Verizon Twilight Style 'Vampire'

Ok this is classic!

~Helena

Bwahaha

Feline Vampirism on the rise

First off, here is a hilarious picture I found on a random google search:

Then this one I found to be artistic with a slightly disturbing undertone.  It really is quite beautiful though:

And somehow I ended up here:

Yes girls and boys, this is a gargoyle that you can put on your front lawn for ONLY 18 buckaroos!  I am actually highly tempted...do not judge me...

~Helena

In Honor of the Coming Holiday

Valentine's Day is just around the "coffin" so to speak.  Here is an entertaining puzzle game to take up ten minutes of your day and fill it with wonderful vampy cartoon goodness!  (If you are a kid at heart, or well just a kid like me...lol...if you click on the printer icon on the front screen, you can print out stills from the game, crayon 'em up, and stick them all over your cubicle or shove them in your secret admirer cards!)

~Helena

Super Bowl Vampy Shout-out

While watching the Superbowl last night, this commercial highly amused me. Towards the end, there is a blurb about vampire tv shows :D

~Helena

Review - City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

City of Bones is the first in the Mortal Instruments trilogy, a young adult urban fantasy series by Cassandra Clare. The storyline centers on Clary, a teenage girl that has been sheltered by her mother from an alternative world her whole life, that of the Shadowhunters. Shadowhunters are the policing force of the "extra-mortal" realm, they hunt down and slay demons effectively keeping the order. One night while out at a club with her best friend Simon, she sees something no one else does, well actually four somethings: enter the three Shadowhunters Isabelle, Alec, and Jace and the demon boy they are luring into a backroom. Clary is in hot pursuit and slips into the backroom only to see the hunters at work, dispatching the demon then disappearing as swiftly as they appeared.

Jace is intrigued with Clary and brings her to the Instititue, secret Shadowhunter abode, after she is brutally attacked by a demon and her mother goes missing. So starts Clary's descent into the world her mother worked so hard to conceal from her. Clary is on a mission to save her mother and discover the part of herself that she has always been sequestered from.

City of Bones has immense potential. The Shadowhunter lore is slowly uncovered piece by piece but never really cemented together. The reader does not get a cohesive view, maybe meant to help the reader bond with Clary, I am not sure. Character development is fairly static, from the minor to major characters including Clary herself. I had a very hard time empathizing with any of them simplying because they did not seem to have more than one distinct emotion associated with each. Isabelle is self absorbed, Jace is arrogant, Alec is pathetic honestly and all three are insanely prejudiced against Downworlders (werewolves, vampires, "half breeds") and mundies (humans). The constant superiority complex gets old really fast. Clary has more depth than the others, but her constant forgetting of her best friend Simon is insulting and does not make me quick to befriend her myself.

The world building is pretty and very well done. The action and battle scenes were engrossing. I had no problem falling right into the scene. I would have liked to hear less about the sun on Jace's hair/eyes/whatever though. The constant obsession she has with him is a bit unsettling.

Many fans of the Twilight series have become fans of the Mortal Instruments as well. Stephanie Myers is even quoted on the cover of City of Bones:

"The Mortal Instruments series is a story world that I love to live in. Beautiful!"

Is it just me or does that quote seem really awkwardly written?

After all the critical negativity I have written above, I must say that the last fifty pages are amazing. The storyline comes together nicely, the clash of emotion between the major characters is palpable, and the action is gut wrenching. If only the entire book had this much heart and soul, I would have given it rave reviews.

Would I have read it if I knew this ahead of time? Probably, the last scene really is worth it but the whole book is really needed to build up to it. Would I read more in the series? Maybe, I borrowed this from a friend and might borrow the others, but would I put money into it? Probably not.

Rating: 3/5

~Helena

Beware the Wereguineas!

The folks from Take 180 Entertainment (hello Juice Box!) are back with another spoof of the Twilight films, this time New Moon.

I adore Devon Kelly! That's all there is to it.

~Lily

Rise of the Man Wolf

I would like to preface the following clip by saying...

I'm only posting this because Helena made me.

The preceding spoof was created by the folks at Movieclips. You can find it on youtube here, and you can find their youtube channel here. Watch it, comment it, favorite it, understand that no copyright infringement is intended with it. Basically, I don't care what you do. As for me, I'm off to rock back and forth in a corner while attempting to get the image of that chest hair out of my head.

~Lily

Free Preview of "Soul Screamers" Series

Rachel Vincent is known for both her Shifters series and her Soul Screamers series, the second installment of which (My Soul to Save) released just a few weeks ago. If you would like a sneak peak into the background of the Soul Screamers world, Rachel has generously posted a free download of the prequel novella, My Soul to Lose, on her Web site.


~Lily

Review - The Vampire Affair by Livia Reasoner

From Silhouette Nocturne:

"The world knew Michael Brandt as a playboy tycoon. The underworld knew him as a fierce vampire hunter. Armed with a wooden stake and superior strength, Michael targeted the most powerful overlords in a clandestine do-or-die operation…and then tabloid reporter Jessie Morgan uncovered his secret.

Only once before had Michael allowed a woman into his secret lair. Now he'd fight heaven and hell to keep Jessie from the same fate. But he couldn't fight the attraction that drew him to her like a bloodlust. An attraction that might prove deadly…or worse. For Michael was going up against the most powerful of the undead—and that vampire had his fangs bared for Jessie."

The Vampire Affair by Livia Reasoner is a quick read that hearkens back to the classic days of paranormal romance, when vamps were evil minions of darkness and slayers were the called upon dispensers of holy justice. Enter Michael Brandt, the alpha-male hero who's a flamboyant playboy by day and a superhuman crime fighter by night. He's kinda like batman without the latex. And, unfortunately, without the dark, brooding sex appeal.

While Jessie Morgan is a feisty heroine who all but leaps off the page, Brandt didn't became anything other than a romantic archetype. Emotions and motivations were hung on him like clothing, but he never really donned them. Because of this, the romance between Brandt and Jessie just seems a little...flat. The love story is best described as the difference between watching a play in person and hearing a recap of a play from a friend who saw it. The story may be the same, but the level of engagement doesn't even compare. And the subplot dealing with Brandt's previous lover and her tragic fate feels forced. The secondary characters, Brandt's sidekicks and Jessie's grandmother, are scene stealers. Partly because they are very well written, and partly because the action between the main characters simply isn't engrossing enough to keep readers focused solely on the main storyline.

The Vampire Affair is by no means a bad or boring story, it simply doesn't live up to the potential you can feel on the page. If this were a single title (with a large word count) I think it could be a more engaging and intricate story. As a category story, however, the word count limits seemed to restrain what could be a truly fantastic paranormal romance.

Rating: 2.5/5

~Lily