Review of Cold Magic by Kate Elliot

Title: Cold Magic (Spiritwalker #1)
Author: Kate Elliot
Pages: 384 paperback
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Standalone/Series: 1st of Spiritwalker Trilogy
Release:  September 2nd 2010
Publisher: Orbit
Received from author for review
Author info: www.kateelliott.com and twitter @KateElliottSFF
Spoiler Alert: In the clear
GoodReads Blurb: 'I was not a bard or a djeli or an historian or a scribe and I was certainly not a sage, but that didn't mean I wasn't curious ...'
Young Cat Barahal thinks she understands the world she lives in and her place in it, but in fact she is merely poised unaware on the brink of shattering events. Drawn into a labyrinth of politics involving blood, betrayal and old feuds, she will be forced to make an unexpected and perilous journey in order to discover the truth, not just about her own family but about an ancient secret lying at the heart of her world. 

Cold Magic is a captivating mix of high fantasy, steampunk, romance, alternative history, mythical creatures, mysteries, epic betrayals, and adventure - all surrounded by a wall of ice. If you feel a little intimidated by the mix don’t worry – Kate Elliot is an excellent story teller (she’s been one of my favorite fantasy authors for years) and her main heroine Cat quickly draws you into the story.  The story revolves around Cat as she deals with very personal betrayals and faces a world turned upside down though thankfully as her name implies – she’s a cat and always lands on her feet. Even though Cat is young and just coming into her age of majority (twenty years old) she has already had a difficult life since her parents passed away when she was very young and the only way she has to connect to her father  is through his travel journals which she still has. She also belongs to a social group, the Phonecians, that is much maligned in her society and has learned to be a fierce defender of her heritage as well. Cat faces many of these challenges with her best friend and cousin Bee. Though Bee is more like a fanciful teenage girl with her crushes on boys at school, both girls are very loyal to each other and thankfully don’t fall into the trap of many YA heroines do by bemoaning and complaining about the unfairness of life. Through the course of reading the book you definitely get to see the girls grow up as the world they thought they knew changes completely and irreversibly. 

Another favorite part of this book is the world building. The Romans, Celts, and Phonecians have a much different historical trajectory than what we are used to in our world’s story and these familiar names exist alongside things such as trolls, cold mages, ghouls and otherworldly portals. I am not a big history buff so I enjoy books that play with what I know and twist the story a bit. Another big theme the story highlights is that history always favors the victors. With that in mind, there is great upheaval in the world Cat lives in when people who have nothing left to lose decide it's time to fight back against those "victors". I loved the story of the cold mages and I am looking forward to learning more about the world Cat lives in where zeppelins rule the skies and cold magic trumps technology.

5 out of 5, I can’t wait for the next part of Cat’s adventure!
 

It's a Party! Welcome to Blogfest!

Today is Blogfest 2010 - over 250 blogs are giving away just about everything - books, jewelry,candles, gift cards and tons of other fabulous gifts! Don't forget about the massive BlogFest 2010 grand giveaway!  Head on over to http://ajourneyofbooks.com/blogfest/  to use the exclusive tracking site. Once there you can register with a valid email address (to be used solely for the purpose of contacting the winner for the Grand Giveaway).  This site will allow you to track your progress through BlogFest 2010!  You can log on from anywhere at any time and continue where you left off.  The best part is that every blog that you visit and mark off through this tracking site will give you one entry into the massive giveaway!  You can also find out more about the giveaways at http://ajourneyofbooks.halfzero.net. We have a great collection of books, goodies and other swag that is looking for a new home!

I am number 216 on the blog list (when I last checked) if you are keeping track and you should check out the giveaway over at http://peacefulreader.blogspot.com number 217!

The Giveaway is International! If you are from the US there are two options: you can win the YA book prize pack or choose the fabulous International Prize pack where you can chose up to $15 in books from the list here (some of my favorite September releases) anywhere book depository delivers. For those International entrants you can only chose the International Prize pack.

YA Prize Pack

 To Enter:
- Leave a comment that includes (1) name; (2) e-mail; (3) Release coming up that you can't wait for!
- Extra entry - blog follower (+1) but you do not need to be a follower to enter!

BlogFest goes from midnight September 10th to midnight September 12th. If you get a chance check out the blog while you're entering and I hope you enjoy the festivities!

ARC Review of Cruel Enchantment by Anya Bast - Don't Mess with the Blacksmith!

Title: Cruel Enchantment (Dark Magick #2)
Author: Anya Bast
Pages: 336, paperback
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Standalone/Series: Series (#2)(see my review of Wicked Enchantment here)
Release: September 7th
Publisher: Berkeley Sensation
Received ARC from author
Author info: http://www.anyabast.com/
Spoiler Alert: Small plot spoilers
Blurb:  Even the most powerful hands need a delicate touch…
Emmaline Gallagher is a master of wielding personal glamour. As a free fae who lives among humans, she must hide her true self at all times as she works undercover within the powerful Phaendir—for if certain factions within the Phaendir gain control, the fae will be wiped from existence. Now, an object of fae power lies within a locked ancient box. And there is only one fae who can forge the key.
Known as “the Blacksmith” Aeric O’Malley can create or destroy almost anything with his forging skills. Emmaline has come to him in need, but he and Emmaline have a past—and he has spent centuries wanting to take revenge on her for her transgressions. But now that he has her within his grasp, something about her keeps him from exacting his vengeance—or is it merely her glamour blinding him?
Trapped by fate, Emmaline must hope that she can reach Aeric’s furious heart before it’s too late…

Emmaline has been trying to atone for her past sins as the Summer Queen's assassin many centuries previously by trying to find a way to destroy the detention center that the Phaendir built to imprison the fae - Piefferberg. Emmaline's ability to use personal glamour has allowed her to avoid being imprisoned in Piefferberg and to get close to the Phaendir who run the prison to gain a way to enter and exit Piefferberg in the guise of a human Faemous crew member (the fae "Entertainment Tonight" equivalent that resides in Piefferberg). Emmaline uses this "in" to seek out Aeric the Blacksmith to ask him to build a key that will hopefully unlock a relic that is needed to tear down Piefferberg's walls. Unfortunately for Emmaline, Aeric hasn't forgotten or forgiven her for murdering his fiancee centuries earlier while she was the Summer Queen's assassin. Quickly Emmaline's trip to Piefferberg changes from asking Aeric to build a key to asking Aeric to spare her life.

I loved the main character Emmaline! She is a survivor and isn't afraid to kick a little ass. Since Emmaline has been living on her own away from other fae for centuries one of the scenes that really struck me in this book was when she first steps in Piefferberg. She expects it to feel like a prison but is surprised by the connection she feels with the land and many of the things she's missed from living away from the fae for so long. That revelation was the first of many for Emmaline during her adventures in Piefferberg - the second was that Aeric put the equivalent of a magical lo-jack on her to know the instant she stepped inside the fae prison. Though Aeric captures Emmaline with the intent to kill her, his life instantly gets more complicated as he begins to have conflicting feelings about killing Emmaline and learns more about the situation surrounding his fiancee's death. Of course Aeric faces these conflicting emotions like any grumpy alpha male does by drinking some whiskey, smashing stuff up, and stealing some kisses that end up leaving him more conflicted. Thankfully things change from comflicted to more steamy as Aeric begins to forgive Emmaline for her past mistakes and starts to see her as a woman rather than an assassin.

The bad guys in this book are truly evil. Gideon, the Phaendir member who we first meet in Wicked Enchantment, is still trying to take over the leadership of the Phaendir and is eliminating those who stand in his way by any means necessary. He really is a creepy character who practices self-flagellation to such an extreme that he nearly passes out from blood loss afterward and justifies the murders and foul acts he commits by saying it's his god's will. Another big bad guy from Emmaline's past is Lars who we learn shaped Emmaline into an assassin when she was just a teenager. What Emmaline went through at Lars's hands was truly terrible and helps explains many things that happened in her past. Though the biggest bad guy in this book is the Summer Queen, as we get further into the series the more evil and questionable the actions of the Summer Queen are - she seems like she should belong to the Black Tower with all her underhanded dealing and tricks.

The overall story is complex and engaging as we delve into Emmaline and Aeric's past and developing relationship while following the parallel story lines of Gideon and the Human's for the Freedom of Fae, the organization that Emmaline works with on the outside. We also get glimpses of the hunt and the rulers of the Black Tower and the Unseelie court, who we met in the first book, though I don't think it's necessary to read Wicked Enchantment to understand what is happening in Cruel Enchantment, but it will help to understand the back story of some of the characters.

Overall this book is a 4.5 out of 5 stars for me, Emmaline is a tough heroine who earned her chance at love with the sexy blacksmith Aeric.

September-mas! So many great releases this month it's Christmas in September!

via crooked house

There's so many great releases this month that I am giddy with excitement as I eye the new releases list though my credit card is quacking with fear of being repeatedly used and abused all month - it's not used to this kind of work out. First I want to point out my favorite early book gift to myself this September-mas season and that is Sin Undone by Larissa Ione. I love the Demonica series - I reviewed all 4 previous books at Darkly Reading and had a couple giveaways of her books when Ecstasy Unveiled came out (my first giveaways ever). The author, Ms. Ione, is a sweetheart and left nice comments on all my reviews and then afterward asked for my full name to put it in the acknowledgments for Sin Undone. And guess what - when I picked up my copy of Sin Undone and turned to the acknowledgments - there was my name listed with some other great blogging ladies and readers. I was grinning from ear-to-ear of course and had to resisted the urge to grab complete strangers at the bookstore and point to my name and say  "hey look that's me that's me!" though when I had a few friends over later I did grin ear-to-ear and point out my name - couldn't help it! So I wanted to say a big thank you to Larissa Ione for putting my name in her book! I plan on snuggling up with Sin and Con from Sin Undone this holiday weekend - it's always bittersweet to read the last book in a series but I'm looking forward to reading Sin and Con's story! And then we have the Lords of Deliverance series based in the same world coming out starting in March of 2011 so I don't have to completely go demon-loving cold turkey.

Me at Hachette booth at BEA

Now that we got my early September-mas gift out of they way I wanted to point out some other releases I'm super excited for (All Things Urban Fantasy and Wicked Lil' Pixie also have great new releases lists)-

August 31st/September 1st
Blameless by (Parasol Protectorate #3) Gail Garriger
Married with Zombies (Living with the Dead #1) by Jesse Petersen
The Darkest Edge of Dawn (Charlie Madigan #2) by Kelly Gay

September 7th
Assassin's Heart (Order of the Sicari #2) by Monica Burns
Cruel Enchantment (Dark Magick #2) by Anya Blast
Healer's Choice (Ghostland Worlds #3) by Jory Strong
No Mercy (Dark-Hunter #13) by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Warrior (The Blades of the Rose #1) by Zoe Archer
An Artificial Night (October Daye #3) by Seanan McGuire

September 9th
Cold Magic by Kate Elliot

September 28th
Bayou Moon (The Edge #2) by Ilona Andrews
Double Cross (The Disillusionists #2) by Carolyn Crane
A Midwinter Fantasy by Leanna Renee Hieber, L.J McDonald, Helen Scott Taylor

Many of these releases are books in series I love and have been waiting patiently (or not so much) for the next in the series to arrive. There are so many good books in this list I am bouncing up and down with anticipation (poor hubby!). One of these books - No Mercy by Sherilyn Kenyon - is a recent addition to the list. I read the first book in her Dark-Hunter series - Night Pleasures - over the weekend because it was on sale in the Kindle store for $2.99. So if you've been thinking about starting the series now is a great time to start (though in my copy there were some weird typo's - maybe that's why it was on sale ;).

Now onto the gifts of September-mas - Blogfest! This September 10-12 Darkly Reading is taking part in BlogFest - where a bunch of blogs get together and coordinate giveaways. You can check out the list of participating blogs here - it looks like close to 100 blogs or more are participating and giving away some great gifts. I'm going to be giving away 2 books from my list of favorite releases above so stay tuned to find out which books. I also will be giving away some ARCs from my shelves later this month so stay tuned for that as well!

So what releases are you excited for this month?

Review of Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch - Love in a Elevator baby!

Title: Touched by an Alien (Katherine "Kitty" Katt, #1)
Author: Gini Koch
Pages: 389 pages, paperback
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Standalone/Series: Series (#1)
Release: April 2010
Publisher: DAW
Purchased by me
Author info:  http://www.ginikoch.com/
Spoiler Alert: Minor plot spoilers
GoodReads Blurb: Marketing manager Katherine "Kitty" Katt steps into the middle of what appears to be a domestic dispute turned ugly. And it only gets uglier when the man turns into a winged monster, straight out of a grade-Z horror movie, and goes on a killing spree. Though Kitty should probably run away, she springs into action to take the monster down.

In the middle of the chaos a handsome hunk named Jeff Martini appears, sent by the "agency" to perform crowd control. He's Kitty's kind of guy, no matter what planet he's from. And from now on, for Kitty, things are going to be sexy, dangerous, wild, and out of this world.

Surprisingly I've never read a book before that has aliens taking the center stage much less being romantic leads. I've read about vampires -sparkly and otherwise, werewolves, weresnakes, witches, demons, zombies, and the list could go on but no aliens from another planet. Perhaps I was a little worried to try out a new genre - aliens can be scary you know with the alien abductions, aliens bursting from chests a la the Alien movie and Spaceballs, and we know they might already be here with Area 51. So I wasn't sure what to expect with Touched by an Alien. Thankfully there was no need for alarm since the alien good guys looked like super models and the story that Ms. Koch wrote was humorous, entertaining, and had some excellent rock song references in it.

Kitty gets thrown into the saving the world business which she stops what looks like an angry husband turned monster from destroying the Pueblo Caliente courthouse. Soon she gets approached by sexy men in Armani suits that want to recruit her to their organization, she starts receiving marriage proposals, and learns that her Mom could definitely kick her ass. Kitty takes all these revelations in stride and doles out her own brand of sarcasm and wit that keeps the book entertaining throughout.

I loved the tongue-in-check approach to aliens in this books - all the good aliens were super model sexy and the women aliens were all scientists that were attracted more to mental attributes (think Stephen Hawking) than the package it came in, even if the women were surrounded by Brad Pitt look a-likes. Although the aliens are easy on the eyes, it turns out that they have a convoluted back story as to why they ended up on Earth and what their connection is to the bad aliens that seem to be able to turn regular humans into monsters. As Kitty tries to get to the bottom of what is going on she has an excellent distraction from the new dangers in her life in the form of Jeff Martini - who proclaims his intentions to marry Kitty and have lots of babies within minutes of meeting her. The action in this book is fast-paced - the entire book only covers a few days in Kitty's life but it is filled with excellent interactions between Kitty and Jeff and some great patented glares from Jeff's main romantic rival Christopher. Add in some Aerosmith, a few hot and heavy elevator scenes, and some alien ass kicking and overall you have a great book.

5 out of 5 stars for me, a unique sci-fi romance that will have you head banging to the soundtrack.

Why my reading habits are like a Journey song

Lately I have been working alot, reading alot, and blogging not at all (opps), I feel like my reading habits are like Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " song just substituting the "Believin'" for "Readin'" and you got the same song stuck in your head now too. Just imagine me jammin' away my hair all teased up and playing air guitar with some awesome books and you've got the full picture - I know pretty lame but sometimes you got to call them like you imagine them at least.


Since my last book review I've read about 16 books:

Re-read the Aisling Grey by series (you can read about my reason's why you should read the series here)
Love in the Time of Dragons by Katie MacAlister (can't get enough of the demon Jim)
Eternal Kiss of Darkness by Jeaniene Frost (Yummy Mencheres)
Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch (Loved this book and the use of rock and roll and elevators)

A Girls Guide to Vampires and Sex and the Single Vampire (Dark Ones books 1&2) by Katie MacAlister - I didn't love these ones as much as I did the dragon's books - maybe cause the vampires in these books weren't as growly as her dragon book men.
Cruel Enchantment by Anya Bast - Loved this book! Review coming soon!
Twice Bitten by Chloe Neill- Oh Ethan how you make me melt and make me angry within a few pages!
Eternal Hunter by Cynthia Eden- Ohh - White Tiger shifter!
Demon Night by Meljean Brook - Hmm bad boy Guardian - ahh yes!
Healer's Choice by Jory Strong - Post-apocalyptic paranormal romance - quite a mouthful!
Demon Moon by Meljean Brook - Vampire so beautiful he mesmerizes other vampires - yes please!
Ecstasy by Jacquelyn Frank- I think the title pretty much covers it!

I plan on posting reviews for some of the books soon! So when your life gets busy what do you find suffering the most - your reading, review posting, laundry pile, video game addiction, etc.?

Mmmh..more medicine please..and dragon shifters..the Aisling Grey series by Katie MacAlister

I find when I get really stressed out, like I have been alot lately, I tend to medicate myself with some of my favorite reads. One of those favorites is the Aisling Grey series by Katie MacAlister. I first read this series when I was still coming to terms with the fact that yes I read romance and man do I love it. Though with my romance there has to be the bad boy alpha male, a bit of action, and some smoking hot love scenes. For me, the Aisling Grey series has to be hands down it one of the best combinations of urban fantasy, humor, and romance - not an easy combination to achieve. The heroine of the series, Aisling, is kind of a mess though she tries to pretend she is professional and in control. Unfortunately for Aisling from the first book of the series (and there are four total) she is kind of like Alice falling down the rabbit hole as she gets further ensnared in the paranormal world she was abruptly introduced to. Thankfully her introduction to the paranormal world is by Drake Vireo - dragon shifter, alpha, and bad boy all rolled into one who I think probably looks a bit like Jared Prudoff (I included a pic for your viewing pleasure). Although Aisling and Drake's relationship is fiery from the start there is alot of passion there which makes it very entertaining to read about - Drake is used to bossing women around and Aisling is not standing for it so their constant struggles with each others nature make for an entertaining read.

What makes the series even better Aisling's sidekick - a demon in dog form known as Jim. He loves his canine Newfie form, has to wear drool bibs (oh man am I happy my dog doesn't drool that much), and is in love with a Welsh corgi named Cecile (he likes to suck on her ears- eww!). He really sets the tone for his comedic sidekick status when he discovers the amazing things a dog can do (from You Slay Me).

"Give me a couple of minutes. You're not going to believe what I found I can do," Jim said, its voice muffled as it engaged in a bit of groinal hygiene.
"The eww factor on that is borderline vomit territory," I (Aisling) said, tugging on its leash until the great furry black head emerged from the depths of its crotch. I ignored the glazed look in Jim's eyes and got to my feet, heading out of the park and toward the nearest Metro stop. "Come on, you'll like the Merto. As a dog, you've got carte blanche to smell strangers' crotches."
"Really? That's something, although not nearly as good as licking my own-" Jim

To round out Aisling's inner group of friends is Rene the cab driver who teaches her some interesting French phrases like: "J'ai une grenouille dans mon bidet" (I have a frog in my bidet) for when Aisling needs help, and "Tu as une tete a faire sauter les plaques des egouts" (You have a face that would blow off the cover of a manhole) for when a man hits on her when she doesn't want him to.

Overall these books have me laughing out loud, on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happens next, and makes my ereader steam up at the sex scenes so if you haven't read this series yet I highly recommend it!

You can find more about Katie MacAlister's books here: http://katiemacalister.com

So do you have any books or series you like to "medicate" with when you've been having a rough week? Do you go for the more humorous/sexy/action-packed books or a combination of all three?