Sunday, March 9, 2014

REVIEW: "Infinity" by Sedona Venez (Xpresso Book Tours)


BLURB
*New Adult Paranormal Romance*

The first moment I saw Boulder... his helmet-covered head snapped in my direction and stared. 

My eyes greedily took in the hardness of his thighs encased in dark jeans, his kickass motorcycle boots, and leather jacket. I licked my bottom lip, stifling the crazy urge to leap out of the car and climb him like a tree while burying my nose into the crook of his neck like a possessed woman.

I needed to see his face, and as if answering my request, he pulled off his helmet impatiently, and literally, something clicked in my head as his warm apple-green eyes locked onto me and he muttered, "All mine." 

Well, that's what I imagined he was saying as his lips moved silently. He could have been whispering, "Stalker girl," but hey, I was willing to stalk him into submission.

**Mature Content Warning** 18+ for language, and adult situations.


GOODREADS  *  AMAZON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Sedona Venez
Sedona Venez aka T.L. Clarke is the author of the New Adult Credence Curse series, and the New Adult Valkyries: Soaring Raven series. She is a NYC girl (go Brooklyn!) with a slight obsession with her iPad, Pinterest, television shows Pawn Stars, Castle, and Face Off. Her love of music, tattoos, rockers, alpha men and wolf-shifters inspires her edgy paranormal and contemporary romance novels. You can find out more about Sedona and her work by visiting 

WEBSITE  *  FACEBOOK  *  TWITTER  *  PINTEREST  *  GOODREADS  *  NEWSLETTER

REVIEW
Ever wonder why stories with supernatural being seem to be all the rage nowadays?  Ever wonder why vampires and werewolves just can't seem to get along, no matter what universe they are in?  Ever wonder if the explosion of supernatural beings battling it out under humans' unaware noses is a social commentary on something larger? This story won't answer any of these questions, but it will help you wonder...

LONG STORY SHORT...
Vampires + werewolves + lies + immortal beings + tiger shifters + fae + ravens + singing superstar + lust + visions + a whole bunch more = one heck of a story!  In this fairly original story tucked within a genre that is being done to undeath, we find Infinity, a superstar singer with quite a reputation for partying and getting into trouble.  Well, she's quite a bit more than that, but she doesn't know it yet...

Love, "true mates", lust, other-worldly beings using creatures as pawns...there are so many commentary directions this work could take that it makes my fingers itch just wanting to type.  Let's just say this is quite a roller coaster ride that made me want to scream, blush (there are some rather *cough* steamy scenes - this is definitely NSFW and 18+), and punch something at the unfairness of everything that happens.  Whirlwind plot, good characters - this is a good read.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I give this work a 3.

LONG STORY

The Good
We've seen a plethora of vampire/werewolf stories lately....but how many of those stories include a rich singer, tiger shifters, fae, creepish ravens, and immortals amusing themselves with the mess that mortals have made?

One.

Here we find Infinity.  She's a rather spoiled young lady who has gathered fame and fortune due to her awesome singing abilities.  She's also a woman biting her thumb at The Collective - a group of beings who is bent on stopping some concerts she's doing for charity.  She's also a woman who is not quite human, carries secrets of her own about being able to see future events, bizarre dreams that just may be visions, and might just be the fulfillment of a prophecy.

But for now she's just concerned about her concert, and her crazy mother, and annoying adopted half-brother who seems to be bent on controlling everything about her.  If she only knew...

Gotta stop...I'm getting ahead of myself.  Back to book critique - Venez has here created a unique book that is a rather, for lack of a better word, ticklish read on more than a few levels.  We are seeing vampire/werewolf stories being done to undeath, and yet here is something new, something intriguing in its own right.

There are familiar elements which orient current readers to something about this world.  Spoiled singers with a massive reputation for partying and not giving a flying f*** what the world things (I could name at least 3 right off the top of my head that I see in my newsfeed constantly).  Overbearing parents who seem to know more than they are letting on.  Pesky siblings.  Best friends who help you keep going.  This book has all of this.

It also has strong characters, an interesting plot line, and is written in an engaging style that drew me in like a fly to a mid-summer lamp.  Let's also just say this is a "chick flick" of a book (/wink).

The Bugly (bad/ugly)
Um, I've got a few quibbles here:

1) The chapters vary between points of view of many of the characters.  This is not inherently a problem - I've seen this done extremely well.  Unfortunately, I found myself confused about whose eyes I was peeking through at any given moment.  Usually by the 2nd or 3rd page of a chapter I had it figured out, but it bugged me that several times it was not obvious within the first couple of lines.

2) Humans are smarter than this work would seem to let on. It makes it sound like there is this huge vast thing happening right under humans' noses.  Um....given the extent of some things, I like to think humans are smarter than this book lets on.  I'd like to think that humans would at least have an inkling that something odd is going on...

3) There is this huge major thing called the "Fire and Ash" war that happened.  It was supposedly between every kind of being on the planet.  Humans would definitely known about the other worldly creatures walking amongst them after some of the scenes from this war.

4) This book really needs a chart in the back that shows who is what: species, rank, position in the Council, etc.  I was getting really confused about who was what and where and why.





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