kiwigirl reads. . . .

The Willows  Plot Overview: Evelyn Magwire used to have it all, a happy family, great friends and a loving boyfriend. After her parents are killed in an accident things just keep getting worse and worse for Evelyn. Her grief isolates her from her friends and remaining family and it’s not until another tragedy strikes that she is forced to pull herself together. When one of her brothers goes missing in mysterious circumstances Evie finds that she is the only one who believes he is still out there and wants to track down the truth. Her enquiry leads her to The Willows – what was her brother doing out there, could he really be a killer, and what dark secrets are hiding in the chilled and deserted woods? Evie finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into a new world of darkness where it’s hard to tell who is friend and who is foe. In the end Evie must make a choice – will she give in to temptation and even if she can resist, will she ever be the same again? What I thoug...

Dog Days (A Dog Days Novel)   Plot Overview: In San Francisco not everything is what it seems. Mason is a talented Jazz guitarist who scrapes by playing the odd gig around town. He is also part of a secret community of magical practitioners and although he has tried to leave that life behind him he is about to be dragged right back into the thick of it. Leaving a gig late one night Mason is attacked by a supernatural creature, he narrowly escapes thanks to his companion Louie (an Ifrit – a magical being that looks like a small dog) and his talent for being able to improvise with his magic. Mason realises that he is out of his league and reports the incident to his former boss, the self-appointed law for the magical community in San Francisco. Mason learns that there is something seriously wrong in the magical community, practitioners and Ifrits are in danger. Despite Mason’s initial reluctance to get involved in the end it will all come down to him and Mason will find ...

Bite Me Plot Overview: When Val Shapiro turns eighteen her parents kick her out of the house and fire her from her job at the family bookstore. Not exactly you hallmark moment . . . . Val is part succubus and since she won’t give into her other half and feed on lust, she hunts vampires to take the edge off. Being part-demon gives Val special powers - she's fast, strong, heals quickly, and is immune to vampire mind control - all of this makes  for great vampire slaying. When Jen, Val’s human half-sister, follows her out on a vampire hunt their Mom blames Val and decides that she is too dangerous to be around. A chance encounter with a police officer who watches her take down a vampire all by herself leads Val to a new life and job with the Special Crimes Unit. The Special Crimes Unit is investigating a new Vampire Movement in town. The usually unorganized and solo vampires are uniting and claim they seek peace between humans and vampires. However there has also been a...

Chimera Plot Overview: When Stefan Korsak was fourteen his younger brother Lukas was kidnapped and he has never forgiven himself for the part he unwittingly played. It was Stefan who convinced Lukas that they should sneak out to ride their horses on the beach that day and so ten years later Stefan is still searching for answers. In the meantime he has fallen into the family business – the Russian mafia, he has no illusions about his lifestyle choices and it funds his obsession to find his brother which is all Stefan cares about these days. Finally one of his contacts comes through with new lead that points him towards a shadowy ‘institute’ where a boy matching Lukas description has been seen. Stefan mounts a dangerous rescue mission and finally is reunited with his brother, but after ten years Lukas is no longer the boy he remembers. Lukas insists that he does not know who Stefan is and that his name is Michael. The ‘institute’ has spent years training and conditionin...

Coexist: Keegan's Chronicles Plot Overview: Keegan is a sixteen-year old girl who lives a fairly typical life of friends, shopping and parties. However Keegan, despite all outward appearances, is definitely not your typical teenager. Keegan is an elf, a race of beings that live among humans and as beings of the light help where they can. In elfin society mates are chosen at birth but the identity of said chosen is not revealed until both parties reach the age of 18. Keegan’s brother Thaddeus is a ‘seer’ and his visions have warned him of impending disaster, in an attempt to ward this off Thaddeus has told Keegan the name of her intended – Rourk. Now every time Keegan thinks his name Rourk feels pulled towards her. He watches her from the shadows, silently protecting her and waiting until she turns 18 so that they can finally meet and be together. Fate intervenes before this can happen when Keegan’s life is in danger and Rourk is forced to revel himself to her before their time...

Plot Overview: Hexbound picks up soon after the events of the previous book Firespell end. Lily Parker has been sent to boarding school, St. Sophia's, while her parents are out of the country working. At St. Sophia's things are not always what they seem and Lily soon stumbles onto a hidden world of magic - where teen 'adepts' try to keep their counterparts the 'Dark Elite' from preying on the innocent . Lily also finds herself wielding a new and powerful magic called 'firespell' that she must learn to control. Hexbound sees Lily learning more about her magic and looking into the secrets that surround her parents, their job and why they sent her to St. Sophias. At the same time Lily, her best friend Scout and the rest of the 'adepts' encounter some strange, slimy and fanged monsters roaming the tunnels that they patrol. The adepts will need to find out what they are and where this new threat came from if they are to stop them. As if ...

Unshapely Things (Connor Grey #1) Plot Overview: After part of the Faeire World suddenly manifested in the middle of Boston, the fey that came with it had to go somewhere. Welcome to the ‘Weird’.... where many of the Fey have made their homes. It’s filled with magic, wonder and strange alien creatures - it can also be a rough and dangerous neighborhood. Connor Grey was once a powerful Druid with the Guild (fey law enforcement agency), after an accident on a job he is now all but powerless. No longer useful he’s on disability and trying to make ends meet with the odd consulting job. Things aren’t exactly going well for Connor and he recently had to move to the edge of the Weird himself. Now someone is brutally killing fairy prostitutes and cutting out their hearts, when the Guild decides its not an urgent matter they kick the case to back to the human police. With no idea what they are dealing with the police turn to Connor for help navigating the murky depths of the Weird in...

Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires, Book 1) Plot Overview: Super smart sixteen year old Claire Danvers has gained advanced placement to college but her over protective parents feel she is too young to move too far away. Instead they chose to send her to the closer, seemingly 'safe' town of Morganville, Texas where she will spend two years at the small local college. As a college freshman Claire should only have to worry about classes and term papers but she soon finds out that in Morganville, college life is far more difficult. Between psychotic mean girls and a town run by vampires Claire will need to learn more than her classes have to offer - like how to survive and how not to become dinner. Claire finds a safe haven at Glass House, the current tenants are wary of her young age but realise that at she needs their help. With her new housemates, Claire begins to uncover the secrets of the town she has unwitting become a part of and manages to cause enough trouble...

Rosemary and Rue (October Daye, Book 1) Plot Overview: Fate and the world of Faerie have not been kind to changeling, October ‘Toby’ Daye. While chasing down the people who kidnapped her liege’s wife and daughter Toby was turned into a fish and has spent the last fourteen years living in a Koi pond. Finally free of the enchantment Toby wakes to find the world has moved on – her friends, family, home and job have all been lost to her. Understandably Toby has had enough of 'Faerie'; she chooses to avoid it and is living a ‘normal’ life in the human world, working a dead-end job and getting by as best she can. However as much as she tries Toby is far from normal, she is half Fae, and when an old friend is murdered horrifically, Toby is unwillingly pulled back into the world she tried to leave. Bound by a dying curse, Toby must find the killer or be destroyed herself. Toby’s investigation will bring her to old acquaintances, both good and bad and new ones who have ...

Dead of Light Plot Overview: P ossessing no talent of his own in a family that values power over all else, Ben Macallan, has always been an outsider. The Macallan clan is a large, prominent and ‘powerful’ family who have a strange and ruthless stranglehold on the city. Their powers come from the night and they use them mercilessly to control their territory. Ben is the black sheep of the family and wants nothing to do with them or their power. It has not been easy to distance himself, but now at university he has finally begun to make a life for himself outside their sphere of influence. Ben’s new life comes crashing to an end when someone starts picking off members of his family and killing them brutally in a manner that echoes their own family’s power. Ben soon realises that the killer is targeting the weakest members of the family and with no power of his own, Ben is the weakest of them all. Ben finds that the ties that bind are stronger than he ever knew. He must put the past...