Demons Grip Tour: Lethal Inheritance Review

Lethal Inheritance by Tahlia Newland
Publisher: Catapult Press
Release Date: October 10, 2012
Number of Pages: 300
Book Format: E-book
Synopsis: On a rescue mission in a mysterious hidden realm, ex-fencing champion, Ariel, battles treacherous terrain, vicious elementals and wraith-like demons who want her dead - after they've fed on her fear. To defeat the demons and free her mother, she must learn a secret esoteric wisdom to awaken the dormant but potentially explosive power of her mind.

Walnut, a quirky old wise man, guides her across stone-strewn plains and wind-swept swamps, past deep ravines and quaint villages, and through a modern city enclosed in a transparent dome. Nick, the powerful Warrior who travels with them, proves a dangerous attraction. His feral energy hits her like a sledgehammer; sometimes it's bliss, but often it's pain. 

Can Ariel defeat the sadistic demon lord and his army before he kills her and enslaves her mother? 

The stakes are high, death a real possibility. Fail now, and she fails humanity.

This book has received the AIA Seal of Excellence in Independent Fiction.

My Review:

I received Lethal Inheritance by Tahlia Newland from the author for review, and this is my honest review.

After finishing Lethal Inheritance I can honestly say that I haven’t read anything like it before, and I mean that in a very good way. In this story we meet a young girl named Ariel who witness’ her mother, Nadima being kidnapped my strange creatures in the middle of the night. Ariel doesn’t know anything other than that she needs to save her mother. So that is her mission in this book.

I really liked Ariel’s character because most of the time she had absolutely no clue what was going on or what she was going to have to do to get her mother back but she was very brave and was willing to do whatever it took. I definitely commend her on her bravery it was one of the things that made this book worth reading.

This story has no doubt A LOT of action which kept me quite entertained but I was very impressed with Newlands job of incorporating other things into the story along side the action like humor here and there, and romance too. We can’t forget about that romance! We met some other very likeable characters like Walnut (I love that name by the way, very creative!) whom is Ariel’s guide for the most part. He was a sweet old man (I think he was supposed to be an older man) and he was always there to guide Ariel when she needed it. Ariel’s other guide was Nick, now I liked Nick a lot especially him and Ariel’s relationship because it wasn’t this love at first sight thing they actually kind of hated each other in the beginning but ended up growing on each other which was cute.

Now there were a few things that annoyed me about this book as well that brought my rating down a little. Like I understand that finding her mother was crazy important but the book seemed to just drag on and on and i’m not sure if it was because I wasn’t in the mood to read it or what but it took me forever to finish it seemed like because I just couldn’t take the plot for too long of a time. The next thing is going to sound weird because I wanted it to wrap up BUT when it did come time for Ariel to save her mother it just seemed like that whole part of the book was way rushed. Like the whole search for her mother could have been shortened considerably and the fight at the end could have probably been more action packed I feel like but that could just be me.

Anyways there are a few more books in this series and even though I won't be jumping into them like a madwoman I do plan to read them sometime in the future.

Review: Skull Creek Stakeout by Eddie Jones

Skull Creek Stakeout by Eddie Jones
Publisher: ZonderKidz
Release Date: August 6, 2013
Book Format: ARC
Number of Pages: 192
Synopsis: The good news is...vampires aren't real. The bad news is...you can't believe the news. After solving the Deadwood ghost story, Nick lands a job as a roving reporter for The Cool Ghoul Gazette, a website on paranormal disturbances. When the editor sends Nick to investigate a murder, Nick finds a corpse sporting fangs, bite marks and a gaping hole in its chest, courtesy of a wooden stake. Will Nick unravel the truth behind the 'blood covenant, ' or will his new job suck the life out of him? Nick Caden has a 'supernatural' knack for finding trouble. He's a normal fourteen-year-old who attracts ghosts, vampires, and the undead---or so it seems. But Nick's relentless search for truth leads him into worlds of darkness with grave consequences, where the dead, dying and deranged walk... on really hot coals

My Review:

I received Skull Creek Stakeout by Eddie Jones from the publisher, and this is my honest review.

Skull Creek Stakeout is book two in the Caden Chronicles series, which follows Nick Caden on his different adventures of solving crimes. This adventure takes him to a town called Transylvania where a man who owns a creepy looking manor is found dead on a golf course with a stake driven through his heart. Now knowing Nick from the first book we know he's going to be interested because one he gets to play investigator, two the guy is dressed and killed like a vampire. Everything definitely gets interesting from here. 

Nick's character matured a lot in book two which I thought was cool. I wasn't expecting him to mature much because book two only took place 2 months after book one but he did a lot. Like there weren't that many scenes with his sister, but when there were he acted more like a big brother towards her than being rude. Also while questioning people he didn't seem annoying. In book one he asked a million of questions and kind of had an attitude almost but in book two he was much more respectful. 

Another thing I liked about this book is that it was very spooky at times which I like. The creepy manor was one of my favorite parts because there aren't too many books when a fourteen year old boy gets locked in a creepy mansion with no way out. Then when Nick was sitting in front of Meg's laptop and it was randomly typing messages to him yeah weird! Let's talk about Meg for a few minutes, I think she was a pretty good step up from Annie in book one. The reason I say this is because when she first met Nick she was a little skeptical about what he was doing same as Annie but it didn't take her long to warm up to him. Annie was all over the place when it came to supporting Nick but Meg after she warmed up was by his side until the very last page. 

Again this book had my flipping pages like a mad woman because I wanted to know what was going to happen, and there were times where I thought I knew exactly who the killer was but then in the end Jones ended up completely flipping it around on me which was awesome that he was able to do that! Book two gets a solid 5 out of 5 stars.

I hope you all enjoyed this review! These books are so cute, and I'm very excited for book 3 :)

In My Mailbox 83 + Weekly Wrap Up

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi over at The Story Siren, and Gabrielle over at The Mod Podge Bookshelf. You should all know very well what this is but if you do not, it is a weekly meme where we show off all the books we've gotten over the week! :)

My Books:

Review:
Andi Unexpected by Amanda Flower
Dead Brilliant by Christopher Ward
The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden by Philippa Dowding


Won: (Autumn @ The Autumn Review)
Finding Bliss by Dina Silver 

Traded: (Ashley @ Wholly Books)
The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder


Bought:
Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck 

Weekly Wrap Up:

Reviews:
House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Memes/Posts:
Keeping Her by Cora Carmack Release Day Launch
Author Spotlight Thursday: Jodi Picoult

Blog Tours/Hops:
Smash Into You Tour: Excerpt

Giveaways:
Smash Into You Tour: Giveaway
Keeping Her Release Day Launch Giveaway

Author Spotlight Thursday: Jodi Picoult (Special Review)

Hello Bookies! Guess what today is? It's Thursday which means it is time for another Author Spotlight Thursday! I hope everyone is enjoying this new feature on the blog because I've been enjoying it a lot. Well are you ready to find out who I've featured? 

Jodi Picoult! 

That's right! If you don't know who Jodi Picoult is and you haven't read any of her books then what are you doing with your life!? Get on it! I recently read one of her novels House Rules so I thought that I would share that review with you as apart of Jodi's spotlight. I hope you all enjoy it! 

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Synopsis: When your son can't look you in the eye...does that mean he's guilty?

Jacob Hunt is a teen with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, though he is brilliant in many ways. But he has a special focus on one subject - forensic analysis. A police scanner in his room clues him in to crime scenes, and he's always showing up and telling the cops what to do. And he's usually right.

But when Jacob's small hometown is rocked by a terrible murder, law enforcement comes to him. Jacob's behaviors are hallmark Asperger's, but they look a lot like guilt to the local police. Suddenly the Hunt family, who only want to fit in, are directly in the spotlight. For Jacob's mother, Emma, it's a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it's another indication why nothing is normal because of Jacob.

And over this small family, the soul-searing question looms: Did Jacob commit murder?

My Review:

I bought House Rules by Jodi Picoult from the Used Book Superstore and this is my honest review. 

I've only read one other book by Jodi Picoult so you can imagine my excitement to finally be picking up another one of her novels. This one even happened to be on a topic that I have recently been interested in which is an disability called Autism. In the novel we meet Jacob who has Asperger's Syndrome, which is another form of Autism. Although Jacob's case isn't as severe as many others his disability affects him quite a bit. A symptom of someone with Aspergers is having an obsession with something for long periods of time. Jacob's obsession at this time was Forensic Science which gets him into something that he was definitely not expecting. 

I really liked Jacob's character, the other books I've read with main characters or side characters who had a disability were often hard to understand which made the book in a way hard to enjoy but with this novel, Picoult gave us many chances to enter Jacob's head and see what he was thinking. The chapters that we were in Jacob's head were most often my favorite because they gave us what we needed to understand Jacob and what was really going on through his head. 

Some books don't do very well with switching to a different POV but Picoult did a fantastic job keeping everything in order and not throwing too much in one chapter that way we were able to keep up with the story. So when we first met Detective Matson in his own chapter I was thinking that maybe he would possibly be a love interest but I'm sort of glad that he wasn't because it would have made things pretty difficult. But then Oliver whom is Jacob's lawyer came into the picture and he seemed so innocent and stuff that I just couldn't help but fall for him! 

I really like that Picoult has enough talent to make court interesting. Obviously there are so many court cases going on today and most of them are so boring but she makes them extremely interesting, you don't have to like be extremely intelligent to know what going on in the court scenes which I give her credit for because I imagine it's hard to write a scene that most people completely understand. 

I enjoyed mostly everything about the book the characters they were all extremely interesting and completely there own person. The plot I absolutely loved, I loved following the characters trying to figure out who did what and what would happen and things like that but the only thing I didn't like was the ending. After everything all the details of the characters of the crime scene everything that happens in court and we don't get to find out what happens?! That really really irked me. I was considering giving it a 3 stars instead of 4 but I really did like everything else in the book except the very end. So in the end the book does get a 4 out of 5 stars.

Keeping Her by Cora Carmack Release Day Launch

Keeping Her by Cora Carmack

Synopsis: Garrick Taylor and Bliss Edwards managed to find their happily-ever-after despite a rather . . . ahem . . . complicated start. By comparison, meeting the parents should be an absolute breeze, right?

But from the moment the pair lands in London, new snags just keep cropping up: a disapproving mother-in-law-to-be, more than one (mostly) minor mishap, and the realization that perhaps they aren't quite as ready for their future as they thought.

As it turns out, the only thing harder than finding love is keeping it.

Buy Links:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Meet The Author:

Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She's done a multitude of things in her life-- boring jobs (like working retail), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.




Author Links:
Blog
Facebook

Twitter

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


I hope you all enjoyed The Release Day Launch for Keeping Her by Cora Carmack Big thanks to InkSlinger for putting this all together! 

Smash Into You Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

Smash Into You by Shelly Crane
Synopsis: Jude has spent the whole twenty one years of his life running. From what, he wasn't quite sure. His mother tried to keep him safe; a low profile, a constant move on the horizon, a week's pay always stashed away. She tried to instill in him that he was special somehow, though would never elaborate. He never felt different. He was so completely normal and vanilla that he wondered if it had all been in her head. But then she was murdered and all he saw was a running silhouette of a man as his mother said three final words to him. Three words that changed his whole being. 

Never stop running…

Now he's semi-settled into a big town. The college is huge and easy to blend into. It's been three months since he had to move because 'Biloxi', as he calls the man who killed his mother, found him once more. 

Then Marley, an eighteen year old girl who is as infuriating as she is blissfully ignorant of her gorgeousness, smashes into his car with hers. Then smashes into his life as he realizes that whatever it is he has that Biloxi wants, she has it, too. And now, they're after them both.

Meet The Author:

Shelly is a New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author from a small town in Georgia and loves everything about the south. She is wife to a fantastical husband and stay at home mom to two boisterous and mischievous boys who keep her on her toes. They currently reside in everywhere USA as they happily travel all over with her husband's job. She loves to spend time with her family, binge on candy corn, go out to eat at new restaurants, buy paperbacks at little bookstores, site see in the new areas they travel to, listen to music everywhere and also LOVES to read.
Her own books happen by accident and she revels in the writing and imagination process. She doesn't go anywhere without her notepad for fear of an idea creeping up and not being able to write it down immediately, even in the middle of the night, where her best ideas are born.

Excerpt:

It was a case of mistaken identity.

​The kind that ended with appalled, parted lips and evil glares.

​The worst kind.

​The girl was cute enough. Cute wasn't the problem nor the solution for me. I needed to blend and be invisible in the most plain-as-day way and girls like this, girls who just walked up to guys because they had hope somewhere deep inside them that I would fall for that pretty face were the opposite of plain-as-day. Those kinds of girls got guys killed. At least the kind that were on the run.

​She had mistaken me for a normal guy.

​And this girl who approached, who could see that I was already surrounded by one, which was more girls than I knew what to do with, must've thought I had a hankering for something sweet. Because when she spoke, her words were soft and almost made me want to get to know her instead of send her packing. But I couldn’t stay in this town. It was better to hurt her now when she wasn't invested than it would be to leave one day without a trace.

​The girl who were currently soaking up my attention - that she thought she had - would move on to her next prey and forget I ever existed. But sweet girls got attached and asked questions.

​Don't stop running…

​I swallowed and stared bored at her as she finally made her way to me from across the hall. She tucked her hair behind her ear gently and smiled a little. "Hi, uh, can I just-"

​Showtime. "Honey, that's real sweet, but I'm not interested." I slid my arm around my groupie. I didn't even know her name, but they were always within arm's reach. "As you can see I have my hands full already, but thanks for offering."

​She scoffed and looked completely shocked. I took her in, head to foot. She was cute. She had a great little body on her and her face was almond shaped. He lips looked…sweet. She was not the kind I wanted within ten feet of me. She was still standing there. I had to send her packing.

​I grinned as evilly as I could muster and felt a small twinge of guilt at the vulnerable look of her. I looked away quickly. I didn't even want to remember her face. "Run along, sweetheart. Go find a tuba player, I'm sure he's more your speed. Like I said, I'm not interested."

​She didn't glare, and that was a first. Most of the girls who approached a guy were confident, I mean that was the reason they thought they had a chance, right? But she looked a little…destroyed. When her lips parted, it was in shock, it was to catch her breath. I continued my bored stance, though at this point, it pained me in my chest.

​But I was doing the best thing for this and any other girl. People who got involved with me were collateral damage when Biloxi came around. He was a ruthless bastard and if he found me and knew someone cared about me, or worse, that I cared about someone, he'd be all over them.

​So when she turned without a word and swiftly made her way down the hall, I was thankful. I probably saved her life, though she had no idea. She thought I was an ass, but I was really looking out for her. That's what I told myself as I watched her go. That I had hurt her feelings for a reason, and that she'd get over it.

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In My Mailbox E-book Edition #19 + Weekly Wrap Up

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme where we show off all the books we've gotten over the week. Created by Kristi over at The Story Siren, and now hosted by Gabrielle over at The Mod Podge Bookshelf.

My E-books: 

Snake Girl by Dee J. Stone

Synopsis: For Emily Wright, turning fifteen changes everything. Because that’s the night she begins her transformation into a monster. 

A curse placed on her family hundreds of years ago leaves Emily destined to morph into a half-snake creature with only one intent: to kill. Desperate for a cure, she and her best friend Toby search for answers. What they discover is that there’s more to the curse, which might explain why every member of the male species suddenly lusts for her—and why Toby stares at her in a way a best friend shouldn’t.

As the serpent side battles to take over, Emily races to find the cure before she claims her first victim.

What I've Learned So Far Part III Banjos Boats and Butt Dialing by Mike Ball

Synopsis: "Banjos, Boats and Butt Dialing" is the third installment in Mike Ball's "What I've Learned... So Far" series of books. In it the Erma Bombeck Award-winning humorist grapples with topics ranging from becoming a grandfather, to rabbit hunting, to the Zen of a middle-aged guy trying to cope with cleavage. The book is a compilation of 74 entries from Mike's nationally-syndicated column, What I've Learned... So Far. His homespun wit, sharp sense of humor, and ability to connect with readers on an emotional level have been compared to Mark Twain, Erma Bombeck, Robert Benchley, and Ernie Pyle.

Lark by Erica Cope 

Synopsis: The last time she checked, Mia Carrington was pretty sure that she was a normal girl with a completely ordinary life.

She goes to high school, has a crush on the gorgeous and mysterious new boy in town, and has strange dreams that she can’t help but feel are real somehow.

Okay, so maybe she’s not all that normal after all.

A freak accident changes Mia’s life forever when she is thrown into another world and left to deal with the revelation that she is the daughter of the King of the Light Elves. Throw in an ominous prophecy predicting that Mia will break a curse unleashing the Dark Elves on the world and well, things don’t look too good.

There is danger lurking at every corner in this strange world and Mia isn’t sure who she can trust…
The only thing she is certain of is that the Dark Elves know about her, and they will stop at nothing until they have her.

The Arrival by Nicole MacDonald

Synopsis: Cat, Kassie, Sian and Loi are anything but damsels in distress.

Fed up with a lack of decent male specimens they cast a love spell in the hopes of finding their soul-mates. And inadvertently land themselves on another planet. Oops.

The Arrival, follows the girls' adventures as they stumble through a foreign and often hostile world where humans are NOT at the top of the food chain.
Friendships are forged and love teeters on the horizon while the threat of civil war looms thanks to the girls' very unexpected 'gifts'.
Will the girls master these gifts in time to survive a war in which, not only are they the ultimate weapons, but also the ultimate prize?

Download The Arrival for free at www.damselinadirtydress.com

Weekly Wrap Up:

Reviews:

Dead Man's Hand by Eddie Jones

Mini Review Sunday: Runner by Logan Rutherford
The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan

Posts/Memes:

Book Blitz: Camp Boyfriend by J.K. Rock

Waiting on Wednesday: Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong

Blog Tours/Hops:

None

Giveaways:

Check out the book blitz above it has an awesome giveaway!