Fantasy

The Keeper by Rebecca E. Neely Book Promotion!!!

 in Book Events / Books by

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*A tortured leader of human guardians must join forces with the one woman in the city who can save his clan from destruction: an anxious – and psychic – accountant who has no memory of him. Readers of MIND GAME by Carolyn Crane will love the first installment in the Crossing Realms series by Rebecca E. Neely – Sacrifice or salvation? A chosen psychic few may be both. As the city’s Keepers battle Betrayers to save the human race, all’s not fair in love and war.

The Keeper by Rebecca E. NeelyTitle: The Keeper
Author: Rebecca E. Neely
Series: Crossing Realms #1
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Release Date: April 27th 2016
Publisher: Soul Mate
Publishing Format: Digital

Synopsis: Nick Geary, jaded clan leader of human guardians, the Keepers, is doomed to love a human woman who’s forgotten him, time after time, for thirteen years: Libby Klink, a skittish accountant who’s as terrified of her recent and strange intuitions as she is of her mundane existence.

When Nick is ordered by the clan’s guiding force to seek Libby’s help in defending the clan against enemy Betrayers, romance sizzles as the pair forms an unlikely alliance in their desperate search to discover the key to the clan’s salvation—which Libby alone holds.

But a haunting secret could cost Nick everything, and in a race against time, both will be forced to choose between their hearts and duty. Can their love, and the clan survive, or will the very forces that drew them together ultimately destroy them?

Purchase from Amazon!

Find out more at: Goodreads | Rebecca’s Website

Excerpt from THE KEEPER:

“Libby Klink gripped the wheel of her Sonata tighter. She squeezed her eyes shut against the gridlock of makes, models and metal surrounding her; against the stone cold gray of the highway’s Jersey barrier, four inches from her left side view mirror.

Just a traffic jam.

Her body knew different. Her pulse raced. Her blood, her brain wailed, frantic with the rhythm. She battled the stars claiming her vision, gulping air into her lungs. Shaking, she rummaged in her purse until her fingers closed around a prescription bottle. Flipping open the lid, she snatched one white round pill and downed it with a swallow from the ever present water bottle in her drink holder. Sweat glazed her scalp, her neck, her armpits. She shivered inside her lightweight cardigan and scraped her ponytail away from her damp skin.

Just a road.

Like hell. More like a cattle chute. She’d been sitting here, what, ten minutes? She lowered the driver side window to breathe in greedy mouthfuls of early April air. And willed the meds to kick in, trying not to think about the fact she was effectively trapped. On I-279 South. About a quarter mile outside the city of Pittsburgh. Or that she had to pee.

She closed her eyes, tried to conjure soothing mental imagery; a forest, a beach. Wasn’t that what her therapist taught her to do? But other thoughts and images crowded her mind.

The cashier at the grocery store two nights ago.
The barista at the coffee house this morning.
The smells.
The dreams.
If that’s what they are.”

Praise for The Keeper

4.5 Passionate and Action packed stars, May 2, 2016

By ~Nichole Hart ~ Sizzling Pages Romance Reviews

Rebecca Neely created a vibrant, mysterious and magical world in the first Crossing Realms installment. We meet Libby a shy and anxiety ridden sad woman who is barely existing in a boring, stressful and unfulfilled job and life. Grieving her dads passing she’s just living one day to the next. A crazy occurrence on an ordinary day changed Libbie’s life when Nick shows up in all of his mysterious swagger and dark attitude. The connection between the two was soul deep and felt by this reader immediately. The suspenseful and magical world building was intense and layered with so many elements. Keepers, Watchers, Betrayers. So many levels of good and evil. This wasn’t just a romance it had a family vibe and a very action packed plot. Nick and Libbie’s story was passionate and healing and I really enjoyed the ups and downs. Nick was so amazing, never holding back when the time came to lay out his feelings. Nothing like a hero dreaming about claiming his woman forever and planning babies.

Total swoon alert. I can’t wait to see what the next installment will bring in this powerful, romantic and magical series.

 

5 STARS Loved it, June 3, 2016

By Whitney

I received this book free for an honest review and I am really glad I requested this book to put it simply I completely loved it and I completely felt for all the characters. This book while having many elements is basically good versus evil. The twists and turns had me continually guessing on what was going to happen next. I really enjoyed the explanations that were going on throughout the entire book it was written so well and it was really easy to understand what had been going previously. I loved the dynamics that took place between the lead characters I completely fell in love with Nick and Libby and the situations they were put in. If you want to read something different that is completely unique then give this book a try it is truly amazing.

 

5 STARS – Action, suspense, paranormal elements—all in one novel!, June 7, 2016

by Rebecca

The Keeper, Crossing Realms Book 1, grabbed my attention with page one. Action packed scenes laced with tender moments carefully woven in, give this paranormal story a realistic fiction feel. I loved the growth of the characters and how they dealt with their weaknesses.

Great start to a series I will continue reading!

Thanks to the author for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

*All from Ms. Neely’s media kit or provided by her

Gol (The Legends of Ansu) by J.W. Webb

 in Adventure / Book Events / Book Reviews / Books / Fantasy / Older Readers / Otherworldly / Young Adult by

Gol Book CoverSummary

“An island beset by the Sea God’s wrath. Once a mighty kingdom, now six provinces torn apart by treacherous barons. In one province, two young lovers strive to stay together when all else prises them apart.

Lissane and Erun must survive to guide their people through the coming storm. The odds are stacked against them. Erun, dreamer and fool, is chosen for a dark path, whilst Lissane is given away by her father the baron to wed the brutal son of a rival ruler. Meanwhile, at the far side of the world, a sorcerer has freed the fire demon, Ashmali, setting off a chain of events that could ultimately bring about Gol’s long foretold ruin.

Caught between rising seas, civil war, and approaching fire, the continent’s time is fast running out. Gol is book one in the forthcoming Legends of Ansu series. Within lies an epic tale of love, hatred, vengeance and destruction. In Gol, the high courage of a few individuals is all that stands against the will of fickle gods and the treachery of men.”

–From Amazon.com

Review

This was a fantastic book! I probably never would have found this book had it not been for the Books & The Bear book tour. I never really got into the Lord of the Rings series and was never really into that kind of story line where there were tons of characters and epic quests. I don’t know, I always found them kind of cliche. However, this book was really really good and overall was highly enjoyable.

First thing I will mention is that it had a LOT of characters all from different provinces and kingdoms and such. I wasn’t aware of this, but at the end of the book (I read the ebook as that’s what’s emailed for book tours and such), was the list of characters which I wish I knew about before I started the book because it would have helped keep track of who was who a little bit more. I would sometimes read and think I was reading about one character and something drastic would happen and I’d be like ‘no, he would never do that’ and then I’d realize that it was a completely different character than who I thought it was. That wasn’t a massive problem but it meant I would sometimes need to go back to see what I had just read again or take a few minutes to straighten out who was who exactly.

With all of these characters, there was a lot of character development as well. Sometimes it was for the better and sometimes it wasn’t. Which was definitely nice because it wasn’t a  fairy-tale ending. That helped to make it more realistic and kept you on your toes a lot more.

The next thing I wanted to mention is the age group which this book is for. I would definitely recommend this book for older readers due to the fact that there was sex, language and a lot of violence.

The sex was not exactly graphic, but there was a fair amount of it and it was quite….I guess the word would be violent. In the world, as well as times, that the book was set, women weren’t necessarily, well usually, were not married to men whom they loved. So with Lissanes love life, her sex scenes were generally a little more along the lines of rape, as that is kind of what it was like (think Game of Thrones for those of you who watch it). Also a lot of the men were pig and so they would just have sex with women left, right and center without caring about what they did. So in that aspect it was kind of graphic but it was true to what it would be like though.

The language wasn’t excessive but with certain characters, to highlight the fact that they were rude and uncivilized, they may use more foul language than others. So there were moments when words were used that definitely were not appropriate for younger audiences.

For the violence, there was a lot of that. Whether it be from torture scenes to just general fighting. It generally wasn’t terribly graphic, but there was lots of threats of removing the male member from people, as well as various torture scenes that weren’t that vivid but if you’re like me who reads and really gets into the book, your mind makes up wonderful images, so in that sense it was kind of brutal.

I personally didn’t mind the sex, language and violence as it added character to the book. In my opinion it stayed quite true to what the medial sort of times would have been like with rivaling kingdoms and magical kinds of creatures.

And that’s another thing. There was magic and sorcery and demons but it wasn’t something that took up the entire book. It was a theme that kept appearing and it wasn’t really a massive thing until book two (the book was split into two books). Then Erun went on an epic quest to find his love. That kind of reminded me of The Princess Bride, in a few aspects now that I look back on it while I write this review.

But overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was about 550 pages so it took me a little while to read, but I finished it and thought it was pretty creative and a nice change from all of the other stuff out there.

I highly do recommend it. But a warning. Prepare yourself for a fantastical journey. You may just encounter fire demon along the way.

Happy reading!!!

Click here to purchase the book.

Gol by J.W. Webb Book Tour!!!!

 in Book Events / Books / Fantasy / Young Adult by

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over

Book Title: Gol
Series: The Legends of Ansu
Author Name: J.W. Webb
Author Website: Legendsofansu.com
Purchase from Amazon: Gol (Legends of Ansu) (Volume 1)
 Book Genre: Fantasy
Synopsis of Book: Gol. A continent on the brink of destruction. Once a mighty kingdom, now six provinces torn apart by treacherous barons. In one province two young lovers strive to stay together when all else prises them apart. Lissane and Erun must survive to guide their people through the coming storm. The odds are stacked against  them. Erun, dreamer and fool, is chosen for a dark path. Whilst Lissane is given away by her father
the baron to wed the brutal son of a rival ruler.
J.W. Webb HeadshotMeanwhile, at the far side of the world a sorcerer has freed the fire demon, Ashmali, setting off a chain of events that could ultimately bring about Gol’s long foretold ruin. Caught between rising seas, civil war, and approaching fire the continent’s time is fast running out.  Gol features beautiful sketches and maps by Tolkien illustrator, Roger Garland. It opens the doors on a new epic fantasy series titled Legends of Ansu. Within its content lies an sweeping tale of love, hatred, vengeance and destruction. In Gol the high courage of a few individuals is all that stands against the will of fickle gods and treachery of men.

Books in the series
Reviews:

“I read a lot of fantasy and mythology books, so this is a genre I’m familiar with. Having read another of J.W. Webb’s books recently – “The Haven” and really enjoying it, I was curious to see how he would deliver in this one “Gol – The Legends of Ansu”. Mr. Webb is unarguably a very talented writer, but more than that he genuinely impressed me with his thorough world-building and sheer creativeness on many levels. All too often I read works that feel clearly derivative of other books, and although I appreciate literary influences (as is felt here as well), when something this original comes along it is a refreshing change of pace! Some of the writing was downright lyrical in the simple elegance of the prose, and other times I was nearly breathless from the intensity and violent passion. For such a long book I finished it in less than a week, and went through so many highs and lows, it felt like a rollercoaster. I was hoping for a different ending, but it was bittersweet (and more powerful this way) nonetheless. A must read for fans of high fantasy. (5 stars)”

“I really enjoyed “Gol” by author J.W. Webb, even though “epic” fantasy isn’t usually one of my more preferred genres (don’t dislike it, just don’t generally gravitate). But I recently read another book by this author, “the Haven” , and I like watching “Game of Thrones” so I gave it a shot. I was really impressed! I really liked the drawings (and the map), and thought that Mr. Webb did such a wonderful job with the descriptions of the world and the different characters. There are SO many of them it’s hard to keep track (there is a useful guide at the end), but I did fall in love with Lissane and Erun and was so shocked at some things that happened. Emotionally engaging and with lots of action. Some language, especially towards the last half (book 2) but other than that it feels pretty suitable for mature teens on up. I had a great time reading this! (5 stars)”

“This book was great… lots of fun to read and very creative. Describing it is a hard task! All sorts of interesting characters, creatures, humans, and non-humans, and a terrific mix of
fantasy, adventure, and danger and magic. Although I did think the beginning started off kind of slow until I got more of a feel about this new world and the characters and their backgrounds,  once things got moving along I really got hooked. I liked that it was so descriptive that we can really put ourselves inside Gol and the various character’s perspectives. Fabulous narrative prose and the language was very authentic. Recommend for fantasy fans who want a fun, literary read. Looking forward to the next one of the Legends of Ansu!”

“Fast-paced, well written and creative, “Gol” (Legends of Ansu book 1) from J.W. Webb is an absolute must-read for fans of novels such as Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Merlin, Mists of Avalon, etc. “Gol” holds its own with the top-notch writing and plot structure, and an exciting, varied cast of colorful characters and plenty of magic and thrills to go around. There are some familiar tropes here (as with most fantasy), however, I feel Mr. Webb did a great job of bringing in a unique voice and making the story wholly his own, and giving it a fresh feel. I didn’t feel like I’ve read this million times before. A few things, I thought at times there was way too much “telling” instead of showing. Not too bad, but some parts dragged toward the middle. But an engrossing story with near perfect editing, and I’m ready for the next one! (4-5 stars)”

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Barking Madness by Ryan Hill

 in Books / Older Readers / Young Adult by

Barking Madness by Ryan HillSummary

“Seventeen-year-old Rosetta Harper is plagued by nightmares of a masked man. With her father’s new career move, her family has just relocated from Florida, to the small New England town of Ashwood, a quiet town and close-knit community where you know your neighbors, and trouble is a word unspoken. But soon after her arrival, both Rosetta’s world and the worlds of her classmates come crashing down.

Michael hates his family and feels alone and unloved. He only finds comfort when he’s with his friends, but even they get on his nerves. Everything about Ashwood and his life bores him, until Rosetta Harper moves into town. With her as a new classmate, Michael finally gets the excitement he was looking for, but it may be at too high a cost…”

-From Amazon.com

Review

Ryan reached out to me over this book and as a he was a university student like I am as well, I had to give it a go as I was curious and all Uni students want success and I’d love to be a part of that for him. And I’m definitely glad that I agreed to read this book as it was fantastic! It took the regular story of a werewolf and gave it a slight twist which was quite interesting and unexpected.

I would definitely classify this book as older YA because of some of the themes occurring, such as some of the violence, but other than that it was a perfect YA novel! Which was a really nice change for me because I’ve been reading such heavy texts recently as well as adult novels (so the writing is more advanced) and it was nice for the change.

First thing I’ll focus on is the character development, which there was a lot of. I love when there is character development and because there was so much in this, you kept wondering how characters would react to different situations, as they kept developing. You were never sure and so it definitely kept you on your toes.

Next was the general story line. Even until the end I wasn’t sure how it was going to end, because of the character development. You never really knew who would say what and react to each situation.

Now this book is heavy with death and violence, some of which is quite graphic, so if you aren’t necessarily into that type of stuff, then this book isn’t exactly for you. There was also quite a lot of talks about suicide and self-harm, which I want to mention as I know quite a few people get uncomfortable with things such as this within books. There was bullying and teen drinking and all that such, hence why I classify it as mature YA, a genre which it fits perfectly into.

It was a decent length, almost 500 pages, so it wasn’t an excessively long read but potentially a little longer than some YA books.

Also, one of the things which I really liked was that you got to dislike or really hate some of the characters in the book. I love when an author can do that because it makes it more realistic and more fun as well! So that was also really interesting and awesome.

Overall I really did enjoy the book. Click here to purchase it from Amazon and definitely do give it a go and let me know what you think.

Happy Reading!

How To Train Your Dragon – Movie Review

 in Books-to-Movie / Movies by

How To Train Your Dragon is an animation and it was really cute. The animation was really good – it was not good in the sense that it was realistic but the animations were done well and it looked crisp and clear. One of the best parts of the animation was the dragon, Toothless, because his eyes were soooooo cute. I just could not get over them. Throughout the whole movie Toothless had those type of eyes that said, ‘Look at me, I am so cute, and I love you.’ They made me feel like cat eyes do when a cat looks at you when they have done something wrong – those big, round, ‘I love you’ eyes. Not fair. That was one reason that I wanted to see the movie because I thought that the dragon was really cute (and he was.) Now let us move on to the story, plot line. The story was interesting. It was about a boy and his adventure with his dragon and how they have to save the Viking tribe and stuff like that, but the book was nothing like the movie. Click here to see the book review. The dragons in the movie you could ride on but the ones in the book sat on your arm. Hiccup in the book did some cool things with his good friend (which he had from the beginning of the book) but in the movie he was alone and he only got a “allies” in the end. The “friend” in the movie was never mentioned. The movie was good but it was nothing like the book. The only way that I would be able to tell if it was like the book was by Hiccup, Toothless, and the father. That was the only similarity to the book. I am not criticizing the movie in any way because I liked – sorry – loved the movie and everything. It was done very well but the only thing was that it was nothing like the book. It does not matter if you read the book first or saw the movie first. One does not tie into the other. I still recommend that you read the book because it was good and I still recommend that you watch the movie but just be prepared that they are not similar at all. Enjoy.