Friday, June 13, 2014

#Review of The Mark of the Tala by @jeffekennedy #Thanks @NightOwlReviews

Queen Of The Unknown
The tales tell of three sisters, daughters of the high king. The eldest, a valiant warrior-woman, heir to the kingdom. The youngest, the sweet beauty with her Prince Charming. No one says much about the middle princess, Andromeda. Andi, the other one.
Andi doesn't mind being invisible. She enjoys the company of her horse more than court, and she has a way of blending into the shadows. Until the day she meets a strange man riding, who keeps company with wolves and ravens, who rules a land of shapeshifters and demons. A country she'd thought was no more than legend--until he claims her as its queen.
In a moment everything changes: Her father, the wise king, becomes a warlord, suspicious and strategic. Whispers call her dead mother a traitor and a witch. Andi doesn't know if her own instincts can be trusted, as visions appear to her and her body begins to rebel.
For Andi, the time to learn her true nature has come. . .
Print ARC

About the Author

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Biography

IMG_47902 smallJeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author with a writing career that spans decades. Her works include non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and novels. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook. 
Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns;  the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion, and an erotic  contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera, which released beginning January 2, 2014. A fourth series, the fantasy trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms, will hit the shelves starting in May 2014 and a fifth, the highly anticipated erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, will release starting in July.  
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog, on Facebook, and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Pam van Hylckama Vlieg of Foreword Literary.





Ok folks this one is a doozy.  The first 190 pages is set for the teen crowd.  Then at page 191 it jumps head first into the romance that is was supposed to be. And well it hold nothing back, as it has sexual scenes that would rival any other romance out there.  And after page 195 I couldn't take the beyond smut anymore.  

This book was a 190 pages of normal teen ya fantasy.  Your in the dark then BAM page 191 comes around and he is thrusting into her and doing doggie things etc.  Ya it was that bad.  Ok so this one was SO BEYOND NOT FOR ME.  I really wish that they would have taken that 190 pages and just turned this into a NORMAL FANTASY for teens or they should have redid that 190 pages and made her womanly center yearn for his loins. Or something cause this was just a very strange pairing for this reader.  

Review of the first 190 pages of a great book:
So after all that above.  What did I think, well I loved the characters and the magic.  I really wanted to know more about the Wilds and Andi's mom before all of this happened. Would make a great prequel.   I also would love a book about all the sisters.  I think that would be very interesting.  Well maybe Ursula vs. the youngest. As she is unmarried and will be a kick butt queen if she makes it out of this story alive.   The story was wonderful up until this point and it sad that the book was ruined for me. 

Final advice?

Well if you love romance then make sure you go into this one knowing that you will go through 190 pages of teen writing with NOTHING pertaining to romance (sexual) at ALL, NOTHING, BUPKISSM, NADDA, NOTHING, ZIPPO!!
  Then it will blow up in your face like finding a roach in your salad.
 Yes its like getting all up in your face after that. 

"All opinions are 100% honest and my own."


He sighed, and there might have been disappointment in it. “Put your dagger away and give me the ring, please.”
I hesitated.
“Believe me, you won’t get the drop on me so easily again. And the blade is at the wrong angle—you’d only get it stuck in a rib.”
“It would hurt, though.” I tried to sneer at him. He regarded me somberly, eyes dark.
“Yes, but my heart would be in no danger. The ring, Andromeda.”
I put the knife back in its sheath—what else could I do?—and opened my palm. He took the ring from me and brought it to his lips.
“I hadn’t dared hope that I might be able to do this for the first time myself. Your other hand, please.”
Mesmerized, I gave him my hand and watched him slide the ring onto my finger.
“My vow to you, Andromeda. I accept your plan. No harm will come to your sister.”
And to me? The dark stone glittered in the moonlight, my hand white against his fine black gloves.
“I can’t wear it—they’ll see.”
“For now. Then, keep it hidden, until our wedding.”
Our wedding. I knew that. Still the word blew through me like a hard fall.
“And to seal our pact—a kiss.” His voice echoed rough with hunger.
Did he kiss you?
            “What?”
“You heard me.”
            “What will it do?”
“Do?”
I cleared my throat and made myself look at him, his lips, just a hand’s length away. “It binds me to you somehow, doesn’t it?”
He smiled, a flash of true amusement. “Not in the way you mean.”
“Does it have to be now? Can’t it be…later?”
“No. I think not. I’ve given you my vow; now I require yours. A kiss, Andromeda.”
“Everyone calls me Andi.” I wanted to sound strong, but my voice came out nervous.
He lifted his hands and cupped my face, coaxing me to look into his eyes, black in the darkness.
“I’m not everyone else. My kiss.”
With a sense of fatality, I nodded and steeled myself. I would have to give him much more than this. He sighed out a long breath, as if he’d been holding it, and dropped his head, angling a bit. Unable to bear it, I closed my eyes.
His lips brushed over mine, warm and soft. Just a whisper of a kiss. He pulled back and I opened my eyes, surprised. He flashed a grin at me, then wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in tight against his hard body. His mouth captured mine again, lips feeding on mine, coaxing and pulling, until I opened up and his tongue swept mine, hot, arousing.
Fire blazed through me. That animal something that had been pacing through my heart, clawing at my veins, swelled up and rose to meet him. I kissed him back, ferocious, starving.
I clung to him, rising on my toes to better reach him, to press my body against his, my fingers tangling in the black silk of his hair while his hands plunged under the cloak to roam my body.
He hummed, low in his throat, a pleased male animal. The sound wrenched me back to reality. I pulled back but he held me tight.
Dropping my weight, I fixed my palms on his chest and pushed, with more strength than I ever remembered having, sending him staggering back an arm’s length, a surprised and delighted laugh escaping him.
“It’s not funny,” I hissed. “And be quiet—what if we’re discovered?”
“Then I take you with me now and we begin our wedding night that much sooner.”


Disclaimer: Thanks to Goodreads and Amazon for the book cover, about the book, and author information.

3 comments:

Wait?! What?! Huh?! There is nothing in the cover or blurb that even hints at what you are describing in the 2nd part of the book...It is at least mentioned somewhere right?

I mean I would be totally mortified if I had handed this to my daughter {which I would have-seeing the cover & blurb} only to have her reading something like that.

I think I've learned not to expect a lot from new authors I am reading, or new series, I remember reading all this amazing things about the Twilight books, and wanting to read it, and then I read it, and it wasn't awesome, and I felt so sad after.

The intro does actually sound interesting.
Kind of sad to hear it goes out of genre after that. Wonder if it does a second turnaround sometimes after page 195?

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