Spoiler-Free ARC Review: Tributary + US/INTL Giveaway

The following review contains
NO SPOILERS!

my thoughts in a few sentences: What did I expect from this next mini installment of awesomeness in Lisa’s River of Time novella series? I couldn’t expect, because Lisa is a genius and all. There are so many open roads Lisa is capable of taking our friends—for the characters, at this point, have become our very best of friends—down after the events of Torrent, the third book in the series. And it’s such a wonderful thing, reading as these characters start on new journeys and explore surprises and possibilities. I gobbled this up willingly and greedily, tackling Tributary by Lisa T. Bergren with relentless bites and swallows—everything we love about this series is back! Action, assassination attempts, romance, and it all goes down with fresh characters to join the foray! You don’t want to miss this!

hooking first lines: "She was gaining on him. She leaned hard, pulling on the reins, leaning around a giant oak to pick up his trail again."

Self-Published • The Author • Historical Fantasy • 6/10/12 • $0.99

ARC Review: Grave Mercy

my thoughts in a few sentences: Welcome to 15th century Brittany, a country holding down a tremulous peace with France and it's protectors are searching for a means to keep their homes and their sovereign safe. With this comes a game of deceit brewing at court and among the lords and ladies filling it betrayal and treason sit heavily in the air. Who is friend to the Duchess, to Brittany, and who is not? The intrigue and slow unraveling of lies and spies along the subtly spun web of deception and duplicity fascinates the mind and lures it into yet another game of puzzle-solving. Frauds are abundant, and Ismae, an eerily well-trained assassin working in the name of St. Mortain (or Death), with her heart vulnerable to a certain brisk, protective, and warm Breton working fiercely to secure his sister's crown and her competent, death-dealing hands quick to whip out a crossbow or a dagger and aim true, meticulously untangles shocking truths about those she has blindly served and the "allies" with whom the Duchess seeks advice. LaFevers' writing is thin with overbearing prose and ripe with authenticity and vibrancy, as scrupulously depicted as Ismae's methods for scrounging facts and separating it from illusions of loyalty and done so with beauty in its simplicity.

hooking first lines: " I bear a deep red stain that runs from my left shoulder down to my right hip, a trail left by the herbwitch's poison that my mother used to try to expel me from her womb."

Rating: Perfect Bed Partner | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt • NetGalley • Historical Fantasy • 4/3/12 • $15.01

Review: Bourne (#3.1) (No Spoilers)

my thoughts in a few sentences: With all of our favorite elements from the first three books, Bourne is a well-welcomed addition to a series I am deeply in love with, so deeply in fact that the fall never ends. Reading about Lia, Luca, Marcello, Gabi, and crew again brought the warmest, widest smile I could physically muster on my face. While Torrent ends beautifully, it was brutally clear that not everything was resolved, and while I loved that Lisa refrained from tying everything up in a neat and pretty bow, in Bourne we witness the aftermath of that last battle and I was ridiculously pleased. It would seem peace will never settle over our favorite band of Italian knights and She-Wolves, for trouble and danger find them always, and I relish every sticky situation that catches up to them. Plus, the romance we fans have all been waiting for erupts in perfect sweetness and incites dreamy sighs of happiness. Oh, WHY couldn't Lisa just have written a fourth book? I'm certain I would've exploded in complete and profound elation!

hooking first line: ""M'lady! They approach!" the guard yelled down to us from the walls."

Rating: Perfect Bed Partner | Bergren Creative Group • Requested • Historical Fantasy • 2/27/12 • $2.99

Review: Born Wicked

my thoughts in a few sentences: A wonderfully thought-out historical world with an undercurrent of the paranormal to excite and bewitch, Born Wicked gives us a familiar take on witches with a twist and takes us back to a time period in our history that sickens us when we think of it, for innocents were slaughtered unmercifully for the wrong reasons. The romance is sexy and adorable, throwing in another heart-throbbing element to an already delightful story.

hooking first line: "Our mother was a witch, too, but she hid it better."

Rating: Perfect Bed Partner | Putnam • Historical/Paranormal Romance • 2/7/12 • about $12