Grimnirs (A Runes Novel 2.5)

Ednah Walters Website

Book Details: Written by YA Paranormal and Fantasy author Ednah Walters. Published December 2^nd, 2013. 348 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Smashwords / Amazon

Synopsis of Grimnirs:  Grimnirs begins in Eirik’s point of view while on Asgard pining over Cora.  Using Odin’s chair Eirik is able to look in on Cora but to his surprise he sees a Grimnir, reaper of souls, searching through her room. Then we jump to Cora’s point of view grocery shopping with her mom.  You find out that Cora was sent to a psych ward at the end of Runes for telling her mom she can see spirits and people with glowing “tattoos” runes. While she was committed no one knows because Meliina was impersonating her in Immortals.  All this time Cora thinks her friends have just abandoned her when really they had no idea she was even gone.

Every spirit Cora passes can some how sense that she can see them and so they try to communicate with her but she hears no sound when they talk. Cora tries to tell the spirits to leave her alone without looking like a crazy person talking to herself when some random guy that looks like a grim reaper, an extremely good looking reaper, appears and starts talking to her and the spirits. He keeps telling her that she needs to activate her runes and that if she needed help to call him and then he disappears. Extremely confused by what just happen Cora returns to her house with her mother from shopping to find the same guy waiting in her room.  Echo struts forward and starts kissing her, after a few enjoyable seconds she pushes him away thinking the grim reaper has come to seduce her before he takes her soul.  Echo thinks she is playing hard to get and keeps calling her doll-face, telling her the only reason she doesn’t remember him and their connection is that the Norns must have erased her memories of the last 6 weeks and replaced them with false ones.

Things just get more confusing the next day when she starts back at school.  Everyone talks to her like she has only been gone a week. Not really understanding what is happening she decides that some how she must have astral-projected in her drugged out state at the psych ward.  It’s the only explanation she can come up with since everyone at school is talking to her about the last 6 weeks with her and she keeps receiving graded homework back with her handwriting.  Cora starts to understand why Raine and Eirik never visited her while she was gone, because apparently she has been at school this whole time. Over the next couple weeks Cora just rolls with the punches and gets closer to Echo. She starts to believe that maybe the Norns did mess with her memories because there is an undeniable want for Echo she just can’t explain. It aggravates her how much she wants to be near his arrogant ass, when he is not around she wonders when he will pop in next.

Echo and Cora finally find out from Torin and Raine that Meliina was impersonating her during those weeks she was at the psych ward. Echo backs away from their growing relationship because she is a mortal.  Raine finally explains everything to Cora that has been happening; that Raine is the next all-powerful seeress, Torin is a Valkyrie and Eirik was sent back to Asgard because he is Odin’s grandson. Finally she understands why she cannot remember a thing other than being at the psych ward those 6 weeks. Cora also finds out that there are other Grimnirs after her because they think she is still Meliina who made a deal with some bad people. Echo stays close to protect Cora even though he tells her they can’t be together. Cora and Echo continue on acting like they don’t care about each other but it only lasts for so long before they can’t stand it anymore. Things get very steamy at Echo’s place and Cora expresses her love for him even if he can’t say it back she doesn’t care, she only wants him.  Eirik returns from Asgard thinking he is saving Cora form the Grimnir and then all Hel breaks lose.

My Thoughts: I Love Echo!!! He is the epitome of bad boy!! This book is sort of a spin off and in Cora, Raine’s best friend from Runes, point of view.  You get to learn all about why she was in the psych ward and her love affair with Echo.  I loved this book even more than the others, if that’s possible. All of the characters really come together to keep Cora safe and fight off Meliina and the Grimnirs.

I love that the author is writing other books for this series that are in other characters point of views, you really get to know every character and what drives them.  This book gets much more detailed and steamy than the other two, Echo and Cora are pretty hot together; Ednah Walters definitely slipped some romance into this novel. Overall I loved it and I cannot wait until the third book comes out, Seeress. 

Immortals (A Runes Novel 2)

Ednah Walters Website

Book Details: Written by YA Paranormal and Fantasy author Ednah Walters. Published August 3^rd, 2013. 342 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Smashwords / Amazon

Synopsis of Immortals: Runes ends with extreme casualties at Raine’s swim meet and the loss of Torin’s memories. You also discover that Raine’s mom Svana used to be a Valkyrie until she meet Raine’s father Tristian and luckily was in the goddess Freya’s favor and allowed to stay on earth for love. Immortals began with Raine’s family deciding to get away for a couple weeks to let things calm down at home. When Raine returns from her trip everyone at school starts calling her a witch for predicting that people would die at the swim meet; luckily she still has her best friends Eirik and Cora by her side. With Torin’s memory swiped seeing Torin everywhere she goes is breaking her heart. Raine decides she will just have to make him remember or get him to fall in love with her all over again.

Raine begins to train in order to follow in her mothers’ footsteps and become a Valkyrie. Lavania is Raine’s new trainer and also the one who trained Torin; while working with her she discovers that Eirik is a God from Asgard and Odin’s grandson. Eirik was put on earth for protection from his mother Hel, the ruler of Hel’s Mist where souls not set for Valhalla go.  The Norns inform Raine that Eirik is in trouble and she needs to protect him before he losses himself completely.  Eirik starts having night terrors and also going into a trance when his emotions are at their strongest, projecting those emotions on any mortal near him causing chaos.

While this is all happening Torin doesn’t know why but he is drawn to Raine and would do anything to protect her.  He starts to believe her when she says that the Norns wiped his memory of her as punishment for healing her in Runes.  Torin trusts his feelings even though he cant explain them without his memories and falls madly in love with her all over again, even if it takes him a while to express that to Raine.

Eirik decides to come stay at Raine’s for the night because of the night terrors he is experiencing at home. While at Raine’s the two decide to show each other their Runes etched on their body. Raine discovers that Eirik has lots of runes but they are all backwards??? Norns tell Raine someone is etching those on him while he is unaware and that she cannot let them complete them or the Eirik she knows will be gone. Lavania and Torin immediately report this information to Asgard. Eirik is told to come home to Asgard, Cora is not who we thought she was and Raine discovers her true path in life. 

My Thoughts:  I am in love with this book series and all the characters!!  I could not set this book down for a second!  I got a little frustrated that the Norns erased Torins’ memories, but I loved watching him fall in love with Raine all over again.  I really started to like Andris’s personality in this book, in Runes, he seemed like a very unpleasant person to be around but he really starts to grow on you.  I certainly was not expecting to find out that Eirik is the all knowing Odin’s long lost grandson.  Poor Cora! I cannot believe what happens to her with no one knowing and her thinking she lost her two best friends.  The author really builds up these characters for the reader to love or hate. 

I know it not long but I really wish I did not have to wait until April for the third book, Seeress, to be published. Thank God I just found out that there is Grimnirs, 2.5 of the Rune Series. Such a great series that keeps you captivated to whole time wanting to know what will happen next and since ill have to wait two months for the next book ill have to read both books again as a refresher before then.

Vampire Academy Movie

First let me just say that I LOVE the Vampire Academy book series and the the spin-off Bloodlines by Richelle Mead!! So when I found out there was going to be a movie I was pretty excited!!

You can tell from the previews alone that the movie probably was not going to be very good.  I was trying to keep a positive outlook even though the previews made the movie look nothing like the books, but I saw it anyway and it was TERRIBLE!!! Which is super upsetting because I am sure there will not be a second one after they bombed the first.  The movie was all over the place, touching on main parts to the plot but accomplishing nothing for the story. It was to the point that I was just laughing at how ridiculous the movie was compared to the book, it's like they were trying to make it fail!

There is no way that the guy playing Dimitri looks anything like what they described in the book, do not get me wrong I loved his accent, but wrong guy for the part. The book is pretty much Rose and Dimitri's love story with some killing of Strigoi thrown in, the movie had them together maybe like 15 minutes total in the almost two hours.  There is plenty more that I could complain about but its not worth it, pretty much what I am getting at is that I was super disappointed and feel like I need to reread the book just to wash the memory of the movie out of my head.

Runes (A Runes Novel 1)

Ednah Walters Website

Book Details: Written by YA Paranormal and Fantasy author Ednah Walters. Published May 20^th, 2013. 245 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Amazon.

Synopsis of Runes: Raine, short for Lorraine, is our protagonist of this story based in the small town of Kayville, Oregon. Until recently Raine’s best friend / her unofficial boyfriend Eirik has always lived next door. While hanging out with her other best friend Cora, Raine hears a knock at the door; it’s some random great looking guy with attitude she has never met before asking if Eirik is with her.  After their heated conversation Raine discovers his name is Torin and that he is her new neighbor. Always the A student and current captain of the swim team, with school starting back up soon the last thing Raine needs is some new gorgeous guy living next door to distract her.  There is just something about him she can’t explain that draws her to him.

School has started along with swim practice and Raine meets three new exchange students, Andris, Maliina and Ingrid, who Torin seems to be acquainted with. Raine can feel there is something not right with these three and confirms it when she can see tattoos moving on Andris’s arm that no one else can see. While playing a friendly game of ultimate frisbee with her swim team Maliina takes it too far and kicks Raine in the ribs knocking her down. Torin is there in seconds to catch her before she hits the ground, Raine is in so much pain she can’t even breath and blacks out in Torin’s arms. When she wakes up a few seconds later all the pain is gone and she knows Torin did something to heal her. After her practice Raine goes over to Torin’s to confront him about healing her and also seeing the tattoos on Andris’s arms. Effectively shocking Torin with the news of seeing Andris’s runes he tells her it’s just magic and not to worry about it because he won’t answer any of her questions, no matter how persistent she is.

Raine is determined to find out the truth about who Torin and these exchange students really are. She starts searching on the internet for any of the runes she saw on Andris.  Raine discovers that it has something to do with Norse Mythology; Odin, Thor, Loki. There is an overwhelming draw between Torin and Raine that neither can escape and they slowly grow closer to each other. Raine finally finds out that Torin is a Valkyrie; a reaper of healthy athletic souls whom are taken to Valhalla to be trained in the final world battle.  Raine also discovers that the only reason Torin and his friends are in her town is to reap the souls of her friends and that a major accident is around the corner.  With much at stake Raine does everything in her power to save the ones she loves.

My Thoughts: Love, Love, Love!! I absolutely love the characters! Torin and Raine are adorable, Torin is kind of an ass but Raine definitely keeps him in check.  I loved that the plot is based off of Norse Mythology, something new for me that I have never read in any of my books, usually its always Greek Mythology.  It took me a little while to get into the plot because the author doesn't give you any info on Torin other than he is the new gorgeous guy next door.  There are a lot of questions that build up throughout the book that I wanted to know the answers too, which kept me reading and wanting to know more. I could not set this book down!!   I can’t wait to start the next book in the series, Immortals.

Unfurl (The Ripple Trilogy Book 3)

Cidney Swanson Website

Book Details: Written by Cidney Swanson. Publication January 1st, 2012. 339 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Amazon.

Synopsis of Unfurl: Unfurl begins in Will’s perspective since Chameleon ends with Will and his sister staying in France with Sir Walter and Samantha flying home to be with her family no matter the risks.  Also at the end of Chameleon you discover that Sam is a long lost relative of Sir Walters. Sir Walter sends his son Christian with Sam, who is over 400 years old, to be her protector while she is away.  They play off Christian as an exchange student that they brought back from France since Will stayed there.

Both Sam and Will are pretty upset they have to be separated by thousands of miles when finally they expressed their love for each other. After about a month of being home Sam is kidnapped in the night and taken to a research facility where Hans shows up. His job from his father Hellman is to try and convince her to let them harvest one of her eggs in order to clone her DNA.  Samantha refuses to let them do that and is drugged anyway and put on the operating table where an egg is removed.  During this time her thoughts have been calling out to Christian leading him to her location for rescue. Soon after that Sam decides that she needs to tell her parents what is happening for their own safety, but before that happens her house is set on fire by Hans while her father is away on business.  Narrowly escaping the house with all their lives Sam and her family go into hiding with Gwyn and her mother to help.  To avoid anyone making a connection between them and Sir Walter there is only two phone calls a month so none of the group in France knows what is happening to Sam.

While Sam is dealing with her own issues, Sir Walter and Will are investigating the recent purchases of Hellman’s company, Genesis, throughout Europe.  Always invisible while investigating they discover Mick’s old advisor on the Rippler’s Syndrome is alive and is working for Hellman at the Genesis headquarters in Rome.  During their time in Rome they are involved in a large car accident on their way to pick up dinner, ending up on the front page of the news the next day with their picture front and center in the article.  They immediately leave Rome to go back to France and continue investigating there.  In France they identify that someone has been placing people, while in chameleon form, within the walls of the buildings owned by Genesis.  After removing some of these people form the walls they realize that these individuals have been placed in a hypnotic sleep and look a lot like clones of Hellman.  Throughout the book there is another of Hellmans’ journals discussing his goal to create the perfect clones that are selfless and will serve him without question in his next effort to start another Holocaust.

Sir Walter, Will and Mick finally find out by checking the local news regarding Sam’s home town that her house has been burned to the ground and that the family made it out safely. They decide it is time to go help Sam and fly back to the states.  Once they arrive back in town they go to Gwyn’s house to find out what happen and ask if her or her mother know where Sam is.  Hans shows up and kidnaps Gwyn taking her to his families’ property in France.  The immediately take a plain back to France with Gwyn’s mother to go save her.  Once Sam is in France she is sent a video from Hans with Gwyn tied up, Christian recognizes the location and they go to save her.  Everyone ends up in the same location trying to save Gwyn, but in the end also trying to make it out with their own lives. 

My Thoughts: Loved the series, everything ended on a great note all the people I loved in this story lived and Will and Sam are finally back together for eternity if they wanted.  A great group of characters hard not to love them the author gives you just enough that you feel connected to each character but also wanting to know more.  I definitely think this could have a spin off series involving Christian if she wanted to write one.  Great plot kept me interested the whole time I was reading lots of suspense and drama but not too much that you get irritated.  Definitely would recommend this book to my friends.