Sexy Saturday Review: Alpha Instinct by Katie Reus

So, it has been a while since I’ve posted a paranormal romance review. It’s not that I have stopped reading the genre, I was just trying to figure out which direction the blog was going. It comes down to this: I love YA, Middle grade, and Adult genres. Throw the right amount of paranormal awesome or end of the world drama into a book that catches my fancy and I will do my best to review it on Bending The Spine. Some of my favorite authors write PNR and I am addicted to their books: Jeaniene Frost, Karen Marie Moning, and Nalini Singh. I am aware that not all my readers love PNR, thus Sexy Saturday Reviews are born! OK, I also liked the way it sounded :) Will I have a PNR review every Saturday? I have no idea, but when I have them I will do my best to post them on Saturday. Now on to today’s review.

Title: Alpha Instinct
Author: Katie Reus
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Signet
Release Date: February 7, 2012
ISBN-10: 0451236092
ISBN-13: 978-0451236098
Author’s Website
Source: Self Purchase

Ana Cordona has been a strong leader for the lupine shifters who survived after all the males and most of the females in her pack were mysteriously poisoned. As tough as she is, with no Alpha male, the pack is vulnerable to the devious shifter Taggart, who wants to claim both their ranch and Ana as his own. When Connor Armstrong comes back into her life, promising protection, it’s almost enough to make Ana forget how he walked out on her before—and reluctantly accept his offer to mate.

The minute Connor sees Ana again, it reawakens a raw hunger. He must have her for his bondmate—his wolf cries out for it. But his human side knows he must proceed with caution because of their complicated past. If he is to truly have her body and soul, he must go beyond his burning desire and win back her heart. Whatever it takes, he is determined not to leave her side again.

But Taggart and his rival pack are not their only enemies. A human element in town is targeting shifters. Their plan not only threatens Ana and Connor’s future, but the lives of the entire pack… (Goodreads)

Review

Y’all know I love a good shifter story. Alpha Instinct is the first book in the Moon Shifter series and I enjoyed reading it.

Ana Cordona has been taking care of her pack ever since her father, their pack leader, and all the other men in the pack died of poisoning. I liked Ana’s character for the most part. I felt for Ana, she has had to hold up her pack and stay strong for them through her parent’s deaths. Being a pack alpha is not what Ana was made to do, but she will do whatever it takes to keep her pack together. For that reason she is too scared to go to the council for help, because she is fearful of what they will do with the pack.

While Ana is being attacked by her neighbor Taggart, she is saved by Connor and his brother Liam. Connor and Liam had lived amongst Ana’s pack fifty years ago. I liked Connor. He came into Ana’s pack with all these ideas, then he sees her and totally messes it up by making demands of her. He is very much an alpha but not so much so that when he makes a mistake he can’t admit he is wrong, and I liked that.

Ana and Connor had great chemistry together. Yes, they followed the PNR formula and that didn’t bother me. The sexual tension between them was great. The thing that I didn’t really care for was how much non-talking was going on between them about their past. It got to the point of being annoying.

Connor’s brother Liam had a little side story going with the town sheriff’s sister. OK, I am just going to be honest with you here. I think I was a little more into Liam and December’s story than the main one between Anna and Connor. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that December is a human and that is a big faux pass in the shifter world.

“I’m Liam Armstrong”

She chewed on her bottom lip and devouring it. Liam wasn’t sure what had come over him when it hit him. Mate.

He jerked back at the word and tried to reject it. No. Impossible. She was human. That he was sure of.

 Mate.

There it went again. The word resounded in his head so loudly he was surprised she hadn’t heard it.

...

“I’m still waiting on your answer. And your name.”

“I haven’t decided, but my name is December McIntyre.”

“I knew you were a Scottish lassie.” Over the past century he’d learned to cover up his brogue, but he laid it on thick at the moment, hoping it would earn him a smile. He wasn’t disappointed. 

There was a lot going on in Alpha Instinct I didn’t really know were to rest my attention. For example: You know I am a big fan of having a great villain to hate if there is a villain in the story. There were so many villains I didn’t have anyone to blame all the bad on, so I just sort of  disliked a bunch of people…it was a bummer.

I enjoyed Alpha Instinct overall. I really liked the way Katie Reus described the town—it is very charming. I hope to see more of it in book two since that book will focus more on December and Liam. I look forward to reading it when it comes out in September.   

Happy Reading,

It's good. I had fun for the most part.

Recommended For

18 and up: For language, violence, and graphic sex.   

Guest Post and Giveaway with P.R. Mason author of Entanglements

 

The Best Villain is a Hero Too

            by P.R. Mason

As an avid reader, I enjoy learning about the authors' creative processes. So when Rebecca gave me the opportunity to participate in her excellent blog, I thought I would write about how I created one of my favorite characters.
 
ENTANGLEMENTS, my recent release, is a paranormal romance/urban fantasy about a teen who enters a dangerous alternate dimension to rescue her stepsister. In plotting the story, I wanted to include a villain who's more than just a stock baddie. He had to be dark and evil, of course. But I didn't want him to be like a slasher movie automaton, acting inexplicably except for some psychopathically insane dementia. To me, an evildoer's far more insidious and scary if there's an understandable motive to his actions. So I set out to create a villain who's also a hero...or at least one who thinks he's a hero.
 
I started by considering that much of Entanglements takes place in a dimension where history has taken an alternate path to that of our universe. I imagined a place largely frozen in Victorian times. It's a London where paranormal creatures abound.
 
In researching Victorian England to come up with an historical figure that could serve as the basis for my villain, I sought to find someone who could have, if events were slightly different, come into a position of power and authority. The perfect candidate presented himself in the personage of His Royal Highness Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the son of Britain's Queen. My decision to use Leopold was solidified when I learned he was afflicted with hemophilia, a genetic disease that prevents blood clotting and significantly shortens the life of a sufferer. Even a trip and fall can result in internal bleeding and death...which is what happened to Leopold in real life.
 
In my alternate history, the Queen, desperate to save her son, employs a wizard to find a cure. But this cure is less than successful and transforms Leopold into a vampire. The prince then sets about fathering a vampire aristocracy and gathering other paranormal creatures into his Empire
 
As a side note, a bit of unexpected synergy occurred in the selection of Leopold as the villain. One integral part of the Entanglements plot is that heroine, Kizzy, accidentally opens a vortex/portal to the Prince's world. In researching one such alleged vortex located in my hometown of Savannah, Georgia, I discovered that the symbol purportedly drawn to open the portal was a swirling circle. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a glyph used by Queen Victoria included this same swirl.
 
As Entanglements begins, the human race is on the verge of extinction in Leopold's world. Even though "free-range" humans are being rounded up and put into a feedlot system, the food supply for Leopold and his subjects is dwindling. He views the heroine, Kizzy, as the key to opening the portal to our world for exploration and plundering. Obviously, Prince Leopold thinks he's the hero of the story.
 
At one point, Leopold asks:  “Am I so very different from you, Kizzy? You do all you can to save your sister and your friends. I merely do all I can to save my people. I wish to prevent them from perishing in unspeakable agony. How can that be wrong?”
 
And to her surprise, Kizzy sort of understands his logic. She recognizes the morality of monsters feasting on human flesh and using their bones as toothpicks is relative.
 
I hope I achieved my goal of creating a heroic villain or villainous hero. One the reader can empathize with even as he scares them silly.


 
I love to hear from readers. Here are my links:
Goodreads
Amazon
Twitter
Website
Blog
 
Thank you so much Ms. Mason for being on the Spine today! Below is more info on this awesome author, her books, and a giveaway!!!
 

 
About the Author:
P.R. Mason writes steamy contemporary and paranormal romance under the name Patricia Mason and young adult paranormal romance and urban fantasy as P.R. Mason. She escaped from the snowy Midwest winters of her youth by moving in 2001 to the strange and wonderful city of Savannah, Georgia to pursue her dream of being a novelist. Pat's background is eclectic. She was an Assistant District Attorney and for a number of years was the owner of an antique shop which was home to a number of ghosts. Her home is ruled by two black cats, one of whom was rescued from the most haunted cemetery in the southeast.
 

P.R. Mason’s Books

 

 

 

Fifteen-year-old Kizzy Taylor is just hoping for an evening of fun when she joins her friends in a spelunking expedition through an under-city tunnel. But fun turns bizarre when Kizzy accidentally opens a vortex and her stepsister is swept through to an evil alternate dimension. The only way to rescue her stepsister is to reopen the vortex and go in after her. But will Kizzy be able to return home?

 

EVE has always played by the rules, afraid to take chances. HOLDEN wants to change that. She's certain they've never met before...or have they? Holden seems so familiar, but who is he? What is he? Yesterday her biggest challenge was trying not to bomb on her SATs. Today, paranormal forces have transformed an ordinary high school dance into a test of fate vs. free will and loving Holden could be Eve's end.

*Author note: Since Fated Hearts is a novella, it is intended to be a complete story which is much shorter than a full-length novel. Therefore, it can be enjoyed and finished in one sitting. An excerpt of my full-length urban fantasy/paranormal romance, Entanglements, is included at the end of the ebook.

Giveaway!!!

Up for grabs: 1 eBook copy of Entanglements and 1 eBook copy of Fated Hearts

This giveaway will run from 2/10/2012 to 2/17/2012 at midnight

The winner will be chosen by random.org

To enter simply fill in your name and email address in THIS FORM.

Good Luck,

Bookish TV and Movies

It is the tradition in our house to climb back in bed on Monday morning and watch the latest episode of

My middle child loves it! And we have fun talking about the fairy tales involved.

It got me thinking. Are there any other great bookish shows out there that you know about that I am missing?

I can only think of two shows I watched growing up that were based off books:

 

And

Yes, I do know that there is a HUGE difference between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Little House on the Prairie. But I can’t lie about it, I loved both those shows. Also I think (though I could be wrong) that the Buffy movies, and show started before the first book was published.

Now what about movies

My favorite bookish movie growing up was

  

I bet I drove my mom crazy with this movie. I totally wanted Falkor to come by my house so we could fly away on some awesome adventure.

Bookish movies I am excited about now:

Yeah, I don’t know anyone that isn’t excited about this movie!

I am super excited about this! I have loved this book since my awesome 7th grade English teacher (who is now a ghost hunter) introduced it to me!!!

No, this is not a movie poster and if you click the cover image it will take you to the last casting info that was posted. I am just so excited about seeing this turned into a movie.

I will admit that when I am watching a movie that has been a book I loved, I go into it prepared. I try to think of the book and the movie as the same story told from two different perspectives so that I don’t get disappointed.

Let me know what you are excited about, or shows and movies you miss.

Happy reading and watching,

Review: Vamplayers by Rusty Fischer

Title: Vamplayers
Author: Rusty Fischer
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Medallion Press
Release Date: December 13, 2011
ISBN-10: 1605424498
ISBN-13: 978-1605424491
Author’s Website
Source: borrowed Richie’s ARC

At the Afterlife Academy of Exceptionally Dark Arts, the vampires in training follow one of two tracks: they become either Sisters or Saviors. Of course, everyone wants to be a Savior, swooping into infested high schools in matching red leather jumpsuits and wielding crossbows, putting down swarming vampires with deadly efficiency.

But Lily Fielding is just a Sister—a Third Sister at that, a measly trainee. When Lily and her two Sisters, Alice and Cara, are called out to their latest assignment, she figures it’s just another run-of-the-mill gig: spot the Vamplayer (part vampire, part player), identify the predictably hot, trampy girl he’s set his eyes on, and befriend her before the Vamplayer can turn her to do his bidding.

Finding the sleek and sexy Vamplayer, Tristan, and his equally beautiful and popular target, Bianca, is easy. And when Lily meets the adorably geeky Zander, she too falls under a lover’s spell. But this assignment turns out to be trickier than most when the Third Sister must battle the baddest vampire of all. (Goodreads)

Review

I am seriously trying to figure out a non-spoilery  way to express my love of Vamplayers. This is a YA vampire novel and Rusty Fischer did not follow the *haven’t I read this book before, formula*. There wasn’t over the top instalove, and only one guy is super model hot…the other boys look like real people *gasp*.

Lily is the Third Sister. It is her job to go into a high school along with her higher ranking Sisters Alice and Cara to find the Vamplayer at that school before he has the chance to make a new vampire. Lily is awesome! Lily is used to being the laid back Sister on assignments, but this time she will have to take the lead. She is brave, loyal, and fiercely protective. I found this out first hand in a super mean-hearted dodge ball match in gym. Yes, you read that right. dodge ball match! You know you want to read this now!!!

“Balls are whizzing so fast, our sneakers squeaking so loudly on the gym floor, it’s like a cacophony of jungle noises in the middle of the gym.

At one point Tristan trips, their side gasp, and Cara uses the opportunity to launch an aerial assault straight at his face. (Hey, all’s fair in love and dodge ball, pretty boy.)”     

My character love does not extend to just Lily. I have a very special place in my heart Grover and Zander. I would have totally been friends with these two Star Wars loving geeks back in high school. They handled everything that’s happening at their school way better than I would have at their age. If I found out there were vampires at my school when I was a teenager, I think I would have ran away. But Grover and Zander put all those B-Movies they  watched over the years to use, after they freak out a little, and manned up.

I know I said at the beginning that Vamplayers did not follow the normal YA formula and I am sticking by that statement. But, I will say that Lily does sort of have two love interest. one being Zander, who I love. Swoon, any regular boy that will stay around to fight evil without any super powers of his own pushes him way up the scale in my book. Then there is Tristan. I have a love-hate relationship with Tristan, meaning I love to hate him. And at the end of the book when I found out how he made his money…well lets just say he didn’t gain any points. So for me this was not a love triangle because I was only rooting for one guy.

If you can’t tell from all of the above I think that Rusty Fischer created a sweet slice of epic in Vamplayers. I want to say more about the Sisters but every time I try I get even more spoilery. Vamplayers has humor, action, and a villain you can hate enough to want dead.  You just need to go get this and be ready to have fun with it!

Happy Reading,

 

Loved it! I want to know about everything this author writes.

Recommended For

Teen and up: For violence, death scene, and  kissing

Are You Buying ? (2/7/2012 edition)

Ok, so not all of these come out today! But they all come out before next Tuesday.

These are both YA and Adult titles.

• 
  

Title: Born Wicked
Author: Jessica Spotswood
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Release Date: February 7, 2012 
ISBN-10: 0399257454
ISBN-13: 978-0399257452

"Blessed with a gift..."cursed" with a secret." Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they're witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship - or an early grave. Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word . . . especially after she finds her mother's diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family's destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra. If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren't safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood - not even from each other. (Goodreads)

Title: The Wood Queen
Author: Julianna Baggott
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Flux
Release date: February 8, 2012
ISBN-10: 0738726621
ISBN-13: 978-0738726625

Donna Underwood is in deep trouble.An ancient alchemical order is holding her accountable for destroying the last precious drops of the elixar of life. Never mind the fact that Donna was acting to free her friend, Navin, from the dangerous clutches of the Wood Queen at the time. But what the alchemists have in store is nothing compared to the wrath of the fey. The Wood Queen has been tricked and Donna must pay. Get ready for all hell - quite literally - to break loose... (Goodreads)

• 
  

Title: Pure
Author: Julianna Baggott
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: February 8, 2012
ISBN-10: 1455503061
ISBN-13: 978-1455503063

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again. (Goodreads)

Title: Throne of the Crescent Moon
Author: Saladin Ahmed
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: DAW Hardcover
Release Date: February 7, 2012
ISBN-10: 0756407117
ISBN-13: 978-0756407117

From Saladin Ahmed, finalist for the Nebula and Campbell Awards, comes one of the year's most anticipated fantasy debuts, THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON, a fantasy adventure with all the magic of The Arabian Nights.

The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, land of djenn and ghuls, holy warriors and heretics, Khalifs and killers, is at the boiling point of a power struggle between the iron-fisted Khalif and the mysterious master thief known as the Falcon Prince. In the midst of this brewing rebellion a series of brutal supernatural murders strikes at the heart of the Kingdoms. It is up to a handful of heroes to learn the truth behind these killings:

Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, "The last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat," just wants a quiet cup of tea. Three score and more years old, he has grown weary of hunting monsters and saving lives, and is more than ready to retire from his dangerous and demanding vocation. But when an old flame's family is murdered, Adoulla is drawn back to the hunter's path.

Raseed bas Raseed, Adoulla's young assistant, a hidebound holy warrior whose prowess is matched only by his piety, is eager to deliver God's justice. But even as Raseed's sword is tested by ghuls and manjackals, his soul is tested when he and Adoulla cross paths with the tribeswoman Zamia.

Zamia Badawi, Protector of the Band, has been gifted with the near-mythical power of the Lion-Shape, but shunned by her people for daring to take up a man's title. She lives only to avenge her father's death. Until she learns that Adoulla and his allies also hunt her father's killer. Until she meets Raseed.

When they learn that the murders and the Falcon Prince's brewing revolution are connected, the companions must race against time--and struggle against their own misgivings--to save the life of a vicious despot. In so doing they discover a plot for the Throne of the Crescent Moon that threatens to turn Dhamsawaat, and the world itself, into a blood-soaked ruin. (Goodreads)

Title: Tooth and Nail
Author: Jennifer Safrey
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: Febuary 7, 2012 
ISBN-10: 1597803928
ISBN-13: 978-1597803922

Gemma Fae Cross, a tough-girl amateur boxer whose fiance is running for congress, has just made a startling discovery about herself. She is half faerie - and not just any faerie, but a tooth faerie A hybrid of fae and human, Gemma is destined to defend the Olde Way and protect the fae - who are incapable of committing violence - from threats to their peaceful and idyllic way of life, which must be maintained by distilling innocence collected from children''s baby teeth. But when a threat to the fae mission emerges, Gemma is called upon to protect her heritage, and become a legendary fae warrior... even if it means sacrificing everything she knows about being human. (Goodreads)

Happy Bookday!!!

To all the author that have books out this week.