Cover Reveal: Labyrinth of Stars

I'm thrilled to share this one!  I LOOOVE this series!  (okay, I'm 1 book behind - it's right here on my shelf - but I still LOOOVE this series!)

Daaang, I'm loving this new cover!

Marjorie shared this on Facebook, if you want to check it out there.

Labyrinth of Stars

A Hunter Kiss Novel #5

By:  Marjorie M. Liu

Due Out:  February 25, 2014

I just love these covers as they are related to the stories and characters.  Seeing Maxine here with her armor on her hand and sword and the boys tattooed on her...just love.  Love it.

Looking Forward To...(79)

There are so many amazing books already on the shelves and new ones coming out.

For a list of books yet to be released I'm looking to get, you can also look on my right Sidebar at the ever growing list titled Desired Reads - just scroll down. Of course there are tones of other new books to come out that are amazing as well, but these ones are part of series I have already started or for one reason or another caught my eye (and haven't seen much on other blogs yet). But I will highlight one here each week.

(mentioned in order of Release Date then Alphabetical if there are more than one book coming out on the same date.)

Next Book Is...

The Mortal Bone

Hunter Kiss #4

By:  Marjorie M. Liu

Due Out:  December 27, 2011

I have been loving this series since the first book.  I love Maxine and her family history, then "her" boys make the whole thing even better.  And we now have her boyfriend Grant, who showed up much more in the last book.  All great elements here.  Dark Urban Fantasy!  I love my dark urban fantasy, and this is right there with the best of them for me.

Goodreads Synopsis:
When the bond Maxine Kiss shares with the demons tattooed on her skin is deliberately severed, the demon hunter is left vulnerable and unprotected. For the first time in ten thousand years, the demons have a taste of freedom. And as the little demons grow more violent and unpredictable, Maxine starts to fear they will lose their minds without her. Reuniting won't be easy, since a greater temptation waits for these hellions: a chance to return to their lives as Reaper Kings, and unleash hell on Earth.

Cover Release ~ The Mortal Bone

I'm a big fan of Marjorie M. Liu's series of Hunter Kiss series.  And I just saw the cover for the fourth book is released!  Yeah!

Due Out:  December 27, 2011

Synopsis:
When the bond Maxine Kiss shares with Zee and the boys-the demons tattooed on her skin-is deliberately severed, the hunter is left vulnerable and unprotected. For the first time in ten thousand years, the boys have a taste of freedom-without Maxine’s guiding influence. 

As they grow more violent and unpredictable, Maxine starts to fear the little demons will lose their minds without their attachment to her. But reuniting won’t be easy, as a great temptation waits for her little demons : a chance to return to their lives….and unleash hell on earth


Look at this amazing cover!  I see the glove Maxine has started and her sword.  And that lovely man by her side... could that be her honey? Grant?

Throwback Thursday (19)

Let's talk about those books already on the shelves, yours or the stores.

I have a post for books I'm looking forward to coming out;

Looking Forward To...

But what about all those wonderful books that are ALREADY on the shelves.

Whether it be on your shelf waiting to be read or on the shelves in the stores waiting for you to give it a good home.

So, I thought I would share a book a week that is just waiting for me to travel through it's world.

Now... where do I start? Lets go by Published Date on the books...

This Week:

What drew me to this book you ask?  Well, I started reading Marjorie M. Liu's Hunter Kiss series and loved it.  I loved the whole idea of the tattoos being demons and coming to life at night.  I loved the writing and well the whole setup.   So, I've read all the books that are now out and found out there was a short story about the main character in this anthology.  And as many of you know I LOVE my anthologies too!  So I thought this was a win win book.  Now, I just need to get to reading it.

Goodreads Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling authors Maggie Shayne and Marjorie Liu join two hot talents in an anthology of all-new sexy paranormal romance.

New York Times bestselling authors Maggie Shayne and Marjorie M. Liu, and sizzling newcomers Alyssa Day and Meljean Brook discover the wild instinct in everyone with four all-new stories of feral heat. Fans will get swept away by the passions in the unfathomable depths of Atlantis; they'll follow the shadows that stalk both the living and the undead in a world of vampires and guardian angels; they'll enter the forbidden world of the demon horde and their willing victims; and they'll be privy to the secrets of a beautiful animal-whisperer who's drawn closer to the most suspect of all male animals-man.

Book Review: A Wild Light

A Wild Light

By:  Marjorie M. Liu

Publisher:  Ace Novel

Publish Date:  July 27, 2010

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Format:  Paperback; 302 pgs, pocket book size

Series:  3rd in Hunter Kiss series; 1st ~ Iron Hunt review here, 2nd ~ Darkness Calls review here

Recommendation:  Yes! I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Urban Fantasy, with mystery and action with great characters.

Book Synopsis:
Obsidian shadows of the flesh…tattoos with hearts, minds, and dreams. By day, they are my armor. By night, they unwind from my body to take on forms of their own—demons of the flesh, turned into flesh.

For too long Maxine Kiss has felt an inexplicable darkness around her—a force she channels into hunting the demons bent on destroying the human race. But when she finds herself covered in blood and crouched beside her grandfather’s dead body with no memory of what happened or of the man she loves, Maxine begins to fear that the darkness has finally consumed her.

With blood on her hands and her sanity in question, Maxine must face the truth about who she really is and embrace the love of the only man who can help her—before she loses what she cares about most: her family.

First Sentence:
It was my birthday, the anniversary of my mother's murder, and on the way to the party, I made a special point to stop and kill a zombie.

My Review and Summary:
It's Maxine's birthday.  Her and the boys are on their way to perform their special ritual, no one knows of, to celebrate her birthday and the death of her mother ~ as they are the same day.  Then off to her party with her family, even her thousand million year old Grandfather is excited to celebrate a birthday with his grand daughter.  Zee warns Maxine there are whispers of troubles to come.  Then, Maxine wakes the next morning before dawn feeling every fiber of herself exhausted and weak.  Curled up on the floor and blood around her with the dead body beside her...  With loss of memory and an empty feeling in her heart, Maxine needs to solve the mystery.  Along with the loss of memory of how this person died, she had one important person erased from her memory... Why?  All this with the weight of the failing veil on her as well.

This is another great installment to the Maxine Hunter Kiss series.  Marjorie is great at starting a new book with the new story, mystery, and dropping you right into the plot.  She adds in through this story history to refresh your memory of the past happenings and relationships, but she doesn't reiterate completely to bore you or retell the previous.  She brings you in quickly to a new story and dedicates the time to it.

You don't have to read the previous two books to read this one, but I would say you should. You do get brief refreshers on what you need to know had happened to keep you up with the happenings. But I found them great memory joggers to remember the happenings in more details.


I enjoy this series with the strong character Maxine is and the boys at her sides.  Maxine is also joined by a few other strong characters.  Maxine is a character with weaknesses, and flawes, but she makes it through a stronger person.  You get to watch Maxine grow more in this book, more in her own way other than what is expected of the Kiss women.  Many of the characters of past come back in this book; Grant, Jack, Byron, Crazy Mary, and a few others.

You learn more of the scar under Maxine's ear, and her ancestor she resembles.  I learned much more of Maxine, the boys, and all the great magical characters.  I felt like more pieces of the puzzle of Maxine, her family, and the veil started to fall into place, pieces I didn't realize I was missing before.

I am glad to hear that Marjorie will be doing more books in this world with Maxine and the boys and I will be looking forward to them.

Would you like to visits Marjories site and learn more about her books?  Go Here.


I received a copy of this book for Review.


This book qualifies for my Speculative Fiction Challenge hosted by Book Chick City.

Looking Forward to...

Marjorie M. Liu is doing a few bookcasts over at Orbit Books blog site.  If you would like to visit the first one, click here.

AND more wonderful news is Marjorie has posted an excerpt from the first chapter at her blog.  If you would like to jump over there and read it, here is the link.

This book is due out July 2010.

It appears we are going to learn more about Maxine, what she is ment for, and the boys as well.

Thank you for the excerpt Marjorie!   And looking forward to the book.

Favorite Fictional Character (22)

A weekly meme thanks to the creative mind of Ryan at Wordsmithonia.

My character this week is a woman who carries the burden of her family's heritage with her and on her at all times.  She also knows at some point she will be left by her demon tattoos to live on her daughter and she will be killed by an enemy without their protection.

The character I have picked for this week is Maxine Kiss of the Kiss Hunter series by Marjorie M. Liu.  In picking Maxine as my favorite character I am also getting extra characters with her.  As Maxine comes with the burden of the heavy tattoos, they look like tattoos but they are the demons who sleep during the day and hunt at night.  Even though they sound mean and vicious because they can eat anything from glass to steel to blood, but they love teddy bear heads.  And their bodies are so sharp just a touch could cut you, however they don't hurt Maxine or her boyfriend Grant (who is a great character himself - with a great power we are learning about in the books). 

The Boys as Maxine calls them are beasts themselves.  There are two how prowl through the shadows and two who wrap around her neck and sing in her ear to communicate to her.  These boys will do anything they can to protect Maxine.  During the day the tattoos are an armor to protect from any harm and at night they stay at her side waiting to help at any instant.

Maxine is one to hunt zombies, demons who take over a human body.  She expells the demons from the bodies to save the human.  Maxine is a strong character who tries to live on her own to not bring harm to others and should move around the world to help in as many places as she can.  But, Maxine is a little different and has started to get attached - maybe unknowingly - to Grant and the homeless he helps at his homeless shelter.

I have enjoyed reading of Maxine in the first two books - Iron Hunt and Darkness Calls - along with a short story in the anthology Inked.  I am looking forward to book three - A Wild Light - coming out August 27, 2010.

Book Review: Darkness Calls

Darkness Calls

By: Marjorie M. Liu

Publisher: Ace Books

Publish Date: July 2009

Format: Paperback (4"x 6 3/4"), pgs 303

Genre: Fiction, Paranormal

Series: 2nd bookof Hunter Kiss Series (If you would like to read the 1st books review click here.)

Recommendation: Yes! If you read the first book you have to read this one!

First Sentence:

Zombies had a bad habit of shooting me in the head.

Book Synopsis:

They are the obsidian shadows of my flesh-tattos with minds, hearts, and dreams. By day, they protect me. But when night calls to them, they leave my body, dissolving into their true form-as demons...

Nomad born and bred, demon hunter Maxine Kiss has always relied upon herself to fight the darkness that surrounds her, the predators-human, zombie, and otherwise-who threaten the earth. But one man has penetrated her lonely life: Grant, the last of his kind. With the ability to manipulate energy, he can control any living creature... including demons. And now his life is in danger.

Haunted by the past, determined to change the future, Maxine soon understands that to save Grant, she has only one choice-to lose control and release her own powers of darkness...

My Review and Summary:

Once again the synopsis the book gives is very well done. It hits on all the major topics in the book.

As I noted above, if you have read the first book you need to read this one.

The beginning of the book gives a lot of review with the new happenings to catch you up with the time from reading book one and the release of book two. There is a lot here to get you back up to speed in that break time frame, however for me it was a little slow since I had just finished the first book with all the happenings fresh in my mind. But, when the book picks up on its own path and goes... It goes!

You do get your share of action with Maxine along with the love her and Grant share. But most of all you start to get the story behind Jack and a few other key characters (you have to read to see who and what it is - it is worth it!). The history with Jack and many of the characters, including Maxines' heritage, is amazing and really opens the world up to so much more possibilities. I love the style Marjorie has used to tell the stories through-out the book. You start to see that through the labyrinth their is a large world and lots of great mystery behind the different creatures you are introduced to. You even get to see the connection between all the creatures that is intreging. Then there is an interesting take on where humans came from in accordance to the ancient beings.

I have loved the world and mystery in the Labyrinth. I would love to learn more of the Labyrinth and the magics it holds. After reading this book with the great character building we are still waiting for the veil to fail, and there are a few other troubles that could come Maxines way for the next few books to come.

I am going to be on the watch for book three to be coming out. I have found that Marjorie has a story of Maxine in an anthology of four authors called Wild Things. And there is a new anthology of 4 authors to be out in January 2010 that includes another story of Maxine called Inked. I will be looking into these two books after the new year.

Book Review

The Iron Hunt

By: Marjorie M. Liu

Publisher: Ace Books

Publish Date: July 2008

Genre: Fiction, Paranormal

Series: 1st book of Hunter Kiss series

Recommendation: YES!!!

First Sentence:

When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw.

Book Synopsis:

Silver smoke winds around my torso, peeling away from my ribs and back, stealing the dark mist covering my hands and lower extremities... tattoos dissolving into demon flesh, coalescing into small dark bodies. My boys. The only friends I have in this world. Demons.

I am a demon hunter. I am a demon. I am Hunter Kiss.

By day, her tattoos are her armor. By night, they unwind from her body to take on forms of their own - demons of the flesh, turned into flesh. This is the only family demon hunter Maxine Kiss has ever known. It's the only way to live, and the very way she'll die. For one day her demons will abandon her for her daughter to assure their own survival 0 leaving Maxine helpless against her enemies.

But such is the way of Earth's last protector - the only one standing between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veil. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment - and one man - changes everything...

My Review and Summary:

I am not going to say to much on what happens in the book. I think the book synopsis does a very good job of that. So, I am going to try and stick to my thoughts on this review.

This book is a great beginning to a unique series idea. This book introduces you to all the characters and given what you need to love them, along with the fast pacing to keep you going. The book is VERY well written to make me love and hate the characters with Maxine as we go through the story. I loved how there are many different demons and creatures. By the end of the book, I felt I knew the characters well, but had many curiosities of them. My curiosities were not from a lack in the story, but more of my thinking on the characters afterward. Where they are from and what they could truely be capable of.

There are things here that Marjorie lays out for you to foresee in the story, but there are so many unpredictable happenings, and appearances as well. You get pieces of the plot to puzzle together as the story goes and it keeps you wanting more. I didn't want to put the book down. Another great book where I tried to make stopping points but just could NOT find one, I had to keep reading to find out what happens and what creature am I going to meet next.

I do have to mention the '80s references ~ on the radio and tv reruns. The references are in no way over done. I enjoyed the subtlety of them, since I too am an '80s lover.

One of my favorite characters in the book were the tattoos. I loved the WHOLE idea with/of them. The way they live, protecting Maxine both day and night in different ways. The way they help guide Maxine even when they are sleeping. This is an amazing creation that I look forward to reading more of.

The only thing with this story was I felt, in the first fifty pages or so, I had missed some information. Maybe I missed a story that preceded this book or maybe this is information that is left open to be discussed in future books. Either way it did not hinder the book in any way and keeps a little mystery in the book and future installments for me.

In the end, I loved this books' plot and the characters. I would recommend this book to anyone loving paranormal books.