Bookography (2)

Bookography

Is a fun new way to share the beauty of books with photography. Take a picture with the book being the focus and share the picture(s) you have created for the week.

The book is Sunshine by Robin McKinley 

Sun and Shadows

A perfect day to take a picture with the shining sun and the shadows

If you haven't read this book her name is Sunshine, she enjoying being in the sun and finds rejuvenation in the sun's rays.  She gets captured by a vampire who can't be in the sun without bursting into flames. Hence the sun and shadows interpretation.

I only used the manual setting and the macro button

On a photography note, I am looking into taking 2 photography classes in October. Hopefully by the end of October into November my photos should improve. 

If you would like to participate please do. I will try to post my Bookography post each week on Wednesdays. I would love if you would link back to my blog and share your own link in the comments.

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Magic Slays Review

Magic Slays

By Ilona Andrews

Summary

Plagued by a war between magic and technology, Atlanta has never been so deadly. Good thing Kate Daniels is on the job.

Kate Daniels may have quit the Order of Merciful Aid, but she’s still knee-deep in paranormal problems. Or she would be if she could get someone to hire her. Starting her own business has been more challenging than she thought it would be—now that the Order is disparaging her good name, and many potential clients are afraid of getting on the bad side of the Beast Lord, who just happens to be Kate’s mate.
So when Atlanta’s premier Master of the Dead calls to ask for help with a vampire on the loose, Kate leaps at the chance of some paying work. Turns out this is not an isolated incident, and Kate needs to get to the bottom of it—fast, or the city and everyone dear to her might pay the ultimate price . . .

What I Loved

The World

Magic is in the world and literally destroying all things technology. The magic and technology shift back and forth creating periods when computers, guns, and all things technology will or will not work. Tall buildings are being torn down and the forest is trying to take over the streets creating odd magical pockets with weird creatures. Everything magical is in this world, Greek deities, Hellhounds, all different types of animal shifters, mindless mind controlled blood thirsty vampires (very Gollum lookingish) and many other scary things as well. A cool world to live in if you have some sort of magical talent, but if you don't... it's not the place to live.

Characters

Kate Daniels: I love her very much, she is one of my favorite female characters (along with Mercy Thompson). A strong very skilled fighter she will kick everyone's ass and she has a very witty tough shit attitude that I love reading.  Some of the things she will say will make you chuckle and smack your head thinking "You're digging yourself into a huge hole", but she always manages to pull herself out, she maybe a little bruised and bloodied but her opponent is worse off because they are dead.

Curran aka The Beast Lord aka His Furriness or Highness (depending on who is calling him):  Don't try and call him Your Furriness, only Kate can do that. I love Curran, huge strong very dominate and possessive male character, what is not to love about him. His verbal sparring with Kate is very amusing and he even physically spars with Kate, she holds her own very well. He is the bad ass huge ruling lion shape shifter, don't ever mess with him, he controls all the packs in Atlanta.

The Bad Guys

The main bad guy throughout the entire series is Roland. Kate is still building up her powers and abilities to be able to fight him to the death. With this book and the previous ones we have only gotten more information about how bad ass his actually is. I can't wait to finally read the final show down, it is going to be an epic battle.

The Keepers

The bad guy dominate in this book are the Keepers. They are fanatical anti magic people. I'm not going to tell much about them, because you have to discover what they are capable of in the book, but fanatics scare me.  It doesn't matter who the person actually is, but if you are they hate they will kill you. Freaking scary!!

What I Didn't Like

The book had to come to an end and I want to read the rest of the series. I'm don't want to wait any longer for the rest of the series, I want them now.

Recommendation 

Urban Fantasy readers will enjoy this read for sure, if you have never read UF you should try it. This book is a break from high romance and instead has lots of fighting with slight romantic interludes.

Information

Kate Daniels Series
1) Magic Bites
2) Magic Burns
3) Magic Strikes
3.5) Magic Mourns (short story in Must Love Hellhounds)
4) Magic Bleeds
4.5) Magic Dreams (short story in Hexed)

5) Magic Slays

6) Untitled- under contract
7) Untitled- under contract

Other series, still UF but with more romance
The Edge
1) One the Edge
2) Bayou Moon
3) Fate's Edge out 11/29/11
4) Untitled- under contract

Have you read the Kate Daniels series?

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In My Mailbox #20

Amazing Books

IMM #20

IMM is a meme hosted by The Story Siren, anyone can participate telling about what they bought, received or borrowed.

From Borders

My beloved store

Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

I love this series and finally got the book. I ended up starting it in the car on the way home and I will be finishing it.

A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

I was hoping to make it to her book signing today, but sadly my work schedule didn't enable me to make it.

Eternity by Heather Terrell

A random grab and I was thinking this was Fallen Angel book 1 in the series when I initially grabbed it, oh well I will still read it, now I just need to get bk 1.

Half Price Books

Truly, Madly by Heather Webber

I already have a copy of it, but it was only $1 so I figured I could let someone borrow this copy

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Of course I had to get book 2, I still haven't read book 1

I found 4 Oz books that I just had to have. The red book on the far right is a collection of 5 Charles Dickens Christmas Novels.

My Giveaway 

and Review

 Win an ebook of Megg Jensen's Sleepers

International ends August 3rd
Click the link to enter

Sleepers Giveaway

My To Be Read List

1) Magic Slays (finish)

2) Antara (start)

3) Claire de Lune (finish)

My New (hopefully) Weekly Post

Every week I plan on taking a picture featuring books in a creative manor. I want to get better at photography and using my camera, so what better way to combine the beauty of photography and books. The post will be called Bookography please go and check it out and participate if you would like.

I also added a few more events that are going on in my area to my Signing Events page that I plan on attending.

What did you get this week?

Please feel free to leave your link

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Bookography (1)

Bookography

Is a fun new creative way to share the beauty of books with photography. Take a picture with the book being the focus and share the picture(s) you have created for the week

I took two pictured with feathers and I couldn't decide which one I liked more

 Hush

Fallen

I like to take pictures, but my skill is very limited. My camera is a decent camera call a bridge camera a Canon PowerShot S5 IS, I can use the Manual setting, but it isn't huge and fancy with all the different lenses. I also don't have any sort of Photoshop to play around with to digitally enhance the photos even more. Nor do I have any training, everything I can do with my camera (which isn't much) has been by trial and playing around with the different buttons and reading the manual (which is now missing)

The only things that were used with these photos were the Manual setting, the super macro button and the black and white setting

If you would like to participate please do, I will try to post my Bookography post each week on Wednesdays. I would love it if you were to link back to my blog and share your own link in the comments.

<3Bookography

Sleepers Review & Giveaway

Sleepers

By Megg Jensen

Summary

An adoptee raised in a foreign land, sixteen-year-old Lianne was content with her life as handmaiden to the queen, until a spell cast on her at birth activated. Now she's filled with uncontrollable rage and access to magic she thought had been bled from her people years ago. Even her years of secret training in elite hand-to-hand combat and meditation can’t calm the fires raging inside her.

Her heart is torn between two boys, the one she’s always loved and the one who always ignored her. But when the kingdom threatens to tear itself apart due to rumors surrounding the queen’s alleged affair, who will Lianne protect and who will she destroy?

What I Loved

Fast Paced

The ball kept on rolling throughout this entire book, there was never a dull moment nor a desire to skim through anything. I had to read each and every word and I fell so easy into a book trance and I didn't even realize that an hour or two had passed by so quickly. I got very annoyed when I had to leave for work and put down the book, throughout the entire day my mind kept on wandering back to my book and the desire to finish the book asap.

Characters

Lianne: I quite like her. She is physically strong and a very capable hand to hand fighter, which I do love my female characters able to kick some ass. But she is also a sweet and loving person (pre-awakening). This makes for a good internal tug-a-war when she awakenings and has a bunch of violent angry foreign feeling to deal and cope with. 

The Boys

I do really want to talk about each boy in detail, but I don't want to ruin your discovery about the storyline. So I will just choose to say a little about each boy and not go into any detail about them, the two boys are Kellan and Bryden. Kellan is Lianne's boyfriend, she has trained with him (she kicks his ass every time) and has had a crush on him for a long time. Bryden is her childhood best friend and after he had an accident that made him a cripple he ignored her and distance himself from their friendship. That is all I can give about these two without giving anything away, so that means you just have to read for yourself to find out more about these boys.

Just Choose Already

Lianne has a few hard choices to make and she does some flip flopping between the 2 sides, it does get a little tiresome when she can't make a solid decision. I was very glad when she finally does hold all things at bay and make the decision based on what she wants to do and not what anyone else wants her to do.

Recommendation

If you love YA fantasy, magical historic time periods with coming of age tough choices this is just the book for you.

Information 

The Swarm Trilogy

1) Sleepers: currently only available as an ebook, paperback in a month or so
2) out possibly late Fall November- December
3) Spring 2012, she will be finishing Severed first

The Cloud Prophet Trilogy

1) Anathema

2) Oubliette 

3) Severed out in Fall 2011

How would you react to a dormant anger and power suddenly arising within you?

I have Anathema on my kindle and when Severed comes out I am going to read all of them together. I love Megg's work in this book Sleepers and I can't wait to read the rest of her books.

*Closed*
Giveaway

Megg has donated an ebook of Sleepers for 1 lucky reader.

Rules

International

You don't have to be a follower to enter

Don't forget to put down a contact email

To Enter

1) Answer the question above +1

2) Spread the word through any venue (Facebook, twitter, blog, etc) about the giveaway +1

3) Follow Megg on her Blog, Facebook and/or Twitter +1

4) Put the book on your Goodreads to-read list +1

Total your points: 4 max

 

Contest ends August 3rd 2011 at midnight Pacific Time

Winner is Margaret

Congratulation, enjoy the read

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In My Mailbox #19

A File of Books

IMM #19

IMM is a meme hosted by The Story Siren, anyone can participate telling about what they bought, received or borrowed.

For Review

From netGalley 

I had some issues with netGalley and putting in my blog address and I would get denied from a few of these popular books. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, they already had the http:// and all I needed was add the rest of the web address, well I didn't realize that for the longest time. Oops, well at least now it is all fixed and I went back through and got approved on a few that at first I was denied. Time for some reading. 

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson 

Vanish by Sophie Jordan

A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies

 Eve by Anna Carey

For Review

From Author

Sleepers by Megg Jensen

I can't wait to read this book, I plan on  starting in hopefully within the week.

Thanks Megg for the book

Antara by Marilena Mexi

This is an illustrated fantasy novel, I am really hoping that the epub version has the pictures on it, there are some amazing pictures on her website. Another amazing artist publishing books. I plan on getting to this book asap. Thanks Marilena

This week all I got are books for reveiw, I really need to start reading again. Hopefully if the sun will stay out and not too hot I can sit outside in the shade and read, now that would be perfect.

This weeks Outlook

To Read List

1) Sleeper

2) Antara

3) Betrayal (finish)

4) Dime Store Magic (finish)

Last Weeks Reviews

 Goddess of the Rose by PC Cast

What did you get this week?

Please feel free to leave your link

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Goddess of the Rose Review

Goddess of the Rose

By PC Cast

Summary

When modern-day Mikki ends up in the strange Realm of the Rose, Hecate has been waiting for her. So too has her gorgeous guardian beast, who soon has Mikki swooning. But to save the realm, Mikki will have to sacrifice her life-giving blood.

What I Loved

Series But An Independent Novel

This is a re-read for me, I love these books so much. What I love the most about these books is they have the same theme, modern woman is needed to help a Greek mythological character god, goddess, event etc. The books are all connected in that aspect but they are their own individual story in one novel, no having to wait years to find out if the pair of lovers ends up together. I love the individual novels at times, it is a nice break from all the long series that you are waiting for to be finished.

Story

A modern version of Beauty and the Beast, but with the Greek goddess Hecate, a modern woman and the fearsome minotaur all rolled into one amazing romantic tale. Oh and you can't forget all the lovely roses and beautiful dreams that pay a major part in the story.

Characters

Mikado Empousai aka Mikki (Beauty): All the Goddess Summoning series have the same theme for the female characters 30ish age females that have had experience and knowledge to help them with their trials that they have to face through the story. Mikki is a great character, she isn't physically strong, but mentally she is very capable, loving and caring. 

The Guardian aka the Minotaur aka Asterius (Beast): What to say about him, he is the beast. A fearsome creature to behold, but with a need and desire to be loved by someone. Throughout the book you feel so much sorry for this poor beast, you learn about his ever neglected sad life and you just want to be the one to love him. But he also presents this raw animal strength that Mikki is completely drawn to.

Romance

The book does get a bit hot and steamy with the pair.

What I Didn't Like

There is nothing I dodn't like in this book. I completely adore this story, this version of Beauty and the Beast.

Recommendation

Every romantic reader, fantasy addict and retold fairy tale lover has got to read this tale. Even though it is part of the Goddess Summoning series, it is a complete stand alone book. The rest of the series doesn't need to be read before this book. This is the way with all of the books, some of the books will connect a little more but not much. The only connection this book made to any other the other books is that it makes a reference to the pastry shop owned by the the character in The Goddess of Spring.

Information

Goddess Summoning Series (Adult)

Goddess of the Sea (mermaid Undine)

Goddess of the Spring (Persephone and Hades)

Goddess of the Light (Apollo and Artemis)

Goddess of the Rose (Beauty and the Beast, Hecate)

Goddess of Love (Venus and Vulcan)

Warrior Rising/Goddess of Troy (Trojan War and Achilles)

Goddess of Legend (King Arthur)

Divine Series  (Adult)
Diving by Mistake/Goddess by Mistake
Divine by Choice
Diving by Blood
Partholon Series (YA)
Elphame's Choice
Brighid's Quest
House of Night Series (YA written with her daughter Kristin Cast)
Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted
Tempted
Burned
Awakened
Destined out October 25, 2011
House of Night Novellas
Dragon's Oath
Lenobia's Vow out January 2012

Do you love all versions of Beauty and the Beast?

I do

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