Night Huntress Virtual Bake-Off Contest

Frost Cemetery, Home of Frostie Fang Club Members started a virtual bake-off contest earlier this month. And me being a total Night Huntress freak had to join in the fun! 

From the site: http://www.frostfans.com/?p=1494

Are you getting ready for Halloween? Making lots of goodies for your trick or treaters? Perhaps a lovely little blood snack is on your menu or maybe some ghoul goodies?

In the spirit of Halloween and all things Night Huntress, Frostfans is hosting a virtual “bake-off” contest. Entering is easy!

Get creative and make your favorite Night Huntress themed Halloween confection. Maybe you make a delightfully luscious “Cat’s Cherry Pie” or have been known to bake the ever popular “Lucifer’s Bouncing Balls”. Perhaps you can scare up some delicious “Denise’s Demon Brand Cookies”. Whatever your favorite Halloween treat, give it a Night Huntress spin and enter our virtual bake off!

So I finally submitted my entry this evening, here it is:

Submission # 14 

Submission Title: Tate's Fate 

Submission Image: 

So I had a few ideas for this and couldn't decide on one, add my limited baking skills into it and you get a last minute entry.  I can do the basics but nothing fancy. This is actually my first try at writing anything on a cake, man what a pain in the butt. 
Anyhoo, Tate's Fate is inspired by a scene in Destined for an Early Grave, pg 193 where Vlad states, "Young man, one day I suspect you'll have a terrible accident," he said to Tate. "Keep provoking people, and it will be one day soon." I thought, "Too true!" when I read that. LoL 
So here is what happened when Tate provoked the wrong person. I made a regular white cake with Halloween confetti in it and shaped it into a tombstone, made some grey frosting and frosted it, added some grass to the bottom, cracks in the stone and wrote on it; "Here lies Tate, He provoked the wrong Vamp, and this was his Fate." I thought it was funny.  And if you look in the background you will see some symbols that represent Bones, Cat & Vlad too! So who do you think finally had it with Tate? 
Have a wonderful Halloween everyone!

There were so many awesome entries I don't expect to win but it was fun to do. I had a few ideas, like a truck cake with a "love to do it in a truck" theme or tongue lollies from a scene in DFEG and a few others but thought Tate's Fate was funny. If you want to check out the other entries visit HERE

EDIT: Oh, you can vote for your favorite now! I'm #14 HERE =D

In My Mailbox (1)

Welcome to In My Mailbox! IMM is a meme hosted at The Story Siren with some inspiration from Alea of Pop Culture Junkie.

The idea behind IMM was not only to put new books on your radar but to also encourage blogger interaction. IMM explores the weekly contents of my mailbox & books bought. And sometimes other fun goodies.

Anyone can participate in IMM and you are not limited to only sharing books that arrive via your mailbox. You can also share books that you've bought or books that you've gotten at the library.

Click on the mail box above for more info!

SO I have seen this IMM for a while now and thought it was cool to see what everyone was getting in, what they were interested in and to find new reads. Well I FINALLY got something in the mail this week so I thought I'd join in!

I got presents in the mail, Yippee!

I received the pb set of Night Huntress books by Jeaniene Frost with Destined for an Early Grave signed, my This Side of the Grave bookmark that I posted on Wed., and some other goodies from the lovely Terri Garey at the Supernatural Underground. LOVE S.U. BTW! (A haunted house lollipop that was also part of the goodies is not pictured because it is now in my belly, yum yum)

Then I got in a signed copy of Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany that I won, which I have been wanting to read so YaY. 

I also got in a signed copy of Jeaniene Frost’s Eternal Kiss of Darkness that I won from Literary Escapism. Nerdy Night Huntress fan girl I am squeed quite a bit this week!

Oh, and can't forget Terri Garey’s Nicki Styx series came in too. I won the set off eBay. When am I going to find time to read all these? AND tomorrow tons of great books are getting released too. So many books, so little time & money! 

So did anyone else get any goodies in the mail last week? Whadja get? Are you looking forward to anything coming in this week? 

Friday Book Blog Follow, Hop & Tag Along #2

HI and Welcome! I am participating in my second Follow Friday! It is hosted by Parajunkee's View, check it out and join in!
Please comment, link your blog, and follow, and I will be sure to return the favor. =) And while you're here make sure to check out our giveaways!
Win a copy of Kresley Cole's Demon from the Dark HERE
Win a digital copy of Vivian Arend Wolf Sign's HERE


Featured blogger of the week is Emily @ What Book Is That?
And the question is: What are you currently reading? Basically, what book is that?


Here is what I'm reading;

Taken by Midnight
by Lara Adrian


Book #8 in the Midnight Breed series




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.


What about you, what are you reading?









Book Blogger Hop hosted by Crazy-for-Books.com 
In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word!  This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read!  So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun!  This is a weekly event!  And stop back throughout the weekend to see all the new blogs that are added!  We get over 200 links every week!! 


This week's question comes from Becky who blogs at Becky's Barmy Book Blog:

"Where is your favorite place to read? Curled up on the sofa, in bed, in the garden?"

My favorite place is curled up in the corner of the couch under the lamp. A blanket and my kitty on my lap and a drink at my side on the table and of course a book in hand. 

What about you, what's yours? 

Hosted by Bitten by Paranormal Romance

Calling all 18 and over book bloggers, are you looking for more bloggers like yourself? Well please join in so we can tag along with each other. This is for a specific group and your blog needs to primarily have book reviews and post adult book content. In other words, if you read books like erotic and adult romance and have adult pic., then you can play tag along. Sorry YA readers, but if you read both (I know some of you do) you can tag along also. Just make sure you have both YA and adult romance on your blog.

I wanted to do this not only for myself, but for others out there that are looking for more adult book blogs.

It doesn't matter what you read if its paranormal, suspense, historical, contemporary or mystery, along with erotic with any genre. As long as it is adult then your in.

You don't have to have blog to join in on the fun. If you like adult content books, please click on a link and if you like the blog then follow that blog. You can comment on there post that you found them from the tag along.

For more info visit Laurie @ Bitten by Paranormal Romance

Thanks for tagging along! Please comment, link your blog, and follow, and I will be sure to return the favor. =)

Book Review & Giveaway: Demon from the Dark by Kresley Cole

Demon from the Dark

Immortals After Dark book #10

by Kresley Cole


Read excerpt HERE




A dangerous demon she can't resist...
Malkom Slaine: tormented by his sordid past and racked by vampiric hungers, he's pushed to the brink by the green-eyed beauty under his guard.
A maddening witch he aches to claim...
Carrow Graie: hiding her own sorrows, she lives only for the next party or prank. Until she meets a tortured warrior worth saving.
Trapped together in a savage prison...
For them to survive, Malkom must unleash both the demon and vampire inside him. When he becomes the nightmare his own people feared, will he lose the woman he craves body and soul?

My Thoughts:

If you like the rest of Cole’s IAD series then you won’t be disappointed with this one. She continues on with her fabulously created other world of Lore creatures with a fast paced, emotional and smexy story line. If you haven’t read any of Cole’s other books then, well, clearly you’ve been living in a cave I’m sure. And not the good kind with a hot master vamp named Bones. Because that is the only reason I can think of for why you haven’t picked up one of her books yet. Kresley Cole has written this series so that you can read them alone or out of order but to get the whole picture of the Lore world I recommend reading the whole series in order. 

I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy this book before I started it, I liked Carrow but she wasn’t one of my IAD favorites. It turns out that I did like this book but I’m still a bit iffy on Carrow’s character. The main reason being, she starts out with a very strong, tough girl personality but ends the book weak & vulnerable. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing and she is still a kick-ass witch but it is a 180 for her personality. I would of thought with her attitude shown in past books and the beginning of this one that she would of stood up for herself a bit more towards the end. It was surprising that Carrow just wilted under Malkom’s anger, even if she was in the wrong, and let him treat her the way he did.

In Demon from the Dark you learn about Carrow’s past, her parents, and what she is hiding from with all her partying and arrests which does add depth to her character. Awesome for someone like me, who like I said, wasn’t so into her in the beginning.

This book finally answers the big question of where the heck all these Lore creatures went off to.  

Carrow Graie is captured by The Order and forced to comply with their demands after they kidnap her orphaned niece and new ward Ruby. She is dispatched to earn Malkom’s trust then lure through the portal and back to their world for capture. At first meeting she is terrified of this crazy filthy creature with a drool worthy body but then realizes that they have a lonely upbringing in common and underneath all the dirt there is one hell of a fine looking man. The language barrier is hilarious when Carrow is forced to try to use sign language to negotiate with Malkom. Like laugh out load and have people look at you strangely, funny. During her time in the cave Carrow begins to have feelings for Malkcom, and who wouldn’t. The man tries to do everything to please her so that she will stay with him. She finally earns his trust and guiltily brings him to the meeting point for his capture and her recapture. But what else can she do? There is a little girl depending on her to come back and free them both.

We’ve seen glimpses of “Vemons” in a few past IAD books but now we get to see where they came from.

Malkom Slaine has had a difficult last few centuries to say the least. He was sold as a blood slave at a very young age by his mother and suffered countless physical, mental and sexual abuses. When he finally thinks he has moved on and up from that he is captured because of a betrayal from a fellow soldier, transformed into a nightmarish creature (half demon, half vampire), tortured and then betrayed by his best friend who he thinks of as a brother then the demons he risked his life for turn their backs on him. Needless to say, the guy has some trust issues. You totally feel for him from the start and want him to have his HEA so bad. He’s so traumatized but fights hard to be a good mate to Carrow, make her happy (including romancing her with ghoul heads) and not go all beastie on her. But there is one rule he lives by and that is, if you betray him you will pay. He is utterly destroyed when this happens with Carrow and goes total feral on her promising vengeance. Malkom is a sexy, primitive beast that will make you go yum instead of ug. His story line is so believable and flows fabulously; you will wish this book were longer.  

I especially enjoyed seeing several other characters in the series and am looking forward to their books. There were a few cliffhangers for a some individuals by the end and leaves you dying to know, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!?

♥♥♥♥ - Really Liked It

I can’t wait for Regin’s book, Dreams of a Dark Warrior coming in February of next year. http://kresleycole.com/books/dreams-of-a-dark-warrior.html

Giveaway:

In honor of Carrow’s party girl nature I am giving away a card game, Festival of Frights, with gumballs and some gummy fangs as well in honor of Malkom. ALONG with a copy of Demon from the Dark. sound good?

Open to US residents only please, sorry but I can’t afford international postage right now.

Giveaway will end at midnight on October 31^st and a winner will be selected at random using random.org and posted the next day. Winner has 48 hours to contact me with their information or another winner will be chosen.

 Rules: You must be a blog follower, so if you’re not one already go ahead and hit that follow button on the top right sidebar. Leave a comment answering this question: What is your favorite Lore creature? Want to earn extra points? Share this contest with a link leading back to this post and leave a link with your share in your comment.

Good luck everyone and have a great weekend!

Feature Friday: More Halloween FunFacts & Giveaway Winners!

Giveaway winners:

Thank you to those who participated in our giveaway for the paranormal anthologies & Halloween goodies last Friday! 

Our first winner chosen by random.com is Angel. Please contact me at readingbetweenthewines10@gmail.com with your mailing info and let me know which anthology you would like. 

Our second winner for the remaining anthology is Seduced By Books. Please email me also with your mailing address as well and I’ll get these out to you guys.

I will be posting another giveaway and review for Kresley Cole’s Demon from the Dark in just a few so make sure to check that out!

Halloween FunFacts:

As promised last week I have part 2 of Halloween’s history and facts that I posted.

So last week I discussed the origins of Halloween (link HERE), Samhain and how dressing-up, trick or treating and carving jack o’ lanterns came about. Today is going to be a short post discussing Halloween and Samhain’s traditional games, activities and foods. 

Games & Activities:

• Bobbing For Apples (Apple Bobbing, Dooking – Scottish, Snap Apple – Irish) This was originally a Samhain activity, when apples were associated with love or fertility. You will see that apples are used often in Samhain activities because of this belief. The belief of apple bobbing is that whoever bites into the apple first will be the first to marry. Another belief is that if you place the apple that you bobbed under your pillow you will dream of your future lover.   The fundamentals of this game are you place apples in a tub of water and because apples are less dense they will float. Then using your teeth only, no hands, you try to bite into an apple. A more sanitary version is hanging apples on strings. You never think of that kind of stuff when you’re a kid though. LoL
• A traditional Scottish game is diving your future spouse by carving an apple in one long strip then tossing the peel over your shoulder. The peel is supposed to land in the same of the first letter of your future spouse’s name. I’ve also seen this done by dropping the peel into a tub/barrel of water.
• Another game and belief that is somewhat creepy; unmarried women would sit in the dark on Halloween night and look into the mirror. The belief was that in the reflection you would see a reflection of you and your future husband. But if you were destined to die before marrying you would see a reflection of a skull.
• Bonfires are still built today, which was originally Samhain tradition for cleansing during the slaughter season.

Foods:

·    Candy Apples – So again, with the Samhain belief of apples being associated with love and fertility it is no surprise that they were also used as food goodies. Yum, yum. Another reason because Halloween falls during apple harvest as well. Candy apples are apples skewered with a stick and covered with a hard candy coating. Nowadays people also use caramel, chocolate, taffy and toffee to cover apples with as well.

·   An Irish tradition is baking barmbrack, a fruitcake that has a ring, coin or charm placed inside of it. The belief is that whoever finds the ring will find their true love with in the following year. Similar to a Three Kings Day cake.

·   Roasted nuts were and is also a popular food and during Samhain and believed while roasted them over your hearth if they stayed together so would the couple.

·   Not popular today but during Samhain if you dropped egg into a class of water you’d be able to tell how many future children you were going to have by the shapes formed.

·    Apple Cider is a favorite used during this season.

It might be fun to try out some of these old traditions & beliefs this Halloween. Whatever you choose to do for the holiday I hope you have a frightenly fantastic time! 

“Spread the Word” - ORPHAN OF DESTINY out Oct. 28th

Click on cover for more info

ORPHAN OF DESTINY
Book #3 in Youngest Templar series
By Michael Spradlin


Release Day: 10/28/2010

Description:

Tristan and his companions—the fiery archer Robard Hode and the assassin maid Maryam—have escaped to England. But tragedy has occurred to Tristan’s beloved abbey while they were on the Third Crusade, and Robard’s home in Sherwood Forest suffers under the rule of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Many obstacles still prevent them from delivering the Holy Grail into safe hands. Tristan must defeat the evil Sir Hugh in one final battle. And he must learn the secret of his birth, a secret Richard the Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine are willing to kill to protect!

You can pre-order this great book from Amazon today HERE!

The lovely Jeaniene Frost, of the fabulous Cat & Bones Night Huntress series, is having a “Spread the Word” special contest to help promote Michael Spradlin’s upcoming release.

From Jeaniene's site:

Normally Michael would be doing what all authors do by making the internet rounds promoting his book, but he’s got his priorities in the right order. You see, a family member is having some serious medical issues, so Mike is spending his time concentrating on her instead of on his book’s release. I think all of us would agree with Mike that family is far more important than promoting a new book, but we also know that if readers aren’t aware that a book is out, they won’t have the chance to decide to buy it or not. As a fellow author who remembers Mike’s kindness to me during a stressful event (though far less stressful than worrying about a family member’s health) I wanted to help him out. Mike might not be able to make the internet rounds to let readers know that his book is releasing, but I can try to spread the word for him – with your help. 

This is such a great idea and so sweet of Jeaniene to put together. If you would like to help spread the word then visit Jeaniene's site here: 
http://jeanienefrost.com/2010/10/spread-the-word-special-contest/


Thank you Jeaniene and congratulations Michael on your upcoming release!