Amy Tan visits Tampa.

This is too cool. Amy Tan's going to be in Tampa. I wrote it up for the Examiner, here. If you're in town and want to see what she's doing. I just love her work--what I've read of it. :)

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A scavenger hunt

Romance and Erotica author Tina Donahue is guest posting at Katie Babs' lovely Babbling about Books today, where she offers up thoughts on Alpha Males, and an excerpt from her new Ellora's Cave novel, Lush Velvet Nights. In addtion to that, she's also hosting a scavenger hunt. Go here to read all about it, and if you try the hunt, good luck!

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A review of Patty G. Henderson's Ximora

XIMORA
by Patty G. Henderson
Publisher: Black Car Publishing
cover design: Boulevard Photografica
Review copy provided by Patty G. Henderson.

Patty G. Henderson's latest Brenda Strange mystery novel, Ximora, sees Brenda Strange having barely recovered from the death of her lover Tina two years ago, when Tampa cop Lisa comes requesting her assistance in a murder case. Something seems to be hunting the young men in town, as two bodies have been found butchered, their bodies drained of blood, and with odd words carved into their chests in what looks like Greco-Roman letters. Lisa charges Brenda with the task of finding out what those symbols may mean; when a brief meeting with an acquaintance of Lisa’s, a history professor, gives her nothing but a cold response, it leads her into a new conflict. Add to that the news that Brenda’s grandmother has passed away, leaving her with a startling bequest: box that only she can open and the news that she is a witch, the hope of her family, it’s a little too much to bear. Especially since she only just reemerged from her grief over Tina’s death.

Who is Professor Amanda? What does she want with Lisa, and what connection does she really have to the stunning statue of the Amazon warrior Ximora that she keeps in her office? What exactly is the statue and how might it relate to the murders plaguing Tampa streets? And will Lisa and her family, in deed will Brenda, survive to really sort out what they discover? You’ll have to read to find out.

Patty G. Henderson delivers yet another intense work in her latest novel, Ximora, one that, again, as always, leaves us thrilled, and looking forward to what her creative mind might offer next! :) This one was released through Black Car Publishing, and you can find a copy at Lulu.com , or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble, of if you'd like to get it through my Amazon link over there (points to left column) that be fine too. The book is available in trade paperback and Kindle.


my rating? Five pearls.

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In my Mailbox (and other acquisitions) (6)

Well, there was just a copy of a friend's self-published book in my mailbox this week.

At the little used bookstore: Zbookz, in St. Petersburg, I picked up Book two and three of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, and Girls in Pants) by Anne Brashares
also Hide by Lisa Gardner, and Kingdoms of the Wall by Robert Silverberg. So, that's my list for this Monday.

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blah day

Have a great weekend, everyone.Me? I miffed at you know who shall not be named. But I'm hoping to have a good weekend. We plan to hit a few of the local bookstores that we never get to, anymore; so that should be pretty fun. Maybe I'll have some more new acquistions to crow about, next week. :)

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New Releases this week

Melissa Marr's Radiant Shadows released yesterday. :)
I hope those of you that get/got it, enjoy it! My review will be forthcoming, as soon as I can get to it...

Also, Meg Cabot's Runaway (the next Airhead novel). :) Y'all know how I love Meg Cabot so woohoo, here!

And Cressida Cowell's How to Cheat A Dragon's Curse (book four in the "How to Train Your Dragon" series)

And for Romance:
Amanda Quick's Burning Lamp

Oh, and my friend Anna Small has just had her first book released by Wild Rose Press. :) Congrats, Anna! Yes, I know her. In fact, she's one of my writing buddies. And I am very proud of her!

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WW28(2)

Wicked Wednesday 28 Meme courtesy of Cherry Mischievous



Wednesday wasn't a good online day for me, so ...sorry this is late.  My book for the day is Tammy Kane's debut fantasy Romance novel Breath of Fire:
P. 28:
"I will not."

Elera inclined her head.  "A kiss, then.  If you cannot resist a simple kiss, Karl, your place is not with the Mattaen."

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Kitty's House of Horrors Carrie Vaughn Book

Kitty's House of Horrors
by Carrie Vaughn
Published 2010, Grand Central Publishing
review copy provided by Grand Central Publishing

Kitty's House of Horrors sees Kitty talked into participating in a Reality Television show, with various other supernatural folk. She's sharing a cabin in Montana with some vampires, a witch, a magician, two psychics, a were-seal Alaskan legistator, and a (not supernatural at all) Skeptic. Though she hates being dragged into television appearances, Kitty agrees to do this, and leaves civilation, and even takes the helm of some of the crew's scheduled "reality tv related activities" for lack of a better word. Then, the vampire's assistant is killed and Kitty's worry kicks in, only to get worse when she and her new friends find most of the production crew dead. What is going on? Who is out to get them? And will they all make it out alive--or not? You'll have to read this one to find out!

Having only read two others in this series, I can’t say whether or not Kitty's House of Horrors leads off the previous title well. I will warn you there are some surprising spoilers, but nothing that will ruin the book for a new reader. That said, Kitty's House of Horrors is another well done addition to the series—of course. How could it not be? And I’m glad the fine folks at Grand Central sent it my way. I have to be honest though, if there was one thing I didn’t like about the book, it was the Reality TV premise—but Ms. Vaughn pulled it off well, and I enjoyed the story more than I thought I might when I first read the blurb. So, if you’re curious to see what Kitty gets into now, and how this whole thing plays out, the novel came out in January, and it should be available at any bookstore local to you, I don't doubt, or as ever, online at Amazon.

There's a version of this review up at my Examiner pages, if you'd like to give it a hit. Thanks, and I hope you've enjoyed this review.

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Tuesday book trailers

I found, via Romance In the Back Seat, this nifty idea of sharing the week's favorite book trailers. So, here's a few I've found.

Kelley Armstrong's the Awakening





Melissa Marr's Fragile Eternity

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In my Mailbox (again)

Well it's that time of the week again... just another Manic Monday... (and other such great songs devoted to this icky week day. ;)) So, thanks to the Story Siren for the Mailbox Monday idea, here's what I found in my mailbox as of the week ending Sunday April 18:

Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn (thanks to the folks at Harper Collins for sending me a copy!)
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Thanks, Amy for telling me I'd won this one from you!)

And...Did I mention Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr (thanks to Ms. Marr's publicists for my reading copy).

Oh, and Dawn of Eternity (E-book) by Kylie Jordan (from the fine folks at Cerridwen Press).

Plus I borrowed three more from my best friend, that came in the past week. *waves to her* So I'll get to all of these, in as fast a time as possible. :) Thanks to everyone who sent them.

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Blog hop (2.1)

Because I found one more on the blog hop I wanted to share:

Lori's Reading Corner
She has some great reccomendations for Mystery--and this is good, because I've started reading more of that genre...well, romantic suspense, really but still....

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Blog Hop (2)

Some more great sites I've found this week:

Smexy Books
Books are a Garden
Dawn Hullender's Southern Musings
Manda's Movements

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Review of J.R. Ward's Dark Lover

Dark Lover
by J.R. Ward
Signet Eclipse, 2005
review copy from: Tampa Library system

There are so many vampire novels out there these days it’s probably hard to choose among the throng. One that I recently moved to the top of my TBR list, courtesy of a nudge from Jessica, is J.R. Ward’s the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I must say from everything I’ve heard about it, I picked it up at the library more out of curiosity than anything else. At any rate, the series consists of seven novels, currently, with the eighth about to be released. So I thought now would be the perfect time to give the books a try.

Dark Lover is the first in the series and it introduces the Black Dagger Brotherhood: an ancient band of vampires who make their lives alongside the human population, without (and this is different than most vampire series out there) needing to feed on the humans. In fact, for the most part, the vampires in J.R. Ward’s series tend to ignore humans altogether, unless they get caught in the crossfire.

But there’s a particular human the vampire king, Wrath, is sworn to protect, Beth Randall, a reporter at a small newspaper, who just so happens to be the daughter of one of Wrath’s “Brothers”. And poor Beth, while she longs for adventure, and is the darling of the local police force—and the desperately in love, somewhat forlorn, and suicidal inspector Butch (Brian) O’Neal—she didn’t want to be attacked by a rapist, or have the very scary Wrath show up on her patio with the news of her father’s death. That the meeting leads to instant attraction and *cough* an out of character (for Beth, anyway) one night stand, is a complete surprise.

But aside from her rapist and the troublesome Butch, there’s a society of vampire killers that would just love to rid the world of all vampires, Wrath, the Brotherhood, and Beth, included. That Beth’s rapist gets Wrath’s attention for his deed, and his usefulness as a future member of their clandestine group, is something they find mighty interesting. And in the middle of all this Beth has to deal with her instant love/lust for Wrath, his very colorful family, his ex-wife (and her testy brother) and Butch’s suspicion over all this! All while hoping her newfound family remains this side of the veil of life and death.

Ward certainly packs a lot into the 393 pages of Dark Lover. Beth was certainly full of spunk, and brave, and Wrath wasn’t always such a hardened, battle-scarred warrior. The thread of their love story was sweet. I would have liked to have seen a little more of the Brotherhood’s history but, that’s what a series is for, right? It did have some things I could’ve lived without (why would centuries-old vampires not have a better vocabulary, for instance? Butch’s suicidal streak wasn’t something that I enjoyed reading—but then that idea never is. And just for the record, though she gives her reasons for the vampires’ unique names, in the book, they bugged me. Sorry, I call it like I see it.) But, nonetheless Dark Lover was an interesting read, and one that I think, if you’re a fan of the vampire romance genre, you’ll find an interesting twist, if you get a chance to peek into its pages.


My ranking? hm...


This is also posted at my Examiner pages, so if you feel like giving it a hit, please do. :) Thanks.

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