Book Description

First in a brand new series about a Chicago graduate student’s introduction into a society of vampires.

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was Merit’s. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker—and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.

Turns out her savior was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she’s traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan “Lord o’ the Manor” Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred- year-old vampire, he has centuries’ worth of charm, but unfortunately he expects her gratitude— and servitude. But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan’s attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone’s still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago’s nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war—and there will be blood

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Book 1 in  The Chicagoland Vampires Series.

Review: 
SOME GIRLS BITE makes me think of the TV show Alias in a way.  Sydney was a Grad student when she was recruited by the fake CIA, just as Merit was a Grad student when she was bitten and recruited by the Cadogan House of vampires.  Now granted Merit didn’t get a choice, but still.  Both showed amazing skill and aptitude in their new role and underwent extensive training in order to excel in their new life. 

But where Sydney displayed great strength and self respect, Merit not so much.  But I’ll come back to that.  I will say that I thought the dialogue was fantastic in SOME GIRLS BITE. It’s smart, snarky, and sarcastic (especially from Merit’s witch roommate Mallory).  And Chloe Neill nicely covers all her paranormal bases by creating a world that is full of not just vampires, but also shapeshifters, nymphs, fae, and sorcerers.

The big problem I had with SOME GIRLS BITE was Ethan, or more specifically, Merit’s attraction to Ethan.  The author tries to paint him as an Austen-esque Mr. Darcy who is attracted to Merit but doesn’t like her. It didn’t work.  **SLIGHT SPOILER** He starts out as your standard arrogant vamp, and sparks fly, but then he propositions Merit in front of his current mistress, Amber, and gets indignant when she refuses.  Then Merit actually walks in on him screwing Amber, Ethan sees her and mentally talks with her while pounding away into Amber.  And Merit has to fight her arousal!!  **END OF SLIGHT SPOILER** Merit has a quote that perfectly illustrates why I wanted to slap her:

I hated myself for my inability to hate him despite the
things he said, the things he did, and the things he expected. –SOME GIRLS BITE

Um, no Merit.  That’s exactly why you’re able to not like someone.  If he says, does, and expects things you hate! What else is there? I guess if he looks like Beckem, you overlook everything else?

Another problem I had with this book was the pacing.  It was kind of slow for the first half or so.  Not enough was happening while Merit was mostly complaining about her newly undead status (yes, she was attacked, and yes, she didn’t choose to become a vampire, but raging at people who were trying help her only made her look childish).  Usually UF books have the opposite problem.  The second half was better, and the introduction of another romantic suitor for Merit helped immensely. 

So why am I giving this book 3 bats?  Because despite Merit’s deplorable taste in men, and initial griping, I found myself rooting for her.  Wanting Ethan to man up and ditch his skank and become something worthy of Merit’s affections.  In a word, I see potential.  Chloe Neill’s Chicago is a fun world to play in, and her knack for smart dialogue was consistently entertaining.  If Merit can get overcome her growing pains, which she seemed to be doing by the end of SOME GIRLS BITE, she could become a worthy resident.  I already have Friday Night Bites on my TBR pile, so I’ll let you know. 

Sexual Content: References to sex, a brief sex scene

My Rating (out of 5):
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe wait for paperback.

Click HERE to read an excerpt of SOME GIRLS BITE

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (April 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451226259

Disagree with my review?  Email me your review for this or any other book I’ve reviewed and I might use it for 2nd Opinion Review

Book Description

You can run from the grave, but you can't hide . . .

Half-vampire Cat Crawfield is now Special Agent Cat Crawfield, working for the government to rid the world of the rogue undead. She's still using everything Bones, her sexy and dangerous ex, taught her, but when Cat is targeted for assassination, the only man who can help her is the vampire she left behind.

Being around him awakens all her emotions, from the adrenaline kick of slaying vamps side by side to the reckless passion that consumed them. But a price on her head—wanted: dead or half-alive—means her survival depends on teaming up with Bones. And no matter how hard she tries to keep things professional between them, she'll find that desire lasts forever . . . and that Bones won't let her get away again.

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Book 2 in The Night Huntress Series.

Review:
ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE picks up four years after the events in Halfway to the Grave.  After accepting a deal from the FBI that would ensure the safety of her vampire lover Bones, Cat is now leading a team of agents working as a branch of Homeland Security specializing in hunting down vampires.  She’s worked hard to try and forget Bones, and its a constant battle to remind herself that running away from him was the only way to save him.  But when a hit gets taken out for the Little Red Reaper (aka Cat), Bones is the only one who can help save her.

Jeaniene Frost skirts the PNR/UF line beautifully in ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE.  There is a strong romantic theme throughout with Cat and Bones, but that doesn’t diminish the solid urban fantasy plot either.  Cat fully has her own story here involving chasing down her own personal history and finding out more about both her human and vampire halves.  Also balancing the openly hostile humans in her life with the vampires and ghouls she’s come to depend on.

This is the one time where I’m afraid that the sexual content breakdown of a story could possibly be longer than the actual review.  I mean this is the book that contains the infamous Chapter 32.  And if you’re familiar with my reviews, you know I typically don’t love to read extremely graphic sex scenes, but at least I was prepared this time (On a side note if you don’t want to read super graphic sex described, you can easily skip over Ch. 32 without missing any plot developments).  Prepared or not, Ch. 32 deserves its fame (or infamy, depending on your perspective).  I will say that about halfway through the chapter, for me it took a decidedly unsexy turn. 

Aside from Ch. 32, I enjoyed the story of ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE.  I appreciated the maturity of Cat and the time the author gave her between books to acquire skills and friendships apart from Bones. And of course Bones is still the walking, talking personification of sex.  He still is Spike (from Buffy) for me, so of course every scene he’s in makes my heart go pitter pat. There is something so sexy about how fiercely he wants Cat, and not just sexually.   His love for her is completely believable.  And for me, that’s more than enough to keep me reading this series.

Sexual Content: A scene of sensuality. A brief non-graphic sex scene. References to sex, rape, oral sex, bisexuality, ménage à trois +.  *Chapter 32* one long, extremely graphic sex scene (including graphic oral & anal sex).

My Rating (out of 5):
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe wait for paperback.

Click HERE to read an excerpt of ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE. 

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon; First Avon Printing edition (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061245097
• ISBN-13: 978-0061245091

Disagree with my review?  Email me your review for this or any other book I’ve reviewed and I might use it for 2nd Opinion Review

I am so excited to be able to finally announce:

Paranormal Summer Fest!

Tynga (from Tynga’s Reviews) and I got together earlier this year to start planning a joint event to celebrate all the stellar supernatural stories coming out this summer.  We came up with the idea for Paranormal Summer Fest.  Okay, fine. Tynga came up with the idea but I jumped on board immediately.  There are simply too many great books coming out this summer for one blog alone to handle. 

So what is Paranormal Summer Fest? It’s our opportunity to gorge ourselves on the series we love, the titles we’re anticipating, and the authors who bring them to life.  In other words: lots of interviews, special visits, reviews, and tons of giveaways (seriously it’s a little scary how many we already have planned)! And because Tynga and I are working together on this event, there’s going to be Double the goodies for everyone!

Paranormal Summer Fest and will run the entire month of June highlighting some of the best books in the paranormal genres that are releasing from May-July. 

We’re working with many of our favorite publishers and authors already, but if you are an author/publisher/cover artist etc.  releasing a paranormal title this summer and are interested in joining us for the event, we do still have some spots open. And of course there’s no such thing as too many giveaways.  Please Contact Me and put ‘Paranormal Summer Fest’ in the subject line and I’ll get back to you ASAP. 

We’ll be announcing a more detailed lineup of who and what next month, so stay tuned.

Sonya Bateman is the author of a new urban fantasy series that debuted on March 30, 2010 with MASTER OF NONE.  The tag line for this book is what caught my attention: ‘One unlucky thief. One unlikely genie. One very odd couple.’  I’m loving these new unconventional urban fantasy series that have sprung up lately, and now with the addition of MASTER OF NONE, I can’t wait to throw a genie into the mix. I’m so pleased that Sonya (and her main character Gavyn) are here today to give us the inside scoop on what her book is about and try to answer ‘The Question.’…and did I mention the International giveaway?  See details below. 

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Sonya Bateman (and Gavyn Donatti) on
“The Question.”

The most frequently asked question by far, whenever you tell someone you’ve written a book, is the dreaded “What’s your book about?” It’s a tough question, because you’ve got this three to four hundred page story, and it’s  “about” a lot of things, but the person who’s asked the question doesn’t want to hear a half-hour rambling diatribe. They don’t even want you to recite the two to four paragraphs of cover copy on the book. They want the essence of the story. Simple, easy to remember.

Like this: “The movie ‘Aliens’  is like Jaws in space.”

That’s the formula Hollywood uses to describe high-concept movies. If you can come up with a recognizable one-liner that describes your novel, it’s the best answer to The Question, and the one most likely to interest the person who asked in reading the book.

I’m still struggling with a one-liner for MASTER OF NONE. So far, it goes something like this:

“It’s like Aladdin, only set in modern times, and the thief is a professional with chronic bad luck, and the genie doesn’t grant wishes – actually, he’s more like Jafar than the genie in Aladdin – and there’s a Jasmine, but everybody calls her Jazz, and she’s not a princess, but there is a princess, and...”

At this point, the questioner loses interest and wanders away.

Talking isn’t my strong suit. That’s why I write. So, given a few moments of reading time, what’s the best way to tell someone what your book is about? There’s the cover blurb, of course. And sample chapters. But those are standard, and it’s hard to use them to show what makes a novel different from all the other insert-genre-here novels out there.

I’ve decided to let one of my characters describe what the book is about, so I’ll pass the floor to him now. And the next time somebody pops The Question – well, I’ll probably mutter, “It’s like Jaws in space” and wander away.

------------------------------------------------

You don’t know me, and I probably don’t know you. Unless I’ve robbed you—and if that’s the case, sorry about that. It’s nothing personal. Just a job.

Anyway, my name’s Gavyn Donatti—yes, that’s really my name—and I’m a thief. You can call me Donatti. Try and pronounce it right. It’s not that hard. Oh, and about the thief thing? Don’t worry too much. I won’t steal anything from you that you can’t afford to lose. I’m really a decent guy.

I’m just not that lucky.

See, at the moment, I’m kind of running for my life from this barely evolved gorilla named Trevor. He’s a crazy bastard, and I shouldn’t have taken the job, but I did. And then I lost the score. Yeah, I told you I didn’t have any luck. Trevor wants this thing bad—and he’s going to kill me when he finds out I don’t have it.

I don’t mean that metaphorically. He’s really going to kill me. If I’m lucky, he’ll shoot me...but I’m not, so he’ll probably torture me to death.

How did I lose the score? Oh, man. If I knew that, I’d have it back by now. I check into this motel after I hit the place, so I can clean up and get a little rest. No problems. I call Trevor, let him know I’ll see him soon. Take a piss. Then, when I come out, my jacket’s on the bed with the pockets turned out, all my s--- scattered, and the damned thing’s gone. Just vanished, like so much f---ing smoke. The door’s still locked, the window’s closed, nobody’s in the room but me, and it’s gone.

Yeah. Lucky me.

That was a few days ago, and I’ve been running since. And something weird’s going on, too. Ever think you’re being followed? I mean, obviously, Trevor’s thugs are after me. But this is something different. Sometimes it’s just a feeling, and not a good one. Like there’s somebody standing right across the room, or over my shoulder, actively hating my guts. Once in a while it’s little things, physical things—a door opens, papers ruffle when there’s no breeze, my keys jump off a table. And I hear sounds. Footsteps, thumps, creaking floors. Last night, I swore I heard somebody breathing right behind me, but I turned around, and nothing.

Maybe I’m losing my mind. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me. Running for your life tends to cause a little stress. Or maybe I’m being haunted by some pissed-off ghost. Can’t be somebody I killed, though. I may have stolen more s--- than a stadium full of purse-snatchers, but I’m no murderer. At least, not yet. But if it comes down to Trevor or me, I might break that whole innocent streak. I’m not quite ready to die. I still have overdue books out from the library.

Oh, s---. That sedan outside looks about as unobtrusive as a tiger in a lingerie store. Gotta run. Again. Wish me luck...

Forget luck. I’m gonna need a miracle.

Thanks Sonya (and Donatti) for stopping by.  Come back anytime.

Giveaway(International)

One copy of MASTER OF NONE by Sonya Bateman

Gavyn Donatti is the world’s unluckiest thief...

Just ask all the partners he’s lost over the years. And when
he loses an irreplaceable item that he was hired to steal for
his ruthless employer, Trevor—well, his latest bungle just
might be his last. But then his luck finally turns: right when
Trevor’s thugs have Donatti cornered, a djinn, otherwise
known as a genie, appears to save him.

Unfortunately, this genie—who goes by the very non-magical
name of “Ian”—is more Hellboy than dream girl. An
overgrown and extremely surly man who seems to hate
Donatti on the spot, he may call Donatti master, but he isn’t
interested in granting three wishes. He informs Donatti that
he is bound to help the thief fulfill his life’s purpose, and then
he will be free. The problem is that neither Donatti nor Ian
has any idea what exactly that purpose is.

At first Donatti’s too concerned with his own survival to look
a gift genie in the mouth, but when his ex-girlfriend Jazz and
her young son get drawn into the crossfire, the stakes
skyrocket. And when Ian reveals that he has an agenda of his
own—with both Donatti and the murderous Trevor at the
center of it—Donatti will have to become the man he never
knew he could be—or the entire world could pay the price… .

Click HERE to read the first chapter of MASTER OF NONE.

GIVEAWAY GUIDLINES

1. Open Internationally (Thank you Sonya!)
2. Leave a comment or question for Sonya, or tell us what is your most dreaded ‘Question,’ to be asked.
3. Entries must be received by Midnight MST on April 9th (check back on April 11th to see if you won).

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Interested in guest blogging on All Things Urban Fantasy?  CONTACT ME

Melissa Marr, author of the NYT best-selling Wicked Lovely series, is heading out on tour to share her newest book Radiant Shadows with her legions of fans!  Don’t miss this opportunity to meet Melissa, hear juicy details about the upcoming Wicked Lovely movie, ask her some burning questions about Aislinn, Seth, Irial and the rest of the fae and get behind-the-scenes details about the making of Radiant Shadows.   

• DENVER, CO April 22, 2010:  Tattered Cover Book Store; 7:00 pm
• LEXINGTON, KY April 23, 2010:  Joseph-Beth Booksellers; 7:00 pm
• ST. LOUIS, MO April 24, 2010:  St. Louis County Library; 7:00 pm
• BOSTON, MA April 26, 2010:  Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge, MA; 7:00 pm
• COLUMBUS, OH April 28 – May 2, 2010:  Romantic Times Convention
• CLEVELAND, OH May 12, 2010:   Joseph-Beth Booksellers; 7:00 pm
• PHILADELPHIA, PA May 14, 2010:   Chester County Book Store, West Chester, PA; 7:00 pm
• RICHMOND, VA May 15, 2010:   The Fountain Bookstore; 2:00 pm

What?  You mean like me, you don’t live anywhere near any of those cities?  How about if I give you an opportunity to win a copy of RADIANT SHADOWS by Melissa Marr (courtesy of Media Masters Publicity) just by weighing on a mini Throwdown Thursday.

Throwdown Thursday is a weekly thing [hosted by The Neverending Shelf] where we tackle books with similar characters, covers, themes, etc. to determine which one rocks more. And it is up to YOU to determine the winner!

Last week’s Throwdown asked: Hell Fire vs. On The Edge? And the winner be split decision is…Hell Fire

This week, I’m keeping it simple: Do you like the US version or  the UK version of the RADIANT SHADOWS cover?  Leave your answer and you’ll be entered to win a copy of the US version.

Radiant Shadows (Wicked Lovely)

US Cover                  vs.                 UK Cover

Book Description

Hunger for nourishment.
Hunger for touch.
Hunger to belong.

Half-human and half-faery, Ani is driven by her hungers.

Those same appetites also attract powerful enemies and uncertain allies, including Devlin. He was created as an assassin and is brother to the faeries' coolly logical High Queen and to her chaotic twin, the embodiment of War. Devlin wants to keep Ani safe from his sisters, knowing that if he fails, he will be the instrument of Ani's death.

Ani isn't one to be guarded while others fight battles for her, though. She has the courage to protect herself and the ability to alter Devlin's plans—and his life. The two are drawn together, each with reason to fear the other and to fear for one another. But as they grow closer, a larger threat imperils the whole of Faerie. Will saving the faery realm mean losing each other?

Alluring romance, heart-stopping danger, and sinister intrigue combine in the penultimate volume of Melissa Marr's New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series.

Check out my reviews here:

• Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1)
• Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely #2)
• Fragile Eternity  (Wicked Lovely #3) is coming soon…

Visit HarperTEEN and download Melissa Marr's exclusive e-book original sequel to INK EXCHANGE and the book that started the series, WICKED LOVELY, complete with bonus material, both for FREE!

Giveaway Guidelines

One copy of Radiant Shadows (Wicked Lovely #4)

1. Open U.S. & CA residents only
2. Leave a comment with your throwdown pick (US vs UK cover)
3. Entries must be received by Midnight MST on April 10th
4. Check back on April 11th to see if you won.

That’s it.  Much simpler, huh?  I decided to do away with all the contest hoops.  I’m hoping to try and incorporate more giveaways with my Throwdown Thursdays in the future. 

Of course please feel free to spread the word.  You can click the Retweet, Facebook, Google Buzz buttons at the top of the comments.