Heart of Gold

Heart of Gold tells us the story of Carter Wessex and Nick Farrell. I'm having a hard time writing this because, believe it or not, I didn't actually... like this book all that much.

Gah! I can't believe I said that. But it's true. 

I just didn't feel it. I can't tell you why. Maybe my head just wasn't in the right place. But never mind my little bout of madness. Here's the basic gist of the story.

Nick Farrell is a business tycoon with a reputation for being ruthless. He lives on a mountain that potentially has enormous historical significance. However, no one is entirely sure how significant this mountain is because Nick won't let anyone on the mountain to actually determine whether or not the area was the scene of a great battle. Carter Wessex is an archaeologist and she wants on that mountain. Bad. When Carter approaches Nick, he tells her in no uncertain terms that it's not going to happen. After some glaring, snide comments, and door slamming, Nick realises that Carter is in fact the estranged daughter of one of his business partners. He finds himself wondering how grateful his business partner would be if Nick orchestrates some sort of reconciliation between father and daughter. Nick promptly changes his mind about allowing Carter to dig on his mountain, and the story progresses fairly predictably from there. 

I feel so disloyal saying that I didn't enjoy this book. J.R Ward is one of my all time favourite authors ever, and it almost causes me physical pain to admit that something she's written didn't rock my world. 

Please, somebody go read this book, and come back and tell me that I'm nuts. That it's all in my mind.

Nerd Girl Problems

As you've no doubt figured out by now, I'm a book worm. And sometimes I feel like nobody quite gets it. But I found two ladies on Tumblr who totally get it. So much so that they've dedicated an entire blog to the problems us nerdy girls face on a daily basis.

This has happened a number of times.

Yes, it came as a surprise to me too.

This usually results in some grumpiness.  It's like, "Hello? Can't you see that I'm reading?"

Sadly, this has crossed my mind more than once over the past few years.

Lords of Deliverance: Lethal Rider

Lethal Rider is book three in the Lords of Deliverance series. I am going to be so sad when I finally finish this series. It's just so epic. And I have totally added Thanatos to my book boyfriend list. This guy was just too damn adorable for words.

The story was set up in the previous book, Immortal Rider. Regan was sent by the Aegis to seduce Thanatos and get pregnant. Thanatos found out and blew a gasket. Not only was he pissed at being used, but he was terrified that losing his virginity would mean his seal breaking, and him becoming as twisted and messed up as Pestilence.  His reaction to the whole situation was so bad that Limos and Ares had to use hellhound venom to keep him... sedate. 

Lethal Rider takes place eight months after Immortal Rider, and when poor Thanatos unfreezes, he's justifiably pissed. He's lost eight months of his life. It isn't entirely surprising that he wants to get his hands on Regan and throttle her for her betrayal.

Regan knows she's done wrong. She's spent the past eight months feeling guilty and dreading Thanatos waking up. She's also on the brink of popping out a baby that could avert the apocalypse. So, a stressful time for one and all. The story basically starts when Thanatos finally catches up to Regan. 

This book wasn't quite as funny as what I'm used to from Ms Ione, and I didn't even care. Thanatos was so friggin' sweet when he found out Regan was pregnant. All this guy ever wanted was a family of his own, but it never seemed possible because of the whole seal situation. Normally Thanatos is this take charge, lets-get-things-done kind of guy, but in the face of Regan's pregnancy he's all nervous and uncertain. He is so excited to be a dad, but he flounders about trying to properly express that excitement. I had so many "aww..." moments in this book that it was actually getting ridiculous. 

Lets not forget about Regan. She was one tough cookie. She has had a really rough time of it, and she deals with her circumstances as best she can. I felt quite bad for her a couple of times. We see that she struggles with OCD, and it sounds like an awful thing to suffer from.  

The ending of the book was pretty huge. It sets things up just right for the last book in the series, Rogue Rider. 

I know I said there weren't a lot of funnies in this book, but I did find something that made me chuckle. In Eternal Rider, Cara and Ares adopted a baby demon, Rath, whose parents had died. Cara loves the little demon like she gave birth to it herself. This is a family moment between Cara and Ares, Limos and Arik, and Regan and Thanatos.

The clink of glasses rang out, and after their first drink Cara said proudly, "Rath said his first sentence." 

Arik tugged Limos against him. "What did he say?"

Ares sighed. "What are the three words said most often in our house?"

"Not tonight, Ares?" Than offered. 

Lords of Deliverance: Immortal Rider

Immortal Rider is book two in the Lords of Deliverance series and, holy crap, was it good! I swear, just when you think that Larissa Ione can't get any more awesome, she comes along and takes it to the next level of oh-my-God-it's-so-good!

Immortal Rider is Limos and Arik's book. We saw in Eternal Rider that there was a little spark between these two, and in this book that spark becomes something more. 

Limos has pretty much been avoiding male company. See, she's actually engaged and he fiance is the jealous sort. Who's her fiance? Why, it's actually Mr Satan himself. If Limos gets too close to another guy, she risks being dragged back into hell to get married to the super evil, super scary, baddest demon of them all. If that isn't reason enough to remain celibate, I don't know what is. 

Then Arik comes along and shoots Limos' resolve to keep her hands to herself, quite literally, to hell. In the space of time it takes him to kiss her, he damns himself to being tortured in Sheoul (the demon realm). 

I think Limos may be one of my favourite female characters in the Demonica/Lords of Deliverance world. She's a little bit of a girly-girl, but not to the point where all she thinks about is planning her next outfit. She holds her own with her brothers and has more than her fair share of dark secrets. 

Much like Ares in the previous book, it took me a little while to warm up to Arik. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I think he may be my least favourite hero. Which is not to say that he didn't have his moments of epicness. For example, after Arik escapes his torture chamber in Sheoul, he runs into Pestilence.

The Horseman smiled, exposing some serious fangage. 

Arik swallowed. Tried to anyway. His throat was too dry. But he definitely didn't like the sound of Pestilence's close thing. "Look, I'm sure you make all the lady demons cream their panties, but I'm just not that into you."

Either very brave or very stupid. Verdict is still out on which side I think he falls on.  

Immortal Rider, unlike the past books, seemed to focus a lot less on the romance between Arik and Limos. In fact, that was probably the least interesting part of the book. I enjoyed the Arik/Limos action, but there was a whole bunch of other stuff going on that had me practically salivating in anticipation for the next book, Lethal Rider. 

Because while Arik and Limos were making eyes at each other, the scene was being set for the next couple: Thanatos and Regan. 

Should Thanatos' seal break, he'll become Death. And the Horsemen are under the impression that Than's seal will break if he has sex. So he's been celibate for five thousand years. That does plenty to explain why the poor bloke is so crabby all the time. However, Thanatos' relative "innocence" isn't exactly a well-known fact, which is why the Aegis (a demon hunting organisation) send Regan to seduce him. They're under the impression that getting Regan pregnant will avert the upcoming apocalypse.

I love this series so much! It's so much fun! I can't wait to see what's the what between Regan and Thanatos. 

   

Lords of Deliverance: Eternal Rider

Lords of Deliverance is a spin-off from Ms Ione's Demonica series, and it looks to be just as awesome. The series follows the triumphs and tribulations of the Four Horsemen. See, the Horsemen aren't necessarily evil; they just have the potential to become that way.

The Horsemen are Ares (War), Limos (Famine), Thanatos (Death), and Reseph (Pestilence). The Horsemen become their evil selves once people or events cause their seals to break. Our bad guy for this series is Reseph, whose seal broke at the end of Sin Undone (I can't find that book anywhere). 

Eternal Rider deals with Ares. It actually took a lot longer than usual for me to warm up to Ares. I thought that his grouchiness was quite funny and even a little endearing, but I didn't love him, you know? But then, more than half way through the book, Cara, our leading lady, had Ares blushing. This big, tough guy was going red and it was too cute for words.

Cara was pretty awesome too. She handled her introduction into the supernatural world pretty well, and her attachment to Hal the hellhound was pretty funny. 

On to Ares's siblings. Reseph, aka Pestilence, is such a creep. He is properly evil, but I find myself sad about it. Ms Ione puts in some flashbacks of what Reseph was like before he became Pestilence, and he was really nice! I almost found myself pissed off that the author had picked him to be the villain. 

Limos and Thanatos were cool too. It looks like Limos has a bit of a thing for Arik, which is funny as hell considering that during their first meeting she broke the poor guy's ribs. I think I like Thanatos best. He's so serious and grumpy that it's actually cute.

In addition to these new characters, we also see some familiar faces from the Demonica series. Kynan seems to be especially important in this series.

Since this is Larissa Ione, I can't let you go without sharing my favourite quote with you. This is a conversation between Limos and Thanatos:

"The R-XR dude, Arik, was kind of hot, don't you think?"

"Never seen anyone hotter," Than said, his sarcastic delivery so deadpan that anyone who didn't know better might think he was serious. "He fills my dreams with his hotness."

"Now we're getting into TMI. Your wet dreams aren't something I want to know about."

Disney Princesses

Moving from the skanky to the scary, and now on to the pretty. I found these on Tumblr, but I have no clue who is responsible for them. I just had to share them with you. 

If you want to see some really cool animations, follow theartofanimation on Tumblr. The stuff this guy/girl posts are a mix of pretty and freaky. Go check it out...

Cinderella

Esmeralda

Jasmine 

Mulan


And this concludes my Disney fixation for the next while...

Zombies in Disneyland

I'm continuing with yesterday's theme of reanimated Disney characters with some seriously freaky zombified Disney princesses. The artist responsible for this creepy artwork is a deeply disturbed Thai gentleman named Witit Karpkraikaew. 

Enjoy!

Cartoon Characters Behind the Scenes

Like most people, I absolutely adored Disney as a child. But now that I'm all grown up, I also have a serious appreciation for the sort of "alternate" versions of Disney's many characters. Artists Eric Basaldua and Nei Ruffino have had some fun sexing up some of Disney's most beloved female characters.

I'd just like to give you a heads up, these pictures are a little on the raunchy side...

Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts.

Cinderella.

Snow White.

Captain Hook and Tinkerbell.

The evil queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,

I totally dig these pictures. The one with Tinkerbell and Captain Hook is my favourite.

Angels of the Dark: Wicked Nights

Wicked Nights was my first book by Gena Showalter, and I am so glad I gave this author a try. Ms Showalter really does have a way with words. More than just enjoying the story, I loved her writing. She made even the most simple of sentences really powerful, just through her wording. Another thing I was pretty impressed with was that I don't think Showalter used one swearword in the entire book. I think the worst might have been "damn". Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the swearing. It's just that in a genre where authors feel completely at ease liberally spicing their books with F-bombs, it was refreshing to find an author who manages to create tough-guy characters without the harsh language.  

Moving on to the story. Angels of the Dark is a spinoff from Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series. I didn't realise this before starting, but I wasn't confused, only curious about the few characters introduced from the previous series.

Wicked Nights was really loads of fun. Angels have become pretty popular in paranormal romance lately, and I think it's pretty easy to get lost in the crowd. This book definitely stood out. Zacharel is an angel, and he's as cold as ice. He was forced to kill his twin brother, Hadrenial, after the poor guy was tortured by demons. Since then Zacharel's had a major clamp on his emotions, and he considers himself above petty human emotions like anger, despair, love, and lust. Zacharel has gotten into more than a little trouble for killing demons without any thought for possible collateral damage ie. humans. His actions and lack of remorse have caused him to become the leader of an army of misfit angels. He has a year to whip these angels into shape, or he and his army will be cast from heaven. One more thing I'm going to mention about Zacharel is the fact that he's a virgin. I wouldn't normally consider this to be something worth mentioning but, since it doesn't often happen that the guy is as pure as the driven snow, it made for a nice change. It was pretty entertaining to watch Zacharel struggle with his reaction to our leading lady.

Annabelle Miller has had a supremely crappy last four years. When she was eighteen, she saw her parents being killed by a demon. The demon disappeared after the slaughter and Annabelle, being the only possible suspect, was charged with their murder. She was later institutionalised, crazy chick who saw monsters, and had pretty much gotten used to taking care of herself until she met Zacharel. 

I really enjoyed our two leads. Zacharel, having been out of touch with his emotions for so long, is completely clueless and seeing him try to deal with this pint-sized human chick was really funny. Annabelle was a good heroine. She was tough, but not so bent on proving herself that she was stupid. She was in touch with her emotions without being a crybaby. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm already excited for the next book in the series, Beauty Awakened. 

FBI/US Attorney Series: About That Night

I really do think that this series could quickly become a favourite of mine. James has a way of writing a story that is fast-paced, with characters that are hard not to adore, and manages to inject some wicked humour, all at the same time. 

I love it!

About That Night is Kyle's book and the third in the series. This poor guy has had a really rough time of it. Now almost universally known as the "Twitter Terrorist", Kyle is finding it difficult to adjust to his life outside prison. He reverts, to an extent, to his old ways of partying and womanising. But that changes when he runs into someone he never expected to see again.

Enter Rylann Pierce, assistant US attorney. She is one tough cookie. She's just moved to Chicago after breaking up with her boyfriend of three years. Rylann is a woman who plans for everything. And I do mean everything. She even has a six month plan for getting over her boyfriend. But running into Kyle Rhodes again was not part of any of her plans.

Kyle and Rylann first met nine years ago and there was some serious attraction from both sides. But before anything more could happen, tragedy struck and these two went their separate ways. So, after a lot of time apart, Rylann and Kyle find themselves face to face... in court, during Kyle's release proceedings. 

After Kyle's release, he is adamant that he wants nothing to do with the US Attorneys Office. They made his life damn difficult and they can all take a flying leap, for all he cares. But then Rylann comes to him in need of a favour. She's handling a case where a prisoner at the jail where Kyle was held was killed by a fellow inmate. Thing is, there is some suspicion that one of the guards orchestrated the attack, and Kyle may have the information Rylann needs. Rylann manages to convince Kyle to help her out, which puts them in closer proximity than they were strictly comfortable with.

I honestly think that I loved every character in this book. It goes without saying that Kyle and Rylann were epic, but the secondary characters definitely held their own. One of my favourites was Rylann's best friend Rae. This chick was hilariously funny. Here's an example of one of the laugh-out-loud conversations between Rylann and Rae:

Once again, Rylann tried to catch the eye of the female bartender working Firelight's main bar. 

"One of the few times I've ever wished for a penis," she said to Rae when the bartender stepped up to take the order of yet another male customer. They'd been waiting to be served for over twenty minutes. She'd even worn the red magic boob dress tonight, but unfortunately it's mojo offered no help in this particular situation.

"You haven't had sex in six months," Rae said. "If I were you, I'd be wishing for penises every night."

I dare you to read that with a straight face.