format: ebook
target audience: adult
genre: urban fantasy
words: ~99467
series: just breathe, book 1
publishing day: may 2012
publisher: howling mad press
goodreads: inhale
author’s site: kendall grey
i got it from: review copy
After years of suffocating under her boss’s scrutiny, whale biologist Zoe Morgan finally lands a job as director of a tagging project in Hervey Bay, Australia. Success Down Under all but guarantees her the promotion of a lifetime, and Zoe won’t let anything—or anyone—stand in her way. Not the whale voices she suddenly hears in her head, not the ex who won’t take no for an answer, and especially not the gorgeous figment of her imagination who keeps saving her from the fiery hell of her dreams.
Gavin Cassidy hasn’t been called to help a human Wyldling in over a year, which is fine by him. Still blaming himself for the death of his partner, he keeps the guilt at bay by indulging in every excess his rock star persona affords. That is, until he’s summoned to protect Zoe from hungry Fyre Elementals and learns his new charge is the key to restoring order in the dying Dreaming. He never expects to fall for the feisty Dr. Morgan…nor does he realize he may have to sacrifice the woman he loves to save an entire country.
cover
Simply put: I love it. It’s a well done eye-catcher, that fits well with the books theme and story.
my review
I got interested in Inhale the weirdest way. I saw a few tweets about reading from the author:
“This book is why I quit reading a year ago. I think I’ll quit again after I finish it.” (She didn’t tell which book she was talking about.)
“I know. I’m the outlier in the writing community. The only writer who doesn’t read. Go figure. :-)”
So an author who doesn’t read… what is this sorcery? Surely her book can’t be any good if she doesn’t read, can it? So naturally I asked for a review copy… and because of her own high standards for literature, my expectations for Inhale were HIGH.
And let me get this out straight away. The book is amazing and parts of it are hitting brilliance. Kendall Grey is the exception that proves the rule and you should read her book once it comes out.
The beginning of Inhale is actually the weakest part of the book. It shouldn’t be necessary to read a glossary before reading a book and I wish Grey would’ve explained the terms via storytelling early on. After you pass the prologue it’s easier to keep track on all the new terms.
Grey is especially good writing her descriptions. There’s a scene with fyre elementals Scarlett and Seraphine, where I saw this skill of hers the first time. Grey’s words were so vivid, they drag you in and leave you lingering in the world she created. I would love to quote that particular scene here, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. It’s better if you read it in the context. It’s not that the whole book is epically written scenes one after another, but you get lots of them.
I loved Zoe as the heroine — she doesn’t take shit, stands for what she believes, forgives when it’s warranted and has true feelings. And despite all the differences between her and the hero of the book — Gavin — I can believe in them. I truly think they could fall in love and compliment each other instead of clashing. I was afraid the author would let the book end without their relationship getting a real resolution, but was relieved that’s not the case.
My favorite character in the book was Scarlett. She’s devious, cunning and such a perfectly imperfect villain for the story. What allows her to grow close to greatness is also what takes her down in a swiff. I wasn’t a fan of how she crumbled in the end, but I guess that will leave more room for her development in the next book.
Grey gets a teensy bit minus for being occasionally repetitive. She mentions things like Zoe’s condition several times, when it’s not really needed. I doubt anyone forgets it after the first time it comes up. However the book is very polished and a true pleasure to read. I recommend Inhale wholeheartedly for all adult urban fantasy readers.
Rating: 
Oh, and Grey is promising all of the book’s profits will go towards educating people about whales. How awesome is that?
book trailer
about the author
Kendall Grey, word diddler and whale champion, was born without an off-switch between her brain and mouth. She’s been called the “flux capacitor of Twitter” and “a little package of love all wrapped up in F-word paper,” but she’s really just a maniacal writer relaying eyewitness accounts of the rave inside her head. Her “Just Breathe” urban fantasy trilogy will be released in May, 2012. Kendall lives off a dirt road near Atlanta, Georgia, but don’t hold that against her.
Author’s Website
Second Freebie Day! As I mentioned last time, my recommendations will be urban fantasy, paranormal romance, sci-fi and steampunk. I hope you enjoy my picks!
The Burning Sky by Joseph Robert Lewis
Taziri had a promising career as an airship engineer and inventor until an explosion incinerated the fleet and killed most of the Air Corps. Now, she is the only pilot left to help the marshals hunt down the people responsible for this tragedy before they can strike again.
Taziri’s investigation ranges across the country on airships, steamships, and racing locomotives, from sprawling cities to ancient tombs. She discovers a vast conspiracy including a traitorous ambassador with an electric touch, an Espani doctor performing horrific experiments, and a Samaritan assassin who prefers Italian daggers over Mazigh guns.
And as killers emerge from every shadow and riots erupt on every street corner, Taziri quickly learns to defend herself as only an engineer can – with her wits and her tools.
In a country where women control the government, the military, and the most powerful industries in the world, Taziri has a clear advantage over the male marshals. But despite all her efforts, her country’s only hope for peace may be an exiled Incan princess and her swashbuckling lover, and an airship called Halcyon falling from the burning sky.
The Wizard of Time by G.L. Breedon
Thirteen-year-old Gabriel Salvador has dreams about the future and his dreams always come true. When he dreams one night that he will drown, he knows upon waking it is only a matter of time before his dream becomes reality.Plucked from the timeline of history at the moment of his death, Gabriel becomes an apprentice time mage and part of an elite team of wizards who travel throughout history to fight the War of Time and Magic.
Victorian London, the Aztec temples of 1487, the Greek island of Samos in 320 BCE, Scotland in the Middle Ages, and the battle fields of Alexander the Great are only some of the adventures in time that await Gabriel as he learns to become a time mage and joins the battle to protect the timeline of history in THE WIZARD OF TIME.
Synthetic: Rise of the Siren by Shonna Wright
Playing God is a lonely job. Kora created twin mermaids, a gang of gnomes and even a replica of Brigitte Bardot for her wealthy clientele, but what she really wants is her own family.
Forget pregnancy. Kora synthesizes full-grown creatures from artificial cells. Thanks to this unique talent, she’s enslaved at Mirafield Labs where she’s forced to pump out synthetic bimbos twenty-four hours a day, leaving her no time to design her own companions. But when a Mirafield bigwig named Ruby Lazar summons her for a house call, Kora leaps at the opportunity to escape her captors.
Kora is shipped off to a Gothic castle on the cliffs of Point Dume where meets Ruby, an ancient horror actress turned mad scientist, who she is shocked to learn is her long-lost mother. Ruby rules over a family of her own creations including a walrus man, a tiny troll, and her vampire boy toy, Vaughn. He wants nothing to do with Ruby, but she hopes to seduce him and resurrect her acting career by transforming herself into a gorgeous vampire.
To save her own neck, Kora must perform the impossible task of transferring Ruby’s brain into the body of a synthetic vampire. But making a monster while falling for Vaughn puts Kora in a tailspin. Is she morphing into her detestable mother? Desperate to get free, Kora searches for remnants of her past and discovers a monster genocide Ruby ordered ten years before that ripped Kora from everyone she loved. Now Kora must battle her mother before Ruby destroys her life all over again.
So that was this weeks selection, hope you like them! I’ll be gone for the weekend, so see you next week.
The Coffee Addict
Bio: Reader, indie book blogger, writer, atheist, coffee consumer, satsuma devourer, movie lover, TV-series addict, dog owner, dreamer, queer and endlessly curious.
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