Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Custom Business Card Contest!

Robin from over at Intense Whisper is running a contest for custom business cards and she was kind enough to let me host this week! This chicky is talented, y'all. She can do covers, bookmarks, postcards and a lot more. So, check her out at the links provided below. Without further ado, here is the info:







Robin Ludwig Design Inc. would like to offer one commenter 250 - custom designed FULL COLOR business cards. The business cards are printed on heavy 16 point cardstock and glossy UV coated on both sides. All the winner needs to do is email their content to Robin Ludwig Design Inc. Once the content is received the business cards will be custom designed, proofed, printed and then shipped directly to the winner! Great promotional pieces for bloggers and for author swag.

In addition to business cards, Robin Ludwig Design Inc. also offers postcards, brochures, bookmarks, website services and book cover design.

Robin Ludwig Design Inc. can be found online here:
Website: http://www.rldprint.com/index.html
Blogger: http://rldprint.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rldprint
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rldprint

Please follow Robin Ludwig Design Inc. online for weekly deals, contests and more!

Contest open to US residents only. No PO boxes.
Custom design does not include logo creation.
Business cards must be ordered within 45 days of contest end date.

Ok, peeps, here's how we're gonna do it. I'm a fan of simple so all you have to do is leave a comment to be entered to win. As stated above, only US residents are eligible for this one. Contest will run through next Wed, July 7 and end at midnight PST.

Good luck!!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

I was away this weekend

and apparently I forgot that my guest post over at Wicked Little Pixie's was up this weekend. So, stop on by and see what I'm ranting talking about now. Check it out here.

Also, because I was away from my computer I borrowed my darling Jen's computer (since I was crashed on her couch). She doesn't have Firefox like I do, but instead has Internet Explorer. I happened to be perusing my blog to see how it looked in IE and I noticed the horrible truth: it looks awful. There are random links to products that I didn't put there, and then they were all over twitter and it was a pain to navigate. Anyway, my apologies to all my IE peeps out there. Seriously, my blog looks better than that, I swear *sobs*. And may I recommend a switch to Firefox or Chrome (which I'm hearing good things about)? Just a suggestion.....

Anyway, I'll put some pics up (hopefully) of my weekend fun and all that good stuff later this week.

Hope you all had a great weekend and I hope Monday is kind to us all.

Muah!!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Review: Shadow of the Vampire by Meagan Hatfield



I received a digital galley from Netgalley. Shadow of the Vampire is out on July 1.

Even vampires should never sleep with the enemy.

Vampire princess Alexia Feodorovna has been undead for 125 years, so it's been a while since any man has made her pulse race. Until Declan Black. One look at his bronzed body and a fire like no other consumes her. Then she discovers that he's a dragon lord come to take revenge on the vamps who killed his parents. And claim a crystal said to imbue its owner with incredible powers.

Alexia is ordered to torture and kill the dragon lord. Yet with each reckless encounter, she finds herself consumed by his fiery passion. A passion Declan battles, as well. Will he be able to resist the fire of lust she kindles within him and keep revenge in his heart? Or will he risk everything to quench the burning desire and claim the vampire as his own?


Shadow of the Vampire was cool because it was a bit darker and grittier than many paranormal romances out there that I've read lately. It didn't shy away from violence, blood, war, abuse, manipulation and even the emotional aftermath of rape.

I wasn't sure what I thought of our heroine, Alexia, at first. I thought I wanted her to be stronger and tougher and yet, she really was. She'd been raised by a less than stellar example of a mother and isolated from all others who could help or guide her or even protect her. An evil man that she's supposed to trust is manipulating her mother and abusing her and she feels the walls closing in on her but she has no way to save her mother, herself and her people from a threat she can't imagine. That's just what's going on in her home. There's also the age old war between her vampire people and the Dragons and it's heating up, in a big way. She's a competent fighter that kicks ass on the battlefield, but inside she's a scared girl that longs for love and security.

Declan, our hero, is hot. He's calm and noble and passionate. He's also a dragon lord. He endures horrible torture, some of it at the hands of our heroine, and yet he never breaks. As time goes on and danger is closing in, Alexia and Declan are forced to help each other and they learn about each other and each other families, fears, scars, and their people. They learn there's more to the two races and what's going on between them than they thought and they learn to trust each other. Alexia puts herself on the line to save him and he has to make a choice: Save her and face the complications or leave her to her fate and go on as before. But can he really ever be the same after tasting her and knowing her?

Shadow of the Vampire was a moving read filled with war and political intrigue, evil machinations and passionate love. There were a few things that my anal retentive self wondered about here and there, but the story was engaging enough that I let those things go and just went with it.

There were enough questions at the end that I'm sure we haven't seen the last of this world and these characters and the story being set up for Declan's sister, Talon, has me anxious to read that one, too.

Final grade: B

Buy from book depository

Or Amazon Shadow of the Vampire (Hqn)

Monday, June 21, 2010

Review: Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs

Forgive My Fins

Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid – she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview high school ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems – like her obnoxious, biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher – but it has that one major perk – Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type – when they “bond,” it’s for life.

When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily-ever-after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.


Forgive My Fins is a very light and fairly fast paced read. Lily, the protag, seems practical and down to earth in a lot of ways and even mature when she talks about her need to protect her people by keeping their existence a secret and when she thinks about one day becoming the ruler of the sea and all the responsibility that will entail, but for the most part she was a very immature and oblivious character. Most of the characters were except for Quince and a few of the merfolk that we meet.

Quince is a great character. He was by far my favorite. He was strong mentally and physically, knew what he wanted and went for it. He had a great sense of humor and was very protective of Lily. Some strange things happen to him in this book and he always took them well and rolled with the punches, adapting quickly to his circumstances. He did feel like he was somehow older and more mature than every other teenager in the story, though.

The mermaid angle was neat and I enjoyed seeing the undersea kingdom. If one was to think too much while reading this story, one might find questions and possible holes and what not so I tried not to over think the story.

The ending was slightly irritating to me because it seemed to make all the mermaid drama meaningless and for someone who is so very loyal and loving to friends and family, Lily seems to be able to drop them easily and follow whatever it is that she wants with single minded purpose.

Overall, I felt like Forgive My Fins read like a younger YA even though the characters were getting ready to graduate high school. It was a light and entertaining read that I don't think holds up to a great amount of scrutiny, so I recommend that one pick up this book without major expectations.

My final grade is a C+

Forgive My Fins

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Robot Chicken and Pearl FTW!

Ok, I've got some friends that are havin a raw deal lately so this post is for you. A lil Robot Chicken and Pearl to perk you up.

WARNING: THESE VIDEOS ARE FUNNY BUT COULD BE OFFENSIVE. SO, IF YOU'RE EASILY OFFENDED, DON'T WATCH ;)

This one kills me, every time:



Here we have Boba havin a lil special time with a frozen Han:



We all love dentists, right?



Even Eternia has it's scandals:



This one just tickles me. I don't know, I'm weird:



Again, I'm weird:



Gotta love nerds :P



Pearl, the landlord. So wrong, so funny, so cute :P


Hope these made someone laugh ;)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Review: Red Hot Fury by Kasey Mackenzie



Synopsis from Goodreads:

Hell hath nothing worse than a Fury scorned...

As a Fury, Marissa Holloway belongs to an Arcane race that has avenged wrongdoing since time immemorial. As Boston’s Chief Magical Investigator for the past five years, she’s doing what she was born to: solving supernatural crimes.

It’s far from business as usual when the body of one of Riss’s sister Furies washes up in Boston harbor. Riss discovers that the corpse’s identity has been magically altered, but as soon as she reports her findings, she’s immediately—and inexplicably—suspended from the her job. Then a human assassin makes an attempt on her life, and Riss starts to realize that someone may be trying to stir up strife between mortals and Arcanes.

When a Fury gets mad, she gets even, and Riss is determined to untangle this case. Without the support of the mortal PD, Riss turns to the one man she can trust to watch her back—shapeshifting Warhound Scott Murphy. But since Scott is also Riss’s ex, she’ll have to keep a tight leash on more than just the supernatural rage that feeds her power as they try to solve a murder—and stop a war…


Ok, let me start off by saying that I really liked that Ms. Mackenzie went for something different here. We have Furies, we have harpies, we have warhounds, we have sidhe and we have genetic tampering that leads to mixed breeds and all sorts of mayhem. The fact that there were harpies at all made me happy because let's face it, you don't see them used much in UF. Ms. Mackenzie also had a unique take on the relationship between furies and harpies and again, I appreciated the originality of it.

While I'm listing the positives, let me throw out that a lot of people are going to like that there's a semi steamy love interest in the protag's ex, Scott, who's a warhound. There's a lot of action and there's the question of who's behind all the mayhem going on. This will be enough for some people, and that's fine. Now, I'll tell you why it just didn't work for me.

Unfortunately, the writing was not the book's strong point. There was a lot of info dumping and the characters often acted like they'd been created yesterday. They have lived in this world their whole lives and several of them are supposed to be badasses that have been around the block a few times and yet, they're clueless most of the time. And it was so very dramatic. All the time. It was kind of exhausting, really.

The main character, Riss. We're told she's a badass. We're told that a lot. We don't actually SEE a lot of badassery coming from her. We see a lot of bitchiness and jumping to conclusions and convenient cluelessness, but no, we don't see a lot of badassness. I know that I was SUPPOSED to sympathize with Riss, but I didn't. She could be nice, at times, but mostly she was an immature brat that had little care for anyone that wasn't her, or wasn't a fury. Cuz no one can understand the weight of the EPIC BADASSNESS she carries but a sister fury.

I wanted to love this book. I really did. The author is a lovely woman who has been very generous in sending me an ARC to review and when told that I probably would be giving it a lower grade, she said there were no strings attached when she sent me the ARC and she would never ask me not to post a review. I respect that. I respect her for it and I respect that she had a fresh take on the UF genre, in my opinion.

I had a lot of issues with this book, but that doesn't mean that other people aren't going to enjoy this one. My girl, Wendy, reviewed Red Hot Fury and loved it. Link to review here. So, as you can see, I am not the only opinion out there.

Final grade: C-. The writing was really a D, but the fact that the author had some good concepts and cool ideas really brought the grade up.

Red Hot Fury releases June 29.

There will be a sequel coming out. I believe the title is Green Eyed Envy. So, if you enjoy this one, there will be more to come.....

Monday, June 14, 2010

There's a difference between owning your sexuality and having it own you

It's that time again!!! A rant is a comin on, y'all.

So, I'm all for enjoying man candy and girl candy and all sorts of candy. I really am. I am also known for exhorting my girls to own their sexuality. Don't be afraid to have desires, don't be a prude because you think lightning shall burst from the sky and ream your ass for having a libido. However, ladies, ladies, please, y'all don't have to be slavering, howling and acting like you're in heat at the sight of a male (and not always even a very hot one at that). I mean, have some self respect. It's getting so I can't talk about sports and actually be interested in them for the sake of the sport. Nope. It's just an excuse to parade man candy around and ovulate, apparently. You can't watch a show without girls screaming to get the short and less attractive guy out of the way so we can just watch the hung guy boff people. Srsly, y'all, there are shows where you can have little to no plot and sleazy guys packin ridiculous heat screwin anything and everything. It's called porn. Go on and get you some. Really. If women watched more of that then maybe they wouldn't try to make EVERYTHING from sports, books, tv shows, interviews, conversations, movies, etc, etc, etc into porn. Go, get thee a vibrator. And don't be cheap, get a good one. Get a good porno. Take care of that so that you can not embarrass the female population with.....well, let's just say that if it were men talking about women like that, there'd be bitch slapping involved.

So, to recap: Don't be afraid of sex and talking about it, having it, fantasizing about it, reading about it, writing about, liking the hell out of it, but let's have a lil dignity, shall we?

Friday, June 11, 2010

Also....

I'm over at Mama Kitty Reviews with a post on why I love to read. Check it out if you're so inclined. It felt a bit like posing naked for some reason, lol. What? I'm shy :P

Thursday, June 10, 2010

ARC Review: Assassin's Honor by Monica Burns



Description from Goodreads:
A woman with visions of the past...

Archeologist Emma Zale sees the past when she touches ancient relics. It’s how she uncovered evidence of an ancient order of assassins—the Sicari. When a sinfully dark stranger shows up on her Chicago doorstep demanding an ancient artifact she doesn’t have, he drags her into a world where telekinesis and empaths are the norm. Now someone wants her dead, and her only hope of survival is an assassin who’s every bit as dangerous to her body as he is to her heart.

Bonded to an honorable assassin...

Ares De Luca comes from an ancient Roman bloodline of telekinetic assassins. A Sicari, he’s honor bound to kill only in the name of justice. But when the woman he loved was murdered, Ares broke the Sicari code and used his sword for revenge. Love cost him dearly once before, and he’s not willing to pay the price again. At least not until hot, sweet, delectable Emma walked into his life. Not only does she hold the key to a valuable Sicari relic, she might just hold the key to his heart.

Their dangerous passion will redeem an assassin's honor.


This book had a lot of potential. The archeology with ruins and ancient artifacts of ancient orders was a premise that could have been so cool. The writing was fairly well done, which is a major thing for me. Nothing can kill a book for me like poor writing. Even if it has a great concept.

Unfortunately it was ruined a bit by the rather annoying heroine and the overly self castigating hero.

The heroine was frustrating for me because at times she could seem so reasonable, at least in her mental narration, but as soon as she opened her mouth she reminded me of a rabid puppy. She consistently jumped to wrong conclusions for most of the book and basically conducted herself like a bull in a china shop. I also was annoyed because she had good instincts and yet she consistently chose to ignore them. Why must heroines do this? Does it make them cute and feisty to be loud, biting and ignore common sense? Not for me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a heroine that can give as good as she gets and isn't all fluff and even ones with a sharp tongue, but foaming at the mouth with misplaced righteous indignation does nothing for me. Furthermore, her overly guilt ridden attitude and fear of her abilities when she did something justifiable out of self defense got really old for me. You don't have to be a flower child to be an acceptable heroine in my book. And with as sharp a tongue as she had, she was no flower child to begin with.

The hero was better and generally more likable, but his constant need to be the biggest martyr ever was very tiresome for me. I wanted to tell him to climb down off the cross and join the rest of the world. His devotion to his order was admirable, but I found little that I liked about the order so it also seemed irritating at times. Many times it seemed to be just another tool he used to flog himself over his lost honor. Considering the flaws in his order I don't see how he, as one of the most honorable and noble in the order, had ever really lost his honor to begin with. Again, that is just my view, I understand that other people will perceive that differently.

The romance was nice and often times refreshing in the way that although they had many spats and misunderstandings (often because of Emma's love of jumping to wrong conclusions) they really did seem to get over them quickly when they would stop long enough to discuss it rationally. Sadly the romance was bogged down by Ares constantly beating himself up about the relationship and Emma also beating him up about the relationship. I know that sounds harsh, but it honestly felt like that a lot of times. In her head, Emma would try to see it from Ares' perspective and be reasonable, but as soon as she would open her mouth bitterness and assumptions would pour forth.

Overall, the book was entertaining, but for me, fairly forgettable. I was frustrated because I saw flashes of good writing and great potential in this story, but the characters were never able to deliver on that promise.

My final grade is a C+

I know that many fans of paranormal romance are going to enjoy this one, it just didn't stand out from the crowd for me.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

And for the haters that want a laugh.....

I'm not a huge Perez Hilton fan. He buys his own hype and is generally filled with a kind of self righteous/self loathing thing. Plus he likes to start needless crap. However, this is a damn funny video and it makes me giggle. I may love Gaga, but almost every celeb that tries to have a huge "mission" or "stance" tends to kinda explode into their own monster (yes, a pun). So, I love Gaga, but am able to laugh at this, too.

Alejandro Vid Out

Ok, the video for Gaga's song Alejandro just released today. It's controversial, melodramatic and rather dark. Let's hear what your take on it is.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Happy Monday and a Winner!

Happy Monday everyone! Hope it's a good one wherever you are. It's hot and sunny here. Maybe a little too hot, lol.

Ok, so the winner of the signed set of Kate Daniles series by Ilona Andrews is................ Anna Dougherty!! Please contact me at brk.nlssn@gmail.com with your mailing address.

Thanks to all who entered. I had so many entries that I wish I had more sets!

Thanks for playing and they're will be more chances to win things later.

ETA: Kate DANIELS. Jesus, I can spell. I swears it. No more blogging with no coffee and no glasses. ::grumblegrumble::

Friday, June 4, 2010

This Guy Is Gettin His Drunken Master ON, Y'all

I want to thank Reece for pointing this out to me.

I Have This DVD Somewhere......

I love this version of What It Feels Like For A Girl. The picture quality isn't fabulous, but it's good enough. Hope you enjoy:

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Hump Day Hottie With a Twist.....

I know several of my blogger girls put up weekly Hottie pics. Some are weekend pics and some like my girl Bells do a Hump Day Hottie feature. Well, I decided I wanted something purty to look at today and I wanted to share some hottie goodness with y'all and honestly these girls have me beat with the male hotness, so I decided to change it up a bit and post one of my all time girl crushes for your delectation and sighing pleasure:









We're totally soul mates. She just doesn't know it yet. Brad is our cabana boy. It's a good life......

They Call Me The Wanderer....I Get Around........

Oh, and just FYI, I'm also over at smokin hot books talkin Jaid Black and my unholy love thereof. Go forth and drink the kool aid  join the fun. *looks totally innocent*

Something Pretty


I was doing some window shopping last night and came upon this cover. I don't know what it is, but I think it is so sensual and erotic. I can almost feel the tension off the two lovers. She looks as if she's given herself up to the moment just like her wordly tutor has instructed she should do. While our jaded master stares at her with such intensity and holds her so possessively, as if he never expected to feel and now that he does he's scared to let go, lest she disappear.

The book itself sounds meh, honestly. Not overly interested in reading it, but I swear, a whole mini story popped into my head when I saw that cover. Does that ever happen to you? Where you almost want to buy the book just so you can stare at the cover and make up stories that are possibly better than what's inside?

 
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