Andrea HeltsleyKirja-arvosteluja

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Noel Kennedy seems like your everyday kind of girl. That is, until her boyfriend dumps her, then her life begins an emotional and physical rollercoaster ride. Feeling down because of the breakup, Noel takes a few days off from work and ends up losing her job. That's when the dreams begin. In her dream, she's immediately attracted to a very handsome mystery man. But before she could find out who he is she awakens. The second dream, she runs across the street to speak to this handsome mystery man, whose eyes just make her melt, only for him to disappear and in his place is an old coin, she places it in her pocket and is immediately awakened by her best friend Autumn. She tells Autumn about her dreams and mentions the old coin absent mindedly reaching into her pocket and realizes that somehow the coin came out of her dream into her reality! After some research, we find out that the coin is used for a very strong protection spell, and both Noel and Autumn are in danger! Who is this mystery man? Why does she feel a strong immediate connection? Can she trust him? Can she trust Autumn? Who is after them and why? Many secrets come to the surface and nothing is quite what it seems.

What an awesome novel! The story was a fantastic adventure and I had a difficult time putting it down. This book has everything, witches, clairvoyants, vampires, empaths, we even get to visit Persephone. This was so imaginative, and you spend a lot of time wondering if they are trusting the right people. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I can't wait to read book two! If you love paranormal romance, this is definitely one to check out!

Dissolve was given to me in exchange for an honest review. It is a downward spiral that takes its main characters and readers into a conspiracy fraught with danger. Cora and her makeshift band of friends quickly become your classic fantastical crew of misfits, journeying to a point of origin. Everything happened to her so quickly it wasn't as believable as a gradual unveiling might have been. Everyone seems to take very tragic circumstances in stride and almost too easily. But from a campier point of view, the novel sits very well in itself.

Distance is a light quick read. I ended up finishing it within a couple hours. You could find me laughing or smiling at my kindle because the situations that Lexi (our main character) founds herself in are embarrassing but they are hilarious.

When we first meet Lexi she is waiting for her boyfriend after her high school graduation but he is nowhere to be found. She goes to use the farthest restroom so she can avoid the crowd and what does she find in one of the stalls? Her boyfriend of three years Jameson having sex with Christy (the school slut). Lexi is heartbroken and has sworn off men. The summer before college is for having fun and not having a relationship with anyone.

Everything is going according to plan until one night when her best friend Elena and her hit up a summer party. She sees Jameson all over Christy ripping open the wounds that have been slowly healing. She goes outside to catch some fresh air and begins to cry because he could move on so quickly from a relationship but she can’t. That’s when a stranger comes and sits with her trying to comfort her and he’s extremely good looking. She finds out his name is Mason and he has a things for saving damsels in distress.

Mason and Lexi begin a friendship but things get awkward when Mason’s best friend and Lexi’s best friend start hooking up. Finally, Mason and Lexi begin “dating” and it’s really nice to see their relationship grow. She starts to realize that things with Jameson never felt the way they do with Mason.

Jameson keeps butting in realizing that he’s making a huge mistake letting Lexi go (duh you idiot). He keeps trying to win her back and so Christy becomes involved telling Lexi to leave him alone and to top it off we have Mason’s ex girlfriend bugging Lexi too! The poor girl can’t catch a break.

Summer is coming to an end but does that mean the end for Mason and Lexi? You’ll have to read and find out!

OVERALL

I liked the story. I thought it flowed well and in some parts I found a bit boring. Nothing was explicit when it came to sex. it was pretty much closed door sex not much detail. Lexi is a klutz so you will laugh at all her embarrassing moments. I would have liked to see a little more character development with Lexi and Elena. Sometimes I felt disconnected with them. I do plan on continuing the series just to see what happens next. I mostly enjoyed how the title connected with the story. I thought Andrea did an excellent job of incorporating the title throughout the story.

The following review is my own opinion and not a paid review. To form your own opinions please support the author and acquire you own legal copy of this book. I received a free copy of this book as part of a book blog tour. The gift of this book does not influence my opinion of this book. Please be aware that I try to write my reviews without spoilers but sometimes they get through so there might be a few minor spoilers in this review.

To purchase your own copy of this book please click the title highlighted in blue

This book starts out with two females Cora and Nessa that are out in a club. Cora is intoxicated and gets sick on the dirty floor of the public restroom. Okay, maybe it is I but that is just revolting. I understand why the author added this to the book but still if I did not have a mysophobia or fear of germs before I did something like this then I would after.

The book then moves to Cora and Tom. Cora and Tom are planning their wedding, or Tom's mother is planning the wedding Cora and Tom just plan to attend the wedding. I honestly hope I am not like this when my son decides to get married. I am like wow; the wedding is for the bride and groom not the mother or mother-in-law to be.

Soon Cora is pale again at a lunch to assist in helping Tom's mother plan her wedding. Cora's mother is there also along with Tom and Nessa. Cora and Nessa go to the restroom and Nessa tries to talk Cora into telling everyone she is ill so she can go home and get some rest. After Cora and Nessa leave the restroom, Cora faints to the floor. She wakes up sitting on concrete. Okay this woman was supposed to faint. How can she be sitting (and the way I understand sitting is in an upright position) when she crumpled to the floor. There is no description of any person catching Cora when this happened. In the book, it does have that Nessa was holding Cora up when she came to but it does not describe Nessa catching Cora.

Sorry for ranting the author spoke several times that Cora did not have time to shave. Okay, shave what? Her face, her eyebrows, her legs, her armpits what is it she did not have time to shave.

While I did enjoy the plot of this book, I felt that the author either dragged one point along to far or did not describe something in further detail that needed describing. I feel that this would be an awesome book if it had some more editing. Please be aware that this is not a book to be read by teenagers, there is a hint of sexual relations, drinking, and drugs in this book.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series. The author left an amazing cliff hanger at the end of this book. I do not know the title of the next book or when it will be released but I will be looking for it.

The first book in the Persephone’s League of Immortals series is an intriguing and unique take on the mythological goddess.

Having lost her boyfriend, her job and her dignity, Noel Kennedy is suddenly being hunted by a mysterious league of immortals and must now fight for her life, unravel the mysteries of her past and choose between two men who call to her heart.

The story is a unique twist on the classic mythological goddess, Persephone, with lots of suspense, action, romance and emotional drama to capture the reader’s imagination. This intense and intriguing plot starts off a little slow but soon picks up its pace and takes the reader on a gripping journey with lots of surprises to keep the reader engaged. The author brings the story to life with very bewitching characters that have strong personalities that have the reader wanting to know more.

The attraction Noel feels for her two beaus is radiate heat from every page and the sex scenes sizzle. The author conveys the romance and emotions with an intensity that has the reader empathizing with the characters, especially Noel who captures the reader’s heart from the first chapter.

For me personally, I found the beginning to be a bit confusing, but it soon smoothed out and I became engrossed in the storyline and while it progressed at a steady pace for the most part there were a couple of instances where it seemed to drag, but not enough to take away from the book. The author does a great job of providing vivid descriptions that make it easy to imagine each scene and the enchanting characters. Overall, I would say that this series is off to a promising start and I am waiting for the next installment in this fascinating world.

Stories involving magic have always peaked my interest from childhood into adulthood. I am still drawn to them and with the new genre of Urban Fantasy, I gobble them up. Give me the fey, romanticized vampires (though I have issues with ones that sparkle), rugged lovable werewolves all wrapped up in a pretty bow with a sprinkle of fairy dust and a wave of a magic wand and I am a happy little goddess. I always joke with my fiance that they are my bubble gum books, not my meat and potato books. We all need light reading, especially those of us, like myself, who are ENG LIT majors. This book looked to fit the bill, and in most ways it did not disappoint, in fact there was more than fairy dust, the magic was true magic!

The biggest and most impressive aspect of Dreamwalker was the author’s grasp on Neo-Pagan practices, specifically Wicca. Not going to gander a guess at her religious beliefs, but she knows her stuff. As a Witch, not Wiccan but a Witch non the less, I was highly impressed with the inclusion. Sure she mixed it up a bit and threw in some things that are not part of general Wiccan beliefs, she did not stray far from the path and try to throw in a bunch of crap like some shows and movies do. When you mix a pagan belief system and write in rituals ect, you open yourself up to a criticism from the realm of magical practitioners, like myself. Practitioners who enjoy a nice little trip into someones magical story build, allowing their belief to be dispelled (giggles a bit) without feeling mocked would enjoy this read. Where I found some areas to be needing some polish, this was far from one of them. For this Witch it is the strongest aspect of the story and what held it together for me.

If you have read some of my reviews, you know I am not a lover of Romance novels. This is billed as Romantic Urban Fantasy and boy does it fit the bill, and for me, it is a perfect fit. I have no issues per-say with romance in a novel, I just like it with my read, not my read entirely. As I’ve mentioned in the past I suffer from Harlequin related PTSD *shuddering*. Many romance writers have a horrible habit of over salting their books with purple prose, to the point that if it was a piece of gum, it would be grape flavor, you know the Bubbalicious one you chew for five minutes and it leaves your tongue dark purple? It can be fun, for about five minutes, than all flavor is lost and the gum is stiff (could not resist). Andrea not only writes well rounded & believable steamy scenes she does so without any of the aforementioned purple prose. Just the right amount and balance making it an integral part of the story. It is part of Noel’s trials and tribulations, part of what she has to make choices about and come to terms with. The author really does a nice job with those scenes! The flavor really was long lasting *wink*

Similes aside; though not her first novel, I found the writing and some of the story devices of Dreamwalker in need a bit of polishing. It took me a bit to get “into it”. But as I continued to read it became more polished and the story started flowing better and pretty soon It grabbed me and took hold. Perhaps this is a story device itself? Hmmmm… a thought just occurred to me, the author just may have been sneaky. So. much like our protagonist Noel being completely clueless and struggling to keep up with the never-ending changes coming at her from all sides, we were too. There were times I wanted to hand the girl another gallon of ice cream and a fresh pair of comfy pajama pants because boy she having a bad day! Not sure I could handle it as well as she did! Something to ponder while you read it for yourself.

Without ruining the plot of ‘Dreamwalker” here is how her day starts off, over water (the jerk couldn’t even buy her a cup of coffee). Her long-term boyfriend dumps her, in a pure narcissistic and self-centered fashion, she has a mini-melt down, loses her job, finds out her best friend who is basically family is much more fantastical than she ever realized, the things of her imagination and fairy tales actually do exist and some of them are not very nice, in fact some of them are down right murderous. Not to mention there is a cabal of immortals who are hunting her and one of the people who claim to be there to protect her is working for them. Who can it be? Oh boy does that turn out to be a doozy, well sort of. Oh and she has a real sister! Life for Noel went from Shiny to cluttered chaos and the glamour happening was not something you needed your good lip-gloss for, unless you needed to put someone to sleep for a couple of hours.

I wasn’t sold all the time with this book, sometimes it was hard to dispel my belief, but over all it bedazzled me and had me smiling with all the knowledgeable magic as well as fantastical mayhem. It is a great read and for the price you can’t go wrong!

I really wanted to like this story because it has a great concept; unfortunately the elements that I didn’t like were far too many for me to enjoy this book.

Some of the characters (like Sam and Autumn) are intriguing and kept the story fresh. However, I just had problems with the way the main characters were portrayed. The story focuses heavily on two elements that have become my pet peeves when reading books, the love triangle between Noel, Jared and Boone and her “lust at first sight” reaction to both guys.

In the end, it’s an interesting story, it just wasn’t for me.

For this and more reviews visit my blog, Journey with Words

Wendy is a senior in high school. For most of her life, she remained invisible, that is until everything changes after she is saved from a horrible car accident one night near the woods where a string of murders have occurred. Wendy, along with her best friends Hallie and Jackson, try to make sense of all that is going on. Suddenly Wendy finds herself pulled between to guys, having and acting upon thoughts she shouldn't be, and having nightmares warning her of impending doom. When her absentee mom asks her to find something for her in the attic, the things she finds are more than she bargained for. Can she handle the truth about who she is and what is happening to her, or will it be more than she can bear?

Wendy is the lead character in this story. I had a hard time liking her. Despite the seriousness of what was going on, she was more caught up in what she was going to wear than the fact she could be in danger. She also kept jumping back and forth between these two hot guys, making out with them both, and I didn't like that either. Of course as the story progresses and toward the latter part, it is revealed why and what is the reason behind this, and that helped explain some of her behavior. As far as the other characters, Hallie and Jackson are her best friends, and I did like both of them, though Hallie could tend to be just as superficial as Wendy at times. Jackson, however, was pretty cool. Her two love interests were Brad and Matt, one of which was considered "forbidden fruit."

The story line itself was interesting, but I felt that more time was spent on details, such as describing the clothes she was wearing, the way she did her hair and nails, food descriptions, and the like. If more time was spent on the actual story, rather than so much focus on these types of details, I feel that this book would have been a lot better and more appealing. As I said earlier, once you find out the story behind everything, things come into place much better and make more sense. Overall this was a likable book, personally it just didn't overwhelm me, though it was a good story. Heltsley has other books out, one of which I really enjoyed entitled Dreamwalker, which is excellent. This YA paranormal romance has a different supernatural twist, and if you enjoy that type of story, you might want to check this out.

This book has pros and cons. I guess I will start with the cons. Some of you might know that I dislike love triangle because it is just too cliche. And guess what, this book has a love triangle. The triangle is between Noel, Jared, and Boone. To me sadly, Jared and Boone are just too perfect, making them a little unrealistic. Another cliche thing about the book is that Noel started out weak and became strong. Yes I do appreciate the transformation of the characters but it just feels a little too cliche. And lastly, the slow did have slow parts. For me, it was a little hard to start the book.

Now let's get to the pros. The cover is GORGEOUS!

There are steamy scenes with hints of actions. I think every book should have scenes like that. Another pro is something that can easily be tipped to the cons but I am glad that Andrea is able to keep this to a pro. And this pro is the fact that the book has something to do with Persephone. Normally I hate any stories that have to do with Persephone (because they are too cliche) but this one is special, and unique so I enjoyed it. There are a lot of unexpected things that happened in the book and it gave the story life and excitement. And lastly, I am a big fan of Greek myth and Andrea stay true to the myth and described the scenes very well. I felt like I was absorbed into the book at some parts. So with all this said and done, I give this book a 3/5

Noel has been dumped by her boyfriend, is depressed, and hasn't left her apartment in a week. She begins to have dreams about this beautiful hot sexy guy. Then Noel actually thinks she sees him across the street, but when she gets there he is gone. A mysterious coin is left where he was standing, which ends up being a protection coin, and involves some very serious magic. Her best friend, Autumn intervenes and decides Noel needs a night on the town. They end up going to a club and who does Noel meet there, but the guy from her dreams, Jared. Noel continues to have the strange dreams, yet they feel so real, and are sometimes dangerous. After Jared disappears, another super hot bad boy named Boone shows up to ask Noel if she knows anything about his disappearance. Noel finds herself extremely attracted to Boone also. A series of events begin to unfold and Noel realizes the things in her dreams are real. She also begins to have visions. Thrown into a world of magic and mythology, Noel comes to learn that she is a dreamwalker, and she can enter into other people's dreams. The people she is on the run with also have supernatural abilities. There are even vampires, goblins, and Fae. Because of her rare and powerful ability, some very evil beings are trying to abduct her for Persephone. Noel comes to realize that her memory and powers have been stripped and she has a whole life that she never knew existed. On top of being hunted, she has to choose between Jared and Boone. Could things possibly get worse? Can she choose between two best friends? Will she end up as one of Persephone's slaves?

This was a very interesting book. I wasn't sure about it in the beginning, because a lot of the book centers around the dreams Noel is having, but I soon became very engrossed in what was going on. The story is filled with all kinds of magic and mythology, and there is some pretty hot romance to boot. It took Noel and little longer than I would have liked for her to make up her mind as to which guy she wanted, but I was pleased with her choice. There is quite a bit of action, so the book is fast paced and entertaining. All the supernatural elements made the book interesting also. I wasn't crazy about Noel in the beginning, but she grew on me as the book went on. Overall, I enjoyed this book and if you like the supernatural and paranormal romance, then Dreamwalker is a book you might want to check out.

GoodReads Synopsis: Noel Kennedy lost her boyfriend, her job and her dignity all in one week. Then something happened and she began to dream of this stranger she had never met. She couldn’t resist the man of her dreams named Jared especially when she met him in real life. Entranced, she slowly unraveled a world she was meant to stay out of. Her life was not what she thought it was once a sexy Boone stepped into the mix and shook things up. Can she escape a life of servitude or immortality for a chance at love

My Thoughts: Reading this book was…awkward. That’s the only word I can come up with. There were a lot of grammatical errors, sudden changes in point of view were not clear at times, descriptions were very “bare bones”, dialog was stilted and a bit on the cheesy side. The characters were not really developed beyond their supernatural talents. Everything seemed to lack depth. On a positive note, the plot was very interesting and made for a good story…it just read like a first or second draft.

This had a lot of potential, it was just lacking polish. Having said that, I would read a sequel. I’d like to know what happens next…and YEAH for Noel choosing the right guy!! LOL

Dissolve weaves an intriguing web of dark magical danger and intense destruction that will have readers hanging onto the edge of their seats with anticipation. In a daring search for the truth, which proves more questions than answers, Cora's life is spun upside down as a result of a tragic event. Andrea Heltsley pens a wonderfully beguiling world full of magical fascination and fairytales with a twist of originality and mystery. It's a fast paced story brimming with wonderful story concepts, dark amazing twists and turns, and unexpected endings. The adventure is exhilarating and highly engaging, full of action and super powers used to save the lives of many.

As much as I personally enjoyed this book, I still left a little unsettled with overlooking a couple of drawbacks that it possessed. The details could have been a little more in depth than explored and the direction of the story a little less confusing. While the characters were mostly likable, very relatable, and easy to connect with a few of them seemed to just fall flat and it made it hard to wrap my head around them and the story they're telling a little bit. As with any book, there is always going to be one or two things that just sort of seem off-putting a bit, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth reading.

The concept of the story was definitely original as is the plot and the twists and turns were full of intense danger and filled with the appropriate amount of fear and desperation in a sense. Andrea Heltsley has written a very different and definitely appealing and refreshing novel that I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys paranormal mystery and dark twisted fairytales. It held so much mystery and intrigue, enough to keep readers captivated as to who the real villian was and what was going to happen next. Those are marks of a great writer in general, being able to keep readers guessing and wondering what's to come.