Review: Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

 

 

 

 

Publisher:

Harper Collins

Source:

Purchased

 

AH!! The lure of the free e-book! Bored with your current read? Free E-Book! In the middle of a self-imposed book buying ban? Free E-Book! I had heard blogger buzz about this series for awhile and I had been in love with the cover for some time when I heard on twitter that Sweet Venom was free for a short time. That was over eight months ago and I just got to this book a few weeks ago and I fell in love with the characters.

 

The book opens dramatically with a snapshot into the world of Gretchen: Monster hunter. In a few pages Tera brings the reader up to date on Gretchen’s world and her motivations. I loved the snark in Gretchen’s narrative voice. She is practical and kickass!

In Chapter two we meet Grace Whitfield who is completely different from Gretchen in many ways. Grace is an honor student and a computer whiz. She has moved to San Francisco to attend a prestigious school and is dealing with a little stress over uprooting her family.

Things start of  well for Grace until she starts seeing things. Huge smelly creatures wandering the world yet not drawing the attention of anyone else, or so she thinks until she meets Gretchen, who surprisingly  happens to be her identical twin! Soon Grace is drawn into Gretchen’s world and through her investigative skills learns that the two of them are not alone. There is another G to the family line: Greer, which means the girls are triplets and know that they have found each other all hell is breaking loose!

This book is a textbook case of what I love about YA paranormal series. Tera does an amazing job fleshing out each girls personalities and by alternating chapters with the different POV we learn more about the girls then they are willing to share with each other.

Really looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.

Sunday Share 9: Faking Fall, A Darker Shade of Fiction, Reading Updates

 

 

 

 

Happy Sunday everyone! As I sit here typing this I’m drinking tea from my new Jack Skellington  and watching the sun pour through my blinds. It’s mid September but her in Los Angeles it feels like summer hasn’t left us just yet! Fall is one of the only seasons I miss from my East Coast upbringing. Yet fall can also be felt through traditions and rituals.

 

Here are some of my favorite Fall Rituals that I’m enacting despite the heat:

 

 

Cinnamon Brooms

I get so excited when these pop up at my local Albertsons! These brooms make great decorations and infuse your home with a wonderful fall smell. I will probably buy two or three of these this year and I always buy one for my friend to decorate her house with, its been a tradition for the past four years and she keeps them year round :) 

OREOS

Maybe its the food coloring but I always find Halloween Oreo’s much tastier than the regular ones!

 

Scary Movies

 

 

 

I usually spend most of October watching some of my favorite horror films but I couldn't resist Friday’s Jason marathon on SyFy. It was interesting rewatching the films but I really didn't enjoy the later ones at all. Parts One and Two will always be my favorites.

 

Scary Shopping

Like Christmas Decorations I can’t resist buying a few things for Halloween year after year. I scoped out some goodies at Michael’s craft shop but I'm waiting for more markdowns. I did get this awesome kit for $4.00:

 

 

What I loved about this kit was that it looked like an evil Blender! The Doctor Dreadful line are kits that let you make gross looking but edible drinks. I’m looking forward to trying this out!

 

Dark Fiction

Fall has always meant adding A darker shade of reading to my TBR pile: Horror, Thrillers, Mysteries, Gothic Romances, they all just fit wonderfully with the season. I’m participating in these challenges:

 

 

And will spend the entire month of October reading and reviewing darker themed books for my HallowREADS event.

I recently completed these two books that really fit into my themed reading:

 

 

I’ve also signed up for the blog tour of this book:

Though it isn’t horror it is a book of rivalry and villainy!

 

Reading Stats

I’m at 265 books Read

That's 10 books from my Goodreads goal!

Though Goodreads does count novellas as books which isn't really fair:) So once I meet 275 I’ll do a break down of books vs novellas to get a true feel for my yearly progress.

 

Happy Fall & Happy Reading!

Review: Firebrand by Gillian Philip

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review.

PUBLISHER:
TOR

Tor is always the giver of awesomeness in my mailbox! Firebrand grabbed me by it’s cover and when I casually opened to the first page I couldn't put it down. There are a lot of great elements to this story: an interesting take on the Fae, the paranoia and religious upheaval of sixteenth century England, and political machinations on both side of the veil between Humans and Faeries. All of this would mean nothing without fabulous writing and a complex character to guide us: Seth Macgregor. 

We meet Seth at a pivotal time in his live. He is on the cusp of adulthood, living with a clan that mostly ignores him except for his older half brother Conal. As Seth grows we learn about his precarious position in the Fae hierarchy and the   fierce love he has for his brother. The two should by all rights be rivals. Seth is the product of an affair between Conal’s father and Lilith advisor to the Fae queen Kate. That love  leads Seth to follow Conal into exile into the human world.

This is my first book by Gillian and I’m so looking forward to the second book in this series! fantasy novels are one of my favorite genres and nothing is better then being guided through a new fantasy landscape by a stellar author. I devoured this book in two days and now the wait begins for book two. Highly recommend this ! This book may have slipped below the radar for a lot of potential readers so I’ve decided to be a champion of this book! Look for update posts as we move forward to the USA  release of the next volume!