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Hot Off the Press: November 24th Releases

November 24th

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES	GENRE
Feel the Burn	G.A. Aiken	Dragon Kin #8	Paranormal Romance
Cold in the Shadows	Toni Anderson	Cold Justice #5	Romantic Suspense
Beyond The Grave	C.J. Archer	The Ministry of Curiosities #3	Sci-Fi/Steampunk
Take Me All the Way	Toni Blake	Coral Cove #3	Contemporary Romance
Convergence Point	Liana Brooks	A Time and Shadows Mystery #2	Mystery
Queen	Aimee Carter	Blackcoat Rebellion #3	Young Adult
Child of Two Worlds	Greg Cox	Star Trek: The Original Series	Sci-Fi
Texas Hustle	Cynthia D'Alba	Texas Montgomery Mavericks #6	Contemporary Romance
Lucky Shot	B.J. Daniels	The Montana Hamiltons #3	Romantic Suspense
Death By Tea	Alex Erickson	Bookstore Cafe Mystery #2	Mystery/Cozy Mystery
Wild Cat	Christine Feehan	Leopard People #7	Paranormal Romance
Jackson	Melissa Foster	Wild Boys After Dark #3	Contemporary Romance
Bound in Darkness	Jacquelyn Frank	Immortal Brothers #4	Paranormal Romance
Wrapped Up in a Beau	Angelita Gill		Contemporary Romance
Chimera	Mira Grant	Parasitology #3	Horror
(Dis)content	Melissa Haag	Judgement of the Six #5	New Adult/Paranormal
My Lady Gloriana	Sylvia Halliday		Historical Romance
Lies	C.A. Harms	Phoenix Undercover #1	Romantic Suspense
Dukes Are Forever	Anna Harrington	The Secret Life of Scoundrels #1	Historical Romance
Yarned and Dangerous	Sadie Hartwell	A Tangled Web Mystery #1	Mystery/Cozy Mystery
I Heard a Rumor	Cheris Hodges	Rumor #1	Contemporary Romance
Sweetest Scoundrel	Elizabeth Hoyt	Maiden Lane #9	Historical Romance
Waking Hearts	Elizabeth Hunter	Cambio Springs #3	Paranormal Romance
These Three Words	Holly Jacobs		Women's Fiction
Denial	Lisa Renee Jones	Careless Whispers #1	Contemporary Romance
Midnight Wrangler	Cat Johnson	Midnight Cowboys #2	Contemporary Romance
The Seventh Bride	T. Kingfisher		Fantasy
Stars in Your Eyes	Lynn Kurland	de Piaget #17	Historical Romance/Time Travel
A Billionaire Between the Sheets	Katie Lane	The Unexpected Billionaires #1	Contemporary Romance
Redeem My Heart	Kennedy Layne	CSA Case Files #7	Romantic Suspense
Steal Me	Lauren Layne	New York's Finest #2	Contemporary Romance
Fighting for Devlin	Jessica Lemmon	Lost Boys #1	Contemporary Romance
The Shards of Heaven	Michael Livingston	The Shards of Heaven #1	Fantasy/Historical
Death Comes to Kurland Hall	Catherine Lloyd	Kurland St. Mary Mystery #3	Mystery/Historical
Desert Wolf	Heather Long	Wolves of Willow Bend #8	Paranormal Romance
Legacies Reborn	Pittacus Lore	I Am Number Four: The Lost Files #13	Young Adult
Dragon Storm	Katie MacAlister	Black Dragons #2	Paranormal Romance
Match of the Century	Cathy Maxwell	Marrying the Duke #1	Historical Romance
The Striker	Monica McCarty	Highland Guard #10	Historical Romance
Giving Up the Ghost	Max McCoy	Ophelia Wylde Paranormal Mystery #3	Mystery/Cozy Mystery
Detonator	Andy McNab	Nick Stone #17	Thriller
The Spinster's Guide to Scandalous Behavior	Jennifer McQuiston	Seduction Diaries #2	Historical Romance
The Golem of Solomon's Way	Jon Messenger	Magic & Machinery #3	Sci-Fi/Steampunk
Promises	Fern Michaels		Romance
Once Touched	Laura Moore	Silver Creek #3	Contemporary Romance
The Truth About Him	Molly O'Keefe	Everything I Left Unsaid #2	Contemporary Romance
Reckless Hearts	Sean Olin	Wicked Games #2	Young Adult
Wyoming Rugged	Diana Palmer	Wyoming Men #5	Contemporary Romance
Sun Kissed	JoAnn Ross	Orchid Island #1	Contemporary Romance
Cast in Honor	Michelle Sagara	The Chronicles of Elantra #12	Fantasy
The Harder You Fall	Gena Showalter	The Original Heartbreakers #3	Contemporary Romance
The Bite of Winter	Lauren Smith	Love Bites #1	Paranormal Romance
Controlled Burn	Shannon Stacey	Boston Fire #2	Contemporary Romance
The Healing Power of Sugar	C.L. Stone	The Academy: The Ghost Bird #9	Young Adult
A Kind of Magic	Shanna Swendson	Fairy Tale #3	Fantasy
Coal River	Ellen Marie Wiseman		Historical Fiction
His All Night	Elle Wright	Edge of Scandal #2	Contemporary Romance
Promises I Made	Michelle Zink	Lies I Told #2	Young Adult

Contemporary Romance

Fantasy

Historical Fiction

Historical Romance

Horror

Mystery

Paranormal Romance

Romance

Romantic Suspense

Science Fiction

Thriller

Women's Fiction

Urban Fantasy

Young Adult

Early Review: Feel the Burn by G.A. Aiken

Title: Feel the Burn

Author: G.A. Aiken

Series: Dragon Kin, book 8

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Dragons

Publisher: Zebra (November 24^th)

Source: Review copy from publisher

Format: E-book

War makes strange bedfellows.

I, Gaius Domitus, one-eyed rebel dragon king of the Provinces, know that better than most, since I have to fight off half my ungrateful family on a regular basis to keep law and order here in my lands. But I never expected to have to consort with a barbarian human woman.

Kachka is beautiful, if you like them fierce—and of course I do. But she keeps complaining about how spoiled and decadent I am, and how a feared Daughter of the Steppes has no time for foolish dragons. I think she likes my eye patch, though. It is quite dashing. With death always at our tails, we take our passion like we take our allies. As they say, love the barbarian you’re with…

Feel the Burn is the eighth book in the Dragon Kin series by G.A. Aiken.

Feel the Burn is the story of king Gaius Lucius Domitus, Iron dragon and the one-eyed Rebel King from the west and Kachka Shestakova of the Black Bear Riders of the Midnight Mountains of Despair in the Far Reaches of the Steppes of the Outerplains. It’s also the story of how war is approaching and having good allies is crucial in this difficult times, even if those allies are led by the Mad Queen of Garbhán Isle, the bloodthirsty Annwyl.

I know that even when I’m in the middle of a paranormal romance reading slump I can enjoy one of Aiken’s books; luckily for me Feel the Burn was not the exception.

I don’t know how Aiken does it, but she creates over the top characters that although they crash at every scene they work perfectly together as a whole.

The main couple is a pair we know from previous books. The Rebel King has been part of couple of stories and Kachka was introduced in previous book, she is Elina’s sister (Light My Fire, book 7^th).

Gaius and Kachka made a great couple because they are together for all the good reasons. Gaius could have any woman/dragon he desires because of his rank, but that’s the last thing he wants. He wants a woman to want him for how he is and not for his title and that’s exactly what Kachka does. She couldn’t care less that he was a king. For her he’s just a worthy mate and that’s all that is important to her.

In this installment Aiken brings all the characters we love from previous books and introduced some new ones, as were Kachka’s band of fighters formed by a misfit group of Daughter of the Steppes. I loved all of them, but Zoya was by far my favorite from the group.

In Feel the Burn Aiken not only gives us a new couple, she also moves forward the general arc. The war is soon approaching and all the players need to be ready and in the perfect place. Including their progeny, who have been preparing for this war from an early age.

Feel the Burn has everything I expect from an Aiken’s book. It has action, romance, adventure, suspense and humor galore. I found myself laughing out loud many times while reading this book. My only complain is that Gaius and Kackka spent a lot of time apart. I know it was necessary for the plot, but in a paranormal romance story the couple should play a more prominent part in the story when they are together.

I recommend Feel the Burn to paranormal romance and dragons fans. If you are a fan of the genre and haven’t read the Dragon Kin series you are missing one of the best PNR series in the market. Although Feel the Burn could be read as a stand alone I don’t recommend doing it. There is a lot of backstory relevant to this story and its characters necessary to understand all that is going on.

My Verdict: 4 ½ Paws

Other books in the series

Everlasting Bad Boys (Prequel novella)

A Tale of Two Dragons (Prequel novella)

Dragon on Top (Prequel novella)

Dragon Actually

About a Dragon

What a Dragon Should Know

Last Dragon Standing

The Dragon Who Loved Me

How to Drive a Dragon Crazy

Light My Fire

Feel the Burn (November 24^th)

Other reviews Goodreads

Visit G.A. Aiken’s Website

Movie Trailer: Central Intelligence

"Central Intelligence" follows a one-time bullied geek who grew up to be a lethal CIA agent (Johnson), coming home for his high school reunion. Claiming to be on a top-secret case, he enlists the help of the former “big man on campus” (Hart), now an accountant who misses his glory days. But before the staid numbers-cruncher realizes what he’s getting into it’s too late to get out, as his increasingly unpredictable new friend drags him through a world of shoot-outs, double-crosses and espionage that could get them both killed in more ways than he can count.

Trailer

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Review: A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Title: A Thousand Nights

Author: E.K. Johnston

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Source: Review copy from publisher

Format: E-book

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

I have to be honest, I had A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston for months, but wasn’t sure about reading it because I haven’t been in the mood for YA. I also read some reviews and people kind of liked it, but I didn’t read any reviews of people who loved. So I kept postponing and postponing reading it, until one-day couple of days ago when I didn’t know what to read due to my mood.  I thought, okay, let’s give this one a go, if I don’t like it by the 30% I will DNF it and that will be it. A Thousand Nights is the first ever book I start thinking I will end up DNF-ing and Oh boy, was I wrong! E.K. Johnston’s writing sucked me in from the very first pages and didn’t let me go until the very end and I loved every minute of it.

Thousand Nights is Johnston’s take on the story of The Arabian Nights: One Thousand and One Nights and let me tell you, she owns and nails her retelling.  

I loved everything about Thousand Nights. I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I loved the story, I loved the -although slow- perfect pace, I loved the writing, I simply loved everything about A Thousand Nights.

Johnston’s writing has a magic quality that not only immersed me in the story, it also made me feel as if I was seeing what was happening with my own eyes. With her evocative words Johnston gave life to a beautiful world and to very strong characters. I loved the power she gave to the women and how she was able to clearly show their strength, their love and what they were willing to sacrifice to protect one another. Another thing I loved about A Thousand Nights was that the only name we know is Lo-Melkhiin's. The rest of the characters are referred as Wife, Sister, Mother, Lady-Bless, Father or similar. In my opinion, leaving the names out only added to the magic of the story.

A Thousand Nights is not a book for everybody, but it was the perfect book for me. I recommend it to YA and fantasy fans who are able to enjoy a slow pace, beautiful, and powerful subtle story.

A Thousand Nights was my first book by E.K. Johnston, but I can guarantee you, it won’t be my last.

My Verdict: 4 ½ Paws

Other reviews Goodreads

Visit E.K. Johnston’s Website