Chuckles Cover Love #19

If there is one thing that makes a great book even better, it is when it has a cover that we love! The cover design is what catches the eye as we browse through a bookstore shelf or check out the Amazon or Goodreads recommendations. The right cover makes me look closer at a book, to read the blurb and maybe make a purchase. A poor cover might mean I never look at the blurb at all. 

This week I'm looking at an action packed YA horror series with mutant monsters. Yest It's Matt Archer Monster Hunter! What I love about these covers are the splashes of colour with the landscape backgrounds and the magic knife appearing on each one. You can tell looking at them that there is a horror element to the books and I like that. I love that vivid blue on Legend though Bloodlines and Blade's Edge are my favourites!

Chuckles Retro Reads: Dying Bites by DD Barant (Bloodhound Files #1)

Her job description is the “tracking and apprehension of mentally-fractured killers.” What this really means in FBI profiler Jace Valchek’s brave new world—one in which only one percent of the population is human—is that a woman’s work is never done. And real is getting stranger every day…

Jace has been ripped from her reality by David Cassius, the vampire head of the NSA. He knows that she’s the best there in the business, and David needs her help in solving a series of gruesome murders of vampires and werewolves. David’s world—one that also includes lycanthropes and golems—is one with little knowledge of mental illness. An insane serial killer is a threat the NSA has no experience with. But Jace does. Stranded in a reality where Bela Lugosi is a bigger box office draw than Bruce Willis and every full moon is Mardi Gras, Jace must now hunt down a fellow human before he brings the entire planet to the brink of madness. Or she may never see her own world again…

My Review: 
Jace Valchek is an FBI profiler with a proven track record for hunting psychopaths. When a possible mentally ill human starts killing supernatural beings in their world, vampire NSA head Cassius takes Jace from her world to come to his and solve the case. If she fails, she may never see her own world again. But the human she seeks offers to be her ally instead-does she ally with a fellow human to overthrow the government who brought her here by force, or does she betray her rebelling species instead?

This was a very good, action packed urban fantasy adventure, exactly the kind that I enjoy. There is no extra waffle, no slow scenes, no boring bits and the story flows smoothly, grabbing the reader and pulling you along for the ride. I didn't want to put this down once I got started. There are so many characters to enjoy as well. Jace is a tough agent who deals with scumbags on a daily basis but she is way over her head trying to deal with a cast of vampires and werewolves who might want to eat her! I like that she is angry about her situation, confused by her surroundings and makes a ton of mistakes. Who wouldn't in those circumstances? And the doubts she had about what side she was really on gave it an interesting twist.

You also have the boss man who is cool, attractive and just a little sinister if you get on the wrong side of him, but I liked him. The author also introduced the golems which was something a bit different for me, especially in a starring role. Jace is given a golem bodyguard called Charlie who wears sharp suits and fedoras-a vision that really cracked me up just thinking about it. I kinda had an image of The Thing from Fantastic Four in my head! Charlie was my favourite character as he is witty and we get some really funny interactions between him and Jace.There are other sidekicks who appear through the book to help her and I liked them all, which makes a change.

“I look over at him. He stares straight ahead.
"So," I say. "Golem, huh?"
"I prefer the term 'Mineral-American.”

 
It was interesting for the human to be stranded in a world where she is in the minority and in constant danger, which has Jace on edge the whole time. I also liked the way the people of the two worlds were fascinated by each others technology and strange ways. I really enjoyed the plot as well. The book cleverly mixes our world history into a supernatural context ie what happened to vampires and werewolves in Nazi style camps with death and medical experimentation, plus we had the serial killer story as well. For those who like a bit of romance, there are several potential love interests for Jace in future books which could be interesting.

A good supporting cast kept this book fresh, good action, good humour and I really look forward to reading book 2 at some point.

Chuckles 2017 Series Read Challenge-April

Yes this month AT LAST, I am going to start to tackle the Morganville Vampires series including all the short stories. I have only previously read Glass Houses, the first book but that was about four years ago so I'll reread that then binge read the rest of the series, probably over the next few months. It would be great to read it in one month but that seems unlikely with lots of other books I might get in the mood to read. Still, if I can get at least some of it looked at this month it's a start!

Various websites seem to disagree on the order of the short stories in the series timeline and the Rachel Caine anthology Midnight Bites has them in order that you read the short stories-but fails to say where each one slots in between full novels. That is NOT helpful when I want to read them in the right darn order!!! I would've expected more clarity from the series author. So now I'm going to have to guess plus I have various stories from the series that don't appear in Midnight Bites. Gah. Again I'll need to guess. 

But at least I'm going to get it done! It's long overdue and I feel that I either get it done this year or I'm never going to do it. Wish me luck, I'm going in!

1-Glass Houses
2-The Dead Girls Dance
3-Midnight Alley
4-Feast of Fools
5-Lord of Misrule
6-Carpe Corpus
7-Fade Out
8-Kiss of Death
9-Ghost Town
10-Bite Club
11-Last Breath
12-Black Dawn
13-Bitter Blood
14-Fall of Night
15- Daylighters

Short stories: (Midnight Bites)
Myrnin's Tale
Nothing like an Angel
Sam's Story
Grudge
New Blood
The First Day of the Rest of your Life
Amelie's Story
Wrong Place Wrong Time
Dead Man Stalking
Lunch Date
All Hallows
Murdered Out
Worth Living For
Drama Queen's Last Dance
Vexed
Signs and Miracles
Anger Management
Automatic
Dark Rides
Pitch-Black Blues
A Whisper in the Dark
And One for the Devil 

Other Short Stories:
Eve's Diary
Let Them Eat Cake 

OTHER SERIES:

Sonya Bateman-Gavyn Donatti
1) Master of None #1 (previously read)
2) The Getaway #1.5 (previously read)
3) Master and Apprentice #2

Eric S Brown-Bigfoot War
1) Bigfoot War omnibus 1-3 (previously read)
2) Eric S Brown-Redneck Apocalypse
3) Eric S Brown-Zombie Apocalypse
4) Eric S Brown-After the Fall 
5) Eric S Brown-Outbreak
6) Eric S Brown-Frontier
7) Eric S Brown-Tales of the Sasquatch Apocalypse
8) Eric S Brown-The End

Jack Kilborn-Afraid
1) Afraid #1 (previously read)
2) Trapped #2
3) Endurance #3
4) Haunted House #4 

Cherie Priest-Cheshire Red Reports
1) Bloodshot #1 (previously read)
2) Hellbent #2

Patricia Briggs-Mercy Thompson
1-8 (previously read)
9) Fire Touched

Chuckles Weekend Roundup

Welcome to my new feature Chuckles Weekend Roundup where I will be looking at what books I've received, anything interesting I've done or bought or watched and other random stuff. I'll be taking a look back at what happened in my blogging world too, sort of like The Sunday Post that some of you do! 

Please note that I'll be visiting your STS/SP as normal, but I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow DISQUS to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I am the only one who does that on my blog! Sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress-they try to block me because I deleted my account with them but I will persevere as it only happens the odd time!

****************

Well it has been one of those weeks where I've been tired and grumpy with lots of housework to do, and resorting to lounging in front of the TV and buying books for retail therapy. I'm awaiting a package as we speak! I haven't really got any reading done this week, spending time catching up with my Gold Rush dvds instead and chomping at the bit to get started on my Horror Month reads for April! Glad it is finally April so I can get on with those bad boys! I'm excited by what is coming this month! I'll be making a start to my Morganville Vampires series read, plus some horror, Bigfoots, ghosts, zombies just for some added fun...

On the book buying side of things I managed to get a copy of the first repo man book. Not my usual type of read but Barb raves about the series and it does have a cute dog! Also picked up a few new additions to series I'm following-Z Children, The Survivalist and Ranger, which is quite exciting! Also a couple of urban fantasy books and a couple of short zombie stories which I hope to fit in this month in Horror Week!

DOWNLOADS: 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34108620-stasis-part-1-1 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33647335-blood-sacrifice 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29463426-necroville 

PAPERBACKS: 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20518822-the-midnight-plan-of-the-repo-man 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25646471-stone-and-a-hard-place 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28801823-z-children 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31113799-dark-days 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33307197-freedom-lost 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34741744-death-comes-calling 

Chuckles Blogging World: 

It was another productive blogging week at The Book Cave. I managed to fit in everything I wanted to do and got a few bonus posts done so I'm happy. I did get all the comments left on the blog answered and had enough time to do some visiting too. Can't ask for much more than that. I had been going to do a post the day Brexit was announced as it is a historical moment but I couldn't find an interesting post to do off the top of my head. Maybe I'll save it for Brexit itself in two years time! Links as always to take you direct to any posts you missed this week. 

Book Reviews: 

This week I featured a few retro reads and current reviews so you can swamp your tbrs including zombies, mutant monsters, apocalypses, dinosaurs and some Tudor scandal. A nice mixture this week I think. 

Eli Constant-Dead Trees

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chuckles-retro-reads-dead-trees-by-eli.html 

Bobby Adair-Slow Burn Zero Day

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chuckles-retro-reads-slow-burn-zero-day.html 

Kendra C Highley-Matt Archer Monster Hunter

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chuckles-retro-reads-matt-archer.html 

Ella March Chase-Three Maids for a Crown

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chuckles-retro-reads-three-maids-for.html 

Hugo Navikov-Spinosaurus

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/book-review-spinosaurus-by-hugo-navikov.html 

Chuckles Mini Reviews Round Up:

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chuckles-mini-reviews-catch-up_29.html

Regular Features:

Top Ten Tuesday-Ten Short Stories & Novellas to try!

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/top-ten-tuesday_28.html 

Chuckles Cover Love-Lucy A Snyder

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chuckles-cover-love-18.html 

Discussion Posts:

 Chuckles Chat-The Library. What is the service like?

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chuckles-chat-10-library.html

Game of Thrones Gossip #8-Tyrion Lannister

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/game-of-thrones-gossip-8-tyrion.html

Authors Behaving Badly-An example of how NOT to speak to reviewers!

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/authors-behaving-badly.html 

Special Features:

Guest Post-Booker T from http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.co.uk/ discusses why dogs are better than cats in real life and fiction!

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/guest-post-welcome-to-booker-t.html 

Book Challenge Updates: 

It was a pretty good month for my challenges. My Monster Month of March was a success with 26 books out of 31 completed and that was with a few days off from reading as the month ended. I'm happy with that. On the series catch up, I completed all but two series. Each of them has one book left to get me up to date so I can maybe them them on to this month without any problem. Overall, a good month for these two challenges.

Monster Month of March Review

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/the-monster-month-of-march-update.html 

Chuckles 2017 Series Read Challenge Review

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/chuckles-2017-series-read-challenge_31.html 

My Goodreads Challenge total currently stands at 78/250 so I need to push on this week and get a pile of things read.

TBR total of books I own but haven't read yet stands at 818. I've been buying too many books this month but I plan to reduce that total to under 800 by my next post. I'm confident I can do it if I don't buy anything this week. (HAR!)

That's all for this week! Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit my blog and leave comments. You guys are great! 

FOLLOW ME:

https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chuckles-book-cave-9910183 

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

https://twitter.com/chucklesthescot 

https://uk.pinterest.com/chucklesthescot/

 

April Horror Month

Welcome to Horror Month at The Book Cave! I'll be reading a whole mixture of books and short stories this month all with a horror theme. There may be monsters. There will be gore! There will be death! There will be scares and excitement! *screams*

As I'm also starting a series catch up of The Morganville Vampires this month, the first four books and some short stories from up to book five in the timeline will be on the list, along with short Bigfoot War stories so it looks like a huge pile I'm reading when lots are short stories! It should get the tbr down in a hurry!

Books:
1) Jack Kilborn-Trapped
2) Jack Kilborn-Endurance
3) Jack Kilborn-Haunted House
4) Eric S Brown-Redneck Apocalypse (read)
5) Eric S Brown-Zombie Apocalypse (read)
6) Eric S Brown-After the Fall (read)
7) Eric S Brown-Outbreak (read)
8) Eric S Brown-Frontier (read)
9) Eric S Brown-Tales of the Sasquatch Apocalypse (read)
10) Eric S Brown-The End
11) Rachel Caine-Myrnin's Tale (read)
12) Rachel Caine-Nothing like an angel (read)
13) Rachel Caine-Sam's Story (read)
14) Rachel Caine-Grudge (read)
15) Rachel Caine-New Blood (read)
16) Rachel Caine-The First Day of the Rest of Your Life (read)
17) Rachel Caine-Glass Houses (read)
18) Rachel Caine-Eve's Diary (read)
19) Rachel Caine-Amelie's Story
20) Rachel Caine-Dead Girls Dance 
21) Rachel Caine-Midnight Alley
22) Rachel Caine-Wrong Place Wrong Time
23) Rachel Caine-Feast of Fools
24) Rachel Caine-Dead Man Stalking
25) Keith RA DeCandido-Resident Evil Extinction
26) John Shirley-Resident Evil Retribution
27) SD Perry-Resident Evil The Umbrella Conspiracy
28) Thomas E. Sniegoski-The Demonists
29) Sonya Bateman-Wrong Side of Hell
30) Sonya Bateman-Master And Apprentice
31) John Ringo-Under a Graveyard Sky
32) Joseph Nassise-Eyes to See 
33) Cherie Priest-Hellbent
34) Patricia Briggs-Fire Touched 
35) Daniel Parsons-Necroville
36) EW Osborne-Stasis Beta
37) Eric S Brown-Planet Sasquatch
38) Eric S Brown-Planet Sasquatch Retaliation
39) Eric S Brown-The Mech Age