Can't Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at http://www.wishfulendings.com/ to spotlight and discuss books we're excited about but haven't read, which may not even be released yet.
Police procedurals go supernatural in this gritty urban fantasy debut
Alex
Menkaure, former pharaoh and mummy, and his vampire partner, Marcus,
who was born in ancient Rome, once hunted evil vampires for UMBRA, a
super-secret unit of the NSA. That was before the discovery of a blood
substitute and a Supreme Court ruling allowed thousands of vampires to
integrate into society. Now, Alex and Marcus are vice cops in a
special police unit. They fight to keep the streets safe from criminal
vampires, shape-shifters, blood-dealers, and anti-vampire vigilantes.
When
someone starts poisoning the artificial blood, race relations between
vampires and humans deteriorate to the brink of anarchy. While the city
threatens to tear itself apart, Alex and Marcus must form an unnatural
alliance with a vigilante gang and a shape-shifter woman in a desperate
battle against an ancient vampire conspiracy.
If they succeed, they'll be pariahs, hunted by everyone. If they fail, the result will be a race-war bloodier than any the world has ever seen.
*excited scream* Ooh an Egyptian mummy and a Roman vampire cop pairing trying to stop the beasties running the streets! I'm all over this one! WANT! The book release is July 18th but I might have to wait longer for the paperback version *sighs*
On a top-secret dive
into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself
face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history
of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is
haunted by what he's sure he saw but still can't prove exists -
Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The
average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a
Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds.
Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing,
and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest
levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to
return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him
back into a high-tech miniature sub. Diving deeper than he ever has
before, Taylor will face terror like he's never imagined. MEG is about
to surface. When she does, nothing and no one is going to be safe, and
Jonas must face his greatest fear once again.
My Review:
I had really high hopes for this book but found it a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting a fast action book with lots of shark attacks throughout but the first part of the book was a bit of a let down, focusing on Jonas being married to a bitch from hell who was cheating on him and trying to destroy him so she could run off with her rich boyfriend, as well as having everyone thinking that Jonas was crazy for thinking megalodons exist.
Jonas was on a previous trench dive in a sub years before when the sight of a magalodon scared him. He brought the sub up too fast and the other men were killed. Nobody believed what he saw and even he now doubts it happened, carrying guilt around with him. He is asked to assist with a new expedition into the trench and replacrs Terry as pilot in one of the subs, hoping that he will see something to prove that he was wrong about the massive shark.
The plot is so very slow. In the first 95 pages, we get Jonas and his guilt, Jonas and his decaying marriage, Maggie's plan to leak details on Jonas and his accident, Maggie looking for attention, Terry being an immature shit, the others in the project ridiculing Jonas for his previous issues, his fear in the water and the megalodon theories. Finally at this point, Jonas and DJ start the deep dive which leads to another megalodon attack. Even after the attack we go back to being pretty slow, following the opinions of everyone who was there at the attack, and more about Maggie's evil plans. Oh and more Terry Tantrums!
Things finally start moving in a shark direction as Jonas and his friends start to track the shark as it chases whale pods. It is only when boats start getting attacked that the book finally kicks into gear. The irony here is that when it finally gets into all of the shark attacks, it is actually pretty well written. The attacks on the boats are entertaining as is the finale with a whole pile of people on boats in mortal danger. You do have to suspend your disbelief when Jonas goes one on one with the shark though as it seemed a bit beyond belief to me.
I wasn't a fan of a lot of the characters. Maggie was an utter bitch who was self obsessed with her new television career. She is a bottom feeder who latched on to Jonas when his star was rising but started looking for a way out after the accident that destroyed him. She of course picks the mega rich best friend of Jonas to bed and use. The fact that she sends a reporter after Jonas to spy on him and try to discredit him at the lectures he is doing shows what kind of asshat she is. All through the book we get Maggie spying on Jonas and trying to gatecrash what is happening for personal gain. I hated every time she was mentioned. Then we have the obligatory love interest that was Terry. She was an arrogant spoiled little cow who has tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. For example, Jonas is flying out to meet her father as his guest and consultant and he mentions that her desire to be a sub pilot means going into danger. She sulks and turns the plane uposide down until he vomits. She has the maturity of a toddler and throws strops constantly but then decides she wants to bed Jonas. Ugh. Heller was a tosser, Bud was a pointless waste of space. In fact Terry's father and Mac the pilot were the only ones I liked!
Overall I was disappointed. The first half of the book is fairly dull with very annoying sub plots that added nothing to the story and slowed it to a crawl. The second half improves gradually and the big action scenes are actually pretty good. But it just isn't worth wading through all the mind numbing stuff to get to the good bits. The second book in the series seems to have an evil woman just like Maggie, Jonas feeling sorry for himself and having marriage issues with Terry, and an incest storyline. Oh wonderful. I'll be giving that a big miss...
Read July 2017
2.5 stars.
There's a storm on the horizon...
Central
Command is gone, the military is fractured, and the surviving members
of Team Ghost, led by Master Sergeant Reed Beckham, have been pushed to
the breaking point. While the strong return to the battlefield, the
wounded are forced to stay behind on Plum Island and fight their inner
demons.
Betrayed by the country they swore to defend and
surrounded by enemies on all sides, Team Ghost has one mission left:
protect Dr. Kate Lovato and Dr. Pat Ellis while they develop a weapon to
defeat the Variants once and for all. But after a grisly discovery in
Atlanta, Kate and Ellis realize their weapon might not be able to stop
the evolution of the monsters.
Joined by unexpected allies and
facing a new threat none of them saw coming, the survivors are running
out of time to save the human race from extinction.
My Review:
With Central Command gone and the President's bunker under threat, control of the military situation is moving to the carrier group. Men in boats are casing out Plum Island as General Johnson takes over command there, to the suspicion of Beckham. The variants are adapting and mutating which is making them harder to kill and the population of survivors is dwindling. Fitz and Apollo are sent with a team into the city to try to capture a kid variant for Kate's weapon test. Traitors are joining the variants and betraying their people and Patient Zero is alive and plotting...
We meet some new characters at the beginning of this book, following them on a recon mission. Jose Garcia is the leader of a special ops team known as the Variant Hunters, checking the Florida Keys for variant activity and to see what kind of evolution is occuring in them. However these variants aren't just adapting to the sea, they are now capable of setting up elaborate ambushes. Now Garcia has to negotiate the dangerous streets to evade capture until he can be rescued, as he must get the video footage of the evolved variants back to the top brass. I liked the new Variant Hunter team and my first thoughts about them is that the survivors would probably join Team Ghost later in the book.
Central Command has been destroyed and the last bunkers are being overrun. The President has decided to abandon his bunker and set up base on the naval carrier group as the variants close in on his bunker. His team have no option but to try to escape the compound as the enemy close in but have they left it too late? Secretary of State Ringgold has no idea who she can trust after civil war amongst the Plum Island troops left several dead. Now Team Ghost are having to move onto the naval armada to plan their next move which means saying goodbye to their family and friends including Fitz for now. Their job is to train the teams going out on the next mission.
The variants are changing rapidly to adapt to their new environments. A group have grown gills and can silently hunt under the sea. In Syria they look like crabs, in the colder climates they have grown fur and in the desert they have armadillo type shells. They can sometimes camoflage to blend into the trees. But the most disturbing thing of all is that the variants are finding a way to breed and their offspring are going to be the deadliest variants yet. Kate and Ellis are concerned that their new weapon will have no effect of the new mutated kid variants. I loved the ideas of these mutations and adapting to their environment and I really wanted to see the furry ones which sound like Yetis! The variants are just different to fight in every novel which keeps things exciting!
Fitz and Apollo are about to face their worst assignment yet-going into New York with a team to try and do a live capture of the protected kid variants. Other teams are being sent into different cities in the hope that one team might be successful. This screams SUICIDE RUN to me and I was so worried for Fitz and his doggy companion. New York now has a dangerous Alpha Variant who rules completely and has human traitors working for him, and the tension level on this mission was just through the roof! During this mission, we get updates on what is happening to the other teams so it is an action packed section of the book.
The other dramatic section is when Patient Zero comes back into the story. He was assumed dead but has been experimented on for many years, another of Gibson's dirty secrets. Now he just wants to die and the appalled Kate insists on it. However, he is not content to wait and see what happens and decides to escape. This is a tense event of course as having a zombie creature loose on a ship is pretty dangerous!
This series continues to deliver with tight writing, great characters, ever changing plots and monsters and a ton of action and tension!
Read May 2017
5 stars
This month of reading is going to be a bit more about mood reading so I'm just going to select the books that I MUST get finished this month, leaving the rest of the time for whatever catches my eye. I have two books and the last third of the Morganville Vampires anthology left to complete the series, likewise two books to catch up with the David Nelson apocalypse series and the newest Iron Druid book. I feel the urge for some short horror by Hunter Shea and I've wanted to read Shark Island since I bought it! I'll be getting onto book three of A Song of Ice and Fire as well as I want to dive back into Westeros! Might just have to add some apocalypse and zombie reads too...
MUST READ:
1) Rachel Caine-Fall Of Night #14
2) Rachel Caine-Daylighters #15
3) Rachel Caine-Midnight Bites (Morganville Vampires anthology)
4) George RR Martin-A Storm of Swords bk #1
5) David Nelson-Building Bridges #4
6) David Nelson-A New Horizon #5
7) Chris Jameson-Shark Island
8) Kevin Hearne-Beseiged (Iron Druid anthology)
9) Hunter Shea-They Rise
10) Hunter Shea-Loch Ness Revenge
11) Hunter Shea-Savage Jungle
Top Ten Tuesday
is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the
Bookish in June 2010. This feature was created because we are
particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love
to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your
top ten lists! http://www.brokeandbookish.com/
TTT is on hiatus until August but I'm doing my own topics through July. After my four part Best Urban Fantasy Series posts I'm carrying on with that theme in Ten Urban Fantasy Series I Want To Start.
1) J Armand-The Immortal Coil
A young man's life is turned upside down when he comes face to face with immortal creatures. Not much else of a description really but I love the cover and it comes to me recommended by several people. And of course we have vampires! A new-to-me author.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25131174-the-immortal-coil
2) Ryan Attard-Firstborn
A war between Angels and Demons, brother v sister, a wizard PI with a perverted demon familiar, talking pets and Japanese monsters. OK I'm not going to say no to trying this one as it sounds interesting and I like trying new authors.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18961830-firstborn
3) Sonya Bateman-The Cursing Stones
Rain is an unsuccessful druid who talks to animals, drawn back home to battle black dogs, banshees and mutant spiders and find her missing grandfather. It had me at mutant spiders and druids who talk to animals but there is King Arthur folklore too!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34991758-the-cursing-stones
4) Lexi Blake-Steal The Light
Zoey is a thief working with a witch, werewolf and vampire ex when a new client offers her a fortune to steal The Light. Perhaps she should have checked the terms of the demon contract more carefully...This has been recommended on a blog I visit and I am curious despite the romance elements.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18136771-steal-the-light
5) Amy Braun-Cursed
Two sisters are on the run from vicious monsters and bounty hunters hired by a drugs cartel that one of them betrayed. Not so sure about the drug cartel bit so hope it's limited but you can never have too many demons!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25673745-demon-s-daughter
6) Thomas K Carpenter-Trials Of Magic
100 halls of magic and trials that kill participants. Aurie needs to pass to gain her place in the hall of her choice and protect her sister from those she is dealing with, and those who killed their parents. Love the cover, love books with these kinds of trials...hope the book turns out as good as it looks!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32304242-trials-of-magic
7) JA Cipriano-May Contain Magic
Abby was fostered by a government agency but now her terrorist birth mother wants to harvest her organs and blow up cities, and only a vampire can help her. This sounds like the mother from hell and a story I could enjoy...I've read a prequel to another series by the author and want to try this soon.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34014041-may-contain-magic
8) Clara Coulson-Soul Breaker
Weeks out of the Academy and working for a supernatural agency, Cal tracks a sorcerer who has unleashed a monster responsible for vicious murderers. I always enjoy a new book about rampaging monsters and dark creatures so I hope to like this one too!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27152521-soul-breaker
9) Greg Curtis-Banshee Hunt
James is a former cop, tracking down rogue magic users for the Illuminati and forever in trouble with his bosses. Things get complicated when he encounters a banshee. You don't often get banshees in fiction so I was intrigued to try this one.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28217709-banshee-hunt
10) PM Drummond-Perdition
Marlee wants to be normal not dealing with her telekinesis, crazy moths, Harley riding monster killer and mercenaries trying to kidnap her. She could do without the werewolves and vampires too. I've been fascinate by this kind of power since I first read Carrie and it also sounds like a lot of action and monster mayhem.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30843953-perdition
