Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J.K. Rowling
Bloomsbury
YA Fantasy
5 Stars

Blurb:

Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His best friends Ron and Hermione have been very secretive all summer and he is desperate to get back to school and find out what has been going on. However, what Harry discovers is far more devastating than he could ever have expected...

Suspense, secrets and thrilling action from the pen of J.K. Rowling ensure an electrifying adventure that is impossible to put down.

Book Review: Water and Fire by Demelza Carlton

Water and Fire
by Demelza Carlton
Contemporary Romance
4 Stars

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/JS9f3t-r4eI

Amazon | Apple | BN | Diesel | Kobo | Sony | Smashwords


Blurb:

A steamy contemporary medical romance involving a sexy doctor, a naughty nurse, a midwife on a mission and a mysterious predator in Albany, Western Australia.

Working as a student midwife in an Australian country hospital is never easy, but Belinda finds more trouble than most.

There's the intern doctor who follows her around like an overgrown puppy, the dangerous local wildlife and her own secrets she must keep.

When she finds herself without a place to live, what else can possibly go wrong?

Or is it time for something to go right?

Review:

Belinda is a student midwife working at a small country hospital in Western Australia as part of her practical placement before she does her final exams.

On the way to work early one morning, she witnesses a car accident and the woman driver has gone into early labour due to the trauma of the accident. Belinda has never delivered a baby on her own before, but there is no time to get to the hospital before the baby emerges and Belinda rises to the challenge.

She is very aloof and guarded and doesn't seem to have many friends at the hospital, but Belinda is very efficent and gets things done.

A new intern, Aiden, is drawn to her and doesn't let her reputation as the ice-queen deter him from pursuing Belinda in a romanctic rather than professional manner.

Belinda though has been hurt in the past and refuses to let her guard down around anyone, even though sometimes she wonders what it might be like to give in to Aidan's fiery passion, even if just once.

The two of them dance around each for a while, but the reader knows that evetually Aidan's persistance will pay off and it does.

The love scenes are hot and sensual without being crude or overly explicit and more than the physical aspects, it'a the emotional connection between the two that resonates the most.

The book flew by, the pages seemed to turn themselves. I loved both Belinda and Aidan, they were both very believable and damaged characters and you could see why they were drawn to each other. The secondary characters fitted in well and there was a bit of comic relief at how one of the other student nurses supplemented her income.

I do have one niggle and it is this: Aidan was Irish and the author made him a red-head, that just seemed too cliched to me - black-haired Irish woman here - Irish people do have other hair colours besides red.

There is a twist at the end, which I won't reveal here, but you may guess if you know what the sequel book is about.

All in all an enjoyable, romantic read.


***

About the Author:

Demelza Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found she was afraid of fish.

She has since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea cucumbers and stood on spray-drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below.

Sensationalist spin? No - Demelza tends to take a camera with her so she can capture and share the moment later; shipwrecks, sharks and all.

Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.

The Ocean's Gift series was her first foray into fiction, followed by the Nightmares trilogy.

Contact links:

Website: http://www.demelzacarlton.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DemelzaCarltonAuthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DemelzaCarlton

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/DemelzaCarlton

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/DemelzaCarlton?feature=watch

Amazon: http://viewauthor.at/DemelzaCarlton

Blog Tour/Book Review: Wicked by Jillian Kleine Der Lowe

---

Wicked: Seven Deadly Sins #1
by Jillian Kleine Der Lowe
Urban Fantasy
4 Stars


Earth: it is the promised land for Kin, beings from the Astral Planes.

Some, beings of light.

Others, the Fallen, beings of unimaginable evil...

Seven Cyn is Kin and a CIA Operative. With her best friend Leon in tow, she flies to Wales in pursuit of an ancient relic, the Spear of Destiny.

Then throw the enigmatic Luc into the mix as he and Sev discover a love that defies the stars. Yet, there is a catch... Sev has been tasked with ending his life.

Together, they uncover the location of the Spear and end up in a race against time with the survival of the whole entire Universe left hanging in the balance in a battle between good verses evil.

Has Sev finally bitten off more than she can chew?

Review:

The good: the characters are all very well drawn and the book itself is very funny and you'd be hard pressed not to smile. It's a fun, light-hearted fantasy taking elements of nearly all of Earth's different myths and blending them together into a somehwat cohesive whole. Seven Cyn is a delightful character and you are just rooting for her the whole way through.

We have a race against time, conspiracy theories, different factions trying to get to the Spear of Destiny, one to destroy the world, the other to save it, but which side is which? There are lots of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.

The not so good: the rampant abuse of italics in the text. Not only do certain words get italicised every time they're mentioned, such as <i>the Fall, the Spear, the Tower, the Fallen,</i> there are paragraphs and paragraphs of italic text, which is difficult to read.

Oh, and Cardiff airport doesn't have terminals, it only has one, it's a tiny airport :)

Italic abuse aside, it was an enjoyable and fun read.

Book Review: Larkswood by Valerie Mendes

Larkswood
by Valerie Mendes
Historical/Family Saga
Orion Books
Review Copy from Amazon Vine
4 Stars

Blurb:

In the tradition of THE FORSYTE SAGA, a sweeping historical novel that spans three generations, telling the dark secrets of a family torn apart.

Larkswood House. The very name suggests birdsong, peace and elegance. It is home to the Hamilton children - Edward, Cynthia and Harriet - who enjoy the freedom and excitement of privilege. But in the glorious summer of 1896, with absent parents and a departed governess, disaster strikes the family, leaving it cruelly divided.

More than forty years later, on the eve of the Second World War, Louisa Hamilton, newly presented at court but struck down with glandular fever, is sent to Larkswood to recuperate. There, for the first time, she meets her grandfather, Edward, home after decades in India. Haunted by terrible memories, the arrival of his granddaughter begins to gladden his heart.

But as Louisa begins to fall under the spell of Larkswood, she realises it holds the key to the mystery that shattered her family two generations before. Will she find the courage to unravel the dark secrets of the past? And can Larkswood ever become home to happiness again?

Review:

London, 1939. Louisa and her elder sister Millicent have been recently presented to the Queen, their official 'coming out' and Millicent is looking forward to all the parties and balls, the new dresses, the eligible men they'll get to meet. Louisa thinks it's all rather silly, she'd rather be reading a book than going to a ball and when glandular fever strikes her down, she is bustled off to Larkswood in the country to recuperate.

Edward, her grandfather has been in India for over forty years and never thought he'd ever see Larkswood again, not after the diastrous summer in 1896, but he soon grows to love it again after Lousia brings it to life. With war not so distant on the horizon, he and Louisa hatch a plan to build a sanotarium on the grounds, where Lousia wants to train as a nurse. But the digging of the foundations also digs up some family secrets that Edward is reluctant to face.

I enjoyed the book, it was a well-written, well-researched historical novel but I was disappointed that I guessed the family secrets long before they were revealed. All of them - there were more than one. There was no suspense regarding the secrets, but the story and characters still draw you in and you want to read on to see what happens to them. I adored Louisa, she was so down-to-earth and you really feel for her when she finds out what the big secrets really are. Her sister Millicent, on the other hand, from her letters to her sister, seems nothing more than a clothes horse and a shallow girl only interested in snagging a rich husband.

A good read if you enjoy things like Downtown Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs.

Book Review: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo's Calling
Cormoran Strike #1
by Robert Galbraith
Review copy from Amazon Vine
5 Stars

A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide.After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.

Review:

Cormoran Strike, wounded war veteran now trying to make his living as a private detective has lots of problems. His longtime girlfriend has just chucked him out, creditors are baying for his money, or failing that his blood, he's got a new secretary who he can't really afford and clients are very thin on the ground.

A few months previously, Lula Landry, a famous supermodel fell to her death from her Mayfair balcony and it's been ruled as a sucidide. Her bother, John doesn't think so and wants Strike to investigate, paying over the odds to find it who really killed her or if it really was a suicide.

Is there such thing as a literary crime novel? If there is, this one fits the bill. It's a book more about the characters than the plot, with lots of vivid descriptions of various parts of London. London itself becomes a character and you could really see the places in your mind's eye.

I'd ordered this book just before I heard that it was JK Rowling, but the book didn't arrive until the truth was out, so that may have influenced my review somewhat. This is a much more grown-up tale than Harry Potter, and if I hadn't known beforehand, I'm not sure I would have guessed it was written by the same author.

The writing here has more maturity, but that might be because Harry Potter was originally intended for children, wheras this one is definitely a book for adults.

I wanted to keep reading to find everything out but at the same time I wanted to savour each page like a delicious dessert. The mystery element is interwoven well with bits about Strike's life and Robin's, his new secretary who secretly held a hankering for working for a detective for years.

Cormoran Strike was wonderful and I hope we get to see more books with this rich new addition to the ranks of PIs.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

Promise of Blood
The Powder Mage #1
by Brian McClellan
Fantasy
Review Copy from Amazon Vine
4 Stars

Blurb:

The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it. 

It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...

Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.

It's up to a few...

Stretched to his limit, Tamas is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail.

But when gods are involved...

Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. But they should...

In a rich, distinctive world that mixes magic with technology, who could stand against mages that control gunpowder and bullets? PROMISE OF BLOOD is the start of a new epic fantasy series from Brian McClellan.(less)

Review:

In my time, I have read a lot of fantasy and I have to say this is one of the most original, most unique form of magic in a fantasy setting that I've ever seen! There are a few different types of magic users in this world: the Privileged - who are what you would expect of a sorcerer in a fantasy book, then you have the Knacked - who have one particular skill only, such as knowing when someone is lying or the ability to read minds. Then there are the Powder Mages who wield magic through gunpowder - they can make the gunpowder in an enemy's gun explode from a distance, for example, or they can ingest gun powder to induce a trance like state where they can see further etc.

The book has three main POV characters, Field Marshal Tamas, his estranged son Taniel and the ex-police inspector Adamat. After the king and nobles are overthrown and executed, Tamas sends Adamat to investigate the mysterious dying words spoken by every one of the royal cabal of Privileged: "Kresimir's Promise must not be broken".

The author uniquely blends elements of magic, mystery and political intrigue to give a very interesting plot. Some parts were a little bit bloody for my taste, but you couldn't really have the story without them - the book opens on a bloodbath in the royal palace as part of the military coup to take over the country.

It was an interesting read and I think I will be picking up the rest of the series once it's out.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

Altar of Bones
by Philip Carter
Thriller/Conspiracy
Simon and Schuster
Reviewer's Purchased copy

4 stars

Blurb:

"They didn't have to kill him . . . he never drank from the altar of bones."

In San Francisco, a homeless woman is fatally stabbed by an assailant she's been expecting for years—and her cryptic last words unlock a decades-buried secret that changed history.

In Galveston, an old man makes a chilling death-bed confession—"I am not who you think I am"—that serves as a warning to his sons of danger and deception.

In Massachusetts, a cold-blooded female assassin makes an insidious pact with a corporate billionaire over a highly incriminating film.

Each of these people has ties with a woman who, decades ago, fled a Soviet prison camp with an ancient knowledge people would sell their souls to possess

Drawn in to this web of danger are Ry O'Malley, a man desperate to outrun his own deadly fate; and Zoe Dmitroff, a San Francisco attorney who recognizes the slain homeless woman—a woman she was told had died nearly half a century ago. No one can be trusted in the corrosive game of cat-and-mouse that ensues—one that spans a century, from the frozen Siberian terrain to the serpentine streets of Paris, from the shocking revelations of a doomed Hollywood legend to the deadly machinations of the KGB and the highest office of the United States . . . and ultimately to the guardians of an ancient religious icon ...

A priceless artifact worth killing for. The dark and unimaginable promise of a power that could change the world as we know it.

Review:

This was on roller-coaster of a book. The term page-turner hardly does it justice. I was hooked from the first page and just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. Some if it I had guessed, which disappointed me a bit, I would have preferred it if the 'big kill' referred to in the book had been a not so famous kill already.

Nevertheless, the writing flows so well you just want to keep reading. It's a different sort of conspiracy, in that the reader knows quite early on what the altar of bones is and what it can do. Maybe more mystery as to what it was would have been better because I, as a reader, prefer to discover things at the same time as the characters, rather than earlier than them.

Parts of it read like an action movie, but there is more depth in these 600 odd pages than a lot of films.

The characters were spot on, I adored Zoe and Ry, although I did feel the romance between them felt a bit forced. Just because we have a man and a woman forced together by circumstances as they evade the bad guys and find out the secrets of the altar of bones, doesn't mean they have to become romantically involved. It's not a rule or anything. Women will still read books even if there is no romance in it. Really.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby