Tag: books

How to Make Lifelong Readers Out of Your Friends and Neighbors

wendeego:

1. Make a list of everyone in your neighborhood/city/college/elsewhere with a copy of any book in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

2. Visit each person in turn and give them precisely one (1) copy of Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey.

3. ???

4. Love literature…as thou wilt!

Expensive, but most probably worth it.

Just gotta say I really dislike the fact the 50 shades is supposed to represent all edgy romance.  It doesn’t even begin to touch the really GREAT books in the world–books that make you question everything and become a warm flame to warm you on the darkest night….Hey I made a Jacqueline Carey reference without meaning to…

I actually have a friend who does this with Laurell K Hamilton books whenever she sees them somewhere cheap.  She buys 30 or 40 copies at 1 or 2 dollars a piece and randomly gives them out to people.  She says it makes up for the fact she refuses to lend out any of her Laurell K Hamilton books…positive book karma

Day 01 – Best book you read last year

dawnawakening:

After much deliberation (lying on my bed staring at the ceiling for 10 minutes) I have chosen the Phedre Trilogy from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy. Yes, I know that it’s three books but if you read them all one after the other, like I did, then they count as one. Logic.

Carey has created a world in these books that seems so real and rich in back story that you’re sure there should be history books out there about the land of Terre D’Ange. The characters that she created are equally rich in personal history and beautifully crafted in such a way that you can care for even the most hateful villian.

The trilogy follows Phedre from an unwanted orphan to the savior of her home lands that are poised on the edge of war. All along the way friendships are made and broken, relationships are kindled and put out, enemies are created and cut down.

The characters in these books quickly became some of my all time favourites, not only for their strengths but for their multitudes of weaknesses as well. (I may be 100% in love with Josceline Verreuil)

Disclaimer: These aren’t bed time stories to read to your kids. The whole axis that this epic tale revolves around is the fact that Phedre is marked by the angel Kushiel meaning that she finds pleasure in pain. Get where this is going? 50 Shades ain’t got nothing on these books. But know that Carey uses this element in her stories as a means to an end, a tool for Phedre to use to her advantage, not as the central focus.

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Kushiel’s Mercy (Imriel’s Trilogy)

authorisedmayhem:

If there is one series of book that I would recommend anyone, it just has to be Kushiel’s Legacy by Jacqueline Carey. I literally wept at the end. I am not lying, 3am in the morning, tears rolled down my eyes, as I told myself to stop and get a grip of myself, but I couldn’t, Carey has woven yet another tale, overflowing with so much fierce passion, love and emotion, and I crumbled under her language, how she spins words, the power of language. You won’t really understand how incredible these books are until of have read them. Jacqueline Carey, again, if I saw you wondering the streets of London, I would sit, abeyant to you, worship the ground you stood on, and call you my Queen of Terre d’Ange.

In this final part of Imriel’s trilogy, we embark on a more tragic, important and vital journey ever. Filled with tragedy, war, fierce love and passion and a terrible sorcerer that has cast a spell so powerful that binds everyone in the city of Terre d’Ange to forget about Imriel and his love to Sidonie, and that they are allies with the sorcerer. But of course, everyone outside of the city not touched by the spell know this is truth, although the the exact extend to why. Everyone is plunged into madness, and Terre d’Ange are on the brink of civil war. But Imriel is the only one who remember his love to Sidonie, and knows what has befallen, and seeks help from enemies.

I don’t want to give too much away. Because it is so intense. Literally, these books beat every other book for me, because they are so well written, so powerful and passionate, and I could read them over and over again and become so surprised. I now need to by the next trilogy, which I actually can’t wait for! Seriously, I recommend these to everyone, because they are just amazing. Go go go, my friends, may you find greatness in Kushiel’s Legacy, and may you follow Blessed Elua concept: Love as thou wilt.

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Your dreaming self seeks to tell you something your waking ears will not hear.

Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel’s Chosen (via quoted-books)
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Take A Chance: Free Stories

Take A Chance: Free Stories

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Best and the Worst of Books

I’m concerned.  I’m confused.  I don’t get it at all.  I have a number of authors that I follow religiously.  I use FictFact (www.fictfact.com) to keep track of my series and the release dates.  I know a bunch of other people are buying the books too.  But some of my favorite authors are facing a publishing crisis.  Someone has decided that paranormal romance is dead.  I want to know who that is-I have bunches of receipts to prove it isn’t!  Urban fantasy is on a downswing and fantasy is dead.  That isn’t the case with my friends and to be honest I am absolutely not going to let it happen! So whoever has decided that paranormal shouldn’t be published hasn’t looked at the right numbers or in the right places!  And nothing hurts quite so much as a story unfinished!

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Touch the Dark somewhere part 4 around the first trip to Dante’s

So, earlier I said that the first trip to Dante’s on the first night that Cassie finds out about the Pythian power is going to be called spot one.  Its important that this distinction be made because here is the long and short of it.  These books are about Cassandra Palmer a 20 something clairvoyant who was raised inside a low level vampire’s court with very little training in magic.  She doesn’t know it at the beginning but she is a super special snowflake.  She inherit’s the power of the Pythia, the supernatural world’s arbiter of disputes and protector of the time line.  The Pythia’s draw their power from Apollo and are clairvoyant so they can know when to intervene in the time line to insure that it is protected. For over 2000 years, the pythian court has been attached loosely to the silver circle, a body of mage’s who try to keep the world safe and battle the Black Circle.  The Silver Circle thinks they control the Pythian court, but the Pythia’s have long been secretive and have kept many of their powers secret.  The Pythian power is somewhat sentient and the current heir Myra has been lured to the dark side by Rasputin, the evil vampire trying to change the world order and he has a bunch of people on his side, from the Black Circle to some of the vamps, weres and others who are unhappy with the current state of things.  One of the vamps who have joined Rasputin is Tony, who was in Mircea’s line and raised Cassie.  Tony has been especially bad- he is working with Rasputin to kidnap witches right before they were fated to die and sell them into sexual servitude to the light fey.  But on this night, the Pythian power has started to transfer and part of it has come to Cassie, the daughter of the last heir and a mage who worked for Tony.  Cassie took off before she found out what the senate wanted to try and get info on her parent’s from Jimmy the rat who Tony had kill them.  She went into Dante’s to try and find Jimmy before he is killed for going against Tony and finds him in a basement cell.  Tony is not one to let an opportunity to make a buck go by, so he has a fight club in the basement for when he wants to get rid of people.  Jimmy is slated to fight a were pack whose leader he killed for Tony.  When Cassie finds him in the cage, there is a pixie, Radella, who is trapped as well.  She tells Cassie she was able to find the witches, but got caught and that she needs to free her.  Cassie doesn’t know what Radella is talking about and Radella realize’s that this is not her Cassie.  Regardless, Cassie isn’t going to leave anybody, so she frees Radella, Jimmy and three witches-one of whom is Francoise who she saw burned alive when she went back in time as

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.  Jimmy makes a run for it and Cassie tries to catch him and runs into trouble in the parking lot.

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, Tomas and Pritkin are there to bring her back to MAGIC.  She is trying to get Billy Joe to possess Jimmy so she can find out info on her parents.  Jimmy’s pack of were rat/ satyrs is there and there are vamps around the parking lot who work for Tony. Tomas grabs Cassie and Louis-Cesare tells hi to take her back to Magic.  Cassie objects and Pritkin says he will take her.  Tomas picks Cassie up and takes away her gun.  She tells him she has been looking for Jimmy for years, but Tomas ignores her.  She tells Billy to go into Jimmy quickly because she is afraid of what’s about to happen.  Billy Joe goes into Jimmy and rockets back out of him and into Cassie, but unlike what usually happens he pushes Cassie out of her body and her spirit goes into Tomas.

Cassie/Tomas looks down and sees Billy Joe/ Cassie in his arms.  Jimmy bites Tomas/Cassie and Cassie throws him across the parking lot.  Cassie sees everyone in slow motion.  Pritkin fires at where Jimmy was causing an explosion and turns to meet the rat things.  

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is moving in regular motion and he skewers a rat and yells at Tomas to take Cassie out of there. Cassie is confused and looks down to see a rat sneaking up on her body.  

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throws a knife and skewers it in the throat.  Cassie figures out that she is in Tomas.  Billy Joe in Cassie calls out “Cassie where are you?” as he panics. Cassie in Tomas looks at her body and asks “who are you” and touches her body.  Billy Cassie says to stop that.  Cassie says who are you who is in there.  Jimmy comes back at Cassie in Tomas and Cassie shoots him but he keeps coming.  She shoots him again and Jimmy says to call off her gorilla or she will never find her dad.  Cassie/Tomas ssays what but Jimmy says he isn’t talking to him.  Jimmy looks at Billy Joe in Cassie’s body and tells her that they can make a deal.  Tony will never tell her the truth he likes where Rog is too much.  Cassie Tomas says my father is dead Jimmy says he isnt talking to Tomas.  Cassie Tomas looks up to see that Louis-Cesare and Pritkin have killed most of the were rat things and are making short work of the others.  The vamps are standing around watching and Cassie doesnt get that at all.  

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calls out tomas behind you and jumps toward cassie/tomas.  Cassie picked a bad moment to get distracted and Jimmy capitalized on it grabbing Billy Joe/Cassie.  

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is furious with Tomas saying he told him to get her out of there.  Cassie/Tomas is more worried about the claw Jimmy has to Billy Joe/Cassie’s throat.  When Billy Joe starts cursing Cassie figures out that he is in her body and tells billy joe to shut up.  Billy Joe is relieved to have found Cassie as he thought maybe she was dead and finding her in Tomas is a relief.  Cassie decides to deal with one problem at a time and asks Jimmy what he wants to let her go after telling Billy to shut up.  

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tells Tomas he has screwed up enough and he will take care of this.  Cassie/Tomas tells

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to shut up which freaks him out as Tomas should not be able to do that.Cassie asks Jimmy what he wants.  He says he wants to get out of this alive and Cassie is his meal ticket out of this.  Cassie tells him no way, try again.  Jimmy says he will kill her and still get a reward from Tony.

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says if he does that it will take him days to die.  Cassie Tomas tells Jimmy

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is right if Jimmy kills Cassie then they will just kill him.  Jimmy says that the alternative being that he lets her go and they kill him anyway doesn’t work for him.  

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says that there are many ways to die.  Cassie Tomas tells him to shut up again.  

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tells Tomas he doesn’t know what is wrong with him but they will talk later.  Cassie tells him he really doesn’t know.  She smiles at Jimmy but Tomas’ fangs are fully extended.  Cassie Tomas asks Jimmy to give up Cassie and they will give him a 2 hr start and even distract Tony’s vamps who she has figured out are there to finish the job if Jimmy gets away.  Jimmy says that they would say anything to get Cassie back and then just kill him anyway.  Cassie Tomas asks since when do were’s take orders from vamps and says she cant believe hes been toadying to tony all these years.  Jimmy tells Tomas that there is a new world order coming and vamps may be taking orders from were’s soon.  Cassie Tomas back tracks as she wanted to prick his pride not goad him into something stupid. She tells him that that wont matter if he’s dead from this fight.  She asks him if he will take Cassie’s word on it.  Jimmy looks torn and Cassie Tomas realizes that the shot to his chest nicked his lung.  Jimmy is running out of time and when he figures that out she’s out of time.  She realizes she can smell Jimmy’s fear.  This makes Cassie realize she can smell everyone’s emotions and its distracting/  

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is way past mad and is furious a simmering peppery scent that is coming off him in waves that seem equally directed at Tomas and Jimmy.  “It was mixed up with the myriad scents suddenly hammering me from all around: the faint, far-off whiff of the sewers running beneath the earth, diesel fumes and cigarette butts from the parking lot and the reek of sauerkraut from a day-old reuben in a Dumpster. My body, on the other hand, smelled good, really good, and at first I thought it was because it was familiar. Then I realized with a shock that it actually smelled like a favorite meal, hot and fresh and ready to eat. I had never thought of blood smelling sweet, like warm apple pie or steaming cider on a cold day, but now it did. I could almost taste the blood running under the warmth of that skin, and feel how rich it would be sliding down my throat. The idea that I smelled like food to Tomas staggered me to the point that I didn’t see what happened in front of me until it was half over.”  A Suffocating cloud of blue gas surrounds Cassie Tomas,

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, Billy Joe/Cassie and Jimmy.  

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tells Pritkin to stand down .  Shots ring out and Cassie Tomas eyes begin to burn.  As she gets ready to go into the cloud of gas to try and save her body, Billy Joe Cassie comes crawling out crying and gasping for breath.  Cassie Tomas can’t figure out whats wrong until she realizes Tomas doesn’t need to breathe and hasn’t been since she has been in him which causes him to start hyperventilating.  Billy Joes Cassie graps Cassie Tomas around the feet and starts crawling up saying Help.  Cassie Tomas asks Am I ok and drops down to check her body saying tell me you didn’t let me get cut up! Her body seems fine except for a thin wound at the neck and watering eyes.  Cassie tells a confused Billy Joe to stay her and goes after Jimmy after pulling up her shirt so her breasts stay in.  Pritkin is yelling something but Cassie can hear too much in Tomas’ body and so she goes into the blue cloud to try and get Jimmy, but he is down.  

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comes into the cloud and says something and Cassie says he better not be dead but then Louis-Cesare reaches out and grabs Tomas Around the throat so hard it would kill a human.  As soon as

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touches Tomas though Cassie is thrown back in time, although this time as a spirit and with Tomas along!

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Don’t be stupid Read the freebies!

Just an FYI–Karen Chance does things a little differently.  She writes awesome books for her publisher and she also writes free stories that bridge the gap between novels.  Karen Chance actually writes these novellas and works just as hard on them as the novels.  While some authors might have a deleted scene or two, Karen has scenes from different POV’s and the free stories are important!  She writes them as a thank you to her loyal fans and it makes her a spectacular author to interact with

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Fans of Karen Chance Unite

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/more-books-by-karen-chance-especially-with

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lkhpicturefans:

18thcenturytears:

ecosplay:

18thcenturytears:

About the Book:
In the modern day world, vampires and other paranormal creatures are known. However, in America, vampires are also legal citizens so if you kill a vampire, you may find yourself up on murder charges. Enter Anita Blake. She is an animator (someone who raises the dead), paranormal consultant for the police, and legal executioner for the vampires who get out of line. Recently, there has been a series of vampire murders happening, and Nikolaos, vampire Master of the City, wants Anita to look into these crimes, whether Anita wants to or not…


Rating: 9/10
I originally started reading the Anita Blake series back in 2000. I have lost track of how many times I have read the series. Personally, I despise where the series has gone and find myself grinding my teeth at the author’s personal attitude, but even with a strong disliking of the author and the progression of Anita Blake, I still find myself loving Guilty Pleasures (and most of the early books).

Now, I could rant and rave about where the Anita Blake series has gone, but that’s not what this review is about. I will be focusing on Guilty Pleasures, not the Anita Blake series.

Read the rest here

Man that cover… I think when I first read the book they re-did it. I never thought what it looked like before…

A bit more fixing up and it still can work with today’s books. Also this review is wonderful.

First time I read this was with the sexy covers, the one with the stomach. I simply managed to get hold of a first edition (have one of Lunatic Cafe as well). It’s nice to see others liking the retro covers as well. It seems a lot of people are split down the middle with the retro covers. Also, I am really glad you like my book reviews. It brings a smile to my face to see that people are liking them. By the way, almost done with The Laughing Corpse so expect a review in a week (maybe two).

Woot! 😀

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