BookWeazle

Personal Demon

27 March 2008, 11:53 pm. No Comments. Filed under Authors, Kelley Armstrong, Reviews.

Personal Demon
Price: GBP 7.77

22 New and Used from GBP 6.50

Hope Adams, tabloid journalist and half-demon, inherited her Bollywood-princess looks from her mother. From her demon father, she inherited a hunger for chaos, and a talent for finding it. Like full demons, she gets an almost sexual rush from danger - in fact, she thrives on it. But she is determined to use her gifts for good.

When the head of the powerful Cortez Cabal asks her to infiltrate a gang of bored, rich, troublemaking supernaturals in Miami, Hope can’t resist the excitement. But trouble for Hope is intoxicating, and soon she’s in way too deep.

With a killer stalking the mystical hotspots of Miami, Hope finds herself dangerously entangled, and has no choice but to turn to her crooked werewolf ex-boyfriend for help. What started as a simple investigation has spiralled into chaos. And Hope finds chaos irresistable. . .

For a woman who didn’t know what she was getting into, there’s only one way out: it’s time for Hope to unleash her most potent primal instincts and open herself, mind and body, to everything she most fears - and desires.

Fans of Kelley Armstrong are not going to be disappointed with this latest novel. While at first, it’s a little odd reading from not only the female lead’s perspective but also the male’s (which, for Kelley, is not the norm) you soon get into the swing of things. The story is everything you expect from Armstrong - strong characters, a workable plot that twists and weaves and keeps you guessing right up to the final few chapters. I read this in one sitting and enjoyed every page of it.

Well worth the read. If you’ve been following the Women of the Otherworld series, then go grab it. If you’ve not tried them yet, then you should!!!

Witch Blood-Anya Bast

19 March 2008, 11:18 am. No Comments. Filed under Anya Bast, Authors.

Witch Blood (Berkley Sensation) (Berkley Sensation)
Price: GBP 5.99

32 New and Used from GBP 1.50

Water witch Isabelle Novak must form an uneasy alliance with earth witch Thomas Monahan to hunt and destroy a demon of tremendous power, even though Thomas’s very presence stirs deeper desires than she ever knew she had.

Book number 2 in the Elemental Witch series is hot! Isabelle has just lost her sister to the demon that is stalking all witches. Thomas, the leader of the Coven, is searching for the demon in order to save his people. Instant chemistry occurs when these two meet. All witches are attuned to a specific element and these elements cause reactions to each other dependent on what they are. Isabella has been a loner all her life preferring to keep on the move. When Thomas extends an invitation to her to move into the coven house, she does and the sparks between these two fly. All I can say is: I want a Thomas!

Rebel Angels~ Book 2

7 March 2008, 2:14 am. No Comments. Filed under Authors, Libba Bray, Reviews.

Rebel Angels (Readers Circle)
Price: —

16 New and Used from GBP 4.12

In this sequel to the Victorian fantasy A Great and Terrible Beauty, Gemma continues to pursue her role as the one destined to bind the magic of the Realms and restore it to the Order–a mysterious group who have been overthrown by a rebellion. Gemma, Felicity and Ann, (her girlfriends at Spence Academy for Young Ladies), use magical power to transport themselves on visits from their corseted world to the visionary country of the Realms, with its strange beauty and menace. There they search for the lost Temple, the key to Gemma’s mission, and comfort Pippa, their friend who has been left behind in the Realms. After these visits they bring back magical power for a short time to use in their own world. Meanwhile, Gemma is torn between her attraction to the exotic Kartik, the messenger from the opposing forces of the Rakshana, and the handsome but clueless Simon, a young man of good family who is courting her. The complicated plot thickens when Gemma discovers a woman in Bedlam madhouse who knows where to find the Temple; Ann shows signs of being enamored of Gemma’s loutish brother Tom, and their father’s addiction to laudanum lands him in an opium den. A large part of the enjoyment of this unusual fantasy comes from the Victorian milieu and its restrictive rules about the behavior of proper young ladies, as contrasted with the unimaginable possibilities of the Realms, where Gemma has power to confront gorgons and ghosts and the responsibility to save a world.

Gemma and friends continue with their adventure in trying to save & bind the magic of the Other Realm. They also come to learn that with the use of magic comes a price. A wonderful story of friendship, adventure and magic.

A Great & Terrible Beauty ~ Libba Bray

6 March 2008, 2:47 pm. No Comments. Filed under Authors, Libba Bray.

A Great and Terrible Beauty (Readers Circle)
Price: —

16 New and Used from GBP 3.75

A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy–jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.Gemma, 16, has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother’s death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls’ academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions “for a bit of fun” and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the “others” and rebuild the Order. A Great and Terrible Beauty is an impressive first book in what should prove to be a fascinating trilogy.

While this trilogy is written for the YA (Young Adult), there are some very adult situations in this story. I found the story to be highly entertaining. Gemma Doyle is not your typical Victorian Era young lady. She’s a bit sassy, and her internal dialogue is quite funny. At sixteen she is trying to come to grips with becoming a woman in an era when women are nothing more than arm candy or a means to an end for men. I highly recommend this first book in the trilogy.

My Boring Ass Life - Kevin Smith

4 March 2008, 1:57 pm. No Comments. Filed under Authors, Kevin Smith, Reviews.

My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith
Price: GBP 5.99

56 New and Used from GBP 2.29

Silent Bob is back…

Kevin Smith, the award-winning screenwriter and director of Clerks, Chasing Amy and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back shares his X-rated thoughts in this, his diary, telling all in his usual candid, heartfelt and irreverent way!

Lewd, crude and hilariously rude, Smith pulls no punches in this in-your-face expose of his far from boring-ass life. OK, so he does spend long periods lying in bed watching his TiVo, but he also manages to:

Make and release Clerks II

Tell the story of ‘Me and My Shadow’: the acclaimed account of his partner-in-crime Jason Mewe’s drug addiction

Serve time (on a jury)

Score acting gigs opposite Jennifer Garner and his idol Bruce Willis

Get caught stealing donuts from Burt Reynolds

Also revealed are his views on the perils of strip clubs, the drawback of threesomes, the pain of anal fissures, his unnatural love of Star Wars… and so much more!

I feel the title of his book is misleading, he isn’t boring, he’s like you and me an everyday bloke with a lovely wife and daughter and a huge extended family through his message board.

He has taken the diary of his life and put it to print, which he admits to being a very candid diary and I agree with the way he tells us about his life, but you know it’s just the same stuff we do, day in day out.

The thing is this guy is living his dream, something only a minority of people get to do.

He really wears his heart on his sleeve, if you want to know what makes Kevin Smith tick, then this a must read for you.

I’ve never met the guy, but I love him as he puts it “in a hetero kind of way”. As you turn the pages of this book you think you’ve known him all your life.

This guy has no ego to speak of, if he does he keeps it so well hidden and he is so close to his fans.

So you want to know why he has so many fans? Read this book to find out why.

Review written by Richard

Night Pleasures

21 February 2008, 4:04 pm. No Comments. Filed under Reviews, Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Night Pleasures (Dark Hunter)
Price: GBP 6.99

26 New and Used from GBP 1.40

Amanada Devereaux has a crazy family. Her other and older siblings are witches and psychics, and her twin sister is a vampire hunter. All Amanda wants is a quiet, normal life. Only when she finds herself the target of an attack meant for her twin, she wakes to find herself handcuffed to a sex, blonde stranger.

He is Kyrian of Thrace. And while Amanda’s first thought is that this might be another of her sister’s attempts at extreme matchmaking, it soons becomes clear that Kyrian is not boyfriend material.

He is a Dark-Hunter: an immortal warrior who has traded his soul for one moment of vengeance upon his enemies. Kyrian spends his eternal days hunting the vampires and daimons that prey upon mankind. He is currently on the hunt for a very old aneadly daimon named Desiderius who has deemed it sport to handcuff Kyrian to a human while he hunts him. Now Kyrian and Amanda must find a way to break their bond before they give into their dangerous attraction to one another. Or Desiderius kills them both. . .

The first true Dark Hunter novel from Sherrilyn Kenyon opens well, with characters who were introduced in the previous novel - Fantasy Lover. Expanding on her world she brings in Kyrian - already mentioned in Fantasy Lover as a friend of Julian’s - who can be quite amusing when the mood takes him. The story follows Kyrian and Amanda through an escapade of evading daimons while being handcuffed together, finding a way to detach the cuffs while avoiding daylight - which is deadly to Dark Hunters - and the daimon hunting them.

Night Pleasures is quite a shallow read with a lot of character potential left unused, which is a shame. There are moments when the story flows nicely but then will jerk to an abrupt stop as if Kenyon lost her focus or her feel for the storyline. But the bonus is the introduction to Acheron (affectionately known as Ash by the Dark Hunters). This character has all the depth and fascination that her lead characters are missing. It’s obvioius a lot of thought has gone into Ash and, if you stick with the series, you’ll see (out of all her characters) Ash becoming more and more defined as time goes by.

Once again, we have a book that has a lot of untapped potential from Sherrilyn Kenyon but, if you’re not wanting something that takes a lot of concentration, it’s well worth a read.

Fantasy Lover

20 February 2008, 3:02 pm. No Comments. Filed under Reviews, Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Fantasy Lover (Dark Hunter 01)
Price: GBP 5.49

23 New and Used from GBP 2.97

It might sound like a man’s favourite fantasy - to live forever, destinated to be the lover of thousands of women. But for Julian oMacedon, it’s a nightmare. Once he was a proud Spartan general, now he’s a love-slave, his essence magically held captive in a book, cursed to spend all eternity pleasing women. Then, one day, Grace Alexander summons Julian to fulfil her passionate dreams - and sees beyond the fantasy to the man himself.Long years as a sex therapist, listening to other people’s bedroom problems, has taken a lot of the fun out of hte physical side of love for Grace. She’s remarkably understanding about Julian’s situation - and that’s disconcerting for all concerned. With or without sex, the rules of the enchantment cannot be changed. Julian is hers for the next month. And, as their time together slips by, Julian and grace find more to share than sympathy and conversation - and they begin to wonder if love might be within their grasp. That leaves only one question. Is love enough to break a 2,000 year-old curse?

The book that kicks off the Dark Hunter series - although it doesn’t actually have a Dark Hunter theme to it. I found the whole story a little silly, if I’m honest. While the concept appealed to the book-lover in me - man stuck inside a book for all eternity - I though the “only to be called out to be a sex-slave for women” part a little silly. But, really, this sets the standard for the majority of Kenyon’s books - the main focus being to have the two main leads to have sex together. When Kenyon forgot about the sex, she turned the story into an amusing piece of fiction with likable characters but it’s never long before the writing returns to sex or, in the case of this particular book, sexual frustration as Grace refuses to use Julian as her sex slave.

For all its faults - it reads like this is the first time Kenyon has put pen to paper and written a book - there are some scenes that did actually make me laugh out loud as I imagined the situations, eg when Grace tries to teach Julian to drive.

Fantasy Lover is certainly not the best book in the Dark Hunter series but it does give a glimpse of the potential just waiting to spill out. Pick this book up with no expectations other than a lighthearted read and you won’t be disappointed.

The Dresden Files

20 February 2008, 12:47 pm. No Comments. Filed under Jim Butcher.

The Dresden Files

Storm Front
Fool Moon
Grave Peril
Summer Knight
Death Masks
Blood Rites
Dead Beat
Proven Guilty
White Night
Small Favour (Unreleased - due April 2008)
Restoration of Faith (short story available on Jim Butcher’s official site)
Vignette (available on Jim Butcher’s official site)
Something Borrowed (in My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding anthology)
Heorot (in My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon anthology)

Dark Hunter Series

20 February 2008, 11:54 am. No Comments. Filed under Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Dark Hunter Series

Fantasy Lover
The Beginning (found in the back of Sins of the Night)
Dragonswan
Night Pleasures
Night Embrace
Phantom Lover (in the anthology Midnight Pleasures)
Dance with the Devil
A Dark Hunter Christmas (found in early editions of dance with the Devil)
Kiss of the Night
Night Play
Winter Born (in the anthology Stroke of Midnight)
Seize the Night
Sin of the Night
Second Chances (was available in free give-away exclusive Dark-Hunter collectable booklet)
Unlease the Night
Dark side of the Moon
A Hard Day’s Night Searcher (in the anthology My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding)
Until Death We Do Part (in the anthology Love at First Bite)
Fear The Darkness (free e-book)
The Dream Hunter
Devil May Cry
Upon The Midnight Clear
The Dark Hunter Companion (co-author with Alethea Kontis)
Dream Chaser
Acheron (not yet released)

Next Entries »

BookWeazle

Personal Demon

Witch Blood-Anya Bast

Rebel Angels~ Book 2

A Great & Terrible Beauty ~ Libba Bray

My Boring Ass Life - Kevin Smith

Night Pleasures

Fantasy Lover

The Dresden Files

Dark Hunter Series

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