I've said it before and I'll say it again. This series just keeps getting better. I even believe the author is hitting his stride as the writing keeps getting better with each book.

It has everything... terrific characters, great action, and the ambush scene at the end is heart-stopping.

I'm along for the ride now.

I'm so far behind on my posts!  The weather out here has been so warm for the first time in forever.  So I was terrible and sat on my patio on my days off and soaked up some sun while I read.  Which was a wonderful thing and relaxing!  If only it hadn't put me behind on February posts.  However it looks like I might manage to get caught up before March 1st gets here.  Can't believe that is here on Tuesday either...

 

Anyway, luck was on my side this month for many things.  One of which was being able to make to the second book and author event I wanted to attend this month.  The Queen of the Night isn't typically a book that I would pick up, but the cover was hard to look away from.  So I clicked the link to see what it was about and I was hooked.  There is something about this book that I me intrigued.

 

   

 

Lilliet Berne is a sensation of the Paris Opera, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role, every singer’s chance at immortality. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the libretto is based on a hidden piece of her past. Only four could have betrayed her: one is dead, one loves her, one wants to own her. And one, she hopes, never thinks of her at all.  As she mines her memories for clues, she recalls her life as an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe and was swept up into the glitzy, gritty world of Second Empire Paris. In order to survive, she transformed herself from hippodrome rider to courtesan, from empress’s maid to debut singer, all the while weaving a complicated web of romance, obligation, and political intrigue.

 

So there's all I know about the book.  I haven't read any reviews that have been popping up since it's released, or anyone lucky enough to have gotten an early copy.  Well, I know it's gotten some pretty awesome reviews.  Which it great!  I just didn't read farther into it.  I want to go into this fresh and unaware of too much or with any kind of spoilers.

 

Alexander Chee read the first few pages of the book, and I have moved the book up to the must read pile.  Just those few pages were beautifully done.  The world that Alexander Chee is writing is one I don't know so well.  It's not the setting or the time period that I read often.  Though I have no doubt that I will enjoy this book.  In fact it might be one of the ones I bring with my on vacation that is now just a few short weeks away.

 

This will be my first book by Alexander Chee and after meeting him I really do have high hopes for the Queen of the Night.  It was a nice evening getting to see the time and research that went into the making of the book.  All of the little things that sort of came together for it to happen, and the road that was taken.  I love getting those little windows at events like this.

 

As for the author himself, Alexander Chee was so sweet and it was a pleasure to meet him.  I cannot wait to make it to his book and I might to add a few his other pieces to my TBR.

 

 

I love that he drew us little crowns in our books!

October is shaping up to be quite a busy month for me event wise.  A lot of fun things coming to my local bookstores, and they are happening on days/times when I'm not at work.  I'm super excited for all of these and I'm hoping to have time to go most of them. Sadly a couple fall on the same day so I'm being forced pick the one I'd rather go to.  Even if I haven't read some of the books, they are at least on my TBR, and I'd like to go here the author speak.  It gives me a reason to pick up the book and get it signed.   October really shaping up to be a heck of a month!

 

Book Event:

Harry Potter Release Party for the new Illustrated Edition

Color Me Happy Hour for the release of Lost Ocean 

Night Vale book release party

 

Author Events:

 Patrick Ness for The Rest of Us Live Here

Cristin Aptowicz for Dr. Mutter's Marvels

Megan Chance for The Visitant

Catherynne Valente for Radiance 

 

It is sort of silly on my part, reviewing The Mane Event. I mean, let’s face it, Shelly Laurenston is a well-known Paranormal Fantasy author (read, more shifter sex than shifter adventure, but there ya go). I really do try to review mostly unknown and Indie authors. This book has, as of this moment, 135 reviews on Amazon, and mine is just one more. But I have to tell you, the reason I am reviewing? Well, because I laughed my ass off!!! And I mean that in a good way, not a “I laughed because the book was so bad I couldn’t help myself.” Instead, I laughed because Shelly Laurenston is just darn FUNNY! I laughed long, and loud, and with tears running down my cheeks and the occasional “OMG I am going to have to change my underwear soon” sort of laughter I haven’t been able to enjoy in a very long time. There is, of course, a lot of sex in the book, as is to be expected from the genre, so one must keep that in mind. However, the dry wit, subtle humour, and occasional outright outlandishness of the book more than make up for the sex scenes, if you aren’t a person that likes that sort of thing. And if you do like that sort of thing? Well, those parts are well written and hot as heck – so what’s to lose by immersing yourself?

This book is really a ‘two-fer’ in that there are two complete, and yet tied together stories included. In Christmas Pride you first meet Mace Llewellyn, former Navy SEAL, now retired, and the only Pride Breeding Male of the Llewellyn line. Well, at least he would be a Pride Breeding Male if he would stand for that sort of bull. Instead, he is determined to track down and capture Desiree “Dez” McDemot, his true ladylove since the age of fourteen. Even if capturing requires ‘taking care of’ any other male who happens to have the misfortune of being in the path of his goal. Imagine his surprise, therefore, when Dez is on site as the lead detective on the murder case currently being investigated at the Pride home. Now, the chase is on, and Mace has no intention of letting Dez escape – Bronx accented, tough, Puerto Rican, full-human that she is. A chase that infuriates Mace’s sister, Missy, “f'king queen of the Serengeti” and leader of the Llewellyn pride. The very rich, very entitled and elitist, and very purist leader of the Llewellyn pride. Allowing Mace to claim Dez is absolutely NOT on Missy’s agenda - especially as Petrov, the only other Pride Breeding Male in residence has just been murdered.

While the mating chase of Mace and Dez is funny, interesting, and hot as a cast iron skillet just out of the oven, what is really interesting is the murder mystery. What happened to Petrov? How did someone get to him, and who-dun-it and why? There is something going on here, something that could put the whole Llewellyn pride in danger. And the fact that Dez is the person in charge of finding out what drives Missy right out of her ‘tree’ and leads to a plot that is much more serious than anyone could have expected.

Add then there is Mace’s friend and fellow soldier Smitty and his pack. “Pack and Pride, dog and cat’. . . the military created strange bedfellows.” Especially when Mace is rich and entitled, and Smitty is a no-holds-barred Tennessee redneck. With Smitty and his pack now firmly ensconced along with Mace in New York while they set up their security business, the opportunities for hysteria are numerous.

The second story in the book is Shaw’s Tail. We meet Brendon Shaw at the climax of the previous novel, as he is located in the tunnels beneath the city by Dez and the wolf pack. Severely wounded by a vicious hyena pack and barely able to stand, Brendon is rescued and taken to hospital – but not before getting a whiff of something wonderful, powerful, and delicious – and catches a glimpse of a pair of beautiful hazel eyes. Oops. Cats and dogs, anyone? For Brendon Shaw is a proven Lion Breeding Male, and his new obsession is in no way, shape, form, or fashion going to be acceptable to Missy! Because Ronnie Lee Reed is a redneck Tennessee Hillbilly Beta wolf, with attitude to spare.

Stuck with babysitting duty in the hospital with Shaw by her Alpha female, Sissy Mae Smith, Ronnie is in for a lot more than just babysitting duty. When Shaw takes down two strange humans with jackal scent all over them in his hospital room, Ronnie whisks Shaw away to her aunt’s house in Long Island, only to have Shaw’s ‘healing fever’ cause a world of trouble for her, and a world of hysterical laughter for me. Can we all say “full grown lion doing the Mamba in the neighbor’s front yard?” And then there is always the doggy “play bow,” front down, ass in the air (and do you think he is EVER going to live that one down . . .?)

There is action and adventure in this story line, hot nookie and laughter, and a good dose of mystery and suspense. All in all? I am now deeply addicted to Shelly Laurenston and her Pride Series. If you like paranormal romance with a good dose of mystery, action, and laughter, you can’t go wrong!

4 Hearts

Review written for MM Good Book Reviews

A cataclysmic event causes the world Lucian knew to nearly cease to exist, with the earth churned up and building crumbling Lucian's small band of survivors seek others and shelter, but with the acid rain and the strange night time creatures they have a harsh journey ahead of them. Raide was a novice monk when the earthquake first struck and the acid rain fell, he watched as those around him disappeared and with another young novice sets out to discover what happened. Raide and Lucian meet, Raide overjoyed that his soul-mate still lives and their attraction flares, but the Dark Ones are out there seeking to spread their blackness and Raide and Lucian must fight for each other.

This is a great story of two nearly parallel worlds colliding, with few survivors and a daunting new world. Lucian survives the earthquake and the acid rain, he rushes to his best friend Emanuel and they discover nearly everyone else has disappeared. With one other survivor they set off to check on loved ones and join up with those who have survived, they face the desolation and set off for the city hoping there are more people. Raide and Julius are the only survivors at the monastery and they set off to find out what has happened and if anyone else has survived, but they fall into the hands of the Dark Ones before being rescued by Raide's soul-mate, Lucian, and they all embark on a journey of survival hoping to avoid the Dark Ones and the night creatures.

This is one of those stories that has quite a bit for us to grasp, somehow two parallel worlds have collided and the destruction is devastating, we have bands of survivors searching for others, but none of them can make sense of what has happened until people from the opposite worlds meet. Mysterious night creatures attack at night and there are bands of Dark Ones or evil people who roam during the day, then we have the various relationships of the survivors. We also discover that some people on Raide's world have soul-mates and some people can see auras, it adds that bit of extra intrigue to the story as well as the fact that Raide's world was three month's in-front with time.

This story holds your attention from the start but you do begin to question Lucian's relationship with Emanuel early on, but you begin to understand the dynamics of their friendship. Lucian's and Raide's relationship is pretty special their coming together is both sweet and powerful. The discoveries we make are good and the slight action we see is great. The band of survivors are an interesting selection and you become invested in their journey and wonder what they face. The world building is great, you get a wonderful sense of the desolation that surrounds them all on their journey with the burnt out cars and destroyed buildings, the piles of empty clothes and the nameless, faceless identification as though those that are gone never existed.

I recommend this to those who love strange post-apocalyptic events, bonds being made, relationships being forged, hot sweet loving, kidnappings and rescues and and ending that is also a beginning.