Cover Coveting(10)

Hell has not frozen over! I promise! Now that things are settling down I’ve got a bit more time to hunt and dig up those yummy titles I’ve been missing out on.

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Touch of the Demon by Diana Rowland

Previous book(s) in series:

Series: Kara Gillian, Book 5 Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Urban Fantasy  Source: N/A Shera’s thoughts: Just as awesome as the last two covers! Hopefully the fuzziness is simply the quality of the version I found. Though if this woman on the cover is supposed to be Kara it looks like they replaced the previous cover model.

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

Previous book(s) in series:

Series: His Fair Assassin, Book 2 Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: YA Fantasy  Source: N/A Shera’s thoughts: It’s gorgeous! I love how the kept the typography exactly the same down to the exact colors! It works! Really need to move this up on my TBR pile!

Ink by Amanda Sun

Previous book(s) in series:

N/A

Series: The Paper Gods, Book 1 Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Paranormal YA Source: N/A Shera’s thoughts: It’s so simple and sooooo gorgeous. I love the beautiful watercolor look. Especially love how the ink in “Ink” is bleeding into the colors of the cherry blossoms.

Tales of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong

Original cover:

Series: Otherworld Stories 2  Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Paranormal Romance Source: Wicked Scribes Shera’s thoughts:    This is a cover redo. Honestly I don’t like it. It’s too YAish. The other one is so sexy!

Deadly Sting by Jennifer Estep

Previous book(s) is series:

Series: Elemental Assassin, Book 8  Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Paranormal Romance Source: Wicked Scribes Shera’s thoughts: The art work as always is impeccable. However, I dislike how cheap they make Gin look. She’s the one character I do not want to see in a cheap hooker look on my covers. Plus, I hate that they’ve started covering up all that beautiful art work. At least the design looks nice.

Mountain Echoes by C.E. Murphy

Previous book(s) in series:

Series: Walker Papers, Book 8 Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Urban Fantasy Source: N/A Shera’s thoughts: I love the dreamy feel of the cover. It’s not as awesome as Raven Calls’ cover, but is better then some of the previous ones.

Affliction by Laurell K. Hamilton

Previous book(s) in series:

Don’t even ask. Just look here.

Series: Anita Blake, Book 22 Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Urban Fantasy (to book 8ish at least) Source: N/A Shera’s thoughts: Pretty cool looking. Better then the random inanimate objects that they kept using.

Beauty Awakened by Gena Showalter

Previous book(s) in series:

Series: Angels of the Dark, Book 2  Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Paranormal Romance Source: N/A Shera’s thoughts: It’s hot . . . but not as hot as the last cover. Wicked Nights was just so intense. this one feels like a quick settle. The muggy look drains some of the intensity, but I do like the giant Angel wings.

Between by Kerry Schafer

Previous book(s) in series:

N/A

Series: N/A  Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Paranormal Romance Source: N/A Shera’s thoughts: It’s so simple, and I love it. The faint tattoos on her shoulder, the dragon in the sphere is just enough hint to say “I’m fantasy.”

The Goddess Collection Volume One

Previous book(s) in series:

Series: Goddess Summoning, Books 1 & 2 Add it: Goodreads | Amazon Genre: Paranormal Romance Source: N/A Shera’s thoughts: Looks like they’re trying to sell another on of P.C. Cast’s PNR series as a YA. Which is funny because they just gave these books a makeover to make them more “PNR sexy.” The cover is sexy, and I like it. But nothing screams mermaid. Which honestly is one of the biggest appeals of the first two books. Original covers please.

Review: Moon Sworn by Keri Arthur

Moon Sworn (Riley Jenson, Book 9) by Keri Arthur

Genre: Urban Fantasy 
Edition Reviewed: eBook
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
Goodreads: Moon Sworn

Some nights never end.
Some desires never die. . . .

She ventures where no one else dares—into realms of peril and pleasure. But will this next journey be her last?

Shape-shifting werewolf and vampire Riley Jenson is through with death–causing it, solving it, surviving it. Her soul mate, Kye Murphy, is dead–and at Riley’s own hands. Not even the seductive embrace of her vampire lover, Quinn, can fully ease her mind, for she has begun questioning everything that makes her Riley–including her job at the Directorate.

Now, the ritualistically slain bodies of ex-cons have started turning up. Reluctantly, Riley takes the case, but something even worse is waiting in the wings. For a vicious enemy from her past is determined to strip Riley of everything that gives her life any meaning: her lover, her brother–and even her own identity. Can Riley survive this ultimate assault? All she knows is, she must fight one last time to find answers, before everything goes dark forever…

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Review:

Fellow readers gave me soooo many warnings about this book. The conclusion to the much beloved Riley Jenson series. So I was bracing for the worst. Like some kind of gun-ho drama where everyone dies and the lead wakes up in an alternate universe where she is God. (Though those endings might only happen in Anime.) Because in my mind I have never read a truly brilliant final book. "The Ends" always disappoints. Maybe because you know everyone is going to get a Happily Ever After or the author spelled it all out for you books ago. In my mind end books are just there to say P.S. this series is over here's your closure. Even Harry Potter's final book didn't blow me away. End books are average reads at best.

That said, this book surprised me. Instead of pulling away from the general guidelines of this series, Arthur comfortably sticks to the good stuff. After all, if it's not broke don't fix it. Riley is set on a murder mystery where criminals released from jail are being killed by a red cloven hove demon. Kye's warnings of Blake, the alpha wolf that tossed Riley off the face of a mountain, are nagging at Riley. She's not sure whether she's paranoid or if Blake's "revenge" is coming. This is a Riley book, of course the bad guys are out to get her.

After yet another car accident Riley wakes up in the desert with a patchy memory and only a week to get her memory back or die. Unlike the other many UF/PNR titles out there where the lead has no memory it's a real treat to have one up on the lead. It was beautiful frustration knowing more then Riley as she struggled to figure out what was going on. Of course, the original murder mystery follows her. So yeah, even the final book gets hung up on the same old formula that Arthur desperately clings to. At this point I wonder if this is the formula she will use for every book she writes.

What is great about this final entry is that readers get closure. Quinn and Riley's relationship has been so intense and REAL for me. Especially Quinn. I've gone from mild interest, to loathing him, wanting him dead, and now to absolute adoration. Riley has grown from a free and loose wolf, with a white house picket fence complex, to a real person. Realizing that love can't be planned out or forced. The two have come so far, and I am beyond over joyed to see things come together.

In the end, this isn't a brilliant conclusion. Arthur needed to break a way from her overly done plot. Shake it up! Quite borrowing plots from your own stories. However, for this series it worked just find. All a reader can ask for at the end of a series is for closure. That's exactly what Moon Sworn delivers.

Sexual Content: For a Riley Jenson book pretty sparse. There is abuse of a pregnant woman, while it’s not graphically illustrated it’s mentioned.

 
3/5- Adored it, just a few minor details held it back.

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Previous book(s) in series:
Reviewed on BW:	Amazon:	Goodreads:
Full Moon Rising (1) Kissing Sin (2) Tempting Evil (3) Dangerous Games (4) Embraced by Darkness(5) The Darkest Kiss (6) Deadly Desire (7) Bound to Shadows (8) Moon Sworn (9)	Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle	Full Moon Rising (1) Kissing Sin (2) Tempting Evil (3) Dangerous Games (4) Embraced by Darkness(5) The Darkest Kiss (6) Deadly Desire (7) Bound to Shadows (8) Moon Sworn (9)

Review: Bound to Shadows by Keri Arthur

Bound to Shadows (Riley Jenson, Book 8) by Keri Arthur

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Edition Reviewed: eBook
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
Goodreads: Bound to Shadows

In the darkness, demons come out to play . . . and someone must bring their sins to light.

Part vampire, part werewolf, Riley Jenson knows what can happen when vamps don’t play well with others. But she’s never seen anything like this: a series of brutal murders surrounding the latest hot spot for vampire-human hookups—and the victims aren’t just killed, they’re beheaded. Now Riley is launching into action, toying with a seductive—and highly suspicious—club owner, and finding herself in the middle of another mystery: women being killed one by one, without a trace of violence.

For Riley, solving multiple cases—in a world going mad with human and vampire passions—would have been tough enough. Instead she has two jealous lovers on her hands: Kye Murphy, the amber-eyed werewolf who makes Riley’s wolf blood howl—and Quinn, the cool, elegant vamp who has over a thousand years’ experience at fulfilling women’s desires. While she’s busy juggling these two sexy beasts, Riley’s detective work takes a stunningly violent turn. Finding a murderer is now a matter of life and death. Especially since the killer has long since found her . . .

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Review:

"Emotional torture." That's what I said about the last book. Well this one is about a million times more torturous. Really, I don't have words for the scale of emotions that I went through. This book made me frantic and edgy. There was no living with me until the last page was turned.

For the previous book I used the words "harsh and painful" to describe it. Well this one was an abrasion on all the senses. This book was hot and sexy, I felt the shame of feeling attracted to Kye just as much as Riley. Every time the bond of soul mates pulled her to him I seriously screamed. Hope is completely crushed in this book as Kye targets Riley's loved ones. He might not want the bond, but he'll control and have Riley no matter the cost. Readers are going to feel sick.

Arthur continues to build on Riley and Quinn’s relationship. At this point I would probably take a grenade for Quinn. He's amazing. Simply. Amazing. There are some things Riley, and readers, will probably never know about Quinn. But that's OK. We have enough of him right now to know him in the present. Despite the big questions Quinn is clearly all in. Riley is one lucky girl.

The mystery of a string of vampire murders has just the right kind of edge. As vampires and humans become restless and war might very well break out. The killer(s) were obvious from the get go, but readers will play mind games with themselves. It's hard to accept who's behind everything, simply because I wanted to hope. While this works for the mystery, it doesn't work for the "surprise" death. The character who dies is one of my favorites and his death fell flat because just like the killer(s) you could see it from the beginning. It was a necessary thing to kick Riley into action. Just like Riley I'll probably never be able to fully forgive her for her actions.

At this point my head is spinning with the choices that Arthur will make in the final book. It's hard to continue wondering if fate will let Riley have some kind of happy ending, or if things will only get worse. Many readers have already warned me off. My thoughts are nothing can be more painful then Bound to Shadows.

Sexual Content: Seriously you know, steamy read. Not erotica.

 
5/5- Fabulous, a beautiful obsession!

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Previous book(s) in series:
Reviewed on BW:	Amazon:	Goodreads:
Full Moon Rising (1) Kissing Sin (2) Tempting Evil (3) Dangerous Games (4) Embraced by Darkness(5) The Darkest Kiss (6) Deadly Desire (7) Bound to Shadows (8) Moon Sworn (9)	Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle Paperback | Kindle	Full Moon Rising (1) Kissing Sin (2) Tempting Evil (3) Dangerous Games (4) Embraced by Darkness(5) The Darkest Kiss (6) Deadly Desire (7) Bound to Shadows (8) Moon Sworn (9)

Wednesday Wishes

Well, I’ve gotten pretty much gotten caught up on all the TV shows so keep your eyes peeled for my Books and Babbles TV edition! (Yes, I’m well aware it’s been over a years since I bothered with one.)

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The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window by Kirsty Moseley 

Get it: Amazon | Goodreads
Genre: YA Contemporary
Series: N/A

Amber Walker and her older brother, Jake, have an abusive father. One night her brother's best friend, Liam, sees her crying and climbs through her bedroom window to comfort her. That one action sparks a love/hate relationship that spans over the next eight years.

Liam is now a confident, flirty player who has never had a girlfriend before. Amber is still emotionally scarred from the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Together they make an unlikely pair.

Their relationship has always been a rocky one, but what happens when Amber starts to view her brother's best friend a little differently? And how will her brother, who has always been a little overprotective, react when he finds out that the pair are growing closer? Find out in The Boy Who Sneaks In My Bedroom Window.(

That title alone!! Plus, it’s YA so I know it can’t turn into meaningless sex.

Always You by Kirsty Moseley 

Get it: Amazon | Goodreads
Genre: YA Contemporary 
Series: N/A

TITLE CHANGE!!! This used to be called "Best Friends with a self-confessed player"
Riley Thomas has a best friend, the best friend a girl could ask for, he's supportive, loyal, honest, trustworthy, kind and thoughtful. He's also the schools biggest player.

Their relationship has always been easy and affectionate, but after Riley's month away on holiday things become a little strange.(

After all the buzz over the Window title above all of my GR friends insisted that Always You is a title I should not miss.