Haunted by Kelley Armstrong

On the Back of the Book

Eve Levine - half demon, black witch and devoted mother - has been dead for three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can't be killed again - which comes in handy when you've made as many enemies as Eve. Yes the afterlife isn't too bad - all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with her daughter Savannah and she'll be happy.

But fate - or more exactly, the Fates - have other plans.  Eve owes them a favour, and they've just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy - previous hunters have been sent mad in the process. As if that's not problem enough, it turns out that the only way to stop her is with an angel's sword. And Eve's no angel...

My Thoughts

This is yet another Kelley Arstrong book where I've been left feeling that the plot itself is superior to the characters. The story has such a strong basis and the idea of it alone had me ready to spend night and day reading it. However in actuality the book just didn't have the characters to pull it off.

If I'm honest I was expecting a lot more from Eve than what I got. What happened to the feisty woman who got herself killed trying to defend Savannah? All I got was a woman hanging on to the past and trying to recapture it. I mean I can understand that she misses her daughter but surely she'd be kicking ghost butt as opposed to mooching around. I really wanted the Eve that we'd been told about. The other characters weren't much to write home about either. At least with the Paige books there were some amazing side characters. In this one we got Kristof the lovesick puppy. I wasn't impressed.

Overall this book could have been so much more than it was. Also it was disjointed from the rest of the series. I'm pretty sure you could skip it and go straight to Broken. If I'd paid £7.99 for it that would have annoyed me. Thankfully I found my copy in my local second hand book shop for £1.90 which is a bagain. Other than my complaints of characters and disjointed ness it was really good and I found myself in the weird position of wanting to read it, but not wanting to read it.

My Rating

3 stars - One of my least favourites of the series. Seriously, I'm not sure if I dislike this or Dime Store Magic more. The plot is amazing and with the right characters could have gotten 4 or 5 stars. I just didn't like the characters and that's a shame because the more I read Kelley Armstrong's books, the more I like her as an author.

A Final Note

Once again this book is intended for adults. That means sex, swearing, violence we've been here before and I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong

On the Back of the Book

When Paige Winterbourne is ousted as leader of the American Coven of Witches, all she wants to do is hide under her duvet fpr a few months. But fate, of course, has other plans. A murderer is on the loose - someone with superhuman skills and a grudge against the supernatural community. When Paige learns that the killer is targeting children, she has to get involved.

Desperate to protect those she loves, Paige is thrown nto a world of arrogant sorcerers, drunken necromancers, sulky druid gods and pretentious leather-clad vampires. Not to mention an apparently unstoppable supernatural psychopath hell-bent on revenge...

My Thoughts

The plot in this book is amazing. I found myself being dragged into the story. It was fast and furious and it grabbed me by the throat and it refused to let me go until it was done with me. I still found myself despairing at Paige but she was only a minor annoyance because I refused to let her dampen my enjoyment of the book.

I'm not going to talk about Paige anymore, I've made it clear that I'm not a fan. Lucas is average, he's dependable, this annoyed me at times. It made me want Clay. Actually, speaking of Clay he was back! Which obviously means Elena was. It was a bit of a reunion book because so was Jeremy, Adam (Paige's half demon friend), Cassandra and Aaron (the vampires) and there was even an appearance from Eve Levine. New character Jaime Vegas was pretty good, I love the idea of a TV psychic who is actually a necromancer. How can you not like a book with such a whole host of amazing characters?

This book has a great plot and great characters so you'd think I'd be satisfied. Alas though, I am not. There was nowhere near enough Savannah, she's one of my favourite characters and she wasn't in the book, I was gutted. On the plus side, I got the ending! That's right I wasn't left hopelessly confused, although I did have to concentrate very hard.

My Rating

4 stars - This is better than Dime Store Magic by a long chalk. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I marked it down due to the lack of Savannah and the fact that, in my opinion, Paige is no leading lady. I loved how everyone got involved. I like team work.

A Final Note

This is an adult book, written for adults, so it contains sex, swearing and violence. Definitely not for the squeamish. It does contain the deaths of kids so if you're sensitive to that kind of stuff, step away from the book.

Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong

On the Back of the Book

Paige Winterbourne is a witch. Not that you'd notice - no warts, no green skin, no cute little wiggle of the nose whenever she casts a spell. No, most of the time she's just a normal twenty-three-year-old girl: works too hard, worries about her weight, wonders if she'll ever have a boyfriend. Okay, so she does have an adopted teenage daughter, Savannah, who wants to raise her black witch of a mother from the dead. And who is being stalked by a telekinetic half-demon and an all-powerful cabal of sorcerers. But other than that, Paige has a really ordinary life. That is until the neighbours find out who she is, and all hell breaks loose. Literally...

My Thoughts

It took me a long while to get into this book. I had so much trouble with Paige's narrative. I didn't like her in Stolen and didn't see how she deserved to get a whole book. The plot however, made up for any reservations I had about whether reading this was a good idea. Once the plot had got into its stride the book moved at a nice pace until the end, where I once again found my self getting confused. If I'm honest, I'm beginning to wonder if it's me or the author.

As good as the plot was I still wasn't any more a Paige fan at the end than I was at the beginning. However I did like Lucas and Savannah, the former is just a regular guy who just so happens to be a sorcerer. Another thing I liked about him was that he always had a plan. Savannah brought life to the book with her temper. I kind of remember being a bit like at her age, angry with the whole world.

Overall book 2, Stolen, was a better book. Elena was a better main character. Yet in this book she's barely mentioned, despite what it says on the back of the book.

My Rating

3 stars - I marked it down for two reasons: 1. Paige doesn't have the personality to have an entire book and 2. The end had me baffled and I hate that in a book.

A Final Note

As this is an adult book there is sex, violence and swearing. It's definitely not for younger teens.

• Book summary from the back of the book


• Image from Google

Stolen by Kelley Armstrong

On the Back of the Book

Elena Michaels is a wanted woman. She hasn't done anything wrong. Well, not recently anyway. But 10 years ago her lover turned her into a werewolf: the only female werewolf in the world in fact.

And now, just as she's coming to terms with it all, a group of scientists learns of her existence. They're hunting her down, and Elena is about to run straight into their trap. But they haven't reckoned on Elena's adoptive family, her pack, who will stop at nothing to get her back. They haven't reckoned on Elena herself, either, and that's a very big mistake...

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book. Saying that though, this book had a completely different feeling to it than book one, Bitten. That's because this is the first book that was written with the intention of being a series. That doesn't lessen the enjoyment of the book though. The plot is different to a lot of paranormal's that I've read (although Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville books did have a similar plot line. They were written after this though). It had a nice pace that didn't leave me feeling disappointed.
My favourite character is Elena. She's feisty and intelligent and refuses to be what others want her to be. Unlike most other leading ladies, she doesn't need to hang on to her man as though her life depends on it. Which is lucky really, it makes the book a lot better.
I think that this is one of my favourite paranormal books of the year. The only down side was I got a bit confused at the end. That was entirely my own fault though and is no reflection of the quality of the book.

My Rating

4 stars - A really good, entertaining novel. I thoroughly recommend it fans of adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy.

A Final Note

This book is for an adult audience and contains sex, violence and swearing. Definitely not for teenagers.

• Book Summary from the back of the book


• Image from Google