Random Thursday

Let's get really random today! Easter is Sunday and I decided to share pics of my favorite Easter candy that I can only get at Easter time!

Plus I gave up chocolate candy for Lent, so I am in some withdraw with some of these! At least I am able to have two of them while I wait though!

First candy that I can only get at Easter time: 

Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs! Definitely my favorite shape for some reason! Mostly because it's easier to pull the chocolate off without all the curves and angles the others have! That way, there's more peanut butter to the taste!!

Reese's Pieces Eggs! Yes, more Reese's peanut butter candy! I loooove these little guys for the same reason as the other eggs! More peanut butter than the standard pieces!

Then to deviate from all the yummy peanut butter, I also love the White Chocolate M&Ms that Target has had now for the past 2 years! Love me some white chocolate!

And jelly beans are a favorite too, of course. But technically, I think these guys can be found year round at Walgreens, but not necessarily in a good sized bag. Or maybe not even Brachs.


What are some of your favorite Easter only Candies?

Review--Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures--if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.

All Mallory knows of The City is that her father--and every other witch there--fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it's only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable.

While Mallory possess little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.

From Melissa Marr, bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series and GRAVEMINDER, comes a brand-new tale of secrets, love, and the struggle to forge one's own destiny.


Carnival of Souls is the first in Melissa Marr's latest YA series, and it was quite interesting. I liked her Wicked Lovely series, found it different and interesting, the world building was pretty good. Here I think it's a step better. Of course, I was faltering for a bit in the beginning, unsure of what was what and all that. For one, daimons are a kind of werewolf. Took me a bit to get that part because I was thinking they were "demons" for there was a series that indicated creatures were demons by spelling it as it is here. Also The City is really not apart of our world like I initially thought, it's in another world, another dimension.

Another thing that took getting used to was getting to know all the characters. I read previous reviews of this some months ago, so I knew what I was getting into. Although, it's still a challenge when you read from so many different points of view. It's all in third person, thankfully, but we get multiple characters telling their stories. And once I got to know each character and their voice, it became easy to read the rest of the book. The first 4 chapters though, when they each have their turn, was the mind boggling part. It just takes me a moment to get used to the storytelling when authors write like this. I don't hate this kind of writing or anything, it just takes a bit of getting used to! It can be quite fun actually, as we get to see what's going on just about everywhere.

The story itself was pretty good. It definitely has that "first book" feel to it. There's a lot to learn about this new world and its history. Such as that daimons and witches have been enemies for a long time. Witches have left The City, for the most part, and live in the human world. The daimons in The City have a strange way of living, like it's medieval times or something with a king. Although Marchosias doesn't really call himself that, more like a ruler I guess. He wasn't really involved too much in this book. He makes a few appearances and all, but I get the feeling he won't be a well liked character.

Now onto characters. Mallory is our first heroine. She was raised by Adam, a witch and they are constantly on the move for reasons she's not entirely sure of. Daimons come after them from time to time and Adam has trained Mallory to protect herself. She doesn't know a whole lot about her birth parents, although it's said that she has met her mother. There is a prologue that gives you some idea of how Mallory came to be in Adam's care, but it still left me with a few too many questions as to what's really going on.

Kaleb is a daimon of the lowest class, a cur. Yet he is an incredible fighter and has been doing well in the competition to earn a place among the ruling class. He also knows how to travel between worlds and has befriended Mallory. He was hired by someone else though to kill her, but he finds that he can no longer do that since he's developing feelings for her. In turn, he decides to change the game plan and protect her at all costs.

Aya is an oddity, I won't say more than that because when we learn what her secret is, it was kind of surprising and I don't want to spoil that. Needless to say, Aya has her own reasons for entering the competition. She wants to be in the ruling class, because she believes she can serve a better purpose by being there. In order to do that though, she must be the sole winner of the competition and kill whoever she has to, to make that happen. She turned away a proposal from Belias, because she cannot give him what he wants, and this does involve her secret again, so she basically turned him down in order to protect her secret.

Belias, we didn't get too many chapters from him which was a tad disappointing. To meet a character and then only get a few chapters of page time. But there was a reason for that, but I won't get into it. Belias was set to marry Aya, he loves her and was devastated that she turned him down. He entered the competition as well, for a way to protect her. He does what he can and I think he wouldn't mind winning it too. He's very good at the fighting.

The pace to this one was good. It was fast moving in the way that any multiple narrator book is. You get so wrapped up with one character and what's going on with them, and then you move onto another, then another. While the transitions were fairly smooth, it does take a moment to remember what was going on with a particular character, but those moments were pretty few. We'd be in Mallory's head, then it would go to Kaleb who was with Mallory at the time, so those transitions were pretty easy to follow.

The book has its good share of secrets too, and not all are reveal to all the players involved. So it's definitely going to be interesting to see where things go. Although, one rather large secret is revealed to Mallory, but we had known it from fairly early on. She was the only one who didn't seem to know. There is a bit of a cliffhanger ending, only in the sense that it ends before the characters are about to do something to further the plot. Yes, I am being vague, but I don't want to give out spoilers. Just know that this cliffhanger isn't one of the agonizing kinds. I definitely can't wait for more in this series, but the wait won't kill me like other cliffhangers have.

Overall this was a rather enjoyable read. As it is with all new series, the world building takes a bit of getting used to, but it doesn't seem as difficult as I found the Wicked Lovely series where each book had a different cast of characters. Of course it's still too soon to tell if this series will go down that path, but I wouldn't think it would do that with how it ended and all. I enjoyed the characters, they were all rather interesting and they each have their own stories and paths to carve. I see what might be enemies rising in the wake, but as I've mentioned before, it's too soon to tell with somethings. But there were quite a few interesting plot developments and oh the secrets! Looking forward to how more than a few of those get revealed! The sequel will definitely be added to my TBR pile later this year!


Overall Rating 4/5 stars

Cover Art Reveal--Kicking It

Awesome, isn't it?! This is one anthology I look forward to reading and the cover just screams Urban Fantasy, which is in fact awesome!

Kicking It releases December 3, 2013

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.

The third novel in an action-packed urban fantasy series from the acclaimed author of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist books—starring a female private eye who discovers that she’s an immortal huntress.

No longer the leader of the Olympians, Konstantin has now gone into hiding. Konstantin is vulnerable, and Anderson believes now is the perfect time to destroy his nemesis. He orders private eye Nikki Glass to use her powers to locate Konstantin, and she balks at the idea until a series of attacks leads her to believe that Konstantin is gunning for her and Anderson instead of remaining safely in hiding.

Nikki’s search is complicated by Cyrus—Konstantin’s son and the new leader of the Olympians—who threatens retribution should his father be killed. The complications mount up as Nikki begins to suspect that Konstantin might not be behind the attacks after all. The only person who hates Konstantin more than Anderson does is Anderson’s estranged wife, Emma, who has joined the Olympians. And Nikki knows Emma would be more than happy if Anderson and his people embroil themselves in an all-out war against the Olympians—a war they cannot hope to win.

As Nikki tries to figure out who the true enemy is, she deals with her tumultuous relationship with Jamaal, who struggles to control his death magic. But being loved by a descendant of a death goddess is the least of Nikki’s worries...


Cannot wait to read this one! Just got caught up in it not that long ago, so I pumped and ready to go!

TITLE: Rogue Descendant
AUTHOR: Jenna Black
PUBLISHER: Pocket Books
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2013

“A powerful witch might live a long time, but a single well-placed bullet could change that. While my preferred weapon was magic, I was not averse to shooting anyone or anything offering my sister or me harm.”

Ex-soldier and earth witch Nyx Ianira is working as a PI in San Francisco when she sees the last thing she ever wants to see: the Sisters of Justice—the mysterious earth witch police force. A Triad of Sisters usually means an execution mission, but the Sisters’ only goal is to capture and escort Nyx across the country.

Nyx is badly needed back in Twitch Crossing, Georgia, the place she ran away from ten years ago to escape the stiff rules and duties of being a true witch. She wanted a life of her own. Now she’s being dragged back to her swampy hometown because another life is in danger: Her little sister is missing, and Nyx is the only one who can track her down in Duivel, Missouri.

But the key to finding her may lie with dark and tempting Etienne—a sinister criminal with a fearsome reputation, a ruthless attitude, and a total immunity to magic....


This series I am behind on! Luckily it's only book 3 and I just have to read book 2!


TITLE: Vicious Moon
AUTHOR: Lee Roland
PUBLISHER: SignetGENRE: Urban Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2013

CONTEST ALERT!

Oh wow! I am getting excited over the buzz that's surrounding Victoria Scott's The Collector! It sounds like it's right up my alley! Seeing it all over the blogosphere lately too!

Anyhoo, Jennifer L. Armentrout is having a swag giveaway on her blog! Not only do you get The Collector swag, but swag from all her books too!!

How awesome is that?!

Check it out here!

Teaser Tuesdays

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.

Violet replayed that moment over and over and over again. She and Jay had argued before. Heck, they'd even fought once in third grade, throwing unsophisticated punches and pulling each other's hair. Their parents grounded both of them for a week after Violet had given him a black eye, all because he'd said that Justine Timberlake lip-synced all of his songs. He'd never dared to say it again." p 210*



*This quote comes from my ARC copy, therefore it and its page number are not final.

TITLE: Dead Silence
AUTHOR: Kimberly Derting
PUBLISHER: Harper Collins
GENRE: YA Suspense
RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2013

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:

Tempest's Fury by Nicole Peeler (5 stars)

The Isis Collar by Cat Adams (4.5 stars)

Flight by Alyssa Rose Ivy (4 stars)

With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent (5 stars)
Haunted by Jeanne C. Stein (5 stars)

About to Start Reading:
 

Dead Silence by Kimberly Derting (ARC)

What I Plan to Read this Week:

Blood-Kissed Sky by J.A. London
Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

Other Posts of Interest:

Teaser Tuesdays--Tempest's Fury

Waiting on Wednesday

Cover Art Reveals--Locke, Moning & Adams

Random Thursday

Follow Friday

Top 5 Sundays

Stacking the Shelves