Review: Remnants by John Hennessy

Remnants

Author: John Hennessy

Release Date: October 14, 2016

Publisher: Innovation Today

Remnants Trilogy Book #1

ISBN:  1532908393

ISBN13: 9781532908392

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction

Review Copy Source: NetGalley

Night one brings marked doors to every home in the world. Day one sees confusion and fear. Night two takes half the planet’s population. Day two leaves panic and mayhem. Night three watches the second half disappear. Day three the fight for survival begins.

The world ended in silence. No birds chirping. Dogs barking. Cars thrumming. No people going about their busy lives. After the aliens arrive, they clear the globe of every living animal, except for a few scattered bands of human survivors. Now Maggy, a strong-willed intellectual, leads Darrel and Félix, two shy geeks, on an expedition down the west coast, searching for safety in a landscape that promises only a gruesome death, as the aliens hunt down the remnants for sport. But when one of them is abducted, a much more sinister truth unfolds, one that will change the course of humanity forever.

Remnants is perfect for fans of The 5th Wave, alien invasions, the apocalypse, and just pure sci-fi adventure.

Note: For verisimilitude of teenagers facing the apocalypse, this book contains strong language, and is intended for mature young adults. If such words offend you, you might not enjoy this book.

There was a lot of unbelievable going on in REMNANTS which made it really hard to enjoy the storyline. In fact, I'm actually surprised I read the whole thing and didn't just give up on it. 

On top of some of the unbelievable things that happened in REMNANTS, I didn't feel any sort of connection to the characters. One in fact annoyed me. I think if the characters were more developed, I might have connected a bit more. They are just kind of thrown into the mix at different parts of the storyline. I think I needed more back story on them or more character advancement throughout.

It really all boils down to the fact that a lot in REMNANTS was in no way believable. How am I supposed to believe that trained military personnel would not be more qualified and successful in defeating the alien invaders than a group of young teens? Could they maybe come up with ideas? Sure, but actually be the saviors of the world? Especially THIS group of teens. I just didn't buy it. I have zero interest in reading more.

I gave it 2/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Guest Blog + Giveaway: The Dark Cycle Series #1-2 by Rachel A. Marks

UFI welcomes Author Rachel A. Marks. Thanks for Joining us!!

What can you tell my readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or reading in another interview? Weeellll.....something most of my readers don't know is that I got kicked out of a private high school three weeks before my graduation for being a witch. :)

What do you enjoy doing on your down time? In my down time I'm a total nerd and I, um, write. LOL I may like my job a little too much.

What is your Favorite part of writing? When an idea sparks! I love that buzz I get inside that's like a switch flipping inside me. And I can see the character so clearly. It's almost as if they tapped me on the shoulder and I turned, and there they were.

Do you have any certain routines you must follow as you write? I'm ever-changing in where I sit or how I work. Mainly, I need my coffee and my apple.

What are some of your Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres? For UF and Paranormal, I usually read adult, with some YA peppered in there sporadically. I am a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong and Kresley Cole. I also like Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books. And Melissa F. Olson is amazing! For YA, I'd say my favorite has got to be the Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins.

How would you pitch DARKNESS BRUTAL to someone who has not heard of it before?  

This is a tough one! It's funny, but no matter how long you're a writer, pitching a book you know inside and out is nearly impossible.  

Can you tell us a little bit about the world that The Dark Cycle Series is set in?  

The series is set in the streets of LA, and it was really fun researching some local ghost stories to play up and toy with. And having grown up around here, it was extra fun! The bummer is I didn't get to use all the ones I wanted to, like the abandoned Dairy Factory, called Scary Dairy, or the park bench in Griffith Park that's haunted by a pair of lovers. But I really enjoyed getting to paint the diverse and gritty LA that I know for readers to see.

Do you have a favorite scene in The Dark Cycle series?  

I have several, but I think my absolute favorite will always be the final scene in DARKNESS SAVAGE when all the strings come together, and we see what life is going to be like for them all. In the end it was a very emotional scene to write, and I really hope the readers feel like the story was what they wanted it to be.

Which one character out of all your books was your favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about? 

My favorite character to write was Jax, one of the teens in the house. He was just so snarky and impossible. And the toughest one to write was most definitely Finger, another housemate. He says absolutely nothing for three books but he's very important to the story as a whole, and he still has feelings and abilities that I had to portray.

What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you?  

Right now I'm working on a YA fantasy tentatively titled, THE RAVEN CALLS. It's gritty (of course) and hopefully full of mystery. It's about a boy, a goddess, and a silver raven: Dickens' Great Expectations meets Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy. I'm really really enjoying writing it and trying to make all the layers of story work together. It's a challenge, but a good one.

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Rachel A. Marks is an award-winning author and professional artist, a SoCal girl, cancer survivor, a surfer and dirt-bike rider, chocolate lover and keeper of faerie secrets. She was voted: Most Likely to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, but hopes she'll never have to test the theory. Her debut series The Dark Cycle, described as Dickens' Oliver Twist meets TV's Supernatural, is now out through Skyscape, beginning with DARKNESS BRUTAL.

Find Rachel and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Darkness Brutal
The Dark Cycle #1
Amazon

Aidan O’Linn’s childhood ended the night he saw a demon kill his mother and mark his sister, Ava, with Darkness. Since then, every three years the demons have returned to try to claim her. Living in the gritty, forgotten corners of Los Angeles, Aidan has managed to protect his sister, but he knows that even his powers to fight demons and speak dead languages won’t keep her safe for much longer.

In desperation, Aidan seeks out the help of Sid, the enigmatic leader of a group of teens who run LA Paranormal, an Internet reality show that fights demons and ghosts. In their company, Aidan believes he’s finally found a haven for Ava. But when he meets Kara, a broken girl who can spin a hypnotic web of passionate energy, he awakens powers he didn’t know he had―and unleashes a new era of war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness.

With the fate of humanity in his hands, can Aidan keep the Darkness at bay and accept his brilliant, terrifying destiny?

Listen to an Audio Sample 

 Excerpt:

I let the pulse of the music coat me and mute my surroundings. A mass of people crowd the dance floor of the club, and I sit on an abandoned couch in the corner. The lights beat at the air in blues and greens, and bodies twist and merge to the thunder. I lean back, close my eyes, and try to get lost in it, the smells and sounds of people and their collective high.

Something moves next to me. I look over to find a girl sprawled on the seat beside me, trying to catch her breath. She’s not dressed in the usual club gear, more like a girl who got lost on her way to a beach party: Hurley T-shirt, jean skirt, and red Converse. Her cheeks are flushed pink; her throat and forehead glitter with sweat. She glances at me like she didn’t know I was there. She licks her upper lip, her eyes not leaving mine. Then she says something I can’t hear.

I point to my ear and shake my head.

She smiles and laughs, lighting up the space around her. She rests her hand on my arm, like we’re friends and I just told her the most hilarious joke, and then she gets up and disappears into the mass of bodies again.

My arm tingles, my body reacting to the moment of contact in a sudden and disconcerting way. I think I’ve had my fill of watching people indulge their baser instincts. I need to get out of here.

The beat of the music speeds up, vibrating faster as I move through the crowd. I try not to touch anyone, which is nearly impossible. All the emotions and appetites are overwhelming, as if the rising rhythm of the music makes their yearnings rise, too. Lust buzzes in the air. A hunger stirs in me, a gaping hole, needing to be filled. With touch.

The touch of female fingers. A hand on my arm, taking my wrist, pulling me into the fray, into the pressing bodies. And I don’t try to escape. I let her take me.

Because I’m tired.

Because I’m a dumbass.

A girl moves in front of me—not the Hurley girl, not the one I was hoping for. She presses closer, so close I can almost taste the salty perspiration on her skin. She has thin, birdlike shoulders, a swan neck, a heart-shaped face, and black hair, long and tangled, turning blue and green with the light. Her hands slide up my chest. She wraps her arms around my neck and tilts her head to look up at me.

Her lips are full and painted dark purple. There’s a dimple in her left cheek that gets deeper with her growing smile. And her eyes . . .

Fog fills my head for a second, interrupting my thoughts.

“Hi,” she mouths, calling attention to her lips again.

And then she’s rising up on her toes, pulling me down to her, twisting her fingers in my hair, her lips smashing against mine.

My body buzzes from her touch, and my hands react, drawing her into me. I drink her in. She tastes like the air around me, hunger and urgency, and—

Green apple Jolly Ranchers?

I grip her sides, her ribs so delicate beneath my fingers. The sweet tang of her teases me, the hunger becoming a monster deep inside. I have to press her closer, tighter, try to feed it, as I feel the fire of her need link with mine.

She pulls back a little and looks at me with wide eyes, like she’s shocked. That’s when I see the mark, a glowing, blue-inked line of what looks like Chinese symbols, trailing down the nape of her neck to her shoulder blade. Symbols that I’m suddenly sure mean: touch this girl at your own risk.

It’s the only thing I see for a second: Beware. Beware.

Until her energy reaches for me, wispy tendrils of blue light wrapping their way around my wrists and snaking up my chest.

I jerk away, into the guy behind me, stepping on his girlfriend’s toes. I get shoved— thankfully farther from the hypnotic girl—through a space in the crowd, saying a hundred excuse-me’s even though I know no one can hear them. I find my way out of the press of bodies to the edge of the room again where it’s safe.

It’s time to leave. I should’ve left an hour ago.

 Darkness Fair
The Dark Cycle #2
Amazon

Against the backdrop of an ancient battle between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness, Aidan struggles to control the newly awakened powers that seem to be his only hope for rescuing Ava, his little sister, trapped somewhere beyond the Veil. As he gravitates to Kara, the dangerously unstable girl who helped him realize his abilities, a terrible mistake of fate is revealed that points him back toward Rebecca, whose role is becoming more critical to the battle. And no matter what his heart wants, it might be too late to stop the pieces already in motion.

Without knowing the sacrifices that will be required of them, Aidan and his motley crew of friends—each with their own role to play—must face the demon threat head-on. They’re the only ones keeping the growing army of Darkness at bay, and if they fail, the future of humanity could be lost.

Listen to an Audio Sample

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Review: Rootbound by Shannon Mayer

Rootbound

Author: Shannon Mayer

Release Date: June 7, 2016

Publisher: HiJinks Ink Publishing

Elemental Book #5

ISBN13:  9781987933130

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Review Copy Source: Author

My name is Larkspur, and I am an Elemental.

My people use the power of the earth to sustain life and defy our enemies. I am the half-breed bastard child of a king. I was not meant to survive the trials cast my way. Yet, here I stand.

The world has deteriorated in the years I was banished. The Elemental families are rife with deception, violence, and madness more than ever before.

A voice I know all too well calls me to do her bidding. A voice I no longer wish to hear. The mother goddess begs me to save the four families, and stop my nemesis. To do it, I must face each of the Elemental leaders and take from them the power they hold close: the stones I once entrusted to them.

Now, the secrets I unearth as I pursue the stones shatter everything I know about my world, and everything I was taught.

Yet, I am not the naïve girl I once was. If I am to see this through, I must completely embrace the new reality of my life and all its obstacles while forging ahead.

Four stones abused.
Four families broken.
A half-breed princess as their only hope.

Through it all, the one I love waits for me to find him. When I do, will he, like everything else in my world, not be what he once was?

We are back in business with ROOTBOUND. WINDBURN wasn't my favorite book in the Elemental series, so I was really hoping ROOTBOUND would pick up and really rock and it did.

ROOTBOUND made me think that most of the book would stay focused on the rim, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. ROOTBOUND visits every elemental home base and major things happen in all.

On the romance side. We know that Lark has been torn between Cactus and Ash. She loves them both, but she had to choose someone eventually. I can't tell you where her heart leads her, but I will say that I have been waiting and waiting for the situation with Cactus to come to a head and Mayer didn't disappoint with how things played out. I liked a lot about ROOTBOUND, but I have to say this part of the storyline was at the top of my list.

The action is off the wall and Larks enemies continue to come out of the woodwork. I love Peta and I love the relationship between the two. I guesses some things before they happened, but I was still pleasantly surprised on the way they ended up playing out. Larks story isn't over and I look forward to continuing it.

I gave it 4/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review.

New Releases: 6/5-6/11

Tue. June 7th

 A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin
 A Study in Sable (Elemental Masters #12) by Mercedes Lackey 
 Dating an Alien Popstar by Kendra L. Saunders
 Dr. DOA (Secret Histories #10) by Simon R. Green
 Feathers (The Tales Trilogy #2) by G.R. Mannering, Rose Mannering 
 Infomocracy: A Novel by Malka Ann Older

 Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge: A Novel by Paul Krueger
 Lotus and Thorn by Sara Wilson Etienne

 Relentless (The Hero Agenda #2) by Tera Lynn Childs, Tracy Deebs
 Rootbound (The Elemental Series #5) by Shannon Mayer
 Silent Hall by N.S. Dolkart
 This is Not the End by Jesse Jordan
 To Love a Wolf (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #4) by Paige Tyler 
 The Wheel of Osheim (The Red Queen's War #3) by Mark Lawrence
 Wicked Burn (Realm Enforcers #3) by Rebecca Zanetti

Happy Reading!

Promo + Giveaway: Dark Siren by Eden Ashley

Dark Siren 
Dark Siren #1
Amazon iTunes BN Smashwords

To survive, their bond must be unbreakable.

When the mysterious and passionate Rhane rescues Kali from an attacker in the theater parking lot, they form an immediate, smoldering connection. But Kali doesn't remember Rhane or anything from their past. As far as Kali knows, she's just a seventeen-year-old kid coping with an insatiable hunger for the “spark” or energy of others, feeding on classmates to survive.

A unique artifact—one that may hold the key to returning Kali’s memories—is uncovered by the archaeology firm where she works part-time, sending Kali and Rhane on a dangerous journey that leads them to the Forbidden City, into the unforgiving Gobi, and into the ruins of Rhane’s ancient homeland. As they fight for survival, Kali begins to discover who she really is and the true power she possesses.

But Rhane still harbors a secret that could destroy Kali…unless old enemies kill her first.

Excerpt 2: Rhane

The stranger shifted, leaning over until his mouth was within a millimeter of her left ear. He spoke softly, his lips brushing against some serious nerve endings, “Is this seat taken?”

With a nervous shiver, she blinked long and slow, savoring the low and sexy quality of his voice. Then she edged away to put at least an inch between his lips and her ear. If he touched her like that again, Kali was very likely to embarrass herself. Just as she was about to answer his question, the room brightened with light from the illuminated screen. What Kali saw made her jaw drop.

If an eighty-year-old grandmother had been sitting next to her when this guy had shown up, Kali would have politely asked the old lady to move so the stranger could sit down. He was absurdly good looking. Silver lighting accented every perfect line and angle of his face. Several locks from his thick mass of hair fell idly across his forehead, slightly curling at the ends. There was softness to his features that suggested he could be a keeper.

The stranger returned Kali’s stare with an intensity that took in every part of her. But his eyes never left her face.

Realizing she had been staring at him stupidly for far too long, Kali struggled to find something to say. “I’m…” She cleared her throat. “It’s yours.”

He finally looked away. Whatever tied her to him was loosed, and Kali pulled her gaze away. They didn’t speak again for a long time, but Kali was constantly aware of him. She kept stealing furtive glances in his direction because the sight of him was more enthralling than anything the movie had to offer. Growing bolder, Kali watched him from the corner of her eye at increasingly longer intervals. Apparently, the stranger was not as bothered as she was. Relaxed in his seat, he sat observing the screen with languid interest, doing a pretty good job convincing her that he’d forgotten anyone was beside him. Kali was so immersed with watching him, and was completely startled when he spoke.

“It’s not polite to stare,” he murmured softly without taking his eyes from the screen.

Kali jerked and turned away. But she wasn’t fast enough and was mortified to see the beginning of a satisfied smile appear on his face. She slid down into the chair, grateful for the darkness that concealed a blush spreading across her cheeks. From then on she tried to concentrate on the movie. But it was useless. She gave up and watched the screen absently, all the while thinking about the guy sitting next to her and how he probably thought she was an absolute dork. She didn’t get it. Boys never had this affect on her. For the past two years, it had always been them falling helplessly at her feet.  

A mutated mix of human and creature launched itself from a quiet scene, growling and snarling into the camera. Several audience members jumped in surprise, and Kali was one of them. She made a noise that sounded like a strangled bird.  

“Do these things frighten you?” the stranger asked. He was clearly enjoying her discomfort.  

Kali cleared her throat. “Why would they? This stuff isn’t real.” This time, she didn’t look at him.

After a long moment, he spoke again. “Right,” he slowly agreed.

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Realist, cynic, and hopeless romantic all rolled into one, Eden lives in a small, sunny town in SC where thunderstorms inspire her best ideas. When not daydreaming about her next novel, Eden can be found curled up with a musty old paperback and a cup of coffee...or mired deeply in her next plot to take over the world. She enjoys reading or watching anything with supernatural elements, so writing paranormal and fantasy romance is a natural fit.

Find Eden and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Week in Review: 5/29-6/4

Books Received for Review

Ascendant by Kyra Gregory
Nemesis by Anna Banks

Books I've Read

Flameout by Keri Arthur
Veiled Threat by Helen Harper
Ascendant by Kyra Gregory
Resurgence by Kerry Wilkinson

Reviews Posted

Company Town by Madeline Ashby
Whisper of Shadows by Diana Pharaoh Francis

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* New Releases for the week. Was there anything you were looking forward to reading?

* Monday- Guest Blog for Bound by Carmen Fox

* Wednesday- Interview + Giveaway for The Queen's Dance by Jamie Schmidt

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* Did you know you can follow UFI on these other sites?

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Review: Company Town by Madeline Ashby

Company Town

Author: Madeline Ashby

Release Date: May 17, 2016

Publisher: Tor

ISBN:  0857665367

ISBN13: 9780857665362

Genre: Science Fiction

Review Copy Source: NetGalley

Meet Hwa. One of the few in her community to forego bio-engineered enhancements, she’s the last truly organic person left on the rig. But she’s an expert in the arts of self-defence, and she’s been charged with training the Family’s youngest, who has been receiving death threats – seemingly from another timeline.

Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city’s stability – serial killer? Or something much, much worse...?

When I started reading COMPANY TOWN it was nothing like I thought it would be. I found it odd and had a hard time staying in the story. I forced myself to keep going and not only did it get interesting, but I ended up enjoying it.

I thought COMPANY TOWN was a bit odd and somewhat boring until Hwa became the bodyguard to Joel. I thought at that point things started really happening and we really got to know Hwa. I really enjoyed the bond that developed between Hwa and her charge and the relationship between her and Daniel was of interest as well. I truly didn't see some things coming which is always nice in a storyline.

The world building in COMPANY TOWN was by far the strongest part of the story. From the people that make up the world, to the actual world itself, Ashby's imagination was far from boring. I found it all very imaginative and original.

If you can get past the beginning, I think COMPANY TOWN will grow on you.

I gave it 3/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.