Therian (The Bloody Crescent #1) by Roxanne Kade



All Amberlyn Darksky has ever wanted is to be normal. But what if normal is everything supernatural and legendary?

Amber has never been ordinary. She has a gift, the ability to see memories through simple touch, and for her it’s a curse. Especially when she has to relive her mother’s death, the night she was born, through her father’s eyes. Leading a sheltered life for years under his constant watch has her yearning for freedom and her acceptance into Cyprus Falls University gives her just that.

She is immediately plunged into a world of true love, heart ache, seduction and horror. With a deepening affection for Tayelon Cree, whose sparkling hazel eyes leave her breathless, and the undeniable allure of Lucard Colbaine, who seems to be immune to her gift, can she accept what either of them represent in her life? And what about the steely eyed vampire who invades her dreams? When the blackouts and nightmares begin, Amber fears the pain that rips into her soul and threatens to destroy her. Before long she is faced with the truth of her destiny, as well as the devastating secrets that surround the people she holds dearest; dark secrets that will truly change the course of her very existence. Amber doesn’t know if she has the strength to accept the hand fate has dealt her. She will have to fight as hard as possible to remain human while the beasts inside her rage to take over

My Review:

When I first started reading this, it seemed like it was going to be set in the past (Keep in mind I don’t usually remember what is in the book summary by the time I read a book). I think the beginning was a little slower for me because of that…and because my hubby was home and kept talking to me, lol. I was glad when the story moved to and stayed in more modern times.

I enjoyed reading Therian. It has some loveable characters and some characters that I’m still undecided on whether they’re good or bad. Only time will tell as this is the first book in the series. I’m very interested to see where the author takes the story.

Just as a side note, I love the bloody crescent moons at the beginning of each chapter!

Bound By Blood (The Garner Witch #1) by P.A. Lupton

Goodreads Summary:

FBI agent and psychic, Brianna Reece, descends from an ancient and powerful bloodline of witches, only she doesn’t know it. But now that legacy has come back to bite her—literally. In the shadows of night in Denver Colorado, a serial killer is hunting women, and FBI agent Brianna Reece is hunting the killer. Unlike any case she’s worked before, Brianna can’t ignore the prickling at the back of her neck when she glimpses the resemblance she shares with the victims. The investigation begins to touch even closer to home when it is revealed that all of the victims were also psychic. Complicating matters further, Brianna is captivated by the FBI’s prime suspect Nathan Donovan. Though she senses he is hiding something from her, the attraction she feels for him is compelling, and unlike anything she’s ever experienced. Through a chance twist of fate, Nathan learns of Brianna’s ancestry and is forced to divulge secrets to Brianna that will change her life forever. When she learns that the killer is an evil vampire, and he’s now set his sights on her, Nathan alone holds the key to awakening her dormant powers. Now he must race to teach her how to control her emergent gifts before she becomes the next victim

My Review:

I just finished this book and let me just say that I am very glad to find out that it is the first in a series!! I think Bound By Blood is a mix of Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy. There is a romance aspect but there is a lot more happening as well. In addition to the romance there is FBI, vampires, witches, edge of your seat action, unexpected twists, great characters, and a scene that literally had me laughing out loud! 

Before she realizes what's happening, Brianna is in a heap of trouble. She is tracking a killer but she soon becomes the target. She is strong willed and quick witted but will that be enough to keep her alive?

Nathan is used to getting his way, but will he get Brianna? And can he help protect her from a killer?

This book will be going on my favorites shelf and I will be anxiously awaiting the next in the series!

Movie Fun - The 80's

I'm an 80's baby and growing up I would watch a lot of movies with my mom. Some great movies came out in the 80's and I still watch a lot of them to this day. So I thought I would do a flashback post and list some of the ones I have seen.

 **All of the titles are linked to www.imdb.com (International Movie Database)

1982
Grease II
Porky's


1983
National Lampoons Vacation


1984
Footloose
Ghostbusters
Police Academy
Revenge of the Nerds
Romancing the Stone
Sixteen Candles
The Karate Kid


1985
The Breakfast Club
The Goonies


1986
Big Trouble in Little China
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Little Shop of Horrors
Pretty in Pink
Stand by me
The Karate Kid II


1987
Baby Boom
Dirty Dancing
Mannequin
Overboard
Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise
Spaceballs
The Princess Bride


1988
Beetlejuice
Hairspray
Twins
Who Framed Roger Rabbit


1989
Ghostbusters II
Lean on me
Road House
Troop Beverly Hills
Weekend at Bernie's
When Harry Met Sally


What are your favorite 80's movies??

Review Shorts - Post 2

Wife for Hire by Janet Evanovich

Goodreads Summary:

Hank Mallone knows he's in trouble when Maggie Toone agrees to pretend to be his wife in order to improve his rogue's reputation. Will his harebrained scheme to get a bank loan for his business backfire once Maggie arrives in his small Vermont town and lets the gossips take a look?

Maggie never expected her employer to be drop-dead handsome, but she's too intrigued by his offer to say no . . . and too eager to escape a life that made her feel trapped. The deal is strictly business, both agree, until Hank turns out to be every fantasy she ever had.

My Review:

This book reminded me a little of Wife for a Day (see my review here) in that in both stories are of women who are ‘hired’ to act the part of a wife. The women in both stories are strong and snarky and the men a bit cocky. The stories are definitely different but the similarities just stuck out to me. I very much enjoyed both books but I think Wife for Hire edged out ahead of Wife for a Day because I had a very hard time putting it down to go to bed. I was up until midnight reading and that is VERY unusual for me.
Since reading this book, I have stocked up on more of Janet Evanovich’s singles.



Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros

Goodreads Summary:

Abigail Donovan has a lot of stuff she should be doing. Namely writing her next novel. A bestselling author who is still recovering from a near Pulitzer Prize win and the heady success that follows Oprah’s stamp of approval, she is stuck at Chapter Five and losing confidence daily. But when her publicist signs her up for a Twitter account, she’s intrigued. What’s all the fuss?
Taken under the wing of one of her Twitter followers, “MarkBaynard"—a quick witted, quick-typing professor on sabbatical—Abby finds it easy to put words out into the world 140 characters at a time. And once she gets a handle on tweets, retweets, direct messages, hashtags, and trends, she starts to feel unblocked in writing and in life. After all, why should she be spending hours in her apartment staring at her TweetDeck and fretting about her stalled career when Mark is out there traveling the world and living?
Or is he?

My Review:

I actually read this one over a month ago…shame on me for not reviewing it until now!

I loved the fresh and rather modern perspective that the author brings to the table. Goodnight Tweetheart takes place in the now with a blossoming twitter friendship. Its unique in that most of the book reads like a conversation on Twitter. It’s funny, and cheeky, and emotional. The main twist was a tad predictable but that didn’t take away from the book at all.

My one gripe would be the fact that a lot of movies are referenced. I caught some of the references, but a lot of them went over my head. Albeit, that’s mostly from my movie inexperience and it  really has nothing to do with the book being bad.

Review Shorts

I’m a little behind on my reviews so I decided to do some Review Shorts aka short reviews in order to catch up. I will be doing two posts of Review Shorts. This first one will be for books I read during the Read-a-Thon last month.



Deception (Haunting Emma #1) by Lee Nichols
(read during read-a-thon)

Goodreads Summary:

When Emma Vaile's parents leave on mysterious business trip, it gives her the perfect excuse to be a rebellious teen. Throw some parties, get a tattoo (or maybe just a piercing), and enjoy the first few weeks of her junior year. Then her best friend stops talking to her, the cops crash her party, and Emma finds herself in the hands of a new guardian—her college-age "knight in J.Crew armor," Bennett Stern—and on a plane to his museum-like mansion in New England.

After enrolling at Thatcher Academy, Emma settles in by making friends with the popular legacy crowd. But she can't shake the strange visions that are haunting her. She has memories of Thatcher she can't explain, as if she's returning home to a place she's never been. Emma doesn't trust anyone anymore—except maybe Bennett. But he's about to reveal a ghostly secret to Emma. One that will explain the visions . . . and make Emma fear for her life


My Review:

This book is a mixed bag when reading it for a read-a-thon.

On one hand, it is smooth writing. I was sucked into the story from the beginning and didn’t want to stop reading! It made the time pass quickly!

On the other hand, it ended with a small twist that made me want to continue the series instantly…but alas I didn’t have book number two! The story was stuck in my head and I had to take a short break before jumping into another book. This of course speaks volumes for the book itself. I love books that stick with you but it just was not the best thing during a 24 hour read-a-thon haha.

 Next in the series is Betrayal


The Cupcake Queen by Heather Helper 
(read during read-a-thon)

Goodreads Summary:

A confection of a novel, combining big city sophistication with small town charm.

When her mother moves them from the city to a small town to open up a cupcake bakery, Penny's life isn't what she expected. Her father has stayed behind, and Mom isn't talking about what the future holds for their family. And then there's Charity, the girl who plays mean pranks almost daily. There are also bright spots in Hog's Hollow - like Tally, an expert in Rock Paper Scissors, and Marcus, the boy who is always running on the beach. But just when it looks as though Penny is settling in, her parents ask her to make a choice that will turn everything upside down again. A sweet novel about love, creativity, and accepting life's unexpected turns.

My Review:


This is a very good read-a-thon book. It’s an easy and light young adult book. It was interesting reading about the different styles of cupcakes as well as the story surrounding The Cupcake Queen shop. The larger print also made it easier to read. ;-)




Blonde with a Wand (Babes on Brooms #1) by Vicki Lewis Thompson
(started during read-a-thon and finished later that week)

 Goodreads Summary:

Sexy witch Anica Revere has one rule: never under any circumstances get involved with a man before telling him she's a witch. Still, what's one silly rule? Especially when the guy in question is as cute as Jasper Danes. But when Anica and Jasper have a spat, she breaks an ever bigger rule of witchcraft and turns him into a cat. Bad news for him. Worse for her...


My Review:


It took a little for me to get into this book in the beginning, but that could be because I started it after about 12 hours or so of read-a thon’ing. If you read it and agree that it starts a bit slow then I’ll recommend that you stick with it, it's worth it. This is a fun, witchy book with interesting characters and a couple of unexpected twists

Just a note: There are some sizzling scenes in this book.

Next in series is Chick with a charm.

December Challenge

I decided to participate in the Christmas in July, in December Challenge hosted by Wall-to-Wall books.


The challenge is to read and review christmas books in December and host at least one giveaway for a christmas book. Sounds simple enough, right?

Below is a quick list of Christmas books I have on my shelf that I may or may not be reading/reviewing next month. I'm a big mood reader so we'll see how many I actually get to :)

The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman
Let's Be Jolly by Janet Daily
Happy Holidays by Janet Daily
To Santa With Love by Janet Daily
Wolfsbane & Mistletoe by Charlaine Harris
Making Spirits Bright by Fern Michaels
Christmas at Timberwoods by Fern Michaels
The Dangers of Mistletoe by Theresa Alan
Christmas Wishes by Debbie Macomber
Small Town Christmas by Debbie Macomber
A Gift to Last by Debbie Macomber
Christmas in Cedar Cove by Debbie Macomber
Must Love Mistletoe by Christie Ridgeway
Secret Santa by Sabrina James
Let it Snow by Lauren Myracle
Icing on the Lake by Catherine Clark
Western Skies by Nora Roberts...this one may not be a Christmas novel but it has a wintery cover so I'm counting it ;)

ebooks
All She Wants For Christmas by Jaci Burton
On a Snowy Night by Debbie Macomber
The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber
That Holiday Feeling by various authors
Unwrapping Christmas by Lori Copeland
All I Want For Christmas is You by Lisa Mondello


I had to stock up a little before doing this post, haha!

I participated in Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) again in October. What's RAK you say? Well, RAK is Book Soulmates brain child. The idea of RAK is to pay it forward by randomly sending people books/ebooks from their wishlists.

Go to Book Soulmates Blog for more information or to sign up.

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A Stroke of Magic (Magic #2) by Tracy Madison
RAK from Danielle at Chaos Coffee and a Bookshelf 

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Jessica #1) by Beth Fantaskey
RAK from Anna at Anna’s Book Blog

Undead and Unwed (Undead #1) by MaryJanice Davidson
RAK from Cassie at Bailey's Dark Fantasy


I received the below books outside of the RAK program,
but really they are still random acts of kindness so I wanted to include them.  

Cheryl Rainfield was nice enough to send me a signed copy of her book, Scars


I won the three books below from Donna at Eve's Fan Garden

Beauty Dates the Beast (Midnight Liasions #1) by Jessica Sims
The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlmann
A Most Dangerous Profession (Hurst Amulet #3) by Karen Hawkins

Amaranth (The Resistance Trilogy #1) by Rachel Wade
I won a signed Copy of Amaranth from Rachel Wade's webiste

Raised by Wolves (Raised by Wolves #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
From Tirzah at The Compulsive Reader, Tirzah has a backlog of review books so she was passing some along to others who would be able to review them.

I won a Barnes & Nobles gift certificate from Wendy at Wall-to-Wall books and bought the two below books.
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Ashfall by Mike Mullen

Hugs and Thank Yous to everyone who sent me a book!!

Until next time...

200 Follower Giveaway Winners

Before I announce the winners I thought I would list all of the books you chose as either the best book you’ve read in 2011 and/or your favorite book read in 2011.


If you’re thinking of what to read next, maybe you want to consider reading one of these books.


Top voted book is…

Divergent by Veronica Roth (6 votes)


Runner up books are…

Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning (5 votes)
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (3 votes)
Wolves of Mercy Falls Series by Maggie Stiefvater (2 votes)
Five Flavors of Dumb by Anthony John (2 votes)
Delirium by Lauren Oliver (2 votes)
The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins (2 votes)
Bloodlines by Richelle Mead (2 votes)

And these all have one vote and are in no certain order…

Song of Fire & Ice Series by George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
The Iron Fey Series by Julie Kagawa
The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa
Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews
Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews
Lover Mine by J.R. Ward
Exit the Actress by Priya Parmar
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Books by DeeAnn Gist
The Bride Quartet by Nora Roberts
Personal Demon Trilogy by Lisa Desrochers
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Pale Demon by Kim Harrison
The Mortal Instrument Series by Cassandra Clare
Random Magic by Sasha Soren
Hush, Hush Series by Becca Fitzpatrick
Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
If I Die by Rachel Vincent
Wildefire by Karsten Knight
Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
Dearly Departed by Lia Habel
Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Clarity by Kim Harrington
The Vampire Stalker by Allison van Diepen
Shut Out by Kody Keplinger
Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting
Panza de paianjen by Cella Serghi
This Burns My Heart by Samuel Park
The Childe by C.A. Kunz
The Cleaner by Paul Cleave
When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase, Robert A. Phillips, Jr.
Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
The Gift (The Bite Before Christmas Anthology) by Lynsay Sands
- - -

Now on to the winners!

The 1st place winner is…

CHEY!!

Congrats Chey, you’ve won the below items! I will be emailing you shortly, please respond within 48 hours.

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The 2nd place winner is…

ANNAOFSOCAL!!!

Congrats Anna, you’ve won the below items! I will be emailing you shortly, please respond within 48 hours.

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Congrats again to the winners! And a big thank you to all of my readers!!

A Tale of Two…make that Three Bloggers

Just a warning, this is a bit long winded ;)

Hubby and I took another trip to Central New York about a month ago
(I’m very late posting my pics, shame on me!)

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We met up with Wendy at Wall-to-Wall books and her husband and did a little bit of
winery hopping and went to a cute gift shop.
Two of the wineries
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Hubby and I then checked into a cute little motel that looked more like a bed & breakfast. There was even a resident cat that hung out around the motel (outdoors). The whole set up was very charming. After checking in hubby made a phone call so I decided to sit outside on the lawn chairs. The cat came with me and hopped on my lap wanting attention. I gave her a quick scratch secretly hoping she would get down if she didn’t get the attention. I don’t mind cats but at the same time I’m also not a huge fan of cats I don’t know. Well she hoped down alright, but not before biting my wrist! She didn’t break skin or anything but I was still surprised. I satt there and then was bit by a mosquito…all within less than a minute. So I mumbled to myself ‘forget this, I’m going inside’. From that point on, this cat was deemed Devil Cat! I mostly tried to stay away from her, haha.
 
 
Along with Devil Cat, we also had a bit of a spider problem in our room. Every evening we would get massive spiders in our room…ok I may be over exaggerating on the size a little but they were between quarter sized and half dollar sized. One of the evenings we were laying on the bed watching tv and I went to the bathroom and when I came back I was 2 feet from the bed and I stopped in my tracks and said to hubby ‘get out of the bed’. He was confused but he got up. One of those spiders was on the bed right where I was laying, EEKK! I was totally creeped out! We had to pull all of the covers off the bed and shake them out before I would lay back down!
 
 
I know I just concentrated on the two bad parts at the motel but I decided to not bring up the name of it because even though it wasn’t a perfect experience, the owners were very nice. They were telling us about the area and also suggested some less touristy places to eat that ended up being fabulous! The room was also nice with great ambiance.

On to other parts of the week...

We visited more wineries, took a tour of one of the wineries, scoped out some waterfalls around Cayuga Lake, found some good places to eat, went to the Corning Glass Museum, and got to make glass pumpkins at the glass museum. Well technically all we did with the pumpkins was pick the colors and blow the air into the slug but it was still neat seeing the process up close!

Waterfalls
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Corning Glass Museum

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Glass Pumpkins
My pumpkin is darker so I cheated and used a flashlight to make the color more visible :)

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On our last day in New York, we met with Wendy, her daughter Ashley (Fictionista blog), and Ashley’s main squeeze. We had coffee, checked out some waterfalls in the Watkins Glen area, and had a nice lunch at a lakeside park.
 
 
Wendy and Ashley…You can tell they are mother and daughter because they are
standing  exactly the same and I bet they never noticed it, haha!

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This was our beautiful lunch time spot
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It was great to see Wendy, Ashley and their significant others! I'm sure we'll head to New York again to see them!
 
 
We also went home with a nice collection of wine! We're still new to wine drinking so we are experimenting with sweets and semi-sweets for now.
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Thanks for reading :)

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop Winner

Before I announce the winner, I thought I would share some of my favorite entries.

**Please note that the drawing is completely random so me liking these entries does not affect who is chosen as the winner.

FUNNY

Krysykat said… My favorite prank hmm.. one year my friend and I dug a trench in her yard next to the walkway going to her porch, when everyone was trick-or-treating she'd hid in the trench in a brown dusty slicker and I'd cover her with dirt, grass and leaves so everytime someone was going to the porch she'd jump up and

Zoey said… Two years ago my friend dressed up like the Joker. We went to a party and I decided to play a prank on him so I sneaked behind and spillt fake blood over him. But then he turned over and I found out that he was a complete stranger, just dressed the same way as my friend!

Kathy said… I had my first date on Halloween night when I was sixteen. But that was actually the least memorable part of the evening. My mother had dressed up as an orangitang and her mask kept falling down so that she could not see. Then grandma and I both went racing for this house that gave huge chocolate bars, didn't realize there was a ditch and ended up on our butts in the grass. No wonder the poor guy never went out with me again -- he must've thought we were nuts. But despite how *bad* all of this might sound, we all laugh about it now.

Ananda said… I am from Europe and we don't celebrate Halloween at home:( I know, it sucks..If we did I would surely dress up as a mermaid, though it would be pretty interesting to see me "walking" in that thing..LOL

Katie said… My favourite memory is of trick or treat-ing with my best friend. We decided to 'trick or treat' her house but her parents had run out of candy. Instead, her Dad presented us with 'magic apples' which turned out to be apples wrapped in silver foil. We were not very impressed!

Reading Addiction said… We all went trick or treating in the rich section of town (they handed out WHOLE candy bars!!), we went to this one house, my grandparents neighbor no less, and they gave us stamps. Yes, postage stamps. It was the last year we stopped at their house. Really? What are a bunch of kids going to do with stamps? LOL

Roxy said… We don't really celebrate Halloween here in South Africa. There is no trick-or-treating etc. but my family loves Halloween and we always make an effort at this time of year. My fav memory would have to be Halloween 2009. It was my grandfathers last time celebrating with us and he always got into the spirit of things! He loved making scary ghouls and monsters for us to decorate our home with :) and he was an extremely talented man! He made a huge "life-size" Frankenstein's monster and we dragged the thing around our neighbourhood. We'd place it st our neighbours's front door, ring the bell and hide in the bushes to see their reaction when they opened to find this monster waiting for them!! LOL It was the best!


CUTE

Mommy2Noah said… One of my favorite Halloween memories would have to be the year that my son went as a vampire chef! He was 2 at the time and carried a spatula everywhere! People thought it was hilarious!

Debbie said… My son has special needs. One year I made him a knight costume with real "chain" mail. I needed a flashlight and batteries, so we ran to the store quickly before trick or treating. Every man that saw him, stopped him, and told him his costume was awesome. He was so happy that halloween. He wasn't able to trick or treat at more than a couple of houses, but he was so happy, it was his best halloween.

Melora said… One Halloween i remember was when I was 4 or so years old, and dad and I were going around the neighborhood trick r treating when we realized that a cat was following us around. I have a big soft heart for cats, and so does dad, so we paid attention to it at first and figured it would head off when it got bored. Nope, it followed us the whole night so we adopted it and called it Pumpkin in honor of the holiday!

Vinci said… My fav. Halloween memory is when my two boys and their friends went trick and treating and our cat followed them to every house to make sure they were safe or something. so cute. It was so cold and icy weather too. Even "Muse" the cat went for the fireworks too. What a loyal cat, eh. the boys still talk about their amazing kitty.

Ashley said… My favorite memory would have to be last year's Halloween. I went as the Big Bad Wolf and my four year old sister went as Little Red.

Brookea said… My favorite halloween memory is staying in because the weather was bad and watching horror movies with my dad :)





And now to announce the winner…

LINDA KISH


Congrats Linda!!!

I will email you shortly and you will have 48 hours to respond with your information and book choices.