Book crashers?

Earlier in the month, Jeaniene Frost announced she was going to be in New Orleans this weekend, and then earlier this week, she announced when/where she'd be signing books. She was part of Undead.con, and even though I wasn't able to go to the con, I still wanted to meet her. Parajunkee and I hatched a plan to crash the signing...okay, maybe I called the bookstore and they said it shouldn't be a problem, LOL. She was so sweet and I was so shy - she asked me something (probably how to spell my name, duh!) and all I could blurt out was "I'm tongue-tied!" But she was very gracious and I did end up talking to her for a few minutes. I mentioned I wanted to get Chapter 32 signed and she laughed and talked about that for a few moments. She also mentioned how much she and her husband love to visit New Orleans, which always makes me happy to hear.


We also got to meet Karen Essex, author of Dracula in Love. She was very sweet and gracious (and look at that gorgeous hair!), and while I remembered to tell her I'd been hearing very good things about this book (I assume authors like to hear when they generate good buzz, lol) and was looking forward to reading it, I forgot to tell her I read Leonardo's Swans and really liked it. *sigh*

(note to self, stop pushing your hair behind your ear before you take a picture with an author!!)

I had a very nice time with Parajunkee, we had coffee with her family in a little coffee shop/courtyard while I waited for hubs to come pick me up. I had a lot of fun :)

The next author that I'm aware of that's coming to New Orleans is Karen Marie Moning - she'll be here Martin Luther King weekend and having a big two-day event for the release of the last book in her Fever series - Shadowfever. Since I don't get Monday off, I don't know which day I'll take off from work to go; I'll have to wait to see what her itinerary turns out to be...


And, on a personal note - after the signing I went out with hubs for dinner for his birthday. We ended the evening at a tattoo parlor :) Check me out:

(That's between my shoulder blades, not my whole back, lol)

Friday 56 and exciting news for New Orleans area readers

The Friday 56 is hosted by Storytime with Tanya and Friends:

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


I just finished reading Backstage Pass by Olivia Cunning and OMG it is hot! This excerpt is from Page 56, however, I chose not to use the 5th sentence but picked one with a bit more "spice":

"Bath?" Brian asked, looking up at her.
She cupped his cheek and leaned her forehead against his. "It'll wash off your song." "We've got that one on paper. I'm hoping I'll need a blank slate to write a new one."

Seriously, I'm fanning myself just thinking about it!!!

______________________

Exciting news: I read on Jeaniene Frost's website yesterday that she's coming to New Orleans over Halloween weekend!!! She's coming for the Memnoch Resurrection Ball and is planning a signing, although she doesn't know the time or date yet. Anyone in the area planning to go? I'm going to ask her to sign Chapter 32!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Review: First Drop of Crimson by Jeaniene Frost

This book falls into my Vampire Reading Challenge.

Let me begin by saying I am a total Jeaniene Frost fangirl and she could write her grocery list and I would probably buy it. That being said, First Drop of Crimson did not disappoint.

I liked Denise in the Night Huntress series, and when Randy died I was so sad for her. Spade is Bones' best friend, and he's been all sexy and mysterious in the Night Huntress books - in FDOC he's super sexy!

Denise is living her life after the death of her husband, staying clear of the supernatural world, trying to forget. That plan is blown out of the water when she witnesses the murder of her cousin by a man who turns into a dog and a demon shows up at her house looking for one of her ancestors. The demon tells her she must find this ancestor, Nathaniel, and bring him back or the demon will kill all her relatives one by one. As an incentive, the demon marks Denise before leaving her. Denise calls her best friend Cat, who is a vampire, for her help. She can't reach Cat but remembers she has Spade's phone number and asks him to contact Cat for her. Spade tells her Cat is out with her husband Bones and offers to help instead.

Spade views humans as a food source only; we learn the reasons why later in the book. Denise is terrified of vampires as she holds them responsible for the death of her husband. She's not thrilled about asking Spade for help but knows she doesn't have any other choice. Spade agrees to help at first because she's Cat's best friend, but as the story progresses we watch his feelings start to change. Let's just say I'm a sucker for a vamp with sex appeal and a heart of gold.

We also get to see a lot of Ian, the vampire who sired Bones and Spade (well,sort of). He's been such a skeevy character, I loved every minute of him in this book! One of his funniest scenes was a few pages after Denise had accidentally interrupted Ian and a "donor" in flagrante delicto. I hope he eventually gets his own book, he would definitely be a great bad boy hero.

Now, I know several people have complained that Denise is a wimpy heroine, but I read her as she was mourning her dead husband, and PTSD is a very real (well, as real as it can be in a fictional world anyway) consequence of her experience at the time of his death. Was she a kick-ass heroine? No, but she didn't get on my nerves either.

I thought this book was great - it kept me intersted throughout and I had to stop myself from peeking ahead to see what was going to happen a several times. I'm giving it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

In Which My Nerdiness Shows Again....

Remember when you were a teenager and you'd have "a song"? That song that just totally got how you are as a couple?

Well, I'm way past teenager (although hubs and I do have a song) so now I listen to songs and think "that song is perfect for -insert character names here-". Yes, lame, I know. Keeping in mind I don't really watch TV and definitely don't watch music videos (cuts into my reading time!!), so I don't know if the videos are weirdly inappropriate for my couples.

Here's a few:

Cat and Bones (Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress Series):






Richard from Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series (in her later books):







Charlaine Harris' Eric and Sookie (after the blood bond):






Jace from Rachel Vincent's Shifter series:






Moira Rogers' Derek and Nick (Crossroads - right before Nick goes to NY):






Megan Hart's Dan and Emme from Dirty:






And Ilona Andrews' Kate and Curran (in this song I see Kate talking and Curran imagining Kate dancing around his Bimbo Room to the music):



So anyway, that's my short list; hope you liked it!

Four Dukes and a Devil Anthology

I bought this book because I love Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series. I've never heard of the other authors.

Things I love about anthologies:

1. No long, boring back story. You jump right into the action.
2. Good way to "test drive" new-to-me authors.
3. If I hate the story, there are more to choose from.


Things I hate about anthologies:

1. You get into the story and suddenly it's over.
2. You can get characters from a series you're not familiar with.

Four Dukes and a Devil contains five stories. The first story, The Irish Duke, by Cathy Maxwell, was good. A 26-year-old spinster, Susan, starts a business (shocking!) as an advisor for young women in society looking to meet appropriate husbands. One of her selling points is "The Irish Duke" - it's a little known fact that the Irish Duke follow English and Scottish Dukes in order of precidence. The English families are horrified - they didn't know. Of course, she does not mention they are still titled and there are only two in existence. Then, at a dance with her "charges", she comes across a very irate gentleman - the Duke of Killeigh, and Irish Duke. He questions why no one will dance with him and learns Susan is indirectly responsible. He hatches a plan to make her renounce her story and ends up falling in love.

The second story, The Duke Who Came To Dinner, by Elaine Fox, was a contemporary romance that started out with a bang....a naked woman riding down the street on her bicycle! This story had two Dukes -a ghost that was a Duke and a Duke who is actually a dog, specifically the dog who stole the aforementioned clothes! It was a nice story about a normally shy woman who got out of her "comfort zone".

The third story is by Jeaniene Frost - Devil to Pay. Cat and Bones make a brief cameo, Mencheres has a bit more of a part. As you can probably tell from the title, this was the Devil section of the book. Elise is a vampire who is slowly losing touch with humanity. She runs across a man, Blake, who is in some sort of trouble. Turns out the trouble is he's posessed by a demon and the only way to get rid of it is to die; the only problem is that if he's near people the demon will pass to another person. Elise and Mencheres come up with a plan to get rid of the demon, but Elise is falling for Blake and doesn't want him to die. Is there any way to save him?

The fourth story, Catch of the Century, by Sophia Nash, is a historical. Victoria Givan is a 30-year-old spinster governess, traveling with three young charges to a new assignment. She has some difficulties and they end up walking along the side of the road when they are almost run over by a fancy coach. The owner, John Varick, gets out to apologize and ends up offering a ride to Ms. Givan and her charges thinking he's giving her a short ride, until he realizes her destination is 60 miles away! He feels obligated to take them and then deposit them at their destination, but once they arrive it's uninhabitable. He arranges for them to stay at his place, which is nearby, and attraction develops. Mr. Varick has a secret identity that is not revealed until later in the story.

The last story, Charmed by her Smile, by Tracy Anne Warren, is also a historical. I must say this was my favorite story. The young heroine, India Byron, is at a ball and grabs a stranger and implores him to kiss her...she's being hounded by an unwanted suitor and hopes that seeing her kiss someone else will put him off. It works, but she finds herself attracted to the stranger. They part after a second kiss, never to see each other again, so she thinks. A few weeks later she is at a friend's country home for a week, and her unwanted, very persistent suitor is there. He proclaims his love and tells her he will have her. She tells him she is almost engaged to the gentleman he saw her kissing earlier. Then, to her surprise, she runs into the gentleman at the country house! He agrees to her request to pretend to be courting her, then she finds out he's a Duke! Of course, there's attraction, but the Duke is not intersted in marriage and tries to keep his distance. Then, India gets into some trouble. What's a girl to do?

All in all, five very delightful short stories. I am a big fan of Jeaniene Frost but now I've also been introduced to some new-to-me authors and look forward to discovering more of their work.

Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Wow. What a ride. This book was great! Dark, very dark, but oh!

The book starts with Cat and Bones on a boat, taking a "gettin' away from it all" cruise to Paris. The only problem is, Cat's been having nightmares. When they arrive in Paris, Mencheres is waiting, with bodyguards. He informs her that her nightmares are being caused by another vampire, Gregor, "The Dreamsnatcher". Gregor has escaped from Menchere's prison and claims Cat is his wife, not Bones' and he wants her back. Apparently Gregor spent a month with Cat when she was 17, and married her, and she doesn't remember any of it.

Gregor attacks, and Bones locks Cat in a "safe room" while he fights back. She gets upset and takes matters into her own hands and purposely falls asleep so Gregor can snatch her while she's dreaming. In return he must stop the attack. She will take his blood so she can remember her time with him.

I'm not going to post any more of the plot, since the book has been out less than a week, but it was good. The action was great, there were some plot surprises I wasn't expecting. I will say that Cat and Bones need an intervention with Dr. Phil. Seriously. They spend a large portion of the book not communicating with each other.

My only complaint is that I like Tate and would have liked to have seen more of him. I liked Vlad's part in the book and Gregor was a real snake. There were quite a few pop-culture references tossed in that made me laugh. She left a few loose ends that I'm hoping she'll clear up in the next book.

I must also note, a plus for me is that parts of the book were set in New Orleans. I'm a sucker for a N.O. background. She did a good job (no wayward parades) and I liked the character they picked up while they were there.

Destined for an Early Whoop-A$$

Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost came out today. I've been patiently waiting for this fourth book in her series. I pre-ordered it as soon as it was available to do so, happy in the knowledge it would be waiting for me today. All bright and shiny, with my name wrapped around the spine. Mine.

When I got to B&N, the line was long, so I decided to check the shelves first. Not there. Not in Romance, not in Paranormal. No Jeaniene Frost titles at all. This is not looking good. Frustrated and disappointed, I decide to peruse the racks, hoping a sexy Highlander story will cheer me up. An employee walks past me with three books in her hands, and puts one on the shelf - where a Jeaniene Frost book would go. AND, from where I'm standing, the cover looks familiar..... I casually stroll over and ask her what book she just shelved - it's Destined for an Early Grave!!!! One copy.

I thank her, grab it, and head to the cash register - nope, no reserved copy for me. Apparently I got the only copy on the West Bank. Hmmm...

Here's my thing: If a book comes out on July 28, I want to be able to stroll in as soon as the store opens and buy it. Not wait until the truck comes in or they get around to stocking it. New releases should be stocked the night before. Am I wrong? If video stores can do it, why not B&N?

Now, off to read and forget all about it............

O Happy Day!

I just received my copy of Happy Endings by L.B.Gregg that I won over at Smexy Books (thanks ladies!!) and can't wait to read it!!!

AND, Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost comes out tomorrow - I cannot wait!!! Want it nowwwwww!!!

*huge grin*