Dec 30, 2012

Until the Sun Falls From the Sky (The Three #1) by Kristen Ashley



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Author’s:


Book summary: 

"Leah Buchanan’s family has been in service to vampires for five centuries. Even so, Leah wants nothing to do with her family’s legacy but when she’s summoned to her Selection by the Vampire Dominion, under familial pressure, she has no choice but to go.

Lucien has been living under the strict edicts of the Vampire Dominion for centuries but he’s tired of these ancient laws stripping away everything that is the essence of the vampire.

So he’s taking it back.

And this is because Lucien has also been watching and waiting for decades for Leah to become available for a Selection and he will not be limited with what he can do with her. He will have her, all of her.

Therefore, Lucien is going to tame Leah, even if he gets hunted and killed for doing it.
What neither Leah nor Lucien expects is the strong bond that will form between them, connecting them on unprecedented levels for mortals or immortals. And what will grow between them means they will challenge their ways of life and their union will begin the Prophesies which makes them one of three couples who will save humanity… or die in the effort."

 Rating: 

Review: 

"Until the end of days. Until the sun falls from the sky."
 I AM SO HAPPPYYYY!
That ending was so AWESOME!! Ah God, it's been a long time a book made me just plain happy, that put a smile on my face that just wouldn't quit.

You remember the time when you were reading your first paranormal book? Your first vampire or werewolf or fantasy book? And you were like: This. Is so COOL!? That is a feeling, I think, a person doesn't forget. It happened to me with Kresley Cole and her Immortals After Dark series(this book reminded me of that series a lot, so I strongly recommend it to Cole fans) and I still remember the excitement while I was reading it. Later, I got used to the world of fantasy and everything was pretty much similar. Very few pnr books had something original and the charm was lost. But this book? Until the Sun Falls from the Sky brought that feeling back! Kristen Ashley built a simply amazing paranormal world! I loved everything about it! From the Selection, the vampire and concubine relationship, mating, relationship between vampires and humans and all to the History and the Revolution, the laws, the Council and especially the process of feeding which was explained in quite a logical way. All in all, I couldn't imagine a better setting.

But lets get back to the beginning. The problem starts right there.
The book started interesting, Leah Buchanan was attending her first Selection, or an event were vampire can pick their concubine for the purpose of feeding. Buchanans have a reputation of the best concubines and Leah threatens that because the has no intention of being food for some stupid vampire she doesn't even know. She's stubborn, sassy, determined and very, and I mean very, immature. At first, it was a little annoying how teenage-y she acted. If you really don't like this type of character at all, then maybe this book isn't for you. I usually don't and it took a great deal of time to get used to her hard-headed nature. But eventually, I began to like how tough, strong, intelligent and unwavering she was, how she didn't give in to Lucien. The guy really had to work for it. That he was "taming" her was at first very wrong but later you just see the beauty of it. ;)

"It was about me submitting to what he was.
I had to accept him, in all his bossy, domineering vampire-ness and the other sweet or gentle or generous parts besides.
He wasn’t taming me.
He was taming that part in me that held me away from his differentness. He was showing me who he was, what he was, how he behaved and I had to accept it, all of
it, without him being anything but Lucien.
You live your day-to-day life hiding the essence of who you are; you don’t want to let someone into that life who won’t accept you for that same thing." 

Now Lucien. He was mostly one big enigma. He is this centuries old vampire, very controlling (which really bothered me, he had an ability to make people do something and he used that on Leah. A lot! That's a really big NO in my book.), he's possessive, he lied to her repeatedly, he isolated her, forced her to do things, spanked her for God's sake, and not in the sexy way! I really didn't like him in the first half.
But he's also the sweetest alpha male I have ever read about. The way he finds Leah adorable, the way only she can make this overly serious vampire smile and laugh. When Leah does something nice for him, it's like he has a taste of heaven. He desired and waited for her for twenty years and he got more than he imagined or asked for. The way he hugs her and cuddles with her, how he's very protective of her.. Argh! See what I mean? All this together is very confusing.

The book is really long - you must have a little patience with ti and too much has happened to reflect on all of it but Leah went through a lot, even full-on hated Lucien(I did too), she came across many things and learned many things about her vampire (it does take a lot to understand an 800 year old creature and let me tell you, I was shocked at times). But in the second half of the book he lost all the bad qualities and became the best hero. I liked them both and how their romance had grown. I considered giving the book 5 stars because of the amazing second half of the book but there are just too much bad things from the first half.
Oh, and how could I forget - this book was really hot! KA can write amazing sex scenes if not anything else. You could never go wrong with an alpha vampire ;)

Kristen Ashley wrote many books but I only read one more before and that was Knight. I had a lot of problems with it, like the style of writing and the hero, that I have now too, especially the writing - it was sometimes very tiring. You either like it, bear with it because of the plot or really hate it. But this story was very detailed and complex and I give much credit to the author because of it. So I'm just going to say that reading this book - sometimes you're gonna suffer but you'll be happy about it. So, so, so happy!:D Well, at least in the end.

There are two more certain stories to happen for a certain prophesy comes true so I go on to the next story about a Werewolf king and his mortal that was published not too long ago. Totally looking forward to it

Until next time,
Iva

Tempted by Megan Hart


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                                                                     Author's Web-page:
                                                                            Megan Hart

Summary on Goodreads:


I had everything a woman could want. …My husband, James. The house on the lake.


My life. Our perfect life.

And then Alex came to visit.

The first time I saw my husband's best friend, I didn't like him. Didn't like how James changed when he was around, didn't like how his penetrating eyes followed me everywhere. But that didn't stop me from wanting him. And, surprisingly, James didn't seem to mind.



It was meant to be fun. Something the three of us shared for those hot summer weeks Alex stayed with us. Nobody was supposed to fall in or out of love. I didn't need another man, not even one who oozed sex like honey and knew all the secrets I didn't know, the secrets my husband hadn't shared.  After all, we had a perfect life.

And I loved my husband.

But I wasn't the only one.

RATING: 

***REVIEW***

First of all, I want to thank my Boss With The Whip a.k.a Glass for inviting me to be a part of this blog and doing all the hard work considering my limited "hacker abilities". I have been racking my brains out for awhile while deciding which book should be my first 'opening' review on this blog dedicated to all way-too-hot books out there and finally I have decided that I should definitely start with a book of one of my favorite authors and that's one and only- Megan Hart.

“There are few times when we know with absolute certainty we are going to do something for the last time. 
Life has a way of moving in circles, bringing us back to places we didn’t expect and taking us away from those we do. 
There are too many times we don’t pay close enough attention, and moments are lost in our assumption we’ll have another chance.”

Everybody who met me or read one of my reviews on GR is very familiar with the fact that I'm a huge sucker for emotional books and No. 1 criteria when I'm rating a book and a bigger turn-on even than a hot male character is the author's writing style. Basically, if the writing style is good- meaning if it moves me, makes me feel all the character's emotions as if they were my own, if it makes me wanna crawl into the book and never leave- then I'm yours 4ever. So if you are an emotional book-junkie like me, you should definitely check this author out. When you look at the cover of this book, anyone who's not familiar with the work of this author will assume that this is probably just another erotic novel with lot of "ohhhh God & yesss" in it, but this book is so much more than that. There are some really way-too-hot scenes, but what really stands out in this book is the story and emotions beautifully described by Megan Hart's amazing writing style.

Boy does this woman know how to write!!! I just love her writing style- so honest, realistic and emotional and her ability to write about some really dark and "taboo" themes in such a beautiful way. I was a bit skeptic about this book at first, because I'm really not a fan of "love triangles, squares" etc. or infidelity and all that annoying drama and jealousy, but I should have known that it couldn't be that bad, because M. Hart wrote it. I love how at the beginning of her stories everything seems so perfect- the characters, their life etc., but the more you read, the more the story builds up and you get all these little clues and snippets and then BANG, you're like: "What? WTF did just happen?" Love the element of surprise and this story definitely surprised me a couple of times and just when I thought I got it all figured out.


"I waited for them to touch, but they didn’t. I waited for them to move apart, but they didn’t do that, either. They stayed there, two men standing too close to be just friends and not quite close enough to be lovers."


This book deals with a lot of not that pretty "issues" (abortion, sexuality, bisexuality, drugs, menage, alcoholism etc.) and you'll probably not be happy with how some of the characters dealt with those issues, I know I wanted to scream and hit some of them a couple of times. If you want to read about some"perfect", rich supermodels living their perfect, luxury life stay away from this book. The characters in this book may be good-looking, but they are far from perfect and have a lot of "issues" which are haunting them all their life. Don't be surprised when you find yourself liking them one moment and hating their guts the next one, especially when it comes to the main female character Anne and her husband James. At the beginning of the story they seem to be completely crazy about each other and to have a perfect marriage, but as the story progresses we see that it's far from true, especially when James' long lost bff & way-too-hot for this show bad boy Alex comes back in his life and irrevocably turns their lives upside down.


“What is it about him?” I whispered the question so he could pretend not to hear it. He heard me. He didn’t answer, but he heard. We looked at each other.I didn’t like the sudden distance between us, in a moment when we should have felt closer than ever."

When I think about it, James probably annoyed me the most, because one of the things I really can't stand, both in real life & books, are indifferent & monotonous people and this guy has a 'master degree' in those areas.

"James is an intense butterfly, flitting from focus to focus and giving each his undivided attention. It’s flattering when it’s you. Not so charming when it isn’t."

But don't worry Alex makes it all better, but at the same time he doesn't lack in the department "huge issues" as well. He's your typical hot & mysterious bad boy with a lot of mischievous teenage stories to tell and secrets to hide and btw. he is bisexual.

"What’s Alex like?” “He’s like the lake.” “Tell me.” James shifted, the bed dipping as he moved and tugged the covers with his feet. “Alex is… deep, Anne. But he’s shallow in places, too, when you don’t expect it. I guess that’s the only way to put it.”

Another great character was Anne's super-funny youngest sister Claire whom I would describe as a female version of Alex. She is very out-going and open-minded, especially about her sexuality, kind of a "black sheep" in the family. All in all, this is just one of those stories where IMO the supporting characters outshone the main (Alex & Claire in my case.) I highly recommend this book to everyone who isn't afraid of emotional, realistic, hot & steamy books dealing with some anything, but "prettified" issues. Actually, I highly recommend anything Megan Hart wrote, even if it's a cookbook :).

"I had the chance for things to stay the same. To choose perfection over change. I could've said no, and we all would have laughed and gone to sleep in separate beds. I could've saved us a lot of grief. But I wanted him, and unlike the absinthe, I didn't put him aside."

 
XOXO

Wallbanger by Alice Clayton




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Author’s:



Book summary:

"Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco, a KitchenAid mixer, and no O (and we’re not talking Oprah here, folks). She has a flourishing design career, an office overlooking the bay, a killer zucchini bread recipe, and no O. She has Clive (the best cat ever), great friends, a great rack, and no O.

Adding insult to O-less, since her move, she has an oversexed neighbor with the loudest late-night wallbanging she’s ever heard. Each moan, spank, and–was that a meow?–punctuates the fact that not only is she losing sleep, she still has, yep, you guessed it, no O.

Enter Simon Parker. (No, really, Simon, please enter.) When the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. Their late-night hallway encounter has, well, mixed results. Ahem. With walls this thin, the tension’s gonna be thick…

In her third novel, Alice Clayton returns to dish her trademark mix of silly and steamy. Banter, barbs, and strutting pussycats, plus the sexiest apple pie ever made, are dunked in a hot tub and set against the gorgeous San Francisco skyline in this hot and hilarious tale of exasperation at first sight
."


Rating: 5 huge burning stars!



Review:


Off topic - First, I want to thank Glass for inviting me to be part of her new blog! You’re awesome, boss! Thank you, again.


On to the  actual review...
Wallbanger by Alice Clayton appeared a month ago and in just 30 days swept through the world and brought chaos. Ladies and gentleman, Wallbannger isn’t about a guy or a girl banging their head on the wall with frustration of any kind. No, this wall banging is a sign that something more hot and pleasuring is happening.
 
So meet Caroline Reynolds, the coolest heroine I read about in awhile. She's smart, successful, confident, bakes mean zucchini bread and other delicious stuff and really funny as hell. But there’s one problem. She has a missing ‘O’. And that’s definitely not good! A woman needs her ‘O’, damn it.
(Also, any girl that masturbates thinking about Jordan Catalano, better known as Jared Leto, I will love forever! That man is just too hot for his own good. So, Caroline - I love you girl.)

Then comes Simon Parker, the Wallbanger.
Simon, you beast!! He's now one of my Top 5 best book guys. I mean, he can make a woman meow and he bangs the damn wall with a California King - that's how much his hips are strong. Damn, ain't that hot…
But those two don’t start very well. Imagine you with your missing ‘O’ and there’s a guy banging your wall making women scream and reminding you how boring your sex life is. And what do you do? You get fed up and march to his door in a pink baby-doll nightie. And the adventure starts..

I can't decide if the witty banter and flirting with so many sexy innuendos between those two was more hot or hilarious. I don’t think I ever read a book that combined that so perfectly. It’s something I can never resist.

The book also had just enough sweet moments that made the romance really good. At first I was frustrated because it took them long to even kiss, but hell, it all paid off. It tooootally paid off. Those last chapters were the sexiest thing ever!

Oh and can't forget Clive! I'm a cat person and really adore them, and Clive is my dream cat - adorable, protective and cute.
So, look no further ladies! Pause everything you're reading and pick this book up! Right now!

Until then, I'll busy myself reading this author's other books - Readhead series. I hear it's great just the same.

Love,
Iva

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