Saturday, October 30, 2010

Book Review: You’re the One that I Haunt by Terri Garey

You’re the One that I Haunt

Nicki Styx series, book 3


By Terri Garey






Nicki Styx has a unique talent that's drawn her some unwanted attention - she can see and hear the dead. Unfortunately for her, she's drawn the eye of the


Devil himself, and he's decided to make her life

a living hell by tempting her at every turn.


Now "in the flesh" as the smokin' hot owner
of Divinyls, an indie music store across the street
from Nicki's vintage shop, Handbags and Gladrags, Sammy Divine is the original bad boy with a dark side, and he's out to seduce Nicki Styx, one way or another!





*Spoiler Alert- If you haven’t read the first two books in this series yet this review will probably contain spoilers for you.*



Nicki Styx, the girl who sees dead people, is back and better then ever in this third installment. You’re the One That I Haunt is another fun read that you won’t be able to put down.  Chuck full of romance, suspense and chaos with a clever, witty, fast paced and exciting plot, you will be falling in love with Nicki Styx and company all over again. Garey brings such laugh out load humor to what could be a dark story.

Nicki is learning to adjust and live with her “knack” while her relationship with Joe grows and becomes more serious. And there is a long awaited love scene *squee*, I won’t spoil it for you though! Joe is looking for a bigger commitment from Nicki and she has to work through a few personal issues that she has been struggling with since the beginning of the series. There are some bumps along the road, as is to be expected, but Nicki seems to mature a lot in this book. Good for her!

Sammy Devine is back and hotter then ever! He is stepping up his game to seduce Nicki and bring her over to the dark side. Temptation has never been so hard to resist, you almost want Nicki to slip up! Or maybe that’s just me and my love for bad boys, *mmm…* Trying to get Joe out of the picture Sammy makes a deal with newly deceased Crystal, an anorexic teen, who passes away on the way to the E.R. and who Joe ultimately has to pronounce dead on arrival. She blames Joe for her death and is out to make his & Nicki’s life a living hell with her vengeance. With a very troubled and disturbing past this may just be one ghost that Nicki can’t handle. Then when a coven of witches shows up at Handbags and Gladrags Nicki must lean on her “Grandmother” Bijou and her group of Savannah Garden Club members for help.

Nicki’s sister Kelly, who I don’t much care for as stated in previous reviews, has limited “air time” but is very supporting of Nicki. You can see that they’re relationship has strengthen over the last few months. And Evan and Butch have a strong story line that is touching and entertaining.

Another great read from author Terri Garey, they just keep getting better and better!

Rating: 4 Wine Glasses


PG13- Getting a bit steamy

Friday, October 29, 2010

Book Review: A Match Made In Hell By Terri Garey


A Match Made In Hell

By Terri Garey

Second Book in Nicki Styx Series








A brush with death and a brief trip to the hereafter left vintage clothing store owner Nicki Styx an unwilling ghoulfriend to the dead. She can see and hear spirits, and boy, do they want to be heard! Luckily, her new boyfriend, sexy doc Joe Bascombe, is there to help, especially when Nicki faces her latest ghost, a woman in pink sequins who holds the key to some family secrets.

Unfortunately for Nicki, it turns out that there are more skeletons in the family closet than she thought, including a twin sister and a mysterious house full of spirits and surprises. Things go from bad to worse when the devil himself shows up, determined to lure Nicki from Joe's side. Will she give in to temptation and sell her soul (or someone else's) for one incredible night?
Demons may be a ghoul's best friend, but with this particular hottie, it could be a match made in hell!



*Spoiler Alert- If you haven’t read Dead Girls Are Easy this review will probably contain spoilers for you.*

Nicki Styx is a hot 29 year-old vintage goth girl with a drop dead gorgeous doctor for a boyfriend and an unknown twin sister, who owns her own vintage clothing store with her gay best friend…and sees dead people.

In this sequel to Dead Girls Are Easy, Nicki encounters a ghost that leads to her twin sister Kelly. She, a bit reluctantly, agrees to take Kelly in and help her with her recovery from a bad accident that also killed their biological mother and get to know her sister better along the way. Nicki has diffidently met her match with Kelly and you question whether or not their relationship is going to turn out good or if they’ll end up trying to kill each other, which I guess is true sisterly form. LoL (I did find Kelly a bit annoying and a major guilt trip; I could see why Nicki was getting fed up.)
Insecure in her relationship with Joe now that Kelly is back Nicki goes through a lot of ups & downs about what she wants in her life. How do you deal with your long-lost twin sister being your new boyfriends ex-wife? I’d feel like beating my head against the wall too!
Then while at a Halloween party Nicki meets the hotter then Hell, literally, Sammy who afterwards keeps popping up in her life and in inappropriate dreams. ;)
Nick, Joe and Kelly later travel to the family’s haunted house Savannah to find out more of their heritage and encounter another wicked spirit, a woman in drag and the Devil himself.


IMO this book is a little more serious then the previous one but what I said with Dead Girls Are Easy goes for A Match Made In Hell as well; Light and humorous with a dark edge. There are a lot of ups & downs and twists & turns in the plot that will have you laughing and crying with the characters.
With Kelly and a few other tangles that get knotted into their relationship, Nicki and Joe have an obstacle course thrown at them in this book and your heart breaks wondering if they are going to make it through together.
You get to delve deeper into Nicki’s character as well, which just wraps her around your heart more.

A Match Made In Hell is filled with thrills & chills, mystery & suspense and believable characters that will grab at you from the first pages. Also, very interesting and unexpected twists at the end that will have you doing a double take.



Can be read as a stand alone but def. better as a series! This is a series that you won't be able to put down! 






Rating: 4 Wine Glasses

PG13: Gettin' a bit steamy

Book Review: Dead Girls Are Easy By Terri Garey

Dead Girls Are Easy

By Terri Garey

Nicki Styx Series






There's something about almost dying that makes a girl rethink her priorities. Take Nicki Styx—she was strictly goth and vintage, until a brush with the afterlife leaves her with the ability to see dead people.
Before you can say boo, Atlanta's ghosts are knocking at Nicki's door. Now her days consist of reluctantly cleaning up messes left by the dearly departed, leading ghouls to the Light . . . and one-on-one anatomy lessons with Dr. Joe Bascombe, the dreamy surgeon who saved her life. All this catering to the deceased is a real drag, especially for a girl who'd rather be playing hanky-panky with her hunky new boyfriend . . . who's beginning to think she's totally nuts.
But things get even more complicated when a friend foolishly sells her soul to the devil, and Nicki's new gift lands her in some deep voodoo.
As it turns out for Nicki Styx, death was just the beginning.

If you like the Garnet Lacy and Jaz Parks series you will love Terri Garey’s Nicki Styx!

Nicki Styx is a late 20’s party girl who considers herself goth-vintage and very cute & stylish, from Little Five Points, Atlanta, GA.
She has a heart attack and dies but when reaching the white light hears a voice that tells her it is not her time and to do unto others, as you would have them do unto you, she then wakes up in the hospital to her best friend Evan Owenby and a very cute Dr. Joe Bascombe…then a dead person.  Being pestered by an old Jewish lady is no fun and Nicki ends up at the lady’s funeral doing a little jig and singing sitcom songs to help the spirit move on. Done & done, right? Wrong.
While on a date with the super hawt Dr. Joe, Nicki encounters the spirit of her friend and fellow shop owner, Caprice, who has been murdered and asks for her help. What’s a ghoul to do?
And bring on the chaos!
While trying to help out her dead friend and keep her new hot doctor boyfriend, Nicki encounters ghosts, zombies, voodoo and a Devil figure like dude.

Ghosts, Zombies, Voodoo, the Devil AND a hawt Doctor? Sign me up!

I’ve had this series in my TBR pile for a while now and I am so glad that I finally decided to jump into it.
First off, I LOVE the name of this book. Can I have a t-shirt that says that? LoL Garey also makes references to the Charon and the River Styx (Greek Mythology), which is super cool. And Handbags and Gladrags would be a kick-ass store to work at, is Nicki and Evan hiring by chance?

I was totally enthralled with this story, all the twist and turns kept me glued to the pages. I stayed up half the night with my little book light in bed reading this trying not to roll around too much and disturb the hubby.
Light and humorous with a dark edge, fast paced with a steady flowing plot and sub-plots and characters that you will fall in love with right away.
A very fun read.
The book wraps up nicely with a few loose strings left hanging for further books but nothing to leave you frustrated. Don’t you just love that in a series? 

Dead Girls Are Easy is one of the best debuts I've read for a series! 

Rating: 4 Wine Glasses
PG13- Some steaminess going on




On a side note; I had to keep knocking my brain because every time I’d read the name Nicki Styx it’d compute as Nikki Sixx then I’d have Motley Crue songs running through my head. LoL

Friday Book Blogger Hop, Follow & Tag Along! (3)


Welcome and thanks for stopping by!

Hosted by Laurie at Bitten by Paranormal Romance, Parajunkie, Crazy-for-Books and A Few More Pages...



Parajunkie and feature blogger Julie @ My 5 Monkeys asks: If you have, or would have a daughter, what book would you want your daughter to read?







There are a ton of great books out there that I wouldn't mind my daughter or step-daughter reading when they get to a certain age but right now they are 5 & 11 so out of the books I've personally read recently I would say Wings by Aprilynne Pike would be a good book for my step-daughter. My daughters just learning to read now and she is into anything with animals; Animal Planet, National Geographic, ect. 







Crazy-for-Books asks: 
"What is the one bookish thing you would love to have, no matter the cost?"






Click for more info


I want this Wisdom Tree bookshelf, so cool!












I am currently reading You're The One That I Haunt by Terri Garey, third in her Nicki Styx series. 







The first line from the book is:
"Always remember that you're unique...just like everyone else."
I thought it was a funny start because Nicki us unique but she is not like everyone else.This is a great series though and I'm plowing through it because I can't put them down!





Please leave a comment and thanks again for hopping on by!
If you have a minute, check out our giveaway for Demon from the Dark on the left side bar or by clicking HERE
Have a spooky & safe Halloween weekend everyone & happy reading! 




Wolf Signs by Vivian Arend Giveaway Winner!

Click here for original post

THE WINNER OF A WOLF SIGNS DIGITAL COPY IS:


PinkStuff28 said...

enter me please !

raluk.93 at gmail (dot) com


I WILL FORWARD YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO THE AUTHOR, THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO COMMENTED! 

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"Waiting On" Wednesday #2: Awakened by P.C. & Kristin Cast

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted byBreaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.


This beautiful cover was just revealed yesterday. Eeek, gorgeous! I really LOVE Stark in this series and am dying to know what happens next. 



AWAKENED

House of Night Series

P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast


Release Date: January 4th, 2011







At the start of Awakened, the pulse-pounding eighth installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey has returned, mostly whole, from the Otherworld to her rightful place as High Priestess at the House of Night. Her friends are just glad to have her back, but after losing her human consort, Heath, will Zoey—or her relationship with her super- hot Warrior, Stark—ever be the same? Stevie Rae is drawn even closer to Rephaim, the Raven Mocker with whom she shares a mysterious and powerful Imprint, but he is a dangerous secret that isolates her from her school, her red fledglings, and even her best friends. When the dark threat of Neferet—who is coming closer and closer to achieving her twisted goal of immortality—and Kalona returns, what will it take to keep the House of Night from being lost forever, and what will one desperate girl do to keep her heart from being irreparably broken?



Don't forget to enter our giveaways, just click on the pictures below.
Win a copy of Immortals After Dark:
Demon from the Dark!












Win a digital copy of Wolf Signs!

And if you get the chance and you like my creation I would love you forever if you would cast your vote for me for the Night Huntress Virtual Bake-Off Contest. I'm #14 and you can vote HERE *muah* Check out the other awesome entries too!










Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Book Review: Jane and the Damned By Janet Mullany

Click here for more info

Jane and the Damned
By Janet Mullany
  









Authors have been putting a paranormal twist on the classics a lot lately. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Bespelling Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim, Jane Slayre, Wuthering Bites, just to name a few. =) I am no expert on Jane Austen or similar figures and haven’t read a classic since high school, there are just so many other books out there that I have been more interested in I kind of put these on the backburner in my mind.
I first heard about Jane and the Damned and Janet Mullany from the Supernatural Underground and immediately put this book on my TBR list, and then I was lucky enough to win a signed copy. I approached it cautiously because I was not sure what to expect but after not being able to put it down and finishing it in a day I can say it was a phenomenal good ride!

This is a never-seen-before Jane Austen that will knock your socks off. Jane and the Damned is full of witty wordplay with a poetic twist, suspense, action, irony, conflict and just a dash of romance with vibrant and seductive characters.

Jane Austen, an aspiring writer, attends an assembly and falls prey to her dance partner William, one of the Damned. She wakes up several hours’ later feeling strange and immediately realizes what has happened, she has been changed into a vampire. She confides in her father, The Reverend Mr. Austen, who decides the family shall travel to Bath so Jane can partake in the healing waters, the only known cure for her condition.

While at the Pump Room Jane meets the vampire Luke Venning, who kindly takes her on to show her the ‘vampire ropes’ and introduce her to Damned society. And as Jane’s luck would have it, the French decide to invade the town at the same time and the Austen’s find themselves hosting several French soldiers in their home. Jane decides to use her new vampire abilities and takes up the cause to fight the French. While learning the ways of the Damned and fighting the French alongside Luke she starts to fall in love with him, but is it unrequited love?

Jane is conflicted and deters back and forth with her decision to remain a vampire. She feels she is loosing her writing ability because of the change; writing has been her life’s purpose. She is also concerned with the choice she makes and the effect it will have on her family. The Damned are a family unto itself and only allow mortals around for dining and serving. Jane has a lot of hard decisions to make, which way will she go?

A fast-paced and detail rich plot that never bores and comes to an epic battle, Janet Mullany has channeled Jane Austen in this novel and brought her to life on the pages. You can actually see and believe her as a kick-ass, humorous and witty vampire.

The romance was minimal and what little there is it’s very clean and ran YA style. There were, unfortunately, no steamy love scenes for our Miss Jane Austen who seemed rather naïve in the romance department for her age. Times were different though; this is a Regency era novel, and Ms. Mullany was staying true to her character as much as she could while being a vampire. LoL.  But I do so love steamy love scenes and thought being classified as a paranormal romance there might be just one or two but alas, there was not. Which is why, for me, it brought Jane and the Damned from a 5♥ down to a 4♥. Still a fabulous read despite that! I'm looking forward to the next encounter between Jane and the Damned.


Rating: 4 Wine Glasses

PG13- Some steaminess going on








Monday, October 25, 2010

Book Review: Taken by Midnight by Lara Adrian


Taken by Midnight
#8 in the Midnight Breed series
by Lara Adrian
Read an excerpt here: http://www.laraadrian.com/taken.php#excerpt

Summary from the back cover:
At the crossroads of death and desire, a woman tastes a pleasure no mortal is meant to survive . . .
In the frozen Alaskan wilderness, former state trooper Jenna Darrow survives an unspeakable breach of body and soul. But with her narrow escape comes an even greater challenge. For strange changes are taking place within her, as she struggles to understand--and control--a new hunger. To do so, she will seek shelter in the Boston compound of the Order, an ancient race of vampire warriors whose very existence is shrouded in mystery. Perhaps the most mysterious of them all is Brock, a brooding, dark-eyed alpha male whose hands hold the power to comfort, heal . . . and arouse.
As she recovers under Brock's care, Jenna finds herself drawn to the Order's mission: to stop a ruthless enemy and its army of assassins from subjecting Earth to a reign of terror. Yet in spite of their resolve, a purely physical relationship without strings soon binds Brock and Jenna together with a desire fiercer than life and stronger than death itself--until a secret from Brock's past and Jenna's own mortality challenges their forbidden love to the ultimate trial by fire.

My thoughts:
If you haven’t read the whole series you can jump right into this book because there is a lot of recap, great for new readers, places to skim over for old readers.
I personally would recommend reading the series from the start. I’m a series reader though and don’t like picking up one book in the middle. I like to know the whole story and all the characters start to finish. And the Midnight Breed series is fantastic; filled with suspense and romance, thrills and danger and is dark and intense.

Mmm...Monday


So here is your yummy man candy for this Monday, in honor of this Halloween week I gave you a few supernatural hotties. Hope it doesn’t give you a sweet tooth. LoL Bad joke, I know. =D





***IMAGES REMOVED***















So many awesome new releases out tomorrow:

·Jaguar Warriors by Juliana Stone, His Darkest Embrace. 10/26/10
·Blue Bloods Series by Melissa De La Cruz, Misguided Angel. 10/26/10
·Eternal: More Love Stories With Bite, Anthology with P.C. Cast 10/26/10
·When Wicked Craves, Shadowkeepers #3, by JK Beck 10/26/10
·Entice Me at Twilight by Shayla Black 10/26/10
·Dresden Files, Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher 10/26/10
·The Fledging Handbook 101, House of Night by P.C. Cast 10/26/10
·Sister's of the Moon #10, Harvest Hunting by Yasmine Galenorn 10/26/10
·Blood Lines series, Blood Heat by Maria Lima 10/26/10
·Armed & Dangerous: Kade, by Cheyenne McCray 10/26/10
·Highborn by Yvonne Navarro 10/26/10
·Alien Huntress series, Ecstasy in Darkness by Gena Showalter 10/26/10
·Sorceress Series, Shotgun Sorceress by Lucy Snyder 10/26/10
·Kismet Series, Heaven's Spite by Lilith Saintcrow 10/26/10
·Tairen Soul series, Crown of Crystal Flame by CL Wilson 10/26/10

Quote of the week:
My home is where my books are. (1909) 
~ Ellen Thompson ~

Word of the week:
Story Arc (n)
the principal plot of an ongoing storyline in the episodes of a narrative;
the continuous progression or line of development in a story. 

Yesterday Virginia Kantra revealed her cover for Forgotten Sea, her next book in The Children of the Sea series. 
Sizzling, yes? The little teaser at the end of Immortal Sea was so evil, it won’t be out till June and I can’t wait!

Don't forget to enter our giveaways, just click on the pictures below.
Win a copy of Immortals After Dark:
Demon from the Dark!

Win a digital copy of Wolf Signs!























Oh, and I Am A Reader, Not A Writer has put together an awesome blog hop & giveaway for this week. Go HERE to check it out. 
Have a great week everyone!