Book Review: Hunter by Mercedes Lackey

If you should choose to read Hunter by Mercedes Lackey, first, you will need several hours because you won't want to put this book down; second, you can expect the unexpected and will still not be able to guess what happens next.

I read this book during the Booktubeathon and loved it beyond words! I found this on NetGalley.com and am so glad I did. I'm even happier that Disney Hyperion approved my request to read this book and provide an honest review.

The story follows Joy, a Hunter from a small village, who is called to the main Hunter headquarters. A Hunter, is able to perform a little magic, but their main form of attack are the Hell Hound like creatures they are able to call on to protect them and others from the monsters that have crossed into the human realm and are trying to eat humans.

Joy's uncle is the head of the Hunters and is having some political issues, but this book only starts to touch on the depth of the issues they face. These issues are complicated by the Hunters always being recorded. Each Hunter has their own channel which follows that Hunter, all day, every day. Talk about reality TV overload.

You will want to have the main character of the story, Joy, for a friend. She's what you might call street smart. She is able to read people, and read between the lines of things said. She then is able to act appropriately.

The politics of this world, I would describe as complicated, but what politics aren't. But the calculating that Joy has to do, and for the reader to understand, the description that had be included I would have expected to take away from the story. But Mercedes Lackey includes this description in such a way you don't even realize the description is there. It just seems so natural.

Future writers should take note of the descriptions and how Mercedes Lackey shows Joy's thoughts and calculations to try to stay our of trouble.

Overall, I gave this book 5 our of 5 stars on Goodreads.com. I totally enjoyed this book, and highly recommend you pick it up. The book is available September 1, 2015, and is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

If you're interested I also posted a review on YouTube which you can watch:

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review by my request via NetGalley.com as approved by the publisher, Disney Hyperion.

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.



You can follow me on Twitter, Goodreads, and YouTube.

Our Dog Lucky

Our dog Lucky is 15 years old. You wouldn't know it if you met her. She is full of energy, and is a great reading buddy.

Recently she had surgery to remove a few lumps from her body. She is supposed to take things easy. This is not in her nature. She loves being around my fiance and me and follows us around the house.
We have our hands full trying to get her to follow the doctors orders.

Not only does she not want to relax, she wants to itch her incisions, and she keeps licking her bandages.

Now we are waiting on the biopsy results of the lumps that were removed...no I'm not stressed right now wondering if these lumps are something to worry about or not.

Book Review: Born of Fury by Sherrilyn Kenyon

If you're a fan of the league series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, you may have heard the joke about Hauk wearing women's underwear, but is it actually true? You'll find out for sure in Born of Fury.

Born of Fury follows Hauk while he takes his nephew and niece on their endurance. The endurance is a test of survival for Andarion children. When they return they are no longer children, but are Andarion adults. Of course Hauk's enemies can not allow him to have some family time so the endurance is made extra deadly as they are constantly attacked. 

Sherrilyn Kenyon once again has shown us the value of real family. Family doesn't necessarily mean a blood relation, it's those who will be there for you when you need them.

The writing in this book has you feeling all different emotions, and wanting Hauk to win in the end. You also get to see the full family, and they all work together to fight the battle. We also see them welcome a new member, because of course, since this is Hauk's book, and his story, he has to meet that special someone.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on goodreads. I gave it full marks because after listening to the audiobook, I had to listen to it again. If I didn't convince myself the backlog of books I have needed to be tended to, I'd have listened to it a third time and who knows, maybe a fourth. I definitely recommend you go check out this book.


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Review: Old Dog New Tricks by Hailey Edwards

Old Dog New Tricks is the fourth and final book in the Black Dog series by Hailey Edwards.

This story follows Thierry on her adventure to save the human world and the Faerie world. Her adventure is made more difficult as she also struggles with her relationship with her father; and her boyfriend has been kidnapped by the evil queen.

The writing in the book is wonderful. Descriptive enough to give a picture of what is going on, but not too descriptive that it takes away from the story. I will also say, I very much enjoyed how Thierry won her battle against the queen. Do you want to know how she wins? You'll have to read the book. I'm not going to spoil your appetite.

The characters are also great. Very well developed. And they are people I wouldn't mind running into on the street...other than the queen. She can stay in Faerie.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It was almost too good to put down. If I can find the time, I would still be interested in reading the first 2 books.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review by my request via NetGalley.com as approved by the publisher, CrushStar Multimedia LLC.

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Booktubeathon Wrap up

I just finished my first Booktubeathon. The Booktubeathon was started by Ariel Basset and this year it ran from August 3 to August 9. (This is why there were like 0 posts here. I was busy reading.) There were 7 challenges involved and I managed to complete all 7, including to read 7 books!

My strategy was to choose some shorter books as well as a couple audiobooks. Since the Booktubeathon was a week long, and I work at least 40 hours each week, I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time for reading.

The seven challenges and books I read for each are:

1. Read a book with Blue on the Cover: Old Dog New Tricks by Hailey Edwards. Book 4 in the Black Dog series. I received a free copy from NetGalley.com for review so look for a review to be posted here soon.
2. Read a book by an author who shares the same first initial of their last name with you: Paladins of Shannara, The Black Irix by Terry Brooks. (My maiden name starts with a B.)
3. Someone else's favorite book: Legend by Marie Lu.
4. The last book you acquired: Hunter by Mercedes Lackey. I had received a free copy from NetGalley.com for review; I'll have my review posted either the end of this month or early next.
5. Finish a book without letting go of it: Durarara!!
6. A book you really want to read: Sword Art Online: Aincrad. My fiance introduced me to the anime, which I have become obsessed with. I wanted to see how the manga compared.
7. Read 7 books: Taken in Death by J D Robb

I'm feeling really good right now, having met the goal and challenge set before me to read 7 books. Did you also participate in the Booktubeathon? I'm interested to know how you did and if this was your first time participating. Or tell me how your strategy changed from last year to this year, or how your strategy will change for next year. Please let me know in the comments.

Thoughts on NetGalley.com

I've been a member of NetGalley.com for about 3 months now, and wanted to share my thoughts with you. 

I enjoy being a member, and it's free! It's a great way to get advance copies of books and read and review them. Better yet, you get to pick and choose what books. 

My preference is to try to have a book read and a review ready by the time it is published. I am not always able to do this, in fact, so far I think I've only hit this goal with one book so far. Currently I have around 10 books on my shelf that I need to read, and many have already been released. 

Are you a new blogger, booktuber, or new to posting about books on instagram? Think you can't be a member of Net Galley? You would be wrong. I was just getting this blog started again when I applied to Net Galley and requested a bunch of books. I was flabergasted when I was approved for four of my requests almost instantaneously. I don't have a lot of viewers or followers yet, but I grow each and every day. May only be by one viewer, but hay, I'm still growing.

I was even more stunned when the publisher of one of the books I received contacted me about being part of their blog tour. Me? Part of a blog tour? I had a total panic attack because I don't like not knowing what to expect, and I had never been part of a blog tour, nor had I witnessed or followed a blog tour before. In the end I let myself down, I debated with myself, and took my time reading the book; I didn't want to sign up for a blog tour if I didn't like the book. With my dragging feet, I believe I put in my application to be part of the blog tour too late, plus very much limited what I was willing to do out of fear and was not chosen. I still posted my review around the time of the blog tour since I waited to be sure I had not been chosen, so I still felt I was part of it, I just wasn't officially part of it.

Another benefit of NetGalley is these are books I'm requesting and will likely enjoy reading. So while I feel obligated to read and review them, that feeling is outweighed by my interest in reading them. For example, I recently received Hunter by Mercedes Lackey; this book, I don't know what it was exactly, but I really wanted this book. I kept checking my email to see if I had received it. Then, one morning while I was at work, the notice on my phone popped up that I had received an email from NetGalley.com. Enough of the message showed in the notice that I saw I had been approved to receive a copy of this book. It took great effort to keep quiet while I did a little celebration dance in my chair. (Then I went and rushed through the book I was reading and chose Hunter as part of my BooktubeAThon TBR; and made myself wait even longer to start reading the book.)

A few tips I have are:

1. Use your shelves: NetGalley provides shelves kind of like how goodreads does. When you are approved for a request it appears on your New shelf. To track what books you have downloaded to your kindle or other reading device, switch the book over to your Reading shelf. This way you won't forget to download a book before it archives and you can no longer download it for reading. (Yes, I forgot to download one of the books I was approved for because I thought I had downloaded it already; and am kicking myself for it.)
2. Don't request more books than you can read: I went request crazy one day and now have more books than I can read in one month. This may not really bother you, but NetGalley also tracks your reviews written to approved books ratio. Once you get started and have a few reviews under your belt, the goal to aim for is 80%.
3. Read the approved request email: Some of the publishers may specify when to publish a review for their book. You do not want to publish too soon.

These are just a few tips I'm have. If you would like more tips as I go along and learn, please let me know. Do you already participate with NetGalley? Please share in the comments below any tips you have that you would like to share with me and others who read this post.

Book Review: Moonwitched by Renee Wildes

I just finished a great book, Moonwitched by Renee Wildes. I had requested this book for review on NetGalley.com and was allowed the honor of reading. What I didn't realize when I requested the book, I didn't read enough of the description, was that it is the seventh book in the Guardians of Light series.

Since I didn't realize this book was the seventh in a series, I was a little lost at the beginning. It was when I was lost that I went back to NetGalley and saw what I had missed. Even with my being lost, I still gve this book 4 stars!

I especially liked the fighting descriptions, and one part in particular where there is a training session for Mari who is a witch but she has vowed not to kill. A few of the other characters teach her to fight since she is traveling with them to war. It would not be safe for her to just march in with the rest of them unprepared. The descriptions are so clear, I felt I was receiving a training lesson too.

This book stirs up a thrilling excitement that makes it difficult to stop. After reading this book I do want to go and start the Guardians of Light series from the beginning with Duality, which was published October of 2008.

I would recommend this book to those who would love to read a romantic fantasy. Moonwitched will be published on August 11, 2015, and is available for pre-order on Amazon.


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