Review: Up from the Grave (Night Huntress Series #7) by Jeaniene Frost

Title: Up From the Grave
Author: Jeaniene Frost
Series: Night Huntress Series
Book #: 7
Pages: 384
Reading Level: Adult
Book Rating: 
Goodreads Rating: 4.44
Published: Jan. 28th, 2014

There’s always one more grave to dig.

Lately, life has been unnaturally calm for vampires Cat Crawfield and her husband Bones. They should have known better than to relax their guard, because a shocking revelation sends them back into action to stop an all-out war…

A rogue CIA agent is involved in horrifying secret activities that threaten to raise tensions between humans and the undead to dangerous heights. Now Cat and Bones are in a race against time to save their friends from a fate worse than death…because the more secrets they unravel, the deadlier the consequences. And if they fail, their lives—and those of everyone they hold dear— will be hovering on the edge of the grave.

Taschima's POV:

"Yeah, well, Bones and I had a couple months of relative quiet. Guess it's time to liven things up again."

This was a very good ending. If I'm being completely honest the last book of the Night Huntress series was a bit lacking, a very themed book that seemed like it needed to be more of a novella than anything else. But Up From the Grave delivers and manages to clean up whatever sour taste One Grave at a Time left behind. Full of shocking developments, and the humorous dialogue we have come to expect and love, Up from the Grave is the ending The Night Huntress series deserved.

Cat and Bones are still the steamiest couple in the block. In this novel you pretty much got to see every important character in the series again, every single one made an appearance. Except for the definitely dead ones that is. It was nice that Jeaniene gave us some closure in that aspect, the book definitely felt like it was saying goodbye.

Cat and Bones main predicament in this title is that four of their closest friends have gone missing, and everything seems to be pointing to the new bloke who took over Don's old job. Soon enough though, as usual, Cat and Bones will uncover something even more sinister that will turn their lives upside down.

Some aspects of the plot were more predictable than others When Bones "died" and Cat fell for it so deeply I almost wanted to smack her. She let her emotions get to her and didn't THINK even for a minute. She didn't believe Bones could possibly be as strong and cunning as he is, which is her WHOLE issue throughout the whole series. She doesn't trust other people so easily. but it all was still very enjoyable. Let's just say that the things you wont expect will leave you with your jaw on the floor and begging for a sequel. Cat is a mother?! I was definitely not expecting THAT one. No matter how "possible" it may be it was the kind of thing you needed to get used to and I thought it was thrown out there too suddenly (maybe in order to bring some spice back into the story?) and I needed more time to get used to the new way of things... maybe a YA sequel from the girl's POV is on our future. Considering the way Jeaniene leaves the ending, somewhat open ended, I wouldn't be surprised if we get to visit Cat and Bones lives again, only not from their POV but through another family member.

I do have to say this, IAN needs his own NOVEL. He deserves it after all the shit he goes through in this book. I want to read an Ian Novel!!

Letdowns: Not a lot of sexy scenes... I guess it would be hard to surpassed such famous scenes like Chapter 32 of One Foot in the Grave. They got mild, where is Bone's famous sexy streak? Nevertheless what we do get is nice, just not as steamy as previous novels.

The Night Huntress series is one I will re visit many times again in the near future. It is enticing, funny, engaging, entertaining... it is everything you might want. I am glad the last title managed to bring back some of the spark while concluding the series in the finest way. I will miss Cat and Bones, but as Cat says at the end:

"Everyone... we'll see you again, some soon, some later, but as vampires say, until again."

That ending was definitely for the reader. Until again my friends, until again.

January 2014 TBR Pile, Over 20+ Titles!

January has basically come and gone, and as usual I got nowhere in my TBR pile. *sigh* Every year the list gets longer and longer, and I am nowhere even close to bridging the gap... that doesn't mean you can't however. Here is a list of the titles that came out this January and which I hope to be able to read very soon:

Another title by Alyxandra Harvey author of the very addicting Drake Chronicles. Now to be honest witches haven't always been up high in my "favorite supes" list but I am willing to give them another shot under the pen of miss Harvey, she might yet surprise me and deliver a witchcraft story that wont put me to sleep. 

  

Yet another re telling of Beauty and the Beast... only this time the Beauty might be out to kill the Beast. That little piece sounds very intriguing, I am just hoping that the rest of the novel doesn't become this big mess of predictability.

  

This one I am interested in because the summary sounds pretty fascinating. It reminds me a bit of Tandem, a novel that even months after finishing it I still think about every now and again.

January Sequels:

After the dirty trick Cole did in Everbound I am more than anxious to see how Brodi Ashton is going to finish this story!

  

Joelle Charbonneau's The Testing was a sweet little surprise last year. Thus I cannot wait to sink my claws into Independent Study which is sure to be as mindlessly entertaining as it's previous installment ... or so I hope anyways.

  

While I have to admit I have yet to read Deep Betrayal I did enjoy the first book in the series, Lies Beneath. This series is one of the few mermaid series out there that managed to capture my attention, it delivered in more ways than one and because of that I shall continue to read, and encourage others to as well, the series.

Uuuuuh! ERASED!!! How I have waiting for the sequel to Altered patiently is beyond me. Altered had a perfect mix of adventure and riddles, reminding me in part of the better days of the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson.

These are only the YA titles. Another book I waited patiently for this year was Up from the Grave, the last night Huntress series. I already finished reading that one though T__T Such a sweet ending. So I guess I better decide which of these titles I am going to sink my teeth into next...

SPOILER 101: Vengeance by Megan Miranda FULL RECAP.

So the story starts as follow...

CURSED LAKE. CURSED DELANEY

We left off in the last installment as Delaney survived Troy's murder/suicide combo. Basically he went to the lake and tried to kill himself and take Delaney with him. She survived and everything seemed to be left off on a happy note at the end.

Now Delaney is being haunted by every single death that occurs in their little town. Not literally hunted mind you. Everyone in town seems to think the lake is cursed, and that Delaney is somehow responsible for this. Like her surviving tipped the balance, or like Decker stole a death from the lake the moment he pulled her out.

"Too much coincidence, you look for reason.
Too much death, you grasp for something to blame.
They call it the Curse of Falcon Lake, but that's just because they're not completely horrible people. But Delaney knows-I know, we all know-that when people say "Falcon Lake," they're really talking about her."

Vengeance is not told from Delaney's POV, it is told from Decker's. PSYCH! Decker and Delaney are a couple now and they are spending pretty much every day together. Decker even got a job at the assisted living facility so he could be closer to Delaney.

DECKER'S FATHER DIES

But tragedy is soon to occur. Decker's father dies of a heart condition pretty early in the book, and Decker is sure that Delaney knew about the death and instead just choose to not do anything about it. This puts a big rift between our main characters with Decker putting some of the blame of his father's death on Delaney. They break up.

Janna, Carson's sister who blames her brother's death on Delaney, comes back. She starts hanging out with the gang again and starts to form this "bond of death" with Decker. In her eyes their family's death has a connection, Delaney. Delaney is to blame for everything, she is the curse come to life.

After Decker's father's death his house gets vandalized. Someone breaks into the house and turns on all the water pipes in the house and clogs the sinks in order for the water to overflow throughout the house. Decker, of course, thinks is the curse of Falcon Lake coming for pay back. Because his house is marked "uninhabitable" Decker is then forced (guiltied) by his mother into staying at Delaney's house until their house is ready to go. Decker is upset about his but eventually gives in and starts sleeping in the house's office.

After coming back from a BBQ charity thing at their school (where Decker meets Maya's brother, Holden) Decker confronts Delaney about her not telling him about his father's imminent death Delaney snaps and tells him she did try to do something, she told Decker's father that he was going to die. Decker's father didn't really believe her, but confirmed to her that he knew about his heart condition and that he and his doctor where doing their best to take care of it. He made Delaney promise not to tell Decker about the disease. Now Decker is mad at Delaney, his mother, and his father. Nobody trusted him with the information, everybody who he cares about lied to him for months (omitted information, but whatever).

As Decker's world is imploding they hear breaking glass coming from the house's first floor. Delaney goes quickly to check it out, with Decker right behind her. The house's glass windows have been vandalized, completely broken. Another attack that seems connected to Decker.

CARSON WAS HERE; AND SO WAS DECKER.

Earlier in the story Decker paints the words "Carson was here" in one of the school walls in homenage to their dead buddy. But then somebody paints underneath of that "and so was Decker" pretty much placing blame for the mural on Decker's hands. He gets called into the principal's office and is given the task to paint over the mural as punishment for his small rebellion.

"Don't make us cheap. Don't make us not matter. Don't give us up."

And so Decker and Delaney had sex before this whole fiasco happened. Just thought I'd throw that out there into the universe.

Next big thing that happens is their class goes on a trip to Boston to look at colleges. Delaney however has additional plans in mind. She also has an appointment scheduled with a guy who is doing post grad research on pheromones that might indicate somewhat what is going on with Delaney. When Decker finds out about this he insists on coming with her, and so they go. They meet the guy, and of course the guy is super creepy and has taped conversations with Delaney about her "special circumstances". Decker, after confronting the guy, takes the tape recorder with him and erases it completely.

Days pass while Decker tries to conquer his inner demons. He fights a lot with Delaney, until he finally realizes that he is not mad at her anymore for keeping his father's secret, he is just angry in general. They get back together, and the same night that that happens they find Tara, their overgrown super hot friend, face down in the lake. It turns out she hit her head and went down, but no one knows how exactly she got to the lake. Decker thinks whoever did it thought Tara was Delaney, and so Delaney was the real target.

"How to put to put to words the way I could feel everything connecting? The way we feel about the lake, the way we let ourselves fear it an believe-that it wants us. That it could hurt us. The way a person could use that fear. Could hide something inside it. It's just the lake; it's what it wants. Except it's not the lake.
It's what someone wants. Someone wants her gone"

They spend the next few chapters speculating who could have put Tara in the lake. Then Decker has an epiphany of who could have been the only person in the vicinity who could have confused Tara with Delaney, Maya's brother Holden.

Decker thinks that the reason Holder tired to get rid of Delaney was because Delaney could feel that their mother wasn't in their lake house anymore. Which she isn't, because she is dead. She died of natural circumstances but then, because Holder and Maya needed her life insurance to survive, Holder dragged their mother's body to the lake. Maya confirms this story and points to the authorities where they can find the body. Solving one the the books biggest mysteries: Why is Maya so moody and bitchy?

The other mystery is who is messing with this kids and their fear of the lake? Who is breaking windows, leaving sinks open, drowning car batteries? Well, it is none other than Janna. Who is bitter, and angry, and feeling alone b/c of her brother's death. Decker confronts her, and she admits it.

"I thought you guys didn't remember," she said. "That you were letting Carson go. And he never would've let you guys forget me. Never."
Carving his name into the wood. Showing us the curse. The trade. A reminder.
"But the curse... it made you all remember. You remembered everything that happened. What we lost. And why."

Decker decides to let Jenna off the hook after thinking about what Carson would've done in his place, Decker doesn't tell the authorities or their friends about what Jenna did.

LETTING GO.

In the end Decker let's go of his anger and decides to forgive all those people around him. Delaney, for not giving up his father's secret. Jenna, for committing stupid petty crimes that helped her grieve. Specially his father, for dying and leaving them, Decker and his mother, all alone.

Main Players:

• Decker: Main character of the story. The boy who pulled Delaney out of the lake. Delaney's boyfriend. Decker loses his father in this story and is thus angry and slightly depressed.
• Delaney: The girl who survived being underwater for 11 minutes after which she develops the ability to sense when others are near death. Delaney is also Decker's girlfriend. Her ability is not fully explained and is only theorized upon.
• Jenna: Carson's sister. She is responsible for a lot of the fright that comes when people think about the lake since she orchestrated events that fed the mythology of the cursed lake. She is angry and a little bitter, she misses her brother deeply and blames Delaney a little for what happened to him. 
• Carson (his memory): Carson died in the previous novel. Delaney, sensing he was near death, tried to save him by driving him to the hospital, but it was no use. Carson was free spirited and knew about his condition from very early on, which is why he lived his life as if any day might be his last.
• Maya and Holder: Sister and brother. They moved in to the town recently with their sick mother. Maya starts dating Kevin. After their mother dies they hide the body in the lake in order for them to be able to support themselves by cashing in their mother's disability checks-their mother comes up with the idea.
• Tara: Sometimes part of the gang, Tara runs in many circles. She is tall and hot with a lot of attitude. She used to date Kevin and is mistaken for Delaney on Halloween night when she is wearing a blonde wig. She falls and bumps her head, going unconscious. She is then dragged unto the lake, the assailant thinking Delaney was her and that she might just drown.
• Kevin and Justin: Decker's best friend's. Kevin dates Maya, and Justin has a short lived fling with Jenna. 

Up From the Grave (The Night Huntress #7) by Jeaniene Frost: First 20% of the book is up, READ NOW!

Goodreads

This remarkable series is, alas, ending. I am so bummed out, this is like my favorite supernatural/fantasy adult series. I love Cat, and I love Bones, and it will break me to see them go. Here's to re reading old favorites I guess (it's like Harry Potter all over again!).

But we can't be crying before we have even READ the last book, so here is the first 20% of the title online. It went up a few hours ago and I am about to go and enjoy it as well. Review for Up from the Grave should be up some time next week (after I am done crying and wallowing that is).

CLICK HERE TO READ UP FROM THE GRAVE (20%).

Enjoy,

PS; if you feel inclined let me know how you like that first 20%! I shall discuss it at length in the comments section ;)

Cover Revealed: The Forever Song (Blood of Eden #3) by Julie Kagawa + Extra Teaser

Are we all READY for the big reveal?

...

..

.

Goodreads

VENGEANCE WILL BE HERS 

Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster? 
With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer. 

MONSTER 

Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions—her creator, Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost—the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie. 
In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.

 This is the first book's first cover ever. But then they changed it to this...
... which was not as good, but people were complaining (as usual) that the girl in the first cover was not of Japanese heritage so they (publishers) were promoting white washing (or something like that). Basically they had to change the cover and instead of getting a pretty Japanese girl to do her thing they decided to keep it safe and go for the abstract image (which was a huge let down, but I still have the first cover so whatever).

 #2 book. This one while still looking like a place holder for an ACTUAL cover it is still nice looking and so I said "whatever" because I was buying the series for the story and not for the covers (I have been known to do this once or twice).

 The newest cover, this one, is VERY pretty. I like the birds and how they almost look like sakura leaves (are they trying to do a double helix in the middle? DNA? Or just a weird 8?). I like this cover, though I think it is way too pretty and girly to represent the goryness of the story. Don't believe me? Then read this teaser:

And then, as we followed the path around the pasture and up to the huge barn at the top of the rise, we found the townspeople.
            A massive, barren tree stood beside the barn, twisted branches clawing at the sky.  They creaked and swayed beneath the weight of dozens of bodies, hanging upside down from ropes tied to the limbs.  Men, women, even a few kids, swinging in the breeze, dangling arms stiff and white.  Their throats had been cut, and the base of the tree was stained black, the blood spilled and wasted in the snow.  But the smell nearly knocked me over regardless, and I clenched my fists, the Hunger raking my insides with fiery talons.        

There is WAY more where that came from, so if you wish to read the rest please visit Julie Kagawa's blog, tell her I sent you (you don't have to really).

 I also posted another teaser from chapter one of The Forever Song a couple of weeks ago that you might be interested in reading.

Final Cover Verdict:

It is a pretty cover, true, but I don't think it represents the dark essence of the book at all.

Review: Losing it by Cora Carmack (New Adult Steamy Read anyone?)

Title: Losing It
Author: Cora Carmack
Series: Losing It
Book #: 1
Pages: 288
Reading Level: NA
Book Rating: 
Goodreads Rating: 3.86
Published: Feb 26th, 2013.

Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren’t embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She’d left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

Taschima's POV:

I enjoyed Losing It, very much. It was fun, it was quick, very contemporary easy to relate to writing. I like all of this. But it did have its issues. I thought it was too damn perfect. It lacked... spark. Everything went too smoothly, so much so that by the end of the book I ended up feeling disappointed, no matter how much I enjoyed the ride. Which was my main issue with the book. I wanted some conflict.

After unwisely telling her best friend she is a virgin Bliss gets dragged into a club in order to have a one night stand and lose her virginity. Lord behold she manages to find the one decent guy in the club who is charming, reads Shakespeare (even though he doesn't like it) and is English. Enter Grey's Anatomy episode one minus the sex. The day after Meredith Bliss finds out Derreck Garrick is her superior!! She wants to stay away from him, she should, her mind says no but her body... her body can't seem to stay away.

Losing It tried to be a lot of things, but at the end it didn't quite make the mark. It wanted to be the next scandalous book, a student and professor illicit relationship but it ended up lacking complications, heat, blocks in the road. It was a very fun read that lacked tension. Everything was just too perfect.

Of course Garrick was hot, sweet, understanding, and just knew what to do with his hands at all times. He was designed to be every girl's fantasy, British to boot. I love a guy with an accent, but I thought Garrick was too Americanized. What is the point of having a British guy in the novel if the character's English culture is not going to show in the page? Oh, to make us read every single of his lines in that pantie dropping accent that's what. Okay I get it, I enjoyed it, but it was still not fully taken advantage of.

Bliss, on the other hand, was a blast. Being inside her panicky head was hilarious!

"I was going to be so terrible at this... the worst he'd ever had probably. And then he'd never want to see me again (and I really wanted to see him again). I'd probably be trumatized and never want to have sex again, which meant every relationship for the rest of my life would fail, and I would end up alone and miserable with nine cats and a ferret.
I didn't want to end up alone and miserable with nine cats
"
But her character was confusing. She was always saying how she was all uptight, and how she didn't know if she wanted to be a theater manager or an actress, but then she didn't show any sign that she really wanted to be anything but an actress. And the only thing she was really uptight about was having sex. Other than that she had a hang over in every other page and a very steamy relationship with her teacher. Girl was on fire!

It was a hot book, most New Adult books are. I am looking forward to the novella, as well as Faking It. So yes give it a read, try it out. A LOT of people loved the book, I thought there was something missing to make the book step it up to that next level. It was a cute, hot at times, relationship, but it didn't step up to the next level. It didn't have angst, or complications, or darkness. But i'd still read it again in a heartbeat.

So I started reading White Lines by Jennifer Banash...

So White Lines is about this teenage girl who's life is spiralling out of control. She spends her nights working the scene at the hippest clubs around town (dancing, doing drugs, and basically having the time of her life), while by day she attends a high class reformatory high school  because she was caught inhaling coke in the bathroom of her previous school. Her parents? Not in the picture. She isn't an orphan, they just don't care enough to ground her or help her get her life in check. She even lives alone in a tiny apartment on the bad side of town. Some may say "sweet!" but I am thinking not.

This book has all those crazy rebellious thoughts that we have as teenagers playing out ("I wished I had my own place", "I wanna party all night", "I wanna try all kinds of things, at least once", etc.), and it puts them into action, showing them to their limit. It shows the good side of an independent teenage rebellious life, while also showing the very bad sides. All this written beautifully and seamlessly.

So far I am really enjoying it. It is set in the 80s so it has all these cool references to Madonna and other things like VCRs. The main character is definitely broken, she is dark and twisty and has lots of issues to work through. Sometimes it is just a tad uncomfortable to read the things she does, because I can't fathom why she would do such things, but that is part of the read. It's messy, it's truthful, and it doesn't back away from the hard parts; this is my favorite part of the novel aside from how beautifully it is written. Though because the book doesn't have a set "goal" or "end game" it can sometimes be a slow-going read.

At the end of the day I was not this girl, so living vicariously through her and seeing "the scene" is pretty darn cool, I just hope by the end she gets her happy ending and not a tragic one.