Tag Archive: fantasy



Oaths of Blood
Oaths of Blood by S.M. Reine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was given this ebook by the author for an honest review.

Sara has done it again! Another book I couldn’t put down. BUT really, Sara, did you have to do that? Can’t tell you. Spoilers. But NO!!!!

This is the first book of SM Rein’s that left me feeling a bit of a cliffhanger. Not a good ending with threads to tie up later but… So yes, I was glad I had the next book already downloaded so I could start reading.

This one cleared up questions that I had about Rylie’s children. It had been a while since I read the book where they were born and lived in Haven, so I had forgotten their names and how that turned out. But Oaths of Blood helped explain all that a little. Say, wouldn’t it be great to have a Wiki about the books, characters and worlds of Ms. Reine? If it has been a while, or the memory isn’t as good as it should be, it’d be nice to be able to look it all up for a refresher.

Though this one didn’t involve Reno so much it still has Las Vegas, and mentions Reno on occasion. This gets my attention. One always wants to know how their state and cities will fare in a demon apocalypse. ๐Ÿ™‚

I was happy to see Elise and Rylie join forces as I love those two characters to bits! I’d write more but Spoilers! On to the next book!

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Sacrificed in Shadow
Sacrificed in Shadow by S.M. Reine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first time I read this book I hadn’t read the Cain Chronicles or any of the Descent series and maybe even a book or two from Seasons of the Moon. It was a great read and I loved the characters. But now that I have read everything in the right order this book makes a lot more sense. The personal histories of the characters and places are solid rather than leaving me with a vague feeling that I was missing something.

I was unhappy this time because it isn’t centered in Reno, NV. Nevada is mentioned a few times but this is on the east side of the country where I have no frame of reference. Still not a problem as I have never been to Heaven, Haven or Hell but I still have a relative idea about those places. ๐Ÿ™‚

Elise Cavanaugh is still absolutely fascinating to me and I can’t wait to read more about her and her people.

Since I have already written a review on this book you can read it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/622966616

I love Sara Reine’s books!

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Paradise Damned
Paradise Damned by S.M. Reine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, I can’t believe that I am finished with another of Ms. Sara Reine’s series. This, book 7 was the finale of the Descent series. It was gripping!

This one had you moving from Reno to hell and heaven and places between. It was a nightmare of Genesis, origin of man, angel, demons and the many things that could and did go wrong.

I love Elise Cavanaugh and James Faulkner. The tension between this couple that draws them closer and farther away keeps the reader on edge and only wishing for their safety. Both are flawed but strong characters who play out their lives in Ms. Reine’s worlds. The plots and worlds are equally strong and believable.

I am so glad I read this series. But remember that it is best to start with the Seasons of the Moon series and then start Descent series with Death’s Hand. Though I think one could read the books out of order, I have found that each book is built on the one before and you can feel the characters growing and the plots thickening.

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Review: Defying Fate


Defying Fate
Defying Fate by S.M. Reine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Taking a break from Elise in this book. Climb into James Faulkner’s mind and life. I liked meeting his son and previous girlfriend and seeing how that dynamic affects James’s life.

If anyone has been paying attention, I have been working my way through all of Sara Reine’s books. She is very creative and has an odd combination of fantasy and real life. This Descent series centers in the Reno/Tahoe area and I find myself wanting to go check out the landmarks. Maybe I will find the Dance studio and meet James or Elise. But then we are suddenly cast into Hell or Heaven or a Haven or other dimension, often that mirror the Reno areas and I wonder if I could find those places and the nightmares, demons or angels that hang out there. Do suspend disbelief.

Since my computer wasn’t working right, yesterday, I couldn’t write this review properly on my laptop. Instead, I found the next book and started reading it. Yay, Elise is back in that one!

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Review: Silver Tongue


Silver Tongue
Silver Tongue by Evelyn Ink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This was a free Smashwords ebook from the author for an honest review, Thank you!

I love the way Evelyn Ink thinks. Her books are always so creative and fun. The worlds she builds are like our own but not. The people have many words similar to ours and some that stray from ours but in logical ways. The best part about her worlds are that they are somewhat steampunkie with aeroships at the like. Her characters are believable, flawed but ever growing.

Silver Tongue’s blurb presents the book as dark and scary. As a middle schooler or junior high student that might be thrilling but as an older student I think this book is just a fun adventure. I can imagine reading this book to my own children so long ago and having a great time with it. But it isn’t simple. Older people can enjoy it, too!

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Rowena and the Dark Lord
Rowena and the Dark Lord by Melodie Campbell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This review will be for ASIN: B00CIZZS70

Disclaimer: I was gifted this Kindle book for an honest review by the author. Thank you!!

I love the Rowena books! This is the second one. The first was Rowena Through the Wall. And the magic is that the wall at the back of the classroom that Rowena teaches in, leads to another land far less advanced in culture than 2013 Arizona. It is a land where magic can still be used. And women are nonexistent due to a curse. So when Rowena appears the men fall over themselves to own her.

But this review is for book two. Rowena is now pregnant with one of the men’s baby. She is able to use magic in this faraway land but finds she must visit Arizona once in a while. Due to things that happened in the previous book, Rowena is blessed and cursed to have even more modern people involved in this wall travel. Whew!

I love how Melodie Campbell is able to make both worlds seem very real. I love the characters and animals that are part of Rowena’s life on either side of the wall. And the plot is spot on. So exciting!

Book two doesn’t leave you with a cliffhanger, but there is a chapter for book three at the end of book two. Darn! Now I can’t wait to read that one! Great job, Ms. Campbell!

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Damnation Marked
Damnation Marked by S.M. Reine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve done it again! Grrrr! Ever get done with one book in a series and without stopping to do a review, jump right in and read the next book? Well, that’s what I did. Now I am 80% into book five and I can’t remember book four. But that should give you a bit of an idea about how well I liked the book. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to the characters.

This book didn’t end with a cliffhanger, by the way. One could very well let it go and read the next book when they can. But Reno and Tahoe were left in a big mess. I am afraid to go downtown now as I am sure I will see it all apocalyptic and ruined! That is the fun of these books for me. The author has included landmarks around here and has hell take over. And it is during the snows so reading it in the right season helps to add to the allure.

Elise, the main character is a strong person often too strong for her own good but we do get to see her insecurities and weaknesses. She has a good support system around her but often chooses the role as protector rather than put her friends/family in the way of danger. She’s sassy and fun.

The problem I had with this book is the same I had with the last one, the jumping back and forth in time. If you read on the Kindle, especially using text-to-speech the sections go by and it is easy to get lost. I think asterisks would help to signify a new point of view or scene, especially when many of the sections contain the same people just earlier or much later.

Still, this is a fun series, and I feel I must continue reading until I catch up with Sara’s stories. What an imagination!

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Shadow of the Sun
Shadow of the Sun by Laura Kreitzer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Three stars means I liked this book. Was it a favorite? Sorry, no. It had a lot of interesting ideas that were unique, but the follow-through wasn’t there, unless, of course that comes in book two or three.

I liked that the main character was a well-educated lady with lots of smarts. At first, though, I didn’t much like her as she was snotty to her helper. Later that falls by the wayside as the character development reveals someone who does have a heart.

There was a lot of repetition of feelings and information. And it wasn’t long before this genius person, the strong person becomes the fainter, the whiner. And worst of all she becomes the boy-crazy teen. That was too bad as I wanted to like her.

Though fairly well-written, the Tablet/Fire version of this book was hard to read as the font was too light. Thank goodness I was able to read it on my Second Generation Kindle with text-to-speech. I did notice that my edition of the book is no longer available, but there is still a free version for Kindle at the moment. Maybe the font issue has been dealt with. Try it. Maybe you will like it better than I did.

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Review: Visible


Visible
Visible by Cidney Swanson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, that’s sad. I am officially out of Cidney Swanson books to read. This was such a fun romp. After finishing all the Saving Mars I could find, I decided to read this fourth book of the Rippler series. This one was from the best friend, Gwen’s point of view. That caught me off guard at first. I hadn’t read the rest of the series for a while so I felt I missed something. But after reading reviews and blurbs I finally got back on track and enjoyed the rest of the book.

This story is more fantasy, though, I suppose there is an element of science here, it felt much more the fairy-tale. In fact, you will find a few fairy-tales retold in this book that were very apropos to the plot and characters. Speaking of plot and characters, Ms. Swanson did her usual believable, lovable characters in an enchanting, exciting story.

For me, Visible wasn’t as fun as the space sci-fi of Mars, but the Rippler series does offer enough adventure to help me ease back to other books and stories. Visible is aimed at young adult. Saving Mars didn’t feel dedicated to one group or another. Oh, and though there wasn’t a cliffhanger and all plot strings were clean up, there was enough left that should she decide to, Cidney could write more to this series. I look forward to reading more!

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A Story of River
A Story of River by Lana Axe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I am one of the few people that finds Lord of the Rings to be the most boring, male chauvinist books around. So I have to say, that if you like LotR you might like this. I found myself wanting to read other books. I had a hard time liking any of the characters. The one I did like? Well, I think the author didn’t know what to do with that character. Too bad. She was the only female that wasn’t arm candy.

The last few chapters of the book were engaging but had I not felt I needed to read this, I wouldn’t have gotten that far. I hate to give such a mediocre review. It was free for an honest review so I felt I should. But like I said above, there are a lot of male nerds and geeks that would love this and want it to be a video game they could play in their mother’s basement. Bad Dar, snark much?

Oh, I did like the dryads and River, too bad the story didn’t surround those instead of evil and war. Meh.

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