Saturday Series: Invincible (Chronicles of Nick #2) by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Today it is time for the review of Invincible, the second book in the Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon. As you've read last week, the first book, Infinity, consisted of pure awesomeness and that trend definitely continues.

Nick Gautier’s day just keeps getting better and better. Yeah, he survived the zombie attacks, only to wake up and find himself enslaved to a world of shapeshifters and demons out to claim his soul.

His new principal thinks he’s even more of a hoodlum than the last one, his coach is trying to recruit him to things he can’t even mention and the girl he’s not seeing, but is, has secrets that terrify him.

But more than that, he’s being groomed by the darkest of powers and if he doesn’t learn how to raise the dead by the end of the week, he will become one of them...

Do not read this if you haven't read the first book !

Review:

Invincible starts of right where Infinity ended, pretty much up on the sentence. So zombies are defeated, Nick found out his destined for great evil, there are were-creatures all around him and his boss has fangs. Nick does what every fourteen-year-old would do and that is to freak out, majorly!

Just when he thinks everything is slowly going back to normal or as normal as his life can be these days, his new coach wants Nick to join his little gang of thieves. Ever since the coach's arrival things have gone missing from the students' lockers. Still nobody would suspect the coach and if Nick doesn't help him, the coach will kill him. Also it's not regular things that he has to steal, but rather things like a hairbrush or notes. If that doesn't scream weird, then your radar is off.

Besides the coach wanting to kill him, there are other beings after him. Somehow Nick has send out a signal into the cosmic screaming I am here, so come and get me. Which was not his intention obviously, since he already has enough problems going on. So while trying to uncover what is going on with the coach, staying alive, he also has to learn to control his new found powers. Easier said than done. They usually go into overdrive when he doesn't need them, like during class and when he's two inches of getting beheaded it's pretty much sheer luck and Caleb that keep him from dying.

The only thing positive in his life right know is Kody. She's pretty much the only one keeping him sane and possibly love struck. Which does not exclude Nick going off into five minute sarcastic rants and making everyone around him borderline insane.

Once again a very well written story. You just fly through these books. Once I finished one, I immediately grab the next one, they are so addicting. This time the emphasis lies more on the problems going on in Nick's life and within himself, which gives it a bit of a darker edge than the previous book. There is still so much action and crazy fights going on, you won't get bored. Nick keeps on surprising me and I love it!

Connect with Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads

    

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Cover reveal: Incubus (Episode #1) by Rachel Bateman

Release Date: January 7, 2014

Summary:

All Kyle Prideaux wants is a normal life.

But with a serial killer in town, murdering women the same way her mother died seven years ago, and a silent stalker watching her during the day and invading her dreams at night, normal is impossible.

After she's attacked at work one night, Kyle wakes in the hospital to discover things of nightmares exist and walk among us every day.

And she's the only one who can stop them.

About Rachel Bateman:

Rachel Bateman is a writer and editor who spends too much time thinking she can out-bake the Cake Boss. (Spoiler: she can't.) She lives in The Middle of Nowhere, Wyoming, but dreams of living by the ocean. When not writing, editing, or reading books, she can be found playing with her husband, young son, and herd of alpacas.

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads

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Truth Or Dare (11/29)

Truth or Dare is a weekly meme invented by Jenna Does Books. Each week she gives you the choice between a Truth or a Dare. You are allowed to do both, but this week I've chose to do only one!

TRUTH: Tell us about the BEST review you have ever written!

DARE: Perform a dare of your choice! (Get creative!)

I've been doing dare for the past two weeks, so this week I'm choosing truth. As usual it is very difficult to choose, so I have three reviews for you. I honestly don't know if they are the best written, but I do remember them the best. In no particular order we have Twisted Perfection by Abbi Glines, Incarnate by Jodi Meadows (oldie) and Lost & Found by Nicole Williams. 

Don't forget to put the link to your Truth Or Dare post in the comments!

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Review: Crash into You (Pushing the Limits #3) by Katie McGarry

I was so excited it go to read this. It has been on my TBR pile since Dare You To came out and the wait was definitely worth it.

From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane.

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

Review:

To say I loved it, is putting it mildly. I absolutely freaking adore it, it is total awesomeness, smashingly amazing and I need way more adjectives to describe how it good it just was! I mean I really liked the previous books, but this is one is just more.

After Beth broke Isaiah's heart, he's ready to focus on new things like graduating and getting a job that pays well. Like Noah promised, they are currently living together, while Echo is staying at the dorms at college. Since Isaiah is no longer living with his foster parents, he has to come up with money to pay the rent and lately business has been slow at the garage. Feeling the desperation Isaiah is going to do the one thing he has promised he would never do, street race. Which means having to make a deal with Eric.

Now what he didn't expect was running into this straight-laced princess from the other side of town. Rachel is so out of place and everyone knows it. Strangely Isaiah feels protective over her, but with everyone watching there is nothing he can do. Then something happens (can't spoil it) and somehow they end up saving each other.

There is one thing about Isaiah and that is he owes nobody nothing. So when this princess or as he calls her, angel, does the unthinkable and helps him, she becomes a debt he has to repay. Forced together through circumstances, they will need to rely even more on each other if they want to make it out alive.

When they first meet they are just drawn together. They are pretty much opposites on every level. Rachel is so naive and sheltered. She has these awful panic attacks, which stem of the fear of getting too much attention. This can either be from a crowd or one person. The terror she sometimes goes through is not rational and is frightening just reading about it.

So the perfect princess isn't as perfect as she seems. She might even be more screwed up in the head than Isaiah. I mean the guy's got issues, but this girl might trump them all. I really like that contradiction. Also because she was so sheltered, she gets excited really fast. Like holding a guy's hand and she's pretty much freaking out and grinning like crazy. I get why that innocence is so attractive for Isaiah.

Isaiah, you have got to love the guy. When it comes to it, there is really no bad bone in his body. Don't get me wrong, the guy will protect what is his and when he makes a promise he will do whatever is necessary. Still in this story you get to see another side of him that wasn't really obvious in the previous books, as it took me by surprise. He really is a man of his word.

Ever since Isaiah and Rachel have been thrown together, there is this connection. Isaiah is afraid of it, because he believes Rachel is so pure and good. Still everyone knows that denying attraction is just putting out the inevitable. There wasn't that much steamy scenes like in the other books, but that just made the moments in Crash Into You so much more intimate and sweeter.

It's not easy whatever is going on between them. This time Isaiah is not really the one that needs help, but Rachel does. They both have a bit of a stubborn streak going on and once in a while that clashes big. Mostly the part where Isaiah is used to taking care of everything and now that includes Rachel as well. While Rachel is getting to that point of wanting to break out of this bubble around her.

Great balance between the drama, action, tender moments and real life. That is one of the things I love the most, how realistic everything is. From the characters to the settings to the story line, everything is well thought out and written. Isaiah and Rachel really took me by surprise in this book. They are honestly my favourite couple in the series so far. I will definitely be recommending this book and re-reading it a couple of times. Did I say how much I liked Isaiah already?

I have highlighted half this book, so I thought to share a couple of quotes with you.

Rachel

"I hate this illness. I hate it in the way that it makes my blood run cold and my muscles heavy with rage."

"I know that when I'm with you I like who I am, and that's never happened to me before."

"Isaiah is hot and scary and hot."

"What would I do if he kissed me? Go into shock? Have multiple seizures? Jump up and down?"

Isaiah

"My goal in life is to be free of everyone."

"God does exist and he sent me an angel in a white Mustang to prove it."

"My eyes dart around her face hoping to see some sort of sign that what I said mattered. That I matter."

"I'm protecting her because that's what you do when you love someone. It's what I always wanted someone to do for me."

Connect with Katie McGarry:

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads

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Waiting on Wednesday: Alienated (Alienated #1) by Melissa Landers

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating.

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them. 

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class. 

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

Publication Date: February 4th 2014

Buy book: Amazon

Connect with Melissa Landers:

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads

What are you waiting on?

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Excerpt & Giveaway: 'Tis The Season To Be Kissed by Amy Andrews

What better way to get you into the holiday spirit than a story about being snowed in with some hunky man. 'Tis The Season To Be Kissed by Amy Andrews is a novella ready to heat you up during these cold days. Take the chance to read the first excerpt and enter the giveaway!

A down-on-her-romantic-luck kindergarten teacher plans to drown her New Year’s Eve sorrows in a gallon of spiked eggnog, but the arrival of her best friend’s sexy brother threatens to melt the snow piling up outside the tiny Vermont cabin.

Buy the book (only $0.99):

 Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Books | iBooks

Excerpt

Luke chose his words carefully, taking a pull of his beer before he said anything. She might have been intoxicated but this angst was obviously coming from somewhere. “So…this ban on casual sex includes kissing?”

She nodded vigorously and Luke was left in no doubt that kissing was off the table. Damn. “Most definitely,” she added for extra emphasis. “It’s like a gateway drug.”

“A gateway drug?”

She looked directly at him and somehow, sitting in her long johns with no bra, possibly no underwear, and high on eggnog, she still managed to look just like a kindergarten teacher.

“I don’t have good impulse control. Not when it comes to kissing anyway. I like kissing. Hell,” she bugged her eyes at him, “I love kissing. It’s addictive.”

She held his gaze and Luke was captured by the earnestness he saw in hers. “You know those deep, wet, hungry kisses with plenty of tongue and a lot of groaning that taste like cotton candy laced with cocaine and reek of anticipation that can go on for hours until you can barely breathe and every cell feels alive? Just kissing and kissing and kissing like it’s never going to end?”

When she shut her eyes and sighed with her mouth slightly parted, Luke swallowed. Hard. Hell yeah, he remembered those kisses.

She turned her troubled gray gaze to the fire. “But then I want more. I want to feel his hands all over my body. I want to be naked. I want to be horizontal. Or not,” she shrugged. “It depends. And I don’t want to leave until I know all of his kinks and erogenous zones and he knows that I like it when he talks dirty to me as I’m about to come and we’re lying in an exhausted heap barely able to breathe.”

Luke didn’t say anything as she stared into the fire. Her voice had become husky and he could hear a hitch in her breathing. Her admissions sent all the blood rushing from his head and other areas of his body straight to his dick. There was none left for his vocal cords, which seemed to have gone into some weird kind of paralysis.

She sighed and looked at him. “Gateway drug.”

He cleared his throat. “Right,” he said and hoped it came out a lot more manly than it sounded.

“You know what bugs me?” she asked. “Men think because we’re women, we don’t understand what it’s like to be ruled by our libidos. That we don’t need sex as much as them.”

She snorted and Luke blinked at the vehemence of it. “That’s just crap, you know? ’Cause I can tell you, after twelve months of dating and really trying hard to find the one and failing miserably, my libido is really freakin’ loud.”

She looked him up and down, her gaze fanning over every inch of his body, and Luke’s belly clenched at the sudden clarity and frankness there. “How about it?” she said, zeroing in on his mouth like she was already kissing it deep and wet and hungry exactly the way she’d described to him.

Every single cell he owned screamed yes. He’d been in a war zone for nine months and getting laid had been pretty much at the top of his things-to-do-when-I-get-home list. His dick was definitely voting yes.

But he couldn’t do it.

She was drunk. Amusing, cute, and funny as hell with it, but still obviously under the influence. And it didn’t take a genius to figure out Tamara was a good girl who was really going to hate herself tomorrow when she remembered this conversation.

She stood abruptly, things shifting nicely beneath her shirt, her face contorting and looking crazy-fierce for a moment, and Luke knew if she jumped him, he’d be a goner.

It was almost a relief when she said, “I think I’m going to be sick.”

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Amy is an award-winning, best-selling Aussie author who has written thirty + contemporary romances in both the traditional and digital markets. She has written for Harlequin Mills & Boon, Entangled, Harper Collins and Momentum.

To date she’s sold over a million books and been translated into thirteen different languages including manga.She loves her kids, her husband, her dogs, cowboys, men in tool belts, cowboys in tool belts and happily ever afters. Please, DO NOT mess with the HEA! Also good books, fab food, great wine and frequent travel – preferably all four together.

She lives on acreage on the outskirts of Brisbane with a gorgeous mountain view but secretly wishes it was the hillsides of Tuscany.

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One e-Book Copy of Taming The Tycoon by Amy Andrews

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Teaser Tuesday: Stir Me Up by Sabrina Elkins

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

“Holy Mother, ease his pain,I think to myself. Heal him.”

- loc 267, "Stir Me up", Sabrina Elkins

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here!

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Music Monday (Nov. 25)

Music Monday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Athena of Total Book Geek. Everyone can join in, you just have to do the following:

• Choose a book or a scene from a book.
• Choose a song that fits said book or scene.
• Tell us why you paired them together.
• Don't forget to share the title and author.
• Be careful not to include spoilers!

I'll be giving two examples this week, so you can get an idea of what I mean, but you just have to do one!

This is from the book Empty Net (Assassins #3) by Toni Aleo. Tate, one of the main characters, has some not so hidden musical talents. Wanted by Hunter Hayes is one of the songs in the book he sings for Audrey, his love.

This second song fits really well with Trying To Score (Assassins #2) by Toni Aleo. The only difference is, that in the book it's the girl who's blowing hot and cold. While Lucas is all in, it's Fallon who keeps changing her mind so often you get dizzy.

Please leave a comment with a link to your Music Monday post! If you don't have a blog and want to participate just share your links to the book and song in the comments.

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Saturday Series: Infinity (Chronicles of Nick #1) by Sherrilyn Kenyon

For the next four weeks I'll be reviewing the Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I absolutely loved her Dark Hunter series, with Nick being one of my favourite characters. So I think it will be interesting to see what influence his teenage years had on him becoming whatever he is now.

At fourteen, Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything about the world around him. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is the stuff of legends. . .until the night when his best friends try to kill him. Saved by a mysterious warrior who has more fighting skills than Chuck Norris, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters: immortal vampire slayers who risk everything to save humanity.

Nick quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one: a world where the captain of the football team is a werewolf and the girl he has a crush on goes out at night to stake the undead.

But before he can even learn the rules of this new world, his fellow students are turning into flesh eating zombies. And he's next on the menu.

As if starting high school isn't hard enough. . .now Nick has to hide his new friends from his mom, his chainsaw from the principal, and keep the zombies and the demon Simi from eating his brains, all without getting grounded or suspended. How in the world is he supposed to do that?

Review:

I want to start of saying that it is possible to read these books separate from the Dark Hunter Series, but it will help a lot if you have read them. That series gives insight in who Nick is as an adult, some things that have happened there and it will also help you comprehend certain things that are happening to teenage Nick (if that still makes any sense). Obviously I'm a huge fan of all the series that involve hunters, so I definitely recommend reading them first.

Now I can't say too much about future Nick without giving away major spoilers, so I'm just going to concentrate on fourteen-year-old Nick. That guy is too smart and savvy for his own good. If his sarcastic attitude doesn't get him into any trouble than his quick temper will. ADD barely describes the way his thoughts jump from one random thing to another and the words that come out of his mouth will make you laugh out loud. Sarcasm is my kind of humour and Nick is killing it.

Like every regular fourteen-year-old Nick goes to school, tries to stay out of trouble (not-succeeding), embarrasses himself in front of girls (very succeeding), works after school and hangs out with his zombie killing friends. All goes pretty well until one night the trouble gets him and if it wasn't for Kyrian, Nick would probably have ended up dead. Instead he gets offered a job and so he slowly enters the world of Dark Hunters, demons and apparently zombies.

After Nick barely recovers from the first attack, jocks at school are going crazy and are trying to eat people. Not just that, but it seems most of them are after him. Nick never really got along with them, but for those jocks trying to eat him, that might just  be a little overboard. With the help from his friends Bubba and Mark (professional zombie killers), Caleb (Nick's protector) and Nekoda (Nick's huge chrush), Nick tries to uncover what is going on and tries to turn the jocks back to their regular mean old self.

Still that is not all. He has to do this without his Mom finding out and she's scarier than all those demons and zombies combined when she gets mad. Also Nick slowly starts to realise he might not be as ordinary as he thought. There must be a reason why all these dark forces are after them.

What can I say, except I absolutely loved it! Sherrilyn Kenyon has done such a wonderful job. She really kept me guessing at what was to come next and often it was not what I was expecting. The character development was really great, there was not one person/creature I didn't like. Also the subtle or sometimes not so subtle references to the Dark Hunter series makes it enjoyable for those fans as well.

The fun sarcasm and the more darker parts in the book were perfectly balanced, which makes it such a great read not just for young adults but for adults as well. I definitely recommend this book, but you have to like teenagers with severe cases of ADD and sarcastic attitudes, zombies, other dark creatures and maybe a little bit of romance. Awesome read and I already know it will be hell waiting for the fifth instalment to come out (April 2014)!

Connect with Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads

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Truth Or Dare (11/22)

Truth or Dare is a weekly meme invented by Jenna Does Books. Each week she gives you the choice between a Truth or a Dare. You are allowed to do both, but this week I've chose to do only one!

TRUTH: Have you ever done anything book-related that you’re ashamed of?

DARE: Take photos of you with your current read – turn to page 22 and share an excerpt!

So this is the only semi-good picture I was able to take. I mostly read e-books and apparently my iPad mini doesn't allow for very clear pictures. The book is called Inferno and it's the fourth part in The Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

"Nick blinked as he realized Grim was talking to him. He chose to ignore the snickers and snide comments from the peanut gallery who were so easily amused, as most mindless creatures were, by his lack of attention. 'Excuse me?'"
- p. 22, Inferno, Sherrilyn Kenyon

Don't forget to put the link to your Truth Or Dare post in the comments!

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