Category Archives: 5 Flames

Angelfall
Penryn & the End of Days #1
Author: Susan Ee
Source: Gifted
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal/Dystopia
ISBN: 9780761463276

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.


Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.


Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.


Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Holy crap!  Why have I not heard of this book before now?  I must have been asleep under some rock! When I first received this book, I put it in my review pile and forgot about it until it was at the top of the stack.  I thought to myself that it was just going to be another book about angels saving the day and it would probably end up being a slow read for me.  I was so very wrong!

The action in this book practically starts from the first chapter.  It doesn’t let up hardly at all and the world is not what we thought it would be when Angels arrive.  When we think of Angels, we think of Heavenly beings coming to rescue the innocent and being all around good guys.  What the author creates in Angelfall is so much more than that but different as well.  It is so hard to describe the world and the Angels without giving away key points in the story.

I will give you a quote from the book involving Raffe the Angel:

“My friends call me Wrath,” says Raffe.  “My enemies call me Please Have Mercy.”
page 100

Yep that basically sums up Raffe in a nutshell with the power he has.  But — and this is a big but — don’t let that quote make you think he isn’t compassionate or without emotions of love.

The slow build of friendship and possibly love is written wonderfully between Raffe and Penryn.  You can just feel the tension between the two on every page.

My only complaint for this book would be — WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG FOR THE NEXT BOOK?

This book was a roller coaster ride of emotions, action, and at times frustration!  When I finished the last page I seriously wanted to start the whole book again just because I needed my Raffe fix again.  If author, Susan Ee happens to read this review — Bring me more Raffe soon!!!

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

Hard and Fast
Fast Track Series #2
Author: Erin McCarthy
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 9780425228470

SUMMARY
from Goodreads

An experiment in romance!


New to Charlotte, stock car racing country, graduate student Imogen Wilson meets Ty McCordle, a driver who inexplicably has her pulse racing. After an encounter at the track with a woman whose main goal in life is to marry a driver, Imogen realizes she’s hit on the perfect thesis for her Sociology degree. If she follows The Rules on how to get a man, can she steer her way to into the hearts of the drivers and establish their dating,and mating,patterns?


That’s testing the limits of passion.


Although sexy and reckless Ty is the ideal test subject, she knows she can’t pursue him for the sake of science. Yet he’s the one who’s chasing after her, and Imogen realizes that she actually wants to be caught. A southern gentleman like Ty won’t fail to disappoint, will satisfy all her curiosity,and make all the risks worthwhile!

Whew! Somebody get me a fan after reading some smexy scenes from this book!

While the first book in this series was sexy, the author took Hard and Fast to the next level in the sex.  Who would have thought playboy Ty McCordle had a dominant side to him in the bedroom?  I must have reread that chapter over and over again just so I could imagine it in my head with me in Imogen’s place.

Ty and Imogen meet for the first time in the previous book. It was brief, but the reader knew the author was going to pair them up together in their own book.  Imogen is smart and very logical.  She is curious and wants to know everything including the small details in anything.  When they meet again at a party, you could feel the sexual tension between the two.  One problem though is that Ty is still involved with an airhead called Nikki.  While Ty and Imogen talk in her car — while waiting for the rain to let up — things get pretty intense between the two. When Nikki is caught making out with another man on the car hood though, Ty is able to finally make the break he was planning on with Nikki. Imogen and Ty get hot and heavy and decide to take it back to Ty’s house.  Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned and Ty tells her to go home and think about what she wants first.

Seriously, I was laughing out loud when Imogen was trying to explain her night to her friend Suzanne.  Suzanne is a laugh-out-loud-a-minute kind of gal and she keeps the snark flowing in this book.  I want a friend like Suzanne — hands down!  Imogen is so technical in over thinking everything that you won’t believe some of the things that go through her brain and straight out her mouth.  Case in point — she flat out tells Ty she won’t do butt sex.  I almost died in laughter when this scene played out.  Then when she recapped it with Suzanne, I laughed again!

” I was born without the flirt gene.  It’s truly awful for me.”  That was no exaggeration.  ” I mean, look at how I screwed up last night with Ty.  He was flirting and tossing off sexual innuendos,  and I just looked at him and said I would not have anal sex with him.”
“You what?” Suzanne shrieked so loud that Imogen saw half a dozen other fitness patrons swivel their heads to look at them.  “Did he ask you to? At the party?”
“No, of course not.”  Which was what made it all the more ridiculous.  “We were in the car and he was hinting about positions, what was to come, etc., and I just blurted out that I wasn’t doing that with him.”
“Girl…” was  Suzanne’s though on the matter, her expression one of total horror.  “Do not bring up the back door unless he’s knocking on it.”

I don’t think I have laughed so much in a romance in so long.  I actually liked the slow build of their relationship in this book.  I wasn’t a big fan of the way Imogen speaks all of the time — it became a little Rain Man at times — but I did think that the ‘opposites attract’ angle worked really well in this one.  Ty was a sweetheart in public, but a dominating man in the bedroom.  This is exactly what Imogen needed to come out of her shell.

I am enjoying this series so much and I can’t wait to read the next book!

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

Shine
Shade #3
Author: Jeri Smith-Ready
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Library Loan
Publisher: Simon Pulse
 (May 1, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-1442439467

In this dramatic conclusion to the Shade trilogy, Aura and Zachary’s relationship sizzles as the secrets of the Shift are revealed.


Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.


As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced she has a connection to the Shift. She’s trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura’s secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves…even if that means betraying her own heart.

With the emotional roller coaster that the author left me with after the second book in the trilogy, I had to actually wait a full day before reading this book.  I seriously have not felt so much emotion from words on a page than I did with the last two books.  When an author can do this to a reader, you have to admit to yourself that they have truly mastered their craft.  Well I admit it.  Jeri Smith-Ready has mastered the act of writing words that can bring out your emotions and rip them to the surface for all to witness. She is that good with her writing.  I was also hesitant on reading Shine because I just didn’t want the story to end.  I wanted more even though my heart was hurting from everything I mentioned before.  Could I put myself through it again just to end up completely finished with Aura and Zachary? Yes I could because I just knew the author would give this reader the ending I was hoping for.

At the beginning of the Shine, I had written a furious and exasperated email to the author.  I couldn’t believe with just the first chapter, she was going to do this with me again and to her characters.  I even tweeted to her on Twitter and told her I almost sent her the email. ALMOST.  I waited though and continued to read the story.  THANK GOODNESS I didn’t send that email.  I knew I should have trusted Jeri Smith-Ready.  This is not to say that she didn’t make some tough decisions with the story following chapter one.  What she does write is just as emotional and heartbreaking.  Again, the author will put your heart through the ringer.  You will cry, shout with joy, and above all else — hope and have faith.

With the bittersweet conclusion to the Shade trilogy, answers will be revealed, a romance will escalate and blossom, new couples will unfold and begin, action and devotion will lead to a thrilling climax, and you will wish the story would never end.  Of course all good things must come to an end, but this is one story that will live on in your heart for a long time.

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

Shift
Shade #2
Author: Jeri Smith-Ready
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Library Loan
Publisher: Simon Pulse
 (May 3, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-1416994084

Aura’s life is anything but easy. Her boyfriend, Logan, died, and his slides between ghost and shade have left her reeling. Aura knows he needs her now more than ever. She loves Logan, but she can’t deny her connection with the totally supportive, totally gorgeous Zachary. And she’s not sure that she wants to.


Logan and Zachary will fight to be the one by her side, but Aura needs them both to uncover the mystery of her past—the mystery of the Shift.


As Aura’s search uncovers new truths, she must decide whom to trust with her secrets…and her heart.

Woah! Where to begin? After reading the first book in the series titled Shade, I didn’t know what to expect with Shift.  With the ending that the reader is left with in the first book, you can’t even imagine what the author has in store for us.  I never expected a sequel to a book to be as amazing — if not better — than the first.  Usually the first book is the best of the bunch, but Shift surpassed my expectations and left my heart in pieces.

Shift picks up immediately where Shade leaves off.  At the end of Shade, Logan went dark and turned Shade.  When he returns to Aura in her bedroom though, Aura is able to bring him back to ghost form.  No Shade has ever been brought back from turning Shade.  Even with this shocker revealed, the author still has plenty of punches to throw at the reader involving Logan that will shock you even more!  I am not going to say what the main thing is, but expect it to not only tear at your heart but also mess with Aura and her heart.

Zachary starts to lose his patience with Aura in this book.  I can understand his frustration, but I felt the things he does — like prom night — were out of character.  After the first book, I was clearly Team Zach. With this book in the series though, I leaned more towards Logan.  I just didn’t like how the author was taking Zachary on the road he was walking on.  In Shade, you can feel the devotion and love he has for Aura, but in Shift I felt that he was true to character.  I never wanted a character to suffer as much as I did Becca after that Prom!

While we are on the subject of the prom, can I get a ‘Hell Yeah’ for Dylan Keeley? The way he stood up to Zachary and the things he said to him.  I jumped out of my seat and wanted to hug him fiercely! He really matures in Shift and has become such a great character to read about.  When he calls Aura over to his house one day and shares a notebook with her, I almost wanted to cheer for a Team Dylan badge.  He melted my heart and left a grin on my face.

When pieces of the puzzle of the Shift are revealed though through a recurring character, I could see the picture coming together.  Let me say that this is one portrait I can’t wait to see finished.  Secrets are revealed to Aura and more surface to keep it going.  The ending was beautiful and fitting for a star like Logan.

I smiled. I cried. I cheered. I cried some more.  This book will not only make you sigh with the sweetness of love, but leave you crying like a newborn baby. I don’t think I have cried so much from a book in a long time.  Were the tears worth it? Oh yeah.  I already have a new box of tissue sitting beside me so I can be ready for even more emotional and amazing writing that author Jeri Smith-Ready has mastered with this series! Aye!

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

Light On Snow
Author: Anita Shreve
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
 (December 1, 2006)
ISBN-13: 978-0316014281

What makes a family? That’s what twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon wonders after she and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home. Through the days that follow, the Dillons and an unexpected visitor who soon turns up at their door-a young woman evidently haunted by her own terrible choices-face a thicket of decisions, each seeming to carry equal possibilities of heartbreak and redemption. Writing with all the emotional resonance that has drawn millions of readers around the world to her fiction, Anita Shreve unfolds in Light on Snow a tender and surprising novel about love and its consequences.

This is a book I stumbled across in the library.  It is not a new book, the publication date is 2004.  It is a haunting story about life, death, and coming of age.  Nicky Dillon and her father have experienced great loss after an accident kills mother and younger daughter.  The father tries to cope by moving to an isolated part of New Hampshire.  One day close to Christmas, Nicky and her father are taking a snowshoe walk in the winter snow, and respond to a baby cry.  They are stunned to find a newborn baby girl abandoned in the snow.   After the rescue, Nicky is flooded with new emotions.  She can’t help but want to keep this baby.  After her father takes the baby to the hospital, the babies mother shows up at their home.  She is sick and reaching out for a connection to the child.  At the same time, Nicky is going through a lot of emotional maturing and is looking for a maternal connection of her own.  Father, daughter and stranger must work their way through decisions, each one seeming to carry equal possibilities of heartbreak and redemption.

I think you will find this to be a satisfying, emotional read that will keep you anticipating the next page.

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!