Stacking the Shelves #26

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Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

 Leashing the Tempest (Arcadia Bell, 2.5) – Jenn Bennett

Dating a demon, defeating evil, running a tiki bar: Arcadia Bell is a great occult mage in many respects. But then there’s the challenge of her boyfriend’s precocious teenage son…

Arcadia “Cady” Bell may have saved the Hellfire Club’s children from a local bogeyman, but she and her Earthbound demon boyfriend, Lon Butler, now face a more disturbing problem: his teenage son’s new demonic abilities. Jupe Butler can persuade you to do anything—or so he thinks. To test the limits of his newfound power, Cady invites the co-owner of Tambuku Tiki Lounge to be the teen’s guinea pig during an afternoon boat cruise. But when an angry storm whips the Pacific into a frenzy and Jupe puts them all in serious danger, will Cady’s magick trump a teenager’s excess confidence?

 Minions (A vampire Huntress Legend, 1) – L.A. Banks

All Damali Richards ever wanted to do was create music and bring it to the people. Now she is a spoken word artist and the top act for Warriors of Light Records. But come nightfall, she hunts vampires and demons – predators that people tend to dismiss as myth or fantasy. Damali and her Guardian team cannot afford such delusions, especially now, when a group of rogue vampires has been killing the artists of Warriors of Light and their rival, Blood Music.

When strange attacks erupt within the club drug-trafficking network and draw the attention of the police, Damali realizes these killings are a bit out of the ordinary, even for vampires. Instead of neat puncture marks in the neck showing where the blood has been drained from the body, these corpses are mutilated beyond recognition, indicating a blood lust and thirst for destruction that surpasses any Damali has encountered before. Soon she discovers that behind these brutal murders is the most powerful vampire Damali has ever met – a seductive beast who is coming for her next…

 Double Cross (Disillusionists trylogy, 2) – Carolyn Crane

SOME SECRETS COME BACK TO HAUNT. OTHERS COME TO KILL.

Justine Jones lived her life as a fearful hypochondriac until she was lured into the web of a mysterious mastermind named Packard, who gifts her with extraordinary mental powers—dooming her to fight Midcity’s shadowy war on paranormal crime in order to find the peace she so desperately craves.

But now serial killers with unheard-of skills are terrorizing the most powerful beings in Midcity, including mastermind Packard and his oldest friend and worst enemy, Midcity’s new mayor, who has the ability to bend matter itself to his will. 

As the body count grows, Justine faces a crisis of conscience as she tests the limits of her new powers and faces an impossible choice between two flawed but brilliant men—one on a journey of redemption, the other descending into a pit of moral depravity.

Black Lament (Black Wings, 4) – Christina Henry
As an Agent of Death, Madeline Black deals with loss every day. But when tragedy touches her own life, Maddy will have to find the strength within to carry on…

Devastated and grieving, Maddy unexpectedly finds hope with the discovery that she is pregnant. But Maddy’s joy is short lived when Lucifer informs her that he wants the baby, hoping to draw on the combined power of two of his bloodlines. Maddy is determined that her grandfather will never have her child, but she’s not sure what she can do to stop him.

Being pregnant is stressful enough, but Maddy suddenly finds herself at odds with the Agency—forbidden from meddling in the affairs of the supernatural courts. When a few of her soul collections go awry, Maddy begins to suspect that the Agency wants to terminate her employment. They should know by now that she isn’t the sort to give up without a fight…

 Eve & Adam – Michael Grant / Katherine Applegate

And girl created boy…

In the beginning, there was an apple—

And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker’s head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother’s research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal.

Just when Eve thinks she will die—not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy.

Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect… won’t he?

Bad Blood by L.A Banks (VO)

Crimson Moon, Book 1

Synopsis: Sasha Trudeau knows all about working beneath the shadows, back-alley deals, and things that go bump in the night. She also knows that the world is unaware of the existence of the paranormal—and that the government would like to keep it that way.

As a highly trained Special Ops soldier, Sasha and her team are an elite group of individuals who are survivors of werewolf attacks, now trained to be loyal to only to each other and their government. But when she returns from a solo mission, she finds that her team has mysteriously gone missing. Shocking government conspiracies, double-dealing vampires, and a host of stunning revelations about who—and what—she really is are only just the beginning…
Review: I was very curious to start this new series and I think I expected a lot from the start. Well, maybe a little too much… I have to say I was attracted by the French cover that I really liked.
Sasha is a member of a very special unit, who controls the were wolves activity. She even has the virus herself but her meds allow her to stay normal and to prevent her transformation. Her superiors send her everywhere in the world to settle all the troubles they can meet. These missions always bring her in some atypical places and of course put her life in danger each time. But when a day, she goes back from one of her mission solo, she discovers that her Alpha and mentor Rod has become rogue. She now has only one choice, to take care of him. Like that, she will meet Max Hunter, this alpha so enigmatic but who would be very happy to be part of the life of our heroine. He will make her discover the world of the shadows, his world. Like that we will understand this new universe where the characters evolve. It’s fascinating to discover this environment, L.A Banks had some great ideas in this book and it was a pleasure to discover more about it.
Max is a character we’re very curious about since the beginning, maybe because of his fantastic capacities. But as the story progresses, we understand that the only thing that matters for him is to have Sasha for mate. Our heroine, is more independent, and everything happens really too fast for her. Something I perfectly understand, but well we don’t feel a great resistant from her either.
I think I wasn’t thrilled by the characters. Of course, they are intriguing, but they’re also quite empty. Some parts of the book also annoyed me, it’s not a problem, no, but I didn’t like the book as I thought I would.
I think Shogun, this character we meet at the beginning of the book, was far more interesting than Max and I hope we will learn more about him in the second novel because we don’t have a lot of information and I think a bigger development would be perfect. There weren’t a lot of events in this book but we have many discoveries. After that, you could say that it’s a first book and so we need some basis and like that it also presents us the characters. I think I need to read the second novel to know if it’s interesting to continue the series.

Mauvais Sang de L.A Banks

Les Arcanes de la Lune Rouge, Tome 1

Résumé : Sasha est un soldat d’élite. A la tête de son commando, elle est chargée de contrôler l’activité paranormale dans le monde. Sa préoccupation majeure : éviter que du sang contaminé de loup-garou ne soit vendu au marché noir.

De retour d’une mission en solo, Sasha découvre que son équipe de choc a disparu sans laisser de traces. Fidèle à ses partenaires à la vie à la mort, elle tente tout pour les retrouver.

Dans cette quête de la vérité, la jeune femme ne peut se fier qu’à son instinct. Conspirations au plus haut niveau dans son propre camp, agents infiltrés chez les vampires et les loups-garous, manipulations scientifiques… Sasha doit surmonter tous les obstacles.

Mais saura-t-elle affronter de la même manière les tourments de son cœur et de terribles révélations sur son passé ? 
Avis : J’étais très curieuse de me lancer dans cette nouvelle série et je pense que j’en attendais beaucoup dès le départ. Peut-être un peu trop… Il faut dire que j’ai tout de suite été attirée par la couverture française que j’ai adorée.
Sasha fait partie d’une unité très spéciale, contrôlant l’activité des loups garous. Elle-même porte le virus mais ses médicaments lui permettent de rester telle qu’elle est et de ne pas se transformer. Ses supérieurs l’envoient régler des problèmes partout dans le monde. Ces missions l’emmènent toujours dans des lieux atypiques et mettent bien sûr sa vie en danger à chaque fois. Mais quand, un jour, elle rentre d’une de ses missions en solo et qu’elle découvre que son Alpha et mentor Rod est devenu lui-même rogue, elle n’a qu’un seul choix, s’occuper de lui. Elle rencontrera ainsi Max Hunter, cet alpha si énigmatique mais qui ne se ferait pas prier pour être avec notre héroïne. Il lui fera découvrir le monde des ombres, son monde. Il nous fera comprendre l’univers dans lequel tous nos personnages évoluent. C’était fascinant de découvrir cet environnement, L.A Banks a eu de très bonnes idées et c’était un plaisir d’en découvrir plus.
Max est un personnage pour lequel on est très curieux au départ, du fait de ses facultés hors du commun. Mais plus l’histoire avance et plus on comprend que la seule chose qui l’importe est de faire de Sasha sa femelle. Notre héroïne elle est plus indépendante, et tout se passe vraiment trop vite pour elle. Ce que je comprends tout à fait, mais il faut dire qu’on ne sent pas vraiment une grande résistance de sa part non plus.
Je pense que je n’ai pas vraiment accroché à ces personnages. Bien sûr ils sont intrigants, mais je dois dire que je les ai aussi trouvés assez plats. Certaines parties du roman m’ont aussi un peu ennuyé. Ce n’était pas bien grave, non, mais par conséquent je ne l’ai pas apprécié autant que je l’aurais pensé.
J’ai trouvé Shogun, ce personnage que l’on rencontre au début du livre plus intéressant que Max et j’espère qu’il sera plus approfondi dans le second tome. Nous n’apprenons que si peu à son sujet et je suis sûre qu’un plus grand développement serait parfait. Je n’ai pas trouvé qu’il se passait tant de choses que cela dans le roman, bien sûr il y a beaucoup de découvertes qui compensent ce fait. Après vous me direz, c’est le premier roman de la série donc il sert aussi à poser les bases et présenter les personnages. Je pense qu’il me faudra lire le second tome pour vraiment savoir quoi en penser.
 *Auteur mort*


In My Mailbox

“In My Maybox” is a meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren
(repris en français par la bibliothèque de Lilie
Les traductions sont personnelles 

Don’t forget our 6 Months Giveaway 

 Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum, 16) – Janet Evanovich

Trenton, New Jersey, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has inherited a “lucky” bottle from her Uncle Pip. Problem is, Uncle Pip didn’t specify if the bottle brought good luck or bad luck. . . .
BAD LUCK:
Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, has run up a gambling debt of $786,000 with mobster Bobby Sunflower and is being held until the cash can be produced. Nobody else will pay to get Vinnie back, leaving it up to Stephanie, office manager Connie, and file clerk Lula to raise the money if they want to save their jobs.
GOOD LUCK:
Being in the business of tracking down people, Stephanie, Lula, and Connie have an advantage in finding Vinnie. If they can rescue him, it will buy them some time to raise the cash.
BAD LUCK:
Finding a safe place to hide Vinnie turns out to be harder than raising $786,000. Vinnie’s messing up Mooner’s vibe, running up pay-per-view porn charges in Ranger’s apartment, and making Stephanie question genetics.
GOOD LUCK:
Between a bonds office yard sale that has the entire Burg turning out, Mooner’s Hobbit-Con charity event, and Uncle Pip’s lucky bottle, they just might raise enough money to save the business, and Vinnie, from ruin.
BAD LUCK:
Saving Vincent Plum Bail Bonds means Stephanie can keep being a bounty hunter. In Trenton, this involves hunting down a man wanted for polygamy, a turnpike toilet paper bandit, and a drug dealer with a pet alligator named Mr. Jingles.
GOOD LUCK:
The job of bounty hunter comes with perks in the guise of Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, and the dark and dangerous security expert, Ranger. With any luck at all, Uncle Pip’s lucky bottle will have Stephanie getting lucky—the only question is . . . with whom? 



Late Eclipses (October daye, 4) – Seanan McGuire

Two years ago, October “Toby” Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It’s a delicate balance—one that’s shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.
Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander’s back, what’s her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby’s mother, Amandine, have to play?
Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most—because if she can’t find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she thought she’d never have to face again…

Il y a deux ans, October ‘Toby” Daye croyait qu’elle pouvait laisser le monde de la Fairie derrière elle. Elle avait tord. Maintenant elle se retrouve au service du Duc Sylvester Torquevill, partageant un appartement avec sa “Fletch” et maintenant une étrange paix avec Tybalt, le roi local des chats. C’est une balance délicate – une qui se brise dès qu’elle apprend qu’un ancien ami a des ennuis. Lily, Lady des Jardins de Thé, a été atteinte par une mystérieuse et impossible maladie, laissant son royaume sans défense.
Essayant de trouver un moyen de sauver Lily et ses sujets, Toby va devoir se confronter à son passé comme à un ennemi qu’elle pensait à jamais disparu : Oleander de Merelands, un de ceux responsable pour son exil de 14 ans. Mais si Oleander est de retour, quel est son jeu? Ou se cachet-elle? Et qu’a Amandine, la mère de Toby à voir avec tout cela ? le temps est compté et les enjeux grandissent. Le Reine des Ombres a son propre agenda, et il y a plus de personnes dans ce jeu que Toby pourrait le penser. Avec tout cela en ligne, elle va devoir prendre un ultime risque pour se sauver elle et les gens qu’elle aime le plus – parce que si elle ne trouve pas la pièce de puzzle qui manque à temps, Toby sera forcée de faire un choix qu’elle pensait ne jamais à refaire…

Nightshine (Kyndred, 4) – Lynn Viehl

When San Francisco paramedic Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Marena stops to help at the scene of an accident, she never imagines she’ll wind up trapped on a Mexican island, with orders to procreate with powerful Takyn Samuel Taske.  In her mind, he’s got two strikes against him: He knows about her secret nighttime telepathic ability and he’s too wealthy to be trusted.

Samuel  is psychic, but he’s never foreseen that he’ll fall for the woman he has been charged with protecting.  GenHance-the biotech company willing to do anything to acquire super-human DNA-is after them, and when Samuel discovers that his Takyn powers have abandoned him, Charlie’s gift is their only hope for survival . . .  

Quand l’ambulancier de San Francisco Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Marena s’arrête pour aider lors d’un accident, elle n’aurait jamais imaginé qu’elle se retrouverait piégée sur une iles mexicaine, avec pour ordre de procreer avec le puissant Takyn Samuel TAske. Dans son esprit, il a deja deux points contre lui : il sait au sujet de son pouvoir de télépathie et il est trop riche pour qu’elle ait confiance en lui.
Samuel est un psychique, mais il n’avait jamais imaginé tombé amoureux de la femme qu’il devait protéger. GenHance, la compagnie biotech prête à tout pour acquérir l’ADN super humain est après eux et quand Samuel découvre que ses pouvoir de Takyn l’ont abandonné, le don de Charlie est leur seul espoir de survivre…
 Le sacre de fer / Iron crowned (Dark Swan, 3) – Richelle Mead
Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham is the best at banishing entities trespassing in the mortal realm. But as the Thorn Land’s queen, she’s fast running out of ways to end the brutal war devastating her kingdom. Her only hope: the Iron Crown, a legendary object even the most powerful gentry fear…

Who Eugenie can trust is the hardest part. Fairy king Dorian has his own agenda for aiding her search. And Kiyo, her shape-shifter ex-boyfriend, has every reason to betray her along the way. To control the Crown’s ever-consuming powers, Eugenie will have to confront an unimaginable temptation – one that will put her soul and the fate of two worlds in mortal peril…

Le pouvoir est la pire tentation.

Eugenie Markham n’a pas son pareil pour chasser du monde des humains les êtres surnaturels qui s’y risquent. En revanche, elle peine à stopper la guerre qui dévaste son propre royaume, Terre-de-Daléa.
Son seul espoir : la Couronne de Fer, un artefact légendaire redouté de tous. Mais qui l’aidera dans sa quête ? Elle ne peut guère se fier aux hommes de sa vie, Dorian et Kiyo… Or, pour maîtriser les pouvoirs incommensurables de la Couronne, elle devra résister à une terrible tentation, au risque, si elle échoue, de détruire son âme et deux mondes.
  

 Baiser Fatal / The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson guardian, 6) – Keri Arthur
Danger turns her on. Desire turns her dangerous…
Riley Jenson hunts evildoers—and does it with a style all her own. With vamp blood coursing her through her veins, and a werewolf’s uncanny instinct for danger, Riley wears snakeskin stilettos and pure, in-your-face attitude when she plunges into her latest case: hunting down a killer whose victims are high-society strumpets—and the rich and powerful men they’ve dated.
But for Riley, the case takes a chilling turn when a second killer starts trailing mutilated bodies of his own: a crazed young vamp choosing victims from a past marked by tragedy. Riley knows she’s got the skill and cunning to catch two serial killers at once…until one of them strikes inside her own tight-knit clan—and a sexy beast of a vampire reenters her life to aid in the hunt. His name is Quinn. He’s lived forever, shed blood, and shared pleasure…and he’s the only man over whom Riley has absolutely no control….
Riley Jenson traque le mal d’une manière très personnelle. Son dernier cas : un tueur en série qui s’attaque aux prostituées de la haute société. L’affaire prend une tournure inquiétante quand un deuxième meurtrier commence lui aussi à semer des corps mutilés. Riley est assez douée pour attraper deux assassins d’un coup, mais voilà que l’un d’eux s’attaque à un proche de la jeune fille et qu’un vampire réapparaît dans sa vie. Son nom est Quinn et c’est le seul homme sur lequel Riley n’a absolument aucun contrôle… 
 Mauvais sang / Bad Blood (Crimson Moon, 1) – L.A Banks

Sasha Trudeau knows all about working beneath the shadows, back-alley deals, and things that go bump in the night. She also knows that the world is unaware of the existence of the paranormal—and that the government would like to keep it that way.
As a highly trained Special Ops soldier, Sasha and her team are an elite group of individuals who are survivors of werewolf attacks, now trained to be loyal to only to each other and their government. But when she returns from a solo mission, she finds that her team has mysteriously gone missing. Shocking government conspiracies, double-dealing vampires, and a host of stunning revelations about who—and what—she really is are only just the beginning…

Sasha est un soldat d’élite. A la tête de son commando, elle est chargée de contrôler l’activité paranormale dans le monde. Sa préoccupation majeure : éviter que du sang contaminé de loup-garou ne soit vendu au marché noir.
De retour d’une mission en solo, Sasha découvre que son équipe de choc a disparu sans laisser de traces. Fidèle à ses partenaires à la vie à la mort, elle tente tout pour les retrouver.
Dans cette quête de la vérité, la jeune femme ne peut se fier qu’à son instinct. Conspirations au plus haut niveau dans son propre camp, agents infiltrés chez les vampires et les loups-garous, manipulations scientifiques… Sasha doit surmonter tous les obstacles.
Mais saura-t-elle affronter de la même manière les tourments de son cœur et de terribles révélations sur son passé ? 
Le pacte du démon / Demon Bound (Black London, 2) – Caitlin Katredge
Thirteen years ago, Jack Winter lay dying in a graveyard.  Jack called upon a demon and traded his soul for his life… and now the demon is back to collect its due.  But Jack has finally found something to live for.  Her name is Pete Caldecott, and because of her, Jack’s not going to Hell without a fight.  
Pete doesn’t know about Jack’s bargain, but she does know that something bigger and far more dangerous than Jack’s demon is growing in the Black.  Old gods are stirring and spirits are rising–and Jack doesn’t stand a chance of stopping them without Pete’s help.  
Le sinistre passé de Jack Winter est revenu le hanter… et son seul espoir se tapit dans les Ténèbres de Londres, le monde souterrain et surnaturel où magie noire et glamour extralucide abondent. Treize ans plus tôt, Jack Winter était étendu mourant dans un cimetière. Il a invoqué un démon et vendu son âme en échange de sa vie… Aujourd’hui, le démon revient afin de récupérer ce qui lui revient de droit. Mais Jack a enfin trouvé une raison de vivre. Elle s’appelle Pete Caldecott et, à cause d’elle, Jack refuse d’aller en Enfer sans se battre. Pete ne sait rien du marché qu’a passé Jack mais elle est certaine que quelque chose de plus important et de bien plus dangereux croît dans les Ténèbres. Les Anciens Dieux sont en train de se réveiller et les esprits se soulèvent ; Jack n’a aucune chance de les arrêter sans l’aide de Pete.