Review: Daughters of the Storm (Blood and Gold #1) by Kim Wilkins

Title: Daughters of the Storm (Blood and Gold #1)

Author: Kim Wilkins

Published: 1st November 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Mira
Source: Harlequin Mira via Netgalley in return for an honest review
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: *****

 My Review:

I first discovered author Kim Wilkins books after listening to her speak in a panel at a local writing festival in 2004.  At the time I then systematically went through and read all of her books to that date loving all of them and knowing this was an author I would also want to read more of.

Whilst it has been taken me a long while to finally pick up this book, having now finished it I don't know why I waited so long because I think I enjoyed this one more than all the others combined.

This is the perfect start to what looks to be an enthralling and exciting new series up there Game of thrones or Throne of Glass. Bluebell is heir to the throne, warrior and soldier for her Kingdom and her family. Everything she does and every decision she makes is for her Kingdom, her father or her four sisters.  When her father is taken sick by magic, Bluebell is determined to do whatever it takes to save him, no matter the cost.

From the moment I started this book, I literally could not put it down, the writing flows and threads are weaved beautifully to give a seamless, compelling read.  Even when you could see where some of the threads might lead, you could not help but be glued to the pages following every word and line.

Ms Wilkins world building is incredible and her characters captivating.  The story is told from the point of view of the five sisters and Wylm their step brother.  Each sister ( and their step brother) has their own path to follow in the story and each of these path's both kept me riveted whilst moving the story along.

Ms Wilkins writing really helped me connect with all the characters and get into their head and see their points of view.  Whether I agreed with the view or not, it really added to my reading experience each character is so well created that you cannot help but invest yourself in each and every thread.

As the first book in the series, where series set up is so important, the story of this book by itself is also extremely strong and in itself sets the pieces in play for what is to come.

I very much enjoyed this read and am truly excited about picking up book 2 and continuing this series.

One of the best first book in a series I have read in a long time and I give this book 5 stars!

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book

Daughters of the Storm (Blood and Gold #1) by Kim Wilkins

Lying in a magic-induced coma, the King of Thyrsland is on the brink of death: if his enemies knew, chaos would reign. In fear for his life and his kingdom, his five daughters set out on a perilous journey to try to save him, their only hope an aunt they have yet to meet, a shadowy practitioner of undermagic who lives on the wild northern borders. No-one can stand before the fierce tattooed soldier and eldest daughter Bluebell, an army commander who is rumoured to be unkillable, but her sisters, the loyal and mystical Ash, beautiful but unhappily married Rose, pious Willow and uncertain Ivy all have their own secrets to keep from her — the kind of secrets that if revealed could bring disaster down upon not only them, but the entire kingdom. Waiting in the wings is stepbrother Wylm whose dealings with Bluebell's greatest enemy, Hakon the Raven King, would end Bluebell's dreams of revenge on his mother and propel his own desperate grasp for power.

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Review: It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Title: It Ends With Us

Author: Colleen Hoover

Published: 2nd August 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Source: Booktopia
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: *****

 My Review:

In the last couple of years Colleen Hoover has become something of an autobuy author for me as I I don't think there is anything she has written that i haven't loved or at least liked a whole lot.  So I had this book on pre-order a good month before its release date and when it finally I arrived on my doorstep on Thursday, I had no choice but to drop everything and read.

I could not put this book down.  From the first page I was immediately drawn to both Lily and Ryle and eager to see how the story would play out.  When ever i put the book down, these characters would still linger in my mind so that I was always eager to come back to their story and as hints of what was to come began to surface, I really didn't want it to be true because I was so emotionally invested in these characters and the story.

I loved Lily.She was such a strong character with so much drive and direction and ambition and throughout the story that really shone through.  I immediately connected with her and become invested in her story and her life and could have continued to happily read her story had this book gone on longer.

What I especially love about all of Colleen's characters is that they are all so human and have so much depth and substance.  This makes their story so much more genuine and real and really makes the reader fall in love with her characters.  Lily, Ryle, Atlas, even Alyssa and Marshall all become so real to me as I read this book.  I felt what they felt and anguished along with them as I waited t see how it would all turn out.

But what Ms Hoover does best is write stories that creep onto your soul and stay with you, leaving you contemplating the story and the characters long after you have finished the book.  This book is no different and already I am considering going back in for a re-read.

I adored this book and I have no hesitation in giving it five stars

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place. As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

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Review: Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles #1) by Kevin Hearne

Title: Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles)

Author: Kevin Hearne

Published: 2011
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Source: Library
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: ****

 My Review:

I first got a copy of this book a couple of years ago.  I think I won it in a competition and at the time it didn't seem like my kind of read so I put it down.  Since then the people I know who have read the series have really enjoyed it so when i saw it at the library this week,  I figured now was a good time to give it a go.

 I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.  This was an extremely fun read and a lot lighter than I think i expected and it was this fact that I think really endeared the book to me.

With a strong storyline threaded with humour and lots happening through out, the pace worked well along with the quirky interesting characters. There were twists and turns which and you were never really sure who could be trusted and this kept me turning the pages till the end.

Filled with celtic mythology and as well as mentions of various other mythologies an cultures, this didn't get too bogged down in the information giving department. The information was given as needed without being too much of an info dump and perfectly placed to make to help make up the framework of the story.

I really liked main character Atticus as well as his dog Oberon and I loved the dialogue between them.  This author made all his characters seem interesting and there was not one that I wouldn't like to read more about.  The characters were an interesting mixture of a number of different mythologies but rather than being over the top, the laid back manner in which they were placed made it seem quite appropriate and made sense in the story.

This was a surprisingly good fun read and I am keen to keep reading in the series and see where it goes.  For this reason i am happy to give this book 4 stars

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book

Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles #1) by Kevin Hearne

Atticus O'Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona running an occult bookshop and shapeshifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbours and customers think this handsome, tattooed Irishman is about twenty-one years old when, actually, it's twenty-one centuries. Atticus draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants the sword, and he's been after Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down and Atticus will need all his powers - plus a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of lawyers, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good, old-fashioned Irish luck - to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

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Review: Darkfever (Fever #1) by Karen Marie Moning #fever

Title: Darkfever (Fever #1)

Author: Karen Marie Moning

Published: 28 August 2007
Publisher: Dell
Source: Book Depository
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: ****

 My Review:

This book and indeed this series came highly recommended to me so I was excited to finally get a chance to sit down and read it.  Stories about the Fae are always either hit or miss with me, I either love it or I hate it. And this one I loved!

I liked the pace of the story and I flew through it pretty easily and I liked Ms Moning idea of the Fae being incredibly dangerous even the "light' ones and it had a very Buffy the vampire slayer feel at times "the one sidhe-seer in all the world" and all that with the main character being a young blonde who doesn't take life too seriously till everything changes with her sister's murder.

That being said, I did like the main character Mac, for all that she spent the book describing how shallow she had once been, she still has a lot of family loyalty and strength.  I am eager to find out more about the mysterious Jericho Barrons, and V'lane and the part the Seelie are playing in all this.

As far as first books in a series go, this was definitely the kind of book that makes you want to continue on with the series, want to find out more about Mac Sidhe-seer abilities, find out more about the fae and what they have planned for the human world and find out who killed Mac's sister.  Though given that in the prologue, Mac tells us she is a Sidhe-seer, I did then find it a little frustrating to have to spent the better part of the first half of the book having Mac slowly find out and then more slowly accept that Hey yeah she is sidhe-seer despite all the denial. That small foible and the distracting habit of the author to randomly have a future mac flash back on the scene ( ie I don't know what i was thinking that day or if i had known then the danger I faced...) were probably the only two real problems i had with the book and why i am not giving the story a 5 star rating.

That being said however  I am already planning to buy book two later this week as well as reserving at the library in case i don't get a chance to make it to the book shop :-)
I give this book a very solid 4 stars

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book

Darkfever (Fever #1) by Karen Marie Moning

"My name is MacKayla, Mac for short. I'm a sidhe-seer, one who sees the Fae, a fact I accepted only recently and very reluctantly. My philosophy is pretty simple - any day nobody's trying to kill me is a good day in my book. I haven't had many good days lately. Not since the walls between Man and Fae came down. But then, there's not a sidhe-seer alive who's had a good day since then." When MacKayla's sister was murdered, she left a single clue to her death, a cryptic message on Mac's cel phone. Journeying to Ireland in search of answers, Mac is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to master a power she had no idea she possessed - a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae. As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister's death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho...while at the same time, the ruthless V'lane - an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women - closes in on her. As the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac's true mission becomes clear: to find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book - because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control both worlds in their hands..

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Review: Goddess of Legend (Goddess Summoning #7) by P. C. Cast

Title: Goddess of Legend (Goddess Summoning #7)

Author: P. C. Cast

Published: 7 December 2010
Publisher: Hachette AU
Source: Dymocks
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: *** 1/2

 My Review:

I read the first 6 books of this series about 3 or 4 years ago and I remember really enjoying it. So I was really excited to read this, the seventh and last book in the series. I think though , I may have been remembering them better than they were because whilst I did still enjoy it, it wasn't quite as good as I was hoping.

The story flows well from beginning to end and I breezed through it pretty quickly and there is a lot of humour in this book, particularly in the dialogue and I found myself laughing out loud at times and there may have been a snort of laughter or 2 (though I am not admitting anything. I did find that some of jokes were a little bit on the repetitive side so while it was funny the first couple of times, it was used a little too much so instead just got annoying. Others were pretty much funny every time. Pickles anyone?

 I mostly liked the main character Isabel but at times I struggled with the way Arthur and Guinevere were depicted, especially Guinevere. At times, her actions, which I think were supposed to mark her as very young just made her character look somewhat inconsistent and at times confusing.

I think as well because there have been a lot of stories about the Arthur legend, including time traveller stories such as a Yankee in King Arthur's court by Mark Twain, the stick with which I was measuring the story was a little higher so the story was relatively fun and simple, I think certain elements of the story such as Mordred were over simplified to make the story work.

Overall, it mostly gave me the warm and fuzzy feelings I had been hoping for and expecting from it though I wasn't as satisfied with the ending as I wanted to be. So for these reasons I give this story 3 1/2 stars

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book

Goddess of Legend (Goddess Summoning #7) by P. C. Cast

The new Goddess Summoning novel from the author of the multimillion- selling House of Night phenomenon. 

After her car plummets off a bridge, Isabel, a world-weary photojournalist, struggles between life and death when she's saved by the Water Goddess-with one tiny caveat: Isabel must travel to another time to seduce the legendary Lancelot du Lac away from Queen Guinevere. 

The handsome knight is a dream for any woman in any century. But Isabel is the one who's seduced by King Arthur. For Isabel, a deal is a deal. Now, the King watches as fate takes from him the mysterious beauty he has come to worship, knowing all too well that any interference on his part could destroy the kingdom he loves.

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