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.

The Vampire's Seduction Giveaway

Random Minutiae has a great interview with one of my favorite authors, Raven Hart, on her Savannah vampire series. Better yet, she's giving away a signed copy of the first book of the series, The Vampire's Seduction.

I did a review of the first four books in May. Trust me when I say, this is a must read series for any paranormal/horror fan.

Head over to Random Minutiae and leave a comment for your chance to win.

Claire Morgan Mysteries by Linda Ladd

Been a while since I last added anything. Sorry about that but I’m really bad when it comes to this sort of thing. That and I always have trouble putting into words how I feel about a book.

This entry is about Linda Ladd’s Claire Morgan series. There are now three books out – Head To Head, Dark Places and the latest, Die Smiling. I read Head To Head a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. Then I happened to stumble upon Linda Ladd’s MySpace site last year about this time to find the second book had just been released. Off I went to my local bookstore and started reading it immediately.

Dark Places

I was asked how I liked Dark Places in comparison to Head to Head. I was really wishing I had a copy of Head to Head to reread at the time. (I originally borrowed it from a friend, but have since gotten my own copy.) Thankfully, as I was reading along in Dark Places there were enough references to jar my memory. I thought DP was much creeper than HTH. Then again, Ladd hit on something which just really creeps me out. (I’m not going to say what though so I won’t spoil it for future readers.)

As I first started the book, I got tickled at my reaction at one part (the doughnut) at the first crime scene. I enjoy how Claire and her partner, Bud, interact. Then we moved on the ER scene. Yikes! Now I’ll pretty much read most anything as to what we Book Obsessors classify as sick s*** mysteries and I didn’t think much would phase me. Boy was I wrong. The ER scene had a shudder start at the top of my head and work all the way down. I can’t recall an author ever causing that kind of reaction for me. Ladd had me checking my bed before crawling in and shaking out clothes and shoes. One evening, when I got up in the middle of the night for something, I even turned the light back on to check the bed again. One of my Rotties gave me a look that distinctly said…you’ve lost your mind. She even managed the shudder reaction several times before getting to the end of the book.

And the ending was even more creepy. I had to set the book down several times before I could complete the ending. Just to kind of walk off the creepies.

I must warn animal lovers though that there are a couple of disturbing parts in this book. I was able to steel myself for what was coming, but it still bothered me. I get more upset with books and movies when the animals get hurt or killed.

This was definitely a 5 star read for me.


Die Smiling

Some how or another, I keep picking up mysteries that take place during a beauty pageant. This is probably my third or fourth one in the last few months. Even so, I still enjoyed Die Smiling. There was a lower body count in this book as we get started and we seemed to spend more time digging up information, but Ladd still managed a shudder at the climax of the book when our heroine was confronting the killer. You know how a guy will grimace and hold himself in sympathy when seeing another guy just get racked. She managed a similar reaction from me. My hand automatically went to a certain area (don’t want to give anything away) just to make sure everything was still in place.

Between the main story and the secondary, Ladd had me trying to sort out the puzzle until close to the end and then delivered another of her 'have you on the edge of your seat' endings. Though I wasn’t overly thrilled with Bud’s choice of actions, I’m glad the author worked things out for us. This one gets 4 stars from me.

For anyone who enjoys sick s*** mysteries, Linda Ladd's Claire Morgan mysteries are perfect for you.



And let us not forget all those we lost seven years ago!