Sunday, December 30, 2007

Prezzies for Ye Olde Birthday Bitch



Happy Birthday to MEEEEE
Add another year to my
Half Centuryyyyyyy
Happy Birthday to MEEEeeee
Happy Birthday to ME!


Oh, Look! Party Games!




And Prezzies!







And here comes my Josh!



PhotobucketAnd he brought me a Birthday Cake!









AAAAAWWWWWWW! How sweet... he even tried to wrap a prezzie for me!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Holiday Confections


I've shopped (started AND finished on the 22nd), I've cooked and cooked some more, I've decorated, I've wrapped, I've cleaned a year's worth of dust off everything in my house, I've hosted the gathering of the clan on Christmas Day, and I've returned gifts. Now I've started the end of calendar year work (not to be confused with next month's end of fiscal year work).

But tonight, I've got visions of sugar plums dancing in my head...

Christmas Island


And a couple more because what are the Holidays without a heapin' helpin' of sweet beefcake nut clusters?

Brokeback Igloo


Coming Out on Christmas Day


I hope everyone had a


(pssst... don't tell Sybil I came out to play, K? She'll figure that if I have enough time to drool at Eye Candy, then I have enough time to write the 210 reviews in my backlog)

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

My Early Christmas Present

PhotobucketMy baby girl came home from Rome last night! WOOT! On one hand it seemed like she was gone forever, but on the other hand, these past 4 months have flown by in a blink. In case you don't remember, she spent this last semester studying in Italy and attending Pontifica University in Vatican City. Needless to say, the field trips outside the classroom, particularly for her art history class, were amazing. As part of the different classes, they were taken through parts of the Vatican that most of us weren't even aware existed. However, we stopped to eat at Damon's on the way home from the airport last night- she got a big juicy burger and fries- and she said it's going to be a long time before she wants to see pasta again!

I haven't been updating this blog much lately. For one, I've been so damn busy. And for two, it just hasn't been easy to keep track of new and upcoming releases now that the labels on the right have become so numerous. So here's a sneak peek at what I've been up to. Building the index is a slow tedious process. But once I'm done, it will make searching for each author's releases MUCH easier. Then, I can get rid of the author labels here and instead will then have room for a "Flavor" (genre) label.

I've said before that this blog is designed to be useful to ME. But if anyone else finds they like it too, that just makes it more fun.

Later on, if Syb gets those nasty server issues resolved over on TGTBTU, I will start on an index for that site, too. Of course, unless I draft some other duckies, THAT index could take YEARS to complete.

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Book CoverHalfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, book 1) by Jeaniene Frost
Paranormal Romance published by Avon 30 October 2007





Category: Peanut M&Ms - mmmm...devour... sigh... then reach for the next one. My daily dose of Insanity-B-Gone. Most books I read fall in this category. (A-,B+,B)
Flame Height: 5.5" out of 9"

Head over to The Good, the Bad and the Unread to read my review.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Anthology: Beyond the Dark by Knight, Holly, Leigh, Whiteside

Book CoverBeyond the Dark anthology with novellas by Angela Knight, Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, Dianne Whiteside
Paranormal romance published by Berkley Sensations 04 Dec 2007





Category: Peanut M&Ms - mmmm...devour... sigh... then reach for the next one. My daily dose of Insanity-B-Gone. Most books I read fall in this category. (A-,B+,B)
Flame Height: 8" out of 9"

Head over to The Good, the Bad and the Unread to read my review.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

TGTBTU Mayhem

holly.jpgHave you been following the Duodecimal mayhem over on TGTBTU? In a salute to the Twelve Days of Christmas, we've got lists of 12-- from 12 favorite cookies to books to characters, etc. with contributers from authors to bloggers to reviewers.

Bev's All-Time Favorite Book Series went up today. Head on over and read all the the Duodecimals. Today's 12 Days of Smart Bitchery is freakin' hilarious!

Monday, December 10, 2007

QB's Quickies

"So, read any good books lately?"
"What did you think of...?"

Here's the Quickie answers to those questions. Click on the Links for more info.



Catherine Coulter - Double Take, FBI series, book 11

Book Category: Peanut M&Ms - mmmm...devour... sigh... then reach for the next one. My daily dose of Insanity-B-Gone. Most books I read fall in this category. (A-,B+,B)
Flame Height: 1" out of 9"

This book should be considered a continuation of book 10, Point Blank (see previous commentary), since it wraps up Dix and Ruth's storyline. Damn good multiple plotline mystery/thriller. I just wish she'd write some of the sexual tension back into her stories.
Piquant Opines: RT, ABC Wide Bay

Emma Holly - Fairyville
And Then There Were Four: The Epilogue to Fairyville (Amazon 49¢ download)

Category: Lava Cake - reads like warm Chocolate Lava Cake... à la Mode... sprinkled with nuts (A,A)
Flame Height: 7.5" out of 9"

This Fantasy is Emma Holly's most memorable work since Menage! It's light, quirky, fun, and hot. Multiple relationships, including straight, gay (m/m), and, in the downloadable epilogue, m/m/f/m.
Piquant Opines: RT, TGTBTU,

A. Leigh Jones - Forever Crossed

ALJ's LiveJournal; Forever Crossed is also available at Fictionwise

Category: Lava Cake - reads like warm Chocolate Lava Cake... à la Mode... sprinkled with nuts (A,A)
Flame Height: 2" out of 9"

This book was released in print by Imajinn books back in June of 2004 and, after recently discovering it, I was filled with glee. Why? Because I HAD to read the rest of the series and figured there were probably 2 or 3 more already released and waiting for me to devour them! Uh... nope... couldn't find anymore AND I couldn't find the author A. Leigh Jones. So I sent out a call for help to Bam (who loves a good mystery) and totally squeed when ALJ responded! Read what happened here. Course that was followed by a groan of disappointment that I wasn't going to get to visit her world again. This was a damn good Urban Fantasy and I wasn't ready to leave!
Piquant Opines: RT, TBR,

Lora Leigh - Tanner's Scheme

For the complete chronological listing of the Breeds books, including the earlier ebooks from Ellora's Cave that are all now available in print, click here.

Book Category: Peanut M&Ms - mmmm...devour... sigh... then reach for the next one. My daily dose of Insanity-B-Gone. Most books I read fall in this category. (A-,B+,B)
Flame Height: 7.5" out of 9"

Series Category: Crème Brûlée - My All-Time Moan-Out-Loud Favorites (A+)
Flame Height: 9" out of 9"

Scheme is a strong, noble, intelligent heroine and is a worthy match for ANY of the Breeds. She also happens to be the daughter of one of the Breeds most powerful enemies. The fact that she ends up mated to Tanner, the Breeds public "poster boy" is an extra sweet victory over those full humans who oppose the Breeds' acceptance by humanity. And I think I've got an unhealthy fixation on Jonas. I SO want someone to bring him to his knees, but then again, since it can't be me, I also DON'T want it to happen. Go figure.

BTW, I mentioned before that Lora likes to name characters after people she knows and I met the real life Scheme at RAW in September. But I forgot to mention that Lora introduced a new character in Tanner's Scheme, Shiloh. And yep, she's named after Lora's partner-in-crime, Shiloh Walker. And just like the real life Shiloh, the Breed Shiloh is described as shy and demure! *snickers then guffaws then ROFLMAO*
Piquant Opines: RT, TGTBTU,

Thursday, December 6, 2007

STICKY - Aural Pleasures on TGTBTU

TGTBTUI wrote a three-part series on audio books for The Good, the Bad, and the Unread. I'll leave this post up as a sticky (scroll down for newer posts) and will update the links as each part of the series is published over on TGTBTU.






Don‘t Miss:
Aural Pleasures 101 - “Why” and “Where” to buy Audio Books - Tell us why you listen to audio books.
Aural Pleasures 102 - “How” to Select an Audio Book - Come share your tips for selection.
Aural Pleasures 103 - “What” Audio Books are Recommended - Share your recommendations and warnings.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

QB's Quickies

"So, read any good books lately?"
"What did you think of...?"

Here's the Quickie answers to those questions. Click on the Links for more info.




Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, Nalini Singh, Jean Johnson - An Enchanted Season anthology

Category: Peanut M&Ms - mmmm...devour... sigh... then reach for the next one. My daily dose of Insanity-B-Gone. Most books I read fall in this category. (A-,B+,B)
Flame Height: 6" out of 9"

Four surprisingly sexy, paranormal Christmas stories. I've been curious to read Singh's Psy/Changeling series because of the nearly universal glowing reviews. And I'm glad I finally read one of her stories, Beat of Temptation, in this anthology because it showed me that I probably won't like the series-- The "Psy" aspects would be too futuristic sci-fi for me. I ADORED the other three stories, though. If you buy only one holiday themed romance this season, I recommend it be this one.
Piquant Opines: RT, TRRC

Sherrilyn Kenyon with Alethea Kontis - The Dark-Hunter Companion

Category: M&Ms - a bit lighter and/or not quite as satisfying as Peanut M&Ms, but still Oh-So-Enjoyable! (B,B-,C+,C)
Flame Height: 0" out of 9"

I bought this book for one reason only- I'm hoping that I'll be able to make sense out of Archeron when it's released. As I've said before, Ash's story is the only reason I haven't stopped buying this series, but after his story, that's it. Although I have to admit I'm curious about Savitar, but he's not worth reading the rest of this increasingly muddied up series.

I have to give Kenyon and Kontis kudos for the entertaining concept of this book-- it's written from the POV of a smartass Squire (is there any other kind?) writing a training manual for new Dark Hunters. It's best to read this in small doses, though, because all those Greek, Sumerian, Roman, Nordic, Celtic, and Atlantian gods, goddesses and myths WILL make your head explode if you spend too much time trying to figure them out, especially since they tend to contradict each other (much like Kenyon does). It's more than encyclopedic, and some of the info is sort of interesting, while some info is just an info dump. There's a "secret" section on Archeron that precedes the Bonus Materials section. There's also a section of Cajun and Greek recipes thrown in there (how odd and random is that?!).

The most important and telling line in this rigid cover, larger than trade, paperback is "Now for the disclaimer: This book is mutable. It goes with the wind. It changes more often than the mind of a sixteen-year-old Libra..." Indeed. And might explain why I'm not the only one who has trepidations about whether Archeron can live up to expectations.
Piquant Opines: LV,

Eden Bradley, Jaci Burton, Lisa Renee Jones - Exclusive anthology

Category: M&Ms - a bit lighter and/or not quite as satisfying as Peanut M&Ms, but still Oh-So-Enjoyable! (B,B-,C+,C)
Flame Height: 6" out of 9"

BDSM doesn't usually float my boat, but I bought this because Mike, the other vet from Wild in Burton's Wild, Wicked and Wanton (see previous commentary) gets his HEA, or at least HIS version of an HEA. A pretty big life change for the amount of time that passes, but nonetheless, another intelligent erotic romance from Burton. Bradley's story just wasn't my "flavor" and Jones' story could have been better if she had just filled it in a bit more-- "show don't tell".
Piquant Opines: RT, RJ,

Maggie Shayne, Susan Sizemore, Lori Handeland, Caridad Piñeiro - Moon Fever anthology

Category: M&Ms - a bit lighter and/or not quite as satisfying as Peanut M&Ms, but still Oh-So-Enjoyable! (B,B-,C+,C)
Flame Height: 5" out of 9"

Four entertaining and engrossing vampire and/or shape shifter stories. Good stuff, Crazy for the Cat by Caridad Piñeiro was particularly memorable.
Piquant Opines: RT, RJ

Charlaine Harris (editor) - Many Bloody Returns anthology

Category: M&Ms - a bit lighter and/or not quite as satisfying as Peanut M&Ms, but still Oh-So-Enjoyable! (B,B-,C+,C)
Flame Height: 1" out of 9"

Thirteen authors (Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden, Bill Crider, Kelley Armstrong, Jim Butcher, P.N. Elrod, Rachel Caine, Jeanne C. Stein, Tanya Huff, Carolyn Haines, Tate Hallaway, Elaine Viets, Toni L.P. Kelner), thirteen stories, each using the theme of vampires and birthdays. It truly amazed me to see the thirteen COMPLETELY different stories that arose from those two words. Some dark, some funny, some cute, some suspenseful, some poignant. Most were good, a couple were just "okay".
Piquant Opines: RT, VampireGenre, Darque Reviews