Throwback Thursday #38

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 am starting to look at the tbrs that are on my Kindle and Kobo. And there are quite a lot of them so that will keep us going for a good few weeks! 

Bennett Sinclair is a professional bodyguard. It says so on his business card. But when an old friend asks him to come down to New Orleans to help find his girlfriend's killer, this reluctant, closet psychic couldn't refuse. Along the way, he learns the world is vaster, and much stranger than he could have imagined. Bennett would be the first one to tell you the universe has it in for him. If only it was as simple as finding a murderer it would be fine. No, he has to find a serial killer and, while he's at it, get the local ghoul clan to hold off on his execution, stop the werewolves from participating and, if he's lucky, the local mummy will give him some pointers.

For ten years now, humanity has been at war with the creatures of darkness. The war has changed the world. The day now belongs to humanity and the night belongs to things once thought to exist only in myths and legends... but there is hope.

This new enemy has united humanity and an army has stepped forward to protect the light from the darkness. An army of heroes.

The Day Soldiers.

Eighteen year old Lily Baxter always knew the Day Soldiers would be a major part of her life. She had been preparing for it since she was eight. She was ready to go to war.

The one thing she wasn't prepared for was the day the war came to her.

There’s always been something a bit off about Perry Palomino. Though she’s been dealing with a quarter-life crisis and post-college syndrome like any other twentysomething, she’s still not what you would call “ordinary.” For one thing, there’s her past which she likes to pretend never happened, and then there’s the fact that she sees ghosts. Luckily for her, that all comes in handy when she stumbles across Dex Foray, an eccentric producer for an upcoming webcast on ghost hunters. Even though the show’s budget is non-existent and Dex himself is a maddening enigma, Perry is instantly drawn into a world that both threatens her life and seduces her with a sense of importance. Her uncle’s haunted lighthouse provides the perfect catalyst and backdrop for a horrific mystery that unravels the threads of Perry’s fragile sanity and causes her to fall for a man, who, like the most dangerous of ghosts, may not be all that he seems.

Book Review: Zoo by James Patterson

All over the world, brutal animal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the impending violence becomes terrifyingly clear.

With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide.

My Review: 
I loved the Alex Cross books despite not liking crime novels as a general rule. I liked a few of the other novels that he has written in different genres. What they all have in common is good solid writing, interesting plots and characters you care about. Sadly this book was lacking on all three fronts and was a huge disappointment.

Lets start with the good bits. I liked the way the book opened with the lion attack though I felt it could have been a bit more exciting. I liked the idea of the animals turning against humans and man becoming the hunted species. 

Now the bad. The main character who is our beloved hero is just an irritating, sexist, annoying asshat. And those are his good features. Oz is a smug, self obsessed idiot whose constant motivation is to prove that he was right and others are wrong. His 'woe is me, I'm so hard done by' attitude was grating on my nerves about three pages after he was introduced. We get him moaning and complaining about nobody taking his theory seriously for chapter after chapter and I was looking forward to him getting mauled by something nasty. Death by anaconda perhaps or a nice shark...Fantasies aside, I hated him more as the book progressed. And of course the uber sexy scientific expert that he happens to meet and save in Africa just falls in love with him ten seconds later. I have no idea what she sees in him but from him we got the continual smug comments about how hot this babe was. He was only interested in her intelligence and credentials when it backed up his theories and made him look less like a moron.

As for plot, there were some great big holes that were pretty annoying. So Oz is unhappy that nobody believes his theory that animals are starting to see humans as prey-yet he keeps a male chimp confined in his apartment? Firstly, an animal lover should know that chimps should not be kept as human pets and taught cute human habits. They should be living in monkey communities and taught monkey behaviour. He admits to being so obsessed with his theory that he is losing everything-his career, girlfriend etc yet he still keeps a wild animal in his apartment and asks other people to look after him while he jets around the world? Buddy, if your theory is correct, your pet is dangerous to everyone yet you expose untrained people to him on a regular basis! Of course, events prove him to be right and put people he knows in real danger. The so called sex scene was horribly written and made me cringe. I'm so glad it was edited so that we didn't get most of the details. I also got very annoyed at the sudden decision to just skip out five years of plot just as the animal attacks were starting to pick up pace. This was the last straw and I had had enough.

The writing was really dreadful. The story did not flow well, the descriptions were unclear and confusing, and the initial animal attacks lacked tension and interest. To say that I was shocked by the shoddy work displayed here was an understatement and I expected so much more from an author with a flair for storytelling and character development. The other thing that really bugged me was how long it took to get to what I thought was the plot. Reading the back of the book, it sounds like animals are meant to be rampaging down your street attacking every human in sight. Well we spent so long on Oz and his one man ego trip that hardly anything significant had happened in the urban environment after242 pages-and that's when we skip five years. Great. 

Add that to the lack of an ending and this whole book felt like a giant waste of my time. I don't recommend it to anyone and I will think twice before picking up anything except Alex Cross by this author in the future. I expected so much more from him and it is always sad when a book that you really loved the sound of is such a let down.  

Reading with Chuckles #6

Welcome to Reading with Chuckles! This is where I fill you in on what I'm reading each week-what it is, where I got it or heard about it, what I think of it, if I'm continuing with it or abandoning it and any special offers I'm aware of where you can try the book yourself. Comments are welcome but no spoilers please! It's not fair to other readers!

So it has been a week of upheaval in the house, having workmen fitting new windows and doors, so a lot of time this week has been spent moving things and cleaning up! Not much reading time recently but I did read one book, though it was a massive disappointment. I was reading Zoo by James Patterson. This book was really bad-bad writing, terrible MC, poor plot development-it was just dreadful! My review is going up later this day so you can see it.

All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the impending violence becomes terrifyingly clear.

With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide.

Release Day Blitz: Brew, Boil by David Estes

Salem’s Revenge strikes without warning or mercy, ravaging the powerless human race under the forces of united gangs of witches, wizards, and warlocks. During the slaughter, Rhett Carter's foster parents and sister are killed, and his best friend and girlfriend are abducted by a gang of witches calling themselves the Necromancers, who deal in the dark magic of raising the dead. Rhett’s sword-wielding neighbor with a mysterious past saves Rhett from becoming another casualty of the massacre and teaches him the skills he needs to survive in this new world.

Rhett is broken, his normal high school life of book blogging and football playing shoved in a witch-apocalyptic blender. The only thing he has left is his burning desire for revenge. Armed with his new witch hunting skills and a loyal, magic powered dog named Hex, he sets out into the unknown with one mission: hunt and destroy those who took away everyone he ever loved.

But Rhett isn’t just a witch hunter; He has secrets of his own that he has yet to discover, secrets that his enemies will stop at nothing to keep him from.

And discovering the truth about himself is the human race’s only hope.

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Revenge. That’s all that’s left for witch hunter Rhett Carter. The magic-born have stripped everything from him - killed his friends, cursed his warlock father, shattered his future - leaving him bare and broken, but not dead. Their mistake.

When Rhett and Laney are suddenly thrust in different directions, Rhett must decide who to trust and who to kill. Backed by his trusty canine sidekick Hex, Rhett will embark on his deadliest mission yet, one that will lead him directly toward those who want him dead, pushing his unique resistance to magic to the edge and back again as he tries to remove his father’s curse.

Separated from Rhett, Laney seeks to understand the strange changes to her sister, Trish, who’s believed to be the last living Clairvoyant, and what role she’s destined to play in the future of humankind.

Wrapped around everything are four major groups: the Necromancers, the Changelings, the witch hunters, and New America, the remnants of humanity. When the major forces are brought together for an epic battle, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

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Purchase & Goodreads Links

Get both Brew and its sequel, Boil, the first two books in the Salem's Revenge series, for a special price of $0.99 each for a limited time only (Amazon Kindle exclusive: Brew until October 17th; Boil until October 7th) Click on the buttons to take advantage of this limited time deal!

Brew: http://www.amazon.com/Brew-Salems-Revenge-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00NE7DUQM/ref=la_B007R75PEU_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411446879&sr=1-16

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brew-Salems-Revenge-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00NE7DUQM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-4&qid=1412166690

Boil: http://www.amazon.com/Boil-Salems-Revenge-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00NXFPMPC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411722568&sr=1-1&keywords=Boil+Estes

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boil-Salems-Revenge-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00NXFPMPC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-17&qid=1412166553 

Brew on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18050390-brew

Boil on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22960811-boil

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About David and Links

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3167424.David_Estes

David's Blog: http://www.davidestesbooks.blogspot.com.au/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidestesbooks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Davidestesbooks

Tumblr: http://davidestesbooks.tumblr.com

David's Goodreads Fan Group: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/70863-david-estes-fans-and-ya-book-lovers-unite

David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. David grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife. They now live together in their dream location, Hawaii. A reader all his life, he began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010, and started writing full time in June 2012. Now he travels the world writing with his wife, Adele. David's a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table.

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Free Fire Country eBook!

To celebrate the launch of Brew and Boil, David Estes is also giving away FREE Kindle copies of his popular YA dystopian AND adventure book, Fire Country.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Country-The-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B00B7VTXFO

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16160701-fire-country

Demolition and the Great Spider Hunt

Yes I'm back! I've been offline for a few days to get new windows fitted in my hall, kitchen and bathroom, and a new front and back door. This meant moving a pile of stuff out, the upheaval and noise, and getting everything cleaned and put back in place. To be fair, the guys worked well and tidied up most of the mess behind them which was good.

However there were two problems! Firstly the company that the guys ordered the doors from sent us a back door with a letterbox in it which looks so stupid! I mean seriously, what are we going to do with a letterbox in it? Push dog biscuits outside to feed foxes and badgers at night??? So we need to wait for a new one to get ordered which could be ANOTHER six week wait so I'm not greatly happy.

But the WORSE news is that all this building work has given us a bloody invasion of big hairy spiders into the kitchen. I was scared shitless by one about an hour ago but we can't find the bugger to get rid of it so I'm not going in there until it is found and dealt with. Yes I'm an arachnophobe on a Ron Weasley level and I just can't deal with the horrible things.

So after I get my blog posts done, the hunt will have to continue.

*shudder*