Waiting on Wednesday 01/23/2013

 

"Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at “Breaking the Spine”, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. 

This weeks selection is...Forsaken by the Others by Jess Haines!

This series has gotten better by the book and I really like Jess Haines as a writer.

The synopsis for this particular story has Shia going to Los Angeles and that can only lead to all sorts of mayhem! I definitely want to see some more Shia/Royce action as well!

Synopsis

The Others–vampires, werewolves, things that go chomp in the night–don’t just live in nightmares anymore. They’ve joined with he mortal world. And for private investigator Shiarra Waynest, that means mayhem…
Have a one night stand with a vampire, and you can end up paying for it for eternity. P.I. Shiarra Waynest, an expert on the Others, knows that better than most. Yet here she is, waking up beside charismatic vamp Alec Royce with an aching head…and neck. Luckily, Shia has the perfect excuse for getting out of town–namely, a couple of irate East Coast werewolf packs who’d like to turn her into a chew toy.
On Royce’s suggestion, Shia temporarily relocates to Los Angeles. But something is rotten–literally–in the state of California, where local vampires are being attacked by zombies. Who could be powerful enough to control them–and reckless enough to target the immortal? Following the trail will lead Shia to a terrifying truth, and to an ancient enemy with a personal grudge…

Cover Reveal & Giveawa! Tara Fuller's Blurred

Blurred Blurb:

Cash is haunted by things. Hungry, hollow things. They only leave him alone when Anaya, Heaven’s beautiful reaper, is around. Cash has always been good with girls, but Anaya isn’t like the others. She’s dead. And with his deteriorating health, Cash might soon be as well.
Anaya never breaks the rules, but the night of the fire she recognized part of Cash’s soul—and doomed him to something worse than death. Cash’s soul now resides in an expired body, making him a shadow walker—a rare, coveted being that can walk between worlds. A being creatures of the underworld would do anything to get their hands on.
The lines between life and death are blurring, and Anaya and Cash find themselves falling helplessly over the edge. Trapped in a world where the living don’t belong, can Cash make it out alive?

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16129272-blurred

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blurred-Kissed-Death-Tara-Fuller/dp/162061085X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1358452006&sr=8-5&keywords=Tara+Fuller

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blurred-tara-fuller/1113749206?ean=9781620610855

The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Blurred-Tara-Fuller/9781620610855

About Tara:

Tara Fuller writes novels. Some about grim reapers​. Some about witches. All of course are delightfully full of teen angst and kissing. Tara grew up in a one stop light town in Oklahoma where once upon a time she stayed up with a flash light reading RL Stine novels and only dreamed of becoming a writer. She has a slight obsession with music and a shameless addiction for zombie fiction, Mystery Science Theater, and black and white mochas. Tara no longer lives in a one stop light town. Now she lives with her family in a slightly larger town in North  Carolina where they have at least three stoplights.

Website: http://www.tarafuller.com/

Blog: http://tara-fuller.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tara25Fuller

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tara25fuller

Kissed by Death Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KissedByDeath?fref=ts

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3471272.Tara_A_Fuller

Rafflecopter Code:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rafflecopter Link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/ZTIzODliYTI4ZTEzMGVjODBhNzA2MmFmMTU3YWM3OjUx/

Book Review - Arise by Tara Hudson (Hereafter # 2)

ARISE, the sequel to Hereafter, is filled with mystery, romance, suspense and the intriguing setting of New Orleans. Hudson has raised the bar revealing the scope and depth that the demons will continue to use in order to chase after Amelia interrupting her romance with her boyfriend Joshua Mayhew and putting everyone around her in danger. She also subtly leads the readers into the final book of the series where everything is riding on Amelia’s choices and decisions.

After Eli projects a dire warning that “they’re coming for you,” Amelia begins to understand that being with Joshua comes with a huge price tag in that she never knows when the darkness is going to show up in an attempt to drag her into the Netherworld. Eli pretty much sways Amelia into breaking off her relationship with Joshua and moving as far away from Wilburton as she can in order to save his life as well as that of her mother. The only question for Amelia is how to break off the relationship with Joshua since he has tied his very being to being with Amelia.

Amelia is also experiencing new feelings, having strange & vivid dreams, and manifesting elsewhere each and every time she tries to be intimate with Joshua. Amelia agrees to travel to New Orleans with the Mayhew family for Christmas where she encounters new characters and finds out the depths that the demons are willing to go through in order to gather Amelia in to their clutches. New characters like Gabrielle and Felix Callioux as well as Alexander Etienne not only leave an impression on Amelia, but changed in very important ways.

I have always wanted to visit New Orleans, and especially Saint Louis Number One Cemetery where lots of famous and not so famous people have been buried over the years. It’s a piece of Louisiana history that can’t be duplicated anywhere else in this country. So, imagine my surprise when a key part of Amelia’s new existence was created right in the middle of the cemetery itself after an encounter with Gabrielle.

I have to say that I was a little worried that ARISE would turn into a 3-way love triangle which I loathe after Hudson introduced a certain dark and broody character. Thankfully, Hudson managed to avoid the quagmire that other authors love to fall into. Instead, she ups the ante to the depth of deceit and the people that the demons are willing to use in order to lure Amelia into the Netherworld. It also puts Amelia’s relationship with Joshua into proper prospective.

Amelia isn’t a shrinking violet or Mary Sue character by any stretch of the imagination. She is forced to make difficult choices because that is her character. She chooses difficult paths in order to keep those around her safe and away from harm. Are they always the best choices? No, but after being dead for 10 years and coming out of the fog to learn that she has strange and beautiful powers that nobody else has, it’s still very much of a learning curve for Amelia.

I am definitely looking forward to reading the conclusion of this series in Elegy releasing June 4, 2013 by HarperTeen.

Author - Tara Hudson
Title - Arise (Hereafter # 2)
Publisher - HarperTeen
Released - June 4, 2013
Genre : Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Ghost, Romance

Book Review - Cold Fury by T.M. Goeglein

When I first read the synopsis for Cold Fury being a sort of mixture of Jason Bourne meets The Sopranos I was all over it. I love both franchises. After reading the book to its conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I actually liked 16 year old Sara Jane Rispoli as the main character and protagonist.

Perhaps the main reason I liked it was that the story is told in Chicago and has mob elements in it which always peeks my interest since I am Italian and know a thing or two about being surrounded by “The Boys”. Of course, I could be a sadist as well since nothing about corruption, the Mob or Chicago has ever bored me. Even as I grow older, I love the old stories about Al Capone, Frank Nitti and the FBI’s attempts to take them both down. Cold Fury returns to the old days with tunnels underground, doors leading to secret hideouts, and former speakeasies that were used to transport ill-gotten goods, including alcohol during the Prohibition.

To its core, Cold Fury is about Sara Jane’s quest to find her family after discovering some dark secrets behind the Rispoli Clan on her Sixteenth birthday. Armed with a steel briefcase filled with money, an Amex Black Card in her name, A Sig Sauer .45 and an Old Leather Notebook that has been passed down from generation to generation, Sara is forced to confront her families dark past while staying one step ahead of those who want what the books secrets hold.

What really interested me about Cold Fury was Sara Jane’s ability to absorb a person’s deepest fears and project them back to the person she is confronting. She is also a trained boxer who stands up for herself and fights back against corrupt cops, an uncle who went too far in his attempts to sabotage his own brother, and a mysterious masked man who appears seemingly out of nowhere in an attempt to kill Sara. There are other elements to this book as well, but, I would just be spoiling the ending to the book, and I won’t be doing that anytime soon.

Cold Fury is supposedly the first book of a trilogy planned by T.M. Goeglein, and thus not all the questions are answered. There are relationship issues between Sara and several characters that really aren’t explored since Sara spends so much time on the run, and hiding from those who are attempting her harm.

Author T.M. Goeglein has created an exciting and fast paced story with a very likable character and I am definitely looking forward to continuing the series by reading Flicker and Burn when it releases later in 2013.

Author - T.M. Goeglein
Title - Cold Fury (Cold Fury # 1)
Publisher - Putnam Juvenile
Released - July 24, 2012
Genre - YA, Thriller, Suspense 

Early Review - The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

The Madman's Daughter is a supposedly a retelling of H. G. Wells's 1896 classic The Island of Dr. Moreau. I do remember the 1996 movie with the same name starring Marlon Brando as the nefarious and disturbing Dr. Henri Moreau who crossed the line in creating humans from animals. It also starred Val Kilmer as Montgomery James who appears in this story as Juliet’s love interest and former childhood friend/servant but in reality was a complacent in the experimenting of animals as his mentor Dr. Moreau.

“I was my father’s daughter after all. My nightmares were made of darker things.” 

Set in 1896, Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has been left behind by her once famous father and the recent death of her mother from consumption. Left to her own devices by a cruel and mean London society who bears her ills and hatred because of who her father is; she’s forced to take on menial jobs in order to be able to put food on her table and pay for her experimental medication for her rare but undiscovered condition.

After fighting off unwanted advances by a demented college professor, Juliet is forced to flee London and makes the rash decision to join Montgomery James who is heading back to Moreau’s Island with supplies. Juliet had previously thought her father was dead since he made no effort in contacting her for nearly 6 years. Finding out that he’s been alive all this time riles Juliet to the core but she’s willing to forgo making final judgments until she can speak to her father directly.
 
On the way to the Island, Juliet and Montgomery discover a castaway named Edward who has spent 20 days adrift without any food, or water. Edward is definitely sort of a mystery which leads to Juliet having conflicted feelings toward him. Edward is totally different from the original telling of this story in that he’s more than he seems and his secrets are way more than Juliet can take.

“Nothing about the island was predictable. It was alive as a person, full of whims and lies and contradictions.”

Upon arriving on the Island, Juliet quickly learns that not everything is black and white or simplistic in nature. Not even her romantic feelings for Montgomery and Edward. Moreau has captured the island's animals and painfully turned them into half-men, then forces them to live by strict standards that he believes will overcome their bestial natures. Moreau's issues them sort of his own commandments.

“Thou shalt not crawl in the dirt. Thou shalt not drink spirits. Thou shalt not eat flesh of living creatures (meat). Thou shalt not roam at night. Thou shalt not kill other men.” These commandments are recipes for horror and suspense.

Juliet’s character is easy to admire and engage with and able to connect to. The other characters on the island are similarly interesting and make this a story worth being compared to its predecessor in every way. I loved the fact that Juliet is not a Mary Sue character. When it comes to defending herself against everyone from a psychotic professor, to beasts on the island, she barely blinks and makes quick decisions. Her loathing for her father is well placed and understandable since he lied to her for 16 years about pretty much everything including her own unknown illness that requires an experimental medication. When he finally reveals what he did to his own daughter, it wasn’t much of a surprise considering who Dr. Moreau has become.

For those who have read my previous reviews, you know that I have a love hate relationship with love triangles. The Madman’s Daughter once again forces me to choose whether or not I am going to let something like a love triangle come in the way of liking the overall story. In this case, Juliet’s love for both characters was misplaced and leads to a defining moment in the cliffhanger ending.

However, I will still recommend this novel for those who enjoy Gothic and Dark Fantasy. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the sequel to this book.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Collins Children’s for a review copy of this book.

Title - The Madman's Daughter #1
Author - Megan Shepherd
Publisher - Balzer & Bray
Release Date - January 29, 2013
Genre - Gothic, Horror, Young Adult

Stacking the Shelves 01/19/2013

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books we added to our shelves. It may be physical or virtual (ebook). This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Thanks for visiting my blog and checking out the books I received over the past week!

Received either from Netgalley or Edelweiss from 01/12-01/19/2013

 

 

 

Received from the Library

 

Received from Linda Robertson as part of Shattered Circle

Blog Tour on 01/29/2012 here on Gizmo's Reviews

Purchased from Book Depository

Purchased from Amazon.com

 

Review - Soul Bound By Mari Mancusi (Blood Coven Vampire # 7)

In this installment of the Blood Coven Vampire series, Rayne McDonald, Goth vampire, fairy princess, and vampire slayer, takes center stage. Rayne is commissioned by the Consortium, via Slayer Inc., to find her twin sister Sunny and her vampire boyfriend Magnus the former leader of the Blood Coven who is charged with treason.

The leader of the Consortium, Pyrus, knows all about Rayne’s Nano capsules that can be triggered if she refuses to act and do exactly what they ask of her. So, basically, it’s either Sunny’s life or her own. Not an easy choice to have to make. It's because of the Nano Capsules that Rayne is a vampire slayer in the first place!

If you’re not familiar with this series then you missed out on the fact that these books normally alternative POV’s between Sunny and Rayne. Rayne, in my humblest of opinions, is the better story teller and a lot less annoying than Sunny. With Rayne, however, you do get some less than thrilling pop culture references since she’s also a game geek and a Goth extraordinaire.

Rayne realizes that she can’t do this alone and knows that the only other person who can help her is her vampire boyfriend Jareth, the current leader of the Blood Coven. The problem is that Jareth would be signing his own death warrant and that of the Blood Coven vampires if he goes against Pyrus’s orders. If that weren’t enough stress for one person to handle, former and now current Vampire Slayer Bertha is back from her vacation and looking like a cover model thanks to her new found boyfriend Pyrus.

Rayne and Jareth eventually find themselves deep underneath NYC where rats and Chupacabra’s make their homes. It’s also a sanctuary of sorts for wayward vampires who are tired of the Consortium’s brutal ways and live a lot like the former human dwellers of the underground on rats and whatever else they can find.

When Rayne experiences a devastating loss after the Consortium catches up to her and Jareth, she finds that the only choice she has now is to travel to the Underworld and request an audience with Hades himself. This leads to several really interesting reunions and revelations. I will have to say that I did enjoy the travel to the Underground and the way that Mancusi builds it up.

Now the WTF part of my review! Okay, I know that this is the NEXT to last book in the series. I know this because I have read all the previous books and have either laughed or been pained by the silliness of the characters like Sunny. In my opinion, this SHOULD have been the last book of the series and not the slam down that we experience at the end. I would have been totally fine with losing one or several of the main characters instead of having a total LOST moment in the end. Now, I have to painfully request the next book from the library in order to see how Mancusi wraps up this series.

Soul Bound, overall, is a pretty good story right up until the ending. It’s filled with angst, and mystery, and suspense as well as an informative trip to the Underground. Sunny has really grown over the course of this series. She’s gone from a wannabe vampire, to a vampire-vampire slayer. She’s found her mate and love in Jareth who is more EMO than any character you will find. She’s also found her backbone and makes choices that are difficult. Her final choice in this book leads us straight into the final book of the series called Blood Forever. Of course, that also means that we are stuck with Sunny’s POV! :::head desk::

Title - Soul Bound (Blood Vampire # &)
Author - Mari Mancusi
Publisher - Berkley
Released - March 6, 2012
Genre - YA Paranormal