100 Book Challenge - Book 38 - The Girl in the Clockwork Collar

Book 38 / 100

Book: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar (The Steampunk Chronicles #2)

Author: Kady Cross

ISBN: 978-0-373-21082-4

Pages: 368

Of course I had to get the second book in Kady Cross’s Steampunk Chronicles, who wouldn’t after the first one? And I wasn’t disappointed.

Following their friend Jasper across the ocean from London to New York, Finley Jayne and her band of misfits go head to head with a crime boss intent on using Jasper to locate the pieces of a machine. To what end? Well, that’s just one of the many things they’ll have to discover along the way.

Jasper meanwhile is in the clutches of Dalton, a ruthless man who is holding the life of the woman Jasper loves hostage with the help of a clockwork collar that will strangle her if the wrong person touches it.

As the story takes us from the rough streets of lower Manhattan to the elegant Fifth Avenue, we find Griffin King, The Duke of Greythorne at war with himself over his growing attraction to Finley, Sam, more machine than man, finds his heart being tested, and the sweet Irish Emily, who can talk to machines, finds that the streets can be dangerous if one isn’t careful.

To help her friends Finley must go undercover in Dalton’s gang. But can she pull herself away from the dark side after everything is done?

Rating… 5 out of 5 gears. While a few small bits dragged a little, overall this was a great read, I love the seamless blending of the late 1890s with the steam powered inventions, and I especially enjoyed the guest appearance by Nikola Tesla!

100 Book Challenge - Book 37 - Through the Killing Glass

Book 37 / 100

Book: Through The Killing Glass (Alice in Deadland #2)

Author: Mainak Dhar

ASIN: B007M4I6NA

Pages: 183 (I’m averaging this with book one that I previously reviewed so together they total 413 pages)

It’s been more than two years since Alice’s adventures began, over two years since she first followed a Biter with rabbit ears down a hole. With the help of the biters and the humans living in the Deadland she’s fought the Chinese Red Guard to a standstill and the survivors have begun to rebuild a society, beginning in a place they call Wonderland.

But sometimes people mistake quietness for safety and peace. When Alice is ousted from the government of Wonderland and the guard patrols reduced, it can mean only one thing. The Chinese Central Committee are beginning a new, much more insidious, campaign to take control of the Deadland.

A campaign that utilizes a new breed of Biters and Alice’s most formidable opponent yet, someone just like her, a biter/human hybrid known as The Red Queen!

Rating: 5 out of 5 Shotguns. This was a really fun journey, after the twist ending of book one, I just had to see how things ended. If you’ve read Alice in Deadland then you have to read this book. It’s an interesting take on things, and offers the reader a glimpse at how humans react and how they, more than likely, stab each other in the back at the first opportunity.

100 Book Challenge - Book 28 - Grave Dance

Book 28 / 100

Book: Grave Dance (Alex Craft #2)

Author: Kalayna Price

ISBN: 978-0-451-46409-5

Pages: 371

Having spent a month recovering from the events of Grave Witch (the first book in the series), Alex Craft is ready to go back to work, solving murders and raising the dead would help take her mind off her complicated love life, her absentee love interest, Fae Investigation Bureau agent Falin Andrews and the "L-word" confession from Death.

Of course, that doesn't mean that the job is any less confusing.

Bodies with only parts left, in fact only left feet left behind. As she begins to investigate, two attacks by creatures created by a mix of witch and fae magic force her to defend herself with the help of some of her new powers, but the worse is yet to come as destroying the constructs leave behind tears into the Aetheric which brings her to the attention of a cult of Skimmers (normals that leech magical power off others) and the FIB who answer directly to The Winter Queen.

Can Alex survive the attacks, avoid the FIB, the Skimmers, and The Winter Queen, and solve the murders and the other mysteries that come her way?

Rating 5 out of 5 ghosts. I’m loving the Alex Craft series, it blends the mortal world, the Faerie world, and so many other worlds it’s not funny, even in this case, the Nightmare world. I love how Alex’s powers are evolving, and how it almost seems she’s ramping up the powers, almost reminiscent of the Anita Blake novels in that regards.

100 Book Challenge - Book 26 - Beautiful Redemption

Book 26 / 100

Book: Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4)

Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

ASIN: B00936ROW4

Pages: 465

Ethan Wate is dead. But that, as they say, was just the beginning of his adventure.

Having given his life to restore The Order, Ethan finds himself in the Otherworld. With the help of his mother, Aunt Prue, a Dark Caster and a hideous bat/human monster he begins a journey to find his way back to the Mortal World and the love of his life Lena Duchannes.

Lena has to continue on, not giving up hope that Ethan would find his way back to her, so when Ethan finds a way to communicate with her from the Otherworld, things begin to fall into place that would lead to the final showdown with the evil Abraham Ravenwood for possession of The Book of Moons, a key piece in Ethan’s quest.

As Ethan continues his quest, he learns the truth about his fate, and the dark heart of the Far Keep and how one Mortal man’s quest for power lead to things that were never meant to be. Can Ethan face the evilest of Keepers, Angelus, and win his freedom to return to the mortal world?

 Rating... 5 out of 5 spells. This folks, this is the final chapter in what I would almost call an epic story of love, loss and magic. And while it does drag in a couple of places, it almost feels as if that was intentional to make you feel what Ethan is feeling. I highly recommend this book series, you can’t just read one, you gotta do them all.

100 Book Challenge - Book 25 - Beautiful Chaos

Book 25 / 100

Book: Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles #3)

Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

ASIN: B005JZD382

Pages: 529

The Order is broken. It’s the End of Days.

With Lena’s choice to be herself and claimed by neither and both light and dark, chaos is reigning on Earth. The signs of the apocalypse are descending on the small town of Gatlin. The casters and supernatural folk are finding that their powers are off, the mortals are cowering in fear. Meanwhile Abraham Ravenwood is searching for the hybrid Incubus John Breed, with urgency as the Eighteenth Moon approaches.

There is one way to save the world, Gatlin, Lena, Link and all Ethan’s loved ones. A sacrifice that must be made in order to bring about The New Order. The One Who Is Two. But just who is this person, and can they find them before the Eighteenth Moon?

Rating... 5 out of 5 spells. Okay, so it should be clear to anyone reading all my reviews that I am loving this series... Although I must caution you, if you’re anything like me you will need a box of tissues around for the end of this book, trust me on this.