Monday's Beginnings (146) Vlog Style (29)

It's Monday!?  Where did the weekend go?

Current Read:
Blue-Blooded Vamp by Jaye Wells

Finished Last Week:
Exhumed by Skyla Dawn Cameron

Reviews to Come:
Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews
Love, Death, and Loneliness by Douglas R. Brown
Hunter and Fox by Philippa Ballantine
Eyes of Magic by S.A. Archer & S. Ravynheart
Exhumed by Skyla Dawn Cameron

Book Reviews Posted:
Devil's Punch by Ann Aguirre

Movie Review Posted:
Oops.  Forgot to post one this week. Well, I'll post next week.

Podcast Review Posted:
Fables of the Flying City by Jared Axelrod, Ep 4-7

Books & Covers Shared:
Cover & New PNR series

Special Posts:
Interview with an Urban Fantasy Picture Model
Freebie and Deals, on Nook too (15)

I did do a Flash Fiction Friday last week.  And continued with Sunny from two weeks prior.

My WANT List...Hmmm, I've only added 2 books last week!  But I did pick up several books that I had not known about before.  So it was a great week in all.

Received Last Week:
For Review:

Harmonics: Rise of the Magician by Collin Earl & Chris Snelgrove
Goodreads Synopsis:
Set in our world in the near future, Harmonics: Rise of the Magician follows the life of Samantha Montgomery of Academy City 676, a normal primary education girl, and the actions of MESA, a defense contractor responsible for the world's most advanced weaponry. Elsewhere in other parts of the world, the super governments of United Western Collective and the Jade Empire follow the exploits and dealings of the world's most notorious assassin, a man known only as "The Magician". Some consider him a myth, others think of him as a legend, while others still believe he's the world's most brutal slayer of men. Still all look on in awe at any mention of the Magician. With the supposed ability to manipulate his surroundings at will, the world has seen the actions of this man whose purpose and identity remains hidden. They all look for him. The government, the fans, the law enforcement agencies search the world over for him without really knowing how truly dangerous he is...

They're about to find out. 

A school in siege, a weapon so advanced it defies the law of physics, an assassin out for blood, and Samantha caught in the middle. When reality as you know it ceases to be, can you live with the reality yet to come? Join Sam as she discovers for herself how dangerous life outside of school really is.

Purchased:

Blue-Blooded Vamp by Jaye Wells
Goodreads Synopsis:
The epic conclusion to the amazing Sabina Kane urban fantasy series. 

Sabina Kane is on the hunt. Her prey: Cain, the father of the vampire race and the one who murdered her family and her friends. Unfortunately, Cain is hunting Sabina, too. The one man who holds the key to defeating Cain is, of course, Abel. A mage with secrets to spare and, hopefully, the power to match it. Unfortunately, for Sabina, he's in Rome and may not want to be found. 

Sabina sets out for Italy with her friends, Giguhl and Adam Lazarus, to track down the only man who can get her the revenge she hungers for. But will he help her or oppose her? And just who is Abel, really? Worst of all, when Sabina figures out the goddess Lilith has a plan for her-she realizes this trip is getting deadlier by the minute. 

As they say: when in Rome-SURVIVE.

Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane
Goodreads Synopsis:
READING, WRITING, AND RAISING THE DEAD

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks. 
As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

Love Bleeds: Eight Vampire Novels by J.R. Rain
Goodreads Synopsis:
Eight bestselling vampire novels by J.R. Rain, including:

MOON DANCE
Mother, wife, private investigator...vampire. Six years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire. Now the world at large thinks Samantha has developed a rare skin disease, a disease which forces her to quit her day job and stay out of the light of the sun. Working the night shift as a private investigator, Samantha is hired by Kingsley Fulcrum to investigate the murder attempt on his life, a horrific scene captured on TV and seen around the country.

VAMPIRE MOON
Samantha Moon finds herself hunting down a powerful crime lord and protecting an innocent woman from her ruthless ex-husband—all while two very different men vie for her heart. And as the stakes grow higher and her cases turn personal, Samantha Moon will do whatever it takes to protect the innocent and bring two cold-blooded killers to justice—her own brand of justice.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE
Samantha Moon receives a heartbreaking phone call from a very unlikely source: a five-year-old girl who's been missing for three months. Now on the hunt, Samantha will use her considerable resources—including her growing supernatural abilities—to locate the missing girl before it's too late. And as she gets closer and closer to the horrible truth, she receives devastating news on the home front. Now with her world turned upside down, Samantha Moon is forced to make the ultimate choice of life and death.

MOON CHILD
Samantha Moon is faced with an impossible decision—a decision that no mother should ever have to make. A decision that will change her life, and those she loves, forever. And through it all, Sam finds herself in a lethal game of vampire vs. vampire as a powerful—and desperate—enemy will stop at nothing to claim what he most desires.

THE VAMPIRE WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Three years ago, high school student Veronica Fortune witnessed the brutal murder of her parents. Now armed and dangerous, she sets out to hunt down the very thing that destroyed her life. That is, until she disappears. Spinoza is a private investigator who specializes in finding the missing. Hired to find Veronica, Spinoza won't let his personal demons—or demons of any kind—get in the way of finding the truth about the missing girl.

THE VAMPIRE WHO PLAYED DEAD
Two years ago, a woman is murdered in cold blood. Now a son she'd given up for adoption returns to claim his inheritance. To verify his claim, a DNA test is ordered. Except there's one problem. Her grave is empty. Spinoza is hired to find the missing body, and will follow a set of clues that leads him to the unthinkable, a world of nightmares and dreamscapes.

THE VAMPIRE CLUB
Over 150 years ago, a man was killed with a silver bullet. A man who just might be a vampire. The Vampire Club, a group of students who meet regularly, think that they might have found their first documented case of a real vampire. The hunt begins, and as they close in on their immortal prize, they soon realize that they aren’t the only ones interested in the vampire.

BAD BLOOD
They call him Spider. And people come to him when they have a problem. So when teenager Parker Cole approaches Spider at night school, he figures she's just another problem waiting to happen. But then she tells him about her father, who runs a cult called Cloudland based at the foot of mystical Mount Shasta, California. And then she tells Spider about her best friend, who is now dead, her body completely drained of blood. Spider wonders if the death is the work of a fellow vampire...or if he's now the target of a sinister game designed to lure him to Cloudland, where darker mysteries await.

Won:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Goodreads Synopsis:
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Free on eReader:

Sunrise at Sunset by Jaz Primo
Goodreads Synopsis:
We vampires are focused and tend to shape our own realities.

My name is Katrina Rawlings, and I am a vampire. I declare that with neither pride nor ego. I am simply nature's most dangerous predator. On occasion, it's a very valuable quality. It helped me protect Caleb Taylor one day when he was very young. But that single, traumatic day is behind him now; wiped from his memory, or so I hope.

Caleb has finally matured into a rather striking young man, and believe me, I like what I see. I'll readily admit that there are issues for us to confront and overcome, though a sense of mutual commitment isn't one of them. I'm feeling hopeful for our future together, in fact. But an adversary from my past has returned to haunt me, and she's trying to get back at me through Caleb. That was her first...and last...mistake. I'll protect my Caleb at all costs, and I'll make her regret the day she was born.

So, I suppose that I'm not just a vampire. I'm about to become someone's worst nightmare!

Katrina Rawlings is a deadly vampire who falls in love with an innocent human named Caleb. An adversary from her past seeks revenge against her through Caleb. As dangerous traps unfold, Katrina and her closest friends desperately track her elusive enemy while also striving to protect the man she loves.

Four in the Morning by Malon Edwards, Edward M. Erdelac, Lincoln Crisler, Tim Marquitz
Goodreads Synopsis:
A young girl coming of age in an alternate, steampunk Chicago learns the truth about herself while avenging her lost friends. A bitter, teenage murderer finds acceptance and power in the arms of a dark African god’s gangster disciples. A middle-aged woman in a frigid marriage discovers her experimental age-defying treatment may be something more than skin deep. A worn, aged, small-town patriarch uncovers a web of sinister transactions revolving around his local funeral home.

Four in the Morning offers adventurous steampunk, sinister urban fantasy, dark science fiction and bone-chilling horror in three novelettes and one novella from four exciting genre voices.

For Opinion, if can stand alone:

Mina Wentworth and the Invisible City by Meljean Brook
Goodreads Synopsis:
Eight months after The Iron Duke, can their marriage survive a new danger?

When newly-married Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth is called to investigate a bounder’s murder, she doesn’t expect the mysterious machine she finds…or the danger that leads back to her husband.

And it's been a full week!  I'm hoping to get a little relaxing and reading this week.  I do have running over the weekend coming, but for other parties.  So, here's hoping for a lovely reading week.

Here's wishing you all the best in words and pages this week as well.  Hope it looks like a good week for you.