Showing posts with label grim reaper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grim reaper. Show all posts

Wednesday 5 September 2018

FOR THE BIRDS


The Book

For The Birds by Angela Roquet
Book 3 of the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series
Read by Hollie Jackson
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobookAudiobook


About For The Birds:
Lana Harvey isn't just any reaper. She's the new captain of the Posy Unit, a specialty group dedicated to harvesting mass quantities of souls from natural disaster sites, battlefields, and the like. The new title didn't come without a price though. Lana made some promises along the way, and now it's time to follow through... even if that means putting herself in the path of the three Fates, a fickle and mighty force to be reckoned with. The Fates run a soul recycling plant in Limbo City, and if Lana isn't careful, they just might recycle her.
Source: Info in the About For The Birds was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17830430-for-the-birds on 30/12/2017.

Books in the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series:
Book 1: GRAVEYARD SHIFT   Book 2: POCKET FULL OF POSIES   Book 3: FOR THE BIRDS   Book 4: PSYCHOPOMP   OFF THE BEATEN PATH 1: EIGHT TALES OF THE PARANORMAL   Book 5: DEATH WISH   Book 5.5: SEASON'S REAPINGS   Book 6: GHOST MARKET   Book 7: HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE


Review

My Thoughts:
With this book, the series has really taken off. The first two books were good, but they mainly involved establishing the "basics", as in, laying the ground work for the rest of the series. Like a "coming of age" kind of theme. With this book, our main protagonist kicked ass! So this book is no longer a 4.5, but a full 5, even though it still ended in a cliffhanger. This book therefore is the best in the series yet. Hopefully, it will be up and up from here on and not a jump off the ledge at some point... Like the previous book, the title still do not make sense... And this book might be the best story but it is the worst cover art yet in the series... However, despite all that moaning, I would still give this book a five. Yes, it was a good read! And no, the individual rating of the parts does not come up to 5, but, the whole is more than its parts. By now, this series and author has gained a firm fan in me. So much so that I bought the first book in another series by this author. We'll see how the goodness of this author translate in her other books...

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 5
Writing Style = 5
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 3
Pace = (6 hours and 45 minutes listening time)
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 cherries


The Author

About Angela Roquet:
USA Today bestselling Angela Roquet is a great big weirdo. She collects Danger Girl comic books, owls, skulls, random craft supplies, and all things Joss Whedon. She's a fan of renewable energy, marriage equality, and religious tolerance. As long as whatever you're doing isn't hurting anyone, she's a fan of you, too.

Angela lives in Missouri with her husband and son. She's a member of SFWA and HWA, as well as the Four Horsemen of the Bookocalypse, her epic book critique group, where she's known as Death. When she's not swearing at the keyboard, she enjoys painting, goofing off with her family and friends, and reading books that raise eyebrows.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT, the first novel in Angela's Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series, is now available for FREE on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, & iBooks. You can find Angela online at www.angelaroquet.com


The Narrator

About Hollie Jackson:
With over 200 audiobooks narrated and produced, Hollie Jackson has worked with both indie and USA Today bestselling authors across a wide range of genres. Hollie's voice brings characters of all types to vibrant, compelling life, allowing the listener to sit back and enjoy the story.

Growing up in a military family, Hollie found herself lost in the world of poetry and prose, and truly enjoys sharing that joy with others through spoken and written word. As an author, she understands the importance of drawing the reader into the world of the story. As a voracious reader, she enjoys an eclectic range of genre and carries that over into the studio: from contemporary romance to paranormal thrillers, historical fiction to epic fantasy, from erotica to tamer New Adult/Young Adult titles.

Everyone has a story to tell, and Hollie loves to bring those stories to life, one word at a time.
The information about Hollie Jackson was taken from https://tantor.com/narrator/hollie-jackson.html on 25/12/2017.



FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Wednesday 3 January 2018

POCKET FULL OF POSIES


The Book

Pocket Full Of Posies by Angela Roquet
Book 2 of the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series
Read by Hollie Jackson
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobookAudiobook


About Pocket Full Of Posies:
Not Your Grandma's Afterlife…
The promise of peace in Limbo City is threatened once again, but this time the terrorists have a more specific target in mind: Lana Harvey. The up and coming reaper thought passing her classes at the Reaper Academy was going to be her biggest challenge, but when a rebel demon sends her apartment up in flames, she realizes that her victories from the previous year haven’t gone so unnoticed after all…

To make matters worse, the Afterlife Council has taken notice of Lana too. The Egyptian god Horus is blackmailing her into joining the Posy Unit so she can do an illegal side job for him, and Cindy Morningstar, Lucifer’s daughter, insists that she take a two week training course with the devilishly tempting Beelzebub, much to her angelic boyfriend’s chagrin.
Source: Info in the About Pocket Full Of Posies was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16039808-pocket-full-of-posies on 27/12/2017.

Books in the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series:
Book 1: GRAVEYARD SHIFT   Book 2: POCKET FULL OF POSIES   Book 3: FOR THE BIRDS   Book 4: PSYCHOPOMP   OFF THE BEATEN PATH 1: EIGHT TALES OF THE PARANORMAL   Book 5: DEATH WISH   Book 5.5: SEASON'S REAPINGS   Book 6: GHOST MARKET   Book 7: HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE


Review

My Thoughts:
The title is only marginally related to the book.... **sigh** ...not much meaning there. But... there's a lesson there somewhere, however after the holidays, I haven't got that much energy to dig for it...

The plot is quite straight forward. Go from A to B. Dodge hazards and done. No detours. No twists. And for a moment there, the main protagonist displayed a hint of TSTL (too stupid to live) behaviour, which hopefully will not be repeated. And of course, it's another cliffhanger...

On the up side, the story telling quality and the world building are still as wonderful as ever! And the narrator, Hollie Jackson, has gained a new fan in me.

Book 1 can be read by any age. This one however, I would recommend to 18 or older only.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 3.5
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (7 hours and 4 minutes listening time)
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


The Author

About Angela Roquet:
USA Today bestselling Angela Roquet is a great big weirdo. She collects Danger Girl comic books, owls, skulls, random craft supplies, and all things Joss Whedon. She's a fan of renewable energy, marriage equality, and religious tolerance. As long as whatever you're doing isn't hurting anyone, she's a fan of you, too.

Angela lives in Missouri with her husband and son. She's a member of SFWA and HWA, as well as the Four Horsemen of the Bookocalypse, her epic book critique group, where she's known as Death. When she's not swearing at the keyboard, she enjoys painting, goofing off with her family and friends, and reading books that raise eyebrows.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT, the first novel in Angela's Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series, is now available for FREE on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, & iBooks. You can find Angela online at www.angelaroquet.com


The Narrator

About Hollie Jackson:
With over 200 audiobooks narrated and produced, Hollie Jackson has worked with both indie and USA Today bestselling authors across a wide range of genres. Hollie's voice brings characters of all types to vibrant, compelling life, allowing the listener to sit back and enjoy the story.

Growing up in a military family, Hollie found herself lost in the world of poetry and prose, and truly enjoys sharing that joy with others through spoken and written word. As an author, she understands the importance of drawing the reader into the world of the story. As a voracious reader, she enjoys an eclectic range of genre and carries that over into the studio: from contemporary romance to paranormal thrillers, historical fiction to epic fantasy, from erotica to tamer New Adult/Young Adult titles.

Everyone has a story to tell, and Hollie loves to bring those stories to life, one word at a time.
The information about Hollie Jackson was taken from https://tantor.com/narrator/hollie-jackson.html on 25/12/2017.



FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

GRAVEYARD SHIFT


The Book

Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet
Book 1 of the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series
Read by Hollie Jackson
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobookAudiobook


About Graveyard Shift:
The Inferno has Evolved…

Lana Harvey is a reaper, and a lousy one at that. She resides in Limbo City, the modern capital of the collective afterlives, where she likes to stick it to the man (the legendary Grim Reaper himself) by harvesting the bare minimum of souls required of her. She’d much rather be hanging out with Gabriel, her favorite archangel, at Purgatory Lounge. But when a shocking promotion falls in her lap, Lana learns something that could unravel the very fabric of Eternity. If the job isn’t completed, there could be some real hell to pay.
Source: Info in the About Graveyard Shift was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16082905-graveyard-shift on 25/12/2017.

Books in the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series:
Book 1: GRAVEYARD SHIFT   Book 2: POCKET FULL OF POSIES   Book 3: FOR THE BIRDS   Book 4: PSYCHOPOMP   OFF THE BEATEN PATH 1: EIGHT TALES OF THE PARANORMAL   Book 5: DEATH WISH   Book 5.5: SEASON'S REAPINGS   Book 6: GHOST MARKET   Book 7: HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE


Review

My Thoughts:
The Graveyard Shift book... This is a world between the living and the dead. An interesting world building. However, it has all the mundane inanities as our own modern living has... so why is this world an intriguing read while real life is not? I would put that down to the fantastic way the author tells the story. We have a master weaver here. And then of course it ended in a cliffhanger....

Another thing good about this book is that the plot is solid. There is actually a plot! Which a lot of the urban fantasy books seem to forget especially on the first book where all the book does is world building and introduce the readers to the series... This one does that too, and managed to have a plot at the same time! Now, fancy that! Yeah, after reading so many flimsy/flighty urban fantasy, I got jaded... those flighty books sucks the life out of a reader. Not this one though!

This is the first Hollie Jackson book that I've listened to and I like the way she narrates. And I also agree with her interpretations. With her input as the narrator she gave this book an added "flavour" that the book would otherwise would not have, had it not been for her particular brand of narration.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (7 hours and 22 minutes listening time)
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


The Author

About Angela Roquet:
USA Today bestselling Angela Roquet is a great big weirdo. She collects Danger Girl comic books, owls, skulls, random craft supplies, and all things Joss Whedon. She's a fan of renewable energy, marriage equality, and religious tolerance. As long as whatever you're doing isn't hurting anyone, she's a fan of you, too.

Angela lives in Missouri with her husband and son. She's a member of SFWA and HWA, as well as the Four Horsemen of the Bookocalypse, her epic book critique group, where she's known as Death. When she's not swearing at the keyboard, she enjoys painting, goofing off with her family and friends, and reading books that raise eyebrows.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT, the first novel in Angela's Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series, is now available for FREE on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, & iBooks. You can find Angela online at www.angelaroquet.com


The Narrator

About Hollie Jackson:
With over 200 audiobooks narrated and produced, Hollie Jackson has worked with both indie and USA Today bestselling authors across a wide range of genres. Hollie's voice brings characters of all types to vibrant, compelling life, allowing the listener to sit back and enjoy the story.

Growing up in a military family, Hollie found herself lost in the world of poetry and prose, and truly enjoys sharing that joy with others through spoken and written word. As an author, she understands the importance of drawing the reader into the world of the story. As a voracious reader, she enjoys an eclectic range of genre and carries that over into the studio: from contemporary romance to paranormal thrillers, historical fiction to epic fantasy, from erotica to tamer New Adult/Young Adult titles.

Everyone has a story to tell, and Hollie loves to bring those stories to life, one word at a time.
The information about Hollie Jackson was taken from https://tantor.com/narrator/hollie-jackson.html on 25/12/2017.



FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.