MAGIC TIDES

Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews
Book 12.5 of the World of Kate Daniels series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & ebook

About Magic Tides:

Kate, Curran and their son, Conlan have left Atlanta, vowing to keep a low profile, and are settling into a new city and new house… but some things never change! Magical mayhem is about to erupt when Kate undertakes the rescue of a kidnapped youth, while Curran guards the homefront.

It should be a simple retrieval, but with monsters on land and sea, Kate’s got her work cut out for her. Still, she's never let her blade dull or her purpose falter. And that low profile? It’s about to wash away with the raging tides!

Source: Info in the "About Magic Tides" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65969788-magic-tides on 03/01/2023.

Buy Link(s):

My Thoughts:

Short and sweet!

As usual, Ilona Andrews delivers another wonderful reading time for the BDH (Book Devouring Horde)! Even though it is way too short, at least we have another Kate Daniels read! As a die-hard fan, I will take all the crumbs I can get!! This does not negate the fact that the book has the compelling story telling quality that is a trademark of this author! The world building and character development has been established about ten years ago or so. However, just saying that this book has that same masterful world building and loveable characters that we all love and miss! And of course, I want more!!

Then, as if there isn't enough to love about this book, another thing I like about it is that we can see Kate, Curran and Conlan's point of views, which is fantastic!

Empirical Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 5
Writing Style = 5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 5
Plot = 4

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries

Meet The Author

About Ilona Andrews:

Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.)

Gordon and Ilona currently reside in Oregon with their two children, three dogs and a cat. They have co-authored two series, the bestselling urban fantasy of Kate Daniels and romantic urban fantasy of The Edge.

www.ilona-andrews.com | twitter | facebook | amazon | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook copies of the book were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

WOLF WARRIOR

Wolf Warrior by Craig Zerf
Book 4 in the Project Bloodborn series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook

Synopses:

The synopsis of the first book, Wolf Man:

Brenner is not a werewolf...

He is the result of a secret US Army experiment. The creation of a government controlled Super Soldier.

And no one asked if he wanted to take part.

So, he escaped. And for the last fifty years has been living in the backroads and the small unknown towns of America. Never aging. Searching for a cure. At the same time avoiding the dark ops experts who are looking for him.

But just because he can become a seven foot, four hundred pound killing machine, it doesn't mean that Brenner is bad. In fact, he sticks to a strict code.

And like the High Plains drifters of old, anyone who crosses the Wolfman's code is sure to suffer.

They took his humanity ... and now it's time for payback.

Synopsis of Wolf Warrior:

The story of Brenner and Griff continues in this book. A couple of old army buddies. Vietnam veterans. One old and one young. One human, one wolf. Together they fight evil. The bad guys this time is a group of crazy augmented nazi fanatics. A screw up by that same vietnam military group who experimented on Ded because they never stopped experimenting and now their creations are on the loose!

The synopsis of the first book was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36178703-wolf-man on 14/06/2021. The synopsis of the current book, Wolf Warrior, is provided by me.

Buy Link(s):

Hemah

My Thoughts:

I am still mourning Lenny's death and we are starting to see that the supposedly good guys are not really the good guys but self-serving egomaniacs who hijacked the military for their own purposes.

This time around Griff and Ded are no longer travelling together. Ded is once again a lone wolf and he got more baddies to contend with. Powerful baddies like him. And we are getting to see more of Solomon here.

This is the first book in this series that does not have an audiobook format. So I have to read it the old fashioned way. Annoying!!

I like the twist in the ending. I say twist even though I kinda saw it coming a mile away. The author nay sign-posted the reader to it! And with this book the angels and demons angle has firmly been introduced into this series...

If Wolf Killer is the shortest book in this series, this could possibly be the second shortest at 234 pages as opposed to the "full books" that were the first two books at approximately 400 pages long. But I'm not really complaining because I did get the full enjoyable reading experience that the "full books" had. But it did brought the pacing down a little because the reason that this book got read quickly is not only because it was fast paced, although the pace was relatively fast, but also because this book was short.

Still a violent read, not recommended for young readers.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = 3.5
Plot = 4

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In Project Bloodborn Series:

Meet The Author

About Craig Zerf:

Craig Zerf is a full-time writer who has been awarded the Golganooza Gold medal for Fantasy as well as being voted 'Best Read' by radio BBC United Kingdom.

His novels have been translated into French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and German.

Craig has lived in America, Africa and Europe and now resides in England with his wife and two imaginary cats.

His books have reached the number one Best Seller spot in both the United Kingdom and Germany and he reckons that writing is about the most fun that you can have without actually blowing things up!

czerf.wordpress.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | amazon | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

A DEADLY EDUCATION

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Book 1 in The Scholomance series
Narrated by Anisha Dadia
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About A Deadly Education:

Lesson One of the Scholomance: Learning has never been this deadly.

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.

There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.

El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.

Source: Info in the "About A Deadly Education" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50548197-a-deadly-education on 01/07/2022.

Buy Link(s):

 

Maw-Mouth in the library

My Thoughts:

Usually I avoid school serieses. I've had enough of academies, etc., etc. But, this is Naomi Novik and for some reason I couldn't really get into the Temerarie series. I've given it a few tries. So this book got read instead. It also doesn't hurt that it has an audiobook version and I love audiobooks!

It took a bit of perseverance to get into this story at first. But once I'm in, I was swinging! But then again, this is Naomi Novik were talking about here, so, of course the book was a fun ride!

Anisha Dadia has a very British accent which fits Galadriel, "who lives just outside London". This is the first time I've heard her and I am already a fan!

Empirical Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 5
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (10 hrs and 59 mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narration = 4.5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Scholomance Series:

 

Meet The Author

About Naomi Novik:

An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, when she first made her way through The Lord of the Rings, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular interest in the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O’Brian and Jane Austen. She studied English literature at Brown University, and did graduate work in computer science at Columbia University before leaving to participate in the design and development of the computer game Neverwinter Nights: Shadow of Undrentide. Over the course of a brief winter sojourn spent working on the game in Edmonton, Canada (accompanied by a truly alarming coat that now lives brooding in the depths of her closet), she realized she preferred writing to programming, and on returning to New York, decided to try her hand at novels.

Naomi lives in New York City with her husband and six computers.

www.naominovik.com | twitter | facebook | instagram | pinterest | audible | amazon | goodreads

The Narrator

About Anisha Dadia:

Actress. Writer. Voice Over Artiste. Comedienne and more.

twitter | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.