Kiss Me, I'm Irish Read-Along for Hounded Week One

If you know me at all you know I'm a HUGE fan of the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne.  I read the first three books last year as they were released and am hugely excited for book four, Tricked, out in April.  Now I would most certainly reread this book right now but I loaned it out so I can't.  However, I plan to do my best in answering the questions!  Hopefully the three books haven't blurred together too much in my head!

Amanda of On a Book Bender, Ash of Smash Attack Reads!, Jen of In the Closet With a Bibliophile, Missie of The Unread Reader, and Felicia at The Geeky Blogger are hosting this awesome read-along.  It starts today and lasts through the end of the month. Head HERE to sign up and see what awesome prizes are being given away as well.

Discussion Schedule:

March 02nd: Chapters 1-5 hosted by Geeky Blogger's Book Blog

March 09th: Chapters 6-10 hosted by On a Book Bender

March 16th: Chapters 11-15 hosted by Smash Attack Reads!

March 23rd: Chapters 16-20 hosted by In the Closet With a Bibliophile

March 30th: Chapters 21-25 + epilogue hosted by The Unread Reader

April 06th: Special interview with Kevin Hearne & announcement of winners!

Questions Week 1 (March 5th): Chapters 1 to 5

1) Kevin Hearne had the most perfect beginning for this book:  "There are many perks to living for twenty-one centuries, and formost among them is bearing witness to the rare birth of genius."  If you were to live for centuries what do you think you would be excited to see? 

Hmmm... I guess watching as technology changes and as humans change as well.  Things actually become quite different very quickly!  Think about a mere 100 years ago and how different it is now.  Imagine if you've lived hundreds of years, 100 years really isn't that long!

2)In the 2nd chapter we learn about the amulet and its protection powers!  Do you think having met the Morrigan and heard about Aenghus Og that it will be enough to protect Atticus?  I mean the Morrigan has a point about hot chicks coming after him and his defenses might be down! He is very male!

I'm afraid to say much about this because I don't want to leave any spoilers.  I think that he knows better then to let his guard down around hot chicks, but everyone makes mistakes...
 

3) The literary world's coolest dog is introduced in this chapter!  Did you love Oberon immediately?  Show me a picture or describe the type of animal you would love to have as a talking companion! (Cat, Dog, Mouse, Sloth, Horse---what is your pick--pictures please)?

Oh Oberon is definitely the worlds greatest dog!  I can't grab any pics right now but I think a Great Pyrenees would be an awesome talking companion.  I've always wanted one...

4) In this chapter Flidais asked Atticus what his name is and then precedes to ask if anyone actually believes he is Greek?  He says nobody pays attention to names here.  Do you know what your name means and where it comes from?  Or do you have a name you wish had?  Let's talk names!

My mom named me Candace because she wanted to call me Candy.  By 1st grade I was saying it was a no-go, my name is CANDACE.  I was sick of all the teasing.  My grandma's are the only ones that call me Candy now, thank GOODNESS!  But I'm not sure where Candace originates.
I did name my daughter Phaedra and did lots of research on it.  It's a Greek name and a Greek goddess was named Phaedra.  Do me a favor and don't look it up though, it's not a happy story.  I loved the name and decided the story doesn't matter that much.

5) We learn about Atticus' lawyers in this chapter, a rather unique combo!  Without jumping ahead, would you hire a lawyer combination of two supernaturals who on the surface would appear to be natural enemies or at the very least two very Alpha attitudes? What would be the positives and negatives of that decision.

Yeah because you have two different perspectives on things!  

Double Novella Reviews: A Killer First Date and The Strange Case of Finley Jayne

A Killer First Date (Drake Chronicles novella) by Alyxandra Harvey
Young Adult
kindle ebook, 40 pgs (I think)
Published Feb. 14th, 2012 by Bloomsbury
Purchased

Nicholas and Lucy have known each other for most of their lives, but now that they've finally admitted their feelings for each other, Nicholas wants to take her on their official first date-away from all the life-and-death drama that has surrounded them lately. Is it too much to ask for just a fun double date at the local carnival with his older brother, Quinn, and Quinn's new girlfriend, Hunter?

I love the Drake Chronicle books and so was very excited for this enovella.  It was quite short even for a novella but it was an excellent reminder of why I love these books so much.  

There's constant action through the whole thing because you know that Lucy and Nicholas cannot have an actual date without being attacked.  And same thing with Quinn and Hunter.  So they are all at a carnival and suddenly there are Hel-Blar (bad scary vamps) everywhere.  On top of that there's someone that has another kind of power that could cause some major damage.  So the dates weren't all kissy face, but more like kick some ass... 

If you haven't yet read these books I highly suggest you do so.  Talk about yummy, yummy men...

4/5 stars 

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne (Steampunk Chronicles 0.5) by Kady Cross
kindle edition, 78 pgs.
Published May 1st, 2011 

Finley Jayne knows she's not 'normal'. Normal girls don't lose time, or have something inside them that makes them capable of remarkably violent things. Her behavior has already cost her one job, so when she's offered the lofty position of companion to Phoebe, a debutante recently engaged to Lord Vincent, she accepts, despite having no experience. Lord Vincent is a man of science with his automatons and inventions, but Finley is suspicious of his motives where Phoebe is concerned. She will do anything to protect her new friend, but what she discovers is even more monstrous than anything she could have imagined...
An ebook exclusive prequel to The Steampunk Chronicles.

While this is a prequel to The Steampunk Chronicles this is a great one for 'sampling'.  As far as novella's go this one was pretty amazing because it completely holds it's own story within.   Sometimes you need to be introduced a bit more to a new world but I'm quite sure that even with knowing very little about this world you would be able to get a good idea by the brief descriptions provided.

I think I may have liked Finley more in this one then in The Girl in the Steel Corset, though it has been awhile, so perhaps not.   I just know I did like her, quite a lot!  She really has very little fear and has a strong sense of right and wrong.  She will certainly go out of her way to make things right, when they are wrong.

This is a short mystery (sort of) where Finley is determined to figure out why this old man wants to marry this young lady.  She's quite certain he has some evil plan.  And in doing her investigating comes upon some strange stuff indeed...

Loved this one!
5/5 stars!

My Review of the EPIC Exiled by @MRMerrick

Exiled (The Protector #1) by M.R. Merrick
Young Adult Paranormal
Paperback, 288 pgs.
Published August 27th, 2011 by the author
Source: Gift from the amazing Alexa at Pages of Forbidden Love

Chase Williams is a demon hunter in the Circle, or at least he was supposed to be. On his fifteenth birthday, Chase stepped up to the altar to claim his elemental power, but it never came. Elemental magic is passed down to a hunter through the bloodline, but on Chase's birthday, the bloodline stopped.

Exiled without the Circle's protection, Chase has spent two years trying to survive a world riddled with half-demons and magic. When he has a run in with a frightened and seemingly innocent demon, he learns the Circle's agenda has changed: the Circle plans to unlock a portal and unleash pure-blood demons into the world. Vowing to stop them, and knowing he can't do it alone, Chase forms a reluctant alliance with Rayna — a sexy witch with an attitude and a secret.

In their attempt to stop them, Chase and Rayna find themselves in the middle of the Circle's plan, leaving one of them to decide what their friendship is worth, and the other's life depending on it.

There were a couple things that concerned me going into Exiled, it is young adult paranormal and it's self published.  Now I don't have any problem with either of those things but young adult paranormal has recently started feeling like the same ol' thing.  I love paranormal, but I need it to have some OOMPH, to really stand out.  Now there's nothing wrong with self published but I gotta admit that I've read a book or two that could use tighter editing, etc.  You just never really know what your going into.  I've read some fabulous ones and I've read some horrible.  And good reviews help, but when you see those you trust talking about how much they loved a book then it's enough to get me to try it.  And so I went in with an open mind expecting it to be good but maybe not quite blow me away.  I'll tell you right now, this book blew me away!  It is absolutely stunning!


It started fine as we got to know Chase as I felt slight irritation at him and his compulsive ways and his idea that he was right and everyone else is wrong.  But Chase began to grow quite quickly because he discovered that he isn't always right and as a matter of fact everything he thought he knew is in fact quite wrong.  And while it takes him a bit to curb his compulsive ways he's quite determined that he's not going to let these 'people' destroy the world.   As soon as Rayna and Chase start working together you see a real connection.  Yeah, they snipe at each other, they put each other down, but when it comes down to it, they'll do whatever it takes to save the other.  


This book really had layers to it.  When I started the book I liked it, but it wasn't anything mind blowing.  We were introduced little by little by little to the world and the hunters and the powers they wielded.  We met some demons, some good and some bad.  Then there came another layer where they discovered something that is quite huge and very useful and this wasn't terribly surprising, I felt like it would come at some point.  Then there's the last bit of the book which I feel is absolutely EPIC which is where they travel to the underworld and this is absolutely fascinating to me.  It is like test after test, defeating one thing after another, doing what has to be done to just survive.  To make it to what has to be done. 

Full of mind blowing action, characters that kick ass and world-building that will rock your world, I highly recommend you pick Exiled up and see for yourself what you'd be missing if you didn't give it a chance.

5/5 stars!