by Kay | Sep 9, 2009 | Weekly Feature |
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that are being eagerly anticipated.
Taking a break from fiction to highlight a… cookbook! I LOVE the Post Punk Kitchen and can’t wait for this book! Also check out Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The WORLD – an awesome and yummy book by the same authors.
To Be Released: November 9th 2009
Going vegan doesn’t mean giving up dessert. In this revolutionary cookbook, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s vegan world-domination mission continues with dairy-free, egg-free batches of everyone’s favorite treat—cookies!
From classic favorites to fancy delights, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar features 100 original recipes alongside beautiful color photographs. Chapters include mix n’ drop cookies, biscotti and bars, pipe-out cookies, copycat cookies (veganized versions of name-brands), frostings and fillings, and more. The book is armed with the authors’ signature advice on baking, decorating, even choosing which cookies to eat for dinner. When vegan cookies are invading your cookie jar, resistance is futile.
The lineup includes: Classy Classic Chocolate Chip • City Girl Snickerdoodles • Key Lime Shortbread • Butterscotch Blondies • Gingerpunks • Noreos • Nuttin’ Butterfingers • Pecan Dandies • Black & Whites • Cranberry-Walnut Thumbprints • Stained Glass Candy Cookies • Pumpkin Pie Brownies
Can I just reiterate the awesome that is this book??
by Kay | Sep 6, 2009 | The Sunday Salon |
A couple of weeks ago, I had a post asking me what male authors I had on my TBR list – if any. Well, I floundered. I guess I did realise on some level that the urban fantasy genre was made up mainly of women… well, I just was not used to it. When it comes to literary fiction, it is so easy to read only male authors – and I guess I was still used to that. Because, when it comes right down to it, I believe men have an easier job of it at getting published. Or, at the very least, have an easier job having their works recognised as “Great Works Of Fiction.”
Publishers love to group genre with gender, and while there are always exceptions, urban fantasy is trending that way. Personally, I am ok with that. For decades sci-fi and fantasy was seen as a very male genre – and now, well, it is starting to even out. As I am sure that, one day in the likely distant future, the romance genre will read by men and written by male writers.
So how about some urban fantasy written by men? Well, here is an incomplete selection from my wishlist – if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them!
Nightlife by Rob Thurman – Apparently he is a she, and is not even trying to deny it! Well, there goes another man off the list!
by Kay | Sep 2, 2009 | Weekly Feature |
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that are being eagerly anticipated.
Maybe I am just going through Darkest Powers withdrawal, but I absolutely love the idea behind this book. A girl with an affinity with dead bodies? Awesome. Add a little romance, and I have a feeling I am going to love this book!
The Body Finder by
Kimberly Derting
March 16th, 2010 (I am so jealous of everyone who already has an ARC!)
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.
Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she’s falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.
I have been looking for more YA reads to add to my TBR list, and have found quite a few that will be blogging about in the weeks to come. It seems to me that YA has been getting a lot of attention from publishers as of late – especially books with a paranormal aspect. While we all know it is the result of the “Twilight Effect” – I can’t help but be grateful! I was reading Cassandra Clare and Sara Rees Brennan years ago when they were writing fanfiction – and even though they are brilliant writers, I don’t think they would have had as easy a time getting published had it not been for Twilight. Same thing for a number of YA writers out there at the moment.
Anyways, my point is that Twilight – love it or hate it – has brought new life to the YA section of the bookstore. Hell, I didn’t use to read YA when I was a YA – but Twilight brought me over with its’ sparkly addictiveness.
by Kay | Aug 24, 2009 | Reviews |
Touch the Dark by Karen Chance
Series: Cassandra Palmer #1
Published by Ace/Roc
Pages: 307
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Source: Purchased myself
Add to Goodreads
Rating: Cassandra Palmer can see the future and communicate with spirits;talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead. The ghosts of the dead aren't usually dangerous; they just like to talk; a lot. The undead are another matter.
Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires. But when the bloodsucking Mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection. The undead senators won't help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire—and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay.
Rec for people who love: old-school sexy vampires, and heroines you would actually enjoy spending time with.
First Line: I knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the obituary.
Thoughts: Once I got into Touch the Dark, I really enjoyed it. It has plenty of action, hot vampires and a solid plot. But it did take me a while. After an impressive showdown to start the book, we go through a lot of character introductions that, er, drag. It might not have been quite as noticeable if it hadn’t been for the fact that Chance is introducing us to people I felt I already knew. Being introduced to Cleopatra and Jack the Ripper would likely be a bit more interesting if they weren’t, you know, Cleopatra and Jack the Ripper.
Of course, Chance did make them into more than just caricatures. In fact, making Dracula’s brother one of the main characters actually ended up setting the book apart from the vamp lit that we are currently being inundated with. Unlike some authors who seem determined to turn vampires into aliens/demi-gods/sparkley dildos, Chance is not afraid to incorporate the vamp stereotype.
Moreover, Chance has a really identifiable heroine in Cassie Palmer. I honestly haven’t a single thing to complain about with her – and seeing how hard it is to write a leading-lady that reviewers don’t want to shoot, it’s a rather impressive feat. Cassie has had some seriously horrible stuff happen to her in her short life, but she is not so fixated on getting revenge/answers that she throws away all her sense of self-preservation. In fact, she is probably the least “too stupid to live” heroine I have read in a long time.
Overall, I really did enjoy Touch the Dark. It was another keep-you-up novel with lots of action and a well-crafted plot. The slight romantic element actually got rather explicit without turning Cassie into a slut, or even dominating the plot – keeping the book very firmly out of the Paranormal Romance Genre. I am definitely getting the next three books in the series.
Other Reviews:
by Kay | Aug 24, 2009 | Weekly Feature |
Musing Mondays is held by Rebecca over at Just One More Page
Do you prefer to read stand-alone books, or books in series? Do you stick with a series the whole way through or stop after the first installment? Are there any particular series you enjoy?
I have always been a fan of series and firmly believe in sticking them out. Even when they start to run dry. However, I do prefer to know when the end is in sight. If there are going to be 13 books in the series, I would hope to know that by book 6. At least then I know that the author really does have an end in sight, and isn’t just screwing with my emotions for the fun of it.
But because so few authors actually have the ability (aka permission from their publishers/guarantee that X number of books will published), they are bound to either drag a series out or cut it off too short. So, I keep a policy of forgetfulness. If there is a book in a series I hated – I just block it from my mind, and move on to the next. Writing a series is just not the same as writing a single novel, and a bit of leeway should be given because of it.
As for series I am reading, I have a whole list – along with my list of series TBR.
