Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis

Hard Spell by Justin Gustainis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was lucky enough to recieve an ARC copy of this book - the book comes out Tuesday July 26th :)  go get it :) It's Great!

Its a real honest to goodness Detective story! When I first got this book in the mail, one look at the cover and the voice of Dan Aykroyd from Dragnet (1987) popped in my head - and THAT is the voice of Stan :)

This book is awesome! It starts off explaining the way the Supernatural’s (Supes) came to be known to the world (when Vamps and Were's came home from WW II ) and now living in an everyday life with the rest of us plain old humans .

Stan Markowski is a human - and he's a Decective - but he keeps the peace between the Supes.

The book starts off with Stan and his partner going into a local liquor store - nothing strange, just a couple of goblins hyped up on Meth with 2 hostages trying to rob the place.

*note* these Goblins are really cute :) Little green furry guys who speak very little English - so hearing Stan speak like Tarzan is really funny :)

Everything seems to be going well, until they notice the third goblin that was hiding from them...

A few weeks later, Stan and his new partner Renfer... Karl Renfer (He's a big James bond Fan :) Anyways - they get a call and head out to an old abandoned warehouse - Karl stays in the car while Stan checks it out - inside he finds 13 witches calling forth a demon - which is considered black magic - and black magic is illegal. SO when Stan jumps in to interrupt, things get a little crazy.

A few months later ... they get a call to a Supe's house - where they find a man tied to a chair after he was tortured to death. At first they didn't understand why they were called out - looked like a normal human's death - something for the police to get involved in, only this guy had a mark of a wizard on his wrist - which meant the crime was for them to get involved in.

For 5 full nights - Stan and Karl came up empty handed with no leads as to why this Wizard was tortured - and what was stolen out of his safe (They left the money, so obviously something of more value was in the safe)

Stan finally had about all he could handle and decided to call in a favor. Rachel Proctor is a witch - and she knows how to perform Necromancy - Only Necromancy is black magic, and she just doesn't do that stuff. But with the court's ok - making it Police business, it turns into Grey Magic - black magic used for good.

Against all of Rachel's better instincts, she agrees to it.

It takes her a full day of non-stop preparations for this type of thing. When She and Stan get to the graveyard to set up, everything was going perfect... Until something goes wrong.. very very VERY Wrong…

The plot thickens when we find out what was stolen out of the safe and Stan and Karl are forced to work with Vollman "The Man" of Vampires who happens to be a Wizard as well. He knows a lot of things that is going on. and when the strange and bazaar killings start to accrue, Vollman starts keeping little important things to himself. So Stan decides to broaden his search and find information himself. He has a lot of good contacts :)

It was a lot of fun reading this book :)

For the record, this isn't a romance book - Rachel was just a friend, and he has a couple of other female friends in the book, too but nothing but a few flirtation remarks accure. and I Love Stan's Humor - He's got a LOT of funny come backs (in his mind)

All and all this is a great book :) Glad I got the chance to read it :)

Here is an Awesome Trailer for this book! Even my kids loved it (Because they Hate vampires too :)


The review for this book was made possible by ♫♥ LivLifeReviews ♥♫   

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

Just finished reading this book for July's Book of the month  -

If you're interested in joing the Book Bloggers Anonymous Club group and chatting up with us -

Our wonderful host is Jo-Anne from Strange Candy Reviews! Don't forget to check out her blog for fun activities in July!   

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was cute! Loved the story line - I'm not a huge fan of Steampunk books, though. I have read a couple, and they've turned out really well, but it's just not my favorite genre -

BUT, as I said, this book was cute. I'll probably follow the series when more come out. Just because I like a good drawn out romance :)

Finley is a girl with a bit of a temper. Seems every time she gets afraid or upset - another part of her personality comes out and scares her - a LOT!

The book starts out with her working as a Lady's maid, and just as she is about to retire to bed, Lord Felix takes advances at her. She is terrified of his drunken state and has heard he likes to hurt young women. So the only thing she could think of was to let her anger out and beat him up before he can hurt her any worse than a split lip and a bruised face. Luckily she heals quickly :)

She runs out of the house (knowing she'd be fired as soon as Lord Felix woke up anyways).

That's where she runs into Griffin and Sam - Literally - she runs right into them as they're driving through the Park on their cycles (motorcycle type bikes)

Sam is a little worried about bringing this girl to their home, but Griffin - The Duke - as a feeling this girl needs to be brought into their lives, and his instincts are never wrong.

Emily is a girl living there too - she is a smart girl. Completely in love with the science - She is very good with her hands and has made some healing slave to help speed up the process of Finley's cuts and bruises from being hit from the cycle.

When Finley wakes up - she is afraid of the strange surroundings and her "other" personality takes over. She lashes out at the maids and the footman goes flying through the door - luckly Griffen was there to catch the poor man before he could get hurt.

That's when we find out about the powers Griffin has over the Aetheric world (spirit world) and is able to manipulate Finley's aura so she's not frightened anymore - he promises that she is safe and he wouldn't turn her into the Peelers (cops) just as she passes out of exhaustion.

We learn about Sam - he is a big guy, very strong and even more so now that Emily saved his life - he was attacked by a machine and it killed him. but Emily would do everything she could to save him.

When she placed the Organites (not sure how to describe what this is- but the book does a good job of it :) in his body, which turns the more than broken parts of him into metal. It heals him and brings him back to life - and he is stronger and heals faster than ever before.

Sam isn't happy about being part metal , he has a lot of grief in him and he takes it out on everyone. But he especially doesn't trust Finely. And he has a good reason not to :)

This book was very interesting. It had a LOT of details about these strange contraptions - It was pretty cool :)

The love triangle - there were a couple of those - first the attraction between Finley and Griffin is great! Only she doesn't feel she is worth of the love of a Duke - Then we meet Jack Dandy - he is a very scary criminal who fancy's Finley's alter Ego - the scary side - Finley has an attraction to him as well - Maybe in the next book we'll find out who she kisses first :)

Then there is the love triangle between Emily, Sam and Jack - Jack is one of Griffin’s American friends who has come to England to help Griffin. He becomes one of the gang with his super speed. And his flirty charm finds himself smitten with Emily... which really makes Sam jealous.

The ending of the book sets does a really good job at setting up the next book - I will be looking for that one when it comes out:) I am anxious to find out more about this group of "super beings" and find out more about their special powers that keeps evolving :)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


WOW! This book was defiantly not what I thought it would be - I didn't read any other reviews – in fact I didn't even read the back of the book - yes I'm a Robert Pattinson fan , and I’m not afraid to admit it :) SO of course I had to read the book. I knew it was going to be good - but I didn't know that I would have loved it this much .

I love Elephants - always have, always will - but after this book - I think I see them in a whole different light - Rosie was the star of this book (ok no Jacob was, but Rosie was the star of the ring :) I loved her sense of humor - who would have thought Elephants were like that :) HA! And she smiled – a LOT :) I just keep picturing an elephant smiling :)

OK here it goes …

First of all, The book is told in 2 different ways - One is from Jacob's (not going to attempt to spell his name without the book in front of me) POV when he's an old man - 90 or 93 years old .. he's not sure which, and isn't sure it really matters either. Life as an old man, he has all his teeth, but they still make him eat jello and mashed up foods - he can still walk and get around on his own, but they make him sit in a wheel chair all day so he doesn't risk falling down.. he's miserable.. His kids (all 5 of them) couldn't take him in, so they set him up in a nursing home. He tries his best to make the most of it, but after awhile. things start to get to him.. They rotate their visits between the kids, grandkids and great grandkids – he doesn’t know any of them anymore so it doesn’t matter…

He sleeps - and when he sleeps, he dreams of his past.....

The book started out with Jacob had a happy life - he grew up helping his dad out as vet - when he was 23, he was in his final stage of collage to earn his license then was to partner with his dad. Only things don't always go as planned when we're focusing on our future - we try our hardest to do what we want to do - but sometimes things happen for a reason - Poor Jacob's whole life got turned around when his parents died. He didn't have any money, didn't have his degree, and didn't have a place to live - so in a blind state of mind, he started walking away from the town - after a few hours, his feet started hurting. He heard a train - he started running after it- then he threw himself into a stock car... only to be greeted by a couple of circus workmen...

Jacob wins over the friendship of Camel , one of the guys who knows everyone in the show and he offers to help Jacob land a job with the circus. Since Jacob isn't afraid of hard work, and he's a good kid, he excepts this offer..

When he meets with Uncle Al - the head ring master , Jacob tells him that he didn't quit finish his collage exam, so he doesn't technically have his vet license, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone - he is a vet enough, and in Uncle Al's eyes, he's a good asset to the circus.

This book has everything in it - I'm so excited for the movie . I am hoping they can change a couple little parts to turn the movie into a PG 13 movie. The book is a little descriptive in some areas - at the cooch tent for starters, but for a movie , they could easily moderate it so she isn't fully ... "twirling around" lol

The whole thing with August and Marlena being friends with Jacob was great. I loved that August seemed to generally care of Jacob at first - he seemed to believe that he was a good asset to the circus and that everything was good in his life. I was disappointed for the most part of the book, knowing that Marlena and Jacob were suppose to be together, but she was married to August . But after awhile, everything really falls into place.

The book is a pretty fast read I think - a lot of details in the book. There isn’t' really a lot going on, other than a few months being on the road with the circus , then a full day with him in the nursing home, but the end of the book is classic - It brought good tears to my eyes to see this old bitter man happy again :) I really deserves it :)


Great book - I'm more then anxious to see the movie now :)