Black Dawn by Rachel Caine

Title: Black Dawn
Author: Rachel Caine
Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Release Date: May 1st, 2012
Publisher: NAL Trade
Pages: 367
Format: Paperback
Acquired: Bought
Interest: Series
Others in the Series: Glass House, The Dead Girl's Dance, Midnight Alley, Feast of Fools, Lord of Misrule, Carpe Corpus, Fade Out, Kiss of Death, Ghost Town, Bite Club, and Last Breath
Age Group: Young Adult

Ever since the draug—mysterious creatures that prey on vampires—took over Morganville, the lives of student Claire Danvers and her friends have been thrown into turmoil. Most of the town’s residents have evacuated, but Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael have chosen to stay and fight.Using the city’s water system to spread, the draug have rapidly multiplied. Things in Morganville look grim, especially since vampire Amelie—the town founder—has been infected by the master draug’s bite.

Now, if Claire and her friends don’t figure out how to cure Amelie and defeat the draug, it looks like Morganville will become little more than a ghost town…

Morganville is falling apart, but Rachel Caine is truly building something even cooler.

Things are heating up or watering up now with the draug slowly taking over Morganville. Now that the gang and pretty much the whole time are cornered up, an attack has to be placed in order to take back their town.

I still love how Rachel Caine is mixing it up by changing point of views. Unlike the other ones that started out slowly with one point of view here and there, and then giving whole chapters, but still focusing heavily on Claire, to giving a lot of equal time to many of the characters.

Things between Eve and Michael are a little rocky, Amelie is falling deeper and deeper into her sickness, Oliver has sort of taken over/fawning over Amelie, Shane is protective, Myrinn might be in love with Claire, and the said Claire is trying to make it another day.

Yep. Caine knows how to keep the interest in the series. I love how she added this, just so effortlessly, while still closing up what remind of the last few story-lines.

I'm very excited the way things are going. The story is getting more and more complex, the characters more interesting (or in the case of Eve, more annoying) and I am truly sad knowing that the series is coming to an end soon, because I don't know what I'll do knowing that I won't have my favorite quartet to look forward to.

Le sigh. You win some you lose some, I guess. 

Broken Harbour by Tana French

Title: Broken Harbour
Author: Tana French
Info: Website |  Facebook
Release Date: July 24th, 2012
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Pages: 533
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: ARC; Netgalley
Interest: Series
Others in the Series: In The Woods, The Likeness, & Faithful Place
Age Group: Adult

In BROKEN HARBOUR, a ghost estate outside Dublin - half-built, half-inhabited, half-abandoned - two children and their father are dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. Scorcher Kennedy is given the case because he is the Murder squad’s star detective. At first he and his rookie partner, Richie, think this is a simple one: Pat Spain was a casualty of the recession, so he killed his children, tried to kill his wife Jenny, and finished off with himself. But there are too many inexplicable details and the evidence is pointing in two directions at once.

Scorcher’s personal life is tugging for his attention. Seeing the case on the news has sent his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family, one summer at Broken Harbour, back when they were children. The neat compartments of his life are breaking down, and the sudden tangle of work and family is putting both at risk  

Tana French! I was sucked into her world when I first read In The Woods, and while I may have had to jump two books in order to review this one (since I don't pay too much attention apparently) I'm glad to say that I wasn't too confused!

Welcome to Dublin, where crime is all around. Once again, French proves her talent as being one of the best authors around. She has a writing style that is both unique and gripping and takes the reader into a world that one never wants to leave.

The world came to life in my hands, and the words just danced right off the page and into my imagination.

Honestly, French brings realistic characters into the world with a plot that takes the readers on a roller coaster ride.

Scorcher was a character I wanted to pity but at the same time I was frustrated with him. There was just a lot of conflicting emotions between both the case and the personal lives.

If one wants a mystery that takes people away, this is the book to read.

Provocateur by Charles D. Martin

Title: Provocateur
Author: Charles D. Martin
Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Release Date: August 14th, 2012
Publisher: Chaney-Hall Publishing
Pages: 240
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: ARC; From Publisher; Netgalley
Age Group: Adult

This novel is about a strong, audacious young woman and her encounters with powerful, alpha males. Provocateur explores that aspect of the human experience that surrounds the age-old contest between men and women. It is the story of Nadia, a young Russian woman who comes to America through a mail-order-bride program. She becomes employed in an enterprise operated by an ex-CIA agent named Olga, whose agency, through clever missions, extracts large amounts of money from wealthy men. In her "assignments" Nadia must get the best of alpha males that are at the top of the male order. Nadia, born an orphan, rises out of a life of poverty and despair,where she had no experience with affection, to face her struggles and take on the challenges of her "profession". She is a complex, enigmatic woman of superior intelligence who must "win" through her finesse and feminine prowess

I make no secret of my feminist nature. The majority of books I read revolve around a strong females and the way she handles herself. When taking part of this book tour, I knew I had to read this book. This was something I could go for. But, of course, I also fell for the main synopsis of this novel.

As an orphan, growing up in Russia she was a smart and educated woman, but due to her social class Nadia decides to marry for convenience than love. When going through a mail-order-bride she finds an American husband. But, unable to settle, she comes in contact with Olga, an ex-CIA agent, who runs an establishment where women are trained to seduce rich men to take their money. Soon, Nadia finds that she is a natural provocateur.

Nadia was an amazing character who I got hooked on immediately. She is a smart and crafty, but as well as dangerous. I don't know if it was just the men were falling hard for her or she was just that good but she pulled some of those cons with such ease it almost looked like something anyone can do. It's almost as if the game of seduction with billionaires is child's play, or at least for Nadia it is. Show some skin, maybe some cleavage, and you are good to go.

I liked this novel a lot, though I only gave it a four because as much as I did enjoy it I feel like it wasn't as memorable as it could be. I found myself enjoying this book, just not enough that if I ever find time to ever reread a book, this one probably wouldn't be it. It wasn't Nadia, just the story itself. If that makes sense.

The author did an incredible job with the writing and I found the character development interesting. For those interested in mystery thrillers, this would be a book for you. As well as those that are interested in the male-female power play that takes center stage in this book. An excellent read indeed.

Enemy in Blue by Derek Blass

Title: Enemy in Blue
Author: Derek Blass
Release Date: May 1st, 2011
Publisher: Rogue Books
Pages: 334
Format: Paperback
Acquired: From Author
Age Group: Adult

The streets aren't safe when your enemy wears a blue uniform and a gold badge.

What if the good guys weren't good?

What if a cop went rogue and killed an innocent man?

What if it was all caught on video and the cop would do anything to cover it up?

Chase this lawless cop through the streets and to a scintillating series of showdowns with Cruz Marquez, a young attorney trying to nail down his enemy in blue. 

Will justice be served?

First, I want to start off on why I picked this book to read in the first place. When Blass asked me, I immediately said yes because I am Hispanic. It may seem like a stupid reason, but really, it isn't. I don't read a lot of books that have Latino characters as the central figure, because let's be honest, the YA and most of the adult market is primarily dealing with white men and women. Just look at what's on the NYT Best-Seller List or any top rated book list; there probably won't be that many books where a white character isn't the central figure. I never really took much notice in this, until I started thinking about it while I had this book sitting on my TBR pile for some months now. And, I think that it is important for those who come from different ethnic backgrounds to read books that revolve around their own culture, because it can be an eye opener.

From the first chapter I knew that I would be hooked on this book. It's sad but true the things that happen here, and it almost makes me wish that things weren't like they are.

When a cop kills an illegal immigrant, a young attorney, Cruz, is on the case to hunt down a video tape that could put the cop away, but it won't be easy, especially when assassination attempts happen.

This book was so honest that I could very well see it happening in real life. The ignorance and hatred that the cop, Shaver, gave off just made me want to vomit. And the things that he did and how far he would go; there was really no end to him.

And another character that really surprised me had been the cameraman, Max. As much as I hate to admit it people like these two exist, and they make a joke out of the justice system...well, mostly Shavers. Max's sin is apparently not grasping the importance of what he had in his hands.

The way the book ended really hit the nail on the head of, "It's not what you know, but who you know" and really made the point that sometimes having friends in high places, no matter who you are, can beat the legal system each time. I was both shocked and upset, but somehow it all comes to full circle.

As for Cruz, I have to say that he really surprised me, in a lot of good ways.

Personally, a lot of what happened in this novel had me at the edge of my seat and wanting to read more. I wish I hadn't waited so long to read this book, but I'm glad that I got the chance to read this. This novel is one that I think a lot of people should read because it shows the other side of the law. There was a lot of ethnic tension, not just with Hispanics, and I think that Blass brought out each and everyone of his characters and gave them a life, because honestly, the way Blass drew out the antagonist drove the book a lot.

Blass is a one-of-a-kind author and this book is a true work of art.