Book Review: Eve of Darkness by SJ Day (Marked #1)

Cursed by God, hunted by demons, desired by Cain and Abel... All in a day's work.

For Evangeline Hollis, a long ago fling with a bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks just became a disaster of biblical proportions. One night with a leather-clad man of mystery has led to a divine punishment: the Mark of Cain.

Thrust into a world where sinners are drafted into service to kill demons, Eve’s learning curve is short. A longtime agnostic, she begrudgingly maneuvers through a celestial bureaucracy where she is a valuable but ill-treated pawn. She’s also become the latest point of contention in the oldest case of sibling rivalry in history...

But she’ll worry about all that later. Right now she’s more concerned with learning to kill while staying alive. And saving the soul she’d never believed she had.

My Review: 
Eve has a fling with an archangel, causing her to be cursed to chase demons as punishment for her crime. Now she has to find a way to stay alive and save her soul while avoiding further temptation.

I had really looked forward to reading this book...in fact I was so excited by the sound of it that I bought the whole trilogy in the shop. And they have great covers! What could possibly go wrong? Em, I opened the book. Boy was I wishing I hadn't.

This is not the urban/dark fantasy book that I was expecting. It wasn't even a good dark biblical/mythology book. It was a very poorly written sexathon. Seriously, how many times does the pointless slut of a heroine have sex? Page after page of the terrible 'Anita Blake' soft porn that made me give up THAT serious around book 10. The fact that Eve was punished in the first place for sex with the wrong guy doesn't seem to have taught her any damn sense.

So our wonderful oversexed heroine is trying not to be tempted again by the one she got in trouble with, Cain, while trying not to get involved with Abel. Just as irresistable as Anita as well I see! Ooh how exciting this love triangle was to prove! Not. Lets face it, the characters were idiots that I didn't give a damn about, the plot was wafer thin and what sounded like an interesting concept was not developed into a good book. After abandoning book one, I traded the whole series for something better.  

Book Review-The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on 28 September 1330. Nearly seven hundred years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life. The records show that he died in 1418. But his tomb is empty and Nicholas Flamel lives. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects - the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. And that's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it. Sometimes legends are true. And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.

My Review: 
There is a reason that I am wary of books that are proclaimed as 'The New Harry Potter'. It is because Harry Potter was so unique in its characters, mythology and world-building that nothing will ever match it for me.  So I was already a bit wary of this one and I ended up pretty disappointed overall.

Firstly the characters. Flamel is the adult book hero with his magic and experience but he just lacked the warmth and charisma of a Dumbledore type figure. He was ok but at times he was a bit dull. I wanted to hear more about his adventures in his long life as those small bits were really enjoyable. For the most part though, it was him telling the kids what to do but not always explaining everything that an adult in this situation would do. His wife Perenelle was a much better character. She was feisty, funny and charming but spends the whole book being held hostage by the bad guys so we don't see as much of her as I'd like. Sophie and Josh were not great lead characters. Josh is a highly immature, obnoxious, rude little git with no appreciation for the people who are keeping them safe and I just didn't like him at all. Sophie was a nicer character but she just didn't have any real depth to her and she was also very immature in her actions. 

It was a decent plot which is why I so much wanted to like the book more than I did. The first 100 pages were not really grabbing me. The magical fight in the bookshop was a bit lame and boring. I wanted MORE action, bangs, flames, whooshing magic...not a couple of bits of light and rotten smells. The story lacked that build up of tension just before a fight or an escape which I love in a good book. In this one however, they just move from one situation to another without that drama and fear. After page 100 it did improve and there were a couple of good action sequences but then it all slowed down again to let Josh be a baby for a while AGAIN. 

The author's writing style gave me a few issues. I felt it didn't quite flow as much as I'd have liked. I HATED the fact that every time the author mentioned the bad guy, he called him Dr John Dee. The chapter would start with Dr John Dee sitting in his chair then Dr John Dee would talk to someone then Dr John Dee would walk around then Dr John Dee would sit down again. GRRR! OK we get his name! He was introduced right at the start as our bad guy so you don't need his full name every single time we see him! That really got on my nerves! Just refer to him as John or Dee for goodness sake. I felt as if I was reading one of those learn to read books where Kathy and Mark go to the shops and Kathy and Mark say hello to the dog. Very annoying.

I felt as if I was ploughing through this book more than reading it so it obviously was not going to grab me and pull me in. I took ages to finish it, with a sense of relief, and decided not to read the rest of the series.

New Release: Matt Archer Redemption by Kendra C Highley (Matt Archer #5)

“There’s more to me than you know…”

When Matt Archer’s sister, Mamie, said those words to him three years ago, he had no idea how prophetic they were, or what this would mean for his family.

Now, he knows. And it changes everything, bringing the war right to Matt’s doorstep.

In the epic conclusion to the Matt Archer series, the endgame is near. Betrayed by an enemy, the wielders have been called off the hunt by their own government, despite increasing reports of paranormal activity—and deaths—worldwide. Matt is forced to sit on the sidelines, knowing that proving monsters exist means revealing who—and what—he is. Soon the world will know his name…which will only make his job harder.

Matt’s only hope resides with a man he barely knows—his father. If Erik Archer can put together the final puzzle before the monsters do, maybe they’ll have a chance. Maybe.

Mystery, tragedy and the power of family combine as Matt races to win the war and save the people he loves. There’s just one thing he’s afraid of…

It might already be too late.

Kendra C. Highley lives in north Texas with her husband and two children. She also serves as staff to two self-important and high-powered cats. This, according to the cats, is her most important job. She believes chocolate is a basic human right, running a 10k is harder than it sounds, and that everyone should learn to drive a stick-shift. She loves monsters, vacations, baking and listening to bad electronica. 

http://kendrachighley.com/ 
https://twitter.com/KendraHighley 
https://www.facebook.com/kchighley 
http://www.pinterest.com/kchighley/ 
http://www.wattpad.com/user/KendraHighley 
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6450754.Kendra_C_Highley 

Stacking the Shelves #41

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

               

No STS last week as I had no books at all to report but I do have a couple this week. I've spent the week clearing through all the things my mum was been hoarding for years. I've never seen so many towels, plates and cups! We're donating everything to a local charity shop that my mum supported. When we went to deliver the clothes, an idiot woman reversed out of a nearby garage, missed my dad by inches and crashed into our car, destroying the bumper. 'Oh I didn't see you' she says, pulling out her chequebook and offering us money not to report it. Typical rich idiot who thinks they can wave money at you and make it go away. I nearly went for her throat! I was ill the whole afternoon thinking how my dad could have been hurt. Then we had the potato incident. Oh that was good. Back in February we bought a big bag of potatoes for my mum to make soup with. Just after that she started chemo and wasn't well enough to make it so we left the bag on a chair in the kitchen and some old clothes for use in the garden got thrown on top of them. So during our July heatwave this week we noticed a horrible smell in the kitchen and saw a big puddle of what looked like tar dripping down. Yes it was the fermented potatoes and the SMELL!!! UGH! Our eyes were watering and we were gagging as we cleaned up the mess and got rid of the buggers! It was an interesting week...!

 

FREE DOWNLOAD:

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21937282-anywhere-but-here

BOOKCROSSING:

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2881228-the-quilter-s-kitchen 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/108568.The_Policy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12113042-the-witch-mark 

 

BOUGHT:

I bought this gorgeous hat with attached scarf and mitts on Amazon. Very warm and very cute!

 

FOLLOW ME:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3426724-chucklesthescot 

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/ 
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/9910183/chuckles-book-cave 

https://twitter.com/chucklesthescot 

https://plus.google.com/107869792450677466935/posts 

http://www.pinterest.com/chucklesthescot/

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/114319-my-big-fat-indie-book-gang  

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/48169-my-big-fat-booky-challenge-athon

 

My Latest Musings #9

I've decided each week to talk a bit about my previous week and what I enjoyed reading and watching, my plans for the coming week and any news I have. Hopefully that will motivate me to get things done!

So it has been a week since I posted my last blog message. As most of you know, my mum died three weeks ago and I was not motivated to do very much. Over the last ten days my dad and I have had to tackle all the legal stuff, clear out our house of everything she hoarded for years(how many plates and cups do we need???) and deal with financial issues. I have had very little time on the computer to check emails and do essential stuff never mind trying to blog etc. 

However, we are slowly getting there. Today the kitchen was finished and it looks a lot tidier. That was three days of hellish work thanks to a bag of potatoes fermenting under a pile of old clothes on a chair that we had forgotten about. We started to notice a rank awful smell and then I saw a puddle of what looked like black tar on the floor under the chair. I had a sniff at it and it nearly blew my head off! Jeez it was awful! The two of us were gagging as we cleaned it up and scrubbed the floor. It was the excuse we needed to get the kitchen fully tidied and deep cleaned. So I suppose it was worth it!


We still have a lot to get through but I hope to be online more in the next week or two. There was no Stacking the Shelves this week as I didn't download or buy any books. Not sure if there will be one this week. Anyway, hope to see you guys soon!