Author Archives: karenjvjohnson

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Charred Heart

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18878146

Charred Heart (Heart of Fire #1)

by Lizzy Ford (Goodreads Author)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this book for free through NetGalley for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book so much that it almost surprised me. The characters were all what I would have wanted them to be. They acted and reacted to each other and their various situations with such real emotion that I could not help but be drawn to them. The story was logical and heartbreaking in so many ways that sometimes I was not sure how I should react. I loved that! I like a story that gives me a bit of a mystery along with my action and love story, because there was definitely a love story here. Lizzy Ford has given me a hero I can root for an a heroine I can like and admire, she is not a simpering little girl. The only thing I missed was getting to know more about some of the secondary characters, even though they were not a major part of the story I would have liked to have learned more about them.

Chace has been a dragon shifter for a thousand years and just wants to human again. He has lost so many friends over the years that life has become unbearable for him, and the fact that it is due to a curse makes things even worse. Chace does not think before he acts and tends to be arrogant and selfish, but it is partly because he forgets that others may rely on him. This is a man/dragon I would not push away!

Skylar is a slayer, a dragon slayer in particular and has been hunting Chace for a while. When she finally stumbles upon him she can’t understand why she feels drawn to him for more than just the capture. Skylar’s life has been very straight forward until she runs into Chace, then things start to change for her as she starts to question if she is who she thought she was. You cannot help but like a girl with a warped sense of humor that surfaces at the most peculiar times. She is pretty fearless but has a soft side. This girl I could hang with and have a great time.

For twenty years the shifters have been disappearing and no one knew what was happening, their numbers had fallen from the thousands down to a few dozen. Chace is tasked with finding out what is going on in order to get what he wants most, while Skylar is after the last dragon shifter. Both of them are being manipulated, though they are unaware of all that is being done around them. They find each other only to have external forces pull them apart and maybe separate them forever.

With a story full of mysterious shifters, murky slayers, betrayal, lust, magic, and a fathers regret, how could I not want more. This story had the right measure of heat and intrigue to keep me reading well into the night. And know I just need to find out what happens next, because I am hoping for my HEA, or least a continuation of a story that has me.

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A Vampire’s Christmas Wish

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18660543

A Vampire’s Christmas Wish

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a nice short read that was good but made me feel like I was missing something more. There is an introduction that gives you some background on the character but you don’t get to really know him. The story moves along fairly quickly with introduction of more characters who we also do not get to know nearly well enough before everything starts to happen. I think I just wanted more information about who they were before I had to care about what they were going through. But overall it was still an interesting story that held my attention and left me with a smile.

Janus Morano is a master vampire has been looking for the reincarnation of his lost love through time. They had been happy once, and he wishes that it could be the same again. Deidre Helm has had a tragic history and has compounded it with her life choices. When Janus sees her he feels like she could be the one he has sought for so long. Now he must keep her alive long enough for her to remember him and accept who he is.

I liked Janus even though I would have liked to know how he became a vampire and when. He seemed like a vampire who had a big heart and endless love in him. Deirdre on the other hand kind of annoyed me. She runs off with a strange man and then proceeds to act like he kidnapped her or something, a weak and whiny woman, the worst kind. There was also an issue with the fact that words were missing, misused, misplaced, and whole phrases made no sense, which did make for a rough read.

I enjoyed it none the less.

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Bell Hallow

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7083562

Bell Hollow: The Ghost Hunters’ Files

3.5 stars for this horror/ghost story. The story itself was not particularly scary but it had a feeling of menace running throughout that made it compelling. The establishing chapters which laid out the area and some of the characters was straight forward and flowed well. but when it came into the present time you had to pay very close attention or lose track of where in the timeline you were. I had a good idea of where it was headed once we got to the sixties but I had to read on just in case I was wrong.

There are forty acres or more tucked away near Nashville, TN that has been shunned since the beginning of time because it has been the site of strange smells, unnatural deaths, and an evil aura. Even the local tribes avoided the area, then a trapper shows up in 1750 and decides to build there and the evil gets more active forcing the local medicine man to try to contain it. He does but settlers come and not recognizing the signs awaken it once more.

This is about a family who becomes embroiled in the supernatural through no real fault of their own. Jared accepts a job that will destroy his close-knit family and drive him to brink.

We don’t even meet the ghost hunters until the last several chapters of the book. But that is alright because they are not a major part of the story. The characters were quickly constructed and did not have a great deal of depth but some still managed to stand out. This was a decent read and I enjoyed it but there just seemed to be something missing. I liked the history of the area that was talked about. Read but don’t look to deep.

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White Lion’s Lady

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18866183

White Lion’s Lady (Warrior #1)

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am so not a fan of historical romances but this has changed my mind about the genre, at least where this author is concerned. I may even try others. 🙂 This was a great read with characters I could feel down to my toes and in my heart. The settings were so vivid that I could see them in my mind, which is a wonderful experience when you can become that immersed in a book. This grabbed me and refused to let me put it down without a fight as I moved from chapter to chapter wanting to find out just one more thing before putting it down for the night.

Isabel de Lamere(Izzy) meets the person who will fire her young imagination and heart when she is eight years old and finds herself lost in the forest. To her rescue comes Griffin of Droghallow, a boy who has dreams of someday becoming a great and honorable knight. They are in each others company for only a short time, but for Isabel it is long enough to form an attachment for the foster son of the Earl and to keep something dear to him for ten years in the hope that one day she can return it.

Ten years later and Isabel has had a hard life to contend with, she is the ward of the King and has been given in marriage to a man she has never met. This character is strong, confused, and knows her duty. I liked her because of all those traits but also because she could change and follow more than just the rules she had set for herself. She was also naive, but that was to be expected for the time period, she had been sheltered and really knew nothing of the world. Griffin on the other hand had seen to much of the world and had changed a great deal from that bright-eyed boy. His life took a dark turn and all he wants is to start fresh. When they meet again it is not a sweet reunion but one they will never forget.

This was an exciting story with sword fights, court intrigue, betrayal, romance, and some nice love scenes. It was both heart wrenching and pulse pounding in equal measures. I cried, laughed, and cheered. Great ending, just want I wanted and needed! I cannot wait to read the next in the series.

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Another Year Comes to a Close

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     2013

This was a year of firsts for me, a year I started doing things I had always said I would not.  It has been an interesting and good year, if my reading list is any indication that is. When this year started I would never have guessed that I would be using any type of social media, other than Facebook, but here I am.  I started a blog when everything in me said don’t do it, what’s the point, you have no idea what you are doing. And it is all true, I have no idea what I am doing and it looks like it, but I don’t care about that because I am finally at least giving myself a voice about something I like. I got on Twitter and though it may not be the most scintillating exchanges I have ever had it once again gives me a place to voice my opinions on my books. Last but not least I joined Goodreads where I have found a lot of people who enjoy reading as much as I do and have given me so many new authors and genres that I had not explored before.  This has been a year of making new friends and doing something I find fun which gives me an outlet for all those thoughts that swirl around my head.

Twitter

Twitter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is obvious that I am not a professional reviewer by any means. I think amateur might even be a stretch, but I enjoy it none the less. I loved English classes in school and took as many as I could get away with because they allowed me to read and write more than any others. I have never thought my writing all the great but others told me I did it well. I will never be able to write a novel because I don’t have the imagination to create an entire world and characters who have a life, short short stories are about as much as I could do. But I can put thought to paper in a fairly coherent manner. What I have hoped for here was simply to convey how I felt about the books I have read and whether I think they would be worth the time of others.

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Goodreads Avatar (Photo credit: minifig)

Well, this was just to say Thank You! Thank you to all those who have stopped by and to those who have chosen to follow along as I wend my way through a galaxy of books. Hopefully with time I will get a better understanding of this and give you more to enjoy.

New Year 2014 Pictures & Images

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Shattered Promises

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17166774

Shattered Promises (Shattered Promises #1)

 

This is 4.5 stars for entertaining even though I was not sure what was going on for the longest time. I loved the characters and the way that they were introduced even though I would have liked to have gotten more information on some. The story was confusing for me but it still managed to maintain a flow that allowed me to follow where it was going and enlighten me along the way. The story is rather complicated and twisty so you really have to pay attention to who you are with and what they are doing.

We meet Gemma Lucas as she finds that emotions are no longer a thing only other people feel. Gemma is a student in her final year of college and has no idea what she is going to do when it ends. But sometimes you shouldn’t temp fate by wondering about such things because you may find out that she has plans you might not agree with. She meets Aisling and Alex Avery in one of her classes and feels an electrical charge when she is around Alex, but does not know what it means, and he seems to be unaware of it however.

When she starts to have strange dreams and waking nightmares Gemma believes that she is going insane, but that is far from the truth. Gemma finds herself being pulled into a world and situations that she would have never believed existed. She also finds herself with emotions that she has never had to contend with, and controlling them proves to be difficult. Does she love Alex or hate him? Can she trust Alex? Should she trust Alex? Lots of questions and few answers but finding out is going to be a heck of a ride.

As I said, I did not always know what was going on but half the fun is trying to figure out who to trust and who not to trust. I am just as baffled as Gemma but can’t wait to see if I have chosen wisely. There are thrills, chills, and paranormals galore.

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Captured

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15059301

Captured (The Captive #1)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really liked this story and the writing style of Erica Stevens, since this was the first book I read from this author.I felt like I really got to know the characters and that they were very real for me. I got interested from the very beginning and it kept me interested through the end. The story was fluid and there was nothing which did not make sense about what was happening. The world they inhabited was dark and dangerous but it had lightness to it also. The characters have personalities that are three-dimensional and not flat, giving you a chance to know them as people.

Vampires have taken over the world and have ruled for 100 years, meaning that many humans do not even remember what the world was like before they took over. While the vampires live in the cities, in homes and palaces and conduct regular business, the humans who still resist live in the forests in caves and makeshift camps.

Arianna is young and is part of the resistance outside of the town where the vampire royal family lives. She is captured while protecting a young boy and put up for auction along with all the other captives, she can only hope for death or to become a blood slave giving her a short and brutal life, she prays for a quick death. Arianna is a strong character but has some tendencies that make her seem weak at the same time, but I still liked her even she was all over the place emotionally.

Braith is the vampire prince who claims Arianna as his blood slave, even though he has never  had one in all his years of existence. Braith  fought in the war which reduced humanity to slaves and servants. Braith is not like the other vampires, he does not have a cruel streak but has a core of caring. I wasn’t sure what he was doing but felt sorry for him because he wanted something more than just killing and torture in his life.

This is a story about two people who have lived very different lives. While Arianna has heard all these horror stories about vampires she learns that not all of them are the same. Braith finds that love can come even to the most jaded and from the least likely person. They find each other but can they keep each other. I will be reading further because I really need to know what happens to them.

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Better Off Dead

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15962381

Better Off Dead (Lily Harper #1)

This was a 4.5 for me but I would have given it 5 for a little more back story on Tallis Black. The writing was everything I have come to expect from this author, who I already love. The plot was fun but seemed a bit rushed, I would have liked to take a little time when Lily arrived in her new digs before heading off on her first adventure. This being the first novel in the series, it lays out the overall theme of what will be happening. The characters seem plausible and act and react in the way that you would expect them to, except for maybe Bill who is on a whole different plane than anyone else. 🙂 The language is appropriate for the characters and is easily understandable, even the thick brogue that is employed by Tallis.

Lily Harper is having a bad day, she is late for a presentation at work, it’s raining, traffic is a nightmare and then it gets worse, she dies. What’s a girl to do when she finds herself deceased and in the equivalent of a DMV office where she is given an impossible choice, die and go to purgatory or become a bounty hunter for souls. What would you do given that choice? Well she opts for hunter and there begins her adventure in the wonderful world of soul retrieval. She meets her guide, Bill, her guardian angel who will accompany her, but knows as little as she does about what they will face. Tallis Black is a blade-smith and is hired officially to make Lily a sword for her missions but the moody Scotsman becomes more.

A nice first book that gave us an introduction to some interesting characters some good action and a new outlook on the afterlife. Who knew bureaucrats could be found in the hereafter. Loved this and really like Lily, I think she is going to be totally bad-ass once she gets her bearings. Can’t wait for the next one!

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A Spirited Season

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A Spirited Season

A Spirited Season

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
All the stories were fun without the need to have any darkness creep in with paranormal elements. They were light and maybe a little frothy but definitely entertaining and full of holiday spirit. The writing is great and flows along at a great pace from story to story even though each is different and unique.

“A Christmas Peril” is a play on the classic “A Christmas Carol” which finds Barbara Marr being visited by 3 very scary ghosts just before Christmas. It gets so bad that she stops sleeping and throws her whole life into disarray. Getting to the bottom of her haunting makes for a very interesting and surprising ride.

“Make My Wish Come True” finds Delaney Pearce doing her Christmas shopping after a bad breakup and making wishes the whole time, but of course not expecting them to come true. What she doesn’t know is that she has a genie who is listening and willing to give her all the things she wants. But does she even know what she truly wants from her life?

“Two Turtledoves” is a nice story about an antique that helps to bring two lonely people together during the holidays even as they feel they do not need anyone. This was a sweet tale of how loneliness affects you and what can bring happiness.

“Squawkin Around the Christmas Tree” has a jealous husband who turns to witchcraft in order to find out if his wife is cheating. What he finds out is way more than he had expected and got back something he had lost.

“Jingle Spells” Kendall Rhodes was having a Christmas Eve party because she had been fighting with her father and did not want to see him. Her friend Delaney was in attendance as well as a guy that she really liked. When the lights go out she cannot figure out what is going on and then is told that someone has placed a spell on her home. But who would such a thing and why? The fun is in finding out the culprit and what secrets are revealed because of it.

“O Christmas Tree” On Christmas Eve three men a working to repair a cell tower near some woods. One man has no family and while he is in no hurry he wants to get his friend’s home. But he finds that sometimes love and family can find you when you least expect them. A love story for the holidays.

Each story gives a feeling of the holiday that we sometimes forget about but need to feel. These made me smile and just be glad that I don’t have to worry about the supernatural during my happy season. Enjoy!

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Highland Song

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Highland Song (Highland Brides, #5)

Highland Song (Highland Brides #5)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I rarely do historical romance of any type but I’m glad I took a chance on this. It is a novella length novel so goes pretty quickly, but does not sacrifice character or story. The story is easy to follow and flows seamlessly from action to action with the characters acting as they would be expected to for the time period for the most part. The characters are believable for me since I have no idea how they would have acted truly, so I found them to be interesting and kind of fun.

Gavin Mac Brodie is the youngest with two older brothers and a younger sister, they have all married happily and he is the last holdout. Gavin does not deal women and living with his brothers has become intolerable with having to hear them at night. He decides to build a home of his own, where he will not have to worry about women or his recent loss of faith. While working on the house a mysterious woman shows up and changes his mind about everything.

This is a romance but has elements of royal intrigue and the feuds which happened in the highlands between the Scots and English crown. This is one you simply have to read and enjoy.

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