Drool-Worthy

Tomorrow I'll post the The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and the 2nd half of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians reviews. For now, I figured I'd show you guys a couple of this year's book covers that have me drooling...

Fire 

+

 streams of light 

+

 one bad-ass chick with a gun

=

Awesomeness.

From the line of her jaw, the curve of her spine, 

to the design and font, this cover is made of WIN.

So simple, yet...so hot! Practically sizzles. 

(Note: I'm not a fashion-person, but I adore her dress.) 

Must. Have. Must. Have.

*turns into shaky puppy*

Must. Have. 

What covers have caught your attention lately? 

PS: I'm thinking about putting out a call for guest bloggers. Thoughts? 

Review: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Part 1

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson is finding his seventh-grade school year unnervingly quiet. His biggest problem is dealing with his new friend, Tyson, a six-foot-three, mentally challenged homeless kid who follows Percy everywhere, making it hard for Percy to have any normal friends. But things don't stay quiet for long.

When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped.And now it's up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? They must find Artemis before the winter solstice, when her influence on the Olympian Council could swing an important vote on the war with the titans. Not only that, but first Percy will have to solve the mystery of a rare monster that Artemis was hunting when she disappeared -- a monster rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus forever.

I actually started reading this series a few months ago, after I saw the trailer for the movie (no, I haven't seen it yet.) and I'm really glad I did. I've always liked books that use old mythology like the Gods in new ways, and Riordan brought the Greek Gods and their legends to the modern world in a way that just fit.

I had a couple problems with the character development--Eisley Jacobs said, in her review of the first book that it's far fetched to believe that these kids are so lacking in common sense that they continue to make the choices they make. I actually have the opposite reaction. I felt that Percy seemed a bit too mature for a 12 year old. He came across (to me) as mentally a 15-16 year old in the first 3 books. Their choices could definitely have been better advised, but...I had the feeling that even New York raised kids at 12 wouldn't have been able to handle all of the things that were happening.

Regardless of that, though, these books catch you from the first pages and don't let go until you've finished them. And then you're left going, "I need the next one. Now."

I really do love how integral all of the characters are to the storyline--from the less than pleasant Daughter of Ares (who has always been one my favorite Greek Gods, if only because of Xena. *heehee*) to the drunken lout, Dionysus.

While reading, you forget that these books are for kids and all you can think about is what happens next.

Rating: 4 Stars

Part 2: Coming soon...

Interview with Shiloh Walker

Today is the official release date of Shiloh Walker's newest book, Broken, the sequel to Fragile, and she was awesome enough to put out a call for guest blogs and Q&As on Twitter. Even better, she let me ask her a few questions!

Quinn Rafferty is working as a bounty hunter for a private detective agency in St. Louis when a new neighbor catches his eye. He's drawn to her-but he has his own soul to mend before he can worry about anyone else.

Sarah McElyea is on the run, but not for the usual reasons a woman goes on the lam. She has a plan for her future. And as much as she finds herself attracted to her gruff, tough neighbor, she can't risk telling him the secrets she's hiding.

But Quinn must get closer to Sarah when she turns out to be the target of his new missing persons case, and both Quinn and Sarah will have to expose their true feelings-as well as their fragile hearts-if their love is to survive.

You can order it at Barnes & Noble.

Now...on to the interview! Thanks so much for dropping by, Shiloh. I really appreciate it. *grin*

On twitter, you’ve mentioned using a program called Dragon to write because you have issues with your hands. Is it strange writing with your voice instead of your fingers?

It's VERY strange, and I'm not always able to get in the right mind-set, so to speak. It's still a learning process. For me, it's always just been a brains-->hands thing, the story just flows from the brain to my hands and now I have to teach it to go from my brain to my mouth, so yes.... it's very strange. I hate it. But at some point, it will likely be an absolute necessity-either that, or I quit writing. So I keep plugging along and trying.

I don't think I could get used to that. Do you have any pre-writing session rituals? Things that you just have to have/do before you can work?

Nope. Other than make myself quit procrastinating.... *G* I'm the worst at that...I work better with music, but it's not a must.

LOL. Procrastination, as fun as it is, is a real b!tch to get away from. Is it hard or fun being a full time writer? How different is it from being full time with a “regular” job?

Both, but more often it's hard than fun. The fun is there, don't get me wrong, but it's ten times harder than I thought it would be and there's so much more work than just writing. One thing about writing is that I'm not 'clocking' in so to speak and staying motivated isn't always easy. Anything can throw me off my groove-anything, whether it's a sick kid, finding a slew of people pirating my work or just being down in a funk. Trying to force the creativity to come when that happens isn't easy, and sometimes, you just can't, so you have to give yourself a few hours, even a few days away and just decompress.

The fun, though, you can't overlook that. Talking books with other writers-those who 'get' the voices in your head, talking books with readers who love and appreciate them as much as you do? It's wonderful. It's a great job, and as hard as it is, I wouldn't trade it. For as long as I'm able to do it, I will.

That's certainly good news for us! If you could be one of your characters (male or female) for a day, who would you choose and why?

Oh, none of them. LOL. Sorry. I love my life...I've got a great husband, three kids I love and I love my life-wouldn't swap it out even for a day. Especially considering some of the crap I put on my characters.

LOL always nice to see someone who loves their life! If you could make people (readers and/or writers) understand a single thing when it comes to publishing, what would it be?

It's not a cakewalk-if you want to make it happen, you have to be prepared to work hard and even when you hard, plenty of people aren't going to appreciate that hard work.

Okay, last question! If you couldn’t write paranormal romance / fantasy, what genre would you write in?

Oh, I write a little bit of everything already anyway...so I'd bounce to romantic suspense and contemporary, and then I'd come back to paranormal. ;o)

Awesome answer! Thanks again, Shiloh, for letting me ask you questions!

About the Author

Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more...ah...serious vampire stories. She loves reading and writing anything paranormal, anything fantasy, and nearly every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest.

Official Website

Blog

Twitter

New Look, New Book

Whenever I open a new blog (and you would be surprised at how many blogs I've had), I tend to have a few months of searching for just the right template.

It has to be simple enough to adjust for me, and pretty enough to make sure y'all don't run screaming.

I tend to like 3 column templates because it gives me more room for widgets without cramping everything together. I like the ones that have a linkbar even better--heavenly bliss if they have sublinks! *swoon*

My current search item is a template that has a linkbar, and where the posts aren't the full posts--you know, where it has a "Read More" link at the bottom? Ever since I saw Book Lovers, Inc 's layout, I've wanted one so bad.

I'm a bit of a Blog Layout Whore. *grin*

I tried to figure out how to do the "Read More" thing through Blogger settings, but no dice. *sadface* So I'm on the hunt for a layout that has all the things I want...*longing sigh*

Also:

1: I picked up Book 5 (Hunted) of the House of Night Series, and I will be starting to read it in a little while. *Squee* I can't wait. (This is a series that literally had me up for about an hour and a half thinking about after going to bed. That, my dears, is a big thing.)

2: I changed my blog button, so if you had my old one, please replace it with my new one on the sidebar. :)

3: Please don't freak if you come back in an hour and the template has changed. Again. Did I mention I'm a bit obsessive about my templates? Heh heh.

Later lovelies!

*mwah*,

Mires

Review: Fire

Title: Fire

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Author: Kristin Cashore

Synopsis

Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

The concept of "monsters" was confusing at first, probably because preconceived notions of monsters are ugly whereas these are so beautiful they muddle your head--making you easy prey. After a couple of chapters, it grew on me, and I think Ms. Cashore did a really good job with it. I really liked the fact that her interaction with Prince Brigan started off on probably the worst foot it could, and that their relationship slowly grew--it didn't just pop out of nowhere. I didn't start off the story thinking, "Well that relationship is pretty much set. " Particularly since she was already involved with someone, albeit in a more casual way than you'd expect.

This installment of the Seven Kingdoms books is actually set 30 years prior to GRACELING, and has a single crossover character, which anyone who has read the first book will recognize easily.

There were quite a few shocking moments later in the book, and the questions steadily piled up as the story progressed.

It wasn't an amazing book, but I did enjoy this book and I do recommend it, so this rating is...

4 Stars