Emerald Talisman Offers Unparalleled Protection

THE EMERALD TALISMAN
by Brenda Pandos

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Obsidian Mountain Publishing (August 1, 2010)
• Language: English

• Kindle Edition
• File Size: 420 KB
• Publisher: Obsidian Mountain Publishing; 1 edition (March 23, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Book Blurb

Grade 9 Up - To be normal, sixteen-year-old Julia Parker would shed her empathic gift in a second. Life has been difficult since her mother's mysterious disappearance ten years earlier - an event she witnessed, but can't remember. Julia's situation becomes more complicated after a near death experience from a blood thirsty stalker. As high school students go missing it is clear there is a connection to her own experience--past and present. Someone has to stop the madness and a chance encounter with a creepy psychic foretells that only Julia is the key to stopping the madness, but it may require the life of the one she loves. Readers who enjoyed Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Blue Bloods and The Morganville Vampires will enjoy The Emerald Talisman.

Link to Excerpt

Twitter is a powerful marketing tool for that is how I came to buy this novel by Brenda Pandos. It must have been retweeted by someone on February fourth that this book for Kindle was now only $.99 on Amazon (and still is). Well, what do I have to lose, I thought, I like vampires, I like jewelry, where could I go wrong?

I will admit it languished in my Kindle lineup for a while as my TBR pile built to frightening proportions. But today I was looking for something light, something easy. I don't know that this book was light and easy. The two central characters, Nicholas and Julia share a motherless past. He has been her guardian for many years without her knowledge.  Of course, we know he isn't just a  hot guy from town but a supernatural. Julia, she isn't too wise to this fact for a while and when he acts like a jerk she tries to write him off.

The story is written in teen-aged Julia's voice, in the past tense; as a report of things that have already happened. It shares a lot of factors with other YA:
Parent Issue: Absentee Dad, Dead Mom. Dad cares but travels on business. Aunt Jo, who helped raise Julia and her brother Luke is married now and not spending much time with them. So Julia and Luke (H.S. Grad finding himself ie., no job, community college part time) fend for themselves alot.

Female character is special: Julia is a telepath or an empath. It seems she mostly feels conveyed emotions; but only since her mother's death and very uncomfortably.

Male is Mysterious, hot, and the two are kept apart by his secret. This is Julia all over.

Other male character to potentially fill the void of the mystery guy: As in Hush, Hush and Crescendo, There is a guy who is bound to come between the two lovers.

Shiny white-skinned vampires, shared with most romanticized, contemporary vampire stories.

Best Friend: Like in Hush, Hush and Crescendo, as well as the Soul Screamers series the female protagonist has a constant good friend.

Lost in the Woods: Bella, of Twilight fame gets out into a dangerous place a couple of times, both in New Moon. And, like Celeste in Once in a Full Moon, Julia gets lost on what should be a familiar road home and is attacked by something.

Another blog mentioned this week that they saw the third person past tense as a point of view as a trend in YA. It would be interesting to know how much it is true. In this case I feel there is a bit of distance between Julia and the events. Maybe a month or so.   I always feel that the writing in this tense tends toward the expository and is a bit glib. With this POV one would have to be expository, and a teen might be glib and focus on the romance and emotional mood swings.

One question I had is why did Julia suddenly develop this ability to read emotions when her mother was killed? I was also a bit confused by the vampire siring methodology.

I also can almost understand how a teenaged girl could totally develop a crush on a guy in five minutes and read much more into his actions than was there. But, it was a bit of a stretch from saving her to, "maybe he'll ask me to homecoming."

Any way, a fun read for a young girl with a bit of harmless and controlled passion. Moms could benefit from reading and discussing with their daughters.

Friday Follow

from Parajunkee:
Happy Follow Friday everyone! Let me tell you a little bit about this HOP. Every friday or really Thursday evening we all get together and say HI!

Also on Follow Friday we have a Feature...because alliteration is the way we roll. Each week is a different feature from the book blogging community. They are picked randomly or Parajunkee give in after multiple harassing emails. Just depends on the week. If you want to be next weeks feature...leave your link. Also, I've had a recent rash of people signing up on the linky weeks later, which sort of defeats the purpose. If you want to participate check back here on the next Friday!

Our feature this week is...Al @ Magnet 4 Books

Q. Circle time! Time to share. What character in a book would you most like to be, what character in a book would you most like to date?

Well, hmmm, I don't really think this way. In the books I read it feels like everyone is always trying to kill the heroine. Maybe Merit from Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires. She's pretty, smart, has rich parents, and knows all the good places to eat in Chicago. Or, perhaps the polyandrous Meredith Gentry from Laurell K.Hamilton's series of the same name. As far as dating, I rarely think that way either. Even with a really hot hero I remember I am happily married. I am partial the Merry's guys though.

from Crazy-for-Books
In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun! This is a weekly event! And stop back throughout the weekend to see all the new blogs that are added!

"Which book blogger would you most like to meet in real life?"

Easy double answers: Julia and Dana, two of my BBFs. I can count on their support!

THANK GODS IT'S THOR'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Am Psyched!

Bond With Me, A Lesson in Character Development

Bond With Me

Anne Marsh

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dorchester Publishing (July 4, 2011)
• Language: English

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 397 KB
• Print Length: 320 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (August 24, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services 
• Language: English
•  Edition read, Kindle, Amazon Kindle Freebie (not at this time)

Ick—factor and Cliché—Component Tricky to look at; a personality issue that develops with the story. Expectations were surprisingly turned upside down, or at least sideways.

Fallen angels… They rule Moscow’s seedy underworld, promising untold pleasure to the females who dare to mate them. That promise – and Brends Duranov’s own raw sexual power – has hopefuls mobbing the velvet rope outside his elite club G2’s.
But Mischka Baran has no intention of hooking up with one of the Fallen. Not even after Brends gives her an unforgettable taste of the sin and seduction he can deliver with those wicked lips. She’s after information, not a stint as some Goblin’s toy of the month. What she doesn’t know is that with a sadistic killer carving up his brethren, Brends is playing for keeps, hunting the one woman whose bloodline can end the mayhem, whose bond can restore his lost wings.

http://www.officialpsds.com/demon-wings-PSD24376.html

This story surprised me. At first the attitude towards humans, women, in particular was callous and crude. As the story developed and the relationships became what they become the treatment and attitude changes.  It is the ultimate female fairy tale: Wendy and Peter Pan if Peter Pan could no longer fly and had a beast within (the unspoken: don't all men?). Many years ago, long before I was married,  I knew my love could turn  that bad boy around. Unfortunately, he was NOT a fallen angel, he (several he-s really) was just a jerk. And, I, was young.

I have a a problem with the bad guy's stooge in this story. He seems evil without reason or redemption. He had been a Dominion, a form of angel that guarded the heavens. How is it possible that an angelic creature could be a monster?

Well-written sex which starts crude and almost with the intent to humiliate. As the relationship develops so does the level of the sex As Mischka accepts all Brends is, he treasures her and loves her. In that way the story took a turn I didn't expect. I didn't expect the characters would develop and grow At the start the women are treated as all "pussy" and "cream,"  but they become  something with a "sex" and "wetness" (preferable to "cream").

Because of the surprise developments in the characters, not the story so much which has the expected sequence of events. It was the characters that threw me really.  If you want a surprising story and some Happily-Ever-right now, this is a recommended read. Don't be put off by the males at the start being jerks. The women actually do manage to straighten these guys out. Remember though, it IS a fairy tale. I have been working on one guy for thirty years now,  no change.

Third Sentence Thursday—Sookie's Attic

Third Sentence Thursday is a weekly meme which waits with bated breath for third sentences from all over the world!

1) Take the book you are reading now and post the third sentence

2) Review this sentence anyway you want (funny and silly reviews encouraged)

3) Post a link to your sentence at Sniffly Kitty's (in the comments) or if you don't have a blog, just post it in the comments there!

I chose to feature the third sentence from Dead Reckoning, The latest Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire mystery by Charlaine Harris. This book had been eagerly awaited by people who enjoy True Blood and those who only read the books. I reviewed it  yesterday but it has been such a focus this week that I thought it deserved a bit more.

I'd taken one step inside and then turned and walked out, leaving the door unsecured behind me.

  These books are written in the first-person, that is, Sookie. This is a woman who has unlocked and left unsecured a lot of things since her Grandmother passed. She had been a naive  virgin when the first vampire came to the bar she worked in. Her life was bound, at that point to follow a circumscribed path, probably not marriage, probably working as a waitress in this bar, maybe not, but certainly she would grow old in the home she shared with her Grandmother. When she met her first vampire, Bill, and had sex with him it drew the attention of a crazed serial killer to her resulting in her Grandmother's murder.

From then, while attempting to hold onto the manners and values with which she had been raised. But, like the lid to Pandora's  Box (No Pun), the horse and the barn door, there was no value in locking that door now; She had seen too much, known to much, felt too much, changed too much.

Tomorrow, Angels Bad? Goblins Good? Anglels Good? Gobins Bad? In fantasy worlds,  as in the "real" world issues are rarely black and white.

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris Is Sookie Tired?

http://www.charlaineharris.com/index.html Fair Use

Dead Reckoning

Charlaine Harris

Hardcover: 336 pages

Publisher: Ace Hardcover (May 3, 2011)

Language: English

Kindle Edition: 655 KB

Publisher: Ace (May 3, 2011)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

Audio CD

Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC (May 3, 2011)

Language: English

Edition read: Kindle, purchased.

Ick-factor: Maybe a tiny bit; if this were translated into the show based on the books, True Blood we'd be talking about lots and lots of black cherry gelatin or corn syrup. Sexual ick, not really, except for one comment from Bill that made me think less of his "Southern Gentleman" act.

Cliche-Component: In a Sookie Stackhouse book kind of way.

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover Eric Northman and his "child" Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot-which is much more complicated than she knows...(Amazon)

Blurb Accuracy—4/10 in spirit

I enjoyed Harris' 11th entry into the Sookie Stackhouse series much more than the tenth, Dead in the Family.  With two books left in the series I had the feeling Harris was trying to tie up loose ends towards a conclusion. While Harris has stated that she loves Sookie, she has felt she would like to write something else and that the series had taken over her life.

In this book, it's obvious that Sookie has left the wide-eyed, naive, back-woods, Southern girl behind. She is no longer the Mary Tyler more character throwing her hat up in the air, excited about life and the possibilities. She doesn't seem to like what her life has become. Going from a telepathic small town waitress to a blood-bound,  vampire's wife, killer, assassination-attempt victim, part-fairy royalty, etc. has opened her eyes to the point where they have glazed over and if not jaded she is at least world weary.

I felt the book got a bit slow in the middle as Sookie repeatedly realizes the reality of her life.The general pattern is planning, event, rumination.

As in the last book, Claude and Dermot are still living with her. The King of the area's vampires still has a jackass, Victor, stirring things up. The king himself is an okay, if absentee ruler.  Eric sounds wooden in this book, Pam has turned into a a quivering bowl of jello over her latest girlfriend a dying human. If there were nothing more out of character than this in the story that would be enough.

It seems that Victor is standing between everyone Sookie cares about and the object of affection or objective. Debbie Van Pelt's sister Sandy who is even more rat's ass crazy than her sister was has gotten out of prison for whatever it is she was incarcerated for (who can remember) and still has a vendetta out against Sookie. Poor Sookie must feel like one of those stand-up doll punching bags. People keep trying to knock her down and she keeps getting up. I get the feeling that one day Sookie isn't going to plaster her smile on her face and go off to her shift at Merlotte's. That day nearly comes in the book.  I feel the ultimate conclusion to the story is that Sookie is going to either melt down or leave town.

With the anti-shifter sentiment out there since the were and shifting elements came out, along with several other elements, Sam's bar isn't doing so well. Sookie doesn't understand her relationship with Eric, are they really together? I personally think they are not together except in the loosest interpretation of a love/significant other/marriage of inconvenience way.  Bill is free again. He's expressed to Sookie that he still loves her. As her relationship with others falters will she go back to him.

By the way, the way Harris describes Victor in one scene, he sounds like Gene Simmons from KISS in a white suit.

In the end, what I think this is about is Sookie coming to grips with the current state of her life. At first, the mental quiet offered to her by Vampires is appealing, but she is learning that peace comes at a steep price. Yes, except for the sex, most of what she has done has been survival. I believe she feels that she is becoming "hard" and she doesn't like it.

Personally, I miss our old Sookie, the enthusiastic and naive child who thought vampires were just people. She no longer sees life that way. Life a cop who has seen too much, a teacher who realizes her job is more about babysitting than teaching, an actor who realizes that life on set is dull, Sookie has realized that her life has gotten to a place she doesn't like, she has seen and experienced too much. The question for the next two books is will she move forward with her paranormal friends or become something entirely different?

I may add to or amend this as more comes up over the next few days,

BEA Info Extra

Lonely Planet on BEA: New York Bar Crawl

What to do after a day the Javits Center? Here Lonely Planet's Adam McCulloch offers some recommendations for a long day's drinking into night.

http://shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1454#m12153

Sadly, Art Imitates Life Death and Waffles Points to a Lack of Societal Connectivity

DEATH AND WAFFLES: A Short Story

by Lish Bride, author of HOLD ME CLOSER, NECROMANCER

On Amazon it is offered as

Necromancer: A Novella

Lish McBride

Matt’s childhood friend, Ashley, has been stopping by a lot lately. That might seem pretty normal, but Ashley died years ago and now she’s Death.
And tonight she wants waffles and fries.

INCLUDES AN EXCERPT OF HOLD ME CLOSER, NECROMANCER…
Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he’s doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.
Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else. 
With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10151346-necromancer

Freebie is still available

Format: Kindle Edition

File Size: 277 KB

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (February 1, 2011)

Sold by: Macmillan

I agree with one commenter on Amazon that the product title is misleading, but it is free.

I think I may be in a reading slump. I've heard of this but never believed it would happen to me until today. I have a lot going on. I am on the board of a 101 year old organization which is merging with another. We've had to change with the times. We were first an orphanage and most recently has served as a "boys town" model refuge for boys and girls at risk. We are merging with an alternative residential degree granting High School that is about thirty years old and we have two very different cultures. I have been asked to handle communications around the merger. That starts with a logo,  that embraces both organizations familiar graphic presence. Includes changing websites to reflect what's going on and building a new combined site. Setting up coverage and press packets. It ends when we all sign on the dotted line. Plus I chair the committee that finds new trustees which is like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. This has meant I had to change the website as we are down to a skeleton staff. And I am preparing to give up my website administration of another organization. And, any day I am expecting a contractor to replace my living room ceiling (I've been expecting him for a year).

So, today I picked up what was a freebie on Amazon It was a free first chapter of Hold Me Closer Necromancer and a short story Death and Waffles, both by Lish McBride. I didn't realize that the first chapter was just and was really surprised when the next page had nothing to do with the one before. But, I realized quickly that was the case and was quickly absorbed into the new short story. It took me a few minutes to figure it out, right when McBride expected me to. She is a masterful short story writer.  It's as amusing as a story about death can be. As glib as the young hero, Matt, is about Ash being dead and his friend's job collecting people's souls as they die, his laissez faire is understandable. His best friend died when they were young and is still his best friend. He has absentee parents. These conditions are guaranteed to give one a different attitude. I find it a story that makes an interesting statement about the looseness of life when family fails a child. Millions of children are in situations similar but different, parental self-involvement, absence, even war, are societies' failures to care for children. Matt doesn't even know where his mom is; but he knows his dad is out chasing skirts. It did strike me earlier how much this parallels the situations of some of the kids we have worked with. Maybe that's why I "felt it."

It comes down to the same problem I have with short stories—they're short. I have always loved the title Hold Me Closer Necromancer. Having read the first chapter I need to know what happens next. Another book on the TBR!

Hold me Closer Necromancer is a

finalist for the William C. Morris Debut award.

Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders by MASH-UPS: What's your opinion?

'RELEASES TOMORROW MAY 3

Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders  

by Gyles Bandreth

• Format: Kindle Edition                                           
• File Size: 829 KB
• Print Length: 368 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (May 3, 2011)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Format: Paperback 400 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (May 3, 2011)
• Format: Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (May 3, 2011)

Received through Simon and Schuster' s Galely Grab. No remuneration exchanged. All ideas, beliefs, and opinions expressed below are my own.

Latest in a large series

I am currently reading a book called Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders by Gyles Bandreth out tomorrow. While it is quite readable, I am not enjoying it for three reasons:  Much is made of Wilde's Homosexuality or Bisexuality, as well as that of other members of his circle.  This novel also stars Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker which, although historical figures have been mythologized into fictional characters, as has Wilde.

I feel the author has taken Wilde's sexuality and his flamboyance and turned him into a Liberace-Like character, or for a slightly more modern  perspective Nathan Lanes character in La Cage aux Follies: wittier than wit, gayer than gay. He is written quite wittily, with some great lines. I just felt the character was one dimensional. Much is said of Arthur Conan Doyle's writing, and even Stoker's, but little of WIlde's.

The other thing I don't like is the depth of invention carrying us away from the plot, as well as a plethora of appearing and disappearing again.  This distance from plot, frequent new characters with alternating voices in the first person discussing the other in the third throught their correspondence is confusing and lacks the focus to reel me into the story.

photo, Andrew Flier

Perhaps this is an anomaly or I am hard to please. After all, this is a series of at least 6 books, so they are being enjoyed.

Obviously, Oscar Wilde did not run around solving murders. This is a mash-up.  When you take a topic and attach it to another unrelated story character or story to it.  They are not so much as an interpretation as a tool.

How do you feel about Mash-Ups? Are they good or badv—a good tool or a cheap device? I would t love to know

The read period on this is nearly over so I will probably not finish it. 

PLEASURE UNBOUND by Larissa Ione will tie you in knots.

The demon is a prince of the air and can transform himself into several shapes, delude our senses for a time; but his power is determined, he may terrify us but not hurt.
– Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy
http://larissaione.com/blog/books/demonica/

PLEASURE UNBOUND Demonica Book 1
Grand Central Publishing
July 2008

Mass Market Paperback edition read

Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages

Publisher: Forever (June 20, 2008)

Format: Kindle Edition

File Size: 504 KB

Publisher: Forever (July 1, 2008)

Sold by: Hachette Book Group
Book provided by Hachette Group. No remuneration exchanged. All ideas and opinions are my own. 

In a place where ecstasy can cost you your life…
She’s a demon-slayer who hungers for sensual pleasure—but fears it will always be denied her. Until Tayla Mancuso lands in a hospital run by demons in disguise, and the head doctor, Eidolon, makes her body burn with unslakable desire. But to prove her ultimate loyalty to her peers, she must betray the surgeon who saved her life.


Two lovers will dare to risk all.
Eidolon cannot resist this fiery, dangerous woman who fills him with both rage and passion. Not only is she his avowed enemy, but she could very well be the hunter who has been preying upon his people. Torn between his need for the truth and his desire to find his perfect mate before a horrific transformation claims him forever, Eidolon will dare the unthinkable—and let Tayla possess him, body and soul… http://larissaione.com/blog/books/demonica-pleasure-unbound/

Slightly cliché, mild icky-sex speak.

http://larissaione.com/blog/books/demonica/

Humans go to hospitals. Animals go to veterinarians. But where do injured, ill, and decapitated demons go? It isn't as if every supernatural being possesses the ability to grow a new limb to replace one that's been hacked off by a demon slayer scumbag. Fear not, fellow vamps, werewolves, and demons, for help has arrived. Three brothers, incubus demons by birth, human in appearance (mostly), have pulled together to make the most of the healing skills common to their species. Welcome to Underworld General Hospital, where sexy demons are doctors, HMOs are non-existent, and the blood bank sometimes doubles as the cafeteria. And you don't even want to know what goes on in the supply closets…http://larissaione.com/blog/books/demonica/

Hell, I want to know what goes on in the supply closet.  I want to know that a lot. Hell, I want my own supply closet. If any one has a tough time achieving  “release,” as they call it in erotica about a third of the time, you’ll want this book and some of what Eidolon is selling. You may start looking for secret passages in your local hospital or walk around your town calling, “Here seminus demon, here demon, seminus demon.” The man’s semen by itself is an aphrodisiac and can cause  orgasm.

Okay, the novel isn’t entirely about sex. Not entirely.

There’s a complex balance between biological needs and urges and a strange emotional connection.  “E” saves Tayla a warrior sworn to kill demons first ask questions later. When she is injured fighting a demon she ends up in Underworld General Hospital and is drawn to a super hot doc, Eidolon. They share ambivalent emotions to say the least.

Eidolon is the guy that would always be doing the right thing, like giving the enemy succor (I have always wanted to use that word in a sentence). He would be doing the right thing if he weren’t going through a sexual maturation period which, if he doesn’t bond, or die, before he is done will basically make his beast rule and the doctor drool.

The plot is complex and a bit too much coincidence is in play and ties up in a neat little knot at the end; except for one thing. That one thing, no doubt, has some part in the series.  Any thing wrong is more than made up for. Your toes will curl and your hips will rise up off the chair. SUPER STEAMY

Well, written if a trifle predictable, not everyone gets an HEA. I will let you know if the hottness  lasts through the next few books!