Summer Giveaway Hop 2013

Summer Giveaway Hop 2013: Win a book from BookDepository (up to a maximum cost of £10 or approximately USD$15)!

Runs from the 1st of August until the 7th, 2013. Hosted by Bookhounds.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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• The giveaway is open to international readers where Book Depository ships to. A list of countries where Book Depository ships to is here. Please check if your country is in the list to avoid disappointment.
• Ends on August 7.
• Winner will be announced soon thereafter. Winner will also be sent an email notification with this email address: cherrymischif-winnr [at] yahoo [dot] com, in which winner has to reply within 72 hours to claim the prize or another winner will be picked. Please check your spam folder.
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• Void where prohibited.
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• Please read the terms and conditions at the bottom of the rafflecopter for giveaway specific rules and the blog's Disclaimer as it forms part of the contest rules.

Now go and win more summer reads:

Review: TRICKED

Tricked by Kevin Hearne
Narrated by Christopher Ragland
Book 4 of The Iron Druid series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Tricked:

Druid Atticus O’Sullivan hasn’t stayed alive for more than two millennia without a fair bit of Celtic cunning. So when vengeful thunder gods come Norse by Southwest looking for payback, Atticus, with a little help from the Navajo trickster god Coyote, lets them think that they’ve chopped up his body in the Arizona desert.

But the mischievous Coyote is not above a little sleight of paw, and Atticus soon finds that he’s been duped into battling bloodthirsty desert shapeshifters called skinwalkers. Just when the Druid thinks he’s got a handle on all the duplicity, betrayal comes from an unlikely source. If Atticus survives this time, he vows he won’t be fooled again. Famous last words.

Source: Info in the About Tricked was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12700306-tricked on 24/06/2012.

Review:

The openning gambit ushers the reader with Coyote in the central stage. Pairing "Coyote" and the title "Tricked" gave me a pretty good idea of what this story is gonna be... and I was right, giving an element of predictability in the book which I did not notice in previous books. Another thing new about this book is that I struggled to get through the first few chapters. I've had this book since it was published but I couldn't seem to get through it! I keep putting it down. Which is surprising because Kevin Hearne's story telling quality has always been compelling to me... except the first half of this book. So in the end I bought the audiobook version and I finally finished the book. However I found that once past the halfway mark, the story flowed in an even tempo and it was easy going until the end. It was just the first half that was hard work, but I persevered because I know that this author delivers. And, because I am an old fan of this series and I wanted to read the rest of the The Iron Druid books, and to understand the rest of the books I must read this book too. So that contributed to my persistence. Which paid off because Kevin Hearne did deliver in the end!

Empirical Evaluation:
Character Development = 4
World Building = 4.5
Plot = 3
Story = 3
Pace = (10hrs & 34mins listening time)
Ending = 4
Story Telling Quality = 4
Narration = 4

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Iron Druid Series:

Review: SEVEN UP

Seven Up by Janet Evanovich
Book 7 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by Tanya Eby
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About Seven Up:

In SEVEN UP, Stephanie Plum is dropped into a smorgasbord of murder, kidnapping, and extortion - a magnificent buffet of fast cars, fast men and fast food. Stephanie Plum think she's going after an easy FTA: a senior citizen charged with smuggling contraband cigarettes. But when she and Lula show up at his house, they get more than they bargained for - a corpse in the woodshed and an old man on the lam. Stephanie's mind is on other matters, however, because she has two proposals to consider: vice cop Joe Morelli is proposing marriage, and fellow bounty hunter Ranger is proposing a single perfect night . . .

Source: Info in the About Seven Up was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15459067-seven-up on 01/10/2012.

Review:

Tanya Eby is a new narrator to me and it took a bit of getting used to after having listened to CJ Critt for the last six books.

Like the previous books in this series, Seven Up also started off slow but picked up halfway through and speeded up all the way to the end. I already knew this pattern from previous books so I persevered for the first half of the book knowing that I would have a rocking good time towards the end and this book, in a way, did.

This series has never failed to give me "laugh-out-loud" moments except this book. That was a bit of a downer! This series lost a lot of brownie points because of that. Because the humour between the pages is this series' greatest asset and that failed in this book.

The cover art though, both on the audiobook and print, remained obnoxiously boring!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 2
Ending = 3
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 3.5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 cherries

WW28: THE SPOOK'S NIGHTMARE

WW28 book offering: The Spook's Nightmare by Joseph Delaney

Both towpaths were thronged with refugees heading south.

The Spook and his apprentice are obviously in times of hardships...

About The Spook's Nightmare

The Spook, Tom and Alice return from Greece to find the County under siege – and the Spook’s home burnt to the ground. With his precious library of knowledge destroyed, they seek refuge on the nearby island of Mona. But with Mona in the thrall of a twisted Shaman there is little respite from hostility or denizens of the dark. And as Alice dodges the ever-tightening net of the island’s witch hunters, a more deadly enemy emerges...

Bony Lizzie, freshly-escaped from the Spook’s bonds, has grand ambitions: to take for herself the throne of isle. She has harnessed the services of a tunnel-dwelling buggane, an evil creature which thrives on stealing the animas, or life force, from its unsuspecting victims. With the buggane as her secret weapon can she become an all-powerful Witch Queen?

Source: Info in the About The Spook's Nightmare was taken from the book series' website at http://www.spooksbooks.com/spooksnightmare.asp on 19/01/2011.

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!

• First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
• Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
• Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.

Review: PASSION UNLEASHED

Passion Unleashed by Larissa Ione
Read by Renée Raudman
Book 3 of Demonica series
Genre: urban fantasy erotica
Format: audiobook

About Passion Unleashed:

FORBIDDEN TEMPTATIONS

Serena Kelley is an archaeologist and treasure hunter - and a woman with a secret. Since she was seven, she's been the keeper of a powerful charm that grants her health and immortality . . . as long as she stays a virgin. But Serena isn't all that innocent. And when a dangerously handsome stranger brings her to the brink of ecstasy, she wonders if she's finally met the one man she cannot resist.

FATAL DESIRES

Wraith is a Seminus demon with a death wish. But when an old enemy poisons him, he must find Serena and persuade her to give him the only known antidote in the universe-her charm. Yet, as she begins to surrender to his seductions and Wraith senses the cure is within his grasp, he realizes a horrible truth: He's falling for the woman whose life he must take in order to save his own.

Source: Info in the About Passion Unleashed was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4701550-passion-unleashed on 31/02/2012.

Review:

I was really disappointed with Book 1. And then I was even more disappointed with Book 2. But I still continued on reading with this series... there must be something about the series that keeps me reading... or it's just me being an urban fantasy geek... or me being such a sucker for punishment.... Anyway, this book is Wraith's story. The angsty, tortured brother... and I so like tortured, angsty hearoes. After having gone through the disappointment of Book 1 and Book 2, I thought that it couldn't possibly get any worse.... that was an optimistic outlook. The characters has gotten even more too stupid to live (TSTL). So much so that I rooted for the enemy demons to eat her so that she gets what she asked for! The holes in the world building is still there. The plot however is not as holey as Book 2 was. At least that is something. The narrator's voice is not as easy to the ears as Therese Plummer's is but I got used to it towards the end.

This is the third book in the series and by now I believe that I have a firm grasp of this series. It is just chuck full of TSTL characters and I am not the most tolerant of readers. Sad to say that this series is not for me.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 1.5
Character development = 0.5
Story itself = 2
Ending = 2
World building = 2
Cover art = 2
Pace = (12 hrs and 12 mins listening time)
Plot = 2
Narrator = 2

Overall Rating: 1.5 out of 5 cherries

Review: THE HEIST

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Book 1 of the O'Hare and Fox series
Genre: crime fiction
Format: hardback

About The Heist:

From Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, bestselling author and television writer for Monk, comes the first adventure in an electrifying new series featuring an FBI agent who always gets her man, and a fearless con artist who lives for the chase.

FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare is known for her fierce dedication and discipline on the job, chasing down the world’s most wanted criminals and putting them behind bars. Her boss thinks she is tenacious and ambitious; her friends think she is tough, stubborn, and maybe even a bit obsessed. And while Kate has made quite a name for herself for the past five years, the only name she’s cared about is Nicolas Fox—an international crook she wants in more ways than one.

Audacious, handsome, and dangerously charming, Nicolas Fox is a natural con man, notorious for running elaborate scams on very high-profile people. At first he did it for the money. Now he does it for the thrill. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail—particularly Kate O’Hare, who has been watching his every move. For Nick, there’s no greater rush than being pursued by a beautiful woman . . . even one who aims to lock him up. But just when it seems that Nicolas Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: he convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with Special Agent Kate O’Hare.

Problem is, teaming up to stop a corrupt investment banker who’s hiding on a private island in Indonesia is going to test O’Hare’s patience and Fox’s skill. Not to mention the skills of their ragtag team made up of flamboyant actors, wanted wheelmen, and Kate’s dad. High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day’s work . . . if O’Hare and Fox don’t kill each other first.

Source: Info in the About The Heist was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16169737-the-heist on 13/07/2013.

Review:

It took me a bit of time to get into the story. The first few chapters were a week-long struggle. But once past Mount Athos it got quicker. More interesting... As I was reading the book I had this image of Kate Beckett of the Castle TV show as our indomitable FBI Agent Kate O'Hare in my head. The images and scenes just seemed to click and fit together themselves. Or maybe I am just reading/watching too many crime fictions. Which is a really sad state of affairs from a self-professed urban fantasy geek, so why am I reading another crime fiction? I think I can attribute that, this time around, as a testament to the authors' story telling quality to lure me into a genre other than my own. Another evidence that this author dou is as good as Nick Fox at sweet-talking people, is the fact that although the story itself is a bit formulaic which had been played a few times too many around the block, but they still managed to pull it off and sell it as well! You have to give the authors kudos for pulling that kind of stunt! However the story ended with a few loose ends untied. I presume that these will be answered in the next book, which is a bit annoying but at the same time I am also looking forward to reading the next book, not only to get more Nick and Kate action but to see how these loose ends played out.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 3
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 3
Pace = 3
Plot = 4

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The O'Hare and Fox Series:


Thank you to Headline Publishing for the review copy of The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg received.

FTC Disclosure:
No money received for this review.