Richelle Mead Winners!!!

Many thanks to all who entered. I'm slowly working my way through checking out all the new-to-me blogs and making new friends.


As you all know how tech-unsavvy I am, you've probably already figured out that I put all the entries in a big bucket and let my eight-year-old pick the winners. This is the first contest I've held that allowed extra entries and wow, there were a lot of them! When I enter a contest I usually try to grab the extra entries but I've always wondered if they really make a difference....if my giveaway is any indication, they do.


The winners of the SIGNED books are:


For Vampire Academy:


Eva SB
(one of her extra entries for adding my button won)



For Succubus Blues:



Smokinhotbooks
(her twitter entry won)



Congratulations ladies! Please contact me (pspinney at cox dot net) by Friday, February 26 or I will pick a new winner.

Formerly known as BFF

I’ve posted links to my SIL Hannah’s blog before. She’s my BFF and an all-around awesome person. Well, WAS my BFF – want to know what she did? Really, it’s what she’s GOING to do:

That bitch is going to Forks!!

Here’s the back story:

I’ve told the story of how I got back into reading again mid-2008, starting with Twilight and devouring the whole series. Well, shortly after that, Hurricane Ike rolled through Houston, and even though my brother and his wife didn’t have a lot of damage, they had no power for over a week and the city was a danger zone – no electric or food in the grocery stores, gas shortages, and with firsthand images of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath still fresh in everyone’s mind, my brother sent her to stay with us for awhile until things were back to at least liveable in Houston. She was missing her husband and, honestly, when you’re married with no kids and dropped into a household with three kids and two working parents it can get to be a bit much. So I lent her my copy of Twilight. I can still see her sitting there after work in my uncomfortable chair, reading and ignoring the chaos around her, occasionally stepping outside to smoke, bringing the book with her. She also tore through the series, and after that I introduced her to the sexiness of TrueBlood and the Black Dagger Brotherhood. She's not one to read romance, but in the case of these three series we do lust over share a fondness for these delicious men.

But I digress…..my point is we have a special bond over Twilight. She came to New Orleans to watch Twilight and New Moon in the theatre. I sent her the Twilight audiobook and she sent me the rest. We mail each other Twilight candy. I’ve got an Edward Cullen doll, she has a Twilight lunchbox she actually brings her lunch to work in. (OMG, I think we’re nerds!)

And when she goes to visit her mom in April, she’s going to stop by and visit Forks. Without me.

(*clears throat* give me just a moment here to compose myself *sniff*)

She’s going to Forks without me. She’s taking my brother, who doesn’t even know what Forks is. Waaaahhhhh!!!!

Well, *puts on big girl panties*, seriously – I hope she has a great time and I told her if she doesn’t take an obscene amount of pictures I’ll never forgive her. And I expect souveniers.

The real question is – are we going to make my brother wear a Team Edward or Team Jacob t-shirt for the trip?

On a side note: Did you know if you type "Edward and Jacob" into google that "Edward and Jacob kissing" is one of your choices that pops up? Wow!

Review: Decadent by Shayla Black

This book falls into my Erotica Reading Challenge.

I read Ms. Black's first book in this seris, Wicked Ties (review here), and I liked it, but it had some issues that were hard for me to get past. I wanted to try another book before gave this series a thumbs-up or not. Well, I'm giving it the thumb's up....I like it and am looking forward to the next book. Okay, the premise was a bit unbelievable, but once I got past it I didn't care - it was a sexy, sexy book!

Kimber Edgington is a twenty-three (I think!) year old virgin. She's been saving herself for her long-distance boyfriend Jesse, who is a famous musician that's been on tour for several years. Kimber and Jesse met while Kimber's dad was doing bodyguard work for Jesse, then after an intense summer he went on tour but they stayed in touch. Kimber knows Jessie likes menage, and she wants to be taught the "tricks of the trade" so to speak, but she wants to remain a virgin for Jesse. She knows that one of her father's former employees, Deke Trenton, is into menage and she asks him to teach her.

Deke has known Kimber since she was a teenager, and he respects her father, his former employer. He turns her down at first, but his cousin Luc convinces him that if they don't teach her she'll find someone who will - and they may not be as gentle with her as Deke and Luc will. Deke reluctantly agrees and Kimber moves in.

I think you all know about how I get creeped out about people who are related by blood being in a menage together. I guess 2nd cousins don't count in my book because it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Deke and Luc are sexy, sexy men.

Deke had some weird hangup/terrible secret about not having sex with a virgin, but they worked around that. I did spend a good portion of the book trying to figure out how Deke killed someone during sex. I just knew that had to be his terrible secret - what else could it be? I mean, honestly, why else would he not want to have sex with a virgin unless he accidentally killed one? But, in the end that part of the storyline made sense. There was also another storyline going on with Kimber's dad and a stalker which made for some conflict (conflict here meaning more opportunities for Kimber and the guys to have sexytime *wiggles eyebrows*).

Well, I know this review is all over the place, but what I'm trying to say is that it was a fun, sexy read. I can't believe I'm writing this but there may have been a bit too much sex for me (I may have skimmed the sexy parts a time or two). I'm looking forward to her next book, Delicious - Luc's book.

I give Decadent 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Review: Sold to a Laird by Karen Ranney

Ms. Ranney is a new-to-me author and so this book falls under my New Author Reading Challenge.

Sold to a Laird is the story of Lady Sarah Baines, daughter of the Duke of Herridge. The Duke is a cold, hard man who apparently has no love or use for his daughter. When the story opens, the duke is meeting with Douglas Eston in his office when Sarah barges in and demands that he not send her mother off to Scotland. She is very ill and the trip could kill her. The Duke takes one look at Sarah and offers her to Mr. Eston instead of cash to buy himself partnership in Mr. Eston's venture. For reasons unknown even to himself, Mr. Eston accepts the offer and they are married two days later.

This book seemed to me to be divided into three parts; the first part centered on Sarah and Douglas marrying and moving into Sarah's country home, Chavensworth, and caring for her ailing mother and the aftereffects of her illness. During this time Douglas shows himself to be a true gentleman and supports Sarah when she needs him even though she hasn't given him much reason to be kind to her. I really liked him.

The middle of the book surrounds Sarah and Douglas' trip to Scotland to visit Sarah's maternal grandfather. Sarah's mother left her family to marry the Duke and never had any communication with them after that. Some family secrets were hinted at and Sarah and Douglas grew into their marriage a bit more comfortably at this point.

The last third of the book takes place after their return to Chavensworth. The Duke was impatient for Douglas to show results in their joint venture; then there was an accident and Douglas had to start over from scratch so the Duke threatened to dissolve Sarah and Douglas' marriage and kidnapped him to force him to fulfill their deal.

I enjoyed this story, and I liked Douglas very much. I didn't like Sarah as much, she kind of got on my nerves at times- she was very prim and proper (which I guess I realize was normal for the time) and she spent a lot of time ignoring Douglas and then worrying that he didn't want to be married to her anymore. I liked the side characters but wish Ms. Ranney would have fleshed them out a bit more; there was some interesting romance happening on the sidelines.

I give this book 3 1/2 stars, it was an enjoyable read.

Disclaimer: I won this book at Yankee Romance Reviewers.

Review: Shift by Rachel Vincent

You know how sometimes you wait for something you really want and when you finally get it you've built it up so much you're disappointed? Well, that did NOT happen here. I'd previously read the first four books in this series and LOVED them (my review here) and Shift did not disappoint either.

Shift takes up immediately where Pride ended: The South Central werecat pack is divided and a battle is coming. There's also retribution to be made for a death, and although she's trying to put it off, Faythe is going to have to come clean about some of her actions in book 4.

The action in this book starts right at the beginning; in the first chapter, as the pack is discussing plans for battle, Faythe takes Kaci out for a walk and in moments Kaci is snatched up by a huge bird - a Thunderbird. They soon realize their pack is under attack by the Thunderbirds in response to the death of one of their flock members. Faythe and her father know they've been framed but don't have any proof; the Thunderbirds are not giving up and two more werecats are dead. Faythe ends up in the Thunderbird's aviary and must find a way to prove who the real killer is or Kaci will die and the rest of the pack will be killed by the Thunderbirds.

I could not put this book down. At every turn I wondered what would happen next. The timeline for this book was only a few days, but so much happened - I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading. The book doesn't leave you with a cliffhanger, but there are a lot of unresolved issues still dancing around the werecat world - plenty of stuff to resolve in Book 5, Alpha, which comes out in October 2010. As I understand it, Alpha is the last book in this series.

I will say this - although this could be read as a stand-alone, you really won't get the full impact of everything that goes on without reading the whole series. Trust me, this won't be a hardship - this is one of my favorite series out there right now and IMO doesn't get the props it deserves.

I give Shift 5 out of 5 stars.

Shift goes on sale March 1, 2010.

Disclaimer: This book was provided to me by NetGalley free of charge for an honest review.

Review: First Drop of Crimson by Jeaniene Frost

This book falls into my Vampire Reading Challenge.

Let me begin by saying I am a total Jeaniene Frost fangirl and she could write her grocery list and I would probably buy it. That being said, First Drop of Crimson did not disappoint.

I liked Denise in the Night Huntress series, and when Randy died I was so sad for her. Spade is Bones' best friend, and he's been all sexy and mysterious in the Night Huntress books - in FDOC he's super sexy!

Denise is living her life after the death of her husband, staying clear of the supernatural world, trying to forget. That plan is blown out of the water when she witnesses the murder of her cousin by a man who turns into a dog and a demon shows up at her house looking for one of her ancestors. The demon tells her she must find this ancestor, Nathaniel, and bring him back or the demon will kill all her relatives one by one. As an incentive, the demon marks Denise before leaving her. Denise calls her best friend Cat, who is a vampire, for her help. She can't reach Cat but remembers she has Spade's phone number and asks him to contact Cat for her. Spade tells her Cat is out with her husband Bones and offers to help instead.

Spade views humans as a food source only; we learn the reasons why later in the book. Denise is terrified of vampires as she holds them responsible for the death of her husband. She's not thrilled about asking Spade for help but knows she doesn't have any other choice. Spade agrees to help at first because she's Cat's best friend, but as the story progresses we watch his feelings start to change. Let's just say I'm a sucker for a vamp with sex appeal and a heart of gold.

We also get to see a lot of Ian, the vampire who sired Bones and Spade (well,sort of). He's been such a skeevy character, I loved every minute of him in this book! One of his funniest scenes was a few pages after Denise had accidentally interrupted Ian and a "donor" in flagrante delicto. I hope he eventually gets his own book, he would definitely be a great bad boy hero.

Now, I know several people have complained that Denise is a wimpy heroine, but I read her as she was mourning her dead husband, and PTSD is a very real (well, as real as it can be in a fictional world anyway) consequence of her experience at the time of his death. Was she a kick-ass heroine? No, but she didn't get on my nerves either.

I thought this book was great - it kept me intersted throughout and I had to stop myself from peeking ahead to see what was going to happen a several times. I'm giving it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Quickie Review: Sex and the Single Vampire by Katie MacAlister

This book falls into my Vampire Reading Challenge.

I read and enjoyed Katie MacAlister's Green Dragon series, but couldn't get into her Silver Dragon series. I wasn't sure if I was going to like this series and was pleasantly surprised; this was a cute book! It was a light fun vampy read. Honestly, for the first few pages I thought I was going to hate it - the heroine, Allie, seemed to be Too Stupid to Live. But then, as I continued to read, her character grew on me and got more interesting. Her interaction with her Dark One was fun. Her two female friends, Joy and Roxy, got on my nerves a bit, but I enjoyed Allie's ghosts - especially the teenager, Jem, and Antonio, the Conquistador. I've got two more books from this series in my TBR that I'll be pulling out when I'm looking for something light and fun. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I won this book from Kris (The Cajun Book Lady). Thanks Kris!