Forged in Grace
by Jordan E. Rosenfeld Genre: Psychological Suspense (Adult w/ YA and NA crossover appeal) Publication Date: February 2013
Blurb
Grace Jensen survived a horrific fire at age 15. The flames changed her: badly scarred in body and mind, Grace developed an ability to feel other people’s pain. Unable to bear human touch, she has made a small life for herself in Northern California, living with her hoarder mother, tending wounded animals, and falling a little in love with her former doctor. Her safe world explodes when the magnetic Marly Kennet reappears in town; Grace falls right back into the dynamic of their complicated friendship. Marly is the holder of many secrets, including one that has haunted Grace for over a decade: what really happened the night of the fire?
When Marly exhorts Grace to join her in Las Vegas, to make up for the years they have been lost to each other, Grace takes a leap of faith and goes. Although Marly is not entirely honest about her intentions, neither woman anticipates that enlarging Grace’s world will magnify her ability to sense the suffering of others—or that she will begin to heal wounds by swallowing her own pain and laying her hands on the afflicted.
This gift soon turns darker when the truth of Marly’s life—and the real reason she ended her friendship with Grace—pushes the boundaries of loyalty and exposes both women to danger.
I feel swimmy, high, adrenaline on full tilt, though I haven’t consumed a drop of alcohol. “We need to subdue him first,” I hear myself say. “Can’t just slap a hand on his face and hope it knocks him out.”
Marly nods, though she is too encumbered to move quickly, and me—there’s no guarantee of what I can do.
“I have pepper spray,” she fidgets with her purse as though she’s about to withdraw it. “And it’s not like we have to break in, Grace. He’ll let us in, when he sees it’s me. Think I’m coming to talk.”
“Okay, then,” I say, before I lose my nerve. And we get in her car and drive.
We park and walk four residential blocks. The streets are lit by yellow halogen lamps, but there’s also a nearly-full moon. Its bold light makes me feel bolstered, sanctioned. Marly points to his condo, one square box among many in a beige world of homogenous residences.
“This could have been my life,” Marly whispers, her face a portrait of disgust. “I should be in that kitchen right now making dinner, then go spread my legs for him. I can’t believe he thought he could get away with what he did to me.”
The guilt surges through me again. If only I hadn’t healed away the evidence. But we didn’t know. Nobody could have known.
“Let’s do it soon, before I chicken out.” My palms have begun to ache with heat.
“Damn straight,” she agrees, and the toss of her hair is so familiar it’s like we’re fifteen again.
Simultaneously, we take a deep breath.
Marly repeats her lines, “I’ll say we’re here to talk—that I brought you as my friend and witness. That will put him on his best behavior. And you?”
I choke a little on my own saliva, cough, and answer, “I’ll ask for a glass of water, say I got too much sun today. He’ll take one look at me and have a hard time refusing, right?”
Marly pats her purse. “Let’s go.” She’s always one step ahead of me.
***
About the Author
Jordan E. Rosenfeld learned early on that people prefer a storyteller to a know-it-all. She channeled any Hermione-esque tendencies into a career as a writing coach, editor and freelance journalist and saves the Tall Tales for her novels. She earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and is the author of the books, Make A Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time (Writer’s Digest Books) and Write Free! Attracting the Creative Life with Rebecca Lawton (BeijaFlor Books). Jordan’s essays and articles have appeared in such publications as AlterNet.org, Publisher’s Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, The St. Petersburg Times, The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazine. Her book commentaries have appeared on The California Report, a news-magazine produced by NPR-affiliate KQED radio. She lives in Northern California with her Batman-obsessed son and Psychologist husband.
I'm happy to announce that I'm back! Or at least well on my way. I'm feeling much better and can definitely handle more time sitting down now :) So I've had this idea running in my head most of the day and finally decided to just go with it. I also wanted to discuss with you guys book trailers.
Book Trailers
Now I don't know about you guys but me personally, I really dislike book trailers. Why? Probably for the same reason that I dislike Audio Books. They use voices to narrate the trailers and they are usually the voices of the main characters. I hate it. It totally messes with the voices in my head (sounds a bit crazy but what the hell, I'm sure you guys get me! xD). I thought this was it, but I just watched a book trailer in which I haven't read the book yet so that shouldn't have really bothered, but the voice of the girl they used grated on my nerves anyway. It was...just too much...I don't know how they pick them but they should start getting more opinions or something. Now a good book trailer are those that have the catchy phrases and the epic music combined with some fancy graphic work. Those I love, but I have noticed I find more of the voice variety than the non-voice variety, so now a days I just steer clear of book trailers all together.
Nonvoice example:
Voice example:
It has subtitles for Italian but you get the point. I hated this book trailer, yet I love Cassie's work mostly and I'm just waiting till this one comes out so I can read Infernal Devices in one go. But that trailer to me was a complete turn off, and what is up with that carrie-esq ending?
New Idea
At the beginning of the year I joined the 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge over at Bookish. I thought it was a great idea to finally get through those books that have just been sitting there for a while. And it was, I have read some books from my pile, and even crossed out a whole series out of it cause I found out it just wasn't doing it for me, but I have just felt that it wasn't enough. In these 2 months I have only read 4 books from my TBR Pile...FOUR! That's horrible!
So, I came up with these mini challenges/goals per months that should help towards really getting some reading done. Since a pretty big chunk of my pile is actually series what I have decided to do is pick 1 series (at least) and read it during that month. Depending on the amount of books on the series I'll decide to do 2 or maybe even 3 a month. I'll probably dedicate a whole month to just sequels, where it only takes 1 book to catch up to the series, and another month to standalone or start of series.
Later today or tomorrow I'll be adding a new page to the blog dedicated solely to this. Since I already read Delirium for the read-a-long this month, I'm planning to finish up Pandemonium for this month and starting March I'll be planing on reading The Game of Thrones books since the series starts back up on 31st! So excited!! Those books are realllly long so we'll see how I do!
I probably won't be reviewing all the ones that I do read. I am thinking of just doing one big wrap-up post per series most likely. If you guys are interested in joining me in these mini goals maybe we can do a link up post? Let me know!
Abigail Cells had a nightmare the day before she met Gideon, the new guy in school who has every girl drooling just to be near him. In her nightmare, she was murdered by a magical creature. As she gets to know Gideon, she begins to remember pieces of her nightmare, and was shocked when Gideon turned out to be the creature from her nightmare. Who is Gideon really? Should Abby allow herself to fall completely for him, or is he the next disaster waiting to happen?
My Thoughts
I don't know what to rate this. It had so many ups and downs and it's hard to pin it down with just 1 rating.
We have Abigail who is actually pretty awesome what with her CIA training and what not. She can totally kick ass, when she is not freaking out and in shock...Seriously. She spent most of her time either screaming cause she was freaking out or still as a mummy cause she was in shock. Where did her uber training go? Right out the window that's where. But there are times in which she actually does use it and she becomes this sociopath basically. So with her she is either an Angel or an Angel if you get my drift (people who have read this already).
Which brings me to my next point. The plot. I didn't get it. They explained how the guardian angels work in this world, and I must admit that it was pretty fascinating if that where true. My problem is that the whole bloody book is just a romance book. There is absolutely no plot whatsoever beside the romance till like the last 2 or 3 chapters. Which isn't saying much cause Manful cuts the plot in half by abruptly ending the book. One second am reading about a war the next I'm reading the Acknowledgements. Which btw, the first couple of sentences read like the book, so I didn't even notice till I realized it didn't make much sense to what was going on before. So yeah CLIFFHANGER ALERT.
Since this whole book pretty much deals about the romance, let's talk about that. I didn't really get it either. She falls in love with Gideon who is the psychopath of Angels and she tries to change him. Now I'm usually not about the falling in love so you can change a person, but in this case he actually does want to change for her. He is trying at least, but man she is tough! All the kid has ever known is killing since he was 5. Give the guy a break. I was OK with the romance between Abigail and Gideon cause he was actually really sweet and romantic and innocent with her. My problem was the damn triangle. I thought Abigail had it figured out that Tristan was in the friend zone, but apparently that wasn't the case. Needless to say, I was not happy. But at least this didn't come in till a good 3/4th of the book.
After getting that all out there, it kind of sounds like a rant. I didn't mean to, but it was hard not to when all the good in this book came with it's just as big bad. Which is why I'm still giving this 3 stars, at the end I was still flipping pages (or touching my screen) to find out what happened. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be bother to find out what does happen in the next books, even with that cliffhanger. I abhor love triangles and just can't stomach them, but if you don't have a problem with that then definitely give it a try, it's a very unique take in guardian angels.
Lem has ethics in using his magic. Therefore Lem is hungry and broke most of the time.
Ethics in the world of blood magic, however, is a gray area. While Lemwill grift his way through life by using small glamours to make $1 bills appear as $20s, enabling him and his none-too-bright pal Mags to eat, hewon’t use other people's blood to cast. Stronger spells require more blood, and hardcore magicians use Bleeders or “volunteers” to this end. Not Lem.
So when these down-and-out boon companions encounter a girl kidnapped and marked with magic rune tattoos, it’s not at all clear that they’re powerful enough to save her…or themselves. Turning to his estranged Master for help, it quickly becomes clear to Lem that not only is this beautiful, strange girl’s life all but forfeit, but that the world’s preeminent mage had big, earth-shattering plans for her—and he and Mags just got in the way.
My Thoughts
This was definitely an interesting read if nothing else. The use of blood magic and using bleeders isn't exactly new but Somers used it well.
Our main character is a guy, which was a nice change of pace from all those 'kick-ass chicks' out there. I liked his quick thinking and taking action. He always had something to use or do. He always had at least one next step. He has morals as well which of course come to bite him in the ass and has to finally bend a little to really do anything. He is talented but his very strict moral code would have never allowed him to accomplish much of anything.
I didn't see the need to portray all bleeders as big fat dudes. Just cause you are fat doesn't mean you have more blood nor are you healthy enough to be able to recover that blood faster. That kind of bothered me. Mags was an interesting character. I still don't know what to really make of him and I'm sure there will be some secrets regarding him that will start popping up. Then there is Claire. Now there is one kick-ass chick. She had no magic but she was a fighter through and through. Maybe a little too much towards the end and just bails on Lem. Understandable but doesn't mean I have to like it.
Plot wise and in regards to world-building it was all done well and pretty straightforward. I'm not 100% clear still on the Words but I can live with that. The whole plot was obvious. Interrupted the end of the world spell and then fighting to keep it that way.
Now the language...It didn't exactly bothered me, but I in my opinion I thought it was a little too over used. I know everyone curses, I sure do, but not that often and not everyone does either. It seemed like every time we came across someone they would be cursing a lot as well.
In the end, this was an entertaining read, but I don't think I'll be reading the squeal.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
I'm actually not currently reading anything, so instead I picked a book that I finished recently and reallly liked.
~| So, here is the teaser for this week! |~
"Fight. Always fight. No matter how impossible the odds, no matter who you've lost, how you've been hurt. If there doesn't seem to be a way out, look for one. If you seem to have come to an end, start afresh. Never, ever give up."
I am excited to present to you guys the cover for Ivy Granger: Ghost light by E.J. Stevens!
Ivy Granger, psychic detective, thought she'd seen it all...until now.
Expected Publication: July 9th 2013
Ivy Granger, psychic detective, thought she'd seen it all...until now.
With a vengeful lamia that only she can see on the city streets, reports of specters walking Harborsmouth cemeteries, and an angry mob of faerie clients at her office door, it's bound to be a long night. Add in an offense against the faerie courts and a few foolish bargains and one thing is clear--Ivy Granger is in some seriously deep trouble.
Ivy Granger is back, gathering clues in the darkest shadows of downtown Harborsmouth. With the lives of multiple clients on the line, she's in a race against time. Ivy finally has a lead to the whereabouts of the one person who can help her control her wisp abilities, but will she put the needs of her clients above her own?
If Ivy doesn't find a solution soon, she could wind up a ghost herself.
GHOST LIGHT is the second novel in the bestselling Ivy Granger urban fantasy series by E.J. Stevens.
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