All tagged Paranormal YA

Review: Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Review: Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Sandra
Books

Rosemary Clement-Moore’s name on a book assures me that I’m in for a delightful and clever  novel. It also translates to some late nights of reading until my eyes will no longer continue a marathon session filled with humor and a fantastical world.

The Goodnight family’s funny, eccentric, unique and lovable and they have the gift of magic. Their magic has wrapped itself around me from my first read of author Rosemary Clement-Moore’s Texas Gothic to her latest novel Spirit and Dust.

I first met the Goodnights with all their magical quirkiness Texas Gothic, which I loved for its humor and a thick coat of mystery with a few Nancy Drew references. None of the Goodnights fit neatly into predicable package, which is true of Spirit and Dust’s main character, Daisy Goodnight, who possesses a magical talent with a deadly twist.

The local cops kept staring at me. I couldn’t decide if it was the plaid miniskirt in subarctic temperatures, or the fact that they’d never seen anyone talk to the dead before.

More Mini Reviews: Two Paranormals I Actually Liked

More Mini Reviews: Two Paranormals I Actually Liked

Sarah Moon
Books

Continuing my acceptance that I’m not going to write thorough reviews of everything I read, I thought I’d share my thoughts on a a couple of paranormal novels I read and liked (and we all know I’m a bit reluctant when it comes to paranormal). 

Before I Wake (Soul Screamers #6) by Rachel Vincent

Before I Wake (Soul Screamers #6) by Rachel Vincent

You’re not lost, Kaylee. You can’t ever be lost, because I’ll always know where you are. And if I’m not there with you, I’m on my way, and nothing standing between us will be standing for very long.

Despite that I liked Rachel’s Shifters series and love her Unbound series, I was hesitant to start reading her series for the YA crowd about a teenage banshee and her adventures fighting Netherworld creatures with her pals. However, six books in and I’m now a big fan. The first couple of books were mediocre reads for me, largely because Kaylee, the main character, was kind of a frustrating character in terms of maturity. However, around book three (My Soul to Keep), it dawned on me—that’s kind of the point, Kaylee’s growing up, maturing. Now that I get that, I really like how this series has unfolded.

{Review} Trial By Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Sandra
Books

{Note: This review contains spoilers for the first book in this series, Raised by Wolves. If you haven’t read it, and don’t want to be spoiled, do not pass go, instead, read Sandra’s review of Raised by Wolves.}

There’s always a way around orders, a way to be the exception instead of the rule. I just needed to find it. I was going to find it.

~Bryn

Bronwyn Alessia St. Vincent Clare, better known as Bryn, returns in Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ second book in the Raised by Wolves series, Trial by Fire.

She’s proud.

She’s a fortress of strength.

She’s also the leader of her newly-formed and unusual pack, created at the end of Raised by Wolves. She’s stretched the bonds of her previous pack to find her own freedom, to forge a new and different pack while still following the rules that bind them all. With her new responsibility of alpha status, she fights to maintain her balance and dignity as the weight of her werewolf world threatens to challenge her position and deeply-held beliefs.

Bryn’s own path, a path filled with pitfalls, pain and hard, harsh lessons exacts a unique toll. It’s a tricky trail, one never forged before. Yet, she holds fast to what her heart and conscience whispers to her as truth and righteousness.

I needed to protect them, more than I needed water or air or any kinds of human connection.

Bryn’s evolving understanding of what it means to be a human leading a pack of werewolves hits relentlessly, hard and fast.

{Review} The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Sandra
Books

The Name of the Star by Maureen JohnsonI love a good mystery, so when Maureen Johnson takes it to another level creating her witty and fun paranormal young adult thriller The Name of the Star, I was instantly hooked.

Aurora (who prefers Rory) Deveaux comes from Louisiana, the land of all things fantastical and magical, a place where her uncle has eight freezers filled with everything from batteries to milk intended to get him through another Hurricane Katrina (no worries about electricity going out) and an aunt who sees various angels of several hues designating their place on a spectrum from good to not-so-good. With this background, nothing should come as a surprise to Rory.

But, surprised she is.

It’s Rory’s senior year of high school. Her parents have an opportunity to teach at a university in England for a year, so off they go to a place more laden with ghosts of the past than Louisiana could ever scare up. She’s installed in Wexford, an elite prep school where she becomes embroiled in a mystery dating back to 1888: Jack the Ripper.

{Mini-Reviews} Three Recent DNFs

Sarah Moon
Books

I have recently embraced the DNF (did not finish). I used to slog through books I hated simply because I, in some weird way, felt like I owed it to the book to finish it. 

I now realize this is a ridiculous perspective. 

If a book’s not working for me, despite that everyone else seemingly loves it, I drop it. These books go into one of two piles:

  1. DNF; or
  2. On hiatus.

 On hiatus books are those I plan on revisiting—maybe I’m not in the mood for the genre, but I suspect I’ll enjoy it later. Or, perhaps it’s really long, but I care about what happens, but need to take a break from spending so much time within the space of that book. DNF’s are those I drop like a hot potato. 

{Review} Raised By Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

{Review} Raised By Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Sandra
Books

You can decide who you want to be, who you want to be tied to. Who you can trust.

I never thought I’d be such a fan of werewolf and shapeshifter novels—but they’ve recently become some of my favorites. 

Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series (Amazon, Goodreads) is one to which I am hopelessly addicted, I enjoyed Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy (Amazon, Goodreads) and consumed Rachel Vincent’s Shifters series (Amazon, Goodreads). There’s something captivating about stories of people who are not entirely people, that are connected to the animal world in a different way. And, when these novels are done well, the dynamics of “the pack” are absolutely compelling—typical family drama amplified. 

Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Raised by Wolves is the first in her young adult werewolf series focusing on a human girl adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf killed her parents. At 15, Bronwyn Alessia St. Vincent Clare has only experienced the rigid life of the pack.

Bryn has emblazoned in her mind a bloodbath of loss that not even the Alpha can erase: She hid while a rabid werewolf bit and killed her parents before searching desperately for his true query. Bryn herself. Later, Callum finds her hiding like a mouse curled under the sink. He adopts, saves and schools her in the ways of wolves.

Rule one. No rational werewolf would bite a human. The ramifications are horrific.