Book Review (113): Lord Of Fire And Ice - Connie Mason & Mia Marlowe

Lord of Fire and Ice

by Connie Mason, Mia Marlowe 

Publication: 3rd July 2012

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Pages: 384

Genre: Historical Romance

Age Appropriate: Adult

"A page–turning, emotional romance, rich in historical details and plot twists." —RT Book Reviews on Sins of the Highlander, 4 Stars

His Duty is to Fulfill Her Every Desire...

Brandr the Far–Traveled has seen the world and a good many of the beautiful women in it. His bed skills are the stuff of steamy legend, his sword sings death, and he can call up fire from thin air. No one in a hundred years ever thought he could be enslaved through trickery and forced to wear the iron collar of a thrall—least of all him.

Until All She Desires is Him...

Katla the Black isn't just called so for her dark, silky hair. His new mistress has a temper as fierce as a warrior's and a heart as icy as the frozen North. But inch by delicious inch, Brandr means to make her melt...

My Thoughts.

I love to read historical romance's, especially when we have a feisty heroine and a sexy, manly hero.

 "So That's The Great And Mighty Brandr", A grumbling voice said from somewhere above him.

And that's how we first meet Brandr the Far-Traveled, unconscious,tied up, naked and fitted with an iron thrall's collar around his neck.
He is delivered to Katla The Black as a slave to do her bidding, at first hesitant it isn't until she discovers who he is and that his father Ulf was responsible for the death of her first husband she agrees, her brothers who were responsible for the drugging and kidnapping of Brandr tell her she has to find a husband, they will present her with three men whom she will choose to wed.
But what happens when Katla and Brandr develop feelings for each other?
I love the fact that the hero is a Viking and even more that he ended up being a Fire Mage as well, I love the added bonus of a bit of paranormal into the story.
The ancient customs of the Vikings were very interesting and added a lot of realism to the story, I especially loved the wedding ceremony, the traditions of it, it was so sweet.
Of course this book is not without some action, and we have the hero and heroine fighting to save Katla's home from people wanting to take it over and all the other homesteads around it.
There's ship battles, sword fights and action aplenty which gives an exciting aspect and will keep you entertained all the way throughout.
The collaboration between Mason and Marlowe worked extremely well and I hope to read further work from these two in the future.
I give this 4/5.

Cover Reveal: The Keep - Veronica Wolff

The Keep (The Watchers #4) - Veronica Wolff

Released: June 2013

Blog Tour: First Frost - Liz DeJesus - Book Review (112).

I'm very excited to be today's stop on the First Frost tour.

As my part of the tour I will be putting up a review for this book.

First Frost

by Liz DeJesus 

Published June 22nd 2012 by Musa Publishing

Fairytales aren’t real…yeah…that’s exactly what Bianca thought. She was wrong.

For generations, the Frost family has run the Museum of Magical and Rare Artifacts, handing down guardianship from mother to daughter, always keeping their secrets to “family only.”

Gathered within museum’s walls is a collection dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales and to the rare items the family has acquired: Cinderella’s glass slipper, Snow White’s poisoned apple, the evil queen’s magic mirror, Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted spinning wheel…

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Frost wants none of it, dreaming instead of a career in art or photography or…well, anything except working in the family’s museum. She knows the items in the glass display cases are fakes because, of course, magic doesn’t really exist.

She’s about to find out how wrong she is.

My Thoughts.

I am a big fan of fairytale retellings, and this one did not let me down.

First Frost is a story full of adventure, humour, magic and love.

Set in the modern day, Bianca and her Mum run a museum filled with artifacts from famous fairytales, unknown to Bianca the artifacts are real and the museum has been run by the Frost family for generations, what Bianca doesn't know that as well as fairytales being real she is also descended from Snow White, and oh she's also a witch!

After her Mum is kidnapped by an evil witch, Bianca sets out with her best friend Ming to go and save her, which means stepping into a portal into another world called Everafter where all the fairytales took place.

And of course they run into the obligatory Prince Charming who's aim in life is to save a Princess or a damsel in distress.

What about you? Change your mind about Prince Ferdinand yet?" "Prince I-Love-Myself-More-Than-Anyone? Blah, blah, blah, I'm a Prince. Blah, blah, blah, I have a castle. Yeah, right. I'd rather deal with the Neanderthals in school than the Prince...even if he is royalty."

I love how he's exactly how you'd imagine a Prince from a fairytale to be, he is also traveling with a childhood friend Terrance, whom Bianca becomes quite interested in.
So with their group they set off for the evil witch's castle to rescue Bianca's Mum with some help from some of the museum's artifacts.
Along the way Bianca get's to use her witch powers to aid them and practice's for when she meets up with the evil witch.

"I think I'm gonna throw up!' she shouted as she looked down to where her friends were. "Don't blow chinks down here, B. I didn't bring any shampoo so if I smell like vomit I'm gonna have to stop being friends with you for a while. I mean it," Ming shouted back. "I'll try." "Don't...blow...chunks!" Ming shouted.

There are some famous fairytale characters that appear in Everafter, and it was really exciting the way that they were written into the storyline , and I think it added more to the general story the way that they interacted with Bianca and her friends.
I really loved the romance that developed between Rose and Terrance and I can't wait to see where their relationship will go in the next book especially after the ending, which had me wishing that I had the second book waiting and ready to be read!
I can't wait to read more from this author her writing is fresh and exciting.
I give this 4/5.

Liz DeJesus was born on the tiny island of Puerto Rico. She is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007), The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 31st 2011) and First Frost (Musa Publishing, June 2012). Liz is currently working on a new novel.

Find Liz:

Website

Blog

Facebook

Buy First Frost

e is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007) and The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 31st 2011). Liz is currently working on a new novel.

Feature And Follow Friday (35).

Q: Christmas in July! Someone gives you a gift card for two books (whatever that costs). What two books will you buy?

I would pick Significance - Shelly Crane (just found this on Goodreads today, it sounds really good!), and Harry Potter Stage To Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey - Bob McCabe I've wanted this for so long but it's so expensive!

Upcoming Books That Don't Yet Have Covers.

Mystique

by Shari Arnold

Only Bauer Grant can pull off gorgeous while dead. But staying dead is another thing entirely. When he wakes up at his own funeral, the town of Mystique calls it a miracle,until it happens again. Something is bringing the residents of Mystique back to life, but what? Presley Caine finds herself caught up in the mystery when Bauer asks her to visit him. Presley can’t figure out why the most popular guy in school is so drawn to her. And when Bauer is kidnapped soon after, she looks to Bauer’s brooding best friend Sam, whose dad works for the powerful Mystique military base, for answers. In her quest to discover the truth, Presley’s relationship with Sam deepens, her feelings for Bauer are tested, and it becomes clear that her own mysterious past is somehow connected to these strange events. But is she strong enough to handle the truth when it is finally revealed?

Expected publication: 2013 by Chronicle Books

Spies and Prejudice

by Talia Vance

At sixteen, Berry Fields knows everything she needs to know about love. It sucks. As an employee for her dad’s private investigation company, she’s seen it firsthand. Men lie, cheat, leave. Even Berry’s dad is love’s victim, having never fully recovered from the death of his wife eight years earlier.

When Tanner Halston transfers to McHenry High, Berry is not impressed. She knows the type - good looking and full of himself. And it doesn’t help that Tanner always seems to catch her at her worst moments. But when Berry’s best friend hits it off with Tanner's brother, it becomes impossible to avoid Tanner. 

Spurred by a charming boy who seems to want to help, Berry embarks on her own investigation into her mother’s death. As she gets drawn deeper into a web of lies, she finds herself fighting against everything she thought she knew, about her mother, herself, and her growing attraction to Tanner Halston.

Expected publication: 2013 by Egmont

Emmy & Oliver

by Robin Benway

EMMY & OLIVER is the story of two childhood friends who grew up next door to one another until they were six years old, when Oliver was kidnapped by his dad during a custody dispute. Ten years later, Oliver comes home and he & Emmy are forced to deal not only with their losses, but also with their new romantic beginnings. (From Robin's blog.)

Published by Walker

Uninvited (Uninvited #1)

by Sophie Jordan

The first in a two-book series pitched as The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report; in which a teen's perfect world unravels when mandatory genetic profiling reveals she's a carrier for HTS (Homicidal Tendency Syndrome), otherwise known as the "kill gene" and she's forced to question herself, her world, and her love.

Expected publication: 2013 by HarperTeen

The Murder Complex (The Murder Complex    #1)

by Lindsay Cummings

Your mind is not your own...
20-year-old Lindsay Cummings' debut novel, THE MURDER COMPLEX, is described as an action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birth rate, and follows a 15-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, kill, and to survive in any situation, and the boy she falls in love with, whose sole purpose is to keep her from discovering the haunting truth about her family, even if it puts them both in mortal danger.

Expected publication: 2013 by Greenwillow / HarperCollins

Defy the Dark

by Saundra Mitchell, Sarah Ockler

Defy the Dark, an all-new anthology edited by Saundra Mitchell. Coming Summer 2013 from HarperTeen!

It features 16 stories by critically-acclaimed and bestselling YA authors as they explore things that can only happen in the dark. Authors include Sarah Rees Brennan, Rachel Hawkins, Carrie Ryan, Aprilynne Pike, Malinda Lo, Courtney Summers, Beth Revis, Sarah Ockler, and more.

Contemporary, genre, these stories will explore every corner of our world- and so many others. What will be the final story that defies the dark? Who will the author be?

Expected publication: 2013

Reboot

by Amy Tintera

Two teens who have "rebooted" after dying must work together to rescue their kind from enslavement and end up falling in love in the process.

Film rights were simultaneously optioned to Fox 2000 with Chernin Entertainment and Lane Shefter Bishop at Vast Entertainment producing, by Lucy Stille at Paradigm on behalf of Lane Shefter Bishop and Emmanuelle Morgen.

Expected publication: 2013 by HarperTeen

Waiting On Wednesday.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine where you can spotlight an upcoming release that you're eagerly anticipating.

This week I'm waiting on....

The Nightmare Affair

by Mindee Arnett 

16-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare. Literally. Dusty is a magical being who feeds on human dreams.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder. The setting is Arkwell.

And then it comes true.

Now the Dusty has to follow the clues--both within Eli’s dreams and out of them--to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

Expected publication: March 5th 2013 by Tor Teen

17 & Gone

by Nova Ren Suma

Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And . . . is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

Expected publication: March 21st 2013 by Dutton Juvenile

Legacy of the Clockwork Key (The Secret Order #1)

by Kristin Bailey

When a fire consumes Meg's home, killing her parents and destroying both her fortune and her future, all she has left is the tarnished pocket watch she rescued from the ashes. But this is no ordinary timepiece. The clock turns out to be a mechanical key-a key only Meg can use- that unlocks a series of deadly secrets and intricate clues that Meg has no choice but to follow. She has uncovered evidence of an elite secret society and a dangerous invention that some will stop at nothing to protect, and that Meg alone can destroy. Together with the handsome stable hand she barely knows but hopes she can trust, Meg will be swept into a hidden world of deception, betrayal, and revenge. The clockwork key has unlocked her destiny.

Expected publication: March 2013 by Simon Pulse

The Haven

by Carol Lynch Williams

For the teens at The Haven, the outside world, just beyond the towering stone wall that surrounds the premises, is a dangerous unknown. It has always been this way, ever since the hospital was established in the year 2020. But The Haven is more than just a hospital; it is their home. It is all they know. Everything is strictly monitored: education, exercise, food, and rest. The rules must be followed to keep the children healthy, to help control the Disease that has cast them as Terminals, the Disease that claims limbs and lungs—and memories. 

But Shiloh is different; she remembers everything. Gideon is different, too. He dreams of a cure, of rebellion against the status quo. What if everything they’ve been told is a lie? What if The Haven is not the safe place it claims to be? And what will happen if Shiloh starts asking dangerous questions?

Expected publication: April 16th 2013 by St. Martin's Griffin

Shadowlands

by Kate Brian

Rory Miller had one chance to fight back and she took it. Rory survived … and the serial killer who attacked her escaped. Now that the infamous Steven Nell is on the loose, Rory must enter the witness protection with her father and sister, Darcy, leaving their friends and family without so much as a goodbye. 

Starting over in a new town with only each other is unimaginable for Rory and Darcy. They were inseparable as children, but now they can barely stand each other. As the sisters settle in to Juniper Landing, a picturesque vacation island, it seems like their new home may be just the fresh start they need. They fall in with a group of beautiful, carefree teens and spend their days surfing, partying on the beach, and hiking into endless sunsets. But just as they’re starting to feel safe again, one of their new friends goes missing. Is it a coincidence? Or is the nightmare beginning all over again?

Expected publication: January 2013 by Hyperion Book CH

Spirit and Dust

by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Speaking to the dead is no new thing for Daisy Goodnight. The living, on the other hand, can occasionally be a problem. Especially when they knock you out, kidnap you, and force you to be their magical police dog. 

Donald Maguire—mob boss, extraordinaire—has a missing daughter and Daisy is his first choice to track her down. But he didn't actually ask her for help. When she woke up in his guest bedroom, she was told. But why her? And who—or what—in the world is the Black Jackal?

Expected publication: May 14th 2013 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

(ARC) Book Review (111). The Legacy Of Lord Regret - Sam Bowring

The Legacy Of Lord Regret (Strange Thread#1)

by Sam Bowring

Publication: 1st August 2012

Publisher: Hachette Australia

Pages: 425

Genre: Fantasy

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

Book One of the STRANGE THREADS duology. Centuries have passed since the Wardens slew the tyrant Lord Regret, but while the Wound that he ripped in the sky remains open, the earth trembles and the sun vanishes without warning.

The great warrior Rostigan wanders Aorn, weary of battle and unwanted renown. With him travels his lover, the minstrel Tarzi, who hopes she may soon witness further deeds from him worthy of song and tale. Despite Rostigan s reluctance to re-enter the world, she may get what she wishes for . . .

When they travel to the once magnificent city of Silverstone they discover it has been wrenched out of existence. Journeying onwards, they come to learn the disturbing truth. The land has descended into chaos for the Wardens, now craving destruction, have returned from their ancient graves and Lord Regret s malicious legacy grows ever stronger, corrupting the very nature of reality.

My Thoughts.

A highly exciting novel from a fantastic storyteller, that kept me turning the pages till late into the night.

After a bit of a slow start, the book gets better the further along you read, until you get to the end with a cliffhanger that will have you wishing you had the next book right there ready to go.

I loved how we get the back stories of all of the eight wardens as they are brought back to life after being dead for the last three hundred years.

The revelation when we find out about Rostigan's true identity was a shock, I had to re-read it to make sure that I read it right, but it made a good twist in the story that I really liked. 

The Wardens have no idea how or why they have returned, 3oo years ago they killed each other and themselves in hopes that they could fix the wound in the sky, but alas it did not work and so the eight Wardens rush to reunite with each other some good some bad and some on the fence with their decision on what side to fight on.

So they're out to get each other the Wardens on the side of good trying to kill the others on the evil side before they can harm or kill too many people.

I loved all the characters and the fact that before all eight of them were infected with a bit of Lord Regret's powers, that they were all friends and good people, but unfortunately some of them got his destructive and harmful powers which turned them into people that they would have killed before, I especially love Rostigan, Yalenna and Braston.

I really liked the originality of the story not having read a whole lot of Fantasy books, it was a refreshing read to what I'm used too and I like that, and the world building made this book so intriguing.

I would highly recommend this book, it has action aplenty and left me with a hankering to know what will happen next.

I give this 4/5.

A Big Thanks To Hachette Australia.