Frustration!!

Okay, I have to have a mini rant right now. Was going to do this earlier but I was working and didn't want to be doing blog posts at the time!

Anyway, today I have on my calendar of releases that Moonrise by Ivy Devlin releases today! Yesterday I even saw on B&N's website that I could preorder it for like $10 something, but at the time I was busy and didn't place the order. I go there today to see if it might be in stores, but then remember there isn't a store inventory check, but I couldn't find the book!

It took a little digging and I am still not sure of the results. It might be coming out next year on January 31, but not today. But then I could still order it and it would ship in 1-3 weeks...but I don't know for sure! No one had clear answers and it bugs me because yesterday there was clear answers. Websites told it releases January 31, 2012. Yet I don't know. I think I might have to call the stores or something.

By chance does anyone else know what's up? I know Low Red Moon wasn't a fave of some bloggers, but I liked it and wanted to read the sequel that has been a long time coming from its 2010 release. Yet I can't find it! Do I really have to wait til 2013?!

Cover Art--Kalayna Price

EEP! Saw this on Goodreads as I was putting together a review and had to share the cover love! I have to say I like it a lot! I think Alex looks awesome! No cover description yet but will post once I come across it!

Grave Memory releases July 3, 2012

Teaser Tuesday

Reading furiously trying to finish this one! Since it's apart of the Bewitching ARC Tours, it was sent as a PDF and reading on my computer screen all day is really straining on my eyes. So it goes slower. But still working at it!

Here are the rules:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a page

3. Pick out 2 lines that are SPOILER FREE

4. Name the title, author, etc.

"'Oh, yeah,' Phineas yawned. 'They couldn't keep their hands off each other. Surprised it didn't wake you up. Especially when Talivar dragged out the assless leather chaps and started riding the incubus around like a pony.'" p 313*

*This quote come from my e-ARC copy, therefore it and the page number are not final.

TITLE: A Sliver of Shadow
AUTHOR: Allison Pang
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: February 28, 2012

Cover Copy Reveal--Jeaniene Frost

OMGS!!!!!! Here it is!! The cover for Once Burned!! I love it!

She’s a mortal with dark powers…

After a tragic accident scarred her body and destroyed her dreams, Leila never imagined that the worst was still to come: terrifying powers that let her channel electricity and learn a person’s darkest secrets through a single touch. Leila is doomed to a life of solitude…until creatures of the night kidnap her, forcing her to reach out with a telepathic distress call to the world’s most infamous vampire…

He’s the Prince of Night…

Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all—but whatever you do, don’t call him Dracula. Vlad’s ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him – a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.

And here's the setback:

I soooo can't wait to read this even more now!!

Once Burned releases June 26, 2012

It's Monday! What are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

Last Week I Read:

Vampires Dead Ahead by Cheyenne McCray (5 stars)

Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide by Michelle Rowen with Richelle Mead (5 stars)

Review that was Posted:

Firelight (e-ARC) by Kristen Callihan (3.75 stars)

Currently Reading:

A Sliver of Shadow (e-ARC) by Allison Pang

What I Plan to Read this Week:

The Calling (ARC) by Kelley Armstrong

Other Posts of Interest:

Teaser Tuesday--Vampires Dead Ahead

Waiting on Wednesday

Random Thursday

Young Adult Giveaway Hop

Friday Hops

Cover Copy Reveal--Dakota Banks

Top 5 Sundays

In My Mailbox

5th Year Blogoversary Giveaway!

5th Year Blogoversary!!

It's my 5th Year Blogoversary!! 5 years ago today I started my blog, back then blogging was still pretty low key and I was still learning. And boy did I learn a lot! Each year I was picking up new things and new followers as well! I remember being ecstatic when I reach 100 followers, now I'm up to 700!!!

So it's time for a giveaway! As I enter many giveaways (and even win a few!), I want to share the love! Hence there will be 2 winners! Since I also reached 700 followers this week that means a contest as well!

The rules you ask? You didn't ask? Well here they are anyway. You basically have to be a follower of this blog in order to enter the contest! Also you must live wherever Book Depository ships to!

The prizes you may ask? Well as you all may know--except for some of my newest followers that is--I am totally totally obsessed with the series 13 to Life. So for the first prize is a copy of 13 to Life by Shannon Delany! Many people have said, when I'm on my ramblings about loving this series, that they haven't started this series yet. Either they have the book or don't, but need to get it. So I shall make sure you have a copy! 

And on the off chance that you do already have 13 to Life, but haven't read it yet, I will make it an incentive for you to read it by getting you a copy of Secrets and Shadows, the second book in the series--of course this is only optional to you if you have 13 to Life in your TBR stack.

The second prize will be a book of the winner's choice up to $10 (US).

And should I reach 800 followers in the time allotted to this contest, a third winner will be chosen and they too will get their choice of any book up to $10 (US).

Just fill out the form and you're good to go!

Contest will run from now til February 29, 2012 11:59 PM CST

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly blog post hosted by Kirsti over at The Story Siren and inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie.

Well it was another slow week for me. But that's okay since my TBR pile is still huge! Was even looking over all the Kindle books I still have to read and went nuts!

But I did get a few things this week:

For review from Bewitching Blog Tours:

A Sliver of Shadow (e-ARC) by Allison Pang

Thanks Roxanne!

From Kensington for review:

Blood and Bullets by James R. Tuck

Thanks Kensington!

Then I borrowed from Amber at AwesomeSauce Books:

The Calling (ARC) by Kelley Armstrong

Thanks Amber x2!

And that was my mailbox this week! Next week is a release week for me, there are a few books I'm after. Hoping to get them too! What did you get this week?

Top 5 Sundays

Top 5 Sundays is a weekly blog meme created by Larissa at Larissa's Bookish Life.

Every Sunday I will post a TOP 5 list on the blog. It can be about anything and every week I'll have a new theme {You can vote on next week’s theme on my left sidebar!} and I will ad the Mr.Linky bellow the post so you can do a list with the theme and add you link to it.

Rules:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.

2 - Mention this Blog on the post and link back to it.

3 - Fell free to use the Feature's image (there is a smaller size version of it bellow)

4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week's topic is: FAVE GHOSTLY NOVELS!

*in no particular order

GHOST HUNTER MYSTERY SERIES

Victoria Laurie

Okay, for this first pick, I'm saying it's the WHOLE series as it is still ongoing. But I love it! There's usually a nice juicy mystery and some ghosties involved! All very fun! Before I had a job--albeit part time--I was able to read these books in one day! Might try still, I may just have to take a day off to maintain that record!!

GHOST DUSTERS MYSTERIES

Wendy Roberts

Okay, so I'm cheating again. This was another series I really enjoyed that was filled with ghosties! Unfortunately it ended with 3 books and it wasn't a "planned" ending. The series just didn't do well enough to keep on going. But I really did enjoy what was there!

HAUNTED

Tamara Thorne

This is a much older novel, but it was freaky! It was a horror novel I decided to read because it had a ghost story to it. A very evil ghost story! Scared the daylights out of me when I was reading it late at night. Not something I recommend, especially if your floors creak like ours do!

MOONFALL

Tamara Thorne

Sorry for the small pic, it was all I could find! This was another one I read that was pretty darn creepy too! Although I can't quite recall the ghosties, I'm sure they were there, but there was other creepy stuff going on in this one that also gave me chills!

JADE GREEN

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

This is another oldie and either falls in YA--very old YA--or more middle grade. It had a nice creepy ghost story going on! It was kinda shocking too!!

A SPECIAL MENTION:

ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD

Kendare Blake

I haven't read this one yet, but it's in my TBR mountain! Reviews say it's good and it's a good ghost story too! So can't wait to get to it! Otherwise it would've been in my actual Top 5!

Cover Copy Reveal-Dakota Banks

Dakota's third book in the Mortal Path series has been popping up in the blogosphere and I decided to post it here. This is an interesting series. I actually won the first two books by chance in contests and I've liked them. There's enough of the "weird" or paranormal element in it to keep me interested.

A demon's assassin for centuries, Maliha Crayne has gone rogue, determined to save a life for every one she's destroyed in order to free herself from an eternity of enslavement, damnation, and excruciating torment. But as the powers that sustained her in the past fade, she is wary of trusting those closest to her-especially her lover, Jake. Should Maliha listen to her heart or the alarms going off in her head? Then her closest friends begin to disappear, one by one. Amid her anger, suspicion, and sorrow, she feels her life spiraling out of control.

Worse still, a beautiful, Renaissance murderess is recruiting Maliha as her new assassin. Maliha is turning into a lethal puppet with an evil Immortal pulling the strings, forced to kill innocents or see her missing friends die horribly. Suddenly trapped in a moral no-man's land, Maliha is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't…and time is rapidly running out.

Deliverance releases March 27, 2012

Friday Hops

This is a weekly blog meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read.

Here are the general rules to Follow Friday:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts and any one else you want to follow on the list

2. Follow our Featured Bloggers

3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.

4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments

5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can

6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers

7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!

8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

This week's question is: Which book genre do you avoid at all costs and why?

MY ANSWER: That would be regular old fiction. Ever since reading my first vampire/paranormal book in 7th grade, I can't handle reading anything that doesn't have a paranormal element. It just bores me. So as long as there's paranormal elements in it I am more willing to read it.

I also don't care for non-fiction, the world is depressing enough and I'd rather get lost in a world where anything can happen rather than ours which has limitations!

TGIF is a weekly feature created and hosted by GReads! that re-caps the week’s posts and has different question each week.

This week's question is: Buy or Borrow: Where do your books that you read come from? The bookstore? The library? Do you prefer to own a book, or have it on loan?

MY ANSWER: OOh this one's easy! I'm a book buyer! It is a costly obsession at times, but everyone knows what to get me for holidays--book gift certificates! I just like owning my own set of books. The library may be cheaper, but I also like to stare at all my pretty books in my room!

I'm also an author stalker a total fan girl, and when I hear word or find out for myself that my fave authors are coming to boring St. Louis I shout for joy! And I already have their books since I'm a book buyer so I readily have something to get signed! I love getting signed books because they are so precious! I'm not one of the people that goes and sells it to the highest bidder either. I get it signed to me so no one else can have it! And I do like getting an extra one signed to giveaway on my blog or give as a gift to a friend!

 

Young Adult Giveaway Hop!

It's time for the Young Adult Giveaway Hop, hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Down the Rabbit Hole!

I have a special treat for you my pretties, remember that Andrea Cremer signing I went to last week? Well for the hop I am offering up the extra SIGNED copy of Nightshade! So if you are looking to start the series, why not start it with a SIGNED book, or if you've read the series why not enter to get a SIGNED copy? I know I do the same for SIGNED copies!

Going to keep this giveaway really simple. You just have to be a follower and if you want an extra point just leave a comment here on this post.

The giveaway is open to US only, sorry!

Runs from January 27-31. On February 1st I will announce (and contact, cause I know how hard it is to remember all the contests you might be entering this week) the winner and they will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner will have to be chosen. Just fill out the form below and you are set to go!

Random Thursday

So apparently it's that time of year again. You might be thinking...what time? Xmas is over, V-day (abysmal holiday) is still a ways off. Guess it yet?

It's the time when Girl Scouts start selling their cookies! As a former Girl Scout I hated selling them at this time because you know it's cold and icky out. **Raining right now as I write this** And sometimes people do say "no thanks". Talk about willpower.

This year, as well as last year...maybe the one before that too. I will still be saying no thanks. Why you ask? Because the Girl Scouts head honchos or whoever have taken away EVERY single cookie I've ever liked!

Way back in the beginning there was a vanilla sandwich cookie, as well as a lemon one. I liked the vanilla. It's gone.

Sometime late I remember having the Apple Cinnamon cookie. It was apple shaped and a cinnamon-applely kinda cookie with sugar crystals on it, or maybe they were cinnamon crystals. I can't remember, only that I loved it. It's gone.

Then maybe it was 2 years ago or a little more, but not much. They have a sugar free brownie cookie! OMG, I loved that cookie! I remember buying boxes and boxes of it when the Girl Scouts sold them outside grocery stores. It's gone. 

I think it was last year they had the sugar free chocolate chip cookie and that one wasn't too bad either. It's gone.

It seems like every single time I fall for the new cookie, it's gone next year. I guess they were just the "star" cookie of the year or something else, but it gets so tiring to enjoy a cookie that comes only once a year, only to have it taken away from you the next time around. I don't really care for any of the other flavors. I'm picky I know. I really just prefer homemade cookies but do like the occasional "brand" cookie. But I digress. So really when it comes to this time a year, I get sad, because I no longer have a fave Girl Scout cookie that has last.

What about you? Does anyone else remember or love any of these cookies that are in the past? Or is your fave Girl Scout cookie still available. Or do you even like Girl Scout cookies?

Review--Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide by Michelle Rowen with Richelle Mead

LOVE AND LOYALTY RUN DEEPER THAN BLOOD...

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. Her best friend Rose Hathaway is a dhampir: a guardian whose blood is a powerful blend of vampire and human. Rose's life is dedicated to protecting Lissa from the dangerous Strigoi--the fiercest vampires, who will stop at nothing to make Lissa one of them. Over the course of six books, love will blossom, hearts will be broken, and lives will be lost. But through it all, Rose and Lissa's friendship will never surrender...

THIS OFFICIAL ULTIMATE GUIDE IS THE MUST-HAVE ADDITION TO ANY VAMPIRE ACADEMY COLLECTION.

• Learn everything you ever wanted to know about the totally addictive world Richelle Mead has created
• Find out the real history of St. Vladimir's Academy
• Explore the dark psychology behind Rose and Lissa's unusual friendship
• Discover even more illicit secrets about Rose and Dimitri
• Quiz yourself to find out how much you really know about VAMPIRE ACADEMY

Features exclusive behind-the-scenes from author Richelle Mead along with everything readers need to go even deeper into the characters and lore of Vampire Academy, Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Blood Promise, Spirit Bound, and Last Sacrifice...

Okay, I've had it on my TBR pile for over a month but finally read it, Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide by Michelle Rowen with Richelle Mead, and it was great! I've only read one other "world info" type book and found it to be fun and so was this one!

To my knowledge, Michelle Rowen is doing most of the writing this time, but of course she has input from Richelle and there are a few QAs in the book with Richelle. It was all very fun and fascinating. I've read all the books in the series, yet it's been sooo many books ago and in between since I've read them all, so the detailed summaries of each book in the beginning was terrific! It really helped refresh my brain of what happened in each book.

Although at times, the third person narration got a little confusing. I couldn't tell at times if this was the omniscient narrator or perhaps a bit of Rose herself. Maybe it was both or maybe not. There were just comments occasionally and it just kinda threw me off. It wasn't bad, just a little mind boggling!

There's also details about everything else to know in the Vampire Academy world, including character bios, looking at the relationships of the main characters, the ways of the world here, including clear definitions on Moroi, Dhampirs, Strigoi and so much more!

This is definitely a must read for fans of the Vampire Academy series! It's terrific! Think of it as an insider's guide to the series, which that is what it is!

Overall rating 5/5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday

I hate waiting...

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog post by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights releases we're eagerly awaiting.

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, can not put a dampener on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.

Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

Sooo look forward to this one! Love this series! It was probably the first steampunk novel I read and totally LOVED! So addicted now!

TITLE: Timeless
AUTHOR: Gail Carriger
PUBLISHER: Orbit
GENRE: Steampunk
RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2012

If you live in the dark long enough, you begin to forget the light…

KORI DANIELS is a shadow-walker, able to travel instantly from one shadow to another. After weeks of confinement for betraying her boss, she’s ready to break free of the Tower syndicate for good. But Jake Tower has one final job for Kori, one chance to secure freedom for herself and her sister, Kenley, even if that means taking it from someone else…

The job? Recruit Ian Holt—or kill him.

Ian’s ability to manipulate the dark has drawn interest from every syndicate in the world, most notably an invitation from Jake Tower. Though he has no interest in organized crime, Ian accepts the invite, because he’s on a mission of his own. Ian has come to kill Tower’s top Binder: Kori’s little sister.

Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they’ll have to choose between love and liberty….

Rachel Vincent is one of those authors who I always pine for her books! The wait is agonizing and it's killer every year! Even with two series, I just feel like my wait is doubled! Can't wait to read this one and see Uan and Kori's story!

TITLE: Shadow Bound
AUTHOR: Rachel Vincent
PUBLISHER: Mira
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2012