HP Mallory, Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Author: Win an Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Certificate...

HP Mallory, Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Author: Win an Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Certificate...: "So, before I get to the good part of this contest, the fact that I'm giving away a $100 gift certificate to either Amazon or Barnes and Nobl..."

18 & Over Book Blogger Tag Along and Follow Friday! Feb. 18 #3

This week's question is:

"If you are a fan of Science Fiction what is your favorite book? If you haven't read Science Fiction before...any inkling to? Anything catch your eye?"

Um, yikes that is a hard one...I was never really an avid reader until I discovered paranormal romance so I really have nothing science fiction wise...maybe Alien, but I was bored, and it was all that was around, and I only read like 2 chapters.

If anyone has a twitter find me @JennyCy

What I am Currently Reading
 

The Demon Girl Hardback Giveaway

 The author of The Demon Girl Penelope Fletcher is running a contest! I love book giveaways and thought I would share!



Also, don't forget to check out the books website it is pretty cool

The Demon Girl Website

What I am Currently Reading
 

My Thoughts on The Wicked by Stacey Kennedy

My last review was on The Willow by Stacey Kennedy admittedly not my favorite book. In fact, I did not even really like it, but I purchased books 1 and 2 together so I felt compelled to start and finish book 2. I am so glad I did because I actually really enjoyed The Wicked! My only wish is that Kennedy’s books were a bit longer. Now on with the review!

From the Back of the Book

Thirsty vampires are only the beginning of trouble―magic, love and danger at every turn.


Nexi Jones knows two things—being half Guardian is tough—being half Witch is simply problematic. With her Guardian duties put on hold, she begins the grueling task of discovering her magical abilities, which tend to be unpredictable, at the best of times.


At least, she has her luscious Guardian, Kyden to keep her grounded. That is, until the military-built, Ryker returns with a keen interest in being a constant thorn in her backside. With enough trouble controlling her powers—the added rivalry between the two tough Guardians leaves Nexi in urgent demand of a fire extinguisher.


But when tragedy strikes the very core of the Otherworld, Nexi needs to shape up as she lands herself knee deep into vampire society—a world run by vampire Mistresses who offer their assistance in unearthing a deadly plot of revenge. But as the truth begins to unravel, Nexi begins to discover that the Otherworld isn’t the only place where Supernaturals exist—and there is something far darker than thirsty vampires lurking within the shadows…

My Thoughts

As I mentioned before I was not a fan of The Willow, and my expectations for this book were not high. I am happy to say how wrong I was. The Wicked is almost entirely about Nexi learning to gain control over her magical abilities. On her journey to gain control learns that she holds an amazing amount of power within herself, more than anyone in the Otherworld has seen.

Along our journey through The Wicked we are introduced to many yummy new characters including Ryker, who just happens to be Kyden’s rival on every level. Kyden and Ryker seem to have the type of relationship where they always have to one up each other, and what one has the other wants. Which now means Nexi, and through the entire book Ryker remains a thorn in Nexi and Kyden’s sides with his lascivious looks, and comments. My favorite new character though is Briar she is witty, and a strong character, I do hope to see more of her throughout the series.

There are many trials and tribulations for Nexi in this book, and she really handles her new challenges quite well. We get to see more of her relationship with Kyden…well more than just the physical side of it, we get to see that it actually has some depth to it. The Wicked is doing for me what The Willow in my opinion should have, it is leaving me wanting more, and not dreading turning the page. The backdrop for the story is the Otherworld which, is a unique place, and I love reading and learning more about it. Another tidbit from the story is talk of another dimension called the Underworld lead by Magnus yet another yummy new character, a black magic warlock. I cannot wait to see what Kennedy has in store for us with that.

If you read my reviews you are probably coming to realize that unless I completely love or hate a book it is hard for me to give my thoughts…I really suck at indecisiveness, a personal work in progress…So moral of that the more I am unsure about the book, and how I feel about it, the suckier the review. If I had a rating system I would give this book 3.5 out of 5, meaning I liked it, but I am not over the moon about it.

What I am Currently Reading
 

18 & Over Book Blogger Tag Along Feb. 11

18 and over book blogger tag along is for a specific group of book bloggers. 18 and over book bloggers primarily have on their blog book reviews and post of adult content. In other words, if you read books like erotic and adult romance and have adult pic. then you can play tag along. Sorry YA readers, but if you read both (I know some of you do) you can tag along also.

Whats your favorite genre?

Mine is Paranormal Romance and sometimes Historical Fiction/Nonfiction

What I am Currently Reading

News Article- U.K. Begins E-Book Price Probe

I am always amazed at the price of eBooks versus traditional books. I really think publishers are asking for too much money when they want to to pay more than a paperback would cost. I'm not interested in paying $12 - $14 for an "eBook". I don't understand why eBooks cost more than a traditional paperback book does. There are no costs for paper, ink, printing, and moving the books into traditional stores - so shouldn't an "e-Book" be about half the cost of a traditional book? Below is an interesting article I found on the subject.


Culled From the Wall Street Journal
U.K. Begins E-Book Price Probe By PAUL SONNE

The U.K. trade regulator said Tuesday it is investigating antitrust complaints related to digital-book pricing, a move that comes about six months after state authorities in the U.S. began similar probes.

The Office of Fair Trading said in a statement that it began to investigate pricing arrangements between book publishers and digital retailers after receiving "a significant number of complaints." It didn't elaborate on the source of the complaints, and said it is looking to see whether the arrangements breach antitrust rules.

"The investigation is at an early stage and it should not be assumed that the parties involved have breached [antitrust] law," the OFT said in a statement. An OFT spokesman declined to elaborate.

The investigation comes after months of haggling between book publishers and online retailers over pricing for electronic books, sparked by the rise of devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPad and Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle. Book publishers, having watched music companies falter as Internet distribution cannibalized in-store sales, have moved quickly to protect their business.

That in part has led to the "agency pricing" model, the same system that has come under antitrust scrutiny by attorneys general in Connecticut and Texas.

Under that model, publishers including Pearson PLC's Penguin Group and Lagadère SCA's Hachette unit in the U.K. set their own retail prices, instead of allowing online vendors to set their own sales prices for e-books The online retailers make a set percentage of each sale, under that practice.

A person familiar with the matter said the OFT inquiry focuses on the agency pricing model. In August, then Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said such pricing agreements "resulted in uniform prices for most of the popular e-books—potentially depriving consumers of competitive prices."

Texas and Connecticut launched their pricing probes after five publishers adopted an agency pricing model at the urging of Apple and prior to the April release of its iPad.

Unlike other European countries, many of which prevent retailers from selling books at discounted rates under laws meant to protect independent booksellers, the U.K. generally does not regulate the retail prices for books. That makes the British book market similar to that of the U.S.

Penguin, Hachette, News Corp.'s HarperCollins and CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster are among the U.K. publishers that follow the agency pricing model. Amazon and Apple did not respond to requests for comment. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.

Simon & Schuster and Hachette declined to comment. Penguin and HarperCollins confirmed that they are among the publishers being investigated by the OFT.

"The OFT is emphasizing that the investigation is at an early stage and it should not be assumed that the parties involved have breached competition law," a spokeswoman for Penguin said in a statement. "We will cooperate fully with the investigation."

What I am Currently Reading

My Thoughts on The Willow by Stacey Kennedy

I am so excited today-- I finally finished my taxes, finished reading another book, it’s already Wednesday, and Justified starts back tonight! So now on with the review!

As I start this review I find myself wondering how in the world I am going to write it. I was not in the least bit impressed with this book, and that saddens me considering it got raving reviews everywhere I looked. Unfortunately, for me I actually bought Book 1 and Book 2 in the series because of said reviews.

The Willows by Stacey Kennedy

From the back of the book:

A past of secrets, a life broken by death―awakens to a world of promise and love, but lurking danger threatens to destroy it all. In Carson City, Nevada a tragic car accident has claimed the lives of Nexi Jones’ adoptive parents. Now, without them, her reason to live has vanished and she is determined to end her pain. The problem with that, it’s not heaven she wakes up to, it’s the Otherworld. Nexi must reconcile the truth about her past, and her heritage as part guardian/part witch, while she begins to train to join the Council’s guard. But it’s not the combat training that has her worried, its attempting to keep her cool around the luscious guardian, Kyden that’s her biggest concern. Before long, Nexi’s skills are put to the test as she begins to fight against the supernatural who have taken a human life. But nothing can prepare her for the journey ahead. Soon, she will find herself lost in a mystery and fighting to keep all she’s gained, as Lazarus, a vampire, threatens to take it all away.

My Thoughts

This book starts off following central character Nexi. Her adoptive parents have just died in a car wreck, the only family she has ever known, and left her alone in this world. She is very depressed and decides she no longer wants to live. She goes to the only peaceful place she knows, underneath her favorite tree, a willow, to die. As she lays there dying a beautiful man shows up, and says he is taking her home. When she awakens she realizes that death did not become her, and her whole life has been a lie. Her biological father had come for her, and brought her home to the Otherworld where she discovers she is half Guardian and half witch, a combination no one has ever seen. As her witchy powers have not surfaced yet she begins training as a Guardian, a league of supernatural police charged with keeping the humans safe from the Otherworldly beings. She begins training with Kyden as her sexy mentor and soon finds outs what it means to be a guardian. Kyden and Nexi are charged with searching for a dark force that is using werewolves to do his bidding, and the more they find out the more they realize it has everything to do with Nexi and her past.

I have taken many days trying to come up with what I did not like about this book, but I am really at a loss. The world Stacy Kennedy created was fantastic, and with her descriptions you really get a sense of the surroundings, they were very lush and complex in the details, but when it came to character building it was almost nonexistent for me. I really like a much longer book, and I feel like the first book in a series should involve a lot of character building, and laying out the plot/storyline for future books. I will say that the story finishes strong, and leaves me willing to give book 2 The Wicked a try. I know this review is rather lacking, but I was truly at a loss with this book it just did not seem up to par with any paranormal romance book that I have read.

What I am Currently Reading