Tabitha Tomala

Nothing happened. This book was horrible. The characters just bullshit around half the time when they are supposedly on the run for Cal's life. What the fuck are you doing staying in town and asking the local supernatural questions when you're running from supernaturals? Are you asking to be caught? Not touching this author again.

I think what I liked most about this novel was the way Siri and Vivenna changed into the very people they never thought they could be and in the end it made them better people. And Nightblood, my favorite character and it's not even a person. That sword made me laugh with its simple yet flawed logic. But I want to know more about Nightblood's creator. I've never wanted a sequal so badly from a novel. There are so many directions the next book could take, and there is still so much I want to learn about the characters, Vasher and Nightblood ecspecially. While I enjoyed Warbreaker it also threw me off guard. As I was reading suddenly I had to reread a paragraph because the plot twist came so suddenly, no warning, nothing. I didn't believe it at first, in fact didn't want to believe it, then finally gave in. And let's talk about the magic system. Using your own breath to make objects come to life? But wait don't use too much or life won't mean the same to you anymore. Original and not overpowering, loved it! Mystery, magic, tension, love, characters you connect to, battles everything a good book needs to hold my attention. If I could I would give this book 10 stars.

Not as good as the first book. While I enjoyed seeing things from Zane's prespective, the plot jumped around too much for such a short book. The whole conflict with the Falcon's I felt was rushed Instead of trying to divide attention between the Falcons, the future of their kingdoms and diving into the past, one area should have been the main focus, or the amount of pages should have increased to accommodate. And where was the emotion behind it all? A quick, but not necessarily satisfying read.

Not as good as the first book. While I enjoyed seeing things from Zane's prespective, the plot jumped around too much for such a short book. The whole conflict with the Falcon's I felt was rushed Instead of trying to divide attention between the Falcons, the future of their kingdoms and diving into the past, one area should have been the main focus, or the amount of pages should have increased to accommodate. And where was the emotion behind it all? A quick, but not necessarily satisfying read.

Not the book I was expecting. I guess when I heard about Miss Peregrine's I thought I would find a light hearted novel about peculiar children, but there is much more to the story. Creep factor? Major, and the photographs strewn through out the novel gave me chills. The first chapter alone made me reconsider what the focus was going to be about. Not only do we have the children, but entities that have been stalking our world murdering animals and humans alike. The story wasn't action packed, or intense, but it was a steady build up of what I found to be gothic literature. Of course there is the light hearted side of things thrown in as well for balance, so don't fear that all you will hear about is darker undertones and there is a little action towards the end. I enjoyed it, not many books can unsettle me, but this one certainly did.

I had mixed emotions while reading The Dwarves. Some parts I was on the edge of my seat, gripped by the action and others I wanted to skim through. I think this may be in part due to losing some of the flow of words through translation. I did enjoy the evil races of elves and unicorns. I haven't seen that done before and the motley crew of heroes we ended up with worked well together even with their flaws. I do have to say this book held quite a few moments of humor hearing characters banter back and forth. The plot was straight forward, but sometimes felt run on. Like the novel should have been broken into two books, or maybe a part one and part two with a time gap in between. Some of this may have been due to the amount of traveling the team participates in. It is also one of the reasons I don't particularly like Tolkien's writing, but I still enjoy his creativity as I do Heitz's. I think fans of Tolkien would enjoy The Dwarves I won't be continuing this series since I am not really curious about what happens now, but I am glad I read the first book and was able to find new concepts to enjoy.

A great addition to the Forest of Hands and Teeth world. If you want more tension filled stories give this a read. I promise they are as good as Carrie Ryan's trilogy! We finally are able to see how bits of the world reacted to the Return. Each short story encounters a different era of the Return, and various characters living through it. How they encounter the undead for the first time, how they handle people they know turning into them, etc. We are also able to catch a glimpse of how Sister Tabitha was as a young woman and the actions that befell her to create the stern lying woman we know her for from the trilogy. I enjoyed the Easter Eggs at the back of the book and Ryan's story of how she became interested in zombies, as well as her origins for each short story. I wouldn't hesitate to read more of her work.

Dark, daring and filled with action, Murder of Crows shows us the bitter side of humanity. We see the lengths the Controller will go to keep his girls and reclaim Meg. Even if it means killing a few along the way to better his chances. As war brews among the humans and Others, our Lakeside courtyard is continuing their slow acceptance of the small human pack. They are beginning to teach others of their kind how to interact with humans. After all, they've begun to trust a few, strangely enough, and want to keep war away from their home. And as the Others learn to live with the humans, Simon beguns to attach himself to one in particular, Meg. Watching him come to terms with feeling human emotions is hilarious and well written. He internally battles with himself trying to decide between the Wolf reaction and the human action, which is the right to show? It makes you wonder how all the others think in the Lakeside Courtyard. Do they battle with themselves as much? And I'd love to see how their views of Simon have changed from the first book. I also enjoy how in tense moments he has the most random concerns, such as living with humans who all dye their hair, because to the Wolves it stinks. I was a bit sad to see the ending whiz by, only highlighting over the conclusive events. I would have liked to see a bit more build up and expanded scenes, but overall I enjoyed Murder of Crows. The perfect blend of comedy and darkness. This world and it's characters will grab you from the first chapter and hold on tight, making you need the next book.

If I could, this book would receive more than 5 stars. Wow, just wow! Anne Bishop has taken American history and turned it inside out to create a whole new world. She's created a race of terra indigene who lived in America before the settlers. They are beasts/monsters who hold a human form for the sake of the actual humans they must live beside. However, the beast side is definitely dominate as we see with each character Meg encounters when she seeks refuge with them. Hidden away from the man who once controlled her, Meg must win her place among the terra indigene who only see humans as meat. I loved seeing the struggle between human and others (as humans call them). The clash of cultures was brilliantly written, showing the true struggle for the two different sides to understand each other. There was comedy, action, mystery and progressive character development. Everything I look for in a book. I suppose it helps that I could barely stop reading when I started as well! Can't wait to dive into the next one!

Not the book I expected. I was excited to see that this was based in Salem, Mass. and expected the lace reading to be a big part of the plot. Instead I encountered a weak willed mental patient who never develops into anything else and avoids lace reading. The explanation for her avoidance is sketchy, only sparing a few details and a journal entry of a tragic event, but never telling us what the reading included. The plot also tends to jump around, barely holding onto consistency with Towner's point of view. As I have said with many bestsellers, I'm not sure how this became one.

Poor Mercy can't catch a break. In Night Broken she must fight two battles, one that is closer to home than she would like. Adam's ex wife, Christy, has come to town in search of safe haven. The turf war begins as Christy subtly manipulates the pack against Mercy, churning up sympathy and putting pressure on Mercy's relationship with Adam. And of course as this occurs, the trouble Christy ran from follows her to the pack, planting Mercy right into the line of fire. Literally. Patricia Briggs once again brings to the table mythical creatures and legends few have heard of. I love her creativity and ambition to bring to light little known tales and give them an exciting spin. And she never fails to impress me with her developing character relationships. Mercy is a strong capable woman, who plows through the worst to protect those she loves, even if it's her life on the line to do so.

Dont Die Dragonfly read more like a first draft than a completed novel. Filled with grammatical errors and a simplistic writing style, I went through it quickly and wasn't satisfied with the story. There was no real depth to it, the plot was easy to guess and the dialogue was boring and long winded at times. The characters were shallow as well. I held no emotional connection to the main character Sabine, despite the author throwing in random bits from her past. There just wasn't enough back story built up outside the main idea. For a book about a girl with visions I would much rather recommend the Blue is for Nightmares series by Laurie Stolarz than this book. I will not be continuing the series.

Frost Burned picked up the pace from River Marked. Mercy is back in action, this time to save Adam and his pack. Caught in a hard spot with next to no back up, Mercy has to rely on people she least likely would expect. We see a switch in Brigg's writing with this novel. We have a few scattered chapters from Adam's point of view. A bold move, as most people moan and groan over any change in style, ecspecially 7 books into the series. However, Briggs did a bang up job, letting us see into Adam's mind and how he perceives both Mercy and his pack. We also see the mixed emotions he feels as not only a werewolf, but as an alpha as well. Full of action from the first chapter, I was hooked as characters I've grown to love were threatened and Mercy was pushed to new limits. Briggs never fails to keep me on the edge of my seat.

Sally Green did an impressive job combining the view points of three characters in such a short story. We have the chance to read about Gabriel's past, goals and opinions based on not only his own actions, but those around him as well. As I finished the short, I realized I wanted more, but we'd come upon the time his story was put into Half Bad. I'd love to read more shorts in this storyline.

Ugh what did I just read? This book is in dire need of a decent editor. The concept of riders, demons that push out the souls of humans and take them over like a parasite, was interesting. However, no matter how much an idea catches my interest, the writing needs to be good quality. I can handle some cliches and bad grammar, but Hanover's writing was sluggish, like trying to dig down past the crap to find a few nuggets of decent writing. My first problem: why give a character a name you won't use? Chogyi was given the name Jake to make it easier for Jayne to identify him. But instead the author refers to him as Chogyi Jake. Why? There is no other Jake to confuse him with. Then as the story progresses he's just Chogyi. Um, what? Second problem: too many inconsistencies with point of view. For example, when Jayne first sees Coin, he's described as having tattoos, yet she mentions she can't see them. Why are you describing him with tattoos to the reader when your character can't even see them? And the amount of cliches, grammar school descriptions and repetitious writing..... If I could give this no stars as an actual rating I would.

Gabriel talks of Michele so often, yet we know so little about her. Sally Green has now given us the ability to see who Michele was through her diary. Even in this short spurt of writing I was able to see the bond between brother and sister and become closer to Michele. Green has such a talent for writing and I hope she continues to give us snippets from the characters in the Half Bad world.

Ugh what did I just read? This book is in dire need of a decent editor.
The concept of riders, demons that push out the souls of humans and take them over like a parasite, was interesting. However, no matter how much an idea catches my interest, the writing needs to be good quality. I can handle some cliches and bad grammar, but Hanover's writing was sluggish, like trying to dig down past the crap to find a few nuggets of decent writing.
My first problem: why give a character a name you won't use? Chogyi was given the name Jake to make it easier for Jayne to identify him. But instead the author refers to him as Chogyi Jake. Why? There is no other Jake to confuse him with. Then as the story progresses he's just Chogyi. Um, what?
Second problem: too many inconsistencies with point of view. For example, when Jayne first sees Coin, he's described as having tattoos, yet she mentions she can't see them. Why are you describing him with tattoos to the reader when your character can't even see them?
And the amount of cliches, grammar school descriptions and repetitious writing..... If I could give this no stars as an actual rating I would.

Here we have another tale of Mercy Thompson. River Marked started off a bit slower than the previous books, but with good reason. There was a fair amount of relationship development, but once that was out of the way the interesting bits began. The main focus of this book are the fae. Briggs has a great way of dividing up the encounters between the books so that we are not rehashing the same race as a focus. This time the water fae are at fault and we are allowed to learn more of Mercy's past in order for her to find a solution. I enjoyed learning about different walkers and Native American tradition. And I never tire listening to Mercy pick at Adam. She knows all the buttons to press and Briggs make sure the reader laughes at his expense.

Similar to the first book, this one left me wanting more. With the first, Half Bad, we learned about Nathan, his challenges growing up and the rules of the world he lives in. A world where black witches are feared and hated, and Nathan is half white witch, half black witch. Now with Half Wild, we delve deeper into Nathan's abilities and the corruption brewing in the magical council. We witness first hand as Nathan witnesses new brutalities brought on by the supposed good witches and the sacrifices he must make in order to build a better world for himself. Rife with battles, heartache and retribution, the reader will never want to stop turning the pages, eager to seek out what will happen next.

I have no clue how this book won awards. Granted it hit the mark on creepy, disturbing and weird, but award winning? No. First off the vampire concept made no sense to me. Yes ok, the author tried an original take, but it just didn't add up for me. Now let's talk about the book as a whole. The beginning was promising. Internal conflicts, a disturbed child and a creepy murderer hovering in the background. This all built itself into a Stephen King like feel, but then the middle came. Where I have no idea what happened other than  being subject to disturbing dark sexual displays and internal monologs from characters I didn't care about. In fact I felt like the whole pack of drinkers were just extra. They didn't contribute to the story progression much. The only characters I even wanted to hear about were Oskar and Eli, but by the end of the book I was struggling to even care about them as well. The ending was predictable and left me unsatisfied. There was too little explained and a bunch of questions left hovering about. Not an author I will continue to read.

This wasn't an exciting book, but then again I didn't expect it to be. The story is written as a travel log, where Lady Trent travels with her husband to study dragons. At the time, in her world, little is known about dragons and she makes it her life's work to discover whatever she can. Not only does she sketch them inside and out, but also tracks their behaviors and such. If you don't like dragons then this is most definitely not a book for you as there is little action and no real hero type in the story. I will not be continuing the series though because the writing style just isn't for me. I prefer my books with much more action and mystery.

The storyline progressed well enough in this book but I was surprised to see that Josey is no longer a strong woman. Now she's a weak, whining fool who pines for Caim. The only reason I was interested in her section of the plot was my interest in what was happening to the city and the creature loose in it. This complete change in her personality threw me, and disgusted me. She seems to make every wrong choice possible and hides away in her room like a child. Now as for Caim's storyline, I was happy to learn more about his abilities, or at least what he is capable of, but I wish there had been more to Kit's story. The small tease we received leaves me wanting to know about where she came from and who she is. All together the action was great, the amount we learn about the shadow lands was suitable and at the end we are left with new questions to pique our interest in the next and final novel.

The storyline progressed well enough in this book but I was surprised to see that Josey is no longer a strong woman. Now she's a weak, whining fool who pines for Caim. The only reason I was interested in her section of the plot was my interest in what was happening to the city and the creature loose in it. This complete change in her personality threw me, and disgusted me. She seems to make every wrong choice possible and hides away in her room like a child.
Now as for Caim's storyline, I was happy to learn more about his abilities, or at least what he is capable of, but I wish there had been more to Kit's story. The small tease we received leaves me wanting to know about where she came from and who she is.
All together the action was great, the amount we learn about the shadow lands was suitable and at the end we are left with new questions to pique our interest in the next and final novel.

Oh Gavin, the trouble you get yourself into... We see him pushed to new limits and end up in a few hard to escape situations. And oh boy does he know how to trip and fall on his face when it comes to women. And Kip! Wow have you have grown! From a barely known bastard to someone who has potential power and allies. I loved the intense moments we saw as Kip struggled through training. The relationships he formed over the course of this book and the actions that resulted from them were impressive. Though he is hard on himself, you can see all the locked up potential in Kip that I hope to witness unleashed in the next book. Oh and lets not forget Dazen...bat shit crazy Dazen. You are such a character and we see so little of you this time. I wanted more, because most of what we hear of Dazen is in passing from Gavin, but unfortunately we're given small (although yes exciting!) pieces of you. Now a few nit picky things. Personal character thoughts should have been italicized. It was a bit confusing to shift from third person into first randomly when they went into their own thoughts. And I don't see the point for the black cards to have their own little stories. Jumping from main story to side story was confusing and not marked well. I've been told it's important for the next book, but all I wanted to do was skip over them back to the characters I knew. And now a compliment! Finally an author who has a COMPLETE glossary not just a pieced together one with only the most important people or things. Having read the first book over a year ago, the glossary was perfect for a refresher. Though it took me a while to get through, I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next.

Felicia Day is an amazing and inspiring woman. I read this book because I'm a fellow female gamer/geek who enjoyed The Guild and cherished her character Charlie on Supernatural. By writing about her life's journey Felicia exposed herself to the world and allowed us to see how she came to be the woman she is now. She shares with us both hilarious stories and terrifying moments. She explains how it was hard to connect to other people as a geek and I agree. It's hard to find people to connect with sometimes, ecspecially when they don't have a clue what you mean when you start chatting about weapons, armor, leveling up, fantasy books etc. My heart reached out to her as I read about her gaming addiction and slow spiral with anxiety and depression. That was my existence for almost five years and it takes a lot of will power and help from others to surface from it. Felicia shows us that we're all human with insecurities and worries. I think she was extremely brave to let us know how far she fell and how she came back and continues to manage her busy life.