What Lies Around The Bend...

"When Tish Everett forces open the ruby locket she finds at an estate sale, she has no idea that a deliciously rakish Bludman has cast a spell just for her. She wakes up in a surreal world, where Criminy Stain, the dashing proprietor of a magical traveling circus, curiously awaits. At Criminy's electric touch, Tish glimpses a tantalizing future, but she also foresees her ultimate doom. Before she can decide whether to risk her fate with the charming daredevil, the locket disappears, and with it, her only chance to return home. Tish and Criminy battle roaring sea monsters and thundering bludmares, vengeful ghosts and crooked Coppers in a treacherous race to recover the necklace from the evil Blud-hating Magistrate. But if they succeed, will Tish forsake her fanged suitor and return to her normal life, or will she take a chance on an unpredictable but dangerous destiny with the Bludman she's coming to love?" Content Guidance:  This series contains explicit content that...

"In Pelimburg - city of storm and sea and spray - magic is power. Both are controlled by the elite class, who inhale scriven dust to enhance their natural talents. As the only daughter of the city's founding family, Felicita has a luxurious but narrow life, one that is ruled by a list of traditionally acceptable and appropriate behaviors. When her dearest friend, Ilven, throws herself over the cliffs and into the sea to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own suicide and escapes to the slums, leaving behind everything she's ever known, including the means to practice magic. Soon she's living in a squat, working as a scullery girl, and falling hard for the charismatic renegade Dash while also becoming fascinated by the strange, thrilling magic of vampire Jannik. Then translucent corpses begin to wash up onshore. As it becomes clear that Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous, wild magic that the u...

"Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why. Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen for worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame? Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies - human and creature alike - let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?" Review: S...

"When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre... to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria... to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own - scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, the gorgeous Hale, appears, pulling her back into the world she has only just escaped. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster's priceless art collection has been stolen, and he wants it returned. Now. Only a master thief could have pulled off this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is  the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat's dad needs her help. Kat's solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and, ho...

HAPPY FIFTIETH REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you to all who have supported me in my blogging and I hope I can continue for another fifty posts. "It's the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and is eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset - visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies. But when one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia's world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she's not the seer of dark portents, but the cause." Review: This book was really, REALLY, good. I've been having a lot of good luck with books lately and this was no exception. I loved how it began in the present, after Amelia's world is ravaged and then goes into what happened in the summer of 1889.What I wasn't expecting was the romance, and even...

"Andi Alpers is on the edge. She's angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and angry at the world for taking her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And her father has determined that Andi's accompanying him to Paris over winter break is the solution to everything. But Paris is a city of ghosts for Andi. And when she finds a centuries-old diary, the ghosts begin to walk off the page. Alexandrine, the owner of the journal, knew heartbreak also, and Andi finds comfort in the girl's words. Until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present." Review: This was a wonderful book. By wonderful, I mean devastatingly, tragically, fantastic. Andi and Alex's stories were equally impressive and the history was amazing and really had me thinking, even researching it all!! I loved the fireworks metaphor throughout...

SPOILER ALERT: THIS IS A SEQUEL. FOR BOOK 1, CHECK OUT ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD ! "It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live - not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes. no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with. Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep, and sometimes in waking nightmares. But there is something very wrong... these aren't just daydreams." Review: Okay, I'll save you the trouble of reading this book and say that from the last page of the first book, to the last page of the second, nothing changes. I was rooting for Anna and Cas to be together. I had no idea how they would do it, but I'm the sap who believes that anything's possible, so, sorry Ke...