Night Child by Jes Battis

When the author could stay on track, I enjoyed this book. My interest was peaked whenever we actually got to an action scene. Unfortunately, the rest of the book did not fair as well for me. The writer had a tendency to wander off the beaten path with past memories and dreamscapes which would lose me. Page 222 (starting with the last paragraph) through page 225 is a perfect example of this. He’d just go off an this meandering tangent that made no sense, had no real bearing to the plot and I could not for the life of me follow along. Plus he got a little too detailed with some of the technical explanations for my liking. I found the heroine annoying to boot so I’ll probably not continue on with this series.

2 stars

Box of Books Giveaway

Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm is giving away a box of books. Go check out her site. Hurry though. Dead line is December 30th....today.

Parajunkee's Follower Giveaway

Parajunkee is have a great giveaway. The more follower, the more to give away. Plus it's international. Join in the fun!
Contest ends December 30, 2009.

Deadtown Giveaway

In celebration of her upcoming debut release of Deadtown, author Nancy Holzner is have a month long giveaway. I'm a little late for one part, but there are still lots of great stuff.
I'm looking forward to this release. Even had I not known anything about it, I would pick it up just because of it's cover art.

Dark Faerie Tales Holiday Blowout

Dark Faerie Tales is having a fantastic giveaway. Go check out her blog for details and a list of the 38 book choices.



Contest ends January 15, 2010.

Dragon Fire Giveaway

Author Claire Delacroix/Deborah Cooke has an interview at SciFiGuy Blog
She will be giving away a complete set of her Dragon Fire series. She will have signed copy of the first book along with signed bookplates and the other three books will be sent via The Book Depository.

Her last release in the series is


Contest open until midnight November 30 EST.

Bitter Night Giveaways

SciFiGuy is giving away 2 copies of Bitter Night by Diana Pharaoh Francis. Just go post what release your most looking forward to before the end of the year. You can find other ways to gain extra chances at his blog.

For even more chances to win a copy of this book, go to Patricia's Vampire Notes.
Bitter Night Contest



Good luck!

The Dark Divine Give-away

Dark Faerie Tales has an interview with author Bree Despain about her debut YA novel, The Dark Divine, this week.



Enter the contest to win a copy of The Dark Divine and SWAG by answering a simple question at the end of the interview. Contest ends December 14, 2009.

Vampire Taxonomy Give Away

Fang-Tastic Books is giving away two copies of Vampire Taxonomy by Meredith Woerner. Go sign up for chance at one.

A Triple Give Away

All Things Urban Fantasy is having a triple give away to celebrate having 50+ followers.

* Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
* Dark Time by Dakota Banks
* Red-headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

Go check it out and sign up for your chance to win these three books.

Review of A Simple Plan

Cover blurb:
It All Seemed So Simple...

Two brothers and their friend stumble upon the wreckage of a plane—the pilot is dead and his duffel bag contains four million dollars in cash. The men agree to hide, keep and share the fortune. But what started off as a simple plan slowly devolves into a gruesome nightmare none of them can control.

This book was sitting in my TBR pile for awhile. I had been hesitant to start after a neighbor I had loaned it to told me she couldn’t finish it. In an effort to get rid of some hardbacks taking up too much room, I pulled it out and decided to give it a try.


It caught my attention and held it though I did find myself getting frustrated with the characters at times. This is definitely one of those books that makes you think of what you would do if you were in similar circumstances. The author had me re-examining some of the scenes and how I would have handled them. That is definitely takes some talent to get a reader to speculate on situations. Though some of the scenes were predictable, I still couldn’t help thinking…”Oh you are so not handling this correctly, Hank.” or “That’s a really bad move.” I was even cringing a bit in some parts.

I did not care for pages 279 and 280. No dog/animal lover will like it.

By chapter 12 (page 305), I was really getting aggravated with Hank, the main character, and the author. I felt he was taking the whole scenario too far.

Overall, this was an okay read for me. It kept my attention and challenged me a bit mentally, maybe even morally because it seriously gets you to wondering what kind of person you would become and what lengths you would go to if faced with this position. I think Smith did a good job of getting across the roller coaster ride of emotions his characters experienced – elation, caution, paranoia, anxiety, self-doubt, guilt and justification. (Not necessarily in that order.) A definite struggle of right vs. wrong.

I was sitting at a good solid 3 stars for this book until chapter 12 and then it went to about 2.5 stars for me. Since I can’t do half stars on Goodreads, I’ll go ahead and give it the 3.

A Touch of Dead and Covet Give-aways

Celtic Lady has a contest at her blog, Celticlady's Ramblings, for Charlaine Harris' latest release, A Touch of Dead.

Contest ends October 31st.



The Fiction Vixen has revamp her blog site and in celebration is giving away a cope of Covet by J. R. Ward.

Contest ends November 3rd.

Good luck!

Vampires Galore

Lots of October fun and give-aways.



Also, The Book Smugglers have a great Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant contest going on at their site.

Book Club for the Vampire Fans

While visiting some of my favorite blogs, I discovered Vamp Chix has started a new book club. One for those who truly love their vampires.



The first book they are going to be discussing is The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2 by various authors.

I personally don't have a copy of this book, but I'm betting I'll find more books to add to my ever growing wish list by following along.

What I've read lately

Blood Book Vol 3: Blood Debt and Blood Bank By Tanya Huff -- 3 stars

The Ghost and the Dead Deb by Alice Kimberly -- 3.5 stars

Dark Cities Underground by Lisa Goldstein -- 2.5 stars
Interesting twist on Egyptian mythology.

Cesar's Way by Cesar Milan -- 3.5 stars
Took me a while to get through this because it's non-fiction. Lots of good advice, but I did not always agree with his methods.

Better Read Than Dead by Victoria Laurie -- 4 stars
I'm really enjoying this series. Need to find the 3rd one soon.

Primal Desire by Susan Sizemore -- 2.5 stars
I've read 2 other books, I Burn For You and Primal Heat, in this series and thoroughly enjoyed them. This one I found somewhat lacking. I'm not sure if it's because I've skip around in the series or waited too long in between books or what. I was having trouble at first keeping characters straight. Even the sex scenes seemed to be missing something that the previous books had.

Also, Target has the COMPLETE first (only) season of Moonlight on sale for $18.99 this week. Still have a couple of days to get it. I'm going during lunch to get my copy.

Blood Ties DVD

For those of you with a Sam's Club in your area, you might want to check their DVD section. I found Blood Ties Season One there for only $16.88. You can bet I grabbed myself a copy. I'm going to have to keep an eye out to see if the get Moonlight in at some point.

8/21/09 - Added note
I discovered after watching these that this is not the complete season one. Only 13 episodes on this set. Aghhhh! I did see on a Blood Ties related web site that they are supposed to release another set to complete the 22 episode series at the end of this year. That is just so...wrong!!! Teach me to check better if it doesn't say COMPLETE first season on the package.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen

Fires, explosions, and bullets flying as mayhem ensues in the Burgs. Stephanie and the crew are up to ears in another mystery...and barbeque sauce.

Hilarious, hilarious, hilarious!! I was still snickering and giggling when I finally forced myself to put down the book and call it a night. I finished this off in less than 24 hours.

There is always that thought running through my head as I try to put actor faces to the characters and I think I have finally got my actor pick narrowed down for Morelli.

Stephanie – Sandra Bullock (when she was younger) or Anne Hathaway
Lula – Queen Latifah or Monique
Morelli – Dylan McDermott or Marc Wahlburg or Dominic Purcell
Ranger – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Vinnie – Danny DeVito or Joe Pesci or Jon Lovitz
Grandma Mazur - Betty White or Ellen Albertini Dow
Tank – Michael Clark Duncan

The other characters I’m still undecided on.

Revamped by J. F. Lewis

Lewis once again had me going back and forth with my like/dislike for his main characters. More Tabitha this time than Eric. Eric is still very flawed, but we see a softer, more caring side to him this time along with his no nonsense, get down to the nitty-gritty of the situation attitude. Toward the end, I was understanding Tabitha more, but I still want to smack her up side the head at times. And Rachel is a Brat (and I’m being nice here) regardless.

I have to admit I was a little concerned when we were introduced to Fang. My first thought was – On no, Lewis is going to go the macho-comic book or Stephen King routine with this. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised that this addition to the story really did work. ( I’m just glad I don’t have to clean out his trunk.) Some female readers might find this addition cheesy, but I was okay with it. I think Greta really helped with this when she named him. Leave it to her to crack me up at the start of a plot concern. Greta still rocks, as far as I’m concerned, and I would love to see more of her in upcoming books. Or even her own book.

Speaking of their own book, Talbot really came more into his own for me in this second book. I’m hoping to see a spin off series for him or his kind.

Lewis again came through with an action packed book with a good balance of insight into the characters, a variety of paranormal and comic relief to make this a really enjoyable read for me. Plus, this dysfunctional family (of sorts) makes mine seem like the Cleavers.
I had several laugh out loud moments. The power strip comment on page 46 for one and animal crackers on page 196. The reference to the Little Rascal and other TV shows were also fun. I can tell the author and I grew up in or around the same time from a number of his references.
Another thing I like is his vampires’ food infatuations. Those scenes started making me hungry. When Phil and Eric sat down for steaks, I was just about ready to go fire up the grill...even if it was after 10 pm when I was reading that part.

I always like/want some sort of closure at the conclusion of a book so I appreciate the no “cliff-hanging, Porky the Pig pop out moment” at the end this time. Yes, it keeps us fans coming back for more, but it also makes us want to hang authors up by their toenails and feed you to the Oni.

Thank you, Jeremy! Looking forward to the next book.