Fingers Are Overrated

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Posted by Misty | Posted in Book Rants! | Posted on 06-01-2010 | No comments

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There aren’t many things that make my stomach turn… lets face it…I’m a zombie junkie, my favorite movie is “28 Days Later”, and I laugh at the gore that makes most grown men squirm like 5 year old girls, but there is (naturally) one thing that I just can’t handle.

What is this 1 thing you ask? What has toppled the Princess of Puke? Sure… I’ll tell you, it’s rough sex, and “Dangerous Games” was full of it.

Normally I can look past the misguided intentions of an author’s warped mind but this time I just couldn’t ignore my inner voice. (It was loud… very loud…as in take-no-prisoners-shut-the-stupid-book-you-dope loud.) I wanted nothing more than to clip large unnecessary sections from this book and feed them (forcefully) to the editor that green checked them through.

Riley, in all her Dhampir, Directorate Guardian glory is at it again. Her nemesis, whom escaped in the finale of the previous book is on the hunt, and she is his target. While trudging on with her everyday duties of “bad-man” hunting, she finds herself trapped in a weird torture circle. Quinn is of course there, being as pouty as ever (due to Riley’s inability to never follow directions) and as a result does the vampire hoodoo-voodoo on her and uses compulsion to force her skinny butt home. (Not such a good idea if you catch my drift) Lie after lie puts Riley in the most dangerous situation she has ever found herself…facing down a 3 headed dragon, the father of all evil, and ultimately making her question EVERYTHING about her current life path.

Fighting ensues and blood is spilled…but the most interesting development in the entire book came when everything was tied up, (little red ribbon style) This particular plot line WILL NOT be strung out into book 5 (not that I’m complaining) and in the end Riley has finally cut the cord to several of her misguided flirtations.

Could this be the end of the Riley we have all grown to (reluctantly) adore? Where will this new found need to settle down leave our smart ass, vampire killing heroine? I am baffled yet intrigued. Which I guess for the author…is the whole point.

There were cute new shifter detectives, a sorceress sister, body entrapment, a new PA who is lovingly referred to as the Caramel Cow, an underground fight scene that had my brain short circuiting, several beheadings, and 1 very pissed of twin brother.

All in all I guess it was ok… if you take out the stocks and whips the OVERALL plot was actually intriguing and the “girly” lines were well written. I guess “Keri Arthur” can’t win them all…or at least not for me.

Happy reading my fellow Dhampirs and remember: you didn’t really need that finger… it was just there for decoration.

For a complete book description click image

(2.5/5)

Its A Double Take

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Posted by Misty | Posted in Book Rants! | Posted on 26-10-2009 | 1 comment

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rjI wouldn’t normally feel the need to write a double review, but when it came to the 2nd and 3rd books in the “Riley Jensen, Guardian” series, I felt it was sort of a must.

“Kissing Sin” is no more than a filler book. Yes, it is necessary and there are definitely some interesting moments (don’t worry, I’ll elaborate) but for the most part, the novel was used to introduce new characters and prime you for the Big Show in “Tempting Evil”

The story picks up a few months after “New Moon Rising” ends…Riley, of course, is trying in vain to skirt around her inevitable future of becoming a “Guardian”, only its not quiet so easy when she wakes up after 8 days, having no idea where she is, covered in blood and stranded inside of some weird sort of cardboard cutout community. Her confusion and overwhelming need to find a safe place has her scrambling for an exit, only she can’t do it alone.

Introducing Kade.

I have never come across a paranormal fiction to included were-stallions, but that is exactly what Kade is, and to Riley’s delight, he is delicious.

Both are on the run and both are having to depend on the other way more than they would like. (Something is fishy about Kade…but what exactly is it?)

The clones from the 1st installment have reared their ugly and sometimes slimy heads again, and it is a race against time to not only find but destroy the leader of this demented little monster making bake shop.

Naturally there are several plots bouncing at once, it wouldn’t be a captivating series otherwise, so while the action is…action packed, there is also

the quintessential love triangle… or in Riley case love square.

Kellen returns, after a very VERY brief intro in book 1, Quinn also returns after realizing that he has walked away from something he just can’t live without, Kade decides that he would love a little action, and last but certainly not least Misha, the less than honest ex (or not ex) mate leave who leaves us with a less than attractive final proclamation. (Which I will warn you includes an overwhelming amount of spiders so if you have any sort of fear in the creepy crawler department, keep in mind that this is only a book and it’s kind of hard for paper to bite you.)

Moving On…

tevilTempting Evil” dives in to the deep end, right where “Kissing Sun” frustratingly, and abruptly just died (at 93% I might add, so when I turned the page and there was no more I yelped louder than was probably necessary)

Riley at this point is in neck deep. There is no way around it…she is what she is.. and what that is is training for the ultimate take down.

The Directorate has gotten a slew of much needed clues to take down the “bad guy” and now they are on the hunt, what they didn’t expect was for Quinn to hitch a ride. (metaphorically and literally)

After rummaging through Riley’s brain he discovers a few useful details. 1. The Directorate is on the move and going undercover, and 2. Riley is lying about her telepathic abilities. How you may ask? Well… easy, she throws him against the wall… without using her hands.

This book IS the piece de resistance. The action sequences and plot solidification that have been building since book 1 finally come to a head, and quite dramatically if I may say so myself. We are introduced “intimately” to the man behind the mask. We are taken through a hall or horrors and a mad man’s demented idea of a sexual funhouse, (complete with gladiator type fighting arenas.) We get to learn what an all-consuming need for vengeance can do to a person, we realize big brothers sometimes DO need their little sisters help, and we learn that were-bear sounds way to much like care-bear and it doesn’t matter how many times you read it you will still laugh.

Riley… regardless of the danger she constantly seems to be in, is still trying to hash out her “relationship” issues, and more importantly, still trying to cope with her “baby” issues which seem to be an even more underlying problem than Quinn’s…well…lying.

I am… pleased to say… enjoying this series. After reading several books with heart stopping, life altering decisions it was nice to take a break and let the “action” do the talking. There doesn’t always have to be a deeper meaning, sometimes it’s better just to have clean sheets and a hot cup of coffee.

Enjoy my fellow Kindle-ites, and remember, if at first you don’t succeed, try try again…or in Quinn’s case, just annoy the hell out of someone until they give in.

For full book descriptions click images

Kissing Sin (3/5)
Tempting Evil (4/5)

Its A Free For All!!

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Posted by Misty | Posted in Writers Block! | Posted on 28-09-2009 | 1 comment

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Hello! my fellow Kindle-ites, lucky for you I had a complete lack of motivation today and as a result;  I shuffled aimlessly through a whopping 2,500 Kindle downloads and found a few free ones that look interesting.  No, I have not read these yet, yes they are on my Kindle waiting patiently for my attention, and of course, when I am done I will write a snarky little review just for you reading pleasure, until then…live on the edge, grab that bungee cord and jump your bored ass over the bridge.. THEY ARE FREE!!! DOWNLOAD THEM!!!! What are you going to lose? Your pride? I promise… I won’t tell.

Happy Reading!


For a full book description click on image.


Let the Feeding Frenzy Begin!

thekeeperFrom Publishers Weekly

In her assured but overstuffed horror debut, Langan lovingly crafts the struggling town of Bedford, Maine, its unlucky inhabitants and the troubling history of the town’s shuttered paper mill, before tearing it all to bloody pieces. Bedford is haunted by the beautiful Susan Marley, a damaged young woman who wanders the streets and never speaks a word, stirring “feeling[s] of something undone, something quite wrong, at the sight of her.” Those feelings are strongest in Susan’s maladjusted little sister, Liz, wracked with guilt over Susan’s fate; their mother, who refuses to acknowledge her wayward daughter’s existence; and alcoholic high school teacher Paul Martin, who once had an affair with Susan. Susan’s fall to her death in the final, rain-soaked days of winter triggers a series of events that bring the buried secrets of the town to terrifying reality—people and animals rise from the dead, and a spirit of homicidal rage grips the living. Fighting to survive, Langan’s characters come brilliantly to life, their inner conflicts rendered in sharp but exhausting detail at once expansive and constricting, slowing the narrative to a crawl just before it whips into frenzied, graphic violence. This is horror on a big scale, akin to the more ambitious work of Stephen King, and though Langan’s enormous imagination can slow her narrative, this effective debut promises great things to come. (Oct.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

perdido_street_station_usAmazon.com Review

When Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful,” she could have been talking about China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station. The novel’s publication met with a burst of extravagant praise from Big Name Authors and was almost instantly a multiaward finalist. You expect hyperbole in blurbs; and sometimes unworthy books win awards, so nominations don’t necessarily mean much. But Perdido Street Station deserves the acclaim. It’s ambitious and brilliant and–rarity of rarities–sui generis. Its clearest influences are Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy and M. John Harrison’s Viriconium books, but it isn’t much like them. It’s Dickensian in scope, but fast-paced and modern. It’s a love song for cities, and it packs a world into its strange, sprawling, steam-punky city of New Crobuzon. It can be read with equal validity as fantasy, science fiction, horror, or slipstream. It’s got love, loss, crime, sex, riots, mad scientists, drugs, art, corruption, demons, dreams, obsession, magic, aliens, subversion, torture, dirigibles, romantic outlaws, artificial intelligence, and dangerous cults.


Generous, gaudy, grand, grotesque, gigantic, grim, grimy, and glorious, Perdito Street Station is a bloody fascinating book. It’s also so massive that you may begin to feel you’re getting too much of a good thing; just slow down and enjoy.

Yes, but what is Perdido Street Station about? To oversimplify: the eccentric scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is hired to restore the power of flight to a cruelly de-winged birdman. Isaac’s secret lover is Lin, an artist of the khepri, a humano-insectoid race; theirs is a forbidden relationship. Lin is hired (rather against her will) by a mysterious crime boss to capture his horrifying likeness in the unique khepri art form. Isaac’s quest for flying things to study leads to verification of his controversial unified theory of the strange sciences of his world. It also brings him an odd, unknown grub stolen from a secret government experiment so perilous it is sold to a ruthless drug lord–the same crime boss who hired Lin. The grub emerges from its cocoon, becomes an extraordinarily dangerous monster, and escapes Isaac’s lab to ravage New Crobuzon, even as his discovery becomes known to a hidden, powerful, and sinister intelligence. Lin disappears and Isaac finds himself pursued by the monster, the drug lord, the government and armies of New Crobuzon, and other, more bizarre factions, not all confined to his world


UrgetokillProduct Description

Homicide detective Frank Quinn can’t stay retired when a new breed of murdering madman is on the prowl. In a city terrorized by bloody brutality, Quinn and his team hunt a psychopath who lures beautiful women into a night of unbridled passion, then wakes them to a vicious, drawn-out death. Stumbling over a trail of horribly defiled bodies, Quinn can’t seem to catch up to the killer – because the killer is about to catch up to him.

monstrumologistProduct Description

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets.

The one who saved me…and the one who cursed me.

So begins the journal of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore War throp, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case

yet.

Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts?

fullmoonFrom Booklist

Arthur’s suspenseful, colorful debut introduces readers to a world in which vampires and werepeople work side by side. Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, have a secret: they are half vampire, half werewolf, which gives them extraordinary powers. Both are employed by the Directorate, which polices the supernatural world. Rhoan is a guardian, but Riley, wanting to keep a lower profile, is an operative. Her boss, Jack, wants to bring her into the ranks of the guardians, but she soon has her hands full when Rhoan disappears. Complicating matters is Quinn, the sexy vampire camped outside the apartment Riley shares with Rhoan, looking for Rhoan on a business matter. When Riley, Jack, and Quinn discover Rhoan’s disappearance is connectedto a shady company’s cloning experiments, Riley isn’t sure whom she can trust, especially when she learns one of her lovers may be involved in the conspiracy. Exciting fare with plenty of action, so that horror fans will eagerly anticipate the next installment in a fresh, sexy series.

Kristine Huntley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved