Review: Missy Jane's Day Shift

Author: Missy Jane

Title: Day Shift

Published: November 2011 (first published 2009)

Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

Description from Goodreads.com: "The sun's not the only thing that's too hot to handle.

President Vardin isn’t the first vampire politician to make empty promises. Humans can work at night, he says. Humans will be safe on the streets, he says. It’s all bull. I’m still stuck on day shift at Langley’s Round The Clock Emporium, trying to earn enough to live from night to night.

If I thought the sun’s harsh rays had turned society upside down, watch what happens when I witness a murder in the alley. The police keep bombarding me with questions until a detective with a bad attitude walks in and takes over. He’s unbelievably hot, way out of my league, and way, way out of my comfort zone. Because he’s the one thing I fear most. A vampire.

Then I learn why the police seem so interested in me. My ex-husband is drawing a series of murders in his new comics. I’m in every one of them, and it looks like I’m supposed to be the last victim. The detective’s interest in my past—and his protective instincts—are bordering on unprofessional, but I can’t seem to bring myself to care.

Because the last place I should want to be is the safest place on earth…a vampire’s embrace.

Warning: If you like your vampires sparkly and emotional, don’t read this book. It contains an overworked, underpaid, bloodsucking hero who might break your heart."

Review: Day Shift started off with a great start explaining the world that Zaria lives in and her aversion to vampires. In her world vampires have taken over but coexist with humans. One day at work Zaria witnesses a crime and meets Detective Gregory Parsons who just so happens to be a vampire. Through other crimes that Greg investigates, Zaria's ex husband becomes a suspect and a wanted man. Greg vows to do whatever it takes to protect her and the two develop feelings for each other. Through the investigation and more crimes Zaria discovers something about Greg that threatens their relationship. 

   I consider myself a vampire connoisseur as I love all things vampire and most books about them. I liked that the vampires in the novel where more modern vampires in that they are able to walk in the sunlight with no problem and they can be around humans with minimal issue. However, the paranormal aspect seemed underplayed and it felt like the fact that some of the characters are vampires only comes up when someone is being murdered. Similarly the relationship between the hero and heroine seemed tense and forced to me. The stressful situation that they are involved in added to the tension which causes the relationship aspect of the novel to not be as strong as it could be in my opinion. Despite these things Day Shift is an enjoyable novel that I would recommend because the plot was very interesting and well executed. I give the novel a 3.5 out of 5 stars because it was good but could have been better.  

Links: Day Shift on Goodreads
On Amazon
On Barnes & Noble

Cover Reveal: Heidi Garrett's True Love's First Kiss

Finally...Here it is!!!

Cover Reveal: True Love's First Kiss

In the Enchanted World, true love’s first kiss is magic.

• Nandana’s Mark, Book 1: When two half-faeries—Melia and her younger sister—are cursed under dreadful circumstances, true love’s first kiss is the remedy.

• The Flower of Isbelline, Book 2: Nothing but true love’s first kiss can save Melia’s younger sister from blind ambition and ruin.

• The Dragon Carnivale, Book 3: Melia must choose the freedom she cherishes or true love’s first kiss—and a relationship that promises to secure her place in the Whole.

• The Queen of the Realm of Faerie is a fairy tale fantasy series that bridges the Mortal and Enchanted worlds. The main character, Melia, is an eighteen-year-old half-faerie, half-mortal. She lives in Illialei, a country in the Enchanted World, with her two sisters and their mother. Melia’s father has been exiled to the Mortal World, and her best friend is a pixie.

When the story opens in the first book, Melia is troubled by her dark moon visions, gossip she overhears about her parents at the local market, and the trauma of living among full-blooded faeries with wings—she doesn’t have any.

As the series unfolds, the historic and mystical forces that shape Melia’s life are revealed. Each step of her journey—to find the place where she belongs—alters her perceptions about herself, deepens her relationships with others, and enlarges her world view.

***True Love’s First Kiss is a compilation of the first three books in this ongoing series***

About the Author:

The product of a verbally gifted family, Heidi Garrett is possibly the least loquacious of them all. While her Uncle John created off-the-cuff characters like King Machi-Machi and her Uncle James turned otherwise ordinary moments into O. Henry stories, she would often sit dazzled and silent, thrilled that these were ‘her people,’ as Grandma would say.

Despite the verbal inadequacy that shadowed Heidi whenever she was in her family’s presence, she never stopped writing in secret. Whether it was angsty teen poetry, the personal journals she has since burned (imagine bonfires), passionate letters to the editor, purgative song lyrics, or simply imagined vignettes, Heidi has played with words all of her life.

Bottom line: she loves stories and the people who tell them.

Links: http://heidigwrites.blogspot.com/ | https://twitter.com/heidigwrites

https://www.facebook.com/heidigwrites 

***Special note: Nandana's Mark is free (as of 5/29/13) for Amazon Kindle.  Here it is

Links: Nandana's Mark for Barnes & Noble 

The Flower of Isbelline for Barnes & Noble

Nandana's Mark for Amazon

The Flower of Isbelline for Amazon

Teaser Tuesday: Christopher Paolini's Eldest

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Author: Christopher Paolini

Title: Eldest
Series: Inheritance

Book #: 2

Description from Goodreads.com:

"Darkness falls ...Despair abounds ...Evil reigns ...Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the mighty forces of King Galbatorix, cruel ruler of the Empire. Now Eragon must travel to Ellesmera, land of the elves, for further training in magic and swordsmanship, the vital skills of the Dragon Rider. 

It is the journey of a lifetime, filled with awe-inspiring new places and people, each day a fresh adventure. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and Eragon isn't sure whom he can trust. Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must fight a new battle back home in Carvahall - one that puts Eragon in even graver danger. Will the king's dark hand strangle all resistance? Eragon may not escape with even his life ."

Teaser: "Roran shuddered at Sloan's expression and hurried past, averting his face so as to avoid meeting his bloodshot gaze. He grabbed a shovel and immediately plunged it into the soil, doing his best to forget his worries in the heat of physical exertion."

Eldest on Amazon
Eldest on Barnes & Noble
Eldest on Goodreads

To Be Read Pile: Slow Burn & Beauty and the Wolf

Title: Slow Burn (Smoke Jumpers)

Author: Anne Marsh 

Published: 2013

Description from Amazon.com: "It's not every man who will risk his life, leaping into the flames of a wildland inferno. And it's not every woman who will love him. . .

He's Feeling The Heat

Evan Donovan is a big muscled giant of a man, whose size and strength make him uniquely qualified to be a smoke jumper. No matter how great or how treacherous the challenge, he gets the job done. But when he agrees to look in on a friend's ex-wife after a suspicious brushfire, Evan learns that some jobs are too hot to handle. Especially when it involves a scorchingly sexy woman. . .

She's Playing With Fire

Faye Duncan is a photographer on a mission, shooting fires for a magazine. But her first encounter with a wildfire isn't nearly as wild as her first night with Evan Donovan. The moment she meets the bigger-than-life hero, the sparks begin to fly. But things really catch fire when Evan learns she may have taken a photo of the arsonist setting the fires. Evan is determined to keep Faye safe. But if he expects her to trust him with her life, he'll have to open up his heart--even if someone gets burned. . ."

I am looking forward to reading this book because I have already read Reburn which is another book further along in the Smoke Jumpers series.

Title: Beauty and the Wolf

Author: Marina Myles

Published: 2013

Description from Amazon.com: "A Union Of Curses

Isabella Farrington's marriage was hasty. For all her new husband's riches, Lord Draven Winthrop is whispered about, avoided, and feared. Yet Isabella is drawn to Draven's dark good looks, his strength, the charm he can turn on as easily as she can blink. The impoverished daughter of an Egyptologist, she knows there are rumors about her, too, and the amulet she wears. Nothing more than superstitious babble. . .

But when Isabella returns to Draven's remote coastal manor, she senses there is something more at work in the grim gardens of Thorncliff Towers than superstition. Draven is passionate and seductive, but he has a brutal, uncontrolled side too, and a history of secrets. To live in peace she must discover the reasons behind a gypsy curse and a mother's scorn. Especially when she learns Draven believes his sweet young bride is doomed to a fate even darker than his own. . ."

Slow Burn on Amazon

Beauty and the Wolf is available for preorder on Amazon

Review of Jennifer Blackstream's Aphrodite's Hunt

Title: Aphrodite's Hunt

Author: Jennifer Blackstream

Published: 2012

Publisher: Skeleton Key Publishing

Photo and description from Goodreads.com

Description: “When a vampire gets involved in a werewolf mating ritual, you know there’s going to be blood . . .”

Gia is a werewolf with a mission: to have a submissive mate who will never threaten her dominance. For years she has ruled as the lupa of her pack with just such a mate. Then one night her perfect little arrangement comes to an end when her mate betrays her with another woman. Outraged at the insult to their lupa, the pack calls for one of their most sacred rituals: Aphrodite’s Hunt. For three nights Gia will be the prey, hunted by the eligible males of her pack until one proves himself worthy by finding her and claiming her as his own. If Gia wants to escape the erotic ritual that even her own wolf longs for, she will have to find someone to protect her not only from her pack . . . but from her own carnal desires.

Sorin is a vampire with a secret. Haunted by the macabre sins of his past, he has sworn off blood, determined to stick to a diet of siphoned energy that leaves him too weak to pose a threat. When Gia comes to his door, possessed by a heated desire and desperate to make a deal, Sorin quickly turns her away. But he soon finds out that Gia is not a werewolf used to taking orders. One bloody kiss is all it takes to awaken the beast he has kept trapped inside of him for so long and suddenly Sorin finds himself swept up by a renewed hunger for the warmer things in life.

Now Gia wants out of the deal and Sorin wants . . . her."

*I received this book in exchange for an honest review*

Review: To be honest I tried really hard to get into this book. The synopsis seemed exactly what I am interested in: werewolves, vampires, love, and some steamy scenes. I think the author attempted to balance these scenes with a great plot but I the plot was underdeveloped. Sorin, the vampire that Gia turns to for protection, fights with the werewolves in Gia's pack for the right to claim Gia. However it seemed forced. I understand that in most books werewolves are seen to be ruled by their impulses and emotions but the pack seemed completely unreasonable, especially when talking to Gia, their alpha, which they did not seem to respect at all. This was further shown through the fact that the pack, not Gia, called for the Aphrodite's Hunt which seemed unrealistic that an alpha would allow herself to be hunted, especially in a sexual manner. It was also confusing to me what Sorin was exactly and how he is able to survive on siphoned energy rather than blood like all other vampires. There was a disconnect for me as to how the scenes in Sorin's house led to Gia returning to her pack. For an alpha that prided herself in her judgement, skills, and ability, Gia was severely lacking when it came to knowing her pack, which of them would turn against her, and her own mate. Overall, it was a well-written book that I did enjoy reading, however I think the plot could have been developed a little more. Also Gia felt too selfish and arrogant to be the loving and helpful leader that she claimed to be. I would give this book 3.5 of of 5 stars.

Aphrodite's Hunt on Goodreads.com
On Amazon

This Week (a full schedule) Teasers and cover reveals and reviews oh my!

So hi guys I know I haven't blogged for a few days but things have been a little hectic for me because of the Memorial Day weekend and... I am about to graduate high school (yay!! for me :] ). So to make up for my absence I plan to do a whole week of blogging which will include:

• Monday (today): To Be Read pile. I know I said TBR are usually on Sunday but I will be moving these to Monday.
• Tuesday: Teaser Tuesday
• Wednesday: A Cover Reveal!!!! Woohoo!!!!
• Thursday: A book review
• Friday: Friday will probably just be a day to talk or rant about whatever. Maybe I could answer any questions you have about me or anything. Let me know.

So again I apologize for my absence and am looking forward to this week. Byeeee

P.S. I need to post a book review today too so look out for that.

Teaser Tuesday: Libba Bray's The Diviners

Title: The Diviners

Author: Libba Bray

Published: 2012

Teaser: "And when his sight shriveled up to tiny points of blurry light that finally faded to black, they sent him away with nothing but his guitar, a raised scar on his skin, and a handshake of warning to keep quiet. His sight was gone, his body used up and broken."

I'm excited for this teaser because it is a teaser to me also. I am about to start this book and hope to review it soon.