Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Last post of 2008

Here I am this New Year Eve, looking back at all the books I read this year (about 245 given or taken a couple) and thinking: Could I read more?! There should be a way! And yes, I have to expand my horizon and look at other genres, not just SiFi, Fantasy, Paranormal, (A little) Romance and Historic novels. I know there has been lots of book that go simply under Fiction title and a lot more that are basically Mysteries. Well it is very hard to characterize some books, for example: A witch heroine solving the murder case of her best friend which happens to be bionic woman! Is it a mystery, a SiFi, a Fantasy or whatnot?
Anyway here are my last books read in 2008:
Fish Out of Water” (Fred the Mermaid, Book 3) by MaryJanice Davidson: Fred is engaged to Prince Artur and renting a huge beach house and every one is dropping by to enjoy her extra bedrooms including her supposedly dead banished biological father.
Thank goodness, this series is finished! I was so tiered of Fred’s grumpiness and bad language!
The King's Favorite: A Novel of Nell Gwyn and King Charles II” by Susan Holloway Scott was a great book. Although it is named a novel, I read it more as a biography of Nell and I came to love her character. She is the kindest, most considerate and less ambitious mistresses of Charles II. The 1660’s were beautifully pictured and the writing was great. It is a true Cinderella story and for that truly enchanting.
Casting Spells” by Barbara Bretton was funny. A descendant of a great witch and mayor of Sugar Maple, Vermont; Chloe Hubbs is under pressure to marry and extend the protective spell her great great grandmother cast over the city to protect its supernatural residents. Imagine the whole town playing matchmaker! Oh, and Chloe is half human and doesn’t have any magic of her own. Enter one sexy detective and…Well, Welcome to Sugar Maple!

Happy New Year and more reading to you!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Hot Sexy Vampires (please line up!)

I found out last night that two of my good friends have become vampire fans courtesy of Edward Cullen (Can you believe it!).
Now I see it my duty to introduce them to some hot sexy delicious vampire heroes whom are much more manly than that little love-sick boy! I actually did a post last year on my favorite vampire series at “Beware, Vampires are coming!” and that list has expanded considerably over this year. But this post is all about my favorite vampires. In order of hotness, Ladies; I give you the top ten:
- Eric Northman from Sookie Stackhouse Southern vampire series by Charlaine Harris. Eric is a blond Viking, he is arrogant and bossy and power hungry but very protective and loyal. When he loses his memory and ends up in Sookie’s, he is the ideal lover.
- Kisten from Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison. He is leather clad, can go out during the day, has lots of cool cars and motorcycles, is a total badass, and is fiercely loyal to Rachel and Ivy.
- Henry Fitzroy from Blood series by Tania Huff. He is the bastard son of Henry IIIV and more than 500 years old. He is a romance writer and has great taste. He is fair and just and kingly and protective of his people. He is very loyal to his friends.
- Ty Bonner from Vampire Love series by Kimberly Raye. He is bounty hunter and a made vamp. He is a cowboy and has the whole tall and dark and handsome thing.
- Stephan from Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I so heart him! He is cool and casual. He is old and European. He is kind and considerate to his entourage and is looking for a way to benefit humanity from vampirism. Bonus features: some super sexy werewolves!
- Eric Sinclair from Queen Betsy series by Mary Janice Davidson. He is the tall and dark and handsome and the king of all vampires. His best feature: he ignores Betsy!
- Mircea from Cassandra Palmer series by Karen Chance. He is wiling to suffer for his love (and he is tall and dark and handsome too!)
- Thomas from Dresden files by Jim Butcher. He is an emotional vampire so no blood drinking. He loves his brother and is super strong. He is keeping away from the woman he loves in order to protect her and he is tall, dark and handsome! What else you need?!
- Adrian from Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. He is from royal family and a prince, very cool and arrogant and selfish and loyal, extremely rich and has cool magic too.
- Jean-Luc from Anita Blake vampire hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. He is a sharp dresser, a master vampire and totally powerful. He is a great politician too. He has dark long hair and doesn’t matter how many triangles Anita forms and how many new man she sleeps with and how stupid Richard is, I still heart Jean-Luc!
Oooh, and how can I forget! My ultimate arrogant selfish sexy crazy vampire is Lestat. Even when applying for sainthood, he is arrogant. How can you not love him?! And no, I’m not talking about that blond Tom Cruz like person (I so hate Tom!), I’m speaking of the true character of Lestat in Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles series. He is so deliciously selfish you have to love him!

So what do you think? Any vampire you like to add to this list? Anyone I forgot?
Drop by and give me names and books and authors! Maybe one day we do a survey and find the most popular vampire ever!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

A long holiday post

Have been living (barely!), reading (a lot), taking exams (what a nightmare!) and having flu (so awful!) this previous month so, I say I’ve pretty busy.
Right after final exams, dear hubby and I got stomach flu and a bad case of cold on top of it and have been resting (read being imprisoned!) at home for two weeks. Imagine you have only three weeks vacation time and spend 2/3 of it in bed sneezing!
Have read a lot though. Here is the list in order of genre:


Paranormal/Fantasy/SiFi (romance)
“Succubus Dreams” (Georgina Kincaid, Book 3) by Richelle Mead. Georgie is having troubles, her recruiting imp is back in town trying to sabotage her, she has an apprentice, lots of weird dreams, and yes she is losing her energy strangely. Also she is pushing her boyfriend and best friend together, no wonder Seth cheats on her! Poor Georgie!
“Dark Light” by Jayne Castle is the fifth or sixth book in Planet Harmony series. A guild boss and a reporter join forces to solve the mysterious disappearances of retired ghost hunters.
“Kitty and the silver bullet” (Kitty Norville, Book 4) by Carrie Vaughn. Kitty is back in Denver because her mother is diagnosed with cancer. There is a vampire war and she has to choose sides, also it means facing those two assholes alphas of Denver pack Cal and Meg. I liked this book better than the previous one. Kitty is growing, she is more responsible and she isn’t all talk anymore!
“Underground” (Greywalker, Book 3) by Kat Richardson. I didn’t like it (you can read it if you like!). There is so much going on in the story and the main character is unpolished and weak.
“Bone Song” by John Meaney was dark mystery full of death and zombies and wraith and bones and stuff. I liked the book, the writing, the plot, the characters but not the overall theme. It is a great book if you are into morbid stuff!
“Dragon Wytch” (Sisters of the Moon, Book 4) by Yasmine Galenorn. Camille and her sisters are facing another squad of demons and looking for the third seal. She loses Tristian and spends sometime with smoky the dragon. A unicorn, a pixy and an incubus are in the story (and no, they don’t go into a bar!).
“The Bride of Casa Dracula” (Casa Dracula, Book 3) by Marta Acosta. Milagro
is preparing for her wedding but it looks like the universe is against her! For better I say, because Oswald is not in love with her anymore and Ian (ooh, fabulous Ian) is back!
“All I Want for Christmas Is a Vampire” (Love at Stake, Book 5) by Kerrelyn Sparks was OK. Ian has grown 12 years in 12 days and is ready to find a bride. When he tackles a thief finds his love!
“Living with the Dead” (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9) by Kelley Armstrong was great. A human friend of Hope is in trouble and Hope and Carl are helping. A ghost seeing detective and his sidekick are investigating a murder and a new race of super-naturals are introduced.
The Vampire Babylone series by Crystal Green: “Break of Dawn “ and “Night rising” (reread) were truly boring! I hate Dawn’s character, the busy plot and the untied treads of story. Not good, not good at all!

Romance
“The Beach house” by Jane Green was a great read. So full of beautiful landscape and a great house and interesting characters. I loved Nan!
“Secret desires of a gentleman” by Laura Lee Guhrke was a good romance. Good plot, great dialogs, good characters but a historic romance it was not! Sorry, it was hard to imagine the story happening in 1850 or whatever date was given in the book. The characters were straight from a contemporary romance dressed in 1800s-something clothing and riding coaches and carriages and being dukes and duchesses!
“Tempted by the night” by Elizabeth Boyle was great. Had a little supernatural in it as well. The story was funny, the dialogs great and Ms. Boyle writing style enchanting. I liked it so much that I went ahead and read another of her book’s “Love Letters from a Duke” too. This one is also funny with an entertaining cast of characters. You want to laze in the bed and enjoy times long gone and have a laugh, read something from this author!

Mystery
Should I put “Bone song” here again?
“Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk” by Boris Akunin was perfect. I loved the translation, the style and the plot. I hadn’t been reading anything from Russian authors (except the classics: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov) and this book was great. I’m reading the first book of the series now, “Sister Pelagia and the white bulldog” and enjoying it a lot.
Akunin is such a great writer, I’m thinking of starting a Russian phase and reading all I can find from his books and other contemporary Russian authors. Let’s see what happens!