(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I was a bit surprised by how easily I was drawn into this book, considering that it contained angels and vampires… both supernatural creatures I feel are over-used in fiction.

Francesca was a very interesting character, though I had a lot of trouble figuring out what was going on with her for a long time at first. I don’t really like love triangles, but by the end of the book, I felt I had a bit more understanding of why she was drawn to both Gabriel and Jonah in different ways.

I was a bit confused by how easily Francesca seemed to be able to ‘read’ people… though there were some occasions where she seemed to get it wrong. I found the other vampires she met to be quite interesting characters… though I did think that the actions of one of the characters were made a little too obvious. The apparent twist… wasn’t really a twist at all.

While I did feel some sympathy for Hanora, I did develop a strong dislike for her by the end of the book. I would have liked to see more of her like I did with Brooke… though I did feel there were a lot of stereotypes with the vampire characters.

The shadow girl was a particularly interesting twist and I did like the fact that Francesca struggled with how she was drawn to Gabriel, but didn’t feel like the girl he’d known in the past. I had mixed feelings about Ethan when he was introduced… but it was interesting to see the contrasts between his past self and what he was like in the present day.

I found it easy to follow the storyline from Francesca’s POV, but I still had quite a lot of questions through most of the book. While some of them were answered by the end, I did kind of feel that Francesca was becoming a bit ‘centre of the universe’.

There was a lot of good action in this book and I liked being able to learn more about Jonah’s past, though his change seemed to come about awfully quickly. I do have the next book in this series ready to read on my Kindle and I am looking forward to it.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’d probably give this book 3.5 stars out of 5. I found myself quite confused by the start… and I wasn’t sure exactly when and where this book was supposed to be set.

I did find the characters to be interesting, even though I was completely lost by some of cultural aspects. I would have liked a bit more of an explanation about some of the things I was reading about. While I did find the mentions of the old gods and saints to be quite interesting, I was also confused by the differences between them and their relation to the culture.

There was a lot of tension in this book and I did care about the two main characters… but they didn’t really seem to grow up very much during the course of the book. Even though there was the glossing over of seven years, I felt that the only change was in how far away the memories were. Odiana did come across as a bit manipulative at times, but I’m not sure she realised she was doing so.

I did find Nacaño to be an interesting character. I could believe in his goal to protect Odiana because his mother asked him to. But although there was violence in this book, a lot of that seemed surreal. The descriptions were fleeting and made me feel like I was in a dream state.

It was interesting to see how salt water was described as being poisoned, but there were times I found myself confused about how they’d found the good water and the food. I couldn’t get a proper image of the surroundings in my head… or of the characters, either.

Although it was interesting to see the bits of Spanish used in the book, I did think that it was unnecessary, since Spanish was presumably the language they were speaking anyway. It’s like having random Japanese in a book set in Japan; presumably, that’s the language they are speaking.

I think this book could have stood to be longer and I would have liked to see more of a friendship between the two characters. I’m not sure I’d read more books by this author in the future… it would depend on the plot of the book, I think.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d give this book 4.5 stars. While I can’t quite give it 5… it was much better reading than I was expecting it to be and it was really easy to form emotional connections to most of the characters.

The world described in this book is particularly difficult to read about, but is actually something I could see happening in the distant future. The idea of Death Matches is an especially difficult one to deal with, considering that a new baby can’t be born unless someone else dies in this reality. While that might seem like an acceptable answer to overpopulation at the time, the problems that are made clear with it (people waiting years; Death Matches falling through; etc.) mean that it’s easy to see why the reality is falling apart.

The use of advertisements at various points in the book were particularly eerie and it was interesting to see the kinds of comments people made to the articles. What was even more intriguing were the censored comments. I felt that was a good way of leaving things to the readers’ imagination.

I found Michael Kelly to be a particularly interesting character. While I did have some sympathy for him, especially in regards to the moral difficulties he faced in his job, I couldn’t condone his actions. Even if he didn’t pull the trigger/s himself, he was definitely in the wrong… and it was good to see that he acknowledged and accepted that.

I found Benson to be a really well-rounded character. Although there was a big contrast between him as a child and him as a teenager, I felt that he was a believable person and I had a lot of sympathy for him. I didn’t know what to make of Harrison to begin with, but as the book progressed, I thought that he was concerned with doing the right thing.

There was a lot about this book that hit hard and although there were some awful characters involved, there were others who I believed in and wanted to see succeed. I felt a lot of sympathy for Janice and I would like to see more of her and Benson and Harrison in the next book, which I plan to read in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

So… when this book arrived and I read the blurb, I didn’t think it was the kind of book that would have piqued my interest if I saw it in a book shop. Although it’s a paranormal, I have virtually no interest in poker… and I assumed that most of the book would be about the game of poker; which actually was the case, but I felt the book had a lot more to it than that.

I thought that both Telly and Clutch were interesting characters, though I did like Telly a lot more than Clutch for a lot of the book. I found it really interesting to see how Telly was trying to deal with his financial problems. I felt a lot of sympathy for Gretchen, since I was able to see how affected she was by what was happening with Telly. Even though it wasn’t his fault, I could see where Gretchen was coming from.

Although Clutch’s character had grown on me by the end of the book, I didn’t really like him very much during it. I thought that, even though he had his moments of empathy, he only cared about himself. I did have a lot of sympathy for Ginny and I thought the fact that she cared about Clutch and his daughter was obvious, even though Ruby wasn’t actually related to her. I really disliked Jenny. I was glad to see that she didn’t have things go completely right for her by the end of the book.

I got quite confused about Stan’s character. I mistook him for another character who’d shown up, but I liked seeing him interacting with Telly and although I didn’t know exactly why he was feeling so depressed at one point, it was nice to see that Telly was able to reason with him and that Stan was able to help him out. I also liked seeing Big Daddy and Cheryl. It was good to see that Telly did have friends around him and I thought the fact that he was one of the good guys came across really well. He seemed to have a really kind heart and he was someone who was really easy to relate to.

There was a lot about this book that felt really good to read. It drew me into the storyline really easily and Telly and Gretchen’s exchanges were really sweet, especially the ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ part.

I have another book by this author ready to read in the next few weeks or so. While it’s not actually connected to this book… I’m still interested in glimpsing more worlds and characters created by this author.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have to be honest… I would have given this book 4 out of 5 stars, if it wasn’t for the romance and my complete lack of belief in the connection between Rain and Jabari. While I did like Rain and Jabari separately, I felt that their relationship was rushed and all of the actual development was taken out in favour of instant!love. (I have read exactly one series of books where the soulmates thing has been handled well).

I did find myself drawn very well into the story from the beginning. The first scene did a really good job of establishing a darker atmosphere around the world of the storyline. And it was pretty awful to see how the world Rain lived in mirrored one of history’s most awful times… but in a modern age, which I thought was shown to be almost as bad.

I did like Rain’s relationship with her little brother. Daktari was really sweet at the beginning and even though I was confused by exactly how much time had passed after the first scene, I thought the author did a good job of showing how bad the life in their ‘zone’ was. While I only got to see what Rain’s day was like, I thought it was shown really well how much strain was being put on them all. By the end of the book, her mother went right down in my estimation, even though I could understand why she’d fallen so deep into depression. I did like Rain and Daktari’s father, even though I didn’t get to see all that much of him. I thought that his care for his children came across really well.

The different abilities that the characters had came across really well, but I did feel Rain was going too close to the line of a character classed as a Mary Sue with how many abilties she had compared to the others around her. While the fact that Cole and his cousin hit on any female they found attractive made for humorous moments, there were too many references to how attractive Rain was for my liking.

Although there were some scenes of tension, it felt like there was very little actual danger that the characters were in. While I thought it was good that their experiences made them more careful and less likely to take chances, everything seemed to go quite smoothly for them… and their powers meant that even the brief moments of danger were handled quickly. With the exception of Zi, none of the others seemed to suffer from any detrimental effects from using their powers so many times within succession of each other.

I am going to be reading the next books in this series… but I hope the storyline will be more of a focus than the romance. The dream Rain has later on sounds really intriguing… but after she decides to tell the others about it, the book skips ahead with no explanation given as to what they actually talk about. And I think this glossing over is a big problem in this book.