My Wishlist

This is a fun meme hosted over at BCC, where every one can share whats on their wishlists.

Sadly I didn't get time this week to post on Wednesday like a normally do, so for the first time I'm posting on Saturday!


Vixen by Lila Fine

Set in Jazz Age Chicago, the first book, Vixen, follows 17-year-old socialite Gloria Carmody, who longs to be a flapper and is caught between her conservative fiancé and a sexy jazz musician.


Shadow Marked by Anna J. Evans

Samantha Quinn has been in the dark since age six, when her parents sacrificed her sight in a Satanic ritual. She is trying to get over her demonic past, but horrific lifelike visions haunt her. Her intuition gets stronger and clearer after a wild, adrenaline-fueled sexual encounter with Jace, her brother's childhood friend. And now Samantha is more tormented than ever by what she can "see"-and by what she felt in that forbidden encounter...


Samantha must now prevent the deaths she sees in her premonitions and protect her body from the same demon from her twisted childhood. Her dark curse reveals that Jace will be the next victim, and it is crystal clear that she must destroy the demon to protect her love.


Three Quarters Dead
by Richard Peck

Sadly no book description.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

by Lish McBride

Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he’s doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.
Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else.


With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?



Forbidden by Tabitha Sazuma

Sixteen-year-old Maya and seventeen-year-old Lochan have never had the chance to be 'normal' teenagers. Having pulled together for years to take care of their younger siblings while their wayward, drunken mother leaves them to fend alone, they have become much more than brother and sister. And now, they have fallen in love. But this is a love that can never be allowed, a love that will have devastating consequences ...How can something so wrong feel so right?


Song of the Moon by Catherine Banks

What if you found out that there was another world inside your own? What if all of the things you thought made you weird, actually made you powerful?


Artemis's life is changed forever when the mysterious man from her dreams, Ares, comes to claim her as his mate. The seventeen year old girl must find a way to adapt to her true life and accept her fate or run from it. She must overcome her fears and human ideals to give her self to the dangerous world, and man, that is her destiny.

Gosh! So many goodies. Can't wait to see what every one else is pining after.

Quoting on Monday

So far Night's Cold kiss is pretty kick a$$ awesome!

"She has quite the effect on the male sex,"Viktor said with a gleam in his eye. "Even I feel like rolling over for a tummy rub." -Tracey O'hara

There's so many great one liners in here, I don't know which ones to share!!

Review: Heart of the Wolf

Heart of the Wolf by Terry Spear

Their forbidden love may get them both killed.


Bella is a red werewolf, sole survivor of the fire that killed her entire pack.


Devlyn is a beta male werewolf in a pack of grays.


Forced to flee her adopted gray pack when the alpha male becomes a vicious threat, she struggles to live as a lone wolf, until Devlyn, the gray male who rescued her as a pup, comes to bring her home.


When a local red werewolf goes on a killing spree, Bella and Devlyn must flee the murderer, the police and their vengeful pack leader. With the full moon rising, and her heat upon her, Bella can't resist the pull to her destined mate, even if means Devlyn will have to face the wicked alpha male in a fight to the death...

A sizzling paranormal romance based on extensive research on how wolves live and behave in the wild, creating a fascinating world of nature and fantasy.

Thoughts:

To be honest, I didn't have high expectations for this book. One of the main reasons I bought it was because one of my favorite reviewers had read the latest one in the series and stated it basically rocked. Still leery I decided to check on it while I was in the book store. It was only 2 cents to buy, definitely worth the price to see if I liked it.

Even pressed for time I almost finished the whole book in one day. Spear writes a romance with characters I can connect with. Even if I didn't agree with the main character Bella running away and living in fear all the time, I enjoyed it. I understood why the characters did what they did and how certain characters actions affected them. The story is mainly told from Bella's point, but Devlyn also gets turns narrating. Which I loved the two are so witty—plus when you've got a character as hot as Devlyn you wanna get inside his head.

The plot was more complex then most PNR. Not only was Bella running from Volan, the evil Alpha who wants to posses her, but she gets herself caught and put in a zoo. Now not only does Volan know where she is, but the local red werewolf pack knows she exists. Females are hard to find, so everybody wants a little action from her. While balancing all of that out, there's a serial killer amongst the red pack. Really I thought Spear handled mixing all of those story lines together well. Nothing seemed to be rushed or push one thing off to the side.

At times I felt like there was just one to many romance scenes. Plus I didn't think the scenes where that great, I felt they could have been alluded to, or just skipped completely. However, the author sums it up in her own words:

"Pleasure before business."

Another thing I loved about this book was the sassy humor. Whether it was the pillow talk, or just any old conversation, I was cracking a smile quite frequently with this book. Spear has wit, I'll give her that. One of my favorite lines:

" . . . Devlyn mused that folks in Oregon couldn't ever tan-they just rusted."

Even though Bella isn't part of a pack for pretty much the majority of the book, Spear does an excellent job of showing us the world of her werewolves. It's easy to catch on to the pack politics. Females in the pack really don't get a say, the alpha gets first pick of the bitches. If the female likes, or even loves, another wolf it's not even taken into consideration. Even Devlyn has that mind set . At the first of the book he's ready to hull Bella back to Valon because that would be safer for Bella, because she clearly can't take care of herself. When Bella for the last 150 years has been able to take care of herself and evade Vallon. Yeah, the girl can not be left alone, clearly one slip up in 150 years proves she's one week and feeble female. Next thing you know she's going to be running around with scissors!! (Even if most of the time I wanted to scream about woman's rights and stuff, I got over it.)

Besides the sexism, there was one thing that really stopped me from enjoying the book. Bella ran away to protect the man she loved so that Valon wouldn't kill him with is apparent superior strength. Bella spends most of the the book thinking how week her ALPHA lover and how she needs to protect him. After Devlyn basically kills 4 competitors of the red clan, she still thinks he's weak and ponders running away to protect him. Sure there's being worried, then there's being stupid. They're freaking werewolves, she knows the dangers.

The cast of characters in HotW was really awesome. From Bella's one-woman-neighborhood-watch friend, Chrissie, who's shopping for husband number 2. To the “wolf” man who caught Bella and put her in the zoo—really he was awesome. Other wolves were fun to learn about, and what made them dominate or not. I'm hoping that Devlyn's cousins will be making some appearances in later books. Another character I really want to see from this book is the allusive Red rogue that helps out Bella and Devlyn.

Bottom line:

HotW goes outside of the normal for PNR, it's refreshing seeing the long line of warrior-seeking-life mate series out there. Spear actually does a lot with plots outside the bedroom and pulls it off nicely. PNR fans are going to like the change, UF fans may find this one a little dull. In the end I could look past the sexism.(Really, I think these werewolves skipped the whole woman's rights part of history.) Looking forward to seeing some of the side cast in the next books, even if they can't be the main characters. Bella may not be warrior wolf, but she's still a fun and clever leading lady and I really loved her. Devlyn is a gentleman, who will leave the ladies swooning.

Sexual Content:

These are very tame sex scenes. (I didn't feel the sizzle.)

4/5- Great, really enjoyed it.

Sunday Sweets

This is a fun meme hosed over at The Story Siren, In My Mailbox. This allows everyone to see what books you got for the week!

This past week I've ordered a lot of books online. Sadly only one has come so far.

This one is from Overstock. Indeed it's a Manga, I feel kinda of annoyed because it's volume 10. I've only read up to volume 4.

I've been ordering from Overstock from years, and one of my biggest fears is that they would not send  me a book. After all I make huge orders when I buy from them, and errors are bound to happen. Strangely enough an error has occurred. They sent me an extra book!

Funny thing, it's a Historical Romance. So I got a little freebie to try out for my Romance Experiment, which I am so excited. The first few pages of the book are pretty good and the description isn't bad! Gotta love free books!

Hope everyone had a good book week!

Review: Stormwalker

Stormwalker by Allyson James

Half-Navajo Janet Begay comes to Magellan to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the police chief's daughter. But the people of Magellan sense that Janet is not what she seems, and they're right.



Janet possesses extraordinary power which is tied to the storms that waft across the desert. The only person who can control her when she's caught in the storm's evocative power is Mick, a dark-haired, blue-eyed biker Janet can't seem to touch with her powers. He can weild fire and not get burned, and Janet's never sure where he goes when they're not together.


Together they investigate mysterious disappearances, which Janet fears are tied to her mother's people, the mythical gods from below the earth. They are helped along the way by Coyote and Crow, but these shapeshifting gods have their own agendas.

Thougths:

I've been putting off this review for a while now, because I had mixed feelings about how to rate it and what I actually thought of it. Like all things time is all you need. After reading it I though this book rocked, then after a bit I thought it was kind of average.

Native American themes and ideas have always interested me. Not too many PNR have included Native American themes and ideas, so I was an eager reader for Stormwalker.

The whole mythology was great. The idea of the element powers of earth and then the powers of the Beneath was well thought out. The explanation that James gives us is that there are layers of worlds. The beneath is a world below are own that has been “locked” away so that the creatures of the Beneath can't take over Earth. (Though I think author explains it better then me.) There's skin walkers which are always fun to learn about in Native American legends. In this case they are ugly rotting things that can take the skin of a human or animal, but in the beneath look like angels. Lecherous magic mirrors are also featured in this read, which had me laughing on numerous occasions. Coyote is also featured in here with a great rendition of what I would think he would look and act like. (Coyote is a Native American god, there's lots a legends about him out there.) That's just a tip of some of the magical things.

Janet is the key to opening up this door and bringing on the take over. Janet's mother is basically a goddess in the Beneath and has been working for years, maybe centuries, to get into earth. Wicked mothers have always been a favorite of mine for evil villains, and this one is evil to the bone. The way wicked mother goes about making a key to earth is really chilling and gave the mystery to the book a little edge, and twist on the dark side that I love.

Some things were a little flat, like how Janet moves to this town because she is trying to solve the mystery of a missing girl. She's been there for a year and is now restoring an old hotel to run. Personally the mystery should not have taken a year to solve, I think she just lacked motivation before which was just lazy. Plus, Janet's moved to the town to deal with her mother, but she has no plan or idea how to do it and has no powers to do it. By moving to this town, she is close enough to a vortex that her mother can send some of her power and influence through. Janet knows her mom has plans to use her to open the portals, because her mother had approached her years ago when she came close enough to the vortex. Yet Janet acts like it's a huge surprise when she finds out she's the key to the vortex! Ignorance is not bliss, or a good plot twist.

The love interest is really yummy and I would like more information on him. Of course I think Janet would like more information about him as well. They had been “going out” for about 6 months and Mick had not shared a thing about himself. In fact, he would go out and disappear for days at a time not giving Janet any details about what he was doing. Then he expected Janet to obey like a good little girl. That's why Janet broke up with him and left. When he steps back into her life right at the beginning of the book, Janet doesn't put up too much of a fight. Of course absolution is given at the end of the book. Mick couldn't tell her anything because he was sworn not to. He was sent to kill her because she was too dangerous, but he fell in love and kept talking his people into allowing her to live. That old ploy, is getting old.

So the romantic growth really didn't impress me. Neither did the fact that it took almost the whole book for Janet to figure out what Mick was. Within the first 20 pages I already knew what he is, even before James threw that BIG clue out there.

A save on the disappointing romance was the fun characters that come along with this ride. Maya the rude mouthed and completely annoying electrician is strangely lovable. The plummer, who is a magic wanna be, is really a fun comic relief that some how ends up adding a lot to the book. The over baring and absolutely infuriating police chief was fun butting heads with, and I would have preferred him as a love interest more. Other characters where really fun. Like the family Janet has been running away from and avoiding.

Bottom Line:

Considering how many books she has out, Stormwalker probably isn't as strong as it should be. Still it's a fun debut in a series and I love the Native American lore and what not. Looking on the plot and idea, this probably could be any other old book out there. A good mystery and awesome characters make this book really great! Sure there's an over whelming amount of you're-under-arrest moments, hotel getting recked scenes, and standard drama moments. This series just might go some where and I look forward to seeing the problems I had with this book being resolved.

Sexual Content: As stated above a lecherous magic mirror. Coyote is featured in here and he is a dirty old boy. Sex scenes aren't over powering and they're pretty light.

3/5- Good, I liked it.

Wednesday Wishes and the Romance Experiment

This follows BBC weekly meme, My Wishlist.

This Wednesday Wishes I'll be sharing my Wishlist, plus the books I have picked and orderd for the Romance challenge. (Which you can check out by clicking on the link in my right side bar.) So this Wishlist is very long winded at the end.


Rise of the Poison Moon (Jennifer Scales, #5)
by MaryJanice Davidson, Anthony Alongi
Jennifer Scales is a were-dragon with a fiery temper-but a warm heart.

Jennifer's ex-boyfriend, werarachnid Skip Wilson, is out of control. His powers have grown as strong as his hunger for revenge, leaving her little choice but to confront him-hopefully without giving in to her own dark side...

Face Off (Laura Blackstone, #2)
by Mark Del Franco

Laura Black is a druid who can change her appearance. She is both the Fey Guild's public relations director and a secret agent for the International Security Agency. And now she'll have to choose where her loyalties lie when a political war breaks out between the fey and human populations...

Demon from the Dark (Immortals After Dark, #10)
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?

The Iron Thorn (Iron Codex, #1)
by Caitlin Kittredge

A series set in a Lovecraftian industrial city in an alternate 1950s that centers on a mechanically gifted young girl approaching her 16th birthday, the age at which everyone in her family goes insane, leaving it up to her to unravel the mystery of their madness--and save the world.


It is 1955...but not the 1955 you know. The Witchcraft Scare polarizes America. Magic is outlawed and practitioners are burned. And one girls has discovered that magic is neither fiction nor fairy tale, but very much alive...


Aoife Grayson is a month shy of sixteen, the age when everyone in her family goes mad. An orphan in the steam-powered city of Lovecraft, Massachusetts, Aoife escapes the confines of her repressive boarding school and along with her best friend Sam and outlaw guide Dean, sets out to discover the secret of her family's madness. What she discovers is a world of forbidden magic and faerie curses, and a dark secret that has shadowed the Grayson family for generations. Aoife must choose between keeping the secret or keeping her sanity, and unravel the dark machinations of the Winter Court of the Fae before it's too late to save her city...or herself.

Read an excerpt of this on the authors site, loooooved it.

Sanctuary (Red Rock Pass, #1-2)
by Moira Rogers (Goodreads Author)

A print volume containing CRY SANCTUARY and  SANCTUARY LOST.


Dark Oracle (Oracle, #1)
by Alayna Williams

Can an oracle change the future she sees?


Tara Sheridan swore off criminal profiling years ago. By combining Tarot card divination with her own intuition, she narrowly escaped the grasp of a serial killer who left her scarred for life. She put down her cards and withdrew from work and society. Now, Sophia, a member of an ancient secret society connected to the mythic Delphic Oracle, asks Tara to find a missing scientist who has unlocked the destructive secrets of dark energy. Tara resists— she fears reawakening her long-buried talents and blames Sophia’s Daughters of Delphi for the death of her mother. But, grudgingly, she agrees to search for the missing scientist, Lowell Magnusson.


Tara travels to Las Alamos National Laboratory, the location of Magnusson’s disappearance. She meets the serious, impatient, and highly attractive Agent Harry Li— and re-encounters her old partner, Richard Corvus. Corvus is now chief of the Special Projects Division, a position Tera might have held, had she not dropped out of investigative work. Corvus considers Tara mentally imbalanced and not to be trusted— but it may be Corvus who is untrustworthy.


Tara’s investigation and Tarot cards tell her Magnusson’s daughter, Cassie, may hold the key to her father’s plans, and that they both are in grave danger. Meanwhile, Corvus and the Daughters of Delphi have their own plans...and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Romance Challenge

Now I really thought about the books I wanted to try out for the Romance Challenge I've joined. I even went as far as to look at lots of recommendations, blogs, browsed Amazon. After finding likely candidates I tracked down excerpts and viewed them. Luckily I didn't have too many duds. The ones you see here are the ones that got me addicted.
Historical:

Historical was the side of Romance I was originally interested in seeing. Once I started to dive in, I didn't realize that the sub genres had sub genres in Romance. Wikipedia has a nice guide (click here), but didn't list all of those sub genres. Luckily it wasn't hard to figure out.  As you can see regency is the one that caught my eye.

Regency

Secrets of a Summer Night (Wallflowers, #1)

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake

Lord of Scoundrels

The Duke of Shadows

Highlander/Scottish:

Highlander Romance was one I was going to stay away from like the plague. Once upon a time a friend had given me a Highlander Romance because she assumed I would love it. (At the time I had an obsession with the Highlander TV show that had been on.) Sadly that title ruined the whole experience for me.

Then low and behold, Kresely Cole has a Highlander romance out. After reading the first chapter there was no way I could not get this one. If anyone can bring Highlanders to the page, it's her!

If You Dare (MacCarrick Brothers, #1)

Sci/fi:

Holy cow! The sci/fi sub genre of romance was hard to infiltrate. First I couldn't find anything, then the next thing I new I was looking at erotica for it. I almost gave up. Then I remembered a book that had been roaming the wishlists, Touched by an Alien-so that made my list. Close Encounters kept resurfacing a lot after that, finally I gave in and decided that it was pretty good. (Plus the series name rocks!) I'm really picky about sci/fi books, so I really had a hard time choosing the romance side of it.

Touched by an Alien (Katherine "Kitty" Katt,  book 1)

Close Encounters (Alien Affairs, book 1) by Katherine Allred

Western was at the top of my list to read. After searching around I found out there was old western (which was what I was looking for) and Contemporary, or new, western. Even after finding a cool site all about western romances (Love Western Romance) I couldn't find any I liked. After about 12 excerpts, proclaiming defeat was my only option.

After reading a review over at Book Bitch, I decided to read a Contemporary Romance instead. After her awesome review, and an awesome preview of the book, Colter's Woman made the cut. (For Book Bitch's review click here.) I have to admit this is probably a really strange pick for a newbie into romance, but I couldn't resist.

Colter's Woman (Colter's Legacy, book 1) by Maya Banks

Phew! So there is my crazy adventure in what I'd like to call THE ROMANCE EXPERIMENT. Hope you're all enjoying your week!

A Whole New Challenge!

Lately I've been thinking about branching out a little. What's caught my eye is some of the sub genres in romance. Paranormal Romance has had some really good reads to offer lately—and it's where some of my favorite authors have been shelved. (You know Richelle Mead, Jeaniene Frost, Yasmine Galenorn, Jenna Black, JR Ward, Kresely Cole, and too many others.)

What's really pushing this is some titles in Historical Romance, Science Fiction Romance, and even some Western have been catching my eye. After reading some good reviews, and some really awesome excerpts I'm ready to dive in.

The best part is that Book Chick City now has a challenge going for other readers out there who might be interested in the genre. So that long time romance readers, or newbies like me, can enjoy the genre together!

So here's the scoop on the challenge.










Timeline: 1st June 2010~ 30th Sept 2010. Only books started on June 1st count towards this challenge.

Feel free to join in on the challenge if you're interested in branching out your preferences! For additional information or to join the challenge, click here.


My blog is clearly Fantasy and Urban Fantasy (heavy on the UF), I've always been a picky reader and these two genres have always been the only ones that yield good reads for me. For those worried that I might start mixing them up, I will be keeping the reviews separate. If you'll notice on the sidebar there are now two links for reviews.

1. Colters' Woman (Colters' Legacy, Book 1) by Maya Banks
2. The Duke of Shadows by Merideth Duran
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*Update* I have decided that for this challenge I will not be including Paranormal Romance for it. Since quite a few of them could be classified as UF and the few I've read are shelved in with my regular reviews.

I've also picked out some books for the challenge, click here to check them out. *End of Update*