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Sunday Wrap-Up #16

28 April, 2013 2:15 pm , 14 Comments , Kristin

Sunday Wrap-Up is all about sharing the books and book related items that I’ve picked up recently. I also recap what went on last week and let you in on what’s coming up. I link up my post to Sunday Post, Bought, Borrowed & Bagged, Showcase Sunday, Stacking the Shelves and IMM. I will post Sunday Wrap-up every other week.

Last week on the blog:
Found by Stacey Wallace Benefiel (Excerpt & Giveaway)
Real Men Don’t Quit by Coleen Kwan (Review)
Intermix Nation by M.P. Attardo (Excerpt & Giveaway)
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (Review)
Echo by Alicia Brewster Wright (Review & Giveaway)

This week on the blog:
Falke’s Renegade by Madison Layle, Anna Leigh Keaton (Review)
An Affair of Deceit by Jamie Michele (Excerpt)
Hell On Wheels by Julie Ann Walker (Review)
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (Review)
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead (Review)

Posted in: meme

Review: Echo by Alicia Wright Brewster

25 April, 2013 8:30 am , 7 Comments , Kristin

Echo
By: Alicia Wright Brewster
Publisher: Dragonfairy Press
Published: April 25, 2013
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Rating:
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The countdown clock reads ten days until the end of the world. The citizens are organized. Everyone’s been notified and assigned a duty. The problem is . . . no one knows for sure how it will end.

Energy-hungry Mages are the most likely culprit. They travel toward a single location from every corner of the continent. Fueled by the two suns, each Mage holds the power of an element: air, earth, fire, metal, water, or ether. They harness their powers to draw energy from the most readily available resource: humans.

Ashara has been assigned to the Ethereal task force, made up of human ether manipulators and directed by Loken, a young man with whom she has a complicated past. Loken and Ashara bond over a common goal: to stop the Mages from occupying their home and gaining more energy than they can contain. But soon, they begin to suspect that the future of the world may depend on Ashara’s death.

Posted in: YA Sci-fi

Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

24 April, 2013 7:00 pm , 1 Comment , Kristin

Warm Bodies
(Warm Bodies, #1)
By: Isaac Marion
Publisher: Atria
Published: April 26, 2010
Genre: Young Adult
Rating:
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R is a young man with an existential crisis–he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse. Just dreams.

After experiencing a teenage boy’s memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and strangely sweet relationship with the victim’s human girlfriend. Julie is a burst of vibrant color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that R lives in. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead and the blurry line in between.

Posted in: YA Sci-fi

Review: Hounded by Kevin Hearne

24 April, 2013 6:42 pm , Leave a Comment , Kristin

Hounded
(The Iron Druid Chronicles, #1)
By: Kevin Hearne
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: March 3, 2011
Genre: Urban Fanstasy
Rating:
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The first novel in the original, six-book Iron Druid Chronicles—introducing a cool, new, funny urban fantasy hero

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

Posted in: Urban Fantasy

Excerpt: Intermix Nation by M.P. Attardo

23 April, 2013 1:47 pm , 3 Comments , Kristin

Intermix Nation
By: M.P. Attardo
Publisher: Self-published
Published: March 5, 2013
Genre: New Adult

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North America, paragon of diversity, is gone. From its ashes, a new nation has arisen – Renatus – where the government segregates the surviving population into races, forbidding interracial marriage, mating, and love.

Eighteen-year-old Nazirah Nation is a pariah, an intermix, born of people from different races. When her parents are murdered in the name of justice, Nazirah grudgingly joins the growing rebellion fighting against the despotic government.

Overwhelmed with grief, consumed by guilt, Nazirah craves vengeance as a substitute for absolution. But on her journey to find the girl she once was, Nazirah must learn the hard way that nothing … no one … is purely black or white. Like her, every human is intermix, shades and hues of complex emotions. And those who can take everything away are also the ones who can give everything back.

Posted in: Excerpt

Review: Real Men Don’t Quit by Coleen Kwan

22 April, 2013 3:58 pm , 1 Comment , Kristin

Real Men Don’t Quit
(Real Men, #2)
By: Coleen Kwan
Publisher: Bliss
Published: April 8, 2013
Genre: Romance
Rating:
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Serial bachelor. Celebrity author. Her perfect forever?

When famous author Luke Maguire decides to write his next novel in the small town of Burronga, Australia, he’s sure he can ignore the fiery redhead next door. Not only has he just been burned from a high-profile breakup, but he’s never been one to set down roots. No, he’ll finish his novel and leave Burronga. And soon.

Tyler Jones just wants to run her business with her best friend, Ally, and take care of her three-year-old daughter, Chloe. She’s never needed help from anyone, especially not a man, and the brooding, rugged writer next door can’t tempt her. Not in the least.

Only Tyler and Luke can’t stay away from each other. So they set rules. No staying overnight, no future plans, no sappy good-byes when Luke inevitably quits town. But the chemistry between them is too strong to contain in a rulebook. Are Luke and Tyler ready to risk their lives of independence for something more?

Posted in: Romance

Excerpt: Found by Stacey Wallace Benefiel

21 April, 2013 2:09 pm , 2 Comments , Kristin

Found
(Penny Black, #1)
By: Stacey Wallace Benefiel
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: March 1, 2013
Genre: New Adult

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From the author of the Zellie Wells trilogy comes FOUND (Penny Black #1)the first book in a whole new NA trilogy set in the Society world.

Discover what happened to Zellie, Avery, Melody, and Ben!

And meet Penny Black, a girl with a past that can see the future.

Penny Black hasn’t had it easy. Just about everything you’d expect to happen to a harassed foster-kid turned junkie has happened to Penny. Add in the mysterious power to rewind time, conducting events around her, and it’s a wonder she held up on the streets for so many years. Now, at seventeen, the New Society has found her. Finally, Penny is where she belongs. But that doesn’t stop the visions, or the need to protect the victims shown to her.

Wyatt Adams is excited and intrigued when his sister Melody assigns him to be Penny’s Lookout. Being the youngest, and hopelessly ordinary in the family that created the New Society, has left Wyatt feeling like he has a lot to prove — and Penny is a big deal. She’s got abilities that surpass any he’s seen before…and pretty much every quality he looks for in a girlfriend, but no one needs to know about that, especially Penny.

Posted in: Excerpt

Review: Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

20 April, 2013 8:50 pm , Leave a Comment , Kristin

Ten Tiny Breaths
By: K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: Feb. 12, 2013
Genre: New Adult
Rating:
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Four years after losing her parents, best friend, and boyfriend in a drunk driving accident, twenty-year-old Kacey Cleary runs away to begin a new life in Miami. Hardened by the tragedy, she’s determined to keep everyone at a distance—until she meets an irresistible and mysterious neighbor who is determined to melt the ice over her heart.

Posted in: New Adult

Review: Lover Undercover by Samanthe Beck

19 April, 2013 2:35 pm , 1 Comment , Kristin

Lover Undercover
By: Samanthe Beck
Publisher: Brazen
Release Date: April 22, 2013
Genre: Erotic Romance
Rating:
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He’s undercover. She’s in over her head. Yoga instructor Kylie Roberts is the good twin. At least she was—until an accident forces Kylie to step into her twin’s sexy stilettos at a posh Hollywood “men’s club.” But nothing could’ve prepared Kylie for the dead body in the club’s parking lot or the ridiculously hot detective who insists the killer is targeting her regulars. Detective Trevor McCade needs Kylie’s help to draw out the killer. It means long nights undercover and long dances where Kylie’s body tempts him with sensual promises. Dances that leave them both wanting more. But despite Kylie’s hidden identity and the danger lurking in the shadows, it’s only a matter of time before Kylie and Trevor take this undercover operation under the covers…

Posted in: Erotic Romance

Excerpt: A Fine Romance by Christi Barth

18 April, 2013 10:00 am , 1 Comment , Kristin

A Fine Romance
(Aisle Bound Trilogy #2)
By: Christi Barth
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: March 11, 2013
Genre: Romance

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They say you form your first impression of someone within thirty seconds of meeting them. Or, in Mira Parrish’s case, within thirty minutes of not meeting them, when said person is supposed to pick you up from the airport and never shows. This is not a perfect start to her new life. Her
friend Ivy is depending on her to run a new romance store, and Mira can’t afford to let her down.

Sam Lyons should probably apologize. But every time he sees Mira–which is often, since his family owns the bakery next to her shop–he can’t resist antagonizing her. There’s something about the sexy, straight-laced woman that drives him crazy. He can’t get involved, though. He has too much baggage to be any good in a serious relationship.

Despite his teasing attitude, Mira finds Sam too sweet to resist. (His hot body may be a factor.) But if there’s going to be anything permanent between them, they’ll need to let go of their pasts and look to the future…

Posted in: Excerpt