Book Review and Giveaway: Fire by T.G Ayer

Check out the rafflecopter at the bottom of this page for the giveaway :)

Title: Fire (The Hand of Kali #1)
Author: T.G. Ayer
Publisher: T.G. Ayer Books
Release Date: July 25th 2013
Source: Received from the author in exchange for an honest review

Normal people sneak out to a party and have fun. Maya Rao ends the evening by incinerating the guy who attacks her.

Nik Lucas, sexy, new in town and totally forbidden, happens to walk in on her. Normal guys would run for the hills. Nik knows a whole lot more than he's telling.

Maya doesn't believe the gods are real, doesn't waste her time with mere mythology. But when gods, demons and hellhound's become the new normal and wielding fire becomes her new skill, she must decide what it is she really believes.

Can Maya accept that normal is something she will never be because it isn't normal to be... the Hand of Kali

My Thoughts

*For the sake of full disclosure, I recently started working as PA to this author*

I cannot tell you how much I have fallen for Maya, Nik and this absolutely gorgeous YA book by T.G. Ayer!

Fire is an intricate story that wraps itself in the wonderfully vibrate world of Hinduism. Its fierce and often brutal gods and goddesses, each with a vested interest in Maya, in the hand of Kali, need her help to keep the balance - for the sake of all mankind.

A vast array of characters from different times, places, upbringings and worlds; they are warm and welcoming, mean and nasty, naive and immature, but all with a purpose, all very easy to relate to, and all another beautifully woven thread in this utterly intriguing tale.

I have fallen in love with this authors ability to create such rich and powerful, beautifully descriptive mystical and mythological stories. T.G. Ayer has created a world full of characters that easily become addictive, that drag you by your heartstrings from one page to the next, demanding your complete and utter attention until you’re finished - and even then - you can’t stop thinking about them!

Full of rich Hindu mythology, Fire is a beautifully written story for young and old to fall in love with. A delightfully different and engrossing 5 star read.

Purchase Links
 
Amazon for Kindle http://amzn.to/11ehs5j
Smashwords for Nook Kobo etc http://bit.ly/11ehFW5

I have been a writer from the time I was old enough to recognize that reading was a doorway into my imagination. Poetry was my first foray into the art of the written word. Books were my best friends, my escape, my haven. I am essentially a recluse but this part of my personality is impossible to practice given I have two teenage daughters, who are actually my friends, my tea-makers, my confidantes... I am blessed with a husband who has left me for golf. It's a fair trade as I have left him for writing. We are both passionate supporters of each others loves - it works wonderfully...

My heart is currently broken in two. One half resides in South Africa where my old roots still remain, and my heart still longs for the endless beaches and the smell of moist soil after a summer downpour. My love for Ma Afrika will never fade. The other half of me has been transplanted to the Land of the Long White Cloud. The land of the Taniwha, beautiful Maraes, and volcanoes. The land of green, pure beauty that truly inspires. And because I am so torn between these two lands - I shall forever remain cross-eyed.

Author website | Facebook | Blog | Amazon | Goodreads

Here is the giveaway...
One person will win a kindle copy of Fire by T.G. Ayer
AND this beautiful peacock bracelet
(if you read Fire, you'll understand the significance)
giveaway IS open internationally :)

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY!: Skin Deep by T.G. Ayer

Title: Skin Deep (DarkWorld #1)
Author: T.G. Ayer
Release Date: April 30th 2013
Publisher: Self published
Source: Received from the author for an honest review (I have since purchased a paperback copy!)

Panther Shape-shifter Kailin Odel just wants to be normal. Leaving her clan, and her Alpha responsibilities, to live with her grandmother in Chicago had been the best thing for her. Only then did she discover her ability to track and kill the soul sucking undead creatures called Wraiths. Now she protected the humans, and had something to be proud of.
But, when she discovers the body of a murdered shape shifter, Kailin has to come to terms with the reality that her own kind are just as vulnerable as the humans.
The closer Kailin gets to the killer the more she has to face the intricacies of her people. When the time comes can she accept who and what her real purpose is? 

Excerpt
Icy pain sliced through my bones, the muscles of my arms, and the flesh of my back. My spine and thighs rippled, shifted. Changing.
Damn. Too fast.
I spared a rueful glance at my new leather pants. And ran faster.
Had to make it to the Rehab Center a few blocks away. I ran, my speed super-human, my need super-charged, covering ground fast enough to make it to safety before my Panther took over. 
I took the corner of the street behind the Center at breakneck speed, and headed for the nearest of the gaping holes pockmarking the rusted fence.
The wind changed before I stepped off the curb. My ears peaked and I skidded to a halt, panting slightly, my backpack thumping against my side. The scream of tires on blacktop echoed on the night air, shattering the silence as it grew ever louder.
Closer.
Followed in tandem by the whining wail of sirens. A battered sedan scorched down the street, suspended on the turn on only two wheels. The angry whip of charred rubber spiked the air. Horizontal again, the car jumped the curb and skidded sideways, avoiding a collision with the fence by mere inches.
I shrank into the shadows at my back, expelling a long, stale breath. My Panther, still confined within my body, bucked and jerked, craving release.
I let her surface.
A little.
For now, super-sight would be welcome. Unlike the ability to run like the wind while still in my Human skin, tapping into my Panther's sight required a partial transformation—a risk I needed to take as my gut screamed danger.
Adrenalin surged, different again from the calm fervor of my wraith hunts. I blinked. Heat nipped at my corneas as I released my Panther sight—enough to give my eyes feline vision.
Sight, which sliced deep into the black nothing hugging the sidewalk, transformed my eyes into a solid Panther emerald. For the moment, plain old Kailin Odel was back to being Kailin of the Clan Panthera.
My cat sight adjusted, focused. The blackness surrounding the darkened vehicle changed depth and color, became lighter, clearer.
Someone shoved the rear door open, and I cringed as it creaked and complained. The occupants remained shrouded in the shadows of the vehicle's interior. Something large, long and heavy hit the ground with a dull thunk. Then the sedan revved as unseen sirens drew closer, louder, and it spun around and skidded off the curb.
The battered car roared off, a police cruiser close on its tail with sirens screaming blue murder. It didn't take a genius to figure out the parcel had to be awfully incriminating, for them to chuck it into the garden in such a flaming hurry.
My nostrils twitched at the stench of exhaust smoke, and my heart thumped as I waited to cross the street. I flicked a furtive glance at the dull red glow of taillights disappearing into the darkness. A breeze skimmed the sidewalk, ruffling my hair, and I hurried across the street as the sounds of sirens faded in the distance. I paused a few meters from the bundle, released my Panther's nose and sniffed. Whatever I'd expected to scent on the air, it wasn't the tang of copper drifting toward me—strong, rich and intoxicating.
Blood. Fresh blood. A luscious odor, laced with tendrils of the familiar.
I moved closer, my mind warring with my emotions. This was no bundle of rags, or some stolen junk those thugs had thrown away, but a living being. The blood surely meant the person now lying on the sidewalk needed medical attention.
I stood over the bundle, the cloying odor of the blood filling my nostrils, and hesitated in a moment of doubt and fear.
Now or never.
I took a deep breath and crouched beside the silent form. My hand quivered as I reached out and touched the scratchy, ragged fabric covering the shoulder of the silent figure. At first it resisted my tug, stiff against my touch, but one more gentle urging turned him toward me.
I gasped, my throat closing on the sound. My heel caught as I pulled away, and I staggered backward as hot horror burned through my veins. The face glistened, bloody and mangled. Raw muscles and ligaments lay exposed, bare. A low moan of horror echoed around me. Chills streaked up my spine when I realized the stricken sound had originated from my own throat. The familiar richness of him clouded my mind, clogging my throat and drugging my senses.
A Skinwalker.
My throat spasmed, silencing a shriek as he stared at me. His breath whispered—shallow, irregular, the sound ragged as he labored in his final moments. He gripped with desperation to the disappearing threads which held him to this mortal earth.
His face held my gaze, and somewhere behind ribs of ice my heart clenched, threatening to implode. My own face stared back at me, reflected from within eyes as blue as oceans. Eyes filled with excruciating pain and desperate fear. He didn't speak, just studied me for a few moments with those glorious eyes.
Recognition. Gratitude. Relief.
Then... release.
Life flickered and sputtered out of his beautiful eyes—eyes unable to close even after his soul departed his mortal body. Eyes stark and ghastly within a face flayed of every inch of its skin.
Mere seconds had passed, although I would have sworn it had been hours. Screeching tires again interrupted my horror, and the sedan skidded beside me before I could do much more than scramble away from the body. The killers had managed to lose the cops, and now they'd returned to retrieve the body.
They hadn't bargained on having a witness.
The cold-cocking of guns set my body on fire.
It also did something worse. With mortal fear gripping me, my imminent Change refused to take second place anymore. My body churned the fear and my Panther grasped at the visceral power of the adrenalin in my veins.
I ran.
A gunshot echoed around the garden, the sound ping-ponging off the aging brick walls of the surrounding apartment buildings.
I gasped as a blast of searing pain slammed into me, as a bullet buried itself deep within my shoulder.

My Thoughts

T.G. Ayer has once again sucked me in to one of her magical worlds.
A world where panther shape-shifter Kailin Odel, does her best to protect her community from soul sucking Wraiths; a world where shape-shifters, mage’s, and all manner of old and new paranormal beings live amongst us in relative secrecy. But someone is killing shifters, decimating the bodies and drawing attention to a world the Para’s want to keep secret; need to keep hidden from the regular population.

Tee has a talent for writing intelligent, kickass heroines and Kailin is all that and more. Kailin Odel is a fighter; a strong and independent young woman who refuses to sit back and let people be taken advantage of. She has a deep and unyielding belief in the good of people, and does all that she can to advice and protect those she cares about.

Logan Westin is a cop; one of the youngest cops paroling the streets and a member of Omega - the secret division within the police force that investigates all things... strange.

Drawn together after the death of a shifter, Kailin and Logan try to navigate their way through a frustrating and emotionally draining case, fraught with danger and an ever increasing attraction they both try to deny.
 
Great world building, great characters to both love and hate (love a good badass too!), and a fantastic story full of all things paranormal, magick, and more. Skin Deep hooked from the very first page, and promises to deliver an intense and exciting trilogy. I love T.G. Ayer’s voice and feel the emotion of her characters on every page. I really can’t wait to see what comes next for Kailin and Logan, and their merry band of sidekicks!

A new and exciting paranormal world of adventure, magick and mayhem, Skin Deep has gone straight to my keeper shelf!
5 stars ~<;]

                               ````````````````````````````
Author, T.G. Ayer

I have been a writer from the time I was old enough to recognise that reading was a doorway into my imagination. Poetry was my first foray into the art of the written word. Books were my best friends, my escape, my haven. I am essentially a recluse but this part of my personality is impossible to practise given I have two teenage daughters, who are actually my friends, my tea-makers, my confidantes... I am blessed with a husband who has left me for golf. It's a fair trade as I have left him for writing. We are both passionate supporters of each others loves - it works wonderfully...

My heart is currently broken in two. One half resides in South Africa where my old roots still remain, and my heart still longs for the endless beaches and the smell of moist soil after a summer downpour. My love for Ma Afrika will never fade. The other half of me has been transplanted to the Land of the Long White Cloud. The land of the Taniwha, beautiful Maraes, and volcanoes. The land of green, pure beauty that truly inspires. And because I am so torn between these two lands - I shall forever remain crosseyed.

Facebook | Website | Twitter | Blog | Goodreads | Amazon | Shelfari

And now for the giveaway!
I have enjoyed this book so much, that when I bought my copy, I grabbed an extra copy to give to one of my followers - and it comes with a signed bookmark, signed postcard, AND an awesome panther necklace!!
(Giveaway is open internationally - I will post anywhere!!)

 

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Review and Giveaway: Blood Magic by Zoey Sweete and Luna Sweete

Title: Blood Magic (The Draven Witch Series Book 1)

Author: Zoey Sweete and Luna Sweete

Publisher: Mystic Press 

Release Date: January 18th 2012 (first published October 15th 2011)

Source: Received from the author for an honest review

Half vampire and half witch, whose powers stem from an age old bloodline, Renee Draven is hell bent on destroying the evil that has terrorized her lineage and take back the power that was stolen long ago. As foretold by prophecy, Renee prepares to battle Damaskeos, the evil one that has stolen the lives of her ancestors for centuries and taken their power for his own. She must learn to use her power to protect herself while being haunted by visions of the past. Racing against time Renee must find Dante Angelo, the one who is to awaken her vampire side and give her the strength to defeat Damaskeos. As she embarks on her dark journey into a world of demons, vampires, werewolves, and those who hunt them, Renee stumbles across William Angelo, the lost soul she was said to bring home and save. Struggling to stay alive, she is torn between her duties and wanting a normal life. Renee must search for the power within herself to save the lives of those she loves and trust the magic that flows through her blood. Blood Magic takes you on a mystical ride into alternate dimensions and the world of the Draven witches with the supernatural creatures that have sworn to protect them and die for them.

My Thoughts:

Blood Magic is an interesting, action packed story that is fast paced excitement and adventure from start to finish.

It is a story of personal discovery, first time love, and imminent doom. 

Full of all my favourite supernatural elements like witches, vamps and were’s; Blood Magic has something for everyone.

The main character Renee has a lot going on in her life. 

She’s about to turn 21, she’s never been so much as kissed and the fate of the entire world weighs heavily on her shoulders.

Renee really comes into herself. 

She discovers her sexuality, meeting more than one hot guy to spark her interest. And with plenty of hunky trainers at the ready she excels in fighting, and with an added kick from her magic, becomes a force to be reckoned with.

 

I really enjoyed this story. 

It was full of sexy supe’s, witty retort and a kiss arse heroine.

For first time author's, Zoey and Luna Sweete have done an excellent job of melding their individual voices into a coherent and unique writing style that I'm sure will continue to excite me as The Draven Witch Series progresses.

Blood Magic is a must read for all fans of supernatural romance, and definitely a great place to start if this genre is new to you.

I can’t wait for the next instalment to see what’s in store for Renee and her merry band of gorgeous men! 

A fantastic 4 Star read :]

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the lovely authors who have very kindly offered up a kindle copy of Blood Magic to an international winner and a print copy of Blood Magic to a US winner!!! 

To enter, leave a comment on this blogpost (tell me whether you are entering for the US or International prize) with a valid email address and you're in the draw, easy :) 

Winner's will be drawn at random and given 72 hrs to respond with their address details, or else another winner will be chosen.

Links

Facebook pages for authors Zoey Sweete and Luna Sweete
Author blog
Facebook pages for Blood Magic Book 1 and Book 2
Facebook page Draven Dynasty
Blood Magic on Goodreads
Publishers facebook page