Waiting on Wednesday: Dark Peril

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My choice for the week:



Dark Peril (Carpathians, #21)
by
Christine Feehan

I am addicted to this series. I love it. I have read every single novel and novella out thus far. So it should come as no surprise that I am really, really looking forward to this book! Dominic has been one of my favorite characters for a long time...

Here's the blurb from Miss Christine's website:

Dominic, of the Dragonseeker lineage—one of the most powerful of the Carpathian lines—is desperate to go to the very heart of the enemy camp and learn their plans. There’s only one way to do so: ingest the parasitic blood of a vampire. He knows that it is a mission from which there is no return. With little time before the blood takes effect, he’ll get the information he needs, relay it to the leader of the Carpathians, and go out fighting. There is no more honorable way to end his life.

Solange Sangria is one of the last of the jaguar people, a royal pureblood, a dying species that cannot recover from bad decisions made over hundreds of years. She has long been alone, fighting to save the remaining shapeshifters from the hands of Brodrick the Terrible: her own father, who slaughtered her family and everyone she loved. Wounded and weary, she plans one last battle, hoping to stop the man who has made an alliance with the vampires, accepting that she will not come out alive.

They are two warriors who have lived their lives alone. Now, at the end of their time, they find each other—an obstacle neither can hope to ignore.

Sounds good to me!

Don't you just love the cover? ^_^

Release Date: 31 August 2010

Hunting the Darkness

The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss, #1)
Marjorie M. Liu

Release Date: June 2008
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 10/10
Source: Purchased
Buy the Book: Borders ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Books-A-Million
Content Warning: Foul Language

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 -- 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...

Darkness Calls (Hunter Kiss, #2)
Marjorie M. Liu

Release Date: June 30, 2009
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 10/10
Source: Purchased
Buy the Book: Borders ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Books-A-Million
Content Warning: Foul Language

They are the obsidian shadows of my flesh - tattoos 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 music he is able to 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…

(Darkness Calls blurb is from author website. The Iron Hunt blurb is from the back of the book, typed by yours truly.)

As an aspiring author, I envy Miss Marjorie her imagination. Also her writing talent.

This series is amazing. So creative... *happy sigh* I love it! I can't say enough good about it.

The story is deep, the characters real. Even down to the five demons who make up Maxine's tattoos, each character has a personality all its own. (Zee is my favorite demon. In this series.)

I really think everyone should read these books, but I know fantasy isn't for everybody. If you like urban fantasy, you HAVE to read this series!

Book 3, A Wild Light releases today (July 27, 2010)!

Now to talk the hubby into going to a book store... ^_^

In My Mailbox V

In My Mailbox is a weekly book-sharing meme hosted at The Story Siren. Each week, you talk about books received the previous week, not necessarily in the mail. Posts can include library books, borrowed books, as well as purchased books.

I know I just did one of these near the end of last week. Then I went to the library and checked out seven - count 'em, seven! - books! ^_^

Library Books:

Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception (Artemis Fowl, #4), Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl, #5), and Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl, #6) all by Eoin Colfer - Having read the first three Artemis Fowl books in two days, I think it's safe to say I'm addicted. ^_^

The Good, the Bad and the Undead (Hollows, #2) by Kim Harrison - Checked out for a July reading challenge. Probably won't read it until August, though (at this point). *shrugs* I tried. (Sort of. Not a fan of her writing thus far, so...)

Warrior Queen:The Story of Boudica, Celtic Queen by Alan Gold - I checked this out of the library earlier this year, but didn't get around to reading it then. I really want to read it, though. I mean, it's BOUDICA! ^_^

The Luxe (Luxe, #1) by Anna Godbersen - This one has interested me since its release. So I'm finally going to read it.

The Scarecrow (Jack McEvoy, #2) - Also checked out previously, and read the first chapter. I'm determined to finish it this time. It starts off really well; I didn't finish it before only because the due date sneaked up on me! (And then it was constantly checked out by others for about three months. Argh!)

Historical Studs

One Dance With a Duke (Stud Club, #1)
Tessa Dare

Release Date: May 25, 2010
Genre: Historical Romance
Rating: 9/10
Source: Purchased
Buy the Book: Borders ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Books-A-Million
Content Warning: Explicit Sex, Cursing

True temptation begins at midnight…

A handsome and reclusive horse breeder, Spencer Dumarque, the fourth Duke of Morland, is a member of the exclusive Stud Club, an organization so select it has only ten members — yet membership is attainable to anyone with luck. And Spencer has plenty of it, along with an obsession with a prize horse, a dark secret, and, now, a reputation as the dashing “Duke of Midnight.” Each evening he selects one lady for a breathtaking midnight waltz. But none of the women catch his interest, and nobody ever bests the duke — until Lady Amelia d’Orsay tries her luck.

In a moment of desperation, the unconventional beauty claims the duke’s dance and unwittingly steals his heart. When Amelia demands that Spencer forgive her scapegrace brother’s debts, she never imagines that her game of wits and words will lead to breathless passion and a steamy proposal. Still, Spencer is a man of mystery, perhaps connected to the shocking murder of the Stud Club’s founder. Will Amelia lose her heart in this reckless wager or win everlasting love?

Twice Tempted by a Rogue (Stud Club, #2)
Tessa Dare

Release Date: June 22, 2010
Genre: Historical Romance
Rating: 10/10
Source: Purchased
Buy the Book: Borders ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Books-A-Million
Content Warning: Explicit Sex, Cursing

How long could she resist him?

Luck is a double-edged sword for brooding war hero Rhys St. Maur. His death wish went unanswered on the battlefield, while fate allowed the murder of his friend in the elite gentlemen’s society known as the Stud Club. Out of options, Rhys returns to his ancestral home on the moors of Devonshire, expecting anything but a chance at redemption in the arms of a beautiful innkeeper, who dares him to take on the demons of his past — and the sweet temptation of a woman’s love.

Meredith Maddox believes in hard work, not fate, and romance isn’t part of her plan. But when Rhys returns, battle-scarred, world-weary, and more dangerously attractive than ever, the lovely widow is torn between determination and desire. As a deep mystery and dangerous smugglers threaten much more than their passionate reckoning, Meredith discovers that she must trust everything to a wager her heart placed long ago.

(Both blurbs from author website.)

Since reading the ARC of Goddess of the Hunt (Miss Tessa's first print novel), I have bought each of her books as they released. I have never been disappointed.

Unlike her first trilogy, the Stud Club trilogy contains elements of intrigue. Not enough that I consider it romantic suspense, but a bit anyway. I love mystery and suspense almost as much as I love romance, so this is a definite plus for me.

Amelia and Meredith are both strong women, doing well enough on their own, thank you very much. Until each meets (or in Meredith's care, re-meets) the man who makes her long for hearth and home.

Spencer and Rhys made wonderful heroes. Each had a bit of the 'dark and dangerous' in him, but could be redeemed by love. Neither wanted to admit to his attraction - and attachment - to his lady until circumstances demanded.

These are just generalities, mind you. Each book is quite different from the other. Both are well worth reading. All of her books are, actually.

The third and final book in the Stud Club trilogy, Three Nights With a Scoundrel, releases tomorrow, July 27th! I'll hopefully get it soon.

In My Mailbox IV

In My Mailbox is a weekly book-sharing meme hosted at The Story Siren. Each week, you talk about books received the previous week, not necessarily in the mail. Posts can include library books, borrowed books, as well as purchased books.

This is for the past two weeks. ^_^

Library books:

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl, #3) by Eoin Colfer - Hubby checked this one out, but I plan to read it as well.

The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson - Since reading Devilish, I've been slowly reading all of her books.

Purchased books (Used):

Born of Fire (The League, #2) by Sherrilyn Kenyon - I was surprised to see this book on one of the 2-3 shelves of used books at Hillside Games, where I spend every Saturday. I love her books, and don't have this one. Didn't have this one. ^_-