Giveaway provided by Pocket Books

3 copies of DEADLY DESCENDANT by Jenna Black

 

This week is a fascinating example of how changing a few details can sometimes make all the difference on a cover, or no difference at all.  Just a few minor changes to J. R. Ward’s LOVER REBORN tightened up the whole composition to make a good cover great, but changing the entire cover model wasn’t enough to get TANGLE OF NEED a thumbs up in my book.  

Black Heart by Holly Black 

Description: Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he’s been raised to believe the government is the enemy. But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob, and new secrets coming to light, the line between what’s right and what’s wrong becomes increasingly blurred. When the Feds ask Cassel to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he needs to sort out what’s a con and what’s truth. In a dangerous game and with his life on the line, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet—this time on love. No Author Comment Available.

Series: Curse Workers #3 Artist: N/A Goodreads: Link	Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Release Date: April 3, 2012 Source: Tez Says
Julia’s Thoughts	Abigail’s Thoughts
This run of covers is much less cinematic than the ones with real models, a much more fantasy feel.  Given the edgy feel of the series, I think the live action covers fit the series better.  This one is rather generically YA.	This has to be the UK cover…it looks nothing like the US versions, but I still think the purple almost disco vibe is a wrong fit for this series in any country.

Previous Covers in This Series

Title: Sirensong Author: Jenna Black Series: Faeriewalker #3 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Paranormal YA Excerpt: Yes Source: Publisher Reviewed by: Abigail Reading level: Young Adult Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; Original edition (July 5, 2011) ISBN-10: 0312575955 ISBN-13: 978-0312575953 Sexual Content: Kissing. Scenes of sensuality. References to sex Rating: Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying.

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Description

When Dana is invited to Faerie to be officially presented at the Seelie Court, it’s no easy decision. After all, everyone knows Titania, the Seelie Queen, wants her dead. But Titania claims not to be the one behind the death threats; and her son, Prince Henry, makes the decision a whole lot easier when he suggests Dana might be arrested for (supposedly) conspiring with her aunt Grace to usurp the Seelie throne. So she and her father better do as they're told…

The journey through Faerie is long – and treacherous. Dana thought it would be a good idea to have friends along, but her sort-of-boyfriend Ethan and her bodyguard’s son, Keane, just can’t seem to get along, and Kimber’s crush on Keane isn’t making things any easier. When a violent attack separates Dana from their caravan, the sexy Erlking saves her just in the nick of time… and makes it clear that he hasn’t given up on making her his own.

Arriving at Titania’s beautiful palace should be a relief. But Dana is soon implicated in an assassination attempt against Titania’s granddaughter, and is suddenly a fugitive, forced to leave her father behind as she and her friends flee for their lives. Will she be able to prove her innocence before the forces of the Seelie Court – or, worse, the Erlking –  catch up with her? And will she save her father before he pays the ultimate price in her stead?

Review

When a queen invites you to court, even if that queen wants you dead, you go.  That’s what Dana learns at the beginning of SIRENSONG.  At least she gets to take her boyfriend and best friend with her.  But she also has to take her relentless fight instructor who might or might not be transferring his affections to another, her father, and the queens haughty son.  Almost without fail, I lose a bit of interest when books with fae end up crossing into Faerie.  There are the obligatory forests, nasty critters, and not quite normal phenomenons, but I always find the scenes set there—regardless of the book—a bit ho-hum.  Sad to say it, but I found that true here too.  Fortunately, the last third of SIRENSONG, even set in Faerie, is pretty great.  The action, romance, and emotions all kick up ten fold.

Don’t expect the same amount of sexy time as in the previous books.  There are a few scenes that still push the YA boundary, but they are significantly lighter and less frequent in SIRENSONG.  That’s not to say Dana doesn’t think about sex a lot, she does, but it’s in the context of knowing she will never have it and whether or not Ethan will stick around without it.  I wish Dana had had more self respect to realize that if Ethan wouldn’t stay without sex then she doesn’t need to waste her time.  In that sense, she took a step back from the strength and intelligence I admired in her previously.

My biggest disappointment with SIRENSONG is the fact that it is the unintentional swan song for the series (Jenna has confirmed that SIRENSONG is the final Faeriewalker book).  It is very clearly not written as the final book since many of the extremely compelling storylines threading through the previous books are left hanging.  Is the Erlking secretly not as bad as he pretends? Will Ethan be able to accept the physical limitations imposed on his relationship with Dana? Will Dana’s mom ever acknowledge her alcoholism and seek help? Why is Dana able to use magic when no other faeriewalker ever could?  Will Dana break her vow to the Erlking with Ethan or give her virginity—and her powers—to the Erlking as promised?  Precious few of these questions are answered in SIRENSONG.

Overall, SIRENSONG is another fun foray into a faerie infused world, but there are too many questions left unanswered and too many storylines left unresolved in the series as a whole. It isn’t a cliffhanger, but it isn’t the true series ending either that it needed to be.  Jenna has said that she is working on a new YA series and it’s clear by now that she has the writing chops to make it another winner.  It’s just unfortunate that this series won’t get the chance to end the way I think Jenna and we readers would have wanted.

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
0.5 Remedial Magic (ebook prequel) Glimmerglass – 4/5 Shadowspell – 4/5	Preternatura THE BOOK FAERY Alternative Worlds

Title: Dark Descendant Author: Jenna Black Series: Descendants #1 Cover Art: Nathália Suellen Genre: Urban Fantasy Excerpt: Yes Source: Publisher Reviewed by: Abigail Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Pocket (April 26, 2011) ISBN-10: 1451606796 ISBN-13: 978-1451606799 Sexual Content: References to rape. Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & put this author on your watch list.

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Description

From the acclaimed author of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist books comes the gripping first novel in a new series about a private eye who discovers, to her surprise, that she’s an immortal huntress.

Nikki Glass can track down any man. But when her latest client turns out to be a true descendant of Hades, Nikki now discovers she can’t die. . . .

Crazy as it sounds, Nikki’s manhunting skills are literally god-given. She’s a living, breathing descendant of Artemis who has stepped right into a trap set by the children of the gods. Nikki’s new “friends” include a descendant of Eros, who uses sex as a weapon; a descendant of Loki, whose tricks are no laughing matter; and a half-mad descendant of Kali who thinks she’s a spy.

But most powerful of all are the Olympians, a rival clan of immortals seeking to destroy all Descendants who refuse to bow down to them. In the eternal battle of good god/bad god, Nikki would make a divine weapon. But if they think she’ll surrender without a fight, the gods must be crazy. . . .

Review

The ancient gods of Greek, Norse, and Hindu mythology are portrayed as capricious, fickle beings of immense power who often inflict extreme acts of cruelty on humanity.  So you can imagine what kind of parents they would make.  There are hundreds of myths about the Greek gods of Olympus, in particular, absconding with women or seducing virgins.  The children resulting from these unions are called demigods (Hercules is arguably the most famous).  Millennia later, in DARK DESCENDANT, these descendants of the gods have formed two rival factions with diametrically opposing goals.  Neither one can really be described as ‘the good guys’ but ‘the bad guys’ are truly monsters.  This is the world P.I. Nikki Glass is thrust into.

Talk about a smart, resourceful, and resilient character.  Nikki Glass was made for the urban fantasy genre.  She doesn’t ever shrink or shy away from reality once it’s shown to her.  She has a few momentary mental freak-outs, but she never lets that keep her from doing what needs to be done.  Her thought processes are very pragmatic and once she’s made up her mind, she doesn’t dither around indecisively; she acts.   She’s the kind of character you want to be friends with, no matter how dangerous her life becomes.

One thing I had to keep reminding myself while reading was that most of these characters are immortals.  They can’t kill each other, at least not easily.  So they are crazy violent.  Nikki herself get savagely beaten on more than one occasion and on only one of those times is it by ‘the bad guys’.  Basically, few things—or characters—are black and white.  There is a whole lot of gray in DARK DESCENDANT, which is just one of the reasons that I found it so interesting.  Somebody can get their eye stabbed out one night and then share a cup of coffee with the perpetrator the next morning.   It’s a crazy world and it was immensely fun watching Nikki get thrown into it.   

Don’t pick up DARK DESCENDANT expecting a romantic plotline, there isn’t one, at least not for the protagonist.  This is one that develops between two of the supporting characters, much like Mallory and Catcher in the Chicagoland Vampire series.  There are actually two very strong potential love interests for future books, but given the breakneck speed of the plot in this debut, it wouldn’t have made sense for Nikki to have a romance.  She does have a couple very interesting encounters with a descendant of Eros(aka Cupid) that brought to mind a certain death-by-sex Fae…

DARK DESCENDANT reminded me of a mythological a mash up of the Chicagoland Vampires series by Chloe Neill and The Dissillustionists series by Carolyn Crane.  A character who refuses to let the new circumstances of her life beat her down, has to embrace a brutal and terrifying future among the descendants of the gods, half of whom want to kill her and the other half want to use her to kill others.  The pace is furious, the characters volatile, and mythological meets modern world is one not to be missed.  There are no hard details about the next book in the Descendants series except for the happy news that there will be one. 

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
N/A	Amberkatze's Book Blog

*Cover Art may not be final*

Click author names to visit their webpages & click titles to pre-order from The Book Depository or Goodreads if it isn’t available for pre-order. 

Sirensong by Jenna Black

Series: Faeriewalker #3 Date/Publisher: July 5th 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin Cover Artist: N/A Cover Source: Jenna Black via Twitter Author Comments: Since I see it's up on Amazon & therefore it's OK for me to go public, here's the cover for SIRENSONG.http://yfrog.com/h8cb5cj My Thoughts: My least favorite of the three.  The full face is a little too stereotypically YA and the colors are to vibrant. SHADOWSPELL was so killer but I don’t love this follow-up.  Still totally want to read it though.

Description:

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Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett

Series: Arcadia Bell #1 Date/Publisher: June 28th 2011 by Pocket Cover Artist: Tony Mauro  Cover Source: Book Chick City Author Comments: Ta-da! It’s Arcadia standing in front of her bar, Tambuku Tiki Lounge. Everything is just so damn right about it! Pocket Books: I totally heart you. I also heart Tony Mauro, who is the talented cover artist. I’m in heaven. My Thoughts: Very cool.  Tony Mauro always does great work, but his equal emphasis on both the girl and the setting is just perfect for an UF cover.

Description:

MEET ARCADIA BELL: BARTENDER, RENEGADE
MAGICIAN, FUGITIVE FROM THE LAW. . . .

Being the spawn of two infamous occultists (and alleged murderers) isn’t easy, but freewheeling magician Arcadia “Cady” Bell knows how to make the best of a crummy situation. After hiding out for seven years, she’s carved an incognito niche for herself slinging drinks at the demon-friendly Tambuku Tiki Lounge.

But she receives an ultimatum when unexpected surveillance footage of her notorious parents surfaces: either prove their innocence or surrender herself. Unfortunately, the only witness to the crimes was an elusive Æthyric demon, and Cady has no idea how to find it. She teams up with Lon Butler, an enigmatic demonologist with a special talent for sexual spells and an arcane library of priceless stolen grimoires. Their research soon escalates into a storm of conflict involving missing police evidence, the decadent Hellfire Club, a ruthless bounty hunter, and a powerful occult society that operates way outside the law. If Cady can’t clear her family name soon, she’ll be forced to sacrifice her own life . . . and no amount of running will save her this time.

Previous Book in the Series:

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Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur

Series: Dark Angel #1 Date/Publisher: October 2011 by Piatkus Books Cover Artist: N/A Cover Source: Keri Arthur Author Comments: Here's the UK cover for Darkness Unbound, the first of the Dark Angels novels. I love it My Thoughts: FYI, this is the UK version not the US version, but it’s showing up everywhere so… Well, her arms are crossed and there is a motorcycle in the background…if only there was some way we could find out if she’s tough or not…Meh, I’m holding out for the US version.

Description:

Risa Jones is as extraordinary as her heritage. Born from a lab-enhanced clone mother and an Aedh father, she can not only talk to the souls of the dying and the dead, but she can see the reapers and walk the gray fields that divide this world from the next.

They are skill she rarely uses, however, preferring to concentrate on the business she shares with her two best friends. But when her mother asks her to help the parents of a little girl locked in a coma, she reluctantly agrees. What she discovers scares the hell out of her. Because the little girl’s soul no longer resides in her body, and it wasn’t death and the reapers that took her.

Someone had ripped her soul from her flesh.

As it turns out, a creature consuming the souls of the innocent–and not so innocent–is the least of her problems.

Because someone wants to rip open the gates that divided hell from earth, and Risa is a key component in their plans.

And the only person standing between her and disaster is a reaper who isn’t exactly on her side.

Previous Book in the Series:

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Awake at Dawn by C.C. Hunter

Series: Shadow Falls #2 Date/Publisher: October 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin Cover Artist: N/A Cover Source: C.C. Hunter Author Comments: I got my first glimpse of Awake At Dawn’s cover.  Amazingly, they depicted the scene where Kylie first saw the falls.  I love it. My Thoughts: Really pretty.  I like how this series is giving such an emphasis on one basic feature, first the tree and now the falls.  A really nice distinctive look for these books.

Description:

N/A

NOT AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER Visit Goodreads page

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The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

Series: Lorien Legacies #2 Date/Publisher: August 23rd 2011 by HarperCollins Cover Artist: N/A Cover Source:  Imperial Beach Teen Blog Author Comments: N/A My Thoughts: Yes, technically not paranormal, but alien powers and magic are a lot alike.  As for the cover, the colors are a bit harsh.

Description:

Second edition in the Lorien Legacies, a YA alien series.
“I can feel it in my bones that he is one of us. And I know somehow, that I must find him.”

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Dark Heart Rising by Lee Monroe

Series: Dark Heart Forever #2 Date/Publisher: June 2nd 2011 by Hodder Children's Books Cover Artist: N/A Cover Source: Love Fantasy Sci-Fi Novels Author Comments: N/A My Thoughts: Wow are these covers gorgeous…the muted colors, the way he’s holding her...  Has anyone read the first book?

Description:

Jane and Luca’s story continues ... but not quite as they had planned. When challenges and threats from the immortal world of Nissilum rip the young lovers apart, Jane is bereft. Without Luca’s dancing green eyes, and gentle smile, Jane feels lost, sad and alone. But then a trip to Paris with her grandmother thrusts her in the path of the amiable Soren - a kindred spirit who may be just the distraction she needs ... Meanwhile in Nissilum, Luca struggles with the loyalties and expectations that come with being a part of the immortal world. A world that is about to be shaken at its very core: rumblings of mounting unrest are spreading, and with rumours of an angel rebellion growing no creature is safe – especially not a mortal girl who has fallen in love with a wolf boy...

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Crave the Moon by Lori Handeland

Series: Nightcreatures #11 Date/Publisher: June 28th 2011 by St. Martin's Paperbacks Cover Artist: N/A Cover Source: Escape Between The Pages Author Comments: N/A My Thoughts: Standard romance guy meets Lolita farmer Barbie.

Description:

Hunger and desire can lead to a dangerous place
THE ENEMY
Gina O’Neill will do anything to hold on to her beloved ranch that has been in her family for generations. Enter Mateo Mecate, an archeologist whose greatest wish is to dig there. Prepared to despise Matt—and to thwart his agenda—Gina cannot deny the shocking desire she feels for him.
THE PASSION
Matt believes that the Nahua Springs Ranch holds an important key to Aztec history—one that will restore his standing in the archeological community. But he never expects to go head-to-head with the maddeningly sensuous owner, Gina. The ranch seems to have cast a spell on them both...
THE WAR
When Gina and Matt delve into the secrets of this ancient place, they awaken something unspeakably evil—a shapeshifter who is centuries old. A werewolf with vengeance on its mind. A sorcerer of incredible power. Can Gina and Matt defeat this enemy—even as their conflicts deepen…and their attraction grows more dangerous?

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And my picks for Best & Worst…

Best Cover	Worst Cover

So any new to you covers? Which are your Best & Worst picks?