Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Guest Blog & Giveaway: Night Child by Lisa Kessler

UFI welcomes Lisa Kessler Author of Night Child. Thanks for Joining us!!

Night Child is on sale for $0.99 for one week only. Get your copy here.
Amazon: Barnes and Noble: Entangled Page

I love writing vampire novels, but watching a good vampire movie is always fun too! Here are my

Top 10 favorites…
Top Ten Vampire movies: 

10) Love at First Bite – George Hamilton at his best! It’s cheesy and Dracula is tan, but it’s suave and silly fun! Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance.

9) Hotel Transylvania – This was a really cute animated flick about Dracula’s daughter growing up. It’s got a lot of heart hidden under the humor and not just for kids.

8) Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter – This is a fun vampire slaying flick with very evil and powerful vampires and our President learning to throw a mean axe. Totally fun flick!

7) Interview with a Vampire – This one was dark and moody and at times horrific. I thought the adaptation was pretty true to Anne Rice’s series and Tom Cruise really rose to the occasion to take on the role of Lestat. If you’ve never seen it before it’s worth a look.

6) Van Helsing – Hugh Jackman as a vampire slayer. Long Hair. Enough said! J Seriously though this one was another fun vampire movie and the Dracula was great! Very sexy and evil…

5) Fright Night (the remake) – I will be the first to admit that I cringed when I heard Colin Farrell was cast at Jerry Dandridge the vampire next door, but I’m happy to say I LOVED his portrayal. He was so wicked and without remorse. They even went with some classic monster make-up at the end. It was a fun ride!

4) Underworld – I loved the idea of an underground war fought right under our noses between he vampires and the lycans and it’s been going on so long that it’s hazy about how it all started. Lots of cool effects and Kate Beckinsale ROCKED the black leather.

3) Fright Night (Original) I loved the lost love secondary plot and Jerry Dandridge was sexy and wicked! I also enjoyed the old-school monster make-up when he shifted and when he got burned. Classic!

2) Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula – Seeing Dracula as a tortured hero, but at the same time he’s scary and dangerous, made this movie gold for me. I also really enjoyed the atmospheric filming of this one. The thick mists, the castles, it all worked together for a great gothic vampire film.

1) The Lost Boys – Keifer Sutherland is still one of my all-time vampires and you put it together with the rest of the cast and it’s amazing. I loved the concept of the Lost Boys needing a mother figure, and it’s always nice to have dangerous vampires. For me the sex appeal and the danger mixed together makes a vampire movie tough to resist.

So did I miss any of your favorites? Please share… I might need to find them!

Lisa
__________________________________

Lisa Kessler is an award winning author of dark paranormal fiction. Her debut novel, Night Walker, won a San Diego Book Award for Best Published Fantasy-Sci-fi-Horror as well as the Romance Through the Ages Award for Best Paranormal and Best First Book.

Her short stories have been published in print anthologies and magazines, and her vampire story, Immortal Beloved, was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award.

When she's not writing, Lisa is a professional vocalist, performing with the San Diego Opera as well as other musical theater companies in San Diego.

Find Lisa and her books
__________________________________

Night Child
Night #3
A psychic gift...

Muriah La Deaux's latest job requires her to locate an ancient codex detailing a prophecy of an immortal birth. But before she can deliver it, her client is brutally murdered. Now a man with chaos in his eyes wants the codex she's hiding.

An immortal child...

Issa is one of the original Night Walkers, a proud protector of the mortal world. Now, when the survival of his entire race rests on protecting an unborn child, Issa is the only immortal strong enough to protect Muriah on a risky mission--locate the lost scrolls that will trap their foe--but his tenuous grasp on his sanity is slipping.

The ultimate sacrifice...

Muriah's headstrong spirit awakens feelings in Issa that are best left buried. But as the battle between love and chaos ensues, sacrifices must be made...
__________________________________

__________________________________
Tour Wide

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: The Taking by Kim Derting

The Taking
Release Date: October 14, 2014
Publisher: Harper Teen
The Taking Book #1
ISBN:   0062293605
ISBN13: 9780062293602
Genre: Young Adult
Review Copy Source: Edelweiss
A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.

When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.

Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.

Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?

Imagine having a fight with your dad, a bright white light, waking up behind a dumpster and heading home thinking you were in so much trouble for being out all night only to find out its been 5 years since you have been seen and everyone you love has moved on with their life. Yeah, that is what happens to Kyra.

Not only does a story like this need great world building to pull it off, but great characters are needed to make you believe in what they are selling. THE TAKING managed to have both. I am pretty sure I would have reacted exactly the same way that Kyra did to the bizarre new life that greets her when she walks back into her life. It was very easy to put myself in her shoes and feel what she was going through. One of my favorite characters besides Kyra, was Tyler. Could he be any more perfect? He was a kid when she disappeared but always had a crush on her and he stepped up to be her rock and confidant from the moment she stepped foot back into her life.

This book was crazy! In a good way! Original, creepy, and intriguing all wrapped up in one great book. Just when you thought you were up to speed another twist is thrown in. THE TAKING starts out a bit slow but quickly picks up the pace. I was into it from page one and it never lost momentum for me. Book 2 was immediately put on my wishlist!

I gave it 4/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.