Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks | A Combination of All My Favorite Series!

Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks

World of the Lupi #1

First Published: 2004

Kindle

Adult, Urban Fantasy
Rating:

Re-Readability:

National bestselling author Eileen Wilks draws readers into a bold new world where the magical and mundane co-exist in an uneasy alliance--and a cop balanced on her own knife-edged struggle is their only hope against a cold-blooded killer.
Lily Yu is a San Diego police detective investigating a series of grisly murders that appear to be the work of a werewolf. To hunt down the killer, she must infiltrate the clans. Only one man can help her--a were named Rule Turner, a prince of the lupi, whose charismatic presence disturbs Lily. Rule has his own reasons for helping the investigation--reasons he doesn't want to share with Lily. Logic and honor demand she keep her distance, but the attraction between them is immediate and devastating-and beyond human reason. Now, in a race to fend off evil, Lily finds herself in uncharted territory, tested as never before, and at her back a man who she's not sure she can trust.

Once upon a time, a young girl by the name of Nitzan added a book by the name of Tempting Danger to her To Be Read list. And promptly forgot she ever did, or why. Years passed, and she saw the book discounted on the wonderful land of Kindle. She did not get it then, for the cover was not captivating enough. But the gods had other plans for Nitzan.

They urged her to organize her TBR and reduce it. And so, she stumbled upon the book again. Confused--why had she added it?--she read the synopsis and realized that it sounds just like the book for her. Hastily she returned to the land of kindle and got it.

Becuase it was simply meant to be.

It was obvious by the third chapter - Tempting Danger is a wonderful mix of some of my all time favorite series while not being a copy of those series, by no stretch of the imagination, it's simply something that makes me think of these things I love but is great on its own. So if you like the urban fantasies Kate Daniels and Mercy Thompson series, or the mystery In Death series, this book is THE one for you.

But let's get a little more in depth into this book review/recommendation. There are a few things I can tell you so you could make an informed decision whether to read this or not.

If you like your heroines kick-ass, determined, pragmatic, dry witted and very passionate about their job, you will love our main character Lily Yu. She's a young homicide detective who takes no one's shit. She is extremely intelligent, capable and rational. And her job means the world to her. Which is why she didn't count on any of this happening to her, but there you have it. Sometimes, shit happens. And when it does, you just have to deal with it.

If you like your heroes to be charming, confident and utterly devoted to their better half even when they never expected to love someone, you will love Rule. I know I did. Rule is basically a werewolf prince. So that means he is handsome as all get out, rich (kind of) and, naturally, has no shortage of women flock to him. Normally, that would make for a certain type of hero. BUT RULE IS NO JERK!

I know, I know, this is utterly shocking. I was blown-away, too! But this guy is just a sweetheart, even before he falls for the seasoned detective. And after he does... let's just say, he is the perfect blend of Alpha and devotion. Very rarely do I find a book boyfriend who is so inherently alpha, but uses barely any high handed maneuvers (though for no lack of worry and protectiveness) and listens to what his partner actually has to say... and agrees when she's right. Be ready to swoon boys, gals, and nonbinary pals! (Someone here may have been watching too much Thomas Sanders as she was typing this review...)

Now, clearly, I highly recommend the characters. But do I recommend the romance? I think it's fairly obvious I do. The romance hits both parties hard and unexpectedly, and there is the whole "soul mates" part of it. But unlike many novels that use this as a device to excuse insta love and forgo showing the reader the two are meant to be together, Wilks uses this as the catalyst to their falling in love process beginning.

Rule and Lily are forced together by an otherworldly being. Now they have to decide if they even like each other. Spoiler alert: yeah, they do. It's all so organic in the way they react to their predicament. They don't fall in love over night, but over time, forced to spend time together and eventually open up to each other, finding comfort in one another. IT'S GLORIOUS AF, OKAY?!

In fact, the romance is probably my favorite part of this novel, because it is the crux of it without overwhelming the story and plot.

Now, let's talk about the world, especially because I talked about Mercy Thompson and Kate Daniels before. You can definitely see some similarities, especially in the uneasy truce and bigotry between the human world and magical beings, but Wilks created a really intriguing beast with the way she blends those and adds the layer of realms with different rules and creations into the mix.

I can't wait to read more of this series, and I say that as someone who already read the next book just 'cause she couldn't help herself lol

Maggie Stiefvater | Authors Who Win the Cover Lottery #1

A new segment here on the blog that will spotlight gorgeous covers and the authors who nail them repeatedly. 

Take a moment. Breath these cover in. Let their beauty cure all your ills. Imagine yourself stroking and hugging them close. Then marvel at how damn lucky can one author be to win the cover lottery again, and again, and again!

I don't know if it's because Maggie is an artist, or if she even has a say in her books' covers, but damn. Even her earlier works, like Lament and Ballad, or the anthologies she's in like The Curiosities and The Anatomy of Curiosity have really pleasing covers.

But I chose to focus on the eight above.

The Shiver series is the earliest of the ones displayed, and I have to admit I like all the iterations of this series. The ones I put above are the original ones, which I think are the best. I like the simplicity of them, the branches, and the way you suddenly see the wolf there. The new covers follow a similar theme, but I don't like how the color just overtakes everything. I feel like the white works a lot better.

The next covers are of the raven cycle. God almighty, I think those are the most gorgeous covers EVER. Seriously they are at the top of the top of my favorite list. It starts all the way with the first book, The Raven Boys with the cool raven made of brush strokes and the red beating heart, The Dream Thieves with my hubby Ronan so beautifully drawn atop it, Blue Lily, Lily Blue which fights with The Raven King for my favorite of the favorites. Both of them utilize the gorgeous brush strokes, and create such beautiful drawings I CAN'T EVEN THEY ARE SO PRETTY!!!

And then there is the newest addition, All the Crooked Saints. Another pretty one that uses the theme of branches and flowers. It's just SO PLEASENT to look at. Seriously. The colors beautifully mash, the typography and the way the veins climb through it and AHHH I want it already just so I could stare at it all day.

Another cover that I debated putting in but eventually decided against (since the original one is pretty ugly) is the second hardcover version of The Scorpio Races and the second paperback version.  Again, both are so nice to look at.

By the way, I love how Maggie's covers often utilize the white and blank spaces. It makes the actual illustration POP out.

*I link to the amazon buying options where they exist, or to the GR page if you can't buy it anymore.

*I created the graphic with help from this stamp template*

Naked in Death by J.D. Robb | The Start of an Incredible Series!

Naked in Death by J.D. Robb

In Death #1

First Published: 1995

Paperback & Kindle

Adult, Mystery

Rating:
Re-Readability:

In a world of danger and deception, she walks the line--between seductive passion and scandalous murder... Eve Dallas is a New York police lieutenant hunting for a ruthless killer. In over ten years on the force, she's seen it all--and knows her survival depends on her instincts. And she's going against every warning telling her not to get involved with Roarke, an Irish billionaire--and a suspect in Eve's murder investigation. But passion and seduction have rules of their own, and it's up to Eve to take a chance in the arms of a man she knows nothing about--except the addictive hunger of needing his touch.

I first read Naked in Death about five years ago. I'm not ashamed to admit - it was love at first read. These characters and the world they live in completely captured my heart and soul in just a few pages. It felt like watching one of the detective shows I love, only more satisfying because the romance is an integral part of it, but I didn't have to wait five seasons for it to happen nor did it take over the story and overshadow the case. You know how hard that is to balance?!

Wait, wait, I'm getting waaaaay ahead of myself, aren't I?

Meet Eve Dallas, a seasoned detective in futuristic New York. She is a snarky, dry homicide cop with so much heart it's crazy, even though she tries to pretend otherwise. There is nothing more important to her than bringing justice to the victims, and her personal life is a constant casualty due to it.

Here is a tough, badass woman, who cares. And we can already tell the source of that huge heart lies in her childhood. I remember the curiosity eating at me the first time I read this novel, wanting to hear more details even though I could tell it would be awful.

A prostitute is dead. This specific prostitute is also the grandaughter of a senator. And more pressing--the killer left a jarring note saying she is only the first of six. Now it's a race against time to find the culprit before he kills more people, and bring justice to the murdered.

Now, as far as mysteries go, this is a decent one. It's pretty hard to read at times, you might guess at the identity of the killer before Eve does (I did), and I will warn you you will be nauseated by the whole affair. This is not a bad thing.

But I think the importance of this case is not necessarily about the mystery itself, not in the grand scheme of the In Death world. There is a reason Robb decides to start with this specific case, and not a case five years prior or something like that (Eve has been a detective for quite a while). That's because this is the case that will change her life. This is the case where she meets Roarke.

“You know, Roarke, you’re kind of cute.”

Who is Roarke? Billionaire tech god, this guy is everything. Handsome, rich, funny and smart, he is the ultimate book boyfriend. Especially because of how hard he falls for the hard boiled detective (despite a sketchy past of his own) and how well he comes to understand her.

Guys, these two are at the TOP of my OTP list, and it starts right here. I had forgotten how completely J.D. Robb manages to make you ship these two from their very first scene together. There is just such incredible chemistry between them, and they fit like two pieces of a puzzle. You want them together.

Seriously, these guys are my crack. I have read almost 20 books in this series and they never, never fail to capture my heart and soul.

If you love mysteries with a dash of romance, compelling characters and great side story lines, pick up this fantastic series!

Existence by Abbi Glines / The First Book I Ever HATED

Existence by Abbi Glines

Existence #1

First Published: 2004

Kindle

Young Adult, Paranormal Romance
Rating: 

Re-Readability:

What happens when you're stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course.
Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.
Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.
Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.
He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.

Once upon a time, all the way back in 2012, I heard about Existence by Abbi Glines. Wherever I looked, people loved it. So, naturally I thought I would love it too. Oh boy, how wrong I was. This was the book that introduced me to the concept of hating a book. HATING. I guess we all have that one. This was mine.

The crux of the problem was Pagan, the main character. She is such an awful main character, her ridiculous name the least of her problems.

First of all, she's a user. She is in love with a guy name Dank (no joke), and yet she dates this other guy named Leif (again, I swear to god these are their names). So, in my book, that makes her shady af. But if that's not bad enough, she is also a stinking  c h e a t e r  okay?? She kissed another guy while having a boyfriend.

Second, she has a fierce case of the Bella Syndrome, which is when a girl is sooooo in love with a guy that when he leaves she breaks into tiny little pieces and can't live anymore. That's pathetic. Girls are stronger than that, dammit!

So I was already hating on her when the book decided to declare her "soul" beautiful. Oh, and on top of that, she's brave and strong. Ehhh, hello? Who is this Pagan you're talking about and can we have this book be about her instead? I feel like that'd be a much better read than this pathetic mess!

Now, I'm sure you won't be surprised when I say I hated the romance. I kind of hinted toward that already, but let's go into details. For one thing, it's freaking insta love. Like, couldn't you have at least given me a satisfying relationship to hold on??? There is no why, when or how to it. She sees him and BAM she's in love.

But it wasn't even a healthy love. He became the entire reason for her existence. That's not good, y'all!!

But then, to top that off you have Dank. This guy, okay? It's supposed to be impossible for him to fall in love with a human, because reasons. Ergo, the person that makes him fall in love should be super smart, and good, and all around amazing. Well, Pagan's special alright... (e)special(ly) annoying. I guess some guys find that attractive?

The accumulation of all these annoying things is the showdown. Or whatever the hell that was.

SPOILER So, there is the whole self sacrifice deal so Dank could live. But twist! It doesn't work like that so instead she must be brave and live so that his sacrifice wouldn't be for nothing. Ahhh, but gotcha! Choosing to live without the meaning of your existence is actually the biggest sacrifice of all, and oh, how brave and strong you are Pagan to endure it. Your reward.... huzzah, he's alive! END SPOILER

When do I get to shoot myself?? Seriously, what is this crap and why do people love this?

The single endurable thing about this whole mess is the last line. The last line. It made me consider for a millisecond reading the next book before I caught myself and burst out laughing.

As for the writing... It was okay. Yeah, that's the best I've got. I often felt like Glines dragged things way too long, and occasionally the speech was completely fake and unnatural. So, yeah, I wasn't super impressed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now, I would like to backtrack a little bit. I do think that my disappointment could've been less severe if the summary didn't reveal what Dank was, and instead we had to discover it with Pagan. It could've at least given some mystery to the whole thing.

Where Have I Been... and Am I coming Back?

Hello hello hello!!

How are everyone? For the past few months I've been pretty inactive, mostly active in the deal area of this blog, but I wanted to give you an update in case you were worried about my status.

My biggest passion in life has always, always, been writing stories. It has been my dream and life goal since I was seven years old. I used to write every day, all day, until I was about eighteen, when I went to collage for script writing.

There, ironically enough, I stopped writing. There was something so depressing and life sucking in that program that made me completely lose my muse. For five years. Those five years were, instead, filled with reading many different books.

Earlier this year, I found my groove again. I started writing again. But something had to give. And that something had to be.... reading. And this is, ultimately, a review blog. So, unfortunately, this blog was hurt the most by this.

That being said, I am starting to find more balance, and in order to have a more balanced diet, I intend to read and review four books per month (at least), and write four non review posts of any kind.

Now, what else have I been doing? 

1. Exercising! Unbelievably enough, I have started a regime of walks and jogs in order to live a healthier life & lose some of the weight I've gained since starting my job. It's a lot of weight lol

2. Watching drama. I kind of got sucked into that world while focusing on my writing. It's easier to just invest 45 minutes to an hour in an episode one in a while than a book. I tend to lose myself while I'm reading.

3. Gif-ing! I don't know how it happened, but I started gifing the shows I'm watching. It's becoming a real sickness!!

What about you guys? What have you been doing this past few months? Read anything good you can recommend for my 4 books a month?

Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake | Game Review

Hello my friends, it has been a long long time since I have last posted on this blog. Mostly because I have not been reading at all but focusing on my new novel. I'm too scared that other books' writing style may affect my story to read anything while writing this, so this is a somewhat blessed hiatus.

Anyways, it's not as if I am not doing fun things. I am watching anime, drama and playing games, anything that doesn't involve reading words. And as part of this, I have played Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake today.

For those of you who don't know, the Nancy Drew games are a series of games where you play as Nancy Drew, young sleuth, who must solve the mysteries she keeps finding herself in before they kill her! Nancy is always a fun character to play as; she is smart, sharp and sassy, and she bows down to no one!

In this mystery, You, as Nancy, must pick up the cold trail left by a notorious gangster who once lived in the lakeside cabin recently purchased by Nancy’s friend. Are the ghostly legends true, or is there a flesh and blood answer to the dogs’ haunting howls?

These games are the definition of Nostalgia for me. I played them as a child with my cousins, who lived in America and whom I only saw in the summers. They introduced me to these games and helped me understand the English in them until I was thirsty to play on my own and continued with them at home. Ever since then, I have played all the Nancy Drew games that have come out to date.

Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake was one of those my cousins lent me and I accidently on purpose never gave back.  It was one of my favorites growing up, especially since it had dogs in it, and I love me a good doggie!

Playing it again, I have to say you can definitely see how far this game-series have gone. New games are far more exciting and action packed, and the puzzles are harder and more prominent, but there is something very fun about going back in time as well. It was very calming and relaxing it its own way. 

It's funny for me to play this now; it took me barely two hours to get through this entire game, when as a child I worked on it for about a week. It seems silly that those riddles were ever hard for me, but there you go. I'm going to take this as a positive confirmation that I have grown smarter over the years haha

The only thing lacking was the actual villain. I actually remembered who it was and searched for clues throughout the game, but there weren't almost any. It was a bit disappointing to realize there was no build up for this mystery, and I look forward to seeing how the other games fare in this department as I play through them!

Let's Be Honest... Who Do You Write For?

This is a post a long time in the making. Which makes sense considering I haven't written a proper, pure discussion post in a long while now, as I've been slumping pretty hard blog-wise. But every time I thought to myself "what post should I write next?" THIS is what came immediately to mind;

Who do I write for?

This blog is not very popular. In a lot of ways, perhaps in all the ways that matter as an online blog, it's not a success. I'm hesitant to say it is a "failure", but that is perhaps the most accurate description. No doubt a huge part of that is my fault, as I post irregularly at best and not at all at worst.

The facts remain that my average comment number on any given post is a huge zero and I only have about one reader who comments regularly (hey Stephanie! *waves*). It's nothing like my very first blog in 2012, where I got between three and five comments a post. I thought that was lame back there and was disappointed by it. I find that ironically hilarious.

That old blog closed because of the same thing that is happening now; irregular posting schedule, low interactive-ness, etc etc. But whereas I had so many thoughts of closing down the blog back then, of moving on, I do not have those same thoughts now.

For all the disappointment of getting no reads, and the huge slump of not reviewing many of the books I read... I've never thought about stopping reviewing books on this blog. This made me wonder... who, exactly, do I write for? What has changed since 2014?

Any reviewer who tells you they are not writing for others to read is lying. If we weren't writing for you to read it, we would do so on a personal journal that no one ever has to see. If I didn't want you to read this very post, I wouldn't have put it online where it's available to y'all.

We all wish and hope others will read and enjoy what we're putting out there. It's part of the magic of reviewing and this whole community in general. Where fandoms have fanart and fanfiction, the Bookish Fandom has reviews and discussion posts and tags.

And yet, I find myself replying to the aforementioned question with...

I am writing for myself.

Now, don't be thinking it's an altruistic desire... because it's not that at all. If anything, this is as selfish as I can possibly be. I am putting this content out there for the chance someone could enjoy it and maybe even validate me and my opinion a little bit (hey, I'm just a human), but the content itself is written for me.

Because it gives me something incredible. It gives me a shortened re-reading experience... without ever cracking the book open.

Do you have any idea how many times in the past I have encountered a book, or a movie, or an anime, or a show, that I have read/watched... and yet I can't remember anything about it? There is nothing more frustrating to me than looking at a cover or a title and drawing blanks despite knowing without a shadow of a doubt that I have spent time in this world.

It bothers me on such a personal, deep level.

But you know what happens when I have written a review on whatever it was? the words on the page trigger a slew of memories. I am suddenly able to put myself where I was when I read, what I read, what I thought, where before there was nothing. I am able to relive the emotions and have a shortened re-experience with the novel.

Be it good or bad, I am able to remember.

I love this. I love doing this and being able to recall what a book made me think and feel because of the words I put down on it in a review.

So I'm not going to stop this blog, even if I write barely five posts a month, on a good month. Because at the end of the day, while it's online so other people could read and enjoy it when I can just have a notebook for all those thoughts (although, let's be honest, at this point this blog is dead enough to be considered a personal notebook), I still write for myself. For that ability to re-read the novel through my review. And if I could maybe make some else feel emotions through this, all the better :)

Side note: if you're looking for more consistent content from me, friend or follow me on GR. There are a lot of thoughts that don't appear on this blog simply because I don't put unedited reviews on here. On GR, though, I puke all my thoughts straight after finishing a novel and then later edit them for the blog. So it's a lot more consistent, if also a lot messier.