Book of Ill Deeds | Phaedra Weldon

Summary:

Ginger Blackstone comes from a family of witches. She'd tried to do something else with her life, but ended up back home with her grandmother, Mama D, just in time for Mama D to be arrested on suspicion of murder. Over the next week or so, Ginger works to clear her grandmother and sister's names while trying to get a hold on the crush she has for the new doctor in town, and learning about this new black cat trying to become her familiar. 

Review:

This book was a lot of fun to read. It's got a lot of laughs. It's a short book so everything is straight to the point. Any and all history or world building is built into the plot. The reveal of who the murderer is isn't much of a surprise, but it was still a fun trip to follow.

I absolutely loved Ginger. She is a delightful main character whom I identified with on a few levels. I enjoyed the fact that she didn't have a full handle on her life but still knew how to be a competent adult. And Mama D! What a wonderful character to have in the mix! She is probably one of my favorite witch characters ever just because she is so good at what she does. David, the love interest, was a good guy, though his character presented a few more questions than answered. That being said, the chemistry between all the characters made for a fun read.

And let us not forget the familiars. Ginger starts out as a witch who's never had a familiar but through her initial interactions with Max and through Mama D's interactions with Bert, we learn a lot of what it is a familiar can do and does for their witch. And the importance of having a witch is something I've never thought of before but Max is very adamant about.

I think I may have to admit, I like Chick Lit. Specifically I seem to like Chick Lit with supernatural characters and a strong sense of humor. This is probably the third or fourth book I've read with the whole modern witch thing and I've enjoyed them all. So, yes. This is the book that gets me to admit, I like Chick Lit. As someone who regularly gives 5/5 ratings to books with giant robots and that are action heavy, hopefully that'll give you a good idea of how good this book is.

The world of Castle Falls is a very interesting one and, I'll admit, I'm interested in the other books in this series. As of writing this review the book itself is free on Kindle. The next book is $3 but I'm still very tempted. I happily give 4 hoots and encourage you to pick up a copy.

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A Pack of Lies | Jo Thomas

Summary:

Elkie Bernstein is having werewolf problems of a different kind. The kind that involves long-term strategy and paperwork, neither of which she's very good at. She needs to get Ben (and maybe David) out of the Institute and away from Olsen who seeks to use Ben to find more werewolves. She needs to keep her farm going after her partnership with the Williams' family dissolves. Most importantly, she needs to protect a couple of young were-pups from the hands of those that would use them.

Review:

This book does pretty much everything that I want a sequel to do: it expands upon the world of the original in a way that makes sense. In the first book we were pretty much as "stuck" as Elkie in the middle of nowhere in Wales and we didn't get any sense of werewolves being known in the world. In this book, not only do we get to see a sliver of Norway, but we also get to see a werewolf pack. Well, we get to see that such things exist. In all honesty, I'm glad we still get to focus on Elkie and her struggles as opposed to side trips to the perspectives of others. 

Elkie remains one of my favorite female protagonists. She is very down-to-earth, self-aware, and kind hearted. I love that she openly admits to being a bad chess player and how that translates to her real life (I often have very similar frustrations). I love the fact that, even with everything stacked against her, she focuses on finding ways to make it work. She gets anxiety and I think some depression, but she keeps moving. I love that in a main character. She reads like a very well rounded character who is making the most of what she's been given in life and is finding contentment in it. Well, she would be if others would give her the chance to actually be content, but that's the cost of being a protagonist. 

While the book doesn't have more characters than the last one, the characters that are in this one last a lot longer so it feels like there are more, in a good way. Thomas does a wonderful job of keeping them well balanced. I'll admit, May's character wasn't as well played out as the others, but maybe that's the idea and she'll play a bigger role in the third book (which I'll be looking to get my hands on). I also liked that, while there are little kid characters, it rarely, if ever, reads like the little kid tropes. They're were-puppies who have distinct personalities and are learning to love books. What's not to love?

As the summary suggests, there wasn't nearly as much action in this book as there was in the first. There are still some werewolf fights, but the vast majority of the book is more strategy and positioning than actual fighting. Which makes sense. Elkie doesn't enjoy killing werewolves and only ever does out of self-defense. In this book there are few situations where she finds herself in need of defense. I can't say that there's more drama than I usually like because, well, Elike's personality and Thomas' sense of humor really keep it from feeling that way. That's quite the feat considering we get a lot of Elkie and her mom talking about Elkie's long lost dad and family issues. 

In case you can't tell, I enjoyed this book. Elkie is a wonderful, relatable character whose independence (stubbornness) and enjoyment of the simple things in life (hazelnut spread) make for an engaging read. In fact, I've already purchased the third book. This world, these characters, are very interesting to me and I'm loving finding out more about them all. 4.5 hoots!

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Hoo

The Realmsic Conquest: The Hero of Legend by Demethius Jackson

A while back one of the authors I follow on Twitter promoted his friend's work. I took a look at the link he shared and watched the video that the friend had posted on YouTube to advertise his work. After watching, I knew I had to read this book. Check it out for yourself:

See? How could I ignore an invite like that? I actually did get the book a while ago and just finished today. My first thought upon finishing it? "Why did I wait so long to read this?!"

The Realmsic Conquest: The Hero of Legend is a fast paced adventure. The book, in PDF format, is less than 200 pages, so Jackson is not the type of author to waste his words. I was a little worried at the beginning when the new king is reciting history to his council. I thought "they already know the history, this is clearly an exposition dump for the reader." But my concerns were quickly laid to rest with everything that happened after the initial exposition. The pacing works and, though I know I read slowly, I felt like I was going as fast as the characters.

The characters themselves were amazingly real to me. Random comments like "Really? Another secret?"* and "Look, I know this seems bad...and, in fact, it is."** were very similar to how I was feeling and provided a nice, realistic sense of humor to these situations. None of the characters gave off the vibe of being one dimensional. Admittedly, the bad guy's descent into madness*** was predictable, but I'm always appreciative of an intelligent and charismatic villain.

There were a few naming conventions that made you want to wag a finger at the author saying "Oh you!" But at the same time, they kinda fit. I won't ruin them for you, but you'll no doubt recognize them when you read them.

Overall, I feel Jackson does a wonderful job of telling a thrilling adventure without...really without any fluff at all. Heck, there wasn't even a love story! I LOVE that! I've already recommend this book to others and have enjoyed every page of this story. I can't help but give this book a whole 5 hoots out of 5!**** Go get yourself a copy of this book!

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*Pg. 129 in PDF.
**Pg. 109 in PDF.
***Resulting in an awesome boss battle!
****Even if he did have an entire lost archive destroyed. I so want to be in the Archival Order!

Darkness Concealed by D. Emery Bunn

Once again I am left yelling at the author, demanding the sequel now even though the current book was only JUST published. Fortunately the digital copy I received came with the promise of a sequel and the author's website promised a trilogy. 

For all of my complaining, though, Bunn does something that few authors I have read lately have been able to do. He prepped me for the story to end so that I was accepting of it. Previous authors have ended their books in such ways and at such times that I felt I had missed something or I couldn't believe they ended their books there. Bunn, however, does a masterful job of leaving me wanting more, but also leaving me satisfied with the ending.  

Darkness Concealed is a book that could easily be a D&D campaign. I even posted a few jokes about that on twitter. But it really does work for this story. How else are you going to get a thief, a warrior, a scholar and a farmer to go on a quest? And what a quest it is! Find the source of the Darkening, a mysterious even that happens every 149 years when everything goes pitch black and terrifying creatures reign supreme, killing everyone they come across in terrible ways. 

I had so much fun reading this book! I'm disappointed in the fate of the Library of Antiquities, but this book is definitely the start of something awesome. At no point did I ever want to put this book down. I had some concerns about the character development, but that was mostly caused by empathizing with the characters and being able to notice the changes in the behaviors. 

Overall, I am happy to give Darkness Concealed 4.5 hoots out of 5 and happily encourage you to buy your own copy and help me cheer Bunn on to continue writing.

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***This book was provided in digital format, free of charge, from the author. This does not affect my review.