Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Review: Archangel's Legion by Nalini Singh

Archangel's Legion
Release Date: October 29, 2013
Publisher: Penguin
Guild Hunter Book #6
ISBN:   1101602228
ISBN13: 9781101602225
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Review Copy Source: Publisher

Nalini Singh, the New York Times bestselling “alpha author of paranormal romance” (Booklist) returns to an immortal world of violent passion and lethal power…on the brink of a deadly archangelic war.

Angels are falling from the sky in New York, struck down by a vicious, unknown force.

Vampires are dying impossibly of disease.

Guild hunter Elena Deveraux and the Archangel Raphael must discover the source of the wave of death before it engulfs their city and their people, leaving New York a ruin and Raphael’s Tower under siege by enemy archangels.

Yet even as they fight desperately to save the city, an even darker force is stirring, its chill eyes trained on New York…and on Raphael. Rivers of crimson and nightmares given flesh, the world will never again be the same…

I really enjoyed reading about Elena and Raphael and could not wait for Nalini to get back to them after the 2 Guild Hunter books without them. I honestly had no want to read books 4 or 5 and was a little worried that I would be lost when I jumped back in for ARCHANGEL'S LEGION, but I am happy to report that I felt like I had not left the series at all.

A surprising amount of events and confrontations happen in ARCHANGEL'S LEGION and it's all written so smoothly that before you know it the book is at its end and you are pining for more. We get Angel's falling from the sky, woman throwing themselves at Raphael (although that is nothing new), Mother in Law drama, father drama and a supernatural war that you will not soon forget.

I love the development of Raphael and Elena's relationship. They have gone through a lot and they closer and closer every day and with every event. They both complement each other really well and I love watching them together. Elena handles the woman coming after Raphael surprisingly well and I can not help but laugh thinking of anyone brave enough to come after their relationship in the future. Raphael's Mom surprised me, I enjoyed her more than I thought I would after certain events. I understand Elena's Father better after ARCHANGEL'S LEGION. It will never excuse his behavior but I understand him now. The author brings out a lot of emotions in this installment you will be laughing, cringing, crying and yelling with the rest of us when you dive in.

The fight at the end, CRAZY! I was gripped to my seat with my heart pounding out of my chest while reading and I never thought it would end like it did. Why must we wait to get more? Will book 7 stay with Raphael and Elena? I really really hope so.

I gave it 5/5 stars

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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Guest Blog & Giveaway: Four Weddings and a Werewolf by Kristin Miller

UFI welcomes Author Kristin Miler. Thanks for Joining us!!

Four Weddings and a Werewolf’s Playlist

Just like every movie has a soundtrack, I believe every book should have a playlist.

While I’d like to say the Four Weddings and a Werewolf playlist is filled with songs like “Chapel of Love”, or even Billy Idol’s “White Wedding”, it’s not. I’ve seen authors create fake playlists based on the themes in the book or choose songs the characters might like. Those are definitely cool, but the playlist I used to write Four Weddings and a Werewolf is what inspired the book, so I think that should be the book’s playlist.

There were about twenty songs on the overall playlist, but I would often start midstream, choosing a song and letting it run down the list before starting from the midpoint again. The following songs are the ten that played on repeat most often:



1.      T.B. Sheets, Van Morrison

2.      I Know It’s Over, Jeff Buckley

3.      I Can Barely Say, The Fray

4.      Black and Blue live, Christina Perri

5.      You Know Where I’m At, Gavin DeGraw

6.      Be Still, The Fray

7.      Kiss Me, Ed Sheeran

8.      Last Kiss, Taylor Swift

9.      Thinking of You, Katy Perry

10.  Lover, You Should’ve Come Over, Jeff Buckley


Overall, the mood was romantic and mellow, with some anguish here and there (courtesy of Jeff Buckley and Van Morrison). Any songs on the playlist you haven’t heard? (You should hop over to Spotify and listen! They’re amazing!) Are any of those your favorites? (We’re on the same page—yay!)

Okay, I’m off to create another playlist! It’s called “Release Week” playlist, and it’s got Prince’s “1999”. I’m off to party!
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National bestselling author Kristin Miller has had a passion for language and literature her whole life. Born and raised in northern California, she often made up stories about faraway places and edge-of-your-seat adventures. After graduating from Humboldt State University, Kristin taught high school and middle school English, married her college sweetheart, and had two beautiful munchkins. In 2008, she took time off from teaching to raise her children, and started writing while they napped.

Her first novel was published in 2011, and since then she has had eight other novels published with Entangled Covet, Avon/HarperCollins and Harlequin Nocturne. She is the author of the Seattle Wolf Pack series (starting with the national bestselling book Gone with the Wolf), the dark and gritty Vampires of Crimson Bay series and the short-but-steamy Isle of Feralon novellas.

Find Kristin and her books
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Four Weddings and a Werewolf
Amazon   BN   Goodreads
To have and to howl…

Logan Black, former Marine and bodyguard for the Seattle Wolf Pack, hates weddings and has no plan to walk the path to matrimonial misery. But when he’s hired to protect a hot-to-trot wedding planner with a werewolf stalker, he’s forced to put his feelings aside. Not such an easy task when the damsel can turn him on with a single smoldering glance.

Wedding planner Veronica Vale knows werewolves exist, but hates them. One bit her sister, changing their lives forever. When a sexy Marine shows his gorgeous face at one of her wedding appointments, Veronica finds it hard to focus on the task at hand.

The chemistry drawing Logan and Veronica together seems fated, but with Logan’s playboy attitude, Veronica’s hatred for werewolves, and a stalker lurking in the shadows, these two need more than passion to keep them together.
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 Tour Wide
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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New Releases: 10/27-11/2


Mon Oct 28th


Tue Oct 29th

 Altered (Crewel World #2) by Gennifer Albin
 Dead Set: A Novel by Richard Kadrey
 Horde (Razorland #3) by Ann Aguirre

Happy Reading!
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Monday, October 28, 2013

Promo & Giveaway: Sentinel Tour - Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout


Mini Interview with Jennifer about Half-Blood
For JLA – Half-Blood was your first published book.  Does it hold a special place for you or do you wish you could have a chance to re-write it?   

Half-Blood definitely holds a special place for me, and I wouldn’t want to re-write it.  I’m happy with the book.

For Leon – You defended Alex and advocated for her to stay and be trained.  If you’d know she was gonna be such a pain in your ass, would have do that again.  Why?   

Oh yeah, Alex needed to be trained, but I would have advocated for an attitude adjustment along with the training.

For Aiden – That day that Alex meets Seth for the first time, did you notice anything then that could have warned you of what was to come?  

Everything about him warned me.

For Seth -  Did you know that Alex was not impressed with your name when she met you?  She thought you should have a more Greek name like Apollo or something.  Turn around is fair play.  Your thoughts on her name?   

She’s named after a boy.
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# 1 New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer L. Armentrout Lives in West Virginia.

All the rumors you heard about her state aren’t true.

Well, mostly. When she's not hard at work writing, she spends her time, reading, working out, watching zombie movies, and pretending to write.

She is the author of the Covenant Series (Spencer Hill Press), the Lux Series (Entangled Teen), Don't Look Back (Disney/Hyperion) and a yet untitled novel (Disney/Hyperion), and new YA paranormal series with Harlequin Teen.

Jennifer also writes New Adult and Adult romance under the pen name J. Lynn. The Gamble Brothers Series (Tempting the Best Man/Tempting the Player) and Wait for You. Under her pen name, she is published with Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

Find Jennifer and her books
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Half-Blood
Covenant #1
Amazon, BN
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals--well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.
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 Tour Wide
Spencer Hill Press is giving away a $200 gift card to Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository or any indie bookstore of the winner's choice to not only stock up on amazing books, but to perhaps buy a Nook HD or Kindle Fire.
 a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Cover Reveal: Wild Card by Jamie Wyman

Title: Wild Card
Author: Jamie Wyman
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 280 pages
Release Date: November 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62266-375-0
Imprint: Entangled Edge
Amazon   BN
It was bad enough that gods gambled with human souls, but Catherine Sharp’s soul just had to be won by the Greek goddess of Discord, Eris. As if working a dead-end tech support job didn’t suck the life out of her as it was. Now, Cat finds herself performing random tasks for the goddess in her free time.
But when Coyote, the Native American trickster himself, claims to have won her own soul in Mayhem’s weekly poker game, Cat wants in on the action. With five sneaky gods upping the ante, Cat needs to find a way to collect the winning chips that could save her soul.
Marius, a handsome yet irritating satyr with his own debt to Eris, might finally come in handy for something. If they play their cards right and work together, Cat and Marius may just get their freedom back. If they don’t kill each other—or fall in love—first.
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After a misspent adulthood pursuing a Music Education degree, JAMIE WYMAN fostered several interests before discovering that being an author means never having to get out of pajamas. (However, she can eat/spin fire, tell you a lot about auditioning to be a Blue Man, and read/write in Circular Gallifreyan.) As an author, Jamie’s favorite playgrounds are urban fantasy, horror and creepy carnival settings. When she’s not traipsing about with her imaginary friends, she lives in Phoenix with two hobbits and two cats. She is proud to say she has a deeply disturbed following at her blog. 
 
Jamie’s debut novel, WILD CARD, will be coming to an e-reader near you November 2013 thanks to Entangled Publishing. You can also find her short story “The Clever One” in the anthology WHEN THE HERO COMES HOME 2 (Dragon Moon Press, August ’13).
Find Jamie and her books
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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Week in Review: 10/20-10/26


Books Ive Bought/received

* Magic and Loss by Nancy A. Collins- Publisher

* Black Heart by Christina Henry- Publisher

* Hunter by Jax- ARC- Publisher

* Becoming Alpha by Aileen Erin-ARC- Netgalley

* Darkness Awakened by Katie Reus

Books I Read

The Pulse by Shoshanna Evers
Darkness Splintered by Keri Arthur
Discovery by Brina Courtney
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Magic and Loss by Nancy A Collins
Black Heart by Christina Henry
Darkness Awakened by Katie Reuss

Reviews Posted

Blackout by Robison Wells
Hunter's Moon by Lisa Kessler

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 * New Releases for the week. Was there anything you were looking forward to reading?

* Monday- Edge Release Day Blitz and Giveaways.

* Tuesday- Guest Blog for Hollow's End by Marianne Morea

 * Thursday- Guest Blog and Giveaway for Demon Dance by Brian Freyermuth

* Friday- "Meet Blake" Book Blitz 

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* UFI is getting ready to switch from Blogger to Word Press. Please follow us in the following places! Thanks

You can also add me (as in Stacy, not UFI lol) to your friends on these sites if you're on them.
 
 
 * I love comments so if you see something you like (or not) please comment away and let me know.
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Review: Blackout by Robison Wells

Blackout
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Publisher: Harper Teen
Blackout Book #1
ISBN:  0062026127
ISBN13: 9780062026125
Genre: Young Adult/ Dystopian
Review Copy Source: Edelweiss
Laura and Alec are trained terrorists.

Jack and Aubrey are high school students.

There was no reason for them to ever meet.

But now, a mysterious virus is spreading throughout America, infecting teenagers with impossible powers. And these four are about to find their lives intertwined in a complex web of deception, loyalty, and catastrophic danger—where one wrong choice could trigger an explosion that ends it all.

As the blurb states, a mysterious virus is spreading that only infects teenagers. All the teens are rounded up and tested for the virus and those that have it are taken away to the unknown. Jack and Aubrey are no longer friends but when they see all their friends being round-up at prom they successfully hide and escape being round-up. Unfortunately that doesn't last long and they are eventually taken like the rest of the teens and test positive for the virus. Laura and Alec use their superpowers for evil. They are part if a terrorist group trying to take down America and now they infiltrate the other kids that have been found to have the virus to further their destruction. 

I enjoyed BLACKOUT but there were way to many POV's. Looking at other reviews this is a common complaint. It was akin to getting whiplash jumping from one character to the other and it kept me from feeling connected to them and becoming fully invested in their struggles. I did still enjoy the storyline. The pace was fast and the story did have a way of drawing you in. The virus giving superpowers was a fun concept. I wanted to contract the virus by the end of the book! I think we could have learned more about the virus. The author doesn't really dive into it like I wanted. I also was not crazy about how the book ended.

 I could probably be persuaded to pick up the next book in the series but it's not one of my must buy, wish list series. It has potential though so maybe I will be surprised.

I gave it 3/5 stars
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