Tag: Colby Hodge

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted May 4, 2009 by Tracy in Features | 22 Comments

Greetings and Salutations! How the heck are ya? Doing well I hope. Did you have a good week? Did you have a good weekend? I certainly hope so.

Good week here at the Tracy Household. My youngest took a trial class of Taekwondo (which she’s been bugging me to do forevah!) and she did really well. She definitely wants to start doing that weekly which is very cool. She’s a strong little girl and loves that yell they do when they’re kicking and such..Hu! Hu! or something to that effect. I have to tell you that that night, after her class she was dead asleep and she started yelling in her sleep…Hu! Hu! Omg I thought my hubby and I were going to die we were laughing so hard! Up until then I’d only seen her do dance moves in her sleep so there ya go.

Yesterday there was an impromptu So Cal Blogger meet up. Wendy emailed and let us know about a book signing near her home with Suzanne Enoch. Lori, Renee, Wendy and I were all able to attend and do a little book shopping as well (of course) and then go out for a tasty treat. Ok, my 6 year old and I had dessert – they ate real meals! lol Here we are at the restaurant.

So today was my 44th birthday. Holy shit and wtf is that? lol I could swear I was about 32. Really. When did that happen? Not sure…but it did. It was a good day despite the age. Just hung out at home with the fam watching movies, reading, playing outdoors and going to dinner. Good day. Oh, and it’s also Nath’s b-day today so if you happen to hop by her blog be sure to wish her a happy, happy. (oh and the celebrity? Christopher Cross among others! lol)

Let’s see – there’s still 2 days to get your nominations in for the first Book Sluts ‘r’ us Blogger Award. We know you want it for yourself – really, it’s ok, we know. Go here to see the details.

Also if you missed my last post about sending Hope Tarr’s book around you can go here for info. Hope was nice enough to pop by this morning and give us info on her upcoming books. Very nice.

For those interested I posted my entire April Read List on the far right sidebar for your viewing pleasure. 🙂

I’ll be posting a guest review on Katiebabs’ blog whilst she’s away so you can check that out on Wednesday of this week if you’d like.

So on to what I read this week:

My first read of the week was Pack Challenge by Shelly Laurenston. A fabulous book that I read for Nath’s Re-Read Challenge. Review here.

Next was Paradise Valley by Robyn Carr – book 7 in the Virgin Rivers series. I have to say that there were serious issues being dealt with in this book but for some reason it just didn’t do it for me. There was the relationship between Cameron and Abbey and frankly I just wanted to smack her for most of the book and believe – even at the end of the book – that Cam is just too good for her. Then there was Liz and Rick’s relationship…while dealing with a very tough issue I think it was their ages that turned me off. I couldn’t get past the fact that Liz was 18. She dealt with things very maturely but still. I’m sure it’s just me but that’s how it was. Then Walt and Muriel’s relationship was another aspect of the story and I thought this was probably the sweetest of the book – they’re very cute together. While I didn’t love the book I still love Carr’s writing so I ended up giving this one a 3.5 out of 5.


Next was a novella I read for The Book Binge called Complications by Cat Grant. I’ll let you know when the review is posted.

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge Read for the week was Twist by Colby Hodge (aka Cindy Holby btw). This is a book from the Dorchester Shomi line and it was a surprisingly good read. It was a time travel/paranormal and when the heroine goes forward in time by 100 years the world has changed drastically. There’s been a pandemic that’s descimated 1/2 of the population and those survivors are divided into humans and individuals the humans call Ticks that are alien vampire beings. Without a full review I can’t get too into it but between saving the world and the romance going on between the Abbey and Shane I couldn’t put it down. 4.25 out 5 (The funny thing is…if I remember correctly I won this on The Book Binge last August but had won a different book. When I opened the package I saw this one, I shrugged and put it on the shelf. Now I’m kicking myself cuz it would have been worth it to read it right away!)


My last read for the week was another book for The Book Binge called A Taste of Magic by Tracy Madison. Again, I’ll notify you when the review is posted.

So have you read any of these books?
What did you think of them?

Have a great week and Happy Reading!


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Shomi Spotlight – Excerpt: Twist by Colby Hodge

Posted August 27, 2008 by Holly in Promotions | 3 Comments

Abbey Shore never intended to be the savior of the world; it was just something that happened—like her father’s tragic death and the fact that she’s now poor and “flipping” houses in the Chicago suburbs to finish college. And there’s more: behind a crumbling wall in her current renovation, a swirling vortex hides. It’s a gate, a portal—and it will not only cast her into the arms and power of the enigmatic yet doomed Dr. Shane Maddox, but also into the clutches of Lucinda, the eerie, leather-clad beauty who shadowed his every move in the Sacred Heart ER. Abbey will soon be one hundred years in the future, in a dying land filled with roving bands of humans fighting for survival, and the “ticks” against whom they fight. Oh yes, Abbey’s life has had a…TWIST.

Twist by Colby Hodge

PROLOGUE

Would I make it?

My feet pounded on the pavement, splashing through the puddles that remained from last night’s rain. Was it just last night that it rained? It seemed as if years had passed. They had passed. Still, the things they held were yet to occur.

Think about it later. Just run.

I had to get there on time. I just had to. I refused to think about what I’d do if I didn’t.

My hand tightened on the hilt of my katana as I ran. The scabbard was laced against my thigh. I didn’t even feel it; it had become so much a part of me in the time just past.

When I started martial arts training, I’d never even considered the possibility that I would use the weapons to actually kill anyone. It turned out to be one of those funny twists of fate. It was just something that happened. My original life plan was to be an architect. Just like my dad. But in another one of those funny life twists he was killed in a freak accident. The last words he spoke to me were, “We’ve got all the time in the world.” Then he stepped off the curb and got hit by a speeding car.

Like I said: funny twists of fate. And here I was, caught up in another.

One more block. Luckily I was used to running. I ran every morning with my dog, Charlie—or used to. Lately my running consisted of “for my life” instead of exercise. How many mornings had it been since we ran? Two, as far as Charlie was concerned. More for me.

Don’t think about it.

I saw the lights from Java Joe’s up ahead.

Shane had told me it happened when he left. When he got tired of waiting for me. How long had he waited? The door opened, and my heart skipped a beat as the light bounced off golden blond hair and he stuck his hands in his pockets and moved down the sidewalk.

“Shane!” I yelled as I tried to run faster. She would be waiting for him, just past the coffee shop in the alleyway. He didn’t hear me. He kept walking, and then he disappeared. He was in the alley. Shane had told me it happened in the alley. I gripped the katana in both hands as I reached Joe’s and raced on by. When I reached the alley I skidded to a stop.

“Hey, Lucy,” I called out. My heart pounded wildly in my chest; I took a deep breath and willed it into submission. If I made a wrong move, Shane would be lost to me forever.

Lucinda turned. Her bright red hair settled on her shoulders, and she looked down her aristocratic nose at me. Behind her Shane stood as if hypnotized, his bright blue eyes staring off into the night as if he were waiting for something. If he only knew what fate this woman planned for him.

“How do you . . . ?” Lucinda stopped suddenly, and looked me over appraisingly. “You know,” she said. “You did it. You opened the gate.”

“I did,” I said. I held the katana firmly in my right hand and stood balanced on the soles of my feet, my legs slightly apart. Ready . . . waiting . . . willing to do whatever was needed.

“I think I’ll keep him anyway,” she said with a flip of her hair. “It will be fun to watch him fight his nature.”

“He’s mine,” I said. “You told me yourself. He will always be mine, no matter what you do to him.”

“How about if I kill him?” she said.

I twisted the blade of my katana so that light from the streetlamp was reflected into Lucy’s face. It also must have awakened Shane from whatever trance she’d put him in; he blinked and looked over Lucinda’s shoulder at me.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “What are you doing?” He looked in shock at the katana, which was so much a part of me now that I barely noticed I was holding it.

“Lucy and I have some unfinished business,” I said.

“You told me you didn’t know her,” Shane said accusingly. My heart lurched at his tone, at the strangeness he felt around me. I would fix that. I had to fix that, or I might as well have stayed where I was.

“Oh, Lucy and I go way back,” I said. “Don’t we?”

“Do we?” she asked.

“About a hundred years, give or take a few.”

“I’m out of here,” Shane said.

He took a step and Lucinda slammed him against the wall. With one hand closed around his throat, she lifted him in the air so that his feet dangled over the ground. She kept her eyes on me; even when Shane grabbed her wrist and kicked her in the side, she barely flinched. “Put him down, Lucy,” I said.

“Make me,” she replied.

I looked at Shane, whose face was full of confusion. He was desperately gasping for breath. I had to make sure he stayed. If he ran I would lose him forever. So I said the only thing that made any sense at all in the madness that my life had become.

“Ninjas are way cooler than pirates.”

This book is available from Dorchester. You can buy it here.


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