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Showing posts with label Royal House of Shadows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Royal House of Shadows. Show all posts

Saturday, 12 November 2011

ARC Review: Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh

Lord of the Abyss
by Nalini Singh
(Royal House of Shadows # 4)

This is the last book in the Royal House of Shadows and as faithful book readers we ladys here at Under the Covers have read all the books and it seems our patience and tenacity has finally payed off, we are all in total agreement that this was the best book by far, Nalini Singh has once again produced a fantastic book.

Under the Covers on...

...The Hero


Micah, Micah, Micah, what delicious man meat you are beneath that black razor sharp armour. Our tortured hero is the Lord of the Abyss, the guardian to hell, it is his job to catch all evil souls and deliver them to the Abyss. However, he doesn't realize he is also Micah, long lost heir of Elden and that without him the Blood Sorcerer and his vile magicks will destroy his land. Apart from Micah being absoloutley gorgeous, what made us all fall in love with him was his adorable mixture of being completely arrogant, he is Lord of the Abyss and expects everyone to obey and fear him, which they do and yet innocent, because of the armour he wears he has never been touched by another human being, and at heart is very lonely. What girl could resist?

...The Heroine

What an unexpected treat! Lily is actually the Blood Sorcerers daughter in a surprising twist, but she is a fantastic heroine and made the book. With a father as twisted as hers she has had a tortured live and yet is kind hearted, loyal and tough. Risking her life to try and stop her father she seeks out Micah to bring him back to Elden and joing his brothers and sister. However, she didn't expect to feel drawn to him and after a life time of being called ugly she definietly doesn't expect him to feel the same way.

...The Romance

These two had great chemistry, their connection was beautiful and watching them explore the connection was a real treat. Neither one of them had ever had any true affection of love in their live and watching them stumble through it together was what kept us up all night reading.

...The Things that Niggled

But this book wasn't perfect, there were things that stopped it from getting 5 feathers. Like the previous books this one ended really abruptly, as the last book in the series we expected to see the siblings reunite, but that never seemed to materialize, even though it seemed to be the whole aim of the series. Also the rather anti climatic ending of the Blood Sorcerer after he had caused so much pain and deustruction we expected epic battles, but it all seemed to get resolved rather quickly, too quickly.

...The Series

Although this book was fantastic this series doesn't really work that well for us, it is a great idea with different authors working on different characters, but it seemed underdeveloped and maybe because there were four different authors all putting their spin on Elden, it never seemed that cohesive either. But they have been enjoyable reads and special mentions in this series go to Lord of Rage and Lord of the Abyss. 






Purchase links: Amazon

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Review: Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen

 Lord of the Wolfyn
by Jessica Andersen
(Royal House of Shadows # 3)
Paranormal Romance

You know not to judge a book by its cover but...the cover, how do you judge?

Francesca: DE.LICK.CIOUS! All that delicious chest, and the colors are really pretty as well. Wouldn't mind curling in bed with him at night, I mean with the book of course!

Suzanne: LOVE. IT. I would get this book for the cover alone. I know BAD Suzanne, but have you seen that gorgeous man chest. I am not saying that I would lick the cover, but I am just warning don't be surprised if it is a little damp LMAO!

What did you think about the main characters?

Francesca: Dayn is like a little lost puppy. He feels he betrayed his family by not being there but he wants to redeem himself by going back and rescuing them! Not the tough guy, but the do-good one. I liked him.  Reda to me was an insecure woman trying to fit in the shoes of a tough chick. She had the job as a cop, she has a mission in life which she thought was always a made up story, but then she doesn't have the guts to back up that role. I mean, she almost ended up as plant food!

Suzanne: I liked Dayn he was one sexy shapeshifter (my faves!) I wouldn't say he was my favourite, but I liked his dedication to his Kingdom and his siblings, as well his super hawtness. But Reda...her constant changing her mind about things irritated me, one moment she was certain of one truth and 10 pages later it was something else! I hate indecisiveness!

What did you like about this book?

Francesca: I liked the play on the fairytale, I think it was done nicely. I liked that Dayn was part wolfyn when in his own land he was the enemy, and I liked Dayn's possessive instincts about Reda. I also liked the Blood Sorcerer storyline, which we get to see more of in this book.

Suzanne: I liked the continuation of the story about getting rid of the Blood Sorcerer and the idea of the Wolfyn and I can't wait to see what happens next!

What do you think could have been better?

Francesca: The story flowed really slow to me. I think maybe if it would've picked up the pace a little would've been more catching.

Suzanne: For me the story was missing something, it was a little slow and I found Reda a little annoying. It also seemed to end rather abruptly as well, but this seems to have happened in all three of them so far.

Series so far, what do you think?

Francesca:
I like the fairytale concept and how each book talks about a different fairytale redone. Would I say this is a favorite series of mine? No. But it's definitely something different and well written.

Suzanne: Like Fran I liked the fairytale concept it is something different, but I am just not really "in" to this series as much as I would like to be, it feels to disconnected. But I am looking forward to the next book! 


Monday, 1 August 2011

Review: Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter


Lord of the Vampires
(Royal House of Shadows #1)
by Gena Showalter
Paranormal Romance



Lord of the Vampires is the first book in the Royal House of Shadows series. This series tells the tale of three brothers and one sister, each is a prince or princess in the royal house of Elden, that is until their home is destroyed and their parents, the King and Queen, murdered by the Blood Sorcerer who now rules cruelly and desecrates their land. We loved the sound of this series, and as massive fans of Gena Showalter we had to pick it up and read it, but what makes this series really different is that each book, each sibling’s story, is written by a different author! This is such a great idea, it will keep the series fresh and interesting as we read each authors unique writing style writing in the same world toward the same goal adding perhaps to the idea that we are in a different characters head in each book we read.

The first book concerns the eldest of the siblings the Crown Prince Nicolai, not that he knows that his memory has been wiped and he is now kept as a sex slave by a cruel princess in a different kingdom. Chained up and longing for vengeance against the princess who has stolen his freedom and his identity he tries to summon someone who can help him escape. When Jane wakes up and finds she has fallen down the rabbit hole and is now in Wonderland she can’t believe it, and when she sees the silver eyed vampire who has been haunting her dreams she knows she must help him escape.

We loved the idea of this book, it was like a fairy tale in reverse rather than a damsel in distress waiting for her knight in shining armour to come, we have a hot hunky vampire in distress waiting for his damsel to come and in more ways than one! And the start of this book was fantastic, living up to all our expectations’ the prologue drags you in and throws you into a sensual paranormal fairy land of evil sorcerers, noble kings and queens and vampire princes.

The vampire prince in question is Nicolai and what a delicious vampire he was, tortured but strong, vulnerable yet dangerous an irresistible combination that surely no woman can resist! He was a good hero to read about and as a sucker for men who get all protective and monosyllabic when their woman is either in peril or when he is about to bang her brains out, we completely loved him. Jane Parker the woman who Nicolai gets all monosyllabic about was also a good character, although she may not be our favourite heroine of all time she was smart, gutsy and little bit quirky.   I think one of the main complaints about Jane was her constant ramblings in her head, it was starting to get a bit distracting.

However, we were a little disappointed with this book. It seemed to be building up to a big ending but then…nothing. It was very anti climatic, we weren’t expecting him to march in and defeat the big bad guy; after all there are three more books to go. However, why wasn’t there more about the fight for Elden? Or about the search for his siblings? It just felt like there should have been more in the story then there was. And also the blood curse thing going on with Jane, was that not the simplest curse to overcome in the history of all paranormal romance or was that just us?!

However, we did enjoy this book, it was very funny and sexy and we will definitely be reading the next book as soon as we can get our grubby little hands on it. After reading the blurb we are very excited!

Nicolai in a bad mood…
He snarled like a panther, bit like a shark and held on to whatever he clamped his teeth into like a pit bull.
Jane in a bad mood…
"You’re ugly and mean I wouldn’t give myself to you even if a flesh eating bacteria was ravaging this world and you cock held the only immunization.”
The awww moment…
“I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you. I want to wed you. To be with you always. I choose you, Jane. Over my crown, my people and my vengeance.” 

* eARC provided by netGalley



Book 2: Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe
Release date 20th September 2011



Book 3: Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Anderson.
Release date 25th October 2011



Book 4: Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh
Release Date: 22nd November 2011




Gena Showalter has offered a signed ARC of "Lord of the Vampires" + swag to one very lucky reader!  All you have to do to enter is:

1. Be a follower of this blog
2. Fill out the form below

Remember to come back every day between now and August 7 for our Gena post of the day!