Stacking the Shelves #110

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. I don't allow any company access to my social media accounts and I certainly don't allow them to edit and take over my accounts. So if you use DISQUS, I can't visit you! And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress so you might get a double message sometimes! Blame them, not me!

       

It hasn't been a greatly productive week-a lot of annoying hassles that don't generally matter too much but when you get them all at once they drive you mad. I didn't get as much reading done as I'd have liked but I did do some. This week's haul includes more of my autumn splurging which shows you how much I grabbed in the sales, plus a few gifts to myself bought this week! I grabbed a couple of Jaye Wells short stories which will be handy when I get to reading the whole Sabina Kane series. And of course zombies! I've already read Hidden in a Kelley Armstrong anthology but I love the cover and artwork of these hardback novellas and it cheap secondhand!

 

DOWNLOADS:

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10491360-violet-tendencies 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18392595-rusted-veins 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8286238-after-the-end 

 

BOUGHT PAPERBACKS:

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23507628-i-was-here 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8492825-where-she-went 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18662936-landline 

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23492543-spider-s-trap 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16130366-under-a-graveyard-sky 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25520798-ways-to-live-forever 

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10853751-hidden 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14654756-hvza 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23447579-hvza-2 

 

BOOK TRADE:

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13539044-the-silver-linings-playbook 

 

FOLLOW ME:
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Book Review: Bitten to Death by Jennifer Rardin (Jaz Parks #4)

Jaz Parks here. My latest mission has taken me to the ancient Greek city of Patras; but instead of soaking up its splendor, I'm here to infiltrate a Vampere Trust. Only two vamps have ever escaped the tightly bound communities and lived to tell the tale: Edward "The Raptor" Samos, the most reviled criminal mastermind in recent memory, and Vayl, the CIA's number one assassin who also happens to be my boss.

The Raptor is trying to take over Vayl's former Trust. Unfortunately the Trust's new leader has her own plans.

This job is going to be the death of me.

My Review:

What the heck happened to my action packed urban fantasy series with my snarky kickass MC and amusing sidekicks, with that splash of lovely humour? It is obviously gone for the moment because while there were big issues in the last book, this one was pretty dreadful overall.

First we get Jaz, Vayl and David being to sent to the Trust that Vayl was once a member of, to stop a possible Samos takeover. Vayl is pretty much ignoring everyone and obsessing endlessly about his dead sons, Jaz isn't just hearing various voices in her head and is actually arguing with them and David is in a bout of PTSD that is driving him to drink. So would YOU send this trio to do this job? I highly doubt it.

Frankly all the characters in this book are dreadful and got on my last nerve. There is no way that David was fit for active duty so what the heck were his bosses thinking??? He's drinking on duty, shooting people without permission, endangering everyone and behaving like a muppet.He bores me and I'm annoyed at getting him instead of Cassandra and Bergman. Cassandra has now dropped down to the status of 'Dave's girlfriend' and Bergman is not here at all! Vayl is being a selfish sod again, treating Jaz like crap and upsetting her and moaning on about his tragic post. Oh stop whining already and do your darn job! Jaz doesn't stop moaning and complaining and though she has just cause at times, I'm getting sick of hearing it. Cole is still behaving like a spoiled brat and texting Jaz constantly in his never ending 'I know you love me really' campaign of stupidity. Why can't she tell him to get stuffed?

The other vampires are asshats and Disa is only there to add more angst to the crumbling relationship of Jaz and Vayl. Like we need MORE after that last book? Give me strength. All we got in this this book was relationship angst and vampire politics which as a plot is not greatly interesting with a few evil house vibes thrown in for fun.

I'm tired of all the fighting, Vayl's bloody sons, Cole being an ass, Vayl being an ass, Jaz moaning, Jaz losing her temper, relationship angst, lack of an exciting plot and lack of humour. This is not the series I started and enjoyed. Frankly if I had the choice of buying the next book in the series after reading this one, I would have quit the series without doubt. The fact that I had the rest of the series already bought in paperback is the only reason I continued reading and thankfully it does pick up again.

Book Review: Biting the Bullet by Jennifer Rardin (Jaz Parks #3)

The Raptor, the CIA's longtime nemesis, is back. Jaz Parks and her vampire boss Vayl are asked to join her brother David's special ops team to take him down. But when her spirit guide tells her that she's being lead to the wrong man, and she starts asking the wrong questions, her life -- and her job-- are threatened. And the one person who can help her--her boss-- is off on a wild goose chase. Add to the mix a pack of reavers bent on revenge along with a small army of desert monsters, and BITING THE BULLET will take you so close to the edge of your seat you may want to leave a pillow on the floor just in case.

My Review:
Jaz and her team are being sent to assist her brother David and his team, with the job of finding out who the mole in his operation is. He is tracking a terrorist called The Wizard. Jaz also has problems of her own, after a routine visit to hell with Raoul to gather information ends with her being demon marked. Add to that issues with the men on her team behaving like children and it will be a miracle if the joint team mission can go ahead.

After the heady heights of the first two books we seem to drop down to average with this third story. What I don't get is that the author had a really good group dynamic going with the team, and interesting relationships going especially the chemistry between Jaz and Vayl, and the snark between Cassandra and Bergman. It had action and humour and the group dynamic worked well. So why on earth did the author decide to ditch all of that, everything that made the books great, and change to this new and unappealing version? Frankly the first half or two thirds of this book were not that great and I was very let down by it.

Firstly, a few of the characters are venturing into asshat territory. Lets start with Cole, who is meant to be CIA and behaves worse than a toddler at a wedding. He suddenly decides that in spite of Jaz having feelings for Vayl, she is HIS soul mate and starts harrassing her like a stalker. Constant declarations of love, constantly badgering her to go out with him and then a refusal to do something important to the case unless she agrees to a date. THis is spiteful and childish behaviour and I started to really hate him in this book. I wanted to punch him every time he started moaning and whining like a sulky kid that doesn't get his way. And while the two of them are trying to follow someone, Cole stops to do a spot of camel tipping. This was totally stupid and nearly made me put the book down.

Vayl is supposed to be the top guy on this mission but he is behaving like an idiot as well. He doesn't seem to be bothering taking part in the mission, using the location as a chance instead to pursue an investigation into his dead sons, visiting local seers and following leads. He totally ignores that he is supposed to be on a mission to catch international terrorists plus he barely speaks to Jaz, ruining that nice relationship built up over the first two books. Then we have David who is shoved in as the main guy while Vayl wanders around aimlessly. He is such a bland character in comparison. I didn't dislike him as such but he wasn't made very interesting to start with, and his relationship with Cassandra had no chemistry and didn't really fill me with excitement. It was all a bit blah. And somebody just shoot Grace.

The plot is pretty confused. The visits to hell started to annoy me as I never really saw much point to it. WHY would Raoul take Jaz there and not look after her, letting her get marked by a demon? Why then would you keep taking her BACK? Great spirit guide you are mate. Getting put through that to find out Samos loves his dog? I'm sure there were easier ways to find that out. All this real Wizard fake Wizard stuff was confusing. The main bugbear for me was WHY this book was written! All it did was rip everyone apart, and the plot itself was not greatly exciting.

The reason this book has three stars and not lower is because it did pick up at the end and there was some good action along with finding out who the mole was.  Bergman also started to find a bit of backbone which I enjoyed. However it was more of a grudging three stars and not a favourite book in the series.

I read this book in 2014 and have just got round to reviewing it.

Authors Behaving Badly: A shocking story

We've all heard the stories about authors stalking those who didn't like their books, usually online, hidden behind their computers or getting their fans to abuse someone. It's the ugly side to being a book reviewer isn't it. But this story shocked me so badly that I had to write this post. It is the story of UK author and Countdown Champion (A tv show in the UK) who stalked a girl that he took a fancy to all over the country to her obvious alarm, then wrote disturbing blog posts about it and got himself into plenty trouble over it. He travelled almost 500 miles all the way up to Scotland to attack another young woman with a bottle to the head, leaving her with a head injury that required stitches-because she didn't like his book and said so online. This is the full shocking story, for those who did not hear about it last year when it happened.

Richard Brittain became obsessed with a young woman and started to stalk her, sending her gifts, love letters and messages, following her around the country and this is an extract from the creepy blog post he wrote about her.In the interests of fairness I should point out that he has amended the start and end of the story with an apology for his behaviour which I hope he means.


On Valentine’s Day 2014, I sent her another card, with an elaborate drawing of a wild scene. In it, she became the character Ella Tundra, and that is how The World Rose began.
Seven months later, when it was complete, I decided to try to make my book known by getting into the national news. I found out that she worked in Glasgow, so I travelled there with a plan. I was going to tell her that if she came with me, and we faked a kidnapping, we would both become famous. We would go into the hills and camp out for a few days while the nation searched. I had brought the necessary supplies.
I would like to reiterate that I was not plotting to kidnap her. I was planning on asking her if she would be interested in pretending to be kidnapped, so that we would make the news and people would learn about our story.
Yesterday, I saw her on the street and approached her, and called her name, but she freaked out.
“How?” she said. “How are you here?” She turned and snapped me on her phone before hurrying away.
I didn’t even get to tell her about my plan. I didn’t want to make a scene because people were staring. I also realised that I didn’t have the heart to ask her if she would like to be kidnapped.

Read the whole scary post here:  https://richardbrittain.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/the-benevolent-stalker/

The book he wrote based on this poor woman,  The World Rose, was put on WattPad, Amazon and Goodreads and Paige, amongst others was not impressed by it and said so. I do not have access to her review so I can't say if her comments were just negative about the book or something unpleasant about the author. However I do not condone stalking and violence in any situation. He hit her from behind with a wine bottle and did this to her:

Nice huh? Paige tells her story here: 
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/former-countdown-champion-hunts-down-6800527


You don't think that writing a negative review of a book can put you in this kind of danger. This guy seems to have a thing about stalking people in Scotland so if you live there, I suggest you don't review his book... He has yet to be sentenced but pled guilty in  court to stalking the first woman and assaulting the second.

Chuckles Corrie Mania #7

Welcome to Chuckles Corrie Mania! I watched Coronation Street all through the late 70's, 80's and early 90's but lost touch with it by 1999 due to work. So discovering that kind Corrie viewers have uploaded a ton of classic episodes on YouTube was great! I've spent two years gathering as many as I can, ready to get watching, and as I work my way through them, I'll be reviewing what I watch and sharing my thoughts. Would love to hear the thoughts on these episodes from other fans.

Thank you to Auntie Corrie(1976-1994), Mr Magister(1961,1995-2000), corriepastandpresent(2001+), CLKfanvideos(2006,2010,2011), corriestuff(various), OZZY45100(1960's, 1970's), FullEps(2009), XCorrieClassicsX(2006-2009), albiondean(2012-present), Sevin Alsoylar(2006,2011), Soap Fan 2013(various), JonathanOpenshaw(various) and everyone else who has supplied episodes online.

The next episodes are the final five of 1961, from the Coronation Street 1960's box set.  

October 2nd 1961
Linda is moaning that Ivan is going to be working at the Rovers alone with Nona while everyone else will be at the wedding of Harry and Concepta. Alf has plans to set up his friend Bill Gregory with Elsie at the reception. Minnie gets emotional as usual to Ena's despair and the wedding goes off without a hitch. Elsie and Bill (right)  hit it off straight away and Linda decides to wind up Ivan about Nona for fun.

Bill and Elsie did make a really nice couple...both quite glamorous! It's a pity you can't see the stunning Pat Phoenix in colour in these episodes.

October 16th 1961
Leonard (left) prepares to take the residents on their day out to Blackpool. Emily has the joy of sitting beside Ena, Elsie and Bill don't try to hide their relationship, and Alf and Len have a bet on who gets Doreen on the ghost train. Neither wins as she goes on with Albert. Ken rants on about how shabby Blackpool is and Ena gets left behind while visiting a fortune teller. 

I was getting so annoyed by the irritating idiot that calls itself Jed, and his dippy girlfriend. It ruined an otherwise enjoyable episode for me.

November 8th 1961
Having already wrongly accused Annie of sending the poison pen letter, Elsie is now convinced it was Ena and prepares to do battle with her in the street. (right) Ken lectures Frank about the evils of nuclear war, Linda and Ivan hear good things about life in Canada, Elsie says sorry to Annie and then goes to confront Ena.

This episode is one of the iconic Corrie episodes. I loved the way both women preared themselves like gunslingers in a western, Ena with her milk stout in the Rovers and Elsie with her fag, while everone watched in silence! It was great stuff and I really admired the way Ena stood up for herself and proved she was innocent. Great episode!

November 22nd 1961
Frank rows with Ken when he finds out that Ken quit his job because he doesn't like how the workers are treated. Annie is unhappy that Harry hangs around the pub to keep Concepta company, leaving Lucille (left) home alone all the time. Martha and Ena are shocked when Minnie shows them the new see-through nighty that she bought. Ken is ready to leave Weatherfield for good when Christine convinces him that running away will solve nothing, while Frank at home fears that Ken might be gone.

I was feeling sorry for Frank. Ken never seems to show much gratitude for all the sacrices of his family to get him his education, and all he does is sneer at Frank for having a crap job and living in a backstreet slum. The Ken of the 60's I really don't like. Minnie and her nighty, that was funny!

December 25th 1961
The men are off to a woman's football match together while the women prepare for a hard day in the kitchen. Minnie invites Ena and Martha over, though Ena nearly chokes on the coins in the pudding. Albert fears getting drunk and tring to pinch Ena's bum, Esther (right) cooks for Albert and the Barlows, and the Tanners celebrate in the usual way with a blazing row.

Wouldn't you hate to live next door to the Tanners when they get started on their fights? Nobody does a good tantrum like Elsie!  

So these are all the episodes I have from 1961 which is a shame because I was enjoying watching them! As I said you can find these episodes on the 60's boxset.