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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
I didn't grab this immediately because I didn't think I'd like Nell based on her appearance in the Jane Yellowrock series. A few chapters in and I was kicking myself. I like Nell a lot, but I love Unit Eighteen.
So far the series is really similar to JY, but in good ways. The themes of family, self-discovery, learning to trust, and seeing the world in shades of gray are all there. That's what I love about JY. The characters and story are different so it doesn't feel like the same old with new names.
Here's hoping we see a lot more of Nell and her new unit. And get a slew of background stories for them!
So far the series is really similar to JY, but in good ways. The themes of family, self-discovery, learning to trust, and seeing the world in shades of gray are all there. That's what I love about JY. The characters and story are different so it doesn't feel like the same old with new names.
Here's hoping we see a lot more of Nell and her new unit. And get a slew of background stories for them!
As a child growing up in a polygamous cult, Nell escaped the constrictions of cult life and marriage to the evil cult leader by agreeing to become the second wife of John Ingram. After his first wife died and then later he died, she found herself alone on a parcel of land that borders the land owned by the church.
She has lived on her own, with shotguns at every window always fearing the day the men from the church came for her. But she has more than just shotguns. It's her land, through the earth and the trees she knows every inch of it. She controls who comes and goes and with just a drop of blood, she even has the power of life and death.
Now after many years things are changing. Some young women, town people have been kidnapped and PsyLED and the FBI are nosing around. They enlist her help to infiltrate the church and what she discovers is a creature so evil even the experts from PsyLED don't know what it is.
Blood of the Earth is incredible. Nell Ingram is a heroine you'll instantly love. The book is set in the world of Jane Yellowrock with a few crossover characters, though thankfully only a few. Nell's world, her gifts, her background, her land...there is so much fertile ground for great stories and if I'm totally honest, the part of it I find least interesting is the PsyLED aspect.
Book 2, Curse of the Land follows in a few short months and I'm champing at the bit to get it. I can't wait.
She has lived on her own, with shotguns at every window always fearing the day the men from the church came for her. But she has more than just shotguns. It's her land, through the earth and the trees she knows every inch of it. She controls who comes and goes and with just a drop of blood, she even has the power of life and death.
Now after many years things are changing. Some young women, town people have been kidnapped and PsyLED and the FBI are nosing around. They enlist her help to infiltrate the church and what she discovers is a creature so evil even the experts from PsyLED don't know what it is.
Blood of the Earth is incredible. Nell Ingram is a heroine you'll instantly love. The book is set in the world of Jane Yellowrock with a few crossover characters, though thankfully only a few. Nell's world, her gifts, her background, her land...there is so much fertile ground for great stories and if I'm totally honest, the part of it I find least interesting is the PsyLED aspect.
Book 2, Curse of the Land follows in a few short months and I'm champing at the bit to get it. I can't wait.
DNF
The cult thing is just turning me off. Time to move on
The cult thing is just turning me off. Time to move on
I wouldn't have picked this up except that it was a BOM in one of my groups and I thought that I should try a different POV in the Yellowrock universe. I was so glad I did pick it up.
This was really good. It is set in the Jane Yellowrock universe and has Rick LeFleur as one of the main characters after the protagonist. He is the head of the group that recruits Nell as a consultant. Nell is isolated on her land, waiting to see if she can help her sisters or other family members, escape the cult like church and situation. She still has much of the belief system ingrained in her, which isolates her even more, yet connects her with her land. She has a magic symbiosis with the land that she and others cannot explain. The church would like to call her a witch but she's been tested. She is a very different protagonist than the normal UF kick ass female.
Rick comes to ask for her help in infiltrating the church because they think that another group has already infiltrated it. They want her to find out information. She wants to see whether she can help her family left behind or even help herself. It is complex what is happening to the church and what is going on with Rick's investigation. The whole thing just pulled me along for the ride and I was waiting to see what would happen next. It was not cut and dry.
So Nell joins the group with Rick, including Rick's mate, and this leads Nell to develop new connections to people other than those in town and the old connection of the church. These relationships develop in interesting and unforeseen ways. I loved seeing Nell's country bumpkin ways being pushed by the group yet the group learning that just because she wasn't schooled, didn't mean she wasn't smart. The library was one of her favorite places to go. Knowledge wasn't the problem, real world experience is. Yet she is experienced in her own people and land. Something the group learns as the case moves forward.
I loved it. The case was interesting. The group and Nell was even more interesting. I came away really loving Nell, hoping she would change and hoping she wouldn't change. I'm ready for the next book. Oh, darn this just came out. Oh well, a year of waiting will be worth it.
This was really good. It is set in the Jane Yellowrock universe and has Rick LeFleur as one of the main characters after the protagonist. He is the head of the group that recruits Nell as a consultant. Nell is isolated on her land, waiting to see if she can help her sisters or other family members, escape the cult like church and situation. She still has much of the belief system ingrained in her, which isolates her even more, yet connects her with her land. She has a magic symbiosis with the land that she and others cannot explain. The church would like to call her a witch but she's been tested. She is a very different protagonist than the normal UF kick ass female.
Rick comes to ask for her help in infiltrating the church because they think that another group has already infiltrated it. They want her to find out information. She wants to see whether she can help her family left behind or even help herself. It is complex what is happening to the church and what is going on with Rick's investigation. The whole thing just pulled me along for the ride and I was waiting to see what would happen next. It was not cut and dry.
So Nell joins the group with Rick, including Rick's mate, and this leads Nell to develop new connections to people other than those in town and the old connection of the church. These relationships develop in interesting and unforeseen ways. I loved seeing Nell's country bumpkin ways being pushed by the group yet the group learning that just because she wasn't schooled, didn't mean she wasn't smart. The library was one of her favorite places to go. Knowledge wasn't the problem, real world experience is. Yet she is experienced in her own people and land. Something the group learns as the case moves forward.
I loved it. The case was interesting. The group and Nell was even more interesting. I came away really loving Nell, hoping she would change and hoping she wouldn't change. I'm ready for the next book. Oh, darn this just came out. Oh well, a year of waiting will be worth it.
This was a lot different from the Mercy Thompson series, which was refreshing for me. I haven't read the Thompson entry in which Nell first appears, but I decided to give it a go anyway and I'm glad I did.
It's still got the cadence of the Mercy Thompson series - Hunter does a lot of little details, mundane, every-day stuff that can get kind of slow in the Mercy books. But that style makes a lot more sense with Nell. It was much more valuable to have little details spelled out like that, because that's the way Nell works. Methodically, with precision, sorting through the things that are on her mind. I really loved her character, and I felt a lot for her as she discovers different things about her past in this book.
I also loved the side characters - especially the PsyLed team. Occam's gentleness with Nell was so sweet. Tandy's ability to read her was really special, too, and the way she takes care of him is wonderful. I feel the other members of the team weren't explored much, but that's okay. In a series, you've got time to do that. Like I said, I hadn't finished the Mercy Thompson series yet so I didn't have a good frame of reference for where Rick was at, but I greatly appreciated him not being a love interest in this installment. I think it makes for a better arc for him.
I also loved the descriptions of Nell's magic. She's not sure if she's good or evil or what, and I found it fascinating to read (unlike in the Mercy series - I usually skip over all the spiritual parts). There's a good texture to the way her magic works that makes it fun to read.
There were a few things that didn't quite make sense, plot threads that kind of just unraveled and were left that way and not in the sense that they were left dangling for the next installment - just like, woosh, vanished. That was a bit annoying. And in some parts, the sequence of events was a little shaky.
Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book. It feels like a special story with Nell in the forefront. I am looking forward to her next installment very much.
It's still got the cadence of the Mercy Thompson series - Hunter does a lot of little details, mundane, every-day stuff that can get kind of slow in the Mercy books. But that style makes a lot more sense with Nell. It was much more valuable to have little details spelled out like that, because that's the way Nell works. Methodically, with precision, sorting through the things that are on her mind. I really loved her character, and I felt a lot for her as she discovers different things about her past in this book.
I also loved the side characters - especially the PsyLed team. Occam's gentleness with Nell was so sweet. Tandy's ability to read her was really special, too, and the way she takes care of him is wonderful. I feel the other members of the team weren't explored much, but that's okay. In a series, you've got time to do that. Like I said, I hadn't finished the Mercy Thompson series yet so I didn't have a good frame of reference for where Rick was at, but I greatly appreciated him not being a love interest in this installment. I think it makes for a better arc for him.
I also loved the descriptions of Nell's magic. She's not sure if she's good or evil or what, and I found it fascinating to read (unlike in the Mercy series - I usually skip over all the spiritual parts). There's a good texture to the way her magic works that makes it fun to read.
There were a few things that didn't quite make sense, plot threads that kind of just unraveled and were left that way
Spoiler
the whole "Gog and Magog" thing? Where all Nell's family are using a code word and told to get their guns - it kind of just...disappears?Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book. It feels like a special story with Nell in the forefront. I am looking forward to her next installment very much.
2/7/18 - ON SALE for $2.99:
http://amzn.to/2yxEVmf
Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
4.5 stars
I've been waiting for BLOOD OF THE EARTH, the first installment of Faith Hunter's new SOULWOOD urban fantasy series since she revealed its existence at Dragon Con 2014. It was still being written at the time, but based on the details Hunter revealed--set in Oak Ridge, TN, with a maybe Fae (or at least part Fae) heroine--I've been squeeing internally for nearly two years.
1. Fae are my supernatural creature of choice.
2. Oak Ridge is in my backyard.
For those of you not from or residing in Eastern Tennessee and/or aren't science geeks, Oak Ridge is the "Secret City," home of the Manhattan Project (better known as the making of the atomic bomb). If war ever brings foreign attacks stateside, Oak Ridge will be one of the first places to go.
Kinda cool, kinda freaky.
Y-12 is still a super sekret government facility, and nobody knows what they're doing there these days, but . . . When I was a teenager, visiting my dad one summer, a local news story about a gaggle of radioactive geese found on the grounds that had to be buried like twelve (twenty?) feet underground was circulating, AND I happen to know that civilian employees have to wear radiation detectors while clocked-in, sooooo . . . Whatever they're doing, it's not baking cookies.
And having the inside scoop (for once) on the locale also meant that I knew "Farrington" was really "Farragut," and the "Wyatt School" was really the "Webb School of Knoxville."
You don't care about tiny gov't towns doing whoknowswhat in the Smokey Mountains?
FINE.
Nell Nicholson Ingram was raised in a cult--a polygamist cult--and married to a man old enough to die of the various things that start happening when you get old, five years after she married him, when she was fifteen.
She's never cut her hair, worn makeup, or painted her toenails, but she can handle half a dozen handguns and rifles with efficiency.
And she does, regularly, out of necessity.
Whatever her deceased husband's faults, when she turned eighteen, he married Nell legally, so that when he passed, by law, all his property went to her, instead of back to the church of her upbringing.
Nell gained her independence, but with that independence came harassment by church men, who wanted her property for themselves, and her person back under their authority.
By themselves, guns might not have been enough to keep her out their clutches, but Nell isn't a one trick pony . . . She has a connection to nature, initially thought to simply be an affinity for helping things grow, the church women said she had a green thumb, but soon after her husband died, Nell was attacked on her property.
It was dark, and she couldn't see her attacker, but she fought, and in the fighting, she shed some of his blood . . . As his blood sank into the soil, her land woke up, whispering its secrets to Nell, and she knew that if she willed it, the land would claim the man trying to force himself on her, wanted his life as forfeit for attacking her . . . And so she gave it.
That was two years ago, and while the church continued to harass her, refusing to accept that Nell had left that part of her life behind, they'd been content to limit their harassment to the psychological, rather than the physical . . .
At least they had before she aided Jane Yellowrock in an investigation that led to a government raid of church property. Since then, things have escalated. They shot her dogs, leaving them for her to find on her front porch. Rotating shifts of church men have been watching her from a deer stand. And immediately after a visit from PsyLed agent Rick LaFleur, they shot up her home, causing what was probably thousands of dollars of property damage.
You: Rick LeFleur?!
Me: Yes. *flares nostrils*
You: I bloody hate Rick LaFleur.
Me: Me, TOO.
You: Why would I want to start a new series that heavily features Rick LaFleur, whom I HATE?
Me: B/c if you don't, you won't get to see the mess his life has become. *laughs maniacally*
It's not a make-you-feel-sorry-for-him kind of mess, it's a reap-what-you-sow kind of mess, and it. Is. GLORIOUS. *laughs maniacally some more*
I really, really wanted to give BLOOD OF THE EARTH 5.0 stars. After much internal debate, I settled on 4.5, b/c as much as I loved it--Nell and her new PsyLed team, her evolving, seriously kick-ass abilities, the revelations about her family, the blossoming relationship with her kid sister (who shares her affinities), and a dozen other aspects of this spinoff series, set in Jane Yellowrock's world--there was too much repetition of information for me to ignore, especially in the first 20% of the story. The many, many times something about Nell's past life was referenced in connection to her new life, or the third time the backslider Stubbins' (or whoever) short-lived tenure as a blood meal for a vampire was described, I was over it. But then again, I was reading the ARC version, so maybe it got cleaned up before it went to press.
Either way, BLOOD OF THE EARTH by Faith Hunter is the best first installment of an urban fantasy series I've read in about a decade. Highly recommended.
http://amzn.to/2yxEVmf
Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
4.5 stars
I've been waiting for BLOOD OF THE EARTH, the first installment of Faith Hunter's new SOULWOOD urban fantasy series since she revealed its existence at Dragon Con 2014. It was still being written at the time, but based on the details Hunter revealed--set in Oak Ridge, TN, with a maybe Fae (or at least part Fae) heroine--I've been squeeing internally for nearly two years.
1. Fae are my supernatural creature of choice.
2. Oak Ridge is in my backyard.
For those of you not from or residing in Eastern Tennessee and/or aren't science geeks, Oak Ridge is the "Secret City," home of the Manhattan Project (better known as the making of the atomic bomb). If war ever brings foreign attacks stateside, Oak Ridge will be one of the first places to go.
Kinda cool, kinda freaky.
Y-12 is still a super sekret government facility, and nobody knows what they're doing there these days, but . . . When I was a teenager, visiting my dad one summer, a local news story about a gaggle of radioactive geese found on the grounds that had to be buried like twelve (twenty?) feet underground was circulating, AND I happen to know that civilian employees have to wear radiation detectors while clocked-in, sooooo . . . Whatever they're doing, it's not baking cookies.
And having the inside scoop (for once) on the locale also meant that I knew "Farrington" was really "Farragut," and the "Wyatt School" was really the "Webb School of Knoxville."
You don't care about tiny gov't towns doing whoknowswhat in the Smokey Mountains?
FINE.
Nell Nicholson Ingram was raised in a cult--a polygamist cult--and married to a man old enough to die of the various things that start happening when you get old, five years after she married him, when she was fifteen.
She's never cut her hair, worn makeup, or painted her toenails, but she can handle half a dozen handguns and rifles with efficiency.
And she does, regularly, out of necessity.
Whatever her deceased husband's faults, when she turned eighteen, he married Nell legally, so that when he passed, by law, all his property went to her, instead of back to the church of her upbringing.
Nell gained her independence, but with that independence came harassment by church men, who wanted her property for themselves, and her person back under their authority.
By themselves, guns might not have been enough to keep her out their clutches, but Nell isn't a one trick pony . . . She has a connection to nature, initially thought to simply be an affinity for helping things grow, the church women said she had a green thumb, but soon after her husband died, Nell was attacked on her property.
It was dark, and she couldn't see her attacker, but she fought, and in the fighting, she shed some of his blood . . . As his blood sank into the soil, her land woke up, whispering its secrets to Nell, and she knew that if she willed it, the land would claim the man trying to force himself on her, wanted his life as forfeit for attacking her . . . And so she gave it.
That was two years ago, and while the church continued to harass her, refusing to accept that Nell had left that part of her life behind, they'd been content to limit their harassment to the psychological, rather than the physical . . .
At least they had before she aided Jane Yellowrock in an investigation that led to a government raid of church property. Since then, things have escalated. They shot her dogs, leaving them for her to find on her front porch. Rotating shifts of church men have been watching her from a deer stand. And immediately after a visit from PsyLed agent Rick LaFleur, they shot up her home, causing what was probably thousands of dollars of property damage.
You: Rick LeFleur?!
Me: Yes. *flares nostrils*
You: I bloody hate Rick LaFleur.
Me: Me, TOO.
You: Why would I want to start a new series that heavily features Rick LaFleur, whom I HATE?
Me: B/c if you don't, you won't get to see the mess his life has become. *laughs maniacally*
It's not a make-you-feel-sorry-for-him kind of mess, it's a reap-what-you-sow kind of mess, and it. Is. GLORIOUS. *laughs maniacally some more*
I really, really wanted to give BLOOD OF THE EARTH 5.0 stars. After much internal debate, I settled on 4.5, b/c as much as I loved it--Nell and her new PsyLed team, her evolving, seriously kick-ass abilities, the revelations about her family, the blossoming relationship with her kid sister (who shares her affinities), and a dozen other aspects of this spinoff series, set in Jane Yellowrock's world--there was too much repetition of information for me to ignore, especially in the first 20% of the story. The many, many times something about Nell's past life was referenced in connection to her new life, or the third time the backslider Stubbins' (or whoever) short-lived tenure as a blood meal for a vampire was described, I was over it. But then again, I was reading the ARC version, so maybe it got cleaned up before it went to press.
Either way, BLOOD OF THE EARTH by Faith Hunter is the best first installment of an urban fantasy series I've read in about a decade. Highly recommended.
I love the world Faith Hunter gas created. I like the way she writes her characters, especially with regards to the lives that they take. I love that she keeps their humanity central even though none of the MCs are strictly human.
For those of you who are huge JY fans and read Blood in Her Veins, you will have already read a short story where Nell Ingram helps JY & Vamps onto a cult's land to rescue a missing vamp. Nell's character was extremely interesting and I was so excited to find out that she was getting her own series! BOTE is exactly the type of book I look for when I'm in the mood for witchy books; I'm not so much into the spells but I do love the interaction with nature and the earth. Nell doesn't know what she is and neither do we (nor do any supernats who have met her) so she has had no guidance for her abilities.Nell was born into a polygamist cult that lives off the grid, preparing for government ruin or the apocalypse. She left when she was 12 to live off the compound with a family she would later marry into. Her background is really fascinating and seemingly done well. (I don't have any real-life experience or knowledge but it seemed believable.) Ricky Bo and PSYLED ask Nell for her help and she ends up being contracted for work with them. This, and Nell's developing connection to her land are the driving forces in this book.
I absolutely loved this book. I wouldn't change anything about it and cannot wait for more books in this series!
I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I absolutely loved this book. I wouldn't change anything about it and cannot wait for more books in this series!
I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I LOVE Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series, and when she has a BRAND-SPANKING-NEW series, how could I not inhale it as soon as I saw it? (I couldn't...)
drey’s thoughts:
The Plot: Shunned churchwoman joins PsyLED team investigating kidnappings and miscellaneous shenanigans occurring in her backyard (ok, so it's not quite her backyard), finds friends, truths, and a future. A dead body or two, bloodthirsty woods, and magical smiting provide a supernatural backdrop to this tale featuring a witch-of-sorts, who works with my most-not-favorite character from Hunter's popular Jane Yellowrock series.
The Characters: Nell Ingram has lived a long life in her short years. She's alone, hanging on to her property in hopes of providing a haven for her sisters, shunned by her family and harassed by the "church" she left all those years ago. She's introduced to PsyLED's world by Jane Yellowrock, after she helps Jane on a prior rescue mission.
Learning to be among non-Church others, navigating nuances and terminology and slang, watching the interactions, all provide a fascinating look at a person's psyche when they've been isolated from humanity - even if the team's not all human.
I loved Nell's gumption and her stubborn honor. I liked that she doesn't really know what she is, that she has to figure it out as she goes. She's kind of like Jane in that way, actually. I also admire her guts and how she does what she knows is right regardless of the consequences, and I loved that she stands up for herself, against the teachings of her childhood.
There are other members of the PsyLED team in Blood of the Earth worth mentioning - Tandy's empathy, Occam's careful regard. And Rick's crankiness... Even with my not-favorite character featuring prominently in Blood of the Earth, I enjoyed the team interactions and Nell's feeling her way into hanging out with people.
The Story: There's murder and not-murder, magic, dastardly deeds, and heroes to the rescue, so what's not to love about Blood of the Earth? It's a well-paced, well-told story, introducing us to Nell and her world, then the PsyLED team, before going all out on the mystery and guns-blazing action. And boy is there guns-blazing action.
If you've enjoyed Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series, you'll love Blood of the Earth. If you've never read Jane Yellowrock, go pick that up - after you read Blood of the Earth, because you'll be hooked on Hunter's storytelling.
drey’s rating: Outstanding!
Have you read Blood of the Earth? What did you think? And if you haven’t, read on to win your own copy!
Giveaway #1!
I have ONE copy of Blood of the Earth for you, if you live in the US or Canada. To enter, comment and share: In your opinion, what's the best Urban Fantasy read so far in 2016? Enter by August 14th.
Giveaway #2!
There’s a tour-wide giveaway for a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card (winner’s choice), and 5 custom key chains. Open to US residents only. Enter using the form below!
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This review was originally posted on drey's library