Hexed by Kevin Hearne

Author: Kevin Hearne

Title: Hexed

Publication: June 7, 2011

Publisher: Del Rey

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Pages: 320

Audience: 18 and up

Rating: 5 out of 5

Source: Purchased

Synopsis (from the cover): Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty—when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.

With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex.

My thoughts:

 I love this series. My husband and I are going to a book reading and signing to see Kevin Hearne, and three other authors at the end of this month. I'm trying to read them all before then, so I may review them all before then. Please bear with me.
Atticus is at it again. This time he has two weirdos following him, a coven of witches out to kill him, and a group of Bacchus worshipers ready to burn down the town.  All the while he is trying to grow back his ear, please the Morrigan and Flidais, train his padawan, and run his bookstore. However, Mr. O'Sullivan cannot stay out of trouble, even after he defeated Aengus Og. Even the trickster Coyote ropes him into helping him with a demon problem. There is plenty of humor mixed in. There are so many shenanigans he gets into. I love his Irish Wolfhound, Oberon- he is the best comedic relief as is his neighbor the Widow MacDonagh. She had me rolling in the scene where Atticus is attacked by two witches at her house. There is a enough drama, comedy, and action to keep you from putting this book down. Seriously, if you love to laugh, love urban fantasy- check this book out NOW!

Finder by Pepper Thorn

Author: Pepper Thorn

Title: Finder

Publication: March 24, 2014

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Genre: Fairy Tale, Young Adult

Pages: 200

Audience: 13 and up

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Source: Purchased

Synopsis (from the cover): All Sara wanted was her family, back again,but Faery bargains always come with a price,
and what you look for is not always what you seek.

Ever since she can remember, Sara McAlister has had a knack for finding things. What she has not had for the last year is a family.

Since the accident that stole her dad and little sister, Sara has been living a lie, pretending that everything was fine, and that she and her mom were moving on. But when Queen Titania summons her into the beautiful and treacherous Faery, Sara gets a chance to make her lies reality.

The Holy Grail has disappeared, and King Oberon with it. Sara's knack may be the key to saving them … and getting her life back. But there are more powers at play than even Queen Titania is aware of.

Can Sara use her increasingly unreliable gift to complete a quest that has claimed the lives and sanity of Faery’s finest knights

My thoughts:
I found out about this indie author and book from a small convention I went to called the Alabama Phoenix Festival. Pepper Thorn was a panelist in a panel I attended. She of course promoted her book. I had mentioned wanting it after spotting it in the Dealer's Room and reading the synopsis. My husband had bought it for me while I was at the panel. I went back to get it signed. 
This is a fairy tale...you have the Fairy Queen, Titania, and the King, Oberon. For me personally, it took a little while to get into. I think it really hit its stride around page 100. However, I was reading it each day for about 30 minutes at work, and I had just changed from night shift to day shift...so I was dealing with lack of sleep and other kinds of issues. It could have been me, not the book. I did have a problem with Sara just jumping into the fairy realm without thinking. I felt there were some things left untethered. Like how did Sara learn about her gift? How did the fairies know about Sara and her gift? Why did Nuthelm follow Sara through out her life? At the end Sara is given another gift in the fairy realm, but when she comes back to the human realm, there is no trace of it, so what happened to her gift? Why happened to the twin guards?
Also, this is the second novel that I have read that uses Rock City as a meeting ground. This first was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I thought it was kind of neat especially since that is where I went for my honeymoon, and I know the landscape a bit. Sara goes into the fairy realm on Monte Sano Mountain, which is really close to my home town. To me, that was really cool.
I thought the book was great. It follows Sara who is on an fairy quest and pretty much learns how to deal with her grief and guilt along the way. There are many creatures from unicorns to tiny tree people. It stays pretty action packed, except for the walking/vision scenes. I found those a little slow, but I think they are imperative to the story. I put young adult for the suggested reading age, but I would suggest 13 and up for this story. It is a fantastic novel filled with all sorts of fairy creatures, villains, and heroes. 

 

Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles #1) by Kevin Hearne

Author: Kevin Hearne
Title:  Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles #1)
Publication: May 3, 2011
Publisher: Del Ray
Genre: Adult, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 320
Audience: 17 and up
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Purchased

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Atticus O'Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old--when in actuality, he's twenty-one "centuries" old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.
Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he's hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power--plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish--to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

My thoughts: 

My husband pestered me until I picked up the first book and read through it. I really could not put this book down or stop laughing at it. The characters are well rounded and develop really well in this first book of the series. The main character Atticus O’Sullivan is the last of his kind. He is a real life druid and is really old…over 2000 years old in fact. He can speak to his dog, the Irish Wolfhound, Oberon, who is hilarious! There is of course Atticus’s neighbors who had a dash of humor. Oh and his lawyers, one is a vampire and the other is a werewolf. They are able to work together because they both hate Thor (I do too. He is such a drunken jerk, we aren’t talking about the Marvel Thor either.). There is plenty of laughter, drama, and mystery. If you are a fan of paranormal, urban fantasies this is a MUST read! I am trying to squeeze in time to read the next novel, Hexed, which I may do after I finish writing this. I also want to add a word about the author, Kevin Hearne. This dude is amazing. My husband reached out to him on Facebook and Kevin Hearne actually wrote him a response and thanked him for being a fan. He is so kind and he gives you information on his website on how to contact him. We have a trip planned in October to see him in Georgia for a day. I cannot wait, but now I have to read all seven of the books before then!

Valiant (Modern Faeries Tales #2) by Holly Black

Author: Holly Black
Title:  Valiant (Modern Faeries Tales #2)
Publication: October  1, 2006
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genre: Young Adult, Faerie Tale
Pages: 320
Audience: 15 and up
Rating: 3 out of 5
Source: Public Library

Synopsis (fromGoodreads): When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.

But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends.
And when one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature with whom they are all involved, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

 
My thoughts: I have no idea how this book relates to Tithe, but I guess I will find out when I read Ironside. Unfortunately, the experience of the book was lessened as some jerk had censored the book.  

 This book is full of drama and twists and turns at every corner. You don’t expect the bad guys until it is too late. Val is a strong female character who runs away after finding out the truth about her boyfriend. So she jumps on a train and heads to New York on a date by herself…except she decides to stay in New York for a while. Val and her new street friends Lolli, Dave, and Luis aren’t exactly angels. They use fairy glamor, which they call Never to get high. They then have fairy powers to glamor people. Never is very much like heroin and has withdrawal symptoms.  Val runs into some trouble and indentures herself to a fairy to repay for the trouble she and Lolli caused. However, there is some major drama going on amongst the fairies and you don’t know who you can trust. It is a gritty, dirty story, but it is part of the series and it wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t fantastic either.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Author: Neil Gaiman
Title:  The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Publication: June 3, 2014
Publisher: William Murrow
Genre: Adult, Modern Fantasy
Pages: 181
Audience: 17 and up
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Purchased

Synopsis (from the cover): Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

 
My thoughts: I love Neil Gaiman and thought he would be the perfect author to read after a rough patch and dry reading spell in my life. It was kind of hard for me to get into this book. I spent a while trying to get into it wondering if I was going to give up on it. I’m glad I didn’t. This book has stuck with me in ways I could not have imagined. 
There are times I am by myself and think of the evil Ursla Monkton and how she invaded the little narrator. I went to a panel with horror writers at a convention. One of the writers asked the audience “What was horror to us?” Someone said to them horror was when something got in other their skin and stayed with them. I can honestly say there was a horrifying chapter with a worm that has not left me since I read it. 
The narrator, he is never named gets on my nerves at times, but the Hempstock women, especially Lettie redeem him and make the book worth the read. Oh and that little cat at the Hempstock house it so precious!  It is a book about growing up, stories, fear, bravery, grief, and all the things that make us human. It was a fantastic read that will stick with you for a while.

Audio Review: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Title: Etiquette & Espionage

Series: Finishing School #1

Author: Gail Carriger

Narrator: Moira quirk

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Format: Unabridged Audio

Length: 8 hrs 55 mins

Publication: February 18, 2013

Source: Library

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy, Historical fiction

Amazon|B&N|Goodreads

Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea--and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right--but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

My Thoughts: This is the cutest story ever. Sophronia is a mischievous young girl. Her mother is fed up and decides that she needs a finishing school to turn her into a proper lady. Little does she know that Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality is the perfect place for Sophronia and it is more than just any finishing school. I love, love, love this story. Sophronia's curiosity and antics land her in many a situation. Her quick wit, on the other hand, always seems to get her out of said situations. The best part of the story to me is the school's setting. I imagined a stuffy castle as the home of the finishing school. Instead the school is located on a balloon. 

This is a single voiced unabridged audio. This is the first time I have listened to an audio narrated by Moira Quirk. She has done an amazing job bringing the characters to life. Her accents are wonderful and the differentiation between each character is distinct and simple to recognize. This story provides an excellent platform for audio performance. 

Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black

Author: Holly Black

Title:Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales #1)

Publication: October 1, 2002

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Genre: Fairy Tale, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Pages: 336

Audience: 15 and up

Rating: 4 out of 5

Source: Public Library

Synopsis (from the cover):

Sixteen year old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she drifts from place to place until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the blue collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye, finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient and violent power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms- a struggle that could very well mean her death.

My thoughts:

This book has been on my to-read-list for a while. I finally got around to reading it. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was different than I thought it would be. I guess part of it was I did not read the back cover before I dove into the book. I was expecting most of the book to take place in the faerie kingdoms. not in the modern world, or as the faerie call it, the Ironside, which is also the title to the third book in the trilogy. I read this book in about 4 days or so.  However, there are so many characters and places to keep up with, that by the end of the novel I had confused myself. I was wondering who certain characters were, but I finally got it all figured out.
If you like fairy/faerie tales, then I recommend this book. Kaye is an interesting character who is strong willed and fiercely loyal. I liked her a lot because I too am stubborn and loyal. I don't want to say too much about the other characters, but it appears just like faerie glamor some people are not as they seem.
It is a quick, fun read especially if you like faeries. I hope to find and read the second book eventually. Unfortunately, my public library does not have the complete trilogy.

Audio Review: Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

Title: Unbreakable

Author: Kami Garcia

Narrator: Candice Accola

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Format: Unabridged Audio

Length: 6 hrs 46 mins

Publication: October 1, 2013

Source: Library

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy

Amazon|B&N|Goodreads

Synopsis:
I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon — a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night.

Now Kennedy has to take her mother’s place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon — battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed this read yet by the end I was saying "What?? Really?? You've got to be kidding me!! Kennedy went through all of that and then this?" I found my self yelling at Kennedy throughout the story trying to get her to rethink her actions and do what I wanted her to do. Garcia did a wonderful job developing the characters and the plot. 

It was easy to empathize with Kennedy's situation and understand why she made the decisions she did. I was left with several unanswered questions at the end of the book. I will definitely continue with this series since, I must know what happens next.

This is a single voiced unabridged production. Candice Accola is a wonderful narrator. I did find it difficult to distinguish between Jared and Lukas but they are twins. Consistent pace is maintained throughout the production. The original material lends itself well to audio presentation.