Poppy's Review: Sanctus - Simon Toyne

REVELATION OR DEVASTATION?

The certainties of the modern world are about to be blown apart by a three thousand year-old conspiracy nurtured by blood and lies …

A man throws himself to his death from the oldest inhabited place on the face of the earth, a mountainous citadel in the historic Turkish city of Ruin. This is no ordinary suicide but a symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is witnessed by the entire world.

But few understand it. For charity worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others in the know, it is what they have been waiting for. The cowled and secretive fanatics that live in the Citadel suspect it could mean the end of everything they have built – and they will kill, torture and break every law to stop that. For Liv Adamsen, New York crime reporter, it begins the next stage of a journey into the heart of her own identity.

And at that journey's end lies a discovery that will change EVERYTHING …

Sancti Trilogy:
Sanctus
The Key (April 2012)
Title & release date for the third book TBC

Visit Simon Toyne's website for more information

Poppy's Review:
Sanctus is a story about an ancient order of monks and a secret that they are prepared to keep at any cost. I was totally hooked by intrigue within the first couple of pages and read the book at every opportunity until I reached the final word. The story opens at the Citadel in the Turkish City of Ruin where the monks live and following a curious death, the race is on for the monks to ensure that their secret is protected, while others outside the Citadel see it as the time to finally uncover it. Liv Adamsen is a reporter who lives many miles away in New York and her day to day life changes forever, as she embarks on a journey into the biggest story sending ripples around the world.

I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded through the first three quarters of the book. Segments of information are shared with the reader bit by bit, and they slowly start to knit together and a picture starts to form from the past and you can see how they led to current events. Having grasped what is going on and getting to know the characters and how and why they are involved in the story, the final quarter of the book increases to a fast pace and the short chapters finally bring you to [what I found to be] a satisfying end. I found that I had to read this final quarter of the book in one sitting as it was so compelling.

What I loved was not just the story itself and how it unfolded, but also the characters. As each character was revealed and became involved in events, I got the measure of each of them and although they were not created in great depth, I still cared about some and despised others, which made the concluding chapters of the book all the more breath taking and page turning.

For me Sanctus is a brilliant mystery thriller debut novel by Simon Toyne, which I enjoyed even more than The DaVinci Code.

Source: Poppy's own copy

Other reviews of this book:
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Review: Betrayal - Lee Nichols

Emma Vaile is the most powerful ghostkeeper in centuries - which is great for battling the wraith master, Neos, but awful for her social life.  Emma knows fellow ghostkeeper Bennett Stern is her soul mate, but when ghostkeepers fall in love, the weaker one loses all power.  And until Neos is defeated, Bennett and Emma can't risk it.

When the temptation of being with Emma gets to be too much, Bennett disappears.  Heartbroken and alone, Emma tries to lose herself in school.  But when the Knell, a secret ghostkeeping society, sends two new ghostkeepers to Echo Point, Emma throws herself back into training to battle Neos.  As the team grows stronger, so do the ghosts.  And worse, one of their own will betray them.  One Emma never suspected . . .

Haunting Emma Series:
Deception
Betrayal
Surrender

Visit Lee Nichols' website for more information

Review:
With Emma trying to cope with the devastating events at the end of the first book and on a sharp learning curve when it comes to her ghostkeeping abilities she is going to need her friends more than ever.  Unfortunately Sara and Harry blame her for what happened to Coby and Bennett has done one of his vanishing acts so she finds herself more alone than ever.  Luckily she still has Natalie to rely on and she is kept busy training so that she can fight against Neos.

I loved Deception so had been really looking forward to reading Betrayal.  Unfortunately it didn't quite manage to live up to my expectations but it was still a good read and has left me looking forward to the final installment, Surrender, later this year.  I loved the fact that there was more action in Betrayal, the story has a much faster pace and kept me on the edge of my seat with some surprising twists and turns.

Now that Emma is aware that she's a ghostkeeper she is working hard to learn how to use her abilities against Neos.  She is determined to do whatever it takes to bring him down but she isn't going to be able to do it alone.  She has some surprising allies but she is also going to face some shocking betrayals, one in particular that really upset me.  I enjoyed finding out more about the Knell although I have to say that as a supposedly powerful organisation they seem rather weak when it comes to protecting themselves.  I did like getting to know Lukas and Simon though and it was interesting to see the dynamic between them, Emma and Natalie as they all learnt to trust each other and work together.

I think what I missed most were the interactions with Emma and Bennett, I really loved the two of them in Deception and wanted more of that.  Things started off really well but then Bennett disappears for most of the book which was disappointing.  When we do finally see him again I found myself annoyed with some of the decisions he has made and I'm concerned about how things will play out in the future.  I had also hoped to find out more about Emma's family in this book, I want to know more about why they have abandoned her and exactly what they are up to but it seems like I'll have to wait for the next book to get answers to all of my questions.

Although I didn't think this installment was quite as strong as the first I'm still really enjoying the Haunting Emma series and am looking forward to finding out what happens next.  The mythology Lee Nichols has created is unique and I'm enjoying finding out more about the ghostkeepers.  If you haven't picked up this series yet then it's one I would definitely recommend but you do really need to start with the first book Deception before you pick up Betrayal.

Source: I was given this book by the lovely Carly from Writing from the Tub, thanks Carly!

Other Reviews:
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Reread: Glass Houses - Rachel Caine

Welcome to Morganville.
Just don't stay out after dark.

Morganville is a small town filled with unusual characters - when the sun goes down, the bad come out.  In Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows - one that will spill out into the bright light of day.

For Claire Danvers, high school was hell, but college may be murder.  It was bad enough that she got on the wrong side of Monica, the meanest of the school's mean girls, but now she's got three new roommates, who all have secrets of their own.  And the biggest secret of all isn't really a secret, except from Claire: Morganville is run by vampires, and they are hungry for fresh blood...

The Morganville Vampires Series:
Glass Houses
The Dead Girl's Dance
The First Day of the Rest of your Life (Novella in the Many Bloody Returns anthology)
Midnight Alley
Feast of Fools
Dead Man Stalking (novella in the Immortal: Love Stories with Bite anthology)
Lord of Misrule
Carpe Corpus
All Hallows (novella in The Eternal Kiss anthology)
Fade Out
Worth Living For (Short story in UK version of Ghost Town)
Kiss of Death
Ghost Town
Bite Club
Anger Management (Short story in UK version of Last Breath)
Automatic (novella in the Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions anthology)
Last Breath
Black Dawn (2012)

Visit Rachel Caine's website for more information

My Second Opinion:
Before I started blogging I was always rereading my favourite books but now I find I have so many new books on my to read pile or wish list that I very rarely have time to pick up something I've already read.  Since I'm taking part in the Morganville Vampires reading challenge hosted by Jo at Ink and Paper I thought I should probably start off by rereading Glass Houses though.  To be honest it was probably a bit too soon to reread the story and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did the first time around.  As I only read it for the first time last November I still remembered what happened too well so there were no surprises and I found myself getting a bit bored as I was reading. 

Please don't take that as a negative against the book though, I really enjoyed Glass Houses the first time around & think I'd have loved it just as much if I'd waited until I had forgotten more of the story before my reread!  I'm having trouble thinking of anything else to say about the story that I didn't include in my original review which you can read here and shows just how much I enjoyed it.  Now I'm looking forward to continuing the series and spending more time in Morganville with Claire and her friends.

Source: Purchased

Other Reviews:
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Winner: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

With the help of Rafflecopter I am happy to announce the winner of a paperback copy of Cinder by Marissa Meyer is:

Bobby B (email address starting lasynner@...)

Congratulations Bobby!  You should have already received an email from me asking for your addresses so please make sure you look out for it.  If I don't hear back from you within 48 hours then a new winner will be chosen.  Your prize will be sent out by my contact at Puffin so you'll need to give permission for me to forward your address to them.  I'd like to say a massive thank you to Puffin for allowing me to host this giveaway for them.

Review: Magic in the Blood - Devon Monk

'Magic stirred in me, offering whatever I wanted.  With little more than a thought and a gesture or two, I could make magic do anything.  So long as I was willing to pay the price . . .'

Allie Beckstrom knows better than most that there's a price to pay for using magic; she's suffered her fair share of migraines and gaps in her memory during her time working as a Hound, tracing spells back to their casters.  But now Allie's been visibly marked by magic with a mysterious iridescent tattoo.  She's not only lost all memory of how she got it, but also of the man that she's supposedly fallen in love with.  Oh, and as usual, she's completely broke.

So when the criminal magic enforcement division of the police ask her to consult on a missing persons cases, things start to look up.  At first, it seems to b a fairly straightforward way of earning some money, but like most things in Allie's life it soon turns into a dangerous mix of underworld criminals, ghosts and blood magic.

Allie Beckstrom Series:
Magic to the Bone
Magic in the Blood
Magic in the Shadows (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic on the Storm (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic at the Gate (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic on the Hunt (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic on the Line (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic Without Mercy (releases in the US in 2012, UK release date TBC)

Visit Devon Monk's website for more information

Review:
Magic in the Blood picks up Allie's story not long after the ending of Magic to the Bone.  After events at the end of the first book forced her to use a great deal of magic Allie is still recovering both physically and mentally from the after effects.  She has very few memories from the past few weeks and is trying to piece together everything from the death of her father to her strange new magical abilities, not to mention her possible relationship with Zayvion.  It's not long before she has more important things to worry about though, the Magical Enforcement Response Corps (MERC) need her help Hounding a case and she is being followed by gang members working for the criminal magic user Lon Trager.  Trager was put behind bars thanks to Allie's testimony but has been released early due to a technicality.  It's no surprise to Allie that he wants revenge but he isn't the only one and Allie isn't quite sure who is going to attack first.

Although I enjoyed the first book in the series I liked Magic in the Blood even more, we are getting to know Allie a bit better now and she's becoming quite a strong character.  She isn't some kind of superhero who never gets hurt - she ends up in pain every time she uses her magic - but she is tough enough to put the pain to one side and carry on with the task at hand.  You have to admire her determination to get things done.  The memory loss she suffers as another side effect of using magic is an interesting idea and allows for some unusual plot devices because we know so much more than she does.  I do hope she retains at least some memory of the events in this book though or it could start to get a bit tedious.  It isn't surprising that she has trust issues because for most of the book she doesn't seem to get a straight answer from anyone, people always seem to give her part answers or avoid her questions altogether so the poor girl never really has a chance to find out what is really going on.

I mentioned in my review of Magic to the Bone that I was curious about Zayvion but hadn't really fallen for him and I felt that his relationship with Allie was rather rushed.  I was glad to see them take a step back in this installment and I've found that Zay is starting to grow on me, there are a few really sweet moments when he is trying to woo Allie and I'm looking forward to seeing more of that in future books.  There were more than  few occasions when I was just about ready to strangle him though - that man is a master at avoiding giving a straight answer and I think if I was Allie I would have completely given up on him.  I'm all for a man of mystery but at least give her something to go on!

I enjoyed meeting more of the Hounds and finding out about the kind of jobs they do and how they deal with the effects of the magic that they use.  It will be interesting to see how things progress with the Pack as the series continues and I think there is a lot of potential for interesting story lines involving MERC too.  The plot is a little slow moving in the first half but I'm interested enough in the world Devon Monk has created that it didn't really bother me and the pace really picks up towards the end of the book.  I'm looking forward to seeing Allie deal with her new magical abilities, I want to see more of Zay (although he'd better start giving away a bit more information about himself!) and I'm curious to find out more about the mysterious group who have been following Allie.  This series has a lot of potential and is one I would recommend to urban fantasy fans.

Source: Received from Berkley UK in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Paperback / Kindle

Review: Magic to the Bone - Devon Monk

"Using magic, meant it used you back. Forget the fairytale hocus pocus, sparkles and pixie dust crap. Magic, like booze, sex, and drugs, gave as good as it got"

Everything has a cost. And every act of magic exacts a price from its user, maybe a two-day migraine, or losing the memory of your first kiss. But some people want to use magic without paying and they Offload the cost onto innocents. When that happens, it falls to a Hound to identify the spell's caster - and Allie Beckstrom is the best there is.

Daughter of a prominent Portland businessman, Allie would rather moonlight as a Hound than accept the family fortune - and the strings that come with it. But when she discovers a little boy dying from a magic Offload that has her father's signature all over it, Allie is thrown into the high stakes world of corporate espionage and black magic . . .

Allie Beckstrom Series:
Magic to the Bone
Magic in the Blood
Magic in the Shadows (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic on the Storm (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic at the Gate (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic on the Hunt (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic on the Line (available in the US, UK release date TBC)
Magic Without Mercy (releases in the US in 2012, UK release date TBC)

Visit Devon Monk's website for more information

Review:
In a world where anyone can use magic but it always has a price the more unscrupulous people out there try to find a way to force that price onto unsuspecting victims.  When the price for even the smallest magic use can be a migraine that lasts for days, serious bruising or even memory loss it's no surprise that people who are messing with nasty spells don't want to take their own backlash.  Although there are legal ways to disperse the effects using proxies people often want to take the free, more illegal, option.  Allie Beckstrom is the daughter of one of the most famous and powerful magic users but rather than be forced into joining the family business she would rather go it alone.  Working as a Hound it is her job to investigate the illegal dispersal of magical effects and track down the source of magic so that the user can be punished.  When she is asked to investigate the illegal use of a spell against a young child she tracks the source straight back to the father she hasn't seen for seven years.  But things aren't always what they first appear and the more she investigates the deeper the hole she digs for herself.

Magic to the Bone is an interesting start to a new urban fantasy series, this is a series I've heard a lot about from US bloggers but it is fairly new to the UK with only the first two titles in the series currently available from a UK publisher (hopefully the rest of the series will be following soon).  I really like the world that Devon Monk has created, the idea that using magic has a price was really interesting and I loved the fact that the magic can be tapped into thanks to underground magical cabling.  This was made even better by the fact that the poorest parts of town didn't have the required cabling so become kind of like magical dead zones.

I liked Allie and it was interesting that her use of magic nearly always caused physical pain as well as memory loss, she had to carry around a notebook with her to write down important events in case she couldn't remember them after her next attempt at using magic.  I have to say that apart from the curiosity of her memory loss she doesn't really stand out as a kick ass urban fantasy heroine yet but hopefully that means she has plenty of room to grow as the series continues.  I'm looking forward to seeing how her character shapes up in the next few books.

While I'm very curious about love interest Zayvion I haven't fallen for him yet.  I felt the relationship with him and Allie kind of came out of nowhere and was a bit too rushed.  I would have really liked it if the sexual tension from the beginning of the story could have continued a bit longer as it would have made things more believable.  Zayvion is still quite a mystery, in fact I think he's more of a mystery at the end of the book than he was at the beginning!  I am looking forward to finding out more about him but I'm still not sure if he is 100% trustworthy.  I did really like Allie's friend Nola though and I really hope we see more of both her and Cody as the series continues.

I think Magic to the Bone was a solid start to a series that has a lot of potential if the characters really start to develop in the next installment. I already have a copy of Magic in the Blood and am looking forward to getting stuck into it.

Source: Purchased

Other Reviews:
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Paperback / Kindle

Publisher Spotlight: Usborne - January - February 2012

I thought it would be fun to start spotlighting new releases that different publishers have coming up over the next few months for us to look forward to.  I'm constantly looking for new books to add to my wish list and thought it would be a nice way of spreading the bookish love with other bloggers.  I'm not sure how regular the posts will be yet but I have quite a few lined up already and we'll see how things go over the next few months.  So in the spotlight today we have . . .

Today I'm going to talk about a couple of very exciting YA titles that Usborne are publishing soon, these both look like fab reads and I'm looking forward to picking them up.  Check out the Usborne website for more information.

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine was actually released on the 1st of January so if you'd like to read it you can go out and grab your copy today.  I really like the sound of this one, the blurb makes me think of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon not because the stories are the same but because the main characters have a similar way of looking at things.  I loved Curious Incident so Mockingbird has definitely been added to my wish list & I'll be picking up a copy soon.  Visit Kathryn Erskine's website for more information.

11-year-old Caitlin has Asperger’s syndrome, and has always had her older brother, Devon, to explain the confusing things around her. But when Devon is killed in a tragic school shooting, Caitlin has to try and make sense of the world without him. With her dad spending most of his time crying in the shower, and her life at school becoming increasingly difficult, it doesn’t seem like things will ever get better again.

A heart-warming story of loss and recovery that won the American National Book Award 2010 – one of the most moving books you’ll ever read.
 
 
 
 
On the 1st of February you can look forward to the release of Susanne Winnacker's debut novel The Other Life.  I love dystopian stories so am really looking forward to this one! Visit Susanne Winnacker's website for more information.
 

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world.
 
Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.

When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.

But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

So what do you think?  Are either of these on your wish list?  If you've already read one / both of them I'd love to know what you thought so leave me a comment with a link to your review/s.