Monday, January 31, 2011
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.
Labels: 11 11 11, reading, urban fantasy
Thursday, January 20, 2011
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!
Labels: iChallenge
Sunday, January 16, 2011
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
Labels: 11 11 11, fantasy, reading, teenage fiction
Sunday, January 09, 2011
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
Labels: 11 11 11, reading, teenage fiction, urban faery tale
Saturday, January 01, 2011
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.
Alternatives :
Anime Watched

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

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

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

Runs from 1/12/09 - 30/11/10. Finish the following series:
Extended until the end of 2010.
Challenge with Mariel
Extended until the end of 2010.

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

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

Read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books between 1/7/09 - 30/6/10.
LJ Smith Reading Challenge
Read The Vampire Diaries series between 1/9/09 - 31/8/10
Runs throughout 2010. Read books in the following categories:
My Friend Says
Mind, Body, Spirit
Tickle My Fancy
We've Been Waiting So Long
The Tube
When I Wish Upon A Star
Eh, Aboot
1, 2, 3, 4, Can I Have A Little More
Too Young To Know Better
Just Because

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

Aim to read 6 Cozy Mysteries between 1/4/10 - 30/9/10
This year was about 50 books less than 2011. Overall I read 128 books 32,036 pages. Of the books I read the following are my favourites :
1. Shakespeare Wrote for Money - Nick Hornby
2. Isolde: Queen of the Western Isle - Rosaline Miles
3. Death Masks - Jim Butcher
4. Dead Over Heels - Charlaine Harris
5. The Awakening - LJ Smith
6. Pied Piper - Debbie Viguie (Charmed)
7. Maiden of the White Hands - Rosalind Miles
8. The Struggle - LJ Smith
9. The Lady of the Sea - Rosalind Miles
10. Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
11. Exchange - Paul Magrs
12. Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris
13. Fables v10 : The Good Prince - Bill Willingham
14. Fables v11: War and Pieces - Bill Willingham
15. Hunting Ground - Patricia Briggs
16. Shalador's Lady - Anne Bishop
17. Archenemy - Frank Beddor
18. Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
19. Heart of the Mummy - Tommy Donbavand
20. A Friend in Need - MaryJanice Davidson (Short Story)
21. Undead and Unpopular - MaryJanice Davidson
22. Undead and Uneasy - MaryJanice Davidson
23. The Fury - LJ Smith
24. Dark Reunion - L J Smith
25. Psyche in a Dress - Francesca Lia Block
26. Undead and Unwed : A Honeymoon Story - MaryJanice Davidson (Short Story)
27. Twilight Graphic Novel v1 - Stephenie Meyer & Young Kim
28. Never Slow Dance with a Zombie - E. Van Lowe
29. Death Note v5 - Tsugumi Ohba
30. Green Angel - Alice Hoffman
31. Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris
32. Buffy 8 v2 : No Future for You - Joss Whedon
33. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
34. Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris
35. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
36. Buffy 8 v3 - Joss Whedon
37. Buffy 8 v4 - Joss Whedon
38. Buffy 8 v5 - Joss Whedon
39. Buffy 8 v6 - Joss Whedon
40. Death Note v6 - Tsugumi Ohba
41. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
42. Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris
43. The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood
44. A Fool and His Honey - Charlaine Harris
45. How to Make a Journal of Your Life - D. Price
46. The Prophecy - Lynne Ewing
47. All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris
48. I Am Mordred - Nancy Springer
49. From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
50. Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
51. The Becoming - Lynne Ewing
52. The Final Eclipse - Lynne Ewing
53. Last Scene Alive - Charlaine Harris
54. Death Note v7 - Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
55. Looking for Alaska - John Green
56. Elementals - AS Byatt
57. The Tarot Cafe v4 - Sang-Sun Park
58. Ash - Malinda Lo
59. Poppy Done to Death - Charlaine Harris
60. Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief - Rick Riordan
61. The Riddle of the Wren - Charles de Lint
62. Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris
63. Moon Lore - Gwydion O'Hara
64. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer
65. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman
66. The Tarot Cafe v5 - Sang-Sun Park
67. Y the Last Man v2 - Brian K Vaughn
68. The Scent of Your Breath - Melissa P
69. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens - J M Barrie
70. Juliet Naked - Nick Hornby
71. The Cry of the Icemark - Stuart Hill
72. Shakespeare's Champion - Charlaine Harris
73. The Tarot Cafe v6 - Sang-Sun Park
74. Austenland - Shannon Hale
75. Making Money - Terry Pratchett
76. Y the Last Man v3 - Brian K Vaughn
77. Beast - Donna Jo Napoli
78. Lady: My Life as a Bitch - Mervin Burgess
79. The Third Eye - Mahtab Narsimhan
80. Mystic Knoll - Diana G Gallagher (Charmed)
81. The First Person and Other Stories - Ali Smith
82. Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits - Garth Enis
83. The Saga of Swamp Thing v1 - Alan Moore
84. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
85. The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry
86. Joker - Brian Azzarello
87. The Gift - Alison Croggon
88. The Tarot Cafe v7 - Sang-Sun Park
89. Shakespeare's Christmas - Charlaine Harris
90. White Crow - Marcus Sedgwick
91. Silent Bob Speaks - Kevin Smith
92. Divine Cruelty - Lee Ash
93. Changeling Places - Micol Ostow (Charmed)
94. Death Note v8 - Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
95. The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
96. Undead and Unworthy - MaryJanice Davidson
97. The Tarot Reader-s Daughter - Helen Dunwoodie
98. Touch Magic - Jane Yolen
99. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
100. Undead and Unwelcome - MaryJanice Davidson
101. Shakespeare's Trollop - Charlaine Harris
102. Lucinda, Dangerously - Sunny
103. Dancing Girls - Margaret Atwood
104. The White Cat - Holly Black
105. Shakespeare's Counsellor - Charlaine Harris
106. Undead and unfinished - Maryjanice Davidson
107. Ruined - Paula Morris
108. Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
109. Brody's Ghost v1 - Mark Crilly
110. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratechett
111. The Harp of the Grey Rose - Charles de LInt
112. The Queen's Curse - Emma Harrison (Charmed)
113. Living with the Dead - Kelley Armstrong
114. Buffy 8 v7 - Joss Whedon
115. Comic - Frank Cottrell Boyce
116. Lamb - Christopher Moore
117. Picture Perfect - Cameron Dokey (Charmed)
118. The Other Hand - Chris Cleave
119. Frostbitten - Kelley Armstrong
120. The Eternal Kiss - Various
121. Derek's Bane - MaryJanice Davidson
122. Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things - Ted Naifeh
123. Kind - Holly Black
124. Selkie Island - Jorrie Spencer
125. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard
126. Sunlore - Gwydion O'Hara
127. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
128. Enslaving Anna - Giselle Lorimer
Labels: reading
So 2010 is over and I somehow just managed to finish all my challenges woo! I finished the final one on 29th December and am looking forward to starting some more challenges in 2011. I will stick to around the same number as this year as I only just finished everything I think.
Labels: 10 10 10 Challenge, erotic fiction, fantasy, Fiction, graphic novel, mythology, play, reading, teenage fiction