It's a Blog Poll!

I saw that Amelia from Imagination In Focus was asking her followers where they were all from - I thought, "Wow! What a great question!" So I thought I would do the same thing.  So, in the spirit of curiosity - 

Where are you from dear follower?

Please fill out the form so I can see!

I am from Minnesota

So Many WINNERS!!!

I have had a few different giveaways running at the same time here at The Wormhole so I decided to post all the winners in one post!  Thanks to everyone who entered and congrats to the winners!!!

Stacey Kennedy offered a free backlist title to the winner:

#4 - Latisha D!

The winner of the Save My Soul Tour Giveaway :

#9 - Julia B!

wins an ecopy of Faustine!

The winners of The Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop are getting personalized ecopies of Danann Frost Embraces the Darkness by Joanne Valiukas.  Those winners are:

#32 - Angelshimmery

#4 - vidisha

# 28 - Joanna

All the winners have been contacted - Thanks again to everyone who entered!

Congrats again to all who won!!!

Review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton


*Netgalley book


Amazon Product Description:

First there are nightmares.
Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.
Then come the memories.
When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.
Now she must hunt.
Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember.



My thoughts:
This was a wonderful story.  I enjoyed the characters.  They are well thought out, cleverly created and developed with a purpose.  The setting is realistic and easy to invest in.  The interactions between the characters is intriguing and entertaining.  I look forward to more from this author!

Review: The Shifters of 2040 by Ami Blackwelder

The Shifters of 2040 (Shifter Evolutions: Book 3) by Ami Blackwelder

***I received this book (digital copy) in exchange for an honest review and participation in the blog tour.  The blog tour is being hosted by The Bookish Snob Tours.


Amazon Product Description:
Book three begins the saga, The Shifters of 2040. From that the reader may choose the past or the future. You may also read the saga chronologically.

America 2040.
Three Species. Divided Lovers. The Race is on for Planet Earth.

Summary: Set in Alaska in 2040, Melissa Marn and Bruce Wilder must work under the iron fist of the SCM, while still trying to maintain humanity. Discovering a world of shifters and hybrids, the scientists must struggle with human prejudice and betrayal. With the original ancestors, dubbed shifters, still living on earth, humans are in the midst of a fifteen year old war. As the eldest hybrids, Unseen and Diamond, learn about humans the hard way, with the loss of loved ones and sacrifices, love on planet earth proves challenging.

With underlining themes of how prejudice breaks human connections and animal/wildlife conservation, this novel which has received rave reviews will leave the reader flipping through the pages.
My thoughts:
     The characters in this book stand out as what drives the story.  They are creatively developed and offer a whole new look at shifters.  Ami's shifters vary in many ways from what you think of when you hear shifter.  These have the ability to assimilate a variety of forms from human to more than one animal, but each has a dominate form that they can easily shift into.  Their original form is more of an energy than an actual creature.  The children - hybrids - are limited in that they each have one animal they can shift into and remain in human form until later in life.  I enjoyed the descriptions, she is very detailed.  It was interesting to me that they had different colored skin that had mottled colors as well.  I liked how she ties the story theme into modern prejudices that we still face even today.
     The military link is frightening - a thing of nightmares and as a reader I pray is just science fiction.  The control of the high up military personnel is terrifying.  I found my heart going out to Bruce in his attempts to get Melissa to break free of the hold of both the military and her father.  At the same time I found myself both angry with and feeling sorry for Melissa.  Sorry that her very identity and sense of self worth were so tied into her work and her father's opinion, and angry that she couldn't seem to dredge up the self confidence to stand up for what she truly believed in and wanted.
     This is an incredible story of the unwillingness of the human race to accept another group of beings because of their own fear and the shifters differences, and the struggle of the shifters to coexist and survive in a world where they are persecuted, hunted, and tortured.  
     This is the story of choices, consequences, desire, fear, hatred, power, control, passion, love, and sacrifice.  The emotional intensity of the characters as they deal with their lives is amazing.  The theme that children are the future is paramount in this story.  
     This was my first Ami Blackwelder shifter read and I can't wait to read the rest of the series!  My only question now is: Do I start with the past and read 2020 or do I look to the future and read 2060?  Don't miss the rest of The Shifter Evolutions series! 

Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

*NetGalley Book

Amazon Product Description:
In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one…except the "thing" inside her.

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch….

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help—and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she's on—even if it seems no one believes her.

My thougthts:
I couldn't get to this fast enough after finishing The Strange Case of Finley Jayne and  I was not disappointed.  I was already hooked before I finished the first page.  The author is descriptive, creative, and clever with creating both her characters and the world in which they live.  She is detailed to the point where you can literally "see" the story unfold, but never find said details tedious.  She has woven mystery and romance into a steampunk adventure.
The characters are incredible.  I can't even pretend to have a favorite, they are all so easy to love.  Each of the characters has a well-developed personality and the role they are given in the story is unique and yet vital to the others.  The relationships that unfold throughout the story fuel a wide range of emotions.  I love how they test the confines of society, sometime by their very natures.  
The depth of imagination that is required to create such a story astounds me.   

Review: The Strange Case of Finley Jayne by Kate Cross

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne by Kady Cross

*I purchased this book at Amazon.com

Amazon Product Description:
Finley Jayne knows she's not 'normal'. Normal girls don't lose time, or have something inside them that makes them capable of remarkably violent things. Her behavior has already cost her one job, so when she's offered the lofty position of companion to Phoebe, a debutante recently engaged to Lord Vincent, she accepts, despite having no experience. Lord Vincent is a man of science with his automatons and inventions, but Finley is suspicious of his motives where Phoebe is concerned. She will do anything to protect her new friend, but what she discovers is even more monstrous than anything she could have imagined…

An ebook exclusive prequel to The Steampunk Chronicles.

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this story.  I grabbed it as soon as I heard it was the prequel to The Girl in the Steel Corset, so I could read it first.  Finley Jayne is a fabulous character.  I love the mystery as she wonders about herself.  I love that she lives by her own rules and that those rules are based on her principles and beliefs.  
Kady Cross cleverly weaves clues into the story and creates a wonderful tale.  I was pleased with the relationships that developed between Finley and both Phoebe and her mother.
This is a great, fast read!  If you are interested in trying out Steampunk for the first time - this is the perfect place to start, and if you are already in love with this new genre, you will have a blast with this book.