In my Mailbox!

 

IMM is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. 

It is a way for book bloggers to post what they have received for review, borrowed from a friend, bought at the bookstore, or picked up at the library

This week Sandra got a one book for review!

The Charmed by Christine Wenrick

Olivia Ann Grayson sees only one future for herself – to compose and perform the music she has loved since she was a child.  But that future changes in an instant when a commuter train taking her to the city crashes and is attached by, unbelievably, a coven of vampires!  As the rabid creatures feed their thirst on the surviving passengers, Olivia is spared from an unthinkable fate because of the intervention of another vampire – Caleb Wolfe, a figure from her past who, for reasons he doesn’t understand himself, would do anything to protect her.

After one familiar touch, Olivia recognizes the man behind the vampire.  Soon love and a powerful supernatural connection, begins to grow between them.  But with that connection Olivia starts to notice startling changes happening within herself, and violent events make it clear that the vampire coven which wanted her the night of the train crash won’t stop until they have her.

Time is running out for Olivia and Caleb to discover why all this is happening.  And the answers they find may painfully tear their new found love apart.

Read More

Book review: The golden Lily by Richelle Mead

Author: Richelle Mead
Title: The golden Lily
Series: Bloodlines #2
Genre: Young adult, paranormal romance
Purchase: B&N  AMAZON
Rating: 5 stars

Summary on goodreads

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.

When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?

My thoughts (spoiler alert if you have not read book one)

This book is amazingly good and there was no way for me to put it down!

I was hooked from page one! For me it was the relationship between Sydney and Adrian that had my complete devotion when I read this book or rather their lack of relationship. But they really need to work on that!

Sydney is so frustrating and she drives me crazy sometimes. And she is way to judgemental for my liking but somehow despite that I kind of like her. She is really closed minded but she is opening up and perhaps that is why I still find her likeable. I do hope she realises soon that the Alchemists are so wrong about their view of the Moroi vampires.  Perhaps in the next one?
In this book Sydney is sort of dealing a lot with herself and her beliefs verses the Alchemists beliefs and they do not always match and that starts to become a problem for her and makes her question her loyalties.

Adrian is... well, he is dreamy. There are no other words for it. and even though he smokes and drinks I like him and I usally hate heavy drinkers and smokers so that says a lot... Well that and the fact that this is fiction, not real life. I feel so sorry for Adrian because he is so in to Sydney and she is "not", at least that is what she is telling herself. Well he is taking it kind of hard poor guy!

Anyway! Mead has done it again and written a fun, loving, romantic, exciting story that will keep you reading until your eyes hurt from all the reading you will be doing.

I loved it and can´t wait for the next one in this series!

Read More

Author In the Spotlight: First month wrap up!

Author in the spotlight !

So, we would like to wrap up this first month of author in the spotlight by thanking the lovely girls of jessie lane for being our first authors to kick start this new feature with us!

I really hope our readers like this new feature and we would love your feedback! Is there something you miss or an author you would like to see on the feature? We will do our best to make it happen.

Please give us your thoughts! 

 

Read More

Saturday snapshot!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce @ AT Home With Books.

Share your photos with us! They can be old or new but should be taken by you!

Me and my sister went out with some friends tonight! We went bowling and ate dinner at a resturuant called O´learys! We had a really fun evening!

I had pasta alfredo with chicken and a lemon pie for dessert (that was not my thing) In the pictures Sandra is to the left and I am to the right! Sandra killed us all in bowling, she was so much better than everyone else!

Read More

Author In the Spotlight: Cover reveal of THE FROZEN STAR!

COVER REVEAL!

Today we have the pleasure to reveal the cover of ”The Frozen Star” By Jessie Lane!

The Frozen Star is the sequel to the amazing book ” The Burning Star” and will be released during 2013.

Read More

Waiting on Wednesday (AIS): Secret Maneuvers

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme and is hosted by Jill @ breaking the spine.

This week we are waiting for the first book in the Ex Ops series!

We proudly present SECRET MANEUVERS by Jessie Lane!

RELEASE IN FEBRUARY 2013

Some mistakes from the past haunt us forever....

Read More

Tune in Tuesday: Takida

Tune in Tuesday is hosted by Ginger @ GReads

But this feature can now be found at Katelyn´s blog Kate´s tales of books and bands until further notice

My contribution this week is from a Swedish band called Takida. They are really good so you should really listen to at least the first song and the singer´s voice is so beautiful I think. It is not all that often I like swedish music but I Love this group and sometimes you need to be patriotic right?

You learn by Takida

Curly Sue by Takida

Haven stay by Takida

Read More

Teaser Tuesday: A new Dawn

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

*******************************************

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!

This week my teaser is from a current read that I got for review:

A new dawn by Ann H. Barlow

"How absurd, she thought, don´t be so bloody  stupid,
and then she tried to put the thought from her mind promising herself
that she would drink a bit less wine in the future.
She had a lot to do. She didn´t have time for nonsense."

Read More

Author In the Spotlight:When the Going gets tough by Jessie Lane

When The Going Gets Tough

Remember that phrase? When the going gets tough, the tough get going. But what is the measure of being tough? Who do you see and think, “Wow, they’ve got a will made of granite. Unbreakable.”

Do you assume it’s the guy who looks as if he’s spent half of his life dedicated to the gym and has muscles on top of his muscles? Or do you look at the quiet, slight slip of a teenage girl sitting in the Oncologist office, and realize beneath her pain she holds more determination than a whole gym full of muscle bound tough guys?

When Kay, the main character from The Burning Star, is diagnosed with a fast moving terminal cancer, her world stops. Being only seventeen years old, Kay is devastated when the Oncologists tell her that she will not live long past her eighteenth birthday, which is just months away. She watches as her Mom refuses to accept the doctor’s diagnosis and starts making plans to find a miracle cure. Kay battles with her emotions as she does her best to comfort her mom. She regrets not living her life to its fullest and the missed opportunities she had to be more of the person she always wanted to be. She never planned on being the quiet girl in the corner reading a book. She wanted to live the adventure. Experience that once in a lifetime love. Not just imagine what it was like through her favorite characters in the books she’s read. Now she has to plan the best way to say goodbye to her mother.

Out of the blue she meets Ryan. An inhumanly hot guy who saves her from an animal that suspiciously looks anything but normal. But after Ryan assures her it’s just a rabid dog and then blows her away by asking her, Ms.-Completely-Awkward-Around-All-Hot-Guys, out on a date, she sees her opportunity to live a little before she dies. Maybe even experience her first kiss. Then the insane happens. Her cute satellite installer guy, Nick, also asks for her phone number. Suddenly the girl who had her life before her but didn’t live at all is now the girl who has a timestamp on her future but is cramming all that she can into that life.

When her first date with Ryan goes horribly wrong, and a chain of unbelievable events unfolds, Kay finds out that there is more going on in her life than her cancer. Now she’s surrounded by the fact that things she believed were only fairytales or myths in books are real. Ryan is trying to convince her that she’s something that she’s not, and her mother has secrets so big, that it could blow her whole world apart. And when the going gets tough, Kay gets going.

Kay takes on all of her new obstacles head on. She never lets the protective, but pushy, Ryan and Nick tell her what she should do, or how to do it. This is her adventure, and she’s going to live it. But halfway through her journey to everything she never dreamed would be possible; she finds out that there might be a miracle cure for her after all. With new hope on the horizon, Kay will do anything to find a cure. But will she live long enough to find it?

Now who’s tough?

Read More

Book review: Of noble birth by Brenda Novak

Author: Brenda Novak
Title: Of noble birth
Series: High seas adventure #1
Genre: Adult, romantic suspense
Purchase: AMAZON  B&N
My rating: 4 stars

Summary from goodreads:

To escape her cruel stepfather, seamstress Alexandra Cogsworth envisioned sailing far from England...though not as a captive aboard a pirate's ship

Pirate captain Nathaniel Kent's strategy for exacting revenge on his coldhearted father involved taking a valuable hostage...not a seamstress he mistakenly thinks is his half sister. 

Yet fate has designs of its own, landing them both on board the Royal Vengeance. At sea, Nathaniel intercepts and plunders his father's ships, all the while tormented by his illicit hunger for the tempting prisoner he thinks is his blood relation. And although Alexandra wants no part in this terrifying voyage, to reveal her true identity to the handsome, blue-eyed Nathaniel would invite danger. Not only would she become worthless cargo, but the revelation would surely unleash what she and Nathaniel have been fiercely battling - a rising undercurrent of impossible desire that could sweep them away for good.

My thoughts:

I know the cover is a bit cheesy but this book was actually really good! I had no problem staying interested in this one. It was not the typical historical romance. It had some suspense and they did not end up in bed every ten pages like some romance novels. It was close a few times but no more than than that and I find that some how refreshing. Sometimes less is more.

I like the characters a lot. especially Nathaniel! He has such a big heart and he is courageous. He has only one arm and even though society think of him as a cripple that is not how he live his life. I love that he is able to walk his own path even though he has a little hang up on his father. 

Alexandra is also a very courageous woman. She is scared yes but she has courage! And she does not willingly go with her kidnappers, she puts up a fight!

It was a great read, one I had trouble to put down. So if you are a fan of historical romance. This is a book for you.

Read More

Saturday Snapshot!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce @ AT Home With Books.

Share your photos with us! They can be old or new but should be taken by you!

This week I will share a picture that I took yesterday on my way home from town where I had a drink with some friends.

Autumn is really here! Urgh. I really am more of a summer girl =)

Read More

Authot In the Spotlight: Excerpt from Secret Maneuvers by Jessie Lane

Hi everyone! 

This week will be devoted to excerpts from the three books we have presented during this month! We vill start of with The burning star and then we will give you excerpts from Big bad bite and secret manoeuvres on Wednesday and Friday as well. Happy reading!

Jessie Lane´s Social Websites:

Website

Facebook 

Twitter

Goodreads

RELEASE DATE IN FEBRUARI 2013

Excerpt from Secret Manevuers by Jessie Lane

I  had just been medically discharged four years earlier due to a bullet to the knee. Apparently the Army thinks you can’t be a fully functioning badass Ranger if your knee cap is replaced with a   few metal bits. Which makes them entirely cracked in my opinion. It’s not like I was the tin man and they had to keep my loaded in body oil. So after a crap load of physical therapy, energized by nothing more than my dogged determination to still be all that I could be, I was out of my soldier’s career, and walking around in civilian life with nothing fun to do. Suddenly I’m approached by a couple of guys that make spies working for the CIA look like complete amateurs. With one question, they had my complete attention. “Would you like to serve your country in ways you’ve never dreamed were possible?”
Can I get fries with that order of what the fuck? With a few well placed questions like, “Who the hell are you?”, and “What’s in it for me?”, next thing I know, I’m signing the dotted line to hand my life over in ways the Army never owned it.
Fingerprints? Who needs ‘em? Let’s wipe the records of those suckers off the face of the earth so they’re not an issue for later. Fake ID’s needed for undercover jobs? No problem. Weapons and ammunition? Step over to what we like to call Toys ‘R’ Us for grown men. Pick a weapon, any weapon.
What are the catches? Well now that you asked - we own you. As in you don’t take a crap without our sanctioning first. Might as well go ahead and accept that. You have an initial six year contract. No way out of it but going six feet underground. Or wherever else your body may be dumped. Never ever talk about the team.
On paper, you are a privately funded Special Operations Team hired out for hostage rescue, high target bodyguards and security specialists. Yes, you will take the occasional side job to help keep up this public opinion. Off paper, you are the U.S. government’s go to guy. In other words, if we can’t legally send someone in to do the job, we’ll send you in instead. That way if you fuck up, we cannot be held responsible for your actions.

 BLURB

Some mistakes from the past haunt us forever...
One 'dear John' letter haunts Bobby Baker's every living moment. It’s the letter he stupidly wrote to his high school sweetheart, Belle, right after he left to join the Army. The letter that he told her that he wasn't so sure if they were ready for forever yet. But before he can let her know that the letter, and his second thoughts, are nothing but a mistake, she up and disappears from the small Georgia town they were both raised in. 

Unless fate steps in with a second chance...
Fifteen years later, Belle unknowingly walks back into Bobby's life when her job as an ATF Agent forces her to work with a group of men secretly headed by the CIA to help her track down whoever is involved in funneling black market weapons to a drug cartel in Mexico.
Bobby will use this mission to try and soothe Belle's hurt feelings while proving to her that their love is still meant for forever. He'll use every dirty trick he's learned since he joined the Army to maneuver her back into his life for the long haul. But Belle's not making it easy as she keeps him at arm's length in the hopes that mistakes of her own never come to light.

Read More

Bookreview: Unbound by Cat Miller

Title: Unbound

Author: Cat Miller
Genre: Adult paranormal romance
Series: The Forbidden Bond #1
Purchase: Amazon
My rating:

Betrayal, passion, family secrets, murder, and vampires...

What else would one expect during their freshman year of college?

After her birth, Danielle Vaughn, and her mother were ushered out of town in a surreptitious attempt to save her life; vampire prejudice can be deadly.

Like any normal nineteen year old, her biggest worry in life was blending in and working hard to keep her grades up. Her departure from a small town in search of a higher education causes a domino effect; she quickly finds herself maneuvering through a maze of enemies and lovers who are all hell bent on capturing her at any cost.

Danielle’s life is turned upside down by the return of her father and the society of vampires that shattered her human mother’s life. She must find a way to survive in the new world she is thrust into by a power hungry rogue on the hunt for gifted vampire youth. The hierarchy of the vampire nation is rocked by the existence of a demi-vamp who has challenged their narrow-minded views of the human race. 

My Thoughts: 

I absolutely love this series! I almost always read YA books so this was a first for me in this genre.  There was a lot of moments when I was like " what! Did she really write that!?". There is a lot of "adult action" (lol) in this book and for me it was very refreshing to read a book that is not tiptoing around a subject that always hangs in the air even in YA books. 

The story itself was awesome and new for me. The story was kind of raw and exactly what I think a vampirestory should be. It builds up to be very exciting and for me it was hard to anticipate what was to come and I love that.

Danielle I adore! She is so sweet but at the same time kind of "bad". She´s kind of kick ass at times. She has alot of trouble choosing her guy but in the end she picks one.
At one time she was thinking about 4 different guys and I was like, pick one! Preferabely Chase!

All of the boys are old school and both gentlemen and asses at the same time but I really love them anyway. I love the way they are to Danielle.

This is a must read for all vampire lovers! lol

  

Read More

Waiting on Wednesday: If I Should Die

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme 

and is hosted by Jill @ breaking the spine.

This week I am waiting for the third and final book in the Revenant series!

 

If I Should Die by Amy Plum

Release in May 2013

 

Read More

Author in the Spotlight:Excerpt from BIG BAD BITE by Jessie Lane

Hi everyone! 

This week will be devoted to excerpts from the three books we have presented during this month! We vill start of with The burning star and then we will give you excerpts from Big bad bite and secret manoeuvres on Wednesday and Friday as well. Happy reading!

Jessie Lane´s Social Websites:

Website

Facebook 

Twitter

Goodreads

RELEASE DATE IN DECEMBER 2012

Excerpt from Big Bad Bite by Jessie Lane

Looking back, she saw that the suspect was sitting in the back of the first patrol car, while the red head with unusual amber eyes held something out for Capt. Nelson to inspect. The rest of the team started clambering around in the back of the van in front of her, so she couldn’t hear what he was saying to Nelson. But as much as she was curious, Jenna was even more anxious to put some much needed distance between herself and the tasty looking stranger who’s head could be mistaken for a red headed porcupine.

Taking a second, she ran her eyes from his booted feet back to his piercing gaze. He was just over six feet tall and probably about two hundred and twenty pounds. His fitted gray t-shirt pulled tight across his chest. Well worn denim hugged his thick thighs. He was a pretty hulking guy that seemed to be stocked with more muscle than most guys carried in the arms or chest, followed by a trim waist. He cut a memorable picture with his short hair sticking up in multiple directions, as if he’d been running his hands through it while agitated. It was a shame she wasn’t the type to do a little flirting with what looked like a prime virile male.

The Captain was handing the guy’s identification back to him while explaining something. They shook hands and then Nelson walked away from him, heading back towards the van. The stranger looked directly at Jenna, and cocked an eyebrow as he crossed his arms over his chest. His stare was penetrating and demanding. It sent shivers down her spine and sent a rush of heat that spread though her entire body. The instincts she’d come to rely on all her life where running amok, telling her that instead of body burning arousal, she should have been feeling fear instead. She recognized the mannerisms of an Alpha exuding his dominance. It was a damn good thing her logic was kicking her body’s reactions in the metaphorical head, cause she was barely restraining the need to leap the difference between the two of them and cover his body with her own. Or perhaps, bare her neck to him in submission.

Jenna snorted. They’d be serving popsicles in hell before she’d bare her throat to anyone.

A memory of her only paternal family member, Uncle Owen, flashed through her mind. Sitting on a fallen log surrounded by the woods behind her Mama’s house, patiently explaining the hierarchy of shifters. The expectations of their pack mentality. Ol’ Alpha boy here wanted Jenna to drop her eyes and look away if she wouldn’t bare her vulnerable neck. That way she acknowledged who and what he was. Giving him the assurance that she understood who was in charge. Instead, Jenna continued to stare back at him coolly. Silently telling him where he could take his dominance and shove it.

But she had to admit that it took every fiber of her being not to look down and away.

He was just that damn strong. Which was kind of scary since she’d never felt the urge to show submission to anyone before.

Kent’s hand landed on her shoulder from behind. “Come on O’Conner. Get your Annie Oakley wannabe ass in here so we can go. We’ve all got paperwork to go back and fill out now.”

With no choice left, she broke eye contact and climbed in the van, closing the door behind herself to cut off any view of the stranger. If she had any good luck left, this would be the last she’d see of him. If only crossing her fingers would help those chances, she would do it. Jenna didn’t necessarily think the guy had figured out what she was. Or wasn’t for that matter. But her family had tried their best to hide her, and teach her to avoid all other shifters for so long, that she silently prayed their attempts would not have been in vain just because this guy got curious. Her Mama had raised her with all of the knowledge that if certain shifters every found who or what she was, she was as good as dead.

Here’s to hoping she hadn’t just stumbled on to the beginning of her funeral.

 BLURB

What would it be like to live in a world where you are considered abnormal to those who are above the norm?

Jenna O’ Conner has been taught her whole life to hide from everyone. Never to let anyone to close enough to know that she would prefer a shotgun for her birthday over of a bouquet of roses. She’s been smothered by her over protective family so that no one learns what she truly is. Which is not human. Nor, is she considered the norm for the supernatural Other community that is benevolent enough to share this world with the humans.

In a desperate attempt to live her own life away from the small town she was raised in, Jenna obtains her dream job as the newest member on the Wilmington Police Department’s SWAT Team. What she didn’t predict was that she would run into trouble her first day on the job, in the form of a deadly, mouthwatering man named Adam McPhee. Who is also not human, but more like a wolf walking around in human skin. He’s determined to figure out exactly what Jenna is, which unbeknownst to him, could very well put her life in danger. He’s also determined to have her all to himself.

As if that wasn’t enough for Jenna to deal with, bad news blows into town. A group of extremist Shifters who think humans are cattle and factions of Othersworldwide should stay within their own species - never to intermingle. Chaos ensues. Jenna has to find a way to shut them down, but in the process of trying to do that, discovers things about herself that even she never thought was possible.

Who said the wolf was what you had to worry about?

Welcome to the real world.

Read More

Teaser Tuesday: The Golden Lily

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

*******************************************

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!

My teaser this week is from The golden lily by Richelle Mead

"I dared a peek at Adrian. 

He no longer looked angry, but there was still a fierceness there. 

It was almost.... protective."

Read More