Feature & Follow: Book Conventions

Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee’s View & Alison Can Read.

The goal is to increase blog followers and make friends. Basically how it works is you follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. So looking forward to making new blogging friends & following blogs!

Q: We are about to see a lot of posts & tweets about reader conventions, RT, BEA, ALA and many more are starting soon. Which one would you love to attend? Where and why?

There are many I would love to attend! But I have my top #2 that I would like to someday attend and that is BEA & RT! BEA because I hear about it so much and reading blogger's recaps on that event just makes me wanna go so bad! And I want to experience the craziness!

Also, RT because I would love to see some of my all time favorite authors in the urban fantasy genre & paranormal romance genre and get them to sign my book! And plus, a lot of my blogger friends tend to go to RT and I would love to meet up with them and maybe get a drink! :)

Ways to follow me

Email: On the right sidebar at the top, you can follow by email.
RSS: I have an icon to follow through feedburner/feedly.
Add: You can add my blog yourself to the feed reader you are using. google reader, feedly, etc.
Linky: And I have Linky Followers too!

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Review: Of Shadow Born by Dianne Sylvan

Title:  Of Shadow Born
Author:  Diane Sylvan
Series:  Shadow World, #4
Publisher:  Ace
Release Date:  March 26, 2013
Pages:  336
Rating:  

Spread throughout the dark corners of our world lies the Shadow World, a society of vampires who feed off the living. In Austin, Texas, one woman must rise from the ashes of tragedy and confront an ancient evil before it destroys everything she holds dear…

After a heartrending night of loss and blood, Miranda Grey-Solomon, vampire Queen of the South, now stands in the ruins of her life determined to pick up the pieces and move on. David, her husband and Prime, is missing and presumed dead, and Miranda is lost without her soul mate by her side…But she has little time to grieve as enemies both old and new emerge to test her yet again.

Between vampires trying to take advantage of a Queen without a Prime, incursions by a mysterious organization of humans calling themselves the Order of the Morningstar, and the continuing threat from those within the Shadow World who have already tried to destroy her, Miranda and her allies are running out of places to turn. In order to save her territory and the ones she loves, Miranda must look to the ancient past, to the first days of the vampire race, and uncover secrets about the Signets that could change the course of history…

“You died . . . I felt you die . . . the others saw you . . . you went to dust . . . there was nothing left but a shadow.” Softly, he smiled. “And of shadow I was reborn.”

Shadow's Fall ended on one hell of a cliffhanger and this series is getting more interesting by the book. The first half of the book was pretty heartbreaking because Miranda is dealing with the fallout from the previous book. David is presumed dead and she is still alive which isn't right, because if a Prime falls, the queen does soon after. But some wicked ass things go down in OF SHADOW BORN and I'm glad to be there for the ride!

Miranda struggles to stand on her own and lead the Haven without David for now, but she is still heartbroken and it is hard without David and she finds a surprising friendship in Devon, they mourn together and bond over David. I really enjoyed Devon and Miranda coming together. I loved them getting along and forming a friendship. But David is not gone for long, thank god. I mean, seriously, the last line of Shadow's Fall gave us hope, so of course I knew he'd be back!

David comes back weird, not remembering what happened, I mean, he's back but stronger than ever and I'm not going to go too much into the why's and how's, but it makes me wonder was it worth him coming back. Will everything be okay. Miranda and David may be back together, but a war may be coming that they have to become a part of.

“You know what I do to people who question me.” Jonathan smiled up at him hopefully. “Shag them blind?” “Damn it, my torture methods are supposed to be a secret. Who told you?” The Consort chuckled. “I’m familiar with your work, my Lord.”

I must mention more of Devon and Johnathon. I loved them as always! Devon has been going through a lot and I mourn for him. I really hope that he will get want he needs most and I hope Johnathon can help him through it. There were many different POV's in OF SHADOW BORN and sometimes it got to be too overwhelming, so it was a little too much for me.

I enjoyed OF SHADOW BORN a lot. There is a cliffhanger at the end, but not as bad as the cliffhanger in Shadow's Fall. I am loving this series with every new book and I really look forward to see what transpires next in the Shadow World Series.

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Most Wanted Reads: Rogue Descendant by Jenna Black

Most Wanted Reads is inspired by Waiting on Wednesday hosted/created by Breaking the Spine. I just wanted to personalize it a little bit for me.

Being Immortal & Descendant of a God,
Sign me up, Majorly cool!

 

No longer the leader of the Olympians, Konstantin has now gone into hiding. Konstantin is vulnerable, and Anderson believes now is the perfect time to destroy his nemesis. He orders private eye Nikki Glass to use her powers to locate Konstantin, and she balks at the idea until a series of attacks leads her to believe that Konstantin is gunning for her and Anderson instead of remaining safely in hiding.

Nikki’s search is complicated by Cyrus—Konstantin’s son and the new leader of the Olympians—who threatens retribution should his father be killed. The complications mount up as Nikki begins to suspect that Konstantin might not be behind the attacks after all. The only person who hates Konstantin more than Anderson does is Anderson’s estranged wife, Emma, who has joined the Olympians. And Nikki knows Emma would be more than happy if Anderson and his people embroil themselves in an all-out war against the Olympians—a war they cannot hope to win.

As Nikki tries to figure out who the true enemy is, she deals with her tumultuous relationship with Jamaal, who struggles to control his death magic. But being loved by a descendant of a death goddess is the least of Nikki’s worries…

 

I fell in love with this series the moment I saw the cover, read the synopsis and read the actual first book! I started it at night and I was only planning on reading like a couple of chapters and I ended up reading more than half the book! I was FREAKING HOOKED! 

I rarely read books like this, with mythology and gods/goddesses and it's different and something I want to read about, so it's a major turn on for me! I love the series, the plot & the characters! I am really looking forward to the third in this series, ROGUE DESCENDANT and thank god it will be out within a few more weeks.

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Review: The Warlord Wants Forever by Kresley Cole

Title:  The Warlord Wants Forever
Author:  Kresley Cole
Series:  Immortals After Dark, #1
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
Release Date:  November 22, 2011
Pages:  163, ebook
Rating:  

 
Nikolai Wroth, once a ruthless human warlord in the 1700s and now a general in the rebel vampire army, needs to find his Bride, the one woman who can render him truly alive. As a turned human, he doesn’t enjoy a heartbeat or breaths and is consequently weaker than fully blooded vampires. He wants his Bride for the power she will bring him and can hardly believe it when his heart beats for Myst the Coveted, a mad, fey, mythological creature.

Myst is known throughout the world as the most beautiful Valkyrie, part chillingly fierce warrior, part beguiling seductress who can “make you want her even as she’s killing you.” She has devoted her life to protecting an ancient, powerful jewel and to fighting the vampires, and she now sees a way to torment one—for with Wroth’s heartbeat comes consuming sexual desire that can only be slaked by her.

She eludes him for five years, but he has finally chased her to ground and stolen the jewel which commands her, giving him absolute power over her. While he possesses it, he can make her do anything, and he plans to in order for her to experience first hand the agonizing, unending lust she’d purposely subjected him to for half a decade. Yet when Wroth realizes he wants more from her and frees her, will she come back to him?

The first in Cole's Immortals After Dark series was originally published as one of three novellas in "Playing Easy to Get". It was also available on its own as a special promotional ebook from Simon & Schuster.
 

This is the Short Story/Prologue to the Immortals After Dark Series. And I have to honestly say, Thank god that I didn't start out with this, because there would be a high chance of me not reading the Immortals After Dark Series because of it. And I am hoping that THE WARLORD WANTS FOREVER is the ONLY Kresley Cole book I end up disliking.

THE WARLORD WANTS FOREVER started out wonderful and I really did enjoy it up until Nikolai Wroth decides to kidnap and take away the free will of his bride, Myst the Coveted. He was doing fine in my book until he went and did that. I wouldn't mind the kidnapping scenario, them spending time at his home getting to know each other if there was no free will taken away. Once he started commanding her to do things, even sexual things, the book went downhill from there.

And I had became so disappointed in him when he thought to brainwash Myst! LIKE WHAT? And there seemed to be just so much sex in this book that you'd think you were reading an Erotica Romance. Yea. I never thought I'd say there was too much sex in a book, usually there's not enough. So this one was a highly disappointed read for me, and I must say again, Thank god that I didn't start out with this book first.

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Cover Reveal: Archangel's Legion by Nalini Singh

Angels are falling from the sky in New York, struck down by a vicious, unknown force. Vampires are dying impossibly of disease.

Guild hunter Elena Deveraux and the Archangel Raphael must discover the source of the wave of death before it engulfs their city and their people, leaving New York a ruin and Raphael’s Tower under siege by enemy archangels.

Yet even as they fight desperately to save the city, an even darker force is stirring, its chill eyes trained on New York…and on Raphael. Rivers of crimson and nightmares given flesh, the world will never again be the same…

    

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Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

Title:  Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Author:  Laini Taylor
Series:  Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1
Publisher:  Little Brown Books
Release Date:  May 1, 2012
Pages:  418
Rating:  

 

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

 

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.
It did not end well.”

I went into DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE expecting not to like it. That awful cover and plus it's an angel book. I have read many angel books, many I tell you and almost all of them I did not like. There is probaly just one angel/demon book that I've read that I really liked. But HOLY HELL! You don't know what an angel book is until you've read Laini Taylor's DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE. I mean, she sure showed me to not underestimate this woman!

"Your soul sings to mine. My soul is yours, and it always will be, in any world. No matter what happens---" His voice cracked, and he took a breath. "I need you to remember that I love you."

This story was truly a beautiful and captivating fairy tale! We have demons and angels at war with each other and it becomes so very real and heartbreaking. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE felt so unlike a Young Adult novel because in a way it felt more mature. I don't know how to exactly put it, but I felt like the character's weren't making stupid decisions and the world-building and writing was so beautiful. I have never read a book like this, it just felt so different.

He was the most beautiful thing Kaoru had ever seen. Her first thought, incongruous but overpowering, was to memorize him so she could draw him later.

We have Kaoru, the blue-haired, artistic heroine. I Just would love to point out that I love that her hair is blue! I Love Kaoru. I thought she was such a strong heroine and she yearns to be loved to be cared for and wanted. Kaoru has a demon family who raised her who is Brimstone, who is a considered to be a monster and evil, but I think he is just misunderstood. I loved him! And then we have Issa Twiga, and Ysari who has loved Kaoru since birth. They are her family and I loved the role they played as Kaoru's family and in her life.

She cast a sidelong glance at Kaoru and said, in helpless amazement, "Oh, hell. Must. Mate. Immediately."

And then we have Kaoru's wacky best friend, Zuzana! Zuzana was such a joy! She's fun and bright and so funny! She and I had some good times and I Look forward to more. Then we have Kaoru's ex, Kaz. He thinks he's hot shit and in love with himself. Let's just say I"m glad he's her ex now. And let's not forget Akiva as well! Akiva is the ideal tortured soul type! And how could I not love him! He lost his love and he seeks to avenge her til this very day. I feel that he still suffer's inside and I hope Kaoru is able to bring out the light in him!

"I just got them. Beautiful, aren't they?" "Beautiful," he agreed, and he might have been talking about the knives, but he was looking straight at her.

I must warn you of the dreadful ending! You will be thinking about this book constantly and dying to know what happens next! This book was captivating, heartbreaking, incredibly beautiful and Epic! DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE was freaking amazing, and I must say Laini Taylor writes one hell of an angel and demon book! You will be impressed and she does not disappoint!

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Most Wanted Reads: Entwined with You by Sylvia Day

Most Wanted Reads is inspired by Waiting on Wednesday hosted/created by Breaking the Spine. I just wanted to personalize it a little bit for me.

Screw being Mrs. Cullen or Mrs. Grey,
I wanna be Mrs. Cross!

 

From the moment I first met Gideon Cross, I recognized something in him that I needed. Something I couldn’t resist. I saw the dangerous and damaged soul inside–so much like my own. I was drawn to it. I needed him as surely as I needed my heart to beat.

No one knows how much he risked for me. How much I’d been threatened, or just how dark and desperate the shadow of our pasts would become.

Entwined by our secrets, we tried to defy the odds. We made our own rules and surrendered completely to the exquisite power of possession…

 

I fell in love with this series the moment I read the first book, Bared to You! I love Eva and Gideon and there's not much to say, but I WANT THIS BOOK NOW!

If you haven't started this series, What the hell are you waiting for! Everyone I know has read it! I am falling more and more in love with Erotica Romance genre and Mr. Gideon Cross is one of those reasons. I blame him!

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