Bookfever

Monday, October 28, 2013

Sentinel Tour ~ Half-Blood Day

*squeeee* Time for my stop on the Sentinel tour!

The book I'm spotlighting is Half-Blood, the book where it all began...

It must say that I am sad that this series is coming to an end but I'm damn excited to be a part of this tour.

Also don't forget to answer the totally awesome giveaway below!

Find the complete tour here.

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals--well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

# 1 New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer L. Armentrout Lives in West Virginia.

All the rumors you heard about her state aren’t true.

Well, mostly. When she's not hard at work writing, she spends her time, reading, working out, watching zombie movies, and pretending to write.

She is the author of the Covenant Series (Spencer Hill Press), the Lux Series (Entangled Teen), Don't Look Back (Disney/Hyperion) and a yet untitled novel (Disney/Hyperion), and new YA paranormal series with Harlequin Teen.

Jennifer also writes New Adult and Adult romance under the pen name J. Lynn. The Gamble Brothers Series (Tempting the Best Man/Tempting the Player) and Wait for You. Under her pen name, she is published with Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

As an optional thing to add I decided to feature the author interview I did with Jennifer last February.
Enjoy!

1. What was one of the most surprising (bad or good) things you learned in creating your books?

The good thing that I've learned is how caught up I can get in my characters. Sometimes they feel like real people. Another surprising aspect that's not necessary bad, but something an author can't control, is how people perceive your books. You never know what someone is going to take away from it.

2. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I CANNOT write in a room full of people or really in a room with anyone in it. I'm too easily distracted, so I doubt that I'd ever go to a writing retreat.

3. Which author would you love to co-author a book with someday?

Oh, wow. There are too many to pick from. A few would be Rachel Vincent, Jana Oliver, Jeri Smith Ready, etc.

4. What three books would you recommend people to read?

Losing It by Cora Carmack, Demon Trappers series from Jana Olivier, and Soul Screamers Series from Rachel Vincent.

5. What are some of your current or future bookish projects that you can share with us?

I have a NA novel coming out on March 4th 2013 called Wait for You that I'm very excited about and there is a YA paranormal series that I hope I can share info on soon.

Jennifer, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and I'm looking forward to your upcoming books! :D

Thanks for having me!

I also have this mini interview from JLA to share with you all:

For JLA – Half-Blood was your first published book. Does it hold a special place for you or do you wish you could have a chance to re-write it? Half-Blood definitely holds a special place for me, and I wouldn’t want to re-write it. I’m happy with the book.

For Leon – You defended Alex and advocated for her to stay and be trained. If you’d know she was gonna be such a pain in your ass, would have do that again. Why? Oh yeah, Alex needed to be trained, but I would have advocated for an attitude adjustment along with the training.

For Aiden – That day that Alex meets Seth for the first time, did you notice anything then that could have warned you of what was to come? Everything about him warned me.

For Seth - Did you know that Alex was not impressed with your name when she met you? She thought you should have a more Greek name like Apollo or something. Turn around is fair play. Your thoughts on her name? She’s named after a boy.

Spencer Hill Press is giving away a $200 gift card to Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository or any indie bookstore of the winner's choice to not only stock up on amazing books, but to perhaps buy a Nook HD or Kindle Fire.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Review: Charming by Elliott James

Title: Charming
Author: Elliott James
Series: Pax Arcana #1
Publication: September 24th 2013 by Orbit
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format: ebook from NetGalley
Cover Rating: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4/5

Review copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review.

John Charming isn't your average Prince...

He comes from a line of Charmings — an illustrious family of dragon slayers, witch-finders and killers dating back to before the fall of Rome. Trained by a modern day version of the Knights Templar, monster hunters who have updated their methods from chainmail and crossbows to kevlar and shotguns, he was one of the best. That is — until he became the abomination the Knights were sworn to hunt.

That was a lifetime ago. Now, he tends bar under an assumed name in rural Virginia and leads a peaceful, quiet life. One that shouldn't change just because a vampire and a blonde walked into his bar... Right?

~My Thoughts:

This was a book I kind of randomly started. Usually I plan the books I'm reading next but I saw it on NetGalley, ready to download and the description sounded so awesome that I decided to start it instantly. I love urban fantasy reads but had never read one in a male point of view or one that's written by a guy so, yes, I had high hopes for this book.
Let me jus tell you this, the beginning? Awesoooooome! That's a way to start a book and capture the readers' attention right away. I very much liked the way the author was going with this book the way he started it and I hoped it would be this great throughout the whole book.

The characters in this book were all great and interesting and intriguing to read about. But let's start with our main character, John Charming. You might've heard about the Charmings before. No? Not even in fairytales? Charming isn't just one guy, prince, knight whatever... it's a line of Charmings. How great is that? I might've squealed when I read that part. But back to John... to say he's pretty damn awesome is an understatement. I loved him right away, from the moment he started his story. As a half-werewolf/human/knight, his life hasn't been easy. For the last twelve years he's been trying to lay low, but having a misterably lonely life. It's not like he's this bitter, pitty person with everything he has to go through, though if he'd continued on like this he would've become one eventuelly. But even so, he knows it could be worse. He even says so in the book. And that's one of the major reasons I love him. + he's so hot! And funny, sarcastic. You get it, right?

Then there's Sig, the blonde Valkyrie. That's right! VALKYRIE. I don't know about you but I haven't read too many books about Valkyries, none actually, so I loved that there was one in it. There are a lot of creatures in it that I didn't know about before so yay. But Sig, I really liked her. She was kicking ass all around and saving John's butt a lot. When you least expect it... Bam! There's Sig! And of course they get a little thing going on. If only Sig didn't have that douchebag Dvornik as boyfriend...
I'm sure if you read this book we can all agree that we really, really, really dislike Dvornik and root for John and Sig. I know I was thinking, die motherfucker die all the time he came in the book. But okay. I do love how Sig knew she couldn't cheat on him with John because that would be wrong and she never really did in my eyes but that's open for discussion. Dvornik was an asshole who couldn't handle him getting older while Sig stayed young and did all kinds of really bad things. But all books gotta have a guy like this, no?

We also had some other people in the team like Molly. I liked her. She used to be some sort of priest. She still is but her encounters with the supernatural left her a little bit messed up. I like her quirkiness though. Choo, was also a great character. At the end I felt bad for him with what happened there and I agree that doing these things he does is bad for him. You'll know when you read it. Oh and then there's this guy who's a naga. I also hadn't heard about these creatures but that what I liked so much in this book. So many mystical creatures that you don't read about in other paranormal books.

There was a lot of world building and explaining about the pax arcana, the knights, mythlogy and a lot more. Through the middle of the book this became a little much to me. It was quite a lot information dump and I know that a huge reason why some people didn't like it so much. I felt a little bit the same but got over it pretty quickly when the story got awesome again. And just remember, there's a reason for all the information. It says so at the end of the book. And I think it's pretty great.
Another aspect that I really thought was great were the vampires. They weren't the hot, sexy, brooding kind you see so much these day. I mean there's nothing wrong with vampires like them. I love vampires like them but it's nice to see a twist like this.
The story in overall was good, too. A crazy teenage vampire having a master plan that involves tunnels, blood, human trafficking, more blood and just overall craziness. And just when you think it's over, it isn't!
Elliott James has a unique writing style, I loved it. I just loved reading John's story and the way he experienced everything that happened to him. I love how he had a lot of epiphanies about how he couldn't go on like this and it pretty much makes a way open for the next story. Because John's story (and Sig's) sure as hell isn't over. Or so I hope...
Oh and the chapter titles in this book are pretty funny too. I laughed my ass off so many times.

So all in all, a pretty damn great story. Maybe a little too much information that made me crazy and bleh but other than that I really enjoyed this story. The author had a really original take on fairytales' Charming and spun it into something unique and fascinating to read. I can't wait to read the next book in the series and to find out more about this amazing world!

Favorite Quotes:

"I'm going to shove a cell phone so far up your ass that you're going to burp ringtones."

The vampire didn't walk into the bar so much as flow. Like water. Like night. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt and dark jeans over muscles that seemed to have been sculpted from ivory. His hair was black and tousled, framing piercing green eyes that burned with banked passion in spite of the cold smile on his cruel slash of a mouth. OK, just kidding. Sorry. That whole thing about vampires being übersexy Euro-trash? It's a myth.

You play with fire, you get burned. You play with intimacy, you get awkward.

I could feel Parth's gaze on me as well, and I didn't have to glance over at him to know that he was looking at me with that "Ah, if only I had you under a microscope, my lovely" expression.

About The Author:

An army brat and gypsy scholar, ELLIOTT JAMES is currently living in the blueridge mountains of southwest Virginia. An avid reader since the age of three (or that's what his family swears anyhow), he has an abiding interest in mythology, martial arts, live music, hiking, and used bookstores. Irrationally convinced that cellphone technology was inserted into human culture by aliens who want to turn us into easily tracked herd beasts, Elliott has one anyhow but keeps it in a locked tinfoil covered box which he will sometimes sit and stare at mistrustfully for hours. Okay, that was a lie. Elliott lies a lot; in fact, he decided to become a writer so that he could get paid for it.

Purchase Charming on:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Stacking The Shelves #42

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted @ Tynga's Reviews, where you can showcase the books and goodies you bought, borrowed, won, downloaded, received, etc...

~Won:

I won this awesome swag pack from Nely Cab back in August but it didn't arrive until now because it was missent to Belize instead of Belgium. lol. xD
But I'm so glad I finally received it! :D