Book Review: That Ghoul Ava by TW Brown

That Ghoul Ava: Her First Adventures gives you TWO entertainingly funny Ava tales. Relive the day she first joined the supernatural community and discover how her bond with the human Lisa Jenkins first began. Also meet regional Psychic, Morgan and the vampire that would get under Ava's skin from their first encounter in a 24 hour super market. Then, In Ava versus the Rogue Vampire, follow Ava and Lisa on their first real "assignment" on behalf of Morgan when a rogue vampire slips into Vampire Queen Belinda's territory and starts killing indiscriminately. Just don't expect Ava and Belinda to share a hug when it is done...

My Review:
When Ava fails in her suicide bid, she wakes up with grey skin, black eyes and a mouth that looks like a Mako shark. She is now a ghoul who feeds on the dead while trying to pay her rent and control her scary face and claws.

I liked this book. Ava has the usual worries about a dead end job, no friends, cheating ex, and nobody caring when she has been missing for days trying to learn how to be a ghoul and hiding in her flat. She has the attention span of a goldfish, knows zero about the paranormal world and isn't the sharpest tool in the box. That's why I liked her. Her mind would wander into little daydreams about hot actors and singers and the stupid inane crap that fills up your brain. I loved when she got an attack of shark mouth and couldn't speak as this often leads to people fainting or running away, which was pretty funny.

There is a good mix of humour, food hunting and inept attempts at catching vampires in these first two short stories about Ava and her 'friends', who she pretty much hates except for Lisa. I liked Lisa who is smarter than Ava when it comes to pretty much everything and I shared Ava's wish to stake Belinda and slap Morgan.

A light, fun and amusing couple of short stories for paranormal fans.

Book Review: The King's Rose by Alisa M Libby

Life in the court of King Henry VIII is a complex game. When fifteen-year-old Catherine Howard catches the king?s eye, she quickly transforms from pawn to queen. But even luxury beyond imagination loses its luster as young Catherine finds her life?and her heart?threatened by the needs of an aging king and a family hungry for power. Will their agendas deliver Catherine to the same fate as her infamous cousin, Anne Boleyn?sacrificed at the altar of family ambition? Engaging historical fiction with a throbbing YA heartbeat, this thrilling novel will draw readers into the intrigues and dangers of the Tudor court.

My Review:
Catherine Howard's arrival at Court entices Henry VIII away from unwanted Queen Anne of Cleves. But Catherine has secrets about her past that she must keep hidden at all costs to keep her crown and her head.

I read this book months ago and I'm only just getting my review online now. I enjoyed this novel about the 5th Queen and while there is no fresh content in the story, I liked the simplistic way that the story was told with no complicated bits. Whether it is correct in all historical facts and dates is for those with better memories to comment on! But if you want to read a light tudor tale, you may well enjoy this book.

The author takes the view that the pressure came to Catherine from the Dowager Duchess to hide her past and use Thomas as a bedmate to get pregnant when the King proves unable. Catherine is certainly portrayed here as a victim who was told what to say and do, what to think and forget, and that her own wishes never came into it. The scheming Jane Rochford lurks to guide her and cover up her affair as instructed. The ladies in waiting all hint that they might tell tales if they aren't kept happy with parties and other things, leaving Catherine helpless and at their mercy. The spurned ex lover threatening to expose her unless he is given a job. While I do not personallybelieve that Catherine was this totally innocent girl used unwillingly by everyone, I did enjoy reading the story from this point of view.

I think one of the reasons that I find Catherine Howard's story so fascinating is that I love the intrigue that surrounds the real life character of Jane Rochford. She is one of the most interesting females from Tudor times and we rarely get decent books about her. So I have a lot of novels of Catherine and Jane yet to read. Hopefully I will enjoy the others as I did this one.

Book Review: Predator X by CJ Waller

*This is NOT the cover of Predator X which I can't find anywhere other than Amazon. This is a pliosaur, the monster in the water*

When deep level oil fracking uncovers a vast subterranean sea, a crack team of cavers and scientists are sent down to investigate.
Upon their arrival, they disappear without a trace.
A second team, including sedimentologist Dr Megan Stoker, are ordered to seek out Alpha Team and report back their findings. But Alpha team are nowhere to be found – instead, they are faced with something unexpected in the depths.
Something ancient.
Something huge.
Something dangerous.
Predator X

My Review: 
This had the potential to be a really great story and I very much enjoyed the beginning. It gives a brief paragraph about events so far and then gets straight on to the rescue mission entering the cave system. Megan is a bit claustrophobic on the journey down and gets tense when anyone is out of contact for a few minutes in case she is abandoned. We find out her opinion on her team through her thoughts. More on that later.

The action seems to start quickly once they find the sea and try to cross it in search of Alpha Team but in truth there is no other monster action until p70 which was a disappointment. I had hoped to see a lot of Predator X as I assumed that this is what the book is about. Instead between pages 19 and 70, the team explore the island they are stuck on, find some alien type structures and weird things and  start to realise what happened to the other team.The short piece of action for a few pages around p70 is ok but could have been written to make it sound a bit more exciting. Then we go back to the living on the island thing and fighting amongst ourselves thing that has been there for most of the book. Calling the book Predator X is as misleading as the blurb which makes the sea monster sound like the main story where it actually only appears significantly three times in the book. The rest is an exploration of this alien structure and finding the strange entity that lives there. It was a bit disappointing to discover that what I thought was a horror story is really a complex science fiction story, a genre I'm not keen on.

As for the characters, I barely liked any of them. Marcus was an asshat from page one-and why is that true of most of these kinds of stories? You get the total jerk who then argues with everyone  then they argue with each other and it gets old very fast. Megan is a real pain and I wish I could have blocked out her thoughts on the others. One minute she thinks Marcus is harmless flirt guy then seconds later he is the biggest sexist asshat the world has seen and she can't stand him. When he is mouthing off she hates it but as soon as he goes quiet or gets depressed she wants the old Marcus back, and when THAT happens she hates him again! She thinks Brendan is a sweet nerd, then a psychotic fanatic that needs watched then she likes him because he is the most sensible. She hates Fi for looking down on her, then loves her as a fearless capable leader, then thinks she is an autocratic bitch, then a great person to get them out. WTF??? Megan, you were seriously getting on my nerves with all this rubbish! As for Megan's grand plan to kill the monster, well that was so stupid that I was laughing out loud. The big plot reveal was hardly a surprise when the author dropped massive clanging hints with neon arrows pointing before it with Yuri's warnings and what Megan sees and chooses not to believe. 

The ending also left me cold. I didn't find it a surprise, didn't hate it, didn't love it. By this point I was feeling pretty indifferent and just read to the end to see if anyone survived. Overall a great idea was spoiled by all the alien stuff in the middle. If the author had stuck to the horror plot that the blurb suggests, then this could have been a really good book. What a pity!

Sci-fi fans might enjoy this.

Book Review: The Zombies take Manhattan by Louise Ann Barton

A psychological thriller: It’s the spring of 2013, the time of the great Zombie Apocalypse. Upper Manhattan is the last area to fall and mystery writer, Christine Chambers and her kitty take refuge inside the Cloisters museum. Hiding in the castle, surrounded by iron gates, steep ramparts, and secret passages, she is soon joined by a madman, hungry animals, and evolving zombies.

My Review:
The idea of a woman taking refuge from the zombie apocalypse in her favourite fortified museum was a good one and the idea that she ends up sharing her hideaway with a wanted serial killer who murders women was a nice sounding twist. I thought that this was going to be a totally different take on the zombie novel. Well I was right but sadly I did not enjoy this one.

To be fair to the author, there is nothing wrong with the writing style or storytelling. It seemed well edited and put together. My only issue is that I did not enjoy the book personally.

Christine was one of the most annoying women you could ever be trapped in a building with. The character is a crime author and likes to talk like a romantic heroine from some bad historical romance. She is over dramatic, over 'girlie' and annoying as hell! I swear that she sees herself as Cathy in Wuthering Heights, floating around like lady of the manor and then locked up with big bad serial killing, cat hater Heathcliffe!!! She is also very dumb-I mean are you seriously just going to leave the other set of keys to your sanctuary just lying outside for any nutter to pick up? Well, yes if you are Christine. She had WEEKS to retreive the keys but didn't so in comes the serial killer.

And she keeps letting her cat wander around when she KNOWS he wants to kill it!!! I'm not a fan of cats and having her screaming 'you promised not to hurt Kitty!' every few pages had me grinding my teeth. I don't know how Erik restrained himself from murdering her because I certainly wanted to by about the 10th page. I wanted him to kill her AND Kitty! I just can't stand characters like this even though I know she was made that way for dramatic plots and purposes. I just didn't take to this book and when I flicked through to see what happened, I found the ending was really rushed and pretty poor.

If you like the lighter chick-lit style of zombie novel/thriller and don't mind that type of main character, you might well like it.

Throwback Thursday #19

This Meme is hosted by Melissa at My World in Words and Pages. Go to her blog and join us!

I blog about great looking new releases, new books sent to me for read and review, book reviews of what I've read and features about exciting new authors to try.

But what about all the books that are already on my TBR, waiting for me to read them? Don't they deserve a mention and a chance to be highlighted? Yes they do!

Welcome to Throwback Thursday, where I will take the time to tell you about some of the books that have been on my shelves for a while and maybe a few of you will add them to your wishlists/tbrs. If you have read them, why not leave a comment to tell me what you thought of it-but no spoilers please! 

This week I'm spotlighting tbrs from series I haven't read by authors I've already tried and liked. This made me buy the books listed below. FYI, the series I've tried by the authors are Devon Monk-Magic to the Bone, Jaye Wells-Red headed stepchild and CE Murphy-Urban Shaman.

Instead of the deadly force it once was, magic is now a useless novelty. But not for Shame Flynn and Terric Conley, “breakers” who have the gift for reverting magic back to its full-throttle power. In the magic-dense city of Portland, Oregon, keeping a low profile means keeping their gifts quiet. After three years of dealing with disgruntled magic users, Shame and Terric have had enough of politics, petty magic, and, frankly, each other. It’s time to call it quits.

When the government discovers the breakers’ secret—and its potential as a weapon—Shame and Terric suddenly become wanted men, the only ones who can stop the deadly gift from landing in the wrong hands. If only a pair of those wrong hands didn’t belong to a drop-dead-gorgeous assassin Shame is falling for as if it were the end of the world. And if he gets too close to her, it very well could be....

The last thing patrol cop Kate Prospero expected to find on her nightly rounds was a werewolf covered in the blood of his latest victim. But then, she also didn't expect that shooting him would land her in the crosshairs of a Magic Enforcement Agency task force, who wants to know why she killed their lead snitch.

The more Prospero learns about the dangerous new potion the MEA is investigating, the more she's convinced that earning a spot on their task force is the career break she's been wanting. But getting the assignment proves much easier than solving the case. Especially once the investigation reveals their lead suspect is the man she walked away from ten years earlier—on the same day she swore she'd never use dirty magic again.

Kate Prospero's about to learn the hard way that crossing a wizard will always get you burned, and that when it comes to magic, you should be never say never.

Okay, so jogging through Central Park after midnight wasn't a bright idea. But Margrit Knight never thought she'd encounter a dark new world filled with magical beings -- not to mention a dying woman and a mysterious stranger with blood on his hands. Her logical, lawyer instincts told her it couldn't all be real -- but she could hardly deny what she'd seen . . . and touched.
The mystery man, Alban, was a gargoyle. One of the fabled Old Races who had hidden their existence for centuries. Now he was a murder suspect, and he needed Margrit's help to take the heat off him and find the real killer. 

As they worked together to figure out who was framing Alban, Margrit discovered that this man with a heart -- and body -- of stone made her feel more alive than ever, And as the dead pile up, it's a race against the sunrise to clear Alban's name and keep them both alive . . .