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days of love and blood

Book Review of R.S. Carter’s Days of Love and Blood

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days of love and blood

Author, R.S. Carter, sent me a copy of her novel Days of Love and Blood. I also know that I’ve seen if on the free KDP list and until April 20th you can enter to win a paperback copy here.

Description from Goodreads:
A post-apocalyptic zombie book for women.

Without the zombies.

Worse than zombies.

The Demon Virus spreads worldwide in a matter of days leaving nothing but a few uninfected people in its path along with disease-riddled survivors who possess homicidal tendencies.

Carson drives across the country, back to her parents’ farm, with her son Ronan to begin a new life in a post-apocalyptic world. There she discovers more uninfected people like herself and attempts to build new relationships after the devastating loss of her husband.

Two men distract Carson from her grief, each possessing different characteristics that she found, loved and needed in her husband. Cooper has a bad attitude but gives Carson the space she needs with his self-sufficient, independent ways. Ben panders after her but exhibits a kindness she appreciates. Neither of them embody all of which she lost in her husband’s death.

The need for human interaction intertwines with the daily struggle of tribulation, remorse and adjustment, revolving around the constant battles between the uninfected and the last remaining homicidal maniacs. Days of Love and Blood is a story which examines the bonds created between people in times of change with an unexpected shocking end that will have you questioning your own threshold for pain.

Review:
I didn’t expect to like this book anywhere near as much as I did. You wouldn’t expect ‘sweet’ to be the word to come to mind when talking about post-apocolyptic zombies, but I really did think a lot of this book was. Not all of it of course. There was a lot of violence, some truly evil men, and heart break. I teared up at least once. But I also laughed a lot and most importantly Carson was a character I understood. She was… was… was… hmm, think Sarah Connor meets Beatrix Kiddo, who then takes on The Walking Dead. She’s one scary mama.

Really, the herding homicidal zombies are just the backdrop that gives this story a setting. Carson’s love for her son, grief, struggle to let herself accept love and go on with her life are the true story here. And it’s a good one. I liked it a lot. I also absolutely adored Cooper. He was flawed, really flawed, but his emotional honesty was heart wrenching. It and his good-‘ol-boy drawl were the star of the show as far as I was concerned. Ben, Ivy, Ronan and all of the others had their place too, but Cooper was my uncontested favourite.

Lastly, I appreciated that bad things happened. I don’t mean that in any sort of sadistic way. I just mean it’s realistic that there isn’t always a hero to show up at the last second to save the day. A lot of authors wimp out before allowing their characters to really suffer. That doesn’t happen here. Some of the latter scenes were hard to read and, honestly, I don’t know if I found it necessary for the plot to go there in the way it did. If for no other reason than it’s such an over-used plot device for creating outrage. I had come to expect more from the book. I know I thought the whole ‘this has happened before’ Schtick was a bit much for me. But I still appreciated the realism of allowing the story such dark elements.

My only real complaints are that the whole ‘warrior mother’ was a little heavy handed at times and I found some things a bit repetitive. But these are small qualms in a sea of rose coloured love. This book is definitely worth picking up.

Haunted on Bourbon Street

Book Review of Deanna Chase’s Haunted on Bourbon Street

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haunted on bourbon street14031401I grabbed Deanna Chase‘s Haunted on Bourbon Street from the Amazon KDP list…twice it would seem. (Thus the two covers) I didn’t even know it was possible to download the same book twice on Amazon. I guess the ASIN changed at some point or something. Anyhow, as the time of posting it appeared to be free again.

Description from Goodreads:
Jade loves her new apartment–until a ghost joins her in the shower.

When empath Jade Calhoun moves into an apartment above a strip bar on Bourbon Street, she expects life to get interesting. What she doesn’t count on is making friends with an exotic dancer, attracting a powerful spirit, and developing feelings for Kane, her sexy landlord.

Being an empath has never been easy on Jade’s relationships. It’s no wonder she keeps her gift a secret. But when the ghost moves from spooking Jade to terrorizing Pyper, the dancer, it’s up to Jade to use her unique ability to save her. Except she’ll need Kane’s help–and he’s betrayed her with a secret of his own–to do it. Can she find a way to trust him and herself before Pyper is lost?

Review:
I was pleasantly surprised by Deanna Chase’s Haunted on Bourbon Street. I think I expected something a little more H.P. Mallory-ish…more sexual tension and humour. I don’t mean to suggest that there wasn’t plenty of both, but rather it isn’t the focus of this book. In a sense this is as much a mystery as a paranormal romance. They have to investigate and identify the ghost, find out what he wants, find out how to defeat him, and find out how to get on with life.

I liked Jade. While she came in with some preconceived notions about strip clubs and those that work in them, she eventually proved herself to be open minded and mentally flexible. She also had a good strong backbone… though one of these days I swear I am going to do some sort of research project on how often otherwise healthy, well-balanced women in romantic fiction manage to twist ankles while in the presence of sexy men who can carry them away…and maybe even go on to explore how often they then end up in said sexy man’s bed. Here we find a woman who apparently can’t even turn 90° to the right without injuring herself. Sheesh!

Dodgy balance aside, I really did like Jade. It was also nice that her empathic ability was integral to her personality, but not to saving the day. Well it was, but you know how sometimes in books the main character will have one strong skill and somehow it is the only thing that is needed to single-handedly save the world? Not so much here and that was refreshing.

I thought Kane was not only super sexy, but a sweet heart to boot. Pyper was a firecracker. I did have a little trouble deciding what an LSU graduate (one presumes she graduated in the absence of information to the contrary) was doing working in a strip club, but I was willing to accept it. Kat, Dan, and Ian filled their roles, but I felt little for them.

The twist wasn’t all that difficult to guess, but it also wasn’t so obvious that one felt there wasn’t a need to finish the story. I did think things got a little convoluted there at the end. Yes, I suppose I could call it action packed, but the whole feel of the novel changed with the increased pace. Plus, it all felt a little convenient. I know a week was supposed to have passed, so obviously the group worked hard to pull it together. But since the reader isn’t party to any of this it felt wrong. Does that make sense?

I’m glad to have given it a read at long last and would be more than willing to read the continuation of the series.

 

Book Review of Heather Hildenbrand’s Dirty Blood

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Dirty Blood

I grabbed Heather Hildenbrand‘s Dirty Blood off of the KDP free list. At the time of posting it was still free…or free again. I downloaded it quite a while ago. 

Description from Goodreads:
I killed a girl last night. I did it with my bare hands and an old piece of pipe I found lying next to the dumpster. But that’s not the part that got me. The part that scared me, the part I can’t seem to wrap my head around and still has me reeling, was that when she charged me, her body shifted – and then she was a wolf. All snapping teeth and and extended claws. But by the time I stood over her lifeless body, she was a girl again. That’s about the time I went into shock… And that was the moment he showed up.

Review:
I put off reading this book because, frankly, I haven’t been enjoying many YA read lately. I’m beginning to think I’ve just gotten a little too old to relate to the teenagers involved. That being the case, I was relieved to enjoy this one as much as I did. Yes, I still had to sit through Algebra class (or whatever period it might have been) and all of the adolescent angst, but I have no intention of penalising the book for an expected element of the genre. It’s just that some books play this particular card too heavily for me. That wasn’t the case here. There was enough to remind me that Tara was 17 and Wes 19, but not enough to drown out the rest of the plot.

Tara was a character I could understand. She was strong willed, without being suicidal about it. She very rarely put herself in needless danger just to prove her independence. Plus she was surprisingly observant of the body language of other characters. She gleaned a lot of information from very small things. I appreciated that. Like her, I got a little tired of everyone trying to push her aside for her own protection and I was right behind her when she lashed out about it. You go girl!

I thought that the plot rolled along nicely. There were a few predictable parts, but on the whole the events kept me interested. I also thought that it ended well. I feel like lately half of the books I’ve read end in the middle of a story. As a result I’m becoming a little wary of any first in a series. This one had a real ending, while still being open for the continuation of the series.