{Book Review} Monster in His Eyes by J.M. Darhower

Ignazio Vitale is not a good man.

I suspect it, the first time I see him, sense the air of danger that surrounds the man. He has a way of commanding attention, of taking control, of knowing what I'm thinking before I even do.

It's alarming and alluring. It's dark and deadly. It's everything I've ever wanted but the last thing I truly need. Obsession.

It doesn't take him long to draw me into his web, charming me into his bed and trapping me in his life, a life I know nothing about until it's too late. He has secrets, secrets I can't fathom, secrets that make it so I can't walk away, no matter how much I beg him to let me go. I see it sometimes in his eyes, a darkness that's both terrifying and thrilling. He's a monster, wrapped up in a pretty package, and what I find when I unmask him changes everything.

I want to hate him.

Sometimes, I do.

But it doesn't stop me from loving him, too.

4 "What a Ride!" Stars!

This book has been on my TBR for ages, and when I found it on Audible, I knew I had to dive right in. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this one!

The prologue gives you a snippet of about 70-80% into the story, not enough to spoil anything (at least, nothing more than the synopsis gives), but enough to pique curiosity. I'm not normally a big fan of that kind of intro, but it worked flawlessly with this story. It set me on edge and made it so I wouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security. I never once forgot that Ignazio was not a normal man, never forgot how much darkness was in him, and that added such a layer to the story.

Speaking of Ignazio, I...kinda love him. I'm always a fan of the anti-hero, and boy, was he ever something. Well crafted, dimensional, and intriguing. Smooth and cunning, ruthless when it came down to it, yet oddly tender and romantic. Needless to say, I can't wait to read the second book, which is in his POV.

The heroine, Karissa, is a young college student, a seemingly average girl, and the type of character I don't usually mesh with. I initially brushed her off as the typical naive girl, but as the story went on, I found myself liking her more and more. Is she naive, idealistic, and sheltered? Yes, quite a bit. However... that worked for her here. Despite her initial state, she was smart and enjoyable as the story went on. It was an interesting process to see her eyes open to the world around her, both the good and the bad. 

There were a few times where I found myself thinking "my god, why did you do that?!", but I was quickly reminded of just how young and inexperienced this girl was. With that in mind, my thoughts ended up being sympathetic towards her, and liking her more for making mistakes. I had to remember that Karissa didn't get the prologue I read, and she didn't have that foreshadowing influencing every interaction.

Ignazio and Karissa had fantastic chemistry, despite a big age gap. It was easy to see how their relationship became so all consuming, and that worked well for the story.

My one complaint was that the chapters often ended abruptly, creating jolts in the story and interrupting the flow.

However, the plot kept me riveted and constantly on the edge of my seat. Never a dull moment!

The narrator did a great job, too!

Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. :)

Book Review - The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent

From Goodreads:

Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.

When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble.

To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie?

Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her.

My review

Nina Kane is a smart, practical 16 year old whose sole focus is for her and her sister to survive the grim town of New Temperance. In a world where souls must be assigned at birth and soul consuming demons are a terrifying threat waiting in the wings, there's no time for anything besides scrounging for food and money. 

New Temperance is run by The Church, a cruel and unforgiving government. In New Temperance, sins are brutally prosecuted as crimes. Nina's sister, Millie, has committed one of the most awful sins a young person can commit, and Nina will do everything in her power to protect her. In doing so, Nina unleashes a secret she never suspected about herself or her family, and there she's helped by Finn, an unusual exorcist who has all the answers she's looking for. 

Caught in the crossfire between The Church and the demons, Nina must rely on Finn and his band of rouge exorcists if she wants to stay alive and rescue her sister.

Holy shit on a shit stick, this was an unputdownable read!
Rachel Vincent has an addictive way of writing, and I'm a big fan of her Soul Screamers series. The Stars Never Rise had her trademark style and showed off her growth as a writer.

It was extremely fast paced, gritty, horrifying, wildly engaging, and  different from the typical YA paranormal. I'd call it more of an urban fantasy than a paranormal. 

If I was going down, I was going down fighting. 

I enjoyed being in Nina's head. She was very smart, analytical, protective, and driven. Despite the hand she was dealt and horrifying way she discovered her true nature as an exorcist, she wasn't the least bit whiny or self pitying. That is so refreshing to see in a genre that is choked with whining, obnoxious characters that make me want to reach through the page and shake them.

Nina's dedication to her sister was done in a way to show that she was the older sister caring for the younger, not a mother figure. That was an unusual twist in the now common theme of older sibling being caregiver, and I really appreciated it.
She was definitely my kind of protagonist!

Nina's sister, Melanie, annoyed the crap out of me. Thankfully she doesn't have much page time, but she was so stupid and self centered. Her sister sacrifices everything for her, and she's beyond ungrateful. Despite how much she ground on my nerves, I liked what she added to the story.

I was so iffy on Finn in the first part of the story, worried that this would be the typical knight in shining armor YA love interest, but he grew on me. As I learned more about him, he became my favorite character. He was such a good person, honest and unapologetic for his feelings, and I loved him by the ending. 

I noticed a few similarities between this book and Vincent's Soul Screamers series, such as the bitchy but smart and funny side character Devi who reminded me so much of Soul Screamers Mara, but overall this book was hugely different. Different from most YA I've read, actually. It's not a common idea to use this type of urban fantasy/dystopian/horror/romance, and it was lovely to read that.

I feel like my life is a book, and someone turned the page before I was ready, and now I can't follow the story. 

The book spans the course of three or four days, and as you can imagine it is very fast pace. Had I not been so busy last week, I could've easily devoured this book in one sitting. The pages practically turn themselves. There's next to no dragging in the plot, and it kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The world building was fascinating, and I was surprised at just how much of it was fit into such an action packed read. 

The beginning and ending of The Stars Never Rise were so strong, though the middle was weaker. I started getting a little disappointed in the middle, but then it picked back up and sucked me right back in. The issues I had with the book surfaced during that time, and by the ending they were nearly all resolved. The book isn't that long, either, and I applaud Vincent for being able to turn it back around in such a short time frame. 

I was honestly shocked at just how horrifying and violent the world in this book is. It had me shuddering and saying "damn" on more than one occasion. There's one scene in particular that I would not expect to see in a YA read. While it wasn't hugely detailed, the brutal violence of the scene was sickening. It really showed that this world was not to be messed with. 

It does have the obligatory romance, and I was extremely dubious with it at the start. It seemed like it was going to be the typical, flat insta-love that is so prevalent in YA, but by the end...well, I ship them. I ship them hard. It wasn't your average romance, and I'm dying to see where this goes.  The best thing was that the romance was not a huge feature in the book. Just enough to be enjoyable. Vincent is a big fan of love triangles though, so I'm really hoping this series won't feature one.

Overall, The Stars Never Rise is an incredibly promising start to a fast paced and absorbing new YA series, and I highly recommend it. I'm salivating for the next book, which should be released next June! 

Wait...next year?!?! I can't wait that long!

How I'm feeling about that news!

STATS:

Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Young adult, urban fantasy, dystopian, romance
POV: 1st person, single perspective
Steam/sexual content: Some references to sex, otherwise none
Warning: Violence
Series: The Stars Never Rise, book 1
HEA: Don't know!
Cliffhanger: Yes, not huge but definitely leaves you wanting more
Length: 368 pages

My own copy

- The Bibliophile Babe 

Book Review: King of Hearts (Hearts, #3) by L.H. Cosway

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Synopsis 

Welcome to the City, London’s most prestigious square mile, where finance reigns and Oliver King is a rising prince. 

I used to rule the world.

There might be wolves on Wall Street, but there were crocodiles in Canary Wharf. Some of us craved money. Some of us craved power.

I liked money, and power had its advantages, but what I really wanted was to excel, to surpass the men who came before me. I never cared much for love and romance until I met Alexis.

I could feel it the very moment she walked into the interview, with her outspoken charm and vivacious personality. She cast all the others in shadow, made me laugh when life held no humour. Our friendship should have remained professional, but it wasn’t long before the lines started to blur.

You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men? Well, I never foresaw where my plans would lead, and only in my darkest hour did I finally see the light…

You can have all the money and prestige in the world and still be the poorest man alive. And love, well, I hate to use a tired old cliché, but love can be the thing that truly sets you free.

King of Hearts is the third book in L.H. Cosway's loosely connected standalone series, Hearts. It follows the story of Oliver King (I love that name!) and Alexis Clark, and is told in the "Before" and the "After". 

In the Before, we see King as a successful banker in his early 30s with a mischief in spades, no tact, and a cocky yet oddly humble attitude. He's at the top of his game and wants for naught. Alexis Clark is a young woman applying for a job as his personal assistant, with only a diploma and experience as a bartender to back her.  She's whip smart, open, friendly, and sassy as can be. We watch as a friendship and romance is formed, chock full of sexual tension and witty banter Their connection is white hot, their back-and-forth hilarious, and their relationship is relatively drama free....until a horrible trauma throws their lives off course, and alters them forever. 

The After puts us back in the present time, with Alexis mature beyond her years and King a broken man. With agonizingly carefulness and love, Alexis works on mending what King thinks just might be broken beyond repair. 

My review:

I think that in the space between birth and death you can have one life, or you can have many. But in order to have many, you also need the strength to end the one that came before. And there lies the tricky part.

I read the first book in this standalone series, Six of Hearts (click it for my review), early this year and absolutely loved it. That book put Cosway on my radar, and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite and auto-buy authors. She has a gift for writing the most engaging stories, and her writing has such a perfect, easy flow. Every book I've read of hers has been wonderfully realistic, hilarious but heartfelt, with some of the best characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading. King of Hearts was no exception!

"The way I see it, the people who while away their days living by lofty ideals are the ones who have the money to do so. The rest of us are too busy trying to keep our heads above water to have time to play around with moral codes. So yeah, I don't believe the way the financial industry works is right or good, but if that industry is going to provide me with a way to pay my bills and keep a roof over my head, then I'm in no position to refuse."

It's been a very long time since I've enjoyed a heroine as much as I did Alexis Clark. I want her for a best friend! She was so honest, funny, and quick witted, and she could take what she dished out. She was assertive but flexible, and I truly enjoyed just how smart she was. She has a great head on her shoulders, and she knows it. She wasn't boastful at all, but she didn't put herself down a lot. I can't tell you how refreshing it was to read about someone who positively acknowledges their strong suits, or how much I liked her intelligence. All too often I'll be reading a book and my thoughts are a repeat of "good god, this chick is stoooopid". With Alexis, that didn't happen. I was frequently impressed with how she processed things, and the solutions she came up with.

She was a genuinely nice and pleasant person; it was so easy to be in her head. The story is told almost exclusively in her point of view, and her voice was wonderful to listen to. 

"You're allowed to look at me, you know."

He continued to stare at his lap, a frown causing his brows to furrow. 

"I wasn't sure if...you'd find it distasteful to have someone like me looking."

"Hey," I whispered fervently. "I like it when you look.

I loved Oliver King. Cosway knows just what to do in order to write my book boyfriends! Well, almost: King is blonde, and I'm very much a tall, dark and handsome kind of girl. But I degrees.

King was a breath of fresh air in the wake of the usual, I-have-problems-and-I-want-you-to-know-every-last-one-in-agonizing-detail love interests. Is he perfect? No, and he doesn't claim to be. He's not without some personal demons, but who doesn't have those, and they honestly just added to his appeal. 

He was so damn funny! He had no filter, no tact, and despite being in his early 30s, he had a childlike mischief about his character. He was sexy as hell, and his joking and witty ways made him all the more attractive. The care he gave his mentally ill mother was beautiful to watch, and his flair for business was inspiring. I have to say though, the hottest thing just might have been the fact that he's a phenomenal pianist. Good god, there's just something about a man who can play that does something to me. 

In the After section of the book, he was a different man. However, it didn't lessen my enjoyment of his character at all; if anything, he was all the more interesting!

He wasn't awful at all. In fact, he might have been more beautiful now that he was flawed, more human.

I really enjoyed the way the relationship between Alexis and King was formed. There's enough attraction and sexual chemistry to power a small city, but there was definitely a friendship first. That's the best kind of love story! Alexis kind of forced it into a friendship first, as she told King she was a lesbian during one of their first meetings. I died laughing when I read that! The whole charade was one of my favorite parts in the story, and I was torn between laughter and wanton moaning when the truth came out.

"The way you come is fucking devastating."

                                      




I was truly surprised at just how interesting L.H. Cosway made the world of banking to be. Before reading, I pictured it as frightfully flat and monotonous, yet Cosway painted it as cutthroat, fast paced, and challenging.

"The mind becomes a prison as it replays its images, and all you want to do is drown them out. Dull the repetition. Alcohol is such an easy way to do it, to quiet everything down. It becomes a basic need, like water or air. Suddenly, you can barely go an hour without having it in your system."

The After part of the story was so beautifully emotional and realistic. King's healing process, Alexis's bravery and selflessness, the supporting characters, all of it set up such a powerful climax. I teared up on more than one occasion. It was spot on realistic, and by the end of the book I felt like I knew each character on a deep level. The way King's alcoholism was handled and described blew me away.

It would be ridiculous to think that just because I was there, just because I'd found him, that he'd suddenly make a miraculous recovery. That his addiction would simply be forgotten because the woman who loved him had come to find him.

My one small complaint with King of Hearts was a certain plot twist. I saw possibilities of it coming, but really hoped Cosway wouldn't lead me down that path. It felt like a bit of a copout to how this came together, and the idea is overdone for my tastes. However, it did end up working for the storyline and Alexis and King's relationship, and didn't effect how much I enjoyed the book.

All of the secondary characters were vivid and inspiring. I was thrilled when I read about Jay and Matilda, the main characters in the first standalone. That Jay....sigh. I love him. I haven't yet read the second book, but King of Hearts has me itching to buy it, and perfectly set the scene for the upcoming fourth novel.


It's not at all necessary to read the books in order, but I almost wish I'd have read Hearts of Fire before King of Hearts. Series order is Six of Hearts, Hearts of Fire, and then King of Hearts, if you want to do it in order.

Overall, King of Hearts is a fantastic novel of love, humor, healing, and hope. Its addictive writing and relatable characters make it a very quick read, and I highly recommend it.

STATS:

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Adult, contemporary romance 

POV: 1st person, single perspective

Steam/sexual content: Steamy like a teenage couple's car windows, some fairly explicit sex

Warning: Some violence, alcoholism

Series: Hearts #3, standalone

HEA: Yes

Cliffhanger: No

ARC for review, thank you to L.H. Cosway for allowing me to join in!

- The Bibliophile Babe