Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Undead and Unwed, by MaryJanice Davidson
(Queen Betsy "Undead" Series, Book 1)

Many reviews on this book say it's hilarious. In my opinion not so. It's mildly humorous, but hilarious, I think not. It's kind of like the chick from "Legally Blond" gone vampire but slightly more annoying on the personality of Betsy Taylor, the main character. If you like that type humor, you will adore this book. This ones not for the guys, that's certain. All you girly girls who love fashion and shoes, you will treasure this series.

Betsy is a former model, gone secretary, but recently got canned on her 30th birthday. She is a total fashion expert and spends all her money on designer shoes. She's single and lives with her cat that keeps running away. The night of her birthday she wonders out in search of her lost cat and gets plowed down by an SUV. She awakens in a funeral parlor lying in a coffin. She discovers her Mother-in-law has her dressed for her own funeral in a tacky pink dress and the worst cheap shoes that could have been purchased at payless! She is outraged and totally flabbergasted as to why she is a walking corpse.

Betsy is determined to finish the job of offing herself for good. After a dozen attempts kind of like that in that movie "Groundhog Day", she discovers she is here to stay. If she's going to be undead she is going to get her shoes back from good ole evil step mom. She starts craving blood and realizes she's not just a zombie, she's a vampire. She's not the run of the mill type vampire either. She is special because holy water does not burn, she can recite scripture, hold a cross and go into the sunlight without bursting into flames.

The undead community believes she is part of a prophecy come to life. One that says she will defeat the Vampire king and become Queen of the vampires. This book starts off rather funny and innocent but let me tell you there is a lot of graphic sex scenes towards the end. Some of it you will be shocked at what is described. I was like whoa holy sh*t! Yep. You will either be disgusted or turned on. Either way you'll love it! ;0 Oh My!

READ an EXCERPT from UNDEAD AND UNWED CLICK HERE!

Book 2 Undead and Unemployed
Book 3 Undead and Unappreciated
Book 4 Undead and Unreturnable
Book 5 Undead and Unpopular
Book 6 Undead and Uneasy
Book 7 Undead and Unworthy
Book 8 Undead and Unwelcome
Book 9 Undead and Unfinished
Book 10 Undead and Undermined (Coming July 2011)
Betsy the Vampire Queen (books 1-4 in one volume)
Betsy Bride of the Vampire (books 5-7 in one volume)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Reunion, by Meg Cabot
(The Mediator Series, Book 3)

Sequel to Ninth Key

Suze Simon is a mediator. She helps those unfortunate ghosts who have unfinished business preventing them from moving on. In this installment Suze's best friend, Gina from NY, comes to visit her in Carmel, California. While the two sixteen year olds are tanning on the beach they get thirsty and go to the market for drinks. It's there that Suze sees 4 ghosts dressed up like it's prom night trying to steal a six pack. Suze finds out the 4 were dubbed the RLS Angels by the newspaper that covered their deaths because they were all A-students, popular, and obviously all had a great future mapped out in front of them. Then they all perished in a car accident.

Suze also learns that a boy named Michael Meducci is the only survivor. He was driving the other vehicle, and he just happens to be in one of her classes. Suze shows interest in him and now he's trying to pursue a relationship with her. Yuck! (I mean come on, she's in love with Jesse the hot ghost that's living in her bedroom!) Problem is that the RLS angels are out for blood. They are pissed and think that Michael killed them on purpose. The angles try and kill Michael every chance they get, but Suze is usually there to thwart their efforts.

Father Dominic, Suze's mentor/principle, and fellow mediator investigate the scene of the accident. Jesse tags along, and Gina covers for Suze at home. Jesse talks to the ghosts and they agree to talk to Suze and Father Dominic about what happened the night they died. They also discover clues at the scene that might support the angels claims of being murdered.

READ CHAPTER 1 of REUNION CLICK HERE!

Book 1 Shadowland
Book 2 Ninth Key
Book 4 Darkest Hour
Book 5 Haunted
Book 6 Twilight

Sunday, March 22, 2009

A Certain Slant of Light, by Laura Whitcomb

WOW! This book was amazing! It had me transfixed to each page I couldn't put it down or stop thinking about it. I even dreamed about it! It was so well written and it had so much depth and feeling. It was a remarkable plot that was so interesting and heartfelt. I just can't say enough good things about it!

This book is mainly a ghostly love story but with plenty of messages about life, death, heaven, hell, religion, drugs, violence, abuse, sex and adultery all intertwined together with a passion for books and poetry.

The main character is the ghost of a young woman who died over 130 years ago. Death made her forget all her memories except her name and how old she was when she died and that she was female. She haunts a modern day English school teacher named Mr. Brown. She refers to herself as that of the light (a ghost) and Mr. Brown as one that is quick (still alive).

In the classroom one day is when it happens: (amazingly written)

"Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you're dead... I felt someone watching me. Not even my beloved Mr. Brown could see me with his eyes. I had been dead so long, hovering at the side of my hosts, seeing and hearing the world but never being heard by anyone and never, in all these long years, never being seen by human eyes. I held stone still while the room folded in around me like a closing hand. When I looked up, it was not in fear but in wonder. My vision telescoped so that there was only a small hole in the darkness to see through. And that's where I found it, the face that was turned up to me. "Like a child playing at hide and seek, I did not move, in case I had been mistaken about being spotted. And childishly I felt both the desire to stay hidden and a thrill of anticipation about being caught. For this face, turned squarely to me, had eyes set directly on mine."

Billy Blake, a human who overdosed on drugs and passed on, and at that moment that Billy left his body James of the light stepped into his empty shell. Now James no longer of the light can still see ghosts in his new teenage boy body. He discovers Helen and they find a kinship that turns into a love so deep that James convinces Helen to get her own body to inhabit so that they can be together.

He helps her find the body of a girl who goes to the same school as him. The young girl, Jenny, fled her body because her parents were religiously conservative and controlling to an extreme. Suddenly Helen is a teenager and not at all familiar with the life she's taken over and supposedly been living for the last 15 years. Billy (James) and Jenny (Helen) quickly become lovers and soul mates. They share a love so deep and meaningful.

Many obstacles to overcome and twists in the story to keep you reading to the very last page.The ending had me in tears. I was a weeping mess. This one gets a high score for being unforgettable!

READ CHAPTER 1 of A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT CLICK HERE!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Revelations, by Melissa De La Cruz

Sequel to Masquerade

We learn in the first two books that Vampires are really fallen angels who fought against Lucifer during the war in heaven. God could not forgive them because they started out on Lucifer's side, the dark side, but then they turned and fought for the light. Since god could not fully redeem them, he sent them to earth as immortal blue blood vampires.

Each blue blood lives a normal cycle like a human, but reincarnate every 100 years. They don't remember their past lives until they start the change to vampire in there teenage years. Then, they remember their past lives and start to develop their abilities. Every blue blood was an angel that has a twin soul they are bonded with. Sometimes the vampires have to find their twin in a cycle. They must also renew their bond every cycle, like a wedding ceremony, this unleashes the full potential of their powers and memories.

Silver bloods are sent to earth by Lucifer to destroy the blue bloods. They consume all of the blue bloods essence (blood) killing them for good. Blue bloods need a drop of their blood in order to be able to reincarnate. It contains their soul, memories and powers. The silver blood then has that blue blood trapped inside them. The silver blood has their powers and memories making them stronger and faster, and smarter than blue bloods.

There are several main characters. One of them is Schuyler, a half-vampire without a bond. In this instalment she is trapped living with twins Mimi and Jack Force. Her arch-nemesis and her forbidden crush. The twins are bonded, but that doesn't stop Schuyler from having a secret affair with Jack. She's hoping that Jack will sever his bond with Mimi to bond with her.

Meanwhile, her best friend Bliss is still having blackouts and now visions of a man in a white suit. She also believes Schuyler might be her sister. Dylan accuses Schuyler of being a silver blood. Oliver is in love with Schuyler. And Mimi is desperate to re-bond with Jack forcing Schuyler out of her and Jacks life for good. The plot thickens and you fly through the pages really fast without much happening.

Then, the climax, there you learn some really cool stuff, but it was so short lived you kind of feel cheated. I think it was kind of disappointing. I didn't feel satisfied like I did after reading Masquerade. It almost felt like half of a novel. Probably because the plot is left unfinished at the end. All in all it was good book, but not great. You should read it though, you'll enjoy it. Can't wait for the next book! Sorry I didn't give too many details. There are so few that I didn't want to spoil it for you!

READ CHAPTER 1 of REVELATIONS CLICK HERE!

Book 1 Blue Bloods
Book 2 Masquerade
Book 4 The Van Alen Legacy
Book 5 Misguided Angel (releases Oct 26, 2010)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Stolen, by Kelley Armstrong
(Women of the Otherworld, Book 2)

Sequel to Bitten

We continue our story with our main character, Elena Michaels, the only female werewolf in existence. She's a Canadian journalist who belongs to an exclusive group of werewolves who call themselves the "pack." Werewolves who are not part of the pack are called mutts. This book doesn't really focus on the werewolves like the first book. So you should read Bitten before this one to get some adequate background info.

Part of Elena's responsibilities as a pack member include investigating rumors and information about werewolves that pop up in newspapers and media. If it seems like it might have some authenticity to it, then either Elana or Clay do damage control. Clay is Elena's maker, soul mate, hot sexy lover, and the most feared werewolf of their species.

While investigating a suspicious article stating information is for sale about the existence of werewolves, Elena meets two witches. Paige and Ruth Winterbourne are out to enlist the help of the werewolf community and they ran the fake article knowing Elena would come to check it out. The witches tell Elena that supernatural beings are being kidnapped and it's only a matter of time before they come after her kind. Elena learns that in addition to werewolves and witches there are also demons, shamans, sorcerers, vampires, and other creatures living among humans. Wow. Elena's not sure about taking these ladies seriously or not, so she returns to her hotel. Later on, she winds up getting kidnapped by psycho, billionaire, computer geek, Ty Winsloe.

Elena is being held captive in a compound with supernatural security as well as state of the art human security. It's in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Maine. Winsloe is kidnapping every different kind of supernatural being and has scientists trying to figure out how to duplicate what makes them special. He wants to be able to market and sell abilities to the highest bidder. Once his prisoners run out of usefulness he likes to make a game out of their death. He lets them go, and then hunts them down and kills them.

This book was awesome! Anybody will agree. Non-stop action, plot twists, psychologically thrilling, gorily detailed. Loved it. Definitely not for the young or weak stomached. I can't wait to read Dime Store Magic!!!

READ the PROLOGUE to STOLEN CLICK HERE!

READ CHAPTER 1 of STOLEN CLICK HERE!

Women of the Otherworld Series:

Book 1 Bitten
Book 3 Dime Store Magic
Book 4 Industrial Magic
Book 5 Haunted
Book 6 Broken
Book 7 No Humans Involved
Book 8 Personal Demon
Book 9 Living with the Dead
Book 10 Frostbitten
Book 11 Waking the Witch
Book 12 Spell Bound (Coming in 2012)

Spin off Book: Men of the Otherworld

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire Prince,
by Darren Shan

Sequel to Cirque Du Freak: Trials of blood

Well, I unwittingly started in the middle of this series somehow. Oh well. I'll do this review then start at the beginning, so look for those reviews in the future. Don't worry, I link all my series books together at the bottom of each review. This book, (book 6), I would say is more for the young adult male audience. It did however suck me right into the plot in the blink of an eye. Short novel. It doesn't take very long to read, and the plot is simple, not a lot to it.

Half vampire half human, Darren Shan, the author is also the main character. Not very original, is it? He is a vampires assistant, they don't really go into much detail about what that means, but maybe it was in a previous book. His mentor, Larten Crepsley, shuffles him off to take a test to see if the undead will let him join their ranks. It's called the "Trials of Initiation," consisting of 5 different tests. If he passes all tests he can live, if he fails any test they execute him.

Darren passes the first three trials, but on the fourth the rules were broken. Darren escapes, but at a costly price. He falls into a vicious stream and is carried away and swept underground into the belly of a mountain. He manages to survive and is nursed back to health by wolves. Rather disgusting details here that guys are sure to enjoy.

There is a second race of vampires called the vampaneze. Darren figures out this whole traitor conspiracy thing involving the vampaneze. Then he has to sneak back to vampire mountain, and there is a war that is like the whole second half of the book. There is nothing in it really for us girls. No romance at all. The one woman they had as a warrior dies rather swiftly and unbecomingly. The vampires are all ruled by Princes. At the end they decide Darrens fate, so I won't give it away. All in all, if I was a guy, I'd love it, so that's why I'm giving it a review. I'll only review books I think are worthy here. You will never see a bad recommendation from me.

I scoured the Internet for an excerpt from this book and this was all I could find:

READ PARTS of the FIRST DRAFT of THE VAMPIRE PRINCE CLICK HERE!

The Saga of Darren Shan, Cirque Du Freak Series:

Book 1 Cirque Du Freak: A Living nightmare
Book 2 Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's assistant
Book 3 Cirque Du Freak: Tunnels of blood
Book 4 Cirque Du Freak: Vampire mountain
Book 5 Cirque Du Freak: Trials of blood
Book 7 Cirque Du Freak: Hunters of the dusk (the Hunter's trilogy)
Book 8 Cirque Du Freak: Allies of the night (the Hunter's trilogy)
Book 9 Cirque Du Freak: Killers of the dawn (the Hunter's trilogy)
Book 10 Cirque Du Freak: The Lake of souls (the Destiny trilogy)
Book 11 Cirque Du Freak: Lord of the shadows (the Destiny trilogy)
Book 12 Cirque Du Freak: Sons of destiny (the Destiny trilogy)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

An Ice Cold Grave, by Charlaine Harris

Sequel to Grave Surprise

Harper Connelly was struck by lightning as a teenager and brought back to life by her step brother, Tolliver Lang, who resuscitated her. Ever since then Harper has the ability to locate dead bodies like a homing device. She can see their last few moments of life and tell you what they died from, BUT not who killed them. She tries to make a living from her ability by traveling from place to place offering up her services where they are needed. Tolliver travels with her and acts as her manager and caretaker.

In this installment, Harper is called in to Doraville, North Carolina. The town Sheriff is new and was Deputy under the old Sheriff. Over the past several years 6 boys of similar age have gone missing from the town. The old Sheriff chalked it up to runaways and suicides, but the new Sheriff thinks an investigation is in order.

The grandmother of one of the missing boys convinces the Sheriff to call Harper to see if she can locate the missing boys bodies. It doesn't take long for Harper to discover the horrific spot of the crimes and the dumping ground for the bodies. Harper is visibly shaken having never encountered a serial killer before. She finds all six boys plus two more from neighboring communities.

Harper and Tolliver want to leave as soon as they get paid, but the killer has other ideas. Harper is attacked and wounded, Tolliver comes to her aid and the assailant gets away. The law enforcement tell them not to leave town. And an Ice storm is on the way. Harper fearing the killer is out to get her for uncovering his carnage decides to try and figure out who the killer is before he can get to her or kill again.

Harper and Tolliver take their relationship to a new level. I was kind of creeped out by that even though they really aren't blood relatives. Good story, kept me on my toes!

READ CHAPTER 1 of AN ICE COLD GRAVE CLICK HERE!

Book 1 Grave Sight
Book 2 Grave Surprise
Book 4 Grave Secret

Extras, by Scott Westerfeld

Spin off book to the Uglies, Pretties, Specials trilogy.

In the first 3 books we follow the adventures of a girl named Tally Youngblood. Tally ended the "mind-rain" and a new world awakened. The cure spread across the globe ending the perpetual state of bubbleheadedness. Without the roles and rules of the prettytime the world becomes a popularity contest.

Extras is set in the future 3 years after the end of the "mind-rain". You really need to have read the trilogy to understand a lot of this book. I don't think it will work as well as a stand alone book.

So, it's a race to become famous. It works on face rank. The more famous you are, the lower your face rank is. A lower rank means more special treatment. You can choose where you live and get whatever you want. There are many ways to achieve a good face rank. Some are "Tech-heads" obsessed with gadgets. Then there are "Surge monkeys" they can't get enough plastic surgery. Last there are "Kickers" these use the feeds (kind of like blogging) to spread gossip and news stories.

15 year old Aya Fuse is a kicker. She's had her own feed for a year now, but she's still a nobody, an extra. Too young for plastic surgery and her face rank is a 451,369. She lives in a Japanese city and is desperate to become famous. She meets a click of girls. "the sly girls", who turn tricks but stay off the radar. Aya just knows if she can kick their story she can improve her face rank. She follows them into a cave and they catch her and destroy moggle, her flying camera. It's at the bottom of a lake inside the cave.

Determined not to give up she gets accepted into the group and they stumble across a strange being inside a train tunnel. The alien opens a porthole in the tunnel wall and more beings come out of the train and start unloading these metal things. She only hopes that moggle got a good shot. She rescued him from the bottom of the lake and had him tag along in the shadows to try and get a story. Aya just found the story that will make her famous. Tally youngblood makes an appearance at the end. All in all, a great read!

READ CHAPTERS 1, 2 and 3 of EXTRAS CLICK HERE!

Book 1 Uglies
Book 2 Pretties
Book 3 Specials

Monday, March 16, 2009

Dead to the World, by Charlaine Harris

Sequel to Club Dead

This series is about a small town waitress named Sookie Stackhouse who has the ability to read minds. She used to date the towns resident vampire Bill until the last book, where Sookie found out about Bill's infidelity.

Newly single again and still trying to get over Bill. Bill announces he is leaving for Peru to meet with some other vamps to due research for his project. He's not a main character in this installment. Sookie is a little relieved to have him gone for a while, thinking it might ease her pain. You know, out of site out of mind.

Driving home one night Sookie sees Eric on the side of the road wandering aimlessly. He is naked and scared and vulnerable. Complete opposite of the Eric she knows. The cocky owner of the vampire bar, and Area Sheriff of the Vamps. It turns out some witches put a spell on Eric, erasing his memory. He doesn't know who he is or even who Sookie is. Sookie takes him in and hides him. He can stay in the hidey hole that Bill built for himself under the floor in the spare bedroom closet.

Her Brother, Jason stops in and discovers Eric is living in Sookie's house. The next day he goes missing and Sookie is frantic with worry. She turns to the supernatural community for help and clues. She discovers the witches have a reward out for Eric. The werewolves, vampires and witches have an all out war that will have you greedily devouring every page.

Sookie and Eric wind up having an affair to never forget! This one boarders on erotica, but with a plot that is fantastic and memorable. I loved this book, and it is my favorite out of this series thus far.

READ an EXCERPT of DEAD TO THE WORLD CLICK HERE!

Book 1 Dead Until Dark
Book 2 Living Dead in Dallas
Book 3 Club Dead
Book 5 Dead as a Doornail
Book 6 Definitely Dead
Book 7 All Together Dead
Book 8 From Dead to Worse
Book 9 Dead and Gone
Book 10 Dead in the Family

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Immortals Sreies:
Evermore, By Alyson Noel

Ever is 16, pretty and popular, until a deer runs in front of her families vehicle killing her mom, dad, sister and family dog. Ever dies too... for a brief moment she's in a place called "Summerland" a sort of in between place. She gets caught up in it's beauty and doesn't realize her family has moved on. She tries to catch up to them when she is pulled back into her body. Racked with pain she sees a guy... he cradles her in his arms and asks her name. She tells him "Ever" before she passes out.

Ever blames herself for her families death and you don't learn why until the end of the book. After the accident, Ever becomes very unpopular. She can see auras and hear peoples thoughts. If she touches someone she can see their whole life story. She tries to drown out the constant chatter of minds and very unwanted thoughts invading her. She hides herself in a hoodie sweatshirt and blasts an ipod that she's conveniently sewn into her hoodie. Her dead sisters ghost hangs around and Ever has frequent conversations with her.

Ever now an orphan moves to a new town to live with her Aunt Sabine, her fathers sister. Sabine is a lawyer and very wealthy. She tries to comfort Ever by giving her a giant room with a spa, living room, flat screen, balcony with view of the ocean beach, mini fridge, etc. The only downfall is Sabine is too busy working and never at home.

Ever makes 2 friends at school, Haven a goth chick, and Miles a gay guy. Then a mysterious new guy comes to school. His name is Damen Auguste. He is gorgeous and charming. All the girls and guys are swooning over him. When Ever finally meets him she is in awe of his fantastic beauty and lack of aura! Captivated, and it's as if the world stops and it's all dead silence. No more chatter in her head just Damen and peace. She starts a relationship with him and then she meets Drina. A really beautiful girl who is creepy and somehow involved with Damen. The book takes off from here.

READ CHAPTER 1 and 2 of EVERMORE CLICK HERE!

The Immortals Series:

Book 2 Blue Moon
Book 3 Shadowland
Book 4 Dark Flame
Book 5 Night Star (releases Nov 16, 2010)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Vampire Kisses, by Ellen Schreiber

This is for the younger, young adults. Although, I enjoyed it nonetheless, and I'm 36. I like my books a little more action and suspense, but it was still worth reading.

The main character is Raven Madison, a 16 yr old goth girl who wants to become a vampire in the worst way. She lives in a small town she calls "Dullsville" and has only one friend to speak of. She is a social outcast.

A boy named Trevor sets Raven in his sites and tries to get her to give up her virginity at a popular kids party that she crashed, but she isn't exactly a push over and turns the tables on his plan. She acts as if she's all into him and makes him get naked then she grabs his cloths and runs for the hills. He becomes the laughing stock of the school when she displays an article of his clothing on her locker everyday at school. He gets so mad he becomes her arch nemesis throughout the book.

Then a mysterious family moves in to the boarded up mansion that sits atop of Bensen Hill. The house is rumored to be haunted and only Raven was brave enough to actually break in when it was vacant. Now a cute guy named Alexander Sterling has moved into it and rumors start to circulate that he and his family are vampires. Raven is determined to find out the truth and to maybe get bitten and become a vampire herself!

I love a good long series! This one shows promise.

Book 2 Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing Coffins
Book 3 Vampire Kisses 3: Vampireville
Book 4 Vampire Kisses 4: Dance with a Vampire
Book 5 Vampire Kisses 5: The Coffin Club
Book 6 Vampire Kisses 6: Royal Blood
Book 7 Vampire Kisses 7: Love Bites


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