$7.99 (Amazon.com, 09/30/09) Available for pre-order
Contest Info
Visit Nicole Peeler’s newly revamped blog. It looks amazing. And comment to win an ARC of her debut novel Tempest Rising. Ends 10/04.
My Thoughts
I’ve already read this. It’s a great read. My review will be posted closer to the publish date. If you’ve read and enjoyed Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series then you’ll probably enjoy this new series.
In the tiny village of Rockabill, Maine, Jane True—26-year-old bookstore clerk and secret night swimmer—has no idea that her absent mother’s legacy is entry into a world populated by the origins of human myths and legends. It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: vampires are not quite what we think; dogs sometimes surprise us; and whatever you do, never—ever—rub the genie’s lamp. For Jane, everything kicks off when she comes across a murder victim during her nightly clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean. This grisly discovery leads to the revelation of why she has such freakish abilities in the water: her mother was a Selkie and Jane is only half human. With this knowledge, Jane soon finds herself mingling with supernatural creatures alternately terrifying, beautiful, and deadly—all adjectives that quite handily describe her new friend Ryu. When Ryu is sent to Rockabill to investigate the murder, he and Jane fall hard for each other even as they plummet into a world of intrigue threatening to engulf both supernatural and human societies. For someone is killing half-humans like Jane. The question is, are the murders the work of one rogue individual or part of a greater plot to purge the world of Halflings?
As the new girl at the elite St. Sophia’s boarding school, Lily Parker thinks her classmates are the most monstrous things she’ll have to face…
When Lily’s guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia’s. Lily’s ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she’s hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building.
The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout’s a little weird—she keeps disappearing late at night and won’t tell Lily where she’s been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster.
Scout’s a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who’ve sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who’ve been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own—at least none that she’s discovered yet…
Connect with Chloe Neill
What do you think? I wonder what powers she uncovers?
Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater Flux (October 1, 2009) 360 pages, Young Adult $9.95 (Amazon.com, 09/30/09) I just reviewed Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater. To celebrate the release, which is tomorrow, I’d like to give away a brand new finished copy of Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie. How to Enter: There’s a form embedded into this post. To enter please fill it out completely and DO AT LEAST ONE ENTRY BELOW!
Entries are available for: YOU MUST DO AT LEAST ONE!
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RULES:
Entries will be accepted until Midnight, Oct. 8th EST
Entries are open to US & Canada only, sorry. NO P.O. Boxes.
The winner will be randomly selected via random.org.
The winner will be announced on Oct. 9th (or soon thereafter)
The winner will have 3 days to email me their shipping info or they will forfeit their winnings and a new winner will be selected.
So if you’re interested in reading Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater fill out the entry form!
Remember us, so sing the dead, lest we remember you
James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween—the day of the dead—draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul.
This story follows James and his adventure at his new school Thornking-Ash, where Dee transferred to as well. He meets a faerie girl, Nuala and they become friends in quite a roundabout way.
I really enjoyed the story. I LOVED learning about James. He’s a sweet guy! There’s lots of references to music and instruments but it’s nothing too extreme to confuse the reader.
The only thing I didn’t like about the plot is that I missed Dee’s POV. I have no idea what she was doing in this book and it kinda ticked me off to the point that I was hating her character. I would have loved her POV. The text messages just were not enough for me.
Setting
The setting is the school Thornking-Ash. There’s lots of scenes around a large round fountain, which was cool. The school is also very cool with forgotten buildings overgrown with ivy and such. There’s a quick journey to “somewhere” else that was cool too.
It’s set in present day.
Writing
Amazing. I love Maggie’s writing. She chose to write in alternating POVs between James and Nuala. There are also glimpses of unsent text messages from Dee to James that I honestly found confusing and ended up loathing to read them half way through the book. I would have rather heard from Dee than seen those texts. It was a cool idea but it made me hate Dee and I didn’t like hating Dee.
Originality
The idea of the King of the Dead was pretty cool. Nuala was also very awesome. She’s supposed to “steal” James’s soul so she can keep living, which would make her the villain but things evolve quite well for both Nuala and James.
Characters
The main character is James. He’s a very cool guy. He has an enormous ego, which was incredibly funny at times. He’s a very strong character, which was overlooked in Lament.
Nuala was refreshing. She comes out initially as overbearing but she quickly acclimates to James and then she transforms from faerie to something else entirely. Maybe a woman? She does mature a great deal.
Mr. Sullivan is James’s teacher. He’s a very cool character too. He’s like an older version of James. He ends up tutoring James to teach him the piano because he’s already mastered the pipes. He ends up helping James and Nuala.
Paul is James’s roommate and he’s freaking hilarious! The scene with the (non)beer is amazing.
Dee is there but so not there. I really missed her POV as already stated. She played such a role in Lament that I wanted her to be included in Ballad too.
Passion
I missed Dee and Luke in this addition.
James and Nuala’s relationship grows and matures really well. I really enjoyed their story.
James and Dee have an episode of confusion, which I could have slapped the shit out of Dee for, but, alas, it’s just a book.
Overall
A great read and follow up to Lament. I still wish there was more Dee to love rather than hate. I loved James and Nuala was a nice partner for him. The King of the Dead was super cool. I’m wondering if Maggie will continue with the series sometime? I’d love to know what happened to Luke and where Dee will find happiness.
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“I’m not a dude. Lose it.” I was not going to ask. “So, how did he look at me?”
“Like it was his birthday and you were the cake.”
At least he hadn’t smashed this one into the ceiling. It seemed Barrons had finally gotten his cake and eaten it, too. Dreamfever (Fever, Book 4) by Karen Marie Moning
Mini Review
I finished this book last night. It’s book 4 of KMM’s Fever series. It was amazingly good and I will not be doing a formal review of it.
The above quote is one of the best of the book. If you haven’t read this series, you are sorely missing out. Although, I’d recommend waiting until next year after Shadowfever is released that way you’ll have ALL the books of the series and won’t have to wait an ENTIRE YEAR or more to find out what the hell just happened at the very end of this freaking book! KMM is the Queen of Cliffhangers.
Now, you’d have to understand my predicament. I was reading this on my Kindle and it has these little dots at the bottom that shows my progress. I can usually tell about how many more pages are left in a book by this timeline. And by pages I mean roughly the number of clicks or even minutes of reading left. However, Dreamfever ended with 4 more dots to go!!!! I was SO upset you don’t even understand. I was NOT prepared for it to just END. GAH! 4 more dots would be at least 50 more pages……
Anyhow, this series is well worth all the angst it’s proving to be. KMM is a brilliant storyteller, world builder, and heart breaker. BUT she promises a happy ending, and for that I have faith.
I’m pleased to welcome a guest blog post from Jocelynn Drake who’s next Dark Days installment, Dawnbreaker, releases TODAY! She’s also graciously giving away 2 signed copies of Dawnbreaker! See below for entry details.
The History of the Dark Days Series
I never set out to write a series of books about a hot-tempered vampire and a narrow-minded vampire hunter. I never meant to take mankind of the edge of extinction with its only hope being the very race that fed off of it. I never meant to fall in love… but I did. Close to five years have passed now since the birth of Mira and Danaus. The world has aged a little bit, we’ve grown a little more experienced and a little more jaded. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, children have been born, and loved ones have died. And in the midst of it all, I created two people that would become my best friends and nearly constant companions. I wish I could recall the exact date so that I could celebrate it like a birthday. I know that it was in the early fall, when the air was just beginning to grow crisp and full with the scent of dried leaves.
Prior to working on what would become Nightwalker, I had been reading a wide assortment of urban fantasy novels, which started to get my own creative mind working in that field. The urban fantasy genre was relatively new at the time, with authors that were still finding their voice, their world, and their direction. It was a veritable playground filled with new untouched toys. And there was plenty of room for everyone to play.
In the back of my mind, a character started to form by the name of Miranda. She was older, confident, experienced, powerful, and somewhat sarcastic and hot-tempered. In fact, she reminded me greatly of a character that I had been working on in a fantasy series I had started back in high school. During my free time, I would sit behind the computer, typing out scenes with her fighting battles, struggling with great odds and vicious villains, while struggling to overcome her own personal demons. I would type about twenty or thirty pages before I would finally grow bored with it. I would then close out the file, open a new one, and start a whole new story. This went on for more than a month. During that time, Miranda went from vampire to witch to elf. Her race changed with my whims, but her personality stayed relatively the same.
After my fourth extended scene with Miranda, I took a break. I was going nowhere with these little stories, even though I greatly enjoyed working on them. It was time to work on something that I knew I could write a beginning, middle, and end for. I decided that I wanted a new character. I wanted to expand my own creative endeavors and skills by working on a male character. Most of my stories centered on females simply because I was female, allowing me to feel comfortable that I was getting the voice correct. This time I attacked what would become a short story from a different, more methodical direction. I decided that the short story would be about an experienced, skilled vampire hunter as he tracked down a vampire with a special ability. I didn’t know who the vampire hunter was and I didn’t know what the story was going to be about. I just knew what I wanted. Unfortunately, I had to wait for that final spark of creative genius.
So, one day, being the avid gamer that I am, I was flipping through a video gaming magazine when I came across him – Danaus. He was brutal, and hard, and strong, and absolutely perfect. It was my Danaus with his beautiful blue eyes and cruel expression. Tearing the game advertisement out of the magazine, I hurried into the office and started typing. Immediately out came Miranda’s voice, but it was slightly different. Silky and confident, with just an edge of sex appeal, she watched Danaus as he moved, telling his story and hers. With the change in voice, came a change in name to Mira.
During the next few months, I just kept typing, filling my world with Mira and Danaus. I haunted magazine racks, looking for more pictures of my Danaus so that they covered my office wall and the desktop of my computer screen. He was my muse.
In less than four months, I created what would essentially become both Nightwalker and Dayhunter. I love writing about the Dark Days world. It’s dark and hard and frequently cruel, but it is also a place where friends are dependent upon each other for survival and that love struggles to find a perch in this harsh world.
I am just about to complete the fifth book in the Dark Days series, with the hope of many more to come. I am still in love with Mira and Danaus, my old friends. And I still keep a picture of Danaus with me when I travel as my talisman of creativity and hope.
Thank you so much Jocelynn for that awesome guest post!
How cool was that?
Did anyone else notice that she doesn’t say what game character depicted Danaus so well? Yeah, I noticed too! What the heck Jocelynn! Way to leave us hanging!
ETA
OMG! Thank you SciFiGuy for your awesome research! The picture above was found on his blog post of his recent interview of Jocelynn and he found it in her gallery! He’s right, the internet is awesome. Now, who the heck is that dude? Besides Danaus! He’s The Prince of Persia! Specially: Warrior Within. I’m slightly disappointed. Why? Because that game is currently being made into a movie and it’s starring Jake Gyllenhaal. And he’s not my perfect Danaus. But he’s not bad. ;)
I have to thank my buds at G4 Forums! They identified the game from the small pic above.
Giveaway
Jocelynn wants to give away 2 signed copies of Dawnbreaker! If only I could win a copy!
To enter please leave a comment below telling me you want to win a signed copy!
One entry per person. Include your email address and I’ll email you if you win.
Open to everyone!
Comment by 10/05 and the winners will be announced 10/06.
Connect with Jocelynn
Series
Amazon.com slideshow below includes the Dark Days books and Unbound an anthology that includes a short story pre-Nightwalker.
Well, look forward to my review. I’m hoping to buy Dawnbreaker on my Kindle but I’m not paying $9.99 when I can pay $7.99 for the Mass Market Paperback. I won a copy on SciFiGuy.Ca! WOOHOO!
Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate: Book the First) by Gail Carriger Orbit Books (September 29, 2009) 384 pages, Historical Paranormal Fantasy $7.99 (Amazon.com, Mass Market Paperback, 09/28/09) $6.39 (Kindle, 09/28/09) Plot: 5 Setting: 5 Writing: 5 Originality: 5 Characters: 5 Passion: 5 Overall: 30/30 = 100% = A+ Freaking Amazing Cover/Title Bonus: 5
Okay, so I first notice this book the day after I returned from BEA in NYC back in May. I was sooo upset because apparently Gail was at BEA and I missed the chance to pick up an ARC! I immediately contacted the publisher to explain my predicament. They generously sent me a copy to review!!! WOOHOO! This book was brilliant. If you read nothing else of this review just know that if you enjoy paranormal or historical fiction in any sense this novel will blow your socks off. It’s hilarious, beautifully written, adventurous, and even a little bit scary.
Orbit has done a ton to get this book some well worth attention. Don’t forget to check at the end of my review for links to the amazing stuff! First chapter full cast audio and virtual dress up!
Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she is being rudely attacked by a vampire to whom she has not been properly introduced! Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire, and the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?
Amazing plot. Alexia Tarabotti is not a normal human therefore it seems logical that her life would not be normal either. She seems to be swatting away vampires, insulting werewolves, and ever irritating her high society parents. She is set on helping the local “chief of police”, Lord Conall Macoon aka Alpha of the local werewolf pack and his Beta Professor Lyall. Their adventure to solve the mystery behind some murders is creative and lively. The main villain group has the symbol of an octopus, which is really strange and not explained in this first book. I’m hoping it’s explained in book the second, Changeless.
Setting
It’s set in high society 1873 late Victorian London. There are balls, the whole attire of that century with things I didn’t even know what they were, which did hinder my ability to visualize everything accurately but I’ve seen enough movies set in this time period to have guessed pretty correctly, or so I think! The setting is depicted beautifully. It is one of the things I enjoyed the most. I love a good historical fiction novel but this blew all other historical novels out the window in comparison.
Writing
You’d think after reading this that Gail lived during this time period. She is absolutely amazing. I LOVED the proper speech, the setting, the attire, and the fact that there were paranormal entities added the cherry on top of this wonderfully arranged piece of fictional art. I could not even begin to explain how amazing this book was to read. I was laughing, swooning, cringing with fright and periodically embarrassed for one character or another a few times. Soulless has it ALL.
The pace is awesome. There’s action, romance, lots of historical factors, and a horrifying abomination thing that scared the living hell out of me.
Soulless is written in third-person point of view. I loved this point of view!
Originality
Well, yeah, if you haven’t figured it out yet, this is just about as original as it gets. “A novel of vampires, werewolves, and parasols” is the blurb on the front of the book. Mixing all that together with the 1873’s high society, late Victoria London was genius of Miss Gail Carriger.
Characters
Miss Alexia Tarabotti is the main character. She’s preternatural: Soulless. She can void any supernatural ability with the touch of her hand. She’s fairly young at 26. She’s of Italian descent, which gives her a darker complexion. She’s very strong willed and a fun character to learn about.
Lord Connal Maccon is the “chief of police” or Earl, the Alpha of the werewolf pack, and swoon worthy. He is a truly remarkable specimen of a man and I love his character. He’s Scottish and his accent slips to the Scottish brogue every now and again and it weakens me at the knees. SIDENOTE:
I play an online game called Counter Strike: Source, which has voice enabled communication so you can speak with the other players. I met a guy on there with a Scottish accent and I asked him if I typed something would he say it? He agreed, so I found a line from the book and asked him to say it and wow…..just wow. I think I’ll be buying the audio just to hear that brogue whenever I please. See the end of the review for the sample audio chapter! It’s awesome!
Professor Lyall is an awesome character too! He’s Lord Maccon’s second-in-command at the “police station” and also his Beta in the pack. Love his character. He’s the middle man between Alexia and Lord Maccon.
The abomination thing is scary as hell, as mentioned previously, it made me cringe as I was reading. I think I even had a nightmare or two because of it. That is one thing I’ll never forget about this book. It was incorporated in the plot of the book very well and added a hint of horrorificness, which made the book all that more enjoyable.
Lastly, Lord Akeldama is the most awesome character I’ve read in a long time. He’s unique and loved. He’s a very old, very strong, very solitary, and very flamboyant and gay. He was enjoyed immensely by this reader!
Passion
The blooming relationship between Miss Tarabotti and Lord Maccon is amusing, sweet, and destined. Their continuous banter is hilarious yet so true to both characters. Miss Tarabotti is a strong willed woman and Lord Maccon is refreshingly the Alpha male that women are attracted to yet do not fully surrender with out a noble fight: playing hard to get, which Alexia does very well.
Overall
A must buy. I will most definitely purchase the audio book for this and listen to it regularly. The story is strong, engaging, and mysterious. The characters are loveable and unforgettable. Miss Gail Carriger is my new favorite author. I’ll be putting her on auto buy and I will be stalking her future releases like a hawk. Well done Gail, well done.
Cover/Title Bonus
The title fits perfectly with this first installment to the series. I like the one word title. It’s simple yet perfect.
The cover is perfect. Love the model of Miss Tarabotti and the parasol is amazingly perfect. I wonder if this was made after the book was written or if it was the inspiration to the book? I also like the font of the title and how it’s encased in the hot pink highlight. The front cover blurb is simple, yet again, oh so true to the book.
Gail wrote a lovely blog post that explains how the cover was made. It also explains the cover of Changeless.
Connect with Gail Carriger
Awesome Fun
Listen to the AMAZING full-cast audio complete with music, soundFX and soundscapping. Directed by J. Daniel Sawyer and produced by ArtisticWhispers Productions.
Should the below icon link not work for you, you can access it from this link. The below link goes directly to just the audio player.
Play with this awesome virtual dress up! I enjoyed playing with this!
Changeless (The Parasol Protectorate, Book the 2nd) by Gail Carriger , will be released March 30, 2010 per Amazon.com. Followed by Blameless, the third book.
So, what do you think? Are you ready for a magical tale in the form of a Historical Paranormal Fantasy novel? Pick up a copy tomorrow or pre-order it today!
