Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Goodreads Link to Dangerous Creatures (Where I nabbed this cover photo from!)

Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is a new series within the Beautiful Creatures universe. Right away we start off in Gatlin county again, but quickly move away to New York City. The big unknown. Link (Westley Lincoln) thinks that he's leaving his girlfriend and friends behind to go and try to make something of himself as a musician, but he doesn't know that Ridley Duchannes has some tricks up her sleeve that he is going to have to pay for. It all starts when she surprises him by joining him on the trip and already knows of a band in need of a drummer. A Caster band. A band that needs a drummer because Ridley beat the other one in a gamble, but then lost and needs to pay up. Providing a drummer isn't the only thing she owes though, so will she be able to come out on top? It makes it even harder when Link asks her to never use her Siren magic on him... what is Ridley when she isn't a Siren? Is there more to her than her abilities? Pick up this book and you'll find out! ;)

(I'm partially mysterious because I haven't gotten very far yet, but also because I hate to give out many details in a review! I love the voices of the characters and how strong they are in the Beautiful Creatures series, and although I've had to push myself through a few parts in this one, I believe that is on my end and no fault of the authors. I've gotten out of the habit of reading for fun! It's tragic!)


Books I'm hoping to read soon:

• The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight 
• Dreams of Gods and Monsters (#3) has come out, so I need to read #2 in the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy - Days of Blood and Starlight
•  Splintered 
• The rest of the Morganville Vampire series starting where I left off several years ago with this one 
• A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2)... better known as the Game of Thrones series
• Clockwork Angel

I'll try to make sure I do posts about these!!! (Well, not Morganville because I try to just write about the first one or two books in a series and that is #10... plus I've already reviewed them. I did meet Rachel Caine again last week though at OSFESt in Omaha, Nebraska! She read new material from a book coming out in 2015 and was there both promoting her Morganville web series and her Prince of Shadows book!)


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Bruno Wants a Nose Horn

Alright guys, it's time to talk books. 

Publishing books in particular. Publishing one book in particular.

When I went to OsFest (Omaha Science Fiction Education Society's annual sci-fi convention), I met Nikita Rose Woltersen aka Nikita Dragonrose. This lady is amazing. She sculpts, she illustrates, and she's also obsessed with dragons. I bought some hair sticks from her with a dragon curled around the top of one and while she was showing me how to easily put my hair up with them within a few seconds (something I'd previously thought beyond my hair's capabilities) she showed me her new book. She's been working on a book called Bruno Wants a Nose Horn and it's an adorable book about a dragon names Bruno who was born without a nose horn and goes about searching to find one, getting into trouble along the way. She illustrated the book herself and has also made sculptures of the various dragons within the story. She hopes to expand the story after this first book gets published and to write more children's books starring the other characters in her series. For that to happen though, she's got to get this one published!

So if you have time out of your busy schedules (trust me, I hear ya!), check out her site at Dragonrose Designs to see her work. If you really want to support her, her Facebook site has the most recent updates for her book. 

She did a Kickstarter project earlier this summer to try to raise money for a hardcover publication, but it didn't reach full funding so she didn't get to keep any of the money. Publishing a book is actually a lot more expensive than you'd think, unless you can self-publish. Self-publishing works great, unless you want an audience other than those who know you already. Nikita Dragonrose travels to several conventions and such within the mid-west (as judged by the two that I've ran into her at and the schedule posted on her website) promoting her book and selling her dragon-related creations/wares. (Trust me, they are GORGEROUS!) This is a large step in getting a fan-base, but I really would like to see her get a larger following. So if you're out there and appreciate children's literature or at least books with dragons that learn valuable morals about loving themselves the way they are, I'd suggest looking up one of this lady's sites!

(She doesn't know I'm doing this, but I really wanted to see if I could try to get her a little more of an audience, and if we're really really lucky, maybe a donation? I don't want to push that too heavily on you though)

Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

Quick Summary, the main character is a girl who feels out of place in the world but when she goes to a festival where she meets a boy at a waterfall who also feels out of place and they immediately fall in love. They go their separate ways and both continue their individual training exercises with their mentors. Kaliel's training is mostly about memorizing flowers and plant names but she'd rather be in the water, talking to the merfolk (which no one else is able to do). She can also talk to trees and animals. His character has more elemental powers, but he has no control over them. Theoretically, if he lets go of the tight hold that he has on him, then they will come naturally to him. Every time he does this though, disaster strikes. They are both sent for more specialized training after going to the Great Oak and learning the parables that will dictate what their purposes in life are to be. Conveniently, they are sent to the same place, figure out who they really are, and must choose to stay together or separate and save the world. 

Well, I got about 3/4 of the way through this book before it expired and I am hooked. I really would love to find out what happens to the hero and heroine. While their relationship is a little over-exaggerated in my point of view, I love this new world that Paille has created. I want to know more about it and I want to know more of the history that it alludes to. If there was a history book available to describe this world, I would snatch it up! The Lands Of Men seem so alluring, I want to know what goes on there and how it is different from the island of Avristar that the characters are living on. The Brotherhood also seems intriguing and I feel like they will come back into the story later, or there will be a reflection back to their being important in the history of the last (1st?) epic battle for land.  Overall, while the love story did annoy me a bit, but that's just because I'm not the sentimental type, I give this book at least 3.5/5 stars. Worth a read, but until I'm able to buy it or borrow it and finish it, I won't be able to tell if it's worth buying or not. 

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum isn't the normal sort of book that I review on here, but I've been hard pressed to find time for books that I didn't have to read for a class lately. This book is a crime novel set in Germany - it's very interesting because within the first chapter, the main character has shot a journalist (who apparently deserved it) and has confessed to her boss and then to the police. We also get the gist that she is wanted for a crime that she seems to be innocent for. Then there is another body, but when asked about his death, an alibi is provided from her, despite her words "Why not him too?". The words puzzle the inspector because her response is a question, not an admission of guilt. While the story is written in a very journalistic way, the story is very interesting, especially for a book that was required for a class. If you don't go out and read the book (Contact me, you can borrow my copy!), then at least watch the movie with English subtitles.
(The villain of the movie looks like the older, darker, and longer haired version of my friend Gabe W! I think it's the pretty eyes...)

The Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs

This isn't for this book, but the third book in the series instead. (They're all amazing!) *Spoiler Alert!*

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It was simply AMAZING. I wondered for a while how Ben knew all of that about her but then I remembered why he had come to America. And I still don't think that completely justifies it, nor does his own abuse as a child. Still, I love the way Briggs explains things through her readers; She gives everyone time to catch up, but doesn't let the fast thinkers get bored while doing it. And the last line! Oh man, I wanted her to elaborate a little on that. :)



View all my reviews

Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Hello all! It's been way too long! I think I should start this up again though, although weekly may be a bit much, but be sure to check back once a month for sure!

Succubus Blues is a very interesting book by Richelle Mead. I absolutely loved it and it is one of my new "favorite books of all time".
It's about a succubus who is tired of being a succubus, she wants to live as a human and so she only steals the life force from sleazy guys rather than the real good guys. She works at a bookstore and she's super excited that her favorite author is coming to do a book signing. Her best friends are two vampires and a demon, (if you don't count her cat). When someone starts killing other immortals, she is suspected of being the murderer! She goes out investigating and meanwhile tries to juggle a love-life. The problem is, the guys who like her at the moment are really good guys and she doesn't want to hurt them by doing anything that would steal their lives from them. That means no kissing for Georgia Kincaid!
This book is soo well written, I really loved it. Some twists may have been hinted at ahead of time, but nothing that you'd be able to actually guess before it happens. This book is fresh and exciting! It's the first in the series of Georgia Kincaid books, so get started reading it now!!

Strange Angels

After just finishing the third Strange Angels book by Lili St. Crow, I've decided I'm in love. The way she writes it keeps you drawn in and excited and it's the first in a month or so that I couldn't put down (besides Ghostgirl).

Dru is the main character and she's a kick-ass heroine. She doesn't really care about clothes or money, just about staying alive. She's kind of a tomboy and she can definetly kick some butt! She was raised mostly by her grandmother because her mother was killed while she was still a really little kid. Her grandmother and her share something called "the touch" where they can tell when danger is near and a few other things as well. Her grandmother taught her a lot about what you might call witchcraft. When her grandma dies, she goes to live with her father, who is always gone for periods of time to hunt creatures of the night such as vampires, ghosts, shapeshifters, what-have-you. That is just the background information.

The next parts involve zombies, dhampirs, werewolves, loup-garous (like a werewolf without all the bad side-effects, like the hair), evil vampires, dreamstealers, and more. I really wish I could tell you what happens in the first book because you would be hooked, but I want you to find out for yourselves how awesome this series is!

http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/journal/the-books/strange-angels/

Ghostgirl, Ghostgirl: Homecoming, & Ghostgirl: Lovesick

Ghostgirl is such a cool book. Its about a girl who spends all summer trying to figure out how to finally be cool and popular and then the first day of school, she chokes on a gummybear and dies right when she finally is about to get to talk to Damen, the local hottie. And that's just the first couple chapters. Ghostgirl, Charlotte, has to go to DeadEd and figure out how to help the rest of her class advance on to whatever happens after they graduate from class.

Scarlet is my favorite girl ever. If I could be anyone from a book, I would be her. She's her own person. She has a huge love of music and can tell when the person recording it is actually having fun and loving the song versus just doing it to do it. She dresses kind of odd at first, but she makes it work for her. She starts out liking slightly baggy clothes and bright red lipstick and this becomes a signature for her, but she makes it work for her. She's just a really cool person that I don't even fully know how to explain how much I love her.

Petula is Scarlet's older sister. She is the most popular girl in school, she's trendy, she's tan, she's fake in many many ways, and she's "perfect". One of those girls. Her sidekicks are two blonds called The Wendys and while they're not very smart all of the time, Petula likes it that way. She knows that she can control them and to be popular, you need a loyal posse.

Damen is the main boy in the entire series. He's gorgeous, into music, and just looking for the right girl to love. He's the boy that Charlotte dies trying to talk to while she chokes on her gummybear and there is so much more I could say about him but it would give away what happens in the other books.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO GO TO THE WEBSITE

The website is really fun because it has several games to mess around with, a guitar contest, and an audio reading of part of the story. I really recommend this as a twist for people who don't necessarily like Sci-Fi but want something different than your average high school story.

Book Recommendations! - Staked & Revamped by J.F. Lewis

Okay so these books are different than the normal vampire books that I recommend. These have a more adult rating and you can most definitely tell that they are written by a man. These books are nonstop action, violence, & sex. They are actually quite fun to read and feature Eric - a vampire who seems regular but is actually extremely powerful (even more than he knows) and his sarcastic, fight first question later ways make it endearing. He owns a strip club and the girls who work there, he pays their college tuition for them and whatever else they need. He is hardly ever without a human girlfriend because he likes having someone warm to remind him of his former human life. He also keeps around his fiance from his human life, although she is about 80 years old now, and he still loves her and she is about the only person who can talk any sense into him. He's a vampire that forgets when the sun is rising and its constantly needing his demon friend Talbot to come rescue him from the sun before he becomes a pile of ashes. He lives in an old movie theater across from the strip club and has a mustang which becomes very important in the second book. ..honestly, this is a great book but I dont necessarily know how to talk it up to sound as magnificent as it truely is.

Blurb for Staked: "A pedal-to-the-metal demolition derby of sex and violence. Werewolves and vampires were never so much fun." - Mario Acevedo, author of X-Rated Bloodsuckers


This is the back cover of STAKED:
Eric's got issues. He has short-term and long-term memory problems; he can't remember who he ate for dinner yesterday, much less how he became a vampire in the first place. His best friend, Roger, is souring on the strip club he and Eric own together. And his girlfriend, Tabitha, keeps pressuring him to turn her so she can join him in undeath. It's almost enough to put a Vlad off his appetite. Almost.
Eric tries to solve one problem, only to create another: he turns Tabitha into a vampire, but finds that once he does, his desire for her fades--and her younger sister, Rachel, sure is cute. And when he kills a werewolf in self-defense, things really get out of hand. Now a pack of born-again lycanthropes is out for holy retribution, while Tabitha and Rachel have their own agendas--which may or may not include helping Eric stay in one piece.
All Eric wants to do is run his strip club, drink a little blood, and be left alone. Instead, he must survive car crashes, enchanted bullets, sunlight, sex magic, and werewolves on ice--not to mention his own nasty temper and forgetfulness.
Because being undead isn't easy, but it sure beats the alternative.


Lewis, J.F., Staked, Pocket Books, New York, 2008

SAVE THE SCOTTISH WILDCAT!!!! + Book Series Recommendation - Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

SAVE THE SCOTTISH WILDCAT!
there are less then 400 pure bloods left! soo sad because they're amazingly cute & adorable!


http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/


http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/wildcat.html for a discription of them


Okay, now for the book recommendation (where this cause actually came from)


The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series is fun for light reading and once you understand the lingo (for you Americans out there, its in British English and she just makes up a lot of words anyways so its actually fun to start using them in everyday life)

She's a girl just starting high school and having to deal with boys and maturosity and sophisticosity :P


1. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging

2. On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

3. Knocked Out by my Nunga-Nungas

4. Dancing in my Nuddy Pants

5. Away Laughing on a Fast Camel

6. Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers

7. Startled by His Furry Shorts

8. Love is a Many Trousered Thing

9. Stop in the Name of Pants

10. Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?


(note: if you live outside of the U.S., the names will be slightly different)


Rating: Jr. High to teen level. While the titles say sex god and such, she doesn't actually engage in the act of it as the book is meant more to be light-hearted and funny so its more misadventures snogging boys and getting boyfriends and crazy things like the Viking Disco Inferno Dance and such... (a GREAT laugh btw, I urge you to try it)


http://www.georgianicolson.com/


seriously, I actually laugh out loud as I read these and have urges to share parts with people around me (usually my poor mother)

Book Recommendation - Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

Okay so I've only read the first one and am about 3 pages into the second one, but I think that this book series is AMAZING! It's also a good book series for teen boys. Most book series for teens are directed at teen girls, this series is all action-adventure and pure awesomeness plus the added bonus of getting to learn about Greek mythology which can be totally fun.

http://www.percyjacksonbooks.com/

Enjoy! go read! now! stop reading this and go read The Lightening Thief! :P

Book Recommendations! - Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series

Okay, so the vampire academy is an awesome series. There are 2 kinds of vampires in it. Strigoi - the viscious, living dead ones and Moroi - the ones who are "normal" and live by a governed set of rules, have schools set up, and generally try to stay out of the public eye and only feed off people with permission. They can also harness the power of an element.

Lissa is a Moroi princess and is the last of her blood line.

Rose is her best friend and is a dhampir (yes, i realize this was not introduced when I said there were TWO kinds of vampires... this is because a dhampir is a HALF vampire, HALF human.)

They go to school together and while Lissa is trying to harness an elemantal power, Rose is learning to be a gaurdian to protect Moroi from Strigoi.


rather than me telling you all about it... checkitout!


1 Vampire Academy

2 Frostbite

3 Shadow Kissed

4 Blood Promise

5 Spirit Bound

6 will be Last Sacrifice


http://www.richellemead.com/books/vampireacademy.htm

Book Recommendation - Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire Series

1 Glass Houses
2 The Dead Girls Dance
3 Midnight Alley
4 Feast of Fools
5 Lord of Misrule
6 Carpe Corpus
7 Fade Out
8 Kiss of Death
9 Ghost Town - not out yet.

http://www.rachelcaine.com/page1/page1.html

Click on a book for the first chapter or so, and if you read all of them and just can't wait till the next (Kiss of Death JUST came out recently) than click the tab Free Fiction to see more stories (the ones marked MV are about this series....duh lol)

Fellow nerds, this is my favorite book series. Hands down. They're great for a quick, light read and the vampires are actually the scary ones that today's teen fiction has seems to have forgotten about. While in some cases they cooperate with the vampires, they don't forget to be wary of them and carry an extra stake at all times, just to be safe.

Book Reccommendations! this week - Melissa Marr's fey series

http://nerdfighters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/book-reccommendations-this

Hey, I'm a librarian at a public library in my hometown and a student worker at my college library. I think I'm going to start sharing with you different types of books that I think you may enjoy if you like certain other popular genres. At the moment, I specialize in Young Adult Fiction so I'm sorry if you like something completely different. Even if you do, keep checking back to see if there is something that you like. Or try something new, at least this won't kill you like cliff-diving could!
So for today I'm going to recommend the series of 4(+) books by Melissa Marr.
Wicked Lovely
Ink Exchange
Fragile Eternity
(soon to be released) Radiant Shadows

These books are about faeries set in the present mortal world, they are very beautifully written, and they feature tattoos, love, passion, danger, really dark-weird stuff, jealousy, greed, and a million other things that you should really check out!

If you really really super love them, I'll give you the link to Marr's secret social network for her fans. Its pretty freakin awesome if you can navigate it correctly and follow the rules. Also, Marr herself is on the site and answers questions the readers may have (beware, read through the old questions before just asking because chances are, it has already been posted and no one likes repeating themselves one million times.)