Angel Bait (Angel Assassins #0.5) by Tricia Skinner

Title: Angel Bait (Angel Assassins #0.5)

Author: Tricia Skinner

Publication date: October 2014

Publisher: Smashwords

Number of pages: 204 (ebook)

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He's not that kind of angel.

Jarrid is a “Bound One”: half angel, half human, trained from childhood to enforce Heaven’s laws on earth. An assassin with no remorse. And no choice. When he discovers an ancient ritual called Ascension, which might give him a shot at freedom, he can’t resist his lifelong dream. He only needs to find one last Renegade angel and take him down…using a certain woman to flush the angel out of hiding.

She's not what he's expecting.

News reporter Ionie Gifford has no clue an outlaw angel wants her dead, much less why, but she does know one thing: the enigmatic Jarrid, with his penetrating silver eyes and his worship-worthy body, is her ticket to the city's supernatural underworld, where she might finally be able to locate her mother's killer. For that kind of information, she's willing to risk everything...

They can't be together -- but can't keep apart...

Blindsided by Ionie's beauty and tenacity, Jarrid finds the millennia-old glacier around his heart melting. But when he's faced with a choice, will he sacrifice Ionie for freedom from his brutal servitude—or agree to be bound for eternity, to protect the life of the woman he's falling in love with?

I was very curious to read Angel Bait, prequel to the Angel Assassins series whose first book (Angel Kin) I read few months ago and very much enjoyed. It wasn’t exactly was I was expecting though. I thought Angel Bait would be more about the origins of The Bound Ones (the nephilim brotherhood Jarrid is a member of), how their leader, Tanis, rescued all these nephils, and why angels consider them as “abominations”. Because isn’t it what prequels are usually about, giving some extra info about a series’ background? For me Angel Bait shouldn’t be called “prequel to the Angel Assassins series” but rather “book 1 of the Angel Assassins series”, since it develops the story of one of The Bound’s members, just like all the other books in the series do.

With that said, I still enjoyed my reading. In some way it reminded me of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R Ward, but with a better writing style (not hard), and less sex (not hard either). The vampires in Black Dagger Brotherhood and the nephils in The Bound Ones have the same sense of camaraderie, and that’s an aspect of J.R. Ward’s series I like so I was glad to find something similar here.

Angel Bait is a bit more focused on the romance than Angel Kin was, and that’s probably why I enjoyed it a bit less (I usually prefer action over romance). Especially since I didn’t have strong feelings neither for Jarrid nor for Ionie. To me the main characters fell a bit flat sadly. Jarrid is a super muscled, super sexy giant, and Ionie is a beautiful, curved Afro-American. That’s what I will remember of these protagonists. As you can see, these are only physical traits, nothing in their personality struck me. That’s a shame, because to me that’s the most important thing in a book character. Only Tanis made an impression, I hope he’ll get his own book in the future.

Also, Jarrid and Ionie are immediately pulled towards each other upon their first meeting. Instant  attraction is something that always makes me roll my eyes when I encounter it in a book because it sounds so not credible to me.

Luckily the second half of the book leaves the romance a bit behind to catch up with the action. As you can guess, I liked that part much more. I have already said that in my review of Angel Kin but I’m saying it again here because it is one of the things I like the most about this series: I really enjoy the mythology and the fact that angels, for once, aren’t the good guys.

I think the plot takes quite long to be set up, it took me a while to figure out why exactly Ionie was such a central element for both the Bound and the renegade, but when it’s finally started, it’s great! Fast-paced and with much action.

The author also draws a sort of parallel between half-breeds (like nephils) and biracial humans (like Afro-Americans). It isn’t developed much in-depth but I liked the idea nevertheless.

To conclude, I’d say that Angel Bait is a book every paranormal romance lover will enjoy. It doesn’t feature the best characters ever but it has a great plot, with much action and also quite a lot of romance. I really like this nephils brotherhood and I’m already looking forward to reading the other brothers’ stories.

I recommend this book to you if: you like paranormal romance

The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #3) by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #3)

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Publication date: November 4^th, 2014

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Number of pages: 470

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Mara Dyer wants to believe there’s more to the lies she’s been told.

There is.

She doesn’t stop to think about where her quest for the truth might lead.

She should.

She never had to imagine how far she would go for vengeance.

She will now.

Loyalties are betrayed, guilt and innocence tangle, and fate and chance collide in this shocking conclusion to Mara Dyer’s story.

Retribution has arrived.

/!\ WARNING. Contains spoilers on book 1 and 2. Read at your own risk. /!\

“You are a girl, Mara. A girl blessed and cursed.”

I expected to feel sad upon finishing that book. But I expected to feel sad because a brilliant trilogy is over, not because the final installment doesn’t live up to the awesomeness of the two first ones.

Yes, you read it right. The retribution of Mara Dyer, which I waited impatiently for over a year, disappointed me. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it, but waaaaay less than I should have. Did I have too high expectations? Perhaps, that is possible. But here are the facts:

The beginning was kind of messy. Really, it took me a while to figure out what exactly was happening. I thought it was because my memories of Evolution had faded, but even after I read a recap with spoilers on the Internet (thanks Recaptains!) and refreshed my memory, I still didn’t get it. But I kept on reading, because it was the conclusion of the Mara Dyer trilogy, and I HAD to like it.

I did get into the story at some point, around 25% through or something. About time, right? But I wasn’t done with the disappointments yet. There started one of the things that bothered me the most in the whole book. Everything that happens during Mara, Jamie and Stella’s runaway from Horizons is way too easy. They manage to make everyone buy their cock-and-bull story without getting any suspicious, they steal cars just like it was the most normal thing to do, and Jamie overuses his ability and it ALWAYS works although he has never really trained beforehand. Everything goes so smoothly while you would expect that at least a few things to go wrong. Unbecoming and Evolution were brilliant because they felt so real even when supernatural things happened. Retribution was mostly unrealistic.

But that wasn’t the point that disappointed me the most. No, my biggest problem was that all throughout the book, I was looking at the events from the outside. Not even once did I feel the slightest involved in what was happening to my favorite characters. Can you only imagine my disappointment when you know that I completely dived into the two first installments, felt Mara’s confusion, bled from her wounds? My, I want to cry. I didn’t understand Mara at all in Retribution. I can understand she has to harden herself to go through everything she has to go through, but it happened all of a sudden, I wasn’t prepared for that.

Well, I ended up enjoying it towards the end, the last third or so. I really liked it when all the mysteries begin to unravel and when we discover how everything was planned ahead from the very beginning (and obviously I hadn’t see anything coming…). I might be wrong, but I am under the impression that Michelle Hodkin had her ending in mind from the start but didn’t know how to bring it… and she couldn’t delay the release date once more, otherwise her fans would have murdered her, she had to write something anyway. Maybe I’m completely off the mark, but that’s how I feel.

I know I mostly pointed out the negative in my review, but you shouldn’t think I hated this book, because I definitely didn’t. I did enjoy it, in fact, just not as much as I wanted to, which is why mostly negative things come up when I have to talk about it. But no worries, I’m still a fan of this trilogy. I’d gladly reread book 1 and 2 one day, for sure. And part of my sadness when I closed this final book was because the series was over, too.

I recommend this book to you if: I recommend the trilogy to everyone who likes supernatural thrillers, and mind-blowing books.

Kushiel's dart (Phedre's trilogy #1) by Jacqueline Carey

Title: Kushiel’s dart (Phedre’s trilogy #1)

Author: Jacqueline Carey

Publication date: 2001

Publisher: Tor Books

Number of pages: 1015

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The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt. 

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission...and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair...and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear. 

It took me some two weeks, even a little more maybe, to go through this super thick book. But it was definitely worth the time I spent on it. I enjoyed it so much; I wasn’t far from making it a new favorite.

We’re following Phedre, sold by her mother to a courtesan house while she was just a little child. A few years later Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman, identifies the little red spot she’s always had in her eye to be the sign of Kushiel, the punishing God, which means she’s been chosen to always experience pleasure in pain. He then takes her under his wing, and will teach her not only to become an elite courtesan but also an exceptional spy (“his eyes and ears”, in Phedre’s own words). Trained to collect the most powerful men’s secrets, Phedre will soon enough be trapped in a huge political plot that threatens her nation.

My summary is pretty vague and only covers a tiny part of what this book really is about, but it’s impossible to be more precise without spoiling everything. The story is so dense and slowly grows more and more complex as the author weaves the web of conflicted relationships between nations and characters she created. I must admit it took me a while to fully get into the story and understand all the ins and outs – and even now that I’m finished I’m still not certain I understood everything – but that’s always the case with these thick fantasy books and my experience shows that past the first 100 pages or so, I almost always enjoy the story greatly so it’s worth making an effort at first. In this book however I wasn’t sure I’d end up enjoying it because there were a few things that made me cringe a little in the beginning, and although I went over them later that’s what holds me from making this book a favorite.

The first thing is that at first I thought it was an erotica book. Phedre is a courtesan, in a society where sex has been put up as one of the most respectable arts, so there are quite a few sex scenes. And since our heroine has been chosen by the Gods to find pleasure in pain you can easily imagine that we’re not talking about the sweet kind of sex, but rather the kind that involves whips, chains, and the like. Another thing is that Phedre, as well as Delaunay’s other pupil, Alcuin, are taught how to please their clients from the age of 10, and I don’t remember how old they were when Delaunay sends them to their first client, but they definitely weren’t adults yet. I know it takes place in a society where morals are different from ours, and where sex is everything but a taboo subject but still, it annoyed me a little to see children involved in such activities.

However, if the erotica thing is the only reason for which you’re unsure about whether you should pick this book or not, I definitely encourage you to go for it. I’m certainly not a fan of erotica; I even tend to skip sex scenes in books when they become too much detailed. Here I didn’t have to skip any page, the writing is beautiful and the sex was never described in a vulgar way. And if the beginning did deal a lot with sex, the further the story progressed the more it became a secondary aspect with the plot becoming more and more political and Phedre more of a spy than a courtesan.

Phedre was an interesting character. I didn’t always understand her and I couldn’t identify with her but I did really like her for who she was, how true to herself and to her loved ones she was. And I liked her wits, intelligence and bravery. She’s an uncommon heroine, who you may look down at first because she’s a courtesan, but in fact she’s so much more than just that. She definitely won a place on the top list of my favorite heroines.

While I am on the characters I need to say some words about Joscelin, the religious knight engaged by Delaunay to ensure Phedre’s safety. I didn’t like him so much at first, because of the vows he made he sounded very rigid and narrow-minded, but just like Phedre’s, my feelings for him slowly evolved and I ended up liking him a lot, for his devotion and kindness. And although the two of them couldn’t be more mismatched, I thoroughly enjoyed the pair he and Phedre formed together.

There were so many more great characters besides these two: Hyacinthe, Delaunay, Alcuin, Melisande… but I won’t talk about them all, my review would be endless then!

I really had a great adventure with all these brilliant protagonists. To quote Jacqueline Carey’s own words, Kushiel’s dart is “a historical novel containing a history that never happened”, and that’s exactly what it is. The starting point for her world and mythology are medieval Europe and the existing religions and from there she created a whole new universe straight out of her imagination, but which sounds so real nevertheless. I can only salute her talent.

The story takes place over a long period of time, a decade at least, and is told retrospectively by Phedre. She’s such a great narrator! I felt like I was sitting by the fireplace with her telling me her story. When I turned the last page, I was torn between happiness because I was finally done with this book that was keeping me busy for weeks, and sadness because I didn’t want to leave this world and these characters just yet. Well, there still are two more books in the trilogy so… until next time Phedre, Joscelin, Hyacinthe and others!

I recommend this book to you if: you like fantasy, epic journeys, and outstanding female protagonists. Don’t let you scare by the erotica aspect, sure there is sex but that’s not what I’ll remember of this book.

The Madman's Daughter #1 by Megan Shepherd

Title: The Madman’s Daughter #1

Author: Megan Shepherd

Publication date: 2013

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Number of pages: 420

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Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built her life for herself in London – working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father’s gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father’s handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward – both of whom she is deeply drawn to – Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father’s madness. (I cut the rest of the blurb because it sounds too spoilery to me, especially for those who don’t know the original story of The Island of Doctor Moreau)

Finally a book that lived up to my expectations! It had been a while! Well, this book didn’t put me head over heels because there were a few things (one in particular) that bothered me, but still it was a great read and it didn’t disappoint at all.

The Madman’s Daughter is the story of Juliet Moreau, a young girl born a noble in Victorian London but lost everything when her father had to face terrible accusations because of his scientific experiments and disappeared. Now, at only sixteen, Juliet has been on her own since her mother’s death, trying to survive day after day by working as a maid. But when she suddenly ran into Montgomery, her father’s former assistant, and find out that he still is his assistant, Juliet doesn’t hesitate before following him to the island where her father has retired to pursue his work after the scandal. There, she will discover what his father’s science really is about, and what she’ll find might change her forever.

This story is a retelling of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells. I haven’t read it (yet) so I can’t say if it has a lot in common with the original story or not (it seems so, from what I know about H.G. Wells’ work, but I might be wrong). But in any case, that was a very original story for a YA book. Well, there were a few classic things like the romance, the young girl who has to stand for herself... but in the subject tackled and the general atmosphere this book was one of a kind.

Juliet was a very interesting main character. Feminist at a time when women had no rights, she isn’t interested in finding a husband but rather in medicine and science, like her father. All throughout the book you can feel this fascination Juliet has for her father: she admires him, but at the same time she fears him. And this feeling only became more marked when unravels the mystery of his experiments. Since I knew what Doctor Moreau’s experiments in the original story were, the revelation wasn’t really one for me but I still found it very interesting to see how Juliet reacted to this, how torn she was. Because she couldn’t help being horrified and angry, but at the same time she couldn’t deny her admiration and love for her father all of a sudden. Personally, I didn’t like the father from the moment I ‘met’ him, but that’s also because I knew that he was a madman, knowing the original story.

I chose to read this book around Halloween time because I thought it’d be scary. In fact it wasn’t really, but it still was a good Halloween read because the atmosphere is quite dark and somewhat gothic, and there are a few gruesome scenes, with lots of blood, which will make you cringe if you’re an active militant for animals’ rights. And even if you’re not a militant but just like animals.

Only one little thing bothered me in this book: the love triangle. Seriously, it wasn’t necessary at all. Well, it was a minor part of the story so it was okay, I could easily go over it. I’ve read much worse love triangles. But the fact is that I would have loved the book if Juliet wasn’t swooning alternatively over Montgomery and Edward all the time. Actually, it would have done very well without romance at all, period. Especially that I wasn’t a fan of either men: Edward was interesting as a character, because of the mysteries in his past, but I didn’t like him that much, and Montgomery lacked personality.

All in all, it was a really great book. I totally enjoyed the story and I liked that it was a retelling of an unusual story (I do love fairytales retelling, but these are very classic retellings). The ending was really surprising and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel. I think I will also read the original story by H.G. Wells because I got very curious about it.

I recommend this book to you if: you like books with kind of dark atmosphere, and you don’t mind a few bloody scenes. 

By virtue fall (Shadowdance #1) by Mark Wooden

Title: By virtue fall (Shadowdance #1)

Author: Mark Wooden (Etats-Unis)

Publication date: December 20th 2013

Publisher: Writer Geek Press

Number of pages: 168 (epub format)

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During the Terror of the French Revolution, the Daughters of Lilith, a cult of female vampire assassins, make noblewoman Adriana Dupré one of them. They later manipulate her into killing her ancestors and set her younger sister Dominique, now also a vampire, against her. Adriana swore revenge.

The centuries passed, taking Adriana’s bloody vengeance into the modern era. She encounters Dwyer Strathan, a dark sorcerer who poses as a Hollywood bad boy. He offers her a deal: if she retrieves the three mystical relics called the Vyntari shards for him, he will give her the information she needs to destroy the Daughters and redeem her sister.

The deal sends Adriana from the soulless glamor of Los Angeles to the seedy underworld and haunted forests of Berlin. She combats werewolves, a golem and the Knights of Vyntari, warrior sorcerers charged with the protection of the shards.

The knights challenge Adriana to consider what good has come from her violent path of vengeance. Might there be another way towards salvation? And is the redemption of her sister worth giving Strathan the power of the shards – the power to enslave the world?

I have mixed feelings about this one. Really, I thought I would like it, because the beginning was more than enjoyable. But around half of the book, it started going round in circles and getting more and more boring, so much than 20% from the end I decided it was enough and skipped pages only to read the final lines, to know how all this ended.

I won’t write a summary myself because the one on the back cover is explicit enough. Actually, it even is a bit spoilery because it pretty much sums up the whole book. But for once I was glad the blurb gave out so much, because otherwise I would have quickly lost track of the storyline. Although action packed, the beginning is quite slow plotwise so it was a good thing I knew beforehand where the author wanted his story to lead, so that I didn’t feel lost.

The beginning was very interesting though! As I said before, I very much enjoyed the first half of the story. The mythology developed in this series is very interesting and diversified; you will find not only vampires but also sorcerers, werewolves, golems, etc. I also really liked the setting: it takes place in various places in the world, including France, Los Angeles, Berlin and others I forgot, but I found it really great that the story wasn’t set only in the US (not that I have anything against the US, don’t get me wrong, but almost all urban fantasy novels take place there). Also, the author mixes past and present very well, including supernatural bits in real historical events like the French Revolution or the Third Reich in Germany. It was very well done and I enjoyed that a lot.

The first half of the book is also where we get introduced to Adriana, the heroine, a ruthless vampire hungry for bloody vengeance. We get to know how she changes from the nice aristocratic girl with a love for music to this heartless creature. I didn’t like Adriana the vampire that much but I did really enjoy the flashbacks from her past.

So, what happened in the second half to make the story go so down? Well, around 40% Adriana finally makes this deal mentioned in the blurb and I thought: “awesome, now the real story is going to start!” But… no, it didn’t. Almost all this second half was about fighting, fighting, fighting and… did I mention fighting? Really, action is nice but not when it takes everything over plot development.

Also, I didn’t find many of the things that were mentioned in the blurb: the thing with Adriana’s sister seemed very important, while in the book the sister is barely mentioned. And Adriana’s meeting with the Knights of Vyntari only happens at the very end (when I had already started skipping pages).  Really, what I’ll remember of the second half of this book is that Adriana fights all the time, and doesn’t mind injuring and killing people, even innocent people. That’s all.

So, in the end, I have to say I am very much disappointed with this one. The beginning was promising, but unfortunately the good first half doesn’t make up for the boring second half. This is where the plot should have developed and become even more interesting, but instead action took it all. I have an ARC of book two, but honestly, I don’t know if I will read it, given that I struggled so much to finish book one.

I recommend this book to you if: You like action (really really like it), and want to read a story with ruthless vampires.

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