Weather Witch by Shannon Delany

Title: Weather Witch
Author: Shannon Delany
Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Release Date: June 25th, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 336
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: Netgalley
Interest: Series
Age Group: Young Adult

In a vastly different and darker Philadelphia of 1844, steam power has been repressed, war threatens from deep, dark waters, and one young lady of high social standing is expecting a surprise at her seventeenth birthday party–but certainly not the one she gets!

Jordan Astraea, who has lived out all of her life in Philadelphia’s most exclusive neighborhood, is preparing to celebrate her birthday with friends, family and all the extravagance they might muster. The young man who is most often her dashing companion, Rowen Burchette, has told her a surprise awaits her and her best friend, Catrina Hollindale, wouldn’t miss this night for all the world!

But storm clouds are gathering and threatening to do far more than dampen her party plans because someone in the Astraea household has committed the greatest of social sins by Harboring a Weather Witch.

My very first Steampunk!

I wasn't sure how to take this book at first, since I've never actually read any steampunk before so I had nothing to compare it to. I found it interesting, confusing at times, and I had to keep reminding myself that this was an alternative timeline to that of the actual time period, which I found annoying.

I liked the protagonist, Jordan, a lot. She developed beautifully. I liked everything from the beginning as it started to fall together nicely. The only reason I won't give it five stars is because of just how long it took me to get really into it.

Originally, I made it through the first few pages without a glitch, but I wasn't excited about it and I ended up putting the book down for a few days. I didn't get gripped in from the beginning, and when I picked it up again, it took me awhile to get through some of the pages to finally get into the tale.

As the novel started to develop I found myself enjoying it a lot! I liked the characters, plot line, and everything else about it. A slow start, but it's worth going through all the muddy parts to get to the good.

Jane Eyre Laid Bare by Eve Sinclair

Title: Jane Eyre Laid Bare
Author: Eve Sinclair
Info: Twitter | Website
Release Date: October 30th, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 336
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: ARC; Netgalley
Age Group: Very Adult

Everyone is familiar with Charlotte Brontë's passionate, but restrained novel in which the plain, yet spirited governess Jane Eyre falls for the arrogant Mr. Rochester. It’s a novel that simmers with sexual tension but never quite reaches the boiling point. Which is to be expected. After all, the original was written in 1847.  That was then. This is now. And in JANE EYRE LAID BARE, author Eve Sinclair writes between the lines to chart the smoldering sexual chemistry between the long-suffering governess and her brooding employer.

When an eager and curious Jane Eyre arrives at Thornfield Hall her sexual desires are awakened. Who is the enigmatic Rochester and why is she attracted to him? What are the strange, yet captivating noises coming from the attic, and why does the very air she breathes feel heavy with passion? Only one thing is certain. Jane Eyre may have arrived at Thornfield an unfulfilled and tentative woman, but she will leave a very different person

So, I just want to start out by saying that I am not a pervert, yet reviewing all this erotica is certainly making me look like one! And I also want to say that Jane Eyre is my favorite classic novel, and I don't read many of those!

I was a little nervous picking this up because Jane Eyre is my favorite novel, but I decided, "What the hell," and from the beginning the differences are more than obvious. The story does an awkward modern/classic type of writing style that instantly confused me. I found myself glazing right over the classic writing and trying to find my foot on the new style. Maybe it was because I could understand it better or maybe it was just because it actually moved the story along, I'm not sure.

And obviously the characters aren't the same but I wish that Sinclair had done a little more justice to them than what I saw. Maybe I'm just being extra picky, but there is a lot of work that should have been done to make it believable, in my opinion.

There are a lot of sexual tension, which is what mostly this novel is made out of. Its this never ending tension between the two characters. At some points I thought the novel was going places but at other times I was just really confused, wondering what I was reading.

Overall, it was interesting. Sinclair made a bold move reworking this novel and releasing it. I think, for the most part, she did a good job, but not what could have been done.

I say that if you are a fan, read at your own risk! And if you have never read Jane Eyre, then you have nothing to lose but time. 

Anything He Wants by Sara Fawkes

Title: Anything He Wants
Author: Sara Fawkes
Info: Twitter | Website | Facebook
Release Date: November 27th, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 288
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: ARC; Netgalley
Interest: Series
Age Group: Very Adult

Lucy Delacourt's temp position isn't quite her dream job but it pays the bills. The highlight of her day is riding the elevator in the mornings with a handsome stranger. Tall, dark, and sexy as hell, Lucy knows he's way out of her league, but a girl can look, right?

Everything changes the day the stranger seduces her. Completely out of character, she yields without a fight, but she has no idea her wanton acts with a man whose name she doesn't know will change her life forever. Because the sexy stranger is none other than Jeremiah Hamilton, billionaire CEO of Hamilton Industries, and one taste isn't nearly enough to satisfy his need.  As the billionaire pulls Lucy deeper into his world of high stakes business deals and ruthless takeovers, he demands nothing less than her complete surrender.  But even as enemies seek deadly revenge against him, she’ll discover that her greatest threat is falling for her fiercely guarded boss…and yielding to her own darkest needs.

I am absolutely speechless...but because this is a review I must say something, so here goes.

This novel was...interesting. The author does not just introduce the characters but she introduces the character with a nice spicy scene in the beginning. It was awkward; I mean, I would be freaked out if a man just comes up behind me and starts to touch and rub up all against me and...other things.

What I can say that I enjoyed about this book is that at least there is some originality. Contrast to Fifty Shades (that comparison was coming, everyone knew) the heroine is at least easy to relate to and she's not afraid of herself. At the beginning she was hesitant and smart, but as things started to roll along she made known clearly what she wanted from the start and that she wasn't going to take any less.

Why I gave it one star? It wasn't the bad writing or anything, it was just the way that the plot was moving along. It felt like I was hiking. Up and down and all around. There wasn't a lot of smoothness is basically what I am trying to say. There were a lot of characters introduced and not a lot of them were developed well. I felt like the author went from the secondary characters and tried to stay focused on the main instead of fully developing the others.

Not to mention the sex scenes weren't what I was expecting. I didn't see much passion between them, besides her on her knees constantly and he telling her she's beautiful and what to do.

Overall, it was different and not just another Fifty Shades knockoff. The way it ended almost makes me want to pick up the sequel, for when it ever comes out. Its a quick read that's for sure.

Tempest by Julie Cross

Title: Tempest
Author: Julie Cross
Release Date: January 17th, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 352
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: ARC; Netgalley
Interest: Series
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 5 Stars

The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

I will be honest, I was not excited to read this book. I regretted accepting the review, because it just started out so slow for me, and I just kept thinking what an idiot the main character was. The character's just didn't click well for me in the beginning.

But then things got interesting. It took awhile before the plot picked up, and I still kept thinking Jackson was an idiot, but at least a somewhat smarter idiot. I was confused a lot of the time, don't get me wrong. I could never tell in what moment in time Jackson was in, because I kept thinking that something different will happen and it will be revealed that he has a different time line or whatever. It was all a little complicated. And as for Holly, I never thought a character could whine as much as Bella Swan, but then I meet a character like Holly Flynn and that belief is disproved.

So why the fudge did I give this book five stars? Simple, because of the main plot line that surrounded it. The idea of time traveling, genetic engineering and corrupt government agents. It had it all. I feel like the character's could use a lot of work, but I liked the speed of the story, I liked how once the author started the ball rolling she didn't stop. Some authors always bring it back as the novel nears an end, but this author does not stop, and keeps going.

I like the diversity she has in them. There is Holly, the damsel in distressed, Adam, the smart geeky kid, and Jackson, the hero. And there was a lot more, but these main ones are what I noticed most. And I liked how with all this time traveling going on, I would get confused, but the author does a good job on keeping us on track. I just got confused because of all the long period jumps and not to mention all of Jackson's flashbacks makes it sound like it's current time. It's hard to explain.

There are a lot of unanswered questions and I was not happy at all with the ending. I understand why Jackson did what he did, but it still makes me mad at him. It was a little obvious half way into the novel that that was what he was going to do, but its still sad. I feel like the second book will have a lot of explaining, but I did like how the author did give us some answers, so things aren't too confusing.

Besides some character issues, overall a great book.

Switched by Amanda Hocking

Title: Switched
Author: Amanda Hocking
Release Date: January 3rd, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 293
Format: Paperback
Acquired: Bought
Interest: Series
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 5 Stars

When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn't until eleven years later that Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - a world both beautiful and frightening, and Wendy's not sure she wants to be a part of it.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting. I have heard so many wonderful things about this story and equally so many not so wonderful things about this story. But I saw it, and decided that I should take a chance and see what it's like because I have reviewed a lot of self-published work and a lot of these authors have more promise than what people give them credit for.

The story starts with Wendy, a young brat who comes from a troubled past when her mother tried to kill her. She know lives with her brother and aunt but she still causes a lot of trouble for them. When Finn enters the picture and plans to take Wendy away, to her home, because she's a changeling. And I don't mean as in faery, but as in troll.

Hocking takes an old idea of changeling and instead of riding the faery wave with it, she takes a different route and goes after troll, but these trolls are different. They look exactly like humans besides some minor things and they behave mostly like humans. The troll aspect to them is kept though because these changelings are put into place in order to steal from their host family, who are typically wealthy. I like that about this book.

And then there's the idea of powers and how some have it and others, like Wendy, are extremely powerful. But Wendy isn't just any troll, she's a princess. I like how Hocking was able to incorporate the personalities of these characters to match that of what most people would think of trolls, because Wendy's biological mother is just horrible. And then there's Wendy's own temper tantrum that she has.

While this book isn't packed with a ton of action at the beginning, it does have a quick start. I like how Hocking is able to take the readers into Wendy's head and see what her human life is like. She is super close to her older brother and feels protective of her family. And then there's the contrast to what she experiences when she's at Forening, her homeland.

Wendy is stubborn and I like how Hocking took a realistic situation with a child who doesn't really know what to do in a situation that she's in. Wendy does a lot of things wrong and her mother just gets worse and worse.

Hocking, also did a fantastic job in bringing in a variety of characters. They are rich, spoiled kids who come back in order to live with their biological families, after taking from their host families. But they all have their soft sides and their own personality. Like Tove and Willa, they are both very different and yet Wendy can connect with them each. Even though Tove's family is trying to take away Wendy's crown, the two teenagers form a weird friendship that works. And Tove in the beginning seems like the typical rich boy that doesn't care about anything, but when he speaks he talks insightful of the social and political world that surround them and how it needs to get fixed.

Willa, she came off as snobbish at first. I wasn't sure if I would like her, but she started to grow on me, especially when Wendy needed her the most.

What I didn't like much was the way that Wendy became so focused on Finn and her family doesn't seem as important for the middle section of the book. While at no time does she actually become comfortable in her new home, she doesn't think much about her old family.

Overall, this was a great book and Hocking did a fantastic job in bringing these characters to life. I wish there was a little more action, but for the most part the book went well.