Read-along & Giveaway: Hidden by Benedict Jacka @BenedictJacka‏ @AceRocBooks @BerkleyPub @orbitbooks @TantorAudio ‏#Read-along #GIVEAWAY #JIAM

Posted June 7, 2019 by Robin in Book Review, Giveaway, JIAM, Read-along / 6 Comments

Read-along & Giveaway: Hidden by Benedict Jacka

 

Read-along & Giveaway: Hidden by Benedict Jacka @BenedictJacka‏ @AceRocBooks @BerkleyPub @orbitbooks @TantorAudio  ‏#Read-along #GIVEAWAY #JIAM  Hidden by Benedict Jacka
Narrator: Gildart Jackson
Series: Alex Verus #5
Published by Tantor Audio on September 2, 2014
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 304
Length: 10 hours, 54 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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With his talent for divining the future, Alex Verus should have foreseen his friends’ reactions to the revelations about his previous life. Anne Walker no longer trusts him—and has also cut all ties with the mage community after getting kicked out of the apprentice program. As a favor to Luna, Alex’s own apprentice and Anne’s best friend, he checks in on her only to be told to leave her alone.

Then Anne gets kidnapped. The Council Keepers of the Order of the Star believe Dark mages from her past may be involved. Working with the Keepers, Alex and Luna discover that Anne has been taken into the shadow realm of Sagash, her former Dark mage mentor, and they must find a way to rescue her.

But another shadow from the past has resurfaced—Alex’s former master may be back in London, and Alex has no idea what his agenda is…

Hidden is the fifth book in the Alex Verus Series.  So far this series has been getting better and better with each installment and while I did enjoy Hidden quite a bit it wasn’t my favorite book of the series so far, Chosen still holds that space but it is another really good story which captured my attention from start to finish and had a few characters moving in directions I wasn’t expecting.

After the events of Chosen, Anne has moved out of Alex’s life in every way possible.  She was still under a little protection by being in the apprentice program, but after an incident there, Anne is left outside the magic world and vulnerable.  When she disappears, Alex and Co. team up to find out what could have happened and who could have taken her. There are apparently a lot of Dark Mages ready to do dark deeds and the list of possibly suspects isn’t really short.

I enjoy how every book of this series builds on the one before it.  Alex is still dealing with some of the fallout from Chosen. While Luna seems to accept Alex for who he is and has no disillusions of what he is capable of, a few of the other young people in his life are devastated by the choices he was willing to make.  I really liked seeing the varying degrees of that play out with all the characters we’ve seen before.

I did get a little bored in the sub realm Alex visited, which was just me since there are shadow monsters and the threats were real.  But it felt like Alex spent a lot of time there. I did like finally learning about Anne’s past and what she has done. It really helped me understand her reactions to the events in Chosen.  She and Alex are more alike than she wants to admit.

With the threat of Richard coming back into the magic scene and a new push to have Dark Mages on the Council you can tell there will be a bigger story arc that will definitely involve Alex’s old master at some point.  I don’t know about the rest of you gentle readers but Richard scares the crap out of me. The guy is Lex Luther smart and seems to have a very elastic morality when it comes to getting what he wants.

I did very much like where this story ended though.  I can tell that the tension for the next books is really building and Alex is going to have to find some even better tricks if he is going to make it through the changes that are definitely on the horizon.

Narration:

Gildart Jackson is really great in this.  I like his performance for all characters and he really brings everyone to life, but especially Alex.  His accent is perfect for this since the location of the story is mostly London. Fantastic flow and attention to inflection, I particularly enjoy when Alex speaks to the reader/listener.  I listened to this at my usual 1.5x speed.

Listen to a clip:   HERE

 


Anne’s  observations from Hidden:

  • The subject of killing in self defense has become a big issue. It was examined further.
  • I love the way Alex’s little band continues to form and grow.
  • Alex is going to have to stop hiding or just reacting to protect himself and his friends.  He has some decisions to make about becoming proactive.

Anne’s questions from Chosen:

  1. I still wonder if Alex will now become more knowledgeable about the Council and who are the “players” in the Dark and Light mages to protect himself better. I think this is happening and now he realizes he needs to be more proactive in his defense.
  2. Will Anne and Vari and the dragon now be part of the Verus band of misfit allies? It looks like Anne and Vari are back on the team.
  3. Will Alex find a way to remove Luna’s curse?  In her studies she is learning to control it and may eventually control it well enough to not need removal.
  4. Luna relocked the force barrier with the cube but then where did the cube go?
  5. Does Alex have other friends, or mage friends we will meet?  It doesn’t seem like there are many.
  6. Will Alex ever be able to do anything about the cruel practices of dark mages?
  7. Will there be a romance for Alex?
  8. Talisid is right. People will start to notice how those going up against Alex disappear.  Alex is now on the radar; what will he do about it?  How will Alex deal with future threats?
  9. Will Alex ever be able to contact Starbreeze again, or find her?
  10. Is Lyle TSTL? He is lazy and weak, combined with a huge ego, a bad combination. Will he please get himself killed before he hurts too many other people with his power hungry stupidity?  Otherwise, I am afraid Alex will try to help him and get ensnared somehow.
  11. (KC)Will vampires be a future subject since it is hard to know if they are really all gone?
  12. (KC) Is Alex destined for a council position?
  13.  (KC) Will humans become a bigger threat, particularly to monsters and dark mages?

 


Anne’s questions from Hidden:

  1. Luna relocked the force barrier with the cube but then where did the cube go?
  2. Will Alex ever be able to do anything about the cruel practices of dark mages?
  3. Will there be a romance for Alex?
  4. Talisid is right. People will start to notice how those going up against Alex disappear.  Alex is now on the radar; what will he do about it?   This is tied in with Alex’s decision of how he will become more proactive for self defense. How we he do it?   Will he start training more and add intelligence work? He already has a bit of an intelligence network it seems.
  5. Will Alex ever be able to contact Starbreeze again, or find her?
  6. Is Lyle TSTL? He is lazy and weak, combined with a huge ego, a bad combination. Will he please get himself killed before he hurts too many other people with his power hungry stupidity?  Otherwise, I am afraid Alex will try to help him and get ensnared somehow.
  7. (KC)Will vampires be a future subject since it is hard to know if they are really all gone?
  8. (KC) Is Alex destined for a council position?
  9. (KC) Will humans become a bigger threat, particularly to monsters and dark mages?

Games:

1. Who said (enter the answer in the Rafflecopter, don’t put in the comments)

“Yeah, well, you’re not my first choice either, but it’s not like we’re exactly swimming in options. Pity you didn’t make a move on her last night, would probably have made her open up a bit. You could have spun her the ‘this might be out last night alive’ line.””

2.  Who is the villain in Hidden? (Enter in the rafflecopter)

3. Last chance:  We have an opportunity to do a Q & A with Benedict Jacka a few months down the line. I am asking you to please submit interesting questions (into the rafflecopter) I fear this may be a little difficult to ask something different as he does an Ask Luna on his site. I have yet to check it out, as I don’t want to be spoiled for the books.

Schedule:   

We are doing one book every month, posting on Fridays. We should have a review for most of the books with the team here at Books of My Heart plus some of our blogging friends.

Jun 7:    Hidden

Jul 5:    Veiled

Aug 2:   Burned

Sep 6:    Bound

Oct 4:    Marked

Nov 1:    Fallen


Miss a post?

Feb 1:    Fated

Mar 1:    Cursed

Apr 5:   Taken

May 3:  Chosen


Be sure to enter the giveaways!!!

Giveaway:

I’m giving away a digital copy of Veiled  from Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read-along Giveaway:

This giveaway is for the entire event, with things to enter each month. Tantor is also supporting me by giving away digital codes for all 10 audiobooks in the series!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

About Gildart Jackson

With acting credits that span stage and screen, Gildart Jackson is most often recognized for his role as Gideon on Charmed. Other notable TV roles include Jackson Palmer on Providence and Simon Prentiss on General Hospital, as well as guest appearances on Stargate: Atlantis, Las Vegas, and CSI. Theater roles include Trigorin in The Seagull, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, and Adrian in Private Eyes at the Old Globe.

About Benedict Jacka

Benedict Jacka became a writer almost by accident, when at nineteen he sat in his school library and started a story in the back of an exercise book. Since then he’s studied philosophy at Cambridge, lived in China, and worked as everything from civil servant to bouncer to teacher before returning to London to take up law.

Robin
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • 2019 Library-Love
  • BTB 2019
  • COYER Hunt

Posted June 7, 2019 by Robin in Book Review, Giveaway, JIAM, Read-along / 6 Comments


6 responses to “Read-along & Giveaway: Hidden by Benedict Jacka

    • I liked this one better than Robin. In addition to the current situation, there was the underlying examination of killing in self-defense. Next is the question of how do they stop this pattern? Does Alex gather intelligence, train himself and his allies with more skills, do they try to get more powerful allies or move into more powerful positions themselves? Hopefully, they come up with better ideas than I have.

      • I know it is just cuz I didn’t love the Shadow Realm. I did like the book quite a bit and I loved Luna, the Blink Fox and Alex as always. I have no idea why I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind for the shadow realm. Honestly the stuff with self defense killing and when does it become self defense was interesting for sure.

    • Yep. I’ve enjoyed the journey so far. Each book adds a little more depth to each character and I really like that not every issue a character has is solved easily in one book.