Blog Tour: Hunter of Shadows

Amazon Blurb: 
The secrets he knows about her could get him killed.
Transferring to the New Orleans Police Department, Detective Silas MacCreedy has a hidden agenda: to secure his clan’s place once again in the Shifter hierarchy. What he didn’t count on was stumbling upon a sexy assassin who could shred his best intentions and lead him into a dangerous dance that threatens to engage his heart.
But the ones he doesn’t know . . .
Monica Fraser knows just how to make a man beg—for his life. But she has no clue how to fight her attraction to the fiercely intense detective who seems determined to get in her way, both professionally and intimately.
. . . could kill them both.
When emotional attachments to the past and an unexpected glimpse of a different future have her questioning her deadly purpose, Nica must discover the truth about her secret abilities in order to free herself from the forces that control her. But that freedom comes with a price—trusting those she’s been ordered to eliminate.

My Review: 

I wished with all my heart that I could say I was blown away by this. It started off so very good! I actaully was getting into a Paranormal Romance *gasp* but then the main female character and the main male character just got it on out of the blue..in a most unsexy way ever. I'm not really looking for hardcore detail driven sex scenes. I have an imagination I can use it, but give me SOME details besides..."her molten core" and "the massive ridge of his erection.." When a writer obviously tosses in a sex scene just to toss one in there it makes me roll my eyes and put the book down.

I'm not a HUGE fan of Romance or the PR that float around the blogosphere, but I had high hopes for this one. It sounded like something that I would enjoy! I have heard awesome things about Nancy Gideon too so I was curious to read some of her stuff. Sadly, I wasn't impressed. Now fans of this genre may (and probably do) have different opinions and I respect that.

I did not finish. :( In order to be fair though I have posted reviews of this book by other bloggers that have reviewed it. Here they are:

Bite Club: Review
ParanormalCityGirl: Review

So as you can see I'm in the minority when it comes to this book!

Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages

Published November 29th 2011 by Pocket

ISBN

1439199507 (ISBN13: 9781439199503)

Review: Before I Fall

Blurb:

What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?
Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.
The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

My Review: 


This was on my "Wishlist" for a while before I got the opportunity to read it. I had read so many reviews about it, that I just couldn't help but have some preconceived notions. I went into this expecting to be completely blown away and amazed. I was to an extent. I think that this book suffered from a case of too much hype, at least for me.That is until the end. I won't spoil it but I will state right here and now that I was sobbing at the end.

 I enjoyed this book. I LOVE Lauren Oliver's writing. There. Simple. True. Her characters were written perfectly and flawed..or do I mean perfectly flawed because both of those statements fit. No one is perfect. No one is without flaws, and that is what makes this story so poignant.

I liked Sam. She made big  mistakes and little mistakes, but unlike most of us she gets to see how she effects the world around her. Her actions effect others in deep ways. When her eyes are open to the world around her, things become more beautiful and more real.

All in all, this was a wonderfully written book. It has a deep and emotional impact on the reader and makes them think. What if? What if you had one day to relive? What would you do differently? What if?

What are you Reading Monday?

So last week I finished ONE book. Just one. No reviews really posted. Not any of my awesome plans came through for me. I explained a little bit about it in my Sunday post, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse this week.

CONGRATS TO Alexia from:
Alexia's Books and Such...

Who won my CrazyDog T Shirt Giveaway!!!!  

To Read:

• Before I Fall
• Hunter of Shadows (blog tour) 
• (Finish) Plague of the Dead
• Black and Orange (blog tour)

Upcoming Reviews: 

• Bad Taste in Boys
• Enclave
• Henry VII: Wolfman 
• Dearly, Departed

The Sunday Salon

Ever feel completely overwhelmed by life in general? Not a specific anything really, just life. I have come to the realization that I am a person that NEEDS a little stress in her life to motivate her, but still..I've been STRESSED OUT! I know this has made me a grumpy person AND a slow reader. I'm thinking it's the holidays and finances. There are more holidays then I have the financial means to accommodate.

Thanksgiving was fine. My Dad hosts it and it's pretty informal. We show up and have some ham and fixings and hang out. It was fun. I enjoyed myself and I know my son did too. Christmas on the other hand. I have to budget for. I have to plan. I have to worry about certain family issues that I won't go into on my blog. It's stressful with a capital S.

I love it though. It's a weird thing. The holidays make me happy yet make me wanna take a flying leap off  of something!

Okay so therapy blog session over.
This week sucked reading wise. I only didn't read much. I'm behind on reviews again. I knew if I bragged on my system it would happen..so this week. NO bragging. Just reading and doing what I need to! There. Done.

Here is some pretty to help raise the spirits:

*sigh...drool...*

Thankfully Reading Weekend Read a Thon

 

Yay! It's read-a-thon time, ya'll!  There's going to be all kinds of fun! A weekend to read, eat leftovers, and veg out (unless you have to work like me but still!) There will be mini challenges and chit chat over on Twitter using the hashtag #thankfulreading

So catch me there @lexey

My list is pretty simple..I'm going to read. I have to work this weekend but I will cram as much in as I can! My goal is 2 books! :) 

I will use this as my update post:

1st Update:

Book: Dearly, Departed
Starting Page: 138
Ending Page: 174
Total: 36

2nd Update:

Book: Dearly, Departed
Starting Page: 174
Ending Page:183
Total:  9

Yesterday was a bust! Too much work and cleaning to distract me! Maybe today will be better?

3rd Update:

Book: Dearly, Departed
Starting Page:183
Ending Page: 246
Total: 63

4th Update:

Book: Dearly, Departed
Starting Page:246
Ending Page:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a great time and a wonderful holiday! Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Reading (if you can find the time!)

Tune in Tuesday

This is a  weekly feature that is hosted by GReads! Each week she posts a new or old song in hopes to gain more interest. She asks you to join in the fun and spread the love of music! If you want to participate, follow the link above and link up at her blog...then check out what everyone is sharing this week! I've just discovered this and decided to showcase  one of the songs I've been listening to lately..

The Decemberists-This is Why We Fight

What are you Reading Monday?

So last week was super productive! I'm hoping *fingers crossed* that this week will be just as good! I know it's busy towards the end, so who knows? I'm very motivated! So new week, ONWARD!

Books To Read:

• Dearly, Departed-My sweetheart bought this for me for my birthday present! :)
• Before I Fall
• Halo (ebook)
• Hades (ARC)

Upcoming Reviews: 

• Bad Taste in Boys
• Enclave
• Henry VII: Wolfman

The Sunday Salon

I had a wonderfully productive week! I sure did! So I am crossing my fingers for next week! My blog is up to date and spiffy looking with it's new amazingly cute back ground! My TBR stack got chipped away just a wee bit and I feel good about that.



Blog Plans for This Week:

• keep up my blog schedule (i have one now..sorta)
• visit more blogs! 
• read more! 

Hey you know what? I do have an awesome giveaway going! I'm hosting Crazy Dog T's on my blog so if you want to try to win a cool t shirt then hop on over to THIS post!

I'm looking forward to this next week! It's gonna be so much fun! I have my stack of books just waiting for me to dive into!

just thought i'd put this here

My Reviews:

• Cheat River Three
• Resonance
• God's Eye
• The Last Book in the Universe

Review: Cheat River Three by Scott Baker Sweeney

Cheat River Three is inspired by Sweeney's Father and his exploits as a young man growing up in Virgina. It's not exactly a biography, but more like a fictional romp interspersed with details passed along from his Dad.  This story is about the bonds of friendship between three young people that grow and change as the years progress. It had a sort of "Stand By Me" feel to it at times, which is great!

Just as with his other stories, Sweeney knows how to hook a reader and keep them flipping pages and gobbling up his words! I have to admit that I rarely get into the "feel good" books, but this one really caught my attention and kept me wanting to know more about the characters. Eugene, James, and Kat are all wonderfully drawn characters that seemed real and familiar. Their exploits and stories will have you laughing and crying the whole time.

This is a touching story that I thoroughly enjoyed! I'm honored to have gotten a chance to read such a tender story.

Quick Review: Resonance by A. J. Scudiere

From Amazon:
The shift is coming. Soon. Dr. David Carter knows this. However, he's a geologist, so 'soon' means anywhere from tomorrow to a thousand years from now. People are dying. Now. Drs. Jordan Abellard and Jillian Brookwood are standing at the edge of Super AIDS. Or are they? They won't be able to figure it out if they can t get some authorization signed--and soon. But they're peons and no one is paying attention.
Whole species died at the last polar shift, 65 million years ago. Right now Dr. Becky Sorenson has some seriously mutated frogs in her lab. In Los Angeles, Bees are making abnormal columns on the side of the freeways. In Georgia, birds are migrating out of season. It all makes a sick kind of sense when the doctors consider that the last magnetic shift is strangely coincidental to the dinosaur die-out. And the only similarity in the problems today is that each is occurring in a 'hotspot'--a pocket of reverse polarity tells them all the shift is already here.

My Review: 
I LOVE natural disaster type stories. I love movies like The Day After Tomorrow and Outbreak. Movies and books that are fiction but based on things that could happen, and might. These things are more terrifying then even my beloved Zombies, because they are plausible. So Resonance, is right up there with those stories in my views.

This is a fast paced story, that is terrifyingly laced with scientific facts and nail biting suspense all rolled into one! It thrilled and chilled me to the core to imagine the world that "The Shift" would bring! I could not put it down...okay well sleep was really the only reason I put it down, but it was very reluctantly! (And I'm a girl that loves her sleep!)

Crazydogtshirts.com Review and Giveaway!

Yeah so the awesome sauce people over at CrazyDogTshirts.com were sweet enough to let me review one of their shirts! You know I've been reading posts about them and seeing what they had to offer, so you know I was excited! Beyond belief! I mean seriously! They have an awesome selection that's bound to please every one in the world! Well maybe not everyone but yeah..you get the point!


It was plum hard to decide which to choose. I spent nearly an hour going through and looking! I started in the Novelty T Shirts mainly because well they are cool. I clicked and poked and searched until *sounds of angels with brass horns trumpeting my victory* I found it! The Zombie T Shirt section!

**This is not me. Obviously. Hopefully you knew this. I did get this shirt though, and it is glorious!**

First things first, these people are fast!

Shipping: Super quick on the delivery! I was not expecting it to arrive as fast as it did! So they get plus points for that! I got a size large, but I am seeing I should have gotten a medium instead. That is all on ME.

Quality:
This shirt is a thing of beauty!  (Hey we all have our own standards of beauty. This just happens to fall under mine!) The colors are vivid and the design is very nice and well done. The fabric is soft and definitely cozy.

All in all my experience with this company was excellent! Every step of the way was easy and convenient and FUN! So do I recommend? Heck yeah! :) 


The Lovely People from CrazyDog have extended a great offer to me and my itty bitty blog! I am able to host a giveaway for a $15 dollar giftcard giveaway! Say What!? Yup, 15 whole dollars of awesome to be put towards the purchase of a super groovy t shirt!

So how do you win? Hmm That's a good question. Fill out this form to enter!




**technical thingamabob**

1. Please note that winners cannot have received a promotional item within the past 90 days, or own a review/giveaway blog of their own.

:: Visit us CrazyDog  Online
:: Fan us on Facebook
:: Tweet with Us @crazydogtshirts

Review: God's Eye

From Amazon: 
A demon . . .

Every soul he claims is another chance to advance.

Until he can walk among us, look like us, make us believe in him. The only thing holding him back is . . .
An angel. . .
The rules of the realm bind him from fighting
on the demon’s terms. But this is his chance
to steal something away from the demon,
to steal the thing the demon wants most . . .

A woman who must choose . . .

A woman who has been chosen.
Katharine is suddenly a pawn in a game
where the rules and the stakes are beyond her comprehension.
She must take a side even though she can’t tell angel from demon.
And in the end, they will all be judged.

My Review:

You know those books that you just rip through so quickly because you WANT TO KNOW? Well this is one of those books! I sometimes take notes as I read. It helps me sort things out in my brain and really helps with reviews, especially if the plot is complex and the characters are layered as thickly as the ones in God's Eye.

Now I am going to write out a couple of my notes so you can see what kind of awesome mind screwing this book will give you, in a good way.

1st Note: What are they? Angels or demons? WHO IS WHAT? OMG! I must know! (yes exactly like that)
Explanation: This book does NOT let you know who is the bad guy or who is the good guy straight away, nor does it really give you many hints. You are left pondering that til the very end and even then you are like ..."whoa really dude?" I like this very much! Instead of being spoon fed the answers, I like that you have to dig around to figure things out! Awesome! Plus points for you God's Eye!

2nd Note: Sexay tymes! This book has them! The naughty bits are very naughty. It was enough to bring a blush to my cheeks at times! The scenes are not descriptive so much as they are ..how do I say it..they give just enough details to let your mind go to it's very own special place of naughty. (Make sense?) Which again is pretty darn awesome!

So this book is pretty heavy on the psychological and a little light on the fluffy bunny humor and the sweet sparkly romance, so if it's a cutesy romance read you are after you will NOT get it from this. If you like your books to have substance and a bit of a mind twist, this is where you'll get it. From start to finish, God's Eye delivered for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Review: The Last Book In the Universe

Blurb from Amazon:
It's the story of an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz, who begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the planet. In a world where most people are plugged into brain-drain entertainment systems, Spaz is the rare human being who can see life as it really is. When he meets an old man called Ryter, he begins to learn about Earth and its past. With Ryter as his companion, Spaz sets off an unlikely quest to save his dying sister -- and in the process, perhaps the world.

My Review: 
This book suffered from a case of the misleading blurb. I thought the premise (based on the blurb) was good. It sounded like a book I'd really enjoy sinking my teeth into, but it's not exactly what the blurb makes it out to be. The blurb is (to me) for another book. THIS one was good too though.


Spaz is not really out to bring knowledge back. He is just out to help his sister. He's not a bad guy but he's not the epic hero that the blurb makes him seem. Ryter is kind of like Gandolf-lite but without that useful magic and snarkery. I kind of wished the book was more like the blurb so I can't really give this a complete thumbs up. It's a decent tale and was read-able. I am going to say that this might not be appropriate for anyone younger than a 9th grader, because  there are some mature themes involved at times.

It's not a horrible read, but the blurb got me all worked up and the book let me down a little bit. 

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Blue Sky Press (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439087597

What are you Reading Monday?

So I have a special week ahead of me! I'm going to be dedicating this week to reading A.J.Scudiere's books and near the end of the week I have very special giveaway planned! Woot! So here's mah plans.


Read Last Week:
Bad Taste in Boys-Carrie Harris
Enclave -Ann Aguirre
Cheat River Three-Scott Baker Sweeney

Reading This Week:
Resonance-A.J.Scudiere
God's Eye-A.J. Scudiere
Before I Fall-Lauren Oliver

Upcoming Reviews:
The Last Book in the Universe-Rodman Philbrick
Henry VIII: Wolfman-A. E. Moorat
Enclave-Ann Aguirre
Bad Taste in Boys-Carrie Harris
Cheat River Three-Scott Baker Sweeney

The Sunday Salon

Howdy folks! Here I be again on this wonderfully cold Sunday morning, just sipping coffee and procrastinating on the cleaning I have to do! What about you? It's crazy how quickly this year has gone by, isn't it?

I turned 31 on Friday of last week. Yup I'm old-ish. I don't mind!  I have had such a great week just reading whatever I feel like, and I even got some wonderful surprises too! A few really awesome people gifted me some books that I've been drooling (no lie) over! I will post a thank you dedicated to them soon! Seriously, we are so broke right now that gifts weren't possible this year so these surprise books were just amazingly awesome to get! I cannot begin to describe how happy it made me! :)

I think that this next week I will have a personal read-a-thon! Most of my favorite shows are doing their mid-season break thing so I won't have many distractions so I'm going to read til my eyes go funny!

Speaking of funny..probably to just a few people but still..It's funny to ME!

I love Daryl from The Walking Dead! This guys is the reason this show rocks so hard! I would want him on my side during a Zombie Apocalypse!

Review: Allison Hewitt is Trapped

One woman's story as she blogs - and fights back - the zombie apocalypse

Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. Allison reaches out for help through her blog, writing on her laptop and utilizing the military's emergency wireless network (SNET).  It may also be her only chance to reach her mother. But as the reality of their situation sinks in, Allison’s blog becomes a harrowing account of her edge-of-the-seat adventures (with some witty sarcasm thrown in) as she and her companions fight their way through ravenous zombies and sometimes even more dangerous humans.

My Review:
Zombies...duh they are my favorites! So when I saw this summary I was like yeah I'm gonna get it! So I did! I loved it, although I was a bit miffed at the cover. It kind of made me think that the majority of the book would take place in the bookstore. This was just a minor irksome thing. Seriously this book is a lot of fun.

Allison is kick butt and definitely someone I'd want on my side in a zombie apocalypse!

So let's see what we have here, shall we? Zombies, check. Action, check! Romance, check. Kick ass story telling, check check and CHECK! I am pleased with this book. I highly recommend it to any of my readers that enjoy this genre!

Back when I was participating in the Bout of Books read-a-thon, we were asked to cast our current read as a movie. Here was my entry.

My cast:
My Book: Allison Hewitt is Trapped

 Kristen Bell as Allison

Michelle Rodriguez as Renny

Anthony Stewart Head as Collin

What Am I Reading-Monday?

I have decided that this week will be a "read whatever I want" week. I will focus on catching up with Anna K and Cheat River Three but then after that I will pick up whatever. I've been super stressed so I will probably need something fluffy and light!

So long story short, for this week I have no plan. I'm just gonna wing it. :)

The Sunday Salon

So it's Sunday. I've been awake since 3:30am for work. Didn't get to enjoy that extra hour, but I did go to bed really early so I'm not quite as tired as I had feared. I am kind of a bit stressed out. I have fallen behind on my reading, money is super tight, my son is feeling icky again, and I'm just tired all the time.  :(  So nothing much has been done lately. Hopefully things will get better this week. I'm crossing my fingers for that!


This made me giggle I hope it does for you too:

Yup! So there's my Sunday Salon. Informative isn't it? :) Let's bring on the week!

November RAK

I signed up this month! I love the idea of this project! Even if you don't get anything it feels really awesome to surprise someone with something they have had their eye on! :) Woo hoo for being NICE! Right?

So, just click on the button and get all the awesome info and sign up! You never know what you might get or give! ;)

My Wish List is  HERE
but if you don't like amazon here are a few that I have been drooling over! :)

• Dust and Decay
• Juliet, Immortal. 
• Bad Taste in Boys
• Ashes
• Anything by Jonathan Maberry (I've read Rot and Ruin, Dead of Night, and Patient Zero)
• The Marburry Lens

Quick Review: Patient Zero

Blurb: (From amazon)
When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills... and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills.  And that's both a good, and a bad thing.  It's good because he's a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can't handle. This rapid response group is called the Department of Military Sciences or the DMS for short. It's bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance....

My Review: 
So just so we're crystal clear..I love Zombies. I love zombies so so so much! I LOVE how Jonathan Maberry writes zombies. He always makes you feel slightly bad for them. He doesn't forget the part where they used to be people, with personalities and feelings. THAT is awesome to me! Now don't get me wrong, I still cheer very heartily when the good guys destroy their faces, but I feel bad a little bit too. I like this strange set of emotions that I get from this.

Now Patient Zero was on my wishlist FOR-EV-ER! I pretty much tore into it the moment I got it! I enjoyed the mix of political/horror fiction. The world in PZ isn't black and white. The zombies aren't the ultimate evil here, they are just a tool used by the real bad guys...PEOPLE. The intrigues and plots were intricate and well drawn..very entertaining writing as per usual.

I am a big ole fan of Mr. Maberry so I may sound a little biased, but I found a few more reviews to balance out the non-crazy stans (Me) and the regular reviews (everybody else)

Other Non-Drooling Reviews:
Hellnotes
Goodreads Reviews
Curled Up With a Good Book

• Paperback: 421 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; Original edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312382855