***Current Giveaway: The Hunger Games (prize pack)***

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books On My Spring To-Be-Read List


Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each Tuesday features a different topic and you post your top ten list related to the topic.

This weeks topic is Top Ten Books On My Spring To-Be-Read List.

The 10 books below are titles I can't wait to get my hands on. I could gush about how wonderful they are gonna be, but due to the late/early hour I have included the book descriptions instead. :)

1. Bear Meets Girl (Pride #7) by Shelly Laurenston
  •  Lou Crushek is a reasonable, mellow, easygoing kind of guy. But once someone starts killing the scumbags he works so hard to bust, that really gets under his fur. Especially when that someone is a curvy she-tiger with a skill set that's turning Crush's lone-bear world upside down--and bringing his passion out of hibernation. . .

    As a member of an elite feline protection unit, Marcella Malone has no problem body-dropping anyone who hunts her kind. But Crush is proving one major pain in her gorgeous tail. The only reason she's joined forces with him is to track down the wealthy human who's got her entire species in his ruthless sights. It sure isn't because Crush's stubborn and contrary attitude is rubbing Cella in all the right ways.
2. Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood #10) by J.R. Ward
  •  Now back in the Brotherhood - and unrecognizable as the vampire leader he once was - Tohrment is physically emaciated and heartbroken beyond despair. When he begins to see his beloved in his dreams - trapped in a cold, isolating netherworld - Tohr turns to a self-serving fallen angel in hopes of saving the one he has lost. When he's told he must learn to love another to free his former mate, Tohr knows they are all doomed . . .

    Except then a female with a shadowed history begins to get through to him. Against the backdrop of the raging war with the lessers, and with a new clan of vampires vying for the Blind King's throne, Tohr struggles between the buried past, and a very hot, passion-filled future . . . but can his heart let go and set all of them free?
3. The Duke's Perfect Wife (Highland Pleasures #4) by Jennifer Ashley
  •  Lady Eleanor Ramsay is the only one who knows the truth about Hart Mackenzie. Once his fiancee, she is the sole woman to whom he could ever pour out his heart.

    Hart has it all--a dukedom, wealth, power, influence, whatever he desires. Every woman wants him--his seductive skills are legendary. But Hart has sacrificed much to keep his brothers safe, first from their brutal father, and then from the world. He's also suffered loss--his wife, his infant son, and the woman he loved with all his heart though he realized it too late.

    Now, Eleanor has reappeared on Hart's doorstep, with scandalous nude photographs of Hart taken long ago. Intrigued by the challenge in her blue eyes--and aroused by her charming, no-nonsense determination--Hart wonders if his young love has come to ruin him . . . or save him.
4. Taken At Dusk (Shadow Falls #3) by C.C. Hunter
  •  Kylie Galen wants the truth so badly she can taste it. The truth about who her real family is, the truth about which boy she’s meant to be with—and the truth about what her emerging powers mean.  But she’s about to discover that some secrets can change your life forever…and not always for the better.

    Just when she and Lucas are finally getting close, she learns that his pack has forbidden them from being together.  Was it a mistake to pick him over Derek? And it’s not just romance troubling Kylie. An amnesia-stricken ghost is haunting her, delivering the frightful warning, someone lives and someone dies. As Kylie races to unravel the mystery and protect those she loves, she finally unlocks the truth about her supernatural identity, which is far different—and more astonishing—than she ever imagined.
5. Deadly Descendant (Nikki Glass #2) by Jenna Black
  •  As a living descendant of Artemis the Huntress, private investigator Nikki Glass knows how to track someone down. But when an Oracle shows up, warning the descendants about wild dog attacks in Washington D.C., Nikki is afraid it might be a trap. The Olympians believe the “dogs” are jackals, controlled by a blood-crazed descendant of the Egyptian death-god Anubis. Whatever. . . . If Nikki hopes to muzzle Dogboy, she’s got to catch him in the act. But when she stakes out a local cemetery, she ends up face-to-snout with a snarling pack of shadow-jackals whose bite is worse than their bark. These hellhounds are deadly—even for an immortal like Nikki. “Dog” spelled backwards may be “god,” but that won’t stop Nikki from teaching these old gods some new tricks. Like playing dead
6. Bitterblue (The Seven Kingdoms #3) by Kristin Cashore
  •  Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

    Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart.
7. Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) by Charlaine Harris
  •  With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank.

    Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.
8. Dark Frost (Mythos Academy #3) by Jennifer Estep
  •  I’ve seen so many freaky things since I started attending Mythos Academy last fall. I know I’m supposed to be a fearless warrior, but most of the time, I feel like I’m just waiting for the next Bad, Bad Thing to happen. Like someone trying to kill me—again.

    Everyone at Mythos Academy knows me as Gwen Frost, the Gypsy girl who uses her psychometry magic to find lost objects—and who just may be dating Logan Quinn, the hottest guy in school. But I’m also the girl the Reapers of Chaos want dead in the worst way. The Reapers are the baddest of the bad, the people who murdered my mom. So why do they have it in for me?

    It turns out my mom hid a powerful artifact called the Helheim Dagger before she died. Now, the Reapers will do anything to get it back. They think I know where the dagger is hidden, but this is one thing I can’t use my magic to find. All I do know is that the Reapers are coming for me—and I’m in for the fight of my life.
9. A Night Like This (Smythe-Smith Quartet #2) by Julia Quinn
  •  Anne Wynter might not be who she says she is…
    But she's managing quite well as a governess to three highborn young ladies. Her job can be a challenge — in a single week she finds herself hiding in a closet full of tubas, playing an evil queen in a play that might be a tragedy (or might be a comedy—no one is sure), and tending to the wounds of the oh-so-dashing Earl of Winstead. After years of dodging unwanted advances, he's the first man who has truly tempted her, and it's getting harder and harder to remind herself that a governess has no business flirting with a nobleman.

    Daniel Smythe-Smith might be in mortal danger…
    But that's not going to stop the young earl from falling in love. And when he spies a mysterious woman at his family's annual musicale, he vows to pursue her, even if that means spending his days with a ten-year-old who thinks she's a unicorn. But Daniel has an enemy, one who has vowed to see him dead. And when Anne is thrown into peril, he will stop at nothing to ensure their happy ending…
10. Tangle of Need (Psy/Changeling #11) by Nalini Singh
  •  Adria, wolf changeling and resilient soldier, has made a break with the past—one as unpredictable in love as it was in war. Now comes a new territory, and a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer lieutenant already sworn to a desperate woman who belongs to another. For Riaz, the primal attraction he feels for Adria is a staggering betrayal. For Adria, his dangerous lone-wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It consumes her. It terrifies her. It threatens to undermine everything she has built of her new life. But fighting their wild compulsion toward one another proves a losing battle.

    Their coming together is an inferno…and a melding of two wounded souls who promise each other no commitment, no ties, no bonds. Only pleasure. Too late, they realize that they have more to lose than they ever imagined. Drawn into a cataclysmic Psy war that may alter the fate of the world itself, they must make a decision that might just break them both.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Giveaway: The Hunger Games

In celebration of the upcoming premiere of The Hunger Games, I thought a giveaway was in order.  To enter leave a comment along with your email address. Open to U.S. & Canada.The winner will be announced on March 23rd. 

May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

Prize Pack includes:






Saturday, March 17, 2012

In My Mailbox [149] + Happy St. Patrick's Day

 In My Mailbox is a feature that was started over at The Story Siren. Each week we share what arrived in our mailboxes, bought or found in swaps or at the library.

Here is what I got this past week...


download to my Kindle


Review:
Wicked As They Come- Delilah S. Dawson
Infamous- Sherrilyn Kenyon


Free Kindle Books:
Kamikaze- Moira Rogers [link]
Two Weddings- Moira Rogers [link]
Zola's Pride- Moira Rogers [link]

Bought:
The Goddess Hunt- Aimee Carter
Corsets and Crossbows- Alyxandra Harvey
Motor City Mage- Cindy Spencer Pape
Demon Bait- Moira Rogers
Nightborn- Lynn Viehl
Vampire's Kiss- Veronica Wolff


What did you get this week?
Feel free to leave your IMM link in the comments.



HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!
May today and everyday filled with lucky!

Friday, March 16, 2012

[Series Spotlight]: The Seven Kingdoms

This month's Series Spotlight is The Seven Kingdoms by Kristin Cashore. I listened to Graceling on audio, and I was instantly hooked. The plus about listening to the audio was it was narrated by a full cast. I highly recommend checking the audio out if you get the chance. Fire was an instant favorite as well. I can't wait to read the new installment Bitterblue. This book has been along time coming.

Graceling
Book #1

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away... a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.



Fire
Book #2

She is the last of her kind...

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.

Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don’t need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven’t, you’ll be dying to read it next.


Bitterblue
Releasing on May 1, 2012

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened.

But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Waiting On Wednesday [40] - The Duke's Perfect Wife by Jennifer Ashley

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly post started by Breaking the Spine. A feature showcasing upcoming releases that are eagerly anticipated.

This is a series that was recommended to me by another blogger and I fell in love
with it from book one. I can't wait to read Hart's story!


Title: The Duke's Perfect Wife
Series: Highland Pleasures
Release Date: April 3, 2012

Book Description:
Who is Hart Mackenzie's perfect match? Eleanor Ramsay doesn't know--she jilted him all those years ago--and now all she wants from the devastating duke is a job. Or so she tells herself. Persuading him to hire her as an assistant to his secretary is tricky, but Eleanor has a trick or two of her own up her sleeve, including photographs of the younger Hart--some of him in his kilt, and some of him not in his kilt...

Hart is secretly delighted that Eleanor has returned, because he needs a wife, and he's decided that Eleanor will be the one. But when Eleanor comes back into his life before he's ready, Hart finds his world turned upside-down, and everything he thought important brought into question.

Series Reading Order:
The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie
Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage
The Many Sins of Lord Cameron
The Duke's Perfect Wife- April 3, 2012
The Seduction of Elliot McBride- January 2013
The Wicked Deeds of Daniel Mackenzie- October 2013

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Book Trailer: Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Infamous 
Chronicles of Nick #3
Out Now!

The world has fallen in love with Nick Gautier and the Dark-Hunters. Now Nick's saga continues in the next eagerly anticipated volume...

Go to school. Get good grades. Stay out of trouble. That's the mandate for most kids. But Nick Gautier isn't the average teenager. He's a boy with a destiny not even he fully understands. And his first mandate is to stay alive while everyone, even his own father, tries to kill him.

He's learned to annihilate zombies and raise the dead, divination and clairvoyance, so why is learning to drive such a difficulty? But that isn't the primary skill he has to master. Survival is.

And in order to survive, his next lesson makes all the others pale in comparison. He is on the brink of becoming either the greatest hero mankind has ever known.

Or...

[Review] - A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Title: A Game of Thrones
Author: George R.R. Martin
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: August 6, 1996

Summary: In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the North of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to.

Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counter plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance as each new endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts the game of thrones

Thoughts: My number one addiction of 2011 was the TV show Game of Thrones . When the first episode aired I wasn't sure I was gonna like it, but by the end of the episode I was hooked. It wasn't until towards the end of the season that I picked up the book to read. (yep, it took me a while to read)

Once I got into the book I fell more in love with the world and the characters. I'm not sure I would have picked this one up if I hadn't seen the show, but I'm glad I did because I enjoy every minute of it. One of the amazing things is the shows creators have stayed quite true to the material, which is another reason to love both formats. A Game of Thrones really has everything. Fantasy, intrigue, adventure and even some romance. If you haven't picked this one up yet, I highly recommend it.

Score: 5 Stars

Author Website: http://georgerrmartin.com/

A Song of Ice and Fire:
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast of Crows
A Dance with Dragons

Upcoming Releases:
A Game of Thrones Volume One- March 27, 2012 (graphic novel)

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