The Dark Rising by Lacey Weatherford

The Dark Rising

Book 4 in Of Witches & Warlocks series
Lacey Weatherford
YA Paranormal Romance

When Portia Mullins discovers the love of her life is still alive her heart soars. But reality sets in immediately causing it to plummet when she realizes he doesn’t remember his past life with her. Unwilling to give up, she embarks on a loving quest to restore his life to him. Vance Mangum sees the beautiful girl claiming to be his wife, and while he can’t remember her, he can’t deny the intense pull he feels between them. Not knowing where else to turn, he agrees to give her the time she’s asked for and to assist her in the effort to recover his memories. The two quickly reconnect, but dark surprises are lurking in the wings when Vance discovers a desperate longing for something he feels he can’t withstand. Will he be able to resist? Or will evil raise its head in a new form, leaving Portia as the prey of the very man her heart desires? Darkness reigns supreme in this haunting tale of love and desperation, Of Witches and Warlocks, The Dark Rising.

The Romance Diva: Unearthly, by Cynthia Hand

Official Blurb:
In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

What I thought:
I've wanted to read this book for a while.  I find myself rushing out to buy books hot off the presses and it usually turns out to be wishful thinking on my part.  My hectic schedule always seems to get in the way of my guilty pleasures.  Anyway, I finally set down to read this and I have to say it almost killed me.  Because of my schedule, I read when I should be sleeping, and when a book is good I get caught up in it and it's hard for me to put it down.

Yep.  That's what happened with this book.  Not being one to give up, I propped my eyelids open with some toothpicks and kept on reading!! ;)

I really loved this story.  It dove right into the whole thing, not messing around with a bunch of unnecessary stuff.  I enjoyed getting to the know the characters and I realized right away that I was going to have a "conflict of interest" with the love interests in this book...mainly being that I felt some good chemistry from both of the awesome guys.  There was clearly one I chose over the other.  But I will let you read it to figure it out. 

All of the aspects of this story moved along easily.  I never felt that moment where I thought....boring...I will just skim this part.  Nope!  Didn't happen.  The book kept me enraptured the whole time.

The character development went well also, and I have to say if I had a hot guy like _____ taking me out into the woods all the time, I'm afraid that I would have never left the forest and instead just kept on making out like a fiend.  Because really, we all know there is NOTHING like hours upon hours of hot kissing!  Am I right?  I'm a pure advocate of the idea that there's nothing a little tongue can't cure!!   I mean really...there was a reason I was called "Hot Lips" in high school!  So yeah, I would have been out in nature slobbering up with Mr. Hottie....I'm sure that's why I resonated so well with the character! HA!

I was near death from lack of sleep as I came closer to the end of the book, but for the life of me I couldn't put it down and come back to it.  I had to know what happened.  The ending came in an exciting rush and I have to say my only complaint about the book was right here.  The ending, while revealing somethings I already suspected, never wrapped anything up.  No questions were answered and the reader was left with about as much knowledge as they had to begin with.  This wasn't a distraction to the story at all, but rather just a disheartening moment since we know the story will continued on.  Ending it this way left things kind of in a "now what?" situation.

Don't let me telling you this make you think it ruined the story for me.  It didn't!  I loved it, I was excited about it, and started telling people to read it right away.

So now I will tell you.  This was a great young adult story.   The setting, story, characters and premise were all very well done.  I liked it and I can't wait to read the next one!

My Rating:

Lacey Weatherford

Author - Reviewer

Crescendo, by Becca Fitzpatrick

Official Blurb:
Feisty teen Nora Grey somehow survived the crises of Hush, Hush!, but dangers just as frightening loom in this standalone sequel. Patch, her guardian angel and love interest, appears to have a dark side and a wandering eye. Worse yet, he seems intent on obstructing Nora as she hunts for the truth behind her father's mysterious death.

What I thought:
Let me first start out by saying that I was craving this book from the get go because I fell hook, line, and sinker, for Patch in Hush, Hush, one of my favorite all time novels.  I ran right out and bought this book when it came out and happened to have all of my excitement fizzle when I passed an unfortunate comment on another blog.  That blogger had said that it was "too bad that Patch was hardly in the book."

I was devastated.

How could a sequel to Hush, Hush, not have the macho, deliciously brooding, bad boy front and center in its sequel?  I sat the book on the shelf and picked up one of the other new releases I was excited for instead.  I have to say I ended up reading multiple books before one day I was finally seized upon with the desire to find out what was in this one again.  So I picked it up off the shelf and curled up into my pillows and the rest was history.  I was captivated.

While Patch wasn't as physically present as he had been in Hush, Hush, every time he did appear he positively oozed the sex appeal all over the pages.  I found my heart racing in the spots in which he appeared, proving he is the true HUNK of this series.  No other male comes close to him in these books.

I liked the introduction of Scott.  He always made me feel off kilter.  I never really could tell if he was good or evil, sorta good or sorta evil, perhaps crazy, misunderstood.  Of course, I'm not going to tell you what he was, but his character was interesting and well written and he occasionally pulled off a little hot steam of his own.  He was a nice tension creator between Patch and Nora, which was fun as well.

Marcie was a witch, in a nasty and biting sense, but there was always something missing and off about her too.  She was just a mean girl and as we come to understand why that was, the chips suddenly started falling into place.  Very good twists there.

And then there was Nora.  Dear, sweet, adorable, made-me-want-to-bash-her-stupid-head-into-the-wall-for-virtually-every-second-of-the-book, Nora.  I don't know what happened here, but Nora suddenly became dumber than a pile of bricks, questioning and freaking out about every little thing.  She was extremely prideful, never giving Patch a chance to explain anything!  It was no wonder the guy clammed up around her...he couldn't get a word in edge wise.  Every time Nora would ask him a question in her search for the truth, she would answer it herself, the way she thought was right and then ended up throwing him out.  Patch should have been nominated for sainthood by the end of the book just for putting up with her.  (Ladies, sometimes you need to shut up and listen to your man.  One good conversation could have saved Nora this whole book!  Yes, I know, that defeats the purpose of the book, but Nora was just darn irritating.)

The premise of this tale was good though.  The story never lagged at all and I turned page after page in indulgence, eating up every word of the delicious plot.  When the story ended, I actually growled and flung the book down in frustration at the cliffhanger ending, hopping right up to log onto Goodreads to find out the information about the third book in the series, Tempest, which is due out October of 2011.  Yes, dear reader, I will be in line for that one at release time too.

So, I struggled with how to rate this book.  Based on the lack of Patch, who is my favorite character, I would give the book a four.  Based on the aggravation and moaning in frustration that Nora caused me, I would also give a four. BUT, the story was good and these circumstances were crucial to the telling of it.  If I had half stars or quarter stars I would probably rate this a 4.75.  But we don't, so I'm going to over look my personal tastes and rate the book on straight writing and storytelling merit.  I will round up and give it a five out of five.  It's a great book!

My Rating:

(Well...almost....LOL!)

Lacey Weathrford
Author - Reviewer

Eternity Embraced by Larissa Ione

Eternity Embraced

Demonica series novella 4.5
Larissa Ione
Paranormal Romance

Desire...
Demon slayer Andrea Cole has always taken down the demons and vampires she hunts without mercy. But when a fellow slayer is captured and turned into a vampire by a sadistic monster, she must choose between loyalty to her family and the man she loves.

Versus Instinct...
Kaden Quinn has dedicated his life to slaying vampires, so when he is turned into one, his greatest nightmare comes to life. And when the woman he loves is thrown into a dungeon with him -- as food -- he must battle new instincts and old desires, and choose between his life, and hers.

To Conquer A Highlander by Mary Wine

To Conquer A Highlander

Mary Wine
Historical Romance / Highlander

A fierce Highland laird ready to kill for king and country... When Torin McLeren discovers his neighbor's plot against his king, he takes their daughter as his prisoner, thereby stopping her father's plot from going forward. But that leaves him with a woman under his roof whom he can't ignore, and not just because she's his enemy's daughter...

A woman who's as much trouble as she is temptation...
Shannon McBoyd decides to use her captor to experience passion for the first time, and then to destroy him. But her plan goes awry because once she has lured Torin into her bed, she no longer wants to hurt the one man who seems to value and understand her... Even if her father will kill him-and her-when he discovers what they've done...

Ordinary Angels by India Drummond

Ordinary Angels

India Drummond
Paranormal Romance

Although most of Zoe Pendergraft's friends are dead, that means nothing to her. After all, they died long before she meet them. What does matter is the angel who took her dancing and turned her world upside down. But grim reality intrudes when she finds a body, and the Higher Angels accuse her of the murder. Knowing she's the only one who can stand against the Higher Angels, Zoe uses any means necessary to save her friend all the while, wondering if the tempestuous love she's feeling is real. The blood on her hands forces Zoe to question herself, and her angel to question her.