Showing posts with label Supernaturally. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supernaturally. Show all posts

Sunday, October 16, 2011

A Peek in the Biblio-Bin - #6

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. It is a way for bloggers to share what books they have won, received for review, bought from the bookstore, borrowed from the library or friend, etc.



This week Nat gives you a peek into the Biblio-Bin.




Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?


Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be . . . kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees.

But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.






Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,


To storm or fire the world must fall.

An oath to keep with a final breath,

And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.


Percy is confused. When he awoke from his long sleep, he didn't know much more than his name. His brain fuzz is lingering, even after the wolf Lupa tol him he is a demigod and trained him to fight with the pen/sword in his pocket. Somehow Percy manages to make it to a camp for half-bloods, despite the fact that he has to keep killing monsters along the way. But the camp doesn't ring and bells with him. The only thing he can recall from his past is another name: Annabeth

Hazel is supposed to be dead. When she lived before, she didn't do a very good job of it. Sure, she was an obedient daughter, even when her mother was possessed by greed. But that was the problem - when the Voice took over he mother and commanded Hazel to use her "gift" for and evil purpose, Hazel couldn't say no. Now because of her mistake, the future of the world is at risk. Hazel wished she could ride away from it all on the stallion that appears in her dreams.

Frank is a klutz. His grandmother says he is descended from heroes and can be anything he wants to be, but he doesn't see it. He doesn't even know who his father is. He keeps hoping Apollo will claim him, because the only thing he is good at is archery - although not good enough to win camp war games. His bulky physique makes him feel like an ox, especially infront of Hazel, his closest friend at camp. He trusts her completely - enough to share the secret he holds close to his heart.

Beginning at the "other" camp for half-bloods and extending as far as the land beyond the gods, this breathtaking second installment of the Heroes od Olympus series introduces new demigods, revives fearsome monsters, and features other remarkable creatures, all destined to play a part in the Prophesy of Seven.



Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life


Share with us the books you acquired this past week!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

New Books & Torture

Everyone knows the feeling.  You are lost in a book.  You come to the end, the climax of the story and then it's over.  Still exhilarated and riding the high of the book, you hop online to see when the next book in the series is going to be released (because pretty much all books are part of a series these days) and you see it, your heart plummets, you are overcome by disappointment.  The book will not be released for a year... 

This draconian practice in the publishing industry is torture, pure torture.  I am not a patient person.  Nope, no one has ever said that patience is one of my virtues.  I love seeing a movie or reading a book as soon as it is released.  When everyone is excited about the release and there is a buzz in the air.  Being a fan of instant gratification, waiting a year for a book is hell for me.  It has gotten to the point that I go against my nature and do not read the books from my favorite series or authors as soon as they are released.  I save them, so that I can read one book and then the next.  I currently have three books in the Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series saved up to read.  Luckily, Explosive Eighteen is releasing early (11/22/11), so we get two Stephanie books this year!  I will have four books saved up for November!

And, because I have the attention span of the average 16 year old, unless it is a book/author I truly love, in the year between books, I often lose interest or move on to other books/things.  My books shelves are full of partial series' of books.  Publishers and authors have apparently taken Psych 101 and combat my attention span by offering "sneak peeks" and "teasers" for the upcoming releases.  For someone like me, this practice is even more tortuous than waiting the year for the next book.  When I start to read a book, I want to keep reading it.  Giving me a few sentences, pages or even a chapter or two is just plain mean. 

Did you all read City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare?  It released April 5, 2011.  I had just finished the other the Mortal Instruments books (an excellent series and BiblioJunkies favorite), so it was natural to move directly to reading COFA.  The ending of this book is probably the best cliff-hanger I have ever read.  I needed to read what happened next.  Of course, I jumped online to Cassandra Clare's website and was horrified to find that City of Lost Souls will not be released until May 2012.  Yep, that's right - more than a year after COFA was released.  I wanted to scream - not exaggerating.  I love your writing Cassie, so please do not take my pain as criticism!  I bring this up because Cassandra Clare is the queen of sneak peeks and teasers.  In fact, she does one per month (for each series, the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices).  While I appreciate that she wants to keep the buzz around her books given the obscene length of time between COFA and COLS, it is like opening a old wound every month...

I have been fortunate this year in that most books I have come across have the next in the series releasing soon - as in next week or in the next few months.  This makes me very happy.  Which brings me to one of my favorite things - telling people what I am looking forward to reading in the hopes that they will love the books as much as I do. 

Here goes:

July 26 Releases:


I Am Number Four The Lost Files:  Six's Legacy by Pittacus Lore



Supernaturally by Kiersten White



Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead by Jason Henderson



Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

Tonight, the BiblioJunkies will be heading to Anderson's Bookstore in Naperville, IL to meet Maggie Stiefvater, author of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, Shiver, Linger and Forever.  Check out Nat's reviews from last week. 

~Shel