Carries Book Reviews

Elementals 4: The Portal to Kerberos

Filled with magic, thrilling adventure, and sweet romance, Elementals 4: The Portal to Kerberos, is the latest installment in Michelle Madow’s exciting Elementals series. Follow Nicole and her fellow Elementals as they journey to a new and dangerous world to save one of their own, battling monsters and trying to keep their sanity in a prison dimension designed to make them lose their minds.

Title: Elementals 4: The Portal to Kerberos

Author: Michelle Madow

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Release Date: September 20, 2016

Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing

Series: Elementals #4

Format: eBook and paperback

She will venture into hell to save the one she loves.

After being betrayed by one of their own, Nicole watches helplessly as Blake is snatched into the prison world of Kerberos—along with Medusa’s head, which is the one item they need to stop the Titans from rising again. Now Nicole and the other Elementals must enter the portal, find Blake, and bring him and Medusa’s head back to Earth before the deadly monster Typhon returns and wreaks havoc on the world. But there’s one catch—their elemental powers don’t work in Kerberos. In a dimension designed to make those within it lose touch with reality, and that’s filled with dangerous creatures who want to stop them from completing their task, will they make it out alive?

In this penultimate book of Nicole’s story, join the Elementals as they journey through hell to save the world… before it’s too late.

Pre-order: Amazon

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The adventure began in the first book in the series, Elementals: The Prophecy of Shadows. To grab a copy of the first book for free, visit www.michellemadow.com.

About the Author:

Michelle Madow writes fast-paced YA (young adult) fiction that will leave you turning the pages wanting more! 

She grew up in Baltimore, and now lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where she writes books for young adults. Some of her favorite things are: reading, traveling, pizza, time travel, Broadway musicals, and spending time with friends and family. Michelle went on a cross-country road trip from Florida to California and back to promote her books and to encourage high school students to embrace reading and writing. Someday, she hopes to travel the world for a year on a cruise ship. 

Visit her website, www.michellemadow.com, to get books of Michelle’s for FREE!

Connect with Michelle: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Giveaway:

Michelle is hosting a giveaway for a Kindle Fire! To enter the giveaway click here!

Broken Love
Evan Grace
(Love Stings, #1)
Published by: Limitless Publishing
Publication date: February 23rd 2016
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

As a young woman, Abby Carmichael had it all—until the night a stranger tore it away…

A year and half after the brutal sexual assault, Abby is finally starting to feel like her old self. Teaching dance classes with enthusiastic kids is just the kind of job she needs—far away from probing eyes or vicious intentions of the opposite sex. When she connects with one of her students, Natalie, it isn’t long until she meets her father, Deputy Ben James.

Ben James is just a regular guy, working to make a life for himself and his daughter…

That’s what Abby tells herself when her sudden attraction for Ben catches her off guard. Abby has been steering clear of men for obvious reasons, and the idea of wanting that kind of relationship is more terrifying than intriguing. But with his doe-eyed daughter tugging at her dance uniform, Ben takes notice.

He’s ready for love, but does her past hold too many secrets?

After the assault, Abby coped by using heavy medication and fell into an ugly chain of one-night stands. But now that she’s out of rehab and finally on the right track, it’s only a matter of time before Ben finds out.

Will Abby be the true love Ben has always wanted? Or is she a tangled challenge, leading to yet another…

Broken Love?

Goodreads / Amazon

*Cover design by Deranged Doctor Design*

Author Bio:

A Midwesterner and self-proclaimed nerd, Evan has been an avid reader most of her life, but five years ago got bit by the writing bug, and it quickly became her addiction, passion and therapy. When the voices in her head give it a rest, she can always be found with her e-reader in her hand. Some of her favorites include, Shayla Black, Jaci Burton, Madeline Sheehan and Jamie Mcguire. Evan finds a lot of her inspiration in music, so if you see her wearing her headphones you know she means business and is in the zone.

During the day Evan works for a large homecare agency and at night she’s superwoman. She’s a wife to Jim and a mom to Ethan and Evan, a cook, a tutor, a friend and a writer. How does she do it? She’ll never tell.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Singapore Secrets
Irene Onorato
Publication date: April 17th 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Secrets . . .

Angry because her father, Louisiana Senator Jacob Windsor, has announced his engagement to Hollywood starlet Kara Bordeaux, Julia Windsor decides she’d rather leave home than be subjected to heightened security and a deluge of paparazzi. She travels to Singapore, severs all communication with those she’s left behind, and chooses to live a life of anonymity.

When Julia meets handsome Gabriel Davenport, she keeps her true purpose for being in Singapore a secret. The friendship that develops quickly evolves into something much deeper.

Julia marvels that she’s traveled halfway around the world to find love with an American man. But will that love endure when she discovers that Gabriel is a former Special Forces sergeant hired by her father to protect her?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

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EXCERPT:

“How could you even think of doing this to Mom? Or to me?” Julia Windsor folded her arms and turned her back to her father. An opaque curtain of tears blurred her vision. She would not cry. Not here, not now.

Her father stroked her bare upper arms. “I loved your mother with all my heart, but she’s been gone eight years. Don’t you think she’d want me to be happy?”

The sweet, consolatory tone of her father’s voice couldn’t ease the pain his shocking news inflicted. Her heart couldn’t be more shattered if it were made of glass. She shrank from his touch and stepped forward. “Why’d you have to ruin everything and ask Kara to marry you?”

Gentle hands guided her shoulders back around, cupped her cheeks, and lifted her face. Sadness filled her dad’s beautiful eyes—eyes the color of an azure sea on a cloudless day. “I love you, Jules.” A wistful smile barely lifted his lips. “And I love Kara too.”

Julia tried to pull away.

Her father held fast. “You’re twenty-three…hardly a little girl anymore. You’re a beautiful and intelligent woman. When you least expect it, a man will come along and capture your heart. You’ll be consumed with thoughts of him and him alone.” He smiled a little bigger. “Maybe then you’ll understand how I feel about Kara.”

Julia pushed his hands away. “I can’t deal with this. I just can’t.” She ran out of her father’s study, up the staircase that curved around the grand entryway, and hurried into her room. The click of the door latch triggered an avalanche of tears. Julia sat on the bed, took the framed picture of her mother from the nightstand, and held it on her lap. “Why did God have to take you from me? Who’ll primp my gown and fluff my veil on my wedding day? Who will I call when my baby gets sick in the middle of the night and I don’t know what to do? Oh, Mom, I miss you so much.” She hugged the portrait to her chest and wept more.

Author Bio:

Irene Onorato was born and raised in Bronx, New York. Her father, a first-generation American whose parents were born in Italy, was an Army veteran who had served with the 178th combat engineers during WWII. He told numerous stories of battles, hardships, tragedies and triumphs. The glimpses he gave into the hearts of many American warriors would later become the inspiration for much of Irene’s writings.

In 1972, a few months after graduating high school, Irene met James Onorato, a soldier who had just returned from Vietnam. After dating two weeks, they married, raised three children, and are still happily married today.

Irene and James, both radiation protection technicians, retired from the nuclear power industry in 2014 and now reside in Louisiana.

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Behind Dark Doors (one): Six Suspenseful Short Stories by Susan May
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Behind Dark Doors (one) is the first of a set of books by Susan May that contain short horror stories. This first book contains the six stories:

Do Us Part
Hell’s Kitchen
Mitigating Circumstances
I Hate Emma Carter
It’s In The Genes
The War Veteran

Each story starts with a brief description before the read then after the story is over you have a few words from Susan about how the story came about in her mind, what she was thinking and what made her write that particular story. I really enjoyed reading her thoughts afterwords and how these came about after each story, it seemed a nice little added personal touch.

For me each individual story rated somewhere between three and five stars which is really a rather great thing since I’m not a huge fan of short stories overall. Usually I find myself really wanting more even when books get into novella length they sometimes leave me with that feeling of not getting enough but Susan found a way to make her characters and stories just pop out and feel like I’d read more than I had, definitely enjoy her writing style and the overall creepy/weirdness that she comes up with in these reads.

Overall, a nice collection of twisted tales for the horror fans.

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Royal Enchantment by Lia Davis
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Ava Green purchased a huge three-story Victorian home for herself for her newest project against advice not to. When she finds a door that she can’t seem to open she comes across a skeleton key that allows her access but when stepping across the threshold she finds herself walking into a mystical world of fae and mythickal creatures and meets the King of the Morna.

Royal Enchantment is one of those reads that for me simply suffered from what I like to refer to as the novella syndrome. The story was one that was interesting enough of a fantasy read but it felt as if it’s all on a fast forward speed all the way throughout which means it tends to lack details and depth that would make me truly love the book.

Ava’s character was only give a brief glimpse in our world before she jumps into the fantasy world. She had received some news about her business and partner that I felt you’d get to learn more about or simply about who she was but it dove straight into the rest of the story before the blink of an eye. Then when it came to the actions in the fantasy realm it again felt rushed to get a lot of events involved in a fairly short read.

In the end this one was 3.5 stars for me. Not a bad story overall though but I would warn if you try this one out to not expect too many details or depth and just enjoy the short read.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.