America's Next Top "Vamp"???

What if vampires were granted a place in our nation's top reality tv shows? Intrigued? This article takes a humorous approach to the possibility.

Take Top Chef for example:

"Just imagine the creative challenges they'd have to face. Cook an entire Italian meal without using garlic. All forms of protein would be raw meat. The chefs would be required to make blood sausage and blood pudding. All meals would have to be designed to compliment Bloody Marys. Can you imagine Padma and Tom trying to choke some of this stuff down?"

I think this would be a genius way to raise ratings!

~Helena

Furniture for the Vamp Inclined

Holy Bejeezus, Batman!

What do you get the vamp who has everything? How about his or her very own coffin couch:

Created by VonErickson, it's a steal at only $3,500 (!!!). Buy yours (or check out what it looks like with the lid down) on etsy today.

~Lily

Sneak Peek of The Vampire Diaries

Here it is, folks. A sneak peek (or, rather, an extended preview) of the upcoming CW series The Vampire Diaries. Series premiere September 10 at 8 pm (7 pm central).




~Lily

Review - Dark Prince by Christine Feehan

From Feehan's website:
"He came to her in the night, a predator -- strength and power chiseled his features. The seduction was deep and elemental; he affected her soul...She came to him at dawn, his bleakest hour. As the beast raged inside him, threatening to consume him, he vented his centuries-old despair in an anguished cry that filled the waning night. And she answered..."

Dark Prince is the first in a now twenty book deep series about the Carpathians. Feehan has a very interesting concept about vampirism. A male Carpathian must find a mate within a few centuries or detrimental changes will occur to their character. The mateless male loses the ability to express emotions, see in color, and portray a sense of morality. Once these men begin to deteriorate, only a lifemate will drag them away from the path towards becoming the cliched evil vampire of folklore.

Mikhail Dubrinsky is entering this critical time window for finding a mate. The book opens with him crying in despair, body and mind. Raven Whitney, a telepathic hunter of serial killers, reaches out to him with her mind. Yes folks, Feehan's vamps can communicate telepathically, turn into clouds of mist, and speak the languages of all wild animal species (with a particular fondness for the wolf). Mikhail decides that even though this is a first "mind meeting" that he will proceed to "mind fondle/rape" Raven, who happens to be a virgin.

Mikhail steals/kidnaps Raven. Raven finds out that Mikhail is the prince of his people and that there is a serial killer that wants to kill all of them off. Well how convenient that Raven has this amazing serial killer mind reading ability. Mikhail and Raven find plenty of time for completely boring cookie cutter mindless (very far from mindblowing) sex amid the adventure of finding and stopping said Carpathian genocide-ian. I literally skipped over the sex scenes, which annoyingly occurred about every other plot turn.

Overall Feehan has an amazing concept and unique theory; however, the execution is not all there. The characters are not developed and show limited personality. The sex scenes are predictably boring and actually take away from the enjoyment of the novel. If these scenes were deleted and filled with more character building, I would gladly read this as a paranormal novel instead of a romance.

Rating: 2/5

~Helena

This picture speaks completely for itself

~Helena

Review - Lover Awakened by JR Ward

Blurb from JR Ward's Web site:

"A former blood slave, the vampire Zsadist still bears the scars from a past filled with suffering and humiliation. Renowned for his unquenchable fury and sinister deeds, he is a savage feared by humans and vampires alike. Anger is his only companion, and terror is his only passion—until he rescues a beautiful aristocrat from the evil Lessening Society.

Bella is instantly entranced by the seething power Zsadist possesses. But even as their desire for one another begins to overtake them both, Zsadist’s thirst for vengeance against Bella’s tormentors drives him to the brink of madness. Now, Bella must help her lover overcome the wounds of his tortured past, and find a future with her…"

~~*~~ Spoilers Ahoy! ~~*~~

I don't even know where to begin. Helena has her Rhage, but, for me, Zsadist encapsulates everything I want a hero to be. He is dark, dangerous, menacing, and for all intents and purposes, more threatening than the villains he fights. As his brother Phury says (and I'm going to paraphrase because I can't find the exact passage), "Zsadist isn't broken, he's ruined. Do you understand the difference? When something's broken, there's a chance it can be fixed. Ruined? You just wait to buy a pine box." Chilling, huh?

But Phury is wrong. Even someone as damaged and, ok, as ruined as Zsadist is not beyond saving. He can be healed, but it takes a very special woman, a woman who's faced a hell reminiscent of the one Zsadist himself was caught within. In saving Bella, Zsadist is able to save himself. But I'm getting all kinds of ahead of myself. Maybe I should start at the beginning.

Zsadist is the most terrifying member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Not because he is larger or stronger than all the rest. Not because he's cursed with an inner beast waiting to lash out (coughcoughRhagecough). Not even because he is skilled with weaponry or a great intellect. Zsadist is none of these things. He's terrifying because he has no limits. He's not afraid of pain. He's not afraid of death. Apart from the Lessers, Zsadist is about as soulless as they come. His anger is hard-earned, learned over a century of torture as a blood and sex slave. Zsadist has been used and violated in every way possible until he has nothing left to give, or so he thought.

When Bella enters his life, he's no kinder to her than to anyone else. But when she's kidnapped by the Lessers, Zsadist is consumed by his desire to see her safely returned. Her imprisonment symbolizes his own. He feels her abuse, her fear, her hatred for her captors, and he makes that his driving force. But getting Bella back is only half the battle. As Zsadist knows too well, simply freeing a person from imprisonment is not a cure-all. Emotional wounds take far longer to heal than physical wounds, and Zsadist has never been too big on emotions.

Zsadist has to fight his own demons in order to help Bella overcome hers. But don't think Bella's some kind of shrinking violet! Bella knows what, and who, she wants. She's a survivor, a fighter, and ballsy enough to take on Zsadist at his worst.

And that's why I love this story so much.

Lover Awakened is not a flowery tale of a strapping, square-jawed hero and his wilting damsel in distress. It's the tale of a physically and mentally scarred man vampire who's all but given up when a gutsy, equally scarred beauty shows up and proves herself his equal. And that, my friends, is what love is all about.

Only JR Ward can turn a character like Zsadist into a hero. When it comes to paranormal romance, this book is my hands down favorite.

Rating: 5/5

~Lily

Review - Lover Eternal by JR Ward

Lifted from the back cover:
"In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly turf war raging between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Possessed by a deadly beast, Rhage is the most dangerous of the Black Dagger Brotherhood."

"Most dangerous" and most amazing (in my humble opinion)! Rhage is the warrior chosen for the second installment of JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Boasting movie screen good looks, an insatiable sex drive, and a smart mouth that almost puts even me to shame, Rhage, aka Hollywood, cuts down lessers with a vengence in order to protect the civilian vampires.

In Lover Eternal, we learn the origins of the horrible curse that graces Rhage. The Scribe Virgin always seems to have sand in her britches 24/7 and decides to force Rhage to share his pictaresque body with a Godzilla-esque lesser pulverizing machine for no less than 200 years. Oh it gets better, Rhage has very limited to no control over when the monster lizard will decide to morph out and make a fast lunch of his enemies and possibly his own warrior pals. All this because he accidently killed an owl...(mumble grumble *@%$ you, Scribe Virgin).

As he battles with his inner Geico gecko on steriods, Mary waltzes into his life. Rhage becomes infatuated with her voice and he pursues her, like all romance stories go. Mary is a strong cancer survivor type heroine, the type I typically love reading about. However, she is one dimensional and stuck too much on the "he can't possibly like me, I am plain looking and he is a gorgeous hunk of a blood-sucking man" kick. Now before everyone jumps out of their reading chairs and strangles me with a pink ribbon, in the last hundred pages I absolutely love her character, after most of the insecurity disappears.

In addition to the love story, we get the typical action adventure of the vamp-lesser war. The world that Ward weaves is amazing in its descriptive scenes. Action, dialogue, character personalities, all flow amazingly to create the BDB world into a seemingly tangible realm. I would literally love to move into the Caldwell mansion with these guys! On the downside, the simple smell of baby powder now sends me scrambling for a "go back to the Omega" weapon.

Focus is spent not only on Rhage, the main warrior in this novel, but we also get more details on all the brothers. Personalities develop and spar with each other; the background of each warrior starts to build and the history behind the whole vamp and lesser worlds is revealed bit by glorious bit.

If you are a fan of the paranormal romance genre, this book is a MUST read. Rhage is also my favorite brother, I mean what isn't there to love? (and their first sex scene is hotttt ;p ) Enjoy!

Rating: 5/5

~Helena

Review - Saving Destiny by Pat White

Blurb from Pat White's Web site:
"An out-of-this world tale of a scientist turned crystal healer and the demon blackmailed into protecting her. Dr. Destiny Rue must face her fear of insanity and trust a stranger to defend her from paranormal creatures determined to destory her. What neither she, not the Ash Demon Kadenshar realize is that together they have the ability to bring peace to the dark and mortal realms. But first, they both have to accept themselves for who they are, and surrender to love."

Saving Destiny is a quick read that feels much longer. Heroine Dee (Destiny) Rue is a talented, if unappreciated, scientist who is desperately afraid of falling prey to the same insanity that claimed her mother. Or so she believes. She is completely unaware of the mysterious crystal powers that she owns, or the paranormal battle waging around her. As a heroine, it took me a while to really "get" Dee. I've heard of beta heroes and, to my mind, Dee is something of a beta heroine. She spends a good deal of the story somewhat catatonic. Her self doubt is so great that I, as a reader, doubted her abilities as well. When she finally transforms from weak human to supremely powerful goddess, it's almost too quick to follow. I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall, the moment when Dee would again crumble into a sniveling mess of self-believed insanity. That was my main problem with the story. While Dee eventually becomes a strong, purpose-driven heroine, it takes her so long to get there that I find it frustrating. And her journey isn't exactly clear. She wallows in weakness and misery for the better part of the book, then wakes up changed. Very suspect on the believability scale.

As a hero, Kadenshar is more believable. Yet, after a while, I found his mental back and forth tedious as well. As a demon he doesn't believe in love, and yet he feels love strongly. He means only to save his race (the Ash Demons), but he doesn't really trust his race or their methods. He hates humans and the human world, but his goal (in addition to saving his brother) is to preserve the passages that allow demonkind to pass from their world to the human world. These contradictions are somewhat explained through Kade's sense of duty and guilt, but eventually grow tiresome.

Saving Destiny, while certainly readable, is a flawed book. It is top heavy. If you divide the book into thirds, the first third is VERY long. The second third, though shorter, is still very detailed, but then the final third of the book (the resolution) is rushed. Secondary characters are thrown in haphazzardly, and some seemingly without purpose.

Overall, I'm not sorry that I read Saving Destiny. It was the first paranormal I've read that portrayed a demon as a hero, and that it did very well. By the end of the story I was fully infatuated with Kade, who (all flaws aside) is a well written character. He has depth and personality. He has multiple motivations guiding his actions, and the motivations are pulling him in completely opposite directions. This is what makes me more forgiving of his internal dialogue and self-doubts than Dee's. He seems real, where Dee is more a cardboard cutout of what a heroine should be. As to whether or not I'd recommend it...only if you're inbetween books and need something short to pass the time.


Rating: 3/5

~Lily

The Enduring Popularity of Vamps

The New York Times published an article titled A Trend With Teeth, describing the vampire phenomenon that has clutched modern culture in the form of movies, television, books, and fashion. Very interesting, a definite must-read for vamp addicts.


~Lily

July Paranormal Releases

Tomorrow is July 1, and July is a month chock FULL of paranormal releases.

Among the highlights of July's releases are The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire. This anthology of short stories includes tales by Holly Black, Libba Bray, Melissa De La Cruz, Rachel Caine, Cassandra Clare, Kelley Armstrong, and Lili St. Crow, among others. The release date is July 27.

The fourth book in Jenna Black's Morgan Kingsley series, Speak of the Devil, will be released July 28.

Sharing this release date is the fourth installment of Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series, Destined for an Early Grave, and the second installment of Julie Kenner's Ghouls series, Good Ghouls Do, and the third novel in the Tales of an Urban Werewolf series, Karen MacInerney's Leader of the Pack.

A new young adult series by Lisa Mantchev, called the Theatre Illuminata, will be launched July 7, with the release of Eyes Like Stars. Another young adult novel, Blue Moon, by Alyson Noel, shares this release date. And let's not forget the critically acclaimed Prey, by Rachel Vincent, debuting July 1.

Busy, busy month for Pararom lovers. I, for one, can't wait!

For a more comprehensive list of paranormal titles being released in July, please follow this link to SciFiGuy's blog.

~Lily