Review and Giveaway - Elementals 2: The Blood of the Hydra by Michelle Madow

--> Filled with magic, thrilling adventure, and sweet romance, Elementals: The Blood of the Hydra is the second book in the Elementals series. Join Nicole and the rest of the Elementals on their quest to save the world, or die trying, in this spellbinding sequel that fans of mythology, magic, and adventure will love!

About Elementals 2: The Blood of the Hydra - 

Title: Elementals 2: The Blood of the Hydra

Author: Michelle Madow

Publisher: Dreamscape Publishing

Release Date: April 18, 2016

Series: Elementals #2

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Format: eBook and paperback

ISBN: 9781311296788

A demigod who can kill with a touch. It’s an ability that must be kept secret from everyone, even from those trusted most.

Finding out that she was a witch was strange enough, but now Nicole must face the realization that she has the rare power to kill with just a touch. No one can know her secret—not even Blake, who she’s had undeniable chemistry with since first moving to town.

Now Nicole, Blake, and the three others with elemental powers must stop a series of monsters that they previously believed to be dead from rising once again and destroying the mortal world. The creatures they face on this journey will be more dangerous than anything they’ve encountered yet. Will they all survive the quest? And how long will it be until Nicole is forced to use her ability to kill in front of everyone, revealing the true darkness of her powers?

Find out in The Blood of the Hydra, and join the Elementals on their next journey in their quest to save the world—or die trying.

Buy Links:  Amazon

Add to your TBR List:  Goodreads

The adventure began in the first book in the series, Elementals: The Prophecy of Shadows! To learn more about the first book, and to read the first four chapters for free, click here!

The Elementals series is available on Kindle Unlimited, so subscribers can read it for free!

My Review:

I was lucky enough to get an e-galley of this title from Netgalley, Dreamscape Publishing, and being part of the author's street team.  I've been a big fan of Michelle Madow since I first read her book Remembrance.  And the first book in this series so far, Elementals, started off with some great ideas and I was very excited to read on and see where the story would go.

Just like in my review of the first book, the synopsis above tells you pretty much what happened, and I don't want to repeat all of it.  So again I'll just talk about what I liked or didn't like!

Honestly, for the most part, there wasn't much that I didn't like in this one!  I really enjoyed the quest that they had to go on.  When they went to the island that was the Land of the Lotus Eaters, and had to keep from eating the fruit, it was great how the author thought of every way that the fruit might get into the people's system besides just eating the fruit.  They found some other demi-gods, Rachel and Ethan, on the island, and they were great to join into the quest and help.  Trying to figure out how to get between Scylla and Charybdis was really stressful.  Trying to not have to do what Odysseus had to do, and sacrifice six people from the boat, that got them to have to figure out another way, and even earned them a visit from Zeus.  Then, the next part of the quest was to get the milk of the immortal cattle on Helios's island.  That proved to be pretty difficult, not to mention also brought about another issue they will have to deal with. 

Then, getting to the final battle with the hydra.  All I can say is that Rachel, well she kind of annoyed me, and what she did, well, let's just say I feel like what happened to her was her own fault.  It seemed like for a minute Ethan might become a love triangle, but I feel like the author kept that from happening perfectly.   In a way that I'm sure will pop up in book 3 and lead to a really good story arc.  The five of the Elementals:  Kate, Blake, Danielle, Chris, and Nicole, are learning to work together better.  To get past the personal issues from Blake and Danielle breaking up.  And Blake just wanting to be able to be with Nicole, they will be able to figure out how that can work with the group and still have them be able to take care of the things they need to.

Another great book from Michelle Madow, as well as a great new book about Greek mythology in the footsteps of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, and the Goddess Test series by Aimee Carter.

  About Michelle Madow:

Michelle Madow writes fast-paced YA (young adult) fiction that will leave you turning the pages wanting more!

She grew up in Baltimore, and now lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where she writes books for young adults. Some of her favorite things are: reading, pizza, traveling, shopping, time travel, Broadway musicals, and spending time with friends and family. Michelle went on a cross-country road trip from Florida to California and back to promote her books and to encourage high school students to embrace reading and writing. Someday, she hopes to travel the world for a year on a cruise ship.

Want to get some of Michelle’s books for FREE? Click here to learn how.

To get instant updates about Michelle’s new books, follow her on Amazon!

Connect with Michelle:  Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Goodreads  

Giveaway:

Michelle is offering up a fabulous prize during her Elementals: The Blood of the Hydra Virtual Tour event. One (1) lucky winner will receive a signed paperback copy of one of Michelle’s books! To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below:

   a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

The Goddess Inheritance (Goddess Test #3) by Aimee Carter

This is a series I was a bit behind on reading.  I didn't even get started until last summer, when I knew I was going to get the chance to meet the author, Aimee Carter, at BEA.  So I started reading them as soon as I got to NYC to visit my sister last year, and was hooked!  I read right through the first one, and all the others that were available at the time, even the short story that was only available as an e-book.  So I was very excited when I saw that The Goddess Inheritance was going to be available on Netgalley.  So I have to thank Harlequin Teen for once again allowing me to read one of their awesome titles early!!
Warning!  If you haven't read any of the series yet, there will definitely be spoilers, so you might want to stop now!!
We left off with Kate being pregnant with Henry's child, thanks to Ava working her powers.  But Calliope now has Kate held prisoner at Cronus's palace, or island where he escaped to from Tartarus.  Kate doesn't think that Henry knows she is pregnant with his child, and Calliope intends to take the baby and then kill Kate.  But Cronus is grateful for the little bit of kindness that Kate had shown him when he was able to escape, and wants to keep her as his queen, even as he intends to take revenge on his children, and probably ultimately destroy the humans.  Kate must figure a way to help the council fight him.  But also she now wants nothing more than for her child, who she names Milo, to be safe.  Even if she never gets to see him, if she must sacrifice herself to be Cronus's partner, as long as he gets to be with family, Henry, her mother, then she will be happy.  However, without Calliope, and Ava who is there with Calliope, seeming to be her partner, the council is not sure how they can beat Cronus.  Ava says she is on their side, only there to try to save Nicholas, Calliope's son, and Ava's husband.  While Kate is able to escape with the help of Ava, she is unable to take Milo with her.  And now must scheme to figure out how to save her son.  She also must figure a way to save Henry, as Calliope was able to injure him with a weapon that Nicholas helped her forge, that will kill the gods.  So while the council wages small battles, and searches for other gods on earth to help them fight, Kate goes after other Titans to try to find a cure for Henry.  If she can save Henry, then she can go to be with Cronus knowing Milo will be with his father.  But like all of the Goddess Test books, there are twists and turns at all points, and it is not at all predictable.  There are deaths at the end, some good, some sad.  But in all a good ending.  Although, I think there is some stuff I wouldn't mind seeing continued on in future books.  Hint hint.

All in all, if you haven't picked up this series yet, you need to get busy!  Once this book comes out, you'll be able to read them all right in a row, without even having to wait in between!  Another great story, while not my favorite of the whole series, Carter once again does not disappoint!!

YA Mythology Giveaway Hop Winner AND Feature and Follow Friday 11/9/12

AND, the winner of my YA Mythology Giveaway Hop is: Megan B.!  And she has requested to have a copy of The Goddess Test, which I'm sure she won't be disappointed in!!  Congratulations Megan, and thanks to all my new followers, as well as the long time followers, for participating!

Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read where you get to learn about two featured bloggers each week, and then can gain new followers as well by joining in to the fun. This week's question is:

Q: Do you mind books with similar ideas to other books? Similar concepts, backgrounds, retellings or pulled-to-publish fanfic?

I don't mind similar ideas, there are so many similar books out there that I like.  One thing I do get tired of is when the actual story is exactly like the other.  I do know I'm getting a bit tired of love triangles in what seems almost to be just for the sake of having one.  I mean, come on, I know it's fiction, but in real life, how often do two awesome guys fight over a girl, and honestly, she'd be just great with either one?  Sometimes it just gets to be too much.  The first time I really remember it is of course, Twilight.  But since then, it gets old. I don't actually read a lot of fan-fiction.  Now, I guess the Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels could possibly be considered fan fiction in a way.  But, I have to say, part of what I couldn't stand about the Fifty Shades of Grey book was how similar it was to Twilight.  But who am I to talk?  When I was in middle school, I used to write stories about my friends, but the stories were basically just copied from the books I was reading at the time, Sweet Valley High, etc.  Anyway, I guess overall I don't mind it, it just depends.  :-)

So, what is your opinion on these types of books?

The Goddess Legacy (Goddess Test #2.5) by Aimee Carter

     Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for allowing me to read this egalley.  Once again Aimee Carter has done a wonderful job in retelling the myths of the Greek gods and goddesses.  She's given them lives and back stories, given us reasons to either sympathize with those we before didn't like, or given us reasons to despise those we used to feel sympathy for.  This is called 2.5, although really it could be categorized as 0.5, as they all lead up to where we start in The Goddess Test.  
     The first story, The Goddess Queen, is about Hera.  In the past I've always disliked her, or felt she was kind of a pain.  She was always so jealous and evil seeming, and even though I knew that Zeus was her husband and cheated on her, she was just always portrayed as a cranky old witch.  But this first story gives you sympathy for her.  As you see how she tries to just keep her power as queen.  She doesn't want to marry Zeus, she is, or thinks she is, in love with Hades.  But eventually Zeus does everything he can to change, and prove to her that he does love her.  And their marriage starts out great.  But soon, he is back to his old ways, and try to fight or prevent it, she does.  And she even tries to overlook and be forgiving, taking in his bastard children and trying to raise them as her own.  But more and more she is betrayed, by Zeus, and even her own sister.  She finally attempts to get the power away from Zeus, and distribute evenly among the original 6 of her brothers and sisters, but instead Zeus finds a way to make her guilty of treason and sends her away, stripping her of her power.  Obviously it is so much more understandable why she became the way she did.
     The second story, The Lovestruck Goddess is about exactly who you think it would be about, Aphrodite.  Again we are given a chance to see her side, to see who she really loves, and to learn that yes, you can love more than one person.  Something I saw a picture of from Eclipse, reminding me of when Jacob said the same thing.  You see the people she comes in contact with, and how she affects their lives.
     The third story, Goddess of the Underworld, is about Persephone.  While you somewhat begin to feel sorry for her, I still feel she comes out as selfish to Hades.  Especially what happens with Hermes.  But again, we get to see how she feels and why she makes the decisions she does.  You again think of Aphrodite as selfish, and see Persephone unselfish in her final love and sacrifice for Adonis.
     The fourth story, God of Thieves, is finally told from a male stand point, that of Hermes, who is James in The Goddess Test.  You now see him as not such a great guy as you thought he was in the first two books.  Even though we don't completely trust him in those, we see other reasons to not like him.  He has also fallen out of favor with the council.  But he has been sent to figure out why certain gods have been fading.  He has a theory, but instead of being able to go to the mortals to test it, he is sent on a mission to just see which other gods and goddesses might have faded.  After he does this though, he sneaks away to the mortals.  There he discovers it is because of a change in religions.  People no longer believe in all of them.  There is one god, or a few, but not all of them.  Before he can get back to save a mortal he has come to care for though, Zeus finds him and takes  him back to Olympus.  So again, a not so happy ending.
     The fifth and final story, God of Darkness, takes us to Hades, who has decided he wants to fade.  He goes to the council, they ask for 100 more years.  And this is the beginning of what will lead to The Goddess Test.  We get to meet the first girl, Ingrid, and watch Hades, or Henry as he is called now, fall in love with her in his own way, even though Persephone will always have his heart it seems.  But then she is killed.  And once again Henry is devastated.  We read about him going through this with all the other girls that we heard about in The Goddess Test, and at the end, we read the beginning of his last chance, when Kate is born.
     I love, love, love how this book ended.  The way it made me feel sympathy and root for Hera, even though I knew as Calliope she would be someone to hate.  You understood a bit more about why Henry is the way he is.  Aimee Carter really knows how to pull out the details and make the old myths and stories more personal, and even in a way that makes sense and seems like it could be real.  I'm so glad this book is here to tide us over until #3, The Goddess Inheritance comes out in 2013.

Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter

I was so excited to finally get to see Aimee Carter at BEA and get this book signed by her!  Instead of moving on with the egalleys I had on my Nook, I read it! And I was in no way disappointed!  In fact, you may have seen several posts from me lately about how the 2nd book in the series, while I found them necessary to move the story along, were not as good as the 1st book.  This book however, I actually think was just as good, if not BETTER, than the first one!  I of course had just downloaded and read the 1.5, The Goddess Hunt, before I started this one, but it wasn't needed.  There wasn't much reference to that in Goddess Interrupted, other than we know that Kate spent her 6 months off with James in Greece.  We start out with Calliope serving her punishment by meeting with one of the girls before Kate, Ingrid, that she killed.  But while she is here, she is distracted by a fog on the edge of Ingrid's After Life realm in the Underworld.  Turns out this fog is Cronus, the King of the Titans, and also the "father" of many of the gods.  As the mythology goes, they trapped the Titans in Tartarus, but now they are trying to break lose.  Which is not good for the gods or for humans!  Kate must rescue Henry, and also must figure out how to help the gods keep Cronus from rising.  But instead of coming home to the husband she is looking forward to getting to know and become close with, she comes home to Henry even more secretive and stand offish.  She keeps trying to get him to open up, to the point where she becomes quite a nag it seems.  In fact, this is the only part that almost kept me from giving it a 5 star rating on Goodreads.  With all the talk of how girls are not being strong and we are romanticizing bad relationships in these books, I could see how people might say this is the type of relationship they seem to have.  I don't agree, but I can see people saying that, so it was one thing that detracted from the book for me.  I loved though all the back stories we got, all the interpretations of the Greek myths.  I had to look some of them up online to see how close the book was coming once again to what I remembered reading.  Persephone comes back into the story, and so Kate's whole family dynamic is played out even more.  And while you want to hate Persephone, like Kate, you can see what happened, and kind of be a bit more sympathetic to her case.  Again, part of what will make Kate such a great queen of the Underworld is because of this empathy she has.  And wow, the end of this book, such a cliffhanger!!! And I can't believe who is the betrayer in this!  I had actually suspected this person a bit in the first book, so for it to be that person in this book, so unbelievable!  And I cannot wait till book number 3!!  Fortunately I do have the 2.5 book in the series, The Goddess Legacy to download from Netgalley!  I'll be doing that soon! And here is my picture when I got to meet Aimee Carter at BEA, even though I didn't get the book till the next day!

The Goddess Hunt (Goddess Test #1.5) by Aimee Carter

So, I was getting ready to read my brand new autographed copy of Goddess Interrupted from BEA, when I saw something on the bookmark I got with it about this story.  And I know that you don't usually HAVE to read the short stories set in between the novels to keep up, but I decided to go ahead and quickly download the $1.99 e-book on my Nook and read it before I jumped into the next full length story.  This was an interesting and short look into Kate's world in the 6 months after she's married Henry (Hades), and has been sent out into the world to have experiences before she spend her first 6 months with Henry ruling the Underworld.  In it, she's taken off with James (Hermes), to do some sightseeing, and of course the first, and most likely place they visit is Greece.  James seems to have a plan though when he takes Kate and they get "lost" on a hike in the woods. It is here that they run into Castor and Pollux, who are on the run of course from the other gods.  See, one was immortal, the other was not, and they wanted to share the immortality, but Zeus, now called Harold, tricked them, and said while they could share, one would be on the surface, while one would be in the Underworld.  And the thing was that they had wanted to be together!  So Pollux has broken Castor out of the Underworld.  Well, James has always been nice to them, and so he seems to want to just visit with them.  But instead, they end up running into other gods.  I think the point of this little story is to give us a look into how Kate will rule the Underworld.  As we saw in the first book, The Goddess Test, she doesn't agree that the way the council of gods often rules or makes their decisions makes sense.  Henry learns that he doesn't want to lose his wife, and that her decisions are a fresh, new outlook that is probably needed in their world.
I read this really quickly, and moved on to Goddess Interrupted.  I have to say that what I am really liking about these books is that they are doing the same thing that the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan did in a way.  As I read about the stories of the gods as told by Aimee Carter, the author, I am having to go back and look up the actual myths to see how close the interpretations are.  And I love that!!

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know why I waited so long to read this, but I'm glad I finally did. I really enjoyed yet another take on the after life, as well as the Greek gods, or Olympians. Basically Kate is our main character, and Kate has just moved to the town of Eden, where her mom grew up. The whole moving thing is s good starting point for a lot of stories it seems. Her mom is sick, dying really. Kate knows there is little time left, so even though she loves living in New York City, she agrees to go with her mom to Eden, to let her end her days in the town where she grew up. Now, of course, things seem to start happening, weird things, right away. One night she almost has a car accident, and sees a very handsome teenage boy at the scene. At school, this one guy, James, who is cute, but kind of eccentric, immediately comes up and starts talking to her, even though she doesn't give him any encouragement. Then, one of the more popular guys seems to take notice of her, and his girlfriend, Ava, doesn't seem very happy about it. She calls Kate and tells her if she'll come to this big party this once, so that the guys can all meet her, she'll leave her alone. Kate agrees, just to get this girl out of her hair, because she seems to be like a mean girl. The girl comes and picks her up, and takes her out by this big mysterious mansion, near where Kate had seen the mysterious guy. She gets her to a stream, then says Kate has to swim to get there, or basically just tells her it's a big setup. But, Ava hits her head when she jumps in the water, and even though Kate is scared of water, she jumps in to try and save her. Well, Ava is dead, can't be saved. But the mysterious guy, Henry, shows up, and offers to save Ava, bring her back from the dead, if only Kate will agree to come live with him in the estate/mansion, and to read up on the myth about Persephone. She agrees, not thinking it is real. So then the next day or so at school, all of a sudden Ava is back and wants to be best friends with Kate. Which seems weird.
But when Ava dies again, because Henry says if Kate doesn't come with him he won't be able to keep her saved, Kate goes to the mansion to beg for Ava's life. Not to mention that as this all happens, Kate's mom goes into a coma and is at the hospital. So of course, Kate also wants to save her mom. Henry says at this point it is too late to save Ava, but he can give her a chance to say goodbye to her mother instead of her passing away in a coma. So of course, Kate agrees again. James, the cute guy from school, warns her not to give in, but promises to keep an eye out for her mother while she is gone.
Once Kate is at the mansion, she learns about tests she must pass, and what she is expected to do with this deal. She also learns that Henry's "life" is on the line if this doesn't work,and that Henry is Hades, and that all the other girls before her, didn't even make it until Christmas time from the start of fall without dying or not passing.
I really liked the book. I liked the story, the way Kate dealt with all that happened, as well as how she came about her feelings for Henry. Kate had so many familiar faces show up as the Greek gods, within the actual story, before you or she knew they were, and then at the end, an even bigger surprise, which I kind of had figured out from the little "prequel" chapter at the beginning. Really, good, can't wait to read on, kind of sorry that I didn't bring the 2nd book with me to NYC this week to read now!

View all my reviews

Random Acts of Kindness June Wrap-Up

June was a great month for me to participate! Although I had one person I was going to send an ARC to who was too picky to get an ARC, I sent books to two other people, and got two books myself! Personally, I love ARCs. I feel special, because not everyone gets one. I got to read Matched way before it came out because of that. And even though my ARC doesn't have the really cool final cover, it's cool because it's different. I like different. And I'm not going to be picky for being given a book I want to read. Used works for me as well! Hint, to anyone who chooses to send me a book as part of July RAK. :-)

I think my goal for July will be to send to three different people. Although I'm a bit behind at the moment, I'll pick someone this week to get started.

If you don't know about RAK, it is sponsored by Book Soulmates. What you do is sign up and go to their site and post your wish list, or post it on your own blog. Mine is here on Amazon. Then you pick another person to send a book to from the list. The first month I did this I didn't get anything, but sent one book. This month I sent two books and got two back! After you sign up, you need to post on your blog about it so you can get other people involved as well. At the end of the month, do like I'm doing here and post your thank you list.

First I sent a copy of The Goddess Test to Jennifer at The Book Nympho. (I love that name!)

Then I got Across the Universe from Kate at Literary Explorations. So then I sent Kiss Me Kill Me to Becky at Stories & Sweeties.And then Becky sent me Shiver! Such a fun type of challenge to participate in. I encourage anyone to go sign up that enjoys spreading the love of reading!