Hey guys!
So today is my stop on the incredible Steel & Stone blog tour. I only discovered this series a few weeks ago and it's already one of my favourites of the year, it's amazing and I highly recommend it to everyone. I will be reviewing the Steel & Stone bundle set so this blog post will be pretty long, sorry but there's a fantastic giveaway at the end so don't worry, I've got you covered!
Chase the Dark Review
Chase the Dark
Author: Annette Marie
Series: Steel & Stone #1
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Release Date: October 17th 2014
Book Length: 302
Piper Griffiths wants one thing in life: To become a Consul, a keeper of the peace between humans and daemons. There are three obstacles in her way.
The first is Lyre. Incubus. Hotter than hell and with a wicked streak to match. His greatest mission in life is to get Piper into bed and otherwise annoy the crap out of her. The second is Ash. Draconian. Powerful. Dangerous. He knows too much and reveals nothing. Also, disturbingly attractive — and scary. Did she mention scary?
The third is the Sahar Stone. Top secret magical weapon of mass destruction. Previously hidden in her Consulate until thieves broke in, went on a murder spree, and disappeared with the weapon.
And they left Piper to take the fall for their crimes.
Now she’s on the run, her dreams of becoming a Consul shattered and every daemon in the city gunning to kill her. She’s dead on her own, but there’s no one she can trust — no one except two entirely untrustworthy daemons ... See problems one and two.
Review
Say hello to your favourite new series. I’m
not kidding, this book is pure sin, I was hooked from the very beginning and
before I knew it I looked up and it was 2am; sleep is irrelevant when it comes
Chase the Dark. I always read books that I think I will like, very rarely do I
choose something that I wouldn’t usually read on a whim, so the majority of the
books I read I actually enjoy- I’m sure this shows in my review ratings. However what
doesn’t happen usually is that I become so engrossed with a book that
everything else gets pushed to a side; pesky deadlines I can avoid, but sleep,
food and my phone? These are essential. So when a book has me in this type of
thrall is has to be praised and praised well because although I consider myself
a bookworm I’m also known for being terribly lazy, spending the entire day on Twitter and
feeding my ongoing Netflix addiction so these books must be good!
Enough
about me, you’re here for the good stuff. Piper is a half human-half daemon and
her dream job is to become a Consul: someone who keeps the peace between the
two ‘species’. However when a powerful, magical object is stolen from her home
and what's left behind is destruction and a trail of bodies Piper becomes the prime suspect.
Piper is now on the run, with the authorities and dangerous daemons close on her heels she had no choice but to trust the Dream Team – Ash & Lyre in the
hopes of clearing her name and saving her family.
Piper is a strong heroine, she’s incredibly
likeable due her realistically human nature; she’s intelligent but can be
short-sighted and rash, she’s able to kick butt but she’s not the most powerful being
around, I like that she was normal and had weaknesses like anybody
else; this only made me admire her sheer determination and refusal to be kicked
while she was down.
The
romance *braces self for ultimate fangirling* is ridiculous and by that
I mean that the amount I have swooned, freaked out and outright screeched was
ridiculous. Holy OTP this was so freaking good. From the synopsis it’s easy to
assume there’s a love triangle and I won't lie to you- there is no love triangle! BUT I will tell you
that there are a few kisses, yes it’s very very easy to assume that this is like any
other love triangle but it’s not.
As I’ve said
there is no love triangle, there are clear differences between each relationship
and it’s not good boy vs bad boy, the relationship between one pair is what I
like to call transparent --- yes there are kisses but it is painfully obvious
where they stand and if that doesn’t make it clear then the situation
regarding these moments will pretty much spell it out for you, so love-triangle
haters worry not! What’s great about this is that there out no good and bad
guys, everyone is that pesky shade of gray but you love them anyway. It’s not
very often that I enjoy all the main characters but I have to say that I adored
Piper, Ash and Lyre.
My current
stance on the romance between the two? Let’s look at that synopsis shall we? The second is Ash. Draconian. Powerful.
Dangerous. He knows too much and reveals nothing. Also, disturbingly
attractive? I am painfully
predictable, hello dangerous Draconian who broods and looks good in black? I’m
your new girlfriend, love me? I have done nothing but screech my love for
Ash, it’s shameful but my OTP is strong!
So the romance is great, the characters are
great what more could you want? Well how about a fast paced book, tonnes of
action and adventure, unpredictable plot twists and no cliffhanger but just
enough intrigue to make you pick up the second book that is available right
now? I don’t think you can ask for much more!
Overall Chase the Dark was a fantastic
start to a brand new series and I can’t believe I’m only just discovering this
diamond now. While the writing is pretty straight forward and due to Chase the
Dark being an Urban Fantasy there was little room for world-building - which is
completely understandable but when we did get it was brilliant – the book is
extremely plot and character driven but this only heightens your enjoyment. My
biased feelings about the characters and gorgeously intense romance aside, I can
honestly say that this book was so much fun to read, it's so entertaining and
amusing and ultimately addicting!
Bind the Soul Review
Bind the Soul Review
Bind the Soul
Author: Annette Marie
Series: Steel & Stone #2
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Release Date: January 9th 2015
Book Length: 304
The most important rule for an Apprentice Consul is simple: Don't get involved with daemons. Well, Piper is planning to break that rule — big time.
After a near-deadly scandal with the Sahar Stone, she has the chance to return to the only life she's ever wanted. All she has to do to keep her Apprenticeship is forget about Ash and Lyre. Ash might be enigmatic and notoriously lethal, and Lyre might be as sinfully irresistible as he is irritating, but they’re not bad for a couple of daemons.
There's just one problem: Ash is missing.
Really, she shouldn't risk her future for him. He lied. He betrayed her. But he also saved her life, damn it. Wherever he is, he's in trouble, and if she doesn't save his sorry butt, who will? But with every dangerous secret she unravels, each one darker than the last, she slips deeper into Ash's world — a world with no escape for either of them.
Review
Bind the Soul picks up right after Chase
the Dark, my beautiful Ash is missing internal screaming and Piper will
stop at nothing to save him, only he’s the one place on earth she cannot enter:
The Underworld and to go there would seal her fate as she would likely never
return. The evil Samael knows that Piper has unlocked the secrets of the Sahar
Stone and he plans on making her reveal it’s secrets and being the only person
alive who can use the stone.
In
this explosive sequel Piper travels to a different world and finds herself
surrounded by some of the worlds most powerful Underworld daemons. Bind the
Soul showed the extensive hierarchy of the daemons and what makes them so
different from humans and Overworld daemons. Piper actually puts her life on
the line on numerous occasions and usually this bothers in with MC’s when they
purposefully make such blatant stupid decisions. However Piper is doing this to
save Ash, she’s remained strong and courageous but her dedication to her
friends was commendable!
In addition to seeing another side to Piper
we also got some answers in regards to Ash’s past and some insight to him as a
character; and he remains the ultimate dreamboat. Ash may be the most dangerous
daemon around but he has a harrowing past that still haunts him today. Now the
romance like Chase the Dark is in the background and isn’t the main center of
the book but whew, when it’s time to come center stage, boy does it hell! Ash
and Piper were on fire, there’s literally this one scene that is burned into my
memory, they’re perfect, they both bring out the best in each other
and neither is the weak link in the chain.
So
we’ve got some adventure with travelling to another world but we’ve also kept
the high intensity action from book one too. The plot remains to be tricky and
unpredictable and the characters are still there sassy selves, the romance is
beautiful and the extra addition of magic was fantastic. Overall the Steel
& Stone series is only improving in my opinion and I hope it continues to
do so.
Yield the Night Review
Author: Annette Marie
Series: Steel & Stone #3
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Release Date: March 27th 2015
Book Length: 278
After surviving a round-trip to hell, Piper figures she can survive anything. After all, she just lived through the devastating loss of her Consul apprenticeship and a torturous stint at boarding school. How much worse could it get?
Well, she wasn’t expecting a group of crazy radicals to burn her home to the ground and take her prisoner.
The Gaians, a.k.a. the crazy radicals, plan to rid Earth of daemons and they need Piper’s help. In exchange for her cooperation, they promise her the answer to all her problems: magic. With her own magic, she could reclaim her apprenticeship, the only future she’s ever wanted. But her magic comes at price — it could kill her.
With the life she’s always known crumbling around her and her future slipping from her grasp, she needs Ash’s help one more time. But the greatest danger of all lies within her, and no matter what she does, she may lose everything — including him.
Review
Yield the Night is yet again another
gripping addition to the Steel & Stone series. Just when you think you can
get to grip with the characters and this unique paranormal world, a plot twist
will sneakily pull the rug out from under you. This thrilling book is such a guilty pleasure read, I can’t get enough of this series
and my enjoyment/obsession in reading them only increases with each new book.
After
the ending to Bind the Soul I thought that Yield the Night would be a much
slower book and it was, but only at the beginning- that was partly because I didn’t
really care for what was going on. I love it when Piper, Ash and Lyre are
together so everything up until there reunion is a waiting game for me. Piper
finds herself in yet another life or death situation, she’s been captured by the
Gaians and they’ve released her magic without her consent and for their own
agenda. However by doing this they’ve sealed her fate; her magic is slowly
killing her.
After Piper is rescued from the Gaians, the
plot and my interest is picked back up and held up the last page. Piper, Ash
and Lyre must visit the Overworld in search of Vejovis, as a sacred and
powerful healer he’s their last chance and only hope to help save Piper. It was amazing to
visit the Overworld and to finally have that knowledge and understanding of the
world and it’s people, it allows you to compare daemons and to see their
similarities and differences.
Piper’s
character took a rocky turn, she’s been through a lot but with her magic
rapidly deteriorating her life she wasn’t able to be the character I know and
love. I’m used to her strong will and ambition to help others so when she
became the weak link I felt sorry for her but also missed her old-ways. The
romance continued to build in angst and delicious tension between Piper and
Ash, as always Annette delivers when it comes to heart-stopping kisses, this
slow burn romance will be the death of me, I swear!
Overall Yield the Night is another
fantastic sequel and it’s my favourite book yet. I love how Annette can
continue to surprise me with plot twists and revelations about the past,
nothing is ever what it seems with this series and the mystery of what will
happen next keeps me gripped until the very end. This series shows no signs of
slowing down and I couldn’t be happier but I’m also a little angry. So far each
book hasn’t had a cliffhanger and this one? Oh the cliffhanger is a killer,
serious warning to readers who are just starting this series, you will want to
have Reap the Shadow #4 right next to you, trust me the ending is
heartbreaking!
About the Author:
Annette Marie is the author of the Amazon best-selling YA urban fantasy series Steel & Stone, which includes the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award nominee Yield the Night. Her first love is fantasy, a limitless realm of creativity where she can break all the boring rules of real life, but fast-paced urban fantasy, bold heroines, and tantalizing forbidden romances are her guilty pleasures. She proudly admits she has a thing for dragons, and her editor has politely inquired as to whether she intends to include them in every book. Annette lives in the frozen winter wasteland of northern Alberta, Canada (okay, it’s not quite that bad). She shares her life with her remarkably patient, comparatively sensible husband and their furry minion of darkness—sorry, cat—Caesar. When not writing, she can be found elbow-deep in one art project or another while blissfully ignoring all adult responsibilities.
Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Reading!
xo
I've been waiting so long for these reviews! I agree with absolutely every single point you make, this series is utterly phenomenal. Haha, I totally understand what you mean by this series taking away all necessities in life like sleep and food. I was up until 4am finishing Bind the Soul, and I literally was a zombie the next day (I was a happy zombie, though, living 100% off my love of Ash). Ahh, what has this series done to me?
ReplyDeleteYES Ash, is it possible to love him any more than we already do? I haven't read Yield the Night yet, but I know it's going to absolutely amazing, especially since you said that it's your favourite. I was worried it would be slower since Ash and Lyre are gone (cries), but my faith has been restored and I am more than ready to get back to Ash <3 I mean seriously, how hot and amazing is he? It's almost unbearable how badly we love him!
Right, time to brace myself for that cliffhanger ending now hahaha...hopefully I won't be destroyed or anything, but I seriously doubt that!
You are far too kind, thank you so much!!! That means the world to me <3
Delete4am? Oh wow Erika, you put my 2am to shame but wasn't the lack of sleep worth it? I mean ASH? *high pitch screams* hahaha yes, a zombie on a love high ;)
I know, I actually can't believe we've gone this far without him in our lives, I mean he's perfection.
Me and you both, it's sad but we know that the book won't be the same without Ash, Lyre and Piper together, but they're not apart for long so push through everything after that is amazing!
The romance is more angsty this time, like my forbidden feels were off the chart, serious swoons going on here!!! Oh I can't wait for you to read Yield the Night, I will know when you've read because I will not doubt have a ALL CAPS MESSAGE in my inbox ;)