Wednesday, March 31, 2010

March Review Re-Cap :)


Another month has passed and I had the joy of reading some pretty good books. :) I can't believe April is upon us - and Spring. Oh, I am so looking forward to Spring and some sun. LOL The pollen on the other hand....well, not so much.

Here is a re-cap of the books I read this month.

5 Stars

Shift - Rachel Vincent
Black Magic Sanction - Kim Harrison
Angels' Blood - Nalini Singh
Ecstasy Unveiled - Larissa Ione
Poor Little Bitch Girl - Jackie Collins

4 Stars

Hotter Than Hell - Jackie Kessler

3 Stars

Wraith - Phaedra Weldon
Fantasy in Death - J D Robb
Shadow Blade - Seressia Glass

2 Stars

Spiral Hunt - Margaret Ronald

I hope you had a great reading month as well. :)

Happy Reading!

M


Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Review: Angels' Blood


This is the first book in the Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh.

Book Blurb:

Nalini Singh introduces readers to a world of beauty and bloodlust, where angels hold sway over vampires.

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux is hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael. But this time, it's not a wayward vamp she has to track. It's an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other - and pull her to the razor's edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn't destroy her, succumbing to Raphael's seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break.

Elena Devereaux was born a Hunter - but she is unique, she has the ability to scent and distinguish from that scent - vampires. This makes her job as a Hunter just a little easier.

Normally Elena's job is to track and apprehend a new vampire who has decided to go out on his/her own and return them - unharmed - to their Master.

Raphael is the archangel of New York and he is in need of Elena's unique ability to track by scent. But the archangel is not accustomed to sharing information - or explaining the reason why he wants something done. When he says 'jump' - his people say 'how high'.

And that is not how Elena operates.


What happens when a centuries old angel butts heads with a stubborn mortal woman?

Sparks fly - and someone is bound to get burned.

I give Angels' Blood 5 out of 5 stars. :)

M

Monday, March 29, 2010

Mailbox Monday

Good morning everyone. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. :) It is spring break for my children this week - so we have a few things planned. If the weather is nice we have some yard work to do - and so far, it looks like we may make it into the 70's by mid week. :)

Here is a book I received from pbs.


Book Blurb:

You never know when you'll find yourself
falling through one of the cracks in the world.…

Two of today's brightest stars of dark fantasy combine their award-winning, critically acclaimed talents in this spellbinding new tale of magic, terror, and adventure that begins when a young woman slips through the space between our everyday world and the one hiding just beneath it.

Always assume there's someone after you. That was the paranoid wisdom her mother had hardwired into Jasmine Towne ever since she was a little girl. Now, suddenly on her own, Jazz is going to need every skill she has ever been taught to survive enemies both seen and unseen. For her mother had given Jazz one last invaluable piece of advice, written in her own blood.

Jazz Hide Forever

All her life Jazz has known them only as the “Uncles,” and her mother seemed to fear them as much as depend on them. Now these enigmatic, black-clad strangers are after Jazz for reasons she can't fathom, and her only escape is to slip into the forgotten tunnels of London's vast underground. Here she will meet a tribe of survivors calling themselves the United Kingdom and begin an adventure that links her to the ghosts of a city long past, a father she never knew, and a destiny she fears only slightly less than the relentless killers who'd commit any crime under heaven or earth to prevent her from fulfilling it.

Sounds different. :)

Happy Reading!!

M

Friday, March 26, 2010

Review: Shadow Blade


This is the first book in the Shadowchasers series by Seressia Glass.

Book Blurb:

For Kira Solomon, normal was never an option.


Kira's day job is as an antiquities expert, but her true calling is as a Shadowchaser. Trained from youth to be one of the most lethal Chasers in existence, Kira serves the Gilead Commission, dispatching the Fallen who sow discord and chaos. Of course, sometimes Gilead bureaucracy is as much a thorn in her side as anything the Fallen can muster against her. Right now, though, she's got a bigger problem. Someone is turning the city of Atlanta upside down in search of a millennia-old Egyptian dagger that just happens to have fallen into Kira's hands.

Then there's Khefar, the dagger's true owner -- a near-immortal 4,000-year-old Nubian warrior who, Kira has to admit, looks pretty fine for his age. Joining forces is the only way to keep the weapon safe from the sinister Shadow forces, but now Kira is in deep with someone who holds more secrets than she does, the one person who knows just how treacherous this fight is. Because every step closer to destroying the enemy is a step closer to losing herself to Shadow forever....

Shadow Blade is an okay read.

Kira Solomon has been gifted (or cursed) with the ability to read an object - any object, just by laying her hands on it. She can also channel this ability into draining the energy from that object - and if it is human or other - can drain the energy to the point of death.

When Kira was just a child she accidentally hurt her foster sister and her foster parents had no option but to take her to the Gilead Commission. It was the Gilead Commission who taught her how to harness her gift - how to channel her energy into fighting for the Light against the Shadow. And Kira has never looked back. Fighting alone, Kira relies on no one except herself - trusts few, and has a huge issue with authority.

So when Khefar rolls in to town looking for his lost dagger - and proposes teaming up with Kira to fight the Shadow Avatar - Kira wants no part of it.....but sometimes the universe has other ideas....

While reading the prologue of Shadow Blade the first thought to pop into my head was X-Men and Rogue - and I was excited. But the similarities ended with the prologue and so did much of my excitement.

I'll be honest - it took me 4 days to finish this book - I just wasn't interested enough to pick it up and read it. I enjoyed the character of Kira - and a couple of the secondary characters - Zoo and Wynne, are very interesting - but the book as a whole was just an okay read.

I give Shadow Blade 3 out of 5 stars.

M

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Review: Ecstasy Unveiled


This is the 4th book in the Demonica series by Larissa Ione and the story of Lore and Idess.

Book Blurb:

DEMON ENSLAVED

Lore is a Seminus half-breed demon who has been forced to act as his dark master's assassin. Now to earn his freedom and save his sister's life, he must complete one last kill. Powerful and ruthless, he'll stop at nothing to carry out this deadly mission.

AN ANGEL TEMPTED

Idess is an earthbound angel with a wild side, sworn to protect the human Lore is targeting. She's determined to thwart her wickedly handsome adversary by any means necessary-even if that means risking her vow of eternal chastity. But what begins as a simple seduction soon turns into a passion that leaves both angel and demon craving complete surrender.

Torn between duty and desire, Lore and Idess must join forces as they battle their attraction for each other. Because an enemy from the past is rising again-one hellbent on vengeance and unthinkable destruction.

I love this series!!

The Demonica series is about three demon brothers who run a hospital for demons - and Ecstasy Unveiled is about Lore - the brother they've just found.

Lore's demon 'gift' is the ability to take or give life with the touch of his hand - an ability that his 'master' uses all too frequently. His latest assassination target is well known - not only to himself - but to his brothers as well - and his death would cause a considerable rift between the brothers - and alter the fate of the world.

Idess is a Memitim - an Earth bound angel who has yet to earn her wings and ascend to heaven. It is a Memitims duty to protect his/her Primori - a being who is to play a pivotal role in Earth's history.

When one of Idess' Primori is killed and another targeted - she suspects a sinister plot that will effect not only herself but the demon brothers and the world.

I give Ecstasy Unveiled 5 out of 5 stars and I can't wait for the next installment - Sin Undone, Sin's story - due out September 1, 2010.

M

Pleasure UnboundDesire UnchainedPassion UnleashedEcstasy Unveiled
Sin Undone

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Review: Spiral Hunt


This is the first book in the Evie Scelan series by Margaret Ronald.

Book Blurb:

Some people have the Sight. Genevieve Scelan has the Scent.

They call her "Hound," and with her unique supernatural sense Evie can track nearly anything - lost keys, vanished family heirlooms . . . even missing people. And though she knows to stay out of the magical undercurrent that runs beneath Boston's historic streets, a midnight phone call from a long-vanished lover will destroy the careful boundaries she has drawn. Now, to pay a years-old debt, Evie must venture into the shadowy world that lies between myth and reality, where she will find betrayal, conspiracies, and revelations that will shatter all she believes about herself and the city she claims as home.

When the Hunt is on, the Hound must run . . .

The back blurb on this book sounds pretty good. Of course, I picked this book up based on said back blurb. I am sorry to say that for me, Spiral Hunt does not live up to the book blurb.

And I hate when that happens.

Evie is pretty boring. I was more than 100 pages in and still had no idea who the 'bad guys' were supposed to be. All Evie was doing (as a bike messenger) was riding back and forth across the city making sure to cross over water so as to keep her magical scent/signature from being easily traced.

Then I found out that Evie is trying to stay off the radar of the Brotherhood - but I'm still fuzzy on the why - and the Brotherhood is actually of Irish origins and has something to do with the Morrigan.

All in all Spiral Hunt is a little confusing and very boring - which is sad, because the whole Hound thing is really a pretty cool idea.

I will say that the way it ended leaves me wondering about Evie just enough to read the sequel - Wild Hunt - which is available now.

I give Spiral Hunt 2 out of 5 stars.

M

Monday, March 22, 2010

Mailbox Monday



Good morning everyone. :) I hope you had a wonderful weekend and I wish you a great week ahead. Here is a book I received from pbs.


To the unknown corners of Noreela, the Voyagers have traveled, returning with fantastic tales of their journeys and discoveries. But no one has ever returned from the Great Divide: a sheer cliff soaring miles above the clouds and rumored to be the end of the world. Until now.

Voyagers Nomi Hyden and Ramus Rheel would be mortal enemies if their lives and fates weren't so closely entwined. But now the unlikely pair are brought together for what will be their greatest—and perhaps final—journey. When a grim wanderer named Ten arrives with an ancient parchment he claims to have brought back from the Divide, its arcane glyphs hint at the existence of a realm most consider a myth...and at something amazing sleeping there.

Accompanied by the warrior Beko and his band of armed Serians, Nomi and Ramus set out to discover the truth behind the legends. But soon ambition drives them apart, this epic Voyage becomes a race...and each Voyager is faced with a choice that may alter the history of Noreela forever.

Ooh, an epic Voyage. :) Sounds interesting.

Happy Reading!

M

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Book Cover: Harvest Hunting


Ms. Galenorn posted this on her Myspace blog - the cover for Harvest Hunting, the 9th installment in her OtherWorld/Sisters of the Moon series. This book is told from Delilah's POV and is due out 10-26-2010.

Blurb:

It's Samhain and the Autumn Lord has called for my training to begin with the Death Maidens....and I find that I like it.

But we've got problems: werewolves are going missing and a new magical drug, "Wolf Briar" is being used as a weapon.

My dear Chase and I have come to a delicate crossroads and there's no turning back from our decision.

And most dangerous of all: Stacia Bonecrusher has put a bounty on our heads.

Now it's a race to take out the demon general before she realizes the sixth Spirit Seal is within her reach.

M

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Review: Fantasy in Death


This is the 37th book in the In Death series by J D Robb.

Book Blurb:

They were best friends, driven by one shared vision - to rule the world of virtual reality games.

Cill, hard-edged and beautiful, Var and Benny, brains and business acumen, and Bart, the genius behind the idea. Their newest invention, developed to transport the player into a fantastical virtual world, is just about to be launched.

Then, suddenly, Bart is found brutally killed, defeated by their own game. Their close-knit group is torn apart. Who could have engineered a virtual death with such devastating consequences?

Even Eve Dallas, New York City's most cunning investigator, is hard-pressed for an answer. But as she digs deeper, peeling back layers of secrets, revenge and misplaced allegiances, she realizes with growing dread the depth of the killer's master plan. And she knows his game is far from over...

I love this series - but this installment was not my favorite.

I think it is because Fantasy in Death is about virtual reality and gaming - not that I don't like gaming - it's just that this installment - for me, didn't have the feel of the other 'In Death' books.

Eve is up against a virtual opponent - so she has to use different methods to gather information - utilizing the EDD guys and gals more than usual.

We still get Eve's smart mouth attitude - which I love - and Peabody's unrelenting talk about personal info - which drives Eve crazy. I absolutely love how Eve reacts to anything that has to do with friends or friendship and the obligations that come along with that...because she is so unaccustomed to having to deal with things of that nature.

I love this series - I've read all of the installments. LOL But again, this one was not my favorite - but hey, it's the 37th book in the series and it's still going strong - J D Robb is doing something right. :)

I give Fantasy in Death 3 out of 5 stars. :)

M

Naked in DeathGlory in DeathImmortal in DeathRapture in Death
Ceremony In DeathVengeance in DeathHoliday in DeathSilent Night
Conspiracy in DeathLoyalty in DeathWitness in DeathJudgment in Death
Betrayal in DeathOut of This WorldSeduction in DeathReunion In Death
Purity in DeathPortrait in DeathImitation in DeathRemember When
Divided in DeathVisions in DeathSurvivor in DeathOrigin in Death
Memory in DeathBump in the NightBorn in DeathInnocent in Death
Dead of NightCreation in DeathStrangers in DeathSuite 606
Salvation In DeathPromises in DeathKindred in DeathThe Lost
Fantasy in DeathBig Jack