#T5W is back with Hidden Gems

Hello there!  Yes, I've finally decided to get back into Top 5 Wednesday.  This week we are exploring Hidden Gems.  Your favourite books in your favourite genre that don't get a lot of hype.

Now some of these books I have never seen on BookTube, while others make a rare appearance, but they all have one thing in common - they are all some of my favourite Urban Fantasy series.  I've put the book synopsis down below for your convenience.  So without further ado, here are my Top 5 Favourite Urban Fantasy Hidden Gems

Bookish update (with free tangent included)

Hi there!  Welcome back to my not so short rambling update where I just talk about a few of the books that I read recently.  As it says on the tin, there is a free tangent on Anita Blake included (and about how the amped up sex in the series really ruined it for me), but it's short so don't worry.  But it gave me an idea, so this will be a topic I'll get more into in a future video.

My reading has been a bit all over the place lately, and with Summer fast approaching I think my reading time will be sorely interrupted with pesky chores like mowing and other necessary outdoor maintenance. Oh the joys of being a homeowner - not.

Anyway, I must dash.  I'm absolutely famished and need to make some lunch.  One small croissant for breakfast (before 7am) just isn't doing it.

Until I see you next time,

 

Anita Blake #25 Announced!

Just discovered that the 25th book in the Anita Blake series has been listed on Goodreads and Book Depository.  

Crimson Death

In her twenty-fifth adventure, vampire hunter and zombie raiser Anita Blake learns how far she’ll go to save someone she loves…

When Damian—Anita’s sometimes lover, servant, and friend—is kidnapped, Anita heads to Ireland. There she must face off against the vampire who created him. M’Lady, Moroven, Nemhain… under every name she brings terror and destruction. But Anita brings her own weapon to the party: Edward, the man known as Death itself…

Sadly, there is no cover art available yet.  I will post an image as soon as it becomes available.

Crimson Death will be available from June 07, 2016.

Until next time,

 

Four thrift stores in two days

This week has been a mixed week.  Had a few health snafu's, and am still trying to come to terms with the closure of the only bookshop within 100kms!, but on the plus side, had amazing thrift shop finds this week.

It's been weeks since I last set foot in most of the thrift shops around town - we have 4 - and usually I come away with a few books, perhaps one that is currently on my Book Depository wishlist.  However this week I had amazing luck.  It all started with wanting a bedside table so I could once again see the time on my alarm clock...

I went into the first thrift shop, which is opposite a gym that pumps out the most annoying perky (and loud) music, but within 30 seconds I had my first book (Jason by LKH).  I knew that this was going to be a good day.  I browsed for as long as I could stand the music, but found two Agatha Christies for $1ea.  They are in an edition I like, and I don't have them yet.  Then I found a copy of The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.  This has been on my wishlist for ages, but I could never find a cover that I liked.  However, this edition is so 80's and funky that I wasn't going to quibble over the $1 price tag.  Even though this was a great haul so far, I'm most excited about the poetry anthology that I picked up just before I headed for the cash register.

T5W || Characters you wish you could drown

Hello, once again!  I hope you are enjoying your morning.  I'm freezing my fingers off - Winter is finally setting in - and so to get back to my hot water bottle, I'm just going to dive right in.

This week we discover all those characters we wish we could drown.  The mean, the nasty and the just plain horrible.  Meet the characters I'll be sending down to meet Davey Jones ;-D

T5W || Books You Read in One Sitting

Welcome to another Top 5 Wednesday!  This week we had to find out 5 favourite books that we read in one sitting - and let me tell you, as someone who usually does read all their books in one sitting, it was hard.

I went through my shelves, and finally decided not to go with the biggest, or most impressive books, but the ones that I enjoyed the most.  Turns out that I really enjoy Urban Fantasy/Fantasy books as only one of my books didn't contain a fantasy/paranormal element.  Huh, guess I should have included a classic for diversity's sake, but these were my most enjoyable reads. 

Enjoy!

Tuesday was a really good reading day

Usually I read one book, perhaps re-read another, depending on what my mood is like.  However on Tuesday I had a great reading day!  I received Dead Ice in the mail, and started that before lunch.  I powered through it in about 5 hours - perhaps 5½ hours - and was pleasantly surprised as to how much I enjoyed it after recent disappointments in the Anita Blake series.

Then I pulled Uprooted by Naomi Novik from my TBR shelves.  It took a little while to get into the swing of things, but I really enjoyed this book.  Would have loved to keep reading, especially with the ending we got.  Will have a review up soon.

As if that wasn't enough (I'd just read 1011 pages!), I decide to start on another book.  The City's Son by Tom Pollock.  This book has been on my TBR bookshelf for more than 6 months.  I don't know why I chose this book, but I'm so glad I did.  I enjoyed my romp through the bowels of London.  Fighting iron wolves and seeing the amazing characters that Pollock created out of the industrial landscape. My only problem was that I don't have books 2 or 3 in the trilogy.  I hate when that happens!

By the time I closed the book and turned off my light it was about 11pm.  I think my eyes were dragging on the ground - in the sand!  But it was worth it.

So on Tuesday I read a total of 3 books or 1468 pages!  That's longer than The Lord of the Rings!  Wow, very proud of myself {patting myself on the back}.

NOTE: I woke up the next morning and my eyes were so sore that I just sat and watched Penny Dreadful all afternoon.  Couldn't read a darn thing!  Fingers crossed that I can finally jump into my TBR shelves again ;-D

Until next time,

 

Book Review || Dead Ice by LKH

Dead Ice
Anita Blake #24
Laurell K. Hamilton

Published: 09 June, 2015

Berkley, hardcover, 576p.
ISBN: 978-0-425-25571-1

Anita Blake has the highest kill count of any vampire executioner in the country. She’s a U.S. Marshal who can raise zombies with the best of them. But ever since she and master vampire Jean-Claude went public with their engagement, all she is to anyone and everyone is Jean-Claude’s fiancée.

It’s wreaking havoc with her reputation as a hard ass—to some extent. Luckily, in professional circles, she’s still the go-to expert for zombie issues. And right now, the FBI is having one hell of a zombie issue.

Someone is producing zombie porn. Anita has seen her share of freaky undead fetishes, so this shouldn’t bother her. But the women being victimized aren’t just mindless, rotting corpses. Their souls are trapped behind their eyes, signaling voodoo of the blackest kind.

It’s the sort of case that can leave a mark on a person. And Anita’s own soul may not survive unscathed . . .

Dead Ice has arrived!

My postman just delivered a package to my door.  It was my pre-order of Dead Ice by Laurell K. Hamilton.  This is book number twenty-something in the Anita Blake series.  I read the sample chapter at the end of Jason {READ MY REVIEW HERE} and it sounded so good.   

Bought this from Book Depository, and it was a little expensive at just over $32, but I just had to have it.  I wanted this cover to match my other books, and Australian book shops don't stock this edition.  Isn't it so pretty.  The endpapers are just so gorgeous, and completely unexpected.  Total bookgasm ;-D

Hopefully I can start this some time today.  Fingers crossed that we're back into RPIT/animator mode with little to no ardeur action.

Until next time,

 

New books delivered!

I love the postman!  Well, not really.  But I do love when they bring such pretty books to my door ;-D

Today's parcels arrived a while ago, however in the rush to get other stuff done I forgot to show you my new books!

Swallowing Darkness is the 7th book in the Merry Gentry series.  I have an ugly UK trade paperback (seriously, have you seen those cover designs... UGLY!) and I have the others in these lovely hardcovers.  So when I happened across this one while browsing on AbeBooks.com I had to get it.

The second parcel was a copy of the Breeds series by Lora Leigh that I did not own yet.  Aiden's Charity comes somewhere after Jacob's Faith.  I have only just started it and although these books include some very sexy times, they are one of my guilty pleasure reads ;-D

Let me know if you'd like to see an overview of any of these series.

Until next time, my lovelies.

Book Review || Jason (An Anita Blake Novella)

Jason

Anita Blake #20.5

Laurell K Hamilton

Published: December 2014

Headline, Paperback B Format, 255p.
ISBN: 978-1-4722-2698-3

Enjoying pain with your pleasure is something you either get, or you don't.  And if you don't then no amount of talking is going to convince you it makes sense.

My name is Anita Blake, I'm an Animator, a Vampire Executioner and U.S. Marshal for the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team.  And I have a complicated domestic life.

Jason Schuyler is one of my best friends and favourite wolves.  J.J. is his lady love, an old flame from childhood who dances at one of the top ballet companies in New York.  She's accomplished, beautiful, and she's crazy about hime, too.  Neither of them wants to be monogamous, so what could go wrong?

J.J. is enthusiastically bisexual; she plans to keep sleeping with women, because Jason can't meet her desire for a female lover, but she can't meet Jason's need for rough sex and bondage with another woman because she doesn't understand just how rough he needs his sex to be, so Jason asks me to help him explain.  With some encouragement from a few other lovers in my life I reluctantly agree, and J.J. makes plans to fly into town for an experience that none of us will ever forget.

Note: there are some minor spoilers below.

So what did I think of this novella?  I think it is complete and utter crap.  That's it in a nutshell.  It seems that the further on in the series we get, the more frivolous and unnecessary the sexual content has become.  It's now just a super erotic series with a side of murder/mystery that was once the basis of the story.  It never used to be like this...

In the beginning, as all good stories should start, Anita was very moral and wasn't the type of girl to just jump into bed with a new boyfriend, let alone a whole stable of strangers.  But once the ardeur reared it's ugly mug it was game over - although NiC is one of my favourite books.  However the longer this series goes on, the worse it's getting. 

But I digress.  Back to the review of this book.

I have two main issues with this book.

1) the abundance of unnecessary sex : Basically, Jason was just a book about sexual preferences.  How rough is rough?  BDSM, vanilla, topping, the list goes on.  It was okay for the first 66 pages where Anita is discussing sex and sexual preferences with Jason, Nathaniel, Envy and Domino.  Even in Chapter 2 when Anita, Jason and Nathaniel pick J.J. up from the airport it's still actually sex free.  Talking about sex.  Fine.  Then we hit Chapter 3 and it's back to hitting the sheets.  Although this time there is some major girl on girl action instead of just Anita being the belle of the ball.  I just rolled my eyes and skimmed because this novella is literally a how-to for Anita in regards to pleasing a female lover.

Though for all the negatives about this series, there is one positive aspect to these books.  They are very, very, open about their LGBTQ characters.  I think nearly everyone in the Anita-verse, well, main characters anyway, has at least dipped their toes into LGBTQ waters.  Our only outstanding complete heterosexual - homophobic? - character is Richard.  But that's another post ;-D

2) lack of originality : For the majority of the books post-ardeur the author seems to be stuck in a rut.  Anita has bad guys to fight, but feeding the ardeur takes priority so she jumps into the arms - and shorts - of the nearest man in her life and boffs his brains out, before going out to solve the mystery de-jour.  The men in her life are still getting pissy with things, and the characters seem to be in this never-ending loop.  It needs to stop.

I think what this series needs is an injection of fresh ideas.  I mean, seriously.  Anita has beaten Marmee Noir, the freaking Mother of All Darkness, for Gods sake.  She's defeated the originator of the Vampires and yet she can't seem to get out of her own way long enough to figure out how to remove the ardeur!? Pleeease.  {serious eye rolling happening here}

However the story, while blah, was not my only problem.  Let's talk about the physical copy next.  I borrowed Jason from my library (the edition listed), but the type was really odd.  It was so large and weirdly spaced out.  Just to show you how truly annoying it was, I took a photo of it against my paperback copy of Narcissus in Chains. 

As you can see it is so spaced out.  Was this just to allow it enough pages for printing?  I would have rather had this as a short story at the end of Affliction instead of paying for such a pathetically small book.

Overall there was nothing that endeared this instalment in the series to me.  I keep hoping that we will see a more story-based, action packed, book.  And yet I still faithfully purchase the paperbacks - wouldn't waste my money on the hardcovers - in the hopes that it might one day revert back to a less sex oriented series.  I have Merry Gentry for that! ;-D

I give Jason a begrudging 

What did you think of Jason?  Do you think that LKH should just finish the series?

Let me know down below ;-D

Until next time,

Top 5 Wednesday - Re-reads

Where has the week gone?  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was posting last weeks Top 5.  Anyway, this week we are doing one of my favourite tags - the re-read.  I love re-reading books!  It's always fun to go back to a book you loved and fall in love with it all over again... which is why I am so surprised when I watch YouTube and see a majority of people don't re-read!  Yes, I know.  How can you not re-read a truly awesome book?  Anyhow, lets get on with this list...

   

 NORA ROBERTS STAND-ALONES

Yes, I do read Nora Roberts.  I particularly enjoy these two books, also I re-read The Search at least once or twice a year, but I just didn't have enough room to add the picture ;-D  I like most Nora Roberts books because there is a little bit of romance, some mystery, occasionally paranormal aspects, and they aren't overly violent (which is a nice change from time to time).  I find I read these books more in winter when I can snuggle up under a blanket on the couch with a hot cup of tea.

covers are made of that suede-y material that just doesn't seem to show damage!

 

 NAKED IN DEATH - J.D. ROBB

This is the first book in J.D. Robb's (aka Nora Roberts) massive In Death series - that will see the release of the 40th book in February next year!  These books are great to just chill out with when you're in a bit of a detective, slash mystery, mood.

 

 GUILD HUNTERS - NALINI SINGH

This is an amazing Urban Fantasy series!  See what the world could be like if Archangels were the apex predator.  I tend to read the first three books together, almost as if they were one bind up.  Can't recommend this series highly enough if you want something great to read that's not going to take 2 weeks, or you love those of the angelic persuasion ;-D

 

 STEPHANIE PLUM - JANET EVANOVICH

I love this series, and although the last 5 or so books have been less than stellar, I can't help but go back to Two for the Dough and Hot Six when I want something that's guaranteed to make me laugh ;-D

 

 WRITTEN IN RED - ANNE BISHOP

 I adore this book - and series - and as you can see from the photo I took of the spine this is a well read, and re-read, book ;-D

Just leaving a pic of the spine of some of my more well re-read books ;-D

Okay, so I promise that's me done for this weeks Top 5.  I hope you found something new to read, and if you want to find out more about this series, it was created by the lovely Lainey at GINGERREADSLAINEY and I'll include a link to the Goodreads group {here} if you would also like to participate.

 

If you have any questions, or comments, I'd love to hear from you... and you know what to do down below ;-D

So until next time,