Review: Soul Storm

Soul Storm by D.N. Erikson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Synopsis:

I already died once.
I'm sure as hell not doing it again.

I thought life was bad reaping souls for my vampire prick of a boss. Then someone killed my old friend right outside my house and planted the gun under my floorboards. 

Which is when I learned life can actually get a whole lot worse. 

Now I have the FBI breathing down my neck, trying to put me in cuffs. But even worse threats lurk in the shadows of this miserable island city I'm forced to call home. And one rain goddess believes my crimes deserve the death penalty...

My Thoughts:

I liked that the MC is good at heart despite being treated like she is less than dirt. Her boss is definitely someone that I wouldn't want to work for. I love that she is determined to keep the people around her safe if she can. There is also an interesting mash of characters, reapers, goddesses etc.

This book was ok. I was slightly disappointed because it took me longer to get into the story. It is, however, book one in a series so I am not surprised. Having read this author before, I know I will read book 2 because it always gets better.

View all my reviews

*Book Blitz* NOT SO HUMAN by Jeannette DiLouie

NOT SO HUMAN

Jeannette DiLouie

Series: Faerietales Book 1
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Publication Date: February 22, 2015

Two new wings... One Preservation problem.

Sabrina might not care for everything about herself, but she's still used to being a human, an
orphan and an everyday average American. However, her life changes forever the day she's
followed home by four unsmiling men in dark suits and sinister shades.

A crash-course in reality reveals that she's actually a faerie princess, with a royal family in
Scotland and some particularly brutal enemies hunting her down in the U.S. Fleeing the
country doesn’t solve her problems though. It only adds to them.

With her new tiara to try on for size and a potential romance that seems bound to go badly
before it begins, Sabrina still has to stay one wing ahead of the Human Preservation and
Advancement Committee. Which has made its mission to ruin her life. Permanently.

Add to Goodreads

Purchase Links

Special Promo: Available on Kindle for only $4.99, and in Print for only $9.99!
Offer ends August 18.

Amazon (Print) | Amazon (Kindle)

Book Tour Schedule

Follow the book tour from July 30 - August 18, 2018.

Visit each tour stop daily and discover more features, excerpts, reviews, interviews, fun facts
and more!

To check the latest tour schedule, visit the Not So Human Book Page at Book Unleashed.

Other Books by Jeannette DiLouie

If finding out she’s far from human can’t break Sabrina Johnson, what can? That’s the question
the faerie-hating secret society tracking her down across five countries wants to know. And they
won’t stop until they find the answer – or until Sabrina’s dead.

BOOK TWO

BOOK THREE

BOOK FOUR

COMING SOON!
FLIGHTS OF FANCY, Book 5 of the Faerietales series will be out this year, so there will be
no waiting for the finale!

About Jeannette DiLouie

Jeannette DiLouie was born a New Jersey girl and will die the same even if she grew up
in Pennsylvania, lived in Maryland and is now back in PA. She’s also a cookie dough-eating,
travel-obsessed bookworm and editor who loves helping others reach their own writing goals
and dreams. Ethnically half-Italian, Jeannette is tragically addicted to carbohydrates. Ethnically
half-Scottish, she’s counting down the days when she can go visit again. And being just under
five-foot three, she happily claims her short-girl rights to climb on any shelf or counter she needs to.

Official website: https://www.JeannetteDiLouie.com

Social media links: Facebook | Instagram

Giveaway

WIN $25 GIFT CARD AND MORE

Prizes up for grabs:

1) $25 Amazon Gift Card
2) Not So Human (Winner's choice of eBook or Print)

Contest runs from July 30 - August 18, 2018.

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Book Unleashed Blog Tours

*Book Blitz* Everything Under the Sun By Jessica Redmerski

This is my stop during the blog tour for Everything Under the Sun by Jessica Redmerski. This
blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 30 July till 12 August. See
the tour schedule here.

Everything Under the Sun

By Jessica Redmerski

Genre: Dystopian/ Post apocalyptic

Age category: Young Adult/ New Adult/ Adult

Pages: 683 pages

Release Date: 28 August 2017

Blurb:

Thais Fenwick was eleven-years-old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off
the majority of the world’s population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community
of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked
by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is
destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.

Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying
to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order '
to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is
surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity,
and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on
a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and
Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love
survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?

You can find Everything Under the Sun on Goodreads

You can buy Everything Under the Sun here on Amazon

About the Author:

Jessica Redmerski is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author,
international bestseller, and award winner, who juggles several different genres. She began
self-publishing in 2012, and later with the success of THE EDGE OF NEVER, signed on with
Grand Central Publishing/Forever Romance. Her works have been translated into more than
twenty languages.

Jessica is a hybrid author who, in addition to working with a traditional publisher, also continues
to self-publish. Her popular crime and suspense series, In the Company of Killers, has been
optioned for television and film by actor and model William Levy.

She also writes as J.A. Redmerski.

You can find and contact Jessica here:

- Website  

- Facebook  

- Twitter

- Goodreads  

- Amazon Jessica Redmerski

- Amazon JA Redmerski  

Giveaway

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of Everything Under the Sun. 3 winners will each
win a signed paperback copies of Everything Under the Sun, along with signed bookmarks and
postcards (United States and Canada only).

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Cover Reveal* The Connelly Boys by Lily Velez (Celtic Witches, #1)

The Connelly Boys
by Lily Velez
(Celtic Witches, #1)
Publication date: September 13th 2018
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:

The Connelly boys are practically royalty at St. Andrew’s Prep. Popular, wealthy, and devastatingly beautiful, the four brothers have long cast a spell over their classmates and over the sleepy seaport town of Rosalyn Bay, Ireland.

There’s only one problem: they’re also cursed.

…Or so the rumors say.

Seventeen-year-old newcomer Scarlet Monroe has never been one for rumors, but when she inadvertently banishes a demon while trying to help eldest brother Jack Connelly, the most breathtaking of the boys and the one to whom she feels inexplicably drawn, she quickly discovers there may be more to the local superstitions and folklore than she originally thought.

Before long, she’s pulled into a dark and mysterious world filled with ancient magic, powerful spells, kidnapped souls, and deadly enemies. But none of it compares to discovering the truth of who she really is…or what she’ll have to become to defeat a rising evil older than humankind itself before she loses everyone she loves—that is, of course, if she can survive the world of the Connellys long enough.

—

Don’t miss this first installment in the new dark fantasy series by Lily Velez, which features Irish folklore, Celtic mythology, mystery and light romance, and an engrossing world of witches and magic that will keep you reading long into the night!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40524863-the-connelly-boys?ac=1&from_search=true

AUTHOR BIO:

Lily Velez has been writing stories since she was six years old. Not much has changed since then. She still prefers the written word and her overactive imagination over the ‘real world’ (though to be fair, her stories no longer feature talking dinosaurs). A graduate of Rollins College and a Florida native, when she's not reading or writing, she spends most of her days wrangling up her pit bulls Noah and Luna, planning exciting travel adventures, and nursing her addiction to cheese. All this when she isn’t participating in the extreme sport known as napping. You can learn more about Lily and her books at www.lilyvelezbooks.com.

Author links: 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14215735.Lily_O_Velez

https://twitter.com/itslilyvelez

https://lilyvelezbooks.com/

Giveaway: 

• $10 Amazon card
• Enter Giveaway

Review: The Sudden World

The Sudden World by Brian Olsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis:

The world before is coming back... 

Yesterday, the world was magic. Yesterday, the world was at war. Yesterday, the world’s greatest sorcerers rewrote reality in a desperate effort to stop the Common King, the most powerful mage the world had ever known, who rained death and destruction upon the land and threatened all magical creatures with extinction. 

Today, Chris Armstrong is an ace student, a lacrosse hero, and a drama club superstar. He’s the golden boy of Charlesville Academy and life is perfect. That’s about to change. 

Chris has a nightmare of something monstrous, something evil, something waiting. He wakes, shaken, to a dangerous new ability he can’t control. Chris is a logomancer, able to manipulate awesome magic with the power of one single word. 

He’ll have to learn to control this word fast, because he’s not the only logomancer in town. His friends and teachers awake to powers of their own, but only Chris can protect them from the return of evil magic from the world before. The Common King is clawing his way back into reality, seeking to rule our world as cruelly as he did the last...and hiding behind the face of someone Chris loves. 

By the night of Chris’s seventeenth birthday, he’ll learn that his perfect life is a terrible lie. And the Common King is closer than he thinks… 

THE SUDDEN WORLD is a young adult contemporary fantasy. If you like interesting diverse characters, harrowing complex villains, and thrilling magical adventures, you’ll love the Yesterday’s Magic trilogy. 

Chris’s exploration of his powers and battle against the Common King continue in THE FLOATING ROOM and conclude in THE COMMON KING, but you can start his adventure right now! 

My Thoughts:

I read the synopsis thinking that it sounded very interesting. Although I haven't read any books by this author before, I have been eyeing down some of his other books. I love books with magical people and creatures so I thought I would give this a go.

The whole concept of the world being changed so completely is very interesting. I enjoyed the fact that each character only remembered pieces of the puzzle. The whole plot is very complex and it keeps you guessing all the way to the surprising end.

I found the characters interesting and I enjoyed following along with them on their journey of discovering their past. The author's writing style kept me engrossed in the story from beginning to end. I am definitely intrigued and I want to know more about their past world. I will be sure to look for book 2.

View all my reviews

*Book Blitz* Reclaimed By The Pack by Dizzy Hooper

Reclaimed By The Pack
by Dizzy Hooper
Publication date: July 19th 2018
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

Synopsis:

When my father cast me out of our pack, I left everything and everyone I ever loved behind. Lucky for me, I was taken in by three red hot shifter males. They’ve made me their mate, and now I’m pregnant with their babies.

My mates see to my every need, pampering me and loving me. They make sure I never want for anything—especially in the bedroom. I should be blissfully happy.

So why can’t I shake the feeling that something is missing?

With our family ready to grow, it’s time to trust these males with my grief as well as my bliss. At their insistence, we journey back to my ancestral home to confront my father.

But his cruel new mate is more formidable of an enemy than I anticipated. She’s poisoned my father against me, and she’ll stop at nothing to cement her position at his side.

When she threatens everything I hold dear, I hit a breaking point. My mates and I didn’t come here for a fight, but we won’t hesitate to finish one.

With these protective males at my side and my family on the line, I make a desperate gamble to reclaim my history, my pack…and my life.

Excerpt:

"Jessica…" Grady's hand intertwining with mine brings me back to the here and now.

I blink, bringing my vision into focus. My cheeks are damp and my heart sore. I swab roughly at my eyes and shake my head. Colt is staring at me in concern, and Landen has shifted to look at me, too.

"I'm fine," I lie.

Colt frowns. "Jess—"

"I'm fine. Just. Hormonal." It's my go-to excuse, and I hate that I have to keep using it.

I hate feeling like this.

These final few weeks of my pregnancy should be filled with happiness and excitement—and they are. But pangs of melancholy keep hitting me, stealing my joy and reminding me of all I've lost.

I feel like there's a hole inside me I can't remember how to fill. There's something missing, and it doesn't matter how many times I sweep this sense of absence under the rug.

It returns, again and again. Tonight it's a scene in a movie, yesterday it was a picture in a freaking ad. Who knows what tomorrow's crying jag will be.

Grady squeezes my hand, and my eyes sting.

He can see through my misdirections. He can tell that I'm hurting, and he only wants to help. Landen and Colt echo that same lost, helpless worry.

My ribs go tight as I glance between them.

I know that I should share my feelings with my mates, but the source of my unhappiness only makes it harder to confess.

We said it when we mated: our pasts are behind us. Our futures lie ahead.

I don't want my history to be weighing me down. I don't want them to ever for a moment think their love isn't enough.

Their love is everything.

That they're doubting it for the shortest fraction of a second is too much.

"Come here," I say, pulling Grady closer.

Not for the first time, I curse my current lack of mobility. Grady doesn't let me struggle, though. He shifts, helping me to sit up straighter. Leaning in, he cups my face and searches my gaze.

I shut my eyes and tug him down. When our lips meet, the kiss tastes like all the quiet secrets kept between us. His devotion and his concern mix and mingle with my desperate instinct to protect him from these pangs of loss.

If I can just get through these last few weeks, it'll all be fine. Once we have these babies in our arms, none of my wistfulness will matter. We'll be a family, a pack. What I've left behind won't haunt me the way it does right now.

I swear to God, I'd never use sex as a distraction. But the parts of me that want to deflect and change the subject are in perfect agreement with the parts of me that go hot and needy at my alpha's probing kiss.

Opening for him, I run my fingers through his hair, then down his neck and over the muscles of his chest. I keep going, lower and lower, until I'm teasing at the waistband of his jeans.

"Jessica…" The way he says my name is half lust and half warning.

I shake my head. "Come on, please…"

This isn't out of character. I've been insatiable these past few weeks. Late pregnancy is a time for back aches and constant trips to the bathroom.

But it's also a time for shifters and their mates to bond, and what better way than by making love?

Playlist

Reclaimed By The Pack had it all – tender love scenes, downright filthy scenes, action, heartfelt family reunions, and even some angst, so I listened to a lot of different music while writing it. Here's a sampling:

• Castle – Halsey
• New Fears - Lights
• Lips On You – Maroon 5
• God Is In The Roses – Rosanne Cash
• Goodnight – William Fitzsimmons
• Somebody Loved – The Weepies
• Come On Get Higher – Matt Nathanson
• What The Water Gave Me – Florence + The Machine
• Hearing Damage – Thom Yorke
• Take Me To Church – Hozier
• I'm On Fire – Chromatics
• In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40649037-reclaimed-by-the-pack

Purchase:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBDV85S

AUTHOR BIO:

Dizzy Hooper is the pen name of an internationally published author who loves hot guys, cold drinks, and books that make you feel warm in all the right places. If you're looking for a short, sexy read with just that little something extra -- and a guaranteed happy ending, look no further.

Author Links:
Website: http://dizzyhooper.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dizzy-Hooper-752681044922239
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dizzy_hooper
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dizzyhooperauthor/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B0789PLQ7N

Author Q&A:

Serious author questions:

• What was the inspiration for this book?
  
  This book is the third in the series, and I have to say, it got really out of control! I got really into reverse harem books and wanted to try writing one last winter. The cold and snow inspired Snowed In With The Pack, which was supposed to be a quick, sexy little story. But the characters had to go ahead and have backstories! When I was done, the characters kept talking to me, and demanded I follow their story further, so I did, with Pregnant By The Pack. But it still felt like there was unfinished business to attend to, so Reclaimed By The Pack was born. The real driving force behind it was my need to take my main character back to confront her family about the way they betrayed her. She and her new pack needed closure, so I had no choice but to write it!
  
• How many hours a day do you write?
  
  Three or four. It's all pieced together, though, with a couple of hours in the morning, a little time while my kid is napping, and then a little more in the late night after everyone else is in bed.
  
• What's your process?
  
  I refer to myself as a modified pantser. I like to make up most of the story as I go, but I've found that I get a lot more done if I have a loose outline before I start—just to make sure there's enough of a story there to keep the book going.
  
• What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
  
  The first short story I even sold made $80, and I spent it on a pair of purple boots I'd been wanting forever, but I'd never been able to justify. It was such a luxury, and I wore them everywhere.
  
  Now all my writing income goes to childcare so I can have a few hours of quiet to write more books!
  
• Do you believe in writer’s block?
  
  Sort of? I have definitely gotten blocked on certain stories (this one for example! That's why it's five months late! Oops!), but I think that usually has more to do with something I need to figure out with the story or maybe an emotion I need to tap into in order to write it that I'm not quite ready to tackle yet. There have also been times in my life, like during a move or an illness, when I haven't had the energy to write. But usually there is a reason for whatever block I'm dealing with, and I have to either find the answer or work through it. I usually try to keep writing despite the block, but I also try to be forgiving with myself and give myself time for my mind and heart to sort out whatever the problem might be.
  
• Any advice you would like to give to your younger self?
  
  I wish I had taken myself less seriously. I spent a lot of time pursuing a traditional book deal and writing in genres I didn't really love because I wanted the prestige. But self-publishing sexy romances has made me so much happier, and it's been much more successful as a career.
  
• What are you working on next?
  
  I have a super naughty duet I'm working on, featuring a recent high school graduate and the much older, dirty-talking teacher she had a crush on back when she was her student…
  

GIVEAWAY

Blitz-wide giveaway (INTL)

• $25 Amazon gift card
• Enter Giveaway