Spotlight ~ The Urban Boys

 Spotlight is a part of Cafienated PR to help promote this books. 

A suspenseful incident in a forbidden preserve heightens the senses of five friends. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell become super-gifts that forever change the world. But furious battles confront the boys as they try to understand their sensory super powers in a race to save mankind. With light beings and mysterious strangers complicating their plight, can the boys defeat the evil Druth before it’s too late? Get prepared for the twisting and grinding of this award-winning, action-adventure story — an edge-of-your-seat narrative for young and mature readers alike.

Author Bio:

K.N. Smith was awarded “Best of” in the category of “Outstanding Young Adult Novel” at the 10th Annual Leimert Park Village Book Fair’s Jessie Redmon Fauset Book Awards. She is a Readers’ Favorite “Gold Medal” honoree for “Young Adult – Mystery”, the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards “1st Place Honoree” for “New Author: Fiction” and “Science Fiction/Fantasy”, and a Book Excellence Award Winner for “Young Adult Fiction”. Her lyrical flair sweeps across pages that twist and grind through action-adventure and urban fantasy in edge-of-your-seat narratives. She is an advocate of literacy and arts programs throughout the world. K.N. has over twenty-five years’ experience in communications and creative design as an award-winning consultant, and is the founder of Mental Health California™, her signature nonprofit community initiative. Reading is still her foremost hobby.

Two Bloggers One Series ~ Hidden Legacy #6

 After the last book I was really eager to see what was going to happen in this one so I asked Barb if we could just continue and finish/caught up with this series. After you read what I have to say then go check out Barbs review at Booker T's Farm.

An escaped spider, the unexpected arrival of an Imperial Russian Prince, the senseless assassination of a powerful figure, a shocking attack on the supposedly invincible Warden of Texas, Catalina’s boss... And it’s only Monday.

Within hours, the fate of Houston—not to mention the House of Baylor—now rests on Catalina, who will have to harness her powers as never before. But even with her fellow Prime and fiancé Alessandro Sagredo by her side, she may not be able to expose who’s responsible before all hell really breaks loose.

I really like this series and there was something at the end of hte previous one that felt like a cliffhanger which is why I wanted continue. 

It's really hard to talk about this without spoiling the others in this series, so I won't say a whole lot. This series is about a world where magic plays a huge part and there are different types of magic users and those with great abilities are called Primes and are the leaders of their house. 

The series has been split up into threes and with a different sister. The first three were about the oldest sister and this three has been about Catalina who is now the leader of House Baylor. Her and Alessandro are still dealing with a huge mess that could be end very badly for a lot of people. 

Alessandro is still focused on finding Arkan and killing him for the death of his father long ago and Catalina is afraid it's consuming him. Something happens to Linus in this one and we got more of his backstory. Combine that with the evil grandmother, and a lot of really powerful primes and it was one action packed ride from start to finish and I very much enjoyed it. 

I really love all the characters in the Baylor family and their friends. It's fun series and I am not sure if I am finished or caught up on this series as there is one more sister left, Arabella, but it depends on if the authors are going to write her storyline or not. I do hope they will but one never knows. I really would love to get Arabella's story as she is a cool magical creature. 

So I want to address that thing I thought was going to be the cliffhanger from book five, nothing about that happened in this book and Barb found a short story on the authors website that deals with it but in a very weak way that was kind of disappoint but at least we found out what we were missing as we were both a bit confusing. 

I am happy to be caught up with this one and enjoyed it a lot. If you like urban fantasy then you will enjoy this series. 

4 stars

Waiting on Wednesday ~ Curious Tide

 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.

Ninth House meets A Deadly Education in this gorgeously dark academia fantasy following a teen mage who must unravel the truth behind the secret society that may have been involved in her classmates’ deaths.

Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happ.ened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore—alive—only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.

So a lovely person at Simon and Schuster asked if I wanted to review this one and I said sure, so I do have the netgalley for it but wanted to feature it on here as I am waiting to read it...lol. It doesn't come out till October. I am curious because it's a dark academia kind of mystery. :) 

eARC review ~ Murder in the Scottish Hills

 

Received this from Netgalley for a fair and honest review.

When Maud McIntyre and her lady’s maid Daisy travel into the Scottish Highlands, the last thing they expect to find is a body on the train… Will these keen amateur sleuths stop a murderer in his tracks?

Edinburgh, 1911: When Maud McIntyre receives a letter from a maid called Rose, sharing her suspicions that something strange is happening in the house where she works, she and her assistant Daisy immediately travel to the Highlands to investigate.

But as they are changing trains, the body of a man falls from the carriage right in front of them, a bullet in his head. Maud and Daisy can’t believe it – they’ve waited ages for a new case, and now one has literally landed in front of them! And when the local police rule the death as a tragic accident, the pair have no choice but to investigate what they believe is a murder…

Arriving in the Scottish village, Maud and Daisy go undercover to begin their hunt for the murderer, while also investigating the strange behaviour of Rose’s employer, a local art dealer. As they begin to piece together the chain of events, Maud and Daisy wonder whether the cases might be linked. Is it possible the man on the train was killed to cover up something in the village? And, if so, who would do such a thing?

When a local artist is found murdered, Maud and Daisy become convinced the two cases are connected. Searching for the link between the deaths, will Maud and Daisy solve the case before another mysterious murder takes place?

Maud and Daisy in the first book, solved their first couple cases and now feel they have successfully started their detective agency, but they are not getting any business. During a dinner party at a friends house they were discussing the sufferage movement and an editor for a newspaper was interested in having her write a column about her opinions. This leads to her get a lot of mail from women who wanted her opinion on things. Maud working for the paper was helping her and her friend Daisy be able to keep the detective agency open in hopes of some business. 

While looking through the letters she finds one from a young lady named Rose who is working for an art dealer and she is worried that her boss might be doing some bad things and wanted to know what she should do. She really liked her job but didn't want to work for a criminal. 

Maud decides that they should meet this young lady and see if they could help, even if it was probably for free because the young maid couldn't afford to pay them. She was making enough money from the paper to be able to do a job without pay and maybe it would help them in the long run for their detective business. 

On the way there by train they end up finding the dead body of a man who lives in the same town they were headed too and of course curiosity gets to them. They find out from Rose that she thinks her boss is selling forgeries and they start investigating that, but can't forget about the dead body, so also look into that. They are staying at a hotel where they even get into a small investigation there. 

I really like Maud and Daisy as characters. I also like Lord Urquhart and hope he becomes the love interest for Maud. That being said I also thought that storyline was very slow moving and I am not sure if it's because there are so many different things they are trying to solve or if I just found it boring but I didn't like it quite as much a I did book one. I also think the author is putting in modern feminist thought in a historical with Daisy and that just makes me roll my eyes but hey that is my opinion. 

I will be trying the next one as like I said I do like Maud and Daisy. If you like historical mysteries you might enjoy this series, so give it a try. 

3 stars

Week in Review #38

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.

So I started walking, it's only about a half a mile but it's a start. I have been doing some chair exercises I watch on youtube and between the two my body aches and hurts. :( Hopefully it will get easier.  I really hate feeling 80 when I am in my late 40s. :(  Also been watching a lot of low carb/keto recipe or what I ate in a day videos on youtube as well. Trying to get in the groove of thinking well that don't look to bad, I can try that...lol. 

That is pretty much what I have been doing for most of last week, so kind of boring but that is my life. :)

Have a great week and happy reading!

Books I have added

 Nothing!

Books read last week

• Sleight of Paw - This series is fun, I wasn't sure what I would think of magical cats but they are a lot of fun. This is the second book in the Magical Cat series.
• The Sea of Monsters - Second Percy Jackson book and enjoying my reread.
• Fateful words - I actually forgot to mention this one last Sunday so including it here but this was read probably around the first of June. I really liked it and now all caught up again with one of my favorite series.
• Zero Day - Just decided to go ahead and finish a trilogy and well I think I might have left to much time between the first two books and this one as it was kind of boring and I had forgotten a lot of the characters and well all the fun spider action was in the first two and this one was more political and how they would get rid of the spiders and the military and the president going head to head and yeah blah.

Currently reading

• Murder in the Scottish Hills - I should have finished this one already but it's just not real interesting. Maybe it's second book syndrome. I really like the characters just feel like not much is happening even though therer are like 4 mysteries though some could be connected eventually. We have two murders, art forgery, and a missing stuffed bird (that mystery already solved), just feels like two much.
• The Book of Life - Loving my reread and will be working on it all month as I normally read on it before bed.
• Gin and Dagger - Just starting this one. It is a lot different feeling than the show.
• The Camp - This one is off to a slow start so hoping it picks up soon but only 11% into it. It's suppose to be a slasher, so hopefully something happens soon!
• Some Touch of Madness - This one is just okay so far, I am about 34% into the audiobook.
• Ruby Fever - It's been a very fast paced read, I really enjoy this author! Should finish this tomorrow.

What might be up next

 Not sure. :)

How was your week? What did you get?

Week in Review #37

 

The Week in Review is where I combine Stacking the Shelves, The Sunday Post and It's Monday! What are you reading?

Nothing real exciting happened this week. I did get to hear from my doctor and

well he said nothing abnormal on the monitor read out. He doesn't rule out that

I could have some heart disease but without insurance it's $3000 for a stress test

so that is a no go.

So he also said it's most likely because I am very overweight and I had to come up

with a exercise plan and I also must try and go back to a low carb way of eating

as that worked for me in the past. It's just so hard, I have no will power when it

comes to foods I love. Oh well, guess it's that or worse.

So Friday I started walking and I guess we will see how it goes.

Have a great week and happy reading!

What you might have missed:

Review of Mr. Mercedes

Books I have added

 Nothing!

Books read last week

• Mr. Mercedes - Slightly boring but towards the end it got interesting. :)
• Payment in Blood - The second book in the Inspector Lynley series and I enjoyed it.
• Shadow of Night - Reread and loved it just as much as my first time reading it.
• Sackett's Land - So it's June on the Range so thought I would try a western and thought since this is a popular tv movie series that they would all be westerns but evidently the first few are more action/adventure with sword fights not guns...lol. It was still not bad.
• Murder Gone Cold - I do better with cowboy romances than actual western...lol. Love this author!

Currently reading

• Murder in the Scottish Hills - Second book in the Scottish Lady's Detective series but I feel like the author doesn't have enough to write about with just one mystery so she has to put several and then it feels like to much. Like they are investigating art fraud, a possible murder, and now just took a case about a missing taxidermy bird and I am not even halfway through the book and I am hoping that in the end some of these end up going together some how. So for me it's a little slow but I still like it.
• The Camp - Just dipped into this one but can't wait to read more, this one comes out this month and suppose to be sort of like a Friday the 13th type slasher.
• Book of Life - Haven't started yet but will tonight. :)
• Sleight of Paw - I am little over halfway through the audiobook and enjoying it. Second book in the Magical Cat series.

What might be up next

 

How was your week? What did you get?

Two Bloggers One Series ~ Mr. Mercedes

 So Barb and I are tackling the Bill Hodges trilogy and I think she might have liked this first one more than I did. I even forgot to post my review! Sorry about that! Anyway go check out what Barb had to say at Booker T's Farm.

In the predawn hours, in a distressed American city, hundreds of unemployed men and women line up for the opening of a job fair. They are tired and cold and desperate. Emerging from the fog, invisible until it is too late, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

Months later, an ex-cop named Bill Hodges, still haunted by the unsolved crime, contemplates suicide. When he gets a crazed letter from "the perk," claiming credit for the murders, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, fearing another even more diabolical attack and hell-bent on preventing it.

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of eccentric and mismatched allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.

I have been wanting to try this series for a while, but I also know that I don't like Stephen King as much as I use too. I have no patience for the excess descriptions that go on for pages and the thickness of his books anymore...lol. 

I listened to this one thank goodness or I might not have made it as for me it was just sort of boring. Bill is a retired detective and being taunted by the Mercedes Killer and he figures since he has nothing better to do he would try and figure out who he is. 

This puts several things into motion especially as he gets closer to figuring things out and doing his own taunting to the killer. 

It wasn't till something happens to someone that Bill was starting to like that things really sort of ramp up and get a bit interesting for me and that would probably be at 60% or more into the book. Then the race to catch the killer became much more interesting and fast paced. 

Bill Hodge is an okay character but I would say my favorite character would be Holly, who I believe has autism and is in her 40s and a wiz with computers. She ends up helping Bill towards the end and will be in the other books which I am happy about. (I think she is even has her own spin off book)

My biggest complaint is King's lovely use of the N word. This book came out in 2014 I believe and can't be blamed on the fact that it was written a long time ago. So why does he get away with using that word over and over, so much I lost count, yet they want to rewrite great classic books!!!! Okay rant over. 

3 stars