Book Review- The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

Title: The Gathering Storm

 Author: Robin Bridges

Series:  The Katerina Trilogy #1

To be published:  January 10 2012 by Delacorte Press

Length: 400 pages

Warnings: a little violence, romance

Source: Netgalley

Other info: This is Robin Bridge’s debut novel.

Summary : Debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.
 An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.
 The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

Review: This is set in 1880s Russia, and centres around Katerina, a young necromancer. As well as the dead being brought back to life, this Russia also contains many different types of vampires, faeries, witches and many paranormal creatures connected somehow to Russian folkore. And with all the mystery going on at court, various things happen and Katerina is the only one who can really do anything about it.

I don’t normally read things involving Russia, mainly because there’s not that many YA books set in Russia. Or maybe they are, and I’ve not heard of them. But anyway, this was a new culture for me. The way the faerie and vampire and other paranormal races were woven into the Nobility was very interesting, and done in a way that I love.d. Really, the actual nobility were the creatures. Fun. 

Katerina is a great lead character, she’s strong, not afraid to voice her opinions and dreams of being a doctor, something almost unheard of for women in those days. I don’t think the other characters were quite as well done, possibly excepting her mother, who was strong and interesting in her own way. The romance, while not being particularly amazing, didn’t detract from enjoying the book either, and was just there.  The biggest drawback in this is the names. All very similar, as per Russian tradition, but hard to remember and distinguish.

The mystery and the part of the plot that was interesting didn’t really pick up until later on in the novel. Until then, it was fairly repetitive. And then when it did all pick up, I was hooked until the end.

I loved the rich mythology and the whole variety of things used. It was very interesting to read about the set up of the nobility, and also the set up of the Faerie and Vampire courts and so and so.

We're kept guessing throughout the second half, partly due to the stuff that's happening and the ways it could go, and partly because of the way things are easily mixed up (at least for me).

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a very original book with a strong heroine that I want to see more of.

Links: Goodreads |

Book Review- Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L Howard

Title: Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

 Author: Jonathan L Howard

Series:  Johannes Cabal #1

Published:  7 July 2009

Length:304 pages

Warnings: profanity, violence, the devil, hell, vampires

Source: Library

Other info: There are many more in this series.

Summary : A charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian tale about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice.
Johannes Cabal sold his soul a year ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored. Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Johannes is given one calendar year and  a travelling carnival to complete his task. With little time to waste, Johannes raises a motley crew from the dead and enlists his brother Horst, a charismatic vampire, to help him run his nefarious sideshow, resulting in mayhem at every term.

Review: Johannes Cabal sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the secrets of necromancy. A little later, he decides he wants his soul back. So he goes to Hell and asks. Satan tells him that if he can get 100 people to sign their souls over to him, Cabal gets his soul back. Cabal sets up a travelling carnival, gets the help of his older vampire brother Horst, conjures up some things as attractions and staff, and sets out/

The book is basically all of that happening. I like the idea behind it. It’s not often we see people who have entered into a Faustian contract, decide they want out, skip the queues and the paperwork to get into hell, and makes a bet with the devil. A fun and original concept.

I like the little sidestories that document what happens at each stop on the way. It doesn’t document the whole year, as that would take too long, but it gives you a very good idea of what happens at every stage.

I liked the characters. I think Horst Cabal was my favourite because of the way he handled his brother and the fact that said brother is trying to get 100 people to sign forms agreeing to eternal damnation. They were all well characterised and easy to distinguish. However, there were a few characters that appeared for about three pages, then were never heard of again. All right, these three pages described who they were and how they died, but still it would have been nice if they’d have been cleverly worked in somewhere along the line.

The humour in this seemed to come and go. It had a extremely funny opening, where Cabal summons a demon and has an arguement with it about how he should have correctly summoned it, with Cabal saying that the demon was there now and therefore it didn’t matter, but then the humour died down, came back, and went and came back throughout. The writing was third person, kept the book going, but kept you slightly distanced from the characters.

With the ending there was, I’m not entirely sure how a sequel could be produced. However, there’s a whole series, and I’ll read book two some day.

Overall:  strength 3 tea to an original and somewhat funny book.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review: The Demon Trappers Daughter/Forsaken by Jana Oliver

Title:  The Demon Trapper’s Daughter aka Forsaken (US/UK titles respectively)

Author: Jana Oliver

Series: The Demon Trappers #1

Published: February 7th 2011 by MacMillan Children's Books

Length: 448 pages

Warnings:  demons, witches, magic, a bit of romance

Other info: The website is http://www.demontrappers.co.uk , and you can find Jana Oliver here. Book 2, Soul Thief/Forbidden, should be out in August.

Summary: Riley has always wanted to be a Demon Trapper like her father, and she's already following in his footsteps as one of the best. But it's tough being the only girl in an all-guy world, especially when three of those guys start making her life more complicated: Simon, the angelic apprentice who has heaven on his side; Beck, the tough trapper who thinks he's God's gift, and Ori, the strikingly sexy stranger who keeps turning up to save her ass. One thing's for sure - if she doesn't keep her wits about her there'll be hell to pay...

Book Review-Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Title: Invincible

Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Series: Chronicles of Nick #2

Published: 22 March 2011

Length: 309 pages

Warnings: demons, blood, mild rude joke x1  (the new principle: Richard Head- we can call him Dick Head and say its just his name) , what is basically vampires, shapeshifters, necromancy, a little dating which doesn’t go very far

Other info: My review of book 1, Infinity, is here and there will be a third book in the series. Sherrilyn Kenyon has also written for adults the League series and the Dark Hunter series, the latter which is also a manga for young adults. You can find Sherrilyn Kenyon on Youtube, Myspace, Twitter, Facebook and at her website.

Summary  from back of book: When teenager Nick Gautier was saved from almost certain death by a mysterious warrior, he had a feeling his life was set to change. Fighting the undead has taken the place of fighting with his teachers (well...almost!) and Nick is learning to rely on his powers to protect the world from evil he could never before have imagined.
then, just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, he wakes up to find himself enslaved in a world of shapeshifters and demons out to claim his soul. But more than that, he’s being groomed by the darkest of powers and if he doesn’t learn to raise the dead by the end of the week, he will become one of them...

Review: Its the second book in the chronicles of nick series, and its jvery good, just like the first. It begins with a large dose of Nick and Kyrian's sarcasm, when Kyrian has to explain to Nick that he really isn't a vampire, just something that only can come out at night, has ridiculously long fangs, is pretty near immortal and is not a vampire. Despite Nick's overly cautious attitude, Kyrian wins, probably because Nick realises that there are even weirder things going on in life. In the form of his new football coach, who is attempting to collect personal items of everyone in the class so he can control them. And the fact someone is on a murder spree of fourteen year old boys, which Nick is. The reasons for this will become clear as you read on.

We meet a few new characters, my favourite being Death, aka Morty, a chef for Sanctuary and volunteer for the suicide helplines. We also meet Aimee and the rest of the Peltier clan, a family of shapeshifter bears who own Sanctuary, a pub and sanctuary for other paranormal types, and a few more. Again we meet Acheron and Simi and Kody and Bubba and other familiar faces.

Sherrilyn Kenyon once again brings New Orleans to life with full description, and the plot is brilliant, full of mystery, paranormal stuff and a little bit of romance.

It also leaves us expecting more-the relationship between Nick and Uncle Ambrose needs to be explored (readers of the Dark Hunter series should have worked it out) and I generally want to see what else happens to Nick that makes him into the guy we know in the DH series.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea because its great fun with a good story and something for everyone.