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This is exactly the kind of person I want to read.

 

Though, once I posted this in The Thread That Ruined It All, someone made a point about how this probably wasn't directed at those of us commenting... so that's possible. I'm definitely too close to the situation.

 

This is the last thing I wanted to see: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferlaurensauthor?hc_location=stream

 

 

OMG! Karina Halle, you are a cruel cruel woman to tease me by posting the first chapter of Bold Tricks. Gah! I don't know what to do! I desperately want to read it, but I can't deal with waiting for Bold Tricks to release. I know if I read it, I'll re-read it over and over until I've memorized the first chapter word for every fucking word. 

ETA: Crap! I read it and I need more!!!!

In this post I'm going to show you how to change the Followers and Following sections on your pages into something creative like Minions and Masters. 

I barely know any HTML, but I've wanted to learn for some time, and I think this will be a great way to get comfortable with it. Thanks to all of you who have tips and tricks, I know people like me really appreciate it!

 

 

 

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BookLikes Welcomes New Book Lovers :-) And now let's start reading.

I keep going between three and four stars, but I'm going to round up since I have this inability to not rate as a series (if it's the last book).

Usually.

It just happens that this is one of my most favorites so I'm rounding up. I have no self control.

I'm not sure how satisfied I am honestly. It's not that this wasn't good, I mean, it's Veronica Rossi - oh wait - I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to mention the author anymore. Uhm, it's the same characters I adore, and they're still just as fabulous as always, but there was just something missing somehow. The synopsis says, "In this final book in her stunning Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi raises the stakes to their absolute limit and brings her epic love story to an unforgettable close." But, and I'm sure I'll be in the minority, this didn't feel unforgettable. It felt a bit rushed and loose. There were a lot of things going on, but I feel like I was only on the surface of them. The way the climax happened was very anticlimactic, the way we find out if Cinder can even help is leaving me frustrated, and basically, I feel like I didn't get to go as deep into everything as I have in the first two books. As I said, I'm sure there won't be many who feel the same way I do, because this isn't a bad book by any stretch of the imagination, it's just not as much as I was hoping for as the final book in such an amazing story. I'm hoping that we'll get more of these people, even just mentions, in future stories because I adore them.

/unpopular opinion.

Actually, one of my favorite things about these characters are their relationships. The bonds between everyone are written so perfectly that I can't help but be in awe of Ross--oops, dangit. I think of these relationships as having the same power over me that only a few favorite characters do - they just fit, and I love them. I'll never forget my surprise when I realized that Roar and Aria were going to actually just be friends. And best friends at that. They don't suffer from any weirdness between the two of them like so many other "friends" I read about, and I relish their moments together. I don't want them to be a couple. I just want to be their friend and have that same closeness. The bonds between all of these people is what I feel to be the greatest strength of these novels.

Since I'm feeling beyond angry at this site right now, and don't want to waste my time writing a review that could, and should apparently, be flagged for mentioning the author, I'll leave you with some of my favorite quotes, because fabulous series is (still) fabulous. *Quotes are subject to change in the final version*

Perry had never understood that phrase not to mention. It was mentioned.

"What did you find out?" She asked.
"That I'm unstoppable. And indispen--"
"Soren."
"Oh, you mean about the plan?"

His things already felt like they were hers, and his shirts were more than mere shirts. Maybe she was losing her mind, but they meant something to her just because they were his.

Aria loved knowing his thoughts. With every one she learned, she fell for him more deeply. It was the best kind of falling, and she wondered if it would ever end.

She wanted to firm her grip, to create an unbreakable grasp that would keep him close forever, but he'd chosen a path. And though she ached to stop him, she wouldn't.

"I wasn't worried," Soren said. "I just felt like hitting somebody when he did."

Roar laughed. "What can I say? I'm just good at most things."

I'm going to discuss the plot in depth, but the nothing more than what the synopsis already tells us, though it might be slightly spoilery, it won't be enough to hide the review. Quotations subject to change as this is an uncorrected copy from Netgalley. I finished this a few of days ago, and I'm still struggling to figure out how to explain this book. Here goes nothing.

The story is about Ellie, and basically, her descent into madness. We never know if it's mental illness she suffers from, something paranormal, or just exacerbated hormones. I realize how that sounds, but I still have no idea, even though I feel as though her issue was mental health related. Is she schizophrenic, bipolar, multiple personalities, anxiety disorder, head trauma, or perhaps a combination of several of these? It's hard to say because Ellie is an extremely unreliable narrator; she's supposed to be, the entire story is told by means of her journal entries, so limited information is the way it goes.

We know right away that she is suffering from some sort of mental illness because she tells us about her attempted suicide, and how her parents are moving so they can all have a fresh start. Before they can make it to their new home they are involved in a fatal car crash, though who dies isn't clear for some time, if ever really. At first it was her mother that died, and her father is completely unable to move forward. Was it severe depression that was affecting her, because we find out that her father was depressive as well.

Worse even than when I tried to die. It's like all those other bouts of depression were just tremors, little quakes. Losing Mom is too big. The world is crashing down and all he can do is stand and watch, alone and terrified, powerless to go on living.

I'm here, but I'm not Mom. I can't talk to him the way she talked to him.

As we watch father and daughter struggle to come to terms with their loss, Ellie meets Madeline Torus, and instantly has a connection with her. Madeline just waltzed in to Ellie's room wanting to listen to music and hang out, but Ellie didn't find this odd, no, in fact she basked in the attention from this girl. She admired the way Madeline dressed, the way she could dance, the way she held herself, and most importantly Ellie loved the way she felt when she was with Madeline. The line between friendship, lover(?), and obsession is blurred between these two for the entire book even when we find out that Ellie believes Madeline to be her twin sister who disappeared in utero. Let me share a sampling of quotes to give you an idea of what I mean here:

My purpose is clear. There's a reason why I survived the accident. Her name is Madeline Torus.

But she's safe now. I would never hurt her, not in a million years. Not my Madeline. My stone angel. I will always be hers. She will always be mine. Forever and ever.

[...] I'll do my homework and watch TV and then take a pill so Madeline and I will become one.

Madeline kisses me on the lips. Not like a boy. Closer. We are meant to be forever.

After she met Madeline and tried to deal with the fact that her father is unable to care for her, or himself, suddenly things change, and it's not her mother who had died in the crash, but rather her father. She was suffering from head trauma. I had a hard time believing that this was "real" life because I couldn't tell what was real and wasn't anymore, or ever really.

Regarding her mental illness, if that is even what's wrong with her, there was no healthy resolution. She was forced into therapy when her mom found her after she had been cutting, apparently severely, but the help didn't seem to really help her. I didn't feel that Ellie went through any kind of change, or ever recognized that she had a problem. I think the story worked the way she left it, other than the very end, but it would have been nice to see Ellie become healthy, well, healthier, in the end. I was left wondering if that's what it felt like to suffer from extreme psychotic disorders, and it was frightening and depressing.

The strangeness in this book was both an asset and a hindrance for me. I generally like my answers, but I also really like creepy and dark, and that's part of what has held me back from trying to review this. On one hand it's everything I look for in a book: grey, creepiness, dark, twisted, and uncomfortable. On the other hand it's ambiguity was almost too much for me.

I think this is a really strong debut; the writing captured the voice of a disturbed girl with perfection, and the subject was fascinating, if a bit hard to suffer through. If you like a story that makes you uncomfortable, and has a serious dose of creepy, then you will probably like this.

More like a good 3 1/2 stars. I'm taking off a star because Khanh's review reminded me how much I was glossing over in trying to get this book to be as good as the first. My new rating is 2 1/2 stars.

I was completely blown away from the first book in this series, duology?, and it's not that I didn't really like this one, it's just not as amazing for me. It's weird because it felt slower even though there was more vampire action.

Veering slightly off course for a second, I should say that I enjoyed the humor that was in the story. There isn't tons of it, but it's well placed. Like Alex making a joke about and Katie not getting it, lol.

I called it the zombie apocalypse in my first review, because these vampires are so much closer to what I envision zombies should be like. They're old-school vamps, and I love it, even if I still think of them as zombies. Whatever. Stop judging me.

The story picks up a few weeks after Katie, Ginger, and Alex were thrown out of Katie's Amish home, and we're immediately treated to fighting alongside her as she battles some vampires. Katie isn't the same girl she was when we first met her, and I really enjoyed her evolution; it felt authentic to her character. She maintained her Amish roots, even as she did a great deal of questioning of her faith, and in the end she stayed true to herself which I appreciated. In fact, many of the questions she raised were ones I've thought myself. She and Alex have a very sweet, if a bit boring, relationship and Alex proved himself worthy of being one of the last men on earth repeatedly. "That's not what I mean. I mean...you just agree to submit to my authority. Is that something that you're doing just because I'm a man? Having a penis doesn't make me infallible." He rubbed his hands through his hair, and I could see his Adam's apple bob as he was trying not to cry.

To surmise my point, this is a great duology, the writing is subtle and deep, the characters are grey, the situation immediate, and the story engrossing.

As you may know I loved the first book in this series, even though I had some issues with it, and I was lucky enough to get to beta read this book recently; my first! While I still have a few issues, I can't help but love these characters. What can I say, I'm an emotional reader, lol.

The story picks up where we left off in [b:King Hall|18102827|King Hall (Forever Evermore, #1)|Scarlett Dawn|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371696532s/18102827.jpg|25419642] with the battle raging all around our main characters. After they eventually make their way to the haven known as King Cave, things start to get really interesting.

A few important points to know about this book is that it's long, as in, it could be easily broken up into two books. It doesn't feature all four of the main characters, but rather focuses on Ezra and Lilly. There still isn't as much focus on the political turmoil wreaking havoc in the world.

Hitting on the first point, if you're like me, and love a character driven story that reads like "a-day-in-the-life-of", then the length isn't too much of an issue. Since I didn't read the final version I can't say if the few issues I had with this will be smoothed out or not, but all in all, I like a long book if it's filled with people I care about. Lilly and Ezra finally - thank you! - made strides towards ending their painfully obvious sexual tension, and I loved it. I love sex in my books, I've never beaten around the bush with that, and especially considering that the first book didn't read with the maturity needed to pull off the "new adult" sub-genre, it was great to finally see the story take on the adult tones I wanted. This is definitely not a story for a younger audience.

My second gripe about this story, and maybe my biggest actually, is that we don't get to see enough of Jack and Pearl. They went through a traumatic event at the end of the first book, and I wanted to see more of their lives in the aftermath of that, but they're very much on the sideline. It made me sad because it was the four of them that I fell in love with, and while I can't get enough of Ezra (and Lilly, lol), I wanted to spend time with them as well. Instead of four friends being really close, we have two groups of two, with less intimacy between both. There was a not-quite-surprising-but-wonderful twist involved in the friendship dynamic that I very much missed out on witnessing. I didn't want to know the way I did, I wanted to experience it too. The fact that they're not as involved is a detriment for me, but it doesn't make the story any less fantastic, it just makes it different from the way it started out as. I hope that makes sense... Basically, I missed them a great deal, but I still really liked the story.

As far as the political upheaval, I was really bothered by the whole thing in the first book, and that didn't exactly abate in this one, but after reading this one, I think I understand better why the author chose not to have as much focus on it. The war, and reasons for it, are still very much in the background, almost like an afterthought, but it's just the nature of this particular story. It's a conflict, but it's not the central conflict moving the plot. It didn't annoy me quite as much this time as it did last time, and I hope the synopsis reflects this better this time around. I can't help but wonder at the Mysticals for putting up with the humans though, since they have such greater powers, and I wish the reasons for the humans hating the Mys' made more sense, but again, I still loved the story, so it's clearly not something I got too hung up on, lol.

I really love the author's style, and the characters she's crafted. I think that this story focuses on love, adversity, friendship, and the power of knowing yourself and what you value. There is a lot of humor in here that had me giggling out loud, as well as a few times where I felt like my heart was breaking. There's a scene towards the end that got me good :(. I'm not sure how many novels are planned in the series, but I'm in it for the long haul.

****And now, because the author is awesome, I get to treat you all to a teaser from the book! I love me some teasers, lol. I liked this scene in particular because I think it was one of the turning points for Lilly in being seen as worthy of her title. I wish you could hear the bomb she drops on them after this!!****

The video started again on the golden cube, and I closed my eyes, listening to the magnified sound. Once more, my head cocked as their leader got to the particularly loud rant. I heard it again, and threw up a hand. “Elder Harcourt, stop.” The sound went off, the video pausing, as my eyes flew open to the Elders I had spoken with. “Did you hear it?”

As one, all three of them shook their heads.

“Shit,” I muttered, pushing up from my seat, staring at the image. Feeling incredibly stupid, three more powerful men not having heard it, but still, I know I had heard it. “I think…” I stalled, clearing my throat, jaw clenching as everyone stared at me expectantly. “Okay, I think I know two things about the man in question.” I stared at the image, and not the intimidating Elders and Kings around me. “One, I believe the man in question is Philip Masterson.”

I saw everyone still around the table, and I quickly explained for those who weren’t in the know. “He’s a Congressman in the United States. I know him personally, since he tried to rape me a few months ago. I recognize his voice.” My gaze went to King Kincaid’s wide gaze. “It’s him. I know it is. And it also explains the timing of his disappearance.”

“Goddamn motherfucker,” King Nelson muttered, eyes solid on the screen. A pause. “Antonio, you followed him. Did you see any signs that it could be him?”

Antonio’s gaze was glowing a bit as he stared at the screen. “I saw nothing out of the ordinary at the time, but Lil’s right. It’s his voice now that she mentioned it.” Golden eyes swung to me, his grin feral. “I believe you have something else to say.”

THAT'S the ending?! Really?! I'm just going to rant aimlessly in this spoiler tag, so don't read it if you don't want to be spoiled, and be prepared for my thoughts to bounce ALL OVER THE PLACE.

I still don't like Camden as much as I did in the first book. The first book had that man front and center in my imaginary list of people I'd like to have sex with, but then I read the novella... and Javier. Yum. So, both of these dudes are fucking cray cray, I'm sure we can all agree on that, but what was pissing me off was Camden saying how Ellie was his be-all-end-all when they'd essentially only had a fling. He may have loved her when he was a teen, I'm not doubting that, but to make it sound like he shared something like what she and Javi did was grating to me.

Ellie saying how she would do anything to be good... yet fucking robbed Camden the first chance she got!!! Dafuq you would do anything to be good. Bitch, please. Own your badness. Stop saying how your poor Camden this, and your poor Camden that, and boohoo if only I'd trusted him! You were held prisoner by him too Ellie!!! WTF!! Neither of your men are good people, even though Camden certainly wasn't as bad as Javier--at first.

I believed Javier when he talked to her, and I believed him when he said she broke him too. He brought that shit on himself, but I believe him. And I'd like to know why he wasn't shocked that Ellie knew he cheated when she up and left without ever bringing it up?! Seriously. And to be so blase about it at that! Both of these guys always talking about owning her body and who she belongs to got on my nerves after a while, and at first I loved it, but then I was like, go fuck yourself with that shit. Ellie has so much more history, and connection, with Javier. He owns his badness and just point blank tries to make her see her own. She was beating the shit out of him and he never once raised his hand against her. Camden, however, has no such restraint. It hurts not being on Camden's side since I really, really liked him in the first book, but Javier was better imo. Not that putting her in Travis' path was a good idea, but he's a bad man. He has this fucked up sense of honor (I guess) for Ellie to give her what she was so consumed with, and it happened to meet his own goals as well. Camden used her too, so he's no better.

Ellie always blaming the world for her bad choices got to me too. I'm not even saying she wasn't justified, to a point, but after a certain time in her life she should be able to admit that she's willfully making the choices she is. Travis maimed her, but it was her parents that put her in that position. It was her parents who failed to protect her, and then left her to live her life with no input from them. They were criminals for more than thirty years, and they were all too aware that it was Travis who had maimed her, so why would her mom not have had the common sense to not give Ellie's identity away? I believe she was shocked. I also believe that she would know better.

Javier once again came to save Ellie--there's no way Camden could have gotten her out of there. None. There's also no fucking way Camden could go on this crusade to save Gus when he can't even see the ceiling for as deep in as he is. He doesn't have the skill set for it. Javier is a bad man, but he can take care of shit. Camden is a gorgeous man who can take care of other shit that's not so risky and volatile, lol.

It's surprising to me to be so firmly in Javier's corner. I'm not sure how many of us are out there, but probably not a lot. I do know with a certainty that it was the novella that changed my opinion of him, but even without having read that I would have softened towards him in this book. He was legitimately good to Ellie (not talking about the Travis plot, but even that was his own twisted way to show her affection). I could feel that he still loved her and that he wanted to share his life with her again. I could feel that Camden was still obsessed with her too, but I didn't feel the same amount of love. Camden was meaner imo. He was really able to hurt Ellie, and Javier was trying to not hurt her. First loves don't tend to work out (I know there are exceptions) but I feel that Javier and her had more of a connection that she and Camden.

Either way, I love me some fucked up and twisted characters, and though there's still bits in here that have me questioning how much I'd forgive for a hot body and great sex, I know that I will be waiting impatiently for the next book.

Oh, and I think that Gus must be her biological father.

Well, I'm fairly conflicted about how I should be feeling here. On one hand, my larger hand, I'm pretty much in lust with Camden and think he might be some kind of gift to womankind (physically), but on the other hand... the abuse that he doles out makes me wonder if I should still be so willing to forgive eat him up.

I just don't know. What does that say about me? I'm not sure.

I think that the fact he held on to to his rage for Ellie for so long is pretty frightening, and the way that he flips from rage to love was frustrating. One minute he's got a look in his eyes that has Ellie afraid of him, and the next he's looking at her with affection, and she flips from fear to passion. It was just... confusing for me. I would happily read an erotica book that was only Camden and Ellie, and I would LOVE it, but when it comes to their relationship... I'm on the fence.

I believe that he has feelings for her that date back to his adolescence, but it seems like his rage towards her for turning on him the way she did was greater. Which I thought it should be. But then I thought that the connection they shared as adults should have enabled him to forgive her. Which I guess he sort of did before she had to go and prove him right. And THAT was the point that I got conflicted about my feelings for Ellie.

Ellie... I like her. She's damaged, she's ruthless, and she knows it. Her motivation was a bit sketchy for me to be honest. She should have had all that rage towards her parents! Travis deserved a great deal too, I'm not saying he didn't, but using him as the core of her actions didn't make sense to me. Her parents shaped her into the grifter/con she became, and her accident would have never happened had her parents had a modicum of sense. I don't know. I don't see how she got back at Travis either.

The story was good though, I liked the drama, I liked the tension, I liked the twistedness of the characters, and I loved the passion. It was the dynamic of the two main characters that has me twisting uncomfortably in my seat wondering how much I'd forgive for a pretty face and sexy body.

Oh my word, this ended up being one big disappointment. At first I thought for sure I had another winner, and was planning on giving it five stars, but then I got to the second half of the book and almost rage quit. I'll be discussing the plot in depth (though I wouldn't consider it too spoilerish), and any spoiler tags will true spoilers, so don't open the tags if you don't want to know what they say.

The first part

The book opens with our protagonist as an inmate in prison, and one thing that I can't get enough of, is some hard-as-nails women. I just love those kinds of characters. I want to be them, and if I can't be them, I want them to be my best friend. Jenna impressed me from the first page and it just kept getting better. One of the first lines: "I curl my lip into a snarl, half tempted to go over there and introduce him to my fists." And this one: "Hopefully he's got a good view of the tattoo on the back of my neck, the one I did myself last year using ink from a pen I found in the laundry and a shard of metal, telling him and anyone else who cares to read it to FUCK OFF."

Give me moar!!! I caught my face moving into that impressed grin that I have when I come across a chick like that, and I'm telling you, I was excited to see what happened next.

The story is about our girl's journey from hard inmate, to...pudding soft girl in love? Yeah. But I'll get to that in the second half of this review. Back to the girl that I couldn't get enough of! She ends up being broken out of prison by the prison's doctor, and though she has no idea why, she ends up--actually, she doesn't end up finding out why until nearly the end. But her annoyance with that was perfectly matched to my own, so I applaud the author for putting that in there.

Jenna goes through so much that I really felt bad for her for most of the book, but she doesn't wallow and complain, nope! She's gets pissed off!! When she finds out that her memories have been tampered with I was expecting her to have a bit of a breakdown, but no, she was livid. Not only that, but she was all about vengeance, and that's something I like in my main characters. The dark tones of this book were just superb! Everything was fabulously done.

Until she met a boy.

The second part

Now it all goes very wrong for me. After seeing Jenna be such a badass for so long, seeing her become so...obsessed...with Max really pissed me off. I can understand her having some feelings for a boy since she is still a teenager, but it just didn't mesh with the character I'd been reading about. She meets him after he tries to mug her, and then he goes through withdrawals in her flat. He's wanted by ACID too, and is the son of the prison doctor who broke her out of prison, and somehow she thinks that she owes him. Mind you, she's basically in witness protection, and the charade she's trying really hard to maintain is getting all kinds of jacked up, but no matter, he's got pretty eyes and a nice smile. There's this horrible woman in her apartment building that she knows will alert ACID if anything seems suspicious, and guess what happens? Yep. She does just that and then Jenna and Max make a run for it.

As they're running from the agents, they somehow find this underground hiding spot for other people who are bucking the laws set down by the evil ACID regime. ACID really was a good evil, just to be clear, and I can't even imagine what living in a world like that would be like. If some nosy person wanted to fucking spy on me daily I'd likely lose my mind. Mind your own business! Anyway, they're suddenly surrounded by these other people, and Jenna decided that they'd pretend to be a couple. Since the other people seemed to be all couples. Yeah. I can get past that though I suppose. Max is really sick though, and they end up staying there for several days while he recovers from his fever, and during this time I guess they fall in love. There's not much to go on here, other than that they're both on the run, and they're both in close confines together, but Max doesn't even know who she is really, and Jenna makes no move to enlighten him and try to make him understand what all happened to her. ACID put it out that she was the one responsible for his dad dying, but it wasn't her, it was the agents on the roof.

The haven turns out to be not such a safe place after all when they learn the leader is actually a crazy man who amounts to a domestic terrorist. The, six?, other people there apparently frighten Jenna so much that she makes no attempt to break free. Our badass girl who is more than capable of holding her own as the only female in a high security prison, is intimidated by a few teenagers. Max in turn seems to be incapable of really defending himself, aside from being ill of course, because not one time does he attempt to break free either. I get that the leader was a better fighter than Jenna, but there's two of them, and all they had to do was disable the fragile looking girl, and get the gun back, and then they could have left. But whatever.

As they get roped into this terrorist plot, they manage to run for it, and try to let ACID know that there's a bunch of bad about to happen. What actually happens though is that Jenna gets herself sent back to prison!!! And Max finds out who she is and declares his hatred for her. That doesn't matter to Jenna though because, no shit, (this is a memory of him that tries to surface later) "I can't make out his face but I feel an inexplicable pull towards him, a rush of intense love mixed with sadness and guilt." The only thing she thinks about after her return to prison is Max, and how he must be feeling/holding up/thinking/being treated.

No. Joke.

Then, our brilliant girl is given a 'get out of jail free' pass, and after she's once again rescued, she decides to fuck up years worth of planning so she can go save poor Max from prison. I swear this whole fucking line of bullshit made me so pissed that I was thisclose to quitting. Gone is the girl that I was totally loving, and in her place was this obsessive little BRAT who didn't care about anything but her love and her revenge. Never mind the FACT that if the general saw her he would recognize her on the spot, NO, she must save Max!! SHE MUST! She's also told how she is to be a legit ACID officer, but fuck that, there's suffering people in this prison! She had no idea!! Not like she fucking spent two years in a prison herself, NO! She ignores all the orders and helps herself into cells to give food, water, and just fucking companionship to a prisoner, and some-fucking-how she's never caught. Even though the place is supposed to be under video surveillance like no other, NO, IT DOESN'T MATTER! SHE MUST HELP THIS GIRL!

The ending Then the goddamn general shows up, and the first night he's there she punches the guard outside his door, and stuffs him in the bathroom, just fucking HOPING he wouldn't come to before she was done with her plan. Then she goes into the general's room and wakes him up, cuffs him to a chair, and makes him confess that she didn't kill her parents, but rather it was ACID. He does so, but tells her that the whole jail is about to be blown up...because he's always known about the resistance, and HAHA the jokes on you Jenna. So she fucking leaves him, and goes to tell the others, because nobody else in the world but Jenna would have been able to find this out, and when they start evacuation they discover that the big bad general has, GASP, escaped! Oh, that's right, because she didn't fucking restrain that fucking guard! No shit Sherlock!!! And then we're led on a merry chase where the general takes on a cartoonish persona with his life's mission being to END JENNA STRONG, and blah blah, he's caught. Crisis averted. All very fucking neat, and unbelievable. I was so angry.

But what I thought was a real kicker was in the end there's a news clipping of how ACID was found guilty of a plethora of human rights violations, but and I fucking quote, "Perhaps the biggest shock of all was the evidence that proved Jenna Strong was indeed innocent, and that her parents were in fact killed by ACID on the orders of General Harvey." Tell me how in the FUCK that's going to be the biggest shock when this massive corrupt organization, that is truly evil, is finally toppled for massive human rights atrocities! Who fucking cares that Jenna went through that in the big picture!!!!!!!!!!! She was not the only one who suffered under ACID's regime! @#$#$^^^&*%^#@$@!#$#$^%^*^&* RAAAAAGE!!!!!!

JUST FUCKING UGH. I'm done. This review is out of control long, and I'm just fucking done. Oh, but real quick. This bugs me so much. When telling military time, use numbers, NEVER letters. It's NEVER OH-whatever time, it's ALWAYS zero-whatever time. It's not oh-eight hundred, it's zero eight hundred, or just zero-eight. I fucking hate that. Unless it's different for the British, and then disregard.

This is one of the only audio tapes I've ever listened to, and had forgotten all about it till today! I'm not a fan f westerns, but my dad is, and when we were moving he put in tapes of all Louis L'Amour books. This was the only one I remember/remember liking. Nostalgia ftw!

Being six books into a series I love, it's hard to not give it a full five stars, because even though I had an issue with part of this storyline, I can't help but group judge it as a series. It's a weakness.

Stop judging me.

During the long two year wait between my beloved Kate and Curran, I've found many a heroine that kicks some ass, but none of my other favorite women can come close to Kate. Kate is just more, and I love her for it. "What the fuck," [He] snarled. "Look at her, she's half-dead. She isn't even on her last leg. She can't fucking stand and she's cutting you down like you're children."

"I think we should go to dinner."
"Great idea."
"What are you going to wear?"
"My badass face."

Here's all you need to know about this book: "Kate Daniels, extra-salt-in-the-wounds edition."

Yep, this book was really hard emotionally, and I'm still not sure how much anger I have for my beloved Curran. He's on probation right now; I need time to think this through, but he earned some trust back before the book was over. The premise of this story is Kate and crew go on a suicide mission to secure some coveted panacea for the Pack. They both know this is a trap, but feel like they have no other choice since they're unable to replicate making it, and can no longer buy it (not that it was ever easy to buy), and after Ilona Andrews was kind enough to rip my heart out illustrating the importance, well, I felt kind of helpless with them too.

While they're doing their duty we're treated to a bombshell! You saw how I changed a word up in that quote to "he" instead of the name? Yeah, that's not one you should let yourself be spoiled about! It totally got me!! Oh man, and talk about making me feel some feelings that are kinda awkward. I gots me the start of a new crush!

One of the other things, besides Kate's badassness, that I love about this series is the whole cast of secondary characters. They're all developed in such a way that even if they aren't a big part of the story, I can't help but love them. I want more of Keira, and did we always know Derek's last name was Gaunt?

This was worth the long and painful wait, and reminded me why I keep this series front and center as a favorite. Here are just a few of my favorite quotes:

"Why, were you afraid they'd take your man card away?"
"Are you going to help me or just make fun of me?"
"Can't I do both?"

"You're sending some confusing signals." --TRUTH!

"I'm sunbathing," Doolittle told him. "And enjoying my book. Don't bother me with your foolishness."

"Maybe later?" Keira said. "I have plans."
"What plans?" Barabas peered at her.
"I was going to go and think deep thoughts, somewhere in the sun."
"With your eyes closed? George asked.
"Possibly."

"Look, I've tried. I walk into a pool, I thrash, and then I sink."

"And what an awesome comeback that was. Wow, I showed her.

"Will you stop meddling in my love life?" I growled. "I'm not meddling. I'm offering commentary." Ugh.

And finally:

"Unique and different, but not separate. Kate is just Kate and you belong with us. That's all that matters."

Not interested in the book itself, and because of this comment thread, I won't read it. I don't want to get attacked if I don't like a book.

These are old news books on this shelf, but I only recently decided to make a shelf like this for me, so I'd remember.

This sounds really good Nenia. :)