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 24 - Beautiful Darkness

Book 24 / 100
Book: Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles #2)
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
ASIN: B00457X7IQ
Pages: 513

Beautiful Darkness picks up where Beautiful Creatures left off with Lena unclaimed by light or dark and the future of both sides of her family hanging in the balance... But not deciding and saving Ethan has had a bad effect on Lena... Especially with the consequence of taking Macon's life!

Lena begins to descend into darkness, egged on by her cousin Ridley and the mysterious John Breed and in doing so she pulls away from the one person who can help her out... John convinces her that The Great Barrier is the place to go to find the answers to all her questions.

With Ethan, Link and a Keeper-in-Training, Liv, following closely they head into the Caster tunnels heading for the place where the mortal and Caster worlds meet. Meanwhile Lena's mother and the evil Abraham begin to turn the tide of things in the natural order, swaying Lena to the dark side.

With help from the light casters and from beyond the grave can Ethan reach Lena in time to save her from herself and her mother and ancestor?

Rating... 4 out of 5 spells. If you enjoyed the first book then this will be a must read. If you haven't read the first book then I recommend reading that first then picking this one up.

100 Book Challenge - Book 23 - Beautiful Creatures

Book 23 / 100

Book: Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1)

Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

ASIN: B00371V710

Pages: 563

Nothing ever happens in Gatlin, and Ethan Wate knew that all too well, that’s why he was counting down the days until he could leave. At least he had been, until the new girl arrived in town. Old Man Ravenwood’s niece was like nothing the town had seen, and that was just the start.

Lena Duchannes is a Caster, as in Spell Caster, and she’s struggling to contain her powers and dealing with a curse that has sealed the fate of her family for generations. On the 16^th moon of their 16^th year all the Casters in her family are Claimed by either light or dark. And it’s Lena’s 16^th birthday soon.

Inexplicably, Ethan is drawn to Lena, and vice versa. A connection that means that in a town where nothing ever happens, something big is about to happen.

Rating: 4 out of 5 spells. Okay, so I went into this book knowing that several friends had told me it was slow and hard to get into, but I found that it was a captivating story, by a few pages into it I was hooked. I’d recommend it to anyone who has a liking of paranormal romance and magic.

100 Book Challenge - Book 14 - Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Book 14/ 100

Book: Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Author: Anonymous (formerly Belle de Jour)

ISBN: 978-0-446-54082-7

Pages: 291

I admit, I wanted to read this book because I love the British TV series starring Billie Piper. And although the book lives up to its steamy reputation, it was somewhat hard to get through.

This book is basically the diary of Belle de Jour, a university graduate who gets into the sex work trade after participating in a threesome where she was paid afterwards, the thrill of it is the key. Wherein we learn how she got into the job, her tips and tricks for great sex, the problems you can encounter, and of course how to fit a love life into the job.

As in a diary, the story is split into months, starting in November and going through to June, we find out about her past loves and partners, the crazy, weird, and downright dirty things her clients want to do.

Okay, rating… 2.5 out of 5, would I recommend it? I dunno, it’s an interesting view on the life of a call girl, and manages to provide some handy dandy tips for your sex life. The book also provides an A to Z of London Sex Work which lends to an interesting read on it’s own.

100 Book Challenge - Book 4 - The Story Of X

Book 4 / 100

Book: The Story of X

Author: A.J. Molloy

ISBN: 978-0-552-16924-0

The Story of X is, as the title may suggest, the story of Alexandra, X to her friends, and her sexual awakening. It begins innocently enough, an encounter with the billionaire Lord Marcus Roscarrick and continues with his attraction to her, and ultimately to the dangerous parts of his life… Roscarrick is an initiate in the Mystery Religions, and if they have any chance of being together X will have to submit to the initiation rites too.

As she does, she finds herself awakening, and changing… Changing forever.

Now, normally, I’d go into more detail, but with this story we see a lot of the rites and rituals of the Mystery Religions, and you become involved in X’s journey, to tell of what happens feels almost like you’re violating the sanctity of them. So I will say this, I have had books that left me gasping, books that left me wanting more… But this, this book I think blew my mind completely.

Rating… 10 out of 5. Read it. If you’re over 18, read it. There are sex scenes and a few crude words, but that’s minimal.

100 Book Challenge - Book 3 - Scarlet

Book 3 / 100

Book: Scarlet

Author: Leigh Marsden

ISBN: 978-0-14-356544-4

Okay, so, part of the appeal of this book was its local origins, the author lives in a town not 50 minutes drive from where I am :) as well, I read somewhere that it was Penguin’s (the publisher) sauciest book ever, and since at the time I brought it I was wanting to recapture the feelings I got from the Fifty Shades trilogy, it seemed to suit. Ultimately I was right, but it did take some work to get there.

So the story follows George Scarlet, a thirty year old waitress (yes, a female with the name George, get over it :P) and her route down the road to happiness. We learn as the story unflolds, through flashbacks, that she had some serious daddy issues stemming from her father’s inability to display his affections, not just for her but also for her sister and mother. There is a scene that anyone who loves animals will want to avoid where the father, almost casually, puts down George’s pet dog after an accident. Later on we also learn how her mother died during a house (well, farmhouse) invasion and attempted robbery (attempted only because they didn’t have anything worth stealing), and how all these elements led to George running away from home and becoming almost a man-eater.

In the current period we follow George through her relationship with her fellow waitress Cass, her affair with her married flatmate Justin and the various flings with essentially strangers. Things come to a head when Cass takes George along to a sex party, a sex party that’s a front… For a forced pornography ring. Using her wits and brains George escapes the set and with the help of Justin and his wife she moves into a flat with two female police officers.

Spurred on George undergoes a transformation, trimming off her long red locks and going blonde, getting a new job (because she couldn’t go back to the restaurant where Cass was) and meeting a new guy, her perfect match one could say. She has a chance encounter with her estranged sister (estranged because as a teen George had an affair with her brother-in-law) opens the opportunity to reconnect with her family, and the niece she never knew she had.

The Cass situation turns nasty when through another chance meeting, Cass drugs George and forces her onto a porn set. Fortunately the police officer flatmates were on the case and had been keeping an eye out, it seems George wasn’t the first person this had happened to.

Highlights (good and bad)… This story was a bit hard to follow at the start, it was jumping back and forth between various flashbacks and now, however once it settled down the story was very engaging.

Rating… 4 out of 5 stars. It’s worth a shot if you can push past the slightly disjointed start, and can cope with the terrible things that happen to George, don’t worry, it’s a happy ending :)