Review - Shade by Mere Joyce

 

Title: Shade
Author: Mere Joyce
Series: Oracle of Senders #1
Pages: 283
Release Date: April 10^th 2018
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Callum Silver sees dead people. It’s not a gift. His family thinks he’s crazy. Sometimes he thinks he’s crazy. He has no friends. He’s forced to live his life surrounded by nothing but the searing pain, sickening smells and desperate moans that accompany the murdered ghosts who seek him out.

When he’s offered a place at Camp Wanagi, the ten weeks in the French countryside isn’t a vacation, it’s a lifeline. A way to meet others like himself and prove his ability can offer more than years of loneliness and expensive therapy bills.

Run by a mysterious group known as the Oracle of Senders, Camp Wanagi brings together teens from around the globe who all possess the unique ability to see the dead. While Cal is relieved to find others like him, he learns quickly that not everybody experiences the spirits as he does. Some of the campers revere their abilities and don’t understand his hesitation, while others—like quiet bookworm Meander Rhoades—have good reason for wishing they could get rid of their ‘gifts’.

While researching their final project, Cal and Meander find an unmarked grave which reveals aspects of their abilities neither knew existed, forcing Cal to decide if the torture of seeing ghosts is worthwhile and, more importantly, if being a part of the Oracle of Senders is necessary, dangerous…or both. 
 
My Review: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
 
This is another new to me author. This book tells the story of a teenage boy wo is attending a summer camp for people who have special paranormal gifts.
 
Each of the ten new recruits have different gifts though some overlap, the main character Callum see’s the spirits of people who have been murdered. His parents thought he was scrazy and sent him to therapy but the Senders know different, they believe he has a gift that he should embrace. He isn’t sure why he’s at camp he accepted the invite because he wanted to be around people like him even though he believes his ‘gift’ is a curse because of how it makes him feel then he sees the spirit.
 
Callum makes friends with the other kids in his group, but he is closer to some more than others and I hope in the future we get to read more about the other kids and their gifts.
 
This kind of book is my type of book, I love all types of supernatural books, witches, vampires and even ghosts.
 
Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Read in 2020: 35/35

Review - The Orphans by Martina McAtee

Title: The Orphans
Author: Martina McAtee
Series: Dead Things #1
Pages: 198
Release Date: May 1^st 2020
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: Welcome to Belle Haven where the paranormal is normal and being human is a liability.

Kai Lonergan is struggling through math class when he gets a new charge to cross over. It's just another day for a reaper until he sees the name. November Lonergan. Before he can question how he's supposed to cross over a soul who's been dead for years, his twin sister, Tristin, screams. No big deal, that's what banshees do. Except, Tristin lost her scream the day November died.

Mace is a mercenary monster who hunts other monsters, so when he's hired to trail one ordinary girl, it seems like overkill. Until Mace witnesses her powers firsthand and he realizes there's nothing ordinary about Ember Denning. He finds himself unnaturally drawn to her, which might be a problem since he just threatened to kill her.

Ember Denning prefers the dead. She spends her days skipping school in the cemetery and her nights working at a funeral home to avoid her alcoholic father. But that won't be a problem anymore. He's dead, and Ember is about to learn her life until now has just been a series of carefully crafted lies and her real life...well, it's a lot stranger than she'd ever imagined.

Reapers, witches, shifters, and fae all converge in a town in the middle of the Florida panhandle where Ember must learn a hard to swallow, terrifying truth. She's not a human, but a supernatural ticking time-bomb, and figuring out how to disarm her means reconnecting with people she can't remember, trusting a family she never knew existed, and accepting that the only person who can save her is the beautiful boy who just tried to kill her.
 
My Review: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
 
This book was by a new to me author and I really enjoyed the story.
 
I liked that all of the characters, they all have different personalities which is great as it gives the story diversity. My favourite character so far is Quinn, he’s the only human amongst the group but he's every ones friend. I also liked Tristin she seems to be the only one worried about Ember being there and she is worried for her brother who didn’t complete his job like he was supposed to.
 
Although I’m not a fan of shifter books I did enjoy this story, maybe because it focused more on the powers of the Reapers than on the shifters.
 
I’m curious as to how Mace managed to find out where Kai and Tristin took Ember and how he managed to get into Bell Haven with it having a magical barrier so to speak to keep people out. I am looking forward to the next book so I can find out if this is answered.
 
If you’re a fan of Magic, Witches and Shifters then this is one I recommend.
 
Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Read in 2020: 35/35

Review - Conquette by A. A Davies

 

Title: Conquette
Author: A. A Davies
Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #7
Pages: 78
Release Date: July 6^th 2020
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: The lights flickered. The crowd turned silent. Then all eyes were on me.

They watched me every night. Captivated by each layer of clothing I removed.
They salivated at the sight, but only one lucky man would get the chance to have me.

I’d been trapped in the confines of slavery for as long as I could remember. My body hadn’t been my own, not until I came here.

This freakshow was my home.
The only place I felt safe.
And the only way I could regain my control.

I’d served men for years, but now it was my turn.

With a flick of my hair and a purse of my lips, I caught them in my web.
I let them have my body because I needed their souls.

My beauty knew no bounds, and neither did I. 
 
My Review: This was the final book in the series and I have to say I had been wondering how Alina fitted into a Carnaval for freaks as in the other stories it didn’t really give any information as to why she was there, she was just referred to as the Circassian Beauty.
 
Alina performs her act using her beauty at the Carnaval while trying to supress her haunted past, and one day Xero joins and Carnaval and changes her life for the better.
 
Alina is determined to get revenge on the people who hurt her but she ends up finding a new friend who is happy to do anything she wants including combining their act.
 
Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Read in 2020: 35/35

Review - Pins and Needles by Ashleigh Giannoccaro

 

Title: Pins and Needles
Author: Ashleigh Giannoccaro
Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #6
Pages: 59
Release Date: June 29^th 2020
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: It’s that perfect tingling feeling just beneath your skin, the one you can do nothing to fix. She’s the needles to my pins, she gives me that feeling. When I saw her I felt it and I knew — mine.

Needles, my quiet packrat, my sweet seamstress, she thinks I have a heart inside this hollow chest. I stick a knife through it everyday just to show her I don’t. Still she won’t believe me, leaving me notes sewn into my clothes, and touching me when no one is looking.

No matter what I stab into myself, it doesn’t take away that feeling, the skin crawling, needle pricks that scuttle just below the surface whenever she’s too close. I love it — it’s mine.

I will be her pincushion, she pins the pieces of me together so softly with her quiet smile and shimmering eyes. I don’t need her words, I have her and I’ll never let her go.

My Review: Pin’s the Human Pincushion spends his time at the Carnaval inflicting pain upon himself but he heals up quickly and Needles fixes him back up, she is the Carnaval’s seamstress, she makes costumes for all the other freaks but she never speaks.

This story was nice and romantic, Pins is mean to Needles and she speaks to him by sewing words into his pillow. They both have trauma in their lives but they manage to find comfort in each other

Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Read in 2020: 35/35