Princess Eva Rose

2014 has been a sad year for books. I struggle to write up this post because it just feels like  I have read every good book out there and I am now struggling through the disappointments.

This list is in no particular order but each book has managed to wow me in some ways. Of course, my favourite author Ilona Andrews features heavily in this list as I just love the formula this team writes. Linda Howard was a new addition to my roster of authors to read, I might try a few of her other books this new year. 

My wish for this new year is to read lots and lots of good books but given my demanding nature I think it will take a miracle.

Okay, drop everything you are doing or reading because Ilona and Gordon have done it AGAIN, ladies and gentlemen!

This book was an awesome, wild ride the likes of which I haven't read in a looooonnnnggg time when it comes to PNR. Every other major author out there has so far managed to screw up their start to their PNR series this year but not Ilona and Gordon, they delivered like nobody's business in this book.

While I have been anxiously awaiting this book this year, I do confess to having doubts that I wouldn't like it quite as much, all of us seasoned readers know of the disappointment that can come from too high and expectation. I gotta say however, I was truly, sincerely, insanely impressed.

This is one awesome start to this series and while I do have a few bones to pick they are minor compare to the grand scheme of things. People worry that it was going to be 'romance-y' need not have doubts, while we do have a few paragraphs waxing over Rogan's hotness and perfect bodies and lyrically written sentences steeped in cheese, they are actually less than what is found in most PNR. While the sexual tension between the main couple, Rogan and Nevada, is thick we do not get insta-love and over the top declarations of devotion. We do get a flowering bond between our romantic twosome and it is enough to leave you wanting more but at the same time not enough to make gag.

Regarding the characters, when it comes to Mad Rogan, Ilona and Gordon made about as crazy as I have read a character in a while. He is honestly a psychopath, he has no regard for rules and peoples lives until they serve some sort of purpose. How do you like or fall in love with a man like that? Well, you don't at first, you dislike him and wondered what the hell is wrong with Nevada that she likes him so much. I actually didn't even start to like him until 75% of the way through when I finally started to warm up to him.

There is a slight problem with the pacing in the first half but if you persist you will find the issue fixed and quite an amazing second half of the book that really makes this first instalment. The ending was quite amazing, really over the top, it felt like Ilona and Gordon went down the road of go big or go home.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR BOOK 2!

88%

His tongue thrust between my open lips, caressing , making me open 

wider for him, and seducing me into tasting him. A phantom fire spilled over the back of my neck, sliding over my throat like warm amber honey, slipping deep into my flesh, into my veins , and my skin all but sizzled with lust in its heated wake.

78%

“We should have sex.”
I must’ve misheard. “I’m sorry, what?”
He glanced at me. His blue eyes were warm, as if heated from within. Wow.
“I said, we should have sex. You and me.”
“No.”
...
“I’m attracted to you.” His voice was confident and assured, as if this whole conversation was simply a formality and he knew he would win in the end. “I know you’re attracted to me.”

74%

“Your problem is that nobody ever tells you no. You think you can do whatever you want, enter wherever you want . . .”
“Seduce whoever we want.” He grinned, a wicked, wolfish smile.

This book is freaking awesome.

69%

“Draw an amplification circle around me.”
...Amplification circle was magic 101. Small circle around the mage’s feet, larger circle around him, three sets of runes.

I geek out whenever Ilona Andrews gets all technical with magic. It shoes me they are thinking through their stories big time.

66%

The heat slid down my neck, fast, over my spine, setting every single nerve on fire before melting in the small of my back, its echoes pulsing through me . My body sang. He’d strummed me like I was a guitar. I wanted him and I wanted him now.

“That was . . .” I saw his eyes. Words died.

All the hardness had vanished from his eyes. They were alive and heated from within. “You want me.”

“What?” The magic warmth slid over my shoulders, melting into pure pleasure.

“I feel the feedback.” He took a step toward me, grinning. “Nevada, you’re a liar.”

Uh-oh. I backed up. “What feedback?”

“When I do this . . .” The heated pressure zinged from my back up my ribs. I gasped. Oh dear God. “. . . what you feel loops back to me. I’m partially empathic.”

...He grinned, coming closer . “The hotter you are, the hotter I am. And you’re on fire.”

63%

"...I’m an unmarried male Prime. I’m powerful, handsome, and filthy rich.”
“Also humble and self-deprecating.” I couldn’t help myself.

58%

“What did you do that would make him infatuated? Did you kiss? Did you hold hands?” His voice had taken on a distant tone, but there was a slight edge of heat to it.

I say Rogan is jealous but Nevada is too busy with other things to notice."

54%

"A tiny trickle of concrete dust fell on my face. I squeezed my eyes shut. “Well, I knew they had to come and get us eventually,” Mad Rogan said. “But you can’t say we didn’t have an awesome time.”

Oh, I wish we would of had even more fun."

53%

Can you turn so you’re not pressed against me?”
“I could,” he said, his voice amused. “But then you would have to lie on top of me.”
My brain said, “NO.” My body went, “Wheee!"

53%

“If you keep wiggling, things might get uncomfortable,” he said into my ear, his voice like a caress. “I’m doing my best, but thinking about baseball only takes you so far.”

52%

I was lying on my side. Darkness surrounded me. A hard arm was wrapped around me. Someone’s body pressed against my back, curled around mine.

“Am I dead?”

“No,” Mad Rogan said. Mad Rogan was spooning me.

45%

Nevada is disturb that crazy asshole Peaches got made into mash potatoes. Rogan weighs in on her concerns.

“I had briefly considered impaling him with one of those steel poles from the roof, but I decided it would be too graphic for you. Would that have been preferable?”
...“No.”
“I really would like to know,” he said with genuine curiosity. “The next time I kill someone, I’d like to do it in a way that doesn't freak you out."

45%

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Peaches howled...

Mad Rogan flicked his fingers. The wall of the nearest building broke off in one long, twenty-foot slab, slid off the building, and crushed Peaches.
Oh my God.

Peaches, dude, I told you to run.

44%

Peaches looked like he was about to ram Mad Rogan with his chest. Mad Rogan looked at him. It was a cold, emotionless stare. Peaches decided that two feet of space was close enough.

Peaches should run far, far away because Rogan doesn't pretend to be the biggest baddie around. He IS THE biggest baddie around.

42%

He glanced at me, his eyes dark. “Would you rather talk about your dream?”
“No.”
“Considering that I was featured in it, I think I deserve to know the particulars . Were my clothes missing because we were in bed? Was I touching you ?” He glanced at me. His voice could’ve melted clothes off my body. “Were you touching me?”

I need to open a window because it just got really hot in here.

40%

“Yes?”
Hearing his voice was like being caressed. Chains, I reminded myself. Basement. Psycho. Boundaries. Boundaries were good. “I thought about your offer.”
“I’m aflutter with anticipation.” Psycho who likes to mock me. Even better.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

40%

“Better you get Pierce, than us,” Grandma Frida said. “Because if Pierce shows up here again, we won’t be playing around.”
“After we’re done, we’ll put what’s left of him into a plastic grocery bag and you can take it to his family,” Mother promised.

Don't fuck around with mom and grandma or they'll send you to meet your maker.

26%

Blood slipped from his nostrils and slid down his face.

“Give up,” he growled.
“You first.”
It hurt. The weight was so heavy. My defenses quaked. My hands were shaking. Mad Rogan growled like an animal. It hurt him too.

I say Rogan didn't really want to hurt Nevada, he could have done worse. He thought if he apply a little bit of pain she would spill the beans, he didn't expect her to be so strong.

23%

He pulled me like a magnet. Every female instinct I had went into overdrive.

Oh wow.

.....

He cut right through the layers of civilization, politeness, and social snobbery to some preternatural female sense that said, “Dominant male. Danger. Power. Sex.”

In short form?

Rogan is a sexy beast.

This is me re-reading this beauty because of reasons. Prepare yourself for the gif feast this this inspire.

-----------------------------------

If I kept going this way, I’d end up on Herald, trawling for Mad Rogan fanfic. We made love as the city fell around us, raining down concrete in chunks of despair . . .

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I liked it a lot more than the first one, I guess I was ready for all the non action and was expecting to read little inconsequential snippets about Meg's life and all the moments she had with Simon. Their relationship is oddly touching and I was against it in the first book. I am under no illusions however, this series pacing is slow, the action is non-existent and the only draw for me now is the sweet, sometimes comedic moments between the main romantic couple, Meg and Simon.

The lovely ending scene with the two of them eating spaghetti together and washing the dishes was so cute, I swear its one of the most romantic scenes I've read. There tons of cute moments and I was re-assured that their relationship would progress slowly enough to satisfy me in my misgivings that Simon wasn't being sensitive to Meg's past abuse. There was this very good scene where Simon is explained that Meg is confused and scared because of issues and helps him get a sensitivity chip. I liked him a ton more at the end of the book.

This book is in serious need of being trimmed by at least 100 pages and re-writen to add some action. As it stands it would have benefited from being titled "The day to day minutiae of Commoran Strike, a failure of a Private Eye" for there is nothing to suggest in this book that it is a "page turner" as BookPage touted so fervently.

In fact, the BBC reported that Rowling send this manuscript anonymously and it was decline by all and sundry. It appears the only things that recommends this dour book is the revelation that Robert Galbraith is none other and J. K. Rowling. In fact, when it was revealed that this was a Rowling book it shot into number 1 rankings and came out of the obscurity it would have faded into had it been otherwise.

I picked up this book purely out of the boredom, the irony is so rich in that statement. I laugh at myself for having through this book would be exciting at all. The prose is overly bloated with excess information that only serves to drag down an already very boring plot. There is conversation after conversation that goes around in circles and adds absolutely nothing to the story or move the plot around.

The characters are emotionally distant, Robin is a one dimensional obliging girl and Strike, the protagonist, is a champion at angsting over everything that is wrong with his life. Every single character might as well be a cardboard cutout for all the personality they displayed. Everyone showed very little emotion besides depression or cynicism, there is no humour or any action that could saved this book's plot or cause it to move alone.

I won't even try to pick up another book Rowling writes, they all proven to be disappointments and a waste of money. I guess it sucks to be me, because while Rowling laughs all the way to the bank, I am left wondering what to do with this paperback.

Some good moments, some boring ones, a whole lot of frustration and annoyance. This book is a curve ball alright, at times it felt like a lot of things where piled together in order to compile a fourth book and some points it flowed really well.

The dual POV help in shedding light on some issues with Gideon and some people that surround him got more attention which help to understand them a bit. It got annoying how much he thought of Eva and how much he loved her, he obsessed over her a lot. Eva was as usual consumed by Gideon all the time and nothing really happened in this book.

At least I was entertain somewhat.

I picked up this book because I was very bore with my life this saturday. This book was really stupid but its saving grace is that it is not rage inducing.

Kayla has just broken up with her boyfriend and in her fly back home she meets this dude and she has sex with him. The problem with his scenario is that very little prelude is given before they have sex and it ends up reading forced and mechanical. The characters have no personality and everyone is basically carboard cutout.

The plot is the dumbmest crap, it reads like a really, really bad episode of Days of Our Lives. You have the feuding brothers, the friends who fall in love with the guys, the family drama from hell that is so badly paced and written you just yawned.

This book is so lame, I'm glad it was cheap.

I have mixed feelings over this book, I like some scenes and felt the concept was good but there was just... too much going on. We had at least four different plot points going on at once and they sort of competed for attention.

I also do protest the way the heroine was kidnap so much, it would have nice to have some sort of other scenario but as it stands she is kidnap like 3 times in the book and two of those times where one after the other. I dunno if I will read the rest, it would probably come down to price.