The winner of the Love Bites by Adrienne Barbeau giveaway is…
Anaiz
Congratulations!
And The Winner Is…
Tagged: Adrienne Barbeau, book giveaway
Tag: Adrienne Barbeau
Tagged: Adrienne Barbeau, book giveaway
What I Read Last Week
Hello there!
Another week has started! How was your weekend? Mine was spent running errands, looking for Halloween costumes for, and with, my girls (which would drive many people, including me, to drink heavily) and hanging with the kids.
I can’t say I’m in a reading slump, exactly. I haven’t stopped reading but I started 3, yes 3, books and kept putting them all down! What is up with that? See the thing is, none of them are bad. They’re all quite good, in fact, but they weren’t keeping my attention. I finally just picked 1 up this morning and said – I will finish this book and of course, it’s wonderful. *sigh* oh well. Hopefully the other 2 will end up being just as wonderful.
Um, what else? Huh. I guess that’s it. On to what I read last week…
First up was Stud by Brigit Zahara. I read this one for The Book Binge. It was the story of a beautiful and highly paid prostitute, Sasha, who is swept away by gorgeous Kyan for a night of passion. Only Kyan is not exactly what he seems and he wants more than one night from Sasha – he wants eternity. Not bad. Pretty good sex scenes but also graphic maiming scene as well (not between Sasha and Kyan) so not for the faint of heart. 3.5 out of 5
Next up was Love Bites by Adrienne Barbeau. This was book 2 in the Vampyres of Hollywood series and it was a great vampyres against werewolves – as well as other kinds of wolves – story. You can read my review here as well as enter to win a HC copy if you leave a comment by 11:59pm on Wednesday, Oct. 13. 4.25 out of 5 (and is it me or does the chick on the cover of the book look like Milla Jovovich?)
My Tracy’s TBR challenge read for the week was Love is Blind by Lynsay Sands and I freaking loved it! This has got to be one of my favorite of her historicals so far. They all have the typical Sands humor and this was no different. Lady Clarissa is blind as a bat without her spectacles but her evil stepmother won’t let her wear them because she thinks that no man will want to marry Clarissa after they see her in them. So the stepmother actually breaks the glasses – the bitch! But nobody wants Clarissa cuz she’s a clutz and just a menace to society without her glasses. But Adrian Montfort, the Earl of Mowbray, looks beyond the blindness and does some absolutely lovely things for Clarissa – such as reading to her since she has no glasses, and giving her on a picnic during a ball because her stepmother won’t let her eat or drink anything in public for fear she’ll spill. It was just a touching and very sweet love story. 5 out of 5
Next was Unrequited by Abigail Roux. A cute story that lacked a bit of depth. One man who’s in love with another but is determined to forget about him during a month long vacation with his best friend. Only the best friend has for him too. You can read my review here if you’re interested. 3.5 out of 5
Next I read an Ellora’s Cave books for The Book Binge – Horsing Around by Wynter Daniels was cute. It was a pretty short story and told of a woman who had come to settle her deceased father’s estate. Only there’s a business partner there that she didn’t know about. They start a hot affair but then what’s to happen to them when she has to sell the business? Like I said, cute, but short and I felt like I wanted more. 3.25 out of 5
Next was Shaken by Dee Tenorio. This was a book that I will review on Wednesday about a man and his wife who are dealing with a divorce and grief over the loss of their daughter.
Next was another read for The Book Binge (trying to catch up!) called Waiting for Wednesday by Mari Carr. Lane goes into the pub that Tristan’s family owns every Wednesday. She looks forward to these weekly visits because her marriage is crap and Tristan has become her best friend. When she tries to leave her husband and he beats her, Tristan is there for her. But Lane disappears to try and get her life together and doesn’t come back for a year. When she returns, divorces, Tristan can’t hide his love for her any longer and he’s determined that Lane will accept him into her life. 4 out of 5 You can read my review here.
Last on the list for the week was another for TBB – Nebulous by Shiloh Walker. A fantasy/historical read that deals with demons and reincarnation. A good story but I was left hanging with one of the characters and now I want to read her story! lol 4 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted since last Monday:
Moonlight Protector by Jessica Coulter Smith (this one was from almost 2 years ago! lol)
Happy Reading!
Tagged: Abigail Roux, Adrienne Barbeau, Brigit Zahara, Dee Tenorio, Lynsay Sands, Mari Carr, Shiloh Walker, The Book Binge, What I Read Last Week, What I've Been Reading This Week, Wynter Daniels
Review and Book Giveaway: Love Bites by Adrienne Barbeau
It’s only two weeks since Peter and Ovsanna faced off with the Cinema Slayer, and already life is getting complicated.
First there’s the werewolf attack. Then a mutilated body at the Sportsmen’s Lodge turns up. Not to mention the fact that several of Ovsanna’s clan members, including Orson Welles and Mary Pickford, are vying for attention. All of this makes it hard for Peter and Ovsanna to get together. And it doesn’t help that Ovsanna’s personal assistant and sometimes lover, Maral, will do anything to get Peter out of the picture.
Peter and Ovsanna have to fight for their relationship and their lives. Ovsanna enlists her clan, the Vampyres of Hollywood, to help battle a menagerie of supernatural beasts straight out of Alien vs. Predator. This isn’t a box-office ratings war, it’s a fight to the death.
Peter has asked Ovsanna out on a date. Well, not really a date, but having Christmas dinner with his family counts as something pretty personal. But before Ovsanna can even be picked up for the night she’s attacked in her front yard by a horrible werebeast. The beast takes off when it hears sirens and Ovsanna is A-ok. Keeping this information to herself she heads off and has a wonderful time with Peter. It seems like the beginning of…something, though neither of them are sure what exactly. Peter isn’t thrilled though when he eventually finds out about the attack and wants to protect her.
But there are other happenings going on in Hollywood. First there is Ovsanna’s assistant/lover/house mate who brings a drug dealer back from her family visit in Louisiana in order to keep him away from her brother. Next is Maral’s attempts at hoodoo and spells. Then there are the Vampyres of Hollywood – among others, Orson Wells, Mary Pickford and Pola Negri, who want to take over as Ovsanna’s business partner. Then there’s the boxenwolves – humans who use magic to change into wolves – who are attacking Ovsanna and Peter. Ovsanna and Peter now need to find out exactly what’s after Ovsanna and why. Unfortunately they each take their lives into their hands when they figure it out.
This was a great second book in the Vampyres of Hollywood series. I thought the book had just the right mixture of Hollywood and paranormal, along with romance and grit to give it a truly engaging story. And there was the humor that we saw in book 1 as well and had me laughing out loud in several parts of the book.
We got to see a bit more into the lives of the main characters, Ovsanna and Peter, but the story with the wolves really took precedence. Love Bites certainly wasn’t as gory as the first book, Vampyres of Hollywood, but beware, it did have it’s blood-soaked moments.
Overall a very good book that kept my attention from beginning to end.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5
Love Bites came out in HC on 8/31/10
I have one copy of Love Bites to give away to one lucky winner (Intl. OK). Just leave a comment on this post by 11:59pm (pacific) on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 and I’ll announce the winner on Thursday, October 14.
Tagged: Adrienne Barbeau, book giveaway, Review
What I Read Last Week
Where are the weeks/months going? I can’t believe it’s already the 3rd week in September! Didn’t summer just start? Ok, I know my kids went back to school and all but it’s just going too quickly! lol *sigh* Oh well, what’s a body to do?
It was a pretty quiet week around here. As I said on my Saturday Song post, my parents were in Maui this past week so I would take a late lunch and then go pick up my youngest daughter from school and bring her back to work with me. That made life a little more interesting in the afternoons, but it was good to spend some extra time with her. 🙂
So let me get to telling you what I read:
First up was a book for The Book Binge called Lust Unleashed by Desiree Holt. This was an interesting shifter story with a different twist. A billionaire brings together a group of various law enforcement agents – some shifters, some not – to catch a beast called the Chupacabra. All of the people have had loved ones or dear friends killed by the creature and they are determined to hunt it down and kill it. During the first of these hunts shifter Jonah Grey meets the woman who end up being his mate. It was a good book filled with a good mystery and great sex and a nice little twist at the end that will have me reading the next book in the series. 4 out of 5
Vampyres of Hollywood by Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott was next. This was a contemporary story of Osvanna, a vampyre, and Peter King, a Beverly Hills detective, trying to find the killer of the people who know and work with Osvanna. You can read my review here. 3.5 out of 5
Next up was Red Leopard by Tracy Cooper-Posey. This story took place in a country called Vistaria that’s on the brink of revolution. Calli finds herself attracted to a man that goes by the name Red Leopard aka Nicholas Escobedo and that attraction is mutual. However due to his position as the Presidents brother and her being American they cannot be together. What happens when they can’t deny their attraction any longer and the county breaks out in fighting? This was a good book that I had some niggles with. I liked the different setting and the sexual tension that you could cut with a knife – that was great. The cousin who was a sex kitten was more down to earth than I thought she’d be but she still did some pretty reckless things. When she pulls a doozer Calli runs to Nick for help because time is of the essence. So what do Calli and Nick do because time is short and the cousin’s life may be on the line? They stop and have sex in a conference room. Was it hot? Yes, but hello? The cousin? Remember her, might die, etc.? That was just so frustrating for me to read because Calli and Nick were both so much smarter than that! *sigh* oh well, I can’t have it all my way. lol 3.25 out of 5
Next was another book for The Book Binge. This was Play Fling by Amber Scott. This was a book that kind of had 3 stories going on at the same time but they were all interlinked. It had Millie and AJ who are a cupid team trying to get Brooke together with her ex-husband, Jason. Millie was kind of reincarnated – I think, that part’s a little hazy – from a socialite to a cupid. She must make a match for Brooke or her partner AJ will be reassigned. Since she’s in love with AJ she doesn’t want that to happen. She’s determined to get Brooke and Jason back together. But they don’t want to be back together. The next story is Brooke who is 37 and being pursued by 28 year old college student, Elliot. He’s just wonderful but she’s concerned about the age difference. Then there’s Jason, the ex, who is actually gay and in love with Elliot’s cousin, Gordon. The story was very cute but Millie was making such a mash of things I just wanted to kick her out of the story and read about Brooke and Elliot! lol 3.5 out of 5
Next was Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake by Sarah MacLean. I have an ARC of book 2 in this series so I figured I should probably finally read book 1! lol It was good! Calpurnia (Callie) has been in love with a rake for 10 years. She’s firmly on the shelf at age 27 but decides that she’s going to do all the things that she’s wanted to do that men get to do, but women don’t. She makes a list that includes, among other things, kissing a man passionately, gambling at a gentlemen’s club and attending a duel. For the kiss she goes to the rake’s house. The Marquess of Ralston supplies her with the kiss and then ends up guiding her through the rest of her list. I thought this book was so good. I love that Callie was plain but as Ralston got to know her he just thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. *sigh* I love that! A very sweet romance that I very much enjoyed reading. 4.25 out of 5
I read In The Rough by JB McDonald next. I have By Degrees by the same author, which I guess is the first book I should have read but got mixed up. Oh well. Jay goes to Rick when he finds out that his ex wife’s boyfriend has molested his eight year old daughter. Jay has many, many, many issues from his childhood and teen years and needs to get his life together so that he can take custody of his daughter who is temporarily a ward of the court because the ex wife won’t kick the boyfriend out of her house. Rick loves Jay but knows that Jay isn’t the committing kind so tries to keep his distance – even though they are occasional fuck-buddies. This book shows Jay slowly getting his life together and Rick and Jay moving into a relationship. The first thing about this book that I had a huge problem with was: if the court found out that the ex wife’s boyfriend had molested a child they wouldn’t worry about whether he was kicked out of the house or not – he would be in jail! I had a really hard time dismissing that issue in my mind and kept going back to it. There were also flashbacks in this one but I didn’t know who was having the flashback until half way through the book – that was kind of annoying. I did like how they showed Jay getting his life back together but wished that there had been more of Rick and Jay after they’d decided to make a go of it as boyfriends. 3.5 out of 5
My Tracy’s TBR challenge read for the week was The Hunt by Anne Marsh. This was a fantasy shifter book. Virgins enter a temple once a year and the warrior/were-cats hunt them to search for their mates. The townspeople do this in exchange for protection from another world that had been destroying them. It’s much more civilized than it sounds when it’s explained throughout the book but at first I was kind of thinking wtf? lol Miu enters under the guise of a virgin, which she’s not, in order to steal a necklace for her “master” who is holding her sister hostage. Miu will stop at nothing to get the necklace. Jafar is under instructions to follow her to see what she’s up to, but he discovers she’s his mate and when she’s put under a death sentence he’s more than willing to get her out of there. This was a fun, light read. Pretty fantastical in the end and everything gets wrapped up with a tidy bow, but there was some witty banter and good sex scenes that kept me reading. 3.25 out of 5
Last up was The Accidental Wedding by Anne Gracie. This was a fun book – almost a cottage romance, which I love. The Honorable Nash Renfrew is on his way to claim an inheritance when his horse slips on mud and throws him into a wall. Maddy sees the whole things and manages to get him to her cottage to save his life. She cares for him while he’s ill but when he awakes he has no idea who he is. He’s not able walk because of a hurt ankle so he must stay at Maddy’s cottage with her and her 5 young siblings that she has charge of. While at the cottage Maddy falls in love, but Nash doesn’t believe in love matches after seeing his parents go through hell with their love match. I really liked Maddy in this book. She was a very strong character and wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself – I loved that! (another Book Binge book) 4 out of 5 (this book releases on 10/5)
My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:
Happy Reading!
Tagged: Adrienne Barbeau, Amber Scott, Anne Gracie, Anne Marsh, Desiree Holt, JB McDonald, Michael Scott, Sarah MacLean, The Book Binge, Tracy Cooper-Posey, What I Read Last Week, What I've Been Reading This Week
Review: Vampyres of Hollywood by Adrienne Barbeau & Michael Scott
Hollywood, California: three gruesome deaths within two weeks and every one of them a major star – an Oscar winner, an ingénue, and an action hero. A serial killer is working through the Hollywood A-list and celebrities are running scared.
Each crime scene is worthy of a classic horror movie, and all three victims share a connection to the powerful scream queen, Ovsanna Moore. The stunning and formidable Moore is the legendary head of a Hollywood studio, as well as the writer and star of seventeen blockbuster horror films (and a few that went straight to DVD).
She’s also a 500 year old vampyre…but this is Hollywood after all, and no one ever looks their age.
Beverly Hills Police Detective Peter King knows a lot about the City of Angels, but he certainly doesn’t know that most of the famous actors in town are actually an established network of vampires. Or that secretive and seductive Ovsanna Moore happens to be their CEO.
Moore and King may be from opposite sides of the Hollywood Hills, but both have something to gain by stopping the killer who the tabloids have dubbed the Cinema Slayer. Ovsanna must protect her vampire legacy and her production schedule, while King just wants to keep his Beverly Hills beat as blood-free as possible. But when the horror queen and the cop with the movie star looks form an unholy alliance, sparks fly and so do the creatures of the night.
You know all that stuff that we’ve learned about vampyres in the movies? All fiction created by the vampyres themselves all to throw them off the scent of the real vamps. In this book the vampyres rule Hollywood. Orson Wells, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Peter Lorre, Rudolph Valentino and a host of others are all vamps and they are the Vampyres of Hollywood. The Elite. They have all faked their deaths but are still alive and kicking but in seclusion. They are also the people that Ovsanna has to answer to when the celebrities/vampyres that she created are starting to get murdered. When people close to her, that aren’t vampyres, start getting murdered the older vampyres decide to give her orders. Her orders: find the person who is killing everyone or you must “die”. Dying for Osvanna means that she fakes her death and goes into hiding for a century or so and then comes back as someone else. Osvanna doesn’t feel like this is an option that she wants to take so she sets out to find the murderer. In the meantime Beverly Hills Detective Peter King is on the case and trying to figure out what the heck is going on. He knows that Osvanna is lying to him but he can’t quite figure out why she’s doing it.
I really liked Peter King. He was a great character and had a wonderful dry wit. His sense of humor dried up a bit as the book went on but whose wouldn’t after seeing the gore of a mass murder? When he finally is told about vampyres he takes it with an acceptance that surprised me but I guess it’s Hollywood so you see just about everything. lol
Osvanna took a little more time for me to warm up to. Her character was brilliant yet very cold at first, but she seemed to defrost toward the end of the book. Actually the more I think about it I’m not sure that we got to know all that much about Osvanna’s character itself. We were told innumerous times who she’d known in the past and the things she’d done but I don’t think that we got to delve into Osvanna herself too much and maybe that’s why she seemed so aloof to me. IDK.
I found this book to be equal parts funny, gory and frustrating. The murders being told in great detail was pretty gory/nasty. Those of you who sicken easily at the description of people found decapitated and/or cut up in to small pieces may have a problem with this book. The frustrating part was the non stop descriptions of what Osvanna had done, objects she had from the past, who she knew, etc. It seemed that the world building – Osvanna’s world – was never ending. I think I would have liked to have gotten to know the woman herself more – as she was now rather than who/what she was or who she knew in the past. But there was also a lot of humor and that was quite nice to read – I did find myself laughing out loud several times when I started the book (mostly at Peter).
Overall I liked it. I didn’t love it but it was definitely entertaining. I have book 2 in the series and will be reading that soon.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I received this book from Authors on the Web for review.
Tagged: Adrienne Barbeau, Michael Scott, Review