Nevermore

Title: Nevermore

Author: David Niall Wilson

Genre: Paranormal, Suspense, Occult

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Lenore finds herself drawn to a tavern amidst a swamp, the Dismal swamp to be exact.  There she stares out the window at a specific tree; drawing.  Faces amongst the branches, one such face startles the young barmaid waiting on her.  She begins to tell Lenore the story of Thigpen an evil man who was killed the prior year.  As Lenore listens to Anita's story and continues to erase lines freeing the souls of those trapped within, Edgar is in the room next door writing when a story takes over and he writes the tale Anita is telling.  Together with Lenore, Anita, and a young boy named Tom become trapped within a tale of their own; they become pawns in a battle between good and evil, a battle against the Dismal Swamp itself.

I am a huge Edgar Allen Poe fan, especially the Raven, so much so that I have a tattoo on my calf making a reference to the writer.  So when I came across this novel and seen it included Lenore and Poe as central characters I decided, why not let's see.  This is the first book of his that I have picked up, and I have mixed feelings which seems to be happening a lot lately.  The story starts of incredibly slow, and confusing in the beginning as to what is happening and the importance of the events that are happening.  The middle part does pick up a little bit in pace in interest, but it is still a little difficult to get into.  It felt like there was a lot to the story that wasn't being told, more hidden beneath the words.

I liked the characters and personalities David gave to the characters especially Grimm.  I liked that a raven had personality and was as much a character as Poe or Lenore.  This would be great as a series as I could see Poe and Grimm acting in different capacities much like this story.  It is dark, magical, thrilling trip through time, magic, and even a little bit of love.  We see the romance between Lenore and Poe that fans may have thought about when reading "The Raven."  Which is enjoyed seeing a variation of Grimm's tale of The Raven included in this novel. 

I recommend this novel for those who like the paranormal, suspense, thriller, and magic.  Reading this book will make time disappear and make you want read more of Poe's stories with a different outlook on his tales.  I will give this a rating of 3 out of 5 stars.

The Last Necromancer

Title: The Last Necromance
Author: CJ Archer
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Source Kindle Ebook
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 paws.


Charlie is your average 13 year old boy living on the streets.  He steals to survive until he gets caught and arrested.  Only..Charlie has some secrets, one he is actually an 18 year old girl.  Two...she can speak to and control the dead: she is a necromancer.  Her father banished her from his home when she first commanded her mother's spirit five years ago, she lived on the streets in disguise since.  When she is arrested she stirs the pot when she begs a spirit to help her escape the clutches of the other prisoners allowing her to escape jail altogether. Now There are people looking for her a mysterious doctor and Lincoln Fitzroy the head of a secret organization.  But why do these people want her and what will they do with her once they find out she is a girl and in deed the last necromancer?

I have read other books by C.J Archer, and loved the writing style enough to need to check out this novel as well.  This is the first book in a series and yes, I already bought the second book in the series.  I liked that Charlie was a little flawed in that she didn't trust anyone, was constantly denying who she was and even falling for someone older than her.  Having flawed characters make them easier to relate to, making the book more enjoyable to read.  I have read a lot of other books with the main characters having a variety of powers, but this is the first that I have read about a necromancer, and I like what Archer did with it.  Granted there was literary artistic creativity with the doctor character (I don't want to give it away).  I know some people didn't like how it was done, but I was excited once I figured out who this mysterious person was and what he wanted her for.  It is set in Victorian London and makes references to some events that have happened around the time such as the Ripper murders, which I thought was a nice touch bringing the real into the fantasy.


The story does take a while to develop to the climatic point of who the person is and finding him.  Most of the time Charlie is trapped in a manor with not much to do other than read and play cards with two other characters.  I wanted a little more from Gus and Seth, I think I liked their characters more than I like Lincoln.  There is too much we still don't know about him/felt too mysterious.  I also wasn't sure about the potential love interest between Charlie and Lincoln because of the age.  Now I know age makes no different, but it's hard to read a book of an 18 year old girl falling in love with her 30 year old kidnapper.  I actually shipped her with Seth, and would love to see that happen, something different from the normal go to of lead female falls for lead male.  Or better yet, have her not want to get mixed up with a man until she learns about her powers and how to defend herself against people out to find her.  Shake things up a bit, sure it's YA but does every girl in a YA novel need to be rescued by a man?!


There were a few things about Lincoln I was not okay with such as him "teaching" her a lesson by dropping her off in the middle of Whitechapel to fend for herself.  While she was used to being on the streets she did so under the guise of a boy, now she was all gussied up like a respectable lady and almost gets raped.  I admit I almost stopped reading right there, but low and behold Lincoln comes to her rescue and kills them man.  I find it hard to believe that is a good way to prove to someone that you would not harm them or to encourage them to help you.  And of course Charlie goes with it because she's so frazzled and see him as her knight in shining armor.


I liked the thrill of finding the doctor, but I would have liked Charlie to have been in on it a little more, or the use of her necromancy powers to be more in the story other than in the beginning and towards the end.  I wanted more from that which is why this book got the 3.5 paw rating.  There was a lot of waiting around for something to happen, but I understand the need to build a little bit of a backstory within the first book of a series. I wanted Charlie to be a stronger character, but she does come off as being weak and unable to defend herself (but then how did she survive on the streets for so long?)


It was a good enough story, kept me wanting more up til then end and made me want to buy the next book in the series, even if there are a few loop holes in the story itself.  I tried not to overthink those holes.  I am interested to see where the story takes us and what is in store for Charlie, Seth, Gus and Lincoln.  I recommend it for those who enjoy fantasy, paranormal, supernatural kind of stories.

Keepers verses Reapers

Title: Keeper Vs. Reaper
Author: Jennifer Malone Wright
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars


After the death of their father, Lucy Estmond inherits the family business even though she is the youngest.  She knew she would be the one to take over watching the souls in the graveyard and keeping them from being stolen from the Reapers.  Reapers are beings that eat souls to keep their strength.  Each despise each other and Lucy continues the age old battle.  But everything changes when Lucy finds out about a prophecy of a Chosen One..  A prophecy that she fulfills of being the  keeper to bring the end of the Reapers.  During a chance encounter at her sister's bakery Lucy meets Jack.  A gorgeous man....and a Reaper.  After their meeting the two realize they now have an attraction they cannot break.  They have a need to be together, almost like breathing.  When Lucy gets kidnapped by Jack's own mother, he joins the Estmond family to save her.  Will they be able to figure out what is behind this unnatural attraction in time?  Will Lucy discover answers to all her lingering questions?





So the premise is interesting keeper and reapers battling over souls and a chosen one to bring down the end of the other.  But it is an idea that has been done many times including the idea of the chosen one being the seventh child, born on the seventh day of the seventh month.  I've seen this 7 theme in other books (the 7th son of the 7 son will be a chosen one type of thing)  Star crossed lovers, too cliché of the Romeo and Juliet ideal. I don't want to give spoilers but several times quotes from Romeo and Juliet entered my head as I was reading this.


The pacing is super slow, it takes a long time to build up and even then the climax sort of falls short of what I was expecting and the ending made me think "that's it?"  It didn't really make eager and excited to read the next book in the series.  There were too many questions left unanswered, and readers are left wondering why the characters are doing the things that they are doing.  The language in this is fowl lots of f words and other cussing.  I understand people do this and do it often, but sometimes in novels it takes away from what the author is trying to do.  It was way overused and got old after a while. 


The characters had no depth to them, you thought they would at various points, but then their story gets dropped.  Lucy totally treats Ethan like crap, Jack is a man whore who changes his ways for Lucy.  There are so many of the siblings that sometimes you lose track of who is who and some aren't even really in the book or have side moments just as a reminder, almost like "Oh hey yea there is a sister named Steph."  The prophecy doesn't even get explained more other than Lucy is the chosen one to bring an end to the reapers.  There should be more to it at least for the readers.  It didn't seem like the Estmonds were too concerned with finding out more about the prophecy to help Lucy other than caging her into the house.


If I see the second novel available on like a free ebook day I may read it to see if there are questions answered, but I don't expect myself to read the next one.  As I always this book may not have been for me, but someone else might enjoy it, so if you enjoy paranormal fantasies and the like then sure check out this novel.


If you have any recommendations for a fantasy novel you want me to review feel free to let me know in the comments!


Happy Reading!

Solomon's Ring

Title: Solomon's Ring
AUthor: Mary Jennifer Payne
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars




Jade and Jasmine are twins sisters who have finally been reunited after 5 years.  They have that special twin connection, but they are also Seers known as Daughters of Light.  Their city is being overrun by demons who are coming over through the rift, or so it seems.  While fighting a demon, Jasmine is plague with the question of why he referred to her as the chosen one.  Throughout all this she also discovers someone has stolen a powerful ring, one that could control the demons.  It has become a race against time as the Daughters of Light enter into a battle with the forces of darkness.  Will it be too late?





The idea of this book is fantastic.  I like the idea of twin sisters feeding off of each other's strengths and weaknesses, really being a team against the forces of evil rather than a guy and girl teaming up together and the inevitable romance ensues. This is one of the main reasons why I requested it from Netgalley and the publisher for an honest review, because it seemed like something out of the ordinary in the world of YA novels. The cover features the twins with a ring with the Star of David in the middle makes me interested to see what the story had to do with Judaism.




From the very beginning of the book the reader has to distinguish between speakers as it changes between the two sisters' viewpoints, while this isn't something that I mind, but the chapters seem rather short and the reader doesn't get enough time with one or the other to really feel a connection with her.  I understand the girls are to be Latinas, but the dialogue doesn't really suggest this other than a few random Spanish words entering into conversations...at random.  There could be a conversation in English and then boom one random Spanish word that makes it feel disconnected and out of place.  I honestly had a hard time connecting climate change terrorism with the acts of the demons and how that played a large role into the story, but I will admit I had a hard time finishing this book as well.


The different perspective between the sisters do not seem to sync up with each other which makes it hard to pinpoint a timeline of events for the story.  The story feels very choppy and difficult to follow.  While the cover shows a ring with the Star of David the story did not show anything related to Judaism, I am not sure if it will come up later in other books.  I don't know if I would continue reading this series because of how disjoined this novel felt.  I don't think I would recommend it either.

Dragonmark

Illarion is a dragon, who was force to become human, and then again forced to serve those same humans as a mount during their battles.  Understandably he becomes bitter as he is separated from his dragonkin and everything he ever knew.  He then is forced into the fey realm where he looses the one woman he loved...


Where do I begin with this one.  I couldn't give a more detailed synopsis because I honestly did not finish the book and that saddens me greatly.  I have been a fan of Kenyon since Fantasy Lover and all the way through the other Dark Hunter novels, but this...this book was shear crap and not up to the standards that I have held Kenyon.  This is probably her worst novel yet.  It is LITERALLY copy and paste from other books.  There were chapters from Dragonsbane and Son of No One.  Oh you might think those sections were rewritten with Illarion's point of view WRONG!  He was barely in his own book!  I actually pulled my copies of Son of No One and Dragonsbane from my shelf and compared the three....word for word the same info from those books in this one.  It is not an original story so to speak.  Honestly how dare Kenyon do this to her readers.


I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone.  I don't even want to rate the book, so 0 out of 5 because there was no effort in this.  Granted in the past we have seen scene from other stories in with other books like Acheron, but never has she copied and pasted verbatim.  The scenes were always rewritten from the view of Acheron or whatever hunter the book was about.  I couldn't be more disappointed in this author.  This may be the book that makes me no longer read her work.

The Magic Queen

Baba Yaga has a reputation as a baby eating, ruthless badass witch.  Finding love has never been on her list of things to do with her life.  She was content with the way things were.  Until Calypso and Aphtodite decided to play a little matchmaking game.  Now Baba is psir with Freyr a god of sex and lust as they battle five other "couples".  The goal?  To fall in love and proclaim their love for one another before the deadline or they will be punished.  Will Freyr break through her tough exterior or will Baba be too stubborn to admit that to love doesn't mean weakness.

I got interested in this book based on the fact that it involved Baba Yaga.  For those unfamiliar, Bsba Yaga is a figure in Russian/Slovak folklore as a witch with iron teeth.  Many stories have her as having two sisters also named Baba Yaga, others have her having three forms.  It is said that she hold power over the elements and is the goddess of wisdom and death even though she isn't a goddess.  I find her to be a fascinating character and was happy to see her used in a story.  This story uses her in the form of having three forms to which Aphrodite and Calypso requests she be in maiden form for the "games."  We do see the crone form at another point in the story, but not the mother, which part of me wishes we had.  It would have added a different dimension to the story.

I enjoyed the romantic build up of their relationship even if it was far from romantic, but their banter back and forth was adorable.   There was a scene where Freyr was a frog in her bodice that made me laugh of loud.  The beginning of the stort takes a while to build up and really take off.  I almost wanted a little more of the battles, especially with the Pied Piper, but I understand why there wasn't more.  The dialog was well done, as I said the banter between them was funny and when theygot serious it was believable.

I  enjoyed the general concept of the story and the idea that love isn't a weakness, or allowing oneself to be vulnerable in order to allow love to enter into our lives.  I loved seeing her becoming soft and growing love in the beginning with Phlegm, and agreeing to the challenge that Freyr poses to her after their first battle.  There seems to be a lot happening in the story, but it all works well together and doing feel forced or unnatural.  When you read this book you not only get a story, but you get transplanted into different worlds as each battle takes place and have a front row seat to the love forming between Baba Yaga and Freyr.

Would I recommend this book?  Yes, I think anyone who enjoys fantasy, romance, and folklore would enjoy this book.  It was something different and unique to some of the other books I have read recently.  I give this a 4 out of 5 and hope others enjoy it as well.