Jager's Mate: Roxie #2

Daylen is a cop, and a good one. When she discovers two men sword fighting in an alley during one of her nightly patrols, she confronts them, ordering them to put down their weapons. One of the men takes off running, surprising her with his speed. With one man left, she knows she'll have to take him down when he ignores her demands. With her suspect in her grasp, her world turns upside down when he pins her to the ground and kisses her senseless.

Jager knows no wilting flower, werewolf or mortal, would ever survive as his mate, but this cop has all the right moves. Her scent leaves no doubt this mortal woman is his, and after tasting her lips, he knows claiming her will be a challenge. The bigger problem, however, might be her obsession to arrest him whenever they meet. As their passion flares, he'll do anything it takes to make her his mate.

These tales of Chenery don't offer much (save for sex), but there is a bit of comedy to her plots in the Protector's series. I also finished 'The Wolf in the Woods' and 'Love's Nest' by Chenery this week. I enjoy the Strange Hollow series (Love's Nest is the second book, Jinx & Her Werewolf was the first), but there's just not much to say.



Link: Roan's Fall: Roxie's Protectors #1

Movie: Inception

Ever since Romeo&Juliet, Leonardo DiCaprio has had the hardest time finding a soft spot in my heart. He still hasn't found it, but I did appreciate his role in Inception.

3rd Rock From The Sun has had a similar impact on Joseph Gordon-Levitt but he rocked this one. It was as much his film as it was Leo's.

This movie is wicked awesomeness!

Strangely enough, this movie has not been very popular at the theater. Not as popular as it should be. I guess when you say it's about a guy that can infiltrate your dreams there's an immediate turn off. But damn, that's only the beginning.

Cobb can delve into a person's mind, to the core of their subconscious. And he is the best as what he does. For that, he's presented with the job of entering the mind of one of the most successful businessmen in the world and to plant an idea in his head. Yes, this all about money. But not for Cobb. He wants to go home to his children and there's a semi-complicated reason why that's an impossibility at the moment.

So he assembles a team of very intelligent, very successful people and sets forth on achieving what is the impossible - inception - and plant an idea without the target ever knowing it was planted at all.

This is a psychological film. Most people out there likely will not appreciate the logic. But for those, there's action. And woh, is there action! The hallway... the tri-level dreams... limbo... and at the core is an emotional love story.

I lost myself in the craziness. At one point, when Fischer stands face to face with the door to his subconscious, I had this dawning realization. Everything they did... was to plant a single idea. Just an idea.

In the end, though, I dare you to try to remember the names of the characters. I couldn't. There was too much going on for that... and you'll be holding your breath to the very end!

Cast in CHAOS, Elantra #6

I anticipate the next book of the Elantra series every year just so it can build me up... tear me down... and, once read, make me feel relieved to have survived it.

Kaylin Neya is a Hawk, part of the elite force tasked with keeping the City of Elantra safe. Her past is dark, her magic uncontrolled and her allies unpredictable. And nothing has prepared her for what is coming, when the charlatans on Elani Street suddenly grow powerful, the Oracles are thrown into an uproar and the skies rain blood…

The powerful of Elantra believe that the mysterious markings on Kaylin’s skin hold the answer, and they are not averse to using her–how ever they have to-in order to discover what it is.

Something is coming, breaking through the barriers between the worlds. But is it a threat that Kaylin needs to defend her city against–or has she been chosen for another reason entirely?

July 20th. 5:12 PM

*giddy as can be*

CAST IN CHAOS!

Seriously, this deserves some amazing intro music. Okay, okay, okay. Imagine the TKO voice from Mortal Combat. Duh Duh Duh... CAST IN CHAOS!

I was loveloveloving Dark Obsession (Shadow Destroyers #4 by Sydney Somers) but I just had to put it down for Severn. Parker wasn't doing so bad though. He and Rae have a great story to tell. Thankfully I'm only working a few hours the next couple of days. Yippee!

In the sixth installment, the windows are gaining personalities and the skies are raining blood. Wow. How do you not look at that sentence and wonder what the hell am I reading?

July 21st. 4:21 PM

In this book, Kailyn decides she wants to know what it is that the guys (Severn and Nightshade) want from her. What they're in this for. What they expect. Blah blah blah. And because Nightshade is a bastard and I don't care for him I'm going to skip his reply. This, on the other, more regal, hand, was Severn's:

"If I want what you can't give, if I want what you don't want, and you try to give it to me, either because you feel that I'm owed-" He shook his head. "I don't spend a lot of time around other people. As a Wolf, there wasn't much time. But I did spend time observing other couples. And that interaction-it doesn't work. Never has. You take two fairly decent people, people you like, people you more or less respect, and you put them together like that, where they're both trying to be things they aren't because it's what the other person needs-it's painful. As its worst, they're both feeling hurt, and they both see the other person as a villain.
If I need something you can't give, I need to walk away, because sooner or later, all I'll see is what you can't give. I won't be able to see what you can."

I found it strange he used the word 'couples'. Hmm...

Now I don't consider Kailyn a very random person but she sure as hell knocked me out of the boat in this one. Here she is, in the void of time, squaring off with the Devourer, and she spews out 'What do you love about me?'

I mean What? Really?

And Severn doesn't say much - ever - but definitely lit up the pages in Chaos. The man is good! And he has sent so many balls in Kaylin's court the chick could build a ball pit. Seriously.

And OMG, the guy gets into the end zone and out of nowhere - bam! Somebody mentions Steffi and Jade and suddenly there's a flag on the field and the guy gets moved back ten yards. Yes, Steffi and Jade are once again an issue. Enough already!

All in all... four stars. I'm saving five for when I finally get a damn kiss between Severn and Kaylin!!

Oh and btw, this book does not have 416 pages as Goodreads reported. It has 503. And I starred eleven different pages. More if you count the back of a page separately. Severn was on a roll!

She turned her back on him and stripped off most of her clothing, tossing it all over her shoulder and onto the floor. Then she shuffled over to the window-side of the bed.
He laughed. It wasn't an entirely happy laugh.
"What?"
"I'll sleep here." (in a chair)
"It's not as if we didn't share a bed for most of our--"
"You were younger."
"So were you."
"It would be more difficult now--for me. I'll watch," he added, smoothing the edges off his words. "Sleep."
And she did, thinking as she drifted off, that she really didn't understand Severn.

Need Me

Nika has trained her body into a deadly weapon--the better to take what she wants from any world, especially the well-protected planet Belton. But the...more Nika has trained her body into a deadly weapon--the better to take what she wants from any world, especially the well-protected planet Belton. But the moment she sees Lt. Brendon Marshall, her weapon is turned against her. A man like him could incinerate a woman's priorities with one look. And since he's guarding the very object of her desire, it could be so simple to use him and never look back. As long as she can ignore a more intense pleasure than she's ever known--and a wilder need than she's ever imagined...

Brenden is a slut. He'll bed any willing woman he can get his hands on. And it's that fact that jump starts the book as the lieutenant gets caught screwing his superior officer while they're both on duty. So he gets his dumb ass demoted and *still* has not learned his lesson.

His saving grace though, aside from that he just amuses me (as well does his friends), is the same thing that melts me for every typical man out there. Once Brenden meets Nika, and she screws with his head a little bit, no other woman will do it for him. When he even tries to take another to get his mind off of Nika, the chick only disgusts him.

But don't get me wrong. The man is a slut.

Nika is a former love slave who found her freedom after the war ended two years ago. Since then she has been trained by a planet of women to be a warrior, and in this instance, a thief. She has been chosen to steal the sperm of the royalty of Brenden's planet.

Go ahead and lol.

And as fate would have it, there's a certain male slut that's been charged with guarding those ever so popular sperm.

Nika tickled me. She kept screwing up. First, she gives Brenden her real damn name although she has secured a very nice alias for herself then she goes on to curtsy like the whore she was, which announces to Brenden and his male superior that she was -being redundant- a whore.

And we're back to Brenden being a slut cuz when Nika is forced to flip the script (and yes, I just vocally said 'flip the script' and continued to type it) he does not back off despite the caution tingling his insides. Oh no. He's taking what he can get.

*sigh*

Around the middle of the book, Brenden starts to piece everything together which yes, took him entirely too long to do, but anyway.. it was so sad. With each part of the puzzle he was fitting together you could just feel bits of his heart breaking away. It was then that it actually dawned on me that Brenden needed be a slut. Crazy huh? Seriously. Most of the time it's just a fun little detail that just creates a more interesting character, but Brenden's history really brought every response he had to Nika's deception together. Also loved how he kept going back and forth between calling her Rebecca or Nika. He truly had no idea what to think. It all made him so human. So real. Really really real.

Snippets...

"I loathe you, Nika," he muttered brokenly, even as his grips loosened. "I hate what you've done to me and to the military. But especially to me."

"But why?" Ryder's tone sharpened. "What is she to you, besides just another woman you've bedded? Wait, I can answer that. She is a thief. A woman who used her body to seduce you and steal from the military."
Brenden shook his head, fighting the urge to resort to his inner child and cover his ears to stop the onslaught of bitter words.
"She betrayed you in one of the worst ways," Emmett continued. "And still you would try and protect her? To save her?"
"Yes."
Ryder's brows rose and he shook his head, looking genuinely confused. "But why?"
"Because I love her."

and for my sadistic side...

"You're even more beautiful," he (Leo) murmured, his face moving closer to hers, "when you have fear in your eyes."

twelve 11 thirteen

Returning from a late night run to the drugstore, Jervis Tidmouth witnesses a strangely disfigured man enter a neighboring apartment. Unsettled by the grotesqueness of the man's appearance and certain that a young woman lives in the apartment alone, he cannot rid himself of the thought that something may be amiss.

Increasingly convinced by discoveries made during the night, Tidmouth roils in indecision and fear, inching toward a confrontation as much with his own manifesting paranoia as with whatever truth he might uncover.

This one's a bit hard to review. For me. It seems others have no problem whatsoever. What I love/hate about D'Stair's work is how focused the stories are. You are given one character that will carry the story from beginning to its completion, all the while, all you know is only what that single character comes to realize, to think, or to feel. Meanwhile, there's an entire world revolving around him closing in. A lot of questions are left unanswered. Which is good. And bad.

There were a couple of reviews of 'twelve ELEVEN thirteen' that I enjoyed. The following by Darcia Helle was my favorite.

Pablo D'Stair's short novels are literary masterpieces that delve into the sudden madness of otherwise average people. His latest, twelve ELEVEN thirteen, takes his readers on a similar journey with unique characters and writing so vivid that you not only see it unfold in your mind but you hear it, taste it, smell it, and feel it.

In this story, we follow Jarvis, an average guy battling a nasty virus. One brief encounter sparks a thought that festers within his imagination, sending him into a gradual tumble of madness. As with his other novels, D'Stair does not supply all the answers. Instead, he supplies the portrait that allows readers to reach their own conclusions

Movie: Clash of the Titans

I am becoming quite a fan of Mr. Sam Worthington. First caught sight of his pretty face in Terminator Salvation where I wished in futile that he would live and let John Connor just die already. He had me in Avatar, despite the blue complexion and freakish tail.

Clash Of The Titans was oh so good!! Perhaps it's just my weakness for the Greek gods cuz, yeah, they're the shit!


Another tale of Perseus. The original this time. I did *not* like how they changed the myth of him though. Perseus was the bastard son of Zeus and Danae, the daughter of the mortal king Acrisius. In the movie, Danae was introduced as Acrisius' wife. Actually they changed a lot!

Synopsis:

A remake of the 1981 mythical adventure film about the myth of Perseus. To win the right to marry his love (Andromeda) and fufill his destiny, Perseus must complete various quests and battle both Medusa and the Kraken monster in order to save the Princess Andromeda.

Bull. Shit.

Nothing like that. He barely knew Andromeda. He did everything for his father and man. Yeah, they changed everything. For the better.



I loved Io. She kicked ass.

Wicked effects. Ridiculous action.

I am a happy girl.

The Last Airbender, Movie

Thursday night, 'The Matt' and I went to the theater to see The Last Airbender, a movie by M. Night Shyamalan.

Before attending, co-workers (non-fans of the Nickelodeon show) told me that the acting just plain sucks. And yes, I can see that. I was writhing in agony during the first part of the movie because of all the horrid acting.

But then, I had a thought. This *was* ripped from a cartoon. Listening to the dialogue and imagining the words spilling from animated characters helped a lot. It's just one of those things that doesn't cross over well to a live action film.

Now the worst attributes of the movie were a couple things. One... the altered pronunciation of the names. I don't care if it's more accurate or less accurate, keep the damn names the same. Aang was pronounced Ong, instead of the long 'A' sound as in Nick's series. Sokka was said SOAK-UH instead of SOCK-UH. Those were the only two which stood out even more because those two characters were the most changed in becoming *real* people. Aang was no longer a fun loving kid. He was numb. Sort of void. Then Sokka, whose facial expressions and squeaky voice made him so loveable... well, all that was gone. He became even more pointless.

Zuko was my favorite of the show and remained so in the movie. They didn't demonize him, at all. Which, being the 'bad guy' is an easy thing to do. However!!!! They did give him hair. Which, ya know, he didn't have in the beginning. He got that later. Duh!

There were no Asians. (Okay, so a few) And I laugh at that because the show was inspired by anime and yet they did everything to keep that out of your mind. Perhaps it would have gone over better if it had been portrayed with that vision... but yeah, that's just a thought.

There was a lot of narration, especially during some parts where it was used to 'fast forward' so that we could jump through the meeting process of the northern water tribe. Also understandable, it did bug me.

The best part of this film were the effects *and* the artistry in the movements as they bended their elements. Now, I have no background whatsoever in the martial arts, so I can't offer much from that point of view but what I saw was GORGEOUS!

Shyamalan does make his famous one-per-movie appearance which is always a cute add in.

Overall, the show is so much better. It's a nice try. Definitely worth telling the whole story. But... I have a difficult time believing people that are not familiar with the show are going to truly adore this movie, its characters, or its plot line.

So uh, yep, that's my lowdown. XD

Hot-Shots

July 2010
Free e-books offered by total-E-bound Publishing

29 Total







01] A SEX GOD by Ashley Ladd
02] ARRAN'S LURE by Saskia Walker
03] BETTER LEFT UNSAID by Ellen Ashe
04] BRIGAND LOVE by Isabelle Drake
05] CHANCE ENCOUNTER by Shermaine Williams (f/f)
06] COME TO ME by Desiree Holt
07] DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL by Ashley Ladd (Two couples. All soldiers. All bi.)
08] EVANGELINE by Sedonia Guillone
09] FAST CARS, LOUD MUSIC by Sam Winston
10] GOING DOWN by Lexie Davis
11] HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME by Barbara Huffert (Eww eww eww)
12] HER DAWGIE VALENTINE by Tonya Ramagos
13] HONKY-TONK by Summer Jordan
14] JESS'S NEW TOY by Dakota Rebel
15] MIDNIGHT DESIRES by Kris Norris
16] PASSION'S WINGS by Alysha Ellis
17] PHOTO FINISH by Alexis Fleming
18] SEX IN A SUIT by Ann Cory
19] SIREN SONG by Shermaine Williams (f/f/m)
20] SOMETHING BORROWED by Lisabet Sarai (m/m/f)
21] SUMMER EXPOSURE by Victoria Blisse
22] THAT NIGHT IN PARIS by Saskia Walker (m/f | f/f)
23] THE INTERVIEW by Lisabet Sarai (mult)
24] THE NAUGHTY SECRETARY by Ashley Ladd
25] THIEVES' HONOUR by Lisabet Sarai
26] TO COMFORT A VAMPIRE by Victoria Blisse
27] WATCH ME by Lexie Davis
28] WORDLESS by Charlotte Stein
29] YES, SHE CAN by Jude Mason


So apparently just because a man and a woman are portrayed on the cover of a book in the throes of ecstasy, it doesn't necessarily mean the book has anything to do with a MAN and a WOMAN. Go figure. I did get to read my first orgy in this experience. Nasty things happened there.

Under My Umbrella

Fated, Book 1

Rain, rain, go away. That's Jenna's mantra as she suffers through yet another rain-soaked walk home from work. At least the tight butt of the guy walking in front of her offers some distraction. When he turns around and asks to share her umbrella, she realizes his front view is as smokin- as the back. What better way to get up close and personal with the object of her ogling?

Brett noticed his hot little neighbor weeks ago, but until now hadn't worked up the nerve-or found the opportunity-to approach her. Too many hours at the fire station has left him longing for something more out of life. Like the company of a sweet, sexy woman. Maybe, if he's lucky, kindling a relationship.

Jenna surprises herself again when she offers to let him dry off in her apartment. One minute he's toweling off his hair, the next their chemistry explodes in the hottest sex either of them have ever experienced. And suddenly they're both wondering if he's the match to her tinder, or if it's too much, too fast.

Warning: Contains smokin- hot sex with a delicious stranger who turns out to be her neighbor who turns into the hottest firefighter she's ever met. Grab a glass of ice water to cool these flames!

I loved this one. Definitely a must read for those into pure-hearted firefighters.

There's a sense of rationality in this one that's not always present in these fantasy romance tales. You pick up a guy in the middle of a rainstorm on the way home from work, you better have one or two second thoughts. It's got the steamy sex plus all the Ooo's and Aww's of two people falling in love yet afraid to admit it.

And hey, the cover has my favorite book cover models.

Yays for Under My Umbrella!