so sleepy lately. Also been reading a little more since I haven't touched the computer much lately
Good luck Sarajayne, trouble with a computer just sucks the big one!
I hate when that happens Sarajayne. I hated it worse when I was in school. Luckily my parents were always completely understanding as far as that so they would not worry about getting me a new computer. That is probably why they are in so much debt...
Bummer Sarajayne. Having been that way recently myself I can confirm it bites the big one.BTW - I may change my read to
. I started it on Monday and I can't wait to get back to reading it once I put it down. Now if only real life would stop interfering with my reading.
Real life is a real bummer lately Sherri! It is majorly interfering with my reading time
Sorry 'bout your computer, Sara. Hope you enjoyed your book, Sherri. I finished mine (Kindling the Moon; REALLY enjoyed it) and will post a review very soon. Sorry I haven't posted it sooner - I've been away from internet/computer for several days.Our next shelf announcement is up ~ 'Series Catch-up' (personal shelf)
Remember:
❀ Members are allowed to choose a book from any series that they have already started - no genre restrictions
❀ Book must be 200+ pages, part of a series, but not the first in that series
❀ Re-reads are not allowed - must be a book in a series you need to catch-up to the most-recent release
I've got a (insert astronomical # here) series to catch up on, so this will either be a very easy or very hard shelf choice for me. I'll let ya know soon what I'll be reading. I'm already reading #2, Summoning the Night, b/c I enjoyed #1 so much. Thanks, Mr. R!
Glad to see you're enjoying that series, Emily. I've got the final book 13 TBR. Sad to see it end. I'll miss her shifters.
I think I will be reading
. I need a paranormal break.
I finished
for my demon book. I just need to catch up with my reviews.
I liked Pride Mates a lot more than I thought I would, Sara. I haven't read that one yet though. Looking forward to your review. Hope you enjoy it. I haven't decided on my pick yet. I'm still trying to finish up my current read. I'll let ya know.
Sherri, did you switch to Downside?
★Meghan★ wrote: "I will be reading for Urban Fantasy!"I am changing this book to
which I am about 1/2 way done now.
What?! No Mercy? :( Didn't like?
Steph wrote: "What?! No Mercy? :( Didn't like?"No I like Mercy! I just had to finish Shiver for another challenge and also needed to read a Mod BOM for another group for July considering I am a Mod. Don't worry I will continue the Mercy series.
Meghan's New2You: Series Review
Marked by P.C. CastBook Rating: ★★★ ½
Book Completed: 7/20/2012
Continue Series?: Yes
I would give this book a high 3 ½ star rating. I think I was expecting a lot more out of this book.
Zoey's life stunk as a human. Her family was a nightmare with a holier-than-thou attitude stepfather. The only person that she gets along with is her Native American grandmother. She is Marked while in school to become a vampyre and is now an outcast within her school and must join the vampyres or die from it.
While at her new school, it becomes like most teen novels that I don't like when they talk about the goings on at school. The excessive drama between the popular kids and the newbies that come into the school. Not sure why all the books seem like this has to be an important part of what goes on in the life of the school.
I was surprised at the way this book ended. It was a little surprising with a little bit of action. It made me look forward to what is to come. I loved the creepy edge to the book also with the appearances of the vampyres that have passed to the other side. It makes me look forward to reading the next book
SOS: Serious Overload of Series
Books mentioned in this topic
Out for Blood (other topics)Bad Blood (other topics)
Pleasure Unbound (other topics)
Bad Blood (other topics)
Bad Blood (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Larissa Ione (other topics)Kelley Armstrong (other topics)
P.C. Cast (other topics)
Patricia Briggs (other topics)
J.R. Ward (other topics)
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