January Through June 2011 Reads – Star Ratings

Books I read in January through June this year. Separated into star ratings, then listed by order in which I read them. All up at GoodReads. Some reviews here on my WordPress. Does not include books that I didn’t finish, because I’ve deleted them from my catalogue, and likely my memory.

Let me know if you decide to read or not to read them, based on my ratings. Because yes, I am that egocentric 😉

5 STARS: Rage (Jackie Morse Kessler), American Vampire (Jennifer Armintrout), Project 17 (Laurie Faria Stolarz), The Gathering (Kelley Armstrong), The Repossession Mambo/Repo Men (Eric Garcia), Moongazer (Marianne Mancusi), Wither (Lauren DeStefano), Girl Hero (Carrie Jones)

4 STARS: Outside In (Maria V. Snyder), Stocking Full of Coal (Amanda Feral), The Walled Garden (Michele Lang), The Shadow Runners (Liz Maverick), The Vespertine (Saundra Mitchell), Linger (Maggie Stiefvater), Dark Life (Kat Falls), Demonized (Naomi Clark), The Reckoning (Kelley Armstrong), Midnight Alley (Rachel Caine), Feast of Fools (Rachel Caine), Lord of Misrule (Rachel Caine), Carpe Corpus (Rachel Caine), Fade Out (Rachel Caine), Coming Home (P. D. Martin), Kiss of Death (Rachel Caine), XVI (Julia Karr), Ghost Town (Rachel Caine), The Girl in the Steel Corset (Kady Cross), Matched (Ally Condie), Uninvited (Amanda Marrone), The Bradbury Report (Steven Polansky), Uninvited (Justine Musk), Exile (Rebecca Lim), Helper12 (Jack Blaine), Darkness Becomes Her (Kelly Keaton)

3 STARS: Jealousy (Lili St. Crow), Among the Betrayed (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Among the Barons (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Becoming (Kelley Armstrong), Shadow Days (Andrea Cremer), Day of Fire (Kathleen Nance), Dreaming Anastasia (Joy Preble), Things Bogans Like, Beyond Heaving Bosoms (Sarah Wendell & Candy Tan), Fugitives (Alexander Gordon Smith), The Power of Two (Patti O’Shea), Coming Undone (Lauren Dane), In the Arms of Stone Angels (Jordan Dane), The Iron Witch (Karen Mahoney), Damaged (Yolanda Sfetsos), Falling Freestyle (Vivian Arend), Jeweled (Anya Bast), Thyla (Kate Gordon), It Takes a Village Idiot and I Married One (Alex Borstein & Cherry Chevapravatdumrong), Burn Bright (Marianne de Pierres), A Touch Mortal (Leah Clifford), Night and Chaos (Naomi Clark), Savage Transformation (Lexxie Couper), The Official Illustrated Guide (Stephenie Meyer), Exit Strategy (Kelley Armstrong), Made to Be Broken (Kelley Armstrong), You Are So Undead to Me (Stacey Jay), Hereafter (Tara Hudson), Relentless (Lauren Dane), The Scarlet Empress (Susan Grant), Close Encounters (Katherine Allred), Perfect Cover (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), Killer Spirit (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), West End (Laura Van Wormer), Moon Sworn (Keri Arthur)

2 STARS: Defiance (Lili St. Crow)

Dita Von Teese vs. Macmillan

Dita Von Teese Files Suit for Illegal Image

I remember telling Patti O’Shea that the woman on her In Twilight’s Shadow cover looked like Dita Von Teese. Patti said she didn’t know who Dita was; would have to do some Googling.

As we all know, authors don’t have much – if any – say on cover art, so don’t let this turn you off Patti and her books. (I own The Power of Two, published by Dorchester, not Macmillan.)

Click on the article link above to see Dita’s face. Make your own judgement. Unfortunately, I think the faces are rather similar, if not the same person. Sorry, Macmillan. I have no insider information, and am judging strictly by appearances only. This will not stop me from buying, reading and reviewing your books.

Cat with Books

Not so much a “nightwalker” as an “afternoon napper”, but still…

Manny with:

*Susan Grant’s The Legend of Banzai Maguire and The Scarlet Empress
*Kathleen Nance’s Day of Fire
*Liz Maverick’s The Shadow Runners
*Patti O’Shea’s The Power of Two
*Jocelynn Drake’s Nightwalker

Eye on 2176

There’s a particular book on my shelf I’m avoiding reading – because it has things in common with my story (whose synopsis I still need to work on). There’re both futuristic, and both set in the same part of the world. In fact, those two things are probably what inspired me to create my story in the first place. So I’m afraid to read in case there are similarities, or (more likely) this other writer’s ideas will be so much better than mine that I’ll lose all interest in my story 😉

I’m talking about Liz Maverick’s The Shadow Runners. It’s book 3 in the multi-authored five-part 2176 series. I was reminded of the series today, and decided to research. And the books sound totally up my alley.

Susan Grant
The Legend of Banzai Maguire (2176, Book 1)
Dorchester Love Spell (April 2004)
Buy
The year: 2006. The mission: routine. Or so U.S.A.F. pilot Bree “Banzai” Maguire thinks. Then she’s shot down over enemy airspace, captured and put in bio-stasis. When she wakes, everything’s changed. It’s one hundred and seventy years later. 2176: the world is in crisis, and she’s a hotly contested prize. Once, Banzai’s job was to protect democracy; now a mysterious voice claims she must bring it back. Two men vie for her heart. Kyber, her captor, the rich, ruthless Emperor Prince of Asia, has all a man could desire. Then there’s U.C.E. SEAL commander and would-be rescuer Ty Armstrong. He has all the right moves. With two such choices, Banzai regrets she has but one heart to give for her country.

Kathleen Nance
Day of Fire (2176, Book 2)
Dorchester Love Spell (May 2004)
Buy
Canada: For over a century it’s been closed off, quarantined. Now, in 2176, its people thrive. The country still needs peacekeepers, though – and the Mounties are there. Be It All. Do It All. Those are the high-tech police force’s twin mottos. They’re Day Daniels’s mottos, too. But things are heating up. Someone or something called the Shadow Voice is broadcasting treason, and Day’s determined to stamp it out. Seeking the source of the threat, she meets Lian Firebird, an enigmatic government operative. He offers – no, insists – upon joining her trek to the legendary Citadel. Well, Day decides, Mounties work alone, but she can still do and be it all – even with this hunk at her heels.

Liz Maverick
The Shadow Runners (2176, Book 3)
Dorchester Love Spell (June 2004)
Buy
Newgate, Australia: In the 22nd century, history repeats itself. Part penal colony, part dumping ground for toxic waste, the land is controlled by “the Parliament,” a gang of dissipated self-styled aristocrats. To survive here, you have to know the tricks. Like Jenny Red. She’s been Down and made it out to tell the tale. But D’ekkar Han Valoren – the bastard son of the Emperor that Jenny’s family was accused of destroying – knows Jenny escaped, and he wants her to take him back in. Okay, maybe she’ll help Deck’s team of rebels, his Shadow Runners, like he asks. But not because he’s holding anything over her. No, she’ll do it because of what was once between them. Because of the revolution of her heart.

Patti O’Shea
The Power of Two (2176, Book 4)
Dorchester Love Spell (2nd November 2004)
Buy
The U. C. E.: In the 21st and 22nd centuries, the United States changed and grew. Now the “United Colonies of Earth” dominate the globe. But a mysterious voice is broadcasting treason, inciting revolution and referring to an enigmatic figure named Banzai Maguire. To find Banzai, the U.C.E. assigns Cai, whose neural implants allow her to sit back in a control chair and feed information to her partner, the dark-souled Jacob Tucker. He’s as rigid as he is deadly…or handsome. But this time, Cai needs Jake to trust her completely. Whether he likes it or not, she can’t sit back while he fights the bad guys. Wherever this mission takes her, Cai is gonna be the one kicking a little tail.

Susan Grant
The Scarlet Empress (2176, Book 5)
Dorchester Love Spell (7th December 2004)
Buy
Shot down over Korea, modern-day U.S.A.F. fighter pilot Cameron “Scarlet” Tucker is put in bio-stasis. She wakes 170 years later to find her best friend survived, too – the “legendary” Banzai Maguire is being held for treason in the country that was once her beloved United States. Cam has her own problems. She’s in the masterful hands of Kyber, the emperor prince whom Banzai just escaped. And he won’t get fooled again. With a mysterious Shadow Voice urging world revolution, and her friend in chains, Cam wants the sexy dictator on her side – and maybe even closer. But her role in the thrilling mission to save her country must come first. It’s time to give a royal butt-kicking, and Cam knows just where to start.