A Taste of Darkness (Book 3 of the Mackenzie Vampires Series) by Nina Bangs

Of course I managed to do it again with this series. I thought this was book 1, when in fact it is book 3. But that's okay, much like Showalter's book it is a stand alone novel, that I really enjoyed. 5 out of 5 stars, this is one of my favorites.

I just happened to be perusing the library when I stumbled on this little treasure and snatched it up.

Reinn Mackenzie is a thousand year old vampire, employed by the council as "Protector of the Blood" which means any Mackenzie who betrays the pure bloodline by wanting to wed a shifter or any other otherworlder, they were to be killed. That's his job. He doesn't understand why that has to be the case, but he does dispise the otherworlders outside of his own clan.

He gets word of a new guy, wanting to marry a werecat, so he sets out to "blend in" before making the kill. Alan Mackenzie is the offending clan member, so Reinn checks into the Woo Woo Inn to lay in wait. He meets Kisa Evans, sister to the bride-to-be. She helps him with the door to his room. Reinn has a nifty ability to shield his powers so no one can tell he's a vamp. Kisa can shield her powers to an extent, Reinn can tell she's definitely a werecat, but he has no idea what kind. He also cannot deny how attracted he is to her, despite his feelings towards shifters.

Things get crazy as someone plants catnip in Kisa's room. For werecats, it should just make them get silly, but not with Kisa, she is forced to change at the scent of catnip. Right before Reinn's eyes, she turns into a sabre tooth tiger. This makes for an interesting night, and a very interesting set of days to come. Reinn's attraction, as well as Kisa's grow until there's no turning back. Reinn must decide what he is to do about his "job". And he needs to do it fast.

Read this series!! I loved it!

Seduce the Darkness (Book 4 of the Alien Huntress Series) by Gena Showalter

Well when I checked this book out of the library, I was totally under the impression that this was the first book of the series. But that's okay, because it was written in a way that I was perfectly capable of keeping up. First of all, this is paranormal romance, so with each book comes a new set of people. I give this a lovely 5 out of 5 stars.

The story follows Bride McKells, living in New Chicago (a postapocalyptic world), who also happens to be a vampire. She's been searching the area for her long lost little sister of sorts, Aleaha Love. They had been separated with Aleaha was still young.

One day she catches the scent of her young friend, she stumbles into Devyn de bon Laci, the king of the Targons. He just so happens to be a womanizer and he's very good at what he does. When she doesn't catch on to his charm he bores of her, until he realizes that she's a vampire. Living on the surface is punishable by death for the vampires.

Bride vows to take revenge on the man who refuses to take her to her young friend, and she does so, causing a major upheaval with AIR (Alien Investigation & Removal Agency), where Devyn works.

They duke it out, and finally Devyn gets her right where he wants her. Steaminess begin!

Before they know it they're in love, Bride finds Aleaha, and goes to the vampire underground to learn about her race. But this is where things get tricky...

I highly recommend you read this series, I know I am!

Darkfever (Book 1 of The Fever Series) by Karen Marie Moning

This book was really, really good. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. Why? So many things.

Let's start with Mac, she's smart, sexy, and definintely nothing like the stereotype says for her. Her sister is murdered in Dublin, Ireland, and she sets off to find the killer when the police stop the investigation. She stumbles into a world she never thought could exist, didn't believe it could.

Enter Jericho, owner of a massive bookstore that puts even the best of libraries to shame.

Thinking that a bookstore is a good a place as any to get some information, she asks the woman behind the counter if she's heard of a Sinsar Dubh, something her sister said in a voice message hours before her death. The woman tenses up and starts saying she needed to talk to the owner, Jericho. Whoa nilly, is he a steamy guy.

He tries to warn Mac that she's treading on dangerous waters and needed to go home immediately, even threatened her a bit. But stubborn as she is, she decided to stay. Jericho helps her, teaches her about what she is trying to find, only to find that she is something special too. Very special.

There were also parts in this book that made me bust out laughing. There are certain royalty fae that can practically make a woman pine for sex in an instant. Mac finds herself randomly removing clothing when she sees one. It was very funny. Steamy. But funny.

Then at the end, Jericho is helping Mac with a manicure when she broaches a new subject. He interupts by saying he won't help her shave her legs. I about fell on the floor.

I highly recommend this book, and the whole series to all fans of paranormal!

Inspiration for werewolf character in my book

Here's Oreo. You've seen her knawing on my nose, and if you've seen my myspace you can tell a lot by the pictures on there. She's a dog of many faces. This happens to be one them. Though she is at the end of a yawn, she looks crazy viscious. When playing with the other dogs, sometimes the teeth see the light of day, but never to this extent, unless it's an all out fight, which isn't really too fun to break up, by the way.

She reminds me a lot of the nothing dog/wolf from the Neverending Story. Although not as anatomically void of looking real (lol) she looks much more viscious to the unsuspecting victim.

Shadow, my star werewolf in my book spends the majority of his time in his were form. Think this picture at about double the size, and you've got about a 150 lb werewolf that's all black with big teeth and claws looking right at you. But to his friends and especially to Aisling (my heroine) he's just like Oreo, play-knawing on noses and all!

Look out world. Shadow will eat you alive!

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Boy was this book looooong. I liked it, but it didn't wow me. I'd say 3 out of 5. I don't mean to put down this book because it was very good. However, it's not really my style, and it was beyond complicated.

Gaiman sets up an intricate network of Gods, all having come to America or having been created there. All throughout we know "a storm is coming," a war between gods of the old and the new.

We meet Shadow, our hero. He's a former felon, and he's finally getting out of prison. But then just days before his scheduled release he's sent out early with some bad news. His wife is dead. He starts his journey home and meets a man named Wednesday, who seems to know much more about Shadow than he should. Things get weird, really weird.

We find out that Shadow's late wife was diddling his best friend in his absence and both die while she is "servicing" him as he drove down the road late the night before Shadow's release. Then as Shadow concedes to the fact that Wednesday is his only option for employment he starts seeing some strange things.

We meet several gods, both young and old throughout the book and you can tell which ones are "good" and "bad" for the most part. The more Shadow learns the more he starts to believe the impossible is probably probable. Laura (his late-wife) is a zombie, trying to help him out.

There are so many twists and turns and imaginative dreams mixed with realities with webs upon webs of different people and gods to keep track of. Half the time I read, I had to think back and figure out who the heck some of those people were, or what the heck was happening.

There was that and the fact that even though Shadow was the hero, it was all written in the third person, so it wasn't really my cup of tea as far as style. AND on top of that there were lots of areas where I would have liked to have known what happened. We get lots of scenes building up and then you get "and then he told them" "and then she showed him" etc. I wanted to see/hear it too dammit!! It would have made it exponentially longer too methinks, but I think it would have been more valuable to me to see/hear those things than to build up to it and have to fill in a huge blank.

And much like Stardust, it was relatively anti-climactic at the end. I won't spoil it for you though!! But one shed of good light was that he wrapped up all the loose ends before ending.

I think it's worth while to read it, to say you've done it. You may like it, you may find it more complicated to really enjoy it. I don't know. But that's my glue and I'm stickin' to it!

Fireflies in December by Jennier Erin Valent

I really enjoyed this book. 5 out of 5 stars! I plan on reading the sequel called Cottonwood Whispers.

This book follows the life of Jessilyn Lassiter, teenager. She just turned 13, and it wasn't starting out as she had planned. She's got a very strong will and she's not afraid to say what's on her mind. But she messes with the wrong boy at her party, and since she humiliates him, she knows retribution will be swift and dirty. Jessilyn's best friend Gemma, is black, and her family works for the Lassiters on their farm. Gemma warns Jessilyn of what would be to come, but she moves ahead anyway.

The birthday party-goers are all sent to the watering hole (a lake or pond, I assume) and then the boys go after Jessilyn. She struggles to get away when the boy she humiliated pushes her underwater and holds her there. When she does finally break free she tries desperately to swim away. Well, she gets grabbed by the ankle as she tries to climb slick rocks and the boy yanks her, causing her to hit her head before he finally pulls her under the water. Enter Luke. He is older, and so handsome Jessilyn thinks she's hallucinating. He pulls her from the water and takes her back to her house. Luke is an instant friend to the Lassiters and instant crush to Jessilyn.

Tragedy strikes when a thunderstorm rolls in to town. Lightning and thunder precede the rain, and with the worst luck, Gemma's house is hit by lightning, sparking a fire. Jessilyn and her father jump in their truck and speed to their house, but it was too late. Gemma sat huddled just outside the house, now engulfed in flames, and her parents where nowhere in sight.

Later Jessilyn's father decides that they were going to keep Gemma as part of the family as a promise he gave to Gemma's father. Well, all hell breaks loose when the Ku Klux Klan hear word of this. Living in the South in 1932 was hard enough.

The Lassiter family was deeply religious and it was prevalent in the book, much discussion, contradiction, etc. But it wasn't in-your-face like many Christian authors can be. So even if you aren't religious, this book won't feel like major repellent.

The only gripe I had with this book was that it was written entirely in past-tense. The first line of the book, "The summer I turned thirteen, I thought I killed a man." I kept thinking at some point we'd get to the present, but no, the whole thing was past-tense, which was fine. I guess I sort of expected it to end up that way based on that first line. But even so it was still a good book nonetheless. I recommend it very highly.

Sweet. Now i can update everyone on the go... Keep a lookout because I suspect I'm going to be using this feature!!