jbronderbookreviews

Today I’m pleased to say that I’m a stop on the Troll or Derby Tour. This is a great story about a young girl learning about her past an finding her place in her newly discovered role. I loved this story. Who would have thought fairies and roller derby go so well together.

Troll or Derby by Red Tash

5 stars
(Excerpt from Goodreads) In Troll Or Derby, fifteen-year-old Roller Deb is singled out by town bullies for both her skates, and for being different. When her popular homecoming queen of a sister is kidnapped by a scuzzy drug dealer, Deb must flee the trailer park in which she’s grown up, and rescue her. Along the way, Deb becomes enmeshed in the magical realm of trolls and fairies, and the blood-thirsty version of roller derby at which these beings excel. But spending too much time among the fairies comes with a price. Will Deb choose to save her sister, with the aid of a mysterious troll? Or will she be lost to the lures of roller derby, and the blonde temptress April, forever?

Deb lives in the small town of Bedrock Indiana. It is a little farming town and she stands out like a sore thumb. Unlike her beautiful sister that is always winning beauty titles and is spoiled by their drunken mother, Deb is into roller derby and wears dark, unpopular cloths. Because of that, she is constantly the victim of bullies and harassment. Deb tries not to let that affect her while she spends her time looking after her big sister Gennifer. Gennifer has been hanging around this drug dealer Dave and we start the story with Deb rescuing her from a meth lab fire.

But things are not what they seem. Dave is actually a troll providing faeth, a version of meth that has fairy dust mixed into it that really messes up humans. Dave is also part of a mafia like family that is running the area. Then there is Harlow. He is a troll that is compelled to help Deb out that has trouble remembering his past. Harlow is linked to Deb and is willing to fight Dave and the rest of the family to keep Deb safe.

I really liked this story. I love how it is told from both Deb and Harlow’s point of view. I enjoyed the story and really liked the different situations that they get into. I couldn’t figure out how the roller derby was going to come into play but it flowed smoothly. I can’t think of anything that I didn’t like about this book. I really hope that there is going to be a sequel. I will definitely be watching out for other books by Red Tash. If you like young adult fairy tales, this is one book that you will not want to miss.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

To buying this book, you can find it in the following locations:     Amazon     Barnes and Noble

Make sure you get your copy today. You won’t be disappointed.

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I’m sorry that it has been so long since I posted. It has been a long month starting with an emergency trip back to Montana for my father’s funeral. The good thing was I read a couple books. Bad news was I have not gotten around to posting those reviews. I hope to be getting back into the saddle and start getting more books read and reviewed. So, without further delay, the review for Blood Crave.

Blood Crave (Blood on the Moon – 2) By Jennifer Knight

4 stars

(Excerpt from Goodreads) Headstrong heroine Faith Reynolds returns in this thrilling sequel to the paranormal romance Blood on the Moon!
After surviving being kidnapped by a vampire, Faith would just love to focus on some alone time with her hot (though occasionally furry) boyfriend, Lucas. Unfortunately, with a vampire uprising on the horizon and her best friend, Derek, about to wake up and find himself transformed into a half-werewolf, half-vampire being without a beating heart, Faith has a few other things to take care of first.
Faith is not without help, in the form of her newfound powers of sensing people’s emotions and being able to influence werewolves’ actions, not to mention her begrudging but rather helpful boyfriend. Even so, convincing a werewolf packmaster to prepare for an epic battle may be difficult to do without solid evidence.
Lose yourself once more in the deliciously suspenseful world of werewolves versus vampires, otherworldly boys with deadly charm, and addictive, spine-tingling action and romance!

Lucas, Faith’s werewolf boyfriend, believes there is a vampire uprising and is trying to prove it even though the pack leader refuses to believe him. Then Derek, Faith’s ex that was turned in revenge, wakes up. The first hybrid vampire/werewolf, no one knows what his abilities are or even if he is going to be sane in the end. Faith is torn in two. She wants to be with Lucas, help explore her abilities and how they interact with Lucas. But she is also pulled to Derek, it is her fault that he is a hybrid and she is trying to do everything possible to help him adjust and to keep Lucas from killing him.

Then the murders start happening again. Something is in the works with the vampires, the question is what. It looks like they are trying to get Derek to go to their side because of how powerful he is. Faith is also trying to go back to her old life, but she is having trouble trying to connect to her old friend, Heather, that has turned to drugs after her breakup with Peter. Faith has got to get her life in order before she ends up on the wrong side of the vampires.

So I have a confession, I have both books in the Blood Moon series but I grabbed the wrong one to read first. I don’t have the back story to go off of, but that didn’t matter. This Blood Crave was written so well that I didn’t have to read the other first, it was easy to figure out what was going on.

I understand Faith’s love for Lucas and the dilemma of wanting to be turned or not so she can be with him forever and the whole controlling his triggers. I was a bit miffed at her constantly running to Derek and keeping Lucas from killing him. I understand how she is guilty about his being turned. But really, she is ruining her life over someone that cheated on her and is constantly trying to get between her and her current boyfriend.

I was also irritated about how she keeps thinking that she can just join Lucas or Derek and fight the vampires herself. Did she not remember anything about her fight in the last book? Does she not see what these creatures are capable of? I admit that I was about ready to slap her upside her head with her stupidity. Argh!

Ok, deep breath. Over all, this is a good story. I like the concept and loved the surprise ending. Even though I read them in the wrong order, I really want to see what happened to start Faith’s story.

This is one book that I will recommend with the warning to not expect a lot of brain power from Faith.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

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The Mountain Place of Knowledge

By Marshall Chamberlain

3 stars

(Excerpt from Goodreads) A flash of mysterious blue light brings death to a U.N. official searching for a secret entrance to the inside of a Belizean mountain. Two U.N. scientists investigate, coming into possession of a scepter wielding miraculous powers, uncovering a blue-light source of destruction, and finding the hidden entrance. Inside strange sculpted caverns, bizarre mental prodding guides them to shocking experiences. To protect hi-tech secrets, cooperation is required from Belize, the United Nations, NATO, and the United States. But one nation determines the mountain poses a threat to world order and will take great risks to neutralize the danger.

The story starts as two scientists, Calvin Stanvich and Donald Courtney, and a young boy are exploring a Mayan ruin. Lead there by a sorceress ancient diary that Calvin has translated but not shared the full content, a strange blue light is triggered and Donald and the young boy are killed. Calvin has other plans for the things described in the diary. Unfortuantely, the death of Donald has brought too much attention and now the UN Institute for the Study of Unusual Phenomena (ISUP) has sent John Henry in to find out what really happened.

John Henry has just been pulled from an archeological dig in Zambia. The museum director has reason to assume Calvin is up to something because the gaping holes in the translation of the Mayan diary and the mysterious death of Donald. John Henry’s ex-military background and assistant Mary Ellen fly to Belize and discover a strange entrance to a hill that kills all electronics and has special rooms to teach people, the rooms that the sorceress describes in her diary.

But this is not going to be an easy discovery. Calvin decided to ask the Chinese for help translating some scrolls. This leads the Chinese to start investigating what is going on and planning on how they can gain control of the hill and all the knowledge stored within. Now John Henry and Mary Ellen need to explore, determine the cause of the death of Donald, and to keep the Chinese from taking the knowledge and creating weapons with it.

I liked the idea behind this story. It has a Clive Cussler/Indian Jones feel to it with action adventure, the discovery of mysterious artifacts, and trying to keep the artifact out of enemy hands.

Sadly I have to admit that the story is lacking. There is enough to tease you into wanting to find out more about the rooms in the hill but not much more. It almost felt like the idea ran out and that there was nothing more to add to it. I will admit that some of the conflict with the Chinese seemed to take over the story but nothing really added more to it. I was left wanting more information on the hill, disappointed with the whole Chinese conflict, and feeling let down.

Don’t get me wrong, it was an interesting story, but I felt like there could have been more put into it. I see that it is the first book in the series with the next one, The Ice Cap and The Rift, is out for purchase. I did like this one enough to want to buy the second book. But I will be honest, if the second book is similar to the first book and leaves me lacking, I may skip the rest of this series.

I received this book for free from the Library Thing Early Review Program in exchange for an honest review.

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