Winter Is Coming - Game of Thrones series

I'm a huge fan of George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and this spring HBO is starting a series based on these books. Here's the official poster for this new show starting April 17th. Sean Bean will be playing the part of Eddard Stark.

Unfortunately, I don't have HBO so I will have to wait until they are released in DVD which is what I do with True Blood. At least this way, I can watch the entire season as I want and not have to wait each week for a new episode. The downside...I have a year's wait until the next season.

HBO Game of Thrones

George R. R. Martin



The IMDB trailer is a better.


The books and the order they should be read:

I highly recommend this fantasy series if you've never tried them. Just a word of warning - Martin is not afraid to put his character's through hell. If you're looking for Happy Ever Afters or are squeamish, then you will probably not like these books. They are action packed, violent, and emotional roller coaster reads with twisted characters and numerous adult situations. Don't be discouraged by the size of the books either.

Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Book cover blurb:

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

My thoughts:

This book had a great deal of chatter on the book blogs when it came out last year, so I decided to give it a try when the opportunity arose. It was an entertaining, fast read. Definitely could see the Stephen King influence with the winter dance scene. A little too Carrie-ish on that for my taste…just without the blood. I found a few other things equally as predictable as that scene, but I won’t list since they would be considered spoilers.

I was surprised I went through 563 pages in four days. (That’s pretty quick for me.) This probably could have been cut down without some of what I consider the filler stuff that really didn’t have much bearing to the story. This seems to be par for the course for me with young adult books. (Probably because I’m not a teenager.) Anyway, it held my attention despite having some predicable parts and characters. I’d read the next book in the series.

3 stars

Dog Days by John Levitt

Back cover blurb:

Mason used to be an enforcer, ensuring that suspect magic practitioners stayed in line. But now he scrapes out a living playing guitar. Good thing he has Louie, his magical...well, let's call him a dog. But there are some kinds of evil that even Louie can't sniff out. And when Mason is attacked by a supernatural assailant, he'll have to fall back on the one skill he's mastered in music and magic-improvisation.

My thoughts:
Took me a few days to get in to this book. It just seemed to drag for the first 130 pages or so. The author was taking too long to explain certain things and setting up the story. To be almost halfway through the book before you really get interested is too long for me. I felt compelled to continue though since I had purchased this book.

The main character, Mason, had a tendency to annoy me. He’s lazy and really has no incentive to do anything with his life. Maybe this is just the author setting the readers up for his “growth and coming into his true potential and power” type thing. Ho-hum! Been done before. I was hoping for something a little different. If not for Lou, Mason’s Ifrit in the dog body, I doubt I would have continued on with this book after the first 100 pages.

Once the action finally picked up, this was fairly enjoyable. Predictable, but okay. This is not a series I would continue to pay full price for, but might pick them up if I caught the next couple of the series at library sale or used book store.

Two and half stars

Zombie fans - here's a to win a copy of Aftertime

All Things Urban Fantasy is giving away a copy of Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield



Contest ends February 22, 2011

Win a copy of Crossed

Amberkatze has an interview with author J. F. Lewis on her blog with a chance to win a copy of his latest book in the Void City series, Crossed



I've been looking forward to this book!

Shiny!!

How many of you have purchased books based solely on the cover? *raises hand*
Even purchased the book knowing you probably weren’t going to like it because the cover was so eye catching you just couldn’t resist?

I know I’m not alone out there.

Thankfully, I have a little more self control now than I did when I was younger, but that temptation is there. Constantly lurking in the back of mind as I walk through a book store looking at the new releases. Then there is always that one that just jumps off the self at you and you do the mental “Ooooooo Shiny!!” as you start to drool. Okay, maybe I’ve even done the Shiny squee out loud a time or two. And if you’re a dire hard bibliophile and denying you’ve ever done such a thing... Liar, liar, pants on fire!

The first book I can recall purchasing because of the cover was George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. Thankfully, I loved the book itself and anxiously the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire Saga. Please Mr. Martin...hurry.


There’s just something to be said about great cover art. At least I can get my cover art fix online with all the great book blogs I frequent. I’ve been seeing quite a few lately that has had my wish list growing even longer. (Admittedly, it was already out of hand as is my TBR pile.)

Some of my favorite blogs that help feed this addiction:
All Things Urban Fantasy - I love how she gives them a thumbs up or down.
SciFiGuy
Dark Faerie Tales

That’s just to name a few.

And a few of the covers that have recently caught my eye are:



So what’s caught you’re eye lately? New, old, reissue?

Chronicles of the Warlands upcoming book

Elizabeth Vaughan's latest to the Chronicles of the Warlands series will be released this May. For those of who have come to love Xylara and Keir, we've been anxiously awaiting this -


Warprize, the first book of the series, is also going to be reissued with a new cover.



For those of you who have not read this fantasy romance series, I highly recommend it.


If you would like a chance to win either the reissue of Warprize or a copy of Warcry, click your way over to LovLivLife Reviews to enter her contest for a chance at one.

Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Synopsis from Goodreads.
Passion. Fate. Loyalty.
Would you risk it all to change your destiny?
The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she'd be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world.
But that's exactly what happened.
Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.
Tiger's Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.

My thoughts:

I won this books from a Goodreads giveaway.

Overall, I enjoyed this YA book – the first of the Tiger series. The story was intriguing and held my interest. I will say that Ren and Kelsey’s relationship dilemmas were on the edge of trying my patience at times. Never have carried for the "must hide my feelings and push him away" premise in books. Too much mental hashing of feelings and emotions for my taste.

The use of Indian mythology really help develop the story for me. I’ve not read or seen much on this country, so it was something new for me. It was a bit of a refreshing break from the usual Egyptian and Greek twists.

I was a bit disappointed in the ending, but only because it left the reader hanging until the next book on several issues. I look forward to it’s release though.

Love the cover art on the trade paperback edition. Very eye catching.

3.5 stars