Book review: Ravencry by Ed McDonald

Today I'm taking part in the blog tour for Ravencry by Ed McDonald!

Title: Ravencry
Author: Ed McDonald
Publication date: 28th June 2018
Publisher: Gollancz
Genre: Fantasy
Series: The Raven's Mark #2
Source: Review copy from publisher

Description: For Ryhalt Galharrow, working for Crowfoot as a Blackwing captain is about as bad as it gets - especially when his orders are garbled, or incoherent, or impossible to carry out.

The Deep Kings are hurling fire from the sky, a ghost in the light known only as the Bright Lady has begun to manifest in visions across the city, and the cult that worship her grasp for power while the city burns around them.

Galharrow may not be able to do much about the cult - or about strange orders from the Nameless - but when Crowfoot's arcane vault is breached and an object of terrible power is stolen, he's propelled into a race against time to recover it. Only to do that, he needs answers, and finding them means travelling into nightmare: to the very heart of the Misery.

My thoughts: Blackwing, book 1 in the series, was one of my favourite books I read last year. I was eager to hear more about the world, and what might have happened following the events at the end of book one. It's four years on from the end of Blackwing, and fortunes have changed a bit for Ryhalt and his companions: they've got a large office building, their rank is acknowledged across the city, and there's not been too much trouble from the Misery recently. But when Ryhalt goes to meet an old acquaintance and ends up almost shot, it leads to a horrifying discovery.

Favourite characters from Blackwing play an important part, including Nenn and Tnota, and I enjoyed reading the insult-strewn camaraderie between them. There are also some new faces, including a 14-year-old orphan who does odd jobs around the office, and a smart woman who looks after all the accounts, and tries to look after the team as well. They're all interesting, three-dimensional people and I'll love to read more stories about each of them, which I think is a good test for how well built a character is.

One of the best bits about Blackwing was the pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you plot twists, which would send the characters scrabbling to adjust their plans. Ravencry was just as capable of surprising me, although I was a lot more on the lookout for twists, and was a bit more nervous than Ryhalt when he thought he had everything figured out a couple of times. There's a lot of action at the begining and end of the book, but there's a bit maybe three quarters in set in the Misery which I found a lot slower, and not as interesting, although it did feel very appropriate to be reading about people slogging through a desert while I was crammed into a hot commuter train.

Overall, I really enjoyed Ravencry. Ed McDonald has produced another fantasy novel packed with action, foul-mouthed characters and enough twists and turns to keep you constantly on your toes. I'll definitely be recommending it to other fantasy fans, particularly if you enjoyed book one in the series, and I'm now anxiously waiting for the next book in the series. I'm giving Ravencry 8 out of 10.

Have a look at the banner below to see the other stops in the Ravencry blog tour.

Review: Beyond Jealousy by Kit Rocha

Today I'm excited to be taking part in the blog tour for the release of 'Beyond Jealousy', book 4 in the O'Kane series by Kit Rocha.

Title: Beyond Jealousy
Author: Kit Rocha (aka Moira Rodgers)
Release date: 17th March
Source: Review copy
Genre: Dystopian

Description: She’s been looking for the perfect man. She found two.
When Rachel Riley sacrificed a life in Eden to protect the O’Kanes, she earned her place in the powerful Sector Four gang. But the former crime princess is tired of being everyone’s sweet little sister . It’s time for her to get wild, to embrace her fantasies as only an O’Kane can—with a delicious exiled soldier and the gang’s wickedly sinful tattoo artist.
A saint...
Lorenzo Cruz is a warrior, taught by his commanding officers in Eden that involvement equals distraction. Emotion is a liability, and desire a sin.  In Sector Four, he finds decadence, shameless sex—and his own dark urges. No battle strategy prepared him for how Rachel makes his heart race…or the way his rival for her affections sets his blood on fire.
...and a sinner.
Ace Santana has a dirty reputation and a mind to match, especially where his new lovers are concerned.  He’s eager to help Cruz embrace his dominant side, and to explore the lines between pleasure and pain with Rachel. But corrupting them quickly becomes an obsession, a need he can’t deny—and a love he never imagined.
Three hearts on the line means a hundred ways their ménage a trois could go wrong. After all, even O’Kanes do forever two-by-two.  One of them could be the missing piece that makes them all whole…or a temporary diversion destined for a broken heart.

My thoughts: If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I'm a fan of this series. I love the dystopian world the ladies who make up Kit Rocha have created, with a civilisation forced to change after solar flares knocked out a lot of the electricity sources and communication devices. Eden is an isolated city, meant to be a perfect place, and around it are built the Sectors, each run in a different style by a different leader.

One of my favourite things about this book is that we're really starting to learn more about the world outside Eden, and how Eden is managing to run itself, and protect itself from any other cities. There are hints that the city is managing its resources very badly, despite apparently being set up to cope just fine, which is something I think would be very interesting to see as the series continues.

Tension between Ace & Rachel has been there since the beginning. They've always "sparked" as Ace puts it, but the wrong words coming out mean that as the book starts, they're not exactly getting along with each other. Instead, Ace and Cruz have turned their work partnership into something a whole lot more personal. There are some very hot scenes as the group set aside their arguments and start trying to make a go of things as a threesome. Of course, love is never simple, and although they work as a three when it would probably never last with any of them in a pair, it's hard to feel balanced in a three. Ace's past makes it very difficult to let other people in, and the events of Beyond Jealousy really push him to accept some things.

There are so many things developing around this romance, too. The fake O'Kane liquor from book 3 comes back to keep causing trouble, and Rachel's father the beer brewer from Eden becomes involved. The crisis leads to something which has been brewing in these books since the beginning and I can't wait for the next book to see how the next stage of things starts to play out.

With 'Beyond Jealousy', Kit Rocha shows a steamy hot menage-a-trois come together, while further exploring their dystopian world, and the effects of events in the previous books. As ever, I'm waiting desperately for the next in this brilliant series.

Overall, I give this one 8 out of 10.


Competition time!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

An Interview with Eros (Cupid)

I'm kicking off my Blog Book Tour today here at my favorite book review blog, The Book Bundle! To celebrate I've lined up a little Q&A with one of my favorite characters from my new book. So without further ado, please give a warm welcome to Greek God Eros, from the new YA novel, FORESIGHT: Book 1 of The Gods of Fate trilogy.

~

Me: Hello, Eros. Thanks for joining us today.

Eros: Yes, well, I lost a bet.

Me: Er, really? Well, thanks just the same. So out of curiosity, who did you lose this bet to?

Eros: My wife. She finds amusement in my discomfort.

Me: I see, well, let’s get started. So I see you also go by Cupid? May I call you Cupid?

Eros: Not if you want to survive this interview.

Me: Oh, alright. Why don’t you want to be called Cupid?

Eros: *growls*

Me: Moving right along… How did you first meet Christopher LeFey?

Eros: I went on a surfing trip with Hermes during Hurricane Camille. Great swells. Christopher was there also. That night he taught me a card game called Texas Hold Them. It’s rare for Gods to mingle with Fae, but he seemed alright, for a Faerie. We have a standing Thursday night poker game in Vegas.

Me: What was it like growing up on Olympus?

Eros: Boring. Opulent. Though my father once gave me a Risk game as a gift. I didn’t realize until the fall of Rome that it wasn’t just a board game. I burned it.

Me: You like games?

Eros: I do.

Me: What is your favorite game?

Eros: Twister.

Me: Twister? Why?

Eros: Ask my wife.

Me: Oh. Um, so tell me about your parents. I mean who were they? I’ve heard you were the son of Gaia and Uranus but I’ve also heard you were the son of Aphrodite and Ares. Which of these is true?

Eros: Neither. I am a child of Chaos.

Me: That’s interesting. I thought you were the God of Love?

Eros: Misconception. I’m the God of Lust.

Me: I see. Do you have any children of your own?

Eros: Two. A daughter, Bliss, and a son, Dizasteron.

Me: Dizasteron? Isn’t naming your kid that sort of, like, asking for trouble?

Eros: You have no idea.

Me: When I see depictions of you, it’s usually a winged baby. But you look more like the Old Spice guy. What’s up with that?

Eros: Yes. In my youth I spurned the attentions of Athena. Besides being the Goddess of Wisdom she was also the Goddess of the Arts. On a side note, she should have added “the Goddess of Vindictive Clingy Women” to that list.
Also, I hate the Old Spice guy. So what if he can ride a horse backwards? I can make Simon Cowell make out with a mime.

Me: What do you do for fun, besides board games?

Eros: I enjoy most water sports. I also enjoy watching the Bachelor.

Me: The Bachelor? Why?

Eros: It reminds me of my childhood.

Me: Oooookay. Well, thanks for that disturbing mental picture. I have a few fan questions for you are you ready?

Eros: Shoot.

First, Nikki asks: “Did you make gay guys? If so, were you trying to be funny or were you high?”

Eros: I did not create sexual preference. It has existed in humans (and animals) forever.
However I believe if women weren’t so crazy, there would be more straight men.

From Pam: “How can he make / or allow us to make so many mistakes when it comes to finding true love?”

Eros: I have nothing to do with true love. It exists; it’s just not my specialty. I deal in more carnal things. However I will say that it is not the gods, but your own free will that causes the majority of your pain and confusion.

From Rebecca: “Is there a 1 true love? Or many that you could have gotten along with okay?”

Eros: I believe there is only one person in all of existence who is truly the perfect match for one’s soul. However the odds of meeting that person and recognizing them when you do? Ha. Good luck. But in the immortal words of Stephen Stills, “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

From Richard: “When do I get my turn?”

Eros: When you take it.

From Pat: "What are your magic arrows made of?"

Eros: Adamanteum. Like Wolverines claws. No, kidding. Trade secret. Though all our weapons are created by Hephaestus.

From Nikki: "Do you smoke?"

Eros: Only when I'm on fire. Don't laugh. It happens surprisingly often.

From Beverlee: “When are you gonna ditch that diaper?”

Eros: Keep it up human.

Me: Um, is that a pistol crossbow you’re holding?

Eros: *smiles*

Me: Um, er, okay. Here's your chance to ask Eros a question of your own! Leave a question in the comments and he'll swing by for the next few days and give you the answer! At the end of the week I'll choose a random questioner to win a cool FORESIGHT prize pack! You have till Monday Aug. 30th to enter! Good luck, and happy reading!


*Shameless Plug*
FORESIGHT is now available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com!

http://www.amazon.com/Foresight-Gods-Fate-Book-I/dp/0984098070/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1279942497&sr=1-2

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Foresight/Sherry-D-Ficklin/e/9780984098071/