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

Deadtown by Nancy Holzner

Book summary:

They call it Deadtown: the city’s quarantined section for its inhuman and undead residents. Most humans stay far from its borders — but Victory Vaughn, Boston’s only professional demon slayer, isn’t exactly human…

Vicky’s demanding job keeping the city safe from all manner of monsters is one reason her relationship with workaholic lawyer (and werewolf) Alexander Kane is in constant limbo. Throw in a foolhardy zombie apprentice, a mysterious demon-plagued client, and a suspicious research facility that’s taken an unwelcome interest in her family, and Vicky’s love life has as much of a pulse as Deadtown’s citizens.

But now Vicky’s got bigger things to worry about. The Hellion who murdered her father ten years ago has somehow broken through Boston’s magical protections. The Hellion is a ruthless force of destruction with a personal grudge against Vicky, and she’s the only one who can stop the demon before it destroys the city and everyone in it.

My thoughts:
This has been getting so much praise on blogs, I decided to give it a try. Plus I really liked the cover art.

I was under the impression this would have more of a zombie angle to it than demons. I'm not normally interested in books about demons. I enjoyed it overall, though it was little predictable. It caught my attention enough that I'm interested in the next book in this series.

3 stars

What else I have read lately?

The Undead Next Door by Kerrelyn Sparks – 2.5 stars - had a little more emotional dilemma than I care for
Apollyon – Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins – 4 stars
Ghost Walk by Heather Graham – 3 stars
Murder For Revenge – edited by Otto Penzler – 2 stars

Num8ers by Rachel Ward

I won this book from GoodReads First Reads. Thank you very much GoodReads!

Synopsis from GoodReads:

Whenever Jem meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die.

Burdened with such an awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. But while they’re waiting to ride the Eye Ferris
wheel, Jem notices that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today’s number. Today’s date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem’s world is about to explode!

My thoughts:

I actually read this a couple of months ago, but I wanted to post this since it was released this year.

I found this book to be tedious at times. I finished because I was curious enough to want to see how it ended. Then I was disappointed in the ending because it was predictable. I couldn’t help but thinking during one part – Hey!! Nothing like promoting a little unprotected teenage sex.
I gave it 2 out of 5 stars.

Funny thing is I ended up with 2 copies of this book from the publisher. I’ve already Book Crossed one and I’ve registered the second one at BC so it will be looking for a home soon. At least Abby (my Bagle Hound) didn’t get hold of the second copy to chew on the cover.

Being Human Season One

Season One of Being Human, a BBC series, will be released on DVD and Blue Ray on Tuesday, July 20th.

A vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost share an apartment in Bristol, England!

A paranormal lovers must see.

Beautiful Creatures Giveaway

Chance to win Beautiful Creatures from Katie's Book Blog

Contest ends May 30th.

A Book Eulogy

I am very sad to announce the untimely demise of this book.


This was a BookCrossing book sent to me by Bkind2books.

It would seem that a very irritated Beagle decided to take her frustrations out at our leaving to go out to dinner on this poor unsuspecting piece of literature. It did nothing to deserve this cruel fate other than it happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought it was safe within the depths of my tote bag sitting atop the back of an overstuffed chair. Little did I realize the sinister plot brewing in this sly canine mind as to how to acquire this item and exact her revenge. I was lulled into a false sense of security by the big brown eyes and the ever wagging tail. Not to mention the halo posed above her head whenever in our presence. But it was all a front...an act. Who would have thought such malevolence lurked behind such an innocent facade.

It was not a pretty sight. Certainly not something for the fainthearted. Though I rushed to its side where it lay on the floor among its tattered pages, I knew before even checking for any signs of salvage, it had passed on to the great library heaven. No amount of glue or tape would ever resurrect it to any semblance of its previous self, much less a readable form.

I have failed in my duty to protect this book, to keep it safe from the shredding jaws of death. I hang my head in shame...not to mention disgust that I didn’t even get to read it first.

Alas, the tote bag didn’t fair any better than the book. They were laid to rest together in a Hefty bag last evening. Rest in peace!

The Culprit
She has yet to show any signs of remorse.

Patricia Briggs' Series Giveaway

To celebrate 300 followers, All Things Urban Fantasy is have a big Patricia Briggs giveaway. For 300 followers, she will be giving away the first 4 books of the Mercy Thompson series - Moon Called, Blood Bound, Iron Kissed, Bone Called.

If she hits 400 followers, another winner will be drawn to win the Alpha and Omega series - Cry Wolf, Hunting Ground, and On The Prowl.

This is an international contest and ends on February 28.

Kitty giveaway at Drey's Library

Drey's Library is giving away one complete set (seven books total) of the Kitty Norvell series by Carrie Vaughn. In addition to this, three more people will have a chance to win a copy of Kitty's House of Horrors. Fill out the form by January 18, 6 CST for your chance to win one of these prizes.

Gena Showalter Contest

Gena Showalter is having a random drawing to give away a signed ARC of Into the Dark.
Good luck!



Also check out Heart of Darkness

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.