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!

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)

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

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)

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