Friday, September 30, 2011

Cover Spotlight

Book covers found on various blogs and site (8)


SQUEEE!! I love LOVE this cover. Not sure of the synopsis but found this on the author's site:

IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR 

Cryptid, noun:

1. Any creature whose existence has been suggested but not proven scientifically. Term officially coined by cryptozoologist John E. Wall in 1983.
2. That thing that's getting ready to eat your head.
3. See also: "monster."
The Covenant of St. George was founded to uphold one simple ideal: anything that was not present on the Ark—anything they deemed "unnatural"—needed to be destroyed. Monsters. Creatures of myth and legend. All of them would be wiped from the Earth in the name of Man's dominion. Unfortunately for them, not all the monsters agreed with this plan...and neither did all the human beings.
After their rather abrupt departure from the Covenant, Alexander and Enid Healy found themselves alone in the world, but with a simple mission of their own: to protect the cryptids of the world from those who would harm them without just cause. It was a cause that would eventually claim both their lives, leaving their children, and their childrens' children, to take up the fight. Now in the modern day, their descendants struggle to stay beneath the Covenant's radar, while defending the cryptids from humanity—and humanity from the cryptids.
[Publication date, March 6, 2012]

I like the previous cover more...this looks like a video game picture for some reason. 

Summary(via tor fb):
The power swelled inside me, burning, hurting, but I let it center me. Pain means I’m still here, fighting. I envisioned it swelling in my hand in a seething rush, gathering, gathering, and then I sent it out on my resolve like a dark and winged thing riding the magickal wind.
As a handler, Corine Solomon can touch any object and learn its history. Her power is a gift, but one that’s thrown her life off track. The magical inheritance she received from her mother is dangerously powerful, and Corine has managed to mark herself as a black witch by dealing with demons to solve her problems. 
Back home, Corine is trying to rebuild her pawnshop and her life with her ex Chance, despite the target on her back. But when the demons she provoked kidnap her best friend in retaliation, Corine puts everything on hold to save her. It’s undoubtedly a trap, but Corine would do anything to save those she loves, even if it means sacrificing herself…
[Publication date, April 3, 2012] 
  I love this cover, matches the previous covers.
Summary (via goodreads): 
Turned into a vampire against her will, twenty-eight-year-old Merit found her way into the dark circle of Chicago’s vampire underground, where she learned there was more to supernaturals than met the eye—and more supernaturals than the public ever imagined. And not all the secrets she learned were for sharing—among humans or inhumans.
Now Merit is on the hunt, charging across the stark American Midwest, tailing a rogue supernatural intent on stealing an ancient artifact that could unleash catastrophic evil on the world. But Merit is also the prey. An enemy of Chicagoland is hunting her, and he’ll stop at nothing to get the book for himself. No mercy allowed. No rules apply. No lives spared. The race is on
[Publication date, August 2012]  
  I love the cover of this book, finally get to see Cady's face!
Summary (via Goodreads):
Magick. Murder. Mayhem. It’s all in a night’s work. . . .

After narrowly escaping her fate as a sacrificial scapegoat, Arcadia Bell is back to normal. Or at least as ordinary as life can be for a renegade magician and owner of a tiki bar that caters to Earthbound demons. She’s gearing up for the busiest day of the year—Halloween—when a vengeful kidnapper paralyzes the community. The influential head of the local Hellfire Club taps Cady to track down the fiendish bogeyman, and now that she’s dating red-hot Lon Butler, the club’s wayward son, she can hardly say no.

Cady and Lon untangle a gruesome thirty-year trail of clues that points to danger for the club members’ children. But locating the person behind the terror will require some metaphysical help from Cady’s loyal bar patrons as well as her potent new Moonchild powers—and she’d better figure it out before the final victim disappears and her own darkest secret becomes her biggest enemy.
[Publication date, April 2012]

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

WoW: Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly post started by Breaking the Spine, to show books that we are patiently waiting for.  

This Book has a beautiful cover, and an interesting synopsis...teen reaper, how cool is that? 

Summary [via goodreads]: 
The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...
Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper-and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath.
Within days, she's shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath. Who seems to hate her guts.
Rath will be watching closely to be sure she completes her first assignment-reaping Rick, the boy who should have died. The boy she still wants to be with.
To make matters worse, students at the academy start turning up catatonic, and accusations fly-against Molly. The only way out of this mess? To go through hell. Literally.
[Expected publication date February 28, 2012]

Monday, September 26, 2011

Short & Sweet Reviews: Shadow Kin by M.J. Scott



Tile: Shadow Kin
Author: M.J. Scott
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Th Half-Light City #1

Mass Market paperback, 336 pages
Published on September 6, 2011 by ROC

Summary (via AMAZON): On one side, the Night World, rules by the Blood Lords and the Beast Kind. On the other, the elusive Fae and the humans, protected by their steadfast mages..
Born a wraith, Lily is a shadow who slips between worlds. Brought up by a Blood Lord and raised to be his assassin, she is little more than a slave. But when Lily meets her match in target Simon DuCaine, the unlikely bond that develops between them threatens to disrupt an already stretched peace in a city on the verge of being torn apart... 



My thoughts: I remember the first time I saw this cover, and I was thinking to myself “I have to get my hands on that book!” For the cover alone, I would have bought the book…but the synopsis actually sounded very fascinating.  The story is told between two narratives, Lily a.k.a Shadow, a wraith that can fade into nothingness and Simon, a sunmage. Lily was raised by a blood lord (vampire) because her own mother, a fae didn’t want her.  Lily is a half-breed and in the eyes of everyone, she is an abomination. Lucius, the blood lord raised her to be the most feared assassin in the night world. As usual Lucius sends Lily out on an assignment, to dispose of a potential threat. The ‘’potential threat” turns out to be Simon Ducaine, a powerful sunmage. Lily not only fails to kill him, but ends up being attracted to him. Simon, who can’t get Lily off his mind, sets out on a rescue mission to take Lily away from the cruel night world and into his world (light, where humans, templers, and fae lives). Things turn for the worst, when Lucius discover that Lily is missing.

The world that Scott created is full of political intrigue, and unlikely love. Many readers found the duo narration hard to follow because it would switch mid-chapters.  I didn’t have a problem at all with this. The author placed symbols right before the narration so readers would know exactly who is speaking. The crescent symbol represents Lily’s pov and a Sun represents Simon’s pov. To be honest, I'm not a fan of multiple Point-of-Views, but the author made it work. It was a nice change to see what both characters were feeling. The book started out great, where we see Lily shadowed in the Simon’s room; you can tell there was automatic chemistry between the two lead characters. As we get to the half way point of the book, things kind of dragged and dragged and the ending was really anticlimactic. Another thing that I had a problem with is the trust issue between the two characters. I mean, I get where they’re both coming from but Simon would get mad at Lily, thinking that she has these alterative motives but in reality he isn't a saint either, who was hiding secrets of his own. It makes Simon a hypocrite, and made me dislike him more and more. Imagine the trust issue all the way till the end, they don’t fully resolve the problem till 2nd to the last chapter! Regardless of this, I want to see what happens to Lily and Simon and will be picking up Blood Kin, which is to be released June 2012. If you love vampires (blood), shifters(beasts) and faes, and want to try something new in the fantasy genre you should give Scott’s debut novel a go. 

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Followers Giveaway Winners


Elin204 and Gamergirl98

Congratulations! I will be sending you  guys an email shortly for your snail mail. Thank you to everyone who has supported the blog.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

In My Mailbox [11]

First off, In My Mailbox is a feature that was started over at The Story Siren. Where we share what books we receive in the mail each week.
 For Review: 
Wildefire by Karsten Knight 
*Thank you Simon & Schuster*

Bought:
Clarity by Kim Harrington
Damage by Anya Parrish
Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick

What did you guys get in your IMM? Please leave yours in the comment section, so I can check it out! :) Happy Reading!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

WoW: Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly post started by Breaking the Spine, to show books that we are patiently waiting for.  


 Summary (via Amazon): Once she was Adrienne Satti. An orphan of Davillon, she had somehow escaped destitution and climbed to the ranks of the city's aristocracy in a rags-to-riches story straight from an ancient fairy tale. Until one horrid night, when a conspiracy of forces—human and other—stole it all away in a flurry of blood and murder.

Today she is Widdershins, a thief making her way through Davillon's underbelly with a sharp blade, a sharper wit, and the mystical aid of Olgun, a foreign god with no other worshippers but Widdershins herself. It's not a great life, certainly nothing compared to the one she once had, but it's hers.

But now, in the midst of Davillon's political turmoil, an array of hands are once again rising up against her, prepared to tear down all that she's built. The City Guard wants her in prison. Members of her own Guild want her dead. And something horrid, something dark, something ancient is reaching out for her, a past that refuses to let her go. Widdershins and Olgun are going to find answers, and justice, for what happened to her—but only if those who almost destroyed her in those years gone by don't finish the job first.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Short & Sweet reviews: Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep

Title: Touch of Frost
Author: Jennifer Estep
Series: Mythos Academy (#1)
Genre: Paranormal Young adult

Trade paperback, 350 pages
Published on July 26, 2011 by Kensington (Teen)


Summary (via Goodreads): My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy — a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest.
But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why—especially since I should have been the one who died. . .

My thoughts: I was really excited when I heard that Mrs. Estep was releasing a young adult novel,  because I absolutely adore her Elemental assassin series. The book is told in the first person            narrative, by sixteen year old Gwen Frost. She’s a new student at Mythos Academy, where magical warrior kids go to school. Gwen has been at Mythos Academy for about two months and is still         adjusting to the changes in location/school after the death of her mom.  While not a true believer in all things magic, Gwen starts to see and experience weird things at the school when she stumble       upon the dead body of a fellow classmate.                                                                                                

The whole mythological aspect of gods and goddesses in the novel was a refreshing change in what I usually read (vamps, weres, faeries…). Gwen was a likeable heroine, she’s snarky and witty without really trying. The secondary characters were great too, like Logan the love interest and Daphne the mean popular girl turned new bff.  The story takes place at a boarding school, and I thought that it would be like all the other typical YA books that I read, but it was fun and different.  The story was a tad slow in the first two or three chapter, but definitely picked up.  The ending was actually predictable, but overall I still enjoyed the storyline.
I would have rated this book a full 4 or 5 star but there was one thing that constantly bugged me throughout the book…REPEATS. The author continuously repeated various facts that were mentioned within the opening of the book…ALL THE WAY TILL the end.

Examples of what was repeated throughout the book:
1)      How things would have turn out different if her mother was still alive
2)      That Gwen was friendless
3)      Gwen is known as “that Gypsy girl”
4)      Logan is sexy and dangerous
5)      The popular girls are rich, and snobby

But regardless I am actually looking forward to reading KISS OF FROST (Mythos Academy #2) which will be publish this November 2011. 

 NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES:
NOVEMBER 29, 2011