Review: Inside Evil

Inside Evil
(Inside Evil Series #1)
by Geoffrey Wakeling
Publication Date: March 12, 2012
Formats Available: eBook ~176 pages

Synopsis: Roberta Arlington lives in Ridgewood, a small and sleepy town on the Scottish border, where she is completely content with her life. That is, until she stumbles upon a corpse at the local boarding school and finds that her world starts to unravel into chaos.
As questions begin to emerge as to just how the victim died, Roberta discovers herself caught in a world which she never knew existed. Like a shadow hanging behind Roberta’s own life, another world hovers in the background, waiting silently until trying to break through. Roberta soon discovers that she’ll have to find all the strength she has to survive the path laid before her. -from Goodreads

Cover: I’m not quite sure what it is about the color green that evokes feelings of evil, but it does. It is usually shown through a person’s eyes, but on the cover of Inside Evil the green encompasses the entire page. The picture is of a black cat sitting the woods, not scary by itself, but when you add the bright, glowing green the woods seem ominous. Very cool trick.

 

My Thoughts:

“It’s happening again…”

The small town of Ridgewood has a secret, one that only a select group of people know about. There is a curse, one that has been handed down from generation to generation. Every ten years there will be deaths unless a riddle is solved and to find the riddle is its own adventure. I was completely enthralled with this book. From the moment I began reading I could not tear myself away. What I first thought was a horror novel is actually a fantasy within a mystery.

Roberta, a teacher at the local boarding school, finds one of her students, Vanessa, dead in the hallway. Vanessa - a local girl who lived on campus, but her parents live in town. Her mother even runs a popular book shop. But ever since Vanessa moved to campus, things haven’t been right. Vanessa’s teachers think it may be drugs, but in reality it is something so much worse. When Vanessa is found dead strange things start to happen. Roberta isn’t quite feeling like herself anymore. She is quick to anger and at times violent, but she hasn’t any idea why. There is something inside of her. Whatever killed Vanessa is making its way into Roberta and sending her into a descending spiral of madness.

“For just the smallest second, the smile on her daughter’s face vanished and was replaced with a snarl. Lips drawn into the face of the devil, eyes hollowed and black…”

While I am not usually a fan of so many viewpoints being shown, the author Geoff Wakeling does a good job of making the transitions from one character to the next. His descriptions of the small town of Ridgewood were well written and I could imagine exactly what it looked like without him being overly verbose. The entire cast of characters made this book great. From Sam the reluctant believer to Detective Karl who has been investigating the unusual deaths for over 10 years to Martha whose husband was one of the lost; we see a web spinning them all together. Each character is well-rounded and thought out. The fantastical parts of the book, while not trying to give anything away, were imaginative, original and strange.

There is a big difference between American English and British English and for those who aren’t used to reading the latter will need to be aware of the variances. For example, the spelling is different: favorite is favourite, meter is metre. The punctuation is also different; as to where I would use a period after Mr. or Mrs., British English does not, so Mrs. Peacock is Mrs Peacock. In addition, there are a few British colloquialisms that are used, but nothing that can’t be understood.

Aside from the language variations, I really enjoyed reading Inside Evil and cannot wait until he writes the second installment in the series. Anyone looking for a good mystery/fantasy to cozy up to the fire with a cup of tea or to even sit and read on the beach, Inside Evil is a great choice.

Favorite Quote: “Black shining gems bored down onto her. It was like looking directly into hell where all things were evil.”

★ ★ ★ ★ ½

FTC Advisory: I was given a copy of this book from the author for an honest review. No backroom deals or whispered promises were made. 

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Review: Angel Unraveled

Angel Unraveled
The Watcher Series, #1
by Tamela Buhrke
Published by: Wicked Women Publishing
Publication Date: July 12, 2011
Formats Available: eBook

Synopsis:
Psychic Andi Andreas is sick of seeing ghosts and reading futures. So when a sexy reporter named Tucker Calhoun falls, battered and bloodied, into her arms, Andi jumps at the chance to use her talents for more than just tarot cards. She and Tucker investigate a gang selling a new kind of drug. But her thrill turns to panic when they discover this drug temporarily turns users into vampires.
Worse, a sassy she-demon is threatening to unleash the drug as a virus—contaminating the world and converting the human race into monsters. As Andi struggles to stop the demon, she unlocks a secret from her past and awakens new abilities. But will Andi's new powers be enough to save the world?
 -from Goodreads

Cover: While not completely eye-grabbing, in retrospect the cover is great for this book. I can just imagine Andi making the face we see on the cover and it makes me laugh.

My Thoughts:
Andi Andreas is a Chicago transplant and psychic/medium newbie. She only learned of her talent after getting into a car accident four years ago that consequently killed her father. She was taken under the wing of Ethel, a veteran psychic living in Phoenix, Arizona. But now Ethel has retired and moved to Boca and Andi is struggling to pay the bills. And when Andi ‘reads’ a customer for Frank, the hot owner of a local coffee shop, all hell breaks loose and a whole new world is revealed. She thought being psychic was weird, but the vampires, demons, and angels teach her that what she thought she knew was just the tip of the iceberg.

Andi is not your average heroine; she barely can keep together her own little world. I think that is what made me like her even more. She is relatable and kind of a spaz. I can’t count the times I laughed out loud while reading her inner monologue. The things that happen to Andi are so extreme and outrageous that you would think it would become too much for the reader, but it doesn’t. The situations were displayed in a way that I could really picture happening and her reactions were real which means she didn’t pick up a sword and suddenly have all these abilities.

The characters that author Tamela Buhrke created were all interesting and dynamic, even the minor characters. My favorite character was by far Johnny, even though he never actually speaks. I could picture him dancing around Andi’s apartment in LARPing garb with his scabbard and eye patch. Of the three men that are a possible love interest to Andi I like Esteban the best. I imagined his accent to sound something like Antonio Banderas and his connection to Andi is something I can’t wait to see fleshed out. Macy was annoying and whiny and I’m not quite sure if I was Andi that I would keep her around. Someone who doesn’t believe you and is jealous of almost everything you do isn’t a friend or at least a good one.

I really liked the desert setting in Phoenix. I could picture everything realistically because I had been there before. The scene with the scorpions being dumped on Andi’s head truly gave me the heebie-jeebies. There were a few things that could be explained better or at least more succinctly and some dots that could be connected but overall Angel Unraveled was a fun urban fantasy romp. I will be reading book two Angel Unprepared which is out now.

Favorite Quote: “Unfortunately for him, every time his fingers brushed the cross, they lit on fire like a bunch of birthday candles.”

 ★ ★ ★ ★ 

If you are a fan of urban fantasy you will love Andi and company!

FTC Advisory: I was given a copy of this book from the author for an honest review. No backroom deals or whispered promises were made.

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Review: Death by Design

Death by Design
A Bailey Davis Vampire Intrigue

by M.D. Kenney
Publication Date: April 11, 2012
Formats Available: eBook, Paperback ~302 pages

Synopsis:
Interior designer, Bailey Davis was minding her own business, and that of her clients when on a job site just outside of Chicago, when she runs into her ex. Annoyed and harassed, she nearly falls into a pit intended for the new swimming pool, but instead loses a precious memento. When she goes back to retrieve it, Bailey finds more than a diamond bracelet. She finds old human bones that someone will kill to keep hidden. Threatened, attacked, and kidnapped, Bailey eventually meets gorgeous Detective Declan O’Connor, of the Chicago Special Investigative Division, who has a few secrets of his own. Together they dive into the perilous underworld of the Guild, where unbeknownst to humanity, creatures of the night roam the world. Their journey takes them from the glittery big city of Chicago to the sultry lowcountry of South Carolina on a desperate search for the truth about her sudden and unexplained powers, who her true family is, and a monster who has Bailey under his control. -from Goodreads

The Cover: I think the cover of Death by Design is beautiful. The depiction of the woman, who I believe to be Bailey, is ethereal and her green eyes are captivating.

My Thoughts: Death by Design begins in 13^th century Paris with Sethe, a vampire hell bent on revenge against the woman who spurned him. After brutally murdering her he vows to take his revenge on all of her descendants as well.  The story then jumps to modern day Chicago where Bailey Davis, an interior designer and Italian shoe addict resides. Her life is seemingly mundane except for a few quirks – she is extraordinarily quick, strong, and she is able to heal abnormally fast.  None of this makes any sense to Bailey until she is attacked and has a strange vision of a young woman being killed.

Detective Declan O’Connor is assigned to work Bailey’s case; however, the Chicago Special Homicide Division is not the only organization that is interested in the answers Bailey provides about that night. Bailey’s life is thrown into turmoil when she is taken into protective custody by the Full Blood Vampire Nation and is introduced into a whole new world she had no idea existed. Bailey learns she is the descendant of the Ahkin line, a powerful family of vampires. As it turns out, this is the same line that Sethe has been tracking. When the Vampire Nation headquarters is infiltrated and Bailey is taken captive, she learns the meaning of the nightmares that have been plaguing her dreams her entire life. Sethe is intent on making Bailey fully his by taking the power she holds within for himself.

What I liked about Death by Design was the fresh take on how vampires are created and the powers they possess. Ms. Kenney has created a new vampire breed, one that I have yet to see in any other books. Each vampire is unique and may or may not have powers based upon who changed them or if they were born vampire.  I am glad that she included a map of the Full Blood Family Tree because there are so many characters that I got lost and had to refer back to it.

There were a few things that I did not like; namely, the grammar and punctuation errors. This happens in every book from big publishers to self-published books, but they irritate the inner English teacher in me. The phrase “and they said their goodbyes,” was used too frequently. There were also places where the story seemed to drag and the excess of information was a detriment to the flow. I don’t want to give away too much, but the idea of vampire-compelled sex is rape, pure and simple; treating it as something else is hard for me to stomach.

Overall, this is a good start to the Bailey Davis series. The next book Designs in Blood is set to introduce new supernaturals and explore more lines on the Full Blood Family Tree. Fans of the Night Huntress series by Jeanine Frost will find Bailey Davis intriguing.

★ ★ ★

Favorite Description: "His claws dug in deep, and the pain was excruciating. Suddenly he let go of me and was gone. I heard a loud piercing scream and then a popping, slurping sound..."

FTC Advisory: I was given a copy of this book from the author for an honest review. No backroom deals or whispered promises were made.

Where to Buy:
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