U.S. Book Birthday - The Cold Kiss of Death by Suzanne McLeod

contest closed - winner to be announced

I have this happy little addiction called books (happyhappy!)

I also have this benign little obsession with a few writers...

One of them has a book coming out TODAY in the U.S. (it's been out in the UK for a while now)

Guess Who?!?
Guess!

Since I think that everyone should be reading Suzanne McLeod books, let's do this...

CONTEST

I'm buying

The Cold Kiss of Death to a lucky winner**

All you have to do is pass the word that The Cold Kiss of Death by Suzanne McLeod is being released in the U.S. today.

It's dark urban fantasy (with some light moments, Genny is fun to read)

Leave a link here with your post

I'll pick a winner...or let my grandson or granddaughter (which ever one is here) pick the winner from a hat...

open where ever The Book Depository will deliver

You only have until May 6th - so get posting!

**or you can try out the first book if you've NEVER read her yet.

HAPPY U.S. BOOK B-DAY!

Re-visiting The Sweet Scent of Blood

<---my version of Book #1



new cover of sequel ---->

******

Last summer I read The Sweet Scent of Blood by Suzanne McLeod. I knew it was going to eventually come out in the States, (America States) but I was very, very impatient (well, I read the excerpt, and got all excited about it in a very book geeky way) and couldn't wait until the USA release. So I ordered it from the Book Depository (free shipping! most places) - ordered both The Sweet Scent of Blood and the sequel, The Cold Kiss of Death. Never regretted it.

I did write about the book before. I should say review, but I still feel like I'm pretending to be a reviewer, since I don't do this professionally. I don't even look at a book the same way a lot of other reviewers do. Mostly I care if the book interests me, or if it drove me crazy. This book interested me very much. So since I did re-read it again, I'll write about it again.

The Sweet Scent of Blood was just as good the second time around as the first. Only this time, there were sections where I knew "aaahhhh, this is why he/she is doing this" Or "oh yes, I know why things changed for her..." etc. This is a fun part of re-reading a book that I've enjoyed. I'm not going to list these sections - I'm going for vague here, because I don't want to put out spoilers.

Genevieve Taylor is a sidhe fae (complete with cat-shaped, or oblong pupils- not literally cat shaped!) living in London, working for a group of witches in a company called Spellcrackers. The witches have had a long-standing uneasy truce with the vampires. The vampires have recently "come out" of hiding into the public eye with the help of a public relations firm. The vamps even have a calender. Mr October has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend and this is where Genny becomes involved. She's asked to see if check out the body, to see if there were any spells used on her. Suddenly, there is all kinds of resistance to Genny even seeing the body, much less visiting Mr October.

The whole novel, from the first page to the last was a wonderful read. There were so many interesting characters within the book, from Genny's immediate supervisor at Spellcrackers (Finn) to the goblins (frequently hired on as bodyguards), to brownies to pixies - even the trees have a part in this world as nyads. There is also a twist to the vampire bite - rather than the typical bites, here you can be bitten with the regular fangs, or bitten with an extra set of small fangs which inject a chemical that causes an addiction - ensuring that vamps have a steady food supply. The addicted literally actively seek out the vamps for more.

Ms McLeod rounds out the mystery of the main plot with various scenes of Genny working at her job or taking part in her mysterious night wanderings (you have to read the book to find out why Genny wanders around at night) and visits with all the beings that do not want Genny to find out what really happened to Mr October's girlfriend.

The narrative was well written, the dialogue between characters very good, and the descriptions of London, the fae and the glimpses of the vamp nightlife very interesting. The whole novel, from the beginning to end is just pure reading joy. If I were younger, (about 30 years younger, maybe more, maybe 35 years younger) I would totally do something like this: SQUEEEEE! But I'm a stately, dignified (ahem!) 49 year old, so you'll have to settle for me using my words like an adult should. :)

If you haven't bought The Sweet Scent of Blood yet, you should. It's a great mix of genre characters with vamps, witches, and a variety of fae {pixies, goblins, nyads, brownies, etc.}

As soon as the sequel, The Cold Kiss of Death becomes available here in the U.S., you should get that also. These are two books that are worth buying, keeping AND re-reading. Besides - if any of you are taking part in the Typically British Reading Challenge (Book Chick City), here is a prime author and book to use.

The Cold Kiss of Death Review

The Cold Kiss of Death

Suzanne McLeod

******

Every once in a while you read a debut novel, get all excited about it, want to read the sequel, but the sequel doesn't compare with the original. I'm happy to say that this sequel to The Sweet Scent of Blood was just as fun to read as the first book in the Spellcrackers.com series. Suzanne McLeod's characters are an interesting mix of good and evil. Not one of her characters are completely good, though a few of her characters are simply evil. It makes for a great read. You are not sticking your finger down your throat thinking, "Ugh!, how corny" { I think when women hit the beginning of menopause, we must lose our patience for reading super-sweet, uber-good heroines, among other things...husbands, people who take way too long to get to the point... } The mix of vampire lore and fae is good one { and a certain writer thinks it can't be done. two separate myths and all that...ha! it's fiction, there are no LAWs saying what mix you can write! the fiction police are not going to write you a ticket! there ARE NO fiction police. }

The main character, Genny (Genevieve Taylor) is suspected of murder, only the murder is not as simple as you would think. No, there are many twists and turns in this book, and once again I was surprised at the actions of a few of the characters. Malik, her vampire ....not yet boyfriend, interest... remains mysterious, though we learn { no, not the royal we, we as in readers } a little bit more about the relationship between Malik and Genny, even something that Genny wasn't aware of herself. I am usually able to read vampire books without feeling all gooey about the vampires { come on...they're dead! and usually cold, and the diet-kind of icky! } but I kind of like Malik, and Darius { the slut }, as well as the fae- Finn, and Tavish....and few others. Besides being in hiding while trying to find out the true killer, Genny has the added complications of the vampires all trying to own her, and the fae of the city deciding that they must all claim her also. Ghosts make appearances, and are interesting minor characters that play an important part in this story.

Wonderfully done. I'm hoping Ms McLeod feels like writing more about Genny and her crew. I'm hoping Ms Mcleod feels like writing anything in the urban fantasy genre. She writes well, and most important of all- THE DIALOGUE IS NEVER LAME, NEVER DUMB. Mini-Rant follows: That's got to be the thing that bugs me the most about some books - the lame dialogue coming out of tough, or intelligent characters. doesn't work for me. That's probably why I never finish some books. I give props for anyone able to come up with plots and all the details that flesh out a book, but the dialogue is almost as important as the plot. If there are going to be intelligent, clever, tough as nails people in the book, their speech should't be lame. or they shouldn't do too much in lecture-mode to give information to the reader- or the main character asks so many questions to herself, you suddenly feel pressured, and you're like "hey you should know this! I can guess what's going to happen without coming up with all the questions, and I'm not even in your book!" enough already with the questions-a few here and there, okay, but not paragraph after paragraph. One book I'm trying to read has two or three paragraphs of questions in almost every chapter so far. I feel like giving the book away. I don't even want to finish it now, and I was looking forward to this one......OKay- Mini Rant is over now. Thank god, Ms McLeod doesn't do things like that. Thank you, Ms McLeod for not doing things like that. There is no stupid dialogue between characters, and the main character only asks herself a few questions. She doesn't go on and on and on with the questions ad nauseum. This book just flows, from beginning to end. I look forward to more books by Suzanne McLeod, who has now joined my mental list of auto-buy writers. By the way, if you go to her website, she has chapters up of BOTH her published books, as well as a contest, which ends July 23, '09. I appreciate when writers put up excerpts. That way you can tell if the book is going to be something that you enjoy, if you'll like the style of writing. I wish more writers would do that. That's why I became interested in this series. Stumbled onto her website, saw the book covers, clicked on the excerpt, and WOW! Instant fan. Good excerpt -first chapter. You can't go by the first page anymore for some books; the first page can be great, but then it might go downhill from then. Ms McLeod's books are interesting from the first page to the last.

Suzanne McLeod giveaway

**

The first cover pictured here is the actually the second novel written by Suzanne McLeod. ** The second book pictured here is her debut novel. Her second novel (Cold Kiss of Death) is coming out in the UK July, 2009. Her first novel, (The Sweet Scent of Blood) is now available through Amazon.co.UK, and is sold out in the U.S. Amazon site (good for Suzanne, bad for us in America). I live in the United States and I have been chomping at the bit (sounds so weird, why do we say that?) to read Ms McLeod's first book, and now I am wanting both of her books. Man, I might have to break down and order through Amazon UK. I wonder how expensive that would be.............

To celebrate her upcoming release of her second novel, Suzanne McLeod is holding a giveaway, the prize is Carpe Corpus,** by Rachel Caine**. All you have to do is leave a comment regarding your comfort reads at either her Live Journal page**, or her Blogger page.** Simple.

I'm excited about these new books. I read an excerpt of the first novel a few weeks ago, and really was hooked. Already. From an excerpt. Oh well. If I have to wait until it is reissued in the U.S. (The Sweet Scent of Blood), or in the case of the second novel, released in the U.S., it will be sweeter for the waiting.

**I recently learned how to paste links thanks to a fellow Live Journal user, and have been trippin, pastin links all over the place. ;)