Eskimo Princess Review Blog: June 2013

Friday, June 28, 2013

Bought, Borrowed, & Bagged #9

BB&B (Bought, Borrowed and Bagged) is a weekly meme, inspired my The Story Siren and Pop Culture Junkie, where we share with you the books that we have bought, borrowed or bagged (won) plus a recap of the previous week's reviews, upcoming reviews, on going events and any news we want to share with our followers

A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare My Lady Vixen by Connie Mason Dancing with the Duke by Suzanne Mederios To Capture a Highlander's Heart by Tersea Reasor Dragonborn by Jade Lee

Ten Reasons to Stay by Sabrina Jeffries ( from the author) The Hunter by Monica McCarty
Sweet Serendipity by Jenna Pizzi ( from the author)

Thursday, June 27, 2013

New Release! From K.B.Miller

K.B. Miller has a new book coming out tomorrow, June 28th. This time around, she has a children's book.

Book Description:

Witches, Magic and Zombies, oh my!
That’s what’s in store for Abby, Kenzie and Caleb Stewart when one of them check a mysterious book out of the library on Halloween.
As the magic spells fly from the book, an evil witch is released and Caleb is turned into his Halloween costume... a Zombie.
This Halloween will be a whole new adventure for Abby, Kenzie and Caleb Stewart. Will Abby and Hannah be able to reverse the mixed up spell? Or, will their little brother be a Zombie forever?
Spooky fun and adventure is on its way in
Uh-oh! We turned our brother into a... Zombie?

Review: Ghosts and Lovers: First Confession by Anessa Price

Amazon
Right now you can get this for only 99 cents!

Kindle Edition, 64 pages

Published November 24th 2012

Book Description:

“I am female, I am a slut, and most days, I think I'm a loon too, but those are my secrets to keep except from you. … I ask you to play the role of a priest – nonjudgmental, understanding, and to atone me for my sins…” ~ Simone

Simone, the quintessential desperate housewife, is primarily absorbed on settling her family into their new home in the vibrant, metropolitan city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Unbeknownst to her, the greatest threat lurked not outside of the eight-foot walls and electric fencing but within the walls she seeks sanctuary. But the threat comes disguised as tantalizing pleasures of the most carnal nature that challenges her views of love, marriage and sex. Can Simone resist and rescue her family from the evil she’s let into their lives?

This is her first confession

My Review:

A paranormal with a touch of erotica short story.
Please be advised that this is a short story and only 1 confession
Stay at home mom with a husband who is out of town a lot, dreams/wishes of a lover
be-careful what you wish for.
Not extremely explicit but may get you a little worked up. At a few points in the book, I actually got scared or freaked out. Some parts were quite creepy! But I did enjoy it
Aneesa Price is a wonderful author, look forward to more work from her

Remember, if you liked this story, there will/should be more. The tittle says First Confession and at the end it says "...this was but the first confession."

Review : The Marriage Price by Alma Katsu

Amazon (free)
DREAMS CAN COME TRUE—BUT THE PRICE IS STEEP in this short story from THE TAKER saga

Book Description:

Evangeline McDougal is the luckiest girl in St. Andrew, Maine. She’s to wed Jonathan St. Andrew, eldest son of the town’s founder and heir to the timber business that has made the St. Andrews one of the wealthiest families in the state.

Nor does it hurt that her bridegroom is so very handsome. Irresistible, in fact. And when rumors fly about her husband-to-be and several of the other girls in town. . . . What is Evangeline to think? There is a price to pay for her marriage to Jonathan, but surely it is worth the cost.

Isn’t it?

(Note: This story is intended for mature readers)

My Review ( or my disappointment)

Not even enough of a story for a short story, not worth it. Didn't help much with the series, tells us really nothing. I found nothing to even write a real review about. There is nothing to this "short" story. I wouldn't even call it a short story. I would say more along the lines of 11 pages of absolutely nothing! I was so disappointed because as you know I read books 1 & 2 of the series and was really looking forward to more from the series. Even from such a minor character as Evangeline! But I got NOTHING! Don't even waste your time downloading this to your kindle, even if it is FREE!!! I gave this one star on Goodreads but I don't think it even deserves that!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Review, Interview and Givaway: The Reckoning by Alma Katsu

The Reckoning on Amazon

Book Description:

SECOND IN ALMA KATSU’S GRIPPING SUPERNATURAL TRILOGY THAT BEGAN WITH THE TAKER Lanore McIlvrae is the kind of woman who will do anything for love. Including imprisoning the man who loves her behind a wall of brick and stone.

She had no choice but to entomb Adair, her nemesis, to save Jonathan, the boy she grew up with in a remote Maine town in the early 1800s and the man she thought she would be with forever. But Adair had other plans for her. He used his mysterious, otherworldly powers to give her eternal life, but Lanore learned too late that there was a price for this gift: to spend eternity with him. And though he is handsome and charming, behind Adair’s seductive façade is the stuff of nightmares. He is a monster in the flesh, and he wants Lanore to love him for all of time.

Now, two hundred years after imprisoning Adair, Lanore is trying to atone for her sins. She has given away the treasures she’s collected over her many lifetimes in order to purge her past and clear the way for a future with her new lover, Luke Findley. But, while viewing these items at an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Lanore suddenly is aware that the thing she’s been dreading for two hundred years has caught up to her: Adair has escaped from his prison. He’s free— and he will come looking for her. And she has no idea how she will save herself.

With the stunningly imaginative storytelling and rich characterizations that fascinated readers worldwide and made The Taker a singular and memorable literary debut and an international sensation, Alma Katsu once again delivers “a powerful evocation of the dark side of romantic love” (Publishers Weekly) in her breathtaking new novel

My Review

Well we got a tiny bit of romance this time around. But we are learning more of the story, this book picked up exactly where book 1 left us. I liked that, that we didn't skip a chunk of time between the two books.
Adair is obsessed with Lanny, first with revenge then it was just to see her to be near her.

We got more of Adair's story and we meet a new immortal. All this after we learn that Adair has been released from his prison that Lanny and Jonathan built, his release was 200 years after imprisonment.

Interview with Author

1. How did you come up with the name The Taker?

That wasn’t the original name. As a matter of fact, it took ten years to write the first book and for most of that time, it didn’t have a title. If you read the book, you can see why! The story is about how people do bad things and how they must earn redemption to find peace, and so the title I ended up using when I sent the book out on submission was ‘The Fallen’. Then Lauren Kate’s book came out, and the feeling from the editor and agent was that we couldn’t use a similar title. ‘The Taker’ was proposed by my agent (at the time.)
2. Who was your most and least favorite characters in the series so
far (book 1& 2)
I tend to like characters, not so much because I’d like them for a friend but because they’re interesting to write. Adair is probably my favorite character to write because he’s a very complex character and also because when he decides something has to be a certain way, he goes for it. No matter how difficult or inconvenient, he throws everything he has into it. My least favorite character would be Jude. By principle, he never takes a stand; he’s all about deception. You never know where you really stand with him.

3. When will we get to read book 3?
It’s looking like we’re holding to schedule now, so unless something comes up to knock us off the production schedule, we’re looking at January 2014.
4. Did you have a favorite scene? In either book
I wrote and rewrote the scenes in The Taker so many times (10 years!) that I’m most familiar with them… One of my favorites is when Lanny goes with her father to answer an alarm sounded at their neighbor’s house, only to find out that her rival for Jonathan’s affections—who she just had a fight with the night before—has gone missing. She must struggle with her guilt while staying mum as she trudges behind her father through the woods and snow, hoping they’ll find the runaway bride, knowing in the pit of her stomach that it will not end well. Knowing she’s responsible for it, in a sense, and not being able to say anything.

5. What keeps you motivated while you are writing?

To me, writing is like solving a very complicated puzzle. I want to get it all right. Also, I hate cliché. Absolutely hate it. So the challenge is expressing things in new, fresh ways, coming up with characters and situations that you haven’t seen before. Which is why these books aren’t genre: they’re not plot-driven, they’re more character driven.

6 What do you like to read, when you aren't writing?
I read very widely. Lately I’ve been on a jag of mysteries, suspense and thrillers. I tend to like to read books that present a challenge for the writer. For instance, I just finished Ben Winters’ The Last Policeman. It’s about a detective who is trying to solve a murder, but the end of the world is coming—a meteor is going to crash into the earth in a few months—and so the story is really about how do you choose to face your destruction. By going crazy or by clinging to the ideals you’ve had your whole life? Interesting premise, but for a writer it presents a lot of problems to be overcome, and so I was curious as to how he pulled it off. Or didn’t. Books like that are instructive to other writers. I’m always thinking about how to make my writing better.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Pet Peeve Rant

I am just going to go on a rant here. I had been going over some reviews on Goodreads.com and Amazon after writing my own reviews on some books and I keep seeing something I absolutely cant stand.
I keep seeing these reviews that aren't really reviews. They are readers retelling the story or telling us what happened in the story. A review is what a reader thinks of the story. Most of those reviewers never said what they thought or how they felt about the story! Whats the point of that kind of review? I don't want your retelling of the story, I wanna know how you liked it so I know if I want to read it!! Damn it!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Review: THe Taker by Alma Katsu

Amazon

Paperback, 464 pages

Published March 27th 2012 by Gallery Books (first published 2011)

ISBN

1439197067 (ISBN13: 9781439197066)

edition language: English

original title The Taker

series The Taker Trilogy #1

characters:

Lanore McIlvrae, Luke Findley, Jonathan St. Andrew, Adair

setting:

Maine (United States)
Massachusetts (United States)

Book Description:

True love can last an eternity . . . but immortality comes at a price. On the midnight shift at a hospital in rural St. Andrew, Maine, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting a quiet evening. Until a mysterious woman arrives in his ER, escorted by police—Lanore McIlvrae is a murder suspect—and Luke is inexplicably drawn to her. As Lanny tells him her story, an impassioned account of love and betrayal that transcends time and mortality, she changes his life forever. . . . At the turn of the nineteenth century, when St. Andrew was a Puritan settlement, Lanny was consumed as a child by her love for the son of the town’s founder, and she will do anything to be with him forever. But the price she pays is steep—an immortal bond that chains her to a terrible fate for eternity

My Review

I would give this book 3.5 stars on story telling. I was deeply engrossed in the story. This is a very deep read. Some dark moments. It's not what you would call a love story, Although Lanny confides her love for Jonathan numerous times throughout the book. There is talk of love, but you do not get your traditional love story. This is a tragic love story, no Happily Ever After.
This is truly a different type of read. I wanted to keep reading just to find out what happened. Ms. Katsu knows how to keep you interested!

The story jumps from past to present, as Lanny tells the story of her past while her and Luke travel (escape). The only Paranormal in this book is that the selected few are immortal.
This story contains the following:
     *sex/violent sex
   * drugs
   *magic/dark magic
*obession

My copy had a section in the back for bookclubs- questions and discussions. Plus a small interview with the author.
My giveaway for this book has ended, and I thank all of you who entered. Please look for the review and giveaway for Book 2: The Reckoning soon.

Monday, June 17, 2013

We are now on Facebook

We are now on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EskimoPrincessBookReviews?hc_location=stream
Follow/Like us there to see reviews, giveaways and more.

And don't forget the contest for The Taker is still going on, just a few days left to enter

http://eskimoprincess.blogspot.com/2013/06/summer-reading-giveaway.html?spref=fb

Review for The Taker later this week, possibly early next week. I'm currently reading it now! And look for book 2 in the series, The Reckoning, in July! I will have a review and giveaway for that book.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Summer Reading Giveaway!

Welcome to summer! I have Alma Katsu's The Taker up for grabs- should be great summer reading for you.

Buy it Now

Book Description:

Friday, June 7, 2013

Reading Challenges Update

Since we are six months into the year, I thought I would update you on where I stand on my Reading Challenges.
First we will go with the easy one. Goodreads.com

2013 Reading Challenge

        Alisa has
             read 27 books toward her goal of 125 books.

hide

27 of 125 (21%)

view books

Next The Immortal Challenge from Under the Covers

I choose to read 5 in each category

Category 1: Vampires
Birth of the Nyxian by Amanda R. Browning

Love Bites by Angie Fox

Her Dark Angel by Felicity E. Heaton

Vampires are Forever by Lynsay Sands

Covet By Felicity Heaton

~~The Eternal Gift by Candy Cru~~m

~~Bonded by Crimson by Zrinka Jelic~~

~~Coffin Girls by Aneesa Price~~

Category 2: Angels and Demons
Immortally Embraced by Angie Fox

Marked by Elisabeth Naughton

Category 3: Fae and Magic
Sirocco (Forest Magic series #2) by Diane M. Haynes

Embrace by Stacey Rourke

Witch Moon by Maggie Shayne

~~Sky Blue by Julie Cassar~~

~~Night Aberrations by JD Nelson~~

~~Breaking the Nexus by Lindsay Avalon~~

~~Alice Parker's Metamorphis by Nicola Palmer~~

Category 4: Shifters/Werewolves

~~The Shadow and The Rose by Amanda DeWees~~
~~Casting Shadows by Amanda DeWees~~
~~Among the Shadows by Amanda DeWees~~

And then Finally from Bookish