Hexed: The Iron Druid Chronicles Book 2 by Kevin Hearne is today's Audible deal: $2.95 unabridged, and 8+ hours at that. This book has a 4+ star average, and over 17,500 ratings, as well. Readers loved the adventure and world-building, though some struggled with how the female characters were portrayed.
Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.
With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt.
But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex.
Extracted by Sherry Ficklin and Tyler Jolley is $1.99 today as a Kindle Daily Deal. This is a YA timetravel steampunk novel – you can tell because there are gears and steel on the cover, and it's also a sort of burnished copper color.This book has a 4+ star average on GR, and it's the start of a series. If you're thinking of trying something new and you like time travel fantasy steampunk with a bit of romance, this sounds like a good option.
Welcome to the war.
The Tesla Institute is a premier academy that trains young time travelers called Rifters. Created by Nicola Tesla, the Institute seeks special individuals who can help preserve the time stream against those who try to alter it. The Hollows is a rogue band of Rifters who tear through time with little care for the consequences. Armed with their own group of lost teens–their only desire to find Tesla and put an end to his corruption of the time stream.
Torn between them are Lex and Ember, two Rifters with no memories of their life before joining the time war. When Lex’s girlfriend dies during a mission, the only way he can save her is to retrieve the Dox, a piece of tech which allows Rifters to re-enter their own timeline without collapsing the time stream. But the Dox is hidden deep within the Telsa Institute, which means Lex must go into the enemy camp.
It’s there he meets Ember, and the past that was stolen from them both comes flooding back. Now armed with the truth of who they are, Lex and Ember must work together to save the future before the battle for time destroys them both…again.
The Body Finder, an award-winning novel, is $1.99 right now. This is a YA paranormal romance, and the first in a series.
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered.
Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world… and the imprints that attach to their killers. Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly.
But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer… and becoming his prey herself.
I loved the first of Kevin Hearne’s books, but the narrator for the audio books has an American accent. In my head, Atticus O’Sullivan should have at least a faint Irish accent. Has anyone listened to these and can say definitely that the accent isn’t a problem? The audio books are especially desirable because the price of the digital book isn’t going down.
@Darlynne: Atticus actually addresses his lack of an accent. I can’t remember in which book the explanation is given, but the gist is that, since Atticus has to change identities (including nationalities) so many times in his life, he learns to blend in completely. The accent would have made him more memorable, and that isn’t something that he would have wanted. I’ve listened to the first five books on audio and began the sixth. For some reason, I couldn’t connect with it. Dunno why. I’ve given it a few months, though, so I’ll soon try again. I hear the dopey Oberon voice in my head whenever I see a dog do something funny these days, and it kind of cracks me up.
I loved the first five audio books and listened more than once to them. the last one irked me too. I think it’s because Atticus and Oberon spent so much of the book horny. [ I realize that sounds odd from a romance fan I just don’t find the love story very convincing] And don’t think it’s cute when a dog humps somebody’s leg. The fact that it’s a talking dog makes it nastier to me. I kept thinking one of the bath time stories should be THE TALK where Atticus explains to Oberon how many unwanted puppies there are in the world.
Thanks for the information. I think I’ll pass and wait for the digital books to go on sale. I have them all in paperback so it’s not as if I’m going without.
@Darlynne Just to clarify, I didn’t think the sixth book was awful. I was just annoyed by some things and didn’t like it as much. I love Oberon & Atticus and hope the books haven’t jump the shark for me.
I’m one of the few who strongly disliked the Hexed series. I read the second only because everyone was so enthusiastic about them and I thought I was missing something… nope. The way women are portrayed in the story was too obnoxious to move past.