Cover Reveal: Lux: Beginnings and Lux: Consequences

Lux: Beginnings (Obsidian & Onyx) official Blurb:

Obsidian

There’s an alien next door. And with his looming height and eerie green eyes, he’s hot…until he opens his mouth. He’s infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, he lights me up with a big fat bulls-eye. Turns out he has a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal his abilities and the only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to him until my alien mojo fades. If I don’t kill him first, that is.

Onyx

Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro alien connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems. I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

Lux: Consequences (Opal & Origin) official blurb:

Opal

After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different… And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing alien hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever.

Origin

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back. After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on? And will they even be together?  

And now both covers together

Can’t say that I love it, but there it is. It’s still a great story.

For links to pre-order and enter a rafflecopter giveaway, see my original Lux: Beginnings Post.

Library Sale = Happy Stephanie

While I get e-books all the time from the library, I’ve never actually been to my local library. I pass it every day on my way to work and noticed a big sign that was advertising a book sale this weekend so I decided it was finally time to stop in. I got all these books for a total of $10!

Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James

The Contractor by Colin Mackinnon

Unspoken by Dee Henderson

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Six Years by Harlen Coben

The Bone Yard by Jefferson Bass

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Pastor’s Wife by Jennifer Ailee

These are all books I’ve never heard, but have seen around. Have any of you read them?

Review: Criminal (Will Trent #6) by Karin Slaughter

Synopsis from Good Reads:

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before, when his father was imprisoned for murder, this was Will’s home. It appears that the case that launched Amanda’s career forty years ago has suddenly come back to life—and it involves the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. Now these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.

I read some mixed reviews about Criminal before starting this book, but I have to say that it’s my favorite Karin Slaughter book yet!

The story is told in alternating views and timelines, but all revolves around the same case (or cases involving the same villain). One timeline focuses on Amanda Wagner, Will’s boss at GBI, in the seventies when she was just starting out. When women were employed by the force, but not treated like cops. When Amanda and fellow female cop Evelyn (Faith’s mother – before she was Faith’s mother) realize a murdered woman was wrongly identified, they start their own investigation.

I really enjoyed the chapters from Amanda’s past. She’s been such a frustrating, inscrutable character thus far in the series and it was great to see her origins story. We get to see her influences, her emotions (yes, she actually has them), her growth,  and most importantly, her connection to Will Trent.

In the current timeline, Will is finally happy, settling into his relationship with Sara (despite that pesky detail that he’s technically still married to Angie). However, the happiness is short lived when news is announced that a young girl has been abducted and his father has been paroled from prison.

From both timelines we get a lot of background on Will – on his parents, on his childhood, on his career with the GBI. Everything that’s been lacking for me in Will’s backstory was satisfied in this book.

Overall, I really enjoyed Criminal. There were times the story got a little bogged down with too much detail (especially in the forensic explanations) and I still find it off-putting that Sara and Will fully committed to their relationship before Will even tried to divorce Angie, but those were really the only parts of the book I didn’t like. The story was fast-paced, the mystery was interesting – especially how it connected to the present – and the character backstory and growth was very satisfying.

Rating (out of 5):
Plot: 4
Characters: 4.5
Readability: 4.5
Enjoyability: 4.5
Overall Average: 4.375 stars

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Things On My Bookish Bucket List

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish, is: Top Ten Things On My Bookish Bucket List (could be blogging related, book related etc. — meeting authors, reading x many books per year, finishing a daunting book, etc.).

1. Write a book and have it published. – Come on, this is every book lovers dream, right?

2. Write at least one well thought-out, in-depth, insightful, witty review. – Let’s be real. I suck at writing reviews. Like, a lot.

3. Win one of Jennifer Armentrout’s contests. – This woman posts contests on her website All. The. Time. I never win.

4. Be mentored by Rainbow Rowell. – Because she’s pretty much perfection. And I want us to be best friends.

5. Get a job at a publishing company where I get to do nothing but read manuscripts all day. – I would rather have this job, making at least what I make at my job right now (which is not much), than win $1 million.

Well, that’s only five, but that’s all I got. What’s on your bookish bucket list?

Lux: Beginnings Cover Reveal

So we all know by now that the Lux series by Jennifer Armentrout is one of my favorite YA series. It’s been optioned for a movie (still super early stages from what I understand) and now the series is being re-released on June 3, 2014. First off is Lux: Beginnings, which is the first two books, Obsidian and Onyx, plus bonus content. And the new cover is…..

Lux: Beginnings (Obsidian & Onyx) official Blurb:

Obsidian

There’s an alien next door. And with his looming height and eerie green eyes, he’s hot…until he opens his mouth. He’s infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, he lights me up with a big fat bulls-eye. Turns out he has a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal his abilities and the only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to him until my alien mojo fades. If I don’t kill him first, that is.

Onyx

Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro alien connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems. I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

Check it out online at: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble.

There is also a contest to win artwork from fans of the Lux series sent from the author, Jennifer L. Armentrout, herself.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

# 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer Armentrout lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell, Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen.

She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

Twitter
Facebook
Website

Will you be checking out Lux: Beginnings?

Check back next week for the cover reveal of Lux: Consequences.

Review: Triptych (Will Trent #1) by Karin Slaughter

Synopsis from Good Reads:

In the city of Atlanta, women are dying—at the hands of a killer who signs his work with a single, chilling act of mutilation. Leaving behind enough evidence to fuel a frenzied police hunt, this cunning madman is bringing together dozens of lives, crossing the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread—and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael’s lover before she became his enemy.

But another player has entered the game: a loser ex-con who has stumbled upon the killer’s trail in the most coincidental of ways—someone who may be the key to breaking the case wide open…

For being the introduction to the Will Trent series, there was not as much Will Trent as I expected. This is not inconsistent with the only other Will Trent book I’ve read, Unseen, which is the latest book in the series. That book focused on multiple POVs and this one does as, well. We see the point of view of a homicide detective, vice cop (and long time friend of Will), a recently released convicted murderer and rapist, and Will.

While I enjoyed all the POVs, I would’ve liked more of Will – since it’s his series and all. The lack of introductory information made me wonder if he was previously introduced in another of Slaughter’s series and I missed it. However, his character and background, including his relationship with Angie, is slowly developed. He is a likable character, though, and I’m looking forward to more of him.

I really liked the writing style, as well. Slaughter did an excellent job of surprising me throughout the whole story. One of the narrators is unreliable and I don’t have a lot of reading experience with that and I really enjoyed it. The first part of the book ends with a big reveal that I loved and did not see coming. I felt the POVs were interwoven well, though maybe a bit too much time spent on John, the ex-con.

The writing is also pretty graphic. Gore in terms of crime scenes and etc. doesn’t really bother me, but it might some readers. There is also a lot of “strong language” that at times got a little much for me. I almost felt that Slaughter was overcompensating at times – being a woman writing men’s perspectives and dark themes. It didn’t really hinder my enjoyment of the book, but I hope the future books are a little cleaner, language-wise.

Overall, I enjoyed Triptych. It was a well written mystery and character study with reasonable twists that will still surprise. I would recommend this to crime novel enthusiasts and am looking forward to reading more of the series.

Rating (out of 5):
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Readability: 4
Enjoyability: 4
Overall Average: 4 stars

Monday’s Minutes

Monday’s Minutes is my weekly post where I share what I’m reading and what I’m reading next.

WHAT I’M READING

Triptych  (Will Trent #1) by Karin Slaughter. I read Unseen quite awhile ago not realizing it was part of a series (it’s #8, I believe). I enjoyed it and felt like it gave enough back story for me not to be lost in Will Trent’s world, but I’ve always wanted to go back and start it from the beginning. This came available from the library just when I was needing something not YA. (I love YA, but if I read too many in a row I sometimes get a little annoyed. That happens when you read characters about half your age.) I’m only a couple chapters in, but I’m liking it so far.

WHAT I’M READING NEXT

Fractured (Will Trent #2). This is the great thing about being late in the game to reading established series – little to no wait between books! I just borrowed this from the library, too, in anticipation of finishing the first one.

What are you reading?

Check Out My New Look

For someone who is pretty stupid when it comes to WordPress, changing my theme is kind of a big deal. But after much frustration and indecision, I think I finally found something I like. I hope you enjoy it and I hope that it inspires me to get back to actually posting things.

And because I searched Pinterest forever to find a header photo, here are some other fun Pintersty book things I liked.