Book Review: A Stone-Kissed Sea

A Stone-Kissed Sea (Elemental World, #4)
Elizabeth Hunter

Release Date: December 6, 2016

Book Description:
An immortal wanderer. A brilliant scientist. A centuries-old menace written in blood.

Lucien Thrax, son of the earth and child of the ancients, is a healer of immense power. But years of work on a deadly vampire virus have not led to a cure, nor have they softened the wall he built around his heart. When he’s forced to work with Doctor Makeda Abel, Lucien is convinced he’s reached his limit of patience with humanity.

Makeda Abel may be human, but she’s far from impressed with the brooding vampire healer, even if his mind draws her reluctant admiration. She’s learned how to survive in the immortal world, and it’s not by being afraid. Working together may lead them to answers, but it also pushes Lucien and Makeda’s attraction to the boiling point.

When nightmares become reality, Makeda will have to trust Lucien with her life. Finding answers has never been more vital. Finding love has never been more deadly. To heal the Elemental World, Lucien and Makeda must follow ancient paths and ask for help from the most inhuman of immortals. Because even with a cure in hand, the battle has only begun.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
ARC courtesy of the author in exchange for fair and honest review. Thank you!

Aah... I'm both sad and excited to see this story-arc come to an end, but what a way to do it! Bring on the ancients, the lush settings, grandiose style, tradition, battle, and, of course, a fiery and explosive couple - I guess even an earth and a water vampire can bring those adjectives to mind...

Book Review: Shadow of Night

Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2)
Deborah Harkness

Release Date: July 10, 2012

Book Description:
IT BEGAN WITH A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES.

Historian Diana Bishop, descended from a line of powerful witches, and long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library,she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now the fragile coexistence of witches, daemons, vampires and humans is dangerously threatened.

Seeking safety, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to London, 1590. But they soon realise that the past may not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy for Queen Elizabeth, the vampire falls back in with a group of radicals known as the School of Night. Many are unruly daemons, the creative minds of the age, including playwright Christopher Marlowe and mathematician Thomas Harriot.

Together Matthew and Diana scour Tudor London for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782, and search for the witch who will teach Diana how to control her remarkable powers...

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Review:
Second in Deborah Harkness’s bestselling All Souls Trilogy, Shadow of Night is a breathtakingly beautiful and historically rich tale of love and marriage, trust and family, magic and mystery, and a long lost manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Picking up where A Discovery of Witches left off, Shadow of Night plunges its readers into the intricate and colorful world of 16th century Elizabethan England, where Diana and Matthew find themselves among Matthew’s friends, a famed group of poets and scientist known as the School of Night. Still, journeying into the past to find a manuscript and a witch to educate Diana quickly proves to be a much more cumbersome and time-consuming task than Matthew would expect. And soon the whirlwind of intrigues and conspiracies, not to mention Matthew’s countless identities and many masters, threaten to envelope them all together.

Book Review: Clean Sweep

Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #1)
Ilona Andrews

Release Date: December 2, 2013

Book Description:
On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is...different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can’t leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, "normal" is a bit of a stretch for Dina.

And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night....Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans—an alpha-strain werewolf—and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.

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Review:
Light hearted and refreshing Clean Sweep is a delightful and highly entertaining read. And I’ll be sure to add other books by the writing duo known as Ilona Andrews to my growing to-read list.

All in all, Clean Sweep is a trip! Unexpected, humorous, sarcastic and fast paced; this urban fantasy, gory details aside, had me giggling late at night. I couldn’t help but love the heroine – Dina the Innkeeper. She was feisty, determined, and self-sufficient [just the way I like my heroines to be]. Add to that a couple of impetuous alpha males, one werewolf, the other vampire; and you know there’s bound to be plenty of fun exchanges between these three [and if your thoughts immediately jump to Twilight, rest assured that these novels have very little in common]. Truly, even the ever annoying love triangle works charmingly well here, creating the needed tension between the heroine and her two would-be suitors and comrades-in-arms, as well as offering plenty of comic relief. The dialog alone was one of the bigger highlights for me; still there are plenty of other enjoyable aspects as well.

Cover Reveal: The Book of Life

Exclusive US Cover reveal and excerpt: 'The Book of Life' by Deborah Harkness http://t.co/IkcC1Uolar via @usatoday #thebookoflife
— Deborah Harkness (@DebHarkness) January 9, 2014

O*M*G! I literally cannot contain my excitement. The US cover for Deborah Harkness’s third and final installment in the All Souls Trilogy, the eagerly anticipated The Book of Life was just exclusively revealed on USA Today! Go check it out and read the fabulous excerpt here. Squee!!!

Happy Thursday everyone!

The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3)
Deborah Harkness

Release Date: July 15, 2014

Book Description:

The highly anticipated finale to the #1 New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Discovery of Witches

After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchant­ing series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they re­unite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its miss­ing pages takes on even more urgency. In the tril­ogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowl­edge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

With more than one million copies sold in the United States and appearing in thirty-eight foreign editions and translations, A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night have landed on all of the major bestseller lists and garnered rave reviews from countless publications. Eagerly awaited by Harkness’s legion of fans, The Book of Life brings this superbly written series to a deeply satisfying close.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Book Review: A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1)
Deborah Harkness

Release Date: February 8, 2011

Book Description:
A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
Absolutely spellbinding! Deborah Harkness crafts a magical tale about a reluctant witch, a fifteen hundred year old vampire with a taste for wine, and a long lost alchemical manuscript that is about to turn their world upside down. Alchemy, history, and magic collide in this complex and beautifully executed paranormal romance. And oh the romance! A whirlwind courtship, a forbidden alliance, and Matthew Clairmont – you’ll want to discover it all for yourself. A Discovery of Witches is a true delight.

Cover Reveal: Forged by Desire

Squee! We have a cover for the next novel in the London Steampunk series by Bec McMaster, and it’s seductive as always. Although I must say, I’m still quite partial to the recent My Lady Quicksilver, which was absolutely fabulous (read my review here). Now, all there is to do is wait for a really long time cause the book doesn’t come out until September next year.

So what do you guys think? Do you love it?

Forged by Desire (London Steampunk #4)
Bec McMaster

Release Date: September 2, 2014

Book Description:
Captain Garret Reed of the Nighthawk guard has a deadly mission: capture a steel-jawed monster preying on women. He hates to put his partner, Perry, in jeopardy, but she’s the best bait he has. Little does he realize, he’s about to be caught in his own trap.

Perry has been half in love with Garrett for years, but this is not exactly the best time to start a relationship—especially when their investigation leads them directly into the clutches of the madman she thought she’d escaped...

Amazon US | Goodreads

Book Review: Curtsies & Conspiracies

Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School #2)
Gail Carriger

Release Date: November 5, 2013

Book Description:
Does one need four fully grown foxgloves for decorating a dinner table for six guests? Or is it six foxgloves to kill four fully grown guests?

Sophronia's first year at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality has certainly been rousing! For one thing, finishing school is training her to be a spy (won't Mumsy be surprised?). Furthermore, Sophronia got mixed up in an intrigue over a stolen device and had a cheese pie thrown at her in a most horrid display of poor manners.

Now, as she sneaks around the dirigible school, eavesdropping on the teachers' quarters and making clandestine climbs to the ship's boiler room, she learns that there may be more to a school trip to London than is apparent at first. A conspiracy is afoot--one with dire implications for both supernaturals and humans. Sophronia must rely on her training to discover who is behind the dangerous plot-and survive the London Season with a full dance card.

In this sequel to bestselling author Gail Carriger's YA debut Etiquette & Espionage, class is back in session with more petticoats and poison, tea trays and treason. Gail's distinctive voice, signature humor, and lush steampunk setting are sure to be the height of fashion this season.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
The Finishing School series is heating up my must read list with a delightful follow-up novel! Curtsies & Conspiracies is full of adventures, secrets, mischievous characters, and lessons in etiquette, espionage and most importantly – friendship. So, if you haven’t started on this series yet – you are definitely missing out!

Book Review: Bloodlines

Bloodlines (Demons of Oblivion #1)
Skyla Dawn Cameron

Release Date: April 20, 2011

Book Description:
After three hundred years of unlife, vampire Zara Lain has seemingly done it all, and she's now making a living as a successful thief-turned-assassin. Her newest assignment seems simple enough--kill the aging leader of the O'Connor Coven and his only heir, and she'll have another ten million in the bank. But in the dangerous world of the supernatural, few things are ever "simple."When a massive assault decimates the continent's population of powerful witches and warlocks, and its orchestrator has vampires being hunted down and captured, Zara realizes the tables have turned and now she'll be playing the hero. Forced to join with a smart-mouthed fellow vampire, a demonologist who's also a fan of hers, a recently widowed--and frequently brooding--warlock, and her best friend's mom, Zara's grudgingly willing to do what she can to save the day. If only people would stop ruining all her outfits...

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:

“My name’s Zara. I’m strong, I’m fast, and I totally kick ass. It’s great to be me...but that means right now it sucks to be you.” Bloodlines (Kindle Locations 151-152).

Can I just say, you’ll love Zara – the snarkalicious heroine of Bloodlines. She is a kick ass vampire extraordinaire, and maybe has a bit of a habit killing off her admirers and potential boyfriends, but the girl has her reasons. Despite all, Zara is fun, adventurous and awesome in all senses, she is definitely someone I would want to hang out with.

Book Review: My Lady Quicksilver

My Lady Quicksilver (London Steampunk #3)
Bec McMaster

Release Date: October 1, 2013

Book Description:
Determined to destroy the Echelon she despises, Rosalind Fairchild is on seemingly easy mission. Get in. Uncover the secrets of her brother's disappearance. And get out.

In order to infiltrate the Nighthawks and find their leader, Sir Jasper Lynch, Rosalind will pose as their secretary. But she doesn't count on Lynch being such a dangerously charismatic man, challenging her at every turn, forcing her to re-evaluate everything she knows about the enemy.

He could be her most dangerous nemesis—or the ally she never dreamed existed.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:

“The Council gave him three weeks to find Mercury. Or he would share Mercury’s fate.” My Lady Quicksilver (p. 387).

Love, honor, duty, deception, desire and revenge are the elements that make My Lady Quicksilver a delicious thrill ride through the streets of this dark steampunk incarnation of London, where no one is safe and nothing is what it seems. As the tension between the Echelon and the humanists continues to escalate, Sir Jasper Lynch, fearsome leader of the Nighthawks, takes on the hunt of the mysterious revolutionary – Mercury, only to discover that s/he is not so easy to catch…

Book Review: Luca's Magic Embrace

Luca’s Magic Embrace (Immortals of New Orleans #2)
Kym Grosso

Release Date: October 18, 2012

Book Description:
An erotic paranormal romance…

Sexy vampire, Luca Macquarie doesn’t do love; especially not with humans. Yet, ever since he rescued Samantha Irving, he can’t deny the enigmatic attraction he’s developed for the alluring mortal woman. Concerned for her safety, he’s determined to bring Samantha back to her coven. His mission is to go find the novice witch and bring her home, nothing more, nothing less; falling for her is not supposed to be part of the plan.

Samantha doesn’t want to be a witch, yet that’s exactly what she is. After failing to elicit her magic, she escapes to the mountains in an attempt to resume a semblance of her previous human life. When an arsonist torches her cabin, Samantha’s worst fears are realized. Aware that her life is on the line, she reluctantly agrees to return to New Orleans with Luca.

In the Big Easy, Samantha and Luca embark on a spellbinding journey, searching for a mystical amulet that promises to release her obligation from an ancient, lethal vampire who’s been threatening her life. With cryptic clues and clandestine allies, will Luca and Samantha destroy the dangerous amulet before others acquire it, setting forth a chain of catastrophic consequences? And will Luca give into his erotic desire for the witch who magically captures heart?

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
Fun, light and very sexy read!

The second book in the Immortals of New Orleans series picks up right where the first left off. Kym’s first novel was quite entertaining and made a perfect introduction into this dark and sexy world of vampires, werewolves, and witches. So, having finished Kade’s novel awhile back, I had it in mind to quench my curiosity further. As time and opportunity presented themselves, I didn’t hesitate and picked up Luca’s Magic Embrace to learn more of the sexy vampire Luca Macquarie and his love interest to-be, Samantha.

Book Review: Lover Enshrined

Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood #6)
J.R. Ward

Release Date: June 3, 2008

Book Description:
In this "frighteningly addictive" paranormal romance saga there's a war raging between vampires and their slayers. Here are the stories of a secret band of brothers like no other-six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. And now a dutiful twin must choose between two lives...

Fiercely loyal to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood's bloodlines alive. As Primale of the Chosen, he is obligated to father the sons and daughters who will ensure that the traditions of the race survive, and that there are warriors to fight those who want all vampires extinguished.

As his first mate, the Chosen Cormia wants to win not only his body, but his heart for herself. She is drawn to the noble responsibility behind the emotionally scarred male. But Phury has never allowed himself to know pleasure or joy. As the war with the Lessening Society grows grim, tragedy looms over the Brotherhood's mansion, and Phury must decide between duty and love....

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
It’s been awhile since I last picked up a Black Dagger Brotherhood book. I admit I was a bit fed up with the way J.R. Ward handled V’s storyline and did not wish to continue on with the series, apart from the fact that I purchased Lover Enshrined already. And so it sat there, on my Kindle, for what seemed like months, gloating in my direction. Hating to leave things unfinished I thought to give it another go.

Book Review: Kade's Dark Embrace

Kade's Dark Embrace (Immortals of New Orleans #1)
Kym Grosso

Release Date: March 5, 2012

Book Description:
After a series of girls are ritualistically murdered on the cold streets of Philadelphia, seasoned detective, Sydney Willows, is forced to work with sexy, alpha vampire, Kade Issacson. While working the case, Sydney finds herself inexplicably drawn to Kade, fighting the passion she feels towards him.

Kade, determined to solve the case and mete out justice, is captivated by the independent, fiery detective. As he attempts to protect her from a very real murderer, Kade grows concerned that the beautiful, but very human detective, could easily end up dead should she tangle with supernatural forces that are beyond her control.

The investigation leads them into a dark and dangerous world, deep in the heart of New Orleans, where together, they search for the perpetrators of the Voodoo killings. Sydney soon becomes the target of the killer and ends up fighting for her life and love in the Big Easy. Will she eventually give into the intoxicating desire she feels for Kade if she makes it out alive?

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
Vampires, shifters, and witches, oh my! This series boasts a variety of paranormal characters with a ton of attitude and sex appeal.

Book Review: Heart of Iron

Heart of Iron (London Steampunk #2)

Bec McMaster

Release Date: May 7, 2013

Book Description:

In Victorian London, if you’re not a blue blood of the Echelon then you’re nothing at all. The Great Houses rule the city with an iron fist, imposing their strict ‘blood taxes’ on the nation, and the Queen is merely a puppet on a string…

Lena Todd makes the perfect spy. Nobody suspects the flirtatious debutante could be a sympathizer for the humanist movement haunting London’s vicious blue blood elite. Not even the ruthless Will Carver, the one man she can’t twist around her little finger, and the one man whose kiss she can’t forget…

Stricken with the loupe and considered little more than a slave-without-a-collar to the blue bloods, Will wants nothing to do with the Echelon or the dangerous beauty who drives him to the very edge of control. But when he finds a coded letter on Lena—a code that matches one he saw on a fire-bombing suspect—he realizes she’s in trouble. To protect her, he must seduce the truth from her.

With the humanists looking to start a war with the Echelon, Lena and Will must race against time—and an automaton army—to stop the humanist plot before it’s too late. But as they fight to save a city on the brink of revolution, the greatest danger might just be to their hearts…

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:

Last year I picked up Kiss of Steel, a debut novel by an Australian writer – Bec McMaster. Needless to say that I’ve devoured the novel and the follow up novella – Tarnished Knight, and was eagerly awaiting release of the second book in the series – Heart of Iron. With its dark and seductive, gas-lit world, set in alternate Victorian England, filled with ruthless blue bloods, swoon-worthy heroes, and feisty heroines – London Steampunk novels are an exciting mixture of romance and adventure.

Book Review: Blood and Sand

Blood and Sand (Elemental World #2)
Elizabeth Hunter

Release Date: May 28, 2013

Book Description:
Dead women are showing up in the desert east of San Diego, and no one understands why. When the story comes to the attention of reporter Natalie Ellis, she can’t help but make comparisons to tragic deaths she’d investigated years ago. Are these women the victims of a serial killer, or something even more insidious?

Bodies may be piling up in his sire’s territory, but water vampire and feared enforcer Baojia is stuck entertaining the rich and clueless at a club in San Diego. He’s taken his exile with all the grace he could muster, but his patience is starting to thin.

Sparks fly when mortal and immortal are thrown together, and Natalie comes face to face with a reality that was lurking in the corners of her life. Pursuing the truth could cost Baojia everything, including the mortal woman who has earned his grudging respect.

Blood and Sand is the second novel in the expanded Elemental World series.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
ARC received courtesy of the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you!

Aah! We are back in the Elemental World of vampires, mysteries and whirlwind romances. And I think this might be my new favorite. No, really! Don’t get me wrong, I am usually pretty tough when rating and reviewing, even when I like the novels, but this one has made me happy. Perhaps it has to do with the characters or the writer’s style but in general this spinoff series and original Elemental Mysteries have a well-deserved spot on my favorites list.

Book Review: A Hidden Fire

A Hidden Fire (Elemental Mysteries #1)
Elizabeth Hunter

Release Date: October 18, 2011

Book Review:
"No secret stays hidden forever."

A phone call from an old friend sets Dr. Giovanni Vecchio back on the path of a mystery he'd abandoned years before. He never expected a young librarian could hold the key to the search, nor could he have expected the danger she would attract. Now he and Beatrice De Novo will follow a twisted maze that leads from the archives of a university library, through the fires of Renaissance Florence, and toward a confrontation they never could have predicted.

A Hidden Fire is a paranormal mystery/romance for adult readers. It is the first book in the Elemental Mysteries Series.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
From A HIDDEN FIRE...

"Tell the truth, Giovanni Vecchio." A mischievous look came to her eye. "You have a butler, a cool car, and I've only ever seen you at night..."

He froze, tension suddenly evident in the set of his shoulders. Beatrice leaned closer and whispered, "You're Batman, aren't you?"

His mouth dropped open in surprise before the grin overtook his face. She smiled back at him, chuckling until he joined in. Soon, they were both laughing.

"You looked so serious for a second! What did you think I was going to
say? A spy? Vampire? Hired killer?"

He shook his head in amusement. "You're confounding. No, I was just surprised you guessed. I am, in fact, Batman. I would appreciate your discretion."

She nodded with a smirk, and took another sip of the coffee he'd brought her. It had just a touch of cream, exactly the way she liked it. "Sure you are. I'm a skeptic until I see the rubber suit. You're not fooling me."

He looked at her, smiling mischievously. "You really want to see me in a rubber suit?"

Book Review: Wicked as She Wants

Wicked as She Wants (Blud #2)
Delilah S. Dawson

Release Date: April 30, 2013

Book Description:
The second book in the darkly tempting Blud series, featuring a vampire princess who embarks upon a dangerous journey to claim what is rightfully hers.

When Blud princess Ahnastasia wakes up, drained and starving in a suitcase, she’s not sure which calls to her more: the sound of music or the scent of blood. The source of both sensations is a handsome and mysterious man named Casper Sterling. Once the most celebrated musician in London, Sangland, he’s fallen on hard times. Now, much to Ahna’s frustration, the debauched and reckless human is her only ticket back home to the snow-rimmed and magical land of Freesia.

Together with Casper’s prickly charge, a scrappy orphan named Keen, they seek passage to Ahna’s homeland, where a power-hungry sorceress named Ravenna holds the royal family in thrall. Traveling from the back alleys of London to the sparkling minarets of Muscovy, Ahna discovers that Freesia holds new perils and dangerous foes. Back in her country, she is forced to choose between the heart she never knew she had and the land that she was born to rule. But with Casper’s help, Ahna may find a way to have it all…

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:
I have to preface my review with an extended thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (the publisher), the powers of which have granted me the pre-publication copy of Wicked as She Wants.

What a delicious follow-up!

Book Review: Kiss of Steel

Kiss of Steel (London Steampunk #1)
Bec McMaster

Release Date: September 4, 2012

Book Description:
When Nowhere Is Safe

Most people avoid the dreaded Whitechapel district. For Honoria Todd, it's the last safe haven. But at what price?

Blade is known as the master of the rookeries—no one dares cross him. It's been said he faced down the Echelon's army single-handedly, that ever since being infected by the blood-craving he's been quicker, stronger, and almost immortal.

When Honoria shows up at his door, his tenuous control comes close to snapping. She's so...innocent. He doesn't see her backbone of steel—or that she could be the very salvation he's been seeking. 

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:

A fun debut novel by Bec McMaster! I very much enjoyed this entertaining PNR read; and it was so quick, that I’m almost sorry to see it end and will certainly look very much forward to book #2 this May.

Book Review: Wicked as They Come

Wicked as They Come (Blud #1)

Delilah S. Dawson

Release Date: March 27, 2012

Book Description:

First in a steampunk-tinged paranormal romance series in which a woman is transported to a world filled with vampires and magic. When nurse Tish Everett forced open the pesky but lovely locket she found at an estate sale, she had no idea she was answering the call of Criminy Stain, from the far off land of Sang. He’d cast a spell for her, but when she’s transported right to him, she’s not so sure she’s ready to be under the spell of another man. (It didn’t go so well last time with controlling, abusive, domineering Jeff.) If only Criminy wasn’t so deliciously rakish….

Half the inhabitants of Sang are Pinkies—human—and the other half are Bludmen, who in Tish’s world would be called vampires. But they don’t mess with any of the bat/coffin/no sunlight nonsense. They’re rather like you and me, just more fabulous, long living, and mostly indestructible. (They're also very good kissers.) But when the evil Mayor of Manchester (formerly Bludchester) redoubles his efforts to rid Sang of the Bludmen once and for all, stealing Tish’s locket in hopes of traveling back to her world himself for reinforcements, Criminy and Tish must battle ghosts, sea monsters, wayward submarines, a secret cabal, and thundering Bludmares to get the locket back and allow Tish to return home…but has she found love with Criminy? Could she stay in Sang forever?

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:

"Spanish Caravan" by the Doors

Carry me Caravan take me away
Take me to Portugal, take me to Spain
Andalusia with fields full of grain
I have to see you again and again
Take me, Spanish Caravan
Yes, I know you can

Trade winds find Galleons lost in the sea
I know where treasure is waiting for me
Silver and gold in the mountains of Spain
I have to see you again and again
Take me, Spanish Caravan
Yes, I know you can

Are you ready to step through the looking glass, right into a Vampireland…er, I mean Sang?

Book Review: Etiquette & Espionage

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1)

Gail Carriger

Release Date: February 5, 2013

Book Description:

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners—and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage—in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail Carriger's legions of fans have come to adore.

Amazon US | Goodreads

Review:

A great new adventure!

As Marie Lu, author of the Legend trilogy proclaims (on the book’s dust jacket), “It is the perfect steampunk version of Harry Potter,” and I couldn’t agree more. Filled with a very colorful, whimsical, steampunk world, familiar to the readers of The Parasol Protectorate series, with addition of new characters, and glimpses of the once familiar ones – Etiquette & Espionage is a delightful first book.

Cover Reveal: Blood and Sand

I know, I know, I am late to the party, but I finally managed to find a bit of time to do this. I am so very excited for the cover reveal of the second novel in the Elemental World series – Blood and Sand by Elizabeth Hunter. The new novel is scheduled for late May/early June release. I am certainly looking forward to another fabulous story. Are you?

Building From Ashes (Elemental World #2)

Elizabeth Hunter

Book Description:

Dead women are showing up in the desert east of San Diego, and no one understands why. When the story comes to the attention of reporter Natalie Ellis, she can’t help but make comparisons to tragic deaths she’d investigated years ago. Are these women the victims of a serial killer, or something even more insidious?

Bodies may be piling up in his sire’s territory, but water vampire and feared enforcer Baojia is stuck entertaining the rich and clueless at a club in San Diego. He’s taken his exile with all the grace he could muster, but his patience is starting to thin.

Sparks fly when mortal and immortal are thrown together, and Natalie comes face to face with a reality that was lurking in the corners of her life. Pursuing the truth could cost Baojia everything, including the mortal woman who has earned his grudging respect.

Blood and Sand is the second novel in the expanded Elemental World series.

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