20 hours ago
Werewolf Sanctuary by Eva Gordon
Since ancient times, the Lupercal Council has kept their people’s werewolf identity a well-guarded secret from man. They refer to their kind as lycans. The lycan shifts into a bear-sized wolf, bearing unique markings reminiscent of Maori or Celtic tattoos. The pack shifts during the full moon and are under the control of their alpha male leader. The alpha male and alpha female are not bound by the full moon and can shift at will. Lycans can only breed with their kind. The exception are the alpha males, which can only mate with human women known as wolf maidens. These human women bear the five-toed paw print or mark of the wolf on their left hip. Female alphas are sterile but are the leading lycans governing the Lupercal Council.
The Lupercal society is in peril due to an unknown disease infecting their young offspring. The children that survive the pestilence shift too early into wolf cubs, lose their distinct markings, and end up becoming normal wolves unaware of their human consciousness. Normally immune to most known diseases, the Lupercal has few of their own doctors and must seek the help of a human outsider to find the cure.
Wyatt Weylin, the alpha male of the Montana pack and leader of a team of mercenary lycans, flies to a World Wolf Conference in San Francisco, where he hopes to convince leading authority on wolf diseases, veterinarian Dr. Madeline Styles to come to his wolf sanctuary and find a cure. The minute he sees her he feels drawn to her striking good looks. The sensory chemistry is instant. He tries to suppress the feeling knowing that he is forbidden to fall for a human. Life gets complicated when Wyatt discovers that the vegetarian animal doctor has the mark of the wolf and is his life mate.
Review: The Five Greatest Warriors
The 5 Greatest Warriors by Matthew ReillyBook 3 of the Jack West Jr series
About The 5 Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly:
Synopsis:Source: Synopsis in the About The 5 Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly was taken from the author's website at http://matthewreilly.com/latest.html on 09/01/10.
It Began With Six Stones
Jack West Jr and his loyal team are in desperate disarray: they've been separated, their mission is in tatters, and Jack was last seen plummeting down a fathomless abyss.
IT FINISHES HERE
After surviving his deadly fall, Jack must now race against his many enemies to locate and set in place the remaining pieces of The Machine before the coming Armageddon.
WHO ARE THE FIVE WARRIORS?
As the world teeters on the brink of destruction, he will learn of the Five Warriors, the individuals who throughout history have been most intimately connected to his quest.
OCEANS WILL RISE, CITIES WILL FALL
Scores will be settled, fathers will fight sons, brothers will battle brothers, and Jack and his friends will soon find out exactly what the end of the world looks like...
I would like to thank Simon & Schuster for sending me a review copy of The 5 Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly.
Genre: action adventure
My Take On This Book:
Action-packed militaristic adventure. Modern fantasy. The story-telling quality is 4 out 5. Not a dull reading moment! This is the final book of the Jack West Jr. series and ends the saga very nicely. I would give the story climax a 4.5 out of 5. This book tied in all 3 Jack West books to a nice close. The ending is satisfying and does not disappoint despite the high expectations I had. Overall, I would give this book an entertainment value of 5 out of 5.
Imagine my surprise when I flipped through the Seven Deadly Wonders and realized that I've already read the book! Maybe because I've read it as Seven Ancient Wonders!?! Apparently they gave it slightly different titles in different countries *duh*. Why? Haven't got a clue! Why don't you ask the publishers, Simon & Schuster... See my review of the Seven Ancient Wonders (Book 1) and The Six Sacred Stones (Book 2) by Matthew Reilly.
Cherry’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries
Jack West Jr. series reading order:
The Five Greatest Warriors
Book 3
ISBN: 9781405039338
Release Date: 20-10-2009
Pages: 480
The Six Sacred Stones
Book2
My review is here.
ISBN: 9781405038164
Release Date: 01-10-2007
Pages: 528
Book 1
My review is here.
ISBN: 9781405036924
Release Date: 01-10-2005
Pages: 480
Buy Links:
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Book Promotion: Brought To Life
Genre: paranormal romance
About This Book:
Megan Hurst's life has taken some unexpected turns: First she loses her heart to the dashing hero of a novel. And then she meets an amnesia victim who seems just like him.
The mysterious stranger needs her help to piece his past together, and the closer the two become, the more questions arise about his resemblance to a "fictional" character.
Megan's romantic feelings and her bizarre suspicions bring her to an impossible question... Has she dreamed the Duke to life?
Source: Info in the About This Book was taken from the author's website at http://daraenglandauthor.com/books.html on 09/03/10.
Buy Link:
Buy this book from Lyrical Press.
The Lure of the Dragon
Considering I've been writing fantasy pretty much my whole life, I really haven't messed with dragons all that much - I can only recall one very short piece that's featured a dragon. However, with my new novella, Kaydana and the Dragon Prince - well, the title rather gives it away, doesn't it?
Why are dragons so fascinating? Well, the name dragon has been given to a wide range of creatures. In China, for instance, they're flightless creatures of great wisdom, whereas European dragons are fierce, winged predators with an obsession for treasure - perhaps the best known is the dragon Fafnir, killed by Sigurd/Siegfried. In modern fantasy, they range from Tolkien's Smaug to LeGuin's wise but dangerous dragons in the Earthsea books, to McCaffery's extraterrestrial creatures of Pern, to the noble Draco in the film Dragonheart, and even a bad-tempered Hungarian Horntail. To name but a few.
Perhaps the fascination is their alienness. Even the strangest and most dangerous mammal has a familiarity about it, but there's something unnerving about a reptile's cold-blooded body and impersonal stare. It's not surprising that snakes are one of the most common subjects of phobias, and the name dragon derives from the Greek and Latin words for a snake (drakon and draco respectively).
There's a strange link, though, between what we fear and what fascinates us, and what's more terrifying than a vast reptile that can attack from the skies? Not to mention that they breathe fire. They're the ultimate predator - and predators are sexy. It's probably not a coincidence that they have a particular taste for carrying off beautiful maidens. Fantasy is the perfect medium for dealing with unacceptable desires that you'd never want to actually experience, but still... Perhaps abduction by a dragon is the ultimate sub fantasy.
The modern tendency is to make dragons wise and misunderstood figures, as with that other great fantasy predator, the vampire. Maybe that comes from a fundamental difference between traditional and modern societies, that we try to understand the alien, rather than vilifying it. Quite apart from the horrors of twentieth century intolerance, we're now used to the idea, at least, that we might share the universe with many strange creatures, and that we could even meet them. It's natural if we prefer to think that we'll be visited by ET, rather Martians with their death-rays.
There's nothing wrong with this, and it's a fertile way to explore an ancient symbol in a different way. I hope, though, we don't entirely lose sight of the magnificent predator soaring the sky, ready to swoop down with his breath of fire to wreak destruction and carry off the most beautiful maidens.
