Archive for July, 2010
Title: Kiss of Death
Author: Rachel Caine
Release Date: April 27, 2010
Pages: 256
Genre: Urban Vampire
When you live in a town that’s run by vampires, where it’s not safe to be on the streets after dark, you’re thrilled at the chance to leave town and see some new sights. That’s the case in Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine, the latest installment in The Morganville Vampire series. Claire and her friends are given the chance to go past the city limits in order to let Michael make a demo CD in Dallas. Freedom from Morganville, they are all just too excited! Although that excitement is tempered a bit when they get their transit papers and they find out that Oliver, an enforcer for Morganville’s head vamp, is going along as their escort. Wow, that will really liven up the trip – NOT!
So, the two couples set out – Shane and Claire, Michael and Eve – along with Oliver on their way to music fame and fortune. Everyone is so excited because passes out of town are few and far between – you don’t leave Morganville without the okay of the lead vampire, Amelie. It is all going great until they stop for food in a small town that has more than its share of rednecks. When Oliver disappears on some mysterious mission and tells them not to leave the little town, things go from bad to worse. When rogue vampires from Morganville track them down, intent on having Claire and Eve for lunch, rednecks are the least of their worries. As Shane tells the sheriff, “we’re not the bad guys here”.
The writing in Kiss of Death transports you to small town Texas, letting you connect with the unique personality of each character. The story of joy-riding teenagers, happy about their freedom, being sidetracked by hating humans and malevolent vampires delivers an exciting read that never lets up on the action. Rachel Caine delivers yet another great installment in her Morganville Vampire series. If you are looking for a fun, fast-paced, road trip adventure, you’ve got to read Kiss of Death.
Title: Dying Bites
Author: D.D. Barant
Release Date: June 30, 2009
Pages: 320
Genre: Urban Vampire
Best Book Quote: “Morning. I open my eyes and the last miniscule of hope that everything is just a dream evaporates with a tiny, melodramatic scream. Good Riddance, I think. I’d rather deal with reality – no matter how bleak – than have some ridiculous, forlorn hope distracting me. Yeah, and I hate kittens and puppies too.”
In the supernatural fantasy, Dying Bites the author D D Barat has taken the creative writing spirit to new heights. This is the first book in a new series entitled The Bloodhound Files. As I was reading it I found myself constantly thinking about what a wonderful imagination the author has – the alternative universe she creates opens up endless possibilities; you never know where this wonderful adventure might lead you.
The lead character in the story is Jace Valchek, a top notch successful FBI profiler. One day she’s living a normal life but then, mysteriously wakes up in an alternate universe where humans are an endangered species. But that’s not all; the person responsible for her journey is a vampire.
It seems that David Cassius, the vampire head of his universe’s National Security Agency, needs her expertise in dealing with a human serial killer that’s targeting vampires and werewolves, the creatures that make up most of the population. The supernatural beings in this new world, where magic is the norm and humans are nothing more than blood bags, have no experience dealing with insanity and they need Jace to find the killer. It’s because Jace is such a strong and skilled woman that she’s able to function in this new world and help David with his problem.
Now, the descriptions of the murder scenes are not for the weak of stomach. However, although they’re very graphic they’re not overdone. Since the murders are an integral part of the story the descriptions help the reader understand the compelling nature of the crimes. I would not really call this book a romance but there is enough hanky panky going on to keep paranormal romance fans interested. Dying Bites provides a unique spin on a not-so-common storyline that many fantasy readers will enjoy.
Title: Wicked Game
Author: Jeri Smith- Ready
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Pages: 432
Genre: Urban Fantasy
A young woman with a sketchy history tries to go straight. Looking for a respectable job, she interviews as an intern at a radio station. But the job has a lot of odd requirements, such as:
-the DJs don’t work during the day
-she can never enter the locked room in the basement, and
- each DJ is uncannily aware of his/her decade of musicThus begins a great novel titled Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready. Meet Ciara Griffin, reformed grifter who needs a job badly and who’s willing to take on the strange crew at WWMP in order to make ends meet.
What she doesn’t know is that the reason these DJs know their music genre so well is that they are vampires that were turned in the decade of the songs they play – that’s why they’re such experts.
Just when Ciara gets into the groove of her new job a nationally syndicated radio giant decides to buy WWMP, ruining the life that these vampires have built for themselves. so Ciara comes up with a radical idea – tell the world that the DJs are vampires as a marketing gimmick and hope they can make enough money to hold off the wolves. Changing their name to WVMP, the vampire DJs pretend to be vampires for their human listeners and it’s a rousing success. Unfortunately, their ruse attracts the attention of an ancient vampire cult whose members are less than happy at the visibility WVMP is generating for their kind . . .
Wicked Game is a cleverly written book with lots of unique and interesting characters that keep you engrossed. From the very beginning, Ciara is attracted to Shane, the DJ for the grunge rock era, but she’s also quite wary of him – seriously, can a human truly have a relationship with a vampire? Adding the other fun characters in the story, from bizarre vampires who only live in their decade to the mystery buyer who wants their radio station, Jeri Smith-Ready brings us an excellent tale of friendship, mystery, and love. Pick this book up and be prepared to be reading for a while, it’s hard to put down.
Title: Descent into Dust
Author: Jacqueline Lepore
Release Date: March 23, 2010
Pages: 384
Genre: Gothic Vampire Fantasy
In Descent into Dust author Jacqueline Lepore creates a world where ancient Romanian legends meet early twentieth century England. It opens with the protagonist, Emma Andrews, suffering a strange and intense headache as she approaches a relative’s country mansion for a short stay. Constantly haunted by her mother’s past insanity, Emma tells no one of the bizarre and persistent headache.
It’s only after meeting a mysterious visitor to the estate, Valerian Fox, that her headache ceases. Even stranger, when viciously attacked by unknown forces she’s able to aptly defend herself with heretofore unknown skills. It’s clear that Valerian has knowledge that can bring light to these occurrences but he refuses to divulge any information when probed by Emma. But when an evil master vampire threatens Emma’s young cousin, the two adversaries become allies – even though Emma is still fighting with Valerian to get the answers she seeks.
Lepore’s masterfully handles the budding relationship between Emma and Valerian. Emma is a young widow who lost her older husband about a year ago and isn’t ready to give up her independence. Valerian is a man of mystery whose interest in Emma is obviously not just related to their fighting evil together. It should be noted that although Emma and Valerian’s interactions form an appropriate subplot to the book’s primary conflict, the novel’s secondary characters are brilliantly fleshed out and add additional depth to the storyline: there’s the foppish but fiercely loyal Sebastian; the pompous and demanding sister Alyssa; and Father Luke, the warrior priest with a hero complex. All three characters play an integral role in the good vs. evil element present throughout the book.
I found Lepore’s writing style befitting for setting a mood that matches the dark, gothic overtones of the novel. At times her prose is almost lyrical; it reminded me of great poetry. I found myself actually reading some of the passages out loud because I thought they were so beautifully composed.
Descent into Dust is a gothic vampire tale that totally captivated me. I was thoroughly entertained by this book and I recommend it to vampire lovers as well as the fans of gothic romance.
About Jacqueline Lepore
An avid reader of Nancy Drew mysteries, Jacqueline had written several short story collections by her senior year in high school. With the Emma Andrews series Jacqueline returns to one of her first loves: Gothic novels. The second book in the series is titled “The Cyprian Queen” and is slated for a March 2011 release. You can learn more about Jacqueline at her website: JacquelineLepore.com.
Top 10 Best Moments (okay, maybe 11) in Episode 3 of True Blood
1. The King of Mississippi rolling Lorena in a Celtic tapestry from the 1500’s to douse the fire consuming her when Bill threw an oil lamp on her. His consort is quite upset at the damage to the tapestry while Lorena looks on from a blackened, peeling, smoking face.
2. Sam’s Dad sitting on the sofa in his gray baggy underwear watching TV when Sam stops by to say goodbye. That’s one nasty pair of underpants. You know, a 3-pack of tighty whities at Walmart is $9. That’s as much as a 12-pack of beer and he seems to be able to afford that.
3. Pam getting busy with some dancer at Fangtasia in some girl-on-girl action when Jessica calls her about her missing body. Pam looked quite annoyed at the interruption but she goes right back at it when she hangs up the phone.
4. Jason studying for the police test – Hoyt says he’s 0 for 22 in correct answers. He says the legal limit for driving drunk is….when you’re drunk. He’ll make a great police officer.
5. Jason has the classic test-taking anxiety dream. He dreams that time has run out and he can’t read the exam, it’s all in hieroglyphics. Next you see him standing at the front of the room with no pants on – quite a nice butt shot – as he tries to turn in his test to the sheriff who has a bullet hold in his forehead.
6. Alcide the werewolf shows up – holy moly – he is hot! Eric sent him to take Sookie to Jackson. Did I mention how hot he is? When is he going to run around naked like everyone else has?
7. Bud the sheriff quits after seeing the latest dead body in Bon Temps. It’s a headless body that Hoyt discovered during his road work. He says he is sick of this horseshit – to many dead bodies, every time they solve one murder, two more show up and it’s causing gaps in his brain and polyps in his ass. Bud is done. I’ll miss him.
8. Arlene finds out that the baby in her belly is about 9 weeks old. She tries to tell Terry but he thinks she is breaking up with him. Terry says ‘if I had a nickel for every time a woman broke up with me, I’d have 15 cents’. I love Terry, what a sweetie. My question is – who is the father of this baby?
9. Jessica answers a knock at the door – it’s Franklin – and she challenges him with a ‘fang flash’ to warn him off to which he flashes right back, walking on in with no invite. Franklin says he finds things and isn’t she looking for something? At which point he proceeds to pull out the head of the guy she killed for dinner some time ago. He helps her – he disposed of her decaying body problem, and she helps him – tell him everything there is to know about Bill Compton. Bill can’t catch a break . . .
10. Franklin shows up at Sookie’s house looking for Tara, he tries to get her to let him in and she’s like – hell no! Smart girl. But, then he puts some whammy on her and she invites him in. Must be that English accent – no American girl can resist an English accent. It gets us in trouble every time . . .
And the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen on a TV show – Lorena goes up to see Bill now that he has sworn loyalty to the king of Mississippi. It’s obvious how much he hates her. She begs him to make love to her – he yells no but then proceeds to rip her clothes off. They start having some pretty rough sex and then:
Bill decides he can’t stand looking at Lorena so he TWISTS HER HEAD ALL THE WAY AROUND so she’s facing backward as he continues having sex with her!
How very “Exorcist” of the writers . . . it’s going to be hard to get that image out of my head.
The second episode of True Blood, ‘Beautifully Broken’, begins with Bill Compton ripping body parts off werewolves like there is no tomorrow. Some guy rides up on a white horse and calls them all off. Bill calls him ‘your majesty’ and this guy is quite angry that his werewolves were draining Bill after they kidnapped him. Bill gets a good laugh that the lead werewolf’s name is Cooter. Bill and the king ride off, leaving werewolf parts scattered all over the ground.
Sookie goes to see Eric, asking for info about the Nazi werewolves who took Bill. She opens her heart, starting to cry in front of Eric and he asks her to stop that – she’s making him feel human. He lets her leave, staring after her as he flashes back to Germany in 1945. A soldier is attacked by a werewolf and Eric and Godric kill it. So, it looks like Eric is not in league with any werewolves.
Pam and Jessica share a little girl time as Jessica tries to find out how to feed without killing the person. Jessica is having a hard time figuring out how to get rid of the smelly body from her meal of several days before. When she brings home a chainsaw to cut him up, the body’s gone. Did it come back from the dead after all?
Lafayette saves Tara from her suicide attempt and the two of them are closer than ever before. A vampire comes into Merlotte’s, talking to Tara as she gets him a bottle of True Blood. Tara punches out two rednecks who are defacing the spot where Eggs’ was killed. The new vampire grabs them and lets Tara pound away on one of them, giving him just what he deserves.
Bill is taken to a beautiful mansion and being treated like an honored guest. The king and his consort take Bill to his room acting like he’s a guest when he’s really a prisoner. They are at dinner where the king says that he wants to make Bill a sheriff. The king’s consort leaves the table to ‘drain’ the second course. That’s when we find out the king plans to marry the queen of Louisiana. The king is surprised the queen allowed Bill to go to Bon Temps, a small backwater town in the middle of nowhere. Bill says he has no interest in being their sheriff and that’s when the king threatens Sookie just as Lorena walks in. Bill throws an oil lamp and sets her on fire. Unfortunately, I doubt that he killed her.
Sam sits outside a house in his car, waking up to a gun barrel aimed at his head. A young man takes him into their house, where he meets his mother. He finds out that she was sixteen when she gave him away to the Merlotte family. Sam tries to bond with his brother but he’s a sullen grouch who isn’t interested in being friends. But, it’s quite nice as the two of them start to strip, saying they need a run. Sam’s brother is covered in scars and you understand why when he transforms into a pit bull.
Terry makes a list of the 10 reasons Arlene can trust him with her kids. It’s to sweet and hilarious. He thinks Arlene is mad at him, he does not realize she’s pregnant. As she races back into the bathroom to throw up once more, Terry continues to yell his list of items through the door at her, saying “I never killed anything by accident”.
Sookie sees a werewolf outside Merlotte’s and she and Terry go into commando hunt mode. They chase the man down only to find he has turned into a wolf and disappeared. They take his clothes into the bar and Terry gives her a gun, asking her if she knows how to use it, to which she replies, “I ain’t that blond”.
Eric arrives on Sookie’s doorstep, telling her that he lied to her about knowing nothing about the werewolves. There’s another flashback to Nazi Germany as Eric interrogates the werewolf in the past, finding out from it that the head werewolf is a vampire. Eric tells Sookie this story, saying that these are not ordinary werewolves, they are fueled by vampire blood. He tells her that she is going to have to invite him in, so he can watch over her ….or have hot primal sex with her….or both. Yikes! Invite that man in! But, Sookie refuses to invite him in and next you see that he senses something is wrong so he forces her invitation just as a werewolf attacks. Now Eric can come and go in Sookie’s house as he wants, I’m sure Bill won’t like that when he gets back.
Title: Descendant: Chronicles of the Ipswich Witch
Author: Miranda Bachman
Release Date: July 1, 2010
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pages: 268
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Some people love life so much that they refuse to leave it even in death. Cleona Conant (The Ipswich Witch), who died in 1721, has refused to give up the ghost. She has been body swapping ever since her death to remain here in the mortal realm.
In 1780, she devised an elaborate plan to cross the paths of her future granddaughter Raven (twenty generations down her line), with an ancient vampire named Alasdair. Aided by the use of spells, incantations and Uber-shadowing, her plan moved into motion in 1983, when Alasdair discovered Raven and set his heart on making her his companion.
Through a span of nearly seventy years, he guarded her, all throughout her mortal life. However, once he gave her his eternal kiss he ultimately, and without his knowing, led their lives down a path which neither of them had the ability or knowledge to escape from what lay ahead. Does good always conquer evil, or does evil win once in awhile?
Find out in DESCENDANT: Chronicles of the Ipswich Witch.
