Alchemystic by Anton Strout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Truly amazing book! I received an early copy of the paperback edition for review from Literal Addiction. I am already a fan of gargoyles. I was a fan of the cartoon and love seeing pictures of them and especially love seen buildings that have gargoyles carved into the architecture. Alchemystic was a great adventure. I loved every page of it. It was the story of Alexandra Belarus who comes from a family with a deep architectural history in Manhattan. The Belarus clan also has a secret which they were not even aware, Alexander Belarus was gifted in magic that could control stone. He did leave them protection from something they are not even aware is a danger to them, something from his past. This protection comes in the form of Stanis, the coolest gargoyle ever!

This book has some wonderful character development. There were times that I wanted to kick Alexandra. She had her moments of being obviously entitled, bossing her friends around as if they were her sidekicks until she was faced with how treating them that way might affect her relationship with them. We watch her grow as a person and as she comes into her gifts. Alexandra's parents have secrets of their own as do most people. What happens when family secrets come to light? Some serious tension which pushes this book's characters stand out more. Alexandra's relationship with her brother is best depicted by the opening scene of the book. Words cannot express my opinion of Devon. He has to be experienced by each reader for themselves.

The action and magic in this book was truly great. The fight scenes were very well written and they did not all involve Stanis, though he was truly bada**. We learn a lot about his background and what his desires and goals are and how he is driven to complete those goals. No other words describe it and I love a well developed action sequence. This book had several exciting action scenes and architectural exploration hunting for hidden items needed to solve a mystery. I loved being introduced to Anton Stout's creatures in this book and his own spin on alchemy and gargoyles. I am totally enthralled by this story and I am really ready to know when book two comes out because it promises to be a serious knuckle biter!

Review can also be seen at Lady Techies Book Musings at http://LadytechiesBookMusings.Blogspo...

Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is about a terrible vampire that only a select few even realize is still around and Captain Obvious, who is always up for starting something. There were several surprises in this book. One great thing was that I attended an online book chat on Literal Addiction with Rachel Caine and we were able to submit questions ahead of time for the interview with Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael. One of my questions was have they ever seen werewolves or elves in Morganville and the cast of characters replied with sort of a blank stare like what are those, which I found hilarious. Last Breath had the druag so I thought it was worth a shot to see what else might be there. At the beginning of the series I originally thought that Shane might be a werewolf because he was so secretive and seemed extraordinarily strong. Turns out, no.
In this book we don’t necessarily learn more about the characters as much as they seem to be learning about themselves. Some really shocking things happen in the book (you have to read it for yourselves to find out what) so we get to see some really vulnerable sides to our cast as well as several others in the book. Myrvin was great as usual. We did learn more about his past in this book actually so that was a great addition to this story.
Bitter Blood was a great addition to the Morganville Vampire series, which I really love. As usual we had some closure but also I was left several questions one of which is what the heck did Myrvin say to Shane? Do we find out in the next book? Does it matter? The dreaded reality show craze did show its face in this book and brought us some new characters. I wonder what happened to Tyler. We saw more of Jenna so we know where she is at the end of the story. Finally, what did Claire mean with her last thought at the end of the book? I love that we always get some form of closure with this series with every book, but, I hate having to wait another year to have answers to these questions. Oh, I’ll wait. I may grumble about it, grit my teeth and shake my fist at the world crying about the injustice of it all, but, I’ll be right there on release day next time getting the answers to my questions, hopefully. Please Rachel Caine!

Review can also be seen at LadyTechie’s Book Musings at http://LadyTechiesBookMusings.blogspo...

The Janus Affair by Philippa Ballantine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to The Janus Affair, Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences on audio book. The moderator, James Langton, did a wonderful job. I loved it! This go-round Wellington and Eliza are pulled into investigating the disappearances of prominent members of the suffragette movement. In this book Eliza’s past from Australia is told more in depth, though we don’t get the full story yet of what happened with her friend Kate, we know a lot more details about why Eliza is now living in London. We also get to see more about her friendships outside of work and get more insight into the softer side of Eliza Braun.
We also get more of Wellington Books’ background and his relationship with his father. We also learn more about why he insists on staying out of trouble, well until Eliza drags him into it. That was one of the great things about The Janus Affair. We get to see Wellington let his hair down some and there are a lot of surprises when he does show more of himself.
The book introduces some new characters, some of which seem like they will be seen regularly and others for this story only. There was a ton of adventure, excellent fight scenes and a lot of action. I also loved the inventions and technology that were described, like the precursor to what might be motorcycles. It is interesting to have described the responses to the suffragette movement and I wonder if what was described as Queen Victoria’s response was very close to home, especially given the era. This was a great installment in the series and I look forward to the next book or most likely audio book.

Review can also be seen at LadyTechie’s Book Musings at http://LadyTechiesBookMusings.blogspo...