New Releases: 11/17-11/23

Tue Nov 19th

 The Curse Keepers by Denise Grover Swank

 The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines #4) by Richelle Mead

 Horizon (The Soul Seekers #4) by Alyson Noel

Happy Reading!

Promo: The Medusa's Gargoyle by Sally Max

The Medusa's Gargoyle
Breathless Press / Amazon /  All Romance ebooks / Manic Readers /  Bookstrand

Legend has it that anyone that looks upon a medusa will never live to tell the tale. However, fate has different ideas... 

Drucilla, a medusa-human shifter, is unable to control her transformations, which puts every living creature near her in danger of becoming stone. Her sisters have given her ten years to teach herself how to control it, but she is down to her last few days, and still cannot do it. 

Az, a gargoyle, is cursed to turn to stone every sun rise and to only be released from his rock tomb every sunset. He is the only living being that Drucilla has seen survive her medusa stare. Can he help her control her shifts or will she be forever alone, too afraid to face anyone ever again?

__________________________________

Excerpt:

 

Drucilla!

She had followed him. If they found out she was the one—

The mob stopped, placing him in the middle of the two statues. Someone behind him ripped off the cloak, revealing his true self. Az took the moment of surprise to raise his wings. His wingspan was massive, at least two or three times his height. Drucilla had taken the opportunity to sneak out of the alley toward the crowd. He rushed over to her, grabbing her and hugging her tight to his chest as one would do a captive.

She squealed and struggled. Her hair whipped around her head in a flurry of its own.

"Change now," he breathed in her ear.

Feeling her tense, then release, her hair sank down atop her head.

"He has a hostage!" A woman yelled from the crowd. The mob quieted as he maneuvered himself back toward the statues. The archers surrounded him in a circle and he was afraid of them getting a bit too anxious with their arrows.

Drucilla had dropped her head so that her hair fell over her face. The shift of her body, rubbed against him and he found himself reacting to her warm presence.

"By the gods..." Az mumbled under his breath.

It made her turn, rubbing her warm behind against his lower regions. He felt himself harden.

"What?" she whispered.
 
"Stop moving."

"Why—" she moved slowly in his arms, and she must have felt why. "Oh."

__________________________________

After not being able to answer, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” when she was little, Sally Max decided she wouldn’t settle on just one profession. Instead, she lives vicariously through her characters on the page, and gets a taste of every possible scenario she can imagine.

Sally Max currently resides in central Florida with her tuxedo tabby cat.

Find Sally and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

__________________________________

Week in Review: 11/10-11/16

Books Ive Bought/received

* Turned by Virna DePaul- eARC- Netgalley

* Chaos Bound by Rebekah Turner- eARC- Netgalley

* Deadshifted by Cassie Alexander- eARC- Publisher via Netgalley

Books I Read

Irresistable Magic by Deanna Chase
Reflected by Rhiannon Held
Bittersweet Magic by Nina Croft
Turned by Virna DePaul

Reviews Posted
Hell Bent by Devon Monk
Quick Thought Reviews
Dangerous by Jax 
Dragon Rising by Jaimie Rush 
Four Weddings and a Werewolf 
Tempt the Stars by Karen Chance

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

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

* Monday- Promo and Giveaway for Bittersweet Magic by Nina Croft

* Tuesday- Guest Blog and Giveaway for Untethered by Katie Hayoz

* Wednesday- Cover Reveal for Mended by Kim Karr

* Thursday- Guest blog for Demon Jack by Patrick Donovan. Cover Reveal for 2 Entangled Select titles. 

* Friday- UFI was involved in MegaWars MegaWinner's Week. There is a  great giveaway posted.

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

* Did you know you can follow UFI on these other sites?

BlogLovin

Networked Blogs

Facebook

You can also add me (as in Stacy) to your friends on these sites if you're on them.

Twitter

Goodreads

Librarything

Google+

 
 

 * I love comments so if you see something you like (or not) please comment away and let me know.

Quick Thought reviews

Sometimes I read a book where I just don't have a lot to say about it. Hence the name quick thought reviews. These will be short and sweet.

 _____________________

Dangerous by Jax 

Review Copy Source: Netgalley

A body that won't quit
Clothes that are barely there
Eyes that openly invite him to take what he wants

Devon Candler is nothing like the helpless, vulnerable woman Liam expected when he agreed to provide security for her secluded Catskill Mountain estate. Yet her life is at risk. Her enemies monsters. Her secrets devastating.

Liam Nash is a trained killer who takes no prisoners, fears no man. But to him this woman is seductively, devastatingly. . .

Dangerous

I did not have the easiest time getting into the story. Everything built up really slowly and was quick to let it down if that makes sense. The world was interesting but nothing that really made me go wow. Both characters on their own were ok but there was something off about them together. I can't put my finger on exactly what their relationship was missing but there was something that didn't sell me on them. The ending was meh. Definitely something you should grab at the library if you feel you must read it.

I gave it 2/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

 _____________________

Dragon Rising by Jaimie Rush

Review Copy Source: netgalley

Clues left by her missing father lead Lyra to a gorgeous, mysterious Caido, a descendent of fallen angels. When she discovers that his brother is also missing, she's determined not to let the exasperating man shut her out.

The last thing Archer needs is an emotional Dragon at his side, especially one whose heat reaches beyond the icy walls he, and all Caidos, must erect for good reason. Working together? Smart. Falling in love? Foolish…and inescapable.

I actually enjoyed DRAGON RISING. It was fast paced, I was not bored and I enjoyed the characters and the story. My only complaint was that it was too short and I would have liked to follow the characters a little longer. 

I gave it 3/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
 _____________________

 Four Weddings and a Werewolf by Kristin Miller

Review Copy Source: Netgalley

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.

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A WEREWOLF was just as good as the first book in this series. The couple was hot, the story was believable and the characters kept you interested. Veronica's sister was attacked and turned by a werewolf and although her sister is happy with her life now Veronica has a hate towards werewolves. Unfortunately she is being stalked and the person that is protecting her is a werewolf. Logan likes to be alone but Veronica tempts him in every way. They romance between the two was rocky but it was believable and I like a book where I can picture the story happening right next door. This one did that.

I gave it 4/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

 _____________________

 Tempt the Stars by Karen Chance

Review Copy Source: Netgalley

Being a goddess is a lot less fun than you might think. Especially when you’re only a half goddess, and you only found out about it recently, and you still don’t know what you’re doing half the time. And when you’ve just used your not-so-reliable powers to burglarize the booby-trapped office of a vampire mob boss.

Yeah, that part sucks.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Cassandra Palmer, aka the Pythia, the freshly minted chief seer of the supernatural world. After all, Cassie still has to save a friend from a fate worse than death, deal with an increasingly possessive master vampire, and prevent a party of her own acolytes from unleashing a storm of fury upon the world. Totally just your average day at the office, right?

This series never fails to keep me coming back. It has been a while since the last book in the series but I had no problem jumping right back in with TEMPT THE STARS. I love the person that Cassandra has grown into, I love the position she now holds and I love the allies she has at her back. Emotions are pretty high in TEMPT THE STARS and I don't see the emotions dying down in the next book. Cassandra continues to learn what she can do and the All in all, a great addition to the series. REAP THE WIND comes out in 2014 and I am excited to see where it will bring some of my favorite characters.

I gave it 4/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

 _____________________

Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered!!

The Winner chosen by Rafflecopter is.....

a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats!! I have emailed winner who has 48 hours to respond with mailing address or I will pick another.

MetaWars Megawinner Week

Will you be the MetaWars Megawinner for Urban Fantasy Investigation?

Urban Fantasy Investigations is thrilled to celebrate the publication of Book 4 in the Metawars superhero series, 

CHIMERA (Pocket Star EBooks; November 11, 2013; $5.99) by Kelly Meding!

 A mysterious and dangerous conspiracy deepens, threatening the superpowered Rangers and pushing Flex to join forces with one of her team's mortal enemies: a Bane called Chimera.


Growing up with blue skin never made Rene "Flex" Duvall feel like at outcast. She learned early on to put people at ease with her wit and exuberant personality. So she's certainly not going to let her façade crack when she and her teammates suddenly face a new breed of genetically manipulated and brainwashed Metas: the well-trained teenage criminals known as the Recombinants.

When a desperate battle leaves one of their friends wounded, Renee and Ethan follow a clue to Manhattan Island, where the Banes have been imprisoned. There they find a Bane named Chimera, who refuses to cooperate despite possessing information that could help them stop the Recombinants. Chimera's emotional scars are as devastating as Renee's physical scars, and soon the two find common ground in shared pain. Against her better judgment, Renee forms an alliance with this Bane. They both can gain much from working together, so the only question is who has more to lose by cooperating . . .

Enter to win the entire EBook MetaWars superhero series this week!  (PLEASE NOTE, DUE TO TECHNICAL CIRCUMSTANCE, THE PROMO CODES FOR DOWNLOAD ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH KINDLE.)  One winner for Urban Fantasy Investigations will be announced November 15th!

METAWARS: THE COMPLETE SERIES (Pocket Star EBooks; Books 1-4; November 11, 2013; $9.99)

 In addition to entering to win on this site, you can also enter on the other four MetaWars Megawinner sites (each megawinner can only win once!):

XOXO After Dark

All Things Urban Fantasy

Bookaholics Romance Club

Yummy Men & Kick Ass Chicks

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Blog: Demon Jack by Patrick Donovan

UFI welcomes Patrick Donovan Author of Demon Jack. Thanks for Joining us!!

For some reason, everyone (or most everyone) loves a good antihero. There's just something about the almost good guy, that dude that's willing to crack a few heads and break a few rules to get the job done, that captures folk's imaginations. We're talking about the Han Solos, the Constantines, and the Roland Deschains here folks.

But, alas, the question doth remain: What makes these guys (and gals) so damned awesome? Is it their swagger? Is it that sly little smile and the well placed snarky comment?

When I first got the idea for Demon Jack, I knew I didn't want the typical hero. The world that I had envisioned, which even I admit is pretty dark and gritty, needed something more than just your average do-gooder. The story itself just didn't have room, at least at the moment, for a Boy Scout kind of hero. It needed someone a little more raw, a little more willing to say to hell with the rules, and thus Jack Draughn was born. The world was flawed, it needed a flawed hero.

This brings me to the first thing that, in my opinion, makes the antihero what he is. He's a flawed case. There is some fundamental flaw, somewhere in their character, that takes away from their value as a full-fledged hero. For Jack, it was addiction and all the fear, selfishness, and other things that came with it. When he died, before the novel started, he sold his soul to a demon because he was scared of what came after. When he has a choice to save himself or the two people with him, he very seriously questions leaving them behind to save his own skin. It's because of these flaws, that the antihero doesn't ever really get to be the shining beacon of hope or get the girl. Unless your Han Solo, Han always gets the girl. 

The second thing that makes these lovable bastards so wonderful, is exactly the opposite of what defines your stereotype good guy. Law and order, adherence to the social norms, the antihero scoffs at such notions. This disregard for the law of the land, is more often than not, what puts the hero into the title of antihero. See, sometimes, to be the hero, you have to go outside of the rules to make things happen. Why else would Han shoot first, right?

With Jack, it goes a little past a firm defiance to the law. Now, don't get me wrong, he's no fan of the local constabulary, but more than that he doesn't have the same set of morals that most folks tend to have. He doesn't have a problem with say, killing someone instead of saving them. The thing is though, and I think this is important, is it's not killing for killing's sake. It's not just wanton violence for the sake of spattering the pages with a little bit of character guts. I won't say it's entirely justified, but it's not entirely outside of the scope of what the character would do. It's a survival matter, a them or me mentality. It plays back onto something that I think is at the heart of all good antihero types, which brings me to my next, final, and probably most important point.

Antiheroes, in their own way, are inherently selfish. Now, bare with me for a second. That selfishness plays its way out into the greater good in some way, shape, or form. Han came back and saved the day sure, but the question is why? For Leia? Because the Empire had just pissed him off? Does it matter? It served Han's purposes and thus, Han became heroic in his own right. With Jack, well, he got forced into it. So to get out from underneath it, he's going to lay down as much hell and havoc as he can until he go back to living his boring life without monsters trying to eat his face.

__________________________________

Patrick Donovan writes urban fantasy for no other reason than to entertain. His first novel, Demon Jack, makes its home at Fable Press.

He started telling stories at a young age, drawing his stories on paper bags with crayons. He believes characters are what breathe life into a story as the reader watches them fight for survival, make choices (for better or worse) or just fall in love. It's the characters that tell the tale, he just takes dictation.


Like many authors, he lives off of coffee and would consume it via IV if that was a viable option. When he's not writing, he can be found reading, gaming and playing dad.

A graduate of High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, he is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in English with a focus on Creative Writing.

__________________________________

Find Patrick and his books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

__________________________________

Demon Jack

 Simple choice:

Stay dead and go to Hell,
Or sell your soul to a demon and keep breathing.

Fifteen years ago, Jack died and chose the latter. Now, a few years out of prison and living on the streets of Boston, Jack is perfectly content to keep a low profile and avoid his turbulent past.

Being a faceless “nobody” suits Jack just fine.

It’s working out until the only person he considers a friend turns on him, possessed by something far worse than the demon holding the contract to Jack's soul. Now, he's been recruited (some might say blackmailed) by an ancient order with roots in the Inquisition to hunt down whatever malevolent force is responsible for turning Boston's homeless into ravenous killers. At the same time, someone from his past with a massive vendetta and nothing in the way of conscience, is looking for Jack, hoping to issue a little payback of his own.

Paired with a centuries old witch and the only person to survive the rampage thus far, Jack is in a race to track down whatever’s responsible for killing his people, all while staying one step ahead of the skeletons in his closet.

__________________________________