Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Review: Tricked by Kevin Hearne

Tricked (Iron Druid Chronicles, #4)
Druid Atticus O’Sullivan hasn’t stayed alive for more than two millennia without a fair bit of Celtic cunning. So when vengeful thunder gods come Norse by Southwest looking for payback, Atticus, with a little help from the Navajo trickster god Coyote, lets them think that they’ve chopped up his body in the Arizona desert.

But the mischievous Coyote is not above a little sleight of paw, and Atticus soon finds that he’s been duped into battling bloodthirsty desert shapeshifters called skinwalkers. Just when the Druid thinks he’s got a handle on all the duplicity, betrayal comes from an unlikely source. If Atticus survives this time, he vows he won’t be fooled again. Famous last words.

Paperback, 338 pages
Published April 24th 2012 by Random House Publishing Group
ISBN: 0345533623 (ISBN13: 9780345533623)
series: Iron Druid Chronicles #4
(Goodreads)

Review

I do not try to hide my love for the Iron Druid Chronicles.  I am completely enraptured by it.  I cannot say enough good things about this series! 

Coyote is back, and up to his tricksy ways.  The combination of Atticus and Coyote is a disaster waiting to happen, and like any book in this series, it is a serious disaster.  This is probably going to be hard to write without including spoilers, but I’m going to try.

Atticus and the Morrigan pull a trick of their own at the very beginning of the book.  And it works, and then…

So, I tried to right this without spoilers, and there’s nothing that I could say—this review would be one big spoiler!  Tricked is an action-packed, insanely plot-driven story.  There’s not a moment to rest, not a moment to catch your breath.  Hearn pulls out all the stops with this installment.  It’s chock full of Navajo mysticism, which puts Atticus at a disadvantage.  There’s an amazing mingling of the two forms of magic, and, even though I knew nothing about the Navajo belief system, Hearne explains it all in the course of telling the story.

So, read this series, read this book.  As for me, I need to get the next book in the chronicles, Trapped!

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5 Moons: MUST READ

Get to reading,
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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Are You Buying??? (September 4,2012 Edition)

I love Tuesdays! These are some of the titles releasing today.

Archangel's Storm (Guild Hunter, #5)

Enter New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s darkly beautiful world of archangels and immortal power, as a pact is sealed between two souls bound by blood, stirred by desire, and driven by vengeance…

With wings of midnight and an affinity for shadows, Jason courts darkness. But now, with the Archangel Neha’s consort lying murdered in the jewel-studded palace that was his prison and her rage threatening cataclysmic devastation, Jason steps into the light, knowing he must unearth the murderer before it is too late.

Earning Neha’s trust comes at a price—Jason must tie himself to her bloodline through the Princess Mahiya, a woman with secrets so dangerous, she trusts no one. Least of all an enemy spymaster.

With only their relentless hunt for a violent, intelligent killer to unite them, Jason and Mahiya embark on a quest that leads to a centuries-old nightmare… and to the dark storm of an unexpected passion that threatens to drench them both in blood.(Goodreads)


Primal Possession (Moon Shifter, #2)

To protect her, he will unleash the beast within…

As his pack’s second-in-command, lupine shifter Liam Armstrong gives orders and takes what he wants—until he meets red-headed, blue-eyed December McIntyre. Liam knows the human beauty is his intended mate the moment he sees her, but December is far too strong-willed to accept his protection.

December, whose brother is the town sheriff, has every reason to mistrust shifters after one killed her youngest sibling. But the forceful and handsome Liam has gotten under her skin in a way she hadn’t thought possible, and the desire she feels for him is almost too much to bear.

When a radical hate group targets all humans known to sympathize with paranormal beings, December is attacked in her bookstore. Reluctantly, she turns to the only one who can help her: Liam. And he is going to take her to places within herself she never knew existed.(Goodreads)


In a Fix (In a Fix, #1)

The start of an original new urban fantasy series starring human chameleon Ciel Halligan

Snagging a marriage proposal for her client while on an all-expenses-paid vacation should be a simple job for Ciel Halligan, aura adaptor extraordinaire. A kind of human chameleon, she’s able to take on her clients’ appearances and slip seamlessly into their lives, solving any sticky problems they don’t want to deal with themselves. No fuss, no muss. Big paycheck.

This particular assignment is pretty enjoyable... that is, until Ciel’s island resort bungalow is blown to smithereens and her client’s about-to-be-fiancĂ© is snatched by modern-day Vikings. For some reason, Ciel begins to suspect that getting the ring is going to be a tad more difficult than originally anticipated.

Going from romance to rescue requires some serious gear-shifting, as well as a little backup. Her best friend, Billy, and Mark, the CIA agent she’s been crushing on for years—both skilled adaptors—step in to help, but their priority is, annoyingly, keeping her safe. Before long, Ciel is dedicating more energy to escaping their watchful eyes than she is to saving her client’s intended.

Suddenly, facing down a horde of Vikings feels like the least of her problems.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

The Salt God's Daughter

Set in Long Beach, California, beginning in the 1970s, The Salt God’s Daughter follows Ruthie and her sister, Dolly, as they carve out a life in a place filled with meteorological myths and exotic folklore, where female rites of passage are met with startling discoveries. Raised by a mother drawn to the ocean and guided by the moons, their heritage is a mystery and with their mother often absent, they are forced to confront the social and sexual mores of the time on their own as they search for true love and a home. Ruthie's daughter, Naida, is born into this conflicted landscape with a secret she tries to keep hidden as she seeks out the father she never knew. Woven with a traditional Scottish folktale and hints of Jewish mysticism, The Salt God’s Daughter examines how far we’ll go to find our place in a world that is often hostile to those who are different.(Goodreads)


An Apple for the Creature

Includes a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story!What could be scarier than the first day of school? How about a crash course in the paranormal from Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner, editors of Home Improvement: Undead Edition? Your worst school nightmares—taking that math test you never studied for, finding yourself naked in school assembly, not knowing which door to enter—will pale in comparison to these thirteen original stories that take academic anxiety to whole new realms.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s story, "Playing Possum," Sookie Stackhouse brings enough birthday cupcakes for her nephew's entire class but finds she's one short when the angry ex-boyfriend of the school secretary shows up.

When her guardian, Kate Daniels, sends her undercover to a school for exceptional children, teenaged Julie learns an all-new definition of "exceptional," in New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews's "Magic Tests."

For those who like fangs with their forensics, New York Times bestselling author Nancy Holder offers "VSI," in which FBI agent Claire is tested as never before in a school for Vampire Scene Investigation.

And in New York Times bestselling author Thomas Sniegoski's "The Bad Hour," Remy Chandler and his dog Marlowe find evil unleashed in an obedience school.

You'll need more than an apple to stave off the creatures in these and nine other stories. Remember your first lesson: resistance is fruitless!

Includes stories by: ILONA ANDREWS, AMBER BENSON, RHYS BOWEN, MIKE CAREY, CHARLAINE HARRIS, DONALD HARSTAD, STEVE HOCKENSMITH, NANCY HOLDER, FAITH HUNTER, TONI L.P. KELNER, MARJORIE LIU, JONATHAN MABERRY, THOMAS SNIEGOSKI(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Breed: A Novel

Alex and Leslie Twisden lead charmed lives-fabulous jobs, a luxurious town house on Manhattan's Upper East Side, a passionate marriage. What they don't have is a child, and as they try one infertility treatment after the next, yearning turns into obsession. As a last-ditch attempt to make their dream of parenthood come true, Alex and Leslie travel deep into Slovenia, where they submit to a painful and terrifying procedure that finally gives them what they so fervently desire . . . but with awful consequences.

Ten years later, cosseted and adored but living in a house of secrets, the twins Adam and Alice find themselves locked into their rooms every night, with sounds coming from their parents' bedroom getting progressively louder, more violent, and more disturbing.

Driven to a desperate search for answers, Adam and Alice set out on a quest to learn the true nature of the man and woman who raised them. Their discovery will upend everything they thought they knew about their parents and will reveal a threat so horrible that it must be escaped, at any cost.(Goodreads)



Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.

Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Fathomless (Fairytale Retellings, #3)

Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant -- until Celia meets Lo.

Lo doesn't know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea -- a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid -- all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she's becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she's tempted to embrace her dark immortality.

When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude's affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there's only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul.(Goodreads)
 
Goodreads   Amazon
 
Blackwood

On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.

Miranda, a misfit girl from the island’s most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can’t dodge is each other.


Blackwood is a dark, witty coming of age story that combines America’s oldest mystery with a thoroughly contemporary romance.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Rage Within (Dark Inside, #2)

In this apocalyptic sequel to Dark Inside’s “well-balanced, realistic suspense” (Kirkus Reviews), four teens continue the struggle for survival as they face a world gone mad. Aries, Clementine, Michael, and Mason have survived the first wave of the apocalypse that wiped out most of the world’s population and turned many of the rest into murderous Baggers. Now they’re hiding out in an abandoned house in Vancouver with a ragtag group of fellow teen survivors, trying to figure out their next move.

Aries is trying to lead, but it’s hard to be a leader when there are no easy answers and every move feels wrong. Clementine is desperate to find her brother Heath, but it’s impossible to know where he’d be, assuming he’s alive. Michael is haunted by the memories of his actions during his harrowing struggle to survive. And Mason is struggling with something far worse: the fear that he may be a danger to his friends.

As the Baggers begin to create a new world order, these four teens will have to trust and rely on each other in order to survive.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Origin

Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home—and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia’s origin—a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.


Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost. This is a supremely compelling debut novel that blends the awakening romance of Matched with the mystery and jungle conspiracy of Lost.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Carnival of Souls

In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures--if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.

All Mallory knows of The City is that her father--and every other witch there--fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it's only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable. While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.

From Melissa Marr, bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series and "Graveminder," comes a brand-new tale of lush secrets, dark love, and the struggle to forge one's own destiny.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Silver (Bandia, #1)

"As I step into the room, a silver flash blurs my vision. Before I can take a breath, the world falls away."

Brianna has always felt invisible. People stare right past her, including the one boy she can't resist, Blake Williams. But everything changes at a house party where Brianna's charm bracelet slips off and time stands still. In that one frozen, silver moment, Blake not only sees her, he recognizes something deep inside her she's been hiding even from herself.

Discovering she is descended from Danu, the legendary Bandia of Celtic myth, Brianna finds herself questioning the truth of who she is. And when she accidentally binds her soul to Blake, their mutual attraction becomes undeniable.

But Blake has his own secret, one that could prove deadly for them both.

Bound together by forbidden magic, Brianna and Blake find themselves at the heart of an ancient feud that threatens to destroy their lives and their love.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Blink Once

West is a high school senior who has everything going for him until an accident leaves him paralyzed. Strapped down in his hospital bed, slipping in and out of consciousness, West is terrified and alone. Until he meets Olivia.

She's the girl next door—sort of. A patient in the room next to his, only Olivia can tell what West is thinking, and only Olivia seems to know that the terrible dreams he's been having are not just a result of his medication. Yet as West comes to rely on Olivia—to love her, even—certain questions pull at him: Why has Olivia been in the hospital for so long? And what does it mean that she is at the center of his nightmares? But the biggest question of all comes when West begins to recover and learns that the mysterious girl he's fallen in love with has a secret he could never have seen coming.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

34 Pieces of You

A dark and moving novel—reminiscent of Thirteen Reasons Why—about the mystery surrounding a teenage girl’s fatal overdose.

There was something about Ellie... Something dangerous. Charismatic. Broken. Jake looked out for her. Sarah followed her lead. And Jess kept her distance, and kept watch.

Now Ellie’s dead, and Jake, Sarah, and Jess are left to pick up the pieces. All they have are 34 clues she left behind. 34 strips of paper hidden in a box beneath her bed. 34 secrets of a brief and painful life.

Jake, Sarah, and Jess all feel responsible for what happened to Ellie, and all three have secrets of their own. As they begin to confront the darkest truths about themselves, they will also find out what Ellie herself had been hiding all along....(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Outpost (Razorland, #2)

Deuce’s whole world has changed. Down below, she was considered an adult. Now, topside in a town called Salvation, she’s a brat in need of training in the eyes of the townsfolk. She doesn’t fit in with the other girls: Deuce only knows how to fight.

To make matters worse, her Hunter partner, Fade, keeps Deuce at a distance. Her feelings for Fade haven’t changed, but he seems not to want her around anymore. Confused and lonely, she starts looking for a way out.

Deuce signs up to serve in the summer patrols—those who make sure the planters can work the fields without danger. It should be routine, but things have been changing on the surface, just as they did below ground. The Freaks have grown smarter. They’re watching. Waiting. Planning. The monsters don’t intend to let Salvation survive, and it may take a girl like Deuce to turn back the tide.(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

Witch Born (Witch Song, #2)

Brusenna thought it was finished.

She defeated the Dark Witch, saving the Haven Witches from imprisonment and death. She found love and a place to belong.

She was wrong.

Haven is not the sanctuary it appears to be. Even love is in danger of slipping away like water through cupped hands.

Some things can't be saved.

A new threat merges with the old as the Witches’ dark history begins to catch up with them. Only Brusenna knows the extent of the danger and how to stop it, though doing so might cost her everything.

Including her life.

Will Brusenna be required to make the ultimate sacrifice?(Goodreads)

Goodreads   Amazon

So… do you plan on snatching any of these books up today? Is anything new to you?

I plan on getting Archangel’s Storm the moment I get up this morning! In the YA coming out today I highly recommend Monstrous Beauty! It is a wonderful book.

Happy Bookday!!!
To all the author that have books out this week.
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Monday, September 3, 2012

Happy Day Off!!!

Image from freedomcards.com

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!

I will be spending my day with my family:)
We plan on starting our Halloween decorating today.
Umm… Yeah it really is my favorite holiday.

This is what we got so far:

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So that is some of our mantle so far.

What are your Labor Day plans?
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Sunday, September 2, 2012

Bootlicker Book Tour: Review: Booklicker by Steve Piacente

Bootlicker-ThumbnailSmall
An unholy union exists between a racist U.S. senator and the candidate poised to become South
Carolina’s first black congressman since the Civil War.

The year is 1959, the setting, rural South Carolina. Poor, black teenager Ike Washington stumbles on a Klan lynching led by a white judge. Caught, he must choose: join the dead man or begin hustling black support the ambitious judge needs to advance. In trade, Ike is handed a life of comfort and power. Decades later, as he is poised to become the first black SC congressman since Reconstruction, guilt-wracked Ike winds up alone in the same forest, a long rope in his fist. Rookie reporter Dan Patragno uncovers the truth just before Election Day.
(From the publicist)

Paperback, 336 pages
Published 2012 by 9 to 1 Press
ISBN13: 9781470039868
(Goodreads)

Review

Y’all know I love me some Southern Fiction, especially those set in South Carolina (I LOVE my state).  Bootlicker is one of those books that makes me proud to be Southern.  Though Piacente is admittedly not a Southerner, he accurately and eloquently gives a Southern voice to his characters.  The South is as much a character in this book as the actual characters.  There are elements, like the racial unrest and discord that still exists to some extent today, that are as important to the story as the plot that couldn’t have been as real were Bootlicker not a Southern novel.

There is no political intrigue, no mystery to solve, no stalkers or assassins.  Bootlicker is straight up fiction, and the good kind. We see the story unfold from the eyes of several different people, different views that make things feel real and earnest.  I ached with their pains and rejoiced with their victories.  Piacente wrote in a way that immediately draws you into the story, it pleads with you to invest your emotional fortune there, and leaves you stripped bare and yearning for the story.  You believe it, you want it, and you will it with all your might to happen.  And when it does, you’re relieved that it’s finished, glad that justice is served, and weary from just taken such a journey. 

Booklicker isn’t perfect.  We had our fair share of words. It knows how I feel, and we’re both ok with that.  What it is, is a heart wrenching story, a victorious story; one you must read.

5 Moons: Put this on your TBR and buy it!
Get to reading,
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If you haven’t already, check out Piacente’s guest post!

*This book was provided to me by the publicist through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Man in the Blue Moon Book Tour: The Gift of Storytelling by Michael Morris

Michael Morris - Old Door Photo - Natalie Brasington Photographer
When I visit book clubs the one question I always get is “did you always want to be a writer?” Truth be told, as a child I was not a big reader but I had a big imagination. When I turned 31, I began a commitment to writing and began taking evening courses in creative writing. But while I did not grow up in a household of readers to help to introduce me to books, I was around storytellers and I believe that eventually fueled my desire to write.

During my early years, I lived next door to my maternal grandparents. I spent a lot of my childhood in their home. My grandfather was a ‘talker’ and he was the best story-teller I have known.

One story from my grandfather’s childhood has long fascinated and haunted me. In 1920 when my grandfather was ten, he and his older brother were sent to pick up a delivery that was arriving from Bainbridge, Georgia by steamboat down the Apalachicola River to their home in Florida. Since their father owned a mercantile in a crossroads community, such a request was not unusual. The boys were always being sent to Apalachicola, the county seat, for deliveries.

After the dockworkers in Apalachicola had loaded a crudely constructed box onto their wagon, my grandfather and his brother traveled back home guessing what was inside. My grandfather bet his brother that it was a grandfather clock.

Back at the family store with the box now unloaded from the wagon, my great-grandfather used a crowbar to pop the lid open. As a boy, my grandfather was so scared at the sight he saw that he stumbled and fell backwards, tearing the seat in his britches. A man, soiled with filth and caked with mud, climbed out of the box.

The man who had been nailed shut inside the box was shipped during the night to his cousin, my great-grandfather, for safe keeping. The man was on the run for supposedly killing his wife. Even though the court had exonerated him, the wife’s family sought vengeance. They had made it known that they would hunt him down and kill him.

On the day of my grandfather’s 99th birthday, I began writing Man in the Blue Moon, my novel that is based on my grandfather’s story. He lived to see the novel completed and it is dedicated to him, “a storytellers’ storyteller.”

About the book

Man in the Blue Moon
“He’s a gambler at best. A con artist at worst,” her aunt had said of the handlebar-mustached man who snatched Ella Wallace away from her dreams of studying art in France. Eighteen years later, that man has disappeared, leaving Ella alone and struggling to support her three sons.

While the world is embroiled in World War I, Ella fights her own personal battle to keep the mystical Florida land that has been in her family for generations from the hands of an unscrupulous banker. When a mysterious man arrives at Ella’s door in an unconventional way, he convinces her he can help her avoid foreclosure, and a tenuous trust begins.

But as the fight for Ella’s land intensifies, it becomes evident that things are not as they appear. Hypocrisy and murder soon shake the coastal town of Apalachicola and jeopardize Ella’s family.

319 pages
Expected publication: September 2012 by Tyndale House Publishers
ISBN13: 9781414373300
(Goodreads)

Y’all, this is a book you need to check out.  I’m into it and really hooked!  Thanks to Michael Morris for stopping by today with a little insight on where his inspiration came from.

Check back soon for my review of Man in the Blue Moon!

Get to reading,
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