Good morning minions!! Today, I am sharing another review I wrote over on Pure Textuality. This one actually comes with a big congrats to my friend and author Jocelyn Stover! Today is the release day for her second book in the Wanderer series, A Step Away! Along with my review is also a review by Ginny Lurcock, another one of my best friends, a freaktastic author, and reviewer at PT. She and I both loved the book! If you like urban fantasy and paranormal romance, this is a GREAT series! There’s an excerpt included so you can get a little taste! – Jena
“Time…such a cruel mistress of fate. What we do with ours can either enrich our lives or destroy them, and we mortals never seem to have enough. The right time, our time, was too little and over much too quickly.”
When Gwen turns her back on a set of smoldering amber eyes in favor of a crystal blue pair, her plan is to sever all ties with the Wanderers. Her goodbye is short lived; however, when the investigation into Preston-Ward Pharmaceuticals reveals a powerful sylph has escaped. When Gwen is drawn back into the Wanderer brotherhood for her own protection she discovers she can no longer bury her feelings for Kade or ignore the growing gulf between her and Ben. As the unrelenting hunt for their ancient enemy heats up, Gwen’s attempt to straddle two worlds becomes tedious. She must choose, but when nephilim mysteriously begin to disappear her time may be up.
A Step Away
Wanderer Series #2
by Jocelyn Stover
Release Date: October 4, 2013
PURCHASE LINK
Amazon
Jena’s Review
That damn woman did it again….
Ok, so if you all remember my review of Out of Reach (Wanderer Series #1), you know that I LOVED that book. The only downfall in my eyes was the fact that book #2 wasn’t ready because it left off with a MAJOR cliffhanger. Major. Huge. Gigantic. The kind of big cliffhanger that makes you want to track the author down and shake her silly until the next piece of the story falls out.
Well…
It’s here….
A Step Away (Wanderer Series #2) is the next piece in Gwen’s journey with the Wanderers.
What’s a wanderer, you ask???
Hot pieces of man meat that are here to save the world, that’s what.
Ok, that’s not all they are, but it doesn’t hurt to mention it.
The whole crew is back in A Step Away, and tensions are running damn high thanks to a threat from the Wanderers’ past. And that threat comes in the form of a rather bad bass bad guy. I love a well-written bad guy and this one is just a touch on the brutal side, which in turn means I adore him.
Grab your tissues ladies! That goes for the guys who aren’t afraid of their feminine side, too! This book will make you cry your eyes out. Several times. There are a few moments in A Step Away that are an all-out assault on your emotional well-being, and every single moment of it makes this book pure awesomeness. Not that I enjoy crying, but it’s not often that I am moved to tears by a book.
I want to mention that I love Z. Z, or you can call him by his full name Zafir, holds his spot as my absolute favorite character in this series. He’s hot, he’s gruff, he’s a badass, he’s sarcastic, he’s funny, he’s sweet….he’s just everything all balled up into a gorgeous book boyfriend package. I adore him, and if he were real, I would make it my life’s work to stalk him professionally.
Gwen has changed roles a bit in this book. In Out of Reach, she was kind of a hard as nails, “Work the Problem!” kind of crazy. That “Work the Problem!” attitude is not really there in this book. She’s changed roles in her life, and for a chick who is used to taking charge and figuring it out, she is officially in a world where she has to defer to others. It’s simply because she’s got so much to learn. I think so many reviewers constantly look for a character to continue growing, and sometimes, a character has to take 2 steps back to take a step forward. I feel that Jocelyn Stover executes this in A Step Away perfectly.
Kade….oh, Kade. Sometimes, I kind of want to feed Kade a Quaalude. Or at the very least, slip him a little valium. He’s so worried ALL THE TIME. With damn good reason, mind you, but worried nonetheless. I find myself just being all “Relaaaaaaaaaaaaax, everything will work out. Not sure how, but it will.” And then give him a big hug. A really big hug. That ends with us making out. Wink wink.
Overall, I am giving A Step Away 5 shiny sylph orbs!! Loved it!!! Cover to cover, I loved this book! I am seriously hooked on this series, and I am so ready for book 3!!
*puts on coat and boots to start stalking author until she gives me the manuscript for the 3rd book*
Excerpt
“Change your clothes, we’re going for a run,” Z states.
“What? No!”
“Just indulge me.” His clipped tone lets me know there’s no getting out of this, and I can tell he’s trying very hard to keep the usual expletives and name calling that decorate his speech to a minimum.
“Fine,” I reply, not at all thrilled by the prospect of hanging out with Z. I bang around loudly while I don appropriate attire, like a toddler throwing a fit, and it actually makes me feel a bit better. Sullenly I keep my mouth shut and follow Z outside to the pavement, at which point he starts running and I have no choice but to truck it to match his long strides.
“What are we doing?” I huff after several minutes of soundlessly pounding the pavement.
“We’re finally going to have that chat about the chip on my shoulder.”
“Oh.”
“Surprised?” he inquires, grinning.
“Yes,” I admit, grateful that this isn’t going to be about me.
“Don’t look so smug, we’ll get to you.” Damn it. I knew it was too good to be true. “So go on, ask me,” he continues, ignoring the sour look on my face.
“What’s your deal? Why do you let that guy get to you? I know you were close when you two were Sylph but you’re an entirely different species now.” My joke about his ilk earns me a laugh.
“I was changed, yes, but my memories are still there. The angels didn’t start me off with a blank slate.”
“You guys never really talk about that, you just allude to it now and again.”
“Do you like to talk about all your mistakes?”
“Well no,” I reply floundering, the conversation steering me more than I’m leading it. “Wait!” I blurt out as a shred of higher reasoning comes to my rescue. “You feel guilty, don’t you?”
“Geez, you’re dense.” Z laughs and rolls his eyes.
“Seriously Z, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Oh really,” he says and stops running to confront me. “I’ve killed more people than I can count… many of them children.”
“That’s just it: you haven’t killed anyone. A long time ago there lived a monster, and yes he killed a lot of people, but his name wasn’t Zafir. How can you beat yourself up over something you didn’t do? That you had absolutely no control over?”
“How can you?” he asks in return.
Jump to the Wanderer Series on Amazon
AUTHOR BIO
I’m a thoughtful, sarcastic, work-o-holic, mother of four. I must thrive on chaos because I’ve certainly built enough of it into my life already! I write during the stolen mintures of the day when the children are in bed or at school. When I’m not writing you can find me up to no good with my kiddos, or outside soaking up the sunshine.
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