OUaT's January Book Giveaway: FEARLESS by Sarah Tarkoff

FEARLESS

Eye of the Beholder Book #2

By Sarah Tarkoff

Published by Harper Voyager Trade Paperback

In Stores January 15, 2019

In a near future society in which morality is manifested through beauty and ugliness, a young woman will imperil her future and her world to expose the global shadow network that uses its power to play God and control humanity.

A decade ago, Grace Luther’s life was changed by the Revelations: the moment when Great Spirit “saved” humanity and transformed the world into a place where pious behavior is rewarded with beauty, and wrongdoing results in ugliness and even death.

Now, at eighteen, Grace knows that everything she believed about the Revelations is a lie—a myth constructed by the government of the Prophets to force its citizens into model behavior . . . and one that led to her mother’s death. She is determined to expose the deception and bring down the Prophets, even if it means aligning herself with the resistance, a group she doesn’t entirely trust.

After insinuating herself into Prophet Joshua’s inner circle, the double agent gets ever closer to fulfilling her mission to destroy his mind-influencing nanotechnology. But a shocking discovery has her questioning her path, and sends her hunting for answers about her past.

Grace isn’t alone on this odyssey. Zack, the secretive government agent who is sometimes an enemy and sometimes a friend has been shadowing her every move. Is he protecting her—or hunting her? And Jude, her first love, has returned from hiding to aid her—a task complicated by their history.

In a dangerous world filled with lies and betrayals, Grace can’t trust anyone. And the choices she makes will either save her friends, the resistance, and the hope of attaining free will—or secure the Prophets’ power and ultimate control.

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FEARLESS by Sarah Tarkoff Book Giveaway

One (1) winner will receive a paperback copy of FEARLESS by Sarah Tarkoff:

Giveaway open Internationally! 

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Book Review: Grim Tidings by Caitlin Kittredge

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Grim Tidings
Hellhound Chronicles #2
Author: Caitlin Kittredge
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: April 19 2016
Review Source: Harper Voyager

In this thrilling sequel to Black Dog—award-winning Caitlin Kittredge’s dark urban fantasy series, Hellhound Chronicles—a soul catcher must stop demonic monsters from her past from infecting the world

After winning her freedom from a reaper and facing off against a fearsome demon boss, Ava is now a masterless hellhound. Her friend, Leo, has found a new life after death himself: He’s returned as the Grim Reaper—the first in centuries. As both try to adjust to their new circumstances, Ava’s dark past comes back to wreak havoc on her . . . and the entire world.

A breed of monsters as smart as vampires—but who behave like zombies—have been sighted in Kansas. Ava can’t believe these “zompires” are back. She thought she’d kicked their asses for good when she first battled them in a Nazi death camp. Now, they’re spreading their infection across America’s heartland thanks to a nasty piece of business named Cain.

Free at last after being locked up in Hell for millennia, Cain has some scores to settle. To stop him, Ava must form an unholy alliance with some old foes . . . a bargain that will lead her to uncover deeply buried truths about her past—and Leo’s future.

Picking up right where Black Dog left off we're with Ava and Leo as they're driving to their next destination, only for them to be thrown off the road by something bigger and badder than they excepted. With needing to prove that Leo is now the Grim Reaper, and wanting to get rid of The Walking Man, Ava must figure out how to embrace the hellhound she is and find a way to kick some butt.

Kittredge is seriously a mastermind. I am so in love with this world that she has created. One that is based out of stories we've heard over and over again, but made in her own unique styling. There's more myth and legend thrown into this book, but for me there were also fewer pages. I so love this story, and I needed more. Which then makes me hope that there will be more hellhound chronicles.

Ava and Leo are hard workers on their own; they're independent but find out that they work their best when they are working together. At first Ava is afraid of that, she's use to needing only herself and not relying on her Grim Reaper for anything - even if it is just that intimate connection her and Leo share. But after a lot of debating she realizes that there's really no question about it, her and Leo are meant to be. Which therefore makes me swoon. This isn't really a swoony book, but anytime characters find their other half whom allows them to be their own person, and that only brings out the best in their character, to me that is a reason to swoon.

And of course. Like I said about Black Dog, this story takes on a Kill Bill-esque story. With enough action and violence in that would make Tarantino proud, and it puts readers on the edge of their seat. Sometimes wanting more, and sometimes cringing at how painful some of the injuries sound.

Grim Tidings definitely was worth the read, and it definitely kept me captivated. And more importantly it left me wanting more.

Book Review: The Clockwork Crown by Beth Cato

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The Clockwork Crown
Clockwork Dagger #2
Author: Beth Cato
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Released: June 9th 2015
Review Source: Harper Voyager

Rich in atmosphere, imagination, and fun, the action-packed, magic-filled sequel to The Clockwork Dagger is an enchanting steampunk fantasy, evocative of the works of Trudi Canavan and Gail Carriger

Narrowly surviving assassination and capture, Octavia Leander, a powerful magical healer, is on the run with handsome Alonzo Garrett, the Clockwork Dagger who forfeited his career with the Queen’s secret society of spies and killers—and possibly his life—to save her. Now, they are on a dangerous quest to find safety and answers: Why is Octavia so powerful? Why does she seem to be undergoing a transformation unlike any witnessed for hundreds of years?

The truth may rest with the source of her mysterious healing power—the Lady’s Tree. But the tree lies somewhere in a rough, inhospitable territory known as the Waste. Eons ago, this land was made barren and uninhabitable by an evil spell, until a few hardy souls dared to return over the last century. For years, the Waste has waged a bloody battle against the royal court to win its independence—and they need Octavia’s powers to succeed.

Joined by unlikely allies, including a menagerie of gremlin companions, she must evade killers and Clockwork Daggers on a dangerous journey through a world on the brink of deadly civil war.

As Octavia Leander and Alonzo Garrett flee to the south from their last encounter with the wretched Wasters, (ahem, the Dallowmen) Octavia ponders throughout their long journey about why from her blood so much springs forth, what her unusually strong connection to The Lady really means and what will become of both of them along this perilous journey? It's a lot for anyone to consider, but made harder by the ever growing feelings she has for her Clockwork Dagger.

As people of all types reach for Octavia, pleas for healing and many trying to simply take their healing if they need to. Everyone is on the look out for her, if only she'd wear a disguise instead of her medician white outfit.

In the first novel, The Clockwork Dagger, Miss Leander learns that her dreams many times are The Lady trying to lead her in a particular direction. This time she's learned to listen when hits are given, be they from the mouths of injured children, or in the form of a chimera named 'Leaf'. Throughout her adventure with Alonzo, she's had this nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that she needs to ride into the Palace, within the soot covered industrial capital, something calls to her. She just isn't so sure it's genial.

What an adventure The Clockwork Crown turned out to be. I wasn't so sure at first but the first book really turned me around, it won me over. It was after all one of the truly first steam-punk-esk books I'd ever read. I enjoyed it so much I had to read the second book. This is a duology, which is a nice change up from the many trilogies that are published. I don't want to spoil anything, truly, but I was so excited at many points. So much does take place within these pages to fully answer any unanswered questions from the first book and then wraps up nicely at the end. It wasn't what I'd expected... --I had to delete the line of thought I'd written after this point as I feared it would give away the ending too much. HA! I'd give it five stars easily, I enjoyed it and loved the ending! :)

Book Review: The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato

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The Clockwork Dagger
Clockwork Dagger #1
Author: Beth Cato
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Released: September 16th 2014
Review Source: Harper Voyager

Full of magic, mystery, and romance, an enchanting steampunk fantasy debut in the bestselling vein of Trudi Canavan and Gail Carriger.

Orphaned as a child, Octavia Leander was doomed to grow up on the streets until Miss Percival saved her and taught her to become a medician. Gifted with incredible powers, the young healer is about to embark on her first mission, visiting suffering cities in the far reaches of the war-scarred realm. But the airship on which she is traveling is plagued by a series of strange and disturbing occurrences, including murder, and Octavia herself is threatened.

Suddenly, she is caught up in a flurry of intrigue: the dashingly attractive steward may be one of the infamous Clockwork Daggers—the Queen’s spies and assassins—and her cabin-mate harbors disturbing secrets. But the danger is only beginning, for Octavia discovers that the deadly conspiracy aboard the airship may reach the crown itself.

I am ecstatic that this book was put into my hands, truly thank you to the author and to the publishers who sent it to me, I ate this book up! I will admit I do not read a whole lot of steam-punk style novels. It's not that I don't enjoy the idea of it, I just don't come across it in many of my favorite authors works.

Hopefully I won't give too much away by telling readers what I liked specifically, in that there is a lot packed within 360 pages. Octavia is an educated woman, one whom is gifted with healing powers as befitting any young graduate of Miss Percival's academy. However, the last 50 years have been dark times. Where money is scarce, war and disease are overly abundant. She is to journey to Delford, a city in need of her skills. That doesn't mean her journey will be safe or swift, many plot to kidnap her for their own use, or worse, kill her before they let her fall into enemy hands. Octavia ponders what makes her any better than the other gifted young ladies who study and heal the battle front. Oh, Lady knows why.

I would gladly recommend this book for a book club, or personal library, and give The Clockwork Dagger a five-star rating!

Book Review: The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

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The Diabolical Miss Hyde
Electric Empire #1
Author: Viola Carr
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: February 10 2015
Review Source: Harper Voyager

Magic, mystery, and romance mix in this edgy retelling of the classic The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde–in which Dr. Eliza Jekyll is the daughter of the infamous Henry

In an electric-powered Victorian London, Dr. Eliza Jekyll is a crime scene investigator, hunting killers with inventive new technological gadgets. Now, a new killer is splattering London with blood, drugging beautiful women and slicing off their limbs. Catching "the Chopper" could make Eliza's career—or get her burned. Because Eliza has a dark secret. A seductive second self, set free by her father's forbidden magical elixir: wild, impulsive Lizzie Hyde.

When the Royal Society sends their enforcer, the mercurial Captain Lafayette, to prove she's a sorceress, Eliza must resist the elixir with all her power. But as the Chopper case draws her into London's luminous, magical underworld, Eliza will need all the help she can get. Even if it means getting close to Lafayette, who harbors an evil curse of his own.

Even if it means risking everything and setting vengeful Lizzie free . . .

Dr. Eliza Jekyll works for the cops and helps them investigate murders. But what no one knows is that she has a dark secret-she has a second personality that goes by the name of Lizzie Hyde-much like her father Dr. Jekyll with his famous Mister Hyde. As the case becomes more entangled it becomes harder for Eliza to hide Lizzie in the dark, when that's all Eliza really wants-or so she thinks.

I don't usually read books along this genre-Murder Mystery Fantasy. I love fantasy books but I'm not usually one to make a grab for the murder mysteries. What got me to want to read this one was the famous Dr. Jekyll /Mr. Hyde story-I haven't read it before but I know of it. So I was intrigued; he had a daughter? And someone wrote a book about her?! I had to read it!

I'm glad I did, although it wasn't my cup of tea, per say, I enjoyed the style of writing. I liked how Carr wrote from Lizzie's perspective but stayed third person whenever it was Eliza who was in control. It made me want to read Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde to see how that was written, if it was written in the same styling or if it was all third person or first person. I was riveted by the Murder Mystery, but I did find myself not as intrigued during the hunting for the killer parts. When Eliza and Lizzie were putting pieces of the puzzle together. It was a bit mundane for my tastes-not saying that it was bad, but it wasn't my preferred story to be following. I was more intrigued in Eliza and Lizzie's relationships with one another and with others. I mainly found myself wondering about their dynamic-how do they get along, how weird is it to have two personalities in your body? Isn't this a mental disorder, how is she able to keep it so hidden? What happens if one falls in love with someone and then poof the other one pops up! This is what intrigued me, and I didn't really get much of that within this story. For those of you who like murder mysteries I say you should read this book, you will most likely love it! 

Blog Tour: Memory Of Water by Emmi Itaranta | Excerpt | Giveaway

Welcome to our stop on Memory Of Water tour for Emmi Itaranta. This tour is hosted by Me, My Shelf and I.

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Memory Of Water
Author: Emmi Itaranta
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Released: June 10th 2014
Review Source: Harper Voyager

An amazing, award-winning speculative fiction debut novel by a major new talent, in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin

Global warming has changed the world's geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. Tea masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria's father tends, which once provided water for her whole village.

But secrets do not stay hidden forever, and after her father's death the army starts watching their town-and Noria. And as water becomes even scarcer, Noria must choose between safety and striking out, between knowledge and kinship.

Imaginative and engaging, lyrical and poignant, Memory of Water is an indelible novel that portrays a future that is all too possible.

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Excerpt from Chapter 4:
Where Noria, the main character, tries to imagine what winters used to be like before the world changed.

I had often tried to imagine how winters had been in the past-world.

I knew the darkness: every autumn around Moonfeast, night met day in order to swap places and the year turned towards winter. During the six twilight months, large blaze lanterns burned in each room of the house at all hours, and solar lamps were lit beside them in the ink-deep black of the evening. From the top of the fell one could see the glow of the cities in the dark skies: the distant but clear halo of Kuoloyarvi in the east, where the watering areas and the sea lay, and the near-invisible spark of Kuusamo far in the southern horizon. The ground lost its scant greenness. The garden waited for the return of the sun, mute and bare.

Imagining the coldness, on the other hand, was hard. I was used to wearing more layers of clothing during the dark season and carrying peat from the drained swamp for the fireplaces and braziers once the solar power ran out, usually soon after the Midwinter celebrations. But even then the temperature outside rarely dropped below ten degrees, and on warm days I walked in sandals, just like in summer.

When I’d been six years old, I had read in a past-world book about snow and ice, and asked my mother what they were. She had picked one of her thick and serious-looking volumes from a shelf that was too tall for me at the time, shown me the pictures – white, shimmering, round and sharp shapes in strange landscapes, luminous like crystallised light – and told me that they were water that had taken a different form in low temperatures, in circumstances that could only be artificially produced in our world but that had once been a natural part of seasons and people’s lives.

‘What happened to them?’ I had asked. ‘Why don’t we have snow and ice anymore?’

My mother had looked at me and yet through me, as if trying to see across thoughts and words and centuries, into winters long gone.

‘The world changed,’ she had said. ‘Most believe that it changed on its own, simply claimed its due. But a lot of knowledge was lost during the Twilight Century, and there are those who think that people changed the world, unintentionally or on purpose.’

‘What do you believe?’ I had asked.

She had remained quiet for a long time and said then, ‘I believe the world wouldn’t be what it is today if it wasn’t for people.’

In my imagination snow glowed with faint, white light, as if billions of blazeflies had dropped their wings, covering the ground with them. The darkness turned more transparent and lighter to bear in my mind when I thought of it against the silvery-white shimmer, and I longed for the past-world I had never known. I pictured fishfires flashing on the sky above radiant snow, and sometimes in my dreams lost winters shone brighter than summer.

I once did an experiment. I filled a bucket with water and emptied all the ice I found in the freezer into it, sneaked it into my room and locked the door. I pushed my hand into the icy wrap of water, closed my eyes and summoned the feel of past-world winters about which I had read so many stories. I called for white sheets of snow falling from the sky and covering the paths my feet knew, covering the house that held the memory of cold in its walls and foundations. I imagined the snowfall coating the fells, changing their craggy surfaces into landscapes as soft as sleep and as ready to drown you. I called for a glass-clear crust of ice to enclose the garden, to stay the greenness of the blades of grass and stall the water in barrels and

pipes. I imagined the sound frozen branches of trees would make, or stiff waterskins hanging from the rack, when wind beat them against each other.

I thought of water, ever-changing, and I thought of the suspended moment, the movement stopped in a snow crystal or a shard of ice. Stillness, silence. An end, or perhaps a beginning.

The blunt, heavy blade of the chilled slush cut into my bones. I opened my eyes. The day outside the window burned with a tall, bright flame, turning the earth slowly into dust and ashes. I pulled my hand out of the water. My skin was red and numb, and my fingers ached, but the rest of my body felt warm, and I was no closer to past-world winters.

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Emmi Itaränta leads a double life, working mornings in an office at the University of Kent in the UK, and spending her with fictional characters in imaginary worlds.

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Book Review: Black Dog by Caitlin Kittredge

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Black Dog
Author: Caitlin Kittredge
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Released: October 28 2014
Review Source: Harper Voyager

The first installment in a fabulous dark urban fantasy series—think Kill Bill with demons and gangsters instead of martial arts—from the award-winning author of the Iron Codex trilogy and Vertigo comic Coffin Hill

Ava has spent the last hundred years as a hellhound, the indentured servant of a reaper who hunts errant souls and sends them to Hell. When a human necromancer convinces her to steal her reaper’s scythe, Ava incurs the wrath of the demon Lilith, her reaper’s boss.

As punishment for her transgression, Lilith orders Ava to track down the last soul in her reaper’s ledger . . . or die trying.

But after a hundred years of servitude, it’s time for payback. And Hell hath no fury like an avenging Ava .

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

Black Dog is the story of a girl named Ava who is a hellhound. She is controlled by a reaper, Gary, and does his bidding for him. She takes the souls of those lesser demons who haven't been up to any good and brings them back to Gary. Until she runs into Leo who changes her whole outlook on her life and makes her realize she doesn't have to take orders from her reaper. Little does she know that Gary's boss, Lilith, is a demon from Hell...literally.

I don't think I have ever loved a book that hasn't been a romance story as much as I loved this book. The back of the book describes it as a version of Kill Bill  just with demons, and boy is it the truth! I was enthralled in the story and was always wanting to know more about what was going on. Luckily the story would divulge the information I wanted to know, so there weren't many times where I was left wanting to know or understand a part of the lore that held this story together. While there is a romance story within the overall story it isn't what drives Ava-surprisingly I loved that about this story and about her character. She wasn't dying over not getting the guy, she was actually more angry at herself for having feelings for a guy until she gave in.

Caitlin Kittredge has a way with words, she teleports you to this world she has created and then vibrantly paints it for you. Not many authors can do this, not for me at least. So to be able to envision the story in my head rather than just reading another book helped me to not only fall in love with each character more but it also helped me to connect with the characters and their world that they were living in. There's so much more that I want to tell you, but there's so much that you-as a reader-should experience for yourself, especially while reading this book. Please do yourself a favor and read this book!

Book Review: The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs

The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a Vampire
The Dark Heroine #1
Author: Abigail Gibbs
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Released: October 11th 2012
Review Source: Harper Voyager
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) Violet Lee is the sole living witness to a horrific pre-dawn mass murder in Trafalgar Square, London.

But before she can alert the authorities, she is taken by the group of murderers, who, to her shock, are vampires. Kidnapped, Violet is forced to live among them, for they've discover she is the daughter of the UK's Secretary of State for Defense… who has been secretly dealing with the vampires for years.

Now a pawn in a game of politics between humans and vampires, Violet begins to doubt her allegiance, especially when she begins to fall for Prince Kaspar, the heir to the throne of the vampire world, as well as his best friend, Fabian. Swept into a complex love triangle, will Violet leave her newfound life, or return to the human world?

When you start Dark Heroine, be prepared to offer it time. Time to be enveloped into a world that is similar to ones that you may have read, however unique enough in its own way that as the reader you look past those details and completely become entranced by a storyline that is different. By characters that you think you may know, however you don't. Violet, with the vibrant, violet eyes, is about to become a part of an event that will change her life forever. With ambitions to begin higher education at a University, never did she imagine that her life would go down a dark path of uncertainties, supernatural elements,terror and passion. Kidnapped by a group of vampires, Violet believes that she will never be able to go back to her world of humans unharmed. Nor did she ever believe that she may fall in love with one.

Caught between the human and vampire world of government and politics, Violet must make a decision that will effect life as she knows it, as the country knows it. The love hate relationship that is created within this novel, flows swiftly through every single page. Abigail Gibbs has created a novel that is complete with all the necessary elements of wonderful writing. The setting is created in way that I can visualize every detail of her capture's estate. Every detail of her character's develop has not gone untouched. Above all, with every page read, I could see with extreme clarity the scenes that she created and the tone that poured from the pages while reading.

I'm a little leery when it comes to vampire novels written by someone other than Stephenie Meyer and J.R. Ward. I tend to shy away, and grab another book of interest. My inner mind continues to hold tightly to their main characters in their novels, not really allowing room for others to join. So when I realized that Dark Heroine was next on my list to read, I did what I always do as a reviewer: add it to my Goodreads account and check out the summary and author. Well I must say, by doing so, caused me to do a little more research on the the author before I even got started reading. I was fascinated by Abigail Gibbs and how her novel started through the use of wattpad, at such a very young age. Being a reader of fan fiction as well, I can't believe that I allowed this book to slip by me. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait for chapter, by chapter updates. I could read Dark Heroine from start to finish. I could read about the lives of Violet and Kaspar with surprises around every single corner.