Category Archives: 5 Flames

BASTIAN
The Lords of Satyr #6
Author: Elizabeth Amber
Source: Author Submission

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

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Aphrodisia (April 26, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0758241305
ISBN-13: 978-0758241306

SUMMARY:

Man-gods born to live and love forever, the Lords of Satyr are renowned for their sexual prowess. . .and unquenchable lust. . .

Call My Name

The forum excavations in Rome go on, directed by the iron-willed, charismatic Lord Bastian Satyr. Out of nowhere, a mysterious, haunting voice calls out to him. . .and lures him to the site of a long-vanished temple, where vestal virgins once performed rites of erotic surrender. The temple is the find of his career, but his heart is about to face the unknown. . .

Michaela is a pure Ephemeral. She can enter the bodies of others—and become any woman a man might wish to possess. His choice is her pleasure. And the commanding and utterly virile Bastian is the only man she desires. . .

MY THOUGHTS:

Excuse me while I turn my fan up to high!  When I first started reading this series, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to accept the Satyr realm.  I mean, when the guys have double the private parts during certain days of the year, some might think that is a little extreme.  Well, most people would be yelling double the pleasure, but others might not want to accept it in their reading.  I was squirming and hiding my face at the beginning of these books to the point to where I would hide the book from being seen in public.  Yet, I embraced the authors creativity and writing and fell in love the with the Lords of Satyr!

Author Elizabeth Amber writes very erotic reads and be forewarned if you are not a fan of these books!  More importantly, if you are under the age of eighteen, step away from the book!  I on the other hand will be snagging her books up like crazy so I can get my smut fix!

Bastian and his brothers guard a magical vineyard where supernaturals can cross over to Elseworld.  Bastian is also the eldest brother of the bunch.  His passion lies with archeology and  excavating the ruins of the vestal virgins.  


Michaela is an Ephemeral.  She can live in a human body and become a fantasy for any man.  She falls hard for Bastian and gives up her immortality to become human so she could live with Bastian. Now we enter Michaela’s friend Silvia. She is also an Ephemeral and disapproves of her friends choice.  While watching Michaela and Bastian together in bed, she finds herself being tempted to be with a man.  While she has these feelings, she refuses to acknowledge them because her friend is in love with him.  Silvia is also on a mission to recover important stones that Bastian just happens to be looking for on his excavation.  


I felt sorry for Silvia.  I wanted her to be happy with Bastian, but I also wanted Michaela to be happy with him as well.  Oh, how I loathe the angst of a love triangle when the author has me cheering for all involved! Eventually the author puts me on the right path of which character would be suitable for the sexy Bastian and it made me love the book even more!  Bastian has to be my favorite Satyr so far in the series.  He is fun, loving and sexy as hell!  One of the best in the series so far!


MY RATING:

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf
For Rereading! 5 STARS

HOURGLASS
Author: Myra McEntire
Source: Publisher
*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: EgmontUSA (June 14, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1606841440
ISBN-13: 978-1606841440

SUMMARY:


One hour to rewrite the past . . .
 
For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

MY THOUGHTS:

Wow!  My mind is still reeling from this book of intrigue, suspense, romance and mind blowing action! Not only is the story a compelling and emotional read, but the cover itself was amazing!  I can’t believe it took me so long to even notice that the girl on the cover is walking on the wall and not on the floor!

It starts out with us getting to know Emerson and is told from her point of view.  She is living with her brother and wife after losing her parents in a horrible accident.  Not only is she recovering from a deep depression and mental ward vacation, she is also seeing things.  Are they ghosts or could they be something more?  When her brother Thomas employs the help of Michael,  questions arise and things happen that only Michael can explain.  The problem with it is how little Michael is willing to explain and what Emerson must do in the future.

It turns out that the apparitions that Emerson has been seeing, are actually Rips. Rips are part of time traveling either to the past or into the future.  Emerson has the specific gene that can pick up on them and actually travel to the past.  Michael has the gene as well and can travel to the future.  Together they compliment each other and can save the one man who died trying to help the people with this ability.

Are you confused yet? Don’t feel bad if you are.  I was confused through out most of this book.  Time travel is not a thing my mind can seem to grasp I guess.  Yet, as confused as I was, I had the compelling need to finish this book.  I was into it so much, that I might have missed a chunk of time myself focusing solely on the story!  The characters were great, the story was paced perfectly, and the mystery of who-did-what was gripping.  I learned that if I didn’t try to work out the time travel thing in my head and just enjoy the book, it was written perfectly!  I loved all of the characters and I loved trying to figure out who was wrong and who was right.

Just as an hourglass represents the flow of time,  the author represents the fresh new read this genre was needing!  After all the supernatural creatures that are done over and over again, the author has now sucked me into the vacuum of time travel!  If you only pick up one new author to read this year, be sure to make it this book! If not, we might have to travel back and change your mind and reality!

MY RATING:

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf  For Rereading! 5 STARS

ROCK HARD
Sinners on Tour #2
Author: Olivia Cunning
Source: Publisher
*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (April 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781402245770
ISBN-13: 978-1402245770

SUMMARY:


An ultimatum can break your heart….

Then a chance meeting and tortuously close quarters lead to uncontrollable flares of passion and rediscovery of their unique penchant for public encounters. Now, in addition to the risk of mutual heartbreak every time they get together, they’re in danger of truly scandalous public exposure…

MY THOUGHTS:

After reading and reviewing Backstage Pass, I was in heaven when the publisher sent me a copy of the second book in the Sinners Tour series!  I wasn’t sure how the author was going to write about Sed Lionheart after what he had done to Brian in the previous book, but I had faith in one of my favorite authors!


After Jessica walked out of Sed’s life, he has been on a sexual spree that would put Hugh Hefner to shame!  Sed is cocky, stubborn, and can be mean as hell with his words, but underneath the attitude was a sensitive and loving man.  He tries to take care of his friends the best way he knows how, but sometimes it comes across with him sticking his foot in his mouth sideways. I understand that many people had a hard time liking this story because of the way Sed acted at times, but I actually thought the attitude fit the character and you start to understand him as you read more into the book. 

Jessica could be just as stubborn and showed it when she left Sed after he gave her an ultimatum.  I can understand the reasoning why she left, but I can also understand why Sed gave it to her in the first place after reading about his personality more.  I did find Jessica to be annoying at times, but I think this was more to the fact of my possessive feelings towards the boys of the band!  I want them happy, and it was torture reading the path the author kept taking them down!

The other members of the band play prominent roles in the story as well.  Trey has a crisis that effects everyone, Jace is still dealing with his own issues without giving explanations, Brian is trying to enjoy time with his new wife Myrna, and Eric is still as playful and fun as before. 


I loved the steamy sex scenes between Jessica and Sed that includes plenty of public shows!  While I enjoyed the story of the two main characters, I enjoyed Trey’s story so much more!  I personally can’t wait for his book and from what I understand, his book is going to be the last in the series!  Oh how the author loves to tease me!  All I can say is, at least the author pleases me with her stories while teasing me with sexy characters!  


FAVORITE QUOTE:

“If there were a Jessica Chase instruction manual, it would be written backwards in Arabic Pig Latin and twelve thousand pages long with random pages missing.”

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf
For Rereading! 5 STARS

PLAYING HURT
Author: Holly Schindler
Source: Publisher
*I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 312 pages
Publisher: Flux (March 8, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0738722871
ISBN-13: 978-0738722870

SUMMARY:

Star basketball player Chelsea “Nitro” Keyes had the promise of a full ride to college—and everyone’s admiration back home. Then she took a horrible fall during senior year. Now a metal plate holds her together and she feels like a stranger in her own family.

That summer, Chelsea’s dad hires Clint, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player and “boot camp” trainer, to work with her at a northern Minnesota lake resort. As they grow close, Chelsea finds that Clint’s haunted by his own tragedy. Will their romance end up hurting them all over again—or finally heal their heartbreak?

MY THOUGHTS:

After hearing so many wonderful reviews on this book, I just knew I had to give it a try!  I am a sucker for sweet and romantic young adult books with a great balance of angst!

I was a little wary of the theme being focused on sports since I am not into that scene now or when I was in high school.  I wasn’t the jock type in school and I certainly was not a fan of anything that included running!  Yet, I found that the author made sure to balance out the obsession of sports with the teen angst that Chelsea suffers through as well.  If you are not a sports fanatic, you can easily adapt this story to something else in your life.  For me, it was book blogging.  What if that was suddenly taken away from me and I had no access to books or sharing the love of literature with anymore?  I would freak out and fall into a depression! Well, maybe not that extreme, but it would have been devastating like it was for Chelsea.

Clint lost his girlfriend to an automobile accident and he is not in a hurry to give his heart to anyone again.  He doesn’t want to be put in that situation of losing someone else again. When Clint and Chelsea first meet, there is attraction, but both of them are not ready to jump into a relationship, especially since Chelsea has a boyfriend back home.  This furthered the reading experience by creating a love triangle on top of the other plot.

I really liked how this book included the struggles that can be such a focus in teen lives.  I liked the authors writing and the feel of the book.  Each character had struggles to overcome and the author made it feel believable.  If I was disappointed at anything, it would have to be that the story ended too soon! I wanted more of the story.  Of course, when you read a good book, we always want more! 

A great read that teaches you that you can overcome the obstacles in life that seem like the end of the world, but actually are little gifts in disguise!

MY RATING:

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf
For Rereading! 5 STARS

BORN AT MIDNIGHT
A Shadow Falls Novel
Author: C.C. Hunter
Source: Publisher
* I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin; First Edition edition
(March 29, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312624670
ISBN-13: 978-0312624675

SUMMARY:

Don’t miss this spectacular new series that will steal your heart and haunt your dreams,  Welcome to Shadow Falls camp, nestled deep in the woods of a town called Fallen…

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever.  Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.”  Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either.  Or does she?  They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason.  As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas.  Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past.  Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.  

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

MY THOUGHTS:

Wow!  I had no idea how much I would love this book.  From page one up until the last word on the last page, I was entranced with everything the author brought to the reader.  I loved the characters and the supernatural world that were involved.

Kylie is having a hard time in life right now.  Her parents are getting a divorce, she finds herself being arrested at a party, and eventually finds herself enrolled at a summer camp.  Shadow Falls is not just another summer camp for troubled teens though.  Shadow Falls is a camp for supernaturals who are trying to adjust to their new abilities and fitting into the world with normal humans.  Supposedly, if you were born at midnight, you might have special talents and be a supernatural creature instead of a regular human.  Kylie is shocked and refuses to believe that she could be anything besides normal.  She may see a ghost once in awhile, but she still refuses to believe that she is anything but human.

This is one book that will leave you craving for more by the time you finish it.  Yes, it wraps up nicely, but it leaves just enough unanswered questions to have you anticipating the next book in the series.  With shocking discoveries, suspenseful mystery, supernatural creatures and romance that blossoms, I was hooked and did not want to stop reading!  I can’t wait for the next book and it left me wishing that I was born at midnight so I could go join Shadow Falls Camp!

MY RATING:

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf
For Rereading! 5 STARS