The Prophet by Amanda Stevens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finished this a few days ago and I have to say it was really great. Amelia faced her biggest challenge yet and a lot of things were revealed. She finally tells Devlin she can see his ghosts. He takes the new pretty well all things considered. I wanted to give this story 5 stars, but I felt like the story was all over the place sometimes. It felt like sometimes there were characters that made no sense being in the story and were just there as a filler. I also feel like Amelia's and Devlin's relationship is the most weak thing about this series. They almost know nothing about eachother, but they still have this amazing connection and need to be together (according to the book). I just don't buy it and it feels very unnatural to me. I thought Devlin would be a passing character in these novels, and I am very dismayed that he is still around. Like I said, it feels forced to me. However, this does not detract from the awesomeness that is this series. Amanda Stevens really knows how to write a great story with great pacing. You are never bored and Amelia is a very lovable character.

Labels: 4 stars, amanda stevens, book review, the prophet

The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Raced through this one. The story was excellent and I loved it. The only bad thing I thought about this book was how terribly predictable it was. I knew what was going on almost immediately (mostly). I love Amelia and the world that Amanda Stevens has created. Again these books need better covers.

Labels: 4 stars, amanda stevens. the restorer, book review, kingdom

The Restorer by Amanda Stevens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was really surprised by this book. It was recommended by Awesomesuace Bookclub. I remember seeing the cover and thinking it looked like a really cheap indie cover (nothing against indies, but covers say a lot about your dedication to selling your written works) Anywho, this book was awesome. I loved the story and the characters. It definitely keeps you interested all the way through. Amelia can see ghosts, but rules say, you don't talk to or notice them. Everything Amelia knows is about to change when she lets a haunted man in her life.

Labels: 4 stars, amanda stevens. the restorer, book review

Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.

Labels: 4 stars, book review, firelight, Kristen Callihan

You are a half English, half Mohawk Native American Ratonhnhaké:ton, but you quickly get the name Conner from a sweet old chap named Achilles. When you start the game you play as Conner's father Haytham Kenway. I really love the setting. There is something about early America that has a charm to it. Playing as Haytham is kind of like driving a clunky car that has no cool features. You can't really do anything as him. You do anything too assassiny After you play as Haytham you get to play as young Connor. I thought this was a cute way for the audience to connect with him. You play hide and seek with your fellow tribe members. This is the way they familiarize you with the controls. Finally you grow up and are living with a man named Achille's. He lives in a cool house that overlooks a small lake. He teaches you everything you need to know to be an assassin. This is your homestead. I will discuss more about your homestead later. You travel from Boston to New York doing assassin missions and being part of events that shaped a new America. Your goal is to bring down the templars (as always) and try to find out what the meaning of right and wrong is. Connor is naive and often finds that the things he believes in, no matter how impassioned he may be, may not be what is true and right for the greater good. I love that Connor is so pure and stands by his beliefs.

My Favorite Part Of The Game

 You are introduced to missions in this game called homestead missions. From helping a man woo a woman, to helping the doctor get to a pregnant woman, these are the warming and fun missions that made this game fun for me. When Connor settles into the homestead, it is a bare and desolate place void of many humans, but Connor brings people to settle there and we are along for the fun missions. These missions change the homestead around you. In the final missions of the homestead missions you are surrounded by friends and settlers of this lively and wonderful place.

Counter Kills and Attack.. Maybe I am Missing Something

        This has been by far THE BIGGEST adjustment I ever had to make in a game. According to the game makers, killing people is easier than ever. Yeah maybe if you don't want to get cramps in your hands. I have little tiny hands. I know the XBOX 360 controller is pretty small, but I had the hardest time killing people. My hands would start to cramp up from the constant mashing between A and B. It's fine when all you have to do is keep pressing A to attack and B to counter in consistent intervals, but when they are erratic like they are in this game, I actually have to pause the game sometimes when I am fighting more than 5 enemies. My hands end up hurting so bad. Maybe there is some magic way to do this, but for me it's a real task. It was AMAZING when Ezio could consistently take down one attacker after another with minimal effort and the right combination of Attack and Counter would chain together in a glorious heap of bodies. In this, your attackers keep getting up and up and up and up... You could be going to do the final killing blow, when an attacker behind you hits you (if you miss the quick icon to counter). This throws off any fluidity that you could have had in the fighting. I asked my husband if his hands cramped when he played this game, and even he said that they did.  I have read tons of reviews that say the fighting is effortless and fluid, but for me it was not. I mean maybe I was doing something wrong. I will admit that is possible, but it felt really disconnected to me. When you actually CAN get into a rhythm you feel like the biggest bad ass on earth, but the feeling of any true rhythm really dampened my gameplay experience in that sense. I may just have the worst hand eye coordination on earth, but I didn't have a problem with any other Assassin's game.

*Update*
I have been writing this review as I have been playing and now that I am done with the game, I have mastered the controls. I wanted to leave my ranting about the controls because they were a huge discouraging part of playing this game in the beginning. Once I got used to the controls they weren't that bad.

Damn You For Jumping on Everything, But Damn You Make It Look Good

I swear Conner wants to jump on everything. I alert the guards so many times by accidentally jumping on stuff. The free-run is SUPER EASY and streamlined in this game. You jump from tree to tree so effortlessly that it's like a dance in water. Yeah, it's that smooth.

Lockpicking

WTF GAME? Seriously I think there is some cosmic joke being played on me. This is the most inconsistent piece of crap I EVER tried in a game. This is by far the worst lockpicking mechanism in a game I ever experienced. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes I want to throw the controller at the TV for sitting there for 20 minutes trying to do it. Just let me open the effing chest. I would rather be sitting there breaking lockpicks all day than this sh*t. *Update* As of completing this game, I have only opened 3 chests because it is so annoying.

Naval Missions

Naval missions are some of the most fun and frustrating missions in this game. You get to man a huge ship and blow up other ships. You can't really go too wrong with that! I find that if your ship isn't upgraded enough that later naval missions can be hard to complete. I would suggest anyone who play this game to save money to upgrade your ship.

Final Thoughts

I had no idea what happened at the end of this game. I really don't. I played it through twice to try to figure it out. Nope. I guess I just don't get it. While there were many aspects of this game that I loved, this wasn't my favorite AC installment. Make sure you look up how to sell and trade items. This will help greatly. Also, my regards to you for the 20 minutes you will sit through credits waiting to continue playing after the ending of the game. You can't skip it. Trust me I tried.

Labels: 4 stars, Assassin's Creed 3, game review

I used to be your average, everyday girl but all that changed one night in Dublin when I saw my first Fae, and got dragged into a world of deadly immortals and ancient secrets. . . .

I love suspending disbelief as much as anyone but as a person who knows a lot about travelling abroad was raising my eyebrows. I will get that out of the way so I can focus on the book. You can stay abroad for 3 months without a visa, and I am pretty sure Mac is past 3 months at this point. Plus she is working at BBB, which is illegal unless you have a work visa. So now that I got that out of the way Mack is learning more about who she is and is hunting OOPS with Barrons.  She is living in his shop and working there while searching for the ancient fae book the Sinsar Dubh. I am not sure how I feel about Mac at this point. I like her, but I feel like her character is just starting to shift into someone worth reading about.  She doesn't trust her employer Barrons and seeing how he is so sneaky, I wouldn't either.  I like that we learn a little at a time, but when 3 books span 3 months you begin to lose sight of the timeline. When you lose sight of the timeline you get frustrated by lack of story escalation. Once you put the timeline in context, then it’s not so bad, but it was easy for me to lose the timeline in these books.  Mac also has a nasty habit of letting people tell her what to do and that is so frustrating! I am just like stand up for yourself woman! I can’t wait to see where this series is going, but the framework is in place. Since as of writing this review I am halfway through book 3, I can say that the series is definitely coming along and Mac is really taking shape! Also I don't know if Karen Marie is setting us up for some sort of love triangle, but I don't like it!

Labels: 4 stars, BloodFever, book review, Karen Marie Moning

Veiled Secrets

Title: Veiled Secrets
Author: MaryLynn Bast
Series: Heart of a Wolf Series (Novella)
   { Seriana’s Tale}
Genre: Paranormal/ Werewolves
Publisher: Werewolf Tails Publishing
Release Date: July 27, 2012
Edition/ Formats Available In: Print & Ebook (Kindle)

Synopsis:
  Seriana Aphenithea, Princess of the Light Loxy Realm has been banned. Why?  She can’t remember. She must find her way, and her memories, if she is ever to return home.
Waking with no memory of whom or where she is, Seriana runs for her life when two beings chase her through the forest. Glowing eyes stares out at her through the darkness. Sending a mental call for help and in response, two wolves emerge.
While protecting her from the hunters who intend to do her harm, one of the wolves becomes fatally injured. Acting on instinct, Seriana merges her energies with his, saving his life. Connecting her mentally to the human the wolf turned in to. Adam and Blake are werewolves. Surprisingly this does to scare her. In fact, it triggers the beginning of her memories. She has been to the earth realm before.
With her no longer allowed to enter her own realm, Seriana must find a way to safeguard her family in the Light Realm and on earth. She has to protect those around her by ensuring no one finds out her VEILED SECRETS.  

Read more »

Labels: 4 stars, author spotlight, MaryLynn Bast, Veiled Secrets

When killing people is your job, there’s no such thing as a vacation. Then again, how often does an assassin live long enough to enjoy her retirement? In this line of work, you either get lucky or you get dead. And since I destroyed my nemesis Mab Monroe a few weeks ago, all of Ashland’s lowlifes are gunning to make a name for themselves by taking out the lethal Spider—me, Gin Blanco. So I’m leaving behind my beloved barbecue joint and heading south with my baby sister, Bria, to cool my heels in a swanky beach town. Call it a weekend of fun in the sun. But when a powerful vampire with deadly elemental magic threatens an old friend of Bria’s, it looks like I’ll have to dig my silverstone knives out of my suitcase after all. Complicating matters further is the reappearance of Detective Donovan Caine, my old lover. But Donovan is the least of my problems. Because this time, the danger is hot on my trail, and not even my elemental Ice and Stone magic may be enough to save me from getting buried in the sand—permanently.

Again Estep has weaved a tale arterial spray. Gin is being accosted by every wannabe badass in Ashland who wants to prove they can take down the supposed Spider. She desperately needs a vacation.  She goes on vacation and gets some surprises. Detective Donavan Caine  is back with all of his judgmental self.. She and Bria are visiting Bria’s hometown and of course ‘The Spider’ can never be on vacation. A vampire is threatening Bria’s friend Callie and Gin will not stand for it. Turns out Callie has a little news of her own, I won’t spoil it, but it’s a WTF moment. I was kind of annoyed with Bria in this book. She acts so high and mighty sometimes about what Gin does, but I really think Gin just needs to communicate her feelings more. She really is beginning to learn to let people in no matter how much she feels she can’t. Gin also might be thinking a little too highly of herself in this one. She is starting to believe her own reputation and even she is getting ‘sloppy, sloppy, sloppy’ You can expect blood, intestines, gaping neck wounds, and other bodily injuries inflicted to Gin’s enemies.

Labels: 4 stars, book review, Gin Blanco, jennifer estep

I’d rather face a dozen lethal assassins any night than deal with something as tricky, convoluted, and fragile as my feelings.
But here I am. Gin Blanco, the semi-retired assassin known as the Spider. Hovering outside sexy businessman Owen Grayson’s front door like a nervous teenage girl. One thing I like about Owen: he doesn’t shy away from my past—or my present. And right now I have a bull’s-eye on my forehead.
Cold-blooded Fire elemental Mab Monroe has hired one of the smartest assassins in the business to trap me. Elektra LaFleur is skilled and efficient, with deadly electrical elemental magic as potent as my own Ice and Stone powers. Which means there’s a fifty-fifty chance one of us won’t survive this battle. I intend to kill LaFleur—or die trying—because Mab wants the assassin to take out my baby sister, Detective Bria Coolidge, too.
The only problem is, Bria has no idea I’m her long-lost sibling . . . or that I’m the murderer she’s been chasing through Ashland for weeks. And what Bria doesn’t know just might get us both dead. .

Gin, Gin, Gin! Gin is back and she is ready to get her assassinating on. The spider is well known by Mab Monroe now, but Gin Blanco isn't. The book was really fun and fast paced. I like the blossoming relationship between Gin and Owen. Is she, dare-I-say IN LOVE? Gin is also faced with the decision to tell a certain someone who she is. I always hope things will work out perfectly for Gin, but they never do. I really want this whole Mab Monroe thing to come to an end. I am kind of sick of it. I know there are other storylines that take place during her vendetta against Mab, but I am personally done with the storyline. The book is excellent and I just hope Estep wraps up the whole Mab thing in the next one, because I am beginning to feel like I am reading stretched out stories to fill a void of some kind. Like I said the story is great and it isn't tired yet, but it is starting to get the feeling that it might be. Maybe I am just silly, but I am tired of certain lingo the author is using. Like 'Luck being a capricious bitch' or Gin's obsessive counting. I am not saying this book is bad at all, but I am looking for a bit of a change up. Not too much, but I was her get Mab already!

Labels: 4 stars, book review, Gin Blanco, jennifer estep

Gin has a serious obsessive compulsive counting problem.

It’s hard to be a badass assassin when a giant is beating the crap out of you. Luckily, I never let pride get in the way of my work. My current mission is personal: annihilate Mab Monroe, the Fire elemental who murdered my family. Which means protecting my identity, even if I have to conceal my powerful Stone and Ice magic when I need it most.
To the public, I’m Gin Blanco, owner of Ashland’s best barbecue joint. To my friends, I’m the Spider, retired assassin. I still do favors on the side. Like ridding a vampire friend of her oversized stalker—Mab’s right-hand goon who almost got me dead with his massive fists.
At least irresistible Owen Grayson is on my side. The man knows too much about me, but I’ll take my chances. Then there’s Detective Bria Coolidge, one of Ashland’s finest. Until recently, I thought my baby sister was dead. She probably thinks the same about me. Little does she know, I’m a cold-blooded killer . . . who is about to save her life

I just finished reading Venom by Jennifer Estep. Just as amazing as the other books. Gin is helping vampire friend Rosalind get away from a psychotic giant named Elliot. She has a new love interest named Owen. He sounds pretty hot.  As I predicted Gin is really starting to come into her own. I love how the author reflects back on Gin’s past every book. You never expect it, but it’s always artfully done. Mab Monroe is going to go down. Gin has promised herself this much. She wants to start chipping away at her organization one person at a time. With Gin’s skills, she will do just that. Gin is getting involved with this Owen guy now that the detective is gone. He seems hot, and likes weaponry like Gin. I love the writing and the story is never dull. If you haven’t added these books to your TBR, do it now. They are amazing. I wanted to give this book 5 stars, but I couldn’t because Gin seems to have a counting problem. I don’t know if Jennifer Estep did this intentionally, but it’s really annoying to read. I think I counted like 7 times Gin would start counting. I also don’t like the fact that Gin hasn’t told a certain someone her big secret. I won’t spoil it, but if you have read it, you know what I am referring to.  Those were the only things I can fault about this book. Other than that, it was a spectacular read.

Labels: 4 stars, book review, Gin Blanco, jennifer estep

This is my first approved Net Galley book! WOOHOO! I LOVE LOVE LOVE to cook.  I’ve got to tell you guys, if you love easy recipes, this book is for you.  I love cook books that a normal person can use. This is one of them. The recipes are so easy and the ingredients are easily accessible. If you have a crock pot, you are good to go! There are recipes from people all over the US. I just love how easy the recipes are.  They have recipes like Bacon Cheese Dip and Apple Cider, all in your crock pot. This is great for anyone who likes to throw parties, or just want some dips, beverages, and finger foods. I definitely recommend this for people who want quick easy recipes. I wish there were more recipes, but this is a great book of easy crock pot recipes.

Labels: 4 stars, book review, Phyllis Good

Being a mechanic is hard work. Mercy Thompson, for instance, just spent the last couple of months trying to evade the murderous queen of the local vampire seethe, and now the leader of the werewolf pack - who's maybe-more-than-just-a-friend - has asked for her help. A book of fae secrets has come to light and they're all about to find out how implacable - and dangerous - the fae can be.

Mercy Thompson is back again in ‘Silver Borne’. This installment has Mercy dealing with the problems of being the Alpha’s mate. She is sure someone is trying to intrude on her mate bond. With someone in the pack at her heels, and lonewolf Samuel’s turn for the suicidal, things are very complex for Mercy. I loved the background given for the characters in this one. Mercy is a strong character and I love that the author doesn’t stumble with that part of Mercy’s personality.  Mercy is  always willing to do what needs to be done. Mercy not only finds herself dealing with Sam the wolf, but trying to pull Samuel the man back from being lost to wolf. The Fae as always, are trying to bring Mercy down. Last book Mercy borrowed a book from Finn, this book it seems the Fae want it back, and when Finn goes missing, things get hectic for her.   The book kind of lost its momentum towards the end, but then mercifully (lol) came back together. Mercy handles all of this is a delightfully, wonderfully written book.

Labels: 4 stars, book review, Patricia Briggs