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Out For Blood (Monsters of London #3)
Out For Blood (Monsters of London #3)
Alexandra Keillor | 2024 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
OUT FOR BLOOD concludes the Monsters of London but I'm hoping it's not the end of this world!

Vasilie and Deacon have successfully avoided each other for two books and now we find out why. Tamesis (the big bad of the trilogy) is Vasilie's sire and 'just a tad' obsessed. And it seems he was just the same one hundred years ago. He puts a major spanner in the works for Vas and Deacon, leading to them both running away from the other and trying to deal with the consequences of the choices they made. But now Tamesis is back on the scene and both Vas and Deacon realise their feelings (and the bond) aren't as dormant as they thought!

The scenes with Vas and Deacon, both together and separately, show you quite clearly just how their minds and feelings worked, one hundred years ago and in the present. There is pining, longing, tenderness, hotness, you name it. Neither their story nor the overarching one suffers from the other one getting page time. Both of them fit perfectly with the other, giving the reader a well-rounded, spectacular read.

You really need to read this as a trilogy to understand it all, but you will love it if you have! Kieran's pack is as wonderful as ever, and I finally, FINALLY, found out just why Tamesis attacked Kieran so many years ago. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. The overarching story was superbly finished, and I found all the answers I needed.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me and I really hope to return to this world again.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Dec 16, 2024
  
Read Me Romance
Read Me Romance
Books
1
1.0 (1 Ratings)
Podcast Rating
Free Books (0 more)
Alexa Riley (0 more)
I can no longer support this podcast
I really loved this podcast up until I found out some of the sketchy things that Alexa Riley (Lea & Mel) have done. They're known scammers who have book stuffed on Amazon, stolen plots from various authors and have been subsequently banned from Amazon.

I still love that you can get free professionally narrated audiobooks but I cannot listen to this podcast anymore due to the above issues.

Original Review:

I love this podcast because I get to try new authors and listen to professionally narrated audiobooks in bite-size chunks. I'm not one to listen to podcasts, so when I heard about this podcast through a Skye Warren post, I knew I needed to give it a try.

This podcast is a great way to read new authors and find some new favorites. I haven't had a chance to listen to all of them, but it has been fun catching up to the live airing and listening to all of the different novellas.
  
40x40

Eleanor (1463 KP) Jul 24, 2019

Always sucks to find out somthing you like is tainted by dishonest behaviour. Thanks for the update / heads up

40x40

Caffeinated Fae (464 KP) Jul 24, 2019

It it really does stink. I enjoyed the free audiobooks but I haven’t been able to stomach listening to the podcast since reading some of the threads on Alexa Riley.

The Jabberwocky Princess
The Jabberwocky Princess
Cece Louise | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I read this book not realising that it was the second of a series. And all I can say is that I will definitely be finding the first and reading it!
This was a great concept and it was written very well. I especially liked the "Easter eggs" within the story (I won't say more because I don't want to give them away, but I found three). I loved how the poem was used within the story and for the first time the poem has given me the chills. I had always read it differently. The characters were written really well, the relationship outcome a bit predictable, but how else could it end? You leave a lot about the protagonist's past really quickly without it impeding the present story and this makes it really easy to relate to her. The writing was very easy to read and the story telling was excellent. Love love love!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
  
The Babysitter
The Babysitter
Sheryl Browne | 2018 | Mystery, Thriller
10
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fantastic writing, gripping! (0 more)
EPIC and Highly Recommended
The author, Sheryl Browne, has created a heart-stopping psychological thriller packed with strong characters. The book had me gripped from the first to the very last page and I could not put it down in between!

Sheryl Browne takes us on a heart-stopping rollercoaster ride and has a fascinating way of taking you into the middle of events where you can’t help but feel empathy for all characters and even understand what is going on in the mind of The Babysitter.

I found myself unable to just sit still and read, I was pacing the floor, munching on junk food and whilst I started reading with a glass of wine, there was a paragraph in the book that shook me so much I dropped my glass. I replaced it with something a little stronger and got comfy as I knew I would not be sleeping until I reached the final page.

My Kindle gave the ‘low power warning’ when I was 48% through and I had to sit in the corner with the charging cable for the rest of the book.

I don't want to give away any secrets of the book - would just say read it and read it quick!

I purchased this book via Amazon Kindle and have now purchased a paperback copy for a friend.
  
Gemina: The Illuminae Files: Book 2
Gemina: The Illuminae Files: Book 2
Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman | 2016 | Children
9
9.1 (9 Ratings)
Book Rating
I really don't know what it is about this series. If I think about it, it just a collection of all the biggest and most common themes in sci-fi, but somehow it works. I couldn't put this book down!
The story starts 5 seconds after the end of the first book, and it focuses on the events happening on the station where the Kady and the Hypatia are headed. There is no need to say that things goes as wrong as they can.
I have to say that I found this book a bit slower than the first one, and if readers thought that characters in the first book were fake, they will probably found the ones in this second book even more so (even though I think that the problem is the narration more than anything else, we always see these characters through a filter, we never know how the feel directly from them). However the more you get into the story the more gripping and eventful it gets, there are a lot of plot twists (again they may be cliches but the do work inside the story) and the book ends with a huge cliffhanger. I can't wait for part 3!
  
Blood Runs Cold (DS Max Craigie #4)
Blood Runs Cold (DS Max Craigie #4)
Neil Lancaster | 2023 | Crime, Thriller
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wow ... just wow!!!

Once again, Mr Lancaster has written an absolute cracker in this brilliant series and whilst this is the fourth, it is quite successful as a standalone however, I would highly recommend you go back and read the other three because it will help with getting to know the main characters but also because they are just really good books!

DS Max Craigie and his team are strong characters that work well as a small but formidable team rooting out corruption within Police Scotland; Mr Lancaster has written them so well that I have found myself becoming really attached to them. Their relationship and dialogue feels authentic and I found myself tittering away to myself at times which helped to lighten what is, essentially, a very dark story.

This is a dark, gritty and fast paced police procedural that I was totally and completely absorbed by from the very start. The plot is scarily plausible and realistic with some excellent twists and turns which adds to the intensity.

Highly recommended and I urge everyone to read this excellent series; I can't wait for the next instalment and I must thank HQ, an imprint of HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of the brilliant Blood Runs Cold.
  
Memrise: learn languages
Memrise: learn languages
Education, Travel
6
7.5 (2 Ratings)
App Rating
Used to love this app (0 more)
Now, not so much (0 more)
This app started of really good when I first downloaded it. I used it to aid me while learning Japanese. It has cool short games and activities to help you learn and remember old and new things every day. It was so good that in fact I bought a subscription for it so I could do more things. When you become a pro member you get listening activities from native speakers, listening games as well as pronunciation exercises.


However, after using it for a while, I noticed it was harder for me to learn how to construct larger sentences. It was just a case of remembering what kanji was used instead of actually learning how to say/write the sentences. So the app is only great for learning words and short phrases.

Then my card details were updated and I lost my pro-member benefits. I found out that they now want to to pay for things that were previously free such as the difficult words which saved words you were struggling with and help you learn them separately. So now the only thing you can really do on the app is learn new words and recap old ones. 4 out of the 7 games now need subscriptions which seems unfair.


It is also hard to add new people who actually play on the app as well. (You need to pay to use this as well now, I believe) but it allowed you to compete with other players on a weekly score board. Only problem with that is you couldn't search for anyone. You had to know someone who played the game as well and add their user name. The alternative was to type in a random name in the search bar and see who came up and hope they were still active.


This app is good for learning basics words, and phrases, and kanji if you study Chinese or Japanese. But it will not help you with fluency. And you basically have to buy it to seek all the other features which make the app what it is.
  
Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1)
Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1)
Kami Garcia | 2009 | Fiction & Poetry, Paranormal, Romance
4
7.4 (34 Ratings)
Book Rating
So I felt the story started fairly slowly wasn’t sure what to make of it. I went along with it because it feel like I book/story I should like. And it wasn’t that I disliked it I just, I don’t know, I could commit to it. Additionally I found it quite annoying how often author says “in a town like Gaitlin…” I get it. It’s a small town nothing unusual happens. There must be ways that that meaning could be but across without literally saying it every other paragraph. It was one of those things once I noticed it I couldn’t, not notice it.

I felt the story took a long time to get going, I enjoyed a good portion of the book towards the end, but I just felt like the story could have been ironed out better. I can almost see where it was meant to go and what I was meant to feel about characters but I never whole-heartedly did. There just wasn’t enough ‘real’ conversation between characters and it just felt a bit…. Forced, I can’t really think of a better way of describing it. Sometimes whilst I was reading I was thinking there is no way, in reality you’d be in that situation and react that way. If someone is threatening the person you love, you wouldn’t then wonder off and just carry on with what you were doing like the bady wasn’t even there. Even some of arguments between characters seemed lacking in purpose or just seemed to end. I also thought it just sort of ended, I know it is part of a series but normally I feel like I have to know what happens straightaway. I just didn’t get that with this book.

I will read the next book at some point but I’m not in a rush to get to it, but hopefully the story becomes more ironed out and purposeful as even though I may have seemed negative about the book. I could see where it could go and there were times in the book when I was compelled and fully invested. I guess I shall wait and see.