After Reading : Dragon Kin#5 The Dragon Who Loved Me

The Dragon Who Loved Me by G.A. Aiken

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I got confused with who is who and which is what..there were really a lot of dragons in this book.  I didn't want to look up the previous series anymore.



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After Reading : Chosen By Blood By Virna DePaul

Chosen By Blood by Virna DePaul

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The plot was ok but what made me stop reading was the sex scenes..and there were a lot of it.  I didn't realize that this was erotica LOL.  Don't get me wrong, I like reading love scenes just like any other PNR lovers out there but the scenes and the circumstances just rub me the wrong way. 
Partly also why I stopped reading was because Ms. Showalter's new book came out and I'm just impatient to read it!



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After Reading : Another Kind Of Dead By Kelly Meding

Another Kind of Dead by Kelly Meding
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I feel tired and battered after reading this..I can't imagine how Evy does it.  She's like a fighting machine!


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After Reading : The Restorer By Amanda Stevens

The Restorer by Amanda Stevens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This quite a coincidence that I would read another detective/mystery novel with element of ghosts in it right after another.  This one is quite the opposite of Darynda Jones' First Grave from the Right.   This is intense drama and thriller.  While I was reading, I could actually see the scenes right before my eyes especially the creepy ones like when Amelia saw the little girl outside by her garden and has written a heart at Amelia's window.  I got goosebumps and quite unnerved with the little sounds I heard in the bedroom while reading it in the middle of the night. The words were that consuming.
Below will be some rantings I just need to get off my chest,  so..

Was that really Amelia in Devin's house or was she somewhat possessed by Mariama's ghosts? What's with the little girl Shani? She helped rescued Amelia.  what does this mean? She's ok with  Amelia and Devlin being together despite her mother's refusal to let go of Devlin? I was scared at first so I read it like 3 times, I thought it was Devlin who was the other partner of the murderer, when Amelia saw him in the tunnel as well, although I know it was not really possible. I would be totally horrified and hating the book.
Book 2 can't get here fast enough. I totally want!!


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After Reading: First Grave On The Right By Darynda Jones

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Totally loved it! Darynda has such sense of humor that reminds me of myself but unlike her I don't usually say it out loud! Honestly, I would burst out laughing and shake my head with the things she say.
I normally steer clear of detective/mystery type of novel but this one is definitely another series I'm looking forward to.


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After Reading : Hard Bitten ( Chicagoland Vampires 4) By Chloe Neill

Hard Bitten by Chloe Neill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With all the house drama and intrigues (and with Celine still in the picture), Merit has her hands full. She has to act like she is on her own agenda without Eric's knowledge while the head vampire visits their territory.  With her grandfather's help and the Red Guard, Merit solved the case.  But these are not really that exciting.  We've seen how Merit does her job as a sentinel.  I find that this was nearly as action-packed as the previous books.
What made me gave it a 4-star was the ending. It just blew me away!! For those who haven't read this, you may have to stop reading now because I just need to rant about it below...


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


OMG! what the hell just happened?? Eric's gone!! As in turned into ashes and swept by the wind and all that.  I could not get over it.  I was already depressed before reading, so I could not help my tears flowing when I realize that it's definitely happening.  Eric's gone! Is he really dead? Why does Merit sees him in the dream and heard him still in her mind.   What will happen to the Cadogan House?  I have a really bad feeling that he is definitely gone.  I would be amaze if the author will resurrect him after he turned into ashes and how it's gonna happened that will make it plausible.

I need to read the next book!!  




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After Reading : Kindling The Moon ( Arcadia Bell 1) by Jenn Bennett

Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

LOve it! The characters are very believable and story has kept me up through the night and I wasn't able to go to work partly because I wanted to finish reading it! It was that consuming!

Another hit Urban Fantasy series and  I will definitely be watching out for the 2nd book!


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After Reading : Hunted By The Others By Jess Haines

Hunted By The Others by Jess Haines
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'm sorry to say but I just cannot relate to the main character of this book.  I even finished reading hoping I'll eventually  find some redeeming qualities in the story and like  Shiarra and the whole story but sad to say I didn't.  She's a bigot who can't really make-up her mind.  She broke up with her boyfriend because she cannot stand him being a wolf calling him big, hairy and something out of a B movie but did not admit this rather she said that her Ex's lying was the reason why she broke it with him. (sheesh)

There were some inconsistencies in the the scenes that bugs me that it seems to me was not edited well,  for example when Shia and Sarah stayed at Janine's house.  Shia supposedly cooked breakfast for them but the next scene was that the three of them ( with Arnold) were walking towards a bakery shop that Janine suggested they'd go for breakfast (huh).  Apparently they had breakfast twice..heh. Another thing that really was glaringly unbelievable to me was that, Shia did not do anything when her family was threatened by the antagonist considering the holder of the focus can control all Other beings and can easily find her family and kidnap or even kill them. She could have called them atleast and let them know they are in danger.  I don't even see why this antagonist is targeting her, a human with no super strength or other abilities.  She is really no threat.  That the antagonist was jealous of her because Royce, an old and powerful vampire chose Shia to be one of them vampire was just so lame.
There were more about the story that had me in a conniption.  I shouldn't have finished it but I was already in my bed lying down and I was too lazy to get up and upload a new ebook in my iphone. Oh well. Im glad I'm done reading.


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KMM's JZB Sex POV

OMG! We can finally read it.  JZB's POV of their sex scenes. I was just staring at my laptop screen afetr reading it.
Here's the link from KMM's Blog.
KMM advised to read Chapter 4 of Darkfever before reading JZB's POV.  If you don't have it on hand, I've attached the whole scene below.  Have fun reading~

Someone knocking at my door awakened me.

I sat up, rubbing gritty, tired eyes that felt as if I'd just shut them seconds ago. It took me a few moments to remember where I was—in a twin bed in a chilly room in Dublin, with rain tapping lightly at the window.I'd been having a fantastic dream. Alina and I were playing volleyball up at one of the many man-made lakes built by Georgia Power, scattered throughout the state. There were three near Ashford and we went to one or the other just about every weekend in the summer for fun, sun, and guy-watching. The dream had been so vivid I could still taste Corona with lime, smell coconut suntan oil, and feel the silk of trucked-in sand beneath my feet.

I glanced at my watch. It was two o'clock in the morning. I was sleepy and grumpy and didn't try to disguise it. "Who is it?"

"Jericho Barrons."

I couldn't have been slammed awake any harder if I'd been hit upside the head with my mom's cast-iron frying pan. What was he doing here? How had he found me? I shot up, my hand hovering over the phone, ready at any moment to call the front desk and ask for the police. "What do you want?"

"We have information to exchange. You want to know what it is. I want to know what you know about it."

I wasn't about to reveal how freaked out I was that he'd hunted me down. "Bright guy, aren't you? I figured that out back at the store. What took you so long?"

There was such a protracted silence that I began to wonder if he'd gone away. "I am unaccustomed to asking for what I want. Nor am I accustomed to bartering with a woman," he said finally.

"Well, get used to it with me, bud, because I don't take orders from anyone. And I don't give up anything for free." Bluster, bluster, bluster, Mac. But he didn't know that.

"Do you intend to open this door, Ms. Lane, or shall we converse where anyone might attend our business?"

"Do you really intend to exchange information?" I countered. "I do." "And you'll go first?" "I will."

My shoulders slumped. I moved my hand away from the phone. I straightened my shoulders again quickly. I knew the value of putting a smile on a sad face—it made you feel happy after a while. Courage was no different. I didn't trust Jericho Barrons farther than I could throw him, which was a great big Not At All, but he knew what this shi-sadu was, and although I hoped I could find the information somewhere else, what if I couldn't? What if I wasted weeks looking

with no success? Time was money and mine was finite. If he was willing to trade, I had to open that door. Unless... "We can trade through the door," I said.

"No." "Why not?" "I am a private person, Ms. Lane. This is not negotiable." "But I—" "No."

I blew out an aggravated breath. The tone in his voice said it would be a waste of time to argue. I stood and reached for a pair of jeans. "How did you find me?" I buttoned my fly and pushed my hands into my hair. It always got tangled when I slept because it was so long. I had major bed- head.

"You procured a hired conveyance at my establishment."

"We call them taxis where I come from. And bookstores." God, he was stuffy.

"We call them manners where I come from, Ms. Lane. Have you any?"

"You should talk. It's not my fault. Being threatened seems to bring out the worst in me." I opened the door a crack and glared up at him through the space afforded by the latch-chain.

I couldn't imagine Jericho Barrons as a child, going to school, face freshly scrubbed, hair neatly combed, lunch box in hand. He'd surely been spawned by some cataclysmic event of nature, not born.

He cocked his head and studied me through the narrow opening, spending several seconds on each part of me: disheveled hair, sleep-swollen mouth and eyes, lacy sleep shirt, jeans, toes. I felt as if I'd been burned to CD by the time he was done. "May I come in?" he said.

"I wouldn't have let you up this far." I was furious the desk clerk had let him up. I'd thought the place had better security. I was going to have a word with the manager tomorrow.

"I told them I was your brother." He gleaned my thoughts from my face.

"Right. Because we look so much alike." If he was winter, I was summer. If I was sunshine, he was night. A dark and stormy one.

Not an ounce of amusement flickered in those dark eyes. "Well, Ms. Lane?"

"I'm thinking." Now that he knew where I was staying, if he wanted to harm me, he could do it anytime. No need to rush into it tonight. He could lie in wait for me and jump me somewhere tomorrow in the streets. I would be no safer in the future than I was from him now, unless I was willing to move about from inn to inn, trying to lose him, and I wasn't. I needed to be in this part of town. Besides, he just didn't look like the kind of creep that would messily murder a woman in her hotel room; he looked like the kind of creep that would line her up in the sights of an assassin's rifle without a shred of emotion. That I would use that as an argument in his favor should have worried me. Later I would realize I'd been walking around still more than a little numb from Alina's death during those first weeks in Ireland, and more than a little reckless from it as well. I sighed. "Sure. Come in."

I closed the door, unhooked the chain, opened it again, then stepped back, allowing him to enter. I pushed the door open all the way and left it flush to the wall, so anyone walking past could see in and, if I needed to, I could shout down the third floor with my cries for help. Adrenaline was pumping through my body, making me feel shaky. He was still wearing his impeccable Italian suit, his shirt just as crisp and white as it had been hours ago. The cramped room was suddenly stuffed to overflowing with Jericho Barrons. If a normal person filled one hundred percent of the molecules they occupied, he somehow managed to cram his to two hundred percent capacity.

He cast a brief yet thorough glance around and I had no doubt, if questioned later, he would be able to accurately recount every detail, from the rust-colored water spots high up on the ceiling, down to my pretty flowered bra lying on the rug. I nudged the rug with my toe, pushing it and its cargo beneath the bed.

"So what is it?" I said. "No, wait—how do you spell it?" I'd tried everything today, and assuming he told me and I lived, I wanted to be able to research it on my own.

He began pacing a small circle around me. I turned with him, not willing to give him my back. "S-i-n-s-a-r," he spelled.

"Sinsar?" I said it phonetically. He shook his head. "Shi-sa. Shi-sa-du."

"Oh, that makes great sense. And the 'du'?" He stopped circling, so I stopped too, his back to the wall, mine to the open door. In time, when I began to see patterns, I would see that he always positioned himself in such a fashion, never with his back to an open window or door. It wasn't about fear. It was about control.

"D-u-b-h."

"Dubh is do?" I was incredulous. It was no wonder I hadn't been able to find the stupid word. "Should I be calling pubs poos?"

"Dubh is Gaelic, Ms. Lane. Pub is not."

"Don't bust a gut laughing." I'd thought I was being funny. Stuffy, like I said. "Nothing about the Sinsar Dubh is a laughing matter." "I stand corrected. So what is this gravest of graves?"

His gaze dropped from my face to my toes and back again. Apparently he was unimpressed by what he saw. "Go home, Ms. Lane. Be young. Be pretty. Get married. Have babies. Grow old with your pretty husband."

His comment stung like acid on my skin. Because I was blonde, easy on the eyes, and guys had been snapping my bra strap since seventh grade, I'd been putting up with the Barbie stereotype for years. That pink was my favorite color, that I liked matching accessories and eye-catching heels, didn't help much. But I'd never been turned on by the Ken doll—even before I looked down his pants and saw what was missing—I wasn't jonesing for a white picket fence and an SUV in the driveway, and I resented the Barbie implications—Go procreate and die, I'm sure that's all someone like you can do. I might not be the brightest bulb in the box, but I wasn't the dimmest, either. "Oh, screw you, Jericho Barrons. Tell me what it is. You said you would."

"If you insist. Don't be a fool. Don't insist." "I'm insisting. What is it?" "Last chance." "Too bad. I don't want a last chance. Tell me."

His dark gaze bored into mine. Then he shrugged, his fine suit sliding over his body with suppleness and ease only exorbitant custom-made clothing could achieve. "The Sinsar Dubh is a book."

"A book? That's all? Just a book?" It seemed terribly anti-climactic.

"On the contrary, Ms. Lane, never make that mistake. Never think it just a book. It is an exceedingly rare and exceedingly ancient manuscript countless people would kill to possess."

"Including you? Would you kill to possess it?" I needed to know exactly where we stood, he and I.

"Absolutely." He watched my face as I took that in. "Reconsidering your stay, Ms. Lane?" "Absolutely not." "You'll be going home in a box, then." "Is that another of your threats?"

"It is not I who will put you there." "Who will?"

"I answered your question, now it's your turn to answer mine. What do you know of the Sinsar Dubh, Ms. Lane?"

Not nearly enough, obviously. What on earth had my sister gotten into? Some kind of shadowy Dublin underworld filled with stolen artifacts, peopled by murderers and ruthless thieves?

"Tell me," he pressed. "And don't lie. I'll know."

I glanced at him sharply, almost able to believe he would. Oh, not in some extrasensory way—I don't believe in that kind of stuff—but in the way of a man who scrutinizes people, gathers their tiniest gestures and expressions, and measures them. "My sister was studying here." He'd given me the bare minimum. I would give him nothing more. "She was killed a month ago. She left me a voice-mail message right before she died, telling me I had to find the Sinsar Dubh."

"Why?" "She didn't say. She just said everything depended on it." He made an impatient sound. "Where is this message? I must hear it myself." "I accidentally deleted it," I lied.

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall. "Liar. You would make no such mistake with a sister you care enough about to die for. Where is it?" When I said nothing, he said softly, "If you are not with me, Ms. Lane, you are against me. I have no mercy for my enemies."

I shrugged. He wanted the same thing I wanted and he was willing to kill for it. That made us enemies in my book any way I looked at it. I glanced over my shoulder at the hallway beyond the open door and pondered my next move. His threat did not decide me. I wanted to see his face when I played the message for him. If he'd had any involvement with my sister or her death, I hoped he would betray something when he heard her voice and her words. I also wanted him to know that I knew as much as I did, and to believe the police did, as well.

"I already gave a copy of this recording to the Dublin Gardai," I told him, as I fished my cell phone out of my purse and thumbed up my saved messages. "They're working to track down the man she was involved with." See Mac bluff. Better than See Mac run. Way better than See Mac get her stupid self killed. He didn't challenge my words—so much for his boast that he would know if I lied. I pressed speakerphone, then play, and Alina's voice filled the small room.

I flinched. No matter how many times I listened to it, it made me cringe—my sister sounding so frightened, hours before her death. Fifty years from now, I would still hear her message, ringing in my heart's ear, word for word.

Everything has gone so wrong... I thought I was in love... he's one of them... we've got to find the Sinsar Dubh, everything depends on it... we can't let them have it... he's been lying to me all along.

I watched him intently as he listened. Composed, aloof, his expression told me nothing. "Did you know my sister?"

He shook his head.

"You were both after this 'exceedingly rare book' yet never ran into each other?" I accused.

"Dublin is a city of a million-odd people inundated daily by countless commuters and besieged by a never-ending wave of tourists, Ms. Lane. The oddity would be if we had encountered each other. What did she mean by 'you don't even know what you are'?" His dark gaze fixed on my face as if to gauge the veracity of my answer in my eyes.

"I wondered that myself. I have no idea." "None?" "None." "Hmm. This was all she left you? A message?" I nodded.

"Nothing more? No note or package or anything of the sort?"

I shook my head.

"And you had no idea what she meant by the Sinsar Dubh? Your sister didn't confide in you?"

"I used to think she did. Apparently I was wrong." I couldn't mask the note of bitterness in my voice.

"Who did she mean by 'them'?" "I thought you might be able to tell me that," I said pointedly.

"I am not one of these 'them,' if that is what you're inferring," he said. "Many seek the Sinsar Dubh, both individuals and factions. I want it as well, but I work alone."

"Why do you want it?" He shrugged. "It is priceless. I am a book collector."

"And that makes you willing to kill for it? What do you plan to do with it? Sell it to the highest bidder?"

"If you don't approve of my methods, stay out of my way."

"Fine."

"Fine. What else have you to tell me, Ms. Lane?"

"Not a thing." I retrieved my cell phone, resaved the message, and jerked a frosty glance from him to the door, encouraging him to leave.

He laughed, a rich dark sound. "I do believe I'm being dismissed. I can't recall the last time I was dismissed."

I didn't see it coming. He was nearly past me, nearly to the door, when he grabbed me and slammed me back against his body. It was like hitting a brick wall. The back of my head bounced off his chest, and my teeth clacked together from the impact.

I opened my mouth to scream, but he clamped a hand over it. He banded an arm beneath my breasts so tightly that I couldn't inflate my lungs to breathe. His body was far more powerful beneath that fine suit than I ever would have guessed, like reinforced steel. In that instant, I understood that the open door had been nothing more than a mocking concession, a placebo he'd fed me that I'd swallowed whole. Anytime he'd wanted, he could have snapped my neck and I wouldn't have gotten off a single scream. Or he could simply have suffocated me, as he was doing now. His strength was astonishing, immense. And he was only using a small fraction of it. I could feel the restraint in his body; he was being very, very careful with me.

He pressed his lips to my ear. "Go home, Ms. Lane. You don't belong here. Drop it with the Gardai. Stop asking questions. Do not seek the Sinsar Dubh or you will die in Dublin." He released enough pressure on my mouth to afford my reply, enough on my ribs to permit me breath to fuel it.

I sucked in desperately needed air. "There you go, threatening me again," I wheezed. Better to die with a snarl than a sniffle.

His arm bit into my ribs, cutting off my air again. "Not threatening—warning. I haven't been hunting it this long and gotten this close to let anyone get in my way and fuck things up. There are two kinds of people in this world, Ms. Lane: those who survive no matter the cost, and those who are walking victims." He pressed his lips to the side of my neck. I felt his tongue where my pulse fluttered, tracing my vein. "You, Ms. Lane, are a victim, a lamb in a city of wolves. I'll give you until nine P.M. tomorrow to get the bloody hell out of this country and out of my way."

He let me go, and I crumpled to the floor, my blood starved for oxygen. By the time I picked myself up again, he was gone.

After Reading : Dead On The Delta by Stacey Jay

Dead on the Delta by Stacey Jay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Imagine pinky-small fairies with beautiful beguiling faces.  Now imagine them with fangs and in-a frenzy over human blood and with their bites make human insane, sometimes even dead right away.  Donaldsonville Louisiana is now surrounded by iron- a fairy repellant to protect people from these blood thirsty fairies.  I find this really different and with Anabelle  our reluctant and conflicted heroine makes it more interesting.  Anabelle is one of the very few humans who are immune to these bites and is an employee of Fairy containment and control unit.
The story has a lot of twists and turns that keep you guessing.  With a murder investigation, fairy-poop (as addictive as cocaine to humans) and  deadly-fairies, not to mention her emotional tug-of-war between her current lover Cane and her tragically-ended relationship with her Ex, Anabelle has her hands full.
I like Anabelle, even if she considers herself a loser, unlovable and  a "habitual drinker'.  No matter how she denies that she does not care , deep inside she cannot stop herself from being involved.  Deep inside she hides her real self.  And Cane sees this.
The last part of the story makes me look forward to the next book.
Another series to look forward to.


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After Reading : Viper Moon By Lee Roland

Viper Moon by Lee Roland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 As with most UF, the heroine gets into the usual action scenes and intrigues and tangled up in a dangerous circumstances albeit a bit disgusting at times (Cass went swimming in a poop-infested sewer..eeww) but what I don't really get is why Cass would serve a goddess whom she calls Earth Mother but whom she doesn't really put in high regard.  I mean, she even admits to hating her.  Granted that Cass has never known any other life other than be the Earth Mother's  Huntress.  She could at least have some soft feelings to whom she serves right?  Another thing,  I don't really get it why she chooses Flynn over Michael.  With Michael's looks and who had declared himself inlove with Cass and being bloody rich doesn't hurt either.  Well, I could guess that Michael reminds her of herself.  Hard-assed, cunning, a criminal and can be quite ruthless.  While Flynn is what she aspires to be.  An honest, honorable cop.
Anyway, what I like about this is that Cass's story ends with her and a new huntress is born in book 2.  And it looks promising.


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More New UF Authors! Yipee!

The covers look amazing! I can't wait to read these!

After Reading: Grave Dance ( Alex Craft 2) By Kalayna Price

Grave Dance by Kalayna Price
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somehow, Alex always ends up in the middle of the storm even if she tries not to.  More of her fae-blood is revealed this time and somehow, a fae-queen is now very vexed at Alex.
This tug-of-emotion between Death and Falin is getting very ineteresting.  I'm rooting for Falin but I think Death is pretty hot and in love with Alex.

 When's is the next book coming??


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Considering..

I'm always on a look-out for a good Urban Fantasy books.  Paranormal, fantasy, throw in some kick-ass, no-nonsense hero/heroine and I'm sold.

Saw this one from a book bloggers site.  I'm definitely considering to read this next.
Viper Moon Review by Twimom

Can't Wait To Read This July

To be released this July 26!!

After Reading : Tangled Thread 4 By Jennifer Estep

Gin can almost taste the vengeance she's been craving.  Action-packed and bloody but with Gin showing a little bit more of her sensitive and vulnerable side.  I can almost ignore Gin's internal repetitive musings..or maybe I'm getting used to it.

( Love the cover..she seems to look a lot like Jennifer Love-Hewitt)

Magic Slay!

Is going to be out by May 31st!! Yipee!
Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

After Reading Tempting Danger By Eileen Wilks

I was confused for awhile back when I finished reading "Only Human" and then started reading Tempting Danger.  I was thinking that Only Human was a prologue to Tempting Danger but was thoroughly perplexed why there were similar circumstances in both books but with a lot of different scenes as well.  I was bothered enough to search Ms. Wilks  website to find the explanation.  To those who doesn't know and was confused just like me,  Lily and Rule's story was supposed to be just a short one and ends with Only Human.  But it seemed that a lot of readers were enamored of these two that their story has to become a series. That is why in Only Human, Rule met Lily's Grandmother in her birthday party while in the series, there wasn't even a party happening until book two and it was not a birthday party, it was Lily's sister's wedding that Rule came.  A lot of something like these were happening. Tempting Danger has definitely more twists and turns. Here's what Ms Wilks has to say about it:

Why isn’t TEMPTING DANGER the same story as the “Only Human” novella?
When I first wrote “Only Human,” I had a terrible time fitting it into the length required for a novella. I wanted more—more space to explore the characters and their world. Fortunately, my editor agreed. But in the process of turning the story into a full-length book, I discovered the truth of the adage that you can’t step in the same stream twice.

At least, I can’t. The story grew and changed in so many ways that TEMPTING DANGER bears only a passing resemblance to the novella that gave birth to it. This is confusing for some readers. I’m sorry for that. Perhaps I should be more in control of where my stories go, but it doesn’t seem to work that way.

I didn't like the idea that they were forced to come together because of the mate bond.  But I'm pretty sure that eventually, in the next series, they'll realize they were together not just because of the mate bond but because they had fallen with each other, i hope.
I just started Mortal Danger and I'm loving it as well.  I like Lily.  She doesn't like to show weakness.  She's capable, honorable and no pushover in spite of her physical attributes (she's slight and petite, and was described as a china-doll).  And Rule is darn sexy.  Tall, lean and definitely a ladies man.  Definitely an Alpha-male but is never bothered when Lily takes charge.  I like that he's not threatened  like most males would react to Lily.
Will let you know what I think after I finish with Mortal Danger. If you like Patricia Brigg's Mercy Series, then read this.

Downside 4: Series by Stacia Kane

I've been wondering for so long after I've read the 3rd series, when will I get my hands on the 4th book.  It was an experience reading those 3 that I've been itching to know what's gonna happen to Terrible and Chess.  As far as I know, no release date as of yet but Ms. Kane has started with Downside 5 already which means Downside 4, incidentally, it's official title has been posted at Ms Kane's Blog , as SACRIFICIAL MAGIC, is probably to be released soon!! happy, happy! Joy, joy!

Here's a teeny weeny snippet from downside 4, just to whet your appetite:




“His mouth on hers, the kind of insistent kiss she knew well. The kind that made her blood race through her veins until it found a good place to stop, that made her clutch at him harder than she meant to.”

Well Helloo There! I'm Back!(Hopefully) And Snippets!!

Ok so I've been neglecting to blog for months and months.  I have a good reason though but I wouldn't want you getting bored.  So anyhow, let the good times roll!! Here's a snippet from my fave author and series: Ilona Andrews and Magic Slays. Enjoy!! (I seriously need to catch-up on reading blogs here.)

PROLOGUE~

The ringing of the phone jerked me from my sleep.  I clawed my eyes open and rolled off my bed.  For some reason, someone had moved the floor several feet lower than I had expected, and I fell and crashed with a thud.

Ow.

A blond head popped over the side of the bed and a familiar male voice asked,  “Are you okay down there?”

Curran.  The Beast Lord was in my bed.  No, wait a minute, I didn’t have a bed, because my insane aunt had destroyed my apartment.  I was mated to the Beast Lord, which meant I was in the Keep, in Curran’s rooms and in his bed.  Our bed.  Which was four feet high.  Right.

“Kate?”

“I’m fine.”

“Would you like me to install one of those child playground slides for you?”

I flipped him off and picked up the phone.  “Yes?”

“Good morning, Consort,” a female voice said.

Consort?  That was new.  Usually the shapeshifters called me Alpha or Lady, and occasionally Mate.  Being called Mate ranked somewhere between drinking sour milk and getting a root canal on my list of Things I Hated, so most people had learned to avoid that one.

“I have Assistant Principal Parker on the line.  He says it’s urgent.”

Julie.  “I’ll take it.”

Julie was my ward.   Nine months ago she “hired” me to find her missing mother.  We found her mother’s body instead, being eaten by Celtic sea demons who had decided to pop up in the middle of Atlanta and resurrect a wanna-be god.  It didn’t go well for the demons.  It didn’t go well for Julie either, and I took her in, the way Greg, my now deceased guardian, had taken me in years ago, when my father passed away.

People around me died, usually in horrible and bloody ways, so I’d sent Julie to the best boarding school I could find.  Trouble was, Julie hated the school with the fiery  passion of a thousand suns.  She’d ran away three times in the past six months.  The last time Assistant Principal Parker called, a girl in the school’s locker room had accused Julie of being a whore during the two years she’d spent on the street.  My kid took exception to that and decided to communicate that by applying a chair to the offending party’s head.  I’d told her to go for the gut next time – it left less evidence.

If Parker was calling, Julie was in trouble again, and since he was calling at six o’clock in the morning, that trouble had a capital T attached to it.  Julie rarely did anything halfway.

Around me the room lay steeped in gloom.  We were on the top floor of the Keep.  To my left a window offered a view of the Pack land: an endless dark sky, still untouched by dawn, and below it dark woods rolling into the night.  In the distance the half-ruined city stained the horizon.  The magic was in full swing – we were lucky it didn’t take out the phone lines – and the distant industrial-strength fey lanterns glowed like tiny blue stars among the crumbling  buildings.  A ward shielded the window, and when the moonlight hit it just right, the entire scene shimmered with pale silver, as if hidden behind a translucent gauzy curtain.

The female voice came back online.  “Consort?”

“Yes?”

“He put me on hold.”

“So he calls because it’s urgent and puts you on hold?”

“Yes.”

Jackass.

“Should I hang up?” she asked.

“No, it’s okay.  I’ll hold.”

The world’s pulse skipped a beat.   The ward guarding the window vanished.  Something buzzed in the wall and the electric floor lamp on the left blinked and snapped into life, illuminating the night table with a warm yellow glow.  I reached over and turned it off.

In the distance, the blue feylantern stars winked out of existence.  For a breath, the city was dark.  A bright flash sparked with white among the ruins, blossoming into an explosion of light and fire.  A moment later a thunderclap rolled through the night.  Probably a transponder exploding after the magic wave receded.  A weak red glow illuminated the horizon. You’d think it was the sunrise, but the last time I’d checked, the sun rose in the east, not south-west.  I squinted at the red light.  Yep, Atlanta was burning.  Again.

Magic had drained from the world and technology had once again gained the upper hand.  People called it the Post-Shift resonance.  Magic came and went as it pleased, flooding the world like a tsunami, dragging bizarre monsters into our reality, stalling engines, jamming guns, eating tall buildings, and vanishing again without warning.  Nobody knew when it would assault us or how long each wave would last.  Eventually magic would win this war, but for now technology was putting up a hell of a fight, and we were stuck in the middle of the chaos, struggling to rebuild a half-ruined world according to new rules.

The phone clicked and Parker’s baritone filled my ear.  “Good morning, Ms. Daniels.  I’m calling to inform you that Julie has left our premises.”

Not again.

Curran’s arms closed around me and he hugged me to him.  I leaned back against him.  “How?”

“She mailed herself.”

“I’m sorry?”

Parker cleared his throat.  “As you know, all of our students are required to perform two hours of school service a day.  Julie worked in the mail room.  We viewed it as the best location, because she was under near constant supervision and had no opportunities to leave the building. Apparently, she obtained a large crate, falsified a shipping label, and mailed herself inside it.”

Curran chuckled into my ear.

I turned and bumped my head against his chest a few times. It was the nearest hard surface.

“We found the crate near the leyline.”

Well, at least she was smart enough to get out of the crate before it was pushed into the magic current.  With my luck, she’d end up getting shipped to Cape Horn.

“She’ll come back here,” I said.  “I’ll bring her back in a couple of days.”

Parker pronounced the words very carefully.  “That won’t be necessary.”

“What do you mean, not necessary?”

He sighed.  “Ms. Daniels, we are educators.  We’re not prison guards.  In the past school year Julie ran away three times.  She’s a very intelligent child, very inventive, and it’s painfully obvious that she doesn’t want to be here.  Nothing short of shackling her to the wall will keep her on our premises and I’m not convinced that even that would work.  I spoke to her after her previous caper, and it’s my opinion that she will continue to run away.  She doesn’t want to be a part of this school.  Keeping her here against her will requires a significant expenditure of our resources and we can’t afford to be held liable for any injuries Julie may incur in these escape attempts. We’re refunding the remainder of her tuition.  I’m very sorry.”

If I could reach through the phone, I’d strangle him.  On second thought, if I had that type of psychic power, I might pluck Julie from wherever she was instead and drop her in the middle of the room.  She would be begging to go back to that bloody school by the time I was done.

Parker cleared his throat again.  “I have a list of alternative educational institutions I can recommend to you…”

“That won’t be necessary.”  I hung up.  I had a list of alternative educational institutions already.  I had put it together after Julie’s first escape.  She shot all of them down.

A wide grin split Curran’s face.

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s very funny.  Besides, it’s better this way.”
I swiped my jeans off the chair and pulled them on.  “They kicked my kid out of their school.  How the hell is that better?”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find Julie and I’ll ground her ass until she forgets what the sun looks like, and then I’ll go over to that school and pull their legs out.”

Curran laughed.

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s also not their fault. They tried to help her and cut her a lot of slack.  She hates that damn school.  You shouldn’t have put her there in the first place.”

“Well, thank you, your Furriness, for this critique of my parenting decisions.”

“It’s not a critique, it’s a statement of fact.  Do you know where your kid is right now?  No, you don’t.  You know where she isn’t: she isn’t at the school and she isn’t here.”

Pot kettle.  “As I recall, you didn’t know where your Chief of Security and his entire crew were for almost a week.”  I pulled on my turtleneck.

“I knew exactly where they were.  They were with you.  I could’ve fixed that situation, but some wanna-be pit fighter stuck her noise into my mess and made a mistake into a disaster.”

I picked up my sword.  “No, I saved the day.  You just don’t want to admit it.”

Curran leaned forward.  “Kate.”

The sound of my name in his voice stopped me in mid-turn.  I don’t know how the hell he did it, but whenever he said my name, it cut through all other distractions and made me pause, as if he’d clenched me to him and kissed me.

Curran rubbed my shoulders.  “Put the sword down for a second.”

Fine.  I put Slayer back on the night table and crossed my arms.

“Humor me.  What’s the harm in keeping Julie here?  With us?  She has a room already.  She has a friend – Doolittle’s grandniece really likes her.”

“Maddie.”

“Yes, Maddie.  There are fifteen hundred shapeshifters in the Pack.  One more screwed up kid isn’t going to break anything.”

“It’s not about that.”

“Then what is it?”

“People around me die, Curran.  They drop like flies. I’ve gone through life leaving a trail of dead bodies behind me.  My mother is dead, my step-father is dead, my guardian is dead, my aunt is dead – because I killed her, and when my real father finds me, he’ll move heaven and earth to make me dead.  I don’t want Julie to live stumbling from one violent clash to another, always worried that people she cares about won’t survive.  You and I will never have normal, but if she stayed in that school, she could have.”

Curran shrugged.  “The only people who can have normal are the ones unaffected by all the fucked up shit that happens around them.  Julie doesn’t want normal.  She probably can’t deal with it.  She’ll get out of that school and run right into the fire to prove to herself she can take the heat.   It will happen one way or another.  Keeping her away just ensures she won’t be prepared when she’s on her own.”

I leaned back against the night table. “I just want her to be safe.  I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”

Curran pulled me close.  “We can keep her safe here.  She can go to one of our schools, or we can take her to somewhere in the city.  She is yours, but now that we’re mated, she’s also mine, which makes her the ward of the Beast Lord and his mate.  Trust me, nobody wants to piss the two of us off.  Besides, we have three hundred shapeshifters in the Keep at any moment and each one of them will kill anything that threatens her.  Can’t get safer than that.”

He had a point.  I couldn’t have Julie staying with me before, when I lived in a shabby apartment with failing heat.  It got attacked every time I found a lead on one of my cases.  I’d worked for the Order of Merciful Aid back then, and it demanded every ounce of my time.  Julie would have been on her own for most of the day, without me to take care of her and make sure she ate and stayed safe.  Things were different now.  Now Julie could stay here, in the Keep full of homicidal maniacs who grew teeth the size of switchblades and erupted into a violent frenzy when threatened.

Somehow that thought failed to make me feel better.

“You will have to train her one way or another,” Curran said.  “If you want her to hold her own.”

He was right.  I knew he was right, but I still didn’t like it.  “We’re about a hundred miles from Macon?”

He nodded.  “Give or take.”

“She’ll be staying away from the leyline and she’s carrying wolfsbane.”

“Why?” Curran frowned.

“Because the last time she took off, Derek picked her up at a leypoint and brought her here in a Pack Jeep.  He even stopped to get her some fried chicken and ice-cream.  She had a great time, so I told her that if she pulled this stunt again, she wouldn’t get anywhere near the Keep.  I would either come myself or send somebody who would find her and take her straight back to the school.  No going to the Keep, no getting attention from me and Derek, no gossiping with Maddie, no passing go or collecting two hundred dollars.  She wants to avoid being caught, so she’s walking home.”

Curran grinned.  “She’s determined, I’ll give her that.”

“Could you send a tracker out there to watch over her but keep out of sight?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Let her walk.  A hundred miles over rugged terrain, it will take her a couple of days.”  When I was a kid, Voron, my stepfather, would drive me into the woods and drop me off with nothing but a canteen and a knife.  Julie wasn’t me. But she was a smart kid, good on the street.  I had no doubt she could make it to the Keep on her own.  Still, better safe than sorry.

“Two birds with one stone: it’s a good punishment for running away and when she gets here and we let her stay, she’ll feel like she earned it.”

“I’ll send some wolves out.  They’ll find her and they’ll keep her safe.”

I kissed his lips and picked up my sword.  “Thank you.  And tell them not to spoil her with fried chicken if they have to pick her up.”

Curran shook his head.  “I can’t promise that.  I’m not a complete bastard.”