How is This Book So Long but Nothing Really Happens?

 Zodiac Academy: Ruthless Fae by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti 

This picks up in the aftermath of book 1 and lasts about a week. No wonder this series is so long; 533 pages for ONE WEEK. A lot happened in this book, but not a lot happened at the same time. The twins initially decide to leave, but then decide to stay and get revenge. They set Darius' room on fire, give Seth fleas, give Max a rash, and start a rumor that Caleb has a Pegasus kink. Darius is still insisting on calling them by their original names, the names they don't know. They get forced into attending a party at the Acrux mansion and Tory has a run in with Lionel; Darius steps in and gets a beating for it. Xavier, Darius' younger brother, finally manifests and he is a lilac Pegasus, so things are not going well for him. At the party Darcy and Professor Orion make out in the pool; he has been trying to help her in secret and they are definitely connected but nothing can happen because teacher-student. It's creepy but they are both adults and this is magic college so it's less creepy. Tory hooks up with Caleb and Darius is super jealous but hiding it. Then, we finally get a Pitball game; it's ruthless and amazing! After the game there is a huge, coordinated, Nymph attack. Tory and Darcy help in the fight and while they still can't shift they are now able to produce red and blue fire. Darcy fights with Orion, Tory fight with Darius; and together they destroy a large chunk of the attacking Nymphs. The best parts of this series are still when Lance and Darius are together; I love those himbos and cackle hysterically at them. I am still entertained by this series, but I need the pacing to pick up.  

First in a Middle Grade Series

 Charlie Hernandez and the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo 

I had the same issue with this as I did with the first book in the "Tristan Strong" series; there were too many myths at once. The writing is solid and the characters are compelling, but I am not familiar with Hispanic mythology and I wanted to spend more time with all of the myths. Charlie is living in a foster home because his parents mysteriously disappeared after their house caught on fire. Now, he is manifesting animal traits: horns for a bit, then feathers, then a lobster claw. The cutest girl in his grade, Violet, who is also the head of the student newspaper and a good investigative journalist, go on this adventure that they are hoping will lead him to his missing parents. Instead, it takes him to a skeleton who guards a graveyard, La Lorna, a horse woman, and good witch and a bad witch who happen to be sisters. Turns out, the foster parent is the bad witch and she turned his parents into figurines. He tricks her into killing herself and he survives and then the good witch shows back up. All of this is because he is the mythical Changling who can defeat the League of Shadows. This was a good addition to the youth mythology adventure books that have been doing so well post Percy Jackson. I will read more of this series, but I hope they don't shove so many myths into each story, so that we can really get a feel for them.

Made for TV cont (again x18)

 The Bone Hacker by Kathy Reichs 

Another solid mystery. This starts because of a death of a tourist in Canada. They think he was struck by lightening but turns out he was shot. Tempe contacts the police in Turks and Caicos and the head detective shows up in Canada. She asks her to come down and help identify some bones. This turns into a whole thing. There is a serial killer targeting hot tourists and taking their left hand as a souvenir. They originally think it's a Jewish butcher, but come to find out, it's not. In fact, it's bigger than just a serial killer; an FBI agent goes rogue and uses the serial killer to help him hack a bunch of airplanes for ransom. But, when the killer gets cold feet the agent kills his dog and then the killer kills the FBI agent and makes it look like he died instead. Tempe is in danger, the head detective gets killed, and the detective under her takes over all of the cases. Ryan flies in to surprise her so they can have a vacation. Overall, this was a good addition to the series. 

Paranormal Historical Romance Take 3

 A Duke at the Door by Susanna Allen 

I was having some serious anxiety when I started listening to this book, so I never really connected with the characters. Why do all of the MMCs names start with the same letter? First and/or last names are all entirely too similar which made it hard for me to remember who was who. I'm glad the lion was able to find himself again and that his lion returned once he had healed. I cannot believe the renowned author was bad; she was capturing shifters and forcing them to remain in their animal form for profit and she herself was a shifter! But, luckily Prince George was there when this all came out and she was captured. Also, the omega from book 1 disappeared when Himself, the horse, was found and shown to also be a shifter; that explains why he was so reluctant to act as stud. But, there is definitely some history between the two and she ran away and never returned. Also, we STILL didn't get the Bates's story with the designer. I was more interested in the side characters than the main couple. And we don't get any of those spin off stories because this is the last book in this series. I want to know about Bates. I want to know about the omega. But no, this is where the series stops and the characters I want to know more about get forgotten.

Second in the Series

 Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi 

This picks up almost exactly where book 1 ends. There were a lot of twists, turns, and surprises throughout this book; some that left me mouth open, catching flies. Yeeran is on her way back home to tell the Chieftain, and her former lover, about the fae being real and that they have been working with their enemies. But, her lover is mean to Pila so we hate her. She does, however, listen to the intelligence but then forces Yeeran to take her to the fae. Well, she holds her captive so when Fury sees this she kills her and all but one of the people who were part of the captivity; that person gets away because Yeeran gives her warning to run. That comes back to bite them, big time, because she takes the info back to her tribe and is able to unite all of the tribes against the fae. Lettle is being targeted by assassins who want to kill her to destroy the king. But, they capture her and one of the guards befriends her. She is saved because of a game that she and Yeeran played as children. Turns out, the resistance is being led by Fury's father, which we don't find out until after his lover has been killed and the attacks still continue. Fury and Ryann decide to throw a ball for all of the fae, to announce Lettle's new initiative, and she gets tricked into walking with Fury's father, who she thought was a friend, but really he's not. Also, Ryann finally finds out about the prophecy that Lettle is going to be his death and he's mad that she kept it from him, not that she's going to be his demise. So, they are broken up. Yeeran and Fury are in a bad spot since Fury killed her former lover. And the elf's show up as a united front to battle. This was so good and there is nothing about when the next book comes out. This is ruining my life! I need to know what happens!

Still a Disaster

 Club 22 by Tate James 

ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME!!! This ending was worse than the ending of book 2! ABSOLUTELY NOT! So we pick up this book with a flashback, meaning we have to wait to find out what happened to Cass. Not cool. But, he was fine; it was staged. However, he still have to pretend to be dead and Hades even went to his FUNERAL! Zed and Lucas didn't know about the plan, but were fine when they found out. We have some interesting devel0pments about Lucas, he might have an older sibling and he is NOT related to anyone on team Hades. Chase is being a huge creep. She FINALLY gets all of her men, and gets them all at the same time. But then, the FBI agent that has been investigating her gets killed while on the phone with Hades, right after telling her that someone in her organization is working with the FBI. One of her bars, Anarchy (where the fights take place), gets shut down for 2 weeks because of drug activity. Then, she gets a call from her head of security that something is wrong at another bar and they get there and find people in one of their torture rooms, girls; young girls. Chase is trying to set her up for human trafficking. She gets them all out then gets a call from the detective who has been at all of her crime scenes, he asks what's going on and she said staff meeting. Because he got called with a tip and then this boss calls and says it was a false alarm and not to go and he's watching the camera pointed at her parking lot and not seeing anything other than her, Zed, and Alexi. Also, Persephone gets targeted and kidnapped but Cass is able to save her. She was pissed because she thought he was dead. Zed finally says enough is enough and tells her everything about her father and the past and why Hades is so protective of her. And still she's being a whiny baby. Now, for the ending. Because absolutely not. She gets arrested by the FBI for all of her crimes, and some that she didn't do. And it was all because of the work of Agent DeRosa. That's right, Zed is a Fed. And then, they introduce the new head of the department: Chase. The last words of the book are "good work, old friend" from Chase to Zed. ARE. YOU. KIDDING ME! So, was Zed in the FBI to protect Hades or to bring her down? Is this a way to save her from Chase, because if so, it was a brutal backstabbing way to protect her. This ending was NOT OKAY. I am NOT OKAY. But, I'm so mad that I have to take a break from this series for a while before I can listen to the next one.

Better than the First

 The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi 

This was better than the first book in this trilogy; there was new lore being dropped and world building happening but it was faster and smoother than in the first book. Hassa is still my favorite character. Sylah and Jond made it across the sea but this country is in just as much trouble as their own: acid rain, floods, hail storms, and the slave catchers. The university is closed, no longer teaching students and there are only the 4 masters. They believe that their version of blood work is what is causing the problems. We find out that there used to be a 5th master and that they had power over creation, that is what created the sea monster, and to give life you have to give part of your soul. Turns out the master of the 5th charter started using bone marrow, well that's worse than blood and they think that's the real culprit. Also, that master is the leader of a cult, and the founder of the Sandstorm. And even though Sylah killed Lute, the leader of the Sandstorm, Anoor is still in danger because Jond wasn't the only one that survived; all 3 disciples are part of the Sandstorm. As for Anoor, she is accused of killing her mother and she has 3 weeks to prove she didn't do it, but can't. So, her court conspires to get her out and they take her to her true mother's house. Meanwhile, her grandmother takes over as Warden of Strength, and is helping Anoor with her tidewind bill. Anoor and co. convince her mother to go to one of the tidewind shelters because there are a bunch of dead bodies showing up near it and she needs to find out what's happening; first night she gets in and she just sees a shelter. The second night she gets in, we don't know what she sees because Hassa finds her dead body the next day. Anoor starts sneaking out of the house and meets the other disciples and they start showing her the info they have found, and basically they are slowing introducing her to their cult. Hassa is still working to help the ghosting escape but she also starts dating Kwame. She's also helping Sylah and Anoor. She is still a main character, but she feels more like an afterthought in this book as she doesn't play as important of a role. She does discover the bone marrow and she is able to tell Gorn about it when she is sharing Anoor's notes about who the real killer is after Anoor's grandmother shows up. Kwame gets captured and killed during this book which was devastating. He was good and kind and didn't deserve that. And grandmother tells Anoor a lie about what he was doing and why he was being sentenced to death. We meet a new character, Naleli (I listened to the book so not sure if that's how you spell it or not) aka Wife. She calls herself the Wife of the god Kabut. She is looking of the child of fire, the one who will bring about the end of days. She is also a master crafter. She is also the one who built the sea monster. She is also the one who was leading the Sandstorm. She is also the mother of Lute. She had twins, and she sacrificed Lute to Kabut but apparently he didn't die. Her daughter, she raised thinking she was going to be the child of fire, but she was not. So, she kept looking. Her daughter had a daughter of her own, who was stolen, but she did not tell anyone and she kept her stolen daughter away from her mother but never told her daughter why. Now, mother is dead and grandmother is here. That's right, Anoor is the granddaughter and Wife thinks she is the child of fire. That was a shock! Meanwhile, Sylah left the mainland to try to return to Anoor so she could warn her about the other disciples, but the book ends with grandmother with the four disciples telling them who she truly is and with Hassa and Sylah reuniting. And that's it.  This was much better than book 1. And while it does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, it's more standing on a ledge than dangling. I want to know what is going to happen but I don't feel desperate. I will definitely read the final book in this trilogy. And I am pleased to see how much this author has progressed in their skill from book 1 to book 2. I am excited for the ending!

OBSESSED!!!

Twisted Games by Ana Huang 

I normally HATE an age gap; that is my top 3 most hated tropes (along with pregnancy and miscommunication). However, it worked in this book. Princess and her bodyguard will trump age gap *almost* every time. Plus, she was graduating from college instead of barely out of high school like most age gap romances. Bridget was smart, compassionate, and level-headed. Rhys was logical, focused, and dedicated. Together, they were the best parts of themselves, not to mention combustible. From his mean mugging every guy that she danced with to settin gup a tent so she could have the musical festival at home to taking her to Costa Rica to fulfill her bucket list before she had to start queen training; he understood her. And she was the only person he really let in. I KNEW that the horrible minister was going to be his long lost father. That the cousin was also his brother was a surprise. That they were able to work together to help Bridget, and that Alex came through to help as well was nice. I loved watching her stand up to that horrible minister, and when he lost his seat, after she was able to get the marriage act repealed, was sweet revenge. Her relationship with her grandfather was wonderful and I'm glad he talked to her to alleviate her guilt about giving him a heart attack; she needed to hear she didn't do that. I was shocked when it was the palace communications director that ended up being the one who leaked the pictures and rumor of the relationship with the goal of breaking them up, but her firing was spectacular.  I liked book 1 in this series, but I am OBSESSED with this book. 

Made for TV cont (again x17)

 Cold, Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs 

This was one of the best books in this series. Not one of the best recently, one of the best period. Someone is recreating crime scenes that Tempe has previously worked. And they are escalating. Some of the cases I recognized because I had listened to those books recently, some I didn't. But this was very interesting as far as the mystery went. I should have figure out the culprit sooner. Every time we get a new character, either on the police force or the medical examiners office, they end up being bad news. But, I wanted to give Detective Henry the benefit of the doubt. I shouldn't have. I should have trusted Skinny when he said she was no good, because she wasn't. She was the killer. She was the one recreating the crimes. And she was doing it because her boyfriend was accused of a crime in one of the previous books (the one with the witchcraft) and even though he was later proved innocent, it was too late. The grieving father had already killed him. So, she planned this elaborate revenge plot where she was going to slowly destroy Tempe's career and her life because she also drugged and kidnapped her daughter; she was fine so we didn't have to worry about that. Ryan was gone for much of this book, out investigating on an island that had been hit by a storm and therefore had poor cell service. This is was I was hoping for and expecting from this series. Finally I feel like my investment in this series has paid off!

Greek Mythology but Make it Modern

 Electric Idol by Katee Robert 

Is this the best written book I've ever read? No. Did I enjoy it? Every second. I love Greek mythology and while Psyche and Eros are not my favorite myth, this was a unique take on their story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been a while since I read the first book, but this world is easy to jump back into. Eros is a hit man for his mother, Aphrodite. She doesn't like Demeter because Persephone ran away from her engagement to the old Zeus, that Demeter arranged without Aphrodite's consent, and married Hades. Now, Demeter is working to get Psyche married to the new Zeus. And Aphrodite can't have that. She is the match maker. Only. Her. So she she tells Eros to bring her her heart. Very Evil Queen stuff here. The problem? The day before they ran into each other at a party when she was coming out of the bathroom and he was obviously injured and instead of pretending like she didn't notice she took the time to help him. And there was a spark. So he doesn't want to hurt her, let alone kill her. Still, he does what his mother tells him and sets up a meet with her. She thinks it's so they can plan how they are going to deal with the gossip that has been raging about them because they were caught leaving together after she helped him. Instead, he tells her his mother wants her dead. Then, he tells her he can save her, if she marries him. She doesn't like it but she agrees. Then she wages a social media campaign to make this look like they are madly in love and this rushed marriage is real and not a marriage of necessity (convenience). Everyone in town falls for it, but his mother is still trying to kill her. She takes out a hit on her as they are leaving a party thrown by Helen, sister of the new Zeus. He doesn't get involved because there's no evidence. She asks her mom to get Poseidon involved, but he says no. Eros decides he's going to kill his mom. Psyche comes up with a different plan, calls Helen to get Aphrodite's number and arranges a meet. She shows up with a gun and threatens to kill her, while monologueing like a true villain.  Eros shows up and tries to intervene, but doesn't succeed. Psyche is able to get the gun away, after showing the phone that had been live streaming Aphrodite's entire confession and attempted murder. Ares and his men take her into custody. Zeus has her exiled. Callisto falls on her metaphorical sword and gets engaged to Zeus so Psyche doesn't have to keep cleaning up the family's messes and so Eurydice doesn't have to.  Then they go to family dinner; Eros and Hades make nice. Psyche and Eros decide to stay married because it's no longer fake. And they get a happy ending. This was fun. Yes, our FMC was in danger, but you never felt like she was in true danger. We got a good ending. We got to see the characters from the previous book. We got a potential set up for a future book. While this is not good writing it is enjoyable and I will be reading the next one!

Paranormal Historical Romance Take 2

 A Most Unusual Duke by Susanna Allen

This was better than the first book in this series, but that's not saying much since the first book was such a mess. This was a paranormal historical romance. The paranormal is all over the place. The historical does not follow the appropriate conventions. It's all over the place and doesn't do either genre particularly well, but I laughed at the absurdity of it, suspended my disbelief (mostly) and enjoyed it (usually). Nobody was wearing trousers that shouldn't have been so that was good. Now, we have Beatrice, who was the unfortunate woman who married the guy that Alfred's sister was supposed to marry but he put a stop to that (we learned all of that in book 1). She is human and was very surprised when she caught him shifting. His household gave her this oil that was supposed to help her conceive, but we learn from Ben, her new husbands brother, that it actually stopped her from having a scent signature and caused her to not get with child. So, Arthur has been neglecting his duties as duke ever since he watched his father get challenged and die at age 6 and the pack dispersed. Now Prince George decides it's time for him to step up and take over his duties, so he forces them to get married. They agree to have a marriage in name only. Then his brother shows up along with his wife and three kids. They are rebuilding the pack without Arthur's permission. From conversations with Charlotte, her sister in law, Beatrice learns that Arthur can give her children so she proposes amending their agreement. Then she runs out of the oil and her natural scent comes back. And guess what? They are true mates. He finally decides to tell her that he's a bear. They start making plans to form the pack for real when the smallest of the children, and future Omega, goes missing. They search for her and Beatrice finds her. Turns out the guy that killed his father captured her. Well, he's in bad shape; has mange, missing teeth, not all there mentally. Anyway, Beatrice keeps calm until help arrives and it arrives in force: Arthur and Ben, plus Alfred and part of his pack, plus Prince George (who is also a bear). George deals with the problem. Arthur finally makes his pack whole. He names Beatrice his Beta (not sure how that works, with with her being the Alpha female and all but that's what I mean when I said the paranormal aspect isn't that great). And the book ends.  I thought this book was going to be about Bates, the Beta from Alfred's pack, but I was wrong. We barely saw him. And they set up book 3 to be about a different Duke with a last name similar to Alfred's. That's another thing that irritates me, the male leads all have very similar sounding names. There are other options besides the letter A! Anyway, I will continue this series mainly in hopes that Bates will FINALLY get his own book.