Book Review: Eye of the Tempest by Nicole Peeler

Review: Eye of the Tempest
Series: Jane True – Book 4
Author: Nicole Peeler
No of Pages: 319
Release Date: 26 July 2011

Nothing says “home” like being attached by humans with very large guns, as Jane and Anyan discover when they arrive in Rockabill. Seeing Anyan fall awakens a terrible power within Jane, and she nearly destroys herself taking out their attackers.

Jane wakes, weeks later, to discover that she’s not the only thing that’s been stirring. Something underneath Rockabill is coming to life: something ancient, something powerful, and something that might destroy the world.

Jane and her friends must act, striking out on a quest that only Jane can finish. For whatever lurks beneath the Old Sow must be stopped…and Jane’s just the Halfling for the job.

My Thoughts:
Eye of the Tempest was another fast paced instalment in this fantastic series.

Jane accidentally short circuits herself when she pulls the water from several human beings to protect Anyan during an attack. It kills the men, and it nearly kills her as well. When she wakes up, a month has passed and strange occurrences are becoming more frequent in Rockabill.

Jane once again had me in fits of laughter; her trademark libido vs. virtue monologue is absolutely hilarious. Jane is growing as a character; those changes are quite obvious but also well earned. Her training is increasing and because of it she is becoming more powerful learning new tricks to impress us with in each new adventure.

Anyan was a little bit of a disappointment for me this time; I feel his real character is starting to show through. He has gone from this adorable, burly man who any woman would count their lucky stars to be with to more distant and a bit of a jerk. Anyan always seems to be around when Jane is naked or he even turns up to get her naked, but he doesn’t seem to treat her properly. When Ryu and Jane were sleeping together it was obvious that Ryu was using her for blood, but with Anyan it’s a little more subtle. The connection between them doesn’t seem to be there. As Jane pointed out herself Anyan always seemed to cop a feel, but they had never even kissed properly.

For me, this was a little bit of a letdown with Anyan, it might just be my natural distrusting ways, but if I were Jane I’d put my foot down and not give over anything until I knew where I stood.

The actual story was once again very well written. It didn’t have the adventure in that Jane actually stayed in Rockabill for nearly the entire novel, but it did have a deeper story. One in which Jane got to meet a being that was literally millions of years old. Jane also had to man up because Nell and Anyan, her two most powerful allies, were rendered completely helpless and it was up to Jane and Blondie, who Jane didn’t trust, to help them.

Peeler’s writing was once again superb; I do feel though that she is playing up a little too much on her Jane monologues. After such high praises of the ingeniousness of it in previous books, Libido and Virtue were appearing what felt like all the time. Every new situation Jane was put into it felt like those two felt the need to be heard, it was actually kind of annoying after a while because it was obvious what was happening, just because a device has worked in the past doesn’t mean you have to become a one trick pony.

Eye of the Tempest was once again a fabulous read, it kept me engrossed from start to finish and I once again cannot wait for the next instalment.

Others in this series:
Tempest's Rising
Tracking the Tempest
Tempest's Legacy
Tempest's Fury

Book Review: Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Review: Bloodlines
Series: Bloodlines – Book 1
Author: Richelle Mead
No of Pages: 421
Release Date: 23 August 2011

SYDNEY PROTECTS VAMPIRE SECRETS – AND HUMAN LIVES.

Sydney belongs to a secret group who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the world of humans and vampires.

But when Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, she fears she is still being punished for her complicated alliance with the dhampir Rose Hathaway. What unfolds is far worse. The sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir is in mortal danger, and goes into hiding. Now Sydney must act as her protector.

The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one…

My Thoughts:
We were never going to get another Vampire Academy, but what we did get was still surprisingly unique considering it was set in the same world.

Sydney Sage is a disgraced alchemist. After helping Rose to escape from prison whilst on a murder charge and befriending vampires and dhampirs, she is under constant surveillance from the Alchemists. Sydney is terrified of getting sent to a re-education centre and for her younger sister to get caught up in the Alchemist life.

Her newest mission is to keep Jill – Vasilisa’s sister – safe after being repeatedly attacked by people who want Lissa removed from the throne. They move to Palm Springs, a place that is very uncomfortable for vampires because of the heat. Jill is in for a struggle, but her safety is now more important than her comfort.

Sydney for me took a little time to warm to. She was never my favourite person in Vampire Academy purely because she was too uptight. Well, in Bloodlines she was still uptight, but being able to get into her mind, I also found that she was very human. Being raised in a cult like lifestyle full of rules and regulations Sydney hasn’t had the life of a normal teenager and once the full extent of that deprivation is explored, her upbringing is really quite sad.

Bloodlines took a few chapters for me to get into as well; I bought it purely because it had Richelle Mead on it and a Rose appearance in it. At first I was sceptical thinking that Bloodlines couldn’t possibly be as good as Vampire Academy, that Sydney was more of a consolation prize for Adrian to those of us who loved him in the first set of books.

There was actually no romance between them in this and I was so glad for it. Mead didn’t fall into the trap that I have found with so many authors lately of rushing relationships. She knows she has six books and it’s not even clear if Sydney and Adrian will get together. They are just friends for now which I am really happy about.

Bloodlines itself was more mystery than action. The mystery was fairly see-through but Mead’s incredible writing kept the pages turning even though I knew from the start which bad guys were going to do what.

Sydney started to come out of her shell towards the end of Bloodlines, making for a promising character to lead this series, she showed that she wasn’t the push over everyone seemed to think she was and I really started to like her.

The only thing that really disappointed me about this book was in the first chapter. Sydney narrated that she knew a secret about one of the other characters. I hate when people do that. Don’t tell me you have a secret about someone, it’s a cheap trick to try and entice us to keep reading. It’s what gave me the bad first impression, but I’m glad that Mead worked it up to a very good book in the end.

Mead left us with quite a few loose ends but no unbearable cliff hangers to carry us into the next book, the mystery behind the heritage of some characters and the future of others is quite enough to have me eager for more.

Others in this series:
The Golden Lily

Book Review: The Mark of the Vampire Queen by Joey W. Hill

Review: The Mark of the Vampire Queen
Series: Vampire Queen – Book 2
Author: Joey W. Hill
No of Pages: 370
Release Date: 5 February 2008

Full Servant. With his new title, Jacob must now attend to Lady Lyssa’s every need, venturing into a world of passion darker than he’s ever known. His time as a vampire hunter certainly hadn’t prepared him to embrace a world where humans are sexual commodities, but he adapted. Now he finds the integrity of his soul challenges as he serves his Mistress’s needs as fully as he services her desires.

As much as Jacob loves her, other servants wan against giving her his soul. Everyone knows that vampires have no regard for humans, so why would a vampiress bother treating a mere sex toy with respect? But Jacob knows a human servant is far more than that. His Mistress needs a warrior, a friend and a lover – a man who will serve her in all ways, even if he has to betray the priceless treasure of her love…

My Thoughts:
The Mark of the Vampire Queen was a very hard one for me to finish, purely because it bored me.

Jacob is now a full servant of the vampire queen Lyssa. With this title comes the knowledge that Lyssa is very sick and dying, and now, because of his new stature, so will he die along with her.

This pains the pair of them as in their own way, they love each other, being soul mates throughout Lyssa’s incomparably long life and Jacob through his various incarnations, to have found each other in this capacity Jacob wants to hold on to as her for as long as he can.

I will be quite frank and say that this book bored me literally to sleep. There was far too much detail wrapped up in politics and medieval fairs that I had to force myself to finish just to have the pleasure of writing this review. The politics interest me, but the way they were written in reminding me of watching Parliament Time on the ABC, a lot of people talking quietly for two hours and once every three months having a raving blue with each other that can be quite entertaining.

I originally picked up this series because I read an excerpt of book five, Vampire Mistress, and thought it intriguing. It might still be, it’s just a shame that I will not get to it because of the quality of the first two books.

In hindsight I remember the first book being relatively slow, to the point of having to force myself through it as well. There just isn’t enough driving this story for me to enjoy it. Sure you have a problem in the form of Lyssa’s impending doom and the effect it will have on Jacob, you also have the likes of Carnal trying to upset the order Lyssa has been trying to build between vampires and humans for the last thousand years.

Yet when it’s put on paper in the way that Hill writes it, it just drags on and on. In the end I was marking chapter ends so I felt a small victory each time I reached one.

The sex was hot in this series overall, I will admit that, some of the scenes Hill came up with were especially well written, but there just wasn’t enough built around those scenes for me to remotely enjoy this story at all.

Others in this series:
The Vampire Queen's Servant
A Vampire's Claim
Beloved Vampire
Vampire Mistress
Vampire Trinity
Vampire's Keeper

Book Review: One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost

Review: One Grave at a Time
Series: Night Huntress – Book 6
Author: Jeaniene Frost
No of Pages: 358
Release Date: 30 August 2011

HOW DO YOU SEND A KILLER TO THE GRAVE WHEN HE’S ALREADY DEAD?

Having narrowly averted an (under) World War, Cat Crawfield wants nothing more than a little downtime with her vampire husband, Bones. Unfortunately, her gift from New Orleans’s voodoo queen just keeps on giving – leading to a personal favour that sends them into battle once again, this time against a villainous spirit.

Centuries ago, Heinrich Kramer was a witch hunter. Now, ever All Hallows Eve, he takes physical form to torture innocent women before burning them alive. This year, however, a determined Cat and Bones must risk all to send him back to the other side of eternity – forever. But one wrong step and they’ll be digging their own graves.

My Thoughts:

There is just something about this series that makes it so fantastic.

After Cat’s uncles passing Cat has had to grieve and then deal with an upheaval in the team that he used to head. Her friend Tate has been demoted from the top job and replaced by someone who obviously has a problem with the all vampire team. Cat now has to deal with the new guy poking into her business while having to go up against a psychopathic homicidal ghost running rampant on Halloween.

Cat is still amazing, but she isn’t quite as brilliant as what she was in the first four books. She is still smart talking, still completely ass kicking fantastic. But now she is just Cat. We’ve seen all of her tricks, but what now?

I will be honest that I am getting scared for the rest of this series. The first five books were absolutely tongue tying-ly brilliant. But this one? It was a little on the stale side. There was even a scene with awkward dialogue in it.

Then there was also the sex scene. We’ve gone from the infamous Chapter 32 which was absolutely amazing, to some half-assed sex in the sky. It could have been as fantastic as the Eternal Kiss of Darkness ceiling scene, but it had a bit of a bore factor to it.

I am even having some trouble remembering the great scenes from this book, it’s just not as hard hitting, and I worry if this is a preview into how the rest of the series is going to go, we still have three books left and I want them to be as awesome as the first half of the series was.

One Grave at a Time was missing the X factor that the other books Frost has written have. It was just going through the motions. Bones was there, ghosts were there, friends were there, Cat was there. Stuff happened but meh.

I want to love this series, I want to love this book as much as I loved the others but I just couldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, this book is still absolutely brilliant. But it’s not on par with the rest of the series, it’s great, but it’s not excellent, it’s not of the same calibre. Frost set the bar very high, and I hope she can reach it with the next book.

Other books in this series:
Halfway to the Grave
One Foot in the Grave
At Grave's End
Destined for an Early Grave
This Side of the Grave

Book Review: Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton

Review: Bloody Bones
Series: Anita Blake – Book 5
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
No of Pages: 370

Here’s a job to strain even Anita Blake’s capabilities: raising an entire graveyard of two-hundred-year-old corpses.

My Thoughts:


Bloody Bones was yet another whirlwind instalment in this series.

When people start showing up cut in half and missing bits of their bodies Anita gets called in in the place of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team who are already dealing with their own vampire issues.

This case however is going to be a tricky one, not only does Anita need to figure out what it is that is killing the local population because vampires don’t use swords, but she also needs to content with the local sheriff who is a secretive career climber convinced that Anita will steal all of her glory so she isn’t sharing all of the details.

The one thing that I am loving about Anita so far is that she doesn’t lose her uniqueness, she is such a strong character and yet she still has that vulnerability. Her stomach still turns when she sees a mutilated body, she doesn’t just waltz through and get to it, she still sometimes needs to compose herself.

The love triangle is starting to grind on my nerves a little though. Anita reckons she can’t stand Jean-Claude so why doesn’t she just end it with him, she keeps hiding behind the excuse that he would hurt Richard but not only can Richard take care of himself, Anita could take care of him as well.

I did enjoy the dive into the mysteries surrounding the fae. It’s one of the things I love about this series, we aren’t just focusing on vampires and werewolves, we get all manner of supernatural creatures coming out of the woods.

The fight scenes were as always masterfully written although I would have enjoyed more of a fight from Raw Head and Bloody Bones when he came onto the scene, it feels like he was only there for a few pages and then he was gone and yet the entire plot revolved around how dangerous he was.

As always though I enjoyed Anita’s attitude and the extremely graphic horror that Hamilton so expertly writes, I can’t wait to get into the next instalment The Killing Dance.

Also in this series:

Guilty Pleasures

The Laughing Corpse

Circus of the Damned

The Lunatic Cafe

The Killing Dance

Burnt Offerings

Blue Moon

Obsidian Butterfly

Narcissus in Chains

Cerulean Sins

Incubus Dreams

Micah

Danse Macabre

The Harlequin

Blood Noir

Skin Trade

Flirt

Bullet

Hit List

Book Review: Bloodthirsty by Flynn Meaney

Review: Bloodthirsty
Author: Flynn Meaney
No of Pages: 234
Release Date: 5 October 2010

Attention, all girls reading this:

We get it. The message is coming through loud and clear: You think vampires are hot. Your little sister thinks vampires are hot. Your mom thinks vampires are hot. Every single female on the face of the earth thinks vampires are hot. Girls love vampires, and I love girls. Unfortunately, girls don’t seem to love me.

So I’m making a change. For all the guys reading this, say a little prayer to the high school dating gods for me. Here’s hoping that girls think fake vampires are hot, too.

My Thoughts:

Bloodthirsty was a non-stop laugh for me, purely because it was so true.

Finbar is for want of a better word, a loser. He is painfully awkward in social situations, doesn’t have the looks or charm of his twin fraternal brother, Luke, and just to make his life that much worse, he’s allergic to the sun.

Finn was an amazing character for me; he wasn’t a whinger which took some expert writing on Meaney’s part. His plan to turn himself into a vampire to break away from his life time of social ineptness made for one of the funniest books I have read in a long, long time. His ability to laugh at himself through some of the more cringe-worthy experiences with girls was refreshing for me, as usually main characters want us to feel sorry for them and their horrible life.

Finn’s family was also completely hilarious. His dad didn’t play a huge role in the story, but made for some of the funnier moments – especially getting excited that Finn had been in his first fight and wasn’t in the hospital. His germ phobic mother constantly cleaning and leaving him notes to boost his confidence and being sneaky in her ways of finding out what the boys were up to.

Most of all I loved Finn’s brother Luke, he had Finn’s back no matter what, whether it be helping him to enhance his vampire abilities or letting Finn think he was getting away with going to the library instead of exercising, Luke had what Finn thought was everything and still cared. Yet, Finn also understood Luke in the way he was completely hyper and unable to sit still for more than five minutes.

The humour in Bloodthirsty wasn’t nasty in any way; it was just plain funny which was what I loved so much about this book. Meaney was able to poke fun at the characters and make it funny without being malicious. Making fun of the boy’s mother about cleaning without being mean or putting anyone down for being different.

This story walked a fine ledge of hilarity, cringe worthiness and horrific failure; I bow down to Meaney for pulling this off so perfectly. The perfect balance of laugh out loud funny and feeling bad for Finn whilst at the same time occasionally slapping one’s head for his awkwardness was ingenious.

Bloodthirsty worked for me because it is so close to the truth. People are so caught up in the vampire craze (even me) that they will believe close to anything that gets them closer to their fantasy coming true, even if that means a guy whose allergic to the sun and walks around trying to be aloof becomes so popular it nearly gets him staked by fake Buffy’s.

Bloodthirsty was a fun read, I enjoyed every second of the book. Sure it’s silly to think about a guy getting girls because he’s a fake vampire, but Meaney wrote it so incredibly well that everything about it worked and left me with laughing pains.

Book Review: Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

Review: Dead and Gone
Series: Sookie Stackhouse – Book 9
Author: Charlaine Harris
No of Pages: 312
Release Date: 5 May 2009

Sookie Stackhouse enjoys her job as a cocktail waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana, even though she sometimes gets tired of the constant chatter – and not just the gossip; Sookie can read minds. It’s taken time, but she’s finally found cute, dateable guys whose minds she can’t read. And okay, so most of them happen to be vampires, but no man is perfect, right?

All of the humans in Bon Temps have had dealings with the vamps – mysterious, seductive creatures who ‘came out’ a few years back. Now the weres and shifters have decided to follow the lead of the undead and reveal their existence to the ordinary world.

Sookie already knows about them, of course – her brother turns into a panther at the full moon, she’s friend to the local Were pack, and Sam, her boss at Merlotte’s bar, is a shifter.

The great Were revelation goes pretty well at first – then the horribly mutilated body of a were-panther is found in the parking lot of Merlotte’s. Though Sookie never cared much for the victim, no one deserves such a horrible death, and she agrees to use her telepathic talent to track down the murderer.

What Sookie doesn’t realise is that there is a far greater danger that this killer threatening Bon Temps: a race of unhuman beings, older, more powerful and far more secretive than the vampires or the werewolves is preparing for war. And Sookie is an all-too human pawn in their ages-old battle…

My Thoughts:

I have always been fond of this series because of its light hearted content, but this book broke that chain.

Wars are brewing left right and centre in Sookie's world. Vampires are taking over other vampires land and werewolves are at each other’s throats as well. Add into the mix Sookie’s fairy heritage and the war that they are waging, and you have the perfect brew for a really depressing novel.

Dead and Gone left me feeling really bad, Harris might not be killing off central characters, but she definitely killed off a few loved ones in this book, and I really don’t think it was necessary. The fairy war came to a head at the end of this book and it took a few characters with it that left me feeling pretty depressed after it.

Sookie was also left scarred after her ordeal with the fairies but she should recover, hopefully.

At the end of this book, I felt depressed, not just a little sad but down in the dumps for a couple of days. There was so much loss, so much death, and for what? A part fairy that screws vampires and attracts trouble.

I still flew through this book, and I still loved it, but I was left with the thought of, where does it end? What makes Sookie so special that all these people are willing to die for her? Vampires regenerate but even so, they can still die and frequently do where Sookie is concerned. Fairies are a dying race and how many were taken out purely because some big wig wanted to finish off Sookie because she was a half breed.

I still love Sookie and I love that she is growing stronger and wiser with every novel, but surely no one could expect such loyalty.

Others in this series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead in the Family
Dead Reckoning

Book Review: The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton

Review: The Lunatic Café
Series: Anita Blake – Book 4
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
No of Pages: 369
Release Date: 1 March 2005

Anita has fallen for the leader of a local pack of werewolves. She’s survived a lot, but this love thing may kill her yet…

My Thoughts:

Everyone seems to believe that this book signifies the end of horror in this series, but I can safely say that this book was still pretty horrific.

People from the local were community have started to go missing, and when one of the missing people’s husbands come to her place of work for help, Anita seems to get dragged in from there. It’s not until a man who has literally been skinned alive shows up that Anita can seem to piece what’s going on together.

Anita is still tough as nails and I loved this book in the series. She opened up to Richard her new beau about some of her troubles and we continued to get a deeper look into who she is and why she stands for what she does romantically.

The addition of Richard as a love interest kept this series alive for me; it added another dimension to an already fantastic book. Whilst we still get the mind-boggling crimes that could only be found in Anita’s world, her relationship with Richard and the fear and uncertainty that entails was thrown into the mix.

I felt a little sorry for Richard, because it is clear that Anita has a bit of a problem with him being a werewolf. Although Richard is a perfect man in his human form, the fact that he turns furry once a month is seemingly not good enough for Anita. I want this relationship to work so badly because even though they are so different, they balance each other and that is what I reckon Anita needs.

Anita sleeps with a gun, Richard has most likely never even held one. Anita distrusts people until they give a reason to trust them and even then it’s tentative whereas Richard lets people in. Richard loves unconditionally, Anita doesn’t. Richard tries to defuse situations before they get out of hand but Anita is almost always raring for a fight.

That balance could do so much for Anita, but she is just too hard-headed to see that. Richard could also take a lesson in Anita not needed to be protected, but hey, it’s better than him throwing her to the wolves so to speak.

This series is still amazing me with every book and I am now avidly reading and cheering on Team Richard.

Also in this series:

Guilty Pleasures

The Laughing Corpse

Circus of the Damned

Bloody Bones

The Killing Dance

Burnt Offerings

Blue Moon

Obsidian Butterfly

Narcissus in Chains

Cerulean Sins

Incubus Dreams

Micah

Danse Macabre

The Harlequin

Blood Noir

Skin Trade

Flirt

Bullet

Hit List

Book Review: From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

Review: From Dead to Worse
Series: Sookie Stackhouse – Book 8
Author: Charlaine Harris
No of Pages: 359
Release Date: 6 May 2008

The supernatural community in Bon Temps, Louisiana is reeling from two hard blows: the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina, and the manmade horror of the explosion at the vampire summit in the up-north city of Rhodes. Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, but too many vampires – some friends, some not – were killed or injured, and her were-tiger boyfriend Quinn is among the missing.

It’s clear that things are changing, whether the weres and vamps like it or not. And Sookie, Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to the leader of the local vampire community, is caught up in those changes. She’s about to find herself facing danger and death and, not for the first time, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood has stopped flowing, Sookie’s world will be forever altered…

My Thoughts: 

Although I loved Sookie and I loved Quinn…they never really had a chance.

Sookie is back home and trying to comprehend all the events that have taken place since the vampire summit including the devastation of hurricane Katrina.

I loved the addition of Amelia living in Sookie’s house in From Dead to Worse. She brought to the table someone who is ditzy, intelligent and really likeable. Amelia also lightened the mood in Sookie’s household, which I feel would have been a lot worse with Quinn’s absence and the aftermath of the summit to content with. It was very clever on Harris part to introduce Amelia in the way that she did.

At this point in the story I’m wondering if we’re not seeing a little biasness from team dead in general on Harris’ part. The vampires can get away with doing absolutely everything to Sookie, from lying to cheating to nearly killing her. And yet they’re still at the top of her to do list. The were’s barely have to cough too loudly and they’re out her door with no explanation.

Let’s look at this pattern over the course of the series:

Sam never got a look in because he was Sookie’s boss and then he moved too quickly for her when he kissed her. (Dead Until Dark)

Alcide was perfection in a male and yet Sookie never wanted him, even though she did because she was too wrapped up in Bill who had disappeared on her and cheated on her. Then after Sookie shot his ex in the head she decided that it was too awkward to be around him anymore even though she still uses him when she needs to and runs to his beck and call, every time. Yep, that level of ambiguity is extremely healthy.

Quinn’s only mistake? Loving his mother and being captured by a pack of nasty vampires who held him hostage. Hmmm, when Bill was held hostage and didn’t contact Sookie what did Sookie do? She went looking for him of course, but as soon as a were does it he’s out the door with nary a bat of the eyelid.

Now Sookie and Quinn’s relationship may have been a little awkward in the beginning and he was a little annoying with his “babe” and baldness – I’m sorry but I like my men with hair – but in All Together Dead their relationship was starting to blossom really beautifully and it was looking like it could work even though Quinn was really busy with his business.

I love Sookie, and I love how strong she has become and how confident she has become over the course of this series, but I really wish everyone got a fair go with her because she could have possibly had some happiness by now instead of so much sadness.

Others in this series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
Dead and GoneDead in the Family
Dead Reckoning

Book Review: Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin

Review: Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Series: Jaz Parks – Book 1
Author: Jennifer Rardin
No of Pages: 335
Release Date: 8 October 2007

I’M JAZ PARKS. MY BOSS IS VAYL,

Born in Romania in 1744. Died there too, at the hand of his vampire wife, Liliana. But that’s ancient history. For the moment Vayl works for the CIA doing what he does best – assassination. And I help. You could say I’m an assistant assassin. But then I’d have to kick your ass.

Vayl and I have to take out a Miami plastic surgeon with ties to terrorism. But the assignment gets complicated when it turns out he’s in cahoots with a supernatural nasty powerful enough to bring America to its knees.

My Thoughts:

Once Bitten, Twice Shy was a great start to what is shaping up to be a promising series.

Jaz is a CIA assassin who has recently been partnered with Vayl a vampire assassin who is the best the CIA has got. Jaz and Vayl are sent on mission, a mission to derail a Pakistani plastic surgeon who has been very naughty, funnelling money in a terrorist bank account.

Jaz is definitely my kind of girl; she is witty, intelligent and surprisingly down-to-earth for being a high profile assassin. Jaz has a traumatic past, being part of an assassination group that hunted vampires and losing her entire team in one night has scarred her deeply, and is the reason why she is a kick-ass hunter now and why she works alone. When given the opportunity to work with the best of course Jaz wouldn’t turn it down, but she also has to content with blackout periods and memory loss. After losing her fiancé, who was part of the team that was murdered that night, Jaz feels increasingly guilty as she falls for Vayl.

Vayl is everything a vampire should be and more, not only is he refined and extremely intelligent, but after 300 years of watching people, he is very good at reading the meaning in peoples actions. He seems to really get Jaz even though Jaz doesn’t want to be understood.

Vayl and Jaz’s working relationship is a strong one, and although there is a lot of pent up sexual tension, I’m glad they haven’t pursed a romantic relationship as yet. We really got to see more of Jaz’s past and the mission at hand rather than focusing on nookie.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy was beautifully written and drew me in instantly. Once I started I just couldn’t stop no matter how much I should have. I finished it quickly but the story was one that stayed with me for a while after purely because the characters are so deep and I couldn’t get Jaz out of my head, her trauma and her strength.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy was a superb start to a series I want to dive back into as soon as possible.

Others in this series:
Another One Bites the Dust
Biting the Bullet
Bitten to Death
One More Bite
Bite Marks
Bitten in Two
The Deadliest Bite

Book Review: All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

Review: All Together Dead
Series: Sookie Stackhouse – Book 7
Author: Charlaine Harris
No of Pages: 323
Release Date: 1 May 2007

Sookie Stackhouse would really like time to get over being betrayed by Bill, her long-time vampire lover, and get used to her new relationship with sexy shapeshifter Quinn – but instead, she finds herself attending a vampire summit, the destination of choice for every undead power player around. She’s being used as a sort-of human Geiger counter for Sophie-Anne Leclerq, vampire queen of Louisiana.

But Sophie-Anne’s power base has been severely weakened by Hurricane Katrina, and she’s to be put on trial for murdering her king. Sookie knows the queen is innocent, but others have their doubts. And there are some vamps who would like to finish what nature started. With secret alliances and backroom deals the order of the day – and night – Sookie must decide which side she’ll stand with, and quickly, for her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe…

My Thoughts:

This series continues to get more and more engrossing.

Sookie is attending the vampire summit after being employed by the queen to accompany her as her portable lie detector. Sookie discovers a plot to start a war between the vampires and the Fellowship of the Sun.

Sookie is still Sookie and she is completely loveable, yet in this book I started to really see her growth since the first in the series. One can really see how far Sookie has come since her bartending vampire free days of the first novel and yet it’s still the same Sookie. She hasn’t become obnoxious or arrogant because according to the vampires she is special, she is still Sookie, but with nicer clothes and a nicer house as the old one gradually gets destroyed by fire and Amelia.

I think what I am loving most about this series at the moment is that Sookie is the heroine, but she doesn't act like one. She just gets on with it and performs feats that are human, like going to an archery range to try and suss out whether or not someone else had been there previously. There are no amazing feats of power or intellect, she is just normal and it makes me relate so much more to her than I do to other heroines who are magical and ninja like and completely kick-ass.

Sookie isn’t a wimp, but she isn’t a hero either and that is what makes me love her.

All Together Dead took a deeper look into vampire politics and workings and it was really interesting. I was a little disappointed that Eric wasn’t in this book as much as I was used to him being there, but it really didn’t detract from the story because there wasn’t really a need for him, bar his priestly duties.

Despite the fact that Sookie was attending a vampire summit surrounded by werewolves, aliens and of course, vampires, who were all staying in a pyramid whilst the proceeding took, place I still found the entire story very this world. Some novels carry you off into for example a New York that has something extra, but these novels are all out in the open, and I think it’s because the vampires are out in the open that keeps this series grounded rather than fantastical.

I love this series so much, and I am starting From Dead to Worse as soon as possible.

Others in this series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and GoneDead in the Family
Dead Reckoning

Book Review: Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian

Review: Kiss of Midnight
Series: Midnight Breeds – Book 1
Author: Lara Adrian
No of Pages: 402
Release Date: 1 May 2007

INSATIABLE DESIRE. ENDLESS SEDUCTION. ONE TOUCH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle Maxwell’s deepest fantasies. But nothing about this night – or this man – is what it seems. For when Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed – a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite.

Lucan Throne despises the violence carried out by his lawless brethren. A vampire himself, Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind – and the unwitting humans existing alongside them – from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woma, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands.

Here, in the arms of the Breed’s formidable leader, Gabrielle will confront an extraordinary destiny of danger, seduction, and the darkest pleasures of all.

My Thoughts:

Kiss of Midnight was an interesting story, but it was far too similar to the Black Dagger Brotherhood series for me to get the full enjoyment of it.

After witnessing a scuffle outside a nightclub Gabrielle who has the common sense to take a photo of the attacker as he descends on his victim, this would have been fine if anyone could tell what the picture was. Dismissed as being a little unhinged by the police, Gabrielle doesn’t realise that being a witness to what she saw has put her in a lot more danger than what she ever realised.

Gabrielle was a flaky character; she had absolutely no resistance to Lucan even when he was pushing himself inside her house uninvited on many occasions. She also wasn’t very intelligent, there is a rule, don’t walk in dark secluded places at night, and don’t open your door to strangers when you know evil people are after you.

Kiss of Midnight was well written, the characters had ok chemistry and the writing flowed nicely. The major problem with this book though is that is far too much like the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

Vampires who are protecting their race from evil baddies under the reign of a traitor, trying to simultaneously protect human and vampire kind. Each book centres around one warrior who goes through the motions of finding his true mate or Breed mate as these women are called. The only difference in the Midnight Breeds series is that there are no female vampires and the Breed mates are born with a special mark usually behind the ear that signifies them.

I also felt that at the end Kiss of Midnight became far too long-winded. The ending started to be really drawn out, and could have been wound up at least 50 pages earlier omitting a few pages of denial and empty threats.

I am interested in this series purely because it is a safe read, you know it will be hot, you know it will have a happy ending and it is written well but it is not a series I will be going anywhere near until I have long since finished the Black Dagger Brotherhood books.

Others in this series:
Kiss of Crimson
Midnight Awakening
Midnight Rising
Veil of Midnight
Ashes of Midnight
Shades of Midnight
Taken by Midnight
Deeper than Midnight
Darker after Midnight

Book Review: Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Review: Definitely Dead
Series: Sookie Stackhouse – Book 6
Author: Charlaine Harris
No of Pages: 324
Release Date: 28 April 2006

Sookie Stackhouse doesn’t have that many relations, so she really hated to lose one – but of all people to go, she didn’t expect it to be her cousin Hadley, a consort of New Orleans’ vampire queen – after all, Hadley was technically already dead.

But Hadley is gone, beyond recall, and she’s left Sookie an inheritance, one that comes with a bit of a risk – not least because someone doesn’t want Sookie digging too deep into Hadley’s possessions…or her past. Sookie’s life is once again on the line, and this time the suspects range from rogue weres to her first love, the vampire Bill. Sookie’s got a lot to do if she’s going to keep herself alive…

My Thoughts:

Definitely Dead probably had the worst start of this series so far, but it turned out okay in the end.

Sookie has been called to New Orleans to clean out her dead cousin Hadley’s apartment. After arriving there, meeting a witch who is a bit of a ditz and finding a werewolf/vampire obomination in Hadley’s old apartment, she finds out the real reason the queen is so interested in some of Hadley’s possessions.

Sookie is a consistent character, which is why I like her. She hasn’t turned into some superwoman, she is still a barmaid who can read minds and knows her place when it comes to the paranormal. I do feel though that she is starting to judge others a little harshly, considering she lives in the proverbial glass house.

I felt that her treatment of Quinn, especially after he had saved her life – twice in one day – after he couldn’t shift fully back and was left with his tiger tail was a bit mean. If I had someone as sexy, powerful, warm, and gentlemanly as Quinn, I wouldn’t discriminate because of a measly tail, Sookie can’t really talk with her weirdness. I would probably prefer Quinn to just sleep as a tiger myself – but that might be because I am a tiger person.

Quinn for all his attributes – I mainly like him because he is a tiger – doesn’t really seem to fit in with Sookie’s life, and I can’t yet decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing. As much as I would want to be with Quinn – tiger thing – I couldn’t feel much chemistry between him and Sookie during the course of this book. The physical was there definitely, but take for example Eric in his amnesia days, there was so much more gentleness and love. With Quinn its more like a possession, Sookie is his woman and probably the excessive use of the word “babe” just grated on my nerves when it came to him.

The start of Definitely Dead was absolutely horrible. I don’t read .5’s in any of my series, not even Cat and Bones of whom I am in love. So when a significant event like Hadley’s cousin dying, Sookie meeting a whole bunch of new characters and Bill somehow being involved in that process happening in a novella and including significant details pertaining to the premise of the story I was extremely confused for the first couple of chapters.

One thing I am starting to find with this series though, is that the stories are starting to run together which is ok from a reading perspective, but horrible from a reviewing perspective. About two days after putting this book down, I could remember what happened, I could remember key elements and funny parts, but then they started to get confused with things that had happened in previous books. The events run chronologically for the most part, but its hard to pick out certain occurances and pinpoint exactly when they happened in the story.

Others in this series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and GoneDead in the Family
Dead Reckoning

Book Review: Nice Girls Don't Live Forever by Molly Harper

Review: Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever
Series: Jane Jameson – Book 3
Author: Molly Harper
No of Pages: 324
Release Date: 29 December 2009

UNEXPECTED UNDEAD BREAK-UP

Nothing sucks the romance out of world travel like a boyfriend who may or may not have broken up with you in a hotel room in Brussels. Jane Jameson’s sexy sire Gabriel has always been unpredictable, but the seductive, anonymous notes that await him at each stop of the international vacation, coupled with his evasive behaviour over the past few months, finally push Jane onto the next flight home to Half Moon Hollow – alone, upset, and unsure whether Gabriel just ended their relationship without actually telling her.

Now the children’s-librarien-turned-vampire is reviving with plenty of Faux Type O, some TLC from her colourful friends and family, and her plans for a Brave New Jane. Step One: Get her newly renovated occult bookstore off the ground. Step Two: Support her best friend, Zeb, and his werewolf bride as they prepare for the impending birth of their baby…or litter. Step Three: Figure out who’s been sending her threatening letters, and how her new hostile pen pal is tied to Gabriel. Because this nice girl, surviving a broken heart is suddenly becoming a matter of life and undeath…

My Thoughts:

Jane just keeps getting better.

Jane gets off the plane after possibly, maybe being broken up with by her boyfriend Gabriel, but she’s not entirely sure if they have officially called it quits yet. What spurred her final decision was the need to get back to her shop which has been broken into and trashed, Gabriel’s lack of interest only made it that much easier. Now she has to deal with her best friend’s pregnant wife, and an extremely irritating relative of Dick and Mr Wainwrights.

Jane continues getting better and better. She swoons, and she isn’t ashamed of swooning, but she refuses to be a doormat, and actually follows through with that unlike so many women in fiction who are getting walked all over without even realising it and spouting about how they are emancipated beings and all that. Jane says no to Gabriel and although she has all of the normal reactions in crying, bingeing on junk and sappy girl movies she doesn’t go running back to Gabriel as soon as he snaps his fingers and I absolutely love it.

Dick is also only getting better as we see more of him, he is tender hearted and treats Jane like a sister, but still is able to turn around and make jokes at her expense – come to think of it, like a sister – he is also the one who really helps Jane through her breakup by identifying her male tendencies, so he takes her out to get blind drunk and in a fight which is exactly what I would do. Dick is also showing another side of himself when around Andrea and although we are seeing through Janes eyes, we can clearly see how much he loves her in his actions.

Harper’s writing is only getting funnier as far as I am concerned, I had more laugh out loud moments with this book than I had with the previous two, only not by much. Harper’s writing is consistently good, drawing you in with wit and feeding you enough drama so that you won’t let go.

I also love how Jane’s world is kept within Jane’s world, the scene has been set in Half Moon Hollow and the story stays there, Janes vacation was out of the picture and we only re-joined the story after she got back, it makes for easy reading because I already have the layout in my head rather than creating a whole new set.

Jane’s stories are comfortable and funny. I know I can dive in and be faced with life threatening situation in an easy, hilarious way. There is no heaviness that comes with this story, you go in feeling like crap and you come out happy, you go in happy and you still come out happy which is exactly why I can’t wait for the next book in this series because Jane Jameson is good for a laugh.

Also in this series:
Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs
Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men

Book Review: Accidentally Dead by Dakota Cassidy

Review: Accidentally Dead

Series: Accidental Friends – Book 2

Author: Dakota Cassidy

No of Pages: 339

Release Date: 1 July 2008

NINA ALWAYS LOVED THE NIGHTLIFE.

It’s a lousy first day on the job for dental assistant Nina Blackman when a patient, loopy from anesthesia, bites her. At least he was cute. But for real drama she can’t beat the next evening. Nina wakes up with a set of razor-sharp fangs, bionic vision, supersonic hearing, and a taste for blood. There must be a good explanation. There is. It’s her patient, Greg Statleon.

SHE JUST NEVER EXPECTED TO BE THE NIGHTLIFE.

A visit to his Long Island castle hardly results in a cure. Greg claims there isn’t one. Unfortunately, Nina isn’t wild about her lifestyle change – or the danger that goes along with it. She’s determined to prove this infuriating vampire wrong. It’s a shame he’s so irresistible. It’s a bigger shame that he’s dead. On the other hand, they’re perfect for each other – if Nina‘s willing to commit to one man for eternity.

My Thoughts:

Accidentally Dead was very lucky it didn’t find a home on the DNF pile it started so bad.

Nina was accidentally bitten by a vampire when he went to the dentist to get his tooth fixed. After rejecting any sort of notion that she will never be human again and trying to find a way to turn back she not only has to find a possibly evil vampire who could help her, but she also needs to content with her growing feelings for her maker.

Accidentally Dead was basically a replica of The Accidental Werewolf only with vampires. Girl gets bitten by something supernatural in under far-fetched circumstances, girl rejects what she has been turned into, girl falls for supernatural that turned her and accepts her new life.

Now it’s probably lucky that I can barely remember what happened in The Accidental Werewolf  apart from the general gist of the story because I was pretty sure I liked Nina in that story. Now? Not so much. Nina was a vile potty-mouthed idiot who developed a crazy notion that Greg was evil and didn’t want to give her humanity back so he could control her for his evil plan to take over the world.

But it wasn’t really Nina or any of the other characters I had a problem with. It was the whole premise of this book and the way it was written.

I don’t really want to know what Cassidy’s word document looked like but it must have looked like an ode to Christmas with all of the red and green lighting up the page. Words like “hawt” “dayum” and “gawd” marred every page. Swear words were as frequent as the word “the” and yet halfway through everyone decided to change their vocabularies (especially Nina) to incorporate words like “Flip-off” and “B-word”. If you’re going to swear, at least be consistent with it.

The whole premise of Accidentally Dead though goes against not only normal vampire lore, but the books actual lore. Greg’s tooth was hurting, but no one ever finds out why he can’t heal himself or why there are no late night dentists closer than an hour away from his home. Then we also go back to stupid Twilight vampire logic that one bite makes a vampire, which is wrong on so many levels, because how would normal not blood baggie drinking evil vampires feed without turning everyone they feed from? I’m pretty sure we didn’t have packaged blood from willing donors five hundred years ago.

Then we have the stupidity of the 500 year old dusting which states that if you don’t mate with another vampire before you turn five hundred you die – this rule by the way has been around since before the beginning of time according to vampires. So of course Greg who has never turned another vampire must either mate with an evil chick no one likes or Nina who he turned a few weeks ago and barely knows, or die. I really want to see this relationship 100 years down the track.

Like I said, it’s not so much the characters themselves I have a problem with (they can’t help how they’re written) but the plot driving the story is pathetic. I don’t mind swearing, I do mind the butchering of the English language and I am surprised I finished this book, although it may come down to a mild case of OCD, but I will definitely not be continuing on with this series.

Others in this series:
The Accidental Werewolf
The Accidental Human
Accidentally Demonic
Accidentally Catty

Book Review: Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men by Molly Harper

Review: Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men
Series: Jane Jameson – Book 2
Author: Molly Harper
No of Pages: 376
Release Date: 25 August 2009

FOREVER A BRIDESMAID, NEVER AN UNDEAD BRIDE

Once a devoted children’s librarian, Jane Jameson now works at a run-down occult bookstore. Once a regular gal, she’s now a vampire. And instead of a bride, she’s an eternal bridesmaid – which leads her to question where exactly her relationship with her irresistible sexy sire, Gabriel, is headed. Mercurial, enigmatic, apparently commitment-phobic vampires are nothing if not hard to read. While Jane is trying to master undead dating, she is also donning the ugliest bridesmaid’s dress in history at her best friend Zeb’s Titanic-themed wedding. Between a freaked-out groom-to-be, his hostile werewolf in-laws, and Zeb’s mother, hell bent on seeing Jane walk the aisle with Zeb, Jane’s got the feeling she’s just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs.

Meanwhile, Half Moon Hollow’s own Black Widow, Jane’s Grandma Ruthie, has met her match in her latest fiancé. He smells like bad cheese and has a suspicious history of dead spouses. But Jane’s bitting her tongue. After all, would a nice girl really think she has a future with a vampire?

My Thoughts:

Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men was a hilarious follow up to Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs.

Jane is helping out with Zeb and Jolene’s upcoming wedding preparations, not only does she have to wear the ugliest dress in history to comply with the don’t outshine the bride on her wedding day rule, but she also has to attempt to keep the peace between Jolene’s family and Zeb’s mother.

Jane was once again side-splittingly funny. Her antics in Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men were hilarious, from her nail-polish concoctions to her pot-pie hoards. I was a bit disappointed in her when she nearly gave up on the book store though, and loudly expressed my relief when she went back again.

Gabriel was in a way, a disappointment for me. He was a typical male. Solving problems with sex and being all-round distant, he was keeping secrets and being a little rude. Then turning around and telling Jane that he loves her. It was almost like a normal relationship, and in a way it infuriated me because there was no stability in that relationship. I want to read about people that don’t have to worry about whether or not the guy is going to call back, and yet at the same time I’m thanking Harper for writing the romance this way because it shows us that vampires have normal uncertain relationships as well.

Dick once again played a huge part in the way of comic relief, he also provided Jane with a sense of stability in her life through his friendship and I’m glad Jane recognized that instead of taking advantage of it.

Although Jane’s world is full of vampires, werewolves and ghosts who have as normal a dating scene as what the living seem to, her life is still surprisingly normal. Jane goes about her everyday life which really hasn’t changed that much, as she pointed out when she spent a whole night watching DVDs on her couch with no one to talk to. She still has money woes occasionally and family issues with her insanely meddlesome family and absolutely psychotic sister she has a boyfriend who she wants to trust but can’t quite seem to because of his weird absences and of course her friend who is normal most of the time, but sometimes has lapses in judgement like any normal male.

Harper’s writing is consistently good in Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men, not only was it absolutely hilarious, but it also flowed and drew one in to the point that you didn’t want to come back out, I want to go and live with Jane her world is so vivid. I want to work in her shop and talk with her and her friends.

Harper turned what could have been a boring or even absurd situation with Zeb’s wedding and turned it into something engaging and witty. I absolutely cannot wait to start Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever.

Also in this series:
Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs
Nice Girls Don't Live Forever
Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbours

Book Review: Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

Review: Circus of the Damned
Series: Anita Blake – Book 3
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
No of Pages: 329
Release Date: 24 September 2002

When a powerful centuries-old vampire hits Anita Blake’s town, a battle of the undead ensues.

My Thoughts:

Mrs Hamilton, you have done it again.

Once again I was absolutely enthralled by the continuation of this series. Anita is once again thrown into the deep end by her vampire connections. Some very shifty characters come to town to challenge Jean-Claude and the limits of Anita’s loyalty are tested.

Anita was once again a magnificent heroine. She always thinks with her head and never gets too flustered by her situation. Anita continues to be one of my favourite characters ever purely because her morals and values aren’t compromised by vampires. She doesn’t start out as a “normal person” who inevitably falls for the incredible charms of the nearest vampire, she keeps fighting them and no matter how much attention she is paid by them, she never gives in.

I am a little worried though by her new acceptance of werewolves though, she went from hating them at the start of the book to being mildly tolerant, I suppose it’s understandable given the fact that she was surrounded by vampires so by comparison the werewolf looks pretty good, but I hope she continues sticking to her convictions.

I love how this series isn’t overly romantic, Anita didn’t show her loyalty to Jean-Claude because she loves him or lusts after him, she stays loyal because she is a good person (well as good as a necromancer can be), and tries to help the right people out. She doesn’t help Jena-Claude because she wants to sleep with him, and her helping him doesn’t lead to it either, she does it because she wants to and because she considers him somewhat a friend.

This series is only getting better; there is a decent amount of mystery mixed in with absolutely phenomenal ideas. Maybe I just haven’t been around long enough, but a million year old vampire? That is just cool.

Anita continues to be a strong heroine who keeps me coming back for more, she doesn’t fall for the charms of man but rather makes her own decisions about what she wants, she is a fighter yet still knows when to back down, but most of all, when she realises a mistake, she tries to rectify it rather than covering it up or hoping it will go away.

I absolutely cannot wait to get to the next book in this series, The Lunatic Café.

Also in this series:

Guilty Pleasures

The Laughing Corpse

The Lunatic Cafe

Bloody Bones

The Killing Dance

Burnt Offerings

Blue Moon

Obsidian Butterfly

Narcissus in Chains

Cerulean Sins

Incubus Dreams

Micah

Danse Macabre

The Harlequin

Blood Noir

Skin Trade

Flirt

Bullet

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