Reading has been a bit slow this week as my semester at school wraps up and I have several reports that are due right at the beginning of December. I still picked up quite a few this week....so here they are.
The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein. Picked up from an order at Barnes & Noble this is the first book written in a series that my daughter wanted to start reading.
From the inside cover: Meet Zack Jennings.
Average kid.
He has a hardworking father.
A new stepmother.
A new house.
Even a new dog, Zipper.
Things are looking up for Zack.
Except that is this ghost.
This really nasty ghost.
A ghost who kills people.
And Zack is on his list.
Seahorses Are Real by Zillah Bethell won through the Librarything.com Members Giveaway Program.
From the back of the book: Marly's had enough of the cramped little rundown flat and wounded grey street where she lives with her fiance, David. If they could just move away, escape to a rose-covered cottage by the sea, she's sure she would get better and everything would be alright...
Seahorses are real is a powerful debut novel of love and damage. Zillah Bethell tells the haunting tale of a relationship warped by depression, at once tender and destructive, where violence is not only perpetrated by men and love is not necessarily enough.
The Nymph King by Geno Showalter, Book Three: Atlantis
From the back of the book: Females young and old, beautiful and plain crave Valerian's touch. None can resist his blatant sensuality and potent allure...until he steals Shaye Holling from a Florida beach and holds her prisoner in his underwater kingdom.
The cynical Shaye wants nothing to do with the mighty warlord, but she's inexlicably drawn to him. For underneath the warrior's arrogant beauty lies a complex and powerful man. A man whose caress is like fire...
Now Valerian must fight for the privilege of claiming her as his own. Because there's one thing Shaye doesn't know...
That when a nymph discovers his true mate: she's his for life.
Possession by Jennifer Armintrout, Book Two: Blood Ties
From the back of the book: My father always said fear was a weakness. Well, that's easy to say when you don't have to worry about a vampire slayers or holy water. I hate fear, but undead life goes on. In the two months since I was attacked in the hospital morgue and turned into a vampire, I've killed my evil sire, Cyrus, fallen in love with my new sire, Nathan, and have even gotten used to drinking blood. Just when things are finally returning to normal - as normal as they can be when sunlight can kill you - Nathan becomes possessed. And then he slaughters an innocent human.
Now it's my job to find Nathan before the Voluntary Vampire Extinction Movement does, because they're just waiting for an excuse to terminate him - and anyone foolish enough to help him. But it gets worse. It turns out that Nathan's been possessed by on of the most powerful and wicked vampires alive - the Soul Eater. And who knows what vile plan he's concocted.
With the Soul Eater and my possessed sire on the loose, I have a lot to fear. Including being killed. Again.
Prince of Twilight by Maggie Shayne, Book 12: Wings in the Night
Far older than his legend, the immortal Vlad Dracul had wandered the earth for centuries in search of the reincarnation of his wife, Elisabeta. Now he believes hee has found the woman possessed by his beloved's soul and is prepared to make her his for all eternity.
Temmpest "Stormy" Jones is that mortal. She has long sensed the other, someone insider her fighting to take control, a feeling that becomes even stronger when the dark prince is near. But as Stormy denies the passion that burns between them, she also resists allowing Elisabeta to take over her mind and body to prevent her from claiming Vlad as her own.
But when Elisabeta discovers Vlad's feelings for Stormy, her wrath knows no bounds. She demands that her destiny be fulfilled, and seeks to destroy her rival, leaving Vlad in anguish, tormented by what was... and what could be. Now only he can choose - who will live and who will die.
Dark Seduction by Brenda Joyce, Book 1: The Masters of Time
Malcolm of Dunrock is a newly chosen Master, a novice to his extraordinary - and dangerous - powers. But he has already broken his vows - and a oung woman's death is on his hands. Malcolm is deternined to fight his darkest desires, denying himself all pleasure...until fate sends him another Innocent, the beautiful bokseller Claire Camden.
Since her mother's murder, Claire has done everything possible to make a safe, seccure life for herself in a city where danger lurks on every street corner, especially in the dark of night. But nothing can prepare her for the powerful and sexual medieval warrior who sweeps her back into his time - a treacherous, frightening world where the hunters and the hunted are one in the same. Claire needs Malcolm to survive, yet she must somehow keep the dangerously seductive Master at arm's length. For Malcolm's souls is at stake - and fulfilling his desires could prove fatal...
Kiss of Darkness by Heather Graham
The woods have always been full of whispers in Transylvania, of terrors that go back centuries to the legendary Vlad Dracul himself. Ignoring their professor's grave warning - beware those who would prey upon the innocent - several visiting students travel into the forest...and disappear. Now their professor, Bryan McAllister, believes that a dark cult is at work - and that their next gathering will happen in America.
When psychologist Jessica Fraser is approached by Bryan for her assistance, she is hesitant. Something about Bryan unnerves Jessica deeply, yet she cannot igmore the incredible pull she feels toward him. Now, as reluctant allies, they unite to seek the truth. The search takes them from the forested mountains to dimly lit clubs in New Orleans' French Quarter, where perversion goes beyond sexual to life-threatening.
And everywhere, whispering on the wind, is the dreaded word...vampyr.
