Hauling Sunday LX

Hey everyone!

Hope you had a nice week-end :) Mine was pretty relaxed. The weather has been rainy - perfect weather to cuddle in bed with a good book :) Which is what I did. Ended up re-reading Sense of Evil and Hunting Fear by Kay Hooper. Just felt like it :) Then, today, I looked up the new releases for the next couple of months :) Filling  blank pages with books to come really cheered me up LOL Now, I'm really looking forward to the next couple of months!

In the afternoon, I drove my sister to town cos she had a midterm. Gave me the occasion to shop... I got a few tops, but more importantly, more books! There was a 20% discount plus my usual 10% member discount :) Wooohooo. Here is what I got:

Snapped by Laura Griffin - Leslie really enjoyed this book based on her review  :) The blurb sounds really good and I skimmed through the book a little and... I'm in LOL. Also, lately, it seems I'm starting to overdose on a lot of genres (historical, small-town contemporary, paranormal...), but romantic suspense is not one of them :)

Home Sweet Home by Bella Riley - Yeah, I said I'm a bit burn-out on small-town romance... but for some reasons, I'm attracted to this one. I think it's the blurb once again :) Also, the price... 6.50$ + 20% off+ 10% off... It was pretty cheap! :)

In Total Surrender by Anne Mallory - I hesitated a lot about this one. I have not read Ms Mallory's books before, but this one has been getting good reviews in blogland. I skimmed through the book and indeed, it sounds really good :) Plus, I thought it'd be good to support the author... I've never read Ms Mallory before, but I have two of her books that I've received free from RWA.

Dragon Actually and About a Dragon by G.A. Aiken - I got these books because I know Tabitha enjoys this series a lot. At first, I was just going to get the first book, Dragon Actually, but reading the blurbs, I couldn't help but smile :) If I'm going to get the same reaction while I'm reading the books, they'll be really worth it!

So there it is, my books this week... More like today LOL.

Review: Spider's Revenge by Jennifer Estep

Yes, I finally able to stop watching Startling Early Steps and focus on my review LOL. It freaking took me 3 days to write it, so I hope I did a good job... although I don't know. It doesn't feel complete to me ^_^;

I'm really having difficulty lately to write review. The worst is that I want to review!! But when it comes to choosing which books and to put my feelings into words... Ugh. So frustrating. I guess I'm having the reviewing blues ^_^;

In any case, I hope it was the right decision to choose Spider's Revenge and that you will enjoy the review!


***Warning: There are spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk!***

Spider's Revenge by Jennifer Estep
published by Simon & Schuster

Old habits die hard for assassins.
And I plan on murdering someone before the night is through.

Killing used to be my regular gig, after all. Gin Blanco, aka the Spider, assassin-for-hire. And I was very, very good at it. Now, I’m ready to make the one hit that truly matters: Mab Monroe, the dangerous Fire elemental who murdered my family when I was thirteen. Oh, I don’t think the mission will be easy, but turns out it’s a bit more problematic than expected. The bitch knows I’m coming for her. So now I’m up against the army of lethal bounty hunters Mab hired to track me down. She also put a price on my baby sister’s head. Keeping Bria safe is my first priority. Taking Mab out is a close second. Good thing I’ve got my powerful Ice and Stone magic—and my irresistible lover, Owen Grayson—to watch my back. This battle has been years in the making, and there’s a good chance I won’t survive. But if I’m going down, then Mab’s coming with me . . . no matter what I have to do to make that happen.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Elemental Assassin series, Book #5

The Story: Gin Blanco, aka the Spider, is anxious. She has declared war against Ashland's strongest elemental and mob queen Mab Monroe, who turned out to be an old family enemy. Now, she just wants it to be all over - which means killing Mab - so her family and friends can be safe. However, Gin is not the only one growing anxious... Mab is too. She wants things to be over just as much as Gin - with a different ending, of course. To speed it all up, she has called in reinforcements: bounty hunters... and some of them are actually competent! The stakes get higher when Gin finds out that Mab has not only placed a bounty on the Spider - which is expected, but also on her baby sister, Detective Bria Coolridge. It's high time to end things... but can Gin really take on Mab in a face-off? And whom will Lady Luck favor?

My Opinion: So, Spider's Revenge. LOL, well the title says it all, right? Very appropriate :) It was a satisfying ending for the story arc and overall, I enjoyed it :)

As usual, Spider's Revenge has a very short timeline and is action-packed... and as usual, Ms Estep makes it work :) I think the storyline of Spider's Revenge was very solid. While we all knew how this book was going to end - with the death of Mab, Ms Estep was able to make the storyline interesting with a few twists :) The addition of the bounty hunters was a good idea to mix things up. I really liked Ruth Gentry and Sidney. Not because Sidney reminded Gin of herself at that age; instead, it was the fact that they were competent foes for Gin. Also, there's the fact that they're not "bad" like the other people that work for Mab and Gin has gone against in previous books. That meant Gin's dealing with them was different. Oh I'm sure that if they had really pose a danger, Gin wouldn't hesitate to get rid of them... but since it wasn't the case, she had to be a bit more wily :)

Another aspect of the book that I really liked was the relationships. Finn and Bria finally pair up - not surprising, but good to see :) You also have Owen and Gin declaring their love for each other :) I'm glad that Gin is finally overcoming Donovan Caine. I mean seriously, Owen is a prize and she should never let go. Also, the image of Owen fighting with hammer... I'd like to see that :) What I liked best though was the part where Jojo revealed to Gin how she met Fletcher and how her alliance with Fletcher and later Gin started. When you depend so much on a person to put you back together injuries after injuries, it's nice to know where their loyalty stems from... So you know that your own loyalty is not misplaced. After all, Gin is from a very dark world.

What dimmed my enjoyment of Spider's Revenge a little was the lack of excitement... and this lack of excitement stems from the predictability of the series. Yes, Ms Estep was able to make things interesting with the twists, but ultimately, I knew that Gin and Mab would face off and Mab would die. Or for example, Finn and Bria hooking up. It was great to see happening, but as I mentioned it wasn't a surprise. I just think that all along the series, Ms Estep has been too obvious in her next moves and her agenda. Her foreshadowing was big neon signs in the dark ^_^; Which is actually why I'm so glad this storyarc is ending. It means that with the next book, By A Thread, we're going into unknown territories. Ms Estep can start a whole new storyarc and we, the readers, are totally in the dark :)

My Grade: B. Spider's Revenge had the potential to be great in my opinion... if only it had been accompanied by a breathless feeling, the urge to turn the pages as fast as you can to know what will happen next. It is nonetheless a very solid and enjoyable read :) And as corny as it may sound, Spider's Revenge is not the end of things, but a new beginning for the readers :) And guess what? When I was at RWA, Ms Estep told me that Donovan Caine would be back in By A Thread... I think things are going to get exciting!

When TV gets in the way...

There's a review on the way, I promise! I've been working on one, I swear... but I've stumbled across a new chinese TV series on Monday. Seriously, why not Thursday when I started my days off? Of course not, it had to be by the end of it. Anyway, the TV series is Bu Bu Jing Xin aka Startling Early Steps. It's a 35 or 40 episodes novel adaptation... The story is about a modern 25 years old woman being electrocuted in an accident and waking 300 years ago, in the body of a 16 years old girl during the Qing dynasty. She becomes the Emperor's maid and is embroiled in the court intrigues as the princes fight for the throne. And I'm watching it with subtitles... Vietnamese and English, LOL. Whatever I can get my hands on... which is why it takes more concentration and time to watch... If I don't pay attention, I basically don't know what's happening!!

The series is pretty good. I like the court intrigues and the series is quite faithful to the novel and the novel, to history :) I's not a comedy and it's not about the modern girl trying to changes things up in ancient time, so that's really good with me :) Aside from the court intrigues, well it's all about relationships... Take a look at the map fans made :P

I'm a bit annoyed that all these guys are in love/develop feelings for the heroine. Makes the heroine a bit too Mary Sue for me. The acting is also pretty superb and spot on :) And to add to everything is the decors, sets, costumes... It's  so authentic and gorgeous. The embroideries on what the princes wear... Make them even more handsome! And there are several eye candies in there... Of course, I'd rather them to have more hair LOL... but that what happens when you watch a TV series set in the Qing dynasty.

 I got to catch up with two of my favorite actors...  Nicky Wu and Kevin Cheng:

         
Jeez, hard to believe they are 40-something :) And I've become a fangirl of Yuan Hong!

Just love, love, love his role of Prince 13th!! :)

Okay, I'm going to finish watching what I have and then work on my review. Hopefully, sometime tomorrow... In the meantime, I leave you with the opening. Enjoy!

Hauling Sunday LIX

Nothing much going on with me this week-end :) I'm just relaxing LOL. 

Here are the books I bought this week:

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan - And Percy Jackson is back!! :) I wasn't too sure about this book, because I thought The Lost Hero was okay... However, I just finished reading The Son of Neptune yesterday and it's really good!! If you're a fan of this series, you don't want to miss The Son of Neptune!!

A Touch of Crimson by Sylvia Day - I picked up this book because Ames enjoyed it. Plus, I heard Ms Day talking about this series last year at RT and I'm a sucker for reincarnation :)

Bring Me Home for Christmas by Robyn Carr - I was looking for A Touch of Crimson at the bookstore, looking on the cart, when I stumbled across this book. LOL, I jumped on it since it's supposed to come out only later this month! The Virgin River series has its ups and its downs and I'm hoping that Denny's story is going to be an up :) High school sweethearts reunion combined with Christmas spirit :P

And there you go :) A quiet week for me, but better than no books at all!

Derailment...

Hey there everyone!

Sorry to have been MIA in the past few days... Sigh. Once again, my plans had gone awry. As you all know, Ames was supposed to come over this week-end, but she had an accident :( The good thing is that her trip is not cancelled! Just pushed back... probably till after the New Year. So yeah, a little disappointed, but the most important is that Ames is okay :)

Since I already asked for Thursday and Friday off, I decided to keep them! Seriously, I need a break from work. Was really looking forward to this extra long week-end! So first thing I do on Thursday is as usual, to turn on my computer... and I get this error message that Windows cannot load because config32 has been deleted or corrupted. WTF?!? I panicked during a moment, because I haven't back-up my stuff for a couple of months and I thought I'd lose everything! Finally went on my dad's computer, typed the message and followed the instruction. That got me into Safe mode. Yay! Started backing-up everything... the reason I don't like to do that is because it takes sooooo freaking long!! In the meantime, I had to drive my sister to school and my mom decided she wanted to go shop... Then, I came home and back to the computer it was. So I was able to access safe mode; however, I couldn't carry out the next step to repair config32. So I tried to restore my computer to an earlier point - all the restore points had been delete. Ugh. That meant only one thing was left to do: re-format the computer. Yes, again. This is probably the third time I had to re-format my computer ^_^; Once Windows was up and running again, that meant re-installing all the programs and etc. So yeah, it pretty much took me the whole day :( Then, in the evening, we went out to eat for my sister's birthday.

Speaking of my sister's birthday, well it was on Thursday which was when Ames was supposed to arrive. When my sister learned that Ames wasn't coming, she was a bit bummed... She was like: "Oh, I could have done something with my friends then." Seriously, I admit I still don't get it, because hey, even if Ames was here, my sister could have done something with her friends. But whatever... So I told her to do something and she was like: "But this is too last minute, you know my friends." Well I don't see why she shouldn't try, so on Tuesday night, I started calling her friends and try to do a surprise party. Of course, I'm not very subtle so yesterday night, when her friends arrive, she knew LOL. But at least, we had a good turn-out and she had a good time :) So that was pretty much my day yesterday, running around to get ready for the surprise party.

But now, now I'm free!!! Woohoo!! Still have three days of freedom ahead of me :) With absolutely no plans! I've been re-reading the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher the whole week. Next is going to be Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan... Maybe I'll finally do my Monthly Reads post LOL... Get ahead in my blogging. LOL, a girl can dream, right? :)

In any case, I hope you have a nice week-end!! :)

Review: Kate Daniels series novellas

See, this is my kind of laziness. I was looking at my Monthly Reads post and decided that instead of doing mini-impression, it would be quicker to put these three reads in a review. Wrong!! It sure wasn't faster, but in the end I'm happy with the results LOL. How can I have so much to say about novellas though, that baffles me :P

Nothing much going on with me. I've decided to re-read Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher... and am slowly getting ready for Ames' arrival. I'm really looking forward to the two days off at the end of the week!! Yay!! Now I'm off to review more books from August... Enjoy this post!


Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews

published by Berkley in August 2011

Shapeshifting tigress Dali Harimau finds herself in deep waters when she must challenge a dark being to a battle of wits or risk losing the man for whom she secretly longs.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Kate Daniels series, Book #4.5

The Story: Dali Harimau is a petite Indonesian woman who wears coke-bottle glasses and can shapeshift into a vegetarian white tiger. She is very smart, but not physically strong and therefore feels cuddled by the Beast Lord and her Alpha's rules. While Dali might stretch the limits of these rules, she is always ready to help the Pack. When Jim comes to Dali for her expertise on South Asian magic, she quickly realizes that something is wrong with her Alpha. After poking around, Dali finds out that Jim is being possessed by a Japanese spider demon and said demon is draining Jim from his life energy. Dali is determined to save Jim's life... even if it means putting her own at risk.

My Opinion: I loved Magic Dreams. Simply loved it :) When I picked up the anthology, I had no idea that Dali was the narrator of this Kate Daniels series installment... but when I found out, SQUEEEE!!! I loved Dali from the first when she was introduced in Magic Strikes. She's just so quirky LOL. I mean, seriously, did you ever hear of a vegetarian tiger that get sick at the sight of blood? Also, she has attitude in spades. Being able to stand up to Curran and Jim is no small accomplishment. So yeah, it just made my day to read a story from her POV and to see her romance with Jim unfolds :)

I always thought the strengths of the Kate Daniels series were 1) the characters, 2) the plots and 3) the touch of humor. Well Ms Andrews reinforced this belief for me with Magic Dreams. I enjoyed reading about Dali and Jim, finding out more about their personalities. They are secondary characters that definitively had potential to be expanded and it was great of Ms Andrews to do so. I also loved reading about Jim and Dali's feelings for each other. It's been hinted that Jim had feelings for Dali in Magic Bleeds and I was curious about it. In Magic Dreams, it's more from Dali's perspectives, but it's good to see that she reciprocated his feelings :) Still, you can see how much Dali matters to Jim... I mean, he learned her dialect! That was really cute. So overall, I was very happy with the romance :)

I think that Ms Andrews did a great job at balancing everything in this novella: the characters, the romance and the storyline. The storyline was both interesting and complex. I thought that was really important, so it kept with the spirit of the series. It also fit Dali's background really well, which made it even better. Then, there were the touches of humor :) It's great when you're reading a story and just laugh out loud because of those :)

My only issue with this novella was Dali's voice. I simply think that it is not very distinct from Kate. What keeps them separate is Dali's Asian background and her strength being different from Kate, but otherwise... I think it's partly due to both women being snarky and thinking the same way, plus how the story is actually constructed. But really, this is a very small complaint and perhaps if we had a full-length novel with Dali as a heroine, it wouldn't be a problem at all ;)

My Grade: A. Magic Dreams is one of the best novellas I've read. Of course, if it was a possibility, I would have loved for Magic Dreams to be longer, would have loved to read more of Dali and Jim... However, as a novella, it is well-written, complete and a great read :) I hope we'll get to see them more as a couple in the future books :)


Curran POV vol. 1 by Gordon Andrews
published by Ilona Andrews in July 2010

This isn't a short story or a novella. This is a collection of scenes written by Gordon Andrews as a companion to our Kate Daniels series of books. These scenes illustrate the point of view of Curran, the Beast Lord of Atlanta and are provided in gratitude to our readers for all of their support. This collection isn't meant to stand on its own as an independent work of fiction.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Kate Daniels series

My Opinion: As described in the blurb, Curran POV is a collection of scenes from the Kate Daniels series written from Curran's POV. These scenes are a couple of pages each and are definitively not meant to be read as a stand-alone. However, fans of the Kate Daniels series will definitively enjoy them :) I know, I did.

I think these scenes give us a better insight at Curran, a better idea of who is Curran, which is a good thing considering that all we've read in the Kate Daniels series have come from Kate's POV. I don't think that Kate's view of Curran is romanticized and actually, he has told her many times what to expect from... but still, I don't think I really believed it till I read some of his thoughts and actions. After reading Curran POV, I find Curran more ruthless and domineering than ever. Perhaps subconsciously, I was the one romanticizing his character.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Curran POV. Whatever is found in this collection doesn't alter the events that has taken place... but it was fun to read these scenes from Curran's POV. To know his thoughts, his feelings and his reactions to some of the things that happened. I especially enjoyed his impressions of Kate when they first met and my favorite scene is when he is feeding soup to Kate in Magic Burns :)  Therefore a big thank you Mr Andrews has taken the time to write these little snippets and that he shared it with us :)

My Grade: B.


Fathers and Sons by Gordon Andrews

published by Ilona Andrews in May 2011

Infuriated by Kate's treatment at the hands of the Pack, the Beast Lord demands an explanation. When words fail, claws and fangs must do the talking.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Kate Daniels series, Book #4.25/Curran POV, Book #2

The Story: Fathers and Sons takes place just after Magic Bleeds. Curran wakes up from his coma and is none to happy to hear that his mate had had to face 22 challenges in the past two weeks. He is especially angry at Mahon, his adoptive father and Alpha of Clan Heavy, because with his support, Mahon could have prevented the situation... However, Mahon has never approved of Kate as the potential consort... and thus, father and son battle it out.

My Opinion: Another very short story, but fun to read :) I think this is the short story that really made me realized how ruthless Curran is. How he expects to be obeyed... and in a way, his selfishness. Once again, nothing new here. We already knew and Curran had already told Kate... but still, to see proof of it makes it more real.

I like this short story because it really solidifies Kate and Curran bond. The fact that Curran would "retire" his adoptive father if necessary for Kate to rule along side with him. I also enjoyed the politics of the Pack. LOL, lots of frienemies :) And despite the shortness of the story, it still got my heart to beat loudly for one or two seconds :)

My Grade: B+.

Hauling Sunday LVIII

Hey everyone!!

October arrived yesterday and with it, fall. I mean, seriously, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees Celsius between Friday and Saturday. Brrrrrr.

I've been pretty quiet since coming back from my week-end away. One of the reasons is that I've been meaning to write up my Monthly Reads post for August. My plan was to have it up before the end of September. Yes, epic fail ^_^; Then, I switched gear and tried to have a review up... but I didn't know what to review ^_^; Sigh. At least, our New Releases post went up without a hitch over at Breezing Through. Yay!! LOL, I'll take it. One of the reasons I haven't accomplished much is that the whole week, I went to bed early. I just fell asleep. I think the past few weeks combined with the week-end has just wiped me out. 

Yesterday was Doctor Who's season finale!! I don't know if I've written on the blog how I've become a fan of the show. Well at least, the last two seasons of the show. I really like the River Song storyline... Anyway, the finale was okay. I liked the big twist, but I thought they could have finished the season with more bang. I hope Alex Kingston is coming back in the next season.

Anyway, I'm all good now :) Ready to start a new blogging month and catch up on everything! So I'll start by my Hauling Sunday :) I had hopes to buy some books in the States... Take advantages of their cheaper price. However, the Walmart and Target's selections were sadly disappointing. As a result, I made it up when I came back home :) Ready to see my haul?

Spider's Revenge by Jennifer Estep - Wooohooo, the conclusion of this story arc! :) And the reasons I'm still so happy? Because Ms Estep has two more books contracted! :) Yay!

Flawless by Carrie Lofty - I've been meaning to read Ms Lofty's books, but yeah... just never happened. I'm happy that this new release is in print :) Plus, for some reasons, I'm really excited the story is taking place in South Africa. I'm not one for exotic locations... but South Africa and diamonds = exciting :)

Utterly Charming by Kristine Grayson - I didn't realize that this was a re-print. Ms Grayson has a new release, Wickedly Charming, coming up soon and to celebrate the occasion, Sourcebooks is re-releasing the two books in this series. In any case, I'm happy I picked up this one. I've always liked Sleeping Beauty's story more than Cinderella :)

Blood Trails by Sharon Sala - Fan of Sharon Sala I am :) Hopefully, this one will be different than the previous two books in this trilogy though.

Slow Ride by Erin McCarthy - Liked the cover and the blurb :) Diesel sounds like a yummy hero!

Heartstrings and Diamond Rings by Jane Graves - Sounds like a cute contemporary romance and I usually enjoy Ms Graves' books.

Every Scandalous Secret by Gayle Callen - Okay, this book was totally NOT on my radar. However, it was on the cart when I was looking for Slow Ride and Animal Attraction and it just caught my eyes. I really like the cover for some reasons. Plus, in my  mind, I was confused LOL... I was thinking Gaelen Foley for some reasons... and I thought the blurb sounded familiar. Well yeah, it's familiar, because I did read the first book in this series: In Pursuit of a Scandalous Lady! Anyway, impulse buying LOL.

Animal Attraction by Jill Shalvis - Sigh. I wasn't planning to get Animal Attraction. Thought that Animal Magnetism was okay and I'm not a huge fan of Ms Shalvis. Her writing is good, but her books are just not grabbing me. Then, I read Leslie's review... and I have to say, I really was curious about Dell and Jade when I read Animal Magnetism. So yes, I caved LOL.

So this was my week :) Pretty good all in all :)

Now, let see if I can start some posts for the blog this week and squeeze some cleaning before the week-end ends. Oh and I've been looking for new blogs about books. Any new bloggers or blogs out there? If you know any or if you are one, feel free to leave links in the comment section :) Big thanks!