Stacking the Shelves #62

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! Click on the link under the book to find its page on Goodreads or Smashwords.

                  

Please note that I always leave a message on your STS/SP if you visit me, but if you use DISQUS or a similar third party I will not be able to leave a comment on your page. And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress. 

The last of the dvds that my dad and I bought from Amazon's current sales arrived yesterday in one of those lovely big brown boxes that you can't wait to rip into! We spent a little more than intended but it has been a shitty year, and with us not exchanging presents for Christmas this year or celebrating at all, we figured a treat was in order. Finding the time to watch this stuff will be tough with so much reading to do! On the book side of things the plan to catch up on some series is ongoing though the last two days I've taken a break from that to go and attack a few books on my ereaders. So it has still been a good reading week.

 

I'm not buying any more paperbacks from Amazon until the festive season is over with because if the weather turns bad, the post goes into chaos with missing items and long delays so I'll only be getting the odd book for my ereaders until January. I've already read Total Recall which I liked. So the preordered books which arrived this week might be the last I receive unless there are others that I forgot about! The Spirit series might be too fantasy for my tastes but I'm giving it a try. The first three covers are beautiful but the last two are totally blah and ruin it!

FREE/BARGAIN DOWNLOADS:

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14546626-total-recall

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8097637-the-spirit-thief 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8098146-the-spirit-rebellion 

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8425213-the-spirit-eater 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10834868-the-spirit-war 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13528379-spirit-s-end 

 

BOUGHT PAPERBACKS:

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18745163-black-widow 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21406652-black-spring 

 

  

 

 

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Book Review: Along came a demon by Linda Welch

I'm told the dead are all around us. I wouldn't know about that. I see only the violently slain. They could be victims of hit-and-run, innocents caught in cross-fire, the murdered. I've come to terms with that. In fact, I've made a career out of it. They whisper to me and they never, ever, forget the face of their killer. They aren't the only supernatural things I see. No, they're not vampires, werewolves or fae - those things don't exist. We live side by side with what some call the Otherworldy. That's too much of a mouthful for me. I call them demons. If you saw them as I do you'd know why. Right now I'm trying to find a missing boy whose mother was murdered. Or was she murdered? To further complicate the case, Clarion PD gave me a partner I would rather shoot than work with. I can't tell them he's a demon. They'd think I'm crazy. I'm Tiff Banks. Welcome to my world. 

My Review:
Tiff can see and speak to ghosts and lives in her house with two of them. Now Tiff is looking for the son of her dead neighbour who was killed by a demon but the demon seems to have erased all evidence of the boy's existance.

I liked Tiff and I liked the idea of her gifts. Searching for the boy who the police do not believe exists was an interesting twist on the story. It was well written, flowed nicely and overall was a decent story. But the huge problem with this book which caused me to stop reading and mark it down were the two ghosts in her house, Jack and Mel. I first thought they were ghost children because all they did was whine like spoiled brats not getting a new toy. They fought, they moaned, they complained. And we are told that Tiff had to stop bringing men home because the two perverts would come into her bedroom to watch. They had no redeeming qualities and were huge barnacles on the butt. I would have had an exorcist in to vanquish the buggers. They ruined this book are far too much time was spent on their petty and moronic behaviour.

As soon as we then got the slimy man whose very touch sends Tiff into uncontrollable ecstasy though she can't stand him, well I was done with this. I HATE that seduced against her will plotline which for me is more like attempted rape and not entertaining. 

Book Review: Rot:The Island by Linus Locke

Tyler and Layla leave their home in Thousand Oaks for a tour of the infamous Alcatraz Island. Unfortunately for them, the attack happens so fast it takes the entire city by surprise.

Now the dead roam the island, forcing the survivors into hiding - and out into the cold waters of the bay. They must make their way back to the ferry, the Bay Cruiser, in order to make their way off of the island of rot.

My Review:

This was one of these stories that had the potential to be really good but it just fell flat the way it was fleshed out.

The first big issue for me was Layla, the most self obsessed selfish bitch to ever walk the planet. When she hears on the radio that thousands are dead in riots across California, there is no sympathy, just her moaning that she can't find a channel playing music instead of reporting the breaking news. She spends the car journey sleeping and taking selfies. She doesn't like her husband talking to anyone else in case it takes his attention off her for a second. She moans about his car not being expensive enough and that people might think he only earns minimum wage. And when a woman watches her husband get ripped apart by zombies, Layla is in a mood because her husband dares to touch the woman's arm in sympathy. What a cretin in heels. I despise bitches like this and HATE it when I'm expected to care if she lives or dies. Then we have the spineless husband who won't say or do anything to upset his precious bitch from hell.

The story itself was a decent idea-a tour group getting stranded on Alcatraz with a zombie infection beginning. However the way the story was told could have been much better. There was no building of tension to get you wondering if a zombie was hiding around the corner. The infected guy attacked someone at the dock and it all went down in a few pages. Our lovely heroes then hid for a few pages then wandered back to the dock to get back in the boat. Think of how that could have been developed! Stragglers from the tour group being quietly picked off. A mob of zombies attacking the group, forcing them to split up and hide which would have built the tension nicely. Footsteps are coming towards you...is it survivor or zombie? We could have had a couple of different POVs in the survivors, ramping up the horror and excitement as they all try to make their way back to the dock! But no, we are stuck with Miss Prissy Pants instead.

This was a great idea, wasted by poor characters and a lack of show with too much tell. No tension, no real plot development and a tame and uninteresting ending.

Reading with Chuckles #16

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!

I am now on to my winter readathon. This means I'm turning my attention to series that I've started and liked but never got round to finishing. So I hope to get through a LOT of books and catch up with a few favourites! 

This week I have re-read Rachel Vincent's 'My soul to take' to see if I wanted to continue with the series. While I still enjoyed it, I didn't really take to the second book and decided not to read on. I moved over to read the Jaz Parks books by Jennifer Rardin. I loved books one and two but book three 'Biting the Bullet' was all angst and went away from the formula that made the first books so enjoyable. Gone was the close relationship between Jaz and Vayl, Cole was acting like a total asshat, and the group dynamic was ruined by the less than exciting Dave as well as Cole's moronic behaviour. I hope book four improves as there are eight in the series! 'Hunter Born' was a vampire based short story that got me interested in going on to read book one 'Welcome to the Darkness'. The two short story anthologies I found were just so I could read the Sookie Stackhouse stories in them which were book good especially Sookie and Pam on a work vacation to a strip club. Funny!

Book Review: Danse Macabre by Laurell K Hamilton (Anita Blake #14)

These days, Anita Blake is less interested in vampire politics than in an ancient, ordinary dread she shares with women down the ages: she may be pregnant. And, if she is, whether the father is a vampire, a werewolf, or someone else entirely, he knows perfectly well that being a Federal Marshal known for raising the dead and being a vampire executioner, is no way to bring up a baby.

My Review:
Anita is in a panic about a missed period, which is pretty bad when the list of potential fathers is as long as your arm and leg put together. When the secret leaks, it leads to fighting over who is best to look after the baby and how Anita should live her life now. Anita also has to look at having strong lions in the city to help control her inner lioness and has a crisis when Auggie forces her and Jean Claude to use the ardeur on him..

Right, there are actually a couple of good things in this book plot wise. Firstly, the pregnancy story was actually quite interesting, with Anita imagining how each lover would react to the situation and the changes that would come to her life. Seeing how each potential daddy reacts to the situation is also interesting. Of course Richard flies straight into asshole mode, deciding it is his and that Anita will have to lose the ardeur/control it, dump all her lovers, quit her jobs and be his one and only in the perfect family scenario that he is always trying to force on her. This clown is such a waste of space and I really hate him. One minute Anita is the evil whore who rapes men, next he wants her for his own. It was great to hear Anita finally tell him that she would not give up her live in lovers for him, no matter what happens with the baby.

I love Nathaniel in this book. He really finds his backbone and starts sorting people out. First he starts by putting Ronnie the hell bitch in her place at last. He is finished with her bitchy comments about him and says she is just jealous because she wants him and he doesn't want her. Ronnie isn't used to rejection and she can't stand seeing Nathaniel with Anita. For Ronnie to blab the pregnancy secret to Micah and Nathaniel out of spite and jealousy is disgusting and I'd have kicked her mean ass out of my life forever. He and Micah give instant support to Anita, telling her that if she is having a baby, they will rearrange their lives to support her needs. He also shows that he won't let Richard push him out of Anita's life. This guy has grown on me through the series and would be a good choice for daddy. I even liked Micah better in this book.

I also liked Anita having to deal with the childish sex demands of Graham the idiot werewolf. I actually found that story quite funny.

However there were down sides. The whole having sex with Auggie thing was pretty annoying and it added nothing to the story. Then we get the great news that Anita needs to find even more lovers to feed the ardeur properly. More lovers? Oh come on! She's sleeping with everyone in the state as it is!!! Plus those passing through... And the resolution to the pregnancy story fell a bit flat though it was amusing to have everyone heading to the doctor for the test results. Like a day out to the zoo in reverse.

This was a better book because there was more character development and emotion, with people stepping up to say what is on their minds, and I like that better than just plain arguing all the time. If we could just find a way to reduce the ardeur so she's just having sex with a few of the guys again, maybe I could stick with it to see what happens. But it looks like the opposite is going to happen which is a shame. The next book is the last one that I bought in a bulk sale so I expect it to be my last read of Anita.