To Read, or Not To Read

Title: Netherworld (The Chronicles of Diana Furnaval #1) Author Lisa Morton Published by: JournalStone Published: January 10, 2014 Paperback, 282 pages ISBN: 978-1-940161-08-2 Genre: Paranormal Source: Publisher Book Summary: In nineteenth-century Victorian England, a young widow finds that she has inherited more than her late husband’s property: The Furnavals serve as the ancestral keepers of supernatural portals scattered around the globe. When demonic entities begin crossing over from the Netherworld, Lady Diana realizes that a war is brewing, and she must be the one to confront it. Accompanied by a young Chinese sailor named Yi-kin, her feline guardian Mina, and a mysterious scholar, Stephen, Diana will begin a journey to solve the mystery of her husband's death and prevent the apocalypse. My thoughts: Diana Furnaval is a Gatekeeper to the Netherworld. That entails keeping the creepy crawlies and specters from entering this world and reeking  havoc  on un

I’ve always been fascinated by the nature of history. How can you possibly know for sure what really happened during a particular historical event when history consists of a collection of contemporary reports written largely by people who have agendas of their own? I grew up being told, for example, that Richard III was a scheming and villainous crookback and yet recent debate puts much of Richard’s bad press down to the Tudor propaganda machine. Similarly, it is reported that when John, Lord Byron, commander of the Royalist forces in Cheshire, heard about the murder of twelve men in a church in the small village of Barthomley on December 23 rd , 1643, by some of his soldiers, he wrote a letter to the Marquis of Newcastle saying; “we… put them all to the sword, which I find to be the best way to proceed with these kind of people, for mercy to them is cruelty.” It is a letter, which earned Byron the nickname of the “bloody braggadoccio.” However, a senior royalist member of

Research always plays a part in the creation of my novels. How much and what kind of research I complete varies from book to book. Prior to becoming a full-time writer I was a history professor, and research has long been part of my professional life. My attachment to history and origin stories pushes me toward historical research, but the history in Snakeroot  is based in research I completed for the first Nightshade books. Thus, the research needed for this new novel had more to do with logistics than content. New settings appear in  Snakeroot . For example, Logan ends up in the Hamptons, near Montauk, and I spent time looking at the landscape and properties (wow, they are gigantic and expensive!). I often use Google Earth when researching geography because I like have a strong visual sense of every location in my novels. Unfortunately I didn’t start watching Revenge until after I’d written  Snakeroot . New characters appear in  Snakeroot  and naming the inhabitants of

Title: Cruel Beauty Author: Rosamund Hodge Publisher: Balzer and Bray Published: January 28, 2014 Ebook, ARC ISBN 13:  9780062224750   Genre: Fantasy Source: Edelweiss Goodreads Summary: Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny. Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him. With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people. But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord begu

The mass market edition of FROST BURNED is now available in stores. And thanks to Penguin I have a copy to giveaway to a lucky reader.  Mercy Thompson's life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman - the charismatic Alpha of the local werewolf pack - has made her a stepmother to his daughter Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy's life. But on the edges of humanity, a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more. After an accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can't reach Adam - or anyone else in the pack for that matter. They've all been abducted. Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from the most unlikely of allies: the vampire seethe. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Covets have all the sexiness, emotion, and happily ever after that readers have come to expect and love from Entangled. They are firmly grounded in the contemporary world, but each novel brings in supernatural twists, breaking the contemporary and paranormal rules, alike. To find out more about their titles, chat with authors, participate in special events, and to find out what books you’ll be coveting next, visit the Entangled website , follow them on Twitter , LIKE their Facebook page , and join the Book Club . Also, make sure to hop on over the  Entangled in Romance  blog to join in the fun as Covet challenges readers to share their worst date stories. The worse, the better, hold no punches! Today I'm happy to be featuring Covet's January releases: Love at Stake by Victoria Davies Abbey is the lone human working for Fated Match, a company that pairs members of the supernatural community with their eternal mates.  To snag a young vampire

We're re-watching Doctor Who this fall to prepare for the big anniversary special. I know that  Doctor Who  has been around for 50 years, but for time sake we're going to start with series 1 of 2005. If you've not watched it, but have wanted to. Here's your chance. We're watching via Netflix, so join us if you can. This week we're watching Series 3, episode 1 and 2, and we meet the Doctor's new companion, Martha Jones. Title: Smith and Jones Original Air Date: March 31, 2007 Directed by:  Charles Palmer Written by: Russell T Davis In episode 1 we meet the Doctor's new companion Martha Jones:  Martha is studying to be a doctor herself. She runs into the Doctor at the hospital where she's training. And you know where the Doctor is, trouble follows. So the hospital gets sucked up to the surface of moon. Everybody is freaking out except Martha and the Doctor. I think the Doctor is impressed with Martha's ability to stay cal

Title: A Breath of Frost (The Lovegrove Legacy #1) Author: Alyxandra Harvey Publisher: Walker's Children Published: January 7, 2014 Ebook, Arc ISBN:  080273443X Genre: Historical Fiction, YA, Paranormal Source: NetGalley Goodreads Summary: In 1814, three cousins—Gretchen, Emma, and Penelope—discover their family lineage of witchcraft when a binding spell is broken, allowing their individual magical powers to manifest. Now, beyond the manicured gardens and ballrooms of Regency London, an alluring underworld available only to those with power is revealed to the cousins. By claiming their power, the three cousins have accidentally opened the gates to the underworld. Now ghouls, hellhounds—and most terrifying of all, the spirits of dark witches known as the Greymalkin Sisters—are hunting and killing young debutante witches for their powers. And, somehow, Emma is connected to the murders…because she keeps finding the bodies. Can the cousins seal the gates before another w

I’m a sucker for all things British.  And I always have been: memorizing the full list of England’s monarchs as a ten-year-old, saving up money from summer jobs in high school for a plane ticket to London (it went towards college, instead), and--as a high school sophomore--betting that I could retain a Scottish accent for an entire month (I lasted, and not very convincingly, for just one afternoon).  Even today--having attended Oxford for two quarters abroad, graduated with a Master’s from Cambridge, and suffered through the wettest year on record in a drafty, North London flat--my anglophilia remains unbridled.   I think the psychology goes something like this: For Americans (or, at least for me) Britain represents a sort of an alternative universe.  We share the same language (arguably), and our histories have a way of overlapping (“our” being a significant stretch for this Californian descendant of Swiss Mennonites, hardscrabble Texans, and Ukrainian and Latvian J

Can Technology Destroy Us As a species, humans adapt technologies blindly with the hope of achieving promised benefits. We rarely consider societal impact. This is a huge issue, in my opinion. Technology itself doesn't destroy or evolve societies, our use of these tools does. Science fiction offers strange futuristic views of technology. Some are positive, others are dystopian. Many like Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 waver between the two. Science fiction offers us the opportunity to debate whether or not we will destroy ourselves with technology. Is such dialogue pure fear of change? Or do we always forget the lessons of the past? I know in the case of robotics, the decades old dialogue started by Isaac Asigemov's robot novels has been greatly beneficial. We have been actively trying to build artificial intelligence that will become useful to society while not becoming malevolent a la The Terminator. But we are not always so forward thinking. Applied to the Intern

Title: An Untitled Lady Author: Nicky Penttila Publisher: Musa Publishing Published: December 20, 2013 Ebook, ARC ASIN: B00HFCUNXU  Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance Source: NetGalley Goodreads Summary: *Not a traditional Regency* Shocking family news forces Madeline Wetherby to abandon her plans to marry an earl and settle for upstart Manchester merchant Nash Quinn. When she discovers that her birth father is one of the weavers her husband is putting out of work—and a radical leader—Maddie must decide which family she truly desires, the man of her heart or the people of her blood. An earl's second son, Nash chose a life of Trade over Society. When protest marches spread across Lancashire, the pressure on him grows. If he can't make both workers and manufacturers see reason he stands to lose everything: his business, his town, and his marriage. As Manchester simmers under the summer sun, the choices grow more stark for Maddie and Nash: Family or justic

Excerpted from the book THE LAST SAVANNA by Mike Bond.  Copyright © 2013 by Mike Bond.  Reprinted with permission of Mandevilla Press.  All rights reserved T HE ELAND DESCENDED four steps down the grassy hillside and halted. He glanced all the way round the rolling golden hills, then closer, inspecting the long grass rippling in the wind, behind him, on both sides, and down to the sinuous green traverse of acacia, doum palms and strangler trees where the stream ran. The wind from the east over his shoulder carried the tang of drying murram grass and the scents of bitter pungent shrubs, of dusty, discarded feathers and glaucous lizard skins, of red earth and brown earth, of old scat and stones heating in the midafternoon sun. He switched at flies with his tail, twitched his ears, descended five more steps, and stopped again. Thirst had dried his lips and eyes, tightened his throat, hardened his skin. Already the rain was drying out of the grass and soil pockets; here only the s

Title:  The Cleaner of Chartres  Author: Salley Vickers Publisher: Viking Published: June 27, 2013 Hardcover, 304 pages ISBN: 978-0-670-78567-4 Genre: Historical Fiction Source: Publisher Goodreads Summary There is something very special about Agnes' Morel.  A quiet presence in a small French town of Chartres she can be found cleaning the framed medieval cathedral each morning and doing odd jobs for the townspeople in the afternoon. No one knows where she comes from or why.  Not Abbe' Paul, who discovered her one morning  twenty years ago, sleeping on the porch, and not Alain Fleury, the irreverent young restorer, who works along side of her each day and whose attention she catches with her tawny eyes and elusive manner.  She has transformed everyone's life in her own subtle way, yet no one suspects the dark secrets of her past. My thoughts: Twenty years ago she appeared in the cloisters of the  ancient cathedral of Notre Dame, in the medieval