Category Archives: 5 Flames

ANEW
The Archers of Avalon #1
Author: Chelsea Fine
Source: Publisher
Genre: Paranormal Young Adult
Publisher: Acacia Publishing, Inc.
(December 7, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-1935089490

Two years ago, Scarlet awoke in the forest alone, afraid, and unable to remember anything. Lost and confused, her life was a mystery…until she met a boy with a familiar voice. 


Gabriel Archer has a voice from her past, and Scarlet’s determined to remember why. She immerses herself in his life only to discover he has a brother he’s kept hidden from her: Tristan Archer. 


Upon meeting Tristan, Scarlet’s world becomes even more muddled. While she’s instinctively drawn to Gabriel, she’s impossibly drawn to Tristan–and confused out of her mind. As she tries to piece together her history Scarlet realizes her past…might just be the death of her.

After author Chelsea Fine introduced me to her first novel titled Sophie & Carter, I was so excited when I was asked to review her first book in The Archers of Avalon series.  This time instead of a contemporary young adult book,  the author went in the direction of paranormal romance for the teen scene.  Since I already knew she could write an amazing story in the contemporary scene, reading a paranormal book by her was going to be even better. I couldn’t wait to start reading it!

Not only is that cover gorgeous, but the story inside is just as amazing.  When Scarlet wakes up in the middle of a forest two years ago with absolutely no memory of her past, she is forced to accept it and try to move on with her life after being taken in by a women named Laura.  She has tried to live as normal as possible for the last two years and even has made a best friend at school named Heather.  Heather is a social butterfly who loves her clothes and makeup expertise.  She is not ashamed in calling Scarlet out on her lack of style sense.  Together they made a perfect pair of friends and I found myself laughing several times at their interaction.

When they both attend the Kissing Festival in their town of Avalon, Georgia.  Heather is thrilled about the festival, but Scarlet can barely stand to be around so many people kissing and making a spectacle of themselves.  Then when she is walking around the fair area, she sees a mysterious boy in the distance that seems to try and spark a bit of her lost memory.  When she is approached by another boy named Gabriel, she is sure she has heard his voice somewhere before but can’t seem to place it.  Gabriel and Scarlet start dating and they seem to have the perfect relationship even if Heather seems to think he is hiding something.  When Scarlet starts having doubts about his honesty as well, she decides to follow him home.  Inside Gabriel’s house though, she runs into his twin brother Tristan.  She is instantly drawn to him and she doesn’t understand as to why she feels safe with him. As the brothers admit to knowing her from the past, she doesn’t expect them to mean a past life.  She also doesn’t expect to have been engaged to Gabriel in that past life and connected to Tristan in a way more than brother-in-law to be.

I was entranced by this story and the revelations that are revealed throughout the pages.  I fell in love with Gabriel and sweetness from the first moment Scarlet meets him.  I then fell hard for Tristan and his bad boy attitude as well when he was introduced.  You can’t help but feel torn with your feelings just like Scarlet was when the triangle develops between the three.  The curse and the past lives made this book a paranormal, but this writer made you live in the now for this adventure.  I finished this book in one day and could not put it down.  The ending is left in a cliffhanger ending and makes you want to scream in frustration at how you are left in limbo.  I even had to tell the author that was very cruel of her to do that to the reader!  If this second novel by Chelsea Fine doesn’t show how amazing her writing is growing, then you aren’t reading the same book as I am.  The authors writing has branched out into another part of the young adult genre and has swept me away into another life of romance, mystery, suspense and intrigue.  I can’t wait for more of the Archer brothers and Scarlet!

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

By The Book
Author: Scarlett Parrish
Source: Personal Purchase
Genre: Adult Erotica
Format: Kindle Edition
Publisher: Loose Id LLC
(January 4, 2011)
ASIN: B004QGYAJQ

Two’s company; three’s allowed. 


Reece Hutton conducts his life between the covers — of books and beds. A librarian by day, in the evenings he’s a man whose tastes are anything but vanilla. So when local writer Daniel Cross appears in the library one afternoon with the aim of doing some research, Reece has a hard time not noticing how attractive he is, or what feels like chemistry between them. They exchange a few words and Daniel’s business card, an interlude which Reece puts down to networking rather than flirtation. 


After all, he has his girlfriend Georgia to go home to and her best friend: a threesome to help his birthday go literally with a bang. Reece, being a gentleman (most of the time), has no objection to returning the favor, especially as his new friend Daniel seems all too willing to be their third for an evening. Georgia sees their triangle as nothing more than a temporary bit of fun but Reece…? He’ll eventually have to own up to breaking the unwritten rules of their relationship or close the book on a growing attraction to Daniel. 

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

Fracture
Author: Megan Miranda
Source: Contest Win
Reading level: Ages 12 and up
Publisher: Walker Childrens
 (January 17, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-0802723093

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?


Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she’s reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy’s motives aren’t quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

I have been eyeing this book for a while now and was excited to win an ARC copy of it for review.  I love books about after death experiences and what a person goes through after the miracle of coming back from the dead without the zombie angle added in.  So when I started reading this book it was no surprise that I  ended up putting everything else on hold just to finish it in one sitting.

When Delaney and her best friend/neighbor Decker cross the frozen lake to meet up with friends, Delaney slips and falls through the ice.  She struggles to find the surface as Decker tries to get to her, only to drown in the freezing Maine waters.  She was under the water for a total of eleven minutes.  Death is definite at ten minutes, but somehow after being pulled out of the waters at eleven minutes, Delaney is brought back to life.  She is confused at first, but as the events of that day are filled in, she starts to realize she is not quite the same as before.  She is a walking miracle in the fact that she survived, but she also did it without any brain damage. She does have an abnormal brain scan now, but she is walking and talking just as before.

When Delaney starts to get a terrible itch and trembling fingers, she starts to feel a pull that she can’t resist following.  What she ends up realizing is that she is being pulled to people who are facing death and they are facing it soon.  When she is approached by Troy though, she realizes she is not the only person who is like this.  Troy has been through his own near death experience but he has a different outlook on the situation.  He tries to convince Delaney to do things his way, but Delaney believes she could do good with this new ability.  During all of this, Decker is there for her and is secretly hiding the fact that he is in love with her.  Delaney needs to sort out her feelings between the two boys she has in her life and also deal with the fact that she is now a walking death sensor.

I absolutely loved this book.  I fell in love with Decker from the first few chapters and could already sense his feelings for Delaney.  While Delaney did seem to have some snobbish feelings towards the people who visit her afterwards,  I feel that the author did a wonderful job in explaining why she was this way towards them.  I liked Troy at first in the book, but as the story progressed, I realized he wasn’t what he seemed.  I could also see his point in his reasoning of why they were given this gift, but I didn’t like how he was using it either.

I personally can’t wait to see what other stories this author will come up with.  I love the fact that she can take a great subject and turn it into a wonderful story that keeps the reader engaged from page one up until the end.  A great new paranormal book to add to the genre from a debut author that can write beautifully!

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

Everneath
Everneath #1
Author: Brodi Ashton
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
 (January 24, 2012)
ISBN-13: 978-0062071132

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she’s returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld… this time forever. 


She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists. 


Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen. 


As Nikki’s time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she’s forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s…

This was one of those books that you are dying to read and you know you won’t be doing anything else until you read that last sentence on that last page.  I first fell in love with this book upon seeing a preview of the cover on another blog.  Then I continued on and read the summary. It sounded so captivating that I just knew I wanted to read it!

After reading the first chapter I thought Cole was going to be the good guy.  What I came to find out was that Cole was the tempting bad boy that you want to love, but nothing good can come out of a relationship with him.  Jack was the true hero and good guy of the book.  I fell in love with him the moment he entered the story and hoped he would be Nikki’s salvation and white knight.  What I didn’t expect was the way the story ended and had me craving for more!

Be prepared to have tissues on hand for an ending that will rip your heart out and wishing we wouldn’t have to wait so long for then next book in the series.  With Greek myth, characters that hold on and don’t let go, and a plot that flows wonderfully, you will be captured from page one and not wanting the ride to end.

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!

*I received this ARC copy free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Magic Bleeds
Kate Daniels #4
Author: Ilona Andrews
Source: Personal Purchase
Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Ace (May 25, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0441018529

Kate Daniels cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to deal with-especially if they involve Atlanta’s shapeshifting community. 


And now there’s a new player in town-a foe that may be too much for even Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. Because this time, Kate will be taking on family.

AMAZING!
OUTSTANDING!
FANTASTIC!
This book has me on adjective overload!  There are so many more words I could use to describe my thoughts on this book, but honestly, none of them come close to the awesome that this book is.

I have decided that Curran is now to be called the Sexiest Beast Lord or His Furriness instead of plain Beast Lord.  His Majesty was one of the best parts of this book.  I literally jumped for joy whenever he appeared on the pages and swooned at his sexy form.  I wanted to crawl into the pages and pet his fur and distract him away from Kate.  Seriously, how can Kate even attempt to deny him? I would have crawled all over him in book one, but the authors wait until book four to give us Chapter 17!  I read that chapter three times before moving on to the rest of the book.

In this installment of the series, Kate is up against not only the most powerful enemy yet, but she is also up against her Aunt Erra.  That’s right readers — we get to see her go up against her Father Roland’s sister.  Erra also happens to bring disease wherever she goes at thinks she can defeat Kate. Be prepared for a blood bath when these two collide several times in the book.

Not only can Ilona Andrews deliver the perfect story of suspense, fantasy, fighting and honor, but the author can also deliver some of the best witty and humorous dialogue throughout the chaos. I found so many quotes in this book that I would love to share, but then I would have to quote the whole book!

I have found this series to be a new favorite of mine and has made me discover that Urban Fantasy can be just as great as other genres.  I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book and pick up where Magic Bleeds ends.

The phone rang. I picked it up.
“Are you sitting down?” Curran’s voice asked.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Click.
I listened to the disconnect signal. If he wanted me to sit, then I’d stand. I got up. The chair got up with me and I ended up bent over my desk, with the chair stuck to my butt. I grabbed the edge of the chair and tried to pull it off. It remained stuck.
I would murder him. Slowly. And I’d enjoy every second of it.
— page 142 Kate and Curran

“I don’t know your wolves.” I looked at Jim. “Why can’t you go if you’re so concerned?”
He sighed. “Because certain people aren’t altogether rational at the moment.  If I came with you, I’d have to answer uncomfortable questions.  I ask questions, I don’t answer them.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Why were you in a vehicle with Kate, alone? What were you wearing? What was she wearing? How long were you there?  Did you do something or did you talk? What was the nature of your discussion? Could this trip have been avoided?”
I rubbed my face.  “So basically you’re scared that His Lordship might get his panties in a bunch?”
— page 255 Jim and Kate

Outstanding book that will stay on my bookshelf for rereading!