Sunday, November 11, 2007

And now -- October's Reading List

Jo Beverley, M.J. Putney, Karen Harbaugh, Barbara Samuel
Dragon Lovers (Anthology)


Madeline Hunter
The Seducer
The Sinner

The Romantic

Lord of Sin
Lady of Sin

Rules of Seduction
Lessons of Desire


Lisa Kleypas
Secrets of A Summer Night
It Happened One Autumn
Devil in Winter
Scandal In Spring
Mine Till Midnight


Sabina Jeffries

Never Seduce a Scoundrel

Only a Duke Will Do
Beware a Scots Revenge


Mary Balogh
Slightly Married
Slightly Wicked

Slightly Scandalous
Slightly Tempted

Slightly Sinful
Slightly Dangerous

Adele Ashworth
Duke of Sin
Duke of Scandal

Duke of Indiscretion


So there it is... Where as September was a month of nearly all 'new reads,' October was a month of re-reads. Of course there were a number of new stories in the mix to keep me reading as quickly as could.
Dragon Lovers was a new one. Lord and Lady of Sin and Lessons were all new as well. Mine Till Midnight and all of the Jeffries. Balogh's Married and the second and third books in Ashworth's Duke series were the final new ones for the month.



Again, I will have more to say on these but that will appear in a later blog. I'm thinking of doing an entry solely on Balogh's Slightly series and I've got the other two books of Hunter's Seducer series on order and once I read those I'm going to do a blog on that series as well.

That will all come later.... Till next time!!!

September Reading List... Finally!

Janet Chapman
Charming the Highlander
Loving the Highlander
Wedding the Highlander
Tempting the Highlander

Only With a Highlander


Julia London

Highlander Unbound
Highlander in Disguise
Highlander in Love


Kinley MacGregor
Sword of Darkness

Knight of Darkness


Jean Johnson
The Master

Mary Balogh
Simply Unforgettable
Simply Love

Liz Carlyle
One Little Sin
Two Little Lies
Three Little Secrets


Cynthia Cooke
Rising Darkness


Michele Hauf

Kiss Me Deadly

Monica McCarthy
Highlander Untamed
Highlander Unmasked
Highlander Unchained

JR Ward
Lover Revealed
Lover Unbound

Elizabeth Boyle
This Rake of Mine
Love Letters from a Duke



That's the list and, yes, there are a couple of books in there that I will be posting reviews and further musings for but for right now, I've only got a few quick things to say. Most all of the books this month were 'new reads.' The few that weren't are (also distinguished above in italics): Lover Revealed, This Rake of Mine, all of the Janet Chapmen's Highlander series.


For the others, well I had been looking forward to Johnson's The Master and Lover Unbound from Ward, for some time and both of those titles for than met with my expectations. (I have more to say on both of these books but you'll find that in a later blog.)













I really li
ked all the books that I read during September. For now, I guess that's all you're going to get out of me on this. More will come later!!!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Ooppss!

Guess who forgot to post her September reading list... and guess who can't even find it right now...

Yep that's me.

I will find it. Soon. And then I'll post both September and October. I think there were a couple books that I read that I've written the reviews for already and I'll get around to posting those right away too. (Now that I've returned from the land of Lurker.)

Can't really remember right now, but I do think there were a couple of new authors on the list and I know that September saw a couple of books that I'd been waiting on for frigging ever.

Look for it in the next couple of days... I really will try and get them up!!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Book Review: Jo Beverley "Forbidden Magic"


Forbidden Magic
Jo Beverley
Signet, November 1998
Historical Romance


Starting with a vile proposition to have her 16-year-old sister become the mistress of her equally vile landlord Sir Arthur Jakes in order to pay the rent and ensure the future well fare of her other siblings, Meg Gillingham is overwhelmed by her circumstances and resorts to using the forbidden magic of a pagan statue left to her upon her mother's death. Only to protect her family would Meg consider the use of such powers and in her desperation wishes for the answer to her problems.

Awakened to the news that he's received a missive from his Grandmother Lord Saxonhurst, Sax to his intimates, is thrust into anger by the reminder of a promise to be wed by his twenty-fifth birthday-the very next day. As is usual, for Sax anyway, when angered by his Grandmother he begins to randomly vandolize his chambers. His strange array of misfit servents arrives to clean the mess, even as he makes more, and it is through their suggestions that he decides to ask Meg to marry him.

Of course several obstacles do stand in their way. They've never met. They do not know what the other looks like or what his temperment is. They don't know if they'll suit eachother or if they'll be attracted to one another. And their nuptuals must occur within 24-hours. Fortunately, Sax is an earl and is able to obtain a special license to marry and Meg is desperate enough to take just about anyone as her husband.

The wedding arrives and though Meg has a few moments of hesitation the entire event proceeds rather quickly and the Gillingham family is immediately bundled into coaches and carried to their new home, the London mansion of the Earls of Saxonhurst. Of course upon arrival they meet Sax's horrible Grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Daingerfield and the odious Cousin Daphne.

Misconception, misunderstanding, misbelief, fear and lies crop up to stand in the way of their happiness but it doesn't take long for either Meg or Sax to realize that what is happening between them is more than just lust. More than just passion. Certainly those things are of course part of the emotions and part of the relationship between them but it takes nearly losing eachother for them to realize that what they have is possibly something more than they'd wagered on. Something more than they'd imagined they'd get. Something that they had only dreamed they might someday have.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

What I Read Last Month

The List:
Lucy Blue - Bound In Darkness Trilogy

  • My Demon's Kiss
  • The Devil's Knight
  • Dark Angel
Lynne Ewing - Daughters of the Moon Series
  • The Secret Scroll
  • The Sacrifice
  • The Lost Ones
Michele Hauf
  • Familiar Strangers
Sherrilyn Kenyon
  • Devil May Cry (Audio book)
Julia Quinn
  • The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever
  • The Viscount Who Loved Me - 2nd Epilogue (e-book)
  • Romancing Mr. Bridgerton - 2nd Epilogue (e-book)
  • When He Was Wicked - 2nd Epilogue (e-book)
  • It's In His Kiss - 2nd Epilogue (e-book)
Alexis Morgan - Paladins of Darkness Series
  • Dark Defender
  • Dark Protector
  • In Darkness Reborn
Rebecca York - Werewolf Series
  • Moon Swept (Witching Moon and Crimson Moon)
Mary Jo Putney
  • Kiss of Fate (Guardian Series)
  • Stolen Magic (Guardian Series)
  • The Marriage Spell
Kat Martin
  • Heart of Honor
Jo Beverley
  • Forbidden Magic
Nora Roberts
  • River's End
  • The Villa
Karen Hawkins
  • How to Abduct a Highland Lord
  • To Scotland, With Love
Liz Carlyle
  • Never Lie to a Lady
  • Never Deceive a Duke
Danielle Steele
  • The House

It was another one of those months when all I could do was read. Admittedly the e-books were only shorts (30-40 pages each) and the Ewing novels were Teen-fiction and so considerably easier to read.

The only book that was a re-read this month was Kiss of Fate and that was to refresh my memory of the Guardian series. I'm looking forward to A Distant Magic coming out in paper back so I can read more of that series because I really enjoy it! I think the concept is really good and I find the characters incredibly interesting. I'd picked Putney's Marriage Spell at the same time as Stolen Magic thinking that it was another book in the Guardian series but while I was wrong on that accord, I was happy to find that I liked the story just as much! I wouldn't mind seeing what happens to some of the other characters that made appearances in Spell and seeing it develop in to it's own series as well.



I really enjoyed, as per usual, both of the Nora Roberts and Sherrilyn Kenyon's book and when I found myself without any new books to read, I dug the Steele novel out and decided to give it a try. I haven't read a Danielle Steele novel in ages and I can't say that I particularly enjoyed it. I debated that notion with my sister-in-law and we both decided that the feeling came down to an incessent repetition of facts and that the last 100 pages or so was like reading a sixth grader's writing. "And we did _____. Then we went ______." It was really annoying. The story itself was good, fascinating in some parts and I liked the way it all came around in the end, but it was the way it was written that drove me crazy and nearly persuaded me to drop the book multiple times while reading. Needless to say, it won't be likely that I'll pick up another one of her books for some time, if ever.


I liked Blue's Bound In Darkness trilogy and am really glad that I finally read it. I've had all three of the books for some time just sitting on my bookshelf but for some reason I never got to round to reading them. I really liked them. Morgan's Pallidan's were great. I might even go so far as to say they were amazing. I've seen the books at the store for some time now, heard comments and read some reviews on them over the last several months but kept putting off grabbing them. Now I'm chomping at the bit, waiting for Redeemed in Darkness to come out. I think I've got a couple more months to wait on that though, so I've got to turn my sights to other books for the time being.




Quinn's Secret Diaries and Kat Martin's Hearts novels were great stories, both of them. From these, the two Carlyle's and both of Hawkin's books I found my "happy romance" stories. Obviously, as with any good novel, the character's had their ups and downs but when they had their ups they were truly amusing and warm and when they had their downs you never doubted that they could work through their issues. Personally, I love reading stories like that every once in awhile, it's good for my heart. And these six novels fed my desire for some good ole' historical romance stories. There were other historicals in the list but these six were just the light-hearted, happy and cute (sorry I couldn't think of a different word to describe this, because believe me I know cute makes it sound trite) novels that made me giddy just reading them and had me laughing out loud in several parts!



I really liked all the stories that I picked up, downloaded, or listened too this month (if we ignore the bleep on the radar from The House) and for next month I'm looking forward to several new stories from series that I've read in the past and new single titles that are coming out by a variety of authors. I'll hint at the two most highly anticipated (at least as to my current opinion) and to do it I have only to say two things: Dominor and V. I think you can figure it out from there.


That's it, and for now that's all! Till next time: happy reading, viewing, listening or surfing.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Just a Quick Update

I am extremely tired right now and so I just wanted to stop by with a quick update to note a couple of things.
  • I'm working on several book reviews right now, for books that I've read over the last couple of months and I'll be posting those over a course of time on this site as well as my myspace.
  • I'll be posting my August reading list at the end of the month, or within the first week of September anyways.
  • There are several new books that I am anxiously awaiting the release of within the next two months: Jean Johnson's The Master, J.R. Ward's Lover Unbound and Christine Feehan's Dark Possession top my list of 'can't wait to reads!' These books start coming out beginning the first week of September, so I'm very excited.
  • I've managed to get back to doing some writing on my book and just for my own sake, I'm very happy that I am!
I suppose that's all for tonight and now, since it is well past my bedtime (in fact it is nearly my wake-up time) I should probably try and get what sleep I can claim.

I'll be back again soon!!

Friday, August 3, 2007

Gilmore Girls Fanfiction Available on FanLib.com

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you all know that I've got one of my Gilmore Girls Fanfictions posted on FanLib.com (it's also available on Fanfiction.net) and you can go directly to it by clicking on the link below!!



FanLib.comview author's profileview fanfic

Thursday, August 2, 2007

My List of July Reads...


So this month seemed to be a month of rereads. It was also a month that I spent far less time reading than in the past months, especially last month! There are three books on the list that are first time reads though (marked in italics) and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them.

Since J.K. Rowling released the final book in her Harry Potter series this month I decided to reread the previous book before reading the finale of the series. Christine Feehan also has a new book in her Carpathian series coming out soon Dark Possession and so I spent the month reading through all of the Carpathian novels that I already had. I was able to get my hands on two that had previously alluded me and both of them -Gold and -Secret were very much to my liking.

Here's the list, short as it may be!

J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (year 6)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (year 7)

Christine Feehan
(these titles are all part of her Carpathian series and are listed in the correct reading order)
Dark Prince
Dark Desire
Dark Gold
Dark Dream
Dark Guardian
Dark Symphony
Dark Descent
Dark Melody
Dark Destiny
Dark Secret
Dark Demon
Dark Celebration

Thats all there is.... Until next month!!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

June Reading List

I told you that I'd get this up in the next couple of days, so here it is, my long list of books that I read last month... And as a point of interest: these were all first time reads! I've had the Jo Beverley's for a while but hadn't got to read them until now and the same goes for the Kenyon book and the Madeline Hunter novel. The others were books that I just happened across while browsing at the store or ones that I'd heard good things about from friends.


Paranormal/Fantasy


Jean Johnson: Sons of Destiny Series
- The Sword
- The Wolf
Lara Adrian: Midnight Breed Series
- Kiss of Midnight
- Kiss of Crimson
Jacquelyn Frank: The Nightwalkers
- Jacob
- Gideon
Christine Feehan: Drake Sisters Series
- Safe Harbor
Jill Gregory: Wolf River and Thunder Creek
Lindsay McKenna: Dark Truth
Angela Knight: Master of Dragons
Sherrilyn Kenyon: from the Dark-Hunter World
- The Dream-Hunter
Linda Winstead Jones: Raintree: Haunted
Beverley Barton: Raintree: Sanctuary
Lori Devoti: Unbound


Contemporary


Cherry Adair: On Thin Ice
Patricia Thayer: A Mother for the Tycoons Child



Historical/Regency


Galean Foley: Her Only Desire
Jo Beverley: Company of Rogues
- Forbidden

- Skylark

- The Rogue's Return

- To Rescue a Rogue

- Lady Beware
Kresley Cole: MacCarrick Brothers
- If You Dare
- If You Desire
- If You Decieve
Madeline Hunter: The Rules of Seduction


Over all I'd have to say that I enjoyed all of these books. I'd waited such a long time for Feehan's next Drake book and am glad that I wasn't disappointed. As usual Kenyon's D-H world drew me in and I thoroughly enjoyed The Dream-Hunter. Now I'm really looking forward to the next Dark-Hunter book thats slated to come out in the next month or so. I was easily pulled in to the ranks of the Company of Rogues and I will put some effort in to locating the remaining books in the series. The MacCarrick brothers were extremely entertaining and their stories were all really well done.

I was very happy with the paranormal series novels that I picked up last month and can't wait to see more from Johnson, Adrian and Frank. Knights' Master of Dragons held up to the consistent high standards that I've enjoyed in the rest of the Masters series.

The only other books that I want to make any specific comment on are the two Raintree novels that appear on my list. These are the second and third books of the triliogy and were preceeded by Raintree: Inferno by Linda Howard which was released in May of this year. The entire trilogy was fantastic and it was really interesting to read this trilogy because, as you can see, each of the books was written by a different author. It was great to look back at the end of the third book and sort of look at how the three stories weaved together and how until about the middle of the last book you really don't understand everything that was going on in the first two novels. I'm glad that I decided to pick these ones up because they were just great!!

So that's all I've got to say about the books this month. I'll be trying to put up my reading list monthly from now on and I fully encourage any comments or discussion on the novels I list or ones that you'd suggest.

Till next time =-{)...

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Poetry By Me

Only Moments Ago

You were here only moments ago,
I can still see your eyes in my mind.
You begged me to come and talk to you,
But I was too busy and I couldn't find the time.
You asked me to remember how things used to be,
And I told you that things had changed.
You swore that you'd always be here.
You promised that you would never leave.
You were here, only moments ago it seems,
I can still see your face if I try.
Now there's no time left to talk,
And things will never be the same.
You didn't keep your word, you broke your promise,
You made a change that can never be fixed.
You were here only moments ago,
I can hear your laugh in the wind,
You've left me standing where I shouldn't be
You went away and now there's only me.
In my mind you will always look as you did, when
You were here only moments ago.

-------00000000-------

This poem is published on Poetry.com.

To rate this poem, click here.



Tuesday, July 10, 2007

They Used To Be Comics and Action Figures


They used to be Comic book heroes and action figurines, now the Transformers are taking the world by storm in what I'd personally say is the best movie of 2007, so far. Since I'm a big Harry Potter fan and The Order of the Phoenix opens tomorrow there's no saying what I'll think of that or how I'll relate it to Transformers come Friday (I plan to see HP on Thursday!!).

I'm sure like most people I watched the Transformers on TV as a kid, I think I can even say that I read a couple of the actual comics, or looked at the pictures as the case may be, but I can't say that I was ever all that interested. Now, I'm not trying to suggest that I'm going to go Transformer mad and go out to buy comic books, action figures or other paraphernalia, though I have considered sheets and stickers for my son, but since seeing the movie on Saturday night I fully admit that I'm more curious about the story and where it might go from this point.




Which begs the question: is there going to be a Transformers 2? I don't know, honestly I haven't even looked around to find out what the buzz is on that topic, but I sort of hope that there will be. If there is a sequel than I hope that it will be as well done and to such a high caliber of effects and graphics as this one has been. Hollywood has had the unfortunate habit of making killer first movies and then following up with mediocre sequels lately (think Spiderman - loved the first one, thought the others were okay but that it could have, and should have been done SO much better than it was).



If my reaction to the movie wasn't apparent already than let me spell it out for you in the simplest way I can...

I LOVED TRANSFORMERS!!!!!

I loved the actors, hello:
Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Rachael Taylor. Of course I can't forget: Anthony Anderson, Jon Voight and John Turturro, because they truly were full of comic relief and stately seriousness. The line up of actors was just brilliant and there wasn't a single character for which I would have used a different actor, which is saying something because I usually find one character that I would have cast differently. I loved the personalities of the Auto-bots and even the Decepticons and was literally heartbroken when I thought that Bumble bee was going to die. (Yes I admit it, and I am not ashamed at all to say that I cried during Transformers!)



I honestly and whole heartedly loved everything about this movie... even the popcorn, junior mints and diet Coke that I had while watching it. I think I had the most fun and enjoyed this movie more than any other that I've seen in the last year or so, though I really liked 300 but that for entirely different reasons. ;)


Thats the end of my aimless ramblings for today... Until next time!!!!



Oh, PS... Just so you know, FYI and all, I will be posting my June reading list in the next 24-48 hours... I didn't forget:)

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Quick, Quick, Quick



I told you that Christine Feehan was still awing me... I picked up Safe Harbor yesterday and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. As cheesy as it might sound, for now all I'm going to say is: I laughed until it hurt, I cried until there was pain and in the end I was just so damn happy that I wanted to start all over again at the beginning!

I'm going to do a more thorough review of this book in the next couple days but I had to stop right now and say, at least, this much. I LOVED IT!!!!!!!

Friday, June 22, 2007

Who Knew?

So who knew that it would be so tough to actually keep an up-to-date blog? I didn't think it would...

In any case, I'm just sort of saying hello and nice to see you today... I've been working for the past three weeks on the first chapter-episode for a virtual season 8 of Gilmore Girls, as I was the unfortunate one who said "sure I'll start it up!", and so I've been sort of hibernating and ignoring all attempts at virtual interactions. But I'm coming to the end of that so I should be a bit more attentive here in the coming weeks. Although in all honesty, by concentrating on vs8 I've been ignoring and avoiding working on any of my own writing projects and so now all of them are falling behind. :|

Oh well that's all for today, besides saying that I'm going to be posting my reading list for June in the next week or so. The list this month includes some new releases, new authors and old favorites, and it includes a few books that I've been avoiding reading or just plain ignoring as possible reads and now, truth be told I'm kicking my own ass because they turned out to really good! lol!

See you all again soon!

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

New Releases vs. Old Favorites

I've got a stack of new books that is atleast a foot and a half high but all I want to read lately are some of my 'old' favorites. I spent the weekend with Nora Roberts and the MacKade brothers. Today I started on her Chesapeake Bay Saga. When I finish those I think I'm going to visit the world of Tracy Anne Warren and read the 'Trap' trilogy. Then I've got a hankering for the 'Wallflowers' series by Lisa Kleypas. I'm not sure why but these books have been calling to me from my bookshelf, demanding to be read.

What's a girl to do but respect the requests of several treasured friends?

I'm always looking for new books to read, and since I like reading series I can usually find something that's just coming out. I'm waiting rather impatiently for the next book in the Drake Sisters series by Christine Feehan and I just found out yesterday that the next Black Dagger Brotherhood book is coming out a week earlier than expected. News there is that JR Ward also has a special reissue of Dark Lover coming out around the same time that has over 40 more pages. Needless to say, she's got the entire cell-block in a frenzy wondering if the new pages are actually new material or if the reissue is in a different format and that makes it longer. We've asked and are waiting on her response. Again, extremely impatiently!

I've got a few Laurel K. Hamilton novels that are begging to be read. Some Robin T. Popp books and I have Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn that awaits my attention. I'll get to them, eventually.

Right now I'm busy with Cameron Quinn, his brothers and the women who love all four. I guess we'll have to wait to see what I'm in to next week.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Are you a Maneater?!?




You're a Part Time Maneater



While you're not a black widow, you've definitely left a few guys feeling used and abused.

You're only out for fun, but sometimes you get a little carried away with your flirting.

Cute guys tend to make you lose control. You really can't help it!

You're a good girl at heart... you just can't help but let your bad girl side out sometimes!

Friday, April 13, 2007

Secrets and Demons... Feehan's Ghostwalkers


I just finished reading Deadly Game, Christine Feehan's latest novel in the Ghostwalker series and I'm not exactly sure what to say. I liked it. No, in complete honesty I loved it, but there is something about the story and the hero - Ken Norton, that make me nervous to admit it.

I've loved all of the Ghostwalker stories (though I've yet to read Conspiracy Game who's hero is Ken's brother Jack) and I've read the first three books a couple of times each. Each one of those books touched something inside me that made me sympathetic to or understanding of the issues that came up between the main characters and the forward motion of the overall storyline.

But it wasn't like that with Deadly Game and the coming together of Ken and Mari (Marigold).

In Shadow Game I loved the characters of Lily Whitney and Ryland Miller right from the start. They were both such strong characters, accepting of eachother and their attraction that I melted. By the end of the first scene where they meet, I was rooting for them to get their happy-ever-after.

Then Nicholas Trevane went to retrieve Dahlia Le Blanc, not knowing for sure what he'd find and never expecting what he found. And Dahlia, bless her heart, didn't know what to do with Nicholas; she'd never even been able to spend any time with people, only being in the company of even her living companions for 30 minutes at a time. Mind Game brought the two together and we got to watch them adapt into these people who need eachother to survive; who realized they were more together than they had ever been apart.

The strength and sheer stubbornness in her, kept Flame Johnson alive and moving for years. Never trusting. Never staying one place for long. Never forming attachements that could be used against her. For as far back as she can remember betrayal has been the only thing in her life that she could count on. When Gator Fontenot bursts into her life she can't trust him, despite an acute awareness of him as a man. The passion that flares between them and their animalistic responses to each other scare her, and Gator for that matter, but it also enrages her that Dr. Peter Whitney (the evil mastermind who created the Ghostwalkers) would manipulate and try to control just one more thing in their lives. Night Game led us through her discovery that eventually you have to trust someone, and inevitably that person may do something to hurt you, even if only acting in your best interest.

In all of the Ghostwalker books both the hero and heroine have their secrets and their demons to work through. None of them, not in any of the stories, believe that they are capable or deserving of love. Most of them have very little concept of what love really is. And the worst of them, are Ken and Mari.

She was raised in a laboratory after being purchased by Dr. Whitney from an orphanage. Treated as nothing more than a lab rat and trained to be nothing but a soldier. Ken's life had been filled with one misery after another. Severely beaten by their father as children, Ken and Jack had eventually killed the man when they discovered him beating their mother to death. Then years later Ken is captured during a black-ops mission in the Congo and tortured; sliced, diced and skinned alive.

Filled with fury, uncontrollable rage and memories of the torture of his capture and his youth, Ken believes himself damned and to far gone for salvation. He needs to have control of his surroundings and those in them.

After having never known anything but a sterile, controlled laboratory environment, the prospect of having a life was more than Mari could imagine. She could picture it in her head, but had no conception of what it would feel like. The only thing she knew was that she would never let anyone have control over her again.

Normal was something that neither was likely to find, especially not in each other. Born, bred and trained to be soldiers, as individuals they were dangerous but put them together and they became deadly. Deadly Game deals with issues so dark that it's hard to relate to and understand them, even when the characters touch your heart and have it bleeding for them. So at odds with one another in one moment and then so in tune with each other the next, Ken and Mari have you fearing what they'll do to the other while at the same time praying that they'll be okay.

In all of the books that I've read I have never felt so discomfitted by my response to a story or the characters in it. There were times I had to set the book down and step away. Other times when I couldn't read fast enough to devour the changing dynamics of the characters.

The whole Ghostwalkers series has been one twist after another (and I know that I've missed some important information and pieces to the mystery, having not read Jack's story yet) and by the end of this one, I was shocked. I guess I can't think of a better word for it. Shocked at the depravity of Peter Whitney, at the strength and courage of Mari and by the amount of darkness in Ken that consumes him yet leaves him with enough humanity not to be a monster.

Once more I am awed by Christine's writing and her ability to tell such a difficult story. I don't know what else to say but "Wow!" (as lame as that sounds). Despite my inner issues with the story, Deadly Game is officially in the list of my top ten favorite books.
===========================

update: June 22, 2007

I have actually read Conspiracy Game now and I loved it too! Surprise, surprise... Anyways like I said, I'd thought that by skipping the fourth book I'd missed some things that were important to the fifth book and the entire Ghostwalker series and boy was I ever right! I don't know why I'm still surprised by Christine's ability to amaze me but hey, I am! I thought that Deadly Game was going to be the top for me, but the fourth book absolutely rocked me too. Now I've go a week before the next book in the Drake Sisters series comes out and I'm dying to get my hands on it. I swear by all that is holy, that I will have that book on release day and it'll be a sad, painful day for whoever decides to stand in my way!!!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Amazing Writers and Their Stories



I've always loved reading, ever since I was a little kid. I remember reading Dr. Seuss and Disney stories and being fascinated. From there it wasn't a huge stretch before I found that I truly enjoyed writing, and that I wasn't bad at it.

In Junior High and High School my teachers always told me that I was a great writer. In my Grade 12 English class, my teacher even told me that of all the students he'd ever had, he enjoyed reading my work the best; that
I could make any topic interesting, no matter how dry the subject. In University the praise continued. In Biology, Chemistry, Psychology and most any other subject I took, and I was a BioChemistry major, I would receive comments and encouragement that I was an excellent writer and had the ability to wrap my reader up in the topic so that he or she would almost forget that it was really a term paper or scientific research report.

When I started thinking seriously about what I was going to do with my life and my degree,
I panicked. I didn't want to spend the rest of my days in a laboratory. I didn't want to go on to medical school (although that had been my original intention) or to graduate school. And while I knew what I didn't want to do, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I decided to take some time off, figure it out, work somewhere and pay back some of the debt I'd acquired. While I was thinking about the rest of my life, I fell back on one of my old habits and some of the things I'd do to relieve stress and relax.

I started reading. Lots.
Romance, fantasy, paranormals.... After reading dry texts for years I relished in the enjoyment of free reading and it didn't take too long before I was writing again. No more reports, no more boring research. I wrote what I loved. Romance, fantasy, paranormals. Short stories, poetry, a short play. I've even been working on a novel.

I always
took for granted, or shrugged off the importance of the encouragement and support I got for my writing when I was younger. I never ever considered that I could possibly write for a living. It didn't occur to me that I could be that good. In truth, I don't know if I am that good but I'll never know unless I try and I believe that I've got a chance. So I'm trying.

I read everything I can get my hands on. I try to write for a few hours everyday. I have my sister-in-law and my own sister read everything that I write. If they think something is good, I have one of my old professors at the University read and edit my pieces. (That professor has actually used a couple of my stories and poems in his classes for creative writing!) I've been trying to send my writing to different agents and publishers, in hopes that someday someone will actually pick up my stuff and say
"Damn, this is good. Let's print and sell it!" It may be a pipe dream, but for now it's my dream.

If I ever
do make it, if something I write is published and sold in bookstores and online, I will be so unbelievably happy I won't know what to do with myself. I've thought about who I owe for making me want to be a writer and while I will never forget my teachers and friends and family for their support, those aren't the people that I'm most grateful to. The authors and the stories that I read now are the people and things that finally pushed me into my choice. They made me start to dream again and without that I'd never have started writing those dreams down, or listening to the voices in my head.

And
if I never accomplish getting something printed and bound, well, no one will ever be able to say it's not because I didn't try.

Monday, March 26, 2007

What I've Been Doing


I spent most of this last week alternating between reading some new (and old) books and working on my own writing. I found some re-released books by some of my favorite authors and thoroughly enjoyed reading them.

I found Lori Fosters' Buckhorn Brother's series entirely by accident when I was looking a movie for my husband. It was just my luck that the store I was in had one copy of each of the four books in the series. I'd never seen the stories before (they were re-released just this month) and from what I understand, after doing a bit of further research and from Lori's note to readers at the beginning of the books, a fifth and related title is going to be re-released later this year (Casey).

After spending more than a month strictly reading only paranormal romance novels it was nice to read an easy-going contemporary romance. Not that the Buckhorn Brother's are easy-going men because although they may appear to be they are anything but, but the stories were so well written that I just breezed through them. I really like all of the men (Sawyer, Morgan, Gabe and Jordan - and the books are shown in that order) and I am happy that they have added to my library.

The other series that I found this week, and again this is one that I truly enjoyed, was the MacCafferty's series by Lisa Jackson. This series kept me interested through each of the books, and kept me wondering what the next twist would be and if the mystery involved throughout the four books would ever be solved. I loved watching the MacCafferty boys realize the mistakes they'd made when they were younger (and dumber) and do everything that they could to make both themselves and their respective ladies blissfully happy. And when it came to Randi... I'm glad that the truth came out, the mystery solved and I was especially happy that Striker got the girl. The whole series just makes me smile and sigh.

When I didn't have myself wrapped up in the books of these series I fell back on one of my favorites - today that leaves me with Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

As for working on my own writing? Well I finally seemed to have recovered from a spell of writer's block and have spent most of the last two days frantically typing. Ideas started flowing into my head in a downpour late friday night and they haven't stopped yet. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a substantial amount of work done in the next couple weeks... If I do, well, let's just say I'll be a happy, happy woman!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

The Things We....

The Things We....

See on the news.... This week in Calgary, Alberta there was a hit and run accident that involved multiple vehicles. The entire thing was caught on video tape which was given to the police, who were able to catch the driver, and it was put up on the internet by the photographer (for a short time). The entire incident caused quite a ruckus for the city and most of the province too.

In the movies... I went to see '300' this last week and I was pleasantly surprised. I usually don't like the 'ancient war/warrior' type movies such as 'Troy' or 'Alexander' but I liked this one. When I watched 'Troy' and 'Alexander' about the only thing that I did like were the actors (Brad Pitt and Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie). In '300' the story was good, although somewhat predictable, the videography (is that a word?) was really good, the effects were well placed and appropriate, and the actors were perfectly cast. As I said I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did, for something to do, I'll post more specific comments and thoughts on this movie at a later time.

On TV... We've entered that spring lull before the May Sweeps where re-runs reign. I just want to point out that while not my favorite time of year, especially since I'm dying to know what's going to happen on my favorite show, I do enjoy watching the re-runs because nearly every episode of the shows I adore have parts that I could watch over and over again! But let me tell you, I can't wait for the sweeps to start, no matter that when the sweeps end the season is over. Ah, oh well, somethings are too good to last.

In Books... Books are on of my passions; I like movies, TV and other things, but books, ah sweet heaven, books are my love. To escape the everyday and become part of worlds that hold mystery, magic, danger, passion and love, it's something that not every one understands, but for those that do it's a wonderful world. You'll come to see, I'm sure that I can go for ever on this, my favorite subject, so for now that's all I'll say!

Do... Everyone is different, everyone is unique, everyone does different things that make them happy. Some days people are the same or share their passions. Other days we are all strangers. Most days we can't understand each other and sometimes we don't even try. Regardless, the things we say, do and believe they make us who we are and we are all special.

--LDFerris, March 2007--

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Book Review: JR Ward LOVER REVEALED

Review: LOVER REVEALED by JR Ward

Lover Revealed, 455pgs
JR Ward
Penquin/Onyx Books
March 2007
ISBN: 978-0-451-41235-5

From the back cover: Butch O'Neal is a fighter by nature. A hard-living ex-homicide cop, he's the only human ever to be allowed in the inner circle of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And he wants to go even deeper into the vampire world--to engage in the turf war with the lessers. He's got nothing to lose. His heart belongs to a female vampire, an aristocratic beauty who's way out of his league. If he can't have Marissa, then at least he can fight side by side with the Brothers...

Fate curses him with the very thing he wants. When Butch sacrifices himself to save a civilian vampire from the slayers, he falls prey to the darkest force in the war. Left for dead, he's found by a miracle, and the Brotherhood calls on Marissa to bring him back. But even her love may not be enough to save him....

The Brotherhood is back and they are fighting mad. With all the changes within the vampire world, the battle with the lessers is adapting as well. In this book, the war takes another drastic turn... for the better! For the past months Butch has been on the fringes of the war. Daytime investigations, 'crime scene' workings, and being on-call to help the Brother's around when someone is hurt; he's become depressed and disappointed that the Brothers won't allow him to do more.

When the story begins we find him in the current local watering hole, Zero-Sum. After coincidence brings him to the aid of a civilian vampire under attack by the lessers, Butch is captured and tortured by the fore-lesser. When the Omega appears to examine the captive, Butch discovers that there are somethings in life that he is afraid of. After the Omega taints him, Butch is left as the proverbial Trojan horse for the Brotherhood to find and save. Vishous is able to track him because of the incident in the Pit where he forced Butch to drink some of his blood. Upon finding him, the Scribe Virgin appears and instructs V on what needs to be done to save his friend.

Nursed back to health by Marissa and Vishous, Butch and Marissa are able to talk about the issues that have plagued their non-relationship to date. As a result they realize that they might have a chance at being together after all, only to have circumstances stand in their way once more. After his release from Haver's hospital, Butch comes to the quick conclusion that while he may be physically fit and restored, not all is as it was when a quick fight with some lessers comes to an unexpected end-for the lesser. This gives him just one more thing to worry about.

Meanwhile due to his discovery of Marissa's relationship with Butch, Havers kicks her out of their home. Left with no where to go and no one else to turn to, Marissa shows up at the compound seeking the aid of Wrath, Beth, and the rest of the Brotherhood. Quickly enveloped by the warmth and love of both Beth and Wrath, Marissa settles in to take stock of her new situation. Upon discovery that Butch is recovering from another battle with the lessers, Marissa insists on seeing him. With her at the compound and Butch at the Pit they realize they couldn't avoid eachother, even if they wanted to and try once more to make things work between them.

Things go well until Marissa needs to feed and due to the fact that he's human she must feed from someone else. Dropping once more into a depression of feeling like less than adequate, Butch ends up once more at Zero-Sum where he proceeds to get thoroughly drunk. Vishous takes him home and Marissa comes to the Pit to take care of him. In that moment they take a major step in their relationship that neither is fully prepared for.


One thing leads to another, several plot twists and hair pulling moments later and readers of the latest Black Dagger Brotherhood book are left with a warm and fuzzy feeling surrounding their heart and a numb, awe-inspiring sense of dread as to what could possibly happen next in the series....

Once more JR Ward has written a story that is fresh and exciting, and keeps it's readers on the edge of their seats throughout. Since the conception of the BDB, the Warden has enthralled her readers with a world where vampires reign and evil truly exists, all with a backdrop of modern-day Upstate New York. The series has caused a movement in the vamplit world and a vast number of 'cellies' will agree with me when I say that this book is just one more reason why everyone should read and love the Brotherhood. Now we have only to wait for next installment in the BDB series, Lover Unbound, which continues the story from Vishous's POV and comes out this October.