Review: A Shot in the Dark by K.A. Stewart

Title: A Shot in the Dark (Jesse James Dawson #2)
Author: K.A. Stewart
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: July 5, 2011
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
THE ENEMY OF HIS ENEMY

Jesse James Dawson is a Champion, putting his life on the line for those foolish enough to bargain with demons and fighting to save their souls. But even a Champion needs some downtime, so Jesse takes his annual camping trip to Colorado for some male bonding over friendly games of paintball.

Unfortunately, the fun and war games are interrupted by a pack of creatures summoned up from the very depths of hell by an entity Jesse prayed he'd never see again. With the lives of his friends and a teenager's soul on the line, Jesse's only hope may lie with an even more dangerous enemy--his personal demon, Axel...

My Review

Jesse James Dawson. Husband. Father. Badass. Champion. The one man you want in your corner if you happen to be stupid enough to sell your soul to a demon.

Demons are out there, even if you can’t see them. Ready to offer deals. To give you what you desire, for the measly price of... YOUR SOOOOOUL! And if you make the deal, you’re screwed. Literally, figuratively and any other kind of -ally you can think of. Go ahead and get a thesaurus; I’ll wait. *fools around on phone*

Ok. Appreciate how deep in it you are? Well, do not despair! Ok, do despair a little. But don’t lose all hope! Champions are here to save your sorry ass. A secret society of people devoted to help those desperate or stupid enough to sell their souls. Some sell their souls for cars, or money. Others do it to save sick sons or a dying mother. It doesn’t matter. If you sold your soul, the Champions will help you.

Cover Reveal (Excerpt): Of Darkness and Crowns by Trisha Wolfe

Title: Of Darkness and Crowns (Goddess Wars #2)
Author: Trisha Wolfe
Genre: New Adult Dark Fantasy
Cover Designer: Steven Novak
Reveal Organizer: YA Bound Book Tours
Release Date: September 1, 2013

***WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BOOK ONE***
The moon goddess has taken up residency within Prince Caben, darkening his mind and soul. Now he hunts the very women he sacrificed his life to save, his conflicting desires for love and power raging a battle within him. Kaliope possesses the key to setting Bale free, and Caben will stop at nothing to see his goddess restored. Even if that means destroying the kingdom he’s sworn to protect, and the infuriating woman who torments his thoughts.

Kaliope, now the leader to the newly formed Nactue Guard, has vowed to save Caben. But with a traitor lurking among her people, and powers she’s unable to fully control, Kaliope’s mission becomes shrouded with doubt. Her new role as watcher over Caben’s kingdom brings a burden she’s unable to bear alone, and appointing the right person in charge of the prince’s affairs has turned a kingdom against the Nactue leader. Saving her stubborn, willful prince from the darkness overtaking him will be the battle of her life, and she needs people she can trust by her side. But bad blood between members of the Nactue obscure Kaliope’s journey, while her feelings for Caben cloud her judgment.

When the time comes to do what she must to destroy the goddess of chaos, will she be able to if it means losing Caben forever?

Book two of the Goddess Wars is told in dual point of view from Kaliope and Caben. New Adult Dark Fantasy, intended for readers 17 years of age and older.


Excerpt

The Crusher grinds to a halt. I’m propelled forward, and my head smacks the low-hanging ceiling of the front compartment.

“Damn, you fool!” I palm my throbbing forehead, eyeing the driver of the Crusher—the machines I now call by their Otherworlder name.

Promo (Giveaway): The Purge Movie - Out June 7th!

Universal Pictures presents The Purge in theaters everywhere on June 7!

Would You #SurviveTheNight? The Purge is coming!
If, on one night every year, you could commit any crime without facing consequences, what would you do?

In an America wracked with crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity--including murder--becomes legal. The police can't be called. Hospitals suspend help. It's twelve hours when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this particular night in 2022, plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking.

When an intruder breaks into James Sandin’s (Ethan Hawke) gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear his family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide.

The question is... Would You #SurviveTheNight? Take the quiz to find out! Warn your friends The Purge is coming!

Blog Tour (Review): The Girl Who Married an Eagle by Tamar Myers

Based on actual events in Tamar Myers’s life, The Girl Who Married an Eagle is a beautiful addition to her Belgian Congo mystery series.

When Julia Elaine Newton, a young, pretty Ohio girl, volunteered to go on a mission to the Belgian Congo, she knew it was going to be a huge change. But she never expected to wind up teaching at an all-girls boarding school that consisted mostly of runaway child brides!

Much to her chagrin, Buakane was born beautiful. If only she’d been ugly, Chief Eagle would not have noticed her. Escaping from an arranged marriage, the scrappy young girl finds her way to Julia Newton and the school. But this time her jilted husband will not be denied. Now it’s up to Julia and Buakane to try to save the school as Congolese independence looms and Chief Eagle is set on revenge. With the help of Cripple, Cripple’s husband, and even Amanda Brown, these plucky women must learn to save themselves.

Title: The Who Married an Eagle: A Mystery
Author: Tamar Myers
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Release Date: April 30, 2013
Acquired Via: Author via TLC Book Tours

My Review

First things first, and anyone who has read this book can call me crazy, but The Girl Who Married an Eagle never read like a mystery for me, as it is said to be in the title. (I'm sure I may missed something along the way, but I don't think so.) Additionally, I think the synopsis is pretty misleading, though not entirely untrue. After reading the book and looking at it again, I must admit that I scratched my head. That being said and out of the way, it was a nice work of historical fiction that I enjoyed reading. There was a lot of Christianity involved in the novel, too, but I don't think this qualifies as Christian fiction. It was a part of the story, but I don't think the religion was the main focus of the book. The Girl Who Married an Eagle is all about the characters and the way they interacted with each other.

Internal Review: Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

A DYING LAND

The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST

The hunters of Shima’s imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.

A HIDDEN GIFT

Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.

But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.

Title: Stormdancer
Author: Jay Kristoff
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Release Date: September 18, 2012
My Review

Me: Well, well, well, you FINALLY read Stormdancer.

Myself: You knew that I would! I just had to get around to it.

Me: Oh, please, you're the biggest procrastinator ever!

Myself: Whatever, I read the book, marveled at the epic world-building, basked in my crush on Yukiko, and cried like a bitch at the end.

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway): The Birr Elixir by Jo Sparkes

Tour Schedule

Construction of a Heroine
by Jo Sparkes
What makes a great heroine?

Oddly enough, it’s not a question I ask myself when I’m writing. But I do reflect on it while reading from time to time. And that’s never a good sign for a book, by the way.

A book offers the audience an amusement park ride, and the characters are the carts in which we travel. All good carts invite you in, make you want to sit, and then rivet you in place when the journey twists and turns.

A heroine must appeal. That doesn’t mean she needs to be beautiful, especially if her inner beauty shines through in the end. What’s important is that we identify with her – and oddly enough, that means we appreciate her flaws. A good story has an outer problem she must solve – but a great story also has an inner problem.

She must grow as a person, and we get to grow with her.

Yet in great literature, we don’t have to necessarily like everything about her. Only – a part of her.

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): The Wisdom of Hair by Kim Boykin

Tour Schedule
Life can be beautiful, but it takes a little work...

“The problem with cutting your own hair is that once you start, you just keep cutting, trying to fix it, and the truth is, some things can never be fixed. The day of my daddy’s funeral, I cut my bangs until they were the length of those little paintbrushes that come with dime-store watercolor sets. I was nine years old. People asked me why I did it, but I was too young then to know I was changing my hair because I wanted to change my life.”

In 1983, on her nineteenth birthday, Zora Adams finally says goodbye to her alcoholic mother and their tiny town in the mountains of South Carolina. Living with a woman who dresses like Judy Garland and brings home a different man each night is not a pretty existence, and Zora is ready for life to be beautiful.

With the help of a beloved teacher, she moves to a coastal town and enrolls in the Davenport School of Beauty. Under the tutelage of Mrs. Cathcart, she learns the art of fixing hair, and becomes fast friends with the lively Sara Jane Farquhar, a natural hair stylist. She also falls hard for handsome young widower Winston Sawyer, who is drowning his grief in bourbon. She couldn’t save Mama, but maybe she can save him.

As Zora practices finger waves, updos, and spit curls, she also comes to learn that few things are permanent in this life—except real love, lasting friendship, and, ultimately… forgiveness.

Title: The Wisdom of Hair
Author: Kim Boykin
Publisher: HarperTeen
Acquired Via: Book Nerd Tours
Release Date: May 14, 2013
My Review

The Wisdom of Hair is not what I expected. I thought I would be getting a saucy, witty novel about Southern women in a beauty shop. Instead a found an exploration of relationships between not just lovers, but family and friends that followed Zora Adams to her discovery of what love really is. That is not to say there were no saucy witty moments, but the actual beauty shop time was minimal.

Zora Adams grew up with a really crappy mom, so when she went out in the world, she wasn't the best equipped to make healthy relationships. Thankfully, Sara Jane Farquhar came bursting into her life, and they were instantly best friends. Sara Jane's parents were probably my favorite literary parents because they essentially adopted Zora and loved her unconditionally just because Sara Jane did. It made me all warm and tingly in my chest region whenever I read most of the scenes with any of the Farquhars, and I may have gotten a little jealous that they haven't taken me in yet, too.

Armchair BEA 2013: Day Five

Design Credit: Nina @ Nina Reads
Keeping It Real

Today we're supposed to discuss how we "keep things real" on our blogs and how we keep people coming back for more. Honestly, I don't know how to answer that question. I haven't been a very good blogger over the past year, and nothing short of awesome sauce and loyalty have kept my readers coming back for more. Yes, there are occasional giveaways, but I don't think they are of such a magnitude that anyone would say "OMG, MOAR!!!"

I hope the small snatches of myself that I'm able to insert in my posts keep my readers interested in what I'm doing here on Bibliophilia, Please. I've cut down on blog tour obligations and filler posts quite a bit, and I hope to have more crazy coming straight out of my own brain for you guys. We shall see.

Children's/Young Adult Literature

I love children's literature, though I didn't stay with it long when I was a child myself. However, I do have a few favorites at my house that I would like to share, but I won't go through too much silly business of posting long love letters for them since you have many other posts to visit if you're an Armchair BEA participant.

Wheedle on the Needle by Stephen Cosgrove
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Zero the Hero by Joan Holub
Knuckleheads by Joan Holub (In fact, anything by her!)
When it comes to YA, I'm at a bit of a loss. There is so much quality work out there, I don't even know where to begin to name favorites. I can honestly say that I wish there had been a greater selection when I was the target audience's age. I went straight from picture books to Tolkien, Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, Stephen King, and the like. I'm not complaining at all about my reading material because I loved it wholeheartedly, but it would have been nice to have characters to connect with that were going through some of my same teen issues. Yes, there was Lurlene McDaniel, but that wasn't really an option. Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine had some YA, but you just got watch your favorite characters die brutally. So, if you're a teen and reading this post, please take a moment to realize how lucky you are to have the genre. We adults are incredibly jealous, and this is why so many of us keep stealing your books.