Book Review: The Goddess Hunt {Goddess Test 1.5} by Aimee Carter

Title: The Goddess Hunt
Series: Goddess Test 1.5
Author: Aimee Carter
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Date of Publication: March 1, 2012
Source: bought, ebook, 92 pages



Goodreads Summary:

A vacation in Greece sounds like the perfect way for Kate Winters to spend her first sabbatical away from the Underworld...until she gets caught up in an immortal feud going back millennia. Castor and Pollux have been on the run from Zeus and Hades' wrath for centuries, hiding from the gods who hunt them. The last person they trust is Kate, the new Queen of the Underworld. Nevertheless, she is determined to help their cause. But when it comes to dealing with immortals, Kate still has a lot to learn....

 My Thoughts:
I love novellas because they are long enough to tempt you with the characters and story line but short enough that doesn't drag out either.  
The Goddess Hunt takes place between book 1 and book 2, when  Kate has to go out into the world for the summer and chooses to visit Greece with her best friend, James.  
And while there she meets the famous Castor and Pollux.  
I really enjoyed these two new characters.  They brought a lot to the story, especially helping solidify Kate's belief in the goodness of Henry and the rest of the gods.  Okay so maybe not Zeus but definitely everyone else.  
This was a quick read for me; I finished it in one night and I felt extremely satisfied.  I almost wished I had read it before I read book 2 just to have those warm fuzzy feelings.  I may not have wanted to knock Henry in head with a shoe the first time around.  
Although he does act like a butt.  
If you really enjoyed The Goddess Test stories then I definitely encourage you to pick up this novella.  You will enjoy the chase, the wisecracks, and of course Henry.  I know I did.  
Four hearts:

Get Your Own At:

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ARC Review: Family by Robert J. Crane {The Girl In The Box book # 4}

Title: Family
Series: The Girl in the Box book 4
Author: Robert J. Crane
Publisher/Date of Publication: Reikonos Press/ Nov. 27, 2012
Source: received from author for honest opinion of it
Get you own copy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |

Goodreads Synopsis:
Just hours after finding Andromeda and crossing paths with her mother, Sienna Nealon finds herself up against a bigger threat than ever before. Omega, the organization that unleashed Wolfe and others upon her, has declared war on the Directorate and the first strikes have already landed. Facing the seemingly unstoppable forces of Omega and Sienna’s own mother, the Directorate seems poised for defeat when a new threat rears its ugly head - a traitor in their midst, one that may mean the destruction of everything Sienna has come to care about.

My Thoughts:

I feel like determining an author that has that "timeless" writing style about them takes more than just how many books they have out there in the market and whether or not they are published by "big name" companies or self.  My determining factor for deciding if a book/author is a classic is the quality of it.  Is this a novel(series) I will go back and read over and over again? Does it have characters that grip me and won't let go even after I have finished the book?
Robert J. Crane has developed a series ( two in fact) that has done just those two things.  The characters in The Girl In The Box Series has taken my world and turned it upside down.  In a good way, though.  I will find myself folding clothes and out of the blue I will consider another option that could happen to Sienna, her mother, or Zach.  I have even had dreams about these stories because I was so engaged in the lives of these people.
And yes, I have read Alone, the first book, a couple of times since I have read it that first time.  There is always another point I can pick up and look at from a different angle.  I love it!
I believe the writing muses have reigned down all of the creative gifts they could think of to help Mr. Crane reach his full potential with these stories; and he has!

From all of that, I just wanted to point out that Family is probably one of my favorite installments of this series so far; and that is saying a lot since I enjoyed all of them!  I do believe these books are timeless and  I believe Crane will be one those classic authors that everyone can enjoy.
Okay enough of my fangirling and swooning but I just needed to get that out of the way.

Family pretty much begins where Soulless left off: they are running for their lives, but now they Andromeda, a very special meta with very special powers.  Sienna is a jumbled mess of emotions in this story and we learn as much about her as she learns about herself.  We delve much deeper into the rocky relationship she has with her mother through flashbacks she has in important and stressful moments.  I enjoy flashbacks-as long as they are used sparingly.  I do not, however, like when every other page is a flashback.  Crane, thankfully, didn't do that here.  He chose to give us a crucial piece of  insight through these flashbacks that were placed carefully in the story.  We were not bombarded with flashbacks like the waves crashing upon the rocky shores.
Also there is a lot of heartbreak in Family.  The kind of heartbreak that can rip out your still beating heart leaving you gasping for breath as tears fall down your face. The pain Sienna goes through in the plot left me so hurt for her as well as some of the pain she caused others, including Zach.  But hey, don't worry it is not just full of tears and grief, because let's not forget that Sienna is a snarky chic!
Even in the most dire circumstances, Sienna finds the time for a little humor- I mean come on, just because you are fighting off these insanely bloodthirsty metas that are trying to tear you apart piece by piece doesn't mean you can't throw sarcasm into the mix.  Observe:

"Succccubus," he hissed, his black hair and red eyes caught in the light of the helo's spotlight.
"Vaaaaaaaampiiiiire," I said, mocking, and I stomped his mewling friend in the face before I took a step away from the protrasted blond fiend.
-55%

 And of course: vampires!  I knew Crane was considering doing a project with vampires, but I love how he worked the concept into this series and made it work with the plot wonderfully.  These vampires are the "bloodhounds" of the meta civilization and are portrayed in a very animalistic way.   I mean think about it; if we have metas that can shoot water out of their body, create a windstorm, are encased in fire, then the vamps aren't that far off.  This keeps us on our toes, so to speak, as to what else Crane will surprise us with in the future.

Family just pretty much took my breath away, made me laugh, made me cry, and shocked the hell out of me with all the secrets that get revealed in this one.  I liked the way it ended, not really as a cliffhanger but more of a declaration.  Of course with secrets being revealed, we have new ones being discovered too.  Crane showed us how his writing has improved through Family, and has also promised us that he can, and will deliver on great story telling no matter the cost.

If you have never been a fan of sci/fi but enjoy urban fantasy or subjects comparable to X-Men, Fantastic Four, or even the Justice League, I urge you to give this series a try.  This is undoubtedly one of the BEST science fiction/UF/action series I have ever had the pleasure of finding.
Seriously, it reads like a movie being played in your mind and I could definitely see its worth on the big screen.
I give Family five hearts.  I wish I could give it a hundred thousand stars, hearts, etc. and I cannot wait till the next book, Omega.

Contact Robert J. Crane:

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Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor {Book # 1}

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Audio: Hachette Audio
Date of Publication: Sept. 27, 2011
Format: audiobook, hardcover, paperback
Source:  free download from Sync
Get Your Own Copy: Amazon | The Book Depository |         

Goodreads Blurb: 
Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.


When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?                              

My Thoughts:
As I sit here, deciding how to start this review, I find myself having a hard time getting my feelings out.
Why? (I am sure you are asking..)
Most people would think it is because I couldn't relate to the book or the characters, right?  But I am here to tell you that is completely the opposite here.

I FREAKING FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS STORY!! I MEAN HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE!

The reason I am having such a hard time is because I feel like there isn't really words to describe this wonderful piece of literature.  I wish I could pluck millions of shiny stars from the sky to bestow upon this book, instead of just a few five.  So forgive me if I sound like a fangirl swooning over some hot number, but I have to say this is has made my list of one of my favorite books of all times.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone takes this doomed love situation and puts a heart wrenching unexpected twist upon it, creating an amazing fairy tale for young and old to enjoy.  It really has the most basic and simple plot line: a "Romeo and Juliet" type scenario of forbidden love, but then Ms. Taylor tells it from such a unique perspective that you find yourself immersed in a rich and complex story that is anything but simple.

The characters are strong proud beings, some having to work through their faults and broken past, while others are so evil you can just feel the darkness lurking inside of them.  No matter what you will have some very strong emotions towards all the characters in this book.
Karou is such an interesting female heroine.  I adore her so much!  Not once does she irritate me and I feel like we learn so much with her (and from her) as she learns more about her history.  She is a strong persona, even though she feels like there is something missing from inside her life, and accepts the strangeness of her family with a wholeness that is something to admire.  I love that one of her passions is sketching; I feel like this adds even more to her already artistic surroundings.  She seems like she would be  a wonderful friend, loyal and true, fun yet serious, and did I mention she has blue hair?  Yeah she is that great!
Akiva is our male counterpart to Karou and has many of the same strong traits as she does.  He is brave, loyal, and yet has this terrible grief that keeps him a broken mess of a man. Or angel.  Just as the reader is drawn to Karou's mesmerizing personality, Akiva finds he cannot stop thinking about the strange girl with blue hair.  It is an obvious tear jerker to see how Akiva tries to cope with these emotions he has toward Karou and seeing the turmoil in him because he doesn't want to feel anything anymore.
Besides watching the dynamics between these two powerful lead characters, Taylor gives us some very unusual and personable supporting characters, like Brimstone and Zuzana, that add even more heart to this already heartfelt story.

Then we move on to the world building in Daughter of Smoke and Bone that helps create this magically exceptional place where humans coincide with supernatural beings without even realizing it.  Prague, in itself, sounds mysterious just by the name, but then we get to explore some of the maze like streets there with Karou and we find ourselves being swept away to a dreamland place.  A place where people feel comfortable searching for ghosts, where the architectural designs are based off ancient civilizations beautifully restored, and where people are content to appreciate the beauty that surrounds such a magical place.
The descriptions of the real and unreal areas are so well maintained, even now I can close my eyes and bring each and every detail to mind, like I am being transported there right now.  It is like a world within a world within a world...so forth and so on.
Taylor uses such descriptive and powerful imagery it feels like the Chimera and the Seraphim could just jump right off the page (or in my case through the headphones) into my living room.  When she describes Brimstone's dusty old shop, it isn't hard to picture him at his desk, counting teeth, the silence hanging in the air like an old friend, as Karou sits with him enthralled at his detailed work.
I also love how every little detail and plot thread comes back to the bigger idea or main plot. Basically everything ties in and you don't have any nonsense threads leading to nowhere.  There are no fillers but everything is there that should be there.
There is a lot of flashbacks in this story, which normally gets on my nerves, but for Daughter of Smoke and Bone , it seems like the flashbacks help us learn just what we need to instead of overloading us with too much information too soon.  We also get the story told from Akiva and Karou's perspectives so that helps us see it from two different sides: angel and Chimera / human.
It is a metaphorical fairy tale that forces us to take a long hard look at what we consider good and evil and then realize that there is always exceptions to this rule.  Especially when true love is involved.  Speaking of the love aspect, I found it not to be the "insta-love" sensation but instead we get to see the relationship build along with the nerves, and the butterflies that new lovebirds experience.

Audiobook Review:
The narrator, Kristine Hvam, is the most amazing storyteller I have ever heard! The feeling she puts behind the different character voices makes an already thrilling story that more creative.  The way Hvam disguises her voice, from an angel solider to a young woman, to a Czech art student to a hulking beast of a Chimera, she has this quality to make you get lost in her voice and disappear into the prose.    I honestly felt like an old friend, listening in to Karou's conversations, laughing with her, grieving with her, and more importantly, falling in love too.

All in all.....this was the most amazingly crafted work of art I have ever read.  It was magical, entertaining, and had me spellbound from the minute I heard Hvam's interpretation of Karou's voice.  I highly recommend listening the audiobook version of it.  Even if you are not a fan of audiobooks (I wasn't at first either) Daughter of Smoke and Bone is the one audio book that will make you a fan of them.  It literally took my breath away!