Madison Avery Series by Kim Harrison

One of our patrons recommended that I read Kim Harrison's adult series but I wound up reading her young adult series first.  Her adult series sounds really good too but Madison just spoke to me and I ended up reading her first.  Madison's story starts out in Prom Nights from Hell.  I had really nice prom experience.  My prom date was a guy I grew up with and we went with two other couples.  We had an awesome time, unlike Madison Avery.  Madison is new to town.  She was sent to live with her dad after getting caught causing trouble one too many times.  She is at the prom with a boy, Josh, that she finds out is a pity date.  His dad works with her dad and they set the date up.  How humiliating is that?  So when Madison dumps Josh she is swept off her feet by a handsome pirate.  Did I mention the prom had a costume theme?  Anyway the handsome pirate ends up being bad news and Madison ends up dead.  The only thing keeping her somewhat alive is the amulet she steals from around the handsome pirates neck.

What you soon find out is that there are light reapers and dark reapers.  A dark reaper takes a soul before they do something evil while a light reaper tries to save the soul from the dark reaper.  Dark reapers believe in fate and light reapers believe in choice.  Madison didn't get culled by an ordinary dark reaper. She's going to be taking over management.  I really liked these books and the characters.  I am looking forward to Something Deadly This Way Comes coming out May 24th.

Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep

Reading Level: Adult
(4 out of 5)

The first books I read by Ms. Estep were her young adult Mythos Academy series books.  Unfortunately the library does not own them.  If you want to read them I suggest putting in a purchase request.  They were really good.  Anyway after reading them I found out about this series and yeah the library does own them.

The Elemental Assassin series is about Gin Blanco.  She is the most feared assassin in the South and she is known as the Spider.  When shes not busy killing people you can find her at the Pork Pit cooking up the best barbecue in Ashland.  Gin is a Stone elemental.  She can hear everything from the whispers of the gravel beneath her feet to the vibrations of the soaring Appalachian Mountains.  She also has Ice magic which comes in hand to make the occasional lock pick or knife.  But she doesn't use her powers on the job unless she absolutely has to, call it professional pride.

When Gin takes on a job that seems almost to good to be true, it ends up being that way.  She ends up double crossed and her handler, Fletcher Lane, ends up dead.  Since her handler was also like her father having taken her in off the streets at 13 she wants revenge and to find out who is behind everything.  With the help of Finn, Fletcher's son and her adopted brother, and sexy Detective Donovan Caine Gin sets out to get her man or woman as the case may be.

I have really enjoyed this series so far.  I'm on book 4 right now.  Six books have been published so far.  Book 7 is coming out really soon and she will be writing 3 more after that.

Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Reading Level: Young Adult
(5 out of 5)

Desires of the Dead is the second book in The Body Finder Series.  This books starts out a few months after The Body Finder.  Violet right away finds a body of a little boy and she starts getting calls from a Sara Priest of the FBI.  Sara and her associate Rafe know Violet has some sort of ability and want her to work with them.  Violet doesn't want to get involved.  She has kept her secret this long and doesn't feel like sharing now.  Then she becomes the object of someones dangerous obsession.  Normally she would turn to Jay but he has started hanging out with the new kid Mike more and more and since becoming a couple she feels like their relationship has changed a lot.  When Violet starts digging into Mike's tragic family history she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger.

Violet and Jay stumble a little in their relationship in this book but I think that's normal when you go from being best friends to being girlfriend and boyfriend.  I think Violet overreacted a little.  Your partner isn't always going to agree with you and that can hurt.  You can't break up with them over everything they disagree with you about.  I know this was a big thing but she should have talked with him sooner then she did.  Because he did end up being right about part of it.  You learn as you go and every relationship has their trials.  I liked this one just as much as the first one and I am anxiously awaiting the third one.  There will be a fourth book.  Yeah!

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Reading Level: Young Adult
(5 out of 5)

I really really enjoyed this book.  Once I read the excerpt provided on the authors website I couldn't even wait to get it at the library I decided to buy the e-book.  I read a lot, so it's not like I haven't read this type of story before but it was the way she told the story.  It drew me in and I just couldn't stop thinking about it.  I had to wait a whole day to buy it since my computer decided to get a virus and it was a Saturday/Sunday thing and the book wouldn't be in the library until Monday.  But my husband fixed my computer and on Sunday I bought it and I had it read by that night and I had to read the next one.  Thankfully I had the forethought to order that one with the first one.  I was able to pick that up on Monday.  Since I was off that day I had that read in one day.  These books are just that good.  Or at least I think so.  Now I have to wait for book three since the library doesn't have it. 

Violet Ambrose is a typical sixteen year old when it comes to her first issue.  She is crushing hard on her best friend Jay Heaton.  They have been friends since childhood and she's not sure what do about these new feelings she has towards him.  Then when it comes to the second issue it isn't so typical.  She is able to sense dead bodies.  Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world...and the imprints that attach to their killers.  At first it was only dead animals that called to her.  But then when she was eight she found a murdered young girl.

Violet never has thought of her power as a gift but now that her town is being terrorized by a serial killer she may be the only one able to stop him.  With the help of Jay she sets out to find the killer.  She may even end up falling in love along the way if she doesn't become prey herself.

I think that the New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray says it best about this book, "You'll be drawn in by the love story-and kept up all night by the suspense." from the front cover.

Enthralled by Various Authors

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

I came across Enthralled because I wanted to read the story in it by Kelley Armstrong.  Then after I kept reading it because it had so many great stories by the other great authors.  My only complaint is that I hate short stories.  They are just too short.  They just start to get really good and then they are over.  But this anthology has quite a few authors in it that have short stories from their series.

Kelley Armstrong's Facing Facts continues Chloe Saunders story from The Darkest Powers series.

Melissa Marr's Merely Mortal has Keenan and Donia from her Wicked Lovely series.

Jeri Smith-Ready's Bridge is about Logan from her Shade trilogy.

I found a great new book series and author Kimberly Derting (reviews to come) her story Skin Contact is wrapped in the world of her Body Finder Series.

Rachel Caine's Automatic is about Michael from her Morganville series.

There are several other great stories and they may have to do with series but I'm not familiar with them.

The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

The Calling is the second book part of the second trilogy in the Darkest Powers/Darkness Rising series.  Let me try and break it down.  The Darkest Powers series started with Chloe.  Those books were The Summoning, The Awakening, and The Reckoning.  In this trilogy you learned about the Edison group and Project Genesis, which happened to be Chloe, Derek, Simon, Tori, and the other kids.  Chloe is a necromancer, Derek is a werewolf, Simon is a wizard, and Tori is a witch. 

Then I was excited to find out that there is a short story called Facing Facts continuing right after The Reckoning in the anthology Enthralled.  If you go here http://www.darkestpowers.com/blog/ and start with May you get to read a free story from Derek's point of view that starts off from the story in Enthralled.  But you better hurry because I don't know how much longer it will be on the blog for free.  And it's a good story.  I love these characters.  I wish she would write more about them.  That's probably why I like the Darkness Rising series so much because it's same world and at the end of this book it hints towards a run in with these characters.  My fingers are crossed.

In  the first book The Gathering you meet Maya.  You find out that Maya lives in a relatively small community that is also run by the St. Clouds which are part of the Edison Group.  Maya has a best friend Daniel and then she meets Rafe and finds out she is a skin walker.  She can shift into a cat.  At the end of The Gathering there is a forest fire and Maya, Daniel, Rafe, Nicole, Haley, Samantha, Corey, and the Mayor which is Nicole's dad are airlifted out in a helicopter.  That is how The Calling begins.

When The Calling begins it becomes apparent right away that the pilot isn't taking them where he says he is and it quickly spirals out of control.  Rafe falls out of the plane, the plane crashes, and the mayor dies.  Now they are stranded in the middle of nowhere hunted but people they don't know.  The kids soon find out that they were experiments in Project Phoenix and that Project Genesis was a failure. Oh and Maya's biological father is one of the men after them.  Towards the end of the book all have been captured but Maya, Daniel, and Corey.  All they have is a contact name and no way of knowing how to find him.  I am so ready for the third book but unfortunately it probably won't be out until next year.  I always seem to be waiting.

Last Breath by Rachel Caine

I did it. I made it through a whole series about the same character and I can't wait for book 12 coming out May 1st. I sometimes have trouble with a long series. Don't get me wrong I love series books like J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books, love her. Each book focuses on a new character but you still get glimpses of the other characters. With series like The Morganville Vampires about the same character I tend to get bored, but Ms. Caine kept me interested from start to finish. I love Claire, Shane, Michael, Eve, Myrnin, Amelie, and even Oliver.

The Morganville world has sucked me in and I'm glad that there will at least be two more books in the series, hopefully more. I do feel bad for them because it seems like they are always having to rescue and save the town but I guess that comes with the territory when you live with vampires. I wish they could have a vacation but the only time they tried to get out of Morganville they ran into a bunch of trouble so it seems to follow them around. I like that the author keeps it fresh with the enemy problems. She doesn't make it the same over and over again which is nice. That would get old. The cliff hanger endings for the first 5 or 6 books helped with keeping them interesting and spurred me on. Towards the end she stops with the cliff hangers and she adds chapters of Shane, Michael, Eve, and Amelie narrating which is cool. This is a great series. If you enjoy vampire fiction I think you will really like this series.