Zombie Nights by Tom Lichtenburg

Synopsis from Goodreads.com
Being a zombie, not so easy. That could have been Dave Connor's six word memoir. "At first he couldn't remember how he'd ended up in that shallow grave; he just knew it was hell to claw his way out, and that the taste of its dirt would remain in his mouth for the rest of his time on this earth" ... Expect the unexpected in this existential resurrection thriller.

My review:
This was a short novella but a fairly fun read. Dave wakes up buried in a grave and eventually digs himself out. He has no recollection of who he is, what he is doing in the grave, where he is or anything. He wanders around and ends up going to his uncle's house. It's familiar to him, but he doesn't know why. He can't talk, doesn't feel hunger or thirst and the only way initially that he can communicate is through writing. Everything has to be relearned and he just wanders around at night (the daylight hurts him), feeling a sense of peace.

One night he meets a woman who helps the homeless. She thinks that's what he is. And whilst wandering around after deciding he wants to help others he stumbles across some of the gang who originally killed him. Cue a very quick ending.

The idea of the different side to zombie life was interesting. It showed that not all zombies want to eat you alive, but then again that's what I like about zombies. In this one, no-one was particularly bothered that Dave was a zombie, even his really old uncle had guessed at what he was and just accepted it. I was expecting a little bit of fear at least. The only ones who were bothered were the gang and that was because he should have been dead. I do think more could have been made with the gang related story - maybe that could have been how Dave turned into the flesh-eating zombie I expected.

The editing errors were not as apparent as other people have noted in their reviews (I am a stickler for grammar and punctuation errors and can't say any jumped out at me, but maybe I read it that quickly I just didn't notice!). I was disappointed with the ending - it was over before it even began to be honest. I do think there was potential there for more, but it just didn't deliver.

Not really a zombie book in the terms of the "proper" walking dead, but a quick, light read if you need one!

Jenny Pox by J.L.Bryan

Synopsis from Goodreads.com
Jenny has a secret. Her touch spreads a supernatural plague.

She devotes her life to avoiding contact with people, until her senior year of high school, when she meets the one boy she can touch, and she falls in love.

But there's a problem--he's under the spell of his devious girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.

Now Jenny must learn to use the deadly "Jenny pox" she's fought her entire life to hide, or be destroyed by Ashleigh's ruthless plans.



My review:
This was a freebie from Amazon and was actually a really good read. The story focuses on Jenny Morton, who has the power to cast diseases on people just by touching them. Her mother died during childbirth as did the doctor and nurses and her father soon realised he shouldn't touch her either. She has always followed one simple rule through her 16 years of life: Do Not Touch People and as part of this rule she covers up all her bare skin constantly including wearing gloves. As you would expect she gets a pretty hard time at high school, and in particular from the head cheerleader and head of everything else.

One day whilst out walking her dog, a stray Jenny adopted, one of the jocks from school runs him over and nearly kills him. Another kid from school stops and heals the dog to Jenny's amazement. She wants to get to know this boy better, but of course, he is the boyfriend of the queen bee! They do start to form a friendship and Jenny finds out she can touch him - the one and only person she has ever been able to touch without hurting. She becomes pretty dependent on him almost immediately and loses him as a friend quite quickly as he returns back to his girlfriend. Both he and Jenny soon work out that Ashleigh is not who they thought she was and know that she must be stopped!

I loved the idea of the untouchable side of Jenny but when she finds out she can touch Seth, she completely changes. Gone is the scared, timid girl trying to hide from everyone. Out comes a confident, happy beaming girl instead. The powers of the 3 main characters worked really well with and against each other and the descriptions of Jenny's curse were fab! Truly disgusting, but fab!

The history behind all 3 powers and characters was a really good touch too. It was well explained and the whole story was well written. There were never any parts where I wanted the story to move on a bit quicker and several times I wanted Jenny to turn around and punch Ashleigh and at times Seth.

Look forward to seeing how the rest of this series pans out now!

50 Ways To Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom

Synopsis from Goodreads.com
Jazz cant decide whether to scorch him with a fireball or jump into bed with him

Jasmine Tremaine, a witch who cant stay out of trouble
Nikolai Gregorivich, a drop-dead gorgeous vampire cop on the trail of a serial killer

The sizzling love affair between Jazz and Nick has been off-again-on-again-for about 300 years. Mostly off, lately. But now Nick needs Jazzs help, and while Jazz and Nick try to figure out their own hearts and resist their ever-increasing attraction, they must steer clear of a maniacal killer with super-supernatural powers. They are surrounded by a hilarious cast of oddball paranormal characters, including Norma, the chain-smoking ghost who haunts Jazzs sports car, Dweezil, her ghoul of a boss, and Fluff and Puff, a pair of bunny slippers with sharp teeth and short tempers (watch your ankles!).

My review:
This book was such a fun book to read! I loved all the comedy in it, especially the fluffy slippers!

Jazz Tremaine is a centuries old witch, working as a curse eliminator in the city. Her old vampire lover, Nick appears on the scene and she throws a few fireballs his way before threatening to stake him. Problem is he still drives her crazy and makes her wants to do naughty things with him! She loves him but also hates him with a passion. However he needs her help desperately and will do anything he can to convince her to help him.

Vampires have been disappearing and he has been hired by the Protectorate, the vampire council, to find out who or what is making them disappear. He asks Jazz for her help which she does reluctantly at first as she knows getting involved with Nick again is probably not the best idea.

They both soon find out who it is and what he has been doing and this really shocks Jazz and for the first time in years, in decades, she is scared! She has been there before and was lucky to survive and doesn't want to go through hell all over again, but in order to help Nick, the vampires and anyone else who might get lured into the trap, she knows she must face this monster once again.

I loved Irma as well, the ghost who died in Jazz's car, who cannot be eradicated for some reason. Jazz has tried and tried to get rid of her with hundreds of spells but none of them have worked. Lucky for Jazz really as Irma comes in quite handy at the end. Irma's such a fun ghost in this story!

Whilst the main story plot was brilliant and the characters were fun too, I loved the "will they won't they" romance line too. You did really know that Jazz and Nick would end up together but Jazz definitely fought her feelings all the way through the book, trying to deny what she felt for him. I'm so glad she finally gave the romance the chance it deserves.

Looking forward to reading the next one in the series (providing there is one that is - will have to go and find out!)

Embrace the Night by Karen Chance

Synopsis from Goodreads.com
Cassandra Palmer may be the world's chief clairvoyant, but she's still magically bound to a master vampire. Only an ancient book called the Codex Merlini possesses the incantation to free Cassie-but harnessing its limitless power could endanger the world...



My review:
Loved this book. Cassie is now the fully fledged Pythia, but she still has several people trying to kill her. The vampires want her to release Mircea of the geis, which he put on her and she inadvertently doubly put on him in a past timeline meeting. The Silver Circle mages want to kill her so she does not become a Pythia under the control of a vampire and poor Cassie doesn't know where and when to run to. She knows she has to get hold of a book called the Codex Merlini, but when and where it is ends up becoming yet another battle for her life!

She is still partners of sorts with the rogue mage Pritkin and while she doesn't completely trust him and his motivations, she has no one else to turn to for help. However there's more to Pritkin that Cassie could have ever possibly imagined! Pritkin did annoy so much throughout this book - he's secretive, slimy, arrogant and so many times I wished Cassie had kicked his ass! But there is a reason for his attitude which is revealed right at the end of the book and I did understand him more then.

Many trips back and forth through time soon lead Cassie on the right trail to find the Codex and many surprises are in store for her. Billy makes another appearance and I love his sarcastic humour! I do still get a little freaked out at the Cassie-Mercia relationship with their history, but she's an adult now so I guess she can make her own decisions about him!

I think Karen Chance has finally found her true writing style with this one. She doesn't seem to spend so long going back over the old history of the characters, nor does she include lengthy explanations of ideas/terms used in the book as she has done in the previous books in this series.

There was lots of action in this one and even at 97% of the book I was still not quite sure if everything had gone to plan and Cassie was going to survive the day! Love it when book keep you hanging until the very end!

Looking forward to the next one.

Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

Ashaya Aleine was separated from her son, forced to create a neural implant that will forever enslave her psychically gifted Psy race. After fighting a desperate battle to save her child and escape the PsyNet, she's led not to safety, but into the lethal danger of a sniper's embrace.

My review:
I quite liked this book in this series as well. Almost seems that after the first 3 very predictable PNR books, Nalini Singh has realised that her book actually need a storyline to go alongside all the romance!

In this one, Ashaya Aleine, the Psy scientist who helped a couple of kids in the previous book, calls in her favour from Talin - she wants her son rescued from the Psy. The Dark River leopard clan help out and Dorian is the (un)fortunate changeling who has to deal with her. As you might expect he falls for her and eventually she gives in, but not completely until it becomes a life or death situation.

There are people who wants Ashaya both dead and alive following her deflection from the Silence and Dorian will stop at nothing to protect her and her him as well. A bit more history to the Psy is also revealed and a new group of fighters also appear in this book. There's also a hint of what might be a future story/book involving Mercy, the female sentinel of the Dark River clan.

I did find it a little strange that Dorian gave into his feelings for Ashaya so easily, even though she was everything he hated about the Psy - cold, unemotional and worked for the council. I believe his sexual needs definitely overrode any common sense initially, but as she was his mate I suppose there was a underlying emotional tie between them.

I will say I totally loved the ending - Dorian gets one of his life-long wishes at long last, all thanks to Ashaya, which would never have happened otherwise.

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