Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Years!






HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERY ONE!

Being a proud Sydneysider I will be watching an awesome display much like (and hopefully better) than the above. Happy New Years everyone, i hope you all have a safe and fun celebration to bring in 2011.

A new decade and a new year of blogging for StoryWings. Tune in in the new year for my 2010 Wrap up, challenge updates and Book Awards.




Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Interesting Disclaimers

I just started Sasha's Calling and it has a very interesting disclaimer at the front...



DISCLAIMER: Please do not try any new sexual practice, especially those that might be found in our BDSM/fetish titles without the guidance of an experienced practitioner. Neither Loose Id LLC nor its authors will be responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death from use of the information contained in any of its titles.

hmmm....what on earth have people been doing to make it necessary for that kind of disclaimer...

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

I hope everyone enjoys their day today and for those of you reading, here is my favourite Christmas carol, as sung by Fred Astaire




And for those of you who are old enough to enjoy a drop of something stronger...lets hope you don't end up like this guy - i laughed so hard when I saw this...





Happy Christmas everyone!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Book Review: Random Magic by Sasha Soren

Review: Random Magic
Author: Sasha Soren
No of Pages: 397
Release Date: 1 January 2010

When absent-minded Professor Random misplaces the main character from Alice in Wonderland, young Henry Witherspoon must book-jump to fetch Alice before chaos theory kicks in and the world vanishes. Along the way he meets Winnie Flapjack, a wit-cracking doodle witch with nothing to her name but a magic feather and a plan. Such as it is. Henry and Winnie brave the Dark Queen, whatwolves, pirates, Struths, and fluttersmoths, Priscilla and Charybdis, obnoxiously cheerful vampires, Baron Samedi, a nine-dimensional cat, and one perpetually inebriated Muse to rescue Alice and save the world by tea time.

My Thoughts:

I am still actually trying to look for the words to describe Random Magic, other than completely random.

Random Magic follows the story of Henry and Winnie on their search for Alice from the book, Alice in Wonderland. She escaped from the pages of her book into the pages of another.

Henry provided the human eyes to view the story through. Being a smart kid and extremely observant the train of thought we gleaned from being in his perspective made you feel like you were walking along side the pair as they searched.

Winnie was probably my second favourite character in the entire story, and considering how many characters there were, that’s really saying something. Winnie is a doodle-witch the name for a person who practises magic when they have nothing better to do. Winnie is one of those characters that no matter how many times you read the book, you could never really tell what exactly is going through her mind. She is constantly one step ahead and nothing ever seems to really faze her.

Random Magic wasn’t character driven and it didn’t really seem plot driven either. Random Magic reads like a jumbled mind, as things are thought of they are added, some back story here a visit to an ancient castle there all the while trekking on to the final point which was to find where Alice had ended up. I say this and some people will inevitably think “well what’s the point of that then?” and I say to you: The point is to get lost in the story.

I think this is why I loved Random Magic so much, sure at times it was hard to follow, but I got lost in a world that wasn’t structured or even mildly predictable. A world full of vanishing cats, hostile forests, moving chess pieces and evil substitute teachers from hell. None of it made sense and yet it all came together so well. There were cameos from nearly every fairytale I remember reading and characters that really just wouldn’t fit in anywhere else my favourites being the Muses.

The nine muses took form in Random Magic, one of those muses being Callie the writing muse. Callie was no doubt my favourite character and will remain my favourite character because Random Magic not only let me get lost in a world full of random magic, but it also let me get lost within my own imagination once again.

I can say right now that Random Magic will not be for everyone. There are inconsistent time jumps, a few unanswered questions and especially in the beginning it is a little hard to follow but for anyone that really wants to get lost in a story once again and not have any way of knowing how the story ends or what on earth is going to happen in between will absolutely love it.




Tuesday, December 21, 2010

It's Here!!!



The Last Sacrifice. The Last Installment. The Last Chapter. The Last of Rose?

After such an epic journey to get to this day, I now hold in my hands The Last Sacrifice...

See ya when I finish it!

squeeeeee!!!!!


Monday, December 20, 2010

Book Review: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

Title: Rosemary’s Baby
Series: Rosemary’s Baby – Book 1
Author: Ira Levin
No of Pages: 308
Release Date: 12 March 1967

She is a housewife – young, healthy, blissfully happy. He is an actor – charismatic and ambitious. The spacious, sun-filled apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side is their dream home – a dream that turns into an unspeakable nightmare...

Enter the chilling world of Ira Levin – where terror is as near as your new neighbours...and where evil wears the most innocent face of all...

My Thoughts:

Rosemary’s Baby has apparently left people unable to sleep at night. I laughed.

Rosemary and her husband Guy have just moved into a new apartment in a “haunted” building. Newly married and ready to take on the world the couple ignore the warnings of a friend and settle into their new home.

Rosemary soon falls pregnant and it’s then that things start to get odd. Her doctor won’t treat her pain and the odd neighbours from down the hall are constantly bringing her drinks that make her feel sick.

Rosemary was a naive character but understandably so. She was a young housewife who always turned to Guy to find out what to do in situations. After she fell pregnant though and realised something was wrong and Guy wasn’t helping her in the way he should have been she finally came into herself and believed in her ability to do something about her situation. In the end my heart was aching for Rosemary because she got into one of those situations where you can’t turn to anyone for help, no one to trust and not too sure of her own sanity.

Guy I didn’t like from the beginning. He is a self-absorbed actor that came across as one of those people that believe women should be seen and not heard. No matter what concerns Rosemary brought to him about her pregnancy he just brushed her off and told her to trust people that they barely knew. For me he was the most evil character in the entire story because he was Rosemary’s husband and the one she should have been able to trust, and yet he was never ever there for her.

Rosemary’s Baby is very intriguing in its pull. Constantly you are wondering if Rosemary is sane or not. She ends up believing that she has the devils spawn inside of her and really, how plausible is that. Levin wrote the suspense very well in the sense that you don’t know until the very end if Rosemary is indeed right in her suspicions. You are constantly second guessing yourself.

What I didn’t like was the ending; it was silly and felt too abrupt. Rosemary’s Baby wasn’t scary either, it was suspenseful, but not in a way that you absolutely had to know how it ended. You could kind of guess but what if you were wrong. The only reason I finished it was because I wanted to make sure that I was right.

As for being one of the scariest books of all time. It didn’t leave me having nightmares or being scared of my weird neighbours. If anything it just added to my mistrust of humans.

Also in this Series:
Son of Rosemary


Sunday, December 19, 2010

My Two Cents: Escaping into this World


The world of blogging. My escape, my security blanket, my anchor.

It's funny, thinking of a world that physically doesn't exist, people I have never met in "the real world" and yet here we all are, friends of a sort. A support system to each other.

I think that is what keeps bringing me back. The support for the books I read from people who also read them. Here I am not afraid to scream the I read books by Lora Leigh, books about vampires, werewolves and witches. Here I am not afraid to admit that I my hands are literally itching to buy books because I haven't done so for so long.

The Blogasphere is a place in a way that I can call home. And I love that, it is why I am here.

When I am at work, I don't like telling people what I read because they look at me funny. It's not like I'm telling them all of my weird kinky bedroom stuff, just that I like to read about vampires, werewolves and the occasional illness or struggle.

And I get looked at funny. In my real world, people read newspapers or tabloids or nothing at all. Everyone is too busy or not interested in reading at all, and I literally have no one to talk to when it comes to reading books.

The people at the bookshop don't even talk to you! They barely even want to be there themselves, you can tell most of them don't read and are thinking about going up to watch a movie after work or straight out with their friends.

But here I am considered normal (I hope) by the people that also share my passion, and for that I thank you.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

StoryWings Blogaversary/Christmas Giveaway!!!

CONTEST CLOSED

In celebration of my first blogaversary and christmas I am going to hold a massive giveaway. As I am currently sitting on 450 followers (yeay!) this will also be easy to add up so what better time!

The contest will be international! So spread the word!!!

Ok so we have

Nitty Gritties (Details)

Basically this is how it works, I love you guys for following me so I want to give something back. There will be two three winners who will have a choice of a list of books at the end of the contest. To enter simply fill out the form. The contest is international and will run until 20th January 2011 and of course there is a chance to add more winners and more books!!!
The Prize:

All winners have a choice of WHICHEVER book YOU WANT from the Book Depository up to the value of $10 per book.
I won't make you choose from a list, this time it's WINNERS CHOICE.


Fill Out The Form!!!

 Winners
Currently 2 3 winners
1st: Choice of two three books from the Book Depository
2nd: Choice of one two books from the Book Depository
3rd: Choice of one book from the Book Depository

But there is a chance to add more winners!!! for every 50 followers I will add another winner. The maximum prize is four books, but there is potentially an unlimited amount of winners.
Eg 1st: 4 books
2nd: 3 books
3rd: 2 books
4th: 1 book
5th: 1 book
6th: 1 book
etc

Fill Out The Form!!!

Extra Entries!!! (You know you love them!)


Every extra entry will be asked for proof, if you can't provide it i will remove your entire entry.
+10 for a Blog Post
+8 for a Sidebar Post
+6 If I end up on your Blogroll
+4 Putting my Button on your page
+2 If you tweet about this

Following: (You MUST be a follower to enter this)
+3 for old followers
+2 For new followers

Extra Following entries
+2 if you follow me on twitter
+2 if you friend me on Goodreads
+2 if you friend me on Facebook
+2 if you friend me on Shelfari

Remember: you MUST be a follower, click follow on the left hand side bar. Otherwise I cannot accept your entry. Twitter isn't enough, you must follow the blog.

Fill Out The Form!!!

Rules:
  • It is common courtesy to be fair and NOT CHEAT, so I reserve the right to remove any entrants whom I have caught cheating (accepting entries when they haven't done anything)
  • If this contest is not in concordance to your local legislations, it is up to you to follow your local rules.
  • You must have a valid snail mail address, I will accept PO Boxes but once I put that book in the mail, I am no longer responsible for it. Once it is out of my hands, it is out of my hands.
  • Winners will have forty-eight (48) hours to reply to my email after the prize drawing. If not it will be given to someone else.
  • All winners will be drawn by Random.org
  • All books will be sent through the Book Depository, so read their policies when it comes to your area. If you win and you know that book depository does not ship to you please notify me in your confirmation email an we will work it out.
  • All prizes are subject to availability.
  • All prizes must be equal to 10 USD or less


Friday, December 17, 2010

Book Review: Elizabeth's Wolf by Lora Leigh

Review: Elizabeth’s Wolf
Series: Breeds – Book 3
Author: Lora Leigh
No of Pages: 304
Release Date: 30 June 2005

Dash thought himself alone, a soldier, a fighting machine and no more.

Elizabeth made him realise he was a man.

Danger surrounds the woman his soul marked as his mate, death and blood and treachery that go beyond even his worst nightmares. But he will protect her and what she claims as her own. He was created to kill, trained to do it efficiently, and only a man bound to her, heart and soul, will have the strength to save Elizabeth and her prized possession.

My Thoughts:

You don’t really read Breeds books for their riveting plots, but for me Elizabeth’s Wolf was just too far-fetched in how she brought the pair together.

Dash is a soldier, a soldier who has been wounded very badly. He starts receiving letters from a little girl in a school program. Cassie writes to Dash telling her about her life, about her mother, her troubles and her search for a new daddy as she doesn’t have one. Through a brief, two line description of Cassie’s mother, Dane falls in love with her.

After being on the run for the past two years Elizabeth is running out of steam both physically and mentally, and when Dash walks into the restaurant she’s sitting in with her daughter and introduces himself, she goes with him.

For me, this storyline was just a little too off with the pixies, if I had been on the run from criminals for the past two years and had no trust in anyone, no way would I trust a guy who had just walked into a random restaurant I had picked to eat at after tracking me for the past few weeks. I would not get in his car with my baby and go off with him. And yet Elizabeth, the strong willed, stubborn woman did.

Like I said, you don’t read Breeds for the plot and although this plot was too stretched for my tastes the sex as always is good, even though Leigh took it a little too far in this aspect as well. I will spare the details of the nitty gritties, but there are certain things in certain areas of one’s life and ones anatomy that just don’t work like that regardless of the person on the other ends DNA.

And then there was the shaving scene. There is not much in this world that will make me cringe, and this raised the bad kind of goose bumps. Not only would I be monumentally embarrassed to have someone shave me, let alone my lover, but I would also be inconsolably enraged at the gall my lover would have to even attempt doing such a thing, and for those who haven’t caught on yet; he wasn’t shaving under her arms...

Elizabeth’s Wolf is good in a sense if you want to use it for dirty smutty relief, but if you’re going in there for a good story I really suggest you don’t waste the time or money. I will not warn you off the rest of the Breed’s books though just because this one for me was a flop. I will continue the series, mainly because I need my occasional dosages of smut relief.

 Also in this series:
Tempting the Beast
The Man Within
Kiss of Heat
Soul Deep
The Breed Next Door
Megan's Mark
Harmony's Way
Tanner's Scheme
Wolfe's Hope
Jacob's Faith
Aiden's Charity
In a Wolf's Embrace
Dawn's Awakening
A Jaguar's Kiss
Mercury's War
Christmas Heat
Coyotes Mate
Christmas Kiss
Bengals Heart
Lions Heat



Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Christmas is just around the corner...

So Christmas is nearly here, and do you know what I have found?

More and more people are buying their own Christmas presents to themselves these days. So have decided to hop on to one of the smartest bandwagons that seem to be around and treat myself to some books!

On top of giving my followers a Christmas present in the form of StoryWings Blogaversary and Christmas Giveaway I will also be treating myself to some well earned books.

Hmm can you hear that? I’m pretty sure it’s my savings account bursting into tears...

So anyway as I decide I will add the books to this list and update you when I hit the order button. Book Depository here I come!


Monday, December 13, 2010

StoryWings has its own domain!

Hello My Dear Readers,

Today I switched over to my own domain, storywings.blogspot.com is no more!

As of today my new domain is:


As with anything to do with changing over a domain, please bear with me for the next week or so as everything goes back into whack.

Friday, December 10, 2010

A Special Birthday Wish!

Ok so right in the middle of Storywings birthday, we also have another birthday to celebrate! Caroline from One Book Away From Heaven and Book Lovers Inc

All the girls at BLI are celebrating Caroline's birthday at 8am on their Friday 10/12 so it's going to be the longest birthday celebration ever!

I consider Caro to be one of my best blogging buddies and she also gets part of the credit for pulling me out of the slump so I have a very special Aussie present for her today.

Some Aussie Hotties!














And time for the birthday girls special birthday dance!





Happy Birthday Caro!




Tuesday, December 7, 2010

StoryWings 1st Blogaversary!!!

Yeay! We made it! 1 year!


Whoda thunk it, aye? One whole year ago I decided to start reviewing books on a regular basis.

So let us go back to the beginning, where it all began.

As some of you may know StoryWings started out life as a writing blog which fell over within a couple of weeks of going up. And then on the 7th of December 2009 StoryWings was reborn as a book blog so as I go through my time line I will put in a little pre-book blog part:

Before the Book Blog:

And StoryWings begins: 
  • 5th December 2010: The Slump was defeated!
Which brings us to where we are now, my one year blogaversary!

There will be some more Blogaversary type related post to come this week including a change of URL! Ill be getting my own domain!!


    Sunday, December 5, 2010

    Book Review: Lucifer's Daughter by Eve Langlais

    Review: Lucifer’s Daughter
    Series: Lucifer’s Daughter – Book 1
    Author: Eve Langlais
    No of Pages: 79
    Release Date: 9 August 2010

    Hi, I’m Muriel, the only white sheep in a sea of black ones, and a virgin to boot. I am determined to wait for love, but my dad, more commonly known as Lucifer, just wants me to stop being an embarrassment. I’m hoping the hunk that I met in my bar will turn out to be the one–just looking at him makes my insides melt like marshmallows over the coals of hell, but trusting is hard when it seems everyone I get close to ends up trying to kill me.

    Not only am I dealing with an extreme case of lust, there’s a new threat in hell, one my dad says to ignore. Something easier said than done since it seems everywhere I turn demons are trying to kill me. But I’m okay with that, because one thing I’ve learned being a princess of hell is that sometimes I have to grab a demon by the horns and slap it around a bit.

    A rebellion in hell, demon assassins and scorching kisses, could my life get any more interesting?

    My Thoughts:
    I absolutely loved Lucifer’s Daughter, although the dialogue was hard to get around at times.

    Muriel is the virgin daughter of Satan who runs her own bar and has a few special powers under her belt. When three good looking strangers walk in one night, you can just tell trouble isn’t far behind and sure enough those three and especially one in particular worm their way into her life.

    Muriel was absolutely hilarious and definitely one of my favourite characters this year. She is sassy, smart and had hell hounds for pets when she was growing up. Muriel also has some powers thanks to being the spawn of Satan, her powers were only lightly brushed over in Lucifer’s Daughter but I love how she has to “charge up” so to speak, by having sex.

    Auric I really didn’t like because he refused to tell Muriel anything about himself. He was completely dishonest with her in the beginning and always dodged answering her questions about where he was from. Sure it was obvious why he had to do so towards the end of the story but it still made me dislike him as a character for being so evasive. His hotness factor only partially made up for the lies personally I preferred his werewolf friend.

    Although this was a shorter story and Muriel was the main character so many funny characters were also packed into Lucifer’s Daughter which I absolutely loved. Bambi the super-slag was Muriel’s succubus sister, Satan was hilarious as a father and his best friend Death cropped up from time to time to drink at Muriel’s bar and complain about how his son wasn’t very good at the family business.

    The only thing that really takes away from Lucifer’s Daughter – aside from Auric's dishonesty – is the dialogue. It was extremely forced and awkward to read almost like a really bad old time sitcom, there wasn’t much that didn’t sound like an overused cliché or just abnormal to say.

    Things like when Satan says: “I think I’ll have to go ask my brother, God, if he’s heard anything about this.”

    Aside from the dialogue Lucifer’s Daughter had me laughing out loud at the hilarity of the situations Muriel was put in and really had me asking what was so bad about going to hell anyway especially if I can get with Auric’s werewolf friend the way Muriel and Auric got together.

    Also in this Series:
    Snowballs in Hell


    Thursday, December 2, 2010

    Monthly Wrap-Up: November 2010

    It's that time of the month again! And this is the first time you have heard from since this time last month. I won't jinx myself and promise that I'm back just yet, but I will definitely be around more that I have some time on my hands again.

    My Favourite book for the month would have to be: Random Magic by Sasha Soren



    In November I read 4 books.
    • Random Magic - Sasha Soren
    • If I Stay - Gayle Forman
    • Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
    • Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris

    I reviewed 0 books  :"[
     well actually i did review a book this month! but i didn't post it...so it will be going towards my December reviews.

    My Shelfari TBR Pile at the start of the month was 1,040 At the end of the month it is 1,040 - no change...

    My physical TBR pile took another hit this month, we're down to 35 now after 37 last month. With my current re-read of Sookie Stackhouse books i'm not too sure how we'll go in decreasing this pile at the moment, but it's all good, yeay Sookie!

    Wednesday, December 1, 2010

    TBR Drawer: December

    • Just After Sunset by Stephen King
    • Enchanted. Inc by Shanna Swendson
    • Night Rising by Chris Marie Green
    • Water Song: A Retelling of the Frog Prince by Suzanne Weyn
    • Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
    • The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
    • Need by Carrie Jones
    • Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
    • Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance
    • Jessicas Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
    • Original Sin by Allison Brennan
    • Blood Magic by Eileen Wilks
    • Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks 
    • Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin
    • What's a ghoul to do? by Victoria Laurie
    • Soulless by Gail Carriger
    • Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead
    • The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols
    • Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper
    • Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian 
    • Shades of Midnight by Lara Adrian
    • Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
    • Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning
    • Bloody Jack by L. A Meyer
    • The Awakening by Kelly Armstrong
    • Dark Beginnings by Gena Showalter
    • Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison
    • The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom
    • Stolen by Kelley Armstrong
    • Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready  RC
    • A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler
    • The Taken by Sarah Pinborough
    • Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
    • Bloodlines by Lindsay Anne Kendal
    December Arrivals:
    • Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
    • Jump by Jennifer Wylie   RC
    • Dead Men's Dust by Matt Hilton
    • Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs
    • Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs
    • Mortal Remains by Kathy Reichs
    • Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs
    • Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs
    • Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs
    • Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs
    • Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs
    • Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs
    • The Shadow Seer by Fran Jacobs   RC
    • Sasha's Calling by TC Archer   RC
    • Born Into Fire by KyAnn Waters & Tarah Scott   RC
    • Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha   RC
    • Last Stop: A Survivor's Story by Nelson Velez & Tommy McInnis   RC

      2010 SAB Challenge - Post your DECEMBER Reviews



      This post is for bloggers to post their DECEMBER reviews for the 2010 - Stand Alone Book Reading Challenge. Please DO NOT put your blog's URL in below. Put the link to your review.Click here to sign up for the challenge.

      INSTRUCTIONS:

      Name: Title of the Book (author optional)
      Your URL: The Link to Your Review

      NON-BLOGGERS:

      You can post your titles in the comment section.

      Posting reviews is optional.





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