What Else I Read in May 2015

Books:

Crazy for the Cowboy by Vicki Lewis Thompson - Nice story with two interesting characters.  Vince is a rolling stone while Georgina is not.  Things don't look that good for the two.  I loved Georgina.  She is strong and very steady.  Vince is the same he just does not realize it.  Nice story with a great romance and a great set up for the next book in the series.

The Duke's Disaster by Grace Burrowes - A nice story about two who marry for practical purposes.  There is a interesting twist and some drama about Lady Thea's past. Mostly it has great dialog between the two main characters and a nice HEA.



A Fortune for the Outlaw's Daughter - by Lauri Robinson - Set in the Alaska gold rush two people who do not want to ever marry and will not let anyone tell them what to do have a big change of heart.  There is danger in the story.  Mostly it is a nice romance with a look into life as a gold miner.

Heart of the Hawk by Justine Davis – This is a western with a touch of the paranormal.  Josh Hawk is a gunfighter and the last of his line.  Kate Dixon is the widow of a man he just killed.  Does not sound like the start of a love story.  The paranormal? Well anytime the line comes down to the last Hawk a book appears telling the story of the Hawks and pointing to how the line will continue.  Kate and Josh just have to understand what the book is telling them.  I have read and enjoyed Davis’s science fictions stories.  Seeing a western with the paranormal bend caught my attention.  I was glad it did.  Josh and Kate both are great characters and I loved their story. It is book two in the Hawk trilogy but does a very good job as a stand alone.

War of Shadows by Gail Z. Martin - The War of Shadows, the next book in The Ascendant Kingdom series, is a book I have been waiting for.  It was great to see Blaine “Mick” McFadden along with all of his friends from previous books. This picks up when book 2 left off. Blaine has bound the magic but there are problems.  The magic needs more than one person to hold it steady.  There are others who want control of both the magic and the kingdom.  This is the story of both Blaine and those who are his friends and those who are his enemies.  Look for tension, danger, war and more of the magic that is part of The Ascendant Kingdom.   Like the previous two books several problems are solved but there are more before things feel safe for Blaine and friends.  I would have liked more time with Blaine and his group but it was interesting to see the other characters.

His Blushing Bride by Dani Collins – A cute love story with two fun characters.  Both say they do not want anything but a fun fling but we know better. Collins takes a common theme and spins it into a fun story with great characters.  This is part of The Montana Born Brides but works well as a stand alone.

Orbs by Nicholas Sansbury Smith – Orbs is a alien invasion story with a different twist.  The aliens send down their worker bees but we never see the brains behind the invasion. What we do see is a small group of people who get much more than they signed up for.  They are working very hard to survive and everything seems to be going against them.  Don’t look for a solution to the invasion.  This is book one in the series and while there is a small hope they can destroy the invaders it is very small.  This is a tension filled story where the action drives the characters.  Most things are still up in the air at the end of the book.  I hope that book two comes out soon as I want to see how they destroy the invaders and retrieve what has been stolen.

Defiant by Karina Sumner-Smith – I loved Radiant, book one in the Towers Trilogy.  Book two, Defiant, is just as good.  Sumner-Smith has built a world filled with interesting and different characters and situations.  This time Xhea and her ghost friend Shai should be safe but things are changing in the Lower City.  I loved how the friendship between Shai and Xhea was at the heart of the story.  Even when they were separated and their tether broken each was still important to the other.  There is much to be learned and much to overcome and the journey is filled with many different problems and dangers.  Defiant is a great blend of magic and characters set in a world very different from any other I have seen.

Colton Cowboy Protector by Beth Cornelison – This is the start of a great new contemporary cowboy romance/thriller series.  Tracy McCain does not realize she is in danger until someone tries to kill her.  Jack Colton does not want Tracy around his son when she arrives.  Jack is a very closed off character.  Tracy is looking for family and Jack’s son is all that is left.  Look for great back story, character introduction and on going mystery as you read.  While one mystery is solved one is left hanging.  Even though Jack is taken there are plenty of Colton’s available for future books.

Audio Books:

Deceived by Irene Hannon - This was an interesting mystery.  The characters were very complex and showed more than one side.  I enjoyed how the story line was developed.  While there were a lot of coincidences it did make everything flow.  This was listed as a Christian Mystery.  The Christian part just intruded in the story.  It would have worked just as well without the mention of church and faith but I was not enough to turn anyone off of the story.

Radiant (Towers Trilogy #1) by Karina Sumner-Smith

Fantasy/ Dysopia/Science Fiction

From Goodreads:

Xhea has no magic. Born without the power that everyone else takes for granted, Xhea is an outcast—no way to earn a living, buy food, or change the life that fate has dealt her. Yet she has a unique talent: the ability to see ghosts and the tethers that bind them to the living world, which she uses to scratch out a bare existence in the ruins beneath the City’s floating Towers.

When a rich City man comes to her with a young woman’s ghost tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. The ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare person who generates so much power that the Towers use it to fuel their magic, heedless of the pain such use causes. Shai’s home Tower is desperate to get the ghost back and force her into a body—any body—so that it can regain its position, while the Tower’s rivals seek the ghost to use her magic for their own ends. Caught between a multitude of enemies and desperate to save Shai, Xhea thinks herself powerless—until a strange magic wakes within her. Magic dark and slow, like rising smoke, like seeping oil. A magic whose very touch brings death.

With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.

Radiant is a long twisted journey featuring two main characters.  Xhea, who thinks she has no magic but can see ghosts and Shai who is a ghost and has more magic than others.  Most of Radiant is back-story and world building.  All of that is done while following Xhea and Shai as they try to survive in a world that was destroyed some time in the past.  Magic is a big part of this world and those with little live in the ruins.  Those with a lot live in towers kept aloft with magic.  During the story Xhea and Shai spend time in both.

It is an easy story to fall into.  Radiant is well written.  The main characters are well defined.  The main plot is the only weakness.  Xhea and Shai never had a goal other than to stay out of the wrong hands.  Their journey is used to build the world and to tell the back story.    It is only in the Epilogue that there is a hint of where they are going and why. I still enjoyed the book and will pick up book two when it comes out.   I want to see what will happen to the two and where they will end up.

Talos published Radiant by  Karina Sumner-Smith in 2014.

I received an ARC of Radiant from Edelweiss in return for an honest review.