Welcome to Thursday, Readers! Today I am joining Cassandra Palmer as she finds herself facing two adversaries! Enjoy and don't forget to add Brave the Tempest by Karen Chance to your shelves!

Cassie Palmer has been chief seer of the supernatural world for a little over four months. In that time, she's battled two gods, fallen in love with two men, and confronted the two sides of her own nature, both god and human. So it's not surprising that she currently finds herself facing two adversaries, although they have a single purpose: to wipe out the supernatural community's newest fighting force, leaving it vulnerable to enemies in this world and beyond.

To prevent catastrophe, the vamps, mages, and demons will have to do the one thing they've never managed before and come together as allies. Cassie has the difficult task of keeping the uneasy coalition intact, and of persuading her own two opposing forces, a powerful mage with a secret and a master vampire with a growing obsession, to fight at her side. She just hopes they can do it without tearing each other apart.

For the past four months, Pythia Cassandra Palmer has been quite busy battling gods, falling in love with two men and confronted the two sides of her own nature, both god and human. So it’s not really surprising that she is now facing two adversaries with a single purpose – to wipe out the supernatural community’s newest fighting force. Cassie also has the difficult task of keeping the uneasy alliance between the vamps, mages and demons intact and persuading her own two opposing forces, a powerful mage and a master vampire to fight at her side without tearing each other apart.

Cassie is being run ragged in this riveting and volatile new story. Fans of the Cassandra Palmer series love all the strong, dominant characters and all the explosive action and thrilling suspense and they’re definitely disappointed with one as continues in true Cassandra Palmer fashion and keeps readers’ hearts pounding and their eyes cemented to the pages. The non-stop, fast paced plot is full of suspense, excitement and emotionally gripping turmoil of personal issues, relationship issues, political issues and of course, the issues of all the two adversaries with plans to make the supernatural community vulnerable in this world and beyond. The Senate is planning an offensive but of course is plagued with mistrust and their own arrogance with the politics getting in the way, betrayals and enemies keep stirring up things up and testing Cassie’s endurance. While Cassie’s still questioning her relationship with Mircea and wondering what is happening between her and Pritkin. With all of this going on, is it any wonder that readers can’t possibly put this stunning, deliciously thrilling story down once they have begun.

Author's Book Page

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Riffle   *   Romance.io   *   GBooks 

Brave the Tempest is the 9th book in the Cassandra Palmer series! 

Goodreads   *   Berkley   *   Amazon

1 Touch the Dark

2 Claimed by Shadow

3 Embrace the Night

4 Curse the Dawn

5 Hunt the Moon

6 Tempt the Stars

7 Reap the Wind

8 Ride the Storm

9 Brave the Tempest

**Series includes some shorts not shown here**

The Cassandra Palmer series is set in the Same world as Dorina Basarab series.

Timeline 

This timeline gives the reading order for both the Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series.  It also shows the reading order for the novellas and shorts connected with the books.

Cassandra Palmer #10 - Shatter the Earth - 

December 2019

AVAILABLE in print, ebook or audio

Amazon   *   B&N   *   Kobo   *   IndieBound

iBooks   *   GPlay   *   Berkley

Karen Chance is the author of two New York Times bestselling series, plus a number of novellas and short stories, all set in the Cassandra Palmer universe. A full-time writer since 2008, she was previously a university history teacher, which comes in handy when writing the time-travel aspect of Cassie’s crazy adventures. She loves Las Vegas, the main setting for her novels, but currently lives in Florida near her family home.

Website   *   Goodreads   *   BookBub   *   Twitter

Facebook   * Facebook - Cassandra Palmer   *   Amazon

Half-human, half-vampire Dorina Basarab is back–and facing her biggest challenge yet in the next urban fantasy in the New York Times bestselling series.

Dorina Basarab is a dhampir–half-human, half-vampire. As one of the Vampire Senate’s newest members, Dory already has a lot on her plate. But then a relative of one of Dory’s fey friends goes missing. They fear he’s been sold to a slaver who arranges fights–sometimes to the death–between different types of fey.

As Dory investigates, she and her friends learn the slavers are into something much bigger than a fight club. With the Vampire Senate gearing up for war with Faerie, it’ll take everything she has to defeat the slavers–and deal with the entirely too attractive master vampire Louis-Cesare….

Dorina has a lot on her plate being one of the Vampire Senate’s newest members but when a relative of one of her friends goes missing, Dory investigates a slaver and it’ll take everything she has to defeat them and deal with Louis-Cesare.

The “Dorina Basarab” series is a well-developed and fascinating world full of strong, charismatic characters that readers are easily drawn to and certainly can’t get enough of. Each and every story is fast paced with thrilling and daring battles, intriguing events, magical weaponry that sparks the imagination and plots that keeps readers hanging on to every word and that’s not to mention that witty dialogue that produces chuckles even as the kick a** heroine puts enemies in their place. Dorina is one tough chick but she also has a vulnerable side and readers can easily connect with her while enjoying her adventures.

There is never a dull moment to be found in the fourth book – “Shadow’s Bane” as one thrilling event after another takes place during this fast paced plot which is also interspersed with emotional turbulent scenes that ensures the readers get a well-rounded view of Dory and the multiple issues taking place throughout the story including her romance with Louis-Cesare and her relationship with her father. Her and her friends not only have to deal with the slavers which is much more complicated than they originally thought, but Dory is faced with tons of houseguests, the coming war with the Fae, Mircea’s past and her inner struggle with her “twin”.

The plot is a bit complex and is so full of twists and turns that readers will need to pay attention in order to keep up but the plot plays out so that it adds to the anxious atmosphere of the story which really keeps readers glued to the pages and I can’t wait to find out what happens next in Dorina’s world.

Shadow’s Bane

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24104482-shadow-s-bane

BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/books/shadow-s-bane-by-karen-chance

is the 4th book in the Doriana Basarab series

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/series/45661-dorina-basarab

Which includes
.1 Zombie’s Bite
.3 Dragon’s Claw
.5 Buying Trouble
1 Midnight’s Daughter
2 Death’s Mistress
2.1 In Vino Veritas
3 Fury’s Kiss
3.5 Lover’s Knot
4 Shadow’s Bane

& is connected to the Cassandra Palmer series.

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/series/49237-cassandra-palmer

This timeline gives the reading order for both the Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series. It also shows the reading order for the novellas and shorts connected with the books.

http://karenchance.com/timeline.html

Shadow’s Bane is available in print & ebook at:

Penguin - http://www.penguin.com/book/shadows-bane-by-karen-chance/9780451419064

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451419065?tag=randohouseinc7986-20

B&N - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shadows-bane-karen-chance/1127456869?ean=9780451419064

BaM - http://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780451419064?AID=10876509&PID=8373827&SID=PRHEFFDF5A7F1--9780451419064

Hudson - https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/book/9780451419064

IndieBound - http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780451419064?aff=penguinrandom

Powells - http://www.powells.com/book/-9780451419064

iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1312463723

Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/shadow-s-bane

GPlay - https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Karen_Chance_Shadow_s_Bane?id=Jzk-DwAAQBAJ

Karen Chance is the author of two New York Times bestselling series, plus a number of novellas and short stories, all set in the Cassandra Palmer universe. A full-time writer since 2008, she was previously a university history teacher, which comes in handy when writing the time-travel aspect of Cassie’s crazy adventures. She loves Las Vegas, the main setting for her novels, but currently lives in Florida near her family home.

Website - http://karenchance.com/

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/38066.Karen_Chance

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/karen-chance

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/#!/KarenChanceBooks

Twitter - https://twitter.com/CasPalmerSeries

There is some nice humor in this book about trolls. The D'Aulaires draw somewhat from Norse myth, though there are no stories of Norse gods. It is funny because you can just see Biblo going what, as you read it.

by Theoder Kittlesen.  The man in the top hat and white beard walking is Ibsen.

I was drawn in by the title and I thought the cover was absolutely gorgeous, although I still do not understand why there is a crown of what appears to be barbed wire around her head. Even so, I definitely wanted to take a chance on Acne Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon. It took me about two hours to read and to describe it in two words it was ‘mellow’ and ‘adventurous.’

Sometimes in fantasy (or anything with adventure in general) books, there’s a constant urgency feeling. At least, that’s how it is for me. Even though my heart-rate might be steady and normal, my mind is tense, as if I’m wading through an ocean of suspense. And you know? That can be stressful. So I liked the mellow feeling that I got from, Acne, Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon (which is hereby shortened to AAOS).

Please welcome Allyson Takata to the stage. Allyson is in high-school and extremely insecure over the acne, later learned to be scales, on her face. She hasn’t had much adventure in her life farther than evading the bullies in her school and snatching hurtling objects out of the air before they can kiss her face.
I liked Allyson. She was intelligent, courageous, and tried her best to save people who she didn’t know. Many people are insecure about acne on their faces, so I found no fault in her applying makeup. The only fault I found in her was that she was disrespectful towards her mom. Rarely has my mom been wrong about things that matter and Allyson’s blatant lack of respect towards the only parent she’s ever known, the same parent who has no doubt been trying to protect her for years (which should have been obvious to Allyson after a while), was terrible. I won’t lie and say that Allyson not having many flaws bothered me since it didn’t. Because of the pace, there wasn’t time for meticulous character development, no matter how realistic it may be. There was still character development, but it wasn’t the kind that I’m usually writing about.

I loved the relationship between Allyson and Beth. Almost every YA novel has the main character only have one best friend, but Beth didn’t feel like one best friend. Rocford didn’t write her to be the only best friend Allyson has with the sole purpose of talking about boys or filling in silence. She was genuine, real, and an amazing supportive friend. She listens to Allyson, but has opinions of her own and voices them. Allyson and Beth were the team, working together to solve a problem inside the fantasy world that Allyson was just beginning to understand. For once, it wasn’t the usual hero and heroine combo, but two best friends working together. Loved it. And that also brings me to my next point.

The love interest wasn’t truly introduced until the very end. That’s worth repeating in bold and italics. The love interest wasn’t truly introduced until the very end. Rocford introduces him as a person first, cute guy second, and romantic interest third and that made me incredibly happy. In fact, the first love interest or romantic pairing that is in the story, isn’t even for.with Allyson. How cool is that? Bonus: It wasn’t insta-love/love at first sight, but rather attraction which is completely acceptable in my opinion. You can be attracted to someone physically by merely setting eyes on them and I think that that is what happened in AASO. Hopefully the relationships become more than that and are developed if a sequel is published. Regardless, I commend Rocford for using this technique because it is unfortunately rarely used but even more fascinating.

The plot was practically concrete, sort of. It was solid and had structure, but unlike concrete, the plot of AASO had focus. Although I wish that there had been a bit more information on the actual fantasy part, for example, how shifting works or more explanation on Beth’s situation with unicorns or even just basic, but informative information on each create that Allyson encounters. Nonetheless, I was pleased that I could easily see that Rocford had put sincere thought into her writing.

Would I Recommend Acne, Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be a Half Dragon?
Quite frankly, I didn’t find anything wrong with AAOS that would ruin your experience. It’s two-hundred and thirty pages, but it felt like a short story and I liked that. The pace wasn’t rushed and I felt comfortable with how quickly I was given information and the characters that were included in this journey. However, you might not appreciate the length as much as I did if you pay five dollars for it.