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So I’ve finally gotten around to continuing through the world of magic Kelley Armstrong has created. Werewolves, Vampires and Half-Demons oh my! The world she has created is filled with magic and adventure, love and strife, making it feel as if you could simply step through and be there, experiencing every detail for yourself. Kelley Armstrong has not only written this amazing saga, but along with it, several short (and not so short) stories to supplement the details of the characters backgrounds. Such as how Hope and Karl met, in Chaotic, or the details about how Paige and Lucas came to have their own office to start their dream business given in El Chupacabra. Don’t stop at reading just the series, get behind the scenes and find out more about the characters you love.

Industial Magic features Paige and Lucas as they are sucked into helping the four Cabals find a serial killer murdering the teenage children of their employees. Jaime Vegas helps by contacting the deceased to find out what they remember, if anything, about how they died. In order to solve the distressing case, they have to bring in other members of the council and during the case realize that even Savannah is in danger. The Pack help out by taking Savannah in during the time Lucas and Paige are trying to find out who is tracking down and killing supernatural teens. During this novel you’ll find out more intricate details about Cabal families and their lives, how difficult it is to be in such a family for many children and how hard it truly is for Lucas when working with his father. You’ll get to see Cassandra and Aaron as well as a few other members of the council helping to find the murderer as quickly as possible. There’s quite a few adventures in this novel, including an accidental trip to the otherside - the Afterlife.

Haunted takes you into the Afterlife, a dimension where the dead continue their ‘lives’ - usually doing something they are good at. Eve Levine on the other hand, Savannah’s mother, is more concerned with finding a way to watch her daughter, and even be a part of her life, until a crazy Nix decides to induce people to start killing. This story originates in medieval times when a Nix accidentally traps itself in a human host and dies. The Nix has already trapped an angel - whom no one can find where - and driven another angel literally insane. It’s up to Eve to trap the Nix and put her back where she belongs, but she can’t do so without earning her wings. Can you imagine? Black Witch to Angelhood for Eve Levine? Using her afterlife, and even some living, contacts she gets the facts, tracks down and kicks ass. She’s heavy on the snark and the attitude, which may be off-putting to some, but when it comes to getting the job done, Eve is your witch.

Broken revisits Elena and the Pack. I normally dislike Elena, but I have gotten used to her jumping to do whatever she see’s fit to get the problem solved. I’ve even started to like her and feel bad about her having to endure a Toronto summer heavily pregnant while they try to find Jack the Ripper. You read that right. Jeremy, Clay and Elena take on a job from Xavier - a malicious half-demon who helped kidnap her previously - to steal the infamous From Hell letter. In retrieving the letter they accidentally open a portal which brings out two zombies and (possibly) Jack the Ripper. During this time Elena has been struggling with being pregnant and has been having nightmares regarding it. She’s capable of shifting into her wolf without complication, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t scared like most new mothers. Elena has even more fears. What happens if the baby is a girl and thefore not a werewolf? What happens if it’s a boy and is a werewolf? Fears most new mothers don’t need to worry about. Her nightmares continually plague her, and by extension, Clay. As overprotective and controlling as he usually is has multiplied tenfold during Elena’s pregnancy. Being as there have never been two werewolves documented in their past to have children, this is a new one for the entire Pack.

No Humans Involved features your favorite celebrity necomancer (that’s right!) Jaime Vegas! The sexy redheaded celebrity has been picked to join two other mediums on a tv-reality show called Death of Innocence and they are put into a house in L.A. to live. Jeremy Danvers takes time out of his busy Alpha schedule to visit with her and in turn help her solve the murder of 6 children who are unable to speak or otherwise communicate with Jaime. All they can do is touch her and speak in whispers that even her power cannot make out clearly. Jeremy is a great help during this novel with his werewolf skills to aid Jaime in finding out who murdered the children and how to possibly free them from their in-between state. You also get to meet Hope Adams and Karl even makes an appearance. The intriguing piece in this book is that it involved humans, despite the title. A group of humans are trying to find the link between themselves and magic and how to give it to themselves. They don’t believe the paranormal exists and some people in the group chase down and prosecute paranormal scammers. During their search to track down and put these people behind bars they find information that may lead them to bringing magic into the human world. The way they are going about it is the reason that Jaime and Jeremy have to stop them. Jaime may not be strong in physical sense but she is quite a huge help to the council in other ways and does know how to put her ‘flighty, flaky celebrity’ personality on the sidelines when working such a horrific case. If you’re someone who wants Jaime and Jeremy to get together, this is definitely the novel you don’t want to skip. You’ll find out what they decide to do about their feelings for each other and what Jaime decides to do with her insecurities and her life.

Personal Demon takes you on a thrill-ride only a Chaos Half-Demon could truly capture and enjoy. Hope Adams is featured in this novel and she’s not your normal half-demon. Most half-demons gain powers and none of the chaotic thrill that their fathers enjoy. With Hope she got the reverse. Being Lucifer’s daughter is hard enough (and he’s just another demon like Satan) but when the bliss of chaotic distress takes over you and blinds you completely as to what’s going on as you drink it in, you could not only endanger your life but the lives of those you love. Hope is trying still to learn how to control her need to feed that chaotic demon. You originally meet her in No Humans Involved trying to help Jaime and Jeremy find out who killed the children and what they need to do to keep it from happening again. In this novel Hope decides to pay her debt (If you read the short story Chaotic, you’ll read about the favor owed) to Benicio Cortez by infiltrating a gang trying to cause issues for the Cortez Cabal in Miami. Not only does Hope allow herself to enjoy the chaos thrills she’s experiencing by infiltrating the gang but she also decides to enjoy a little personal time with Jaz, one of the gang members who’s sexy smile and outgoing personality are exactly what she feels she needs to get over Karl Marsten. Eventually Karl finds out where she’s at and what’s going on and comes to Miami, which makes things all the hotter and more enjoyable to read. In this novel Hope is able to expand her control over her powers and use them to her advantage. With all the strife that happens in this thrilling page-turner Lucas and Paige have to step in and help Benicio run the Cortez Cabal. That’s right, Lucas steps in and turns to the dark side for a few moments, not because he has to but in order to help the father that he does truly love, even if he doesn’t want anything to do with the Cabal itself.

Living with the Dead features Karl and Hope back in L.A. helping Hope’s friend Robyn after losing her husband in a misunderstood shooting. Robyn is human though and has no idea what Hope and Karl really are, supernatural. This novel needs to be read slowly, as it tends to change point of view often and may cause confusion. There are other new characters introduced as well, who we’ll probably never see again, such as Finn. Finn is a detective on the LAPD who can see ghosts. He’s a very weak necromancer but has never known the term. Finn simply knows that his family line carries some strange anomaly that allows some of them to see ghosts. You’ll also get to meet several clairvoyants, who were supposedly a very rare race. I enjoyed the story because Hope and Karl were in it and I enjoy their characters because they are such a complicated pair. Karl struggles with his overprotective, controlling, oh god I have to sniff the ground behavior and Hope struggles to not be needy. I consider Hope a strong character but she does not consider herself strong. She dislikes asking Karl for his help let alone needing it. I like the fact that Karl is there, and will stand back, until she asks for his help. I’m not sure why she has an issue with that. I know they will make it as a couple if they stand back and look at how well suited they are for each other. Robyn may enter into later novels, but simply as a secondary character. I can’t quite figure out why Kelley Armstrong decided to ‘let a human in’ to the supernatural world. Perhaps this is a step to having them come out to the human population who outnumbers them exponentially? Let’s hope not, I’d see widespread extermination and genocide if that happens. I know this isn’t much of a review on this book, but you have to read it in order to continue the series, and with the constant change in view points it may be something you’ll want to read when you are waiting somewhere for something or want to get it done and over with to move onto the next novel.

Make sure you take the time to go behind the scenes and read the short stories. You can find them at Kelley Armstrong’s website for free. Some of them are (I feel anyway) long enough that they could stand as a novel. These stories are great if you’ve gone through the series and want something more about your favorite characters to read or if you’re biting your nails waiting for the next novel to come out. I am enjoying her novels more and more, even though I started out disliking Elena, even she has grown on me and I can’t wait to see her again. Enjoy!

Well I’ve finally gotten through books 1 - 3 of the Women of the Otherworld. Let me tell you, book 3 is GOOD. I enjoyed reading it even though I ended up stopping twice to let it sit and stew for a bit while I was reading it. I am drooling to get started on book 4 because it is also centered on Paige.

The first two were sort of hard to get through. I dislike Elena altogether. She doesn’t listen and she makes the same mistakes over and over and over again until you simply want to burn the book. Good thing my copies are digital or I’d have at least thrown them across the room.

Now don’t get me wrong. The books are good, I just didn’t like her. She’s a stubborn bitch in more ways than one. Read the books to get to know her and the other main characters, such as Paige and Leah. Skim through Elena’s more troublesome parts if you have to, but just get through them.

Other than my issues with Elena, the first three books are worth reading to get to know Paige, who you get to follow in book 3, Dime Store Magic, and get to know more about her, Savannah and the useless Coven. I absolutely loved the name when I found out where it came from and I’m sure you will, too.

With books 1 (Bitten) and 2 (Stolen) you’ll be learning about what Elena is (werewolf), how she ended up becoming one (bitten), how she controls herself (in the beginning of the story) and learning about her Pack and all the things that are going on in their world you begin to think they are all a little insane, but then I guess turning into a wolf makes you think, see and interpret things much differently than a normal human. The way she interacts with others is absolutely astonishing in many ways. Elena tends to be rude and ignorant from my personal opinion. She jumps into situations and tries to force others into her way of doing things, or goes without them at all. Instead of making intelligent arguments as to why she should be included in the planning processes of missions she goes behind backs and does her own thing without informing anyone as to what she’s planning.

So she ends up getting people into dangerous situations, which somehow or another, she lives through. Maybe she’s lucky, maybe it’s because she’s a werewolf, maybe it’s because she’s too stubborn to be killed? I don’t know, but at least it was interesting to see her get beaten up on and attempt to return the favor. The end of book two is pretty good. I like what she does to the Winsloe guy when they are in the tree. Read the book, you’ll like it too, being as he deserved it.

I think also at the end of book 2, Stolen, Elena learns that perhaps being a part of the Pack and having a relationship with Clay and being a werewolf isn’t so bad after all and seemingly starts on the road to accepting everything that has happened to her.

Book 3, Dime Store Magic, focuses on Paige as I said earlier and I definitely like her a lot better. She may not always make the right choices or think things through but she was already working on her control issues in book 2. Also, a lot of the situations she’s been put in aren’t her fault. The fault lies squarely with the situation from Book 2 and what happens with Leah there. Paige has to learn how to trust a sorcerer, believe not only that Cabals exist but are extremely powerful, realize that she has the key to bringing witches back into equal power status with sorcerers and figure out how to raise a girl who seems to be emotionally imbalanced.

With all the horrible things that happen to Paige at once, it’s amazing how well she holds together. The entire book is well written and I believe that there are people like Paige who simply start to breakdown and then realize they can’t allow themselves to breakdown just yet, one more day to get through and then things will be a little easier, or so they hope. She tries to be very logical about how she goes about things and tends to not be overemotional. I think she has that going for her and makes an excellent character because of it.

However, she does have a tendency to be stubborn at first when it comes to Lucas. She has a right though, finding out that he isn’t all that trustworthy. Savannah is a handful to deal with, being a teenager, being impetuous and slightly out of control. She’s quite powerful but doesn’t have full control over her witch-powers and doesn’t seem to care if normal people (non-supernaturals) get hurt due to her mistakes. She also refuses to apologize for anything she does that may get them hurt. Hopefully she learns a little control of her actions after the insanity that happened at the end of Dime Store Magic, which was caused by her.

The books are worth reading. Any comments from any of you who have read them and wish to contradict me (regarding my opinion of Elena or otherwise) are welcome if they are intelligent and not malignant. Have a great day!

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it here but I hate rollercoasters. I was on the Big Dipper at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio when I was like 9. My sister made me believe it would be fun. This roller coaster at the time was the best and highest (101 feet at the highest point) of those days back when. She took my glasses so I wouldn’t lose them and I couldn’t see jack. I hated every minute of it and the only thing I’ve been on since is something like the Demon Drop and a kiddie rollercoaster with my daughter. I hate them. Why am I telling you this during a book review? Because that is exactly how it felt to read this series.

I’ve read the first four books and, other than the rollercoaster aspect, I did like them. I think Cassie needs to grab someone, tie them down and force them to tell her answers without evasion. I also think she needs to talk Mircea into buying her a private island with some major defense so she can having a freaking week to simply lie down and sleep/relax/eat/whatever. Or hell, she could simply go somewhen and somewhere there isn’t someone trying to kill her for a week or so. And relax! I would!

The stories are non-freaking-stop someone is trying to kill me, everyone is trying to kill me, that guy wants to get me in bed and is kissing me (OMG) how amazing that is even though I’m bleeding and almost died three times today… and it keeps going and going, like the pretty Pink Bunny we all know and love to hate. Literally. It’s just absolutely amazing that this girl is stil alive, because I know damn well, if she were a real live person, she’d be dead. She’d be so dead and no one would be able to stop it because there’s just no way in hell anyone is that freaking lucky. Why do so many factions want her dead? Because she has power and she’s (supposedly) uncontrollable. If they can’t have control of her to ‘keep her safe’ and have her do every little thing they tell her to do ‘because it’s for the best’ then they want her dead so her power passes on to someone they can keep under their thumb.

Don’t get me wrong now. Yes, I am complaining and I have a right to do so. The books are good. The storyline is good. The constant running from death thing gets a little bit much and you tend to be like.. “Um yeah, someone’s trying to kill you again but there’s another book so I know you live” then you skim through it just to get it over with. And there’s some really great sex scenes that never get to sex. There are like two times she has sex in the entire series so far where sex is actually completed. Everything else is a tease, but it is a good, long, juicy tease. If there is one thing she knows, Karen Chance can write a sex scene that doesn’t contain actual sex that will get you hot and bothered. After the second actual sex scene I don’t even know if she has sex! She has somewhat of a relationship, which we don’t know if it’s exclusive, that’s considered a marriage in the vampire world, that she says she was never asked about, even though she gave her permission for the claim in the first place, but didn’t understand what she was doing to begin with.

Cassandra Palmer is the one character I’d love to slap. She knows nothing, which isn’t entirely her fault since she was refused teaching as a child where she grew up. Fine and dandy. She’s an adult now and is constantly running for her life, without actually leaving the city she’s living in. Everyone who wants to kill her knows where she is and I can’t figure out why she’s not dead yet. Now that she’s all grown up and has all this power that she doesn’t entirely know how to use you’d think she’d say ‘give me some answers’ or ‘train me in magical self-defense’ but instead relies on others to keep her alive. Which is very hard for them to do since she’s always running off getting herself into trouble and, again, almost dying.

There you have it. Rollercoaster between almost getting killed and almost sex. That sums it up right there. If you’re interested in trying out the saga, you’ll want to start with Touch the Dark. I hope you enjoy it more so than I did, or that you love rollercoasters.

Once again Richelle Mead has outdone herself with the fourth book, Blood Promise, in the Vampire Academy series. You’ll follow Rose as she travels through Russia and SIberia killing Strigoi and learning more secrets about her own world that she didn’t find out due to not graduating. She’s searching for Dimitri in hopes to release him from his Strigoi self and gets more than she bargained for.

You’ll meet Sydney, a secret part of the Moroi world, who thinks that all Dhampirs and Moroi are dark and twisted like the Strigoi, if not as much. She helps Rose against her will to get where she needs to go and gets a sweet car out of the deal. Even though they may not be the best of friends they certainly become allies.

Following Rose through this book while she searches for Dimitri you’ll relive moments of her and Dimitri together as she reminisces during her search and while she visits with his family. During her stay with the Belikova family, Rose learns a lot about Dimitri’s past and his family immediately considers her one of their own, going so far as indicating they’d be thrilled if she decided to stay with them.

Rose learns a lot about the other side of Dhampir life from Dimitri’s family. They aren’t all Blood Whores as she grew up hearing, they simply want to raise their children and live their lives.

During her stay with the Belikova family a local ‘mobster’ type decides that he needs to run her out of town but refuses to tell her why. He keeps an eye on her, following her around and showing up when unexpected. Rose learns about who this man is exactly when she finally returns to St. Vladimir’s Academy in Minnesota.

While on the other side of the world Lissa is slowly spiraling out of control and doing more and more dangerous stunts while drinking and partying with a new friend, Avery. All Rose can do is watch what’s happening but she’s so tied up in what’s going on with her at the moment that she tells Adrian to back off and leave her alone when he visits her dreams. Rose feels that Lissa has replaced her and simply focuses on what she’s got to do and decides to worry about her later.

Blood Promise will keep you on your toes and a tissue in one hand. Rose finds what she’s looking for, Dimitri, and almost doesn’t survive the meeting. She gets a special package when she returns to the Academy and it drops her to her knees. There’s the hope of a miracle in the future but Rose and Lissa will have to break some serious laws to find out for sure and that may just get them killed for sure.

Remember, Blood Promise isn’t the first book, it’s the fourth. You’ll want to start with Vampire Academy before cracking the cover on this one. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have, through laughter and tears both.

At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to read the entire series (currently 6 books, plus 1 to come) or not. Then it got interesting. Picture this: College girl, somewhat naive, goes to a party, doesn’t get taken home properly but raped instead. She throws herself out of the asshole’s vehicle and after asking her if she wanted a ride home, he drives off. This is (of course) the night of the full moon and she’s near the picnic area of the park.

This isn’t where the story starts off, though. This is simply the explanation of how Kitty got to where she is at the beginning. And then things heat up even more. You see, she’s a werewolf. Named Kitty. She’s a DJ at a little station in Denver and plays all kinds of heavy and classic rock late at night. It all starts when she can’t keep her mouth shut and she starts talking about the things that go ‘bump in the night’ and taking calls.

At first people think it’s a joke, a way to boost ratings, and then someone tries to kill her while she’s on the air and she has to admit what she is. She could have saved herself the trouble simply by having the show go off the air but she was too hyped up about what it would mean for ratings and so forth.

After this Kitty is launched nationally on the airwaves, exiled from her pack and Denver and living on the road going from city to city. Her adventures take you all over and she befriends the hunter, Cormac and even puts his lawyer, Ben (who’s also Cormac’s cousin) on retainer. The story doesn’t end there. Find out what happens between Cormac and Kitty (werewolf hunter and werewolf), how Kitty brings the monsters into the light of day and saves a bunch of them as well, and how she returns home to Denver.

Again, I didn’t think I’d like this series but the characters are well written, no one is perfect and arguments aren’t always reasonable. They are quite human, so to speak. So take a chance and read them, you’ll like what you’re getting into. I’ve read the first 4 and I plan on reading the rest. Enjoy!

Honey and I thought we’d like the TrueBlood series on HBO but after watching a few episodes it didn’t seem to be our thing. Now that I’ve read the first 8 books I may have to check it out again for myself. If anyone out there has read the books and watches the series, let me know what you think.

The books are excellent reads. They didn’t make me cry like the Vampire Academy books did, but they did make me laugh quite a bit. I feel bad for Sookie a lot of the time with the things that happen to her. She’s just trying to use her gift (or curse) to help someone. I like the fact that even though she’s almost been killed several times she still continues to help the vampires and the Weres.

If you like a lot of action, puzzles or mysteries, you’ll enjoy trying to figure out who’s behind what, why someone did such and such and if you know people in the south you may even end up hearing the book in your head in a southern accent. Weird, I know, but it happens to me that way. I have truly started prefering books that are written in first person as well. I think it was great insight of Charlaine Harris to make Sookie a telepath so that you can find out what others are thinking. It’s got to be very hard to not have Sookie helping everyone and revealing everyone’s secrets and turning in those who are supposed to be lawful and aren’t.

I like Sookie. She’s one of my more favorite characters lately. I’m surprised that Charlaine hasn’t had her taking self defense classes with all the trouble that keeps coming after her. But then again, between work and crisis after crisis it would be kind of hard to work that into your schedule. So take the time to sit down and read the books, not just watch the series on HBO. You might get more insight by reading the books than watching the shows, as is normal.

It’s actually cheaper to buy the first 7 all together.