Review: Widow's Web

WIDOW'S WEB

(Elemental Assassin #7)

Jennifer Estep
Adult Urban Fantasy
400 pages
Pocket
Available August 21st
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

I used to murder people for money, but lately it’s become more of a survival technique. 

Once an assassin, always an assassin. So much for being plain old Gin Blanco. With every lowlife in Ashland gunning for me, I don’t need another problem, but a new one has come to town anyway. Salina might seem like a sweet Southern belle, but she’s really a dangerous enemy whose water elemental magic can go head-to-head with my own Ice and Stone power. Salina also has an intimate history with my lover, Owen Grayson, and now that she’s back, she thinks he’s hers for the taking. Salina’s playing a mysterious game that involves a shady local casino owner with a surprising connection to Owen. But they call me the Spider for a reason. I’m going to untangle her deadly scheme, even if it leaves my love affair hanging by a thread.

MY THOUGHTS

Widow’s Web is the seventh installment of the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, continuing to impress with a heroine who, book by book, allows readers under her substantial emotional defenses to show us yet another layer of the already multi-layered assassin known as The Spider. One of the most intriguing aspects of these books–outside a highly entertaining core cast of characters–is Ms. Estep’s ability to craft new and unique villains to take Gin on in each tale. After seven books, one might expect Gin’s nemeses to have core similarities or common traits, and the battles to feel as though we’ve been through them with her before, but to our utter delight, Ms. Estep flexes her villainous creativity and brings another memorable foe to the table in this newest book. Where some past villains have been loud in their evil, throwing the weight of their physical strength, magic, wealth and power around and attacking Gin head-on, the evil in Widow’s Web is far quieter, and while she does pose a physical threat to Gin, the emotional threat she represents is far more terrifying for us as readers.

Gin is a paradoxical heroine—exhibiting the utmost physical prowess and consummate skill when it comes to her assassin’s trade, but yet as each book continues she seems to become more and more fragile (relatively), our knowledge and understanding of who she is stripping away some of cool detachment and the harshness of the assassin and replacing it with the insecurities and vulnerabilities of a very human woman. She’s not the type to show any outward display of emotion or give voice to her feelings, instead she deflects anything that causes her pain with The Spider’s tough-as-nails demeanor, hiding the wounds the words or actions of those around her have caused until she can acknowledge them in private with only our eyes as witnesses. It’s these private intimacies that are becoming more numerous as the series continues, and with the return of a woman from Owen’s past in Widow’s Web, our connection with Gin is at its strongest and most poignant as we watch her suffer blow after blow to both the body and the heart.

Ms. Estep pulls no punches in this tale, pushing Gin and us to our limits emotionally when history seems to repeat itself in terms of love and loss, only the pain we feel is all the more acute given how our relationship with Gin has grown from earlier books. While Gin at times can be frustrating in her stoicism, refusing to defend herself and her actions when we so desperately want her to lay herself bare and let the ones hurting her see how their words and deeds so easily make her bleed, she also continues to earn our respect as she bears the burdens of everyone around her without a single word of protest. Widow’s Web leaves us with an ache in our chests, bodies limp and exhausted after the physical and emotional battle waged in its pages, but Ms. Estep does not simply abandon us to wallow in our despair, instead she gives us the barest glimpses of hope that Gin’s future will be a happy one.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: The Raft

THE RAFT

S.A. Bodeen
Contemporary Young Adult
231 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available August 21st
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft.

And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way.

MY THOUGHTS

The Raft is a lightning-quick read, one of those stories that thrusts us into a character’s world for a few short moments before releasing us, and while a deep involvement with characters or story remains elusive, our attention is held throughout nonetheless. Extremely short chapters help give the story a more desperate feel, a quick two and three pages holding us riveted before we reach a stopping point, our fingers twitching with anticipation to see what lies beyond the next sheet of paper. Even when there are lulls in Robie’s day–times when she’s doing nothing but floating in a wide expanse of water in a tiny raft–there’s an addictive tension, the possibility of something big happening just around the bend teasing us as we will Robie to hold on a little bit longer.

One of the more interesting aspects of this story is Robie’s lack of survival skills. Many times with survival stories, the protagonist, upon finding themselves in a precarious situation, magically knows how to hunt or forage for non-poisonous edible foliage, thereby ensuring their survival. Robie is as clueless as most of us would be, a short guide saved from the wreckage of her plane giving her common sense tips such as “don’t drink saltwater” all she has to guide her as she faces miles of endless ocean. She does have solid avian knowledge from time spent with her parents and other researchers, but otherwise she’s completely vulnerable, setting our nerves all the more on edge as we can so easily see ourselves struggling just as she does.

While Robie is someone whose shoes we can seamlessly slide into, we never really get to know her as a person before we shut the back cover on our brief stint as her invisible companions. This is simply a story of her ordeal, and we never get the opportunity to dive deeper or claw our way through the layers that would make her a standout character in our minds. Her treatment of Max during their time in the raft is often frustrating, as she succeeds in catching food and collecting rainwater to drink yet never wakes him from his near-constant unconscious state to share her spoils. She appears callous and selfish, more interested in her own survival than in making sure they are both taken care of, and though we are provided an explanation for her seeming indifference by the end, her behavior while reading is a bit off-putting.

Overall, The Raft is fast-paced and easily read in a single sitting, our time with Robie not overly emotional or soul-scarring, allowing us to easily move on to the next story without much reflection on what we’ve read, but it is certainly successful in entertaining us for a short 230 pages.

Rating: 3.5/5

A Look At ENTICE: Teaser Trailer

Today I'm hugely excited to share the teaser trailer for Entice, book two in Jessica Shirvington's Embrace series. I will be honest and say I hit a few snags with protagonist Violet in the first book, mainly due to some extenuating circumstances affecting her behavior, but I got a sneak peek at Entice and adored it! I'm now thoroughly depressed that I have to wait so long for the third book. *cries* Silver lining though? The awesome people at Sourcebooks are taking pity on all of us fans by revealing an amazing trailer and putting together an EPIC promotional tour for Entice to help pass the time more quickly. I've included the details below the trailer, enjoy!


Entice Teaser Trailer from Sourcebooks Inc on Vimeo.

From Sourcebooks:

Dangerously exciting, darkly romantic – the teaser trailer for the next book in Jessica Shirvington’s Embrace series is here! In Entice, the war between Exiles and Angels is on—and Violet Eden is wanted by both sides.  Living a secret life as a warrior protecting innocent human lives isn’t easy. Knowing who to trust is key, but when Grigori reinforcements arrive, it becomes clear everyone is hiding something. Even her partner, Lincoln. And with Phoenix more dangerous than ever, Violet is truly on her own.

As mentioned above, there's going to be a fantastic 8-day tour in September with extensive character profiles, concluding with a party on September 15th where the full trailer will be revealed and opportunities to win awesome prizes will abound! Hope you'll join me for Entice Me Day and the events leading up to it!

More information on Jessica and the Embrace series can be found here:

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Amazon Buy Link

Anastasia Forever Blog Tour: Guest Post + Giveaway

The fabulous promotional tour for Anastasia Forever, the third book in Joy Preble's Dreaming Anastasia series, continues today with a crazy fun guest post about what makes Joy a bona fide geek girl and proud of it. Earlier in the tour I posted a very intense deleted scene from the book, so if you missed it you can check it out here. I also have an amazing giveaway to accompany this this leg of the tour, so be sure and check the bottom of the post for details!

 YEAH, I'M A GEEK GIRL, LIVE WITH IT!

People often ask what my inspiration was for the DREAMING ANASTASIA series. And part of the answer, of course, is my fascination with the tragedy writ large that is the Romanovs. Like so many people, I have always wanted to believe that there was more to it than political assassination and a girl who died before she could be what she could be.

But then there’s the other part of the answer. The part of me that wrote Anne because I’d grown up with a love of genre fiction and then cut my writerly teeth on the work of Joss Whedon.  That girl is an unrepentant geek. A nerd. And so of course I’d end up writing a book with witches and mermaids and soul jar trope dudes who can’t be killed and a romantic hero who’s handsome and blue-eyed but really kind of a doofus at heart. We geek girls write stuff like that. It’s in our DNA or something. We memorize the titles of Buffy episodes and we go with our friends to the opening day of Serenity and when Adam Baldwin guest stars on Castle with Captain Mal himself, Nathan Fillion, we squeal with geeker joy. And we Tweet that our husband just quipped, “Hey. I hope they run into the Rievers.” And the other million geeks who follow us on Twitter tweet back that this is the greatest line they ever heard.

And stuff like that.

So I present to you: You Know You’re A Geek Girl When. With geeky bullet points and everything.  And yeah, it’s all true. Get over it, folks. This is the real me.

You Know You’re a Geek Girl When:

• You agree to appear at Comic Con in Austin with your fellow geek authors. In a mermaid costume. For two days.

• Your favorite moment of the above is meeting James Marsters who played Spike on Buffy. And getting a picture. Signed. (Which you babble about for two days, at least when you can get a word in over Tricia (PJ) Hoover’s rambling about her photo op with Kevin Sorbo.

• Did I mention the seaweed boa?

• You put physics and economics jokes in your manuscript and your agent tells you that maybe this is not as funny as you think it is. But you believe that giving a character a t-shirt that reads ‘Fission Chips’ is hysterical. And that the joke “Two protons walk into a black hole… that’s the joke” is also the funniest thing ever. Really.

• You Google ‘nerd t shirts’ while you’re eating your lunch. More than one day a week.

• You still know the titles of every BTVS episode. And can still quote lines. And if someone says anything close to ‘dance of joy’ your first thought is of Season 2 of Angel when the gang went to Pylea.

• When you realized that you now knew and worked with the blogger who used to blog as Moonrat, you were happy for like a million days. Maybe more.

• You saw The Avengers on opening weekend.  And you knew that you had to stay seated when the final credits rolled because it wasn’t really over.

• You also saw The Cabin the Woods. And chatted with your fellow geeks about how it was a meta-horror genre movie. Possibly too meta. But whatever.

• You played viola in the high school orchestra. And were first chair. And dated the 1st chair bassoon player.

• You own a full collection of the paperback novelizations of the original Star Trek series.

• You used to write Star Trek fan fiction. Before there was the Internet. Yes, you and your geek friends exchanged yellow legal pads of manuscripts. Mostly about Mr. Spock’s love life. You now believe that if only you had titled it Fifty Shades of Spock, you would be on easy street now.

• You continue to believe that there is such a thing as a tesseract.

• You wish there were more people who would get excited about the Baba Yaga episode on Lost Girl.

• You screamed in horrified delight at the end of this season’s Vampire Diaries.

• You have worn socks with Birkenstocks. In public. But maybe only once.

• You could continue this list for another thousand pages.

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the amazing people at Sourcebooks, I have a special prize pack consisting of all three books in the Dreaming Anastasia series to give away on the blog today! Win! To enter, please just leave a comment for Joy and be sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you win. Giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only and will run through midnight EST on Friday the 17th after which time a winner will be chosen and emailed. Good luck everyone!

ANASTASIA FOREVER

Anne has been to hell and back. In Dreaming Anastasia, she discovered she is a descendant of Anastasia Romanov and that her famous ancestor is still alive, trapped in the house of Baba Yaga. Anne and the mysterious, sexy, and immortal Ethan battle magical obstacles to save Anastasia from her imprisonment, though in the end Anastasia chooses to sacrifice herself for everyone else.

In Haunted, Anne is trying to live a normal life, dating nice-guy Ben, but finds herself haunted by a rusalka (a Russian mermaid) and the memory of Ethan. The rusalka claims Anastasia is still alive and when Ethan, no longer immortal, comes back into her life, Anne realizes she can’t ignore the power growing inside her, or her attraction to Ethan.

In Anastasia Forever Anne is bound to see her journey through, regardless of the personal cost. She has a complex set of missions:

Discover the secret of their enemy’s newfound immortality.

Discover if she has the courage to kill him to free her family from a vicious curse.

Heal her imploding family.

Come to terms with the magic that now resides inside her.

And, finally, learn if she can find true love with Ethan.

Review: Spark

SPARK (Elemental #2)

Brigid Kemmerer
Paranormal Young Adult
432 pages
Kensington Teen
Available August 28th
Received from publisher via NetGalley

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Gabriel Merrick plays with fire. Literally.

Sometimes he can even control it. And sometimes he can’t. Like the fire that killed his parents.

Gabriel has always had his brothers to rely on, especially his twin, Nick. But when an arsonist starts wreaking havoc on their town, all the signs point to Gabriel. Only he’s not doing it.

More than Gabriel’s pride is at stake -- this could cost him his family, maybe his life. And no one seems to hear him. Except a shy sophomore named Layne, a brainiac who dresses in turtlenecks and jeans and keeps him totally off balance. Layne understands family problems, and she understands secrets. She has a few of her own.

Gabriel can’t let her guess about his brothers, about his abilities, about the danger that’s right at his heels. But there are some risks he can’t help taking.

The fuse is lit…

MY THOUGHTS
Spark is a story we enter into expecting to be entertained, the high from our introduction to four very attractive brothers with control over the elements in the first book still lingering despite how much time may have passed since we read it. What we don’t necessarily expect is a far more emotional story than we got with Storm, Spark possessing a more visceral quality to it that has us checking the pads of our fingers for small cuts every so often as the venom Gabriel is so talented at unleashing seems to make the edges of the paper pages that much sharper. Gabriel’s story is challenging and often times frustrating, his temper something both he as well as we as readers struggle with throughout, but the difficulties we all face are what make his tale so rewarding, the rough journey ensuring his footprints on our hearts are in no danger of washing away with the tide of the next book we pick up.

Gabriel is a character who at first glance seems shockingly transparent – the beautiful bad boy who’s likely to take a swing at someone first and apologize never – but as the story continues he becomes increasingly complex, everything we thought we had figured out proving to be but a sliver of a bigger whole. The more time we spend with him, the more we learn to understand the language of his violence, each balled fist and mocking insult telling the person he’s aimed them at that he’s nothing more than a belligerent asshole, but once we know how to read him those same acts of aggression reveal to us small pieces of what he’s truly feeling. Gabriel expects everyone—especially his brothers – to think the worst of him, filtering every innocuous look and gesture through a prism of self-recrimination and guilt where they’re then twisted and distorted by the way he views himself, ultimately reflecting back at people what he believes they already see—someone who’s destined to continually disappoint.

His interactions with Layne in the beginning are colored by the same hostility that marks nearly every communication with older brother Michael, but just as we do, she learns to be observant, recognizing his tendency to deflect anything that resembles real emotion with anger and bloodshed, whether physical or emotional, and calling him on it when it happens. She’s as damaged in her own way as Gabriel is, fire having changed both of their lives irrevocably, and in him she finds a freedom she never expected but has craved from the moment she became less than perfect in her mother’s eyes. Their relationship is the opposite of easy, tiny steps forward made before huge leaps backward send them both reeling, but both continually put in the effort to breathe life into the heat wafting between them, and we have the pleasure of watching as they both try to navigate uncharted territory.

Spark is a stunning second installment, repeatedly causing every muscle in our bodies to tense as Gabriel rarely wastes an opportunity to lash out and draw first blood before rapidly retreating, adding each confrontation to his already impressive collection of perceived screw-ups. We read constantly on edge, waiting for Gabriel’s predictable unpredictability to show itself, but each glimpse is something we can’t help but look forward to, wondering what his latest outburst might reveal to us. Sexier and stronger than Storm, Spark is not to be missed.

Rating: 4.5/5

Guest Post: Marie Lamba + Drawn

Today I'm turning the blog over to young adult author Marie Lamba to talk to us a little bit about her paranormal romance, Drawn. I had the pleasure of meeting Marie in one of the many lines I stood in at BEA this year, and while my feet weren't fans of all the standing around, I always have a good time while waiting because I get to meet so many new and interesting people! If you're interested in reading Drawn after reading Marie's post and the excerpt, it's available for FREE download today (the 8th) and tomorrow (the 9th) HERE.

CATCHING A SPIRIT

There’s something about touching a letter that was handwritten hundreds of years ago. Or walking through an old graveyard at dusk. Or exploring the abandoned corridors of a musty medieval castle. At these moments, the barrier between the present and the past feels as thin as a sheer veil. The people of those long ago times seem almost palpable.  Have you ever felt this?

In a castle I notice the worn steps, the ancient graffiti cut into a wall, and to me the air is suddenly thick with long lost memories, heartaches, whispers.  With people not so different from us. If only I could turn a corner fast enough, maybe I’d catch them unaware. That breathless maiden racing up the staircase to meet her lover. That young knight trying to swallow down the fear of his first battle. With his dagger he etches his initials in the coarse stone wall.  He wishes to be remembered…

I guess you could say Drawn is my way of finally catching a spirit by his sleeve, and really getting to know him. In my novel, Michelle De Freccio first draws a mysterious young man in her sketch pad. And later, when she runs into him, she does far more than catch his sleeve – she captures his heart.  At first she definitely doesn’t realize just who and what this guy is. But by the end of the novel she’ll learn just how close the past really can be. 

Here’s a glimpse of their first meeting for you. Enjoy!

The smell of cinnamon fills the air. Past the tapestry, a very narrow flight of stone stairs leads toward a dim light. I immediately decide I won’t go up. It’s too confining.
 
But the cinnamon smells even stronger here. It makes me think of warm cookies and my home from a long, long time ago. I change my mind and climb the steps. A small alcove is at the top and someone sits at a wooden table with his back to me. He studies a paper by candlelight. His auburn hair reaches his shoulders and he looks familiar.
 
With a jolt I remember the drawing of that guy in my sketchbook. To get his attention, I clear my throat.
 
In an instant, he stands, grabs my arm and shoves me against the wall. His face is close. His eyes filled with fury.
 
Sharp stones bite into my back. Tears spring into my eyes. “Let go!” I shout. I try to pull from his grip.
 
His glare softens, his grip loosens. “Forgive me. I thought…”
 
“You thought what?” I pull my arm from him.
 
He takes a step back. “I beg your pardon. I was taken by surprise. There have been dangers…”
 
I’m rubbing my arm. Blinking away tears.
 
“I have hurt you.” His voice is surprisingly gentle. He’s around my age and wears a brown woolen cape over an emerald-green tunic that fits him better than most of the rental costumes I’d seen tonight. His square jaw and strong chin add ruggedness to his face, and his eyes…
His eyes are studying me. I feel my cheeks burn. “It’s okay,” I say. “I’m fine.”
 
“Let us begin anew. I am Christopher.” He bows his head.
 
“I’m Michelle.”
 
“Please, join me.” He pulls out the only other chair.
 
“Oh.” The space around us feels tight. “I don’t think—”
 
“Please,” he says.
 
So I sit. He shakes back his hair and sits beside me. I notice the fine gold embroidery around the wrists of his tunic, the bear-shaped golden clasp that holds the cape around his shoulders. “You really look authentic.”
 
“Do I?” He seems confused. His eyes are a strange pale green. Like the color of a glow stick just before it fades. Then again, maybe this is just from the reflection of the candlelight.
 
“Yeah, this is great.” I wave my hand toward his outfit. The candle flickers. “Much more authentic even than the prince or the king.”
 
His jaw tightens. “Be careful of what you speak, Milady.”
 
“Careful? Why?”
 
He rests his chin on his fist. “You are obviously a newcomer, and a delightful one at that.”
 
“Really?” I rest my chin on my fist too.
 
“And your words have a most unusual quality.” He leans closer.
 
“It’s just a plain old Jersey accent.”
 
“Jersey? I think it is lovely.”
 
“You do? Huh.”
 
“I do,” he says, very, very softly.
 
He leans in even closer.
 
It’s crazy but I find myself leaning toward him, as if I’m drawn. My heart pounds. The smell of cinnamon saturates the air. I wonder if his lips will be soft like his voice, warm like fresh cookies. Sweet. He closes his eyes. My heart races. Our lips nearly touch when an icy blast blows through the room, ruffles the papers, snuffs out the candle and leaves us both in the dark. The smallness of the room seems to close in around me. I give a nervous laugh. “At least I’m not alone, right?” When he doesn’t answer, I reach out my hand.
 
He’s gone.

Thanks for stopping by Marie! More information on Marie and her books can be found below, and don't forget to download your free copy of Drawn HERE.

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DRAWN

She's the artist that finds him in her drawings. He's the medieval ghost that conquers her heart. And their time is running out.

Michelle De Freccio moves to England seeking a normal life, but someone starts appearing in her sketches. Then he grabs her at the castle, his pale green eyes full of longing. She's immediately drawn to him, but is Christopher Newman real? She's either losing it, or channeling a hot ghost from the 1400's. History calls him a murderer. Her heart tells her other truths. Now Michelle faces endless dangers...and a timeless love.