Winner: Bridge of Dreams by Anne Bishop

Thank you to everyone who entered!!

Prize: Hardcover copy of Bridge of Dreams

The Winner chosen by Rafflecopter is.....

Week in Review: 3/11-3/17

Books Ive Bought/received

* Chasing Magic by Stacia Kane- eARC- Netgalley

* Protector's Mate by Katie Reus-eARC- Author

* Tomorrow Land by Mari Mancusi- Ecopy- Netgalley

* Tempest Unleashed by Tracy Deebs- eARC- Netgalley

* Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper- From Publisher 
   Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men by Molly Harper-From Publisher
   Nice Girls Don't Live Forever by Molly Harper- From Publisher

 * Wicked as they Come by Delilah S. Dawson- From Publisher


Books I read

I was very sick this week so didn't get much reading around the massive migraines and stuffy head.
Shadow's Fall by Dianne Sylvan

Reviews posted


Eye of the Sword by Karyn Henley
Operative by Kate Kaynak
The Vampire Shrink by Lynda Hilburn

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


* Alison Pang stopped by on Tuesday to talk about her book 2 in the Abby Sinclair series A Sliver of Shadow. There is a tour wide giveaway going on as well.



* Wednesday Caryn Block was here to promote her new book Alpha's Mate. She is also giving a Ecopy to one lucky winner. 

* Friday Author Gina Damico stopped by on her Croak tour with a Guest post and Giveaway

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*If you see something on my books Ive read list that you are dying to know about let me know I'm back logged on reviews and can move it up on the list if I know people are wanting one.

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

Early Review: The Vampire Shrink by Lynda Hilburn

The Vampire Shrink
Author: Lynda Hilburn
Release Date: April 3, 2012
Publisher: Silver Oak
PhD Vampire Psychologist  Book #1
ISBN:  1402792786
ISBN13: 9781402792786
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Review Copy Source: Publisher

A sizzlingly sexy urban fantasy sure to feed the hunger of ravenous, vampire-loving fans. Kismet Knight, a brainy Denver-based psychologist with a stalled career and a nonexistent love life, is about to have her world rocked. Not only does her newest patient, Midnight, long to become a vampire, but the teenager insists that a coven of the undead hangs out at a local goth club. The always-rational Kismet dismisses Midnight's claims as the delusions of an attention-starved girl--until bodies start turning up drained of blood and the hottest self-proclaimed vampire ever to walk the face of the earth enters her office.  What's real? What's not? As inexplicable events and romantic opportunities pile up, along with the corpses, Kismet finds herself in a whirlwind of passion, mystery, and danger. But this tough and funny heroine--who doesn't do damsel in distress--is about to turn the vampire-meets-girl convention on its head.

Kismet lead a pretty boring life in my opinion before a girl (Midnight) dressed like a vampire walked into her office. Midnight told her all about how she knew vampires and how she was going to be turned into one. Although Kismet was supportive she did not believe a word Midnight said about the vampires and decided she would start a book about the delusions of people that believed in such things. It very slowly is revealed to Kismet that everything Midnight has said was 100% true and she just might be in way over her head.


Kismet is extremely hard headed and stubborn. She hangs on to her non belief even when the truth is staring her right in the face and their were many points where I wanted to shake the heck out of her. There is a love triangle between Kismet a sexy vampire and a just as sexy FBI profiler. I really liked both guys with Kismet so I'm not really rooting for one over the other.  I felt that the story was well written and it was easy to fall into the scenes. There were a few parts that dragged a little, annoyed me, or that i found a tad bit cheesy but for the most part it had a great storyline and characters. I wasn't crazy about the ending. It cut off way to fast and seemed abrupt but the book as a whole left me interested to see where the series goes.

I gave it 3.5/5 stars

Guest Blog & Giveaway: Croak by Gina Damico

UFI welcomes Gina Damico Author of Croak. Thanks for Joining us!!

What do you do when your not writing?

A large percentage of my day is spent writing, though I wish I could say that more of it was spent on actual book writing. Because there is much more that goes into being a writer than just getting to ride unicorns and slide down rainbows in Pretend Land all day. I write emails. I write blog posts. I write interviews and guest posts for totally awesome bloggers and their equally awesome readers. I write letters to Santa Claus, asking him yet again to please bring a puppy this year, as I have since I was five. I write tickets for cars that are illegally parked. I do not, however, write recipes. That would be bad for the whole world.

So what do I do when I'm not writing? Several lame things!

---I watch TV. Way too much, considering the fact that I just lodged a major complaint about not having enough time to write. Caught in my web of LIES.

---At the moment I'm trying to fix up my home office to be somewhat habitable. But at the rate I'm going, this will most assuredly never happen. I spent one day - yes, an entire day - trying to pick out a desk chair. And yesterday I bought a nice potted plant, which not five minutes ago I just knocked all over the floor.

---I sweep spilled dirt off my office floor.

---I visit the post office and chat with Tess, my favorite pink-haired postal worker. She knows me by my return address labels. Yeah. I go there a LOT.

---I try to go grocery shopping, then fall into a pile of fail, then claw my way out, then return home empty-handed because for some reason I cannot get my act together in this particular realm of adult life.

---I chase my cats around the house.

---I go to the gym. Once a month.

And a few unlame things:

---I play board games with friends. Surprising, right? I have friends!

---I read at least a hundred pages a day of whatever book I'm devouring.

---I knit and crochet. I make clothes for myself and other people, and I make weird little monsters just for my own amusement.

---I join an impromptu choreographed parade and sing all the way down the center of town, a la Ferris Bueller.

Thanks for having me, and happy reaping reading! 

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I grew up under four feet of snow in Syracuse, New York. I received a degree in theater and sociology from Boston College, where I was active with the Committee for Creative Enactments, a murder mystery improv comedy troupe, which may or may not have sparked an interest in wildly improbable bloodshed. I have since worked as a tour guide, transcriptionist, theater house manager, scenic artist, movie extra, office troll, retail monkey, yarn hawker and breadmonger. Croak is my first novel. I live in Boston with my husband, two cats, and a closet full of black hoodies.

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Find Gina and her books

Website / Twitter / Facebook

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Croak
Croak #1
March 20, 2012

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

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 US/Canada only.

Cover Reveal: Perfection by J.L. Spelbring

*Available May 7, 2013*

Title: Perfection

Author: J.L. Spelbring

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

ISBN: 978-1-937053-34-5

Release Date: May 7, 2013

Formats: paper and e-book

The personification of Aryan purity, Ellyssa's spent her whole life under her creator's strict training and guidance; her purpose is to eradicate inferior beings. She was genetically engineered to be the perfect soldier: strong, intelligent, unemotional, and telepathic.

Only Ellyssa isn't perfect.

Ellyssa feels emotions--a fact she's spent her life concealing. Until she encounters the epitome of inferiority: a dark-haired boy raised among renegades hiding since the Nazis won the war a century ago. He speaks to her telepathically, pushing thoughts into her mind, despite the impossibility of such a substandard person having psychic abilities.

But he does.

His unspoken words and visions of a place she's never visited make Ellyssa question her creator. Confused and afraid her secret will be discovered, Ellyssa runs away, embarking on a journey where she discovers there is more to her than perfection.

Winner: Eye of the Sword by Karyn Henley

Thank you to everyone who entered!!

Prize: Print copy of Eye of the Sword

The Winner chosen by Rafflecopter is.....

Review: Operative by Kate Kaynak

Operative
Author: Kate Kaynak
Release Date: March 15, 2012
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Ganzfield Book #5
ISBN13: 9780984531189
Genre: Young Adult
Review Copy Source: Publisher

Maddie and the rest of the team must catch the person selling classified information to terrorists--before they become the targets.

I am finding that the more books that are added to series that I love, the harder and harder it gets to write a review on it. It seems like I have already mentioned everything I love about the books and it is pretty consistent from book to book. Each book has been filled with passion, emotion, action, danger and thrills that keep my heart racing. Each book the connection between Maddie and Trevor has developed more and more and their love grows more fierce. The characters are always well written and ingrained into the story that I couldn't imagine them not being in the series forever and would be destroyed if they were hurt or killed off.  I am about 95% positive that I have cried at least once if not multiple times (or throughout the whole thing as was the case with ACCUSED) in all of the books and tend to adapt to the emotions right along with the characters that are feeling them.  I know that once I start reading one of Kate's Ganzfield books to not plan to leave the house because I don't want to put it down and thankfully they have all been so fast paced and easy to get into that I finish them pretty darn fast. Even though the books are consistent in their awesomeness we always get great twist and turns thrown at us and a fresh new plot to get us even more addicted.

So on to OPERATIVE..... I'm not telling you what happens..... You will have to go out and discover the awesomeness all on your own so that I don't mistakenly give away something that would compromise your reading experience. You will have to be ok with me telling you that OPERATIVE continues the series as all the others have with fantastic twists, heart pounding turns, fantastic humor, heart wrenching loss and passionate reunions.

I'm going to once again repeat myself GO BUY THIS SERIES you will be far from disappointed and if you are then you have horrible taste in reading material. This series is in my top 5 must have must read series and will continue to be there as long as Kate keeps the great characters and plots coming. SOULMATE is set to release October 1 2012 and has been on my wishlist since it was added to Goodreads.

I gave it 5/5 stars