woensdag 29 juni 2016

Forged in Smoke - Trish McCallan

Publisher: Montlake Romance

Published: July 2016

ISBN: 9781503945494

Faith Ansell could never be mistaken for an action hero. The scientist is content in her lab, working with her team on life-changing discoveries. But when a mysterious organization captures her colleagues, she’s forced to flee for her life with SEAL Team 7.

Lieutenant Seth “Rawls” Rawlings, ST7’s corpsman, hasn’t been himself since a near-death experience in the Sierra Nevadas. He’s tense and distracted, and the team caught him arguing with himself—loudly. Despite his erratic behavior, Rawls is the only one Faith feels comfortable confiding her life-threatening secret in.

But Rawls has a secret of his own: his wasn’t the only spirit to return to the physical plane when he was resuscitated. At first, Rawls assumed the “ghost” he saw and heard meant he was having a complete mental breakdown. But the apparition soon becomes convincingly real, and what’s more, he may be the key to the conspiracy looming over them. Rawls had better act quickly because ST7’s race to save their reputations—and Faith’s life—is on.


My review
Hot muscled SEAL men and mysterious spirits and conspiracies? Yep, count me in. So I was very excited to receive this ARC from Netgalley. Since this was the third installment of the Red-Hot SEALS series of Trish McCallan, I just dove in and thought: "let's just see how it goes". Technically you are able to read the book as a stand alone. However, if you haven't read the first two parts of the series, you've got a lot of catching up to do. The first quarter of the book you get a little dizzy and distracted by all the names and groups in every new chapter. However, about one third in the book you get to the good stuff. Faith is a scientist, working on some super secret discoveries, when most of her colleagues are taken hostage and some are shot. She has to flee for her life with the SEAL team. But who can she trust and who is on which side? Especially with her life-threatening secret, Faith is scared to show her weaknesses to them. Only lieutenant Rawls feels trustworthy to Faith. Well, more than trustworthy actually. More like sizzling-hot-attraction-feelings. And judging by the growing bulk in Rawls trousers, he is definitely also attracted to Faith. But why is he keeping her away? And why does he throw his cookies into the wall and calls it a spasm in his arm? Faith, the scientist as ever, doesn't believe a thing of the explanations Rawls tries to give her. 

But when Jude and Wolf show them there is more between heaven and earth, Faith is torn between her scientifical background and the believing in Rawls 'ghost'. What if this ghost is real and what if he is the key to the unraveling of the whereabouts of her colleagues? Find out more in this sizzling book.

The book is a delightful mix of paranormal, scientific and just plain hunky hot men. Definitely my kind of book. So four out of five stars for this Red Hot SEALS book. After this, I'm starting with the first two books of the series and I'm already waiting for part four. This will be about Rawls SEAL buddy Mac. Since there is already some tension between Mac and Amy, I'm guessing the theme already. Go Trish! 

woensdag 15 juni 2016

The Invisible Library - Genevieve Cogman

Publisher: Tor UK

Published: January 2015 

ISBN: 9781447256236

The first installment of an adventure featuring stolen books, secret agents and forbidden societies - think Doctor Who with librarian spies!

Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.

Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.

Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.
 


My review
The ingredients for a perfect story are there: librarians (my favorites), different worlds, yummie dragons and dangerous missions. So I started this book with high hopes and a lot of expectations.
After about fifty pages, I started to reconsider. The storyline is excellent, Irene is a believable character (got to love strong, independent women with a quick wit), and the mission is exciting. But why I'm I still wondering what I'm reading? Genevieve Cogman has obviously tried to put together a very interesting story. But in all her excitement, she uses a lot of descriptions and a lot of storylines which makes the total book hard to read. Especially the first part. New realities, objects being told in an ancient language to do something and chaos-infected worlds? I'm sorry, but this was too much and too far fetched for me. However, the mysterious Kai kept me wondering and also the chase of the book in alternative Londen started to unfold in the second half of the book. So, after about one hundred pages, I finally started to feel comfortable in the book and actually starting to enjoy myself. What does the detective Vale has to do with the book? And what history is there between Irene and Bradamant, that Irene despises her so?
So when the story is unfolding towards the end of the book, I was compelled to read further. Unfortunately the book ended in a bit of an anti-climax, when the story didn't quite finish. You have to read on in the Masked City for the remaining part of the story. 
So in all, I'm afraid I can't give more than two out of five stars to The Invisible Library. It's kind of like my kitchen skills: although I can use the perfect ingredients, it doesn't mean we will have a five star menu on the table. I can try, but I'm just no chef...