Book Review: Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost

Once Burned
Author: Jeaniene Frost
Publication: Avon (June 26, 2012)


Description: After a tragic accident scarred her body and destroyed her dreams, Leila never imagined that the worst was still to come: terrifying powers that let her channel electricity and learn a person's darkest secrets through a single touch. Leila is doomed to a life of solitude...until creatures of the night kidnap her, forcing her to reach out with a telepathic distress call to the world's most infamous vampire...

Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all--but whatever you do, don't call him Dracula. Vlad's ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him - a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.


My Thoughts: This was another great paranormal romance from a master of the genre. Vlad Tepesh has been a recurring character in other books in this world but now he gets his own romance. When some vampires kidnap Leila to use her talents at touching an object and seeing the past, present, and future of the owner, she comes into mental contact with Vlad because he is the vampire her kidnappers are looking for.

Vlad rescues her and takes her home with him. His ability to read her mind lets him know that she is a victim and not a lure. It takes a while for Leila to get used to the idea that Vlad can read her mind but she adjusts to it. Her experiences with touching others and knowing their most shameful secrets has made her more open to  having her thoughts out there for him to see. 

Vlad is a very frightening hero. He doesn't hesitate to kill to protect those who are his people. He is also arrogant. Of course, he is also beautiful and one of the only people Leila can touch without killing. Her ability to know about objects wasn't the only result of being electrocuted when she touched a downed power line. She also is electrified herself. She can't touch anyone without electrocuting them. But Vlad's element is fire. Not only can he accept her touch, he revels in it. 

Together Vlad and Leila have to find out who arranged her kidnapping and who wants to kill Vlad. It was great watching the two of them develop a relationship. Despite his vast age and power, Leila is a match for him. She won't let him push her around and, unlike everyone else around him, he doesn't bow down to his commands. 

I can't wait until the next book in the series to find out more about Vlad and Leila.


Favorite Quote:

"At least he can't hear my thoughts when I link to him," I said, trying to look on the bright side of this bleak situation.

Vlad's gaze swung to me. "How?"

"Bones taught me that playing really annoying songs over and over in my head acted as a barrier against mind reading. I was supposed to use that on you, but then things changed."

"Remind me to kill Bones next time I see him," he bit off.

I bought this one upon publication as I do all of this author's works. You can buy a copy here.

Wolf at the Door
Author: MaryJanice Davidson
Publication: Berkley Trade; 1 Original edition (October 4, 2011)


Description: The howlingly good spin-off of the Undead series from the New York Times bestselling author.


Rachel, a werewolf/accountant, is asked to keep one eye on Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor and the other peeled for a rogue werewolf who's itching to start a war. But her attention is mostly on a sexy, mysterious stranger she wishes she could trust.


My Thoughts: Wolf at the Door was another entertaining romp from MaryJanice Davidson. She has a knack for creating quirky characters and then dropping them in absurd situations. Rachael is a werewolf and an accountant. She is ordered by her cousin Michael, head of the Wyndham Pack, to move to St. Paul and keep watch over Queen Betsy and the other vampires. Rachael has never lived anywhere but Cape Cod and is reluctant. She is even more reluctant when a series of murders starts happening in St. Paul. The victims are people that she was scheduled to meet as possible clients. It looks like someone wants to sow discord between the werewolves and the vampires. 


Edward is a human geek who has come to St. Paul to learn more about Queen Betsy in order to call in his vampire slayer roommate to kill her. Edward is also an accountant. Rachael and Edward meet and, in their mutually geeky ways, fall in love. 


The plot isn't the main point here. What matters are the quirky characters - a vampire queen hooked on smoothies and fancy shoes; a werewolf accountant; a human accountant who wants everything to be like his geeky fantasies. 


This one was just fun to read!


Favorite Quote:

"Not a problem...may I ask what specific aspect of the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes disagrees with you?"

"The fact that there are eleven thousand eight hundred forty-two lakes, to begin with. Every license plate is wrong. And it's freezing, no one can tolerate these temperatures and live."

"It's sixty-eight degrees."

"It's August!"

I bought this one. You can buy a copy here too.

Teaser Tuesday: Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I decided to take a break in my endless stream of review books are read a recent arrival on my TBR mountain. Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost is a paranormal romance and the latest by this well-known author. Here is the description:

After a tragic accident scarred her body and destroyed her dreams, Leila never imagined that the worst was still to come: terrifying powers that let her channel electricity and learn a person's darkest secrets through a single touch. Leila is doomed to a life of solitude...until creatures of the night kidnap her, forcing her to reach out with a telepathic distress call to the world's most infamous vampire...

Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all--but whatever you do, don't call him Dracula. Vlad's ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him - a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.

Teaser:

If not for my unfortunate tendency to electrocute everyone I touched, I could've made a nice stash doing palm readings, but as it was, I couldn't wait for my fifteen minutes of fame to be over. 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (July 16, 2012)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.


I had another great reading week. But the most exciting part was that I got myself an early birthday present. I bought a Kindle Touch to replace my old Generation 2 Kindle Keyboard. It arrived on Friday and I spent a good amount of time getting used to it and transferring some books onto it. Did you know that you can't just transfer books from NetGalley? You have to re-send them to the new Kindle. Unfortunately, the next couple of books on my TBR mountain are print books. I won't get a chance to use my new toy for a while.


Here are the young adult books I read:

I finally got to Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas on my review stack. I almost gave up on it because the formatting on the Kindle was really weird with lots of pages with odd black squares. But I am glad I persisted. I really liked the story and fell in love with Celaena. My review will be posted on August 2 for this August 7 release. I added this one to my next high school media center book order and pre-ordered myself a keeper copy too.

I pulled Storm by Brigid Kemmerer off my TBR mountain. This is a paranormal featuring not one but five hot guys and a girl who accidentally gets involved with them. It was pretty good. I do have the next book in the series on pre-order. My review will be posted on July 26.

The Magician's Apprentice by Kate Banks and illustrated by Peter Sis has been sitting on my review stack since last December. It will be published on August 7. This was a really odd story. It looked like a middle grade book but read more like Eastern mysticism. The writing was very lyrical but not a lot happens in the story. I found it baffling and am having trouble deciding who the audience for this title would be. My review will be posted on August 4.

Thanks to Tynga from Tynga's Reviews for pointing my way to these novellas in the Throne of Glass world - The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, The Assassin and the Desert, and The Assassin and the Underworld. Sarah J. Maas began releasing them in January to build excitement for the upcoming release of Throne of Glass. They were all entertaining and enriched the world and the characters I met in the novel. One more - The Assassin and the Empire - is being released on July 20 and I have already pre-ordered it. I am going to do one mass post about all four novellas on July 25.

Here are the adult books that I read this week:

I received Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood for review from a publicist at Dutton Adult. I really liked this new romantic suspense title. Olivia works for the IRS and Grayson works for the FBI but they come together when she gets in the way of an FBI sting. I liked the romance between the two of them and I liked that Olivia had such a complex back story that explained her reluctance to fall in love. My review will be posted on August 2.

Big Sky Mountain by Linda Lael Miller is a western romance. I am on the blog tour for this one. This was a sweet romance about two people who hurt each other getting back together to give love a second try. I really like the setting and characters in these romances. They are great for people who want down home sorts of romances but with some of Miller's usual sexiness. My review will be posted on August 8.

Grave of Angels by Michael Prescott is a thriller I got from Amazon Vine. This was an exciting and well-plotted story with lots of twists and turns. All of the characters were realistic and drawn in shades of grey. No black and white heroes and villains in this one! My review will be posted on August 4.

Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson was an urban fantasy that I grabbed from my TBR basket. I really liked this debut urban fantasy set in post-Katrina New Orleans. DJ is a wizard who has to search for her missing mentor, keep paranormals out of New Orleans, and deal with her sexy and irritating new partner Alex who has some secrets of his own. This was a quick read and very entertaining. My review will be posted on August 9.

I just finished re-reading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold and found this reading as satisfying and entertaining as my first reading. Bujold is an author that I can read over and over again with the same delight as the first time I read the stories. I love the characters. I was so glad to see Ivan find a bride and start on the way to a future that he wants.

The only hazard that I face when re-reading Bujold is finding myself consumed with the desire to read all the books again. There are 16 books in the Vorkosigan series, 4 in the Sharing Knife series, 3 in the Curse of Chalion series, and one stand alone title.

Next week, these are the ones on the top of the stack. All four of the young adult books are titles for review in August. Only 1 of the five adult books is a review book. The others were those that looked good when I went through the basket of adult books I brought home for the summer.

The Blood Keeper by Tessa Gratton is August 28 release I got from NetGalley. It is supposed to have horror, fantasy and romance. 

Glitch by Heather Anastasiu was an Amazon Vine pick. It will be released on August 7. It is science fiction/dystopia.

Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear is an August 8 release that I got from NetGalley. This is a fantasy with faeries that also has some steampunk elements.

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama is a September 4 release I got from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. This one has mermaids and ancient curses. 

Alpha Instinct by Katie Reus was a blogger recommended title about shifters.

A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean is historical fiction.

Angel's Flight by Nalini Singh is a collection of novellas.

Hexed by Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James and Jeanne C. Stein is a collection of four stories.

Immortally Yours by Angie Fox is the only review book in this bunch. It will be released on August 28 and is urban fantasy.

Those are my somewhat ambitious plans for the coming week. What did you read and what do you have planned?

Stacking the Shelves (July 15, 2012)

Tynga of Tynga's Reviews is starting a new meme to spotlight the books we receive each week. She explains at her site. She also does a very nice vlog each week showing her books.


I guarantee that your TBR pile will grow when you see all the wonderful books everyone gets. You will also discover lots of great blogs and lots of books that you won't be able to live without.


I had a really unusual week for me. I added six books to my stack and none of them were review books. Here are my additions to my Kindle:

Felicity Heaton was giving away copies of two of her shifter books this week. I got In Heat and In Heat: Mating Call. I can't resist books about shape shifters and the covers seem to indicate that these might be just a tad spicy. ;-)

I also got Grave Dance by Kalayna Price which is the second in her Alex Croft series. Now I have all three books available here in my summer home. I can have a marathon if I find the time.

I also got a few print books. I added Down the Darkest Road and Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag. I already have Deeper Than the Dead on my TBR mountain. I like her romantic suspense titles and decided to add to the series. Also, these were cheap hard cover copies from Amazon Marketplace. Each one cost less than a new paperback. 

Last, I got Coveted by Shawntelle Madison because I read a recommendation for it by an author I like. It sounded like an interesting debut urban fantasy with the added benefit of having werewolves.

ARC Review: Hidden: A Bone Secrets Novel by Kendra Elliot

Hidden: A Bone Secrets Novel
Author: Kendra Elliot
Publication: Montlake Romance (July 17, 2012)


Description: Eleven years ago, the Co-ed Slayer murdered nine female students on the Oregon State University campus. Lacey Campbell barely escaped his attack, but lost her best friend whose remains were never found. As the sole surviving victim, Lacey helped send the sadistic serial killer to prison for life.


Now a forensic odontologist examining teeth and bones for the state Medical Examiner, Lacey is devastated when she arrives at a crime scene and identifies the skeletal remains as her college friend’s.


The remains are discovered on the land of ex-cop Jack Harper. Sparks fly between him and Lacey, even as they realize that the prosecution’s witnesses from a decade ago are now being murdered one by one. All the evidence points to the Co-ed Slayer as the culprit—only, he’s long since dead. So who’s the new killer? And is Lacey next in line to die?


Golden Heart finalist Kendra Elliot combines chilling suspense and steamy romance in a gripping tale, uniting in-depth forensic knowledge with a passion for thrillers. Set in the snowy winter of Oregon, Hidden creates spine-tingling chills.


My Thoughts: This was a wonderfully complex mystery that I just couldn't put down. Lacey Campbell has suffered from survivor's guilt for years since her best friend Suzanne was kidnapped from in front of her leaving her beaten and injured. Her testimony helped convict the Co-Ed Slayer who had killed a number of young blond girls and left their tortured bodies to be found. However, Suzanne's body had never been located until Lacey, now a forensic odontologist, is called to the scene when some bones are discovered in the foundation on an aging apartment building. 

The building belongs to Jack Harper who is a former policeman who left the force because of an injury and who now owns a very successful property business. Jack was also one of the former boyfriends of one of the Co-Ed Slayer's earlier victims. 

But the Co-Ed Slayer died in prison. So who is responsible for the buried bones? And who is killing anyone connected with the case in gruesome torture-murders? Jack knows he isn't involved though the real killer is certainly trying to point the blame his way. He falls for Lacey and decides that he has to protect her. Lacey isn't short of protectors. Michael is a former boyfriend turned best friend and an investigative journalist. He is determined to protect her too and willing to throw Jack to the wolves along the way. Is Frank Stevenson the criminal? He's Lacey's ex and the split was very bitter. 

The story is told from multiple viewpoints. We hear from Lacey, Jack, Michael, the two police detectives who caught the crimes and who also have ties with the old Co-Ed Killer case and trial, and we peek into the mind of the killer and learn how he became the serial killer he now is. 

The story was very tense and exciting. Watching Lacey and Jack overcome their various issues and fall in love added to the intensity. I strongly recommend this one to lovers of romantic suspense. This is Kendra Elliot's first novel. I will be watching for her next book.


Favorite Quote:

She knew Michael had a need to look out for her because he believed she wasn’t doing a good job by herself. And maybe she wasn’t. She’d started talking with a man who had strong links to Suzanne’s case.

But talking with Jack Harper was the first time she’d felt a stirring of interest in a man in forever. After years of shutting people out and being numb, it’d felt good to experience that spark. Jack couldn’t be involved with Suzanne’s reappearance. Jack Harper was one of the good guys. She could sense it.

I received the ARC from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. You can buy a copy here.

Friday Memes: Hidden: A Bone Secrets Novel by Kendra Elliot

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week.
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Today I am spotlighting Hidden: A Bone Secrets Novel by Kendra Elliot which I just received from Amazon Vine. The book will be published on July 17. Here is the description:

Eleven years ago, the Co-ed Slayer murdered nine female students on the Oregon State University campus. Lacey Campbell barely escaped his attack, but lost her best friend whose remains were never found. As the sole surviving victim, Lacey helped send the sadistic serial killer to prison for life.

Now a forensic odontologist examining teeth and bones for the state Medical Examiner, Lacey is devastated when she arrives at a crime scene and identifies the skeletal remains as her college friend’s.

The remains are discovered on the land of ex-cop Jack Harper. Sparks fly between him and Lacey, even as they realize that the prosecution’s witnesses from a decade ago are now being murdered one by one. All the evidence points to the Co-ed Slayer as the culprit—only, he’s long since dead. So who’s the new killer? And is Lacey next in line to die?

Golden Heart finalist Kendra Elliot combines chilling suspense and steamy romance in a gripping tale, uniting in-depth forensic knowledge with a passion for thrillers. Set in the snowy winter of Oregon, Hidden creates spine-tingling chills.

Beginning:

Lacey Campbell stared across the hazy field of snow at the big tent pitched against the rundown apartment building. She inhaled a breath of icy air, letting it fill her lungs and strengthen her resolve.

Friday 56:

The big man lurched out of her chair and she took an instinctive step back into the hall, papers clasped to her  chest. She saw a flicker of embarrassment flash across his features as he realized he'd startled her.