Buddy Read: Untouchable by Kresley Cole

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Untouchable by Kresley Cole 
Series: Immortals After Dark, #7
Genre: Fantasy | Paranormal | Romance
Age Range: Adult Audience
Format: Paperback, 300 pages (first part of Deep Kiss of Winter)
Source: My Copy
Published on September 3, 2013
Kresley Cole: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Contains major spoilers

Synopsis:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR KRESLEY COLE delivers a breathtaking tale of a brutal vampire soldier about to know love for the first time… and a Valkyrie aching for his touch.

Murdoch Wroth will stop at nothing to claim Daniela – the delicate Valkyrie who makes his heart beat for the first time in three hundred years. Yet the exquisite Danii is part ice fey, and her freezing skin can’t be touched by anyone but her own kind without inflicting pain beyond measure. Can they conquer an agony of frustration and slake the overwhelming desire burning between them?

Book Review: Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

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Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell 
Series: Simon Snow, #3
Genre: Fantasy | Romance
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 579 pages
Source: My Copy
Published on July 6, 2021
Rainbow Rowell: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Spoilers for Wayward Son

Synopsis:
In Carry On, Simon Snow and his friends realized that everything they thought they understood about the world might be wrong. And in Wayward Son, they wondered whether everything they understood about themselves might be wrong.

In Any Way the Wind Blows, Simon and Baz and Penelope and Agatha have to decide how to move forward.

For Simon, that means deciding whether he still wants to be part of the World of Mages — and if he doesn’t, what does that mean for his relationship with Baz? Meanwhile Baz is bouncing between two family crises and not finding any time to talk to anyone about his newfound vampire knowledge. Penelope would love to help, but she’s smuggled an American Normal into London, and now she isn’t sure what to do with him. And Agatha? Well, Agatha Wellbelove has had enough.

Any Way the Wind Blows takes the gang back to England, back to Watford, and back to their families for their longest and most emotionally wrenching adventure yet.

This book is a finale. It tells secrets and answers questions and lays ghosts to rest.

Carry On was conceived as a book about Chosen One stories; Any Way the Wind Blows is an ending about endings. About catharsis and closure, and how we choose to move on from the traumas and triumphs that try to define us.

Buddy Read: Dark Needs at Night’s Edge by Kresley Cole

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Dark Needs at Night’s Edge by Kresley Cole 
Series: Immortals After Dark, #4
Genre: Fantasy | Paranormal | Romance
Age Range: Adult Audience
Format: Paperback, 368 pages
Source: My Copy
Published on April 29, 2008
Kresley Cole: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Synopsis:
Bestselling author Kresley Cole continues her seductive Immortals After Dark series with this tale of a vampire shunned even by his own kind and a beautiful phantom, bound together by a passion they cannot resist.

A RAVEN-HAIRED TEMPTRESS OF THE DARK…

Néomi Laress, a famous ballerina from a past century, became a phantom the night she was murdered. Imbued with otherworldly powers but invisible to the living, she haunts her beloved home, scaring away trespassers — until she encounters a ruthless immortal even more terrifying than Néomi herself.

A VAMPIRE WARRIOR CONSUMED BY MADNESS…

To prevent him from harming others, Conrad Wroth’s brothers imprison him in an abandoned manor. But there, a female only he can see seems determined to drive him further into madness. The exquisite creature torments him with desire, leaving his body racked with lust and his soul torn as he finds himself coveting her for his own.

HOW FAR WILL HE GO TO CLAIM HER?

Yet even if Conrad can win Néomi, evil still surrounds her. Once he returns to the brutality of his past to protect her, will he succumb to the dark needs seething inside him?

Buddy Read: Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L. Armentrout 
Series: The Harbinger, #2
Genre: Fantasy | Romance | Paranormal
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 576 pages.
Source: My Copy
Published on June 9th 2020 by Inkyard Press
Jennifer L. Armentout: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Spoilers for The Dark Elements series

Synopsis:
A half human, half angel and her bonded gargoyle protector must work with demons to stop the apocalypse while avoiding falling in love. The Harbinger is coming… but who or what is it? All of humankind may fall if Trinity and Zayne can’t win the race against time as dark forces gather.

As tensions rise, they must stay close together and patrol the DC streets at night, seeking signs of the Harbinger, an entity that is killing Wardens and demons with no seeming rhyme or reason. Forbidden to be with each other, Zayne and Trinity fight their feelings and turn to unusual sources for help—the demon Roth and his cohorts. But as deaths pile up and they uncover a sinister plot involving the local high school and endangering someone dear to Zayne, Trin realizes she is being led – herded – played for some unknown end. As anger builds and feelings spiral out of control, it becomes clear that rage may be the ruin of them all.

Book Review: Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout

 

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Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout 
Series: The Harbinger, #1
Genre: Fantasy | Romance | Paranormal
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: Paperback, 512 pages.
Source: My Copy
Published on May 12th 2020 by Inkyard Press (first published June 11th 2019)
Jennifer L. Armentout: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Spoilers for The Dark Elements series

Synopsis:
Enter a world of gargoyle protectors, rising demons and one girl with an explosive secret.

Eighteen-year-old Trinity Marrow may be going blind, but she can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits. Her gift is part of a secret so dangerous that she’s been in hiding for years in an isolated compound guarded by Wardens—gargoyle shape-shifters who protect humankind from demons. If the demons discover the truth about Trinity, they’ll devour her to enhance their powers.

When Wardens from another clan arrive with disturbing reports that something is killing both demons and Wardens, Trinity’s world implodes. Not least because one of the outsiders is the most annoying and fascinating person she’s ever met. Zayne has secrets of his own that will upend her world yet again—but working together becomes imperative once demons breach the compound and Trinity’s secret comes to light. To save her family, and maybe the world, she’ll have to trust Zayne. But all bets are off as a supernatural war is unleashed…

Book Review: Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

 

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Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell 
Series: Simon Snow, #2
Genre: Fantasy | Romance
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Source: My Copy
Published on September 24th 2019 by Wednesday Books
Rainbow Rowell: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Synopsis:
The story is supposed to be over.

Simon Snow did everything he was supposed to do. He beat the villain. He won the war. He even fell in love. Now comes the good part, right? Now comes the happily ever after…

So why can’t Simon Snow get off the couch?

What he needs, according to his best friend, is a change of scenery. He just needs to see himself in a new light…

That’s how Simon and Penny and Baz end up in a vintage convertible, tearing across the American West.

They find trouble, of course. (Dragons, vampires, skunk-headed things with shotguns.) And they get lost. They get so lost, they start to wonder whether they ever knew where they were headed in the first place…

With Wayward Son, Rainbow Rowell has written a book for everyone who ever wondered what happened to the Chosen One after he saved the day. And a book for everyone who was ever more curious about the second kiss than the first. It’s another helping of sour cherry scones with an absolutely decadent amount of butter.

Come on, Simon Snow. Your hero’s journey might be over – but your life has just begun.

Book Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

 

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Carry On by Rainbow Rowell 
Series: Simon Snow, #1
Genre: Fantasy | Romance
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 522 pages
Source: Birthday Gift
Published on October 6th 2015 by St. Martin’s Griffin
Rainbow Rowell: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Synopsis:
Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.

Buddy Read: The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

 

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The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw 
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fantasy | Paranormal
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 308 pages.
Source: Won this copy from Sara’s giveaway.
Published on March 6th 2018 by Simon Pulse
Shea Ernshaw: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Synopsis:
Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow… Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town. Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under. Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into. Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters. But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

The Return Of Rafe MacKade by Nora Roberts

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The Return Of Rafe MacKade by Nora Roberts 
Series: The MacKade Brothers, #1
Genre: Contemporary | Romance
Age Range: Adult Audience
Format: Hardcover, 314 pages
Source: My Copy
Published on 2016 by HarperCollins Nordic (first published 1995)
Nora Roberts: Website | Goodreads
I read the Finnish version, “Tie Takaisin”.

Synopsis:
Ten years after disappearing from Antietam, Maryland, the bad boy Rafe MacKade has come home. Cleaned up and successful now—though still dangerously good-looking—Rafe’s return sets tongues wagging. But Rafe is not going to let a few gossips stop him from his dream. With the help of Regan Jones, who owns the local antique shop, he is restoring the old Barlow house into an inn. Working in such close quarters has Regan struggling to resist Rafe’s charms. Though she claims she doesn’t want to get involved with a rebel, Rafe’s pretty sure that her reaction to their sizzling kisses suggests otherwise…