BOOK REVIEW - THE WONDROUS AND THE WICKED by PAGE MORGAN - THE DISPOSSESSED # 3 - HOT KEY BOOKS - PARANORMAL ROMANCE - YA

By: Page Morgan
Published By: Hot Key Books
Released: Available Now
Details: Paperback from publisher for honest review, 342 Pages

RATING: 5 PAGE TURNING PARANORMAL STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

Alone and defenceless, can the Waverly family survive the final battle for their city?

Ingrid Waverly has never been more alone, or more frightened. Her sister has fled to London in fear for her life, and Luc, the one person she thought she could rely on more than anyone else in the world, has also disappeared. No one will tell Ingrid where he has gone, but rumours of a fierce leadership battle amongst the supernatural forces who protect Paris are swirling, and Ingrid fears he has been forced into a dangerous position.

And it is a dangerous time to be a leader in this city - the number of demons flooding Paris's streets are overwhelming, and Ingrid and her few allies cannot cope. All the signs point to some kind of final uprising from the Underworld - but how can it possibly be defeated when the only people who stand a chance of doing so are too busy fighting themselves? Once again, everything comes down to Luc and Ingrid, and whether they can draw on each other's strength as well as their own. And this time, love really must conquer all.


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

This is one of my favourite YA paranormal trilogies. I simply dig it so much. Alas it has now come to an end.

I will miss Luc and Ingrid, Gabby, Grayson, Nolan, Vander, Marco and the other sub characters.

The Beautiful and the Cursed had me sucked into Paris in the year 1899. The city with gargoyles, demons, the Alliance and gothic danger as we follow two brave sisters, their brother and a boy named Luc.

The Lovely and The Lost had me wanting more. The attention to detail for the era with Page’s own spin on things is rich and satisfying and not forgetting that forbidden love we enjoy reading about. The plot thickened, relationships were forming and breaking. The villain was getting what she was seeking.

The Wondrous and the Wicked had me cracking it open almost as soon as it landed on my doorstep. I was back in this very visual world that plays like a movie in my mind when I am reading.

I see the hellhounds and Axia so clearly as they are described, I see the gargoyles as they change from human looking to the curse that is bestowed upon them by the heavens above. I see the carriages and alleyways and all that attention to small detail that Page has worked hard at researching.

I am there in 1900, whether it be with Gabby in London or Ingrid in Paris following on behind them like a shadow.

Luc is a gorgeous book boyfriend and he comes with the added party trick of turning into a gargoyle.

I love Rory, I really want to read a spinoff with him in it. Yeah, I am hinting here!! I love the way he calls Gabby, laoch, which means warrior.

I adore Nolan and Vander the demon hunters. I loved Nolan and Gabby together and speaking of hinting at spin offs, I would be rather happy reading more about Nolan and Gabby.

I really liked all the cast. 

I’m not going to tell you about this instalment, you will have to read it for yourself, but I feel like this YA series is a quieter achiever and I would love it to be read by more readers.

It is extremely well written with attention to detail for the era, mixed with the paranormal world, a fine villain and some moments that do hurt the heart. It is darkly romantic in a YA age bracket and as an adult reader I totally adore what Page has done.

The wrap up to this trilogy was both satisfying and ...

Well I can't say. You will have to read or I might release a spoiler from my finger tips.

I could so see it as a tv series or even movies. I would actually very much like to see it acted out before my eyes. 

I highly recommend this YA paranormal series.

Michelle

BOOK REVIEW - THE LOVELY AND THE LOST by PAGE MORGAN - THE DISPOSSESSED # 2 - HOT KEY BOOKS - YA PARANORMAL ROMANCE

By: Page Morgan
Published By: Hot Key Books
Released: Available Now
Details: Paperback from publisher for honest review, 352 Pages

RATING: 5 TEAM LUC STARS!!

Blurb: Goodreads

Gabby and Ingrid may have saved their brother, but their journey is far from over. Ingrid must learn how to control her powers before they begin to control her. She wishes Luc would help her, but he's refusing... Meanwhile Gabby has thrown herself into the Alliance, despite the eye patch she now wears thanks to a hellhound. But there are major changes afoot. When Nolan returns from the trials of the traitorous Alliance members he brings his father and his cousin, whose first order is to remove Chelle, Ingrid, and Gabby from their duties - women are no longer welcome.

But Paris needs hunters, especially now murder is sweeping the city again. Whole families are being slaughtered in their sleep, at the dinner table - even while out in the family carriage. Just who or what is behind these slayings? The action, romance, and devastatingly dark secrets revealed in THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CURSED continue as Ingrid and Gabby fight for their loves, their lives and their city.


BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

LOVED IT!

This series keeps on rocking my kazbah.

Yeah. I really dig this series.

The cast of characters each have something to say and I am just falling for them all. It’s one of those series of books where all the characters both main and sub characters will have you wanting to switch pov’s to read more about where they are going in the story line, often.

I am admittedly, Team Luc and Team Nolan for the girls, but it’s so hard not to wish Vander could be in my team too. He tries so hard. He is such a nice lad.

Vander came to stand in front of her, his arms folded tightly across his chest. He locked her in the steady gaze he wore when he shifted from intellectual bookseller to deadly serious demon hunter.

“I promised you once, and I’ll promise you again now : I won’t let anything harm you, demon, human, or angel.”

Things come to light in this installment, a tangled web is weaved and there are some spiderman moments. No pun intended...well, maybe.

I want Grayson to get a girl, but there is all that dark shenanigans going on that are keeping all the lads in this series running about. Demons to take down, girls to rescue, kisses to steal, answers to be found.

Page really has something special here in YA paranormal. I see her dark world of gargoyles, demons and two sisters who are causing some unintentional trouble in Paris, so well. Not to forget poor Grayson and the card he was dealt.

This story starts off in February 1900, in Paris. What a great setting for this series.

How I love Luc, the forbidden love.


Luc.

His wavy dark hair, and the way he pushed it out of his eyes, which happened to be the brightest shade of green Ingrid had ever seen. His lashes, coal-black and thick. His expression of constant irritation. His creamy velvet skin as it checkered over into glimmering jet scales.

Vander could make a thousand promises to keep Ingrid safe, but it was Luc who was her true protector. It was Luc who could sense her every emotion as clearly as if it were his own, whether it was fear, excitement, or joy. It was Luc who knew where Ingrid was at any given moment, and who could be there within seconds should she require his help.


His character is quite selfless in his need to be spreading his wings thin by looking after his charges. If one of them gets hurt. He gets severely punished. I know it is his job, but there is a difference with his gargoyle self and some of the other gargoyles.

Some wonderful moments between Luc and Ingrid and that KISS!!! Here’s a little taste.

He kissed the heart of her hand.

“Luc.” It was the only coherent word revolving through her mind. There was nothing else, just Luc and his lips, and she knew that she wanted this. She wanted him to keep talking and touching her. She wanted Luc to kiss her the way he had before.

He let go of her hand, but she kept it against his cheek, willing the moment to stretch on.

“Is he courting you?” he asked, his voice hoarse, his eyes sooty malachite.

... Luc kissed her, stealing away the rest of her confession.

You got to read the book to find out about the rest of that smooch.

Speaking of kisses. The other lads were having their own moments.


And then he kissed her.

It wasn’t a soft kiss, either. He backed Gabby up against the column and pinned her there, his lips hard against hers. She opened her mouth and he stole inside with a husky groan of satisfaction. Gabby tried to free her arms, longing to wind them around his neck, run her fingers through his black curls. But he held them firmly at her side.


Her lips moved on instinct. Her eyes slowly fluttered shut. Vander’s arms wound around her and tucked her body against his. Ingrid’s hands, trapped between her chest and his, gathered up fistfuls of his soft tweed jacket. Their kiss broke off and Vander tilted his head to press his lips to the curve of her jaw. He tasted her skin, nuzzling the slope of her neck, his breath hot....

I highly recommend this series as it is written so well. 

You really feel like you are in Paris at night time, facing off against a demon, watching Luc and Ingrid fight their forbidden love, then watching Ingrid with Vander as he tries to win over Ingrid.

Enter some new characters.

Who can be trusted?

Gabby is my fave out of the sisters. She is a young girl who is shaping up to be quite a laoch. I love watching her character evolve.

I love watching Nolan and Gabby together. Poor Gabby is trying so hard to do the right thing, but things are not going well for her.

Marco was my surprise. He is shaping up to be quite the character I love. I want Marco to get a hea, he is earning his stripes with me.

Grayson is pulling on my heart strings. He drew the shorter straw in the Waverley twins demon blood drama. Neither Ingrid nor Grayson can be held accountable for what happened to them, yet they bring misunderstanding and hatred towards themselves.

Nolan, Vander and Luc, understand that it isn’t their fault, but sometimes that isn’t enough.

Page gave us a real whammy with the ending to this installment. I am rather bouncy for # 3 to come along so I can see what is instore for certain characters.

Page has brought a dark, Victorian era, YA world to my reading nook which I find terribly hard to put down, once I start. She has the writing chops of Cassandra Clare.

I could so easily see this book series becoming a tv series or even a movie. I have read some gargoyle reads where you can forget the characters are gargoyles. Page won’t let you forget that Luc is a gargoyle. I love how he shares his time in both human form and gargoyle form throughout the story. Ingrid sees Luc through his eyes, no matter what form he is in. His eyes are the window to his soul, even though technically he isn't alive.

I love the emotion Page makes me feel with his character.

There is a stirring in the gargoyle clan and I am bouncy to find out more about it.
I feel like book # 3 is going to be turning it all around on us.

I am getting that excited feeling like I do when I am waiting for a Cassandra Clare book. The wait is worth it. Even though I was lucky enough to read the first books close together in time.

Now I suffer until 2015 some time for # 3.

Michelle

BOOK REVIEW - THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CURSED by PAGE MORGAN - THE DISPOSSESSED # 1 - HOT KEY BOOKS - YA PARANORMAL ROMANCE

By: Page Morgan
Published By: Hot Key Books
Released : Available Now
Details : Paperback from library, 341 Pages

RATING: 5 LUC STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

Ingrid Waverley is a young woman to be reckoned with. Faced with her brother's mysterious disappearance after an abrupt move to Paris, she is determined to discover what has happened to him. Soon she and her sister Gabriella are drawn into a Parisian underworld more terrifying than they could ever have imagined, but watching over them are two impossible (and impossibly handsome) young men. Luc is a 'Dispossessed', an ancient gargoyle whose sworn duty it is to protect the humans who inhabit his abbey. Nolan has secrets of his own too. He is a member of the Alliance - a shadowy group dedicated to keeping Paris safe from the demonic forces that threaten to destroy it.

Secrets, danger and hidden powers stalk the girls in this beautifully imagined paranormal romance that will keep readers gripped from beginning to end - and one thing is for sure - you'll never look at a gargoyle in the same way again...

BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

“What if I told you that the version of heaven and hell you believe in - the version most of the world believes in - is wrong? What if I told you there isn’t just one devil to fear in some fiery pit, but limitless demons that find their way to the earth’s surface? Wouldn’t you want someone to be aware of them? Someone who can fight them?”

That was a whole pile of gothic, Victorian YA excitement.

I LOVED , The Beautiful and the Cursed. I first saw this book over at Rachel’s blog from The Rest Is Still Unwritten , last year. 

When Hot Key Books approached me to review The Lovely and the Lost, I didn’t realize it was book # 2 of The Dispossessed series.

I promptly put my reserve in for The Beautiful and the Cursed at my little wee, local seaside library.

The year is 1899 in Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris. Love me some Victorian era, Paris. Ingrid, her mother and her younger sister Gabby have moved to the old Abbey, L’Abbaye Saint - Dismas, Paris from London. 

Lady Charlotte Brickton will be opening an art gallery and her two daughters have gone abroad with her. The girls brother Grayson, had been sent in advance, couple months prior to find their residence.

Grayson and Ingrid are twins, nearly turning eighteen. Gabriella is fifteen, nearly turning sixteen.

Now people, you have to take into account the era this book is written is, 1899. It is a time where young girls are being married off young. Everything is proper, so the romance is also , proper.

This I loved. But at the same time...it's a little daring.

Enter Vander and Nolan.

Vander is the American who works in his bookstore and Nolan the Scotsman. I do like these two. Nolan I like that bit more. These two can banter.

“You did well,” Nolan said with a sly grin. “You should be onstage, Burke. I’m sure you could find work as an ogre or hunchback or some other disfigured beast, what with that ugly mug of yours.”

“It would be a shame to go onstage alone,” Vander said. “You could take the female role and finally show off those stunning legs of yours.”

These are a couple of young gents who have their eye on the young sisters.

Grayson is missing, the sisters and their mother are desperate to find Grayson and there are a lot of interested parties.

Let the excitement begin.

This tale has its dark moments, and it has its very Victorian era moments.

If you like The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare, and Kady Cross’s Steampunk Chronicles, then I dare say you will enjoy The Dispossessed , series.

Now , there is no steampunk in this tale, not that I could see anyway, but there are gargoyles.

Smexi gargoyles. Smexi Dispossessed and there is the Alliance.

Enter Luc.

Luc must guard the occupants of the abbey where Ingrid, Gabby and Lady Brickton are residing. Luc lost Grayson to the Underneath, he isn’t going to lose his new charges.

It made Luc sick with fury at times that someone else - something else - directed his mind. His actions. Luc hadn’t missed being one of the Dispossessed in Paris. He would have much rather spent his eternal punishment high in the rafters of the north bell tower, curled up like one of the hunched granite gargoyles along the roof, wings wound tightly around himself, his scales slowly crusting over to stone.

But now he was awake, and in charge of whoever inhabited the abbey and rectory.


I really love Luc’s character. He is written really well and you can’t help sympathize with his lot in life and who he must answer to.

In well-practiced harmony, his pale skin rippled into a sheath of jet scales, his spinal column popped and cracked as it lengthened to support the rock-like muscles reshaping his arms, legs, and chest. The cartilage and folded bones of a pair of featherless obsidian wings split through the plates on his back. They erupted like charred black mountains and unfurled to a wingspan longer than Luc’s human height. The bones of his skull and face parted and slipped like fault lines shaken apart by an earthquake into the shape of a dog’s head - crumpled snout, pointed ears, and all.

He knew he was hideous to behold, and as he approached the loft door at a run and leaped into the night, he had every intention of using the terror his appearance inspired to battle whoever- or whatever - threatened Ingrid.


The Alliance treat the gargoyles with little regard, yet they need them.

I thought this was a beautifully told story of danger, deception and intrigue, wrapped up in a YA read and all that great Victorian era proper , dashing stuff.

Gabby would have to be my favourite out of the two sisters. She has spunk. There was a moment where a certain gentleman, who is a tad few years older, may have let his feelings be known to the younger sister with a rather scrumptious kiss. It felt quite daring, for the era.

Gabby spun around and pierced him with an icy glare, but then saw his puckish grin.

“You can be my nurse, he finished.

Gabby scowled at him and started to turn back to the window. But the sight of Nolan’s fingers undoing the top clasps of his collar stopped her. He then rucked up the bottom of his shirt, lifted it over his head, and tossed it aside. Nolan sat before Gabby, his chest and arms completely bare - and absolutely marvelous.


Gabby is quite a daring character. She behaved older than her near sixteen years.

“I apologize, but I haven’t a coat to warm you,” Nolan said, picking up on her thoughts like some sort of magician.

“I haven’t a need for one,” she replied.

“You’re a prickly little juniper, aren’t you?”

He sounded amused, just like the time he’d observed she had a bit of flint in her.


Ingrid has her hands full with two lads, who I like , but one I like that bit more. Ingrid had to leave London due to a very unfortunate incident. Ingrid’s character is quite intriguing the more you read.

Luc didn’t understand why his connection to Ingrid outshone those he had with other humans in the rectory. It wasn’t her beauty - though she did have that in spades. Her corn-silk hair, aubergine eyes, and dove-white skin had been imprinted in his memory almost as forcefully as her scent. Luc had lain awake the night before, surfacing her scent time and again, trying to understand what that underlying tang was. Obsessing over it. Overwhelmed by it.


Can the Alliance and the Dispossessed work together for the common goal of keeping the world safe from what lies in the Underneath?

You will have to read and find out. 

I can only assume that is Gabby on the cover of The Beautiful and the Cursed as she has dark hair and Ingrid is on the cover of The Lovely and The Lost, due to their hair colors. I may be wrong. They may be both Ingrid. I’m a bit unsure, the girl is sitting next to a gargoyle on the first book cover, which makes me think of Ingrid.

Forbidden love, demons, dashing moments, dark moments and some Victorian era romance made this a very exciting read.

I truly loved it. 

I am trying to get a hold of the # 1.5, Marco’s Story, novella as I want to read it. I liked Marco. He's a bit of a cranky pants, so I am intrigued about his novella.

Hot Key books have given me The Lovely and the Lost, #2 in the series to review and I have started it. I am very excited to see how it all plays out, especially the forbidden love and the other interested party, and watch Gabby.

Luc carefully laid the ivory comb next to its match on the table. She was ready to repeat her question when his hand unexpectedly came back up. Ingrid froze as he grazed his fingers through her hair, scattering a few pins to the floor. Then he gripped the back of her head, his tangled fingers tugging at her hair, and Ingrid thought she could finally read something in the way he looked at her: a longing so tangible that it made her ache.

Bring. It. On.

Michelle

OLD pic.

Me - 18 years old - Notre Dame - Check out the Gargoyles!!!
This poor lad has one of his horns busted off.
Hope it wasn't Marco.

This was many , many , many years ago so excuse the boofy hair!

I kid you not. 

After listening in French to something about the Bell in the bell tower, me and 2 of my accomplices actually went up on the roof of the Notre Dame. We lay at a slant and took some photos.

I don't believe we were supposed to leave the group and do that.