Book Review: Relentless Flame by Jillian Davis

Author: Jillian Davis
Series: Hell to Pay #2
Audience: +18
Genre: Paranormal romance
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Release Date: May 4th 2015
My Rating: 5 cups
Source: Reading Alley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Immortal. Colossal. Suave. Indebted killer Dante Blackstone has the world at his feet. Every vice, any desire, is his for the asking—until he finds the one person he cannot have: one sweet, diminutive woman who could bring about Dante’s destruction.

Despite her supernatural ability to heal others, a devastating act of evil has left Hannah Miller broken in body and spirit. As she rebuilds her life while on the lam, a not-so-chance meeting with Dante chips away at the walls surrounding her fragile heart. But before their fledgling love can take flight, Dante’s boss sends an evil minion with one mandate: Eliminate Dante’s new reason to break his eternal contract.

As they fight to survive, Hannah’s amazing gift gives Dante one chance to save them both from the vicious minion. How can any love survive eternal hell and annihilation?

The answer lies in Dante’s inferno.

*Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book from Reading Alley and Crimson Romance in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion or my rating of the book in any way.



There are books in series that are good, and then there are books that kind of set the bar for the next installments in the series. Relentless Flame is that book for the Hell to Pay series.

First of all, let me tell you that the cover model looks so similar to Kevin Sorbo. If you don't know who Kevin Sorbo is shame on you, and go search him. I had to get that off my chest before talking about the book. My love for the book has nothing to do with KS, just FYI. Anyway, moving on.

Dante is the kind of hero that I love to love. He is cocky, he is sure of himself, and he knows what he wants and acts accordingly. The part that I love about him? He is so freaking adorable when he's out of his element. I giggled like a loon reading his first interactions with Hannah, because he was so confused by her. Here you have an old-as-dirt man that has been with more women than he could ever count, and Hannah renders him speechless. I loved that so much, mostly because I love reading about the inner struggle of any character to realize that they can be bested. Aside from the funny stuff, I love that with him you can sort of see the old, kind of classic upbringing. I love his speech patterns, his vocabulary, even the little phrases in Swedish. A testament to Davis' writing style really, because it was a different experience than with reading Peter's book. I loved that book, yes, but this book had an old-soul feel to it.

Hannah was awesome. Her life was so tragic, and I am so happy with how the story ended for her. I was impressed by her, really. She has an interesting ability, to heal people, and it's interesting to see how that ability isn't helping her heal her soul. I found that aspect of her really intriguing.

I like how the story is going for Jerahmeel. I love how both the previous book and this one show how he is slowly losing it. I also like that he's not portrayed in a typical way, he isn't smooth or silent or just deadly. He seems more deranged, and I like that.

I liked the pacing of the book, it felt fast enough to keep me on my toes, but slow enough to not make the relationship between Hannah and Dante forced. This book also introduced a new character, Ruth, and her book is next. I'm curious how that will go on, and how the rest of the Indebted start fighting for their freedom. I'm not ready for the series to end, though. Is it too much to hope for a spin-off?

Comic Book Tuesday #13: Monstress #2 by Marjorie M. Liu

Author: Marjorie M. Liu
Series: Monstress #2
Genre: Comic Book, Graphic Novel
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: December 9th 2015
My Rating: 4 cups
Source: Netgaley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Maika fights to cross the wall. Elsewhere, the Warlord makes her move.

*Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book from Netgalley and Image Comics in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion or my rating of the book in any way.

This second issue of the Monstress comic book picks up right after the first one ends. We get to see the struggles of Maika to get away from the people hunting her, as well as from herself.

We also get to see a little bit more from the villain's POV, and so far I'm wondering who the biggest threat is. I haven't yet decided if Maika's more in danger because of other people or because of herself.

The art is, as in the first issue, beautiful, with dark colors, although some rich colors do appear because of some new characters.

My favorite thing about this issue was the ending, which presents a different view of the history of the world in this comic book. It's difficult to talk about it without giving too much away, but I like how it gives a sort of unbiased view of what happened before this particular story. I adore it, anyways.

I did however felt the need for the issue to be bigger, maybe not as big as the last one, but I felt like the story is so rich and complex, that I wished it lasted longer. All of that aside, a good installment and I am curious to see what happens next.

ARC August 2016: Week 2 Progress Update

Hello fellow readers! I hope your weekend went great and that it will continue to be fantastic. I decided to give you an update for my ARC August challenge. In case you don't remember, I planned on reading at least 27 books during this challenge. Here's where I stand after the first two weeks:

ARCs read that were part of my initial list:

ARCs read that weren't part of my list:

I know I said on Twitter that I was going to start with my oldest ARC on my initial list, Menagerie, and I was going to, honestly! But for some reason my heart wasn't into it, and I decided instead of DNFing, to work my way up to it. Plus, I was craving some fast paced books. Also, I recently got some other books that I need to get to, that are ARCs and that weren't part of that list. I hope to get to read them all *fingers crossed*.

So as of right now, I've read 3 books out of 27, and 1 book extra. Pretty proud of myself, considering I've had to do some work around the house and could only read at night, before bed. Hopefully soon I'll get some free time on my hands.

Did you make any progress on reading the books you wanted to during this challenge?