Saturday Read-a-thon Update

Tomorrow is the kick off for 24 hour Read-a-thon at 7 am CST!  We have received word that our request to host a mini challenge has been granted!!!!  So at 9 pm CST, come and join the fun!  We will have a prize to randomly give one lucky participant; however, only those signed up here will be considered.  Feel free to answer the challenge question even if you are not participating in read-a-thon; you just will not be entered in the prize drawing.  All responses/discussions will be greatly appreciated!

I am also scheduled to cheer for an hour during the 1pm-7pm time frame.  Make sure to send encouragement to all the participants!  This is my first time experiencing 24 hours of straight reading; I have a serious date with my TBR pile.  Any reading suggestions would be total awesome sauce. :)

It is almost time to get your read on!

~Helena

Blog Hop 2

Follow Friday fun from Parajunkee!

This weeks question:

Q. Do you judge a book by it's cover?

I definitely judge books by covers.  We literally have a feature here that we entertained for a while called "Book by It's Cover Tuesdays" (click the label below if you are interested!)...which we totally need to start doing again.  First impressions are everything in this lifetime.  A pretty cover is what makes me read the summary and then decide if I want to read what is on the pages.  Really ugly covers, well I pick those up to mock and sometimes actually end up reading and enjoying.  The run of the mill standard covers are the novels that I breeze by and never touch.  So apparently I am attracted to both ends of the spectrum lol.

Are you a judger?

~Helena

BDB Gear

Over the past two weeks, I have amassed a decent amount of BDB fan gear.  Note the following exhibits:

My favorite brother!  Godzilla fan anyone? ;p

Click to enlarge.  I think it provides a nice contrast with the camo "Toyota" block lettering on my back window.

Java cup of awesome!

Aww a true reflection of my inner heart!

The golden goose so to speak!

You may now drool over my spoils!
~Helena

Dark Lover by JR Ward

Lily already posted a review of Dark Lover two years ago.  This novel was actually the inspiration for this blog and the flame that ignited my personal love of all things vampiric.

When I signed up to participate in the BDB Book Club I immediately thought about all the wonderful hours I have spent in Caldwell...and the countless hours I have spent scouring bookstores and talking vamp with my friends.  I have literally recommended this series to countless people; and I have yet to have one person resist the plunge and not fall in love.  The BDB is nothing short of spectacular.

Every re-read just solidifies my enjoyment.  I still crack smiles every time the brothers smart off to each other.  The sadistic/black humor makes the novels for me.   It is just a special recipe that I have yet to definitively find in another series.


Thank you so much for basically birthing this blog, Warden!

~Helena

I Wanna Be a Vampire

Review - Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Archangel's Kiss is the second book in Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter Series.

From back cover:

"Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find herself changed—an angel with wings the colors of midnight and dawn—but her fragile body needs time to heal before she can take flight. Her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, is used to being in control—even when it comes to the woman he considers his own. But Elena has never done well with authority…

They’ve barely begun to understand each other when Raphael receives an invitation to a ball from the archangel Lijuan. To refuse would be a sign of fatal weakness, so Raphael must ready Elena for the flight to Beijing—and to the nightmare that awaits them there. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan holds a power that lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena…"

This book is alot about the development of Rapheal and Elena's relationship. Both have extremely rough histories that come back through out the book, which ties in some of the earlier plot lines. With that being said, I was not as impressed with the second book as the first. Part of it is because the action speeds up and then slows back down. However, the secondary characters of Dimitri and Illium helps to give comedy and light heartedness to a book that could easily become mired in Elena and Rapheal's constant fight for dominion of Elena's future.

Rating: 3/5

~Arianna Sunrunner

Dewey's 24 hour Read-A-Thon

This morning, I stumbled upon an awesome challenge, the 24 hour read-a-thon!  That's right fellow readers, participants sit down for 24 hours with their TBR pile and blog periodically about their progress.  Every hour, a different blog hosts a challenge with prizes!  I signed up to be considered, so hopefully we will get to host some of the fun right here!

The challenge begins on April 9th at noon GMT (8 am EST, 7 am CST, 5 am PST) [I think I converted the times right, lol].  There are a list of FAQs if you would like more information.  And please sign up here, the more the merrier!  I will be updating my progress every hour right here, any words of encouragement will be appreciated :) 

Good luck to all the readers, challenge hosts, and cheerleaders!

~Helena

Review - Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Lost Voices is the debut novel and first of a trilogy by Sarah Porter.  Release date is set for July 4, 2011.

Blurb from back cover:

"After her father vanishes in a storm at sea, fourteen-year-old Luce is struck in a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village with her alcoholic uncle.  When her uncle crosses an unspeakable line, Luce reaches the depths of despair.  Abandoned on the cliffs near her home, she expects to die when she tumbles to the icy, churning waves below.  Instead, she undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid.

A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in.  They are beautiful, free, and ageless, and Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: they feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships in to the rocks.

Unlike the other mermaids, who are happy to wreak vengeance upon the humans who terrorized them, Luce wants to retain her inner humanity - but going against her new friends could cost Luce her place in the tribe.  Will she be pressured into using her extraordinary singing talent to help commit mass murder?"

Wow...phenomenal!  Porter does an amazing job with the very difficult and socially taboo topic of child abuse.  When I signed up to review this ARC through Dark Faerie Tales, I was immediately captivated by the gorgeous cover.  I had never read a mermaid book, so I figured I would give it a whirl.  Definitely glad I did.

Luce is a captivating young female character that grows stronger as the novel progresses.  In the beginning, Luce is seen at her worst moment when her uncle attacks her and leaves her in despair by the cliffs.  A tumble into the waves results in her transformation into a mermaid and submersion into a support group of sorts.  Each member of the tribe that Luce now finds herself a part of, has a crippling story to tell, tales of abuse and heartache, tales that long for revenge.  With the power of their songs, the mermaids captivate and take their sorrows out on countless sailors...even though the taking lives to fill the emotional void within still leaves them hollow.

Countless children suffer from abuse and long to ghost away, long to feel that they are not alone in the world, that one day their abusers will get the justice they deserve.  Porter handles this delicate subject with poise and heartwrenching emotion.  The inner struggle within each victim is executed with stunning clarity, along with the group dynamics that pit the mermaids against each other in typical teenage fashion.

The world building is splendid; the mystique of the mermaid and the open ocean is brought to light in vivid detail.  Character building as I mentioned earlier is fantastic, dynamic, and the strong suit of the novel.  There were very few lags in the story sequence; I finished the novel in one afternoon.  The underlying message left me raptly flipping the pages until the very end.  Only real beef is the ending; it is the first in a planned trilogy, so I understand the need to leave some open plotlines; however, it seemed very abrupt.  I eagerly await further installments in the series and applaud Porter on a wonderful and powerful debut novel!

Rating: 4.5/5

~Helena

The One April Fools Joke I Like

I hate April Fools jokes.

Hate. Them.

But occasionally, I can appreciate a funny or creative joke when it isn't mean spirited.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is one of my favorite review sites for romance reviews and a healthy dose of fandom sarcasm. Every year they do something for April Fools. This year's joke was funny, but nothing beats what they did in 2008 for BDB fans.

In 2008, Smart Bitches pretended they were acquired in a hostile takeover by Dear Author. The best part of this joke? A review of a J.R. Ward novel titled Lover Saved. Doesn't sound familiar? That's because it's the untold love affair of Butch and Vishous...

"The book starts with Marissa and Jane perishing in a tragic assassination plot stemming from the Omega; the Omega figures that killing the women will completely incapacitate two of the best warriors in the Brotherhood. And he's right. The deaths rock the Brotherhood's foundation to the core. But what the Omega doesn't plan on is the fact that Vishous and Butch, united by their grief, set out to avenge the deaths of their loved ones with a single-minded fury (and with Phury). And what the Omega definitely didn't plan on was how Vishous and Butch, finally free to pursue their own love, find comfort in each other, and eventually each other's arms."

Oh, I know it's not real, but if only it could be! To read the full faux-review, click here. It's at the bottom of the page.


~Lily

For those truly Black Dagger Brotherhood crazed

One of the ways I judge a good series by is whether you feel the need to make up your own version of events. When the author leaves threads out do you fill them in with your own?  This is why I give you the link to Lovers Destined by lovethecullens921. The short story is about Qhuinn and Blay, which is my new obsession and gives it a good plot line. Be forewarned this does contain lots of adult content.


Enjoy!

~Arianna Sunrunner