Rhinoa's Ramblings

Rating : 4.0/5
Number of Pages : 104
Series : Women of the Otherworld
Format : Urban Fantasy Short Story
Reason for Reading : To continue the series

A novella following renegade angel Eve. She was a witch who dabbled in dark magic in life and in death works on behalf of the Fates. It slots into the Women of the Otherworld series anywhere after Haunted (book five) where Eve first takes centre stage. She doesn't exactly go about her new job in a conventional way (this is pretty much why she is so useful to the Fates) and this time she is out to stop a djinn and a demonic rebellion. Problem is that when she does break the rules, she is always reprimanded and she is sick of it. She has it mind that this will be her last mission for the Fates and then she is done and quitting.

Nothing is as simple as it first seems though (isn't that always the way), and soon she is fighting for her life, trying to stop a rebellion and amidst all this there is also the potential that there is a traitor in the angelic ranks. I'm still loving this series. Eve is a great character with a lot of depth and I really hope she makes an appearance in later novels. It will be interesting to see if Savanah (her daughter) gets her own tale at some point as well.

Argh ok just one more challenge then...! I love urban fantasy so this is ideal for me. Full details are here. Basically the aim is to read 10 witchy, fae, vamp and were books. The books can be print, ebooks or audio. Rereads are fine, but reviews must be rewritten. This one should be a lot of fun. This really is my last one for 2011 though. Honest!

Rating : 4.0/5
Number of Pages : 390
Series : #1 Darkest Powers
Format : Teenage Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Reason for Reading : 11 11 Challenge

Chloe Saunders is a relatively normal girl in high school. What makes her stand out form her friends is that she hasn't started her period yet despite being 15 and her mother died when she was still young. One day in school everything changes. She finally gets her period, but then she starts to see ghosts. She is taken to the hospital after lashing out at the teachers at school when she is chased by a ghost who died in a fire. The school won't let her back in until she has had treatment at Lyle House, a place for troubled teens.

When she gets there she is soon diagnosed with schizophrenia and told it can be managed by medication. There are five other teenagers there and it soon begins to unfold that they are all special in their own way. Chloe is still seeing ghosts and they seem to want her to find out more about the mystery of the house. Is it mere coincidence that the other teenagers are gifted too or is something more sinister at work here.

I loved this book, the first in the Darkest Powers trilogy. I have read most of her adult series Women of the Otherworld and didn't suspect until about half way through that the two series are connected which was a nice surprise. It begins as a ghost story and then turns into a supernatural drama. I can't read to read book two as there are some major plot points revealed at the end and it finishes on a cliff hanger.

Series :

1. The Summoning
2. The Awakening
3. The Reckoning

Firstly the Manga Challenge is back again in 2011, for full details please go to the blog here. Nymeth and her boyfriend have very kindly made a new button for 2011 if you want to display it on your site.

Rating : 4.5/5
Number of Pages : 313
Series : #2 Wicked Lovely
Format : Teenage Fiction, Urban Faery Tale
Reason for Reading : 11 11 Challenge

The second book in the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr introduces a new set of characters into this urban faery tale. Leslie's life is falling apart around her. Her mother has left her living with her father who seems to care about nothing and her brother who has become a drug dealer and user. His moods are all over the place and he isn't above using his sister to pay for his next fix by “donating” her to his friends. She used to be able to tell her best friend Aisling everything, but lately she is changed and their bond is strained. Part of the different are the two guys Aisling is always with, Seth and Keenan. It has been made very clear that Keenan's uncle Niall is off limits to her, but no one will tell her why.

Leslie yearns for a tattoo. Something symbolic to cling to that will help her believe she can turn her life around. She longs to move away to college and has been saving up and working hard on her grades so she can escape. She finally chooses a tattoo, one with dark feathery wings and piercing eyes in the middle. Little does she know though that it will bring more than just a symbollic change as it is linked to a very powerful dark fey.

I am so in love with this series right now and couldn't get enough of this book. It could stand alone from the first one but I would recommend trying to read them in order. I loved the characters and I love dark tales with the fae in them. You are really drawn into the world of the dark fey who are misunderstood and neither as cruel or as kind as some believe. I really hope to see more of these characters, especially Niall in future books. Definitely one for anyone who likes Holly Black and her dark faery tales.

Series :

1. Wicked Lovely
2. Ink Exchange
3. Fragile Eternity
4. Radient Shadows
5. Darkest Mercy

I decided this year to do a single challenge post for the reading challenges I want to participate in next year.

Manga Challenge 2011 - Read 6 mangas minimum throughout 2011
Challenge with Nymeth - Read 3 books chosen by Nymeth
Challenge with Mariel - Read 3 books chosen by Mariel
Fairy Tale Challenge - Happily Ever After (Level 4). Read/watch any combination of original tales, modern tales, or films, resulting in 12 total selections
11 in 11 Challenge - Read stepped books in 11 categories (1 in the first category, 2 in the second etc).
Read 120 books in 2011
Series 5 Challenge - Read a minimum of 3 books to get up to date with a series
Graphic Novel Challenge - Expert Level, read a minimum of 10 graphic novels in 2011
RIP VI - Hopefully announced in September
OUAT - Hopefully announced around April time

I hope to stick to this list unless something really fun comes along... I am a challenge addict afterall! I will be keeping an updated list in my right sidebar again as it's good to cross books off as I read them.

I managed to finish all of my reading challenges but didn't get around to wrapping most of them up doh.

Challenge runs throughout 2010 and is to read 6 mangas and watch 3 episodes or anime films.

1. Death Note v5 - Tsugumi Ohba
2. Death Note v6 - Tsugumi Ohba
3. Death Note v7 - Tsugumi Ohba
4. The Tarot Cafe v5 - Sang-Sun Park
5. The Tarot Cafe v6 - Sang-Sun Park
6. The Tarot Cafe v7 - Sang-Sun Park

Alternatives :

7. The Tarot Cafe v4 - Sang-Sun Park
8. Death note v8 - Tsugumi Ohba

Anime Watched

1. Blood: The Last Vampire
2. Ponyo
3. My Neighbour Totoro
4. Howls Moving Castle
5. The Cat Returns
6. Soul Eater Episodes 1 - 9
7. Ah My Goddess Flights of Fancy



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Read 4 horror/urban fantasy/mystery type books between 1/9/10 - 31/10/10. Review site here

1. The White Cat - Holly Black
2. Shakespeare's Counsellor - Charlaine Harris
3. Undead and Unfinished - MaryJanice Davidson
4. Brody's Ghost v1 - Mark Crilly





Runs from 21/3/10 - 20/6/10. Quest the Second is to read 5 books covering fantasy, fairy tale, folklore and mythology. Review site here

1. Twilight Graphic Novel v1 - Stephenie Meyer & Young Kim
2. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
3. I am Mordred - Nancy Springer
4. The Tarot Cafe v4 - Sang-Su Park
5. Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief - Rick Riordan




Runs throughout 2010. Read 5 - 10 short story collections.

1. Elementals - AS Byatt
2. The First Person and Other Stories - Ali Smith
3. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
4. Dancing Girls - Margaret Atwood
5. The Eternal Kiss - Various




Runs from 1/12/09 - 30/11/10. Finish the following series:

1. Making Money - Terry Pratchett (Discworld)
2. Unseen Academicals (Discworld)
3. Lucinda, Dangerously - Sunny (Lucinda)
4. Archenemy - Frank Beddor (Looking Glass Wars)
5. Shalador's Lady - Anne Bishop (Black Jewels)


Extended until the end of 2010.

1. Gifts by Ursula le Guin
2. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
3. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
4. Elementals by A.S. Byatt
5. Looking for Alaska by John Green

Challenge with Mariel

Extended until the end of 2010.

1. The Gift - Alison Croggon
2. Lamb - Christopher Moore
3. The Hours - Michael Cunningham
4. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
5. Cry of the Icemark - Stuart Hill





Runs throughout 2010. Expert level, read 10+ graphic novels.

1. Fables v10 : The Good Prince - Bill Willingham
2. Fables v11: War and Pieces - Bill Willingham
3. Buffy 8 v2 : No Future for You - Joss Whedon
4. Buffy 8 v3 - Joss Whedon
5. Buffy 8 v4 - Joss Whedon
6. Buffy 8 v5 - Joss Whedon
7. Buffy 8 v6 - Joss Whedon
8. Y the Last Man v2 - Brian K Vaughn
9. Y the Last Man v3 - Brian K Vaughn
10. Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits - Garth Enis
11. The Saga of Swamp Thing v1 - Alan Moore
12. Joker - Brian Azzarello





Read 3 - 6 Arthurian based books between 01/4/09 - 31/3/10.

1. I am Morgan Le Fey - Nancy Springer
2. Isolde : Queen of the Western Isle - Rosalind Miles
3. Maiden of the White Hands - Rosalind Miles
4. The Lady of the Sea - Rosalind Miles

Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge

Read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books between 1/7/09 - 30/6/10.

1. Dead Until Dark
2. Living Dead in Dallas
3. Club Dead
4. Dead to the World
5. Dead as a Doornail
6. Definitely Dead
7. All Together Dead
8. From Dead to Worse
9. Dead and Gone

LJ Smith Reading Challenge

Read The Vampire Diaries series between 1/9/09 - 31/8/10

1. The Awakening
2. The Struggle
3. The Fury
4. Dark Reunion

10 10 10 Challenge

Runs throughout 2010. Read books in the following categories:

My Friend Says

1. Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things - Ted Naifeh

Mind, Body, Spirit

1. Moon Lore - Gwydion O'Hara
2. Sunlore - Gwydion O'Hada

Tickle My Fancy

1. <The Scent of Her Breath - Melissa P
2. Divine Cruelty - Lee Ash
3. Enslaving Anna - Giselle Lorimer

We've Been Waiting So Long

1. Lady: My Life as a Bitch - Melvin Burgess
2. Silent Bob Speaks - Kevin Smith
3. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett
4. Deriks' Bane - MaryJanice Davidson

The Tube

1. Pied Piper - Debbie Viguie (Charmed)
2. Mystic Knoll - Dianna G Gallagher (Charmed)
3. Changeling Places - Micol Ostow (Charmed)
4. The Queen's Curse - Emma Harrison (Charmed)
5. Picture Perfect - Cameron Dokey (Charmed)

When I Wish Upon A Star

1. Ash - Malinda Lo
2. Peter Pan in Kensginton Gardens - JM Barrie
3. Beast - Donna Jo Napoli
4. Touch Magic - Jane Yolen
5. Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
6. Kind - Holly Black & Ted Naifeh

Eh, Aboot

1. The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood
2. The Riddle of the Wren - Charles de Lint
3. The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
4. Dancing Girls - Margaret Atwood
5. The Harp of the Grey Rose - Charles de Lint
6. Living with the Dead - Kelley Armstrong
7. Frostbitten - Kelley Armstrong

1, 2, 3, 4, Can I Have A Little More

1. Death Masks - Jim Butcher
2. Dead Over Heels - Charlaine Harris
3. Shakespeare Wrote for Money - Nick Hornby
4. Hunting Ground - Patricia Briggs
5. Heart of the Mummy - Tommy Donbavand
6. The Prophecy - Lynne Ewing
7. The Becoming - Lynne Ewing
8. The Final Eclipse - Lynne Ewing

Too Young To Know Better

1. Exchange - Paul Magrs
2. Never Slow Dance with a Zombie - E. Van Lowe
3. Green Angel - Alice Hoffman
4. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
5. The Third Eye - Mahtab Narsimhan
6. White Crow - Marcus Sedgwick
7. The Tarot Reader's Daughter - Helen Dunwoodie
8. Ruined - Paula Morris
9. Cosmic - Frank Cottrell Boyce

Just Because

1. Psyche in a Dress - Francesca Lia Block
2. How to Make a Journal of Your Life - D. Price
3. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman
4. Juliet Naked - Nick Hornby
5. Austenland - Shannon Hale
6. The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry
7. The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Berry
8. The Other Hand - Chris Cleave
9. Selkie Island - Jorris Spencer
10. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard

Vampire Series Challenge

Read 6 books in series that have vampires as the main/key characters. Runs throughout 2010.

1. Undead and Unpopular - MaryJanice Davidson
2. Undead and Uneasy - MaryJanice Davidson
3. Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris
4. The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer
5. Undead and Unworthy - MaryJanice Davidson
6. Undead and Unwelcome - MaryJanice Davidson

Cozy Mystery Challenge 2010

Aim to read 6 Cozy Mysteries between 1/4/10 - 30/9/10

1. A Fool and His Honey - Charlaine Harris
2. Last Scene Alive - Charlaine Harris
3. Poppy Done to Death - Charlaine Harris
4. Shakespeare's Champion - Charlaine Harris
5. Shakespeare's Christmas - Charlaine Harris
6. Shakespeare's Trollop - Charlaine Harris