Book Review: Rise of the Magi by Jocelyn Adams

Title: Rise of the Magi
Series: Lila Gray #3
Author: Jocelyn Adams
Publisher: J. Taylor Publishing (June 4, 2013)
Format Read: eARC Novel
Source: Publisher
Genre: Paranormal Romance

In a battle of wills, who is strongest? The one who hates or the one who loves?

In a test of faith, who will fight the hardest? The one who has everything to lose or the one who believes only in herself?

For Lila Gray, the answer is both. For the Magi, the questions are pointless since they can’t lose, and they’ve been waiting since before Lila’s birth for this one moment. Lila only needs to find them to understand her entire purpose in life. This time, though, instead of protecting her people, Lila may be leading them all, including her unborn child and the man she loves, to their deaths — and not by accident. 

In the ultimate trial of heart and soul, and the conclusion to the Lila Gray series, Lila will learn that the greatest weapon of war is herself, with one ultimate unknown. For which side will she fight?

Favorite Teasers: A bunch of trees are going to invade your cities and eat everyone in sight. – 10 %

God, I’d turned into such a sap. – 18%

If only everyone was so easily pleased. – 24%

Touching a wildcard would have been tantamount to grabbing hold of a sleeping dragon and giving it a poke in the side. – 41%

Shifters were made of awesome, no doubt about it. – 57%

Hindsight was as useless as stilettos on a frog. – 69%

A life that is not your own is no life at all. – 80% 

Review: Lila Gray’s final battle may end her world as she knows it in Jocelyn Adams’ Rise of the Magi.

The third and final book of the Lila Gray series, Rise of the Magi yanks the reader back into Lila’s world and doesn’t want to let the reader go. Familiar characters and new characters abound. I particularly loved the introduction of the witches and thought they added to the paranormal world Adams created. The best part of the book was Lila’s growth as a person and queen of the fae. The kick-butt, spunky heroine finally reveals her softer side not only to the readers but to the other characters. I just love Lila to pieces!

Adams brilliantly ties the characters and the plot together in a complex bow. This novel took each thread from the other books and weaved them together, so the reader gets a complete understanding of how everything is linked. For me, the plot served to show the characters’ growths and pushed the characters to their limits.

Adams also explores and explains more about the world Lila Gray lives in. The additional nuances from the previous books and the fantastic descriptions keep the reader grounded in this extraordinarily complex world.

This fast-paced novel had me laughing, cheering for the good guys to win, and cringing at the horrors the characters have to face. I think I sobbed off and on during the last twenty percent of this book—some happy tears too.

For a series with a strong heroine and fascinating paranormal world—with the bonus of very handsome fae men too—I highly recommend Rise of the Magi by Jocelyn Adams as well as the entire Lila Gray series.

 

Five Bookworms = I loved it!

Other Books in the Series:

 

Click here to read my review.

 

Click here to read my review.

O is for Oneiroi series by Christina McKnight

 

For 2013's A to Z Challenge, I am talking about book series, particularly some favorite series as well as series I've been waiting to read for a LONG time. 

O is for ... Oneiroi series by Christina McKnight

I just love how Christina McKnight picked a Greek myth that isn't overdone, and I look forward to reading her series.

When Lucessa Sarcona awakes from a recurring dream, she has no idea her life is about to be turned upside down. A stranger, familiar to her dreams, shows up in the flesh, and Lucessa knows she’s either crazy or experiencing something not of this world.

A war ensues between three demigod brothers. One, trained to rule Erebos, is violently replaced. One forced to return to his homeland and lead the dream-gods of the Oneiroi. And one is charged with the impossible task of protecting Lucessa. How is she linked to the Oneiroi? Why do two brothers seek to keep her hidden and protected? And how does another plan to use her against the two demigods who love her?

Will Lucessa’s dream man have the courage to claim her as his own or will he bow to the command of another, forsaking the one he loves?

Only in Her Dreams is a modern spin on a Greek legend--the new direction of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance, moving from angels, demons, vampires, and witches and toward the realm of demigods.

L is for Lila Gray series by Jocelyn Adams

 

For 2013's A to Z Challenge, I am talking about book series, particularly some favorite series as well as series I've been waiting to read for a LONG time.

L is for ... Lila Gray series by Jocelyn Adams

From the very first chapter of The Glass Man, I have been a fan of Lila Gray. I can't wait to see what will happen next to the fae and mankind in this series!

Lila Gray is just a human—at least that’s her mantra when she accidentally topples a building or bends a paranoid local's gun into modern art. That she can sense and control the minds around her doesn’t prove anything, either. Unwilling to put others at risk, she hides in the wilderness from the beautiful creature who hunts her, one who sees her as his ultimate prize.

Alone, the egocentric Glass Man can kill with a thought. Mated with Lila, he's a supernatural weapon prepared to annihilate the humans he loathes.

Caught in the Glass Man’s latest scheme, Lila is plunged into a hidden fae realm, faced with a secret birthright and a forbidden romance.

With the Glass Man threatening everyone she loves, can Lila accept who she is in time to end his bloody reign? Or will she succumb to his dark power and become the vehicle of destruction for the human race?

Read my review of The Glass Man here.

Why me?

That’s the question Lila Gray asks every time yet another bad guy tries to destroy the earth, and she learns she’s the only one who can stop it. Once again, something’s on the prowl, leaving hundreds of comatose, soulless victims in its wake.

Couldn’t the deadliest assassins of the Otherworld go after someone else instead of the brand new Queen of the Seelie? One who still hasn’t adapted to her new role.

Lila would ask Liam Kane, King of the Unseelie, for advice, but something’s off with him, too. He’s holding back. In some way. About some thing. In fact, he refuses to tell her what’s going on.

The truth holds Lila back from the greatness of her role—the people she was born to lead—the man who she desperately loves—and the solution to the latest war raging around her.

To find the answers, she’ll need to fight through her own darkness and embark on a journey through her psyche.

If she doesn’t succeed, the Shadowborn will claim not only her world, but her soul.

Read my review of Shadowborn here. 

In a battle of wills, who is strongest? The one who hates or the one who loves?

In a test of faith, who will fight the hardest? The one who has everything to lose or the one who believes only in herself?

For Lila Gray, the answer is both. For the Magi, the questions are pointless since they can’t lose, and they’ve been waiting since before Lila’s birth for this one moment. Lila only needs to find them to understand her entire purpose in life. This time, though, instead of protecting her people, Lila may be leading them all, including her unborn child and the man she loves, to their deaths — and not by accident.

In the ultimate trial of heart and soul, and the conclusion to the Lila Gray series, Lila will learn that the greatest weapon of war is herself, with one ultimate unknown. For which side will she fight?

K is for Kindrily series by Karen Amanda Hooper

 

For 2013's A to Z Challenge, I am talking about book series, particularly some favorite series as well as series I've been waiting to read for a LONG time.

K is for ... Kindrily series by Karen Amanda Hooper

OMG! I just loved book one of the Kindrily series! It was in my top five favorite books I read last year, and I can't wait to read the next in the series. Plus, look at those gorgeous covers!

Leave it to Maryah Woodsen to break the one rule that will screw up eternity: Never erase your memories.

Before entering this life, Maryah did the unthinkable—she erased. Now, at seventeen years old, she’s clueless that her new adoptive family has known her for centuries, that they are perpetually reincarnated souls, and that they have supernatural abilities. Oh, and she's supposed to love (not despise) Nathan, the green-eyed daredevil who saved her life.

Nathan is convinced his family’s plan to spark Maryah's memory is hopeless, but his love for her is undying. After spending (and remembering) so many lifetimes together, being around an empty version of his soulmate is heart shattering. He hates acting like a stalker, but has no choice because the evil outcast who murdered Maryah in their last lifetime is still after her.

While Maryah’s hunter inches closer, she and Nathan make assumptions and hide secrets that rip them further apart. Maryah has to believe in the magic within her, Nathan must have faith in the power of their love, and both need to grasp onto the truth before they lose each other forever—and discover just how lonely eternity can be.

X-MEN meets MY NAME IS MEMORY in Karen Amanda Hooper’s latest young adult release.

Click here to read my review of Grasping at Eternity.

Forever is worth the fight.

Maryah erased all memory of her past lives, but she couldn’t erase her soul mate Nathan, or his undying love. Now, Maryah and Nathan have a second chance at a future together, but first Maryah must remember the person she used to be and embrace her supernatural gifts—more than one kindrily member’s life depends on it.

Maryah’s power is Harmony’s best hope of finding her kidnapped soul mate, Gregory. But Harmony isn’t big on asking anyone for help, and she’s tired of waiting, so she’s taking matters into her own hands. Heaven help anyone who stands in her way.  

F is for Fever series by Karen Marie Moning

 

For 2013's A to Z Challenge, I am talking about book series, particularly some favorite series as well as series I've been waiting to read for a LONG time.

F is for ... Fever series by Karen Marie Moning

Yes, I have to admit it. I haven't read this series ... yet! I've heard so many good things about Moning's Fever series, so I do want to read them, even though I'm woefully behind. What are they up to now? Nine? Ten? More? Darkfever, book one of Fever, is definitely on my to-read list.

MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….

As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands....