CONTEST LINK and Fate's Edge (The Edge #3) by Ilona Andrews - review

Don't forget - there is a contest going on with a chance to win not one - but TWO good books. Suzanne McLeod's latest US release, and a novella by J.A. Campbell featuring this really cool border collie - Doc, The Vampire Hunting Dog. Don't forget to enter, odds for winning are good

Fate's Edge

Ilona Andrews

urban fantasy

third in a series (The Edge)

******

cover - I like the style, the general look of the covers in this series. It's great that they always feature the female character, a bit of the setting in the background, and then the scruffy handsome guy kind of blended into the whole cover. It's a good blend of art, story hints and character looks...however something is off with the female this time. I know she's supposed to be curvy - extremely curvy so I was kind of picturing a J-lo type of ass, and some curvy girls...but - well - it looks like her chest is concave with half a cantolope (an extremely ripe one at that) kind of just stuck on there; there's also quite a bit of room between the shoulders and her girls. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but Audrey is also supposed to be short. I know this is nitpicking - and characters rarely look exactly how they're supposed to look. But those of us with large chests and short statures know that when you have large breasts, stuck on a short body - there isn't going to be a whole lot of room there - nope, the breasts are going to be starting rather high and taking up quite a bit of area in our short little torsos....just sayin'. Wish the cover people would really match up these little details, because I'm the type of reader who loves to read, look at the cover....read some more....try to picture the characters and look again at the cover. It really helps when the guy is good looking (to my taste, of course! lol) and the female matches height, chi-chi size and damn it - when the character is supposed to be a bit plump - don't put in a model who has bones poking out. It looks awkward. ahhh - but the sword....wait a minute - it's Kaldar who is the amazing sword fighter in this novel...In Bayou Moon Cerise was the sword and flash user . I know it seems like I'm nitpicking - more like I'm trying to make a statement on covers - I love when the covers show what's going on and reflects the characters. And this one actually is a good cover - there's the trees and plants, the sword (though it really belongs to Kaldar) and the red hair - but the female model doesn't really match. Overall, the cover is pretty good though. It's just those chi-chis.....wow. Glad they're not mine. LOL

The book. Anyone who's read my reviews might get the idea that I love these books....well I do. The Ilona Andrews team has written many, many books by now. I haven't been able to read any of their e-books yet (I see that they're dipping into science fiction type of plots - distant planets, gadgets, etc) but I haven't been able to get a hold of one yet. Someday. (just found a link from their website to a free download for Questing Beast - a scifi e-book) However - with each on of their print novels, with each of their series, and every short story that I've been able to read has been a pure pleasure to read... and Fate's Edge was no exception. I enjoyed it a lot. I think the only thing that started to annoy me - (and it was mild annoyance-very mild) was something that a lot of authors really can't avoid. The frequent mentions or explanations of world building facts. I feel like there was one or two too many mentions of the difference between The Edge, The Weird and The Broken..I understand why - but I've read this series from the beginning so I ended up skimming past a few of these thankfully short explanations.

Other than that though - (and it's probably not fair of me to even mention it - many series authors end up doing this, after all) Loved the story.

**Minor Spoilers territory**:

There are bits with the characters of each of the previous books - Declan and Rose (from The Edge - #1) played small parts - but Rose's brothers both played a huge role in Fate's Edge. Cerise and William (my favorite of the couples - from Bayou Moon-#2) play a larger part than Declan and Rose. Fate's Edge features Kaldar who is Cerise's cousin and Audrey. Now Kaldar and family (Cerise included) were part of a large clan of Mars relatives who did whatever they could to survive life in the Edge. This included scams, and questionable behaviour. In Bayou Moon many family members were lost. Kaldar is carrying a dream of vengeance on his shoulders, waiting for the opportunity to annihilate certain members of The Hand - a particularly sadistic organization of the enemies of his country. Now Kaldar is a bit of a con man, and he enjoys himself. He can and does pick pockets without people even knowing they've had something taken from them, and then he usually puts it back. Just likes to stay in top form. Practices a lot.

Audrey, on the other hand comes from a family of scam artists and is trying to live a straight life, has even gotten a job in The Broken - that's the real world to you and me.

Then we come to Jack the shape shifting brother of Rose, and George - his necromance older brother. Something has happened to make Jack very nervous and they end up deciding to run away - because that's always a great solution to teens and tweens. Always SEEMS like a good idea, anyway.

Kaldar accepts a new assignment (he's been working for the Mirror - the counterpart to The Hand - kind of like the KGB vs. the CIA only with magic)....

Audrey is talked into one last scam/theft with her father and drug addicted brother - against her better judgement....

Jack and George have run/stowed away...

And they all meet up in a fiery explosion...not really. But they do end up all together working to get a certain something back from a certain someone for a certain other organization. However, it's not as simple as it could have been. The whole time they're working on finding the object they are being hunted by a particularly sadistic and murderous group of the hand. And during it all, Kaldar has thing about vengeance in the back of his mind...

Ahhh- the fireworks, the fights, the dialogue, the BOYS. It's all good. The teasing and ribbing that goes on between not only the brothers, but between the brothers and Kaldar, Kaldar and the brothers, Kaldar and Audrey, Gaston and the boys, the animals....it's good book with wonderfully twisted characters, and sadistic villains that you love to hate. There is a lot that goes on and by the end of the book I was already missing the novel. Made me want to re-read Bayou Moon, because THAT was a hell of a book also, with twisted and flawed yet fun characters and a kick ass group of fighters.

One day soon, I plan to re-read this series, it's that much fun to read. And just like in the Kate Daniels series, Ilona Andrews has a wonderful way with dialog and characters.

If you haven't yet bought Fate's Edge, get it as soon as you can, you're going to love it. I you haven't even tried the Edge series, wow - you've been missing out. If you haven't even read any of the Kate Daniels books - oh man. Hope you get a hold of one soon - and start reading it. Like I mentioned earlier - I love each of the books I've read by Ilona Andrews, and there's not that many authors where I enjoy every - single - book that they've written.

It's Monday

First of all, I've been posting once in a while tidbits about a writer named J.A. Campbell and the books that she's written and had published, as well as some of her writing that's not yet published.

Julie has been posting snippets of her work on her website; and available as freebie reads, is a series of short stories featuring Doc, a vampire hunting border collie. The stories are written from the dog's point of view, which I find very fun to read. Recently she re-worked some of these stories, adding to them, and is now offering them for sale in e-book form...only the best news is that it is possible to buy the Doc book in print form - which is my very favorite book form. I know that e-books and most other information is going to be eventually all available only through the internet, but I still love to be able to hold a book in my hands. So I love when book is available both ways - e-book and print. So if you're interested in buying a print copy of Doc the vampire hunting dog - you can visit Create a Space and order your very own copy. You won't be disappointed. I ordered two - late Christmas presents, or birthday presents. I happen to have a few nieces who love to read. I'm also thinking of ordering a couple of copies for the older (almost teen) section in our library - I think J. A. Campbell's writing is Library Worthy. If you have a kindle, Nook, or other e-book reading appliance (like a laptop or P.C.) then you can order e-copies from Amazon.com, Amazon.comUK, or Barnes & Noble. Print copies will soon be available at Amazon, also. Bonus - if you visit the amazon or Amazon UK site, you can read an excerpt to help you decide you want to buy this work.

J.A. Campbell (Julie) is also the author of the Into The West series, (available through Echelon Press- sold by Amazon or Barnes and Noble) and Senior Year Bites from Decadant Publishing (about the high school senior who fights crime, and by the way, she's been turned into a vampire - good book). Echelon Press has finally got it's thumb out of it's...ahem...finally! after a long delay has finally released the fifth installment of a six book series (someone over in that business seems to be having a bit of a hard time staying on top of things...unfortunately for their authors This does not take away from the talent of the writers, though. Even though Echelon is taking forever to get things published, the works by J.A. Campbell and a few other writers are worth getting - it's too bad for them that Echelon is representing them in this manner.). Hopefully we won't have as long a wait for the sixth and final installment of this young teen series. Also keep your e-book eyes out for a fantasy titled Arabian Dreams by J.A.Campbell - about a young woman and a horse with some mysterious powers, alternate realities, villians...It's going to be good.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly Bloggery meme that is hosted by Sheila of Bood Journey. Now, Sheila usually has her post up on Sunday night, all ready for us bloggers to add our links to Mister Linky, but it's Christmas on Sunday so I'm not sure if anyone else is crazy enough to be posting in the middle of the night on Christmas into day after Christmas...but here I am - feeling a bit insomniac as usual....and no post yet. If it doesn't happen, oh well - it was Christmas. If it does happen, yet a little later than usual, then no problem. Either Way. And either way, here is my post for whatever it's worth:

With Christmas shopping and wrapping to do, the school schedule running right up through Friday, with limited ability and stamina of hands and body...I think I ended up getting a lot accomplished - but only with the shopping and gift wrapping - LOL. I did NOT clean house (but then I don't usually, so no change there). I did NOT do much laundry. I did NOT prepare any holiday baking 0r dinners....(wow - now I'm beginning to feel like a Christmas slug...)...and I did NOT get much of a chance to read. I bought presents for my grandchildren and worked. I wrapped presents into the wee morning hours. I had help - picked up my four year old granddaughter (she's actually going to be five in February) and put her to work. LOL - the plan was to have her wrap all the little presents for her cousin and I would do the big presents. LOL. That was the plan. Then there is this thing called Realism. Realism means that what really happened was that she wrapped two of the presents on her own, then decided she wanted to color. Well, she's four. So I decided NOT to be a child slaver, and I pulled out her color books, ended up with even less room on the kitchen table to wrap presents and had to wrap the rest on my own. However, she is very good company while wrapping presents. We talk about all kinds of things while she's coloring and I'm wrapping. Even though she didn't do a lot of wrapping, I had a good time visiting with her, while I worked my fingers to the bone wrapping presents for my grandson. I am getting off track - Christmas Blog closing for now.

Back to the topic of reading and books - I was able to finish one book by Sunday. Fate's Edge by Ilona Andrews. I love this writing team - they consistantly put out very interesting novels with characters who aren't quite law abiding citizens. The dialog is always entertaining and there's all kinds of creepy villians. And they have two series going on - both great reads. But there's something seriously off with this cover - can you spot it? it kind of POPs right out. Very...VERY round and yet...oddly shaped. haha - leave a comment if you think you know what I'm referring to.
current read - my current read is a Free for review read. Rosemary Harris was giving out free copies of her second to last novel, Dead Head to celebrate her newest release - Slugfest. Ever since Pushing Up Daisies came out, I've been interested, but since I rarely go anywhere but the SciFi/Fantasy section of any bookstore, I always forget to even look for other novels. Once this offer for a free book came out, I took a chance and was fortunate enough to be included in the many responders to get a copy of Dead Head to read and review. A promise to review is a small price to pay for a novel. I love the cover also - beautiful artwork, which matches the general feel of the book - the main character works with plants, and of course, it's a murder mystery - hence the skull. (hence - who uses that word in real-life conversation? NO ONE - this is one of those words usually only found inside of books)

After I finish reading Dead Head, I hope to finish a few of the other books I've started in the last few months -

These are some of the books I've started, yet for one reason or another (not all good reasons) I didn't stay with the reading...remember though - that I suffer from B.A.D.D. it's serious, folks....very serious. :)
If I'm up to it (meaning if I'm not completely exhausted) I plan to blog just a bit about my Christmas shopping experiences.

If a Monday post Linky goes up, I'll put up a link - other wise, I'll be looking for other monday posts by bloggers I follow.

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas and at least a few hours to rest before work. I am fortunate that I work for a school and am on a school schedule - so even though we had to work up until Friday night - we do get a couple of weeks to recuperate.

Have a good week everyone, and Happy Reading!

It's Monday

It's been a weird week. Work has been weird, the kids have been great - sometimes I could do without the grown ups though. lol. The weather has been strange. After days of cooler weather, we had extremely windy days with temps of 70 F, in the afternoons, with very cold nights. The nights have been close to freezing - I know that's warmer that a lot of places at this time of year, but the temperature range has been a little extreme, especially with the wind. Anyway, glad one week's over, and hope this next week is better. However, after 15 years of working with children in the school system, I've learned that even though you might get a "good job" once in a while, most of the time you're expected to work miracles with the homework and behaviour - and this expectation is not only from the parents, but from the teachers and administrators - even though they should know better, since the same thing is done to them. It's a mostly thankless job. Most of the people that I know that are in this line of work are in doing it for a general love of children. It's certainly not for the money or working conditions! Once in a while though, I get a visit form a student from years past - one who says they miss me and the afterschool program. The thing that gets to me is when I get that type of comment from a kid that I was particularly tough on. However they remember me, I know I genuinely have a good time with the children. It's the rest of the job that gets to me sometimes. :) when you get right down to it, what other job gives you an opportunity to laugh at silly things, play an occasional game, read to kids and have the kids read to you and in general enjoy a lot of laughs and hugs from the students. Not many!

It is now time for It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

Hosted by Sheila of Book Journey, this is a weekly meme that we use to let each other know what we've read the past week, what we're planning to read and what we're currently reading...and other bits and pieces of life. It's a fun meme - on that I try to take part of every Monday.

True to form, I did not finish many books. I, in fact, finished only one novel, and that one was Devon Monk's latest, Magic On The Line. It was great - as usual. I've come to expect great reads out of Devon Monk, and I haven't been disappointed yet. I think I took a while to read it because I know the series is coming to an end.

There's been quite a few of those lately, series that are being ended by the author - ending on high notes, with readers like me wanting more. These ladies know what they're doing, and thankfully they are all working on new series. Keeping us interested and wanting more. Nice. Better than having a series go on and on and on, changing so much that they don't resemble the beginning novels, or worse yet not going anywhere, the characters saying and doing the same old thing over and over...or a combination of the tw0 - which is really the worst....We don't have to worry about that with Devon Monk, Lili St.Crow/Lilith Saintcrow or Rachel Vincent - all authors who have ended their series after 6 to 10 novels of supreme goodness. :) I have a lot of respect for their decisions and I also think it's pretty brave of them, as well as smart. It must be kind of tough to say goodbye to characters and a series that is still popular; it's gotta be tempting to keep grinding out novels in the same series, that's probably become comfortable to play in - if one can ever consider writing a novel to be "comfortable" - I know it's a lot of work. (lol - some authors actually BLEED on their keyboard and suffer horribly with emo-ness while writing and .....yeah. if you go to the link, please...for God's sake- for the love of all that's SANE, read with a grain of salt. The belief's can be hazardous to your blood pressure or mental health - for a cure, read this reply from a more grounded author.) These authors had a clear vision of how their series was going to go, and stuck with their plan - and are currently publishing new series or are close to finishing new novels. More to look forward to. off to other things, now!

currently reading
Shady Lady by Ann Aguirre - writer of the close to ending Sirantha Jax series. This third novel in the Corinne Solomon series is very interesting - I'm enjoying it more than the second, almost as much as the first novel in the series. Good series, over all. I'm almost halfway through it, and looking forward to finishing it (in a good way, lol)

next up will be a book sent to me for review by Devin O'Branagan. This is her newest novel, Threshold. It looks interesting; two main characters, one an adult, the other a young boy who has either came close, or actually died, brought back and finding himself on a mission, without a clear memory, and many in danger. Sounds spooky! Looking forward to it.

waiting for....(from B&N - again. I go shopping for a book on the book's release day, and it's NOT on the shelves. Have to special order, which means I don't get it the minute it comes out - wouldn't have been able to read it right away, anyway - but it's nice to have that option, right? And what's up? How can the authors get their release week sales, if the stores DON'T EVEN STOCK IT?) <<--- ugh - gettin' all riled up! This happened with Magic On The Line, and also with Reckoning. C'Mon! B&N! I don't have a lot of shopping choices left, please get your act together! make sure your employees are shelving those books! I say this because the clerk LOOKED up the info, and according to the computer, Fate's Edge was IN the store since 11/23, but no one could find one copy of it. And they hadn't sold any. S0- Waiting on Fate's Edge by Ilona Andrews. This is part of the Edge series - LOVE that series. The characters are all twisted, and they live in a twisted world, with twisted animals and problems. So interesting. It's written in a different style than Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels' series, but I find it just as interesting, the dialog just as snarky as the other series.

I also bought for the school two copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid's Cabin Fever. I plan on reading it to a few classes. I remember seeing the first novel in the series come out, novel/comic book fusion and thought, wow, this looks interesting - but I really thought Jim Benson's Dear Dumb Diary series was way more funny. Ironically, even though the kids at school have checked out the DDD books over and over, they go ballistic over the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. We have only one copy of each of the series, and they are ALWAYS checked out. This is one book that gets stolen from other kids. Sad - but that shows how popular they are - kids will STEAL the books from each other. I think both series are pretty funny, and they both get boys as well as girls engaged with reading - it's hard to get your average boy to WANT to read fiction.

That's it for now. I've spent way too much time working on links and looking up author pages... I do this every Monday. Plan on a quick post, and go a bit overboard, soapboxing, linking up links, posting pics, ranting and raving...

:) It's fun.