Monday's Beginnings (107)

So it's Monday.  And a slooooow start here.

Well, I'm at work but the head is pounding more than anything I remember in a long time.  I'm now sitting in the dark working on the computer thinking I have a migraine.  Yuck.  I don't get these very often.  But anyway, life goes on as it should.

I think I was having a really good week last week. :) I think I spent some great time in books this past week and was getting caught up.  But then again, when are we readers really ever caught up?  But other then that not much really going on here.  So to what I've got done and planned in books....

Currently Reading:
Aftermath by Ann Aguirre - This is for the Thursday Chats, and we are doing this one in 2 parts instead of 3.
Enclave by Ann Aguirre - I'm so excited as I'm reading this one along with my son.  He has to read books for points in reading class and he picked this one! Yeah!  So my excuse to read it, but it will take longer than normal.
Armageddon Bound by Tim Marquitz - I got the extra little boost I needed from BastardBooks to pick this one up.  We have a friendly little challenge to try books.  But I had seen reviews for this one and liked what I saw about it.

To Come This Week:
Reviews:
Ada, Legend of a Healer by R.A. McDonald - yes, I was hoping to do this one by the end of week last week. But the week got away from me with the holiday.
Wild & Steamy by Meljean Brook, Jill Myles, & Carolyn Crane

Last Week:
Books I Finished:
Ada, Legend of a Healer by R.A. McDonald
Wild & Steamy by Meljean Brook, Jill Myles, & Carolyn Crane

Reviews Posted Last Week:
Killbox by Ann Aguirre

Podcast Reviews Last Week:
Tales from the Archives #9

Special Posts:
News from The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.  Philippa Ballantine shares with us there are new short stories on the horizon!

I did write a Flash Fiction Friday as well. :) If you take the time to read it, I hope you enjoy it.

My WANT List...I've added 5 books.  Hmm, I'm starting to think we are all reading the same books. :) I'll have to work harder on this number, so I will.

Books Received:
Gift:
This list of books was given to me by David Wagner @ My Little Corner of the World.  He was cleaning off his shelves and offered the books to his followers before sending them off to the yard sale or Goodwill.  Thank you David!

Goodreads Synopsis:
Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father's gruff stableman. He is treated like an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him sectetly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz's blood runs the magic Skill--and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom.

Goodreads Synopsis:
The powerful city-state of Saraykeht is a bastion of peace and culture, a major center of commerce and trade. Its economy depends on the power of the captive spirit, Seedless, an andat bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai for life. Enter the Galts, a juggernaut of an empire committed to laying waste to all lands with their ferocious army. Saraykeht, though, has always been too strong for the Galts to attack, but now they see an opportunity. If they can dispose of Heshai, Seedless's bonded poet-sorcerer, Seedless will perish and the entire city will fall. With secret forces inside the city, the Galts prepare to enact their terrible plan.

In the middle is Otah, a simple laborer with a complex past. Recruited to act as a bodyguard for his girlfriend's boss at a secret meeting, he inadvertently learns of the Galtish plot. Otah finds himself as the sole hope of Saraykeht, either he stops the Galts, or the whole city and everyone in it perishes forever.

Goodreads Synopsis:
For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.

Goodreads Synopsis:
Kylar Stern has rejected the assassin's life. The Godking's successful coup has left Kylar's master, Durzo, and his best friend, Logan, dead. He is starting over: new city, new friends, and new profession.

But when he learns that Logan might actually be alive and in hiding, Kylar is faced with an agonizing choice: will he give up the way of shadows forever and live in peace with his new family, or will he risk everything by taking on the ultimate hit?

Goodreads Synopsis:
Logan Gyre is king of Cenaria, a country under siege, with a threadbare army and little hope. He has one chance - a desperate gamble, but one that could destroy his kingdom.

In the north, the new Godking has a plan. If it comes to fruition, no one will have the power to stop him.

Kylar Stern has no choice. To save his friends-and perhaps his enemies-he must accomplish the impossible: assassinate a goddess.

Beyond the Shadows is the action-packed conclusion to the Night Angel Trilogy.

Won:
I won a book of my choice from Book Lovers Inc. from their We Love Your Comments giveaway each month.  So I choose...
Goodreads Synopsis:
When the Devil needs a rogue demon killed, who does he call?

The Player: Necromance-for-hire Dante Valentine is choosy about her jobs. Hot tempered and with nerves of steel, she can raise the dead like nobody's business. But one rainy Monday morning, everything goes straight to hell.

The Score: The Devil hires Dante to eliminate a rogue demon: Vardimal Santino. In return, he will let her live. It's an offer she can't refuse.

The Catch: How do you kill something that can't die? 

Purchased:
Yes, I couldn't help myself.  There are so many amazing new books coming out, and I just had to get a few.  And I have chats coming up on a few of them as well.

Goodreads Synopsis:
DEAD HEROES GET MONUMENTS. LIVE ONES GET TRIALS.

Sirantha Jax has the right genes—ones that enable her to “jump” faster-than-light ships through grimspace. But it’s also in her genetic makeup to go it alone. It’s a character trait that has gotten her into—and out of—hot water time and time again, but now she’s caused one of the most horrific events in military history…

During the war against murderous, flesh-eating aliens, Sirantha went AWOL and shifted grimspace beacons to keep the enemy from invading humanity’s homeworld. The cost of her actions: the destruction of modern interstellar travel—and the lives of six hundred Conglomerate soldiers.

Accused of dereliction of duty, desertion, mass murder, and high treason, Sirantha is on trial for her life. And only time will tell if she’s one of the Conglomerate’s greatest heroes—or most infamous criminals…

Goodreads Synopsis:

Pete Caldecott did everything she could to save Jack from Hell, even reigning in the dark machinations of the Morrigan to help bring him home. Still, Black London has not welcomed Jack back with open arms. . . So when a friend in Los Angeles asks for help tracking a sorcerous serial killer, Pete and Jack decide a change of scenery couldn’t hurt. . . 

But the shadow side of the City of Angels turns out to be more treacherous than they ever imagined. Together, Pete and Jack must navigate a landscape teeming with hostile magic-users— and fight an unknown enemy. When their investigation leads to a confrontation with the demon Belial, Jack learns that he wasn't the only thing to escape from Hell. Now it’s up to him and Pete to track and eliminate an evil older than the Black itself—before it turns L.A. into Hell on Earth. And destroys life as they know it back at home…

Goodreads Synopsis:
She can heal her own wounds. She can nail a monster to a wall. But there’s one danger Evangeline Stone never saw coming.
 
Been there. Done that. Evy Stone is a former Dreg Bounty Hunter who died and came back to life with some extraordinary powers. Now all but five people in the world think she is dead again, this time for good—immolated in a factory fire set specifically for her. Evy and Wyatt, her partner/lover/friend, can no longer trust their former allies, or even the highest echelons of the Triads—the army of fighters holding back from an unsuspecting public a tide of quarreling, otherworldly creatures—they can trust only each other. Because when the Triads raided a macabre, monster-filled lab of science experiments and hauled away the remnants, they failed to capture their creator: a brilliant, vampire-obsessed scientist with a wealth of powerful, anti-Dreg weaponry to trade for what he desires most of all—Evy Stone: alive and well, and the key to his ultimate experiment in mad science.

So another week is upon us.  How are you faring at the beginning of this week?  Does if look like a good reading week for you?

Here's hoping you have a great week in words and pages.

And I have a song to phase out with. ;D  I'm a fan of Cracker from back in high school and I pulled the CD out over the weekend while I was cleaning so I have to share one of the many favorite songs from it... goodness it's so hard to pick!  I might have to share a few of them over the next couple of weeks.  The only video I could find was from a concert for this song.  But you get to hear the song anyway.