GIVEAWAY WINNER Announcement!

Hi all!

I am sorry for being MIA these past few weeks - with the holidays, reunions/get togethers with friends, studying for the MCAT (woooo) and starting a new relationship, I have not able to update my blog and interact with my blog community and friends. So again, many apologies.

And now, for the giveaway......

So, although my giveaway was shooting to get to 100 followers, come Jan. 15, I made it to 40 followers! So to those 40 awesome people, Thank you all so much for entering ^^!

And the winner of the giveaway is *drum roll*:  Kulsuma !

Congrats, and Kulsuma will receive an email shortly and will have ~48 hours to reply back. If there is no response, a new winner will be picked.


Thank y'all again, and I will soon be setting up another giveaway within the coming week - for an ARC of Kelley Armstrong's The Gathering. So make sure you're on the lookout for that.

Cheers and happy reading.

Crescendo (Hush Hush #2) by Becca Fitzpatrick

Crescendo (Hush Hush #2)

by Becca Fitzpatrick

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but atleast she got a guardian angel out of it: a mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But, despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever and even worse, he's started spending time with Nora's arch-enemy, Marcie Millar.

Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Path hadnt been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feeling that he's hiding something.

Haunted by images of her murdered father, and questioning whether her nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself increasingly in dangerous situations as she desperatly searches for answers. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts.

Review:

While I found this to be a fun read, I felt it fell short of being on par with how good Hush Hush was. I felt the author really did not need to have THAT MUCH background and recapping of the Hush Hush story and its characters. Please, give me a little more credit for my memory skills.

I found Nora's character in this book to be a bit unbearable and long-drawn-out to the point of being boring and super predictable - with her crushed happily ever after with Patch and her naivety of the situations she is put through and in that completely blindside her and manipulate her.

I'll confess I still have a character-crush on Patch -- but it's not for his personality, purely his looks and angel status. I am a bit intrigued to see what happens to his character in the coming book, and see how the cliff-hanger at the end of the book plays out. And I will say that the pace was good and the book overall was well-written, it just failed to "wow" me and the soap opera love drama got to be a little much at times.

PLEASE stop making Nora have the intelligence of a gnat and malleability of a helpless, totally air-headed person in the next book - then, perhaps I really consider reading it.

Rating: 3 / 5 Stars

The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1) by Kelley Armstrong

The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1)

by Kelley Armstrong

Publication date: 4/12/11

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

Strange things are happening in Maya's tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya's home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.


It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.


Review:


I am a VERY Big fan of Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, and did somewhat enjoy her Darkest Power trilogy. So when I found an ARC at one of my half-price bookshops, I was ecstatic - I thought this new series that's along the same lines/thread as her Darkest Power trilogy would be just as good as her other books, if not better.

With The Gathering, however, I feel that the book fell completely short of being good. For most of the book, it's just Blah - nothing significant is happening, no real character development. And it was just so slow in terms of getting through the story and plot. Sure Ms. Armstrong through some mysteries and very "hmmmm" occurences and events, but nothing in the story was really compelling me to finish reading the story right around 1/4 into it, and up until ~ Chapter 15 -- I read the rest of it only for the reason of finishing it. But even that took effort - I could not read the entire book in one sitting (which is usually the case with Armstrong's other newly released books). This was my biggest turn-off of the book -- if there is no real plot or something driving the story, or even having a strong and likable protagonist/narrator, it's just kind of what I consider information mush and begs the question "So what?" I felt that Ms. Armstrong gave us numerous "So what" situations, events, and even characters.

A positive aspect to the book was the introduction of a new power/ magic to Armstrong's Otherworld setting. My problem then arose with well, there is no significant development or use of this new power.

Overall, I would not recommend this to someone - especially if they are already a Kelley Armstrong fan nd are considering reading this.

Rating: 2 / 5 Stars

A Wicked Wolf by Brenda Williamson (18+over material)

A Wicked Wolf

by Brenda Williamson

Publication date: 11/13/10

Rating: 2 / 5 Stars

Thank you Netgalley and Red Sage Publishing for the ARC!

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

Real Estate agent Randi Brown works the rich crowd, selling high-priced homes. With her parents dead it’s up to her to financially support two teenage siblings and she wants to spread her wings by negotiating a billion dollar land deal. Only the landowner, a business mogul no one has seen in years isn’t interested in selling his mountain to a development corporation, and Randi sets out to change his mind any way possible, even if that means sleeping with the reclusive billionaire.

After two years, since his wife’s brutal murder, Nicholas "Nick" Wolfe prefers to mourn her than get involved in business. So he lives cut off from society on Wolfe Mountain. Through his attorney, he’s offered billions, but no one knows to what extent the value of the land is more than the inhabitants—the Lycans, human wolf-like animal shifters.

When Randi shows up on the mountain one rainy night, Nick tires to fight the desires of the wolf in him to take a mate. Unfortunately, nature has made it impossible to resist the animalistic urges strengthened by the influence of a full moon and the power of lust in this woman’s eyes. Can love know no bounds?

Randi has no idea of where this torrid affair can lead until she learns the gruesome details of a woman’s murder by a creature not quite human. Then she becomes the next target and she discovers how falling in love can lead to a fatal attack from a Lycan.

Review:

While I've read my fair share of paranormal romance books (and by that, I mean a lot of them), I found this one to be soo cliche and quite frankly, weird.  The sad thing is that I can totally see this being a script for a really bad, beastiality porno -- that kind of shallowness and using the characters really just as props for sex, with no character development. 

I did not like the main female character Randi. She was too "God I need sex, and when I need it, I am so going to get some." Seriously - does she have to be THAT horny and thinking of sex all the time -- I mean it automatically made me disconnect with the character because that is not how normal women think (majority anyway). And I did not like the constant subject of Randi ovulating, or as Nick was referring to it "a bitch in heat," and the constant urge he has to have sex with her just because of that, and oh, now that he's mated with her in almost every position and such, she is now his property as in she is his mate for life.

I thought that the sex scenes were really hot, if you didn't take into account that Nick is half-beast while taking her. It did justice to the erotica genre with its involvement of bdsm and bondage -- but definitely did NOT do it justice with the involvement of beastiality and Nick's constant referring of Randi as his dead wife. Those elements were just plain creepy. There is a similar sex scene with such beastiality in one of Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake books, but it was much more suave and not as weird/creepy as the scenes in this book were.

Pale Demon (Rachel Morgan/ The Hollows #9) by Kim Harrison

Pale Demon (Rachel Morgan/ The Hollows #9)

by Kim Harrison

Publication Date: 2/22/11

Rating: 4 / 5 Stars

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins for the ARC!

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

Condemned to death for black magic and shunned, Rachel Morgan has three days to somehow get to the annual witches convention in San Francisco and clear her name. If she fails, the only way she can escape death is to live in the demonic ever after . . . for ever after.

Banned from the flight lists, Rachel teams up with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack, headed for the West Coast for his own mysterious business. But Rachel isn’t the only passanger along for the ride. Can a witch, an elf, a living vampire, and a pixy in one car survive for over 2,300 miles? And that’s not counting the assassin on their tail.

A fearsome demon walks the sunlight, freed after centuries of torment to slay the innocent and devour souls. But his ultimate prey is Rachel Morgan. While the powerful witch with nerves of steel will do whatever it takes to stay alive, even embracing her own demonic nature may not be enough to save her.

Review:

OMG - I seriously cannot get enough of Jenks and his adorable "Tink" swears. They make me laugh so hard. 

Ok, that aside, I really enjoyed this book and would rank it as probably my favorite book in the series thus far. Not only do we catch up on how Jenks is doing with his deep loss that occurred in the last book, but also ALOT more about Trent, Al, Newt, the going-abouts in the demonic ever-after, and Rachel too. I think this book is really pivotal in the series in the sense that Rachel has come to realize and accept her status as "of demon origin" and that, hey, it might not be so bad to use black/demon magic against evil comes in the form of a crazy, lunatic day-walking demon that eats souls to live (eww to the imagery involved...).

I was pleasantly surprised how well the book was written, since the last 2-3 books kind of were "Eh" and dragging. But it seems that Kim Harrison has gotten her second wind (hopefully for the next few books too!) with this well written 9th book in the series that reflect upon her early books in the series.

There is a lot of action and fighting that keep you enthralled with the story and rooting for our merry band of characters (Ivy, Jenks, Rachel, Trent)....and sometimes Al too. ;) But along with all the action, there is a lot of focus on changing/evolving relationships between characters (Ivy/Rachel, Rachel/Al, Rachel/Trent, Rachel/Newt) so be prepared for some tears, some WAhhhhhh? moments and some surprises that come out of the left field.

Can't wait for the next book to see what happens! ^^

Entice (Need #3) by Carrie Jones

Entice (Need #3) 

by Carrie Jones

Synopsis (courtesy of Goodreads):

Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever.
But that's not quite how things have worked out.

For starters, well, Nick is dead.
Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla?

And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't just turned...she's Astley's queen.

Review:

I really enjoyed reading the third book in this series, The storyline was good, and the suspense that was built up in the previous two books was still there. It was a very nice quick read, and I was hooked from the beginning to the end. 

The last book ended with quite a shocker, so I was thrilled to see how Ms. Jones continued the story - while also putting in more obstacles for Zara and her friends to overcome -- specifically getting Nick back from the dead / Valhalla. 

I also enjoyed learning more about Astley's character, and his family. And though I really dislike love triangles, I kind of feel one forming between Nick/Zara/Astley, but I guess we'll see in the coming sequel(s).
Once again, Carrie Jones has done a fantastic job of enrapturing you into the world of pixies, elves, shifters, and Norse mythology -- and gold pixie dust to-boot! :)

Rating: 4 / 5 Stars

Third Sentence Thursday (Dec 30)

Third Sentence Thursday is a weekly meme, hosted by Sniffly Kitty, for treating third sentences with the diginity they deserve!

This week's theme is review the sentence from your current read.

1) Take the book you are reading now and post the third sentence
2) Review this sentence anyway you want (funny and silly reviews encouraged)
3) Post a link to your sentence here or if you don't have a blog, just post it in the comments!
4) Prepare for next week's theme: Weirdest Third Sentence!

"Kenan started to reach between the bars, but a whip suddenly stung his fingers." - Demon's Fall by Karalynn Lee

Well this sentence leaves a lot for interpretation. Is Kenan the one behind the bars reaching out, or is he oustide of the bars reaching in. And what is he reaching for? Obviously, with his hand being whipped, it must be something of value or reaching for escape -- ultimately, he is doing something he shouldn't be doing. As the story unfolds, the actions/ incident occurring in this sentence becomes clear. And quite a story it is! ;) Review to come soon.