What's up on Darkly Reading? - Need Some Birthday Book Recommendations!

I thought I would give you guys a heads-up for up-coming events on Darkly Reading over the next two weeks - first off I will have the lovely Chloe Neill, the author of one of my favorite vampire series, Chicagoland vampires, coming by to do an interview on the 17th and reviews of Some Girls Bite and Friday Nights Bite (books I just re-read this weekend) coming up on Wednesday. The new book in the series - Twice Bitten - is coming out on July 6th and I am so excited. Perhaps I am so excited because this book combines a graduate student (which I am) going from book worm to kick-ass (I'm still waiting for that transition to happen) and one of my favorite cities - Chicago. Stay tuned for more about this series (and Ethan) and the secrets on Merit's chocolate drawer later this week.

Also, I'm having a birthday next week and to celebrate I'm having a giveaway/contest. The contest is called my Favorite Firsts contests and I will be hosting authors and book bloggers on my site and we'll be talking about our favorites or our firsts (all referring to books of course) as well as having a giveaway. To get things rolling I wanted to ask for book recommendations for books I should get myself for my birthday - are there any books you think I would love and suggest I run out now and buy - let me know! And next week will be the vote for what I should get for my birthday! So start those suggestions!

Weekend Wrap-Up: My first reading challenge - Yummy books!

This weekend I participated in my first reading challenge (hosted by Mother Reader) - do I really need an excuse to read all weekend - nope - but now I know how much time I spend reading during a weekend. And since I have alot of awesome books to read I have a good reason to join the challenge! So here is my finish line post of what I've read.

Friday:
7:30-11:30 Kicked back with some Chardonnay and started Blood Feud by Alyxandra Harvey
Saturday:
9:30-11:30 After 2 cups of coffee was finally able to open my eyes and finish Blood Feud
11:30-12:30 Did some blog reading and twittering since I can't stay away from twitter!
12:30-2:30 Started on Siren by Tricia Rayburn (So good and spooky!)
2:30-4:30 Girl's gotta eat..and shop
4:30-5:30 More Siren time!
5:30-5:45 Little break to rest my heart from Siren
5:45-10   Back to Siren
Good Night!
Sunday:
9:30-12:30 3 cups of coffee this morning and I finished Siren so good! Now on to Wolf Flight by Vivian Arend - so good and short it was quickly consumed!
12:30-2:30 shower, web surfing, and food
2:30-3:00 trying to write reviews
3:00-6:30 Read and finished Into the Dark by Gena Showalter (Those warriors are hot!)
6:30 - met to write reviews but ended up having dinner and watching MTV movie awards (how'd the Parks & Rec dude ended up being host I just don't understand!)
Total Reading/Review Time: 21.5 (started at 7pm on Friday and ended at 7pm on Sunday)

So there's my weekend reading snapshot - are you guys big book consumers on the weekends?

Weekend Wrap-Up: I'm a naughty book buyer-In my mailbox and in my hot little hands!

Hi guys! So I've got a few book prezzies over the past few weeks that I thought I would share with you all. First off is Lover Mine - I won this book at Smexy's blog and am making my way through the whole BDB series so that I can enjoy this book soon! I also won an ARC of Demon Blood at Meljean Brook's blog - I've only read a novella by Meljean (from the Must Love Hellhounds anthology) - and I loved it so I'm looking forward to checking out more of her Guardian series. My other book prezzies include Tsunami Blue by Gayle Ann Williams and Immortal Warrior by Lisa Hendrix.

So...I've been a very naughty girl. On Ilona Andrews blog last week (one of my favorite authors!) she (though I think it was Gordon who did the post) mentioned that it was okay for readers to buy Magic Bleeds (her new release coming out May 25th) before the release date. Some of her readers were asking her about whether or not it was okay to buy the book before the release date (since it's better to wait till release date for best-sellers lists) and being the great Kate Daniels Popes they are they absolved their readers of early purchasing guilt. So I thought to myself..huh..that means some bookstores have put it on shelves early and I really really want the book.. so I casually checked out one..or maybe three bookstores and found it! Yeah! Am I a bad reader for not waiting till the release date...maybe.. but I am also a very happy reader.

I figured since Magic Bleeds features some very nasty diseases I would have my giant microbes welcome the book home. That's Salmonella on the left hand side with it's cute flagella along with Herpes (the sun looking microbe) and MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus). So me and my giant microbes are going to kick back and enjoy some Kate Daniels!

Weekend wrap-up: In my mailbox / On my blog/ In the blogosphere

This week I got to one review - Ecstasy Unveiled - by Larissa Ione, thus ending my Demonica series book reviews until the next book comes out - Sin Undone - in August of this year! I also posted my Sinful Saturday Views of Gabriel from Molly Harper's Jane Jameson series - if you haven't read that series yet and love snarky humor that will have you snorting out loud then I recommend running out and buying the books!

I have a lot of book booty to show off this week - first off are the books I received from Bloomsbury Publishing by way of Terry Kate from Romance in the Backseat from attending the Book Bloggers On-line conference a few weeks ago.

There are some great reads here and the books look like a great introduction to YA novels for me. I'm particularly looking for to reading Alyxandra Harvey's books since I love the idea of a vampire princess - reviews to come!
Books: Hearts at Stake and Blood Feud by Alyxandra Harvey, Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George (One of my favorite book premises - a twist on common fairy tales), Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles, and Deception by Lee Nichols.

I went to a book signing this weekend in North Haven, CT (which is about 10 minutes from me) and got to chat with some lovely authors. The always well-dressed and lovely Stella Price was there (I got her book - Entwined by Fate at the last book signing I went to and loved her weresnakes!) and she was rocking some wicked heels that would probably kill someone uncoordinated like me and she had on a rockin' black corset. I also chatted with Bianca D'Arc and Kathryn Smith. They were both great people to chat with about books and BBC programming, it was alot of fun and soon the two hours passed and I had some great new book goodies to take home and enjoy.

I've received some lovely swag from Vivian Arend (the cute wolfies, book swag, and olympics souvenirs) and from Moira Rogers (book marks and character cards). I also won Laced with Desire from Marissa's Booklair and got a signed bookplate from all the authors from Joey Hill. Yeah for book swag - now I just have figure a way to display it..or maybe I'll give it away with a book though I'm keeping that Keith card under my pillow!

I also received The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker and The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker from Leanna Renee Hieber. I met Leanna through twitter and when I tentatively asked her to stop by my blog she agreed and was kind enough to send me books too. I will have reviews of both books up on the blog this week as well as my first writer visit and interview on Darkly Reading with Leanna Renee Hieber. She will be stopping by on Thursday and I'll be hosting a book giveaway so be sure to stop by!

Weekend wrap-up: On my blog/ In the blogosphere (4) - a bit belated

So I was a bad blogger this past week and didn't get to do my Sinful Saturday Views and only two reviews - I blame it on the day job - got to feed the hubby and doggy baby. This past week I reviewed 2 books:
Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready
Part 1 of the Serial of Vampire's Kiss by Laura Stamps

Thanks for stopping by and chatting - there are alot of fans of the WVMP series out there. The books are great and I need to start plowing through my to-be-read pile so I can get to the next book in Jeri Smith-Ready's series.

In other news - my dog got some recognition for cuteness over at Diana Rowland's blog. My dog was hanging out with my copy of Blood of the Demon. I thought this was a great contest - take or make pictures with any one of her books to win other books. I captioned my pic "My doggy thinks demons are tasty." If you haven't had a chance to check out some of the great entries you can go here.

Weekend wrap-up: On my blog/ In the blogosphere (3)

This week has been a busy posting week at Darkly Reading. I went on a bit of a paranormal romance binge last weekend so my reviews this past week definitely had a paranormal romance slant:
Her Vampire Husband by Michele Hauf (4 Stars)
Wolf Signs by Vivian Arend (delicious naughty read)
Blood of the Demon by Diana Rowland (4.5 Stars)

I also started a new post this week with Incident from Sordid Fantasy called Sinful Saturday Views in which I featured Clayton from Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. He is so yummy!

This weekend I checked out the Book Bloggers and Publishers Online Conference. I met some lovely new-to-me book bloggers and also heard some great information about book blogging, blog tours by authors, and publishers' and literary agents' side of the the story. You can still sign up and check-out the panels for the next two weeks if you're interested. Two new to me sites I learned about and figured I would share is:
http://booktour.com/ -where you can check out if your favorite authors are going to be doing a signing or reading near you.
http://www.savvyauthors.com/ -where you can sign-up to be considered for author blog tours: to sign-up click here.

 On to the good stuff - the giveaway for the ebook of Cry Sanctuary by Moira Rogers....

The winner is Bookie who says "I have a soft spot for Adam from Patricia Briggs series." 

Please be sure to contact me Bookie.

Thanks to all of you who stopped by and left comments this week! I appreciate it! And thanks to all of my fellow bloggers who gave me an award the past couple of weeks - I hope to do a post of them soon!