Cable Left, Cable Right – Judith Durant – 2* ARC

This is a knitting book that gives different cable patterns.  I had my yarn and needles ready and a couple patterns in mind for this book.  I’m an average knitter.  If you give some really good directs and maybe some YouTube videos I can figure out almost any pattern.  This book didn’t give directions.  The patterns are in charts only.  The book starts off with explaining how to read the charts but the individual patterns it was charts.  I couldn’t figure out the patterns from the chart.  Some of them just looked like a giant X.  Maybe if she had included directions with the chart I would have been able to figure it all out.  The 2 star is for the awesome patterns in the book.  There were some cable patterns I hadn’t seen before but was very disappointed I couldn’t try them.

Hunted by Magic – Jasmine Walt – 4*

Hunted by magic starts right where Bound by Magic ended.  Iannis is missing and the mages are in an uproar.  The mages don’t want Sunaya’s help finding Iannis.  Instead their bright idea is to arrest her and everyone they think might know/are in/have family in the resistance.  Literally almost everyone shifter/human is taken in by the mages.  Sunaya has to escape from town because she is enemy number one.  All she wants is to find him.  In the last book she exchanges what amounts to a soul stone.  A bit of her soul is put into a necklace that he wears and she has one from him.  Only the wearer can remove it.  This is something she was given and told not to tell anyone else because it is basically an exchange of rings for marriages.  Sunaya escapes town with the help of two friends and they track Iannis down with the necklace.  They find just the necklace and the mages who were with him.  They eventually track him down but he has been enchanted and she has to basically seduce him to force him to remember himself.  It was a little creepy.  The woman who enchanted him doesn’t take kindly to losing her powerful new husband and tries to kill Sunaya and Co.  They escape rescue the mages and then rush to the capital for the vote.  There is a lot that happens in this book.  There is problems in the capital and reasons they wanted Iannis out of the way.

This book was much better than the last one but I didn’t feel like there was much movement in the overarching story.  We are no closer to finding out who the big bad is.  Iannis has hinted at Sunaya’s family is but refuses to tell her anything.  It just seemed like one more plot thwarted by Sunaya and Iannis but let’s not tell you anything new.  Now I have to wait for the next book.

02 Bound by Magic – Jasmine Walt – 4*

This is the sequel to Burned by Magic.  It starts right where the first ended.  Sunaya is being trained by Iannis to control her magic.  He is angry because she still insists on being an enforcer, earning her own money, and living in her own home.  He wants her living at the castle focusing on mage training.  She wants her independence and break from Iannis because she is hoping her attraction for him will go away.  She is trying to find the big backer introduced in the last book.  She is also asked to look into the shifters who have been going missing.  This storyline was a lot more obvious who was behind the missing shifters.  There are some little bits you don’t know but the big details you can figure out very quickly.

I liked this story.  There were some issues like her receiving a warning about trouble with the resistance but doesn’t share it with anyone else.  Though if she had we would have an entirely different book 3 so take it or leave it.  You get a little more information about the people and places in this book that helps with the world building and character development.  Overall an enjoyable book but HATED the cliff hanger ending.

01 Burned by Magic – Jasmine Walt – 5*

Sunaya is half shifter half mage in the city of Solantha.  Mages are in control of everything.  Shifters are considered second class citizens and half/half is outlawed.  Sunaya has hidden her magic.  She has two jobs one as an enforcer and when she can’t get enforcer work she bartends.  While working her night job as a bartender her mentor telepathically calls for her.  She arrives minutes before he dies of silver poisoning.  He tells her there are a number of cases of silver poisoning but no one is looking into them.  She calls in her fellow enforcers and let them know what happened.  They blow her off but she is determined to investigate.  While on another case she exposes her magic and is arrested.  During her trial she is told to appeal directly to the chief mage.  Sunaya believes this will give her a chance to escape but instead is taken almost immediately to the chief mage.  The chief mage takes an interest in her and decides to spare her as long as she is receiving mage training.  The chief mage Iannis is determined to train her but she has a lot of bias against mages.  Sunaya is able to open Iannis’ eyes to what is happening in the city and he does make some changes to help shifters and humans. 

I loved this book so much that I bought and read the next two books in the series.  I am now impatiently waiting for the next book.  Sunaya is a strong woman who has pretty much been on her own since her mother’s death when she was young.  She calls BS with everyone but is very loyal to those she loves.  The story has a nice mix of characters who interact well with each other.  There are just enough curves in the plot to be interesting.

01 The Pages of the Mind – Jeffe Kennedy – 4* ARC

This is the first book in a new series by Jeffe Kennedy sort of.  It is more a continuation of the Twelve Kingdoms series because you will not understand what is going on in this book without reading the other three books.  I will say I had read the first two books in the Twelve Kingdoms and hadn’t read the third one when I read this one.  There were some things that were confusing but was able to figure it out without reading The Talon of the Hawk.  This book starts where The Talon of the Hawk ended.  Ursula is High Queen and they are now the Thirteen Kingdoms since the “fall” of the barrier.  The Pages of the Mind centers around Dafne Mailloix who is a librarian.  She spent over 30 years under the harsh reign of the High King.  She learned much as the librarian that is helping the High Queen.  When a neighboring kingdom comes with a force to find out about a barrier that hadn’t fallen but had expanded Dafne is pivotal in the negotiations and is sent with the forces to investigate the barrier shift.  On the journey they stop on an island where she accidentally marries their king. 

I enjoyed this book and not just because I am a librarian.  Dafne ends up in an interesting situation and she runs with it.  She learns the language and culture.  She tries to honor her commitments to her queen and her husband even though they are mutually exclusive things.  Dafne’s husband is also awesome.  Even though Dafne married him he never pushed her for more than she was willing to give.  Even if he would be harmed by not pushing her.  Part of the problems between them came from him not willing to tell her everything she needs to know but they were able to work through their issues.

02 The Tears of the Rose – Jeffe Kennedy – 2*

Ami met her prince charming and married him in the first book of the series.  She was supposed to have her happily ever after but in the last book her husband is killed by her sister.  This book is what happens next. 

I really didn’t like this book at all.  Ami was a whiner who believes just about anything that her father and the priests feed her.  It wasn’t until almost the end of the book she starts standing up for herself and that is due to her wanting to protect her children then standing up for herself.  The other reason I really didn’t like her was even though the love of her life has been killed she starts a new relationship almost immediately with someone else.  Really you loved your husband so very much but within a couple months of his death he’s been replaced by another man.  That is true love there.

01 The Mark of Tala – Jeffe Kennedy – 4*

In the Twelve Kingdoms the High King has three daughters.  The eldest, Ursula who is heir to the throne.  The youngest, Amelia is the beautiful one who is set to marry her prince charming.  Then there is the middle sister who everyone seems to have forgotten, Andromeda.  Andromeda who goes by Andi doesn’t mind being the forgotten princess as she would rather spend time outdoors with her horse.  She is given free reign until one day a mystery man tries to steal her away claiming her as his queen.  Her father is having none of it and decides to go to war over this other kingdom trying to steal one of his daughters.

I enjoyed this book a lot.  There was mysteries Andi had to uncover to find out the truth behind both kingdoms, her father, and her mother.  Once those secrets are revealed she has a choice to make.   I liked the chemistry between the main characters.