Tuesday Prelude

Tuesday Prelude is a meme inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. Since I always had a problem sticking to just two lines, I decided to amp up the post a bit to give you more than just a teaser.

This week's Prelude is inspired by:

Anna James never planned on dying at age nineteen or ending up somewhere other than heaven. Five years later, her heart is still on Earth with her soulmate Grey, while the rest of her struggles to survive in Beyond. Not quite heaven and a lot like hell, Beyond is a proving ground where only the strongest souls are allowed to move on. With no way out, Anna keeps her head down and plays by the rules... Until she learns Grey is about to die.

Grey Wilson would give anything to go back and stop the accident that ripped Anna from his arms. But when Anna appears on Earth again, he quickly realizes things can never be as they were. Death and Beyond have changed her; brought out the dark side and dimmed her inner light. Before they can even revel in this semblance of a miracle, Grey and Anna find themselves in the middle of an angelic civil war where sabotage and danger lurk around every corner.

Anna's dark side is exactly what Azrael - the leader of the Angels of Punishment - craves. When Azrael lays out his demands, Anna will have to make the biggest decision of her life.

 Not all angels wear halos. Most have chips on their shoulders the size of Alaska. Some wear spikes and carry very large weapons. Those are the ones to avoid at all costs.

Except when the cost is way too high.

Anna James has got some guts. She breaks the most important rule, and would do it all over again, despite the agonizing punishment that's in store for her.

Fear had nothing on resentment, and Anna had that particularly jaded emotion in spades.

And even when she thinks the pain is over and she's paid for her "misbehavior," she's cast out, flightless and confused. If the pain of having her body torn to pieces wasn't enough, what exactly is she going to be facing?

"Your punishment is not over. Far from it. You'll have to earn your wings back, Dark One. And if you do...I'll be waiting."

Enjoy!! & Stop by May 6th for my review!

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Happy Reading Everyone :)

Tuesday Prelude

Tuesday Prelude is inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. Since I could never stick to just two lines, I amped up the post a bit, giving you a little bit more than an itty bitty teaser.

This week's prelude is inspired by:

Two years after her best friend was involved in a car accident that caused a traumatic brain injury, Lottie Anders is ready to start her freshman year of college. Ready to move on. Ready to start forgetting the night that ripped her life apart.

Her plans come to a screeching halt when not one, but both brothers responsible for the accident end up back in her life again.

Zack is cruel, selfish and constantly rubbing what happened to her friend in Lottie's face. 

Zan is different. He listens to her awkward ramblings. He loves "To Kill a Mockingbird" as much as she does, and his dark eyes are irresistible. His words are few and far between, but when he does speak, she can't help but listen. 

The trouble is, Zan was the driver in the accident, and now Lottie's discovered he lied to her about what happened that night. Now she must decide if trusting him again will lead to real forgiveness, or deeper heartache.

Zan is the character that piques my interest the most. He's the dark, quiet, broody type and he has a tendency to lash out, releasing the guilt and pain that are his constant companions.

He gets in to college, to the surprise of his parents, and he does his best to pretend this is going to be the fresh start he needs, but...

I could cut my hair and change my clothes, but nothing could change the thing that hovered over me. The thing that people saw when they looked at me, the thing that made them look away and cross to the other side of the street.

Then he runs into Charlotte, Lottie as her friends call her, but he never thought that name suited her. She wants less than nothing to do with him, but that doesn't change anything.

Once again, she was the eclipse, drawing me in. It sounds intense and it is, being drawn to look at someone like that. 

He didn't expect to see her after the years had put some distance between them, even though that distance did nothing to change the feelings he'd developed for her.

Charlotte didn't just shake my world. She created an earthquake that irrevocably changed the landscape of my life.

*sigh* Oh Zan, I really do hope things work out for you. I'm on your side all the way, man.



What you got for me this week lovelies?


Happy Reading Everyone :)

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Tuesday Prelude

Tuesday Prelude is a weekly meme inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. Since I could never stick to just two lines, I decided to amp up this post to give you a little more of an in depth look into my current read.

This week's tease:

Sometimes life takes you off course . . .

THE EDGE OF NEVER

Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett thought she knew exactly where her life was going. But after a wild night at the hottest club in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, she shocks everyone-including herself-when she decides to leave the only life she's ever known and set out on her own. Grabbing her purse and her cell phone, Camryn boards a Greyhound bus ready to find herself. Instead, she finds Andrew Parrish.

Sexy and exciting, Andrew lives life like there is no tomorrow. He persuades Camryn to do things she never thought she would and shows her how to give in to her deepest, most forbidden desires. Soon he becomes the center of her daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But there is more to Andrew than Camryn realizes. Will his secret push them inseparably together-or destroy them forever?

Andrew Parrish. Holy wow. He's one of those characters that you wish, with all your might, truly existed. He's carefree, spontaneous, hilarious, and unpredictable.

"Live in the moment," he says as if making a serious point, "where everything is just right, take your time and limit your bad memories and you'll get wherever it is you're going a lot faster and with less bumps in the road along the way."

He's romantic, in his own way, and he sees things in the simplest and purest of ways, luring Camryn out of the hole she's hidden herself in.

"I don't think you ever really fall out of love with someone," I say and see a flicker of thought move through her eyes. "I think when you fall in love, like true love, it's love for life. All the rest is just experience and delusions."

But for all his laughs and mischievous grins, Andrew has this other, darker side to him that's just as afraid as Camryn.

"It's better to shun emotion than to fall for it and let it make you its bitch - and since nothing lasts forever, in the end everything that was once good, always hurts like hell."

What's happened to him to make him think as such? Camryn's told him her reasons, but she comes to realize that Andrew can be more closed off than she ever was.

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Happy Reading Everyone :)

Tuesday Prelude

To most people, Fiona Bristow seems to have an idyllic life-a quaint house on an island off Seattle's coast, a thriving dog-training school, and a challenging volunteer job performing canine search and rescues. Not to mention her three intensely loyal Labs. But Fiona got to this point by surviving a nightmare...

Several years ago, Fiona was the only survivor of the Red Scarf serial killer, who shot and killed Fiona's cop fiancé and his K-9 partner.

On Orcas Island, Fiona found the peace and solitude she needed to rebuild her life. But all that changes on the day Simon Doyle barrels up her drive, desperate for her help. He's the reluctant owner of an out-of-control puppy, foisted upon him by his mother. Jaws has eaten through Simon's house, and he's at his wit's end.

To Fiona, Jaws is nothing she can't handle. Simon, however, is another matter. A newcomer to Orcas, he's a rugged and in-tensely private artist, known for the exquisite furniture he creates from wood. Simon never wanted a puppy-and he most definitely doesn't want a woman. Besides, the lanky redhead is not his type. But tell that to his hormones.

As Fiona embarks on training Jaws, and Simon begins to appreciate both dog and trainer, the past tears back into Fiona's life. A copycat killer has emerged out of the shadows, a man whose bloodlust has been channeled by a master with one motive: to reclaim the woman who slipped out of his hands...

I'm ashamed to say it's been a long while since I've hung out with Nora Roberts, and I'm not sure why I've allowed her to collect dust in my reading collection. I've taken a dive back into the old days, reading her novels again, and I'm so glad we have been reunited.

The Search is about Fiona, a strong heroine who trains dogs and is overcoming a horrific experience that she encountered in her early twenties. Although I admire and like her, she's not the one I want to introduce you to today.

Simon Doyle. Heck yes. Moody. Artistic. Generous. Rude (a weirdly attractive attribute for Simon). Sexy. Independent. There's nothing not appealing about Simon Doyle.

He's not really a fan of people...

If people let other people alone, people would be better off. It's always people that screw things up for people anyway.

But Fiona is growing on him.... in an irritating and annoyingly subtle way...

“What is it about you?” he repeated. “How does touching you calm me down and excite me at the same time? What is it you want from me? You never ask. Sometimes I wonder, is this a trick?”

He's smart, brave, and has quite the temper, but he's there for Fiona and, although he'd never admit it, has a big, throbbing heart that cares too much.

Enjoy!


Happy Reading Everyone :)

Tuesday Prelude

Tuesday Prelude is a weekly meme inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. I always found it extremely difficult to limit myself to just two lines, so I decided to amp up my posts a little bit and give you a little more insight into my current reads.

This week's Prelude is inspired by The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett:

The Nightmare Affair

Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder.

Then Eli’s dream comes true.

Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

I was just an average sixteen-year-old girl who happened to be the offspring of a normal human father and a mother who was a Nightmare.         Literally. 

Interesting concept. How can someone literally be a Nightmare? The book explains that they are:

...those mythic creatures who sat on your chest while you were asleep and gave you bad dreams, the kind where you woke up struggling to breathe. 

and...

Nightmares had to dream-fead to live... 

Now, I've heard of these Nightmares on one of those ghost shows that the Discovery channel likes to marathon every now and then, and in the show I just remember them being scary as hell. And I also remember the less elegant name of "Old Hag." Ouch.

Upon further reading, these Nightmares, Old Hags, Dream-Feeders, are myths scientifically explained away by sleep paralysis. (Read more...) Has this ever happened to you? It's happened to me several times, unfortunately, and its not an experience I want to relive anytime soon. I wake up but I can't move ~ I'm literally paralyzed to the point that I can't open my eyes or even make a noise no matter how hard I try, and it totally freaks me out every time. Makes me afraid to go back to sleep....

Is it a Nightmare, feeding on my dreams?

Creeeepy....


Happy Reading Everyone :)

Tuesday Prelude

Tuesday Prelude is a weekly meme inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. I could never just stick to two lines, so I decided to amp up my posts a bit, introducing you to the characters, settings, or history behind my current reads.

I'm still reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and there's just soooo much awesomeness in this novel so far, I doubt it will feel redundant with last week's TP.

Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Karou's unlike anyone else, but even she is unsure of who (or what) that is. She can't really have a normal life, what with these "errands" that cause her to disappear for random days at a time.

"Well," said her friend, "it's a Karou. Get a good look, folks. Sightings of this elusive creature are getting rarer all the time." 

She's lonely, never allowed to be one whole person, with one foot in this world and one foot in another. Karou's constantly torn, and a part of her yearns to be free.

What magnitude of wish, she wondered, would it take to endow her with flight. 

Is she on the side of good or evil? Both? Neither?

Karou? Akiva knew that word. It meant hope in the language of the enemy.  

My mind is whirling when it comes to the conundrum that is Karou. To what future will her past lead her?



Happy Reading Everyone :)

Tuesday Prelude

Tuesday Prelude is a post inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. Since I'm slightly obsessive and get overly excited when sharing one of my current reads, I could never just stick to two lines, so I amped up this post a bit, introducing you to characters, places, or the history the book holds...

This week, I'm reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor:

There's a lot I want to share about this fantastically imaginative book, but what has captivated me most is the setting: the bohemian city of Prague. The way Taylor describes it has me wanting to visit immediately with its artistic and magical atmosphere and the history that saturates the streets.

The streets of Prague were a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century - or the twentieth or nineteenth, for that matter. It was a city of alchemists and dreamers, its medieval houses glowed goldenrod and carmine and eggshell blue, embellished with Rococo plasterwork and capped in roofs of uniform red. Baroque cupolas were the soft green of antique copper, and Gothic steeples stood read to impale fallen angels. The wind carried the memory of magic, revolution, violins, and the cobbled lanes meandered like creeks. Thugs wore Mozart wigs and pushed chamber music on street corners, and marionettes hung in windows, making the whole city seem like a theater with unseen puppeteers crouched behind velvet. Above it all loomed the castle on the hill, its silhouette as sharp as thorns.

Prague Castle

I think I read that description three times and my smile grew wider with each time. Doesn't it sound beautiful? Dark and slightly dangerous? Maybe it's the art historian in me or the fact that I love places that seem to transport you back to another time, but I'm becoming obsessed with this place...


Happy Reading Everyone :)