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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Heart Fortune- Robin D'Owens


Jace Bayrum has always been a loner. Concerned more with getting an adrenaline fix and making money to live on his own, Jace cares little for family ties or matters of the heart. On the other hand Glyssa Licorice, Jace’s former fling and true mate, is both loving and loyal. She is determined to track down her HeartMate and have him claim her.
After hearing that Jace has been involved in an accident, Glyssa sets out to find him, departing for the excavation site of the lost starship Lugh’s Spear. Though her goal is to help Jace and finesse him into recognizing her as his mate, the excavation itself draws her in…

Thrust by fate into working side-by-side, Jace and Glyssa’s electric connection from years before sparks once more. She intrigues him, and Jace begins to realize that a HeartMate can make a difference. And one as magnetic as Glyssa could be exactly what he has been searching for…



I have been reading Robin D’Owens Celta series since I was 18 and my mother gave me Heart Mate for my birthday.

This author is a master of her craft, Celta is one of the better made up worlds that I read about. They have mythology, religion, legends, and a caste system all their own. The way she has built the towns, country, world and civilization in this series is wonderful and I never get tired of it. Creative is not a strong enough word to describe this series.

The characters are different, vibrant, and passionate and each has their own personality, likes, dislikes and back ground. The families are amazing and I enjoy all the links between the books.
The addition of talking Fam creatures is something I never tire of either. In this book the author introduces the very first FamBird, and I thought after FamFoxes I couldn’t get more excited!  I beg you Robin…a bat next! That would be truly magically. So a request from a VERY loyal fan lol.

I only had one issue with this installment of a FAVORITE series. I am tired of the love story angle I see showing up in too many romance novels… One person is in love and wants the other as their Heart Mate, while the other is afraid, anxious, against it or too immature to deal with it. This series is so great that this 1+1=2 equation is boring. What if the author wrote about a couple who loves each other and is heart mated and the conflict comes from OUTSIDE, bringing the two even closer than they were before? Oh well, just a thought.  It doesn’t matter too much I guess I still gobble up her books as soon as they hit the shelves.
So four stars Heart Fortune, and thank you Robin D’Owens…your novels brighten my week.








Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea- April Tucholke






You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…
Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery...who makes you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.
Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch






I am pleasantly surprised after reading Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. If you read any of my blog then you know I crave a dark beautiful story that doesn’t make me wanna yak. I have been having a hard time with YA as of late, they all feel like carbon copies of each other and I have had more DNF books this year then every before in my life.

With this said…I really enjoyed this book. Let me starts with the good points.

1)The characters- they are interesting, flushed out, unique and their personalities are all different and well written. The heroine is a Mary Sue, but not in a way that made me wanna punch her, more in that she kind of HAD to be for the story to work. Each character had a life of their own, interests, family…spark…Even Freddie the dead grandmother who Violet(the heroine) talks about all the time, it feels like she is a character you interact with as much as say… River(the hero…kind of)

2) The back drop- the descriptions of Echo(the town) and Violet and Luke’s house Citizen Kane were awesome. I could have read so much more about the house and the people who lived in the town.

3) The plot- I found the plot engaging, there was a twist at the end and you spend a lot of time loving and hating River, being intrigued by the fact that the actual story is hidden between the fun and not so normal habits of kids who have been ditched by their parents for the summer. Now add magic, fear and yes a bit of sexual innuendo (and an almost sex scene which I LOVE in YA) and BAM. A book I read in the course of a day.

4) River and Violet- They have what I consider a bit of an nontraditional YA insta love. They never actual say they love each other and a lot of their relationship is mystique and physical, which honestly is more how teenagers really are. Someone is gonna bitch about certain “unhealthy relationship” aspects. I beg of you to see past this and take the story for what it is…a story. River HAS to be like that for the character and the story to work. Also I found Violet’s response to him to be more believable then say…When a certain someone discovers a vampire stalking her while she sleeps. Bella Swan cough cough

Now here are the reasons this is getting four stars instead of five.

1)The pacing- the story starts out slow and languid, which I didn't mind; it truly worked for the authors writing. Then towards the end it sped way the heck up and then ended with kind of a Laurel K Hamilton wrap up, moral of the story BS.

2)Suspending the Disbelief- OK this might just be me…However, I can suspend reality to believe in vampires, magic, ghosts etc..etc… However parents who ditch their 17 year old kids for like six months to go to Paris, and in all that time are basically AWOL with no phone calls, letters, post cards, nothing, is ridiculous. EVERYONE in town knows they have basically been abandoned and even after an emergency when the police are called there is NO mention of social services…. Sorry it felt a little too much like the author needed some reason why Luke and Violet could spend months doing whatever they wanted with no parents. She should have just upped their age by a year and made them orphans.

3)Cop Out- the whole point of this book was that River is supposed to be evil or kind of evil…dark.  I felt like the author decided not to deal with this in a real way in the end, turning River into someone that  might eventually become a hero. While instead she should have toyed with the anti-hero possibility. I don’t want good guy River…I want him to stay deliciously tormented and dark.  You can still love someone like that; it still makes for good… well theatre I guess.  Look at Lestat.

If there is a sequel I will be buying it. I had a good time reading this book.