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Carpe Corpus (The Morganville Vampires, #6)
Carpe Corpus (The Morganville Vampires, #6)
Rachel Caine | 2009 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
These book just keep getting better and better. With book six, the series ventures into the world of steampunk with a special Morganville twist. With the very little I have actually read in the genre of Steampunk, I had a hard time visualizing what Ada looks like, but I am hoping these eventually become movies and someone creates this fascinating machine for the movies! Ada's quirkiness and creepiness fit right in with the rest of the Morganville residents, though, so I know that she/it will grow on me, too.
With this book, it is also a relief that Claire has finally turned seventeen. The build-up between her and Shane was driving me crazy. I also like how the author was much more realistic about her first time with Shane than many romance novelists, with much awkwardness and naivety. Her parents' response to the knowledge of this was quite humorous and charming and lent some much-needed humor to the extent of fear with which Morganville is saturated.
Even though these books have much fantasy, they still move along with a certain believability. The one major exception that I found in this book - that I simply had a hard time believing possible - was when Claire almost dies at the end. With the amount of blood loss she suffered from, there is simply no way she could stay conscious for the amount of that she did or stay alive as she did. When books are as entertaining as these are though, I don't mind a little "writer's license" to keep the main character alive and resolve the loose thread of who is responsible for the random murders of girls in the previous books. I am surprised, though, that Claire never made the connection to who Dean is, since I saw it coming quite easily.
Mynin gets more and more entertaining and fascinating from book to book - he is probably one of my favorite characters for his unpredictability. I am thrilled that the disease can no longer get the best of him - it means he could play a more central role in future books. Many of the characters are easy to like, even if their morals often verge into gray area, such as Amelie.
Even though the "book" has suffered its final demise, the bookworm in me still wonders what else was in that book, so I hope future books can tell me more about it.
  
DO
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<b><i>I received this book for free from Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i></b>
The first book in Kelsey Ketch's <em>Descendants of Isis</em> series is a book with very heavy romance.

Of course, I was highly aware of that upon reading the synopsis.

But I'm an absolute sucker for mythology of all kinds (This is why I am highly interested in debut author Heidi Helig's <em>The Girl From Everywhere</em>. I mean, <em>Hawaiian</em>. Saucer eyes RIGHT here! I intend on waiting until the book is published, though.) and I simply couldn't resist myself. So instead of moping about the possibility of a heavy romance, I replaced my "NUUU ROMANCE" hat with my "TOLERABLE ROMANTIC" hat (the caps are intentional), sat back with my tablet (after transferring the review copy from the computer), and just hoped Ketch would take me on an unforgettable journey.

Natti has just moved from London to a small town in California after her Grandmother's death, with her only clue in a necklace she inherited. Since the first day Natti starts at her new school, Seth O'Keefe starts pursuing her in the hopes of seducing her.

Plus, Tolerable Romantic (I'll stop capping my hats now) hat says it's not exactly love at first sight – Natti is completely resistant to Seth's attempts at charming her from the beginning, even though she sort of succumbs to his charms eventually. At that point in time, however, I know each of the characters well enough and have a particular fondness for each of them (for the first in a series) that it isn't awkward at all.

Ketch writes the book in two views: Natti's and Seth's. Natti's comparison of British life to American life and big city to a small town is mildly hilarious (we totally do everything backward). Even though she would rather remain in England, she smoothly transitions into her new life after meeting Wanda, Kevin, and Jen and being tucked under their wings.

Also, she has a fire in her I kind of like.

I honestly feel having Seth's view works out in the book's favor; hearing from his point of view makes him a lot more human than he comes out as with the other Sons of Set: someone who worships the Egyptian god Set and spreads chaos in the world on his behalf, hoping to eventually come across a secret from the past. They also sound insane and just want to take over the world one woman at a time.

It basically puts him in an entirely different perspective for readers than simply reading what Natti thinks of him.
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<em>Daughter of Isis</em> is one of those books where I'll probably keep my Tolerable Romantic hat on for the entire series because the romance between Seth and Natti fits the story really well. The world Kelsey builds in a small town California where nearly everyone is under the thumb of the Sons of Set captivated me by the end of the book – I can't wait to see what trials the couple will face in the future of the series.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-daughter-of-isis-by-kelsey-ketc/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
  
E.R.A (HayleAnna Rising, #1)
E.R.A (HayleAnna Rising, #1)
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
DNF @ 61% - REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS (AND A BIT OF A RANT)

This sounded rather good so I downloaded it but the more I read, the more I disliked it. That sounds bad but when I generally enjoy almost 95% of books I read, I think it's fair. It might be because it was self published and needed a really, really good proof read and edit as the amount of misspellings and simple errors drove me mad.

So this starts with HayleAnna waking up for her first day of training to join E.R.A - America's army of the future - so she can follow in her dads footsteps. She meets the trainers, a group of five, and makes friends with her roomie, AZ, before embarking on her schedule of training throughout the days and weeks so she can help stop the crazy madman who is trying to rule America after the government collapsed a handful of decades ago.

I had a couple of other issues with this book, just simple things I didn't understand.
One: Her name is HayleAnna but everyone calls her Anna. Surely Hayle with it coming first would be her shortened form?
Two: The romance. I didn't buy it. One minute they're sharing looks and winks and then the next they're pretty much dating and getting married?
Three: The continual use of the word "setting" instead of "sitting". "Setting up in the bed..." Maybe it's because I'm British but that made no sense to me. I set an object down but I sit down.
And four: I felt like I missed something in that 61%. She leaves the training completely to go see her mum amid a possible threat, but when her birthday rolls around everyone from the training is there wishing her well, including the instructors who told her she would be kicked from the program if she left? And then she actually gets a place with E.R.A?

WTF?

That was about the point where I gave up with the story. It wasn't making sense to me anymore. None of it was. I didn't buy the romance between the characters, either, and I wasn't a fan of the explained conversations without having it written in full.

It did have a promising storyline and I'm sure if the authors gave it a full proper once over that it has the potential to be a good book but currently I really wasn't feeling it at all.