Tag: The Book Smugglers

Demon Forged Book Giveaway

Posted October 10, 2009 by Tracy in Reviews | 19 Comments

I finished Demon Forged by Meljean Brook last night and it was just so utterly fabulous! The romance, the friendship, the fighting – everything is just wonderful. The plot is just amazing and Meljean has done an incredible job taking us from book to book in this series and making the story grow. Yes, each book has it’s own thing going for it but as a whole the series just rocks.

I’d love to give you a review but I have a problem with writing reviews when I like books this much cuz I just tend to say: I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. That doesn’t really tell you much about the book does it? lol Well, lucky for you I knew where to go to get great reviews for this book so I’ll share a few with you:

The Book Smugglers

Dear Author – with Jill Myles guest reviewing

Babbling About Books, and More

Rosario’s Reading Journal

OMG and how could I have forgotten to add VampFanGirl’s blog Lovin Me Some Romance and its 8 fabulous days of the entire Guardian series? I’m such a dork! Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8 (Day 8 is the Demon Forged review) . This was wonderful, you need to check it out.

BOOK GIVEAWAY

Being that I loved the book so very much I’ve decided to share the lurrrrve and give away not 1 but 2 copies of Demon Forged so that you all can read it and love it as much as I did.

So….leave a comment on this post between now and Monday, October 12 at 11:59pm. I will announce the 2 winners on Tuesday, October 13. Good luck to you all! (Intl. entrants ok)


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What I Read Last Week

Posted September 28, 2009 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Hi folks – it’s already Monday again and I’m behind – as is my usual lately. Today I woke with the migraine from hell. It’s abated somewhat with meds but it’s damned hard to sit here so I’ll be quick.

Saturday I got together with the So Cal Blogger in Pasadena and let me just say how much I love those women! They are so great and it’s just sheer unadulterated heaven to talk to them for hours on end! I have a picture of us but at this moment I’m in too much pain to download the pictures. Besides the camera is in the other room and that’s just too damned far for me right now. 🙂 I’ll post them soon.

So what I read:

I started off with One Week as Lovers by Victoria Dahl. I read this fab review at The Book Smugglers and decided to buy it. It was really good and I liked it a lot. I’d only read one of Dahl’s books before and it was a contemporary but I have to say I liked her historical work just as much. 4.25 out of 5


Next up was Set the Dark on Fire by Jill Sorenson. Another great romantic suspense novel by Jill. I really like her books. My review is here. 4.25 out fo 5


My next read was What A Dragon Should Know by G.A. Aiken. This is book 3 in the series and I liked it just as much as the first 2. It covered Gwenvael’s relationship with Dagmar as well as catching us up on all of the rest of the dragon siblings. It moved around a lot but it flowed very nicely. Good series…I love the humor, sex, romance and fighting that goes on. 4.25 out of 5


I covered my Year of the Category Challenge read and my Tracy’s TBR Challenge read all in one book by reading Her Best Friend’s Brother by Kay Stockham. I’ve had the book for a while and had been meaning to read it but never got around to it. I decided to read it for my YOTC Challenge so that made me the multi-tasker of the day. lol I’ll post my review of it tomorrow.


Last was Bufflehead Sisters by Patricia J. Delois. A fiction book I read for The Book Binge that wasn’t a romance and was a tad bizarre. I’ll let you know when my review posts.

That’s it for the week. I hope you had a great reading week as well.

FYI – my review for Beyond the Rain by Jess Granger posted at The Book Binge this past week – you can read it here.

Happy Reading!


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What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted June 8, 2009 by Tracy in Features | 9 Comments

by Amber Kell, Jennifer St. Giles, Jodi Thomas, Joely Skye, Lisa Kleypas, Michele Bardsley, Sean Michael

Greeting earthlings. I feel like I’m an alien today. The kids and I have been going and going and going since Friday and I’m pooped. It’s sad when you have to go to work to get some rest. lol And that’s just a different kind of tiring! 🙂 Being exhausted is one of the reasons this post wasn’t up on Sunday as is my usual. I just couldn’t do it. 🙂

So what did I read this week?

First was Touch A Dark Wolf by Jennifer St. Giles. I had read a couple of reviews for her latest book in this series and was interested in reading more. It wasn’t what I expected – I was expecting more of a werewolf type book rather than spirit wolf/vampire novel but it was still a good read. I will be reading more in this series. 3.75 out of 5

Next up was Rewriting Monday by Jodi Thomas. My first read by Ms. Thomas and I liked it a lot! There were a couple of editing issues in it that were frustrating but since the story ended up being so great I could ignore them in the end. Just a sweet read. You can read the review by The Book Smugglers here. 4 out of 5

Next up was Feral by Joely Skye. Kris did a post about mates and were-beings and it got me wanting to read more shapeshifters. When I went to All Romance ebooks this cover just caught my eye. I totally dig this cover. The story is about Ethan, an almost feral shapeshifting cougar, and Bram, a wolf shapeshifter who helps him escape after he’s captured. The two men find each other again and start a relationship. It was not very fast paced but steady and emotional. 3.5 out of 5


Hellbourne: Heart and Soul by Amber Kell is the last short story in the trilogy about Luc. I just love Luc. He’s just a great guy and one of those you’d love to have as your best friend. Ok, he’s Satan’s son, but still. 3 out of 5


Over My Dead Body by Michele Bardsley was my next read. I read this one for review on The Book Binge – I’ll let you know when the review posts. I should probably write the review and that would give it a chance to be posted, what do you think? lol

Following along with the shapeshifter theme for the week I read Bite by Sean Michael. Another m/m story that follows Anton and his newly hired chef, Greg. While Anton, a werewolf, and Greg are forming their new relationship Greg realizes that someone is after him. Greg is eventually taken by a rival pack and it’s up to Anton to save him. This was a story that I couldn’t seem to stop reading. It’s not a story that’s high on the relationship building (not a whole lot of the “getting to know about each other” stage) but a lot of sex. I mean a lot of sex and it’s hot, damn hot. This author knows how to write some amazing m/m sex scenes. 3.75 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas. This has been on my shelf for at least 3 months and I finally picked it up. sigh I just love Kleypas’ historicals. She writes great romance. I didn’t love Lillian but I didn’t dislike her either in the first book but I’m so glad I didn’t skip this one as so many people said I could/should. I appreciated her personality and the fact that she stood up for herself and her relationship with Westcliff. Also I think I would have missed seeing Westcliff being brought to his knees – that was wonderful. And some of those kisses that they shared? Man, oh man were they great. 4 out of 5

FYI – I’m having some serious issues with my personal email so if you’ve emailed me I’ve probably gotten back to you. However most people aren’t receiving my emails so if you’re expecting a response but don’t get one please try me again – sometimes it works. It’s incredibly frustrating though and hopefully the problem will be worked out soon.

Happy Reading!


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What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted April 20, 2009 by Tracy in Features | 12 Comments

Happy Sunday! Well, ok, it’s already Monday for some of you but it’s still Sunday here! 🙂

Things were nutty this week. Both of my girls were sick on Monday and Tuesday with fevers and pains in their little bellies. They recovered though and hopped off to school. But then Thursday my oldest got sent home after she started throwing up in a trash can. Niiiiiiice. Mommy to the rescue!

My oldest again recovered and was actually in a talent show on Friday night. She sang Our Song by Taylor Swift. She did pretty good. She forgot the words in the middle of the bridge and looked like she was about to cry but she muddled through. It was funny to see my laid back hubby getting anxious for her all week. I swear he was more nervous than she was! Silly men.

So…what I read this week:

I started off the week by reading Under A Silver Moon by Anne Cain & Barbara Sheridan. I won this book on DIK recently – it was my first read by either author. Now I did choose a book that was like book 3 or 4 in a series but I didn’t feel that I was missing too much by not reading the others. This was a story about a 36 year old woman who gets sent to be a nurse to a young rock star in Toyko. Love develops despite the age difference but there’s someone out there who doesn’t want these two to be together and does everything in their power to sabatoge the relationship…including kidnapping. This was a good story. I enjoyed it and will definitely read more of their work in the future.


My next read was Passion Unleashed by Larissa Ione. Another great installment in the Demonica Series. I loved this one almost as much as the last one. Wraith was great. He had so many damned issues – which I don’t blame him for at all. But he cracked me up when he was with the heroine and would do something out of character he would cuss himself out and say wtf am I saying? Too funny. Good book. Love the series and hope there are more books coming our way.


Next up was my Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week – Clockwork Heart by Dru Paliassotti. I read Thea’s review at The Book Smugglers and almost immediately went out and bought it. I’m not sure what the circumstances were that caused me not to read it right away but needless to say it got bypassed. So I finally got to it and it was fabulous. My first Steampunk novel and it was one of those ones you kick yourself for not reading sooner.


I read Nauti Intentions by Lora Leigh for The Book Binge and will let you know when my review is posted.

The book I chose next could pretty much count for a Tracy’s TBR Challenge book as well since it’s been on my shelf for a while but when I was looking for a historical to read it just kind of popped out at me. It was the re-release of Sabrina Jeffries The Pirate Lord. I very much enjoyed this book about pirate Gideon Horn and his dream of retiring to an uncharted island. The problem was that he and the crew needed wives – so they took control of a ship that had women convicts in it and went on their merry way. But one of the ladies on board was the step-sister of an earl. Needless to say they fell in love.
My only gripe…and it’s really not about this book specifically…but at the end of all of these pirate novels they always end up being Duke’s or Earl’s or some sort of British citizen in the upper eschelon. Not that there’s a problem with that (and in this particular book I thought it was pretty well done) but I’d just like to see a pirate be a pirate. I mean in this one they were gonna live on an island where no one cared what your station in life was so it would have been perfect. Anyway…does anyone know of a pirate historical where they’re just a pirate and not a long lost son of the ton? Let me know if you do, please.


I read You’re So Vein by Christine Warren – the next book in her Others Series. I’m thinking that I’m gonna review this one because it won’t get out of my head! lol So I’ll post a review sometime this week.


Last book for the week was Polar Reaction by Claire Thompson. After reading a blurb of the story when Claire was on DIK I bought it. I really enjoyed the story. I can’t imagine it’s easy writing a story about 3 men in a relationship and getting it to be realistic, but she did a great job. I think the thing that got me was that it was pretty darned emotional for all 3 men and it wasn’t just all about the sex – even though there was plenty of that (and it was smokin).

Have a great week and Happy Reading!


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Day 1 of Smugglivus

Posted December 26, 2008 by Casee in Promotions | 2 Comments

The Book Smugglers asked Holly to do a guest post for their Smugglivus event.

Holly asked me to help her with her Twelve Days of Christmas parody. I’m so glad she did b/c it turned out to be hilarious. Holly and I couldn’t stop laughing while doing this. We hope you enjoy it!

Check it out here!


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