The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was such a unique read. It's like a fantasy western novel impregnated a paranormal dystopian novel, and the result was this story.

I really enjoyed the large cast of female characters. I was hooked from the start, and I enjoyed the way the character development unfolded as the story progressed. I can't wait to see what comes next!

The narratio (Jeanette Illidge)  is excellent and spot on.

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How to Howl at the Moon (Howl at the Moon #1)

How to Howl at the Moon by Eli Easton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was different and adorable, though I confess I liked the first half of the story better than the second half. Things sort of got unnecessarily out of hand in the second half, and it was such an awesome story, even without all that added nonsense.

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Sookie Stackhouse Series

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It’s not bad. It’s just not quite as good as I thought it would be after having this on my TBR for almost 2 decades. I don’t know if I will continue the series. I’m thinking about it, in case this is one of those series where each new book is better than the last, but I’m currently feeling a bit indifferent.

The pacing of this was surprisingly slow, and the storyline was kind of all over the place. I wanted more development of the side characters and more growth in the main characters. I even wanted more world building and clarity on the rules of the world and creatures. There were interesting elements, but this lagged too much to inspire any real emotion in me.

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Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Okay. So this was better than book one, and I started to be a bit more charmed by the world. However, I still don’t love this series, and there are a lot of characters who were underdeveloped and fell flat for me. There’s something about it that just doesn’t capture me, but I can feel improvement, which leaves me wondering if I actually should try out book 3 to see if the series improves again. Maybe it’s just one of those that has to grow on people.

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The Legends of Regia Series

Forbidden Forest by Tenaya Jayne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, I really am intrigued by this world, though I do think the overall storytelling and plotting could be stronger. I'm going to continue onward and remain hopeful that this is one of those series that improves with each new book, because there are some things I like here.

I do kind of feel like this has the whole kitchen sink thrown in, which is both fun but also sometimes just overwhelming based on how many different characters, backgrounds, and rules for the world we are supposed to keep track of. I do appreciate the effort to just throw a bit of everything that fantasy and paranormal readers enjoy into one book, but sometimes it was just a bit too much, which made the world building feel weaker, instead of stronger.

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Forest Fire by Tenaya Jayne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this, but it felt messy in a bad way. I'm going to give book 3 a try, but if I don't love it, I think I am done with this series. The world and concept are interesting to me, but this just isn't as well-written and well-plotted as I need to stay intrigued. Also, I wanted the character development to grow each book, as well as the world building, and I don't think there was nearly enough of either to suit me.

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Verdant (The Legends Of Regia, #3 by Tenaya Jayne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is sad and whimsical. I really wanted a stronger story, but I think it was hard to pull off the depth that I wanted from this in so few pages. That left it falling just a bit flat, when it should have been really emotional.

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The Night Realm by Annette Marie

The Night Realm by Annette Marie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked the premise, overall concept for the world, and the cover. The actually story just fell short of what I wanted and hoped for. I think the storyline could be stronger, as well as the writing. There just needed to be some more real conflict and less melodrama.

I don't dislike this, but I also don't love it enough to move onward in the series. I could have used some stronger character development and a better developed, more believable plot. Also, there's just not as much originality in this as I hoped for, based on the premise.

The audiobook narration by Melissa Moran and Greg Tremblay was solid. I really enjoyed Melissa Moran who is clear, easy to understand, and provides just the right amount of emotion.

Irin Chronicles Series by Elizabeth Hunter

The Scribe by Elizabeth Hunter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an addictive story, set in fascinating world. The premise is A+. I like everything about the paranormal mystery of this read. Overall, it's a bit light on the romance side (no big deal), with often a fade to black before anything too sexy occurs, but the true buy in on this story is the deep world building and the character development.

The audiobook is narrated by Zachary Webber, who is welcome to read to me any day. He has a very low tone, so it did take me just a bit to adjust. However, once I got use to his reading, I really started to enjoy it, as it seems to match the mood of the story so well.

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The Singer by Elizabeth Hunter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I both enjoyed this one and found it frustrating to read, as what I wanted the most from this story was something I didn't get until almost the end of the book. It was interesting seeing the world grow in new directions, but the storyline and plot didn't feel quite as solid as the previous book. It does a bit more meandering, when you just sort of want everything to come together and move forward.

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The Secret by Elizabeth Hunter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked the overall value of where the two main characters started and ended, but I was occasionally confused. It just felt like this storyline was the roughest so far, even though a lot seems to have occurred. Something about it didn't always feel as cohesive and easy to follow as I wanted, though I still love the world and characters. It just somehow gave me a bit less than I wanted in most instances, which wasn't as satisfactory this time around.

Overall, it's still a good series and book, but since I can't get my hands on book 4 right now, I've decided this is a reasonable stopping point.

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Ninth House (Alex Stern, #1)

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am wallowing in despair, because if you asked me who should be the Queen of my world, Leigh Bardugo would be on the short list, no doubt. But this has been the most frustrating Saturday ever, trying to force myself through this book. If it had been written by anyone else, I would have chosen to DNF early on, but I kept hanging on to try to find more redeeming qualities. I thought maybe it would reach a point where it all came together and became awesome.

Unfortunately, this was a really difficult story for me to get engaged and stay engaged with. The characters are many and all underdeveloped, in my opinion. The storyline is tedious and convoluted, made worse by the length of the book. I spent several hours trying to convince myself that I’m the problem, but I really don’t think it was just me. All I wanted was to spend the whole day relaxing and reading an awesome book, so I brought the right attitude to the moment just didn’t somehow, in a surprise twist, manage to pick the right book.

So long story short, even though this had some moments that were really interesting, and I could see glimpses of talent and world building and complex and interesting characters, overall, it was not a win for me. Had this not been written by Bardugo, I probably would have DNFed in the first ¼ of the story, saved myself most of a Saturday, and awarded this only 1 star. The 2nd star here is for the moments of amazing writing and storytelling that do exist, even though they tend to be too few and far between for me.

I do strongly recommend Bardugo’s other books, to anyone who is new to this author. Definitely don’t start with this one, since it seems to be pretty polarizing, and it’s hard saying which side you will fall towards. I came in with some pretty high expectations, but I am truly shocked that this didn't meet hardly any of them.

The audio narration for this story is good, very clear and mildly emotional. It's enough to add some depth to the reading but not distract.

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Caylin's Story by S. J. West

Timeless by S.J. West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is Caylin and Aiden’s story. You knew this was coming at the end of the last series. I wasn’t for sure that I would like this because you know there is going to be a age gap since she was so young when they first meet each other. However, since Aiden doesn’t age, it didn’t come across as bad as I thought it would.

This one is about them waiting to meet up with each other. Caylin has to work to fight the evil that is out to get her.


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