Sunday Sweets

This is just a fun meme, hosted by The Story Siren called In My Mailbox, to find new books and see what everyone got this week. (All cover are linked to goodreads so feel free to add them to your shelves.)

Feels so good to have gotten some yummy books this week, last week was such a dry spell.

From my local thrift store I found some real gems, and they're all just like new!!

Dragon Keeper is a title I've never heard of. After reader the first few pages it seems quite good!!

The Land of Elyon series is one I have been eyeballing for quite a while, it's just a sad fact that I don't believe in forking out money for independent readers. So when I saw book 3 sitting on the shelf I had to get it, I was a little sad it was book 3 instead of 1. To my surprise the next day we went into a different thrift store in the next town, they had book 1! So now all I need is book 2, and apparently 4. Let's just say I'm a happy thrift store shopper. It's the hunt.

After buying the final four books in the series I realized I needed to reread them because I had read the previous books when I was in Junior high, safe to say it's been a while. I don't want to buy them new so I've been slowly finding them in new condition from local thrift stores. I've got 1-5 and now 8-13, so close!!

Up next I got some good coupons for Borders and I had to get some new releases.

Of course I had to get Cole's new book, that's why I've been munching down on her books lately. I've already devoured Demon From the Dark, Cole didn't disappoint! (My review will be up later.)

Again it strikes me how awesome this cover is! Hands down my favorite cover for this series!!

Hope you all made as good a hull as me this week, if not better.

Book Blogger Hop and the Weekly Overview

Just click the image above to join in the fun!

This weeks question:

Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

Yes, I do! This is what it is:

5/5- Fabulous, a beautiful obsession.

4/5- Great, really enjoyed it.
3/5- Good, I liked it.
2/5- Average/disappointing, library check-out
1/5- I couldn't finish it or wish I hadn't

Really I should post it in one of my sidebars. Why do I have it? Because sometimes when I'm reading other reviews all I want is a quick answer. So seeing a general rating scale makes me decide whether or not I want to read the review, so I like to give me readers the same chance. Plus the rating scale like the one I have seems to be a universal thing around the blogsphere, sure there are some that do halves and even go up to higher numbers, but this one seems to be the handiest one for my readers.

Here's a break down of a review.

Thoughts: Where the bulk of my likes and dislikes for the book are expanded and ranted about.
Bottom Line: A chance to get a quick summary of the book in my words.
Sexual Content: Let's readers know what kind of content they're looking at.
Rating: The final tally.


Weekly Overview:

• Sunday Sweets is sadly nonexistent this week, no goodies bought!
• Books and Babbles came late because of tech issues, but I found time to babble on about The Worst Covers of the Romance Genre.
• This week I reviewed Hunted By The Others by Jess Hianes, check out the review here.
• Again this week I only have one book on my Wednesday Wishlist, but the covers a beauty!

Sadly I'm still behind on my reviews, but I'll be catching up soon. August has been one of those months, you just keep preparing and preparing--but nothing gets done!

Off to the hop!

Wednesday Wishes

This is just a fun weekly post to share what new books I'm interested, and wishing, to add to my collection. This post also follows BBC's My Wishlist, a weekly meme.

Entangled by Cat Clarke

The same questions whirl round and round in my head:
What does he want from me?
How could I have let this happen?
AM I GOING TO DIE?

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here.

As Grace's pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?

A story of dark secrets, intense friendship and electrifying attraction.

Only one this week, I think I'm starting to make a habit of it. The cover is so eye catching!!

Review: Hunted by The Others by Jess Haines

Hunted By The Others by Jess Haines

They are the Others — the vampires, mages, and werewolves once thought to exist only in our imaginations. Now they’re stepping out of the shadows, and nothing in our world will ever be the same again...

IN A TOWN LIKE THIS, BEING A P.I. CAN BE MURDER

Shiarra Waynest’s detective work was dangerous enough when her client base was strictly mortal. But ailing finances have forced her to accept a lucrative case that could save her firm — if it doesn’t kill her first. Shiarra has signed on to work for a high-level mage to recover an ancient artifact owned by one of New York’s most powerful vampires.

As soon as Shiarra meets scary, mesmerizing vamp Alec Royce, she knows her assignment is even more complicated than she thought. With a clandestine anti-Other group trying to recruit her, and magi being eliminated, Shiarra needs back-up and enlists her ex-boyfriend–a werewolf whose non-furry form is disarmingly appealing–and a nerdy mage with surprising talents. But it may not be enough. In a city where the undead roam, magic rules, and even the Others aren’t always what they seem, Shiarra has just become the secret weapon in a battle between good and evil–whether she likes it or not…

Thoughts:

Haines has created a fantastic world where the Others (vampires, mages, and werewolves) have emerged from the dark. When 9-11 happened werewolves offered to help locate the victims stuck in the rubble, from there the rest came out. The rules and regulations put in place are very realistic. My favorite touch is that those who are consorting with the others have to sign wavers. So if their lovers kill them or turn them all the legals are covered. This just puts a smile on my face, after all just like the main character thinks, there are people stupid enough to sign these things. Of course not everyone is happy about the Others living among us. One of the names for the more fanatic groups is the White Hats, which just tickles me. Finding out the names of radical factions in UF books is one of the ups of reading the genre. Plus the White Hats, have pins to go with it!!

Shiarra—leading lady—is not some sassy loud mouth chic, who thinks she’s bad ass enough to throw her nonexistent weight to fight the baddies—not that those characters aren‘t awesome. Instead the reader gets to watch a polite PI grow into someone who knows when it’s time to break the rules and kill the baddies. A pleasant change in the standard UF heroine. The running dialogue is pretty funny too, and I love how the reader gets to see some of Shiarra’s witty remarks that she holds back from mouthing off to the baddies with.

There was one sour point about Shiarra that continued to grate on my nerves. At times Shiarra didn't have two cents to rub together, her moments of stupidity had me wondering if that was why her PI business was going under. Evil villains were telling her what they were going to do to hurt her and all of their evil villain intentions. The character blatantly goes home, and has other characters continuously reminding her that she needs to be careful and lay low. An idea of a safe hide away was her best friends sister's place, after the hotel was too creepy to stay at.

Side characters were really fun, but my personal favorite was the Hunter’s Belt. A belt that has the spirit--or soul--of an Other hunter in it. It has some stakes attached to it that will always return to the wearer and it can’t be taken off until the sunset after the wearer puts it on. The belt doesn’t get as much dialogue as I would like. If I think about it, maybe ten lines max? Still I have high hopes for the belt. (If you’ve ever read Mercedes Lakey’s Winds of Change book, it has a sassy warrior trapped in a belt that was an awesome character.)

The love interests are something to look forward to. Chaz the charmingly sweet Alpha werewolf--and I was complaining that they don’t exist. Sure he lied to Shiarra about being a werewolf, but only because she was prejudice against Others. It is fantastic to watch Shiarra get over her fear of the others, enough so that she’s trying to work things out with Chaz. Alec Royce is the missing vampire link in the standard love triangle for UF books. He’s not fully realized at this point, but he’s a promising character. Personally the heat for the love interests weren’t there yet, but that doesn’t bother me seeing as all the action in this book has doesn’t give Shiarra time to really deal with boy drama.

The action is pretty packed, and with the help of the Hunter’s Belt Shiarra can deliver! The plot is agreeably fast past and a rush of fun. I wanted to know why Shiarra was being dragged into this, and the petty excuse just made my day!

Bottom Line:

Jess Haines Shiarra Waynest books are clearly something to keep an eye on. The main character is clearly someone who grows on you, lets hope she grows some smarts. This is a promising debut, with some wicked new ideas to add to the genre. I’m eager to get my hands on the next book to see what shenanigans Shiarra gets in and I look forward to the series getting more fleshed out.

Sexual Content:

Pretty clean, I don’t believe there was to much sex chat, and only kissing.

Rating: 3/5- Good, I liked it.

The Worst Covers of the Romance Genre

Terribly sorry this Books and Babbles post is coming now. I had intended to have this posted Monday, but blogger wouldn't let me post. Then to my complete horror when I went to post the draft, the draft was gone. Maybe that was my calling card for getting posts ready way before I have to publish them. Or blogger was having a good laugh at my expanse.

Any who, after last weeks babble I decided to check out some of those terrible romance covers that I mentioned. Safe to say I found some pretty nasty ones out there. Even after searching in general for the worst covers for books in general, the poor romance genre just couldn't be beat.

When I was searching the web for likely candidates the usual suspects popped up. You know, big men with women who apparently don't know how to fasten their clothing--or keep it on.

These are the kinds of covers that would never have tempted me to even try a book with the words Romance pasted anywhere.

Sadly the Romance genre is plagued by other terrible covers, which I discovered after looking further on a general search for "Terrible Romance Cover."


First up is Moment of Truth, this is part of the Silhouette Intimate Moments collection. At first glance this cover looks fine right? Think again, look were that chicks hand is!! Personally I don't want to read a romance cover that tells everyone that hey, this is one of those books. Secondly he looks like he's so, unappreciative. Maybe the moment of truth is that he's not in to her, or maybe she just found out there's nothing there . . .


This is not what Fangs for the Memories brings to mind. That thing in the middle, is a ducks foot? The most likely thing is a very abstract wine glass. Then again I might be stretching it.


For this one I'd suggest looking at it in goodreads for the bigger picture, for the full effect. Save a horse, ride a Celt!


There are no words. All I want to know is what the crap is going on with thier heads.

This is one of those WTF moments. Every time I look at it I find something more displeasurable about it then the last. What were they thinking?? Good reviews wouldn't even get me to by this book. With that terrible image I end the torture.

After seeing all of these bad romance covers I searched and searched other genres to find bad covers. Sadly none of them could compare. Also while searching for bad covers I found a great sight for romance cover lovers, Cover Cafe.

What do you think of the bad covers on Romances? Have you found some outside of the Romance genre that are worst then these?

Book Blogger Hop and the Weekly Overview

Feels so good to finally be on a Friday!!

How many blogs do you follow?

Looks like I follow 44 blogs in total in my Dashboard. Honestly, there are only a rare few that I actaully attempt to check on everyday. After it's been a while I will go back and visit the blogs that I follow and attempt to comment on them and see what's new.


Weekly Overview:

• My book spending can not be controled, so check out my Sunday Sweets post for the goods. Plust I recieved my very first ARC!!
• This weeks Books and Babbles is YA and the Lust Factor.
• My Wednesday Wishes, is only wishing for for one book this week!!

This week I also recieved another fantastic award, bequeathed to me by Library Girl Reads. I'm going to be lazy, since I've all ready recieved this one. Thank you!!

Hope you all enjoy your weekends! I'm off to the Hop!!

Wednesday Wishes

This is just a fun weekly post to share what new books I'm interested, and wishing, to add to my collection. This post also follows BBC's My Wishlist, a weekly meme.


Demon From the Dark by Kresley Cole

A dangerous demon she can't resist...

Malkom Slaine: tormented by his sordid past and racked by vampiric hungers, he's pushed to the brink by the green-eyed beauty under his guard.

A maddening witch he aches to claim...

Carrow Graie: hiding her own sorrows, she lives only for the next party or prank. Until she meets a tortured warrior worth saving.

Trapped together in a savage prison...

For them to survive, Malkom must unleash both the demon and vampire inside him. When he becomes the nightmare his own people feared, will he lose the woman he craves body and soul?

As the release date draws nearer (August 24) I just cant wait!! I've been in a mad dash to read all of the ones in the series! Finally made it to Pleasure of a Dark Prince, the tale I've been waiting for!!