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Two Reviews: A Demon and a Vampire

You'll notice that this picture is slightly larger then the covers I normally have for the books I'm reviewing and there is a reason for that. Gena Showalter book covers are just sigh-worthy. Each one in the Lords of the Underworld series just gets better and better. This is the third book in the LOTU series and tells the story of Reyes (whose demon is pain) and Danika. When I first heard that Reyes got his story told so early on in the series I was a little disappointed because I thought he was a big whiner in the first two books. "Oh woe is me I have to hurt myself and Danika hates me." were about the only things we learned about him. I wasn't a big fan of Danika in the first book either-I thought she was stupid for not seeing that the Lords were the good guys.By the end of the book I totally loved Reyes. In this book it showed that he could do more then whine, and had a lot of good fighting and swoon-worthy scenes.

The Lords of the Underworld were immortal warriors who made the mistake of opening Pandora's box. For their punishment they must live with the demons that escaped from the box.  We first meet Reyes and Danika the first book. If I remember correctly, Danika & her family are captured to keep her and her family safe from Aeron (Wrath) who was given an order by the Titan Cronus to kill them. Danika and her family escape, and the search for them starts in the second book and continues in this one. When we catch up with Danika she has been on the run for a while, and has started to develop mixed feelings for Reyes ever since he saved her from getting killed by Aeron.  She wonders if the Lords were really as evil as she thought they were. Throughout the book Danika struggles with this-should she hate Reyes and the Lords for kidnapping her family or not? If he's really so awful, why can't she stop thinking about him? Reyes likewise, can't get Danika out of his head. He knows he shouldn't be falling for her, after all he is Pain-what good can come from wanting something that would bring him pleasure? Even though this relationship can't possibly work out, the two are drawn together to help battle the Hunters-who want to destroy the Lords. There is so much more to this book then what I've explained, but I don't want spoil the story for those who haven't read this great series.


What I liked about this book: The storyline flowed nicely from the other two books while adding more to the mystery of the Lords and their backgrounds. I also liked how while the story focused on Reyes and Danika the other Lords stories were weaved into this one without feeling like the two main characters were left behind in the story arc. I also liked how strong Danika was and how along with Reyes struggled with determining what was right and what was wrong.

What I didn't like: I felt like the ending was rushed. It seemed like after the big battle scene, everything just magically fell into place & Side characters which were mentioned in the first chapter weren't mentioned again until the last one-which was probably purposefully done so they could be included in future books.

All in all this was a great read and Gena Showalter didn't disappoint. I can't wait to read The Darkest Whisper. I'm still really looking forward to reading Torin & Paris's stories, but now can't wait for Aerons. The problem with finding this series with first book is the long wait I'm going to have for each book to come out. :)

Sigh Meter: HIGH
Swoon Meter: HIGH
Action Meter: Medium 
LOLZ Meter: Medium  (I just love Anya's zingers!)
Cover Swoon Meter: VERY HIGH 
Longing for the next book Meter: HIGH
Lords I want more of: Torin, Paris, Gideon (I'd mention Sabin and Aeron, but they are getting their own story soon
Side Characters I love: Anya, William (I hope he gets a story!) Maddox, Ashlyn (sentimental favorites!)
Lords I want to know more about: Cameo, Galen, Strider
****************************************************************************

NICE GIRLS DON'T HAVE FANGS BY MOLLY HARPER
Earlier this month I went on a spending spree and bought this book, the Red Headed StepChild by Jaye Wells and Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neil. When I got them the only author I was somewhat familiar with was Jaye Wells and that was with a twitter conversation I had with Heather From Book Obssessed. Then the very next day it seemed like everybody had a post up about Chloe Neil and Molly Harper. Funny how that works out sometimes, isn't it?

Jane Jameson lives in a small town of Half Moon Hollow where she worked as a childrens librarian until she got fired so her bosses niece could work at the library. Instead of a severance check she is given a gift card to Shannagan's where she meets the mysterious Gabriel Nightengale. On her way home, she's mistaken for a deer and is shot. Gaberial comes to her rescue and offers her a choice between being dead and undead. What choice does a girl have except to become one of the undead?
In this world vampires have come out of  the closet, (Kind of like in Sookie's world, but explained much better) and are living freely among humans. As if dealing with becoming a vampire wasn't enough, someone is trying to frame her for vampire murders-which doesn't make her popular in the vampire world. Jane tries to solve the mystery of the murders with the help of Gabriel -whom she can't help but be attracted to. To top every else off, she has to deal with her best friend, Zeb finally getting a girlfriend-which doesn't make their families too happy as they already have them married to each other.

I think I would have liked this book much better if I hadn't chosen it for my first book to read for the ReadAThon on Saturday. This book just seemed to go on and on...but I'm sure that's just because I thought I should've been reading it faster then what I was. This book did keep me laughing through the entire book and I wasn't expecting that. (It kind of annoyed me by the end of the book for some reason)  The side characters were great-one of my favorites was Dick Cheney-no relation to the VP. I just wish there had been more of him! Jane Austen was mentioned quite a bit in this book, and I want to know: why must every female character who is still single in her mid-late 30s have an obssession with Jane Austen books? Am I the only one who has noticed this trend in books lately? One thing that slightly annoyed me was, the authors definition of a hollow. I know quite a few people from work whose families live in hollows, and the town she describes isn't a hollow-it's a small town. A hollow from what I understand, is impossible to reach by car and everyone is pretty much related to each other...but I guess hollows can all be different...
Sigh Meter: LOW
Kick Butt Meter: HIGH
LOLZ Meter: HIGH
Swoon Meter: HIGH

Teaser Tuesday-The Darkest Pleasure

 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

I had last week off of work, and this week I've been so tired that I haven't been able to read as much as I would like to. Right now I'm reading The Darkest Pleasure by Gena Showalter:

Aren't her covers just yummy?  From page 118:

Anticipation sizzled and snapped along Reyes olive skin.  Truly flickering, making him look like a human electrical socket. His dark hair even stood on end.

You just gotta love Gena Showalters heroes!

Read A Thon Wrap Up

This was my first ever Read-A-Thon and I had a great time. Why is though, that I normally have no problem staying up all night, but when I want to do it, I can't? Gotta love Murphys law. Here's what I learned from the Read A Thon:

• Start with an author you're familiar with. My first book was Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper. It was a fun read, but took forever. I should have started with a book that I knew would read fast to help me stay motivated-like say a Lord of the Underworld book by Gena Showalter. 

• Have a few short stories/novellas in your mix. I now know why they encouraged people to have some short stories thrown in the mix. Your eyes begin to fade after awhile, and it looks like you've read more then you really did if you have some short stories in there.
• Have lots of different genres to choose from. I choose mainly paranormal books for this, and I think I should have thrown in some more contemporary to help motivate me. 
• Make sure you plan what to watch while reading. I planned lots of good snacks, but forgot about the noise factor. (I have to have some background noise b/c I live by myself & am weird that way.) i was going to watch movies made from books that I had on hand, but soon got bored with that idea.  
• Next time I'm going to take the time to visit other blogs! I was much too serious about my reading.
  

Some boring stats:
Number of books read: I ended up reading 2 whole books, read half of 2 others and finished the Take A Chance Challenge!! 
Number of pages read: 798
Start time: 8:00am
End time: 2:30am
Number of breaks: 3
Mini Meltdowns: One. I was upset that I wasn't getting more read, but a sinus headache will do that to you. What helped me was talking to others on twitter & leaving for my moms birthday dinner.
Mini Challenges: I did 2. Next time I'm stopping and taking the time to domore then just the 2 I did, or maybe host one. They were a lot of fun. I even won one! It was this post from a challenge that Nise from t Under The Boardwalk. hosted.
Donations: $30 to the Cindy Houdeshell Morris Scholarship fund at William Carey University. 

Thanks again for everyone who encouraged me to do this and helped me through. Blomie shout outs: (thank you so much Velvet from VVB32Reads for that word. It's like Homie, except we blog so it's blomie. It took me a minute to get it, now I love it!)

One Literature Nut

Deb from Book Magic

Bookobessessedgirl

Mandi from Smexybooks

Donna from Fantasy Dreamers Ramblings

Tasha from Heidenkinds Hideaway

Velvet from VVB32Reads

EH from Erotic Horizons

Jenners from Find Your Next Book Here

Jessica from  A BookLovers Diary

A big thank you to the organizers of the Read A Thon!

Eva of A Striped Armchair

Hannah of Word Lily

Nymeth of things mean a lot

Trish of Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?

Hour 18 update

 Update: It's almost 2:30am and I'm calling it a night. I keep reading the same sentence over and over again. I had fun doing the readathon!


I'm running out of steam, but this is the time of night when I get a lot of reading done. I've never been a morning reader or a morning anything! I've decided that since I read 3 books, I am going to donate $30 to the Cindy Houdeshell Morris Scholarship Fund at William Carey University. How I found this scholarship is found here. If I happen to finish the book I'm on now, I'll throw in another $10. I wish my budget could afford for me to donate more. Here are my stats so far:

Number of pages read:  748 
Number of books read:  3 (just started my fourth)
Number of Mini Challenges entered: 2
Number of tweets: I lost count!

The one thing I did accomplish with this challenge was that I finished the Take A Chance Challenge-something I didn't think I'd do! I had so much fun meeting so many great people. Thank you to the cheerleaders for stopping by and making my day brighter.

Take A Chance Challenge Wrap Up

Challenge #7 of the Take A Chance Challenge hosted by the Fabulous Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here was to choose a random Best Seller by: Go to Random.org and, using the True Random Number Generator, enter the number 1950 for the min. and 2008 for the max. and then hit generate. Then go to this site and find the year that Random.org generated for you and click on it. Then find the bestseller list for the week that would contain your birthday for that year. Choose one of the bestsellers from the list that comes up, read it and write about it.

I got the year 1992. I was going to read The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy, but the book was so huge that I shuddered everytime I looked at it. It kept glaring at me from my bookshelf (I borrowed my dad's copy of it) saying "read me, Colette, read me Colette..." I tried to, really I did. I made to page 30. Military intrigue just isn't my thing. I looked at the New York times Best Seller list again from the week of August 29, 1992 and found this non fiction book: When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time To Go Home by Erma Bombeck. Aha! I thought-this is perfect. Erma was a native Daytionian, and it's almost criminal not to have read any of her stuff before.  While my local library may not carry Jane Austen, they had tons of Erma Bombeck books in stock. (She's something of a local legend.) I absoultely loved this book!! It's filled with travel horror stories told in a humorous tone. Whatever could go wrong does go wrong was the theme of the book. It's a bit dated now, but having traveled a lot when I was younger, I could relate to everything she went through. I couldn't stop laughing. If you've never traveled overseas before, and wondered what you were missing, this is the book for you! It's a classic. Two thumbs up!   

I want to thank Jenners for hosting this challenge. I was able to read books that I normally wouldn't have taken a look at otherwise. Thanks also to Heidenkind whom I found this contest through. It was a lot of fun!!

Read A Thon Hour 12 update

Thank you so much to everyone who has commented on my posts today-that has kept me motivated!!
Here's what my day has looked like:

8:00am-Got off to a great start. Finished the Harlequin I was reading.
9:00am-wrote a post about said book
10:00am-How was I online for an hour?
11:00am-Cooked lunch
12:00pm Headache came back from earlier in the morning. Laid down for a bit.
1:00pm Watched the buckeye game and read
2:00-3:00pm kept reading, but was going nowhere
4-5:00pm had mini meltdown over lack of progress
5-7pm: Went to my moms birthday celebration with my sisters. Had to bite tongue the entire time as to not reply to my youngest sisters zingers she was throwing at me. (She never stops being a lawyer. I'd hate to go against her in court.) Despite the biting of the tongue, I had a great time. My other sisters husband made me laugh the entire time. I really got lucky in the B-I-L department.
7:30pm-8:30pm-Finally finished second book. Finally back at a regular reading pace.

I just discovered that I won Marley & Me from the Who Keeps You Company Mini Challenge From Under the Boardwalk! Yay! I can't believe I won...!! Thank you Nise!
Thanks to Deb from Book Magic for the idea of a timeline! 

Read A Thon Mini Challenge: Hour 8

Has it really been 8 hours already? Time flies when you're having fun! I still haven't completed the book I'm reading-Nice Girls Have Fangs by Molly Harper, but I can tell she's going to be a new favorite author. I'm loving Gaberial and I've been laughing all afternoon reading it. The one liners never stop!  Thank you to everyone who has stopped by and commented on my blog! The comments mean a lot and help to keep me motivated. :) I promise to return all comments as soon I finish my first book!

One of the Mini Challenges this hour is Who keeps you Company, hosted by Nise at Under The Boardwalk.  I like reading by myself without any distractions. When I read while watching tv it's either during the commericals or while I'm watching something that I don't have to pay attention to like a movie I've seen before or football. I generally read in one of two places:

This is my popizon chair and it was just made for reading! I've had it forever and just can't part with it. I always read curled up in this blanket-no matter how hot it is. It's just warm & comfy.  The second place I read is my couch:

When I'm on my couch I always have the pillow and other blanket with me. The pillow I use because I'm too lazy to actually buy an overstuffed throw pillow. The gray blanket is actually fleece and super comfortable. I use it as a second pillow. Quirky? Totally.

If I'm at my parents house I like to read with Cleo-we generally fight for the same spot on the couch. Somehow, she always wins.

The cat just ignores our fights and sits in her beloved Barnes & Nobles box while stalking birds and squirrels outside:

Read A Thon Hours 2 - 5

I really hate Ohio weather sometimes. Yesterday it was a warm, but rainy 72 degrees. Today it's a chilly (and threatening to rain) 45. Do you what that means? This morning I awoke with a little sinus headache that just got bigger. I took a break from reading, had lunch, laid down and feel much better now. The headache is gone & I feel motivated to read again. So that is why I've only managed to read 100 pages in Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper. I've never timed my reading before, but I know I'm faster then this. This book is great so far-and now that my headache is gone looks to be like a fast read.

Take A Chance Challenge

The Take A Chance Challenge, hosted by the wonderful Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here has been so much fun! Challenge #5 was to open a random page in the phone book, pick a name and find a book by the author whose name you picked. Of course I didn't get an easy name. I got Oliver. Luckily for me there was Anne Oliver, who writes for Harlequin Presents and had a ton of books to choose from. My local library had Marriage At The Millionaire's Command. Don't you love the names of Harlequin Romances?

This was set in Syndey, Australia and I love books set in places I want to go but haven't been to. The plot is your typical Harelquin Presents storyline: Girl gets dumped, meets another (extremely rich) guy, has her way with him, finds out that she is *gasp* pregant, they get married, have a misunderstanding, seperate and then reconcile and live happily ever after.  It wasn't a bad read, and I chose it for my first book in the read a thon because I knew I could finish it quickly. It had a lot of great Lolz lines like: "His  lips curved in the grey tropical night. My pleasure, Carissa Mary."  (pg.115)

Now for challenge #9:  Write a book review in three different forms of verse: haiku, limerick and free verse. 
Here goes nothing!
Limerick: 

Harlequins are good for a laugh 

or for a quick read in the bath 

   They are great fun

 when you are in the sun 

Haiku: 

Carissa followed signs

they gave her to her true love

he was mysterious 

FreeVerse:

Oh how I love Harlequin Presents.

They are set in faraway lands. The

men are mysterious, rich and hot.

The words the characters say

make me laugh, but are meant

to make me swoon.

Read A Thon-Hour 1

 I'm participating in my first ever Dewey's Read A Thon! I couldn't believe it when I actually woke up before my alarm this morning. That never happens. I've decided that I'm going to watch movies based on books today. I wish I had planned that before hand so I wasn't stuck with dvds I have on hand-which are old. I'm beginning with Eragon, and plan to watch True Blood, SeaBiscuit & Under the Tuscan Sun. I may have to take a quick trip to Blockbuster or see what's on my on demand channel. In all my snack prepartion I forgot about breakfast! Coffee will have to do.


Where are you reading from today? I'm reading from home-on my couch!


3 facts about me …

• I'm not a morning person, so this first hour has been hard! I'm on my second cup of coffee and feeling much better and ready to go! 
• I come from a supermarket family-4th generation. We used to own our stores, but had to sell them about 5 years ago. While it was sad, it's the best decision my dad could have made. My dad is my boss & we still work at one of the stores we owned. Small towns hate change, and the people in the town we still have the store in call it by the name we used we owned it. If you say the new name people look at you strangely. 
• I'm a dog person. While Cleo might live at my parents house, she's totally my dog. When animals come to visit (My sisters cat and my aunts dog) she gets so  super possessive of me that everyone laughs, b/c she's not normally like that. My sisters cat Bella, recently came to live at my parents house, and it's great fun to see her boss Cleo around like she's the boss.
  

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
I have about 15, but I'll be happy if I finish more then two.

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
We were supposed to have goals?  I'll set them as I go. Right now I'll be happy if I finish the Take A Chance Challenge with the Read A Thon.


If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time? This is my first Read A thon, so any advice would be great!

Let's get ready to read! Charity Decided on-Cindy Houdeshell Morris Scholarship fund

Tomorrow I am doing my first Dewey's Read A Thon. I'm so excited! I have all of my snacks set out & ready to go. The coffee is already made and waiting to be poured. The apartment is clean, & my dvr is all set to go. In this post I listed a bunch of books I had ready to read for tomorrow..well, I've decided to add a few more. These are books that I thought I would have read already, or found while I was cleaning this week. I probably have way too many selected, but better safe then sorry, right?! The charity I have chosen is the Cindy Houdeshell Morris Scholarship fund at William Carey University. Cindy was my best friend since college who died suddenly at a young age in 2007. Her death shocked everyone who knew her. She was working as the Residential Housing Director at William Carey-her students & co-workers were so touched by her that they set up this scholarship for her. I'm not sure yet how much I'm going to donate yet. If you have time, read the story of the Starfish-it always makes me cry. I'm also trying out a new profile picture. It's Cleo, our family's dog-whom I consider to be mine. (If only my apartment allowed animals!)

Late additions: These look like a lot, but some of these authors read really fast!

When You Look Like Your Passport, It's time to go home! By Erma Bombeck. It's a long book, but it's told in a series of short humorous stories, so I think it will be an easy read. This is for the Take A Chance Challenge.

Marriage at the Millionaire's Command by Anne Oliver-This is another Take A Chance Challenge book. It's a Harlequin Presents books-those always good for a lot of LOLZ.

Upon the Midnight Clear by Sherrilyn Kenyon-I found this dream Hunter book while cleaning!!

With Every Breath by Lynn Kurland- I adore Lynn Kurlands book. I had forgotten all about this one until I cleaned the other day. It's sat unread for much too long.

Parallel Desire by Deidre Knight-Another one found while cleaning. I got this one at a library book sale.

Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare-I really thought I'd have this read by now, but I went on a challenge frenzy & this one got pushed aside for other books.

Take A Chance Challenges #10 & #2

Warning: Long Post ahead! This week is devoted to the Take A Chance Challenge hosted by the awesome Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here. On Saturday I'm doing the Read A Thon, and have a feeling a lot of posts will come from that....You might have noticed that I'm not following the challenge number in order of sequence.

Challenge #10
Movie/Book Comparison:Find a book that you haven't read that has a movie based on it that you haven't seen. Read the book and watch the movie within a few days of each other. Write about your reactions to both the book and the movie and compare the two.

I had originally chosen the Worst Witch because I wanted a Halloween book/movie. However, as I started reading this great childrens book I realized that I had read the book and seen the movie-it had been so long I had just forgotten about it. How could I forget Tim Currey as the Grand Wizard? I read the book and watched the movie any way and loved them both-but I felt like that was cheating, so I made the mistake of choosing this movie/book to read & watch:

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern



I had read one other book by this author before Dear Rosie-a book that I had found at a library book sale, before this movie came out and was convinced that the only way the author got published was because her father was the Prime Minister of Ireland and somebody owed him a favor or two. After reading her debut book, PS I Love You, I'm even more convinced of that theory. PS I love you is about a young widow, Holly Kennedy who is trying to get over the death of her husband Gerry, who died at a young age of a brain tumor. Through a series of letters that he wrote to Holly before he died she with the help of her friends and family starts to live again.

My thoughts on the book:

• It seems like the only adjectives the author used were: Personally, Honestly, and Sarcastically. (I made the mistake of reading a review where someone wrote that she used the word sarcastically a lot, and it's true-she does along with the other two words.)
• The writing switches from first person, to second to third. It distracts from the story.
• The author was only 22 when she wrote this, and I don't think she's ever experienced something like this, because the grieving process was a little too fast.

Things I liked about the book:

• The premise~it sounded like such a great tearjerker of a book, but it didn't quite follow through.

The Movie:
Why, why, why do movie producers feel the need to change everything about the book for the movie?

• Hilary Swank just seems like a weird choice for Holly. She pulled it off, but not who I would have cast in that role.
• Why change the location? The book is set in Dublin, not New York!! She is Irish, not American!
  
• Why add stuff that didn't happen just to give people's roles?
• I loved Gerard Butler
  
• They even changed what tasks the letters had Holly doing-it annoyed me!
• I was only able to watch this movie b/c I was too lazy too turn it off.
  
• Why did the make her mom a single mom, and where were all of her brothers?
• Lisa Kudrow was perfect for the role of Denise.

Edited to add: I loved the soundtrack of the movie-it almost makes up for the crappy adaptation of the book and the book itself. I also think if I were in my 20s and not my 30s I would have enjoyed this book more.

This movie reminded of the movie Sahara with Matthew McConaughey. Did you know that was a book by Clive Cussler? He's one of my favorite mystery-action writers. They totally changed the story of the book in order to give Penelope Cruz a larger role. Totally annoyed me...

Challenge #2: Random Word Generator:Go to random word generator and generate a random word. Find a book with this word in the title. Read the book and write about it. The word I got was Muddle. Do you know how few books start with that title? One of the few I found was Muddle Earth by Paul Stewart and Chris Ridell.


If I were a boy the ages this book was meant for- grades 4-6 -I would have loved this book. It has a little bit of everything-elves, giants, & wizards. As an adult reading it, I just couldn't get through it-or maybe it was that PS I Love you just drained all the energy out from me. I only made it half way through the book before I gave up on it.

Here's the plot from Amazon for those with kids in grades 4-6:

One minute young Joe Jefferson is trying to figure out what to write for his English assignment, "My Amazing Adventure," and the next thing he knows both he and his dog have been pulled into the world of Muddle Earth by the incompetent magician Randalf the Wise. Joe has been summoned to be the official warrior-hero of the realm, and that means going head-to-head with malicious Dr. Cuddles. Cuddles, it seems, has captured all of the local wizards and is forcing them to do his evil bidding. It's up to our hero and his ragtag team of new friends to defeat the villain and free the wizards before Cuddles has a chance to conquer Muddle Earth. Bathroom humor and potty jokes abound in this tepid tale. Rather than a straight out-and-out parody of Tolkien's stories of Middle Earth (which might have been preferable), Stewart's tale references those stories rarely, if ever. The whole enterprise feels more like an excuse to try out some random fantasy tropes without ever using them in an inventive fashion. In short, the madcap adventures and humorous moments could stand to be a lot more madcap and humorous.—Elizabeth Bird, New York Public Library

Take A Chance Challenge-Birth Year Book

I'm determined to finish the Take A Chance Challenge hosted by the wonderful Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here. Challenge #3 of 10 is to read a book from your birth year. The book I chose was The Night of The Seventh Moon by Victoria Holt. When I was younger I went through a period where I read almost everything by Victoria Holt. I just couldn't get enough of her. It's funny, this book was written in 1972 and is still a great read-I think good books just get better with time.

The Story:
Helena Trant's parents found each other in the Black Forest and fell in love. (Hey, it's a romance!) They move to England after Helena's mothers family disowns her for marrying a commoner. Helena is raised on the legends of the Black Forest, and when she is old enough she goes to the same school abroad that her mother went to. On a school outing, she gets lost in the mist on a picnic when she wonders into the forest and meets a handsome guy who happens to be hunting in the woods. They fall in love, but are seperated when Helena has to return to the school and discovers that her mother has died, and must go back to England.

One of her mothers cousins comes to England and invites Helena to go with them to her mothers homeland to help her with her sick husband. Helena agrees. On the Night of the Seventh Moon festival-which celebrates Loke, the God of mischief. Of course she happens to stumble on the handsome guy she met in the wood earlier...they spend 3 days together and then a mystery separates them for 9 years. Will Helena be able to discover the truth before it's too late?

My thoughts: I loved this book! Parts of it were a tad unbeliveable, but it was gothic romance at its best. If you haven't read a book by a Victoria Holt, you don't know what you're missing! The best part? There was not one mention of Jane Austen in the entire book.

Sigh Worthy Meter: High
Swoonworthy Meter: Medium
Number of times I yelled you idiot at Helena: Too many times to count.

My First Read A Thon

I caved in and decided to do my first ever Read A Thon. I can't wait! I originally wasn't going to do it because I work on Saturdays, but I decided (in other words was urged to by my boss who just happens to be my dad) to take a vacation to de-stress myself this week and have Saturday mostly free. We'll be celebrating my mom's birthday, but I figure I can get in a lot of reading before and after our celebration. Some of the tips for the read a thon was to plan what you'll read and to pick a few short books. Well, it turns out I don't have a lot of short books-just one, so I added that one to the mix. My selection is mainly paranormal because
Halloween is just right around the corner! Choosing was hard, because I wasn't sure how much I'd get read this week...

My books are:

1. The Red Headed Step Child by Jaye Wells
2. The Darkest Pleasure by Gena Showalter
3. One Silent Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
4. A Harlequin presents cheesy romance
5. Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neil
6. Nice Girls Don't have Fangs by Molly Harper
Alternates: The Darkest Whisper by Gena Showalter and The Dead and The Gone by Susan Pfeffer.

Wish me luck! Read A Thon Veterans: Do you have any advice for me?

Lit Riff: Take A Chance Challenge #8

This is something a little different I'm doing for the Take A Chance Challenge hosted by Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here. It's something called Lit Riff and it's challenge #8.
The challenge is to: Choose a song and then write a brief story that is inspired by or further explains the lyrics of the song.(inspired by the book Lit Riffs by Matthew Miele.)
I haven't written fiction in a long time, and found that it was hard to stop writing once I started. I really need to write more often. The story is based on one of my favorite songs London Rain by Heather Nova-I've liked it ever since I found it on my sisters Dawson's Creek soundtrack way too many years ago. I am going to try to post a link to the video on youtube, but these things never work for me. Here's a link to the song in case it doesn't work: London Rain by Heather Nova

I’m finally home. Well, what will be home for me from now on. It all happened so fast. I never wanted to famous, it just kind of well happened. One day everything was normal, the next I find out that they guy I’m dating happens to be one of the wealthiest and famous guys in the world. I knew not paying attention to the tabloids would eventually get me into trouble. It’s too late now. Fate has intervened.

We met at the corner coffee shop (So cliché it’s boring, isn’t it?) when I tripped over my shoelace and spilled my very hot latte all over him. Chaos broke out. He was yelling at me, the barista was yelling at me, and people just started freaking out. Before I knew what was happening he grabbed my hand and ran out the back door into the alley. I started rambling: “I’m so sorry. I’m such a klutz. Everyone’s always yelling at me to be more careful. I can pay for your dry cleaning if you want. I have no idea why it got so crazy. It’s like you were famous or something.” He started laughing and couldn’t stop. At the time I couldn’t figure out why, but now I know. He was famous, and he thought it was hilarious that I was the one person in the world who hadn’t heard of him. It wasn’t my fault-I blame it on being so immersed in getting my doctorate that I just shut out the world and focused on research that I lost track of things everybody else knew.

After the press found out we were dating it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I’m still not quite sure how they found out-but I’m blaming my brother. We tried going out to dinner and couldn’t even get out of the car. After that all he wanted to do was to go home to London. He said that he needed to breathe, and there was something about the air and rain in London that awakened the soul. The only thing was, he didn’t want to go without me, so here I am getting off the plane in London, and it’s raining, just like he said it would be. (Damn it, I owe him 20 pounds now. I wonder how many dollars that is?) However, I'm beginning to see what he means about London rain now.

Life As We Knew It By Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Let me begin by saying I don't read a lot of young adult books. They just aren't my cup of tea. I'm much more into romances and chick lit type of books. :) However, every now and then one jumps out and grabs my attention. I found this book through Andrea at The Little Bookworm.
There is so much to this book that I don't want to leave anything out so here is the plot from Amazon.com:
It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.

My thoughts:
This book grabs your attention from the very beginning and pulls you right in until before you know it the clock somehow says it's 2:00am and you feel the need to go to the supermarket and start stockpiling food like there's no tomorrow and to check on the moon just to be sure it looks like it should, Of course, I didn't do any of those things but I was really tempted to. I was however, starving and cold and felt like I had ash all over me. :) I rarely feel like this when reading a book, but that's how good this book is.

One of the many things I liked about this book was that besides it making me think about survival preparedness is how Miranda, the main character matured throughout the book. For most of the book, all she is concerned about is how everything is affecting her. She hates the fact that her mom is looking out for her younger brother more then her and doesn't understand the rationing-she thinks things will be back to normal way quicker then everybody else seems to think they will. By the end of the book, Miranda sees how dire the situation really is and sees things from her moms perspective. A few of the reviews I read on Amazon had problems with how religion is dealt with in the book (Miranda's best friend becomes a fanatic) and how the author puts her politics into the book. (She makes jabs at the President who suspiciously sounds a lot like George W. Bush.) However, these points didn't really bother me all that much and kind of just flowed with the storyline. I can't wait to read the sequel to this book The Dead and Gone which tells the story of Alex, a teenager living in New York and how he deals with the crisis. There is a third book, This World We Live In which comes out next year.

Jane Austen shout outs: 1! Yes, even in a book about the end of the world Jane Austen is mentioned. (After everything starts getting bad, Miranda goes over to her friends house, and says it must be like calling on people was like & felt very Jane Austen-y.

I'll leave you with a conversation I had with my mom after I read this book:
Me: Mom, I read this book over the weekend that was about how a meteor crashes int0 the moon and the effects of what happens. I think I need skis.
Mom: Skis? But you don't ski. Why do you need them?
Me: Well, if the weather acts wonky and we get a lot of snow, no one will be able to plow and how else will I get to your house across town.
Mom: laughing too hard to answer.
Me: Do you have a wood burning stove?
Mom: No, why?
Me: How will you cook food when the power goes out?
Mom: Laughing even harder: We have a fireplace and a grill. You can go down to our neighbors to use his if you want when this happens. You're not planning on reading any more books like this are you? (This from the queen of worrying!)
Me: Well, there is a sequel to this book...(and to myself I add: Thank goodness I didn't tell her this was a YA book...)

What Are You Reading Monday?

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week. Feel free to pile on a little extra. This is a weekly meme from J Kaye's Book Blog.

I haven't done this in awhile-mainly because I've been in a reading slump. Don't you hate it when that happens? Here is what I read last week:

Digging For the Truth: One Man's Epic Journey by Josh Bernstein. I read this for Heidenkind's Art History Challenge. I loved the show when it was on the History Chanel and thought it'd be cool to see what happened behind the scenes. The book had great pictures, but it turns out Josh was a bit of a complainer when it came to the norms of serious international travel. (ie nasty little stomach bugs and weird insect bites.)

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer- I found this book through Andrea at the Little Bookworm. She has a great review up of the sequel to this book-The Dead and Gone. The third book, This World We Live in comes out in 170 days according to Susan's website. She's also taking a poll to see if anyone's interested an a ARC of this book. This book disturbed me on so many levels. It tells the story of how a metor crashes into the moon and everything that is affected by the moon-the tides, volcanoes, earthquakes and the weather and what happens when natural resources are no longer available.
About halfway through the book I wanted to run to the supermarket and stock up on stuff I would need if something like this really happened. I finished the book yesterday, and still have the insane need to write down stuff I don't have, but think I'll need. (Like skis, canned soup, bottled water, woodstove etc.)

Books I plan to read this week:

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
The Goddess of the Hunt By Tessa Dare

Digging for the Truth: One Mans Epic Journey by Josh Bernstein

I read this book for Heidenkinds Art History Challenge. When I entered this challenge, I had no idea there was a book written by one of my favorite explorers tv show, Digging For The Truth. I'm a major History Channel nerd and watched pretty much every episode of this show.


What I loved about the show was how Josh would actually attempt to build stuff the way it would have been built or he did something to show us how hard the people in the time period he was talking about had it to do whatever it was they were doing. In the book, Josh takes us behind the scenes of seasons 1 and 2. For instance, I had no idea that all the shows for one season were filmed out of sequence. They did everything by geographic location. For instance if shows 1, 6 and 12 were about Egypt they did everything for those shows at one time. He said that by the end of filming for season 1, this got kind of confusing and while it would have been nice to do film in an entire episode and then do the next one, logistically and money wise, it just wasn't possible to do
.
The more I read the book, the more I got the sense that the History Channel was pretty much making him write the book. He does state that they made him put some stuff in there that he didn't want to write about-like his previous job experiences which was basically working for BOSS: The Boulder Outdoor Survival School in Boulder, Utah. He went from being a participant to staff member to CEO & President. I almost forgot one little thing-he does have a degree in Anthropology from Cornell University.

I think the hardest time I had with the book was that the second half of the book was pretty much him whining about how tired he was during filming, how crap the weather was (he hates rainforests b/c it rained so much when he was in one) and how he got dysentery & a potentially harmful spider bite during season 2. I like to think of myself as a somewhat seasoned international traveller, and as some one who has lived overseas let me tell you: these things are normal! I mean, was it necessary to go on for two pages about getting bit by chiggers? (I grew up in the woods, and these are nasty little things that itch like the dickens, but hello, you're an adult-deal with it!)


By the end of the book I could totally see why the History Channel hired Hunter Ellis of Survivor Marquesas fame to be his replacement host. I'm sure they figured that anyone who could live 39 days with complete strangers (one of those strangers being the infamous Robfather of who later married Amber.) and no amenities would have no problem with a few chigger bites. :) I'm sorry Tasha, but I no longer find Josh Hawt after reading his book. ): (I do have admit though, that show totally failed without him as a host.)

Confessional: I actually skimmed this book, and I don't normally believe in skimming.

I totally forgot to mention the art part of the book: I guess this could be seen as the art of tv production and what goes into making a tv show. The show itself deals with a lot of art and the people behind the art, but the book did not.

What I'm reading

Now that my mom is feeling better I'm back to working full time, and unfortunately that means less reading time for me. It looks like I'm back to the normal book a week. ):
Here's what I'm currently reading:


Digging for the Truth by Josh Bernstein-This is for fans of the show that used to be on the history show only. It's a very dry read. It has been neat to learn about the different places they went for the show. One good thing about this book is that there is lots of pictures of Josh. :) One thing I've learned: His hat is not a fedora, it's a cowboy hat. (He also names his hats.) I'm reading this for Heidenkind's Art History Challenge.

A bonus picture:



My fun book of the week is Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare. This is a book I found on Smexybooks. I've been hesitant to really dive into this book because I know I won't be able to put it down. This is going to be my weekend read. :) I can't wait!

Tainted: The Blood Lily Chronicles by Julie Kenner

Tainted: The Blood Lily Chronicles by Julie Kenner is a (free) ARC I received and you know the saying: Good things come to those who wait? It applies perfectly to this book. The first handful of chapters went by slowly as the storyline was setting up, but then before you know it you are drawn into the story and can't wait to read what happens next. I haven't read Julie Kenner before, but something tells me this is a drastic change from her soccer mom demon hunting books! (For one thing there is swearing, a lot of swearing in it-and something tells me that her soccer moms probably don't curse as well as Lily does.)

Lily Carlisle is a kick butt and take names later kind of girl. She's done some things in her past that she isn't too proud of. She's lied, stolen, killed a man and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It was all done out of the love of her little sister, Rose. Lucas Johnson was a horrible person and brutalized Lily's little sister-which is why she went after him with a vengeance and killed him. That last act didn't go over so good. As she was dying, she was given the opportunity for a second chance to do some good for the world and get into paradise. All she had to do was become an assassin for the good guys. But is there a way out once she accepts the deal?

After accepting the deal, Lily awakens to find out that there was a catch to it. She's not herself-she is in the body of Alice Purdue, a Boston waitress who works at her family's bar that's known to be haunted and other dark stuff. Alice is also more familiar with the dark side of life then meets the surface of her life. I would tell you more about she landed in Alice's body, but I don't want to spoil any of the story!

Throughout the book Lily grapples with her new life, finding out who Alice was, all the while fighting the bad guys and learning how to do her job. She has some help along the way-there is Clarence her wise cracking guide, Zane the hot trainer who teaches Lily how to kick some serious demon ass, and Deacon the ultra hot bad ass guy who has some serious mysteries of his own for Lily to figure out. Lily isn't perfect and I love how she stays independent and true to herself the entire book. Imagine Buffy and Anna Strong as the same person, and you get an idea of what Lily's like.

This book manages to throw in a little romance without really being a romance-it's more about good vs. evil, right vs.wrong truth & consequence, and all the shades in between. Do you want to find out more? Go to Julie's website-there are podcasts of Tainted up for a sneak peak of the book.

I can't wait to read the other two books in this series, Torn and Turned. Tainted's release date is November, Torns is December and Turneds is January. (I couldn't find an exact relase date on her website.)

Sigh Worthy Moments: Low. This isn't really that type of book...but there are a couple of moments snuck in there.
Hot guy alert: Deacon could qualify as a beefcake in Leontine's Beefcake of the week club, but this book is more then just a romance.
Back of the book blurb: Doesn't really do this book justice. There is so much more to the story!
Back of the book readers: Don't read the last page first! (yes, I did that.) It won't ruin the book for you, but it will leave you with a lot of questions (more then necessary) while you read the book until you get to the end and have it all figured out. :)
Jane Austen shout out: One! I never knew how often she or her books were mentioned in other books until the Everything Jane Austen challenge!

Half Read books

Don't you hate it when you're unable to finish a book-no matter how bad it might be? This month I had way too many abandoned books. I think most of the fault was mine, and not the authors. Here are a list of books that I tried and (failed) to read in September:

1. The Chocolate Lovers Club by Carole Matthews

This chick lit book had all the right ingredients for a good read: it had a cute cover, it was set in England and it was about women who love chocolate. I only made it 100 or so pages into the book, so maybe it's not fair to judge this book-but I will. The story is about Lucy, Nadia, Autumn and Chantal. They all met at their favorite Chocolate/coffee like shop: Chocolate Heaven. They are all different, but their love of chocolate brings them together. Whenever there is an emergency they text: Chocolate emergency and they all drop everything and meet at Chocolate Heaven to discuss their woes. The chocolate thing got old fast. I swear that every other sentence had to do with their love of chocolate. I screamed: "I get it already-they like Chocolate!" I couldn't like any of the characters, and for some reason Carole Matthews' books always disappoint me-this was no different.

2. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs-


I tried to read this one because I heard such great thing about it's sequel: The Hunting Ground. This tells the story of Anna, who never knew werewolves existed until she was attacked by one and became one. After spending 3 years at the bottom of the pack, it's discovered she's a powerful Omega wolf-meaning she doesn't have to take anyone's crap. Once it's discovered she's an Omega, another clans chieftain son falls for her, and drops her loser Chicago pack and moves to Montana. I'm not sure what happens to her, because that's as far as I made it. I blame my inability to finish this one because I had just finished Mr. Darcy, Vampyre and it was just too much paranormal love in one week. I plan on trying to read this again.

3. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran-



I attempted this book because so many blogs had such great things to say about her latest novel, The Heretic Queen and when I discovered that there were other books that came before that one, I decided to give the first book a try. I also love books about Ancient Egypt and the story of how she got inspiration to write the novels after visiting Nefertiti's grave was kind of cool. Unfortunately I couldn't get past the first chapter. What can I say? I can be a picky reader-if I'm not grabbed immediately I sometimes give up on the book.

There were a few more books that I didn't finish-but this post is already too long. (Why can't I ever seem to write short posts???)

An award:
I was given the Honest Scrap award by Heather at Gofita's Pages and Velvet and vvb32 Reads. Thank you both!


This is the Honest Scrap award. It is for those bloggers who write from the heart. The rules are to pass it along to seven bloggers and then list 10 honest things about myself. Here are those deserving of this honor, bloggers who write from the heart and touch me because of it.
As Velvet put it this goes to my usual blomies and honestly-you don't have to do anything with it, just know I appreciate your blogs:

1. Deb from Book Magic
2. KC from Smokin' Hot Books
3. Andrea at The Little Bookworm
4. Tasha from Heidenkind's Hideaway
5. Patti from A Book Addict
6. Heather from Book Obsessed

10 things about me:

1. I love Coca Cola
2. I have a crush on Joshua Gates from Destination Truth on the Sci Fi Channel
3. I still watch Survivor and The Amazing Race
4. I love The Hills. I miss LC-the show just isn't the same without her.
5. I think I might have a reality show addication. :)
6. I've lived in Arizona, Vermont, and Illinois before settling back in Ohio
7. I miss Julie Garwood writing historicals. I know she has a new one out, but I haven't been able to bring myself to read it yet.
8. I've seen every episode of Stargate SG-1.
9. Torchwood is my current favorite sci-fi show. I own all seasons, including Children of the Earth. :)
10. I watch too much tv