And while I was there on Kim’s Facebook page I found this…
So it looks like there will be 13 Hollows books after all. *SIGH*!! I may be in the minority but I was really hoping she’d cut it off at 12 since we HAVE to wait until the last book for her HEA. I’m a little bummed, I gotta say. And now with her being more tight lipped about everything from here on out, it’s going to be nearly impossible to listen to her now, lol.
Staples Speed Test - How fast do you read?
I caught this on Kim Harrison’s Facebook today.
Source: Staples eReader Department
It said that I read 41% faster than the average person. And that wasn’t even with text to speech! GO ME!! How about you guys?
A Bite’s Tale (A Furry Fable) - It leaves you wanting more!
A Bite’s Tale (A Furry Fable) is aptly named. This delightful novella provides a supernatural take on the age old Cinderella story. Cydney, the “Cinderella”, is a werewolf while the prince is a vampire.
We meet the characters while they are in their early teens. Neither one is willing to admit who they really are, but they secretly meet each other every summer until one year when Cydney’s wolf loses control, leaving the prince to fight for his life. We soon experience a time skip where we see Cydney at seventeen, continuing to battle the nature of her inner wolf and manage the guilt of hurting, or possibly killing her secret sweetheart.
Unbeknownst to Cydney, he was changed into a vampire to save his life. All is well, but of course as a prince he has a huge responsibility to his country and he must choose a wife to help him rule. The king schedules a ball for the prince to choose a fitting lady, but he can’t forget his “Cinderella”. Will fate allow these two to cross paths once again? Will they have to put their species first since vampires and werewolves are enemies?
Veronica Blade’s novella is an extremely satisfying read. I was genuinely surprised. Even better, if you’re an Amazon Prime member the book is free to borrow. That made the read just that much sweeter for me. Though I must admit I try to imagine the prince with a different hair style in my mind because the one on the cover is a total buzz kill.
I liked having an old tale to compare this to. It made me appreciate the subtle changes. While I never doubted Cinderella’s love for her prince in the cartoon, sometimes for this one I merely wondered if it was due to teenage hormones. Also, sometimes it felt more like Romeo & Juliet than Cinderella. This had a lot of coming-of-age elements. There is a little action but not a whole lot. That was fine with me because I didn’t pick the book up for that reason.
This is a fun, quick read and a nice change of pace from the norm. I would like to see a full fleshed out novel with these characters because there’s room for the story to expand.
Sacrificial Magic (Downside Ghosts #4) - This series has some life to it yet!
The saga continues. Though the third book felt like it could have been a fitting end to the series, Stacia Kane got an extension and rolled with it. Chess and Terrible are back and things aren’t as happily ever after as one would hope. I mean, really, how much of that can you really expect in this series?
Chess is ordered to help out Bump, her dealer and drug lord extraordinaire, to solve a set of murders caused by dark magic. Being a witch, this is her specialty and only she can get to the bottom of it. She’s also got a day job as a ghost hunter for her Church where she must figure out what’s behind a haunting on the other side of town, the rival side. The dead are being summoned and that’s always a problem in the Downside world. They are super lethal and one must be super prepared to effectively take them on. So she has to put herself at risk once again to help everyone, including the one most important to her.
Overall, I really kind of struggle with this series. I’m not a Chess fan, and it’s honestly not because she’s a drug user. I just don’t find her particularly interesting most of the time, but she is a very layered and flawed character, the product of too many tragedies suffered early on in life. I think in this novel we see the most introspection when it comes to Chess, and I actually laughed a couple of times. I’m honestly not a huge fan of Terrible either, and yet for some reason I like reading about their relationship. It’s super raw and out of the ordinary, which makes it the most intriguing part of these novels. Though in this book there were a few instances where their situation became pretty off-putting for me by how destructive it was. It makes me hope that their personal drama won’t be present in future books. I feel like once they’ve gotten past these issues we shouldn’t go there again. So I’m wondering whether or not we’ll see that pattern later on.
Kane is a very talented writer, if not a bit prolific at times. I’ve read a couple of her blog posts and I really respect her attitude toward the craft. She’s created a distinct world, described very vividly; I get a great sense of the place. I just personally don’t like to be in it for very long. I like my worlds to have some color to it. This feels way too drab, and it’s not really because of the dystopian/post-apocolyptic style. I just can’t put my finger on it. I would probably enjoy this series more if she shaved off 100 pages of non-Chess/Terrible content. This is probably why I enjoyed her short story, Home, a bit more than the books. It was short enough to keep me engaged, but it was still well done and included a satisfying dose of Chess and Terrible.
That said, the last 15% of this book is excellent and it had my complete attention. That’s a stark contrast to a book I read before this one where the last 10% really dragged, so I give my kudos there.
The 5th book is due out very soon. It’s a good series. I’m sure fans are glad the books have got an extension but I’m still not in love with it. I just can’t seem to overcome my lack of love for darker urban fantasies. Different strokes, but it does keep me interested in what happens next for Chess and Terrible. I may give book 5 a read. If only my favorite series could release its next full novel only 3 months later. Downside fans are lucky!
*ARC Provided by NetGalley
10,000 views! Oh My!! Thank you all!
Today marks the day that Your Urban Fantasy received its 10,000th view! I totally didn’t know what to expect when I got this blog up and going, but I thank all of you so much for the continued support! This definitely requires something special! Hmmm…*off to brainstorm*
Freebie Watch: Past Due (Past Series)
Synopsis: Francis ‘Frankie’ Wright thought she was an old hat at dealing with the supernatural, until she was reassigned to Edinburgh, the most haunted city in the world.
Her latest case soon takes a deadly turn. Young women are being slain in satanic rituals and it’s up to Frankie to find the murderer before he kills again.
Frankie must juggle vampires, shapeshifters, witches and zombies, all the while trying to keep the truth from her sceptical ex-boyfriend, Will Campbell, who just happens to be heading up the police investigation.
The clock is ticking and she soon finds herself forced to team up with the vampires and shapeshifters in order to stop the killer before he can literally unleash hell on earth.
——————————————————————-
It sounded pretty interesting to me so I got it. Also the cover seems pretty neat. It’s definitely better than this one from Goodreads:
I’m trying not to be a sucker for the covers, but sometimes I just can’t help it!! It reminds me of the Terminator movies, but it’s more like a Terminator bunny :P.
But yeah, if you’re interested you can pick it up here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003WQARMA/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_hKlCpb1HSHX26
I saw The Hunger Games Movie last night
Nothing beats being able to see a major franchise film during its opening weekend for FREE! W00T for movie passes! I was honestly surprised that they accepted it. Normally for new releases theatres won’t allow you to redeem the passes. The film itself was pretty good, I gotta say! I honestly felt like they stayed true to the book aside from a couple of major plot points****SPOILER****primarily that the dead tributes were those beasts at the end, and wasn’t Peeta supposed to lose his leg? Or was that after the second one? ****/SPOILER**** . I read all three books back to back in 3 days so some things kind of blend together for me, but the first book was definitely the best one. I sort of wish there was more carnage, but they were very obviously aiming for a PG-13 rating so that they could make an insane amount of money. It’s interesting to me how the books are YA, but if they showed a little more gore like how I imagined it when reading the books, the film would have likely been bumped to rated R. Did anyone else get to see it this weekend? I know that other countries have a different ratings system. I’m curious about that.
Is the Washington, DC area coming up in this genre?
Okay, so I’m currently reading through a bunch of books that have coincidentally been set in the Washington, DC Metro area (my hometown if you didn’t know)! I totally had no idea of this going in, aside from one book. It makes me curious about this area’s growing popularity. I’ve read countless stories set in New York and LA, but not really here. It also makes me wonder, has anyone else ever read a series set in their own hometown? How did you feel about it? I think it’s sort of cool at times because I can easily visualize the landmarks a lot more.
Origins: A Demonkin Novel - All the makings of a fabulous series!
I wasn’t really sure what to expect with Sean Hayden’s novel, but Origins (Demonkin #1) ended up being the perfect read for me over the weekend. The main character is Ashlyn Thorn. Right off the bat we learn that this is a world filled with vampires, elves, and werewolves, but she’s a special case. She’s a predator of the predators, finding sustenance on in supernatural blood. This gave me a Trinity Blood vibes a bit quite honestly.
After being sheltered all of her life, her aunt passes away which forces her out into the real world where her uniqueness doesn’t stay a secret for long. She becomes a target for an underworld vampire boss and is forced to grow up really fast, discovering her deeper powers in the process. It’s up to Ashlyn to use her gifts for good or evil.
Origins drew me in immediately. I like that her character has visible differences from normal humans, particularly her cat-like talons that are non-retractable. It was pretty cool imagining how she adapts to having them (on her fingers AND toes). The character herself is really relatable. Even though she’s a vampire/demon, she has very human emotions which makes her sympathetic in many instances. It’s fun to watch her grow up. She’s 17-18 years old and her hormones get crazier and crazier as the book progresses. She’s also going down a path of unchartered territory as a new vampire breed. This prompted a number of Mary Sue-ish moments, but she will be humbled so I’m not worried about this.
The vampires get the most focus in this book, followed by the werewolves. She teams up with them and fights against them in a number of scenes. There is not a lot of back story there, but I hope to see it in the sequel. I also really want to see more development for the elves which we only get a taste of in this book.
I do commend Sean Hayden for doing a fairly good job of writing from the perspective of a female. A growing number of series will have a husband and wife team as co-authors, working to strengthen the presence of their respective genders, offering a more natural point of view.
I’m a stickler for covers and this one leaves much to be desired, but there is a quality story in there. Origins is a short read, but very engaging, bringing a fresh perspective to the Urban Fantasy genre and I definitely look forward to its sequel.
More Hollows Fun! A Kim Harrison podcast interview
Check out Kim’s interview with the Agony Column where she shares a ton of insight about the series overall, it’s development, the future, and more.
http://bookotron.com/agony/news/2012/03-19-12-podcast.htm#podcast031912
If you don’t want to listen to the entire thing (I myself was multitasking in the process so it wasn’t a big deal), I took a few notes and noted the approximate time if you want to skim to that point yourself. Sorry if it’s not perfectly formatted:
15 minutes - very good insight on Al and his evolution.
21 minutes - we have Kim’s editor to thank for Bis’s creation
22 minutes - how she crafts the plot. Kim has an idea of Rachel’s HEA and she thought it was going to be during Book 3. She only plots the book she’s working on, not a whole long story arc across books. She just picks up threads in the next book from the previous book.
24 minutes - Because she works so far ahead of schedule, she can work in some things that the fans want to see.
Kim NEVER dreams about her characters!
27 minutes - the richness of Urban Fantasy, chicklit, mysteries, crime scene, etc. Very good insight.
29 minutes - great discussion on her vampire development. We will see Nina again.
30 minutes - Trent discussion and his history with Rachel. Nick getting his comeuppance in the next book!
35 minutes - she discusses her research in developing the spells.
Still doesn’t know is Kal (Trent’s dad) saved the demons by accident or on purpose!
38 minutes - brought in kids to flesh out Trent’s character and background. And Rachel is seeing him differently now. She didn’t want to give Rachel kids herself because she feels like the series is over once that happens. Giving supporting characters kids allows her to push this envelope.
41 minutes - If Kim did a spin off series, she would do it with Glenn! He has a lot going on.
42 minutes - Ivy is rebelling against her vampire responsibilities.
47 minutes - Her editor suggesting using humans for APB
48 minutes - Discusses her process for writing action and sex scenes. She uses the same approach for both, wanting to know where everybody’s hands are at all times and she wants an action and reaction from both parties.
49 minutes - romance readers helped Kim get her work out there. Again notes how some UF are heavier on romance, some of heavier on mystery. Romance readers like a lot of things UF is known for. With a strong-willed heroine. She didn’t know her romance following was so large until she killed Kisten. She felt she lost a lot of readers for a book and the readers told her she was breaking the rules.
54 minutes - new book is will be UF because that’s what she loves. She tries to write a chapter per day. It takes 8 hours.
58 minutes - the idea to do a GN was her agent’s idea. She was worrying that her writing was getting stale. If there are other GNs someone else will be scripting them. It’s too limited.
59 minutes - the show won’t follow the books. It will follows what’s *between* the books.
By a Thread (Elemental Assassin #6) - Ain’t no rest for the wicked
It seems as if Gin Blanco can’t catch a break no matter how hard she tries. As Jennifer Estep’s prior novel, Spider’s Revenge, and short story, Thread of Death, wrapped up the first major arc of this series, this book was more of a cool down with Gin taking a vacation with her sister, Bria, in an attempt to bond and heal after all they’ve been through.
The location of choice for this vacation is Bria’s old hometown, a swanky beach town where all looks fun on the surface. But we soon learn this isn’t the case with a big bad vampire running the show and flexing some muscle; he threatens and terrorizes one of Bria’s childhood friends and that doesn’t sit well with Gin. The moral of this story is that you can take the Spider out of Ashland, but you can’t take the Spider out of Gin. She works to help Bria’s friend by any means necessary, much to Bria and…Donovan Caine’s chagrin. The only question is if the Spider can win on someone else’s turf.
As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, as I started progressing with this series, the amount of summarizing and rehashing grew fairly tiresome for me and distracted me from enjoying the novel as a whole at times. Don’t get me wrong, I still managed to do it, but it affected the overall quality for me. This time around I think Estep got the memo because it was kept to a minimum. I was actually surprised that we didn’t get a summary of the Thread of Death short, but I’m not complaining.
While the rehashing is down, I still found a new set of problems with this book. Number one: Donovan Caine. It’s been several books and for the life of me I still don’t understand why he’s worth any kind of page space anymore. A huge “thread” of the plot was about Gin finally getting over her two romps in the hay with him that oh-so-emotionally tormented her because he was everything she wanted and she couldn’t be what he needed and blah blah blah. Good riddance then and good riddance now to that storyline.
Another area that irked me was that the whole reason for her to be on vacation was to take her out of her element. I was really hoping to see her adapt more. ***slight spoiler***I was not a fan of the whole crew eventually finding their way to the beach town, pretty much bringing Ashland to Gin.***end spoiler*** Either send her back home or switch up her options; how it turned out didn’t really work for me.
The romance aspect of this series has never done anything for me, and at this point I doubt it will. Bria and Finn annoy me. Their interactions feel so totally high school-like and instead of giving me the warm fuzzies, it makes me roll my eyes. I’m not the craziest about beach sex scenes either. It’s totally unrealistic and this may be TMI, but I am not sure how hott or romantic it is to have sand up in your junk, but maybe that’s just me.
I also kind of wished Gin would stop talking about how unlucky she was while during every fight a lot of things happen out of sheer luck to give her the upper hand. The action is really THE main reason I crack open these books and find them to be easy reads.
Overall the action was still up to the usual standards, but it’s sort of feeling like the same old same old since Gin didn’t evolve much. The villains are usually very well done and this one was no exception. I felt like he was developed well and he was really the best part of the book for me. He was definitely one you loved to hate.
This read was mainly about dealing with Gin’s personal life emotionally, settling issues with Donovan Caine and Bria. This is amped up in the last 10% which felt really drawn out to me after a while. It’s sort of hard to wonder what’s next for Gin and if it will be as interesting or engaging as her arc with Mab. The preview for the next book looks like it will begin to focus a more on a new character that we met in the Thread of Death short story, but this is only my guess based on a couple of subtleties. Book 7, Widow’s Web, is due out later this year. It will determine if this series has jumped the shark for me and if I should hang it up for good.
Thread of Death - Short and sweet Elemental Assassin Story
This short story takes us through the aftermath and arc conclusion of Jennifer Estep’s 5th book, Spider’s Revenge. On the outside, Gin looks as healthy as ever, but she’s still healing internally from her huge showdown with Mab. Gin wants to drop by the old girl’s funeral to say her goodbyes (as weird as that may seem), but with her secret out she’s got an even bigger target on her back with all of Ashland’s underworld wanting a piece.
The this short was pretty good and fairly lengthy. It’s definitely not worth reading if you didn’t read the 4th book, even though Estep is the queen of summarizing and rehashing. Even the short story was no exception, but at least there was plenty of good stuff. It gets to the meat of why I like the read these books which is for the action. It’s not imperative that you read this installment if you’re just looking to catch up with everything, but it doesn’t disappoint.
The Rift Walker (Vampire Empire Trilogy, Book 2) - I read it in the day, it was just that good!
The Rift Walker (Book 2 in the Vampire Empire series) takes place a number of months after first book, The Greyfriar. Adele is trying her best to stall her wedding, and in turn stall the impending war against the vampires, which would come at a much higher price than Adele is willing to pay. Lucky for her she has Greyfriar who returns to her side, putting us on pace for another swashbuckling adventure, and then some. They are on the run with her nation, her husband-to-be are on their trail, leaving her home vulnerable to enemy vampires’ advances.
Over the course of this novel Adele’s powers of geomancy are increasing to an end that no one can predict. Her love, The Greyfriar, is determined to stay by her side anyway, even if it’s to his own detriment, and the loyalties of a choice few in her court are tested as they also stand with the princess through much adversity.
First off, the model for the covers of these books totally reminds me of Mitchell the vampire on BBC’s Being Human, played by actor Aidan Turner.
I figured this was a good pic to use since the costuming is fairly close, though that’s from a photoshoot for The Hobbit.
As for the story, there was a lot of ground covered in this book with many significant developments. I was told that I should wait for the 3rd and final book to be released before reading this series; I though I’d be fine. But I’ve become quite attached to the characters and this world now. I am anxious to see how this saga ends so I sort of wish I heeded that advice.
Adele and Greyfriar’s love seems more and more impossible by the page but they are still fighting hard for each other and that’s really admirable to me. I just have a bad feeling about it, even though I want to be as hopeful as the two characters seem to be.
I still love Adele and Greyfriar the most, but her cat, Pet, is certainly up there. Their moments are super adorable with the little fur ball and (along with Adele and The Greyfriar’s moments) I admit it gave me the warm fuzzies.
Unlike the first book where it took the 50% mark to get me hooked, this book got going around the 33% mark, though the beginning is still fairly slow. At this point slow starts can be considered a pattern for this series.
Like the first book there is a blend of action, world building, and character development that really rounds out the story. It’s all well done, despite the boring politics. I really look forward to September, or maybe earlier if I’m lucky enough to nab an ARC. This series is a gem and it’s quickly become a favorite of mine. I read this in a day and I implement a 5-star policy for any full-length novel that can keep me engaged enough to read it that quickly. I suspect when the third and final book is released, it will be the same.
Into the Woods (Rachel Morgan) by Kim Harrison - Cover Reveal
Please excuse the Technocrati token 8TCRFGW463NP.
Anyway, ain’t she a beaut! Honestly, I was searching online for this like…yesterday and saw that this picture was posted on another site, but since Kim Harrison hadn’t announced it I wasn’t sure that it was official (though I had a feeling it was).
If you didn’t know, Into the Woods is a Hollows anthology that will be a compilation of all short stories, old and new. It will also include the new “Million Dollar Baby” story which shows us what Trent and Jenks were up to during Pale Demon when they went on their mission to get Lucy. I, for one, am soooo looking forward to this BROmance! I’ve already got it pre-ordered myself.
Dead Witch Walking eBook Sale - Get it now for 99 cents!
Pick an ereader, any ereader! The deal is across the board!
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/spotlight-featured-author-nook-books/379002742/
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Witch-Walking-ebook/dp/B004UAVAE6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1331576004&sr=8-2
http://www.booksamillion.com/search?id=5243864166025&query=Dead+Witch+Walking&where=eBooks&search.x=38&search.y=9&search=Search
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Dead-Witch-Walking/book-GtTYhS4zyU-69smhFJixEA/page1.html
This is great for new potential readers or even us well established Hollows fanatics who just want it as an ebook. I can personally say that I love the the text search feature.
Kim Harrison at her lovely Drama Box also notes that the book is highlighted.
The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire #1) - Slow start but it’s worth the investment
The Greyfriar (Book 1 in the Vampire Empire Trilogy) was my first proper introduction to the steampunk genre. In this bold alternate universe authored by husband and wife team Susan and Clay Griffith, vampires are vicious, powerful, and wisely feared by the human population. 150 years ago, vampires and altered the course of history as they emerged and destroyed much of human civilization toward northern territories, forcing survivors to move south. But humans are resilient beings and with time they become determined to fight back and restore their glory.
Part of that fight includes Princess Adele of Alexandria, a young lady poised to marry American Senator Clark in a political move that will unite their people and allow a full scale war against their fanged enemies. All goes according to plan until Adele is captured by the enemy and held prisoner in the northern lands. All hope seems lost, but there is The Greyfriar, a mysterious and legendary masked warrior that’s able to take on the vampires and win. He aides Adele, helping to keep her alive in this hostile territory.
I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I will say that the beginning started out really great and action-packed, but then it hits a bit of a slump for me becoming riddled with politics and side characters that I know are important, but I found myself not caring about it very much. In short, I was bored for a good deal of time. I liked Adele and Greyfriar’s point of view and wanted more of that, so I was considering giving up on the book until it hit the 50% mark. After that I was really hooked and finished the book being really happy that the second book was available.
There is a lot of world building, but it’s really pretty fascinating as it incorporates airships, special weapons, and even a unique sense of wardrobe which really drives home that steampunk feel.
Adele makes mistakes, but overall for me she was a likable heroine. She is not the same person by the end of this book as she was in the beginning, so it was a satisfying evolution that promises even more as this trilogy unfolds.
I want to say a lot about the Greyfriar, but I found a pleasant surprise as I read the book, though I will not spoil it in this review. All I will say is that his character also experiences significant evolution. He was probably my favorite character. It’s nice when the title character can accomplish that, especially for me because I’m usually the type of reader who often follows a series for the sake of the side characters.
There’s a lot of action, a real sense of adventure, and a building romance that really make this book a success. I wasn’t expecting to become attached to these characters, but by the end I found myself completely invested in what would happen next. The book isn’t perfect, but I finished reading it being really glad that I invested in it.
The Vampire Shrink - Kismet Knight’s in for a new world
I’d say The Vampire Shrink (Book 1 in the Vampire Psychologist Series) by Lynda Hilburn was pretty entertaining. The main character, Kismet Knight, is a young clinical psychologist who specializes in helping those that believe in all things paranormal. She recently decided to take on a client who believes in vampires. Of course, like anyone else, Kismet herself doesn’t believe in these things, and she often struggles between maintaining her professionalism to analyze their situations scientifically and her internal natural thought process that just wants to knock sense into these people. That is, until she’s thrust into this world herself.
A good deal of the book is spent with Kismet denying that vampire exist, even though all of the strange events add up to it. I guess that could be a realistic response, but it was a little irksome. Though she is a psychiatrist there are times what her inner monologue doesn’t sound very sophisticated at all, especially when it comes to men. That could be intentional due to her lack of experience with many men, or maybe it’s due to her age. She is unusually young for a shrink. It’s also a little hard to believe that she doesn’t get attention for being attractive. She is described as looking like Megan Fox yet when good looking men flirt with her she literally says that this doesn’t happen very often.
We meet some really cool vampires. I like their powers. I’m happy they don’t sparkle. I’m even happier that they have fangs…and boy are they used… Deveraux is sophisticated and enigmatic.
Like many paranormal romances, there is a love triangle. Kismet’s torn between an FBI agent and the vampire Devereux, who takes her as his mate. I’m sure it’s not difficult to determine who I rooted for the whole time, haha.
Normally with these kinds of series I usually don’t like when the main character falls in love with the guy in 10 pages. I don’t connect with that whatsoever as a reader which is why I generally am selective about my paranormal romances. But for some reason, I didn’t mind it in this book. That is probably because there is something special about Kismet and their union was foreshadowed.
The villains are evil and beautiful, evil and ugly, and evil and crazy. I was seriously creeped out in a couple of scenes, but they were well done. Hilburn doesn’t mind exposing the reader to disturbing situations.
This was rewrite but I actually did not notice any major differences aside from newer pop culture references over the past 5 years, so my opinion did not change much from the previous edition (which I also read). Towards the end it really picks up and gets very intense and engaging so I hope to see more of that in future novels all throughout. I’m not quite sure whether or not I’d consider the ending that much of a cliffhanger or not. At least it helps that you can easily move onto the next book and see what happens next. I know I will.
*ARC provided by the author/publisher*
Gunmetal Magic by Illona Andrews - Cover Reveal
http://www.ilona-andrews.com/writing/cover-reveal-gunmetal-magic
I gotta say I really like it! Looks like Andrea is ready to kick butt and take names! I’ve always liked her character so I’m really looking forward to this release. Not that I don’t love Kate and Curran as well of course.
Patricia Briggs and Kim Harrison Signing Seattle Q&A - In case you missed it…
http://www.livestream.com/harpervoyager/video?clipId=pla_ae3524be-b23d-4a1c-8419-45efcf7ae455&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
You can still watch Wednesday’s hour long but very entertaining and funny Q&A for both of these wonderful authors. I’m not sure for how long Harper Voyager will keep this available, so make sure you catch it ASAP! And if you’ve already seen it, any thoughts?
Tempted by Blood (Sweetblood, #3) by Laurie London - A good read
Tempted by Blood is book 3 in Laurie London’s Sweetblood series. The war continues between Guardians, the evolved race of vampires who choose to protect humans, and Darkbloods, the more primitive vampires who want to maintain their heritage and culture, remaining at the top of the food chain. The focus of this book is on one special Guardian, Jackson. He takes pride in his work and finds himself protecting a teen girl who is the Darkblood’s target. She is in the custody of her cousin, Arianna. Arianna works for a gaming company while maintaining a secret paranormal blog. Having always suspected that supernatural activity existed, she and Jackson cross paths trying to keep her cousin safe, and what she witnesses may expose them all.
I honestly didn’t know this was a part of a series because the author does a really good job at providing back story. Jackson is indeed hott, but every time I think about him I imagine Taylor Kitsch. The cover doesn’t really match him at all, especially when it comes to his multi-colored hair. Arianna is his love interest and she comes off as fairly ordinary in appearance, but Jackson loves that about her.
While this can be classified as paranormal romance, there’s a good deal of action, plot and tension that keeps things very interesting. I actually felt as if this book balanced the elements really well. No, it’s not the most original, but it’s still an entertaining read. I think fans of the Black Dagger Brotherhood would like this; I myself particularly appreciated normal names and villains that are actually intimidating.
Feel free to skip this paragraph because this may be considered a spoiler, but I was fine with the book up until the ending. In all honesty it was way too “Happily Ever After” for my tastes. I was hoping for a little more grit and I felt like this book could have taken a more imaginative route. Tieing everything up into a perfectly neat bow was just cringe-worthy for me.
So aside from that one gripe, I recommend this book if you’re searching for a new series. I was engaged all throughout, so that’s a sign of a good read for me.
*ARC Provided by NetGalley
Magic Strikes Hot Tub Scene (Curran’s POV)…and 1 more hour until the Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs Streaming!
Yeah, so if you didn’t know, now you know (and you SHOULD know that it’ll be R-rated-ish):
http://www.ilona-andrews.com/snippet-writing/magic-strikes-hot-tub-pov
Nice short. I always appreciate reading Curran’s side of things. Above all, I really appreciate that the Andrews team doesn’t allow their series to be brought down by gratuitous sex scenes. The plot really does remain at the forefront.
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And yeah, if anybody will be around in an hour, I hope you can tune into the stream and chat! I’m really looking forward to what we’ll be hearing about Rachel and Mercy.
http://vampirenovelfan.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/the-hollows-rachel-morgan-digest-news-and-spoiler-answers-revealed
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