Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted and started by Breaking the Spine. It features a book weekly that is not out yet, and we are patiently waiting for. My "Waiting on Wednesday" spotlight book this week is:

 Touch of Death

by Kelly Hashway

Expected publication: January 15th 2013 by Spencer Hill Press

Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.

After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he’s not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she’s part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins.

Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.

Goodreads summary.

November "Out of the Owl's Nest" Review

Title: Sweet St. Lucia: An Erotic Island Affair

Author: B.J. Cherry

Format Acquired: ARC from author for honest review

Publication Date: October 27, 2012

Publishing House: self-published

ASIN: B009XY12UQ

Summary:
When Molly Shutter travels to St. Lucia with her husband Paul, it is more of a business trip than a lover’s vacation. Paul had fallen in love with the island whilst there on their honeymoon twenty years ago. 

He has now bought a small resort on the island with intentions of expanding it. 
Molly is left lonely in her room and finds comfort in the arms of another man – David, a handsome, young waiter, who caters to her every need. 

His rich accent puts her in a trance and his spicy island flair is hard to miss. 
Her nights with David are hot and sensual. 

He takes her to new heights and soon, Molly begins to feel that maybe this is the end of her tremulous marriage. 

In a whirlwind of events, Molly Shutter finds herself wrapped up in a relationship filled with lust, love, lies and deceit. 

It is an exotic island affair that leaves everyone speechless, including Molly.

(Summary taken from Amazon)

Review:

I acquired a copy of this novelette through the author for a honest review, and to be honest I wan't expecting much. I'm not really into erotic novels, but going out of my normal reviewing box is what "Out of the Owl's Nest" is all about so I said, why not? 

I found this novelette to be refreshing. It was smothered in sexual tension and sometimes I find that when life gets tough you just need to indulge sometimes. I found this novelette to be just the cure for one of those days. The novelette was surprisingly well written and the text just seemed to flow. There weren't any times that I had to go back over a sentence to figure out what I was reading due to poor sentence structure. It was actually more well written than some full blown novels I have read before. 

The only thing that I would have changed about the story to make it five owls instead of four was to perhaps make the ending a bit more detailed  It seemed to be very rushed and almost too short for me. I wanted a more detailed ending, but the ending may have just been the exact ending most readers would hope for. Regardless of the ending I enjoyed the romance that was portrayed in the story and I was quite glad that the novelette featured love and it wasn't just a rushed sex story. Overall I would recommend it to those that would love a quick read that will leave them on the edge of their toes with a whirlwind romance. But remember, this story is definitely not for those under 18 years of age. Enjoy!

Overall:

You can purchase this book as an ebook on Amazon here.

New Things Coming to Owlnestly Reviews!

Hold tight guys, a new thing is coming to Owlnestly Reviews! Once a month I am going to shake it up a bit and review a novel that is completely different from what I have reviewed previously. These reviews will be called "Out of the Owl's Nest."

This said, I am up for anything! Sci-fi, history, Christian, non-fiction, and even erotica! If you don't want to read that odd, and seemingly out of place review I will totally understand. If you do, then by all means read away!

Thanks for following guys and and I hope you are up for anything and are as excited as I am for this! Comment away!

Darkness Becomes Her

Title: Darkness Becomes Her

Author: Kelly Keaton

Format Acquired: epub

Publication Date: February 22, 2011

Publishing House: Simon Pulse

ISBN: 144240924X

Summary
Ari can’t help feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that can’t be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she came from and who she is. Her search for answers uncovers just one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone, or something, is getting closer than they should. But it’s impossible to protect herself when she doesn’t know what she’s running from or why she is being pursued.

She knows only one thing: she must return to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very...different. Here, Ari is seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, is afraid of her.

Ari won’t stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed.

(summary from Goodreads)

Review

'Darkness Becomes Her' was one of those few books that I read that I like the premise of, but I felt that it could have been brought about differently. Now, don't get me wrong the book was really good, in fact I am planning on reading the sequel shortly, but the book lacked... something. Ari was one of those characters that I felt like I could identify with a little bit even though the author didn't give much insight of her character. The story started off by jumping into Ari finding out that her mother was at an insane asylum before she gave her up to the state. Ari then goes on a quest to figure out just what is wrong with her and why she is so attractive to guys. The book is also set in the future where New Orleans is a supernatural hub and it is drawing Ari into it. This premise of the story is like a lot of the YA supernatural stories, but it has a twist.

One of the things that bothered me about this book is that is had plot holes... and not just a few. It had a lot of holes in the story where it jumped from one scene to the next without any prior explanation. I would expect this in fanfiction or amateur writing, but not in a published novel. Maybe the author wanted to spare the reader the details of perhaps mundane actions, but it would have helped if the holes weren't as big in the story. Another thing that was a little hard to follow was that Keaton introduced not only supernatural beings, but also mythology in this book and then she mixed them all up. I think that perhaps this was a bit much because I not only had to follow the storyline of witches, shifters, and vampires but also the mythological gods as well. I liked it, but at the same time I feel like it was just a huge plot of thrown in supernatural beings with no real explanation.

Overall, I really did enjoy the book even looking past the plot holes and sometimes confusing character twists. I would recommend it to those that love the supernatural YA category but I would not recommend it to those that don't really follow/ want to follow the story lines of mythology. 

Overall:

Whispers at Moonrise

Disclaimer: although this does not contain spoilers, this is not the first title in the series so tread lightly.

Title: Whispers at Moonrise

Author: C.C. Hunter

Format Acquired: epub

Publication Date: October 2, 2012

Publishing House: St. Martin's Griffin

ISBN: 1250011914

Shadow Falls Camp is back in session with the most explosive installment yet. A shocking new threat will rock Shadow Falls—changing it forever and altering Kylie’s journey in ways she never imagined.

Summary
Even at a camp for supernatural teens, Kylie Galen has never been normal. Not only can she see ghosts, but she doesn’t seem to belong to any one species—she exhibits traits from them all. As Kylie struggles to unlock the secrets of her identity, she begins to worry that Lucas will never be able to accept her for what she is, and what she isn’t…a werewolf. With his pack standing in their way, Kylie finds herself turning more and more to Derek, the only person in her life who’s willing to accept the impossible.
As if life isn’t hard enough, she starts getting visits from the ghost of Holiday, her closest confidante. Trouble is, Holiday isn’t dead…not yet anyway. Now Kylie must race to save one of her own from an unseen danger before it’s too late—all while trying to stop her relationship with Lucas from slipping away forever. In a world of constant confusion, there’s only one thing Kylie knows for sure. Change is inevitable and all things must come to an end…maybe even her time at Shadow Falls.

Review
This is the fourth book in the Shadow Falls series and it finally provided answers into Kylie's origins. I loved this book! The only negative criticism I have for it is that it took entirely too long to find out what Kylie was and what exactly it meant. By the time I did find it out in the book, I had already figured it out on my own. I liked the fact that Kylie is so unique, but it became a bit tiresome when she kept getting more and more powers. I just could not keep up with all them, and that was probably the book's biggest downfall. All in all though, I would rate this book five owls because I did enjoy it so much, in fact I ended up reading the whole thing within a matter of hours, I just couldn't put it down! The entire series is actually, really good and introduces a fairly new concept of a boarding school with all different kinds of supernatural creatures instead of just one. I will be waiting on the edge of my seat until the next one comes out! Cheers!

Overall:

My First Review!

My first book review will be the book:

 Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Title: Of Poseidon

Author: Anna Banks

Format Acquired: epub

Publication Date: May 22, 2012

Publishing House: Feiwel and Friends

ISBN: 1250003326

Let me begin by saying  I read this book because I had never read a fiction/supernatural book in the mermaid genre before and I was curious to see if I would like them or not. I was a bit skeptical, because although I do like mermaids I wasn't quite sure if I would actually like reading about them. The cover was the first thing that grabbed my attention in this particular case. I know that there is the saying about not judging a book by it's cover, but I normally do end up doing this for YA novels. I have come to find that books with crappy covers end up having content that suites the cover; not all but most.

The content of the book was actually quite enjoyable. I did have some issues with some of the characters, especially with the suppressed feminism, but it is a YA book and I did end up looking past that. The basic premise of the book is that Galen, prince of the Syrena (mermaids although they don't like that term) goes to find a girl that possesses the gift of Poseidon so that she can reunite the two kingdoms under the sea. Basically, the gift of Poseidon is the ability to talk with marine animals. He does end up finding the girl, Emma, but not all is as it seems. Emma is clueless about her origins and there is something else a bit fishy in her story as well. I liked the storyline and the premise of the story, but the POV shifts from third person to first person in almost every chapter and it does get a bit annoying at times. Also, Emma is constantly bossed around by Galen who is portrayed as a very macho man in the story. Besides those few flaws, I did read through this book rather quickly and I will certainly read the entire trilogy.

I did like the story and I would definitely give it four owls. If you don't like the idea of a possible "Mary Sue" or guys that are a bit possessive I might leave it alone though. If you can look past this, I would recommend you read it! It is quite enjoyable, although a bit fluffy at times.

Overall rating: