Chasing the Star Garden - Karsak, Melanie

Fantasy, Steampunk, Young/New Adult, Romance, Mystery
5 out of 5 stars
Kindle 316 pages

An opium-addicted beauty.An infamous poet living in self-imposed exile.An ancient treasure about to fall into the wrong hands.
Melanie Karsak's Chasing the Star Garden takes readers on a thrilling adventure from the gritty opium dens of gaslamp London to the gem-colored waters of the ancient world. Lily Stargazer, a loveable but reckless airship racer with a famous lover and shattered past, reluctantly plunges into a centuries-old mystery in a romantic adventure best described as Dan Brown meets Mary Shelley.
It all begins on one of the worst days of Lily’s life. She just lost the London leg of the 1823 Airship Grand Prix. To top it off, a harlequin fleeing from constables shoved a kaleidoscope down her pants, told her to fly to Venice, then threw himself from her airship tower. What’s a girl to do? For Lily, the answer is easy: drink absinthe and smoke opium. 
Lily’s lover, Lord Byron, encourages her to make the trip to Venice. Lily soon finds herself at the heart of an ancient mystery which has her running from her past and chasing true love and the stars along the way. (Goodreads)

This was a very enjoyable read. It was quite refreshing from the stuff I normally read.
Lilly is an air jockey, someone that races airships across the world in Grand Prix style races. She had just finished the English Grand Prix, coming in second and getting bested by an American. Something that she was not happy about.

I've never read a steampunk book before, and I greatly enjoyed this one. And am eager to read the next book in the series.

I was immediately pulled in by the fact that the airship races, and Grand Prix reminded me so much of Formula 1 Grand Prixs.

There's action and mystery right off the bat. Lily has docked her airship and was making her way over to the podium when a harlequin rushes through the crowd, right up to her, shoves something down her pants and proceeds to jump off the edge of her ship, killing himself.
No idea what had happened, and a big ball of stress and confusion, Lilly goes to an opium den to quell her nerves and forget about what happened.

Lilly uses opium, laudanum, and alcohol to numb her pain, to make her forget about her trouble past. And it works for a long while, until near the end of the book when she decides to give it up.
She first goes to her lover Byron to see if he knows anything about the package she received. Upon opening it up it is reviled to be a beautiful antiquated kaleidoscope.  Byron, just as baffled as Lily, sends her to see someone in Venice that will know what the kaleidoscope is all about.

Lilly takes her <i>other</i> lover with her, an Italian genius named Sal who is quite a tinkerer, and quite handsome as well. He is older then Lilly, with salt and pepper hair, tied in a  pony-tail. But is strong and muscular and  handsome! It’s clear from their interactions that he really cares for Lily, especially when he agrees to travel with her to Venice.

Chaos insures when they finally arrive, and Lily finds out that the kaleidoscope belongs to the worshipers of Aphrodite.

Not to be too spoilery, Lily is taken on a wild ride in her airship, dealing with pirates, and what not. Lily and Sal’s relationship grows, as does Lily as a person.

Towards the end of the novel instead of running from her past and her fears, Lily decides to face them head on. She is no longer alone and has found love and solace with Sal, and she has come to terms with what happened to her in her childhood and is no longer afraid of her past.

We get to know a lot about Lily's past through intricately woven (and well done) flashbacks. We learn that her mother tried to drown her, before dropping her off at an orphanage. I really enjoyed how the flashbacks were done, they weren’t jarringly put into the book, but nicely woven into the story. Lily would be somewhere, and her surroundings would trigger memories from her past.

There is a second book out which I plan to read. Not sure what’s gonna happen in the next book, but I’m really excited to read it.

I’d say this was book was somewhere between Young Adult and New Adult. There are some mature themes, like drug and alcohol addiction, and a few steamy scenes, but nothing like ones found in NA books.

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Wolf Sirens: Forbidden: Discover The Legend - Smith, Tina

Supernatural, Fantasy, Romance, Mystery, Mythology
3 out of 5 stars
Kindle/PDF, 370 pages

 When Lila unwillingly moves to the country town of Shade, she can’t imagine the life-altering events that lie in wait for her. Shade has a curfew and has always been surrounded by myths. A central feature of the town is its famous statue of Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, whose spirit is said to protect the innocent.
Lila falls in with a group of intriguing teenagers with luminescent eyes and soon she is drawn into the shadow-lands of fantasy and reality, where destiny collides.
A mysterious local girl, Cresida, warns her to stay away, but Lila is drawn to them like a moth to a flame. (From Goodreads)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed it, especially the last half and the ending was just wracked with emotion, but for a while I thought it was a bit messy. There were so many questions, and not enough answers.

We get a nice prologue that sets up the mythology of the book nicely, but it never makes a reappearance till near the end of the book.

Lila's the new girl at school, and everyone seems to ignore her except for the popular kids. They draw her into their group, want her to be like them. But Lila is skeptical, she can't understand why the populars would want her in their group. Then Cres comes into the picture and warns Lila to stay away from them. And Lila can't understand why. She thinks that Cres is crazy, especially after seeing a video of the popular kids turning into wolves. For about a quarter of the book Lila doesn't believe what Cres is trying to show her and thinks that Cres is crazy and that a few of the kids are getting hazed and bullied at school.

Eventually Lila learns that Sam and her popular friends are infect werewolves, and that Reid has taken an interest in her. She's accepted into the pack, wants to become one of them, and  be just like them, for who wouldn't want to live forever.

I felt that this was a mash up on genre's, romance, urban fantasy/supernatural and mystery. I felt like it was trying to be a bunch of different things, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.  At one time when Lila and Reid got together it felt like something out of a New Adult book, I thought there was going some hot sexy times, but that was completely skipped over. All the mention of it was 'we made love', which took me by surprise becauseI thought there'd be something more. At the same time I'm assuming the author didn't want to focus so munch on the romance, but more so on the struggles of Lila and joining the pack and all the angst that went along with it.

Sky and Lilia's romance came out of no where! All of a sudden Lila seemed so obsessed with Sky, and getting him to be hers. I could see it coming a mile away that he had feelings for her. Their romance was quick and heated, and didn't last long because of the ending!! That just took me by surprise! How could the author do that!! Made me so sad, because by the end I wanted Sky and Lila to reunite.

I felt that the mystery part of the novel felt a bit messy. I was tired of Lila thinking that everyone was apart of some sort of hazing or bullying just because the popular kids took an interest in her and seemed to ignore everyone else, but I guess that's what the reaction would be now a days, which felt real. Lila's reaction to the video was spot on too, she thought it was fake, and wanted to expose how crazy Cres was to everyone. It took her until about half the book, when she started hanging out with the pack, and see them transform to finally believe that it was all real.

The romance was a bit wonky too. I liked Lilia/Reid, it was cute and seemed guanine, but then she seemed to become so obsessed with Sky and it was out of the blue. Suddenly she didn't care about Reid anymore, even though a few pages before that she was really happy with him, and was actually surprised that someone as handsome as he could take an interest in her.  Another instance where it tried to be like a New Adult novel was the constant going back and forth between Reid and the obsessive feelings she had for Sky. Suddenly, she would do anything to be near Sky and she wanted him so badly, and would think about him almost constantly. Why she didn't break up with Reid eludes me, but I think she was too cowardly to do it, liked having a boyfriend, someone to love her. But then we learn that Reid never really liked her, that it was Sam's ploy to use Reid to ensure that Lila would stick around.

There were a few twists and turns, what Lila was destined to become, even though she wants nothing more then to be a werewolf. Which sounds just like Twilight! Lila is like Bella, although much more developed and has a backbone, doesn't like anyone push her around. Lila is a strong character, and I really liked her. She goes from being a loner, to having friends, and becoming  a strong person.

I wouldn't classify Ms. Smith's werewolves as 'werewolves'. To me a werewolf is something like out of Harry Potter, while these were just people that transformed into wolves. I see them more as shape shifters rather then werewolves. But I do like that when one was bitten, you stopped aging, and even looked younger! So Sam, who was about thirty when she was bitten, now probably looks like she' in her late teens.

Everything did tie up nicely, all the confusion and frustration I had throughout the book was tied up by the end. Although sometimes the wording and sentences in the book seemed a bit off, some things were worded oddly, some sentences I had to re-read because it sounded a bit off.

There is a second book, which I plan to read, because this one seemed to end a bit suddenly and I want to know what happens with Lila, now that she's becoming a hunter.

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The Selkie Spell (Seal Island Trilogy #1) - Moss, Sophie

 Romance, Fantasy, Mythology, Mystery
3 out of 5 Stars
Kindle,  227 pages

In this modern-day fairy tale romance, American doctor Tara Moore travels to an enchanted Irish island and discovers she has the power to break a 200-year-old curse. At first, Tara laughs off the villagers’ speculation that she is descended from a selkie—a magical creature who is bewitching the island. But when a ghostly woman appears to her with a warning, Tara realizes it was more than chance that brought her to this island. Desperate to escape a dark and dangerous past, Tara struggles against a passionate attraction to handsome islander Dominic O’Sullivan. But the enchantment of the island soon overpowers her and she falls helpless under its spell. Caught between magic and reality, Tara must find a way to wield both when a dangerous stranger from her past arrives, threatening to destroy the lives of everyone on the island. (From Goodreads)

I was hooked from the prologue. Mythologies and such have always been of interest to me, and the fact that the book is set in Ireland is a big plus, as I love the country.


I started out liking this book, and the characters. But as I got half way through it started to bore me. Tara wasn't that interesting, things weren't explained very well, they felt glossed over.

The romance between Dominic and Tara seemed a bit sudden, and happened too quickly. Dominic didn't want Tara to work in the pub he owned because she reminded him too much of his ex-wife. But she was allowed to work there, all the while he was cold and mean towards her.

There was some sexual tension there, but then it suddenly seemed like they were together. Dominic did a 180 attitude change and is now all loving and quite protective of Tara.

Until I hit about 85%, once Tara's husband comes into the picture and really starts making trouble, I really started to get into the book and it was action packed at the end.

The book was not without its flaws. There were frequent point of view changes in the middle of a paragraph. Glimpses of what the other characters were thinking during a particular scene. It was confusing as I was not expecting to hear what the other characters thought, especially not in the middle of a paragraph.

The writing was simple, but some parts flowed very well. There were some intimate scenes between Dominic and Tara that I thought were done quite well. They had a poetic feeling to them which I enjoyed.

I'm going to be reading the next book in the series, as I'm eager to know the story from Caitlin's perspective. I'm hoping it doesn't just rehash what happens in the first book.

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