Review: The Daemon Parallel (Daemon Parallel #1), by Roy Gill

 

Title:         The Daemon Parallel (Daemon Parallel #1)

Author:     Roy Gill

Format:     E-Galley

Source:     NetGalley

From Goodreads: "Our world is only the beginning… Cameron's father is dead and his inheritance is … rather unusual. He has power to world shift: travel between the Human and Daemonic realms and the Parallel – a void where the worlds meet. Between befriending werewolves and battling daemons, Cameron's new life is already pretty complicated but things are about to get even more dangerous…"

My Opinion: Cameron is a young teen who has just lost his father, and his mother left when he was even younger, so he's very thankful when his grandmother takes him in, even though he doesn't know her at all because for some reason, his father wouldn't let him have anything to do with her when he was growing up. When she tells him she can bring his father back from the dead with his help, he's over the moon. She explains to him that there is a world parallel to ours, called the Daemon parallel, and that he has magic and can help her obtain all of the things needed to perform the ritual to bring his father back. This sets Cameron off on a quest that involves werewolves, daemons, and even humans, and puts him in danger from an unexpected source.

I enjoyed this book very much. Cameron was a very likeable young man, and the friends he makes along the way are just as likeable. The interesting thing is that the ones you think will be evil sometimes aren't, and the ones you're supposed to trust are sometimes the ones you should be running away from the fastest. It keeps you on your toes!

The plot was well written, and moved along at an easy pace. The world building was phenomenal due to a very interesting setting. The human world and the Daemon parallel were described very well, which made them easy to imagine. The ending was a great twist, as well.

In summary, I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Highly recommend to MG readers who like a little paranormal in their stories.

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review: The Faceless One (The Faceless One #1), by Mark Onspaugh

Title: The Faceless One (The Faceless One #1)

Author: Mark Onspaugh

Format: E-galley

Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: "In 1948, when he was just a boy, Jimmy Kalmaku trained with his uncle to be the shaman of his Tlingit village in Alaska. There he learned the old legends, the old myths, the old secrets. Chief among them was that of a mask locked in a prison of ice, and of the faceless god imprisoned within: a cruel and vengeful god called T'Nathluk, dedicated to the infliction of pain and suffering.

Now all but forgotten in a Seattle retirement home, Jimmy finds his life turned upside down. For when an unwitting archaeologist pries the mask free of its icy tomb, he frees T’Nathluk as well. Stuck in spirit form, the Faceless One seeks a human to serve as a portal through which he can enter our reality. The Faceless One can control—and mercilessly torture—anyone who touches the mask, which means there is no shortage of slaves to ferry it across the country to its chosen host.

Yet the Faceless One has foes as well: Stan Roberts, a tough New York cop whose pursuit of justice will lead him into a dark abyss of the soul; Steven, Liz, and Bobby, the family of the doomed archaeologist; and Jimmy Kalmaku, who must at last become the shaman of his boyhood dreams." 

My Opinion: The Faceless One is an ancient evil, a "cruel and vengeful god called T-Nathluk." The shamans of the Tlingit tribe in Alaska have always watched over this evil and made sure it stayed buried and encased in ice. Unfortunately, there are no more shamans in the village and a couple of anthropologists have unearthed the mask that imprisoned this evil god, and all hell is about to be unleashed on the world, unless a group of strangers can work together to reimprison it.

I thought this book was a great horror story, written by a new name in the world of horror, Mark Onspaugh. This was a great debut novel that introduced a unique evil and a group of very likeable characters, with a delicious amount of sit on the edge of your seat possession and torture thrown in for good measure. Because this book was well written, it was a really quick read, with good even pacing that moved along quite nicely. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going, it would take a turn and go off in a whole new direction, and the ending was a nice twist.

In summary, I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading the second book in the series.

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review: Resistance (Of Ember and Flame, #1), by C.E. Ord

 

Title: Resistance (Of Ember and Flame, #1)

Author: C.E. Ord

Format: e-galley

Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: "With their sixteenth birthday fast approaching, orphaned twins Lia and Tyler Ford are still settling into their new normal in Sydney, Australia. Life with their paternal grandmother—their sole remaining, living family member—is a million miles removed from their former life with their parents in Ardsley, New York. Their grandmother is wonderful, their new school friends are nice, and Sydney is a perfectly fine place to live, but life these days for the Ford twins is not what anyone expected it to be.

Lia wouldn't have thought life could surprise her any more than it already has, but the arrival of a strange young man with an even stranger message turns what's left of her fractured world upside down in an instant. She and Tyler suddenly have more questions than ever before about their family's mysterious past, but also—finally—the chance to maybe fill in some of the many gaps in their knowledge of their family's history. That possibility has them readily following their unexpected visitor, Coen, to Gaea: a parallel universe which perfectly mirrored Earth millennia ago, though the two worlds have evolved to be markedly different realms today.

Gaea is in crisis. The North has already fallen, and the people of the South live in fear of a force so evil and powerful it may be impossible to defeat. With an empire hanging in the balance, the stakes are impossibly high, as are the expectations being placed on Lia. She must rise to the challenge and play her part in the resistance, or die trying—as the people of Gaea surely will if she fails. And, if Lia and Tyler can stay alive long enough on their treacherous journey, they might find out not only who they really are, but who they're destined to be."

My Opinion: It's been almost a year since twins Lia and Tyler Ford lost both of their parents in a car crash and had to leave everything they knew in New York and move to Australia to live with their paternal grandmother. Tyler is adjusting better than Lia, but on the last day of school she agrees to go with him to meet up with some of his friends from school. There she is approached by a strange boy by the name of Coen, with an even stranger tale. 

Quote: "I'm from a world called Gaea," he said evenly, his eyes never wavering from mine.

"A---a world . . . a world? WORLD?" I looked from Coen over to Tyler and then back again. Maybe this guy was a crackpot after all.

"Yes," Coen said evenly, his gaze still fixed firmly on mine. "A world. A world your mother and grandmother came from. A world that needs your help."

Needless to say, Lia and Tyler's world is turned upside down. They agree to go to Gaea with Coen, and that's when their adventure starts.

I'm just going to say it, I loved this book! I loved the twins and their relationship, and the fact that Tyler left everything up to Lia, but said that no matter what she decided, he was with her 100%, and Coen was adorable, too. The world building was done well, although I would have liked a little bit more of a lead up to this. The pacing was also great, and this was a very fast read because of that. The characters grew and matured from the start of the book to the end as more and more responsibility was thrust upon them, which was written in a very believable way. And there was a great twist at the end, another plus!

In summary, I loved this book and can't wait to see where the next book takes us. 

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Review: Point Last Seen (Last Seen in Gothic #1), by Christina Dodd

 

Title: Point Last Seen (Last Seen in Gothic #1)

Author: Christina Dodd

Format: e-book

Source: NetGalley

From Goodreads: "LIFE LAST SEEN

When you’ve already died, there should be nothing left to fear… When Adam Ramsdell pulls Elle’s half-frozen body from the surf on a lonely California beach, she has no memory of what her full name is and how she got those bruises ringing her throat.

GIRL LAST SEEN

Elle finds refuge in Adam’s home on the edge of Gothic, a remote village located between the steep lonely mountains and the raging Pacific Ocean. As flashes of her memory return, Elle faces a terrible truth—buried in her mind lurks a secret so dark it could get her killed.

POINT LAST SEEN

Everyone in Gothic seems to hide a dark past. Even Adam knows more than he will admit. Until Elle can unravel the truth, she doesn’t know who to trust, when to run and who else might be hurt when the killer who stalks her nightmares appears to finish what he started…"

My Opinion: Ok, with that synopsis, who can really resist this book? Not me, and I'm so glad I didn't try! Disclaimer: I'm a huge Christina Dodd fan. I was before I read this, and I definitely still am. This book, filled with lost souls, was also a mystery, a thriller, and a suspense filled ride. I absolutely love the town of Gothic and look forward to reading more about it and its inhabitants in the books that follow this one.

Adam leads a self imposed solitary existence, and he has no plans to change that, until he finds a dead body on the beach near his home. Enter Elle. After bringing her back to life, and realizing that she has no memory of who she is or how she got in the water, and after noticing that she is covered in bruises, he takes her home with him and promises her a safe place to stay until she is well enough to leave. That proves easier said than done when he starts developing feelings for her. The search for Elle's identity and the mystery of her death leads to violence not just for Adam and Elle, but for other residents of Gothic. It turns out Adam isn't the only one with a checkered past in the town.

I loved this book so much in part because I loved Adam and Elle so much. They were great characters with great chemistry. The other residents of Gothic were pretty great, too, and everyone's back story was detailed, which made it easy to get invested in them. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this book series goes.

The plot was interesting and the writing was superb, which made this a quick read for me. The pacing was also on point.

In summary, I highly recommend this book to readers looking for a good mystery to sink their teeth into. 

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.