Book Review: Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Review: Succubus Blues
Series: Georgina Kincaid
Author: Richelle Mead
No of Pages: 343
Release Date: 1 March 2007

Succubus (n.) An alluring, shape-shifting demon who seduces and pleasures mortal men.

Pathetic (adj.) A succubus with great shoes and no social life. See: Georgina Kincaid.

When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid's life is far less exotic. Her boss is a middle-management demon with a thing for John Cusack movies. Her immortal best friends haven't stopped teasing her about the time she shape-shifted into the Demon Goddess getup complete with whip and wings. And she can't have a decent date without sucking away part of the guy's life. At least there's her day job at a local bookstore--free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can't.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle's demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help because Georgina's about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny...

My Thoughts:

I went into Richelle Mead’s adult series with high expectations. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Georgina Kincaid is a succubus. But she is a good person, which in turn means being a bad succubus. Georgina refuses to feed off what she constitutes a good person which means she only feeds on low lives that have a low moral fibre and are looking to do naughty dirty things with and to people anyway. This wasn’t originally part of Georgina’s job description, but after you have been making men stray for a few millennia, sometimes it’s fun to stir the pot.

But Georgina isn’t all good, she likes to flirt, antagonize her Demon boss and come up with extremely snarky and well placed comments. Georgina is funny, and whilst not being the strongest supernatural in the playground she still knows how to hold her ground, not being limited to a human form.

Seth is one of Georgina’s romantic interests and to be honest he is a little boring, made of good moral fibre and who can’t really hold a conversation with anyone but the characters in his head. But he is also a character who you can’t help but love. When Georgina gets sick, Seth cares for her, all purely because he wants to help her, not get into her pants. As Seth comes out of his shell one discovers a passionate man who is shy but in a very cute way.

Roman is another of Georgina’s romantic interests and he is hot. He is persistent, intelligent and can hold a conversation with Georgina about almost anything. Roman is loveable in a weird way right from the beginning, one can’t help but wonder why he is so adamant about getting on a date with Georgina, but that doesn’t take away from his appeal.

Succubus Blues was extremely clever in its ideas, and its problems. Who would have ever thought a Succubus would refuse to have sex with nice hot men. They have all the tools, the power and the reason. But Georgina refuses to. She won’t taint men who don’t deserve it which makes it extremely hard for her to get close to Seth or Roman, and it’s kind of heart-breaking to watch. Finding someone who cares about you, whom you’re attracted to, and who is a genuinely good guy and you must keep pushing him away. It’s sad.

Mead impressed me with her writing once again, I will be honest and say that it took me quite a while – at least one hundred pages – for it to hold my full attention but once it grabbed me it refused to let go. Mead tantalizes you with snippets of information about Georgina’s past and how she became what she is today and once they take hold as well as the addictive storyline of whodunit you literally cannot put Succubus Blues down.

Succubus Blues is an addictive read once it gets going. It is yet another exhibit of Mead’s fantastic writing and once again she has me salivating for more.

Also in this series:
Succubus On Top
Succubus Dreams
Succubus Heat
Succubus Shadows
Succubus Revealed

2011 A-Z Reading Challenge

Click here to go to the challenge page!!!

A Ghostly Menage - Eve Langlais
Bloodfever - Karen Marie Moning
Crazy - Eve Langlais
Demonic Persuasion - Mahalia Levey
Eternal Kiss of Darkness - Jeaniene Frost
Fatal Embrace - Aris Whittier
G
Human Blend - Lori Pescatore
I
J
Kiss of Midnight - Lara Adrian
Living Dead Girl - Elizabeth Scott
M
Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper
One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost
Paramour - Margaret Ethridge
Q
Running Blind - Nicki J. Markus
Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead
Tempest's Legacy - Nicole Peeler
U
V
Water Song: A Retelling of "The Frog Prince" by Suzanne Weyn

X
Y
Z

Book Review: Last Stop: A Survivor's Story by Tommy McInnis & Nelson Velez

Review: Last Stop: A Survivor’s Story
Author: Nelson Velez & Tommy McInnis
No of Pages: 150
Release Date: 24 April 2010

In the Big Apple’s busy streets, these two men can be found doing their jobs and helping people get on with their lives. This book is their story. The true account of the lives and work of Nelson Velez, NYPD HOU police officer, from his early career as a Transit Police Officer to his work in the Homeless Outreach Unit, how he met Tommy McInnis, an MTA Connections outreach worker who was once homeless himself. Their story is revealed in Last Stop: A Survivor’s Story. Beyond their daily routine, readers will find a story that encompasses the countless people they encounter, as well as the drama they faced each day.

From law enforcement to social work, readers will be amazed how these two men have contributed a great deal to the society. Last Stop truly details the lives of some of New York’s unsung heroes.

My Thoughts:

Whilst being an interesting insight into the world of the New York City homeless population, I really couldn’t connect with Last Stop.

Last Stop is Tommy’s story, how he got off the streets, how he started working for the Homeless Outreach Unit, and how he started helping others in situations that he was once in. Nelson was his partner when he joined the HOU and as a team they paved the way in the earliest generations of helping the homeless get out of the train stations.

Tommy is interesting, knowing he is a real person helps with his story, and we don’t get to hear much of how he lived on the streets which for me was disappointing. It would have been interesting knowing his true roots, more of past to help connect to him. When he joined the HOU the only thing he has is life experience, no schooling or fancy degrees got him where he is today. And as it’s plain to everyone, he is the best man for the job. Tommy knows what these people are feeling and can go about the right way to get them off the streets and into a proper place for help. For Tommy it’s more than a job.

For Nelson, it’s just a job. Another day in the tunnels shooing out people that aren’t supposed to be there. We only get to hear a little of Nelson’s back story in the beginning and after that he only plays a small role in the rest of the story, occasionally making Tommy’s job harder because Nelson is there to remind him to follow the rules. There are certain ways to do things, regardless of if they may be less efficient.

Last Stop could have been something great, but the writing for me just took too much away from it. The story was jumpy, and sometimes very hard to follow. There was a point when I wasn’t sure if one lady was a cop or a homeless woman and it was only towards the end that it became clear. For me, Last Stop was a recount of events. There was a lack of feeling in the words, nothing to draw you in and hold you there. Tommy got off the streets, Tommy got a job, Tommy helped the homeless.

There was a lot of repetition and a lot of unneeded description. I would have been more interested in the layout of the tunnels, more of the homeless people’s stories. But all that was overlooked I felt and pointless descriptions of the floor replaced them. There also seemed to be a lot we as an audience were expected to know; slang places and in some cases people which made for some confusing re-reading.

I can fully understand that this is real life and not a fairytale in which the kitchen scullion becomes a prince. But I felt that certain things could have been emphasised to make Last Stop hit home but they weren’t.

Last Stop was interesting, but I don’t think it reached its potential.

Question of the Week: When do you like a book?

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at La Femme Readers

Question: At what point do you decide if you like a book or not? If it's not your cup of tea, do you stop reading or fight through it until the end?

Answer: I know this sounds like a cop out but it really depends on the book. If it's epic - say a four to five star book - I should be able to tell within the first chapter. But most books I can tell within the first one hundred pages.

There are a couple of rare occurences in which I will hate a book for about half of it and then suddenly love it. I know that has happened once...but I can't remember what with...same goes for the other way around.

Most books I will will fight it out until the end. There have only been a couple that I have given up on when they took more than a month to read.

Is It Just Me?: Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Is it just me? Or is this one of the uglier covers out there...

I really liked Succubus Blues, but this cover turned me off it for so long that it was sitting on my TBR pile for nearly a year before I picked it up. I am assuming that this is Georgina Kincaid on the cover...

And I am wondering if that is a real model or a fake one...

If you look closely:

• The necklace is askew
• her dress looks drawn on
• the hair looks painted/smudged on
• her lipstick has decided to make its own path which doesn't necessarily mean following the line of her lips
• and shes blue...

It makes me really sad because for people like me - and I know you're hiding out there - seeing this thing calling itself a cover turns me off a book. If i hadn't already been in love with Richelle Mead, I may not have picked this up of my own accord (which is how I still by a good deal of my books).

The newer cover is gorgeous:

But I also see the original as the true cover for the first book in this series. I have grown to like it in it's own little way. But it is still a little cringe worthy if you look too closely.

Book Review: Lover Revealed by J.R Ward

Review: Lover Revealed
Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood – Book 4
Author: J.R Ward
No of Pages: 455
Release Date: 6 March 2007

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a war raging between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other – six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. But now an ally of the Brotherhood is about to encounter his own dark desires...

Butch O’Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard-living ex-homicide cop, he’s the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world – to engage in the turf war with the lessers. He’s got nothing to lose. His heart belongs to a female vampire, an aristocratic beauty who’s way out of his league. If he can’t have Marissa, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers...

Fate curses him with the very thing he wants. When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead, he’s found by a miracle, and the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back. But even her love may not be enough to save him...

My Thoughts:

Lover Revealed told the story of Butch, the only human fighter associated with the Black Dagger Brotherhood. While being slightly predictable it was still an excellent instalment in this fantastic series.

Butch is in love with Marissa one of the social elite in the vampire world, but it doesn’t seem that Marissa wants him back after shunning him repeatedly. When Butch gets into trouble though and looks close to dying Marissa is there by his side to help him through a sickness brought on by the Omega.

Butch was always one of those characters that kind of annoyed me. I felt like he was mooching off the brothers money and hospitality even though if he left they would have to kill him for what he knew. He was even punching above his weight when it came to Marissa, she is rich, one of the most beautiful vampires there is and she is heir to one of the most powerful families in the BDB world.

But as the spotlight was shone on Butch I couldn’t help but like him, all he wanted was what was best for his friends and Marissa. Sure he's not as strong as any of the other fighters because he is only human but he still contributes by using his experience as a cop.

I still don't particularly like Marissa though; she is too frail and helpless for my tastes. Marissa relies far too heavily on others to be much help to anyone, even when she had the opportunity to strike out on her own and leave all of her rules behind like she said she so desperately wanted she still went running to the nearest powerful vampire to her.

Thankfully she toughened up right towards the end but it wasn't enough to make up for the weak character she was portrayed as for the entire time she has been in the series.

Although Lover Revealed wasn't entirely focused on Vishous he made quite a strong appearance because he is Butch’s best friend. I loved Vishous’ story even more than I loved Butch’s and I can't wait to get into Lover Unbound so that all of the focus is on him.

Lover Revealed definitely isn't the strongest relationship wise, but it does further the story immensely. We are getting deeper into the back story behind Rehvenge and the fight between the vampires and the lessers is starting to get more intriguing.

Lover Revealed is a hot action filled story and although the main characters weren't as strong as previous novels in this series the plot progressed very interestingly and has left me eager for the next instalment in this fantastic series.

Also in this series:
Dark Lover
Lover Eternal
Lover Awakened
Lover Unbound
Lover Enshrined
Lover Avenged
Lover Mine
Lover Unleashed

Teaser Tuesday: 25/1/2011

Currently Reading: Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Another kiss...another kiss, and I would not be able to stop. I wanted it too much. I wanted to be with someone I wanted. Just once after all these years.
And that was exactly why I couldn't do it.

Teaser Tuesday is the brainchild of Should Be Reading

My Two Cents: Migraines....Headaches of Evil!

To put you in the picture of how monumental this headache was, I can't even look at the picture above even now (4 days later) without having to turn away because it hurts my head.

Migraines I don't reckon can be fully appreciated until you have one....and believe me it is a life experience everyone can do without. I had my first official, bona-fide migraine on Tuesday. I couldn't look at a computer screen or bear the sunlight - omg I am finally turning into a vampire! - I felt sick on the stomach and couldn't lift my head past a certain point.

By Wednesday, I couldn't bear any light at all. The light on my phone when it lit up...even when my eyes were closed was too much. I walked around like a blind person all Wednesday and after going to the doctors and been given some awesome massive yellow pills, I was also being knocked out for four hours at a time.

So I get two days - at least - off work from the doctor. Usually I would be cheering...sickness for me has always come with the promise of books. No matter how much pain I'm in or how sick I feel I can always read. It is how I survive every sickness. Up until now.

Migraines in some people also knock out your vision. Everything is blurry on top of being too bright. So for the first time in my life....I couldn't read whilst I was sick.

Tuesday and Wednesday were two of the most boring days of my life. Sitting in a dark room facing away from the television and the only amusement? Turning the Audio-visual on for the scant few DVDs that I own which actually have the function - The Incredibles and Sky High...wooo.

So seeing as how this may become a regular occurance (we are hoping not, but you know...) looks like I need to invest in some more DVDs that have Audio-Visual.

And for the Audio-book suggestion that will inevitably come...too expensive and too much concentrating for the amount of pain caused by the most evil headache ever.

StoryWings Blogaversary/Christmas Giveaway has ended

Good morning my dear readers,

StoryWings Blogaversary Giveaway has now ended. I will be tallying up the entries and picking winners during the week. Please bear with me as there were a lot of entries and I need to check them.

Hopefully by this time next week we will have our winners!

Book Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Book Review: If I Stay
Series: If I Stay – Book 1
Author: Gayle Forman
No of Pages: 234
Release Date: 9 April 2009

On a day that started like any other...

Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. Then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left – the most important decision she’ll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

My Thoughts:

If I Stay was powerful and sad. Probably the only girl in YA history who is both well adjusted and mature and she had to have everything taken away from her.

On a family drive during the winter Mia’s family car is t-boned by a semi that couldn’t stop in time. Her parents are instantly killed and Mia and her brother Teddy are the only ones to survive. Teddy is rushed to the local hospital but Mia has to go to Portland hospital because her injuries are so severe.

Mia is probably the nicest, most respectful, most mature girl in the history of YA. She loves her parents, her grandparents, and her little brother to pieces. She is in a normal stable relationship with a fellow musician who is in a rock band. Mia is strong, smart and just so normal. It broke my heart to know that she lost her family. Before the crash Mia’s only dilemma in life was deciding on whether to go to New York to study music or to stay in her small home town with her family and her boyfriend.

After the crash Mia had to decide whether to pass on or to continue living. The 24 hours that she took to decide this is the twenty four hours that we spend in her head. Mia is having an out of body experience, being able to walk around the hospital she is in and see what the people she loves are going through.

Mia’s boyfriend Adam is also probably one of the most normal male interests we have ever seen in YA, he wasn’t moody or irrational he was just a musician like Mia who happened to have the mental capacity to love. Adam supported everything Mia did and Mia supported Adam in everything he did. Adam and her best friend Kim broke into her hospital room just to see her and it was Adam who thought to bring her beloved cello music for her to listen to.

Whilst being in Mia’s head we also have a lot of flashbacks, how she met her friends, her memories of her grandparents growing up, her memories of her parents and brother. They once again ground in the fact of how normal Mia and her life had been. But they never got boring or repetitive like some flashbacks become. They were just bits and pieces of her life as she had known it and they were so masterfully done that they created a clear picture of what Mia and the people she knew had been like.

Her parents were probably the nicest parents ever portrayed in a YA novel. They were rockers who turned into loving parents who didn’t overlook what they knew their kids would be doing anyway but didn’t give them free reign either and truly sunk in the message that your parents can be your friends.

If I Stay was so powerful in the many messages that it put across. From living every day to the fullest, to loving your family and being thankful for what you have, and to cherish the people you love because you never know when they might be taken away.

I also loved the sheer irony of the situation. Leave the family and go to New York became stay in the world of the living or go with your family.

If I Stay was extremely emotional for me and I would be surprised if anyone didn’t come away with something from this novel. The simplicity of a normal person losing their family in a horrible way became a rollercoaster ride of emotions. If I Stay was masterfully written and will stay with you for a long time after the final page has been turned.

Also in this Series:
Where She Went

Friday 56: 21/1/2011

Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison

Page 56, 5th Sentence


"Handy that. No wonder the wraiths were so determined to find her."

Stupid wraiths, always showing up at the worst time, trying to suck out your soul and all.





 



Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of Freda's Voice.
*Post a link along with your post back to Freda's Voice.
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

The New Vampire Academy!

I have just discovered the name of the new Vampire Academy type sin off series that Richelle Mead is writing!

Bloodlines is releasing in August 2011!

That's really only seven months away now, squee!

You have a lot to live up to Ms. Mead, I so hope that Bloodlines is as good as Vampire Academy. May the force be with you.

Droolworthy Covers: Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

Last Sacrifice. The last chance we will get to debate over whether this is Rose or Lissa. I reckon it's Lissa personally as the image of Rose is firmly planted in my head from book one.

Yet considering that I also have a pretty firm image of Lissa in my head from books 2&3

It leaves me wondering who it is intended to be.

I still reckon it's Lissa though.

Teaser Tuesday: 18/1/2011

Currently Reading: Last Stop: A Survivor's Story by Tommy McInnis & Nelson Velez

"How much do you drink?"

"Everyday? 'Bout half a gallon."

Teaser Tuesday is the brainchild of Should Be Reading

Book Review: Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

Review: Last Sacrifice
Series: Vampire Academy – Book 6
Author: Richelle Mead
No of Pages: 594
Release Date: 7 December 2010

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO NOW.

Murder. Love. Jealousy. And the ultimate sacrifice.

Rose Hathaway has always played by her own rules. She broke the law when she ran away from St. Vladimir’s Academy with her best friend and last surviving Dragomir princess, Lissa. She broke the law when she fell in love with her gorgeous off-limits instructor, Dimitri. And she dared to defy Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world, risking her life and reputation to protect generations of dhampir guardians to come.

Now the law has finally caught up with Rose – for a crime she didn’t even commit. She’s in prison for the highest offense imaginable: the assassination of a monarch. She’ll need help from both Dimitri and Adrian to find the one living person who can stall her execution and force the Moroi elite to acknowledge a shocking new candidate for the royal throne: Vasilisa Dragomir.

But the clock on Rose’s life is running out. Rose knows in her heart the world of the dead wants her back...and this time she is truly out of second chances. The big question is, when your whole life is about saving others, who will save you?

Join Rose, Dimitri, Adrian and Lissa in Last Sacrifice, the epic, unforgettable finale to Richelle Mead’s international #1 bestselling Vampire Academy series.

My Thoughts:

The epic finale to an epic series, and my word was it epic.

At the end of Spirit Bound we found Rose locked away and getting ready to be trialled for murder. Within the first 100 pages she’s broken out and is on her way to finding Lissa’s sibling. With Dimitri at her side they meet up with Sydney and try to find a secluded place to keep Rose away from the guardians who are now after her.

Rose has matured in a way only Rose could have since the start of the series. She is still occasionally reckless, still has her heart in the right place and still hits before she asks questions. But throughout Last Sacrifice you could see how she has truly matured and realised that the world was more than just her being with Lissa. From book one she was adamant that Lissa needed her and that she had to be with her no matter what. For Rose protecting Lissa meant being right there to punch whoever tried to touch her. In Last Sacrifice though she finally realised that running back to Lissa wasn’t the best idea, finding her sibling was.

Lissa has grown the most throughout the series in my opinion. In Last Sacrifice she truly became a princess and an adult in a very harsh world. She stood up to the politicians who wanted to bring her down and proved that she had just as much right to be there as anyone else.

We still got a look into Lissa’s world though through their bond. With Rose being able to look into what was happening at court, and with her boyfriend Adrian, it added that extra dimension to the story because nothing was ever boring.

In keeping with the rest of the series Last Sacrifice was fast-paced and completely sucked you in. I had read 100 pages in the first half hour and the rest of it was literally un-put-down-able. The action was constant whether it be in Rose’s world or Lissa’s. With Rose on the run and Lissa running for the throne neither girl ever seemed to get any rest.

The sexual tension between Rose and Dimitri kept you on edge just as much as the action did, with Rose in a relationship with Adrian she was trying to pass off any feelings for Dimitri as the after affect of their romance but being on the run together wasn’t such a good idea. It was good that they had Sydney with them who as always with her loath of both Dhampirs and vampires always had a quick quip.

Last Sacrifice was the perfect ending to a perfect series. Did everything tie up beautifully? Of course not and that’s what made it the perfect end to the Vampire Academy series. The only problem with it? It didn’t feel like the end.

Also in this series:
Vampire Academy
Frostbite
Shadow Kiss
Blood Promise
Spirit Bound

2011 Reading Challenges

Wow only five this year....so far. I am sure there will be more as I find all the great challenges out there that I just can't resist.

Paranormal Reading Challenge  -  50/50 books read
Stand Alone Book Challenge - 15/25 books read
E-Book Challenge   -  13/20 books read
100 Books in a Year Challenge - 60/100 books read
YA Reading Challenge - 20/20 books read
A-Z Reading Challenge - 13/26 books read

2011 SAB Challenge

Click here to go directly to the challenge page.

I am going for SAB-tastic level which is 25 books.

1. A Ghostly Menage - Eve Langlais
2. Last Stop: A Survivors Story - Tommy McInnis & Nelson Velez 
3. Living Dead Girl - Elizabeth Scott 
4. Blood Prophecy - Stefan Petrucha 
5. Paramour - Margaret Ethridge 
6. Crazy - Eve Langlais 
7. Water Song: A Retelling of "The Frog Prince" by Suzanne Weyn 
8. Strange Familiar - Cassidy Hunter 
9. The Lottery - Alexandra O'Hurley 
10. Cleopatra's Men - Eve Langlais 
11. Defence Against the Dark - Emily Carlin 
12. The Taste of Apple - James Laidler 
13. Fatal Embrace - Aris Whittier
14. Comfort Food - Kitty Thomas
15. Take Me There - Carolee Dean
16. Forget You - Jennifer Echols

Book Review: Sasha's Calling by TC Archer

Review: Sasha’s Calling
Author: TC Archer
No of Pages: 122
Release Date: 26 October 2010

Nothing can stop freelance thief Sasha Smirnov from saving her planet -- except, Dirk, the gorgeous ambassador with polychrome eyes. Is it lust or designer pheromones? He is hot, too hot to resist -- or forget. A single, sizzling kiss burns him into her memory, and her body, but she can't afford to stop for passion, let alone love.

Sasha needs to get as far away from Dirk as possible and take the classified data she stole with her. So she stows away on a ship outward bound, only to discover Dirk's the pilot. Now she can't get away from him, or the system, but he will let her into his bed...

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Public sex.

My Thoughts:

Sasha’s Calling was my first voluntary dive into the Sci-Fi scene, and I liked it.

Sasha is currently on the run for stealing some important information from one planet to give to her home planet. Whilst escaping she stows away on a space ship hoping to later commandeer it and fly home.

Sasha for me was a funny character, but also mildly unlikeable at the start. Although I could understand her desperation she seemed a little too naive to be a fugitive of the galaxy. She trusted to easily and I think that it was her down fall. If she had been a little more cautious then there almost wouldn’t have been a need for the story going the way it did. I felt like she almost had a character change a third in, going from “ooh this is a pretty stateroom, I’ll just hide in here and hope I don’t get caught” to the heroine that was not only cunning but was a lot tougher and likeable.

Although Sasha’s Calling is a primarily erotic romance the Sci-Fi elements were also scattered in and they were quite interesting to me as a person who usually steers clear. With the added element of different alien species all living together being the norm and frequent inter-planetary travel happening every second day I almost would have like to see more action happening.

Sasha’s Calling was quite shallow overall with no one element being truly explored. You had a bit of Sci-Fi and a bit of sex. The sex was quite hot, I’ll admit, but – and I don’t want this to sound wrong – it didn’t pull you in, they were just words that were on a page to me and they were more sex breaks rather than plot inducing sex: “We’re on the run from an evil mob boss who is stronger than both of us combined he should have nearly recovered from the beating we just gave him! Quick let’s have 10 minutes worth of sex just to fill in the time...”

In saying that it was shallow though I am not saying that it was a bad story. It moved along quite nicely and kept me engaged for the entire time that I was reading it. Sasha’s Calling was good while you are reading it, just not overly memorable a couple of days later.

Sasha’s Calling is good for a quick sexy read that has an added element of action and spacey weirdness.

Book Release: Crime Beat by Scott Nicholson

Scott Nicholson's new book is out today! You may have heard of him before so far he's written:

Speed Dating with the Dead, The Red Church, Drummer Boy, Ashes, As I Die Lying and heaps more. So far I've seen a lot of novellas from him and so is his latest: Crime Beat

Crime doesn't pay...but neither does journalism.

When Moretz takes a reporter job at a small Appalachian paper, a crime spree erupts that quickly escalates to serial killing. And Moretz seems to know a little bit more than what appears on the front page.

Inspired by Scott's experiences as a reporter, and possibly as a serial killer!

You can find some great deals on Crime Beat which was released today:
99 cents for a limited time at Amazon
Or at Amazon UK
For Nook at BN.com
In all formats at Smashwords

My Two Cents: The Only Rule of Blogging

I have only one rule when it comes to blogging - do not read any reviews of a book you already have.

Which basically means that if I have already bought, read or half-read a book I will not read any reviews from the time I buy the book to the time I post my own review.

Simple really if you ask me....

I accidentally just broke that rule. I was reading a blog and along comes a review of a book I have recently finished but not yet reviewed. I read the first line of the review...

What happened?

My opinion of the book changed. With that one line, I was put into a different perspective.

This I believe is wrong, and is also what causes plagiarism.

You think to yourself "it'll be ok, just see what they thought..."

Which turns into "Hey! They make a good point! I now love/hate [insert book title here] too! They are so right, I can't believe I didn't see it before!

So now I have a dilemma, to review or not to review. I am going to sleep on it and see how I feel about this tomorrow. If I go back to my old opinion I will write the review. If not...then I probably won't write the review :(

2011 E-Book Challenge - Courtesy of The Ladybug Reads

Click here to go directly to the challenge page

I still don't have an e-reader but i find myself reading more and more e-books anyway so I am going for:

I am going for Obsessed Level – Read 20 e-books.

1. A Ghostly Menage - Eve Langlais
2. Snowballs In Hell - Eve Langlais 
3. Born Into Fire - KyAnn Waters & Tarah Scott 
4. Crazy - Eve Langlais 
5. Demonic Persuasion - Mahalia Levey 
6. Strange Familiar - Cassidy Hunter
7. Running Blind - Nicki J. Markus
8. The Lottery - Alexandra O'Hurley 
9. Cleopatra's Men - Eve Langlais 
10. Shadow Seer - Fran Jacobs 
11. Fatal Embrace - Aris Whittier
12. Everything Erotic: Volume I 
13. Everything Erotic: Volume II 
14. Everything Erotic: Volume III