Two Bloggers One Series ~ Emerald Blaze

 

Barb and I are back with a series we really enjoy! YAY! After you see what I thought go on over to her blog Booker T's Farm and see what she thought. 

As Prime magic users, Catalina Baylor and her sisters have extraordinary powers—powers their ruthless grandmother would love to control. 

When House Baylor is under attack and monsters haunt her every step, Catalina is forced to rely on handsome, dangerous Alessandro Sagredo, the Prime who crushed her heart. 

The nightmare that Alessandro has fought since childhood has come roaring back to life, but now Catalina is under threat. Not even his lifelong quest for revenge will stop him from keeping her safe, even if every battle could be his last. Because Catalina won't rest until she stops the use of the illicit, power-granting serum that's tearing their world apart. 

I really like Ilona Andrews so I pretty much new I would love this series and still enjoying it at book 5!

I feel like it's a really hard one to talk about without spoilers but I will try. So basically it's Urban Fantasy with people who have magic and if you have a lot of magic your called a Prime and the head of your house. People are after the new House Baylor all the time, mainly their grandmother who is awful, so things happened in the last book that has Catalina even deeper into some things that she can't even tell her family about.

When she finds out about this special serum and about this Pit that contains a very scary thing inside of it everything goes crazy. Of course we have Alessandro who is around to protect her even though she doesn't think she needs it. He has a whole story that is all messed up and out for revenge which is why he is how he is but he can't stay away from Catalina, so they are both fighting some really messed up magic stuff. 

I really like Catalina and Alessandra grew on me once you find out more about him. I still like Nevada and Rogan from the first three books. I love Catalina's family they are a hoot! 

My only real gripe is that they left me on a little bit of a cliffhanger as I am not sure if what I think happened did happen and I need to know...lol. So can't wait to get to the next one!

Great for Urban Fantasy fans. 

4 stars

Week in Review #34

The Week in Review is where I combine Stacking the Shelves, The Sunday Post and It's Monday! What are you reading?  If you have never joined in on these meme's you can check them out by clicking on the meme and it will take you to the host blog.

I am so over the rain!!

Okay so having a little health thing so will tell you a bit about it. For a few months I have been having a weird feeling in my chest and short of breathe. I am stubborn so waited but finally went to doctor as my fitbit seems to think I am exercising when I am not doing anything. Heart rate goes up high for no real reason. Doctor took some blood and hopefully this week I will find out if it's something simple. Easy things would be thyroid, anemic, or potassium deficiency. Least worst he said it's because I am unfit and my heart and lungs are having trouble, or it could be Afib or a flutter, worst case heart disease as I do have that running in the family. So fingers crossed it's something simple. It's really a pain that doing the smallest thing makes me out of breathe and my heart rate rise. I am only 48 but feel 88. Prayers and possi vibes welcome.

Okay enough of that bummer stuff! Hope you all have a great week and happy reading!

What you might have missed on my blog

Waiting on Wednesday: The Ghost Job

Books I have added

• Nightmare Island - You might have seen this on a Waiting on Wed., I am excited to get this one from Edelweiss and the publisher Scholastic Press. Thank you!!

Books read last week

• Skandar and the Unicorn Thief - This is an older eARC from last year and I really enjoyed it. Now I can get to the second book that came out this year, it's on hold on libby. :)
• Emerald Blaze - I really like the Hidden Legacy series! This one left me really needing to get to book six!
• Peril at Owl Park - This series is so cute! It's a young Agatha Christie and her friend Hector Perot! If you listen to books I suggest the audiobook it's great!
• Fablehaven - Slow to start but once it gets going it was pretty good!
• I Want to Eat Your Books - This was a fun rhyming picture book!
• Zombie Kids- This was a fun zombie book.

Currently reading

• Field of Screams - I am enjoying this one okay, I am curious to see where it goes. It's an eARC and I am currently at 44%.
• Cryptid Hunters - It's one of my own print books that was gifted to me by a friend and I am enjoying the adveture book. I am currently on page 223 of 348 so I should be finishing this up soon.
• Sea of Terrors - The third book in the Once Upon a Tim series. I love Stuart Gibbs MG books and this is cute. It's an ARC on page 40 of 161 so this should get finished soon as well.
• What Stays Buried - It's a middle grade horror mystery, it's an eARC that has already came out this year and so I am listening to the audiobook and enjoying it I am 36% into this one.
• Shadow of Night - Loving my reread of this one!! Currently on page 134 of 577.
• The Only Survivors - My first and maybe last by this author, it's so boring! Barb and I are both struggling...lol. I am listening to it on audiobook and only have an 1 hr and 17 minutes left so will probably finish it today, thank goodness. I am only hanging on as I am curious or I might have DNFed it.

What might be up next

How was your week? What did you get?

Waiting on Wednesday ~ The Ghost Job

I haven't done this kind of post since changing blogs so thought I would start doing them again. Waiting on Wednesday has been around for a while and I know that it was taken over by Wishful Endings and called Can't wait Wednesday so will link to her

Ghosts make the best thieves in this pitch-perfect middle grade adventure from the acclaimed author of Weird Kid. Perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and John David Anderson--and anyone looking for an Ocean's 11-style heist!

Zenith and her friends may be dead—but lucky for them, even getting ghosted wasn’t enough to tear them apart.

The four of them were thick as thieves long before an unfortunate lab accident sent them careening into the afterlife. So when they hear about a machine that could return them to the land of the living, they are determined to steal it.

Unfortunately, the magical device belongs to a dangerous necromancer who’s out for their ectoplasm.

Fortunately, they’re great at heists. Because pulling off the score of their deathtimes is no job for an amateur. 

I have read a middle grade book by this author before so thought I would give another one of his a try and it sounds fun! Comes out September 26th from HarperCollins.

Week in Review #33

The Week in Review is where I combine Stacking the Shelves, The Sunday Post and It's Monday! What are you reading?  If you have never joined in on these meme's you can check them out by clicking on the meme and it will take you to the host blog.

Hi everyone! Not much to report on this week. It rained, it was cool and now it's pretty warm as I am writing this...lol.

Still in the mood for killer animal movies so I found one on Freevee I hadn't heard of called The Hatching, it was a crocodile movie set in the UK, I am guess because of the actors. It was okay but had a bit of a silly ending...lol.

Other than that not really anything to report, I am such an introvert and in my free time I read. :)

What you might have missed on my blog

Waiting on Wednesday featuring Nightmare Island

Review of The Nightmare Man

Review of Haru, Zombie Dog Hero

Books I have added

• The Horror of Haglin House - I know it doesn't look like a crime novel but it is...lol. I think it's the first in a new series I think it's the first in the Lady Violet Thorn series and she is a writer. I just really liked the cover...lol.
• West Heart Kill - I am not sure if I will enjoy this one or not but I was curious so grabbed it while it was on Read Now on Netgalley. It sounded like it could be kind of a literary mystery and I don't know if that will be for me...lol. I love the cover of this one two with the gun for a chimney! :)

Books read last week

• The Nightmare Man - This was an interesting horror book! I have been listening to this a little at a time for a while in the mornings. :)
• Cameron Battle an the Escape Plan - This was okay, and it finishes a douology.
• Haru, Zombie Dog Hero - I wanted to like this one more than I did, I might have went on a bit about that in my review. I liked this authors Spirit Hunter series more.
• Who Was Daniel Boone - This was interesting and I think the best way for me to consume biograhies...lol.
• Nessie Quest - This contemporary Middle Grade was so cute and fun! I am pretty hit or miss with contemporary so was glad this was a hit! Characters were just great!
• My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish - Super cute start to a series. Read for Zombieathon a month long readathon on booktube.
• Malamander - Reread as I would like to continue the series but couldn't remember much about this one as it had been a few years. Still a good one.
• Dead City - Another fun zombie book for the readathon. It's the first in a trilogy and I like this author so can't wait to finish up the trilogy.

I listened to all of these except for two of the middle grade books. :)

Currently reading

• Shadow of Night - The second book in the All Souls Trilogy, this is a reread and I will be taking my time with it all month long. Reading the print book and on page 58 of 577.
• Emerald Blaze - The 5th book in the Hidden Legacy series. I am listening to this on 2x speed and should finish it today as I am about 77% into it.
• Skandar and the Unicorn Thief - First book in the Skandar series, trying to work on my backlog of netgalley books, found it on audiobook. Just started on on Saturday night so only 11% to the audio at 2x speed.
• Knightley and Son - Trying to get to some books on my shelves so reading this one in print and it's kind of slow right now and hoping it gets better. I am on page 68 of 308.
• Field of Screams - Just getting started on this one, it's an eARC that comes out in a month or two, I can't remember when. It's a ghost story and it's okay so far but only 11% in to the ebook.
• Fablehaven - Another book off of my shelf that I have had for a long time. It's a bit slow to start but I think it's about to get better as we have finally got to some fairy sightings. :) Reading the print book so page 74 of 351.

What might be up next

How was your week? What did you get?

Early Review of Haru, Zombie Dog Hero

 

I was given this book by Netgalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

Eleven-year-old Luke and his dog, Haru, are the best of friends. Totally inseparable. But when their nasty landlord falsely accuses Haru of biting her, Haru is kidnapped! As Luke and his friends go on a serious mission to find and bring Haru home again, they discover mysterious experiments happening at the old laboratory at Painted Lake, owned by an evil multibillionaire named Mr. Thomas Sinclair. And Luke and his friends soon fear that Sinclair’s scientists could be doing illegal testing that may endanger Haru and their whole town. As more strange clues emerge, the boys realize their world is changing fast, and soon Painted Lake is plagued by zombie attacks. But the love between Luke and Haru endures, ultimately helping to save them all.

I really liked this authors Spirit Hunter series so I was excited to see that she had a new book out. I did like it but there was some things that I wasn't a huge fan of as well. 

This has the third person POV from Luke the boy, Haru the dog, and Penelope the cat. It was fairly easy to follow the different POVs. Haru remembers the first time his humans brought him home and how him and Luke done everything together. They are the best of friends. He is a hero to his family and Luke's two best friends as he protected them from a scary raccoon. He is just the best dog. He also doesn't like it when someone is mean to his best buddy Luke. 

Penelope is a stray cat that Luke and his family have sort of adopted even though the mother is allergic. They make sure she has food. One day she went missing and they worried about her then she came back but was covered in some really nasty gunk and it's a good think Luke and his family are super nice people and cleaned her up. It's because of this that she made friends with Haru and Luke. 

In the town of Painted Lake there is a nasty factory that does really bad things that  and has ruined their beautiful lake. The guy that owns it is an old man called Sinclair and he is looking for a fountian of youth type of serum and has scientist working on it. They do experiments on animals but nobody in town really knows what goes on there. Lukes friends, Ben and Max, mother works as a reporter and has been trying to find a good angle on the factory and to find out what is going on but her editor always shuts her down. 

The lady who rents the building that Luke's parents have their store in is a horrible person and a bit on the racist side and hates Haru, so when he tries protecting Luke from her and lunges at her she falls and hurts herself and use that to call the animal shelter, only thing is the guys are not taking him to a shelter but to the factory!! 

So I really liked Luke and his friends, his parents and even his friends parents, of course I loved Haru and Penelope as well. All were great characters. I was even okay with the big environmental/testing on animals issue we got within the story. My problem was that I thought it was a little to detailed on what happened to the poor dogs that turned into zombies. I mean, I know adults including myself that don't like that kind of detail in adult books when it comes to harming animals. (Their bodies steamed as if they were being baked, and large lumps began to form on their faces and torsos.) I mean gross, is it just me or is that to gross for a kids books? Could be just me. I feel like the author could have gotten the point across without the reader having to know exactly what happened to the dogs. :(

Don't get me wrong it was a fun story about a boy and his dog and the bond between them, but trigger warnings for animal abuse/experimentation big time! I know a lot of adults who will not be reading this because of that. I docked it a star for that, so maybe I am being petty, but it's my opinion and I don't like books that hurt dogs. I could handled it if he went into the lab and we are told something bad happened and he came out a zombie, I just don't need details! 

Would I read another book about the zombie dog if it is a series? Sure because I feel like the worst part is over now he can just be a zombie dog hero. :) It left the ending very open ended which is why I don't know if it's a series or not. 

Oh and also we don't get anything zombie until around 89% of the book which for a book called Zombie Dog Hero, I sort of thought there would be much more zombie hero action going on. 

Would I recommend it? It was a decent middle grade book so if you don't mind the animal stuff and you think your kid can handle it, sure. Like I said it would have been 4 stars but I dock stars on adult books with harming of dogs in them, so middle grade is no different. :)

3 stars

Review of The Nightmare Man

 I received this book from Netgalley for a fair and honest review.

I haven't been finding a lot of horror books lately that I really enjoy. I am actually in a horror group on facebook that doesn't think I like anything...lol. That being said I actually liked this one!! 

Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of New Haven. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.

Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax.

As the series of “Scarecrow crimes” continues to mirror the book, Ben quickly becomes the prime suspect. He can’t remember much from the night he finished writing the novel, but he knows he wrote it in The Atrium, his grandfather’s forbidden room full of numbered books. Thousands of books. Books without words.

As Ben digs deep into Blackwood’s history he learns he may have triggered a release of something trapped long ago—and it won’t stop with the horrors buried within the pages of his book.

 Ben Bookman writes horror novels and he has been working on a new book and staying in the ancestral home Blackwood manor where he soon learns that there are some murders happening in town that are identical to those in the book. 

The two dectectives in town are a father daughter team and they end up and some really strange and brutal murder sites, that lead them to Ben Bookman. He has no clue what is going on or why the murders are happen like in his book, but it's hard for the cops to understand what is going on.

Ben as well as the cops have to take a deep dive into Ben's history as his brother went missing 13 years ago and Ben has been looking for him since then, but he comes upon some bones he begins to think his brother could be among them. There is something about the Screamer, who takes kids. 

It really is hard to describe what this book is about really, I am having a hard time putting it down without thinking something I say might spoil something, so just going to say that I thought this was very interesting. 

This horror got me to like a lot of the characters so I knew someone was going to die that I didn't want to die, and at the end I was really on edge. I really liked all the characters a lot. They were interesting.

4 stars

Waiting on Wednesday #1

 

I haven't done this kind of post since changing blogs so thought I would start doing them again. Waiting on Wednesday has been around for a while and I know that it was taken over by Wishful Endings and called Can't wait Wednesday so will link to her.

Twelve year-old Serenity Noah has never told anyone about her recurring nightmares -- the haunting images of silver butterflies whose flapping wings drive away all sound, leaving only suffocating silence in their wake. Her parents already favor her "perfect" younger brother, Peace, and she doesn't want to be seen as the "problem" child.

Instead, Serenity's found a productive way to channel her fears: creating a horror movie as scary as her nightmares.

When Peace suddenly becomes afraid of the dark and refuses to sleep alone, their parents take him away for "treatment" on Duppy Island. Serenity has a very bad feeling about the mysterious island and the facility's creepy leader, Dr. Whisper. And when she sees a silver butterfly from her nightmares in the forbidden forest she realizes that something is seriously, dangerously awry.

But nothing could've prepared Serenity for the truth: the island is home to douens -- faceless children with backward feet who are trapped in limbo between the world of the living and the land of the dead. And unless Serenity acts soon, her brother is going to join their ranks...

A Douen!!

Love my middle grade horror and this one sounds really interesting. though I think sometimes the spooky middle grade is a bit to spooky for kids. This is what I will be picturing while reading this one!!!! A Douen  is a entity from Trinidad and Tobago folklore.

 It comes out June 6th from Scholastic Press.