Currently Reading: Rock Stars, Vampires, Demons, and Maids

Source: Review copies provided by the publishers through NetGalley.

Are you feeling cheerful today? Here’s a bunch of mini doom-and-gloom reviews to help you with that.

Rock Addiction by Nalini Singh

I was very excited when Ms. Singh announced that she was publishing a Contemporary Romance, but this book was a disappointment that I couldn’t even finish.

A rock star falls in love with the virgin, skittish heroine the moment he first sees her. There is absolutely no reason why these two would want to be together, not even to have sex. The problem here wasn’t the trite tropes and contrived plot, though, but how incredibly half-baked the book was. Nalini Singh’s books are all about complex world-building and interesting characters, and at first I thought that the shortcuts she was taking were the product of bad PNR habits that didn’t translate well to a contemporary setting. But whereas the fated mates in the Psy/Changeling series are nuanced people who take time to develop a relationship, this book had two stock, flat characters getting together for superficial reasons in what ultimately was an underdeveloped story. I hear the second half gets better, but I seriously doubt it, because the groundwork just isn’t there.

Grade: DNF
Purchase: Amazon

A Paranormal Giveaway to Get Us Through a Hiatus

The blog is going on hiatus until next week, because I'm spending Easter at my parents'. I have a bunch of half-written reviews and post, but I didn't have time to finish them, so instead (and because Thursday is my Birthday and I'm feeling extra lazy) I'm going to add a bit of filler content and do a giveaway.

One of the things I plan to do this weekend is read Jeaniene Frost's Twice Tempted, the second Vlad book, so I'm going to give away one copy of the book. If you haven't read the series, then you can pick the first book, Once Burned.

For those who don't like vampires, the third choice is one of my favorite books of 2012, Irregulars. It's a fantastic M/M anthology that I recommend to everyone.

That's it! Leave a message telling me your choice, and you're in. This giveaway is open Internationally, but only if you accept a Kindle copy (I'm using an Amazon GC, so that's why it has to be Amazon). If you're in the US, I can send you the paperback of Frost's book, but Irregulars is only available on Kindle. 

I will announce the winner on Sunday, so you have until then to comment.

In the meantime, here's a picture of my evil cat:

Review: Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost

I've enjoyed most of the Night Huntress books, especially the first three, and I loved the spinoff books. When I heard about this book, I was excited about it until I realized that it was the first of a new series, which gave me pause. I decided to wait because I never paid much attention to Vlad (who happens to be a widower and you know how I feel about those). So I figured I could wait. Obviously I have no willpower whatsoever because I lasted one week. But you know what? I’m really glad I did because I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it was great fun and it made me very happy. 

If you’re a fan of the original series you already know who Vlad is. But for those new to the books –and you definitely can start here, it stands alone perfectly well—the most important thing you should know is that Vlad is the real deal, as in The Impaler, or Dracula (although he hates the name). He lives in Romania, has a castle and a huge entourage. He can also can control and produce fire (and not just with his hotness). But the book isn’t really about him; the real protagonist is Leila, our heroine.

Review: One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost

Note: This review contains spoilers for the previous books in the series.

Here I go again with a new review of Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress Series, I know that One Grave at a Time came out a while ago but I am barely catching up with my TBR pile so please bear with me and my really late review.  There is also a Christmas Novella out there but I have yet to read it, I’ll probably write the review some time soon.

As I said in the review of This Side of the Grave, I am not expecting much of any book that comes after Destined for an Early Grave. Cat and Bones got their HEA so everything that happens after that is just going to make me angsty because I’ll be waiting for Cat and Bones to break up or die. In short, impending doom. However, what I got with the last two books proved me wrong and showed me that there are still a lot of things going on in their world which doesn’t necessarily means a book full of heartache.

Review: Eternal Kiss of Darkness (Night Huntress World, Book 2) by Jeaniene Frost

Last week I went on a Jeaniene Frost binge. I’ve been avoiding reading her series mostly because I’m not a huge fan of book series with a recurring main couple -I’m always concerned about them breaking up- and because judging by the reviews Cat wasn’t my type of heroine.  Since Marie has been telling me to read them for over a year now I decided to give them a try, and I’ve got to admit that I liked them. I can’t exactly pinpoint why I liked them because I did find Cat annoying as hell, but the books kind of grew on me and now I’m addicted. I’ll probably do a review of the whole series, but meanwhile you can find Marie’s take on This Side of the Grave here.

Not only did I read all of the Night Huntress books, but I also read the spinoff series as well, and of those two my favorite was Eternal Kiss of Darkness. Both this book and the first one First Drop of Crimson are stand-alone from each other but not from the Night Huntress series, this means that even though you can read one without having read the other, you can’t read either one without having read the Night Huntress series first -at least until the fourth book- because they are full of spoilers. So my suggestion is that you treat these two books as part of the original series and just read every book in order.

Review: This Side of the Grave (A Night Huntress Novel) By Jeaniene Frost

This Side of the grave is the 5^th novel of the Night Huntress Series, so keep in mind that this review is going to be a little spoilery about what happened in previews books of the series, and I think that if you haven’t read the previous instalments, this book isn’t for you because you’re gonna get lost, go and find the first book and read the series in order.

With this book I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary because for me the series had met its end in Destined for an Early Grave; however Jeaniene Frost gave me a huge surprise delivering an interesting new plot with our well-know characters and a delightful sense of humor.

Oh, the joys of married life! Cat and Bones (the joyful and extremely sexy married couple) are dealing with the problems of Cat’s transformation, and the new powers that entailed. These so-called powers are the ones that brought a conflict between vampires and ghouls, which ultimately could led to a war (a war with great cost for both parts – and to humankind). Everything begins when Cat and Bones start investigating the disappearance of vampires in Cat’s home town. The things that they discovered there, force them to make new alliances and pay a visit to the enigmatic Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau. She, in her own way, gives them some answers, and more problems too.