Waiting on Wednesday: The Curse by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine which spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases!

Not to sound like too big a fangirl, but I will read absolutely anything Sherrilyn Kenyon and/or Dianna Love put out. That being said, it's not exactly a surprise I enjoyed the first two Belador books, Blood Trinity and Alterant. Nor is it shocking that I'm dying to read book 3, The Curse.

Title: The Curse
Series: Belador, Book 3
Authors: Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Pocket Books
Release Date: September 18, 2012

Book Description (from Amazon.com):

Evalle Kincaid will fight to the death for her supernatural friends.

But when Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love’s tough-as-nails heroine reveals her darkest secret, who among those she had trusted will be left standing?

With the freedom of an entire race hanging in the balance, Evalle has two days to make good on a promise that she suddenly has no hope of fulfilling when demonic Svart Trolls invade Atlanta. She takes a leap of faith, seeking help from the one man who recently put Evalle in his crosshairs—Black Ops specialist Isak Nyght. While trying to stop the bloody troll-led gang wars, Evalle unwittingly exposes a secret that endangers all she holds dear and complicates her already tumultuous love life with the mysterious Skinwalker, Storm. But when Evalle discovers she’s the number one target in the Medb coven’s ruthless plan to destroy all Beladors, the deadly Alterant is forced to make a game-changing decision with no time left on the clock.

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Review: Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis

Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis
Series: Lucky Harbor, Book 6
Publisher: Forever
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: July 31, 2012
ISBN: 9781455503698
Blue Ribbon Rating: 5 out of 5
Original Review Link
Book Purchase Link
Jill Shalvis Reading Order

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single doctor in possession of a five-year-old son, a potentially evil pug, a belligerent younger sister and the schedule from Hell must be in want of a wife. Okay, perhaps not, but Dr. Josh Scott is in need of a dog walker for his son’s rambunctious puppy. A misdial of the phone lands Grace Brooks — a brainy, out-of-work beauty new to Lucky Harbor — the job. And when Josh’s nanny quits without notice, Grace takes over babysitting his son as well. For Josh, who runs his father’s medical practice as well as working in the local ER and volunteering at the town’s new clinic, having someone dependable to help out should make his life run more smoothly. Instead, being around Grace turns Josh’s world upside down. Grace isn’t going to be in Lucky Harbor much longer, but she makes Josh want things he knows he shouldn’t yearn for, not with so many people depending on him. However, each day together brings Josh and Grace closer and soon it’s impossible for them to resist their mutual attraction. Neither Grace nor Josh is looking for a forever kind of love, but is it possible they’ve found it nonetheless?

Author Jill Shalvis has made it nearly impossible to pick favorites among her LUCKY HARBOR books – every single story in this series is fantastically entertaining. That being said, FOREVER AND A DAY definitely ranks up there as one of my favorites in this fabulous series! The chemistry between Grace and Josh is off-the-charts hot, and man, does Ms. Shalvis make the most of the sexual tension between them. Yet while I enjoy the sensuality of FOREVER AND A DAY, it’s the love story interwoven with that heat which truly makes the book memorable.

Josh is a sexy as hell doctor; one who is swiftly being buried alive by his numerous responsibilities. It’s easy to see why Grace falls for him. Besides his drool-worthy good looks, Josh gives all of himself to everybody. He has a generous heart and though that’s a good thing, he’s given so much of his away that he has little left for his family and none for himself. He needs to let go and accept help in carrying the load so that he can truly live and love as he and his family deserve. Grace is his perfect match. She’s a hard worker who has spent her life trying to please her adoptive parents by being as brilliant and successful as she can possibly be. Losing her job and winding up in Lucky Harbor is the best thing that could have happened to Grace. It’s a joy watching her find herself in FOREVER AND A DAY, for she truly discovers what it is she loves to do. One of the delights of FOREVER AND A DAY is seeing Grace and Josh fully come into their own when they stop living their lives for others and start living it for themselves and their loved ones. And speaking of loved ones, Josh’s family is every bit as important to FOREVER AND A DAY as Grace and Josh are. Josh’s son Toby is too cute for words and even his pug Tank will grow on you. As for Josh’s bitter, paralyzed sister, Anna, the young woman starts off a bit abrasive but grows up enough over the course of the book that I’m hoping Ms. Shalvis plans on giving Anna her own book one day.

FOREVER AND A DAY is the sixth LUCKY HARBOR book, but it can be read as a standalone. Of course, Grace’s fellow Chocoholics and Josh’s best friends — Mallory and Ty from LUCKY IN LOVE and Amy and Matt from AT LAST — help these two along on their road to happily ever after. As does everybody’s favorite town gossip, Lucille. Fans of the LUCKY HARBOR series will undoubtedly be entertained revisiting these characters and, of course, there are a couple of cameos made by the heroes and heroines of the first three LUCKY HARBOR books, SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE, THE SWEETEST THING and HEAD OVER HEELS.

The LUCKY HARBOR books are sweet, funny and utterly addictive, and FOREVER AND A DAY is no exception. Grace and Josh’s romance will make you smile and want to re-read FOREVER AND A DAY over and over again. I absolutely loved FOREVER AND A DAY and I sincerely hope that this book does not mark the end of the LUCKY HARBOR series, for Ms. Shalvis has created a town so filled with warmth and welcome that I never want to leave it!


Note: My review was written for Romance Junkies and is cross-posted here with permission from Romance Junkies.

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Teaser Tuesday: God Save the Queen by Kate Locke

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm reading a couple of books right now, so I grabbed one at random and pulled the teaser from where I'm at. This week's teaser is from a rather unique steampunk book, God Save the Queen by Kate Locke.

Teaser:
"She wasn't expecting me, so she went down a little faster than her friends.

"Somebody really ought to tell them that bubonic-derived steroids might make you faster and stronger, but that wasn't much help up against someone even faster and stronger and better trained."
*God Save the Queen by Kate Locke, 5% on Kindle


Book Description:

Queen Victoria rules with an immortal fist.

The undead matriarch of a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. A world where being nobility means being infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath), Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day, and leeches are considered a delicacy. And a world where technology lives side by side with magic. The year is 2012 and Pax Britannia still reigns.

Xandra Vardan is a member of the elite Royal Guard, and it is her duty to protect the Aristocracy. But when her sister goes missing, Xandra will set out on a path that undermines everything she believed in and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to topple the empire. And she is the key-the prize in a very dangerous struggle.

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18 & Over Book Blogger Follow

18 & Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that begins on Fridays and runs through the weekend, hosted by Crystal from Reading Between the Wines.

This is a Friday blog hop with the objective to find and visit other book blogs that share the same interest as you, namely books geared towards the 18 & over crowd, and make some new friends!

Question of the Week: If you could trade wardrobes with one book character who would it be and why?

Rose, from Riley Shane's Blood Rose. She's a curvier gal like me and once she moves in with Gray and the revenants? Hel-lo unlimited wardrobe! Head to toe, casual to kick-ass to fancy, Gray's admin, Aja, can and will get it for her - that woman's a fashion fiend. There's a great scene involving Aja making Rose's wardrobe explode that always makes me grin. There's also a blue cocktail dress that I'd love to own. Maybe because of what Gray does when he sees Rose in it... ;)

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Waiting on Wednesday: Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine which spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases!

I adored Lia Habel's debut, Dearly, Departed, so I can't wait to see what happens next for Nora and Bram. Crossing my fingers things work out for them, but I have to wonder how it could... Hence my excitement ;)

On another note, aren't the covers for this series gorgeous?

Title: Dearly, Beloved
Series: Gone With the Respiration, Book 2
Author: Lia Habel
Genre: YA Steampunk
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: September 25, 2012

Book Description (from Goodreads):

Can the living coexist with the living dead?

That’s the question that has New Victorian society fiercely divided ever since the mysterious plague known as “The Laz” hit the city of New London and turned thousands into walking corpses. But while some of these zombies are mindless monsters, hungry for human flesh, others can still think, speak, reason, and control their ravenous new appetites.

Just ask Nora Dearly, the young lady of means who was nearly kidnapped by a band of sinister zombies but valiantly rescued by a dashing young man...of the dead variety.

Nora and her savior, the young zombie soldier Bram Griswold, fell hopelessly in love. But others feel only fear and loathing for the reanimated dead. Now, as tensions grow between pro- and anti-zombie factions, battle lines are being drawn in the streets. And though Bram is no longer in the New Victorian army, he and his ex-commando zombie comrades are determined to help keep the peace. That means taking a dangerous stand between The Changed, a radical group of sentient zombies fighting for survival, and The Murder, a masked squad of urban guerrillas hellbent on destroying the living dead. But zombies aren’t the only ones in danger: Their living allies are also in The Murder’s crosshairs, and for one vengeful zealot, Nora Dearly is the number one target.

As paranoia, prejudice, and terrorist attacks threaten to plunge the city into full-scale war, Nora’s scientist father and his team continue their desperate race to unlock the secrets of “The Laz” and find a cure. But their efforts may be doomed when a mysterious zombie appears bearing an entirely new strain of the virus—and the nation of New Victoria braces for a new wave of the apocalypse.

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Teaser Tuesday: Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

J.D. Robb's In Death series is my absolute favorite series, so I'm jumping up and down that I've got an arc of Delusion in Death. I'm about to start it, so I pulled a teaser from the first chapter.

Teaser:
"Lieutenant Eve Dallas stood in the carnage. Always something new, she thought. Always something just a little more terrible than even a cop could imagine.

"Even for a veteran murder cop swimming in the bubbling stew of New York in the last quarter of the year 2060, there was always something worse."
*Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb, page 6 of arc copy (releases 9/11/12)


Book Description:

It was just another after-work happy-hour bar downtown, where business professionals unwound with a few drinks...until something went terribly wrong. And after twelve minutes of chaos and violence, eighty people lay dead.

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is trying to sort out the inexplicable events. Surviving witnesses talk about seeing things—monsters and swarms of bees. They describe sudden, overwhelming feelings of fear and rage and paranoia. When forensics gives its report, the mass delusions make more sense: It appears the bar patrons were exposed to a cocktail of chemicals and illegal drugs that could drive anyone to temporary insanity—if not kill them outright.

But that doesn’t explain who would unleash such horror—or why. And if Eve can’t figure it out fast, it could happen again, anytime, anywhere. Because it’s airborne...

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Sunday in Review

It’s update time again :)

Below are the newest reviews I’ve written here, on Joyfully Reviewed, and on Romance Junkies. The master list and categorical lists on the right-hand side are updated as well.

Reviews for upcoming releases:
- The Virgin’s Revenge (Rancho del Cielo, Book 4) by Dee Tenorio (available 7/3/12)
- How a Lady Weds a Rogue (Falcon Club, Book 3) by Katharine Ashe (available 9/25/12)

All other new reviews:
- Beautiful Obsession by Juniper Bell
- At Last (Lucky Harbor, Book 5) by Jill Shalvis

Upcoming reviews:
- Good Cop, Bad Cop by Jenna Byrnes and Jude Mason
- Hex Appeal anthology
- Aloha Kaua by Jenna Byrnes
- Blame It On Texas (Hotter in Texas, Book 2) by Christie Craig
- Elliot’s War by Kim Dare
- Trust, Love, Submit by Kim Dare
- How to Ravish a Rake (How To Series, Book 3) by Vicky Dreiling
- Too Hot to Touch (Rising Star Chef, Book 1) by Louisa Edwards
- Some Like It Hot (Rising Star Chef, Book 2) by Louisa Edwards
- Hot Under Pressure (Rising Star Chef, Book 3) by Louisa Edwards
- A Very Personal Trainer by Justine Elyot
- A Beginner’s Guide to Rakes by Suzanne Enoch
- Screw Santa (Who Needs Christmas?, Book 1) by Joyee Flynn
- Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood
- Trouble at the Wedding (Abandoned at the Altar, Book 3) by Laura Lee Guhrke
- Dearly, Beloved (Gone With the Respiration, Book 2) by Lia Habel
- Biting Oz (Biting Love, Book 5) by Mary Hughes
- Intimate Beings (The Being Trilogy, Book 2) by Jessica Inclan
- Straight Cowboy by Jan Irving
- The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James
- After the Abduction (Swanlea Spinsters, Book 3) by Sabrina Jeffries
- If You Give a Girl a Viscount (Impossible Bachelors, Book 4) by Kieran Kramer
- The Way to a Duke’s Heart (The Truth About the Duke, Book 3) by Caroline Linden
- The Sure Thing by Claire Matthews
- Secret Light by Z.A. Maxfield
- Blood Persuasion (Immortal Jane Austen, Book 2) by Janet Mullany
- Keeping Faith by Kris Norris
- Strangers in the Night by Brynn Paulin
- Raw Desire by Kate Pearce
- Alien Sex 102 by Allie Ritch
- Delusion in Death (In Death, Book 35) by J.D. Robb
- Night of Fire (The Ether Chronicles, Book 2) by Nico Rosso
- Forever and a Day (Lucky Harbor, Book 6) by Jill Shalvis
- Carrie’s Answer (Corporate Affairs, Book 1) by Sierra and V.J. Summers
- Meredith’s Awakening (Corporate Affairs, Book 2) by Sierra and V.J. Summers
- Primal Law (Alpha Pack, Book 1) by J.D. Tyler

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