Final Round – Goodreads Choice Awards

The final round for the Goodreads Choice Awards is open; the top ten nominees per category are gracing the voting polls one last time and it’s up to you, the reader, to choose this year’s winners!

You get to choose between the top ten options from the previous round. This final round begins today and ends on November 30, 2011.

You can vote through here: http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/2011 or through the widget on the right.

Review: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Title: Blood Rights
Series: House of Comarré, Book 1
Author: Kristen Painter
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: October 1, 2011
Reviewed Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Bought

My Rating:  ★★★★☆

Get it @: Amazon | Book Depository

Wow, now this is the kind of story I enjoy; fast paced, with a really good story.

Chrysabelle is the best of the comarré, certainly the most expensive one, one of the many women raised to become a vampire’s life source. She has lived her life as decreed by tradition but when her patron is found dead and all signs point her as the culprit she must run away in order to find a way to clear her name. But when her journey takes an unexpected turn for the worst an unlikely ally might be her only hope. Malkolm, an outcast vampire have the power to help her but also a weakness that might kill her. With katana in hand and blades flying, she will be tested like never before.

Blood Rights is the first of in a series called House of Comarré by Kristen Painter. I saw this book through a blog and was kind of intrigued by its cover. The last thing i was expecting was such a wonderful, well-constructed world. Blood Rights grabbed me the same way the Night Huntress books have done. I found myself wanting to strangle some of the characters and knock some senses into others. I have always believe that a book should be able to tap into one's emotions so that you can truly feel like the characters do; in that this book is extremely well accomplished. I’ll recommend this book to anybody who enjoys vampire stories especially if they like their vamps allergic to sun, silver, wood (of sorts), and holy paraphernalia.

Write down below if you plan to read it, are already done with it, or any other comment that you might have.

Let the Battle of the Snow Whites Begin!

Next year will feature a faceoff to see who is the best Snow White; with two different takes on the classic story Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The first trailer for both movies came out recently and both seem to part greatly from the original story that inspired them. Both movies have one thing going on that I love, and is that the damsel in distress concept seems to be thrown out the window. I remember the first time I read the story of Snow White, not the Disney version, the original (or close to the original) were the Evil Queen be spells her not once, but three times!; first (if my memory serves me right) with a string of cloth, second with a comb and then the famous poisoned apple being the last try. The first thing that crossed my mind was, “oh not again! Is she really that stupid?” I was outraged to say the least. So – for me at least – to see the concept of the princess in waiting and sometimes downright useless lady being completely scrapped off in favor of a witty, sassy, go getter type of female is a refreshing move that I hope will give little girls the chance to see that we can do whatever we set our minds to. 

The Hunger Games Official Trailer

Its finally here, no more teasers, the Official Hunger Games Movie Trailer has debuted today during Good Morning America (watch the volume at the very beginning for screaming fans are deafening).

UPDATE: To read my review of the movie click on one of the following links:

• The Hunger Games (Spoiler Alert)
• The Hunger Games (Spoiler Free)

Here is an HD version of the video uploaded to YouTube

The Hunger Games comes out March 23, 2012 and it is based on the bestseller book – the first of a trilogy – of the same name by Suzanne Collins.

Semifinal Round – 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards

The semifinal round for Goodreads Choice Awards has begun. The top 15 votes per category from the first round have been combined with the top 5 write-in per category giving you a new set of options. The second round commenced today November 14, 2011 and will be open until November 20, 2011. This round will narrow down the competition in half for the next and final round. Vote for your Favorites! You can access the voting page through the widget on the right side of the blog.

The Categories are:

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks

Title: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
Series: Stand Alone Work
Author(s): Max Brooks
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Publication Date: September 23, 2011
Reviewed Format: e-Pub Edition
My Rating:  ★★★☆☆

Ok, I first heard about this book while watching Deadliest Warrior’s season finale in Spike. For those who don’t know the series takes two extremely famous (deadly) warriors and matches them up through computer based statistics; example: Alexander the Great vs Attila the Hun. For their latest season finale they decided to takes things to the paranormal level and match up Zombies vs Vampires.

Now, I got interested in the book so I research a bit about it and most of the reviews seem favorable so I went and got it. I wasn’t sure what to expect out of this book but humor wasn’t it and it is certainly extremely funny.

As the book begins you get a rundown of what are zombies, how they are created and how long they’ve been around. From there it moves into a more or less detailed description of which weapons and combat techniques are “proven” to work best on zombies. It shows the reader the various ways to survive a zombie attack ranging from fending oneself against 5 or 6 zombies, all the way to full blown apocalypse. It even gives advice on post-apocalyptic survival. From this point on the book details – in chronological order – numerous attacks through history and their outcomes. As a bonus, the reader gets an Appendix which examples how to keep an outbreak journal so that a zombie attack can be identified.

In all, the book is a funny way to kill some time. I’ll recommend it to anyone who likes zombies or dystopian themed books.

Cassie Palmer Series by Karen Chance

Title: Cassie Palmer Series
Series: Cassie Palmer Series, Books 1, 2, 3, and 4; Bundle Set
Author(s): Karen Chance
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: July 28, 2011
Reviewed Format: Kindle Edition
Source: Bought
My Overall Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Ok, I have mixed feeling with this book, maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood to read it, maybe it just irked me. This is a bundle edition of the Cassie Palmer Series. It contains the books 1 through 4.

Touch the Dark
My Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Get it @: Amazon | Book Depository

The concept is really interesting and refreshing; I don’t remember reading about a clairvoyant book before and I kind of like Cassie. However, from the moment the book begins is a parade of famous character after famous character and that particular detailed kept distracting me from the plotline. I guess I’m the kind of girl that likes the characters – specially the world renowned ones – to be eased into the story rather than all thrown into it in the first 3 chapters. So I’m still trying to decipher whether I liked the story or not; might need to reread it to know for sure.

** I will update and add the reviews of the other books at a later time.

Night Huntress and Night Prince Update

One day late, but the news is to be shared anyway!

It’s official!! Once Burned, Vlad’s book by Jeaniene Frost is finished and in the hands of her editor. However, the released date has been pushed back from its original date on March, 27 to a new slot on June, 26.

On her Belated Updates post on her blog Jeaniene announced that the first Night Prince book, the eagerly awaited story of Vlad Tepesh, will be released on June, 26. She explains that her original deadline for turning in the manuscript was October 1, but that she couldn’t make it, thus the release got pushed back. No worries, a later date means more time dedicated to the story, which translates into the amazing books we’ve been reading this past few years.

Jeaniene also tells us that the anthology The Bite Before Christmas has made it into the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. My most sincere congratulations to Jeaniene on this; I read her story Home for the Holidays, and is – in one word – amazing! Jeaniene also hints at the possibility of Ian getting his own book (*fingers crossed*).

About Cat and Bones book 7; Jeaniene writes that once she is done with the revision process for Once Burned she will begin writing the next installment on the Night Huntress Series. Her books, This Side of the Grave is in the roaster of nominees at goodreads.com as one of this year’s best Paranormal Fantasy. In additions, “One Grave at a Time has been nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice award for Best Urban Fantasy” (Jeaniene Frost, Belated Updates).

Character Names Help Please!!

Hello Everyone:

I am writing a story and I’m having problems deciding on the main characters’ names.

My main female is a Puerto Rican girl, she is white, with dark brown hair; about 5’4”; she is a witch with powers over the elements and her eyes – which are naturally brown – change color whenever she manifests a power over a particular element. Example: orangy-red for fire, cobalt blue for water, yellow for wind, and so on. I already know what her last names are going to be Meléndez Nieves; but I have trouble choosing a name for her. The names I like are

Mariana (I’m liking this one the most, but still not sure)
Arelys
Cristal
Angela
Aurora

At the end she will be   Insert Name Here   Meléndez Nieves (traditional latina name).

Now for my main male character I already know what name I want, I have problems figuring out his (and his family’s) last name. His name will be Alexander (Alex for short). He is a British young vampire, with creamy white skin, naturally deep blue eyes, golden hair with light brown streaks and he is a total gentleman. He has a strong build but he is also lean. He’s a photographer, and an artist; and has practice martial arts since he was a kid (courtesy of his dad). He is also a very young contemporary vampire (barely in his early 20’s). When I started thinking about this story I always picture him as Alexander O’Connell; but British names and surnames are not my strong suit so I don’t know if it’ll be a correct last name to use or not.

Can anyone help me? I need some concrete names so that I can stop writing things like “He/Boy said…” or “She/Girl did…” it’s becoming very confusing.

3rd Annual Goodreads Choice Awards

Goodreads is choosing the year’s best books and is giving you the opportunity to vote for your favorite books or author. The choices will be made by open voting divided into three rounds. The first round started yesterday October, 31 and will end on November, 13; you get to vote in 22 different categories. If you’ll like to participate you can check it out through the link here:

http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/2011

Or you can get there through the widget on the right (the widget will be available until the final round ends on November, 30). You can read the fine print at Goodreads.com or the link above.

To participate you need to have a Goodreads account (they are free) and you can only vote once per category.