So, to win this book, just fill out the form below, or click here. It is open to those living in the US. The contest ends at 10 pm MST on Jan 11, 2010.
Good luck and good reading!
From the publisher: Lucy Valentine is as smart as can be, as single as you can get, and sonot qualified to run a matchmaking service. But when her parents temporarily step down from the family business, Valentine, Inc., it’s Lucy’s turn to step up and help out—in the name of love.Plus, her rent is due.
Here’s the problem: Lucy doesn’t have the knack for matchmaking. According to family legend, every Valentine has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to read “auras” and pair up perfect couples. But not Lucy. Her skills were zapped away years ago in an electrical surge, and now all she can do is find lost objects. What good is that in the matchmaking world? You’d be surprised. In a city like Boston, everyone’s looking for something. So when Lucy locates a missing wedding ring—on a dead body—she asks the sexy private eye who lives upstairs to help her solve the perfect crime. And who knows? Maybe she’ll find the perfect love while she’s at it…When I first got this book, I was thinking it was a very light paranormal romance type of book. I wasn't completely correct. There was humor in this book, mostly from the main character, Lucy. Her wit which often masked a deep sense of insecurity was very humorous. Add in her friends who often took that wit and strengthened it, the book became enjoyable on that level alone. Oh, and those worried about the insecurity angle... don't worry, it doesn't come off as whiny at all.
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Reprinted by permission of Weldon Owen. All rights reserved. |
From the book: Linda’s had a bad day. First her boyfriend killed her. Then she woke up, still on this boring plane of existence, and with an odd obsession about her missing body. Mike won’t tell her what he did with her body, and she can’t find the stupid thing herself. There’s only one thing she can do - torment the bastard until he coughs up the information.This book was a strange, fun short story full of revenge and mystery. The major questions you usually have about characters in a story are never explored as the characters, with the exception of the investigator/exorcist Trent, are completely shallow. This actually works in this story of the strangest after-life I've read. In the end with so many twists and turns everything thing has a conclusion which is "satisfying" but unusual to say the least.
From the book "Wonderous Strange": 17 year-old Kelly Winslow doesn’t believe in Faeries. Not unless they’re the kind that you find in a theatre, spouting Shakespeare—the kind that Kelley so desperately wishes she could be: onstage, under lights, with a pair of sparkly wings strapped to her shoulders. But as the understudy in a two-bit, hopelessly off-off-Broadway production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, wishing is probably the closest she’s going to get to becoming a Faerie Queen. At least, that’s what shethinks... In this fun, urban fantasy, Kelly's off-stage life suddenly becomes as complicated as one of Shakespeare’s plot twists when a nighttime trip to Central Park holds more than meets the mortal eye.
From the book: Eve Levine — half-demon, black witch and devoted mother — has been dead for three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can’t be killed again — which comes in handy when you’ve made as many enemies as Eve. Yes, the afterlife isn’t too bad — all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with her daughter, Savannah, and she’ll be happy.
But fate — or more exactly, the Fates — have other plans. Eve owes them a favor, and they’ve just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy — previous hunters have been driven insane in the process. As if that’s not problem enough, the only way to stop her is with an angel’s sword. And Eve is no angel. . . .Eve, for me, was always the most interesting witch in the women of the otherworld series. It wasn't because she was half demon, but because she had a sense of herself in the world, no matter how screwed up that sense had become. In this book we learn a lot more of the world Eve now occupies. Her want to be close to her daughter has become all consuming and the force behind all her new activities. All those around her feel she needs a new hobby and the Fates step in with one she can't resist. Catching the Nix is just what she needs and she begins to find that she may have a second chance at a new existence, one she secretly always wanted.
From the book:
Recently named the world's chief clairvoyant, Cassandra Palmer still has a thorn in her side. As long as Cassie and a certain master vampire--the sizzling-hot Mircea--are magically bound to each other, her life will never be her own...
The spell that binds them can only be broken with an incantation found in the Codex Merlini, an ancient grimoire. The Codex's location has been lost in the present day, so Cassie will have to seek it out in the only place it can still be found--the past.But Cassie soon realizes the Codex has been lost for a reason. The book is rumored to contain some seriously dangerous spells, and retrieving it may help Cassie to deal with Mircea, but it could also endanger the world...
From the book: In this mesmerizing sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James' musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realizes that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.Sarcastic, slightly OCD James in this story really captured my heart. I loved his take on everything and the view into his world. If it wasn't for James being portrayed this way, I don't think I would have found the farie, Nuala's sarcasm and passage into compassion quite as interesting since they played off of one another so well.
From the book: Five years ago the man she loved died in her arms...Or did he? The Shadow Destroyer Series, Book 1. Jordan McAdam leads an unusual double life. Police officer by day, vigilante by night. But Jordan isn't interested in the average criminal. She stalks Shadow Demons, creatures who prey on the innocent, creatures whom she suspects are responsible for a string of bizarre sacrificial murders. Creatures who killed her partner and lover. Gage Campbell has spent the last few years on an elite team of Shadow Destroyers, hunting down the demons who changed his life -- and his DNA. Then an assignment leads him straight back to the woman he hasn't been able to stop thinking about for five long years. The woman he had no choice but to leave behind. Is the man before her a mimic demon bent on tormenting her, or is it Gage returned from the dead? All Jordan knows is that the raging desire between them is real. Standing between them are years of secrets and hurt, and a love that just might have the power to bring them together. If the murder case they're working on doesn't separate them...permanently. This title was previously published but has been revised and expanded for Samhain Publishing. Warning, this title contains the following: adult language and graphic violence of the sword-wielding, demon-slaying kind. Also contains hot, explicit sex between reunited lovers, passionate up-against-the-wall foreplay and the use of handcuffs for the heroine's own good--and pleasure.This was the first full book I read on my iPod Touch, with the Kindle book application. At the time I got the book, it was free (it's not at present, sorry), so I thought I'd give it a try.
There will be TWO (2) WINNERSWinner #1 will get a choice in Cat#1 & Cat#2
From the Publisher: "Bury me standing. I must be buried standing.”
Powers, the follow-up to John Olson’s Shade (“a must-read for those who enjoy Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti” —Publishers Weekly), introduces a sheltered Gypsy girl named Mariutza. Her grandfather utters a mysterious last request before dying in her arms after being shot by ten cloaked men.
Those same men die before her eyes, but strange powers continue to pursue Mari through the swamps of southern Louisiana where she has always hidden from “the Badness.”
The whole world seems to join in the chase—helicopters, soldiers, government agents, and the police are all trying to kill her. Mari’s only hope of survival is to find Jaazaniah the Prophet, the mythical hero of her grandfather’s bedtime stories. But she has never been outside the swamp or known other humans besides her grandfather and one teacher. How can this lone girl survive the bewildering world of men long enough to find a prophet who might not even exist?
When reading this book, I noticed that some of it seemed to be a bit inconsistent in the way the author wrote it. She seemed to linger on the dark areas of the book and then suddenly when Ayla was in war, it was over. It seemed that the darkness held more of the fascination with the author than moving the story along. This could be explained by the dedication that was at both the front and back at the book.
From the book: An unimagined destiny an undeniable passion.In a time not long from now, the veil between fantasy and reality is ripped asunder creatures of myth and fairytale spill into the mortal world. Enchanted yet horrified, humans force the magical beings Underground, to colonize the sewers and abandoned subway tunnels beneath their glittering cities.But even magic folk cannot dwell in harmony and soon two Worlds emerge: the Lightworld, home to faeries, dragons and dwarves; and the Darkworld, where vampires, werewolves, angels and demons lurk.Now, in the dank and shadowy place between Lightworld and Darkworld, a transformation is about to begin....Ayla, a half-faery, half-human assassin is stalked by Malachi, a Death Angel tasked with harvesting mortal souls. They clash. Immortality evaporates, forging a bond neither may survive. And in the face of unbridled ambitions and untested loyalties, an ominous prophecy is revealed that will shake the Worlds.
To me, this book symbolizes a beautiful flower that grew out of the rotting rib cage of a murder victim abandoned in a shallow grave. Thank you to everyone who made that weekend such a horrible experience and forced me to retreat into a fantasy world where a sewer full of monsters offered more hospitable company than yours.
Nice people and objects that made this book possible were the Friday Night Mudslingers, my supportive family, Diet Coke, and Emmy Rossum's Inside Out album.This dedication could have made the book less interesting, but quite the opposite was true. I was more fascinated.
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own -- populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.I really loved this book. Although some may mistakenly think this is a child's or young adult type of book, I do not think so. It is most definitely an adult book. Yes, the main character is a 12 year old child and they deal with fairy tales, but there is darkness that surrounds the boy. This darkness is inappropriate for children. There are also principals identified within the story that may be lost on the younger set, but noticed by adults with more life experience.