Review: Centaur Rivalry by Nancy Straight

Centaur Rivalry by Nancy Straight
Release Date: May 15, 2013
Format: Paperback, 264 pages
Series: Touched #3
Source: Author in exchange for an honest review

Description from Goodreads:
The Centaur world is rocked as news spreads of the Lost Herd, Camille's existence, and her Centaur protector. A death order against Camille's father and family sends all into hiding.

Camille and Drake leave the country pursued by the Lost Herd as well as by Centaur Council enforcers. Camille's twin brother Cameron is manipulated by the Council Head and is quickly becoming her newest enemy.

Amid unexpected new protectors, enemies, and romances, Camille and Drake make their plans to travel to Africa to confront the Centaur Council. They hope acceptance of Camille as Chiron's heir, yet knowing that her link to the Lost Herd could require them to kill or to be killed.

Nancy Straight is one of my favorite indie authors. And of both of her series, this one is my favorite. I read an ARC of Centaur Legacy, which means I read that book early and had to wait a super long (well, super long TO ME) time to read the next book, this one--Centaur Rivalry. I knew very little about the book in its entirety, but I did have a teensy inkling that a certain character whose name I may or may not share (I totally do) was going to come into play in this book.

So then after waiting and waiting, I FINALLY got Centaur Rivalry, and then life did that irritating thing and got in the way again. I had to wait until school was out. But THEN I sat down and read this book. And I enjoyed it so much!

Character Rundowns:
There are A LOT of characters in these books. So I'm not going to list them bolded, I'm just going to comment on them as it comes to me and bold as I go. First of all, Cami. I still think that if she and I were to meet in real life, we'd be friends. She ticked me off a little, because she does tend to slip into selfish-mode sometimes and not pay much attention to how what she does affects those around her *cough*Daniel*cough*. Drake...I love his protectiveness, but really didn't like his insecurity. Made me want to slap him. DANIEL! Oh, my boy. I just love him. A lot. He is so sweet, I will never get over it! And Jessica. It is so insanely cool that there is a character names after me. She was sort of awesome, too!

Plot. This book certainly got off to a great start. Part of this was probably due to the fact that I'd been WAITING since the end of the last book for this. Then things got going, and Nancy Straight writes so well. The story just kept going all the way until it was time for me to pout and go back to waiting for more Daniel. (He's my favorite part of these books!) We learn a lot in this book, and...well, a lot of stuff happens. It was terrific.

Romance. There are so many couples! It's super cute (and makes me happy when there is a certain boy whose name starts with a D and ends with an aniel is involved) but I have to admit, it was...A LOT. Then again, it's nice to see the happiness amidst the chaos of their situation. Either way--SO MUCH SWEETNESS!

The ending. My dearest Nancy Straight. You know I heart you, but why must you make me wait so much for more Daniel? He is my boy! And don't even get me STARTED on how you ended this book. Next book! NEED! *grabby hands*

Overall, Centaur Rivalry was a great installment in the TOUCHED series. It made me super happy as I was reading it and definitely left me wanting more once it was finished. Now I wait for book 4!

♥Jessica(:

Centaur Rivalry Release Day!!!!!!!

Centaur Rivalry Release Day Blitz!!

Today ‘s the day!!  Centaur Rivalry is available right now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.  It’s the third book in Nancy Straight’s Touched Series!

About Centaur Rivalry

The Centaur world is rocked as news spreads of the Lost Herd, Camille's existence, and her Centaur protector. A death order against Camille's father and family sends all into hiding.  Camille and Drake leave the country pursued by the Lost Herd as well as by Centaur Council enforcers. Camille's twin brother Cameron is manipulated by the Council Head and is quickly becoming her newest enemy. Amid unexpected new protectors, enemies, and romances, Camille and Drake make their plans to travel to Africa to confront the Centaur Council. They hope acceptance of Camille as Chiron's heir, yet knowing that her link to the Lost Herd could require them to kill or to be killed.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Centaur-Rivalry-Touched-Series-ebook/dp/B00CKU148K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367279922&sr=8-1&keywords=Centaur+Rivalry

Barnes &Noble Link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/centaur-rivalry-nancy-straight/1046583005?ean=2940016784311

You can stalk Nancy here (because we ALL know *I* do):

Twitter: @NancyStraight

Blog: http://authnancystraight.blogspot.com/

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nancy-Straight/243616005687882

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4114202.Nancy_Straight

So, what would be the ultimate giveaway for this blitz?  How about Paperback copies of Blood Debt, Centaur Legacy and Centaur Rivalry?

What? Not good enough? How about we have FIVE, count them FIVE, winners who will EACH win a paperback set!! Still not good enough??  

Man!! Okay, INTERNATIONAL WINNERS, TOO!!

Enter the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~~~

 

I LOVE NANCY STRAIGHT. I kid you not, people, she is completely awesome. I love her books. Also, if you read Centaur Rivalry, I have this hunch that you may POSSIBLY recognize the name of a character...just saying...

 

I TOLD YOU DANIEL WAS MINE!

 

Okay. That is all. This series rocks. That's what matters.

 

Oh, and Daniel is mine. That matters, too. ;)

 

*flails*

 

♥Jessica(:

Announcing the Valentine Book Boy Chat!

 

Hey, y'all! So I have a super fun announcement to make today!! If you follow me on Twitter (or if you follow @J_20_C_, AKA The Book Goddess), you have probably seen us teasing you about some super awesome things we've been planning since...I think the first tease happened in the beginning of January...ha. Anyhoo, TODAY, we're going to let you in on what we were so excited about!

 

As I'm sure you all know, Valentine's Day is right around the corner. And I know it's not really a huuuuge holiday for celebrating, especially if you're single, but I wanted to do something fun on the blog anyway. So did Jana from The Book Goddess (a great blogging friend whom I heart SO MUCH). So, like the blogging Lux-loving Dante-loving best friends we are, we cooked up something we think is kind of cool to entertain you guys (and, lets be honest, ourselves, too, because this was so fun!).

 

WHAT am I talking about, you ask? Well, the Valentine Book Boy Chat, of course!

 

No, it is not a Twitter chat.

 

No, it is not a blog chat (do those even exist...?).

 

No, it is not some kind of live stream chat-thing.

 

No no no. But it's still pretty cool.

 

What Jana and I did...well, first let's see some books...

 

 

Any books on that strip that you're bouncing off the walls for? That you've read and LOVEDLOVEDLOVED? Or that you canNOT wait to get your hands on? I'm sure you all know of at least one on that list that *I* have been chopping at the bit to get.

 

But back to the point. WHAT do all these books have to do with this post? Why am I doing this? WHAT IS THE POINT?

 

Well, all of these books...well, either Jana loves them or I love them or we both love them. And all of these books have book boys to die for. Soooooooooo. WHAT WE DID was interviewed one book boy from each of these stories.

 

SAY WHAAAT?!?!?!!!

 

Mhm. We each did a short interview. With one boy. From each of those books. And we shall be posting them alllll this week! Moday-Friday. Yeah. We're doin' it. It's happening. AWESOMENESS, trust me.

 

Am I making no sense? Because I don't feel like I've explained it well enough. You see, Jana and I interviewed some book boys. Each day, we'll post our interviews with a different book boy. You will be linked in the post so you can just click and head on over to the other blog. By this I mean, at the end of my post (and probably the beginning, too) I'll have a link to Jana's blog so you can go there and check out her interview with whichever that day's book boy is after you're done reading my interview.

 

Get it now?

 

I hope so!

 

So, I said something about "whichever that day's book boy is"... Yes, I said that for a reason. Because OF COURSE there is a schedule. And I'mma share it with you. Right now.

 

Right now.

 

Right now.

 

I'm seriously drawing this out for no reason whatsoever. Sorry.

 

Monday, February 11, 2013

We shall be interviewing Dean from Dracian Legacy by Priya Kanaparti! Dracian Legacy comes out ON Valentine's Day and I've already read it. And I love it. And I love Dean. And this interview was so much fun I can't even describe. DEAN MAKES ME LAUGH. Also, he'll be swinging back around my blog next Saturday (Feb. 16th), too as part of the Dracian Legacy blog tour! So that is something to look forward to ;)

 

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

You remember Daniel, right? From Blood Debt and Centaur Legacy by Nancy Straight? He was my first ever character interview during the Blood Debt blog tour. He is also my ACTUAL book boyfriend. Seriously. Book 3, my friends. Just you wait. You'll see. And yes, this day IS my birthday, thank you for remembering! I may or may not have spazzed excessively about scheduling him on this day...

 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Trevor from Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini! Oliver WAS considered when deciding who to choose for this interview, and I would have had a GREAT time with THAT sweetheart, but ultimately, Trevor was chosen. And his interview was so great! Plus, I love this book to death. Sometimes, when I re-read it, it can make me shed a few tears. AH, love.

 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Kaidan. Rowe. I've heard miraculous things about him. I must say, his interview made me giggle for a while after. Not sure why... ;) Anyway, in case you do not know, he's from Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins. And, urm, Sweet Peril. The sequel to Sweet Evil. So yeah. FUN THINGS! Jana insisted we include him and of course I agreed because a) Jana's awesome and b) How could I say no to such an arrogantly charming book boy? Exactly.

 

Friday, February 15, 2013

What would this blog event be without The Collector? YOU KNOW how much I adore Dante Walker. Have you not seen my left side bar? If you're new to my blog, I'll cut you some slack here: Dante Walker is my boyfriend the hot guy in The Collector by Victoria Scott. Which comes out in April. You can keep track of this coutdown with the widget located on my left sidebar. ANYWAY, of course he's included and of course his interview is aweosme and of course we saved the best for last.

 

Goodness, now I feel like going on and on about how much I heart Dante and Victoria Scott and how I met her and how I want this book RIGHT NOW and just ahhhh.

 

But I won't. I'll actually end the post here. Because this post has turned out to be WAAAAY longer than intended. Ha. But before I let you go, I just want to say a quick thank you to the authors--Priya, Nancy, Kim, Wendy, and V! I love them all more than I can say and they were so awesome to let us borrow their boys for a little while. I also want to thank Jana for agreeing to help me with this. I seirously would not have been able to do this otherwise. I'm kind of a wimp, you guys.

 

So that's it. As I've said, the first post for this goes up on Monday, so be on the lookout for it! I am so excited to share these interviews! We've been sitting on them for some time now. EEEP!

 

♥Jessica(:

Blog Tour: Blood Debt by Nancy Straight (Review)

Review:

Blood Debt by Nancy Straight

Release Date: July 15, 2012

Format: ebook, 194 pages

Series: Touched #1

Source: SupaGurl Tours

 

Description from Goodreads:

Her whole life, it had just been the two of them. Before her mother’s last breath, she gave Camille the information she had craved her entire life: the identity of her father. Daring to contact him, Camille was welcomed by an entire family she never knew existed. But nothing comes without a price, as she discovers when her family claims a legendary heritage tracing back to a centaur touched by Zeus.

As she learns the secrets of her Centaur bloodline, she is drawn into a forbidden love with Drake. Her life may be the blood debt required to pay for her mother’s transgressions. The same person who once held her mother captive, and forced her into decades of hiding, now controls Camille. Her only chance is to seek a piece of her mother’s past that will win her freedom and the life she desperately wants.



 

I loved Blood Debt!

 

This story begins in a way that made me want to keep reading, then kept going on to things that made it IMPOSSIBLE for me to stop reading. I didn't take many breaks throughout my reading of this book, which was amusing for some of my good friends on Twitter. I kind of tweeted the heck out of THAT particular experience...

 

Character Rundown:

Camille: Cami is very down to Earth. She handles everything really well, considering she was thrown into quite possibly the most awkward situation EVER. Plus, she was brave when she needed to be. She's a good, strong MC. She has her flaws, of course, but she had so many good qualities to make up for it.

 

Drake: Soooo. Drake. He's a good guy. But he's realy not assertive enough, in my opinion. I understand that their society is the way it is, but if he REALLY wants to be with Cami, he should do something about it instead of cowering. In the end, I ended up loving his character, but for a good part of the beginning, I wanted to slap him silly.

 

Daniel: I. LOVE. DANIEL. No lie, he's my boy. He's funny, he's sweet, and he does what he wants.

 

Other Characters: There are LOTS of other characters. 5 brothers, 2 parents, 1 opposing male, and 1 evil grandmother, for starters. All of these characters were amusing, and reading them was fun. Especially Gage. I like Gage.

 

The plot. DO NOT EXPECT ANYTHING. Because Nancy will surprise you. Seriously. I was completely floored AT LEAST twice while reading this. At least. It could have been more. My point here? You're going to be surprised.

 

Relationships: Drake & Cami: So adorable. Some of my favorite lines of the book come from this relationship. Cami & Daniel: I really hope they stay just friends...because as I said, DANIEL IS MY BOY. He and Cami make really great friends, though. Cami & Gage: I was rooting for them for a while there. Gage can be so incredibly sweet, you know. I seriously like this guy. I hope we get more of him!    

The ending. Such a sweet ending. I'm pretty sure it can be considered a cliffhanger, but that's okay because it has the sweetest last paragraph ever. As I say all the time in my JLA reviews--sometimes other aspects of the book make up for these tyoes of things.

Overall, I vote we all read this book. It's fun, it;s exciting, and the characters make me all kind of happy. Especially Daniel. Hehe ;)

♥Jessica(: