Kristine

What a unique premise

Reviewed: 01-20-25

I have to say that this was a very unique story premise. It is getting harder and harder to have something this unique in this day and age.

We are introduced to Aria Rialta. She is 17 years old and lives at home with her parents and sibling, but things have not been easy for her. Apparently, she has been selected to be a fighter in a different world. She can only get to this world in her dreams - when she is sleeping. In this world of Fodor, she has a partner. Again, she has only ever met Pax in her dreams, but they have been partners since they were young children and they are EXTREMELY close.

There are many rules regarding this situation. Of Course, partners cannot meet each other in real life. There are MANY huge and awful things that will happen should that event occur. Also, in Fodor, their job is to fight and kill evil spirits. These are the evil spirits that attach themselves to people in the real world and spew negative thoughts. The kind that tell you, "you're worthless" "the world would be better off without you" "You should kill her, no one will ever know". "It will feel so good to hurt him" So, yeah, they are awful and Aria and Pax work each night to fight these evil spirits. Unfortunately, the injuries you sustain in Fodor actually appear on your body in the real world.

So, that is the cause of Aria's problems. Her parents thinks she is doing "self harm". And because she didn't know any better, when she was little, she talked non stop about Pax, who she met in her dreams. It was cute for her parents in the beginning, but as she got older, they became more and more concerned when she would not stop talking about her imaginary friend. Eventually, 3 days before her 18th birthday when she was going to escape, they have her committed to a psychiatric facility (again) when they see that she has new scars (REALLY bad scars) and they think that she is unwell again.

The facility is the worst place she could be and she is immediately in danger and yep, you guessed it....Pax comes to rescue her. So, that's all of the story summary.

The strength of this book is in the relationship between Aria and Pax. Both of these characters are complex but very likeable. They are running while trying to figure out what to do and it is so very easy to root for them and want them to succeed.

There are many things that occur after the story takes off, and like I said - this is a very unique pretense. The good thing is that it says Book 1 in the title, so I'm hoping there is going to be another book (s) in this series.

Am I going to continue? You better believe it!

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Just what I needed :)

Reviewed: 01-20-25

I mean this in all honestly, and it is a complement. Whenever I need to flush my head out of another genre, I love coming to read one of Ms. Blakely's books. They are always a fun and easy read that most often leave me with a smile on my face.

I just finished about 2 weeks DEEP into an Epic Fantasy series, probably read about 5000 pages over the course of 2 weeks and after that, I just NEEDED to read something light and fun. This totally fit the bill.

The story revolves around two romance authors who used to be writing partners, but something happened a year or two ago and they broke off their writing relationship. They both now consider the other a nemesis. Unfortunately, they are both ordered by their publishers to go on a 7 day train r book tour through Europe. It starts with 3 authors, but at the last minute, the other author breaks her leg and can not go. Uh Oh.

I enjoyed both of the characters and it was even better because the level of angst on this was rather low. It completely fit the bill for exactly what I needed.

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I LOVE coming back to this world

Reviewed: 01-20-25

A Custom of the Army - 4 stars
I decided today to jump back into the Outlander world. Probably because I just watched the Season 7 season finale last night and it was on my mind. Since I am all caught up on the "BIG" books, I thought it might be time to jump into the novellas that I had in my Audible library.

This book focuses on Lord John and his crazy life. He goes to an "Eel" Party (don't ask) and due to the events that transpire after that, Hal decides to get him out of the country for a while. He decides to send him to Canada so that he can testify at the court martial of a former soldier of his.

As usual with John, nothing is ever easy. There are lots of adventures, lots of traveling, and as usual, he finds himself in the middle of something that his brother specifically told him not to get involved in.

I LOVE Lord John, so I enjoyed every minute of this.

The Space Between
4.25 Stars ⭐️

This one I found extremely interesting. The focus on this story is with Joan (Marsali's sister - Jaime's step-daughter) and her trip to Paris to enter into the convent. The other character is Michael Murray and I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure out where he belonged on the family tree. He was Big Ian's son (Jaime was his Uncle).

I don't want to give out any spoilers, but Joan has some "special abilities" that I would have NEVER known about without reading this and I was EXTREMELY intrigued. Then we have the Comte St Germain and Raymond as well. Talk about some big time characters.

Micael has a HUGE part in this story and I am really interested to discover if there is another novella that talks about the events that occur in their future....like maybe a year later...?????

A Plague of Zombies- 4 Stars
This was a short story telling the tale of Lord John Grey and his (unexpected) investigation into a series of uprisings on the island of Jamaica.

Lord John arrives on the island and promptly discovers that things are not exactly what they seem - the Governor is acting oddly and Lord John sees a snake on the dinner table. Then to top things off, there are tales of zombies.

First of all, I really enjoyed the narrator - Jeff Woodman. He did well with the various accents and had a very pleasant style of narrating. The story was interesting, and it took something that at first sounded crazy, and was able to give specifics and background information to make things plausible.

All in all I enjoyed the story but most of all, I enjoyed getting to take a peek back into the world of Lord John. It is always fun to be ablet to see a story from his life.

A Leak on the Wind of All Hallows
4.25 Stars 🌟

I LOVED this book. Why? Because it truly tells us what happened to Roger's father - Jeremiah McKensie. Had I known that this existed, I would have read this YEARS ago. In the "BIG" books, we get to see Roger meet his father, but we are never told what happens to him.

This was a great story - and to be honest, I was so very surprised to see Frank Randall involved in the story. Now I'm curious. In the books, Frank and Claire go and meet with Reverend Wakefield when they travel to Scotland. Is this how they knew each other? I honestly do not remember. But, it makes me curious so I might have to go back and take a peek at that first book again. (I have to be so very careful about that because the last time I did that - to answer a question about something on Season One of the Starz Series -I ended up doing a complete book reread. And we ALL know, these are not small books )

Regardless, I enjoyed the heck out of this. Wish there was actually a little more from Jerry's end during the time after he crashed, but it was enough to get the picture.

Virgins - 4 stars
This book takes place when Jamie was VERY young. Back when He and Ian had joined a group of mercenaries to try to make some coin. Jaimes father had just died, an this was after the events of his imprisonment and punishment (100 Lashes with a whip) at the hands of the English.

The story itself deals with a commission the group has taken to accompany a shipment of very valuable items from one place to another. The group is attacked and while the men stopped most of it - some items were taken but several men were killed. Jaime and Ian then are told by their leader to go get information on another job and they are intrigued when they meet with a very wealthy Jewish man who wants his granddaughter and items for her dowry escorted on the long journey to meet up with her fiancé. Knowing that attacks are occurring on the route daily, it will definitely be a dangerous job, but Ian and Jaime feel up to the task.

That's all for the summary because, well, let's just say that things go awry, and it doesn't take our duo long to realize that things are not what they seem. Also, the reason for the title becomes clear with some of the events in this story and with some of the discussions between our brave duo. I thought those parts were adorable. They were still very young men on their own for the first time.

One thing I will say, even when Jaime was young and naive - he is still Jaime. It was nice seeing him come into his own and deal with the situation in the way he knew was best. Once he made his decision - there was no argument from anyone else.

There was some DEFINITE Laird behavior :)

A Fugitive Green - 5 Stars
This was a brand new novella in the Outlander world - part of the anthology Seven Stones to Stand or Fall - but one of two additions that hadn't been published anywhere else. I actually really got a kick out of it.

Now, I have not yet read the Lord John Gray specific spinoff collection, so there might be some additional information in there. With just the "Big" books as my guide, I was aware that Hal was married to Minnie and that we have met most of their family at one time or another.

This book takes us back to the very beginning and we got to witness our "always in control and put together" Hal.....well, when he was nothing of the sort. I had also heard snippets of a wife who was unfaithful, but always in passing so I wasn't sure what that was all about. In this book, we learn exactly what happened to Hal and his first wife Esme, but honestly, Minnie stole the show.

When we meet her, she is a 17 year old daughter whose family (her and her father) deal in the business of information. She is EXTREMELY intelligent and mature for her age and her father sends her to London for a month or two to finalize some business matters. That is all I'll say about that- because it is fun to watch everything unfold.

I REALLY liked Hal, and I've never really felt that warm towards him. I KNOW he loves his family, and is particularly protective over Lord John, and that he has always treated William excellently, but warmth was not something I would have ascribed to him. We get to see him as a grieving young man trying to deal with feelings of anger, betrayal, hurt and embarrassment (but of course in private - NEVER in front of anyone else).

Needless to say, Minnie enters his life and nothing is ever the same. LOVED this book. This one was definitely my favorite out of the 7 novellas in this collection.

Besieged - 3 Stars
This was a quick novella that gave us another peek into the world of Lord John Grey in the early 1760's. This was the second "first time" novella - in other words, it was published for the first time in the Seven Stones to Stand or Fall anthology. For such a demure man, he sure seems to find himself in the middle of quite a lot of messes.

This story had Lord Grey getting ready to complete his Governorship in Jamaica when he discovers that his mother is in Cuba with Lord John's cousin Malcolm Stubbs and his family (Malcolm, who John just so happened to have saved in a past battle). His mother's latest husband tells Lord John that the British are on their way to invade and conquer Cuba and he has two weeks to sail there and get her and the others out. Olivia - Malcolm's wife - have small children and she is pregnant again as well. It would be very fair to say that John does NOT hold Malcolm in high regards.

Anyway, he is manipulated into going to Cuba to "get" his mother, but nothing is ever easy, is it? Once he arrives, he discovers MANY things and of course, this was not going to be the easy "pick up" he envisioned.

This was a very quick and easy read with a completed story arc. The narrator, Jeff Woodman, did not knock my socks off, but to be fair, I didn't hate him either. This was probably my least favorite out of the 7 novellas in this anthology, but maybe I just REALLY disliked Malcolm and that rubbed me the wrong way. You never know.....

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Definitely a slow burn

Reviewed: 01-20-25

I am a huge fan of Rebecca Yarros and it truly astounds me that she can write such completely different yet amazing books in such totally different genres. She writes fantastic fantasy, but then she also writes the most poignant and touching stories that can make me cry each and every time.

In terms of her more emotional books, I would say that this one is not at the top of the scale. In other words, I did not sob my eyes out. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not.

This book takes us on a journey following the two MC's whose families have known each other forever and therefore the kids grew up together. In one family, there are three boys. In the other, there are two girls. The FMC - Willow - ended up with the youngest son Sullivan. But, as these things happen - he is killed in combat when she was 19 years old. The real issue is that Willow and the MMC - Camden, the second son - have always had some pretty conflicting feelings towards each other starting at a young age that had to be cut off when she made her choice (even though they never ever acknowledged these feelings. Camden, due to many different reasons, after coming home on leave to bury his brother, vowed to never come back to their small town of Alba, Colorado.

Fast forward 6 years and Camden is called back to town by his father who is in early onset Alzheimer's. There are so many things going on in this story. SO so many issues, family dynamics, and small town drama....it's a mess. But, I loved going along on the journey as these two SLOWLY found their way to each other. Let's just say it is not easy and there are many roadblocks.

There are some twists in this near the end that were not expected, and I can honestly say I did not see coming. As usual, Ms. Yarros writes in such a way that I could FEEL their journey and I loved it.

So far, Ms. Yarros is batting 1000 with me, no matter the genre.

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1 person found this helpful

3.5 Stars 🌟

Reviewed: 01-20-25

This was the continuation of a book that was apparently successful several years ago. I didn't know that when I started this book, but I think I was able to follow along fairly well regardless. This book gave us enough information to get a feeling for what happened in the past, but unfortunately, I couldn't feel as invested in the MMC as I might have had I read the first book.

To me, the reactions of this character felt a bit OOT and I couldn't really buy into his actions or the reasoning behind some of his choices.

I have enjoyed Mr. Edwards books in the past - but this was not one of my favorites.

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Whoa!

Reviewed: 01-14-25

That was my thought when I finished this book.

Yep. 1483 pages is nothing to sneeze at.

1483 pages! And yet, the journey isn't over yet.

So, in this book we really delve into the world of Epheria and the cast of characters has grown immensely. The first 2 books started to set up the world, introducing us to the core characters and beginning to set the stage for the events yet to come. But, even with all of those words, there was still so much left.

In this book we get to really see the relationship between Calen and Valerys grow. In book 1, Calen was an 18 year old kid who was thrown into a world that he had no idea existed. By this book, he is a 20 year old young man who has the weight of the world on his shoulders and he is beginning to show the depth of his character and the strength of his abilities. And Valerys.....man oh man, what an amazing character/dragon. How do you write a dragon and make him so freaking intelligent and loyal? He doesn't speak any words. We only get to know him from the images that he shares into Calen's mind, and yet, we know him....really KNOW him by the end of this book. And he is a FANTASTIC character.

Then there are the morally gray characters. Do we really know if they are good or bad? One started off with me thinking he was awful, and the other a hero. Well, the funny thing is by the end of this book - I'm not sure what to think of either of them. They both have done things that they feel were necessary, but now realize that their reasoning may have been flawed. Of course, I'm speaking of Aeson Virandr and Farda Kyrana. Actually, now that I think about it, they aren't the only ones - the list of morally gray characters is really too long to list.

We also get to see the children of the Chainbreaker finally reunited (no spoilers if you do not know what that means) and each of them bring so much to the party. Thankfully, we finally get to see Dann reunited with Calen (thank goodness) and we get to see the gang that has decided to give their complete pledge to Calen stronger than ever.

There is really so much going on in this book - no wonder it is so long. There are political machinations all over the place and the scary thing is how easy it is to manipulate whole groups of people into thinking that evil actions are completely acceptable (I'm talking to you Rist).

So - no more going over the plot, there are a million reviews that will do that I'm sure. What I think struck me the most was the relationships that came out of this book. The lengths that people were willing to go to - and the reasoning behind those actions. THAT was the thing that impacted me the most. You have a 20 year old young man who has had to grow in absolutely no time, yet he has decided that he is not going to run. Yes, he and Valerys are probably going to die, but he believes what he has been told. That he is a GUARDIAN, a protector of the people. and He. Will. Not. Run.
I Love that.

Yep, 1483 pages is a lot. But honestly, I am looking forward to the next book. The set up has taken quite a while, but we have finally come to the main event and I'm eager to discover how this is all going to end.

I think though, that I am going to jump into a couple of different genres for the next couple of books because I have devoured this entire series in the last week or so and it is a lot of pages of epic fantasy that have taken up all of my brain space. Time to read something easy, that doesn't require too much thinking...:)

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4.5 Stars

Reviewed: 01-14-25

4.5 Stars 🌟

This is the novella that finally gives us the backstory of Dayne's life. Dayne is a character that was just kind of thrown into the story in book 2 of The Bound and the Broken Series. I thought I had missed something, but eventually realized that nope, he was just dropped in. Then there was the author's note at the end saying, "wait....there are going to be answers in the ne novella that's coming out."

So, if you haven't already figured it out, this is not a stand alone. None of this is going to make sense unless you are already reading TBTB series. I immediately liked Dayne as a character and in this short story, we also get a bit more on the political situation in Valtara. Even though Valtara is part of the Epherian realm, it is still somewhat separate and experiencing it's own set of challenges.
AND....they have Wyverns!!

One of my favorite parts of this story was watching the friendship between Dayne and Belina grow. She is definitely a character and I foresee some very interesting times in the future with these two.

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Interesting....

Reviewed: 01-08-25

I went into this completely blind so I had absolutely NO idea what this book was about.

It is actually a short story that takes us back in forth between 2 different timelines - 20+ years ago and the present. We go back and forth as the author slowly unfolds the story.

Apparently, there were 5 teenagers involved in an event (20+ years ago) and for some reason, NO ONE can remember a period of 24 hours. All they know id that only 4 of them came out of the experience. Wyatt was missing.

Karl, one of the kids (now an adult), is now a specialist in the field of study directly related to that past event. He comes back to town after he receives an odd email from one of the other kids involved.
The email states "I remember everything". The story takes off from there.......

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The only bad thing? It ended too fast…

Reviewed: 01-04-25

Absolutely LOVE this series. Bliss, Colorado is probably my favorite book town. EVER. That’s saying a lot considering how many books I’ve read.

Seriously, where else can you find the craziest characters, the funnest story lines and some amazingly ( and unlikely) strong relationships? Not to mention the beet drinking necessary to prevent any alien interactions.

This story had us meeting Wyatt, Sabrina and Sawyer. I think I’ve developed a love for grumpy male MC’s who know they are grumpy and just own it.

Love, love this series.

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2.5 Stars ⭐️

Reviewed: 01-02-25

This ended up being only an introductory portion of the beginning of a full length book (at least that is what I think it was). Unfortunately, I have not been having good luck recently with her short story/novella style audio books as this is like the third one I've listened to. They are absolutely NOTHING like her full length books - at least the ones I've read in in her other series. Those I have really enjoyed.

Honestly, I listened to this one THREE different times. I had to stop and rewind again and again because after a while, I realized that I had absolutely NO idea what the heck was going on.

After the third rewind, I just gave up.

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