Archive for March, 2010

Publisher – Piatkus Books
Publication Date – 25th September 2003
Paperback – 336 Pages
Genre – Crime
Series – Book 3 in the In Death series

Source – Purchased

Book Information - ‘She’d come to New York to be a cop, because she believed in order.  Needed it to survive.  She had taken control, had made herself into the person some anonymous social worker had named Eve Dallas’.  But in a few weeks she won’t just be Eve Dallas, lieutenant, homicide.  She’ll be Roarke’s wife.  But Eve’s wedding plans may have to be put on hold as her private and professional lives collide…  The victim in her latest murder investigation is one of the most sought-after women in the world.  A top model who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted – even another woman’s man.  And Eve’s chief suspect is the other woman in this fatal love triangle – her best friend Mavis. Putting her job on the line to head the investigation, Eve discovers that the world of high fashion thrives on an all-consuming passion for youth and fame.  One that leads from the runway to the dark underworld of New York City where drugs can fulfil any desire – for a price…

Review – It is only a few weeks until her wedding to Roarke but Eve can not afford to relax when a top model is found murdered and her best friend becomes the main suspect.  Eve then manages to link the model’s murder to other homicides in the city – but this time it is low-life drug dealers who are the victims.  The murders are linked by a new illegal drug that seems to make people younger and stronger.  The only down side being that it is a poison that will slowly kill the person taking the drug.  Whilst trying to investigate the murders and trying to prove that her friend is innocent, Eve has to deal with wedding preparations and increasingly frequent and violent flashbacks of a childhood that she has not been able to remember up until now.
Although I liked Eve in the first book of the series, I did not like her much in the second.  However, Eve goes through a lot in this book that I think makes her a lot more human and likeable.  In Immortal in Death she has very vivid flashbacks and dreams of a childhood spent at the hands of an incredibly cruel father.  This seems to make her character a lot more vulnerable and she actually starts to drop some of her defences, making her much more realistic.  They also help her to open up more to Roarke and I think this strengthens the relationship between them.  Although these flashbacks obviously hurt a lot, I think that they were vital in the development of Eve’s character and I am glad that they happened.  I don’t think anybody could be as strong and independent as Eve was making herself out to be in the first two books.
 The more of these books that I am reading, the more I am falling for Roarke.  He is a big tough guy who obviously loves Eve a great deal and would do anything for her.  I love the way he takes care of Eve when she is neglecting her own needs whilst working on an important case, and how he always seems to know the right thing to do to make her feel better.  I am definitely looking forward to seeing the development of their relationship as the series progresses.  The only thing bothering me about him is his name – is Roarke his first or last name?  What is the rest of his name?  I was hoping to find out at the wedding but the book finished right before the wedding takes place so I guess I will have to wait a little bit longer before I find out (Please tell me that we do find out his name!).
The storyline involving the murders was interesting and moved along at a good pace.  Although I have to admit that I did have a sneaky suspicion who was behind the murders that turned out to be true.  But this didn’t spoil the book for me at all, I still really enjoyed it and I’m glad that I am starting to like Eve a lot more now.

Other books in the series (click on link to see my review):
1. Naked In Death
2. Glory In Death
3. Immortal In Death
4. Rapture In Death
5. Ceremony In Death
6. Vengeance In Death
7. Holiday In Death
8. Midnight in Death
9. Conspiracy In Death
10. Loyalty in Death
11. Witness In Death
12. Judgment in Death
13. Betrayal in Death
14. Interlude in Death
15. Seduction in Death
16. Reunion in Death
17. Purity in Death
18. Portrait in Death
19. Imitation in Death
20. Remember When
21. Divided in Death
22. Visions in Death
23. Survivor in Death
24. Origin in Death
25. Memory In Death
26. Haunted in Death
27. Born In Death
28. Innocent in Death
29. Eternity in Death
30. Creation in Death
31. Strangers In Death
32. Salvation In Death
33. Ritual in Death
34. Promises in Death
35. Kindred in Death
36. Missing in Death
37. Fantasy in Death

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 Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder:

“Follow me.” He led me from the factory and into the cooler air.  The man cut down an alley.
I hesitated on entering the quiet narrow street, remembering Zitora’s orders to be careful.  But I decided the need to talk to Cesca was more important.
Page 118

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:

A Quick Bite – Lynsay Sands
Immortal in Death – J.D. Robb

Books I gave up on:

None

Books I am currently reading:

Storm Glass – Maria V. Snyder

Up next:

The Maestro’s Voice – Roland Vernon
A Girl’s Guide to Vampires – Katie MacAlister

Books I still need to write reviews on:

A Quick Bite – Lynsay Sands
Immortal in Death – J.D. Robb

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:

Roland Vernon – The Maestro’s Voice

New York, 1926.  Rocco Campobello, the great tenor – one of the most revered entertainers in the world – collapses on stage.  He emerges from this brush with death a changed man: a fallen, but enlightened colossus.  Casting off the mantle of celebrity, he embarks on a journey into his dark and sinister past which takes him back to his impoverished early life and to the city that made him: Naples.  There he is forced to confront the truth about himself, his ruthlessness and treachery and to address ghosts from his past that he now seeks to lay to rest.  Magnificent, flamboyant, yet impoverished and decaying, Naples is a city caught in the throes of change.  The old ways, embodied in the activities of the camorra, the Italian mafia, are fighting to survive in the face of the brutal new politics of Mussolini and his Fascists.  Don Graziani, head of one of the city’s most respected – and feared – families, has much to lose if the great tenor’s career falls apart.  In league with Campobello’s near-estranged wife, he conspires to re-launch the great voice in magnificent fashion.  When persuasion fails, he reveals his true colours and resorts to brutal blackmail as the means to force the tenor to go along with their plans and return to the stage.  Rediscovering his own integrity, Campobello is compelled to hatch a dangerous counter plot of his own in order to outmanoeuvre them all and reclaim his life as his own…

From the Library:

Jenna Black – The Devil Inside

Morgan Kingsley, is an exorcist who precariously walks that fine line between heaven and hell.  She lives in a world in which demons co-exist with humans.  Normally hailed as heroes, these demons can heal, help, and make strong the willing hosts who gladly accept their corporeal possession - unless a demon steps outside the boundaries of the law. That’s where Morgan, comes in.  She is an expert in getting rogue demons to leave their unwilling hosts.  But now the unthinkable has happened: Morgan’s got a demon of her very own sharing – possibly overtaking – her body.  But this sexy beast is so enticing that he may tempt Morgan to re-evaluate her prejudice against demons – if he doesn’t get her killed first.  For a war is brewing in the demon realm, and Morgan has just been forced to take sides.

Richelle Mead – Storm Born

Just typical.  No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants…  Eugenie Markham is a powerful shamen who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world.  Mercenary, yes, but a girl’s got to eat.  Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite.  Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy – one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie’s first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.  Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne’er-do-well, and the ones who don’t want to knock her up want her dead.  Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this.  She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction.  But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her.

What was in your mailbox this week?

Publisher – Pan
Publication Date – 3rd August 2007
Paperback – 352 pages
Genre – Paranormal Romance
Series – Book 1 in the Nightcreature Series

Source – Library

Book Information - Miniwa, Wisconsin, is under siege, but not by the usual summer tourists.  The area’s normally shy wolf population has begun stalking human prey, and their victims have been disappearing… or worse.  Something is happening in the woods.  Something no on can explain…
Officer Jessie McQuade has seen plenty in her years on the force – but nothing as intriguing as the gorgeous, naked man she encounters while tracking a rogue wolf.  Professor Will Cadotte is a Native American activist.  He’s also the only man capable of distracting Jessie from her work.  And for a cop, distraction – no matter how pleasurable can be deadly.  It’s against Jessie’s better judgement to accept Will’s help in her investigation, yet she soon finds herself doing exactly that – and more.  Will’s dark, penetrating eyes see into a part of Jessie’s soul she never knew existed.  It’s exhilarating, and terrifying.  Now, as a town’s deepest secrets come to light no one is safe: not friends, lovers, or strangers.  And as Jessie follows a trail to the shocking truth, she’ll have to decide who she can trust when the moon is full…

Review – Police Officer Jessie McQuade is called to the scene of a traffic accident where a woman has hit a wolf and has been bitten by it after checking to see if it is ok.  The wolf has disappeared into the nearby forest and when Jessie tries to find it, she meets a very naked Will Cadotte.  When Jessie goes to visit the vitcim of the accident, she finds that the woman has ripped out the throat of the principal of the school where she works, and is just about to do the same to one of her students.  The woman is promptly shot.  Jessie discovers that the woman had contracted some form of ’super rabies’ from the wolf bite, so a specialist hunter is called in to try to kill any wolves that may be infected with this strain.
At the scene of the car accident, Jessie finds a carved Onyx figure of a wolf, what the local Ojibwe tribe refer to as a totem.  She thinks it is weird that a carved wolf is at the scene of an accident where a wolf was hurt, so she finds an Ojibwe totem expert.  This expert turns out to be none other than Will Cadotte.  Jessie and Will then have to work together, whilst dealing with their very strong attraction for one another, to find out what is happening with the local wolf community.
I really liked the character of Jessie McQuade.  She is incredibly strong and independent (maybe even a bit of a loner) and is a tomboy who loves to hunt in the woods.  She obviously has a lot of baggage to deal with from past experiences but she never lets that hold her back.  When she first meets Will she fall in lust at first sight, but she doesn’t trust him as she knows nothing about him and she is not sure just how involved he is with the case she is working on.  As it happens, we don’t ever really get to find out much at all about Will during the novel, other than how sexy he is and how great he is in bed.  I would have liked to have found out a little bit more about the leading man.
The storyline was great and full of intrigue and suspense.  It moved along at a fast pace and made for nice easy reading (I finished it in a day!).  I also found the Native American history to be really interesting too.  Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be looking out for the other books in the series. 

Other books in the series :
1. Blue Moon
2. Hunter’s Moon
3. Dark Moon
4. Crescent Moon
5. Midnight Moon
6. Rising Moon
7. Hidden Moon
8. Thunder Moon

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City.  It is a chance for me to list a couple of books that are on my TBR list but that I don’t currently own. I’ve only got one book on my wishlist this week but I absolutely LOVE the cover!!!

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

While other teenage girls daydream about boys, Calla Tor imagines ripping out her enemies’ throats.  And she wouldn’t have it any other way.  Calla was born a warrior and on her eighteenth-birthday she’ll become the alpha female of the next generation of Guardian wolves.  But Calla’s predestined path veers off course the moment she saves the life of a wayward hiker, a boy her own age.  This human boy’s secret will turn the young pack’s world upside down and forever alter the outcome of the centuries-old Witches’ War that surrounds them all.

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!

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

Happy blog hopping x

Publisher -  Puffin
Publication Date - 4th February 2010
Paperback – 512 pages
Genre – Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
Series - Book 4 in the Vampire Academy Series

Source – Purchased

WARNING – I can not review this book without giving away spoilers from the previous books in the series.  If you do not want to know what has happened in the earlier books, please do not read this review.

Book Information - How far will Rose go to keep a promise?  The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir’s Academy was the deadliest ever in the school’s history, claiming the lives of many.  Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them – including Dimitri.  He’d rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa — the one she has sworn to protect no matter what — and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago.  But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the person she loves most?

Review – At the end of Shadow Kiss we find out that Rose is going to hunt down Dimitri, who has recently been turned into a strigoi, in order to kill him and release his soul, as they had promised each other they would do if it ever happened that one of them turned strigoi.  She travels to Russia, thinking that he may have returned to his home country.  Here she meets his family and another moroi/dhampir pair who are bonded after the moroi saved the dhampir’s life.  She feels at home here but after falling out with one of Dimitri’s sisters she leaves with a band of strigoi hunters to a nearby city where many strigoi are known to live.  It is here that she comes face to face with her worst nightmare – Dimitri as a strigoi.  This then leads to Rose having to make the hardest decision of her life.  Meanwhile, through her bond with Lissa, Rose can see that Lissa is sliding out of control and has to deal with the guilt of knowing that there is nothing she can do to help her best friend from across the other side of the world.
I have to say that I was very excited to be starting this book after reading the cliff-hanger from Shadow Kiss – I was very glad I had this one to hand so I could start reading it straight away.  However, I did not like this book anywhere near as much as I liked the others in the series.  The first part of the book, where Rose is travelling through Russia in search of Dimitri’s home town and then her time with Dimitri’s family, was very slow reading and I found myself having to force myself to carry on as I really wanted to find out what happened in the book.  I think too much time was given to Rose’s grieving and her memories of Dimitri.  I understand that Rose is grieving for the man that she loves but it is not something that I really want to read about for a third of a book, plus it did start to become a bit repetitive.
It was not until Rose met up with Dimitri that things became more interesting for me.  But even though the plot was a lot better from this point on, I’m afraid to say that I did not like the character that Rose became.  I can’t really say much more than this as I do not want to give away what happens, but she is not the strong female character that I had grown to love.  Also, there is a distinct lack of any action in the first two-thirds of the book, which is another thing that I loved from the previous books in the series.
However, the last third of the book is completely different from the first part of Blood Promise and becomes a lot more like the rest of the series.  Rose snaps herself out of whatever is preventing her from making the right choices and she becomes a lot more like the old Rose.  Plus, there is enough action in this part of the book to more than make up for its absence in the earlier parts.  There is also another brilliant cliff-hanger that would make anybody want to read the fifth book in the series.
Overall, I was not very impressed with this book, but I could see how it was essential to the storyline and I am glad that I did make the effort to read it.  I will still definitely be reading the next book in the series when it is released but I will be keeping my fingers crossed that Rose will not lose her way again.

Other books in the series (click on link to see my review):
1. Vampire Academy
2. Frostbite
3. Shadow Kiss
4. Blood Promise

Publisher – HarperCollins Children’s Books
Publication Date – 2nd April 2009
Paperback – 336 pages
Genre – Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
Series – Book 2 in the Wicked Lovely Series

Source – Purchased

Book Information – After suffering a terrible trauma at the hands of her brother’s dealer friends, Leslie becomes obsessed with the idea of getting a tattoo – it’s the one thing that will allow her to reclaim her body, renew her self-confidence.  And when Rabbit, her local tattoo artist, shows her a secret book of his own designs, she finds one of them irresistible.  Soon, her back is adorned with a pair of mysterious eyes, framed by black wings.  Leslie feels good – more than good.  Nothing bad can touch her.  But what she doesn’t know is that her new tattoo binds her tightly to the faery whose symbol she chose: Irial, the exquisitely dangerous king of the Dark Court!

Review - Leslie lives at home with her father and brother, but she has a far from happy home life.  Her father is constantly drunk and quite often missing, and her brother allows his drug dealer friends to do whatever they like to her whenever he manages to get himself in trouble with them.  Leslie believes that getting a tattoo will help her to gain back some control of her life and of her body.  What she doesn’t realise is that the tattoo she chooses will link her to Irial, the king of the Dark Court.  He will use Leslie to feed off of the bad human emotions that herself and the mortals around her feel in order to keep his court strong.  However, Niall (the right-hand man of the Summer King, Keenan) has fallen in love with Leslie and will do anything to try to break this bond between Leslie and Irial, regardless of the danger that it puts him in.
I did like this book, but not as much as I liked Wicked Lovely.  The main character, Leslie, was strong despite everything that had happened to her at the hands of her brother’s friends and I really felt for her at the beginning of the book when it was being revealed what her life was like.  The other main character, Irial, was also an interesting character that I liked to read about.  Although he is king of the Dark Court, and therefore does have to do bad things in order to keep his court strong, he does seem to have a conscience and tries his best to balance the needs of his court with the needs of Leslie and the other courts.  I also liked the dark world created by Marr where the faeries are far from friendly.
However, not much seems to really happen in the book and this meant that the book didn’t pull me in as much as Wicked Lovely.  It didn’t have much drive to it and only my interest in the characters Irial, Niall and Leslie, and what would happen to them, kept me reading.
Overall, it was an ok book wrapped in a gorgeous cover.

Other books in the series (click on link to see my review):
1. Wicked Lovely
2. Ink Exchange
3. Fragile Eternity

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 A Quick Bite by Lynsay Sands:

In fact, very little about him was as it appeared.  From his thoughts she learned that the bulge pressing against her lower stomach was a cucumber he’d shoved down his pants, his broad shoulders were a result of padding under his jacket, and the attractive tan he sported came from a bottle.
Page 10

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:

Shadow Kiss – Richelle Mead
Blood Promise – Richelle Mead
Ink Exchange – Melissa Marr
Blue Moon – Lori Handeland

Books I gave up on:

None

Books I am currently reading:

A Quick Bite – Lynsay Sands

Up next:

Fragile Eternity – Melissa Marr
Immortal in Death – J.D. Robb
Storm Glass – Maria V. Snyder

Books I still need to write reviews on:

Blood Promise – Richelle Mead
Ink Exchange – Melissa Marr
Blue Moon – Lori Handeland

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.  This week I managed to get another couple of good books from the library.

J.D. Robb – Immortal in Death

‘She’d come to New York to be a cop, because she believed in order.  Needed it to survive.  She had taken control, had made herself into the person some anonymous social worker had named Eve Dallas’.  But in a few weeks she won’t just be Eve Dallas, lieutenant, homicide.  She’ll be Roarke’s wife.  But Eve’s wedding plans may have to be put on hold as her private and professional lives collide…  The victim in her latest murder investigation is one of the most sought-after women in the world.  A top model who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted – even another woman’s man. And Eve’s chief suspect is the other woman in this fatal love triangle – her best friend Mavis.  Putting her job on the line to head the investigation, Eve discovers that the world of high fashion thrives on an all-consuming passion for youth and fame.  One that leads from the runway to the dark underworld of New York City where drugs can fulfil any desire – for a price…

James Patterson – Pop Goes the Weasel

Alex Cross calls them the Jane Doe murders.  Each body has been dumped, abandoned without clothes, without ID. There is no set pattern to the killings and officially they are unconnected.  But Alex knows that one man is responsible, a man who’s living dangerously - a new enemy he’s named Weasel.

I got these to help with a couple of the reading challenges that I am participating in: the In Death Reading Challenge and the James Patterson Reading Challenge.

What was in your mailbox this week?

Publisher -  Puffin
Publication Date - 4th February 2010
Paperback – 464 pages
Genre – Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
Series - Book 3 in the Vampire Academy Series

Source – Purchased

Book Information - It’s springtime at St. Vladimir’s Academy and Rose is close to graduation, but since making her first Strigoi kills, things haven’t felt quite right.  She’s having dark thoughts, behaving erratically, and worst of all… might be seeing ghosts.  Consumed by her forbidden love with her tutor Dimitri and protecting her best friend, the Moroi princess Lissa, Rose is in no state to see the deadly threat that will change her entire world – and make her choose between the two people she loves most.

Review – At the beginning of this book, we see Rose and Lissa about to embark on some special training at St. Vladimir’s Academy.  Rose will be required to undergo six weeks of field experience, where she will have to protect one of the Moroi students as she will be expected to do in the real world when she graduates in a few weeks time.  She thinks this will be easy seeing as she was able to protect Lissa in the real world for two years at the beginning of the series.  However, things don’t quite go to plan when her behaviour becomes more erratic and this starts getting her into trouble with the guardians.  It also doesn’t help that she has started seeing the ghost of a friend of hers who was killed by a Strigoi vampire during the events of Frostbite.  People think that she is starting to go crazy and Rose isn’t entirely sure that this isn’t true.  Things then take a turn for the worse when the Strigoi attack St. Vladimir’s and kill students and take hostages from the school.
Well, I started this book loving Rose’s character from Vampire Academy and Frostbite, but she has changed a lot since Frostbite ended and I didn’t really like Rose as she was portrayed in the first half of the book.  She was selfish, impulsive and had a few temper tantrums that would put my two year old to shame.  I know that Rose was impulsive during the first two books but she took it to the extreme this time.  An explanation is given for this erratic behaviour later on in the book, but for me the damage had been done and I was finding her incredibly annoying.
This all changes later on though when the school is in grave danger from the Strigoi.  Rose becomes the strong and focused character that she was earlier in the series.  And you can’t help but feel for her when she is battling with the Strigoi and trying to cope with the forbidden love that she feels for Dimitri, her mentor.
There is a lot of action at the beginning and throughout the last third of this book, but unfortunately not much in between the two.  This meant that it was quite slow-paced during the middle part of the book.  However, the last third is so full of action that once you get to that part you kind of forget the slower paced middle and get dragged straight into the book.  Plus the end is so tragic and heartbreaking (I may have shed a tear or two!) that you can’t help but love this installment of the series and it makes you desperately want to read the next book.

Other books in the series (click on link to see my review):
1. Vampire Academy
2. Frostbite
3. Shadow Kiss
4. Blood Promise

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City.  It is a chance for me to list a couple of books that are on my TBR list but that I don’t currently own.

1. Firespell by Chloe Neill

As the new girl at the elite St. Sophia’s boarding school, Lily Parker thinks her classmates are the most monstrous things she’ll have to face.  When Lily’s guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked.  So was St. Sophia’s.  Lily’s ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she’s hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building. The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout’s a little weird – she keeps disappearing late at night and won’t tell Lily where she’s been.  But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster.  Scout’s a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who’ve sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who’ve been corrupted by their power.  And when Lily finds herself in the line of a firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own – at least, none that she’s discovered yet…

2. Storm Born by Richelle Mead

Just typical.  No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants… Eugenie Markham is a powerful shamen who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world.  Mercenary, yes, but a girl’s got to eat.  Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite.  Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy – one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie’s first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.  Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne’er-do-well, and the ones who don’t want to knock her up want her dead.  Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this.  She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction.  But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her.

What is on your wishlist this week?

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!

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

Happy blog hopping x

Recently, I have received some more blog awards but haven’t had time to post about them yet.  So I thought it was about time I got around to doing this so that I could properly thank the lovely bloggers who have passed them on to me.

I received the One Lovely Blog Award from C Mash Loves to Read, so thank you Cheryl.  As I have recently passed on this award to some other bloggers (see post here) I won’t be passing it on again.

I also recieved the Beautiful Blogger Award from YzhaBella’s Bookshelf.  I have received this one recently as well (see post here), so I will not be passing this on again.

Last but not least I received the Sugar Doll Blogger Award from Darlyn & Books.  The rules for this blog award are that I have to list 10 things about myself before passing it on to other bloggers.  Hmmm, this is going to be difficult but here goes:

1. My favourite food is chocolate!!!
2. I will be 28 on my birthday in May.
3. I rely on my car too much!  I didn’t realise how much so until it recently broke down and now I don’t feel like I can get anywhere!
4. I hate having to go shopping for pushchairs!  This one is hanging over my head at the moment as I really should be looking to buy a double pushchair before the baby arrives but I just can’t seem to bring myself to start looking for one!
5. I don’t have any brothers or sisters.
6.  My favourite film ever is Dirty Dancing.
7. My favourite ever character from a book is Jamie Fraser from the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon – I think I am a little bit in love with him ;)
8. When I was a kid I always wanted to be a teacher when I grew up.  I quickly changed my mind though after doing two weeks work experience at a school!  I just was not cut out to be a teacher!
9. My husband and I have been together for nine years and married for five of them.
10.  The number of books that I read has gone up loads since I started writing this blog and this means that quite often my house resembles a pigsty.  I blame all of you other book bloggers who read such great books and write such great reviews that I just have to go out a read those books too ;)

I would like to pass this award on to:
1. Dreaming of Books
2. Reading Angel
3. Candace’s Book Blog
4. Midnight Glance
5. Obsessed!

So if you haven’t already seen these blogs, I would recommend them – they are all great!

Publisher – Headline
Publication Date – 2nd July 1998
Paperback – 512 Pages
Genre – Crime/Thriller
Series – Book 4 in the Alex Cross Series

Source – Purchased

Book Information - Alex Cross, the Porsche-driving doctor-detective-profiler-psychologist and single father of two must save his own life as well as the lives of his lover and family in a deadly game of Cat and Mouse.
Cross meets up again with his old nemesis Gary Soneji, the ruthless, bloodthirsty megalomaniac from Along Came a Spider.  Apparently, Soneji isn’t too happy with Cross for putting him away and keeping him out of the violent crime loop for five years, so he’s back with a bone to pick and a couple of fish to fry – or innocent bystanders to shoot, stab, or bludgeon.  Soneji goes on a commuter killing spree in hopes of luring Cross down a bloody trail that ends at the good detective’s own home.
Cross is hot on the case and hot for Christine Johnson, his children’s babe-a-licious principal.  Is Christine a bad-luck charm? Is there another killer? If so, is she or he in cahoots with Soneji? Once again, Patterson delivers a fast-paced, action-packed thriller that’s sure to keep the pages flying.

Review – Once again, James Patterson has written a real page-turner of a novel.  This book focuses on Gary Soneji, a man who Alex first met in Along Came a Spider, the first book in the Alex Cross series.  He is angry with Alex for putting him in prison and so he starts killing random people at train stations, whilst threatening to come after Alex himself.  Alex has to use everything he knows about Sonjeji in order to track him down, stop the murders and protect himself and his family.  He is also called in to help on the investigation of a serial killer calling himself Mr Smith, who is killing people by performing autopsies on them whilst they are still alive.
There are many aspects of this book that I loved.  The first is the fast pace and huge amounts of action that just keep the pages turning so quickly.  This is a trademark of James Patterson books and it means that it is pretty much impossible to put one of these books down once you have started reading.  And the twist in the story involving the Mr Smith case was brilliant – I just didn’t see it coming.
The second is the new relationship that is forming between Alex Cross and Christine Johnson, who is the principal at his kids’ school.  They have fallen for each other in a big way but are both scared to get involved, especially Christine who’s husband was recently murdered.  She is terrified that the same thing is going to happen to Alex in his very dangerous job.  I thought that the development of their relationship was described in a very touching way.
The third thing I really liked is another James Patterson trademark – the fact that parts of the book are written by the killer.  For anybody who hasn’t read a Patterson novel, this doesn’t mean that you know from the beginning who the killer is - far from it as there are often many twists in the plot.  But it does give you a brilliant insight into the killers mind and why he is doing the things that he is doing.
All-in-all, another brilliant novel by James Patterson!

Other books in the series (click on link to see my review):
1. Along Came a Spider
2. Kiss the Girls
3. Jack and Jill
4. Cat and Mouse
5. Pop! Goes the Weasel
6. Roses are Red
7. Violets are Blue
8. Four Blind Mice
9. The Big Bad Wolf
10. London Bridges
11. Mary Mary
12. Cross
13. Double Cross
14. Cross Country
15. Alex Cross’s Trial
16. I, Alex Cross

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 Ink Exchange from Melissa Marr:

Irial’s nature had been altered long before Niall ever drew breath.  Becoming the Dark King had changed him, made him able to control the impact of his touch.  Niall had no such recourse: he was left with memories of mortals who’d withered and died for lack of his embrace.
Page 104

So, what is your Tuesday Teaser?

Publisher -  Puffin
Publication Date - 1st October 2009
Paperback – 336 pages
Genre – Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
Series - Book 2 in the Vampire Academy Series

Source – Purchased

Book Information - It’s winter break at St Vladimir’s, and a massive Strigoi vampire attack has put the school on high alert.  This year’s trip away from the academy to the wintery peaks of Idaho has suddenly become mandatory. But Rose’s troubles seem to follow her wherever she goes – dealing with the pain of knowing that her relationship with her tutor Dimitri can never be, things get even more complicated when one her closest friends admits his feelings for her.  The glittering winter landscape may create the illusion of safety but Rose – and her heart – are in more danger than she ever could have imagined…

Review – Frostbite carries on from where Vampire Academy left off, with Rose and Lissa trying to make their way through high school.  At the beginning of this book, Rose and her mentor, Dimitri, visit another guardian who will be testing Rose on her abilities.  However, when they arrive, they find that the whole household, guardians and Moroi alike, have been slaughtered.  It is discovered that a band of Strigoi vampires are targeting the Moroi royalty and are hoping to wipe them all out.  Humans are helping this band of Strigoi, which means that there is no  safety for the Moroi and their guardians as humans are able to strike during the day.  St Vladimir’s Academy makes the decision to take the students, their families and guardians away to a ski lodge specifically used by Moroi royalty, so that it is easier to guard everybody.  Once they are at the ski lodge they hear of another royal family being massacred.  A group of novice guardians decide to take matters into their own hands and go looking for this group of Strigoi, however, not everything goes to plan.
It is obvious that Rose has grown up and learnt a lot since her activities in Vampire Academy and she does make an effort to control her impulsive nature.  But this isn’t always easy as she is such a passionate person.  It is obvious that she cares deeply about Lissa and always puts Lissa’s feelings before her own.
There is still a lot of sexual chemistry between Rose and Dimitri, but because they are both going to be Lissa’s guardian they can’t be together.  In this book they both make an effort to move on by seeing other people but they both decide that it is not fair on their new partners to use them when their hearts belong elsewhere.  I really do hope that they find a way around this later on in the series as they love each other a lot.
We also meet Rose’s Mum, Janine, for the first time in this book and there is a lot of tension between the two women.  Janine left Rose to be brought up by others whilst she continued with her guardian career.  Because of this Rose feels a lot of resentment towards her mother and they butt heads more than a few times.
I really enjoyed reading Vampire Academy, but I think I actually enjoyed Frostbite more.  It was fast-paced and full of action and intrigue.  There is a lot of focus on Rose and her relationships with other people such as Lissa, Dimitri, Janine, Mason, Christian and Mia.  Most of these relationships are complex and this makes for interesting reading.  The only thing I wasn’t so keen on was the way that the book finished – there seemed to be a lot of loose ends that weren’t tied up very well.  However,  I have enjoyed reading about Rose’s life lessons throughout Vampire Academy and Frostbite and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series; Shadow Kiss.

Other books in the series (click on link to see my review):
1. Vampire Academy
2. Frostbite
3. Shadow Kiss
4. Blood Promise

I have decided to do a weekly feature highlighting any interesting looking books that are being released during that week.  Today I will be concentrating on any books being released between the 15th and 21st March.

Claudia Gray – Hourglass (Released 15th March)

Book 3 in the Evernight series.

Bianca will risk everything to be with Lucas.  After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school where they met, Bianca and Lucas take refuge with Black Cross, a fanatical group of vampire hunters.  Bianca must hide her supernatural heritage or risk certain death at their hands.  But when Black Cross captures her friend - the vampire Balthazar - hiding is no longer an option.  Soon, Bianca and Lucas are on the run again, pursued not only by Black Cross, but by the powerful leaders of Evernight.  Yet no matter how far they travel, Bianca can’t escape her destiny.  Bianca has always believed their love could survive anything! but can it survive what’s to come?

Carrie Vaughn – Voices of Dragons (Released 16th March)

On one side of the border lies the modern world: the internet, homecoming dances, cell phones.  On the other side dwell the ancient monsters who spark humanity’s deepest fears: dragons.
Seventeen-year-old Kay Wyatt knows she’s breaking the law by rock climbing near the border, but she’d rather have an adventure than follow the rules.  When the dragon Artegal unexpectedly saves her life, the rules are abruptly shattered, and a secret friendship grows between them.
But suspicion and terror are the legacy of human and dragon interactions, and the fragile truce that has maintained peace between the species is unraveling.  As tensions mount and battles begin, Kay and Artegal are caught in the middle.  Can their friendship change the course of a war?

Kimberly Derting – The Body Finder (Released 16th March)

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability.  While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies – or at least those that have been murdered.  Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world… and the imprints that attach to their killers.
Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer – and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly.  But even as she’s falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer… and becoming his prey herself.

Young Kim and Stephenie Meyer – Twilight: The Graphic Novel – Volume 1 (Released 17th March)

When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn.  With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable.  Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret…

Angela Morrison – Sing Me to Sleep (Released 18th March)

THE TRANSFORMATION
Beth has always been ‘The Beast’ – that’s what everyone at school calls her because of her awkward height, facial scars, and thick glasses.  Beth’s only friend is geeky, golden-haired Scott.  That is, until she’s selected to be her choir’s soprano soloist, and receives the makeover that will change her life forever.
THE LOVE AFFAIR
When Beth’s choir travels to Switzerland, she meets Derek: pale, brooding, totally dreamy.  Derek’s untethered passion – for music, and for Beth – leaves her breathless.  Because in Derek’s eyes she’s not The Beast, she’s The Beauty.
THE IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE
When Beth comes home, Scott, her best friend in the world, makes a confession that leaves her completely torn. Should she stand by sweet, steady Scott or follow the dangerous, intense new feelings she has for Derek?
THE HEARTBREAK
The closer Beth gets to Derek, the further away he seems.  Then Beth discovers that Derek’s been hiding a dark secret from her.  One that could shatter everything.