Best Cover of 2012

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Isn't it just awesome??!! I am in love with this cover already!! I didn't think you could top the eerie beauty of the first 'Anna Dressed In Blood' oh but I think they did!!

Kendare certainly has a wonderful creative art department working on her fabulous books!!

I just find myself wanting to take her hand... that one eye peeking through her hair...  ..that's it, I'm gone!!


Kendare Blake's blog

Catch Up.. Homework!!

Catch Up

I know, I have fallen terribly behind, not just updating this, but with my reviews. I have 9 now to do..

I will attempt to get at least one done every night for the next few days..



So, as you can see, I have some homework to get through, but I will.. And it's not because they were bad, it's cause they were really good and I couldn't wait to get to the next book and I am always 1 book behind on my reading challenge and it's kicking my hiney!!

Review

Abandon by Meg Cabot   2.5 Stars

 Abandon by Meg Cabot is my first experience with Cabot's writing. This story in particular was a little confusing for me and after a while got me frustrated. It was the style in which it was written, as though it was going backwards giving you brief flashes of what happened, and then zooming forward with lots of holes left in between. Which for me just got annoying, because nothing was really full explained and I felt like it was dragged out a little too much.

Pierce, what a troubled girl, she has drowned and ends up in the Underworld with John aka the Lord of the underworld, but the odd thing is... that she's met John before, when she was little and her grandfather had died. This is obviously what our story is revolving around, Pierce and John. As the Greek legend of Hades and Persephone goes, Persephone is kidnapped by Hades and taken to the underworld to be his bride.

This is loosely based around parts of that myth. I liked the character of John, he was melodramatic and intense, Pierce was a little wishy washy and sometimes I really wanted to smack her upside the head with my book out of sheer frustration at her stupidity. But thats my personal opinion. The story did get a little predictable which also added to my irritation. And then just as it seemed to be getting somewhere and I was starting to enjoy it again, it completely changed tactics.. It went from Pierce overwhelmed with just kissing John for the first time, to her looking at his bed and thinking about how much she wanted to 'thank' him.. and I was left thinking... 'woah, hold your horses!!' you only kissed the boy yesterday and now you are thinking about his bed and ergo sex.. luckily it ended there and I was not forced to stomach anymore chopping and changing..
I can see that there will easily be a sequel.. umm, yeah, let me know how that goes..

I hope Meg Cabots other stories are better, cause I own some of her books..

Review

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake   5+ Stars

If you think the cover is beautiful (which it is), then you wait until you read the story!!

'Girls, on the other hand, have always come easy. I don't know why that is, exactly. Maybe it's the outsider vibe and a well-placed brooding look. Maybe it's something I think I see sometimes in the mirror, something that reminds me of my father. Or maybe I'm just damn easy on the eyes.'

Love Cas, his personality and inner monologue is fantastic!!.. Theseus Cassio Lowood, a Ghost Hunter NOT a Ghost Buster!! Instead of breaking hearts he's vanquishing spirits, sending the evil spirits away. He saving people and they don't even know it! And seriously, with an outstanding name like that could you expect anything less than total awesomeness!!!!
Anna, Anna Korlov AKA Anna Dressed In Blood - utterly grotesque, wicked, scary, confusing, vulnerable, strong, beautiful and terrible!!

This new Teen Horror from Kendare really stands out, not just because it's horror but it's really GOOD and because it's delving into a tried and test genre that is successful with teens and YA demographic!! Buffy, Charmed, Supernatural, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf .. the list goes on. If it works, go with it people!!

I really enjoyed the 1st Person POV because it made me feel like I was literally watching/reading a movie, there wasn't any crap that is page filler, it was all go, go, go. I immediately felt like I was watching an episode of Supernatural, with Dean or Sam, driving along looking gorgeous and kicking ass. But his confidence is tested (beaten to a pulp) when Cas and his mother move to Thunder Bay to hunt Anna Korlov - Anna Dressed In Blood and end her killing spree. But will Cas' strength and skill beat enough to overcome whats in hiding in that house!!
Oh, it was great how Kendare managed to slip romance in between the pages of murder and dismemberment given that the story really and truly is 'Boy meets girl. Girl kills People story'.. I'm still smiling!

Definitely read it, I think Kendare has only just started (what a start) and will very quickly become a very popular YA author, with us readers scrambling over eachother for her next story!!

That cover.. I just love it!!

Review

Unleash the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon  4 Stars

Admittedly, it's been some time since I was reading the Dark Hunter series, and they are well written to allow the reader the ability of chopping and changing, more freedom with the series. Although they aren't so gripping that you are just dying to get to the next one.

Wren Tigarian is a Tigard, which basically means he is half snow leopard and half white tiger, with a splash of gorgeous blonde male mixed in. He's a hybrid, and a freak in this Were-Hunter world, temperamental and lonely. He works at Sanctuary (Bar) and keeps to himself, lone tigard. One night he meets Maggie (Senator's Daughter) at Sanctuary where he busses tables, and there is an attraction between them. The story basis was nice, again delving into the characters past as most of the Dark Hunter stories tend to do, though not as far as previous stories. This concept isn't redundant, its unavoidable with how long these guys live. I was pleasantly surprised at the change in story arc, we are dealing with the inhabitants of the Sanctuary and steering away from the Dark Hunters and Acheron which is nice and refreshing. Not that I don't lurve Ash!

Kenyon always sets up some huge insurmountable barrier for both characters to overcome for their love, it's always over the top and its perfectly fitting for the incredibly dramatic and action packed world she has created. This world is so big, I find myself getting lost sometimes. If this was ever put on the TV screen it would run longer than Frasier, there is so much potential an avid TV viewer or Producer, would salivate. There is a glossary in the back of the book if you ever get lost with the Arcadians and the Katagaria's and their switcheroo, which happens to me all the time, but the story keeps flowing even if you gloss over that technical side of the argument.

I liked the time travel part of the story, it was a nice twist. However I find that Kenyon tends to set her stories up with the same palette, changing the names and tweaking the circumstances for every book. Shaking things up with Nick Gautier in the previous books was great and at least reflects on her that she doesn't always write her characters path's down the easy road. I am sure there is allot more craziness on its way with the series and each story just makes it juicier and juicier.

Review

Changing the Game by Jaci Burton  5 Stars

WOW!! Excuse me while I rub the book all over me... haha

Gavin (Pro Baseball Player) and his agent Elizabeth have known each other for years, but since Gavin's brother Mike, fired Elizabeth (The Perfect Play) a distance between the friends, client/agent has developed. This is mainly because Elizabeth has been madly in love with Gavin for about 5+ years and since Mike fired her she is terrified that Gavin will do the same. Elizabeth doesn't sleep with or date her clients and it's her job to make sure men like Gavin are sleeping with or seen with as many hot actresses as possible.

I didn't really like Elizabeth in the first book Play by Play, but I was wrong because Jaci Burton has certainly created some juicy characters. Gavin confronts Elizabeth about her avoiding him, not planning a seduction but then he can't seem to help his attraction to her when she finally (and literally) lets her hair down and spends some time (not work related), with him.

..Then the conversation starts to shift, there is some sneaky ogling going on and soon neither one can deny the attraction any longer... hot craziness ensues

"I don't have sex with my clients, Gavin."
His lips quirked. "You want me to fire you so I can f*ck you?"
Her body was going up in flames. Why was he doing this to her?
"Not particularly."
"Do you want me to f*ck you?"

And this is only page 15, folks!!.. :D

This book is HOT, it's slide off your seat hot, and with a great story to boot..

Drama obviously ensues and Gavin is a bit of a dick (huge dickhead actually) but, I was so pleased that Elizabeth reacted the way she did. She was smart and strong and didn't allow someone to continually hurt her, she made her decision.
I LOVED that Elizabeth didn't melt at the first apology or half baked 'sorry' from Gavin, she went through hell and I was immensely satisfied that Gavin goes through the same.
Fantastic ending, I re-read it a couple of times!!

Review

Goddess of the Sea by P.C. Cast  3 stars

Another of the Goddess Summoning series, this was based losely on The Little Mermaid.

This was good, the story of Christine Canady a US Air Force Seargeant who, through an accident ends up switching bodies with a Mermaid -Princess Undine -and enters a different world. A world of fantasy and magic, where she meets the Goddess Gaea (Earth).

But CC is a Mermaid for maybe 8 hours before she asks the Goddess Gaea to change her into a Human to find her true love. Which is fine, she meets a prince on land and she plays the damsel routine, but then at night when she has to go back to the water and become a Mermaid (every 3 days), she meets Dylan the Merman who protects her.
They fall in love, but the thing that I didn't quite get was, why did she bother getting changed back into a human at all, why didn't she just stay a Mermaid with Dylan and they could have gotten old Daddy-o (Lir, God of the Seas) to sort out Sarpedon (bitch slap him back to his clam shell), at like Chapter 5. But I suppose you miss all the drama.

Anyway, I did enjoy the story, apart from the fact that I felt half of it wasn't really necessary. The end was worth reading 300 odd pages to get to.

Nice story, but I prefer Disney's Little Mermaid - Sebastian "Kiss de girl! sing with me now, shala la la la..."