[Book Review] Crave

BY: Tracy Wolff
SERIES: Crave (#1)
RATING: 1 out 5
RELEASES: April 7, 2020 by Entangled: Teen
GENRE: Fantasy Fiction, Paranormal fiction
AGE RANGE: Teen
SYNOPSIS: My whole world changed when I stepped inside the academy. Nothing is right about this place or the other students in it. Here I am, a mere mortal among gods… or monsters. I still can’t decide which of these warring factions I belong to, if I belong at all. I only know the one thing that unites them is their hatred of me.

Then there’s Jaxon Vega. A vampire with deadly secrets who hasn’t felt anything for a hundred years. But there’s something about him that calls to me, something broken in him that somehow fits with what’s broken in me.

Which could spell death for us all.

Because Jaxon walled himself off for a reason. And now someone wants to wake a sleeping monster, and I’m wondering if I was brought here intentionally—as the bait.

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[Book Review] Crush

BY: Tracy Wolff
SERIES: Crave (#2)
RATING: 1 out 5
RELEASES: September 29, 2020 by Entangled: Teen
GENRE: Fantasy Fiction, Paranormal fiction
AGE RANGE: Teen
SYNOPSIS: Everything feels off—especially me. I’ve returned to Katmere Academy, but I’m haunted by fragments of days I have no recollection of living and struggling to understand who, or what, I really am.

Just when I start to feel safe again, Hudson is back with a vengeance. He insists there are secrets I don’t know about, threatening to drive a wedge between Jaxon and me forever. But far worse enemies are at our doorstep.

The Circle is caught in a power play and the Vampire Court is trying to drag me out of my world and into theirs. The only thing Hudson and Jaxon agree on is that leaving Katmere would mean my certain death.

And not only am I fighting for my life, but now everyone else’s is at stake—unless we can defeat an unspeakable evil. All I know is that saving the people I love is going to require sacrifice.

Maybe more than I’m able to give.

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[Book Review] Something from the Nightside

BY: Simon R. Green
SERIES: Nightside (#1)
RATING: 2 out 5
RELEASES: May 27, 2003 by Ace
GENRE: Urban fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary fantasy
AGE RANGE: Adult
SYNOPSIS: John Taylor is not a private detective per se, but he has a knack for finding lost things. That's why he's been hired to descend into the Nightside, an otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines.


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[Manga Review] Samurai Girl Real Bout High School, Vol. 01

TITLE: Samurai Girl Real Bout High School, Vol. 01

AUTHOR: Reiji Saiga, Sora Inoue

SERIES: リアルバウトハイスクール [Real Bout High School] (#1)

RATINGS: 3 out 5

RELEASES: April 23, 2002 by Tokyopop

GENRE: Martial arts

AGE RANGE: YA

SYNOPSIS: At Real Bout High School, teachers don't break up fights, they grade them In a school where martial arts are the standard curriculum, Ryoko is kicking butt and taking names. The Real Bout manga spawned the hit anime series. With elements similar to The Matrix, Charlie's Angels, and Tomb Raider, Real Bout combines martial arts with a strong female lead--the perfect recipe for today's teen audience.

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[Book Review] A Shade of Vampire

TITLE: A Shade of Vampire

AUTHOR: Bella Forrest

SERIES: A Shade of Vampire (#1)

RELEASES: December 17, 2012 by Nightlight Press

GENRE: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

AGE RANGE: Teen

Rating: 1 out 5

SYNOPSIS: On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.

A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.

She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.
An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.

Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.

Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.

Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

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