This is the fourth week of my new meme – Radiant Reviews!

It is so easy to take part and hopefully anybody who does take part will get more comments on their reviews, find lots of great books to read and find new blogs to follow!  The only downside to participating in this meme is that your TBR pile may grow seriously out of control!!!

Radiant Reviews was inspired by Cym Lowell’s Book Review Party Wednesday.

OK, so here is how you can take part:

1. Place a link to your review of a book you have loved into Mister Linky below.  It must be a book that you have really enjoyed and that you would like to recommend to other bloggers.  In the section for your name, please put the name of your blog, the title of the book and its genre (all genres are welcome in Radiant Reviews).  In the URL section, please leave a direct link to your review – not just your blog URL.

2. Place my Radiant Reviews button, or some other kind of link to Chrissie’s Corner, on the review that you have linked to.  This is to promote the meme in the hope that more and more people will take part every week.

3. Visit other people’s reviews and leave comments if you can. I know that on my blog (and it might be the same for some of you other bloggers out there) it is the reviews that receive the least amount of comments and I think this is a real shame as they are the posts which take the most time and effort. So do please try to leave comments and show other bloggers some love!

And that is all there is to it. So here goes…

 

Publisher – Harlequin
Publication Date – 1st July 2010
Genre – Paranormal Romance

Source – From netGalley for review

Book Information -Vampire princess Alexia Feodorovna has been undead for 125 years, so it’s been a while since any man has made her pulse race.  Until Declan Black.  One look at his bronzed body and a fire like no other consumes her.  Then she discovers that he’s a dragon lord come to take revenge on the vamps who killed his parents.  And claim a crystal said to imbue its owner with incredible powers.
Alexia is ordered to torture and kill the dragon lord.  Yet with each reckless encounter, she finds herself
consumed by his fiery passion.  A passion Declan battles, as well.  Will he be able to resist the fire of lust she kindles within him and keep revenge in his heart?  Or will he risk everything to quench the burning desire and claim the vampire as his own?

Review – Alexia is just days away from becoming the new vampire queen, when Declan, a dragon lord, steals a powerful crystal from the vampire horde.  He is captured in the process, and it is up to Alexia to torture him in order to find out where the crystal is.  However, Declan and Alexia can’t deny the passion that they feel for each other.  To complicate matters the dragons are planning a rescue mission to get Declan back, Alexia’s soon-to-be stepfather, Lotharus, has plans to take over the throne himself instead of allowing Alexia to rule, and the dragons and vampires are sworn enemies who would never accept a relationship between their two leaders.  Declan and Alexia have a lot to overcome if they are to be together.
The first thing I would like to say about this book is that I fell a little bit in love with Declan.  He is strong, loyal, protective and has a body to die for *swoon*. Ahem, anyway back to the review!  I have never read a book about dragons before so this was an interesting new take on the paranormal genre for me.
I also really like the character of Alexia.  She is a feisty lady who can see straight through Lotharus and his wicked ways and who is strong enough to survive the worst of what he puts her through.  I think that Declan and Alexia complement each other perfectly as a couple and there is a huge amount of sexual chemistry between them.  Although there are a lot of steamy scenes between these two, they also obviously care about each other a great deal and are willing to put themselves in danger to protect each other.
Apart from the aforementioned steamy scenes between Declan and Alexia there is also a great plot, which can sometimes be hard to find in paranormal romance novels.  A lot of this plot revolves around Lotharus, who is the bad guy that everybody will love to hate!  This book has moments of lust, romance, suspense, action, betrayal, hope and intrigue and all of this makes for a book that is impossible to put down!  I definitely recommend this book to any fans of paranormal romance and I can’t wait to read something else written by Meagan Hatfield!

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading.

Here’s what you have to do:

1. Grab your current read.

2. Open to a random page.

3. Share two (2) teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.

4. Be careful not to include spoilers.

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the books to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from Water Bound by Christine Feehan:

“Don’t go yet.” Because he didn’t dare go to sleep.  He might really kill her if he woke up disoriented.  He needed to be able to figure out what the hell was going on.
Page 68

What is your Tuesday Teaser?

What are you reading this week? is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week. This meme is hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World of Books.

Books completed last week:

Switched – Amanda Hocking
Shadow of the Vampire – Meagan Hatfield
Buying Time – Pamela Samuels Young

Books Reviewed Last Week:

Switched – Amanda Hocking
Angels’ Blood – Nalini Singh

Books I gave up on:

None

Books I am currently reading:

Water Bound – Christine Feehan

Up next:

My Single Friend – Jane Costello

 

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.  Every week I’ll post about what books I have received that week – either through the mail for review, borrowed from the library or bought.

For Review:

Michael Scott – The Necromancer

Sophie and Josh have returned to San Francisco.  They must protect themselves from the Dark Elders, but they’ve not yet mastered the magic they’ll need to do so.  Their trust in Nicholas Flamel is shaken, and their friend Scatty is missing.  Unbeknownst to the twins, John Dee has amassed an enormous army of foul creatures, with which he plans to battle Nicholas and his wife, Peronelle.  In order for his plan to work, he must train a necromancer to raise the Mother of the Gods from the dead.  The twins of legend will make the perfect pupils in his diabolical scheme.

Richard Jay Parker – Stop Me

Forward this email to ten friends.  Each of those friends must forward it to ten friends.  Maybe one of those friends of friends of friends will be one of my friends.  If this email ends up in my inbox within a week, I won’t slit the bitch’s throat.
Can you afford not to send this onto ten friends?
Leo Sharpe’s life is shattered when his wife Laura suddenly disappears.  His desperate need to find her turns to obsession when he becomes convinced she’s the latest victim of The Vacation Killer who has claimed eleven lives already – is Laura going to be the twelfth?  The MO is the same every time – a woman disappears and within hours inboxes around the world receive a threatening email.  A few days later, grim evidence of the victim’s death is delivered to the police.  But in Laura’s case, nothing is sent.  Has the killer spared her life?  Why?  And for how long?  For Leo, the clock is ticking – he needs to do everything in his power to stop the killer before it’s too late.

Library:

Kresley Cole – No Rest for the Wicked

A vampire warrior who yearns for death…  Three hundred years ago, Sebastian Wroth’s brothers forced him to become a vampire – a nightmare in his mind.  Shamed and alone for ages, he longs to die.  Until an exquisite creature comes to kill him, inadvertently saving him instead.Â
A beautiful assassin dispatched to destroy him…  When Kaderin the Cold Hearted lost her two beloved sisters long ago, a benevolent force deadened her sorrow – accidentally extinguishing all of her emotions.  Yet whenever she encounters the vampire with his grave eyes, her feelings – particularly lust – emerge multiplied.  For the first time, she’s unable to complete a kill.  The prize is a key powerful enough to resurrect her sisters.  Not understanding the key’s import, Sebastian hinders her against other opponents by using her new feelings to seduce her and earn her love.  But when Kaderin is forced to choose between finally killing Sebastian and reuniting her family, how can she live without either…?

What was in your mailbox this week?

 

Publisher – Gollancz
Publication Date – 11th February 2010
Paperback – 368 pages
Genre – Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Series– Book 1 in the Gulid Hunter Series

Source – Library

Book Information - Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she’s the best – but she doesn’t know if she’s good enough for this job.  Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear – failure is not an option…  even if the task she’s been set is impossible.  Because this time, it’s not a wayward vamp she has to track.  It’s an archangel gone bad.  The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other… and pull her to the razor’s edge of passion.  Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may.  Because when archangels play, mortals break…

Review - Elena Deveraux spends her time capturing wayward vampires and then delivering them back to the angels that ‘Made’ them.  In Angels’ Blood, the angels are not the religious icons that we have come to know them as today, but are in fact all-powerful rulers of the human world who use vampires to help them impose their will.  When Elena receives a summons from the Archangel Raphael, she knows this is not good.  He is known to be incredibly dangerous and seductive and he needs Elena to work for him and track down another archangel who has turned to the dark side.  During the hunt that ensues, Elena finds herself getting closer to Raphael whilst her inability to keep her mouth closed manages to upset a lot of other dangerous characters.  As a result of this, Elena is constantly fighting off threats from vampires, angels and even archangels.
I loved the main characters of Elena and Raphael.  Elena is strong and independent and I love that she will not back down on things, even when facing an archangel (although this does tend to get her in a lot of trouble).  She has been through a lot in her life and although at times her past comes back to haunt her, she fights through her fear and still manages to get on with the job at hand.  Raphael is dark, dangerous and incredibly sexy.  There is a huge amount of sexual chemistry between these two characters and I love the way the relationship develops between them.
I also really enjoyed reading about the world created by Nalini Singh.  I am fairly new to the genre of urban fantasy but this book was very different to the others that I have read.  Angels are the most powerful creatures on the earth and they are beautiful and deadly.  Vampires, on the other hand, are created by angels and are their subordinates.  In Angels’ Blood the vampires are not portrayed as the all evil beings that they are in some other books - although they do drink blood, they do not kill people.
I loved reading Angels’ Blood; it is full of action, romance, sexual tension and mystery.  I especially loved the ending – it is the first urban fantasy book that has brought a little tear to my eye because of a happy ending!  I cannot recommend this book enough to anybody who loves reading urban fantasy or paranormal romance.

Other books in the series:
1. Angels’ Blood
2. Archangel’s Kiss

Jennifer from Crazy for Books has come up with a great new meme that I will be taking part in.  It follows in the spirit of Friday Follow but it is specifically for book bloggers! I am very excited about this blog hop as it will give me a chance to find out about lots of other book blogs that I might not have known about otherwise.

If you want to join in the fun, all you have to do is visit Crazy for Books and sign up with McLinky.  Then just have a look through the other blogs that are signed up and hopefully make lots of new bloggy friends!

Also, every week Jennifer asks us a different question that we have to answer in our blog hop post, so that we can all start to get to know each other better.  Today’s question: Tell us about the book you are currently reading!

Ok, so at the moment I am reading two different books and they are both from quite different genres!  I am reading an ebook of Shadow of the Vampire by Meagan Hatfield which is paranormal romance.  I am loving this book a lot!  The other book that I am reading is Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young and this is crime/thriller.  I am obviously very lucky as I am enjoying this book as well. 

If you find my site through the Book Blogger Hop leave a comment here and I will come and visit your blog.

I also want to let you know about a new meme that I have started!  It is called Radiant Reviews and it is a way to link up reviews to books that you have read and loved!  It is a great way to get more comments on your reviews, find out what books other bloggers are loving and meet other bloggers who like similar books to you.  If you would like to take part in this weeks Radiant Reviews, please visit here.

Happy blog hopping x

This is the third week of my new meme – Radiant Reviews! (Please note: this meme is normally held on a Thursday but as I am busy Thursday morning, I am posting it tonight instead!)

It is so easy to take part and hopefully anybody who does take part will get more comments on their reviews, find lots of great books to read and find new blogs to follow!  The only downside to participating in this meme is that your TBR pile may grow seriously out of control!!!

Radiant Reviews was inspired by Cym Lowell’s Book Review Party Wednesday.

OK, so here is how you can take part:

1. Place a link to your review of a book you have loved into Mister Linky below.  It must be a book that you have really enjoyed and that you would like to recommend to other bloggers.  In the section for your name, please put the name of your blog, the title of the book and its genre (all genres are welcome in Radiant Reviews).  In the URL section, please leave a direct link to your review – not just your blog URL.

2. Place my Radiant Reviews button, or some other kind of link to Chrissie’s Corner, on the review that you have linked to.  This is to promote the meme in the hope that more and more people will take part every week.

3. Visit other people’s reviews and leave comments if you can. I know that on my blog (and it might be the same for some of you other bloggers out there) it is the reviews that receive the least amount of comments and I think this is a real shame as they are the posts which take the most time and effort. So do please try to leave comments and show other bloggers some love!

And that is all there is to it!  So here we go…

 

Book Information - When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her.  It isn’t until eleven years later that Wendy finds out her mother might’ve been telling the truth.
With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed – and it’s one she’s not sure if she wants to be a part of.

Review – Wendy is a seventeen year old who has always felt that she didn’t fit in anywhere.  This all started from a very young age when her mother attacked her at her sixth birthday party and tried to kill her.  She now lives with her brother and her aunt, but Wendy still doesn’t really feel like she belongs.  Then a new student, Finn, arrives at the school who keeps staring at Wendy.  She finds it all a bit strange and when she confronts him about it he won’t give her a proper reason.  One night, Wendy wakes up to find Finn sitting outside her bedroom window.  She lets him in and he starts to tell her why he has been following her around.  Finn tells Wendy that she is a changeling and that she isn’t really human either, she is a troll (although they now prefer the term Trylle).  It is Finn’s job to take Wendy back to her real family and to a place where only the trylle live.  When she arrives there she must try once again to find a place to belong.
I have to admit that when I was reading the first few chapters I didn’t think I was going to like this book at all.  It moved at a slow pace and didn’t really draw me into the story.  I found Wendy to be spoilt and immature and I didn’t like Finn either (he just seemed really creepy).  And when Finn told her that she was actually a troll, I just found that a bit too big a stretch of the imagination.
However when Wendy leaves her home to go and find her real family with Finn, the story improves a huge amount.  Wendy actually becomes a lot more likeable and I started to feel quite sorry for her.  She feels incredibly lonely in the world as her hopes of being part of a loving family where she feels she belongs are ruined once again.  She begins to mature and show that she often thinks of others rather than just thinking of herself.
Finn also becomes a lot more likeable (and a lot less creepy) once his role in the story becomes clear.  He is a tracker who hunts for the changelings and then brings them back to their real family.  Once he has reunited Wendy with her mother, he stays around for a while after in order to help her acclimate to her new life.  Although at times he can seem quite cold, this is just a professional facade he puts on whilst carrying out his duty to Wendy and her mother.  But there is also another side to him -  a side that shows he is intelligent, kind and cares about Wendy in a huge way.  After not liking Finn at all at the beginning of the book, he actually grew on me a lot and he is now one of my favourite male characters in a YA book.
The troll storyline also grew on me a lot as the story progressed.  When trolls were first mentioned at the beginning of the book, I immediately thought of big, green ugly creatures living under bridges and I didn’t like the idea of this at all.  However, once Wendy reaches her home it is explained that trolls are in fact mostly the same as humans but they have special abilities and an affinity with nature.  I actually really enjoyed this explanation and I felt that it gave the book a nice little twist when compared with other paranormal stories.
So, overall I really enjoyed reading Switched, and my message to anybody else who is reading it and is struggling with the beginning: please carry on as it does get a lot better!

Source – Received from author for review

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading.

Here’s what you have to do:

1. Grab your current read.

2. Open to a random page.

3. Share two (2) teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.

4. Be careful not to include spoilers.

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the books to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from Shadow of the Vampire by Meagan Hatfield:

She was down there.  He could not see her, but he could smell her.  Powerful.  Evil.
Page 10

What’s your Tuesday teaser?

What are you reading this week? is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week. This meme is hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World of Books.

Books completed last week (click on links to see my reviews):

Sizzling Sixteen – Janet Evanovich
Forbidden – Tabitha Suzuma
Angels’ Blood – Nalini Singh

Books I gave up on:

None

Books I am currently reading:

Switched – Amanda Hocking

Up next: 

Buying Time – Pamela Samuels Young
Shadow of the Vampire – Meagan Hatfield

 

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.  Every week I’ll post about what books I have received that week – either through the mail for review, borrowed from the library or bought.  I got loads of great books this week and I’m very excited about reading them!!!

For Review:

Jane Costello – The Nearly-Weds (This was passed on to me from Book Chick City to review)

What’s the worst thing that could happen to a blushing bride?  To somebody warm, loving, and fun – like Zoe Moore? When she finds herself jilted at the altar by her fiance Jason, Zoe knows she doesn’t deserve this heartache and humiliation.  Unable to face the pitying faces of her friends and family, Zoe takes drastic action: she flees to America.  Specifically, to Boston, where she takes up a post as nanny to five-year-old Ruby Miller and her little brother Samuel.  Ruby and Samuel have lost their mother in an accident.  They may as well have lost their father, too, for Ryan Miller is so wrapped-up in his grief that he barely notices his two attention-starved children.  As Zoe sets about tidying up Ruby and Sam’s home, and injecting some fun back into their lives, she finds herself gaining their trust and love.  At the same time, Zoe grows more and more frustrated with Ryan’s bullying behaviour, and his shameful neglect.  Whatever happened to the loving man she keeps hearing about from his neighbours?  Zoe can’t find any sign of him.  The only thing saving Zoe from despair is the small, close-knit group of British nannies who quickly befriend her.  There’s boisterous Trudie, man-mad but hiding a painful secret; Sloanie traveller Amber, who sports a Buddhist tattoo that, unbeknownst to her, reads ‘Batteries Not Included’.  And chilly, tight-lipped Felicity, whose cut-glass voice gives little away.  But will these new friends be able to save Zoe, when she discovers that the past isn’t all that easy to escape, no matter how far you go?

Christine Feehan – Water Bound

For Lev Prakenskii, the last thing he remembers is being lost in the swirling currents of the ocean and sucked deeper into the nothingness of a freezing black eddy off the coastal town of Sea Haven.  Just as quickly, just as miraculously, he was saved – pulled ashore by a beautiful stranger – but Lev has no memory of who he was – or why he seems to possess the violent instincts of a trained killer.  All he knows is that he fears for his life, and the life of his unexpected saviour.  Her name is Rikki, a sea-urchin diver in the small town of Sea Haven.  She always felt an affinity for the ocean and the seductive pull of the tides – and now, for the enigmatic man she rescued.  But soon they will be bound by something even stronger – each other’s tantalising secrets that will engulf them both in a whirlpool of dizzying passion and inescapable danger.

Martin Millar – Curse of the Wolf Girl

Scottish teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is in London trying to settle down and live a normal life.  Her new friends support her as she goes to college to learn to read and write, but her old enemies won’t leave her alone.  Many powerful werewolves want Kalix dead, and the Guild of Werewolf Hunters is still dedicated to wiping out the entire MacRinnalch werewolf clan.  Life might be easier for Kalix if her werewolf family were able to help, but her sister the Enchantress needs all of her sorcerous powers to locate the perfect pair of high heels, her brother Markus is busy in Scotland organising an opera, and her cousin Dominil is engaged in her own merciless vendetta with her enemies.  Kalix must carry on alone but she’s finding it difficult enough to pay the rent and cope with her anxiety and depression, while struggling with werewolf hunters and exams at the same time…

Kate Brady – Last to Die

She’ll charm you, punish you, then kill you…  Mia Kettering is a ruthless killer who hides in plain sight.  Indeed, no one believes that a beautiful, wealthy socialite could be capable of murder.  But now she’s begun her master plan that will leave six women dead, punished for their dark pasts.  Detective Dani Cole is determined to track down a serial killer whose victims include a young woman she pulled out of a life of crime.  Her investigation leads her to Mitch Sheridan, who once saved her life but then disappeared.  With danger hot on their heels, Dani and Mitch unearth a deathly chain of deception that leads to a killer who is closer than they think – and more terrifying than they imagine…

Kat Richardson – Labyrinth

Just back from London, Harper picked up some new skills while she was away.  But instead of taking the time to hone them, she’d rather focus on what’s important.  Like finding the two-bit perp who ‘killed’ her.  She’s convinced he’s a valuable clue in the puzzle of her past and her missing father, as well as a key to figuring out who’s trying to manipulate her powers and why.  There’s just one problem.  Turns out the man who ‘killed’ her was murdered himself while she was away.  Lucky for Harper, she has an airtight alibi, but that doesn’t mean the police are going to play nice.  With Seattle’s recent surge in violence – thanks to the vampires – she’s already under suspicion.  Which means Harper has to watch her step.  Because finding the ghost of her ‘killer’ – and rescuing her father – will mean entering into the Grey.  And with her growing powers pulling her more deeply into that paranormal world, Harper’s afraid she may not be able to come back out…

Library

Amy Meredith – Shadows

Fifteen-year-old Eve Evergold is cute, sassy and enjoying a busy social life.  What she doesn’t know yet is that someone close to her is an evil demon that only she has the supernatural power to defeat.  She needs to work out who it is – and fast!  Because although there’s something very attractive about the dark side… dating a demon?  Pure hell!

Carrie Jones – Need

Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect Facebook friends.  It’s little wonder, since she’s had a fairly rough life.  Her father left when she was a baby, her stepfather just died and her mother’s almost given up – in fact, she’s sent her to live with her grandmother in cold and sleepy Maine to ‘keep Zara safe’.  Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother just can’t cope.  Zara’s wrong.  The man she sees everywhere – the tall, creepy guy who points at her from the side of the road – is not a figment of her imagination.  He’s a pixie.  But not the cute, sweet kind with little wings.  Maine’s got a whole assortment of unbelievable creatures.  And they seem to need something – something from Zara…

Carrie Jones – Captivate

Zara and her friends knew they hadn’t solved the pixie problem for good.  Far from it.  The king’s needs grow deeper every day he’s stuck in captivity, while his control over his people becomes weaker.  It’s made him vulnerable.  And now there’s a new king in town.  A turf war is imminent.  The new pixie king is moving in quickly.  He swears that he and Zara are destined to be together, that he’s one of the good guys.  Zara isn’t so sure.  Despite herself, she wants to trust the new king, but there’s a lot more than her relationship with boyfriend Nick at stake.  It’s her life – and his.

Rachel Hawkins – Hex Hall

In the wake of a love spell gone horribly wrong, Sophie Mercer, a sixteen-year-old witch, is shipped off to Hecate Hall, a boarding school for witches, shapeshifters and faeries.  The traumas of mortal high school are nothing compared to the goings on at “Freak High.”  It’s bad enough that she has to deal with a trio of mean girls led by the glamorous Elodie, but it’s even worse when she begins to fall for Elodie’s gorgeous boyfriend, Archer Cross, and frankly terrifying that the trio are an extremely powerful coven of dark witches.  But when Sophie begins to learn the disturbing truth about her father, she is forced to face demons both metaphorical and real, and come to terms with her own growing power as a witch.

What was in your mailbox this week?

 

Publisher – Definitions
Publication Date – 27 May 2010
Paperback – 432 pages
Genre – Young Adult/General Fiction

Source – Received from publisher for review

Book Information - She is pretty and talented – sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But …They are brother and sister. Forbidden will take you on an extraordinary emotional journey. Passionate and shocking, this is a book you will remember long after you have put it down.

Review – When I first heard about this book, I heard that it was all about a brother and sister falling in love with each other.  So when I picked it up to read I was expecting to be shocked by a tale of incest.  However, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Yes, the story is about sibling incest, but it is also about so much more than that, including things that I found much more shocking than Lochan and Maya’s love for each other.
When Lochan and Maya are just eleven and twelve, their father runs away to Australia with another woman to start a new life with a new family.  It is then up to them to help their mother look after their younger siblings.  At the start of ‘Forbidden’ they are sixteen and seventeen and their mother would much rather get drunk and go out with her new boyfriend than look after her kids.  Everything is left up to Lochan and Maya, including housework, getting their siblings ready for school and picking them up again, helping the younger kids with their homework, cooking, food shopping and paying all the bills with the money that they have to fight to get off of their mother.  They do all of this whilst going to school and studying for exams themselves.  They have been forced to grow up because their mother refuses to and wants to forget all about the family that she feels is holding her  back from finding a man.  Because of the situation they find themselves in, it is impossible not to fall in love with the two main characters and hope that they find happiness, in whatever form that may take for them, by the end of the story.
Throughout the book there are several scenes of neglect that I just found heartbreaking.  For example, one day it is the mother’s turn to collect the younger children from school, however, when Maya returns home she finds her mother hung-over on the couch and she was unable to pick up the children.  It is up to Maya and Lochan to find out what has happened to Tiffin and Willa when they hear from the school that a childminder who they have never heard of has come to pick them up.  Whilst Lochan and Maya are terrified that Tiffin and Willa have been kidnapped, their mother insists that she is far too ‘ill’ to help them look for them.  Although, a couple of hours later, when the children are all home, she suddenly feels much better when her boyfriend comes to pick her up for a night out.  This is just one of many examples and this kind of neglect often had me in tears whilst reading this book.  It is so apparent that the most important thing to Maya and Lochan is to keep the family together and off of Social Service’s radar and they go to extreme lengths to make this happen.  However, their mother really couldn’t care less and makes it obvious that she believes her two eldest children should have left school by now and financially supporting their younger siblings so that she can disappear from their lives completely.
Although the relationship between Lochan and Maya is clearly wrong, because of the authors brilliant storytelling I really didn’t feel as disgusted as I possibly could have done whilst reading about this topic.  Is it really any surprise that they feel so closely bonded, and so isolated from the outside world, after everything that they have been through during their childhood?  And because the story is told jointly by both Lochan and Maya, it is obvious to the reader that the feelings are mutual and that nobody is being forced into something they don’t want to do.  They try so hard to fight the feelings that they know are wrong, but in the end they just become too overwhelmed to be able to fight it any more.
I actually found this book quite difficult to read because of all the issues that the author tackles.  And there are overwhelming feelings of sadness and desperation throughout.  The only happier moments come from Maya’s narration, and I couldn’t really feel her optimism as I felt she was being incredibly naive about her and Lochan’s chances of a future together.  This book also contains possibly one of the most tragic endings I have ever read and I don’t mind admitting that I shed a few tears over the last couple of chapters.
One of the things I always ask myself when writing a book review is did I enjoy reading the book and how much did I enjoy it.  So, did I enjoy reading ‘Forbidden’?  No, I didn’t.  But, as strange as this may sound, I do not mean this as a criticism of the book.  This is not a book written to be ‘enjoyed’ it the traditional sense.  It is a book that means to make the reader think and to induce strong emotions.  I really don’t think I have ever been so emotionally involved in a book before.  I felt anger at the mother, pity for both Lochan and Maya, hope for them and all through the book I felt their anxiety over the possibility of getting caught.  I also continually felt like I wanted to crawl into the pages of the book to help them with everything that was going on in their lives.  There was always the constant feeling that maybe if they had not been forced to grow up so quickly and become parents to their siblings at such a young age then maybe things would not have ended as they did.
This book is definitely worth a read, but only when you are feeling strong, as it is impossible not to be dragged in emotionally by the story and the characters.  It is the type of book that really questions everything that you think about the world and it will stay with you a long time after you have finished reading it.

This is the second week of my new meme – Radiant Reviews!

It is so easy to take part and hopefully anybody who does take part will get more comments on their reviews, find lots of great books to read and find new blogs to follow!  The only downside to participating in this meme is that your TBR pile may grow seriously out of control!!!

Radiant Reviews was inspired by Cym Lowell’s Book Review Party Wednesday.

OK, so here is how you can take part:

1. Place a link to your review of a book you have loved into Mister Linky below.  It must be a book that you have really enjoyed and that you would like to recommend to other bloggers.  In the section for your name, please put the name of your blog, the title of the book and its genre (all genres are welcome in Radiant Reviews).  In the URL section, please leave a direct link to your review – not just your blog URL.

2. Place my Radiant Reviews button, or some other kind of link to Chrissie’s Corner, on the review that you have linked to.  This is to promote the meme in the hope that more and more people will take part every week.

3. Visit other people’s reviews and leave comments if you can. I know that on my blog (and it might be the same for some of you other bloggers out there) it is the reviews that receive the least amount of comments and I think this is a real shame as they are the posts which take the most time and effort. So do please try to leave comments and show other bloggers some love!

And that is all there is to it!  So here we go…

 

Publisher– Headline Review
Publication Date – 22 June 2010
Hardback – 320 pages
Genre – Crime
Series– Book 16 in the Stephanie Plum Series

Source – Received from publisher for review

Book Information – Trenton, New Jersey.  Bounty Hunter Stephanie Plum has inherited a ‘lucky’ bottle from her Uncle Pip.  Problem is, Uncle Pip didn’t specify if the bottle brought good luck or bad luck…
BAD LUCK: Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, has run up a gambling debt of $786,000 with mobster Bobby Sunflower and is being held until the cash can be produced.  Nobody else will pay to get Vinnie back, leaving it up to Stephanie, office manager Connie, and file clerk Lula to raise the money if they want to save their jobs.
GOOD LUCK: Being in the business of tracking down people, Stephanie, Lula, and Connie have an advantage in finding Vinnie.  If they can rescue him, it will buy them some time to raise the cash.
BAD LUCK: Finding a safe place to hide Vinnie turns out to be harder than raising $786,oo.  Vinnie’s messing up Mooner’s vibe, running up pay-per-view porn charges in Ranger’s apartment, and making Stephanie question genetics.
GOOD LUCK: Between a bonds office yard sale that has the entire Burg turning out, Mooner’s Hobbit-Con charity event, and Uncle Pip’s mysterious bottle, they just might raise enough money to save the business, and Vinnie, from ruin.
BAD LUCK: Saving Vincent Plum Bail Bonds means Stephanie can keep being a bounty hunter.  In Trenton, this involves hunting down a man wanted for polygamy, a Turnpike toilet paper bandit, and a drug dealer with a pet alligator named Mr Jingles.
GOOD LUCK: The job of bounty hunter comes with perks in the guise of Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, and the dark and dangerous security expert, Ranger.  With any luck at all, Uncle Pip’s lucky bottle will have Stephanie getting lucky – the only question is… with whom?
SIZZLING SIXTEEN… So hot, the pages might spontaneously combust.

Review – (***Note*** Even though this is number 16 in a series, this is a series that I have dipped in and out of in the past and they are easy enough to read out of sequence.)
I have to say that this is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time!  I’ve read other books from this series in the past but I haven’t read any for a while and I had forgotten just how funny Janet Evanovich’s writing can be.  Most of this humour comes from Stephanie’s complete ineptitude at her job.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Stephanie, but she was not born to be a bounty hunter.  She is kind, loyal and always tries to do the right thing, but at the same time she is afraid of her own shadow and (according to her friend, Lula) has too many scruples to be able to carry out her job well.  This leads to lots of laugh-out-loud moments where she is trying to rescue Vinnie or catch other criminals but it all just goes hideously wrong.
But, as much as I love Stephanie, my favourite female character from this series has to be Lula.  She is a larger than life character who has a very positive outlook on life, but who doesn’t take any nonsense from the people around her.  For me, Lula is one of the funniest characters I’ve ever come across in a book.  So many funny lines just fall from her mouth that you just can’t stop yourself from laughing.
I don’t normally include quotes in my reviews but I’m going to make an exception this time as there are a couple of funny quotes that I want to share with you.

‘What if Vinnie’s in there and he’s with some of Sunflower’s stooges?  We shoot them, right?’
‘Only if we have to.’
Lula took her Glock out of her bag and stuffed it into her pants, snug to her backbone.  She looked at me.  ‘Don’t you want to get your gun ready to go?’
‘I don’t have a gun.’
‘What have you got?’
‘Hairspray.’
‘Is it firm hold?  I might need some when we’re done here, depending on what we do for lunch.’
Page 22

Minutes after Ranger left, Lula hauled herself up into the Jeep.  ‘The best I could do was blueberry,’ Lula said.  ‘They didn’t have no vegetable doughnuts.  And I got a strawberry jelly-filled, and a pumpkin spice, and a banana scone.  Wait a minute.  Is a pumpkin a vegetable?  Does that count?’
‘You must have eight hundred calories in that bag.’
‘Yeah, but the diet says I can have one of anything.’
‘One doughnut!  Not one of each kind.’
‘You don’t know that for sure,’ Lula said.
‘Have you lost ant weight on this diet?’
‘No.  I gained a couple, but I think it’s water retention.’
Pages 63-64

I was staring so intently, wanting to see help so badly, I almost missed the movement in the woods to the right.  There was no wind, but something was disturbing the undergrowth.  Animal, I thought.  And then movement a few feet over.  And next thing, the woods were alive with Hobbits.  They were everywhere, creeping forward out of the woods onto the grass, inching up to the fortress.  I ran around the room, looking out all the windows, and everywhere I looked I saw Hobbits.  There were hundreds of them.
Page 302

Now, onto the men in Stephanie’s life.  She has been in an on-again/off-again relationship with cop Joe Morelli throughout the whole of this series of books, and in Sizzling Sixteen they are in one of their ‘off-again’ phases.  This leaves room for the mysterious and dangerous Ranger to try and make a move.  Out of these two men, I definitely prefer Ranger.  Joe is a nice guy but there is something very sexy about Ranger.  At the same time though, I think they must both have the patience of a saint to have put up with Stephanie and her antics for so long.
The mystery aspect of the novel was good and moved along at a nice pace, but for the most part this is a nice, quick and easy read that keeps you entertained and will give you a good laugh.  I really enjoyed Sizzling Sixteen and I will definitely be reading some more Janet Evanovich novels in the near future.

Other books in the series:
1. One for the Money
2. Two for the Dough
3. Three to Get Deadly
4. Four to Score
5. High Five
6. Hot Six
7. Seven Up
8. Hard Eight
9. To the Nines
10. Ten Big Ones
11. Eleven on Top
12. Twelve Sharp
13. Lean Mean Thirteen
14. Fearless Fourteen
15. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading.

Here’s what you have to do:

1. Grab your current read.

2. Open to a random page.

3. Share two (2) teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.

4. Be careful not to include spoilers.

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the books to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh.

The gun had done what Vivek had promised.  It had almost destroyed the bottom half of one wing.  What Vivek hadn’t told her was that when an angel’s wing got hurt, he bled.  And he bled dark red.
Page 137

Also, I am hosting a new meme every Thursday called Radiant Reviews.  All you have to do is link up a review you have written for a book that you have loved and then visit some of the other links to find out what other bloggers are loving.  You can find more info here, and if you have time please do pop back on Thursday – it is very easy to take part and a lot of fun.

What are you reading this week? is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week. This meme is hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World of Books.

Books completed and reviewed last week:

A Hunger Like No Other – Kresley Cole
Winter’s Passage – Julie Kagawa

Books I gave up on:

None

Books I am currently reading:

Angels’ Blood – Nalini Singh

Up next: 

Forbidden – Tabitha Suzuma
Sizzling Sixteen – Janet Evanovich

Blog News: A brand new meme here at Chrissie’s Corner!

Last week I started up a brand new meme called ‘Radiant Reviews’.  It is basically a place where you can link up reviews of books that you have really enjoyed reading and then everybody who takes part can visit the reviews and hopefully find great new books to read and new blogs to follow!!!  ‘Radiant Reviews’ will take place every Thursday and you can find more information about it here.  If you can, please do come along on Thursday to take part!  It was a lot of fun last week but it would be great to have even more people take part this week :)

 

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.  Every week I’ll post about what books I have received that week – either through the mail for review, borrowed from the library or bought.

For Review:

Evie Parker – 100% Gleek: The Unofficial Guide to Glee

”High School Musical” with a difference, ”Glee” is the hottest TV show of the year.  This all-singing, all-dancing musical dramedy follows a bunch of aspiring misfits and underdogs as they attempt to make their school choir cool.
The perfect guide to the cynical, sweet and downright funny hit show, this companion book is packed with behind the scenes facts, set gossip and full colour photos – it’s a must-read for all you Gleeks!

Amanda Hocking – Switched

When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her.  It isn’t until eleven years later that Wendy finds out her mother might’ve been telling the truth.
With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed – and it’s one she’s not sure if she wants to be a part of.

What was in your mailbox this week?

 

Publisher – Harlequin
Publication Date – 1st June 2010
Ebook – 51 pages
Genre – Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
Series – Book 1.5 of the Iron Fey Trilogy

Source – Received from netGalley for review

Book Information - Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl… until she discovered that she is really a faery princess.  After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash.  But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck – Meghan’s best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon – who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey.
Yet Meghan and Ash’s detour does not go unnoticed.  They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter – a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat….

Review - (This will probably turn out to be a quick review, but then it was a very short story.)  OK, so I have read loads of great reviews for this novella, but I must admit that I had mixed feelings about it.  There are some things that I really loved whilst other things I thought were just so-so.  One of the things that I loved most about Winter’s Passage is the way the author describes the fey world and the creatures within it.  You can’t help but feel as though you are there with Meghan and Ash as they travel to the Winter Court.  Also, the chemistry between Meghan and Ash just jumps off the page at you.  I really like the fact that they are in love with each other despite all that stands between them and I really hope that things get resolved between them later on in the series.
So, now onto the things that I wasn’t so sure about.  First of all, I know that this is just a short story, but nothing much happens in it.  It just felt to me as though it was a description of all the things that they saw along their way to the Winter Court with only one small bit of action in it, where the hunter is chasing after them.  And although I liked the feeling of suspense brought along by the hunter storyline, I wasn’t very satisfied with the way that particular part of the story ended.
But overall, it was a good, quick and easy read full of beautiful description.  It acts as a good bridge between The Iron King and The Iron Daughter and it is definitely worth a read if you are a fan of the Iron Fey series.

 

Publisher – Pocket Star
Publication Date – 2nd June 2008
Paperback – 384 Pages
Genre – Paranormal Romance
Series – Book 1 in the Immortals After Dark Series

Source – Library

Book Information - A mythic warrior who’ll stop at nothing to possess her…
After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he’s waited millennia for is a vampire.  Or partly one.  This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.
A vampire captured by her wildest fantasy…
Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents – until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle.  There, her fear of the Lykae – and their notorious dark desires – ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.
An all-consuming desire…
Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be?

Review – The story starts with Lachlain MacRieve, a Lykae who has been held prisoner and tortured by vampires for 150 years.  He finally finds the strength and courage to break free from his imprisonment when he scents his mate somewhere near by.  Lachlain has been searching for his mate for centuries and he is not going to let her get away from him now he has finally found her.  However, he is disappointed when he catches up to Emmaline to realise that she is a vampire – one of the creatures that has tortured him for the last fifteen decades – and he readily shows his disgust of her and the rest of her species.  But he soon finds out that Emmaline is nothing like the vampires that held him captive and he starts to fall for her.  Emmaline feels very differently about Lachlain though.  She sees him as a monster who wants to torment and hurt her.  But soon danger surrounds them from all sides and they realise that they are willing to do anything to keep each other safe.
Both Lachlain and Emmaline go on an emotional journey throughout A Hunger Like No Other, and I loved reading about this journey.  Lachlain starts off as a (literally) tortured soul who has trouble keeping his animal instincts in check.  But as he spends more time with Emmaline, he becomes a lot more content and, although at times he does lie to his mate or treat her in a way that is perhaps not quite right, he would do anything for her and do anything to keep her at his side.  And it is easy to forgive Lachlain for his little indiscretions when you consider that he has not had any contact with others (apart from the vampires torturing him) for 150 years.
Emmaline, however, starts off as a very timid creature who is used to the protection of her aunts – a coven of vicious Valkyries.  Although she is part vampire, she has never drunk ‘from the source’ and wants to protect living things (a way of life that earns her a lot of ridicule from her family).  But during her time with Lachlain, she finds herself in many dangerous situations and she finds strength from them.  The result of this is that by the end of the novel she is an incredibly strong female who can hold her own in a fight as well as refusing to be walked over by her family and Lachlain.
I loved both of the main characters and the relationship that develops between the two of them – there is certainly a huge amount of sexual chemistry between them, even if it does take them a long time to realise that their feelings run a lot deeper that just this physical connection.  I also found the storyline of the book, involving all the threats from their enemies, to be intriguing, well-written and full of action.  Overall, I really enjoyed reading A Hunger Like No Other and I can’t wait to read the others in the series.

Other books in the series:
1. The Warlord Wants Forever (in the anthology ‘Playing Easy to Get’)
2. A Hunger Like No Other
3. No Rest for the Wicked
4. Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night
5. Dark Needs at Night’s Edge
6. Dark Desires After Dusk
7. Kiss of a Demon King
8. Untouchable (in the anthology ‘Deep Kiss of Winter’)
9. Pleasure of a Dark Prince