Blog contests

I routinely visit blogs and when there's a contest for a book that I like, I'll enter. I visit so many blogs each week and enter to win a lot of books and sometimes win them. But I'm starting to see an irritating trend on some blogs, not all but some.

Instead of just saying, leave a comment and your email address for a chance to win this or that...they ask you to practically jump through hoops in order to get "More entries".

I've seen things like, asking people to follow their blog, friend them on face book, post a link on their own blog back to the contest (which I don't find so irritating), follow them on twitter, visit other blogs and do all these things for them too and let's not forget that sometimes they make you do each of these things in a seperate post! for those extra entries.

If you go to the trouble of having a contest and then ask people to follow you, like you on FB...ect...it really makes your blog look pathetic...in my opinion. If someone wants to follow you, they will. If someone wants to be your friend on FB...they will...don't make these things a requirement in order to get a book, gift card, ect. it makes you look bad.

Hell of a month

Now it's time for me to vent, because we all have to sometimes. I've had a hell of a month, I tell ya. Last month my computer started acting all crazy like and we found that our motherboard was fried and were without a computer for a while. Thanks to my daughter's boyfriend who is great with computers, he was able to fix up a tower for us with some of the parts he already had. I never would ahve been able to do what he did, I wish I knew more about computers, but I don't.

Then I accompanied my brother to the mortuary to say goodbye to his son, Franklin. Franklin's mother was 6months pregnant when she had a miscarriage. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. It still brings tears to my eyes. The mortuary does something special for babies. Instead of a regular casket, they had him wrapped in a baby blanket and placed in a small white crib. My heart broke when I saw that, I don't think that part of my heart will ever be whole again. You never get over seeing something so heart breaking.

Then right after that my brother's started arguing and are now not talking. Of course, I got pulled right into the middle of it and now things are incredibly tense.

I can only hope things get better next month.

Review: The Shadow by Shelley Munro

The Shadow by Shelley Munro
Publisher: Medallion Press
ISBN-13: 978-1932815504

The cat burgular, called The Shadow is on her way to steal jewels and all goes well the women who she was going to steal from gets shot and dies. Lady Katherine has a run in with a guy but not just any guy, a cop! Right off the bat we can see they are atttracted to one another but can a thief and a cop have a real future together?

Lady Katherine is also looking for who raped and drugged her six years before this. Her rapist might even be her daughter's father and when she stumbles upon a picture of another girl who could be the twin of her own daughter, she is one step closer to finding out who drugged and attacked her six year before. In this dual storyline of looking for a rapist and a jewelry thief we get a great story. The characters are a lot of fun to watch as they try to figure out exactly what kind of relationship they have.

I really enjoyed this story, it had everything I want when reading a suspense story. A great plot, believable characters and a heroine who has a spark to her. The end of the book was quite unexpected and I love twists like this, especially when I don't see it coming.

A well written book, and I am definitely looking forward to reading more from Shelley Munro.

Nice to have a computer that actually works!

It's so nice to be able to get online and do what I need to do. I can even watch videos and play online games again. Right now I ahve three tabs open. One in the background has Adam Lambert playing a video from Youtube and the other two have other websites I keep going back and forth too. It's ncie when this machines works and real hell when it doesn't.

Review: Assassin's Heart by Monica Burns

Assassin's Heart by Monica Burns
Book 2 in The Order of the Sicari series
Penguin/Berkley
ISBN - 978-0-425-23652-9


From the back cover..

The truth of the soul.
Lysander Condellaire never understood why he had telepathic and telekinetic powers until the night his Praetorian father tortured him and left him for dead. Now, the half-angelic, half-demonic face he sees in the mirror is a reminder of the monster he must keep hidden or face expulsion from the order of assassins know as the Sicari. But his dreams of Ancient Rome hint at a destiny he finds hard to accept, especially when it involves the woman he loves, but can never have.

The consequences of desire.
A gifted healer in the Order, Phaedra DeLuca witnessed her mother’s murder when she was just a little girl. The haunting memory makes her loathe everything Praetorian. When she travels to Rome in search of an ancient artifact, she must work alongside a man who once cruelly rejected her love and healing touch. But her dreams of Ancient Rome tell of an irreversible and possibly dangerous future. For the distant past and present are about to collide--with the one man she is destined to love.

My review...
I read a lot and read this book in one sitting! I just couldn't put it down after I started reading, I was so enthralled. The story that Ms. Burns weaves together was one of tragedy, torture, sorrow, adventure and love. Anyone who likes paranormal romance is going to love this book. I just read Assassin's Honor the day before reading this book and couldn't wait to see what Ms. Burns had in store for us.

Lysander's story is so tragic and sad it made me want to cry for all he's had to endure. He was tortured by the Praetorians and they sliced off part of his face, but later we find out he has even more to endure and it seems like it might be too much for him. He has secret's and he's sure that if anyone finds out about them they won't trust him or love him.

Phaedra is a healer for the Sicari and she's been in love with Lysander for over a year, but he's keeping her at arm's length because he doesn't trust her to love him if she ever finds out his secret. They both have to get past the hurt of the past year when they are thrown together much to the dismay of Lysander, when they go in search of The Tyet of Isis. An ancient artifact they want to get before the Praetorian's get their hands on it.

Neither Phaedra or Lysander know that the other have been having dreams of the first Sicari lord and his wife and we get pulled into another heart breaking story as their dreams get more vivid and we find out they are dreaming about their own past lives.

As well as the past life story there is a romance story from other characters in this book that comes alive in a shocking way. Atia the Prima Consul and Marcus a Sicari Lord have a secret past and Atia has been keeping a huge secret from Marcus as he is about to find out. Their history and romance that barely conceals itself under the surface is sure to explode in the coming books from Ms. Burns. I liked this second book in the Order of the Sicari series even more than the first one if that's even possible. I think this series can only get better and more exciting as time goes by and we read stories about the rest of the characters.

This story within a story could have been so confusing if a less talented author had tried to write it, but Ms. Burns is incredibly talented and has found a way to bring a whole new world to the paranormal genre that fans are going to be talking about for years.

If you liked Assassin's Honor, you'll love Assassin's Heart.

Review: Assassin's Honor by Monica Burns

Assassin's Honor By Monica Burns
Book 1 in the Sicari Series
Publisher: Berkley Trade (June 1, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0425234167


From the back cover..

A woman with visions of the past...

Archeologist Emma Zale sees the past when she touches ancient relics. It’s how she uncovered evidence of an ancient order of assassins—the Sicari. When a sinfully dark stranger shows up on her Chicago doorstep demanding an ancient artifact she doesn’t have, he drags her into a world where telekinesis and empaths are the norm. Now someone wants her dead, and her only hope of survival is an assassin who’s every bit as dangerous to her body as he is to her heart.

Bonded to an honorable assassin...

Ares De Luca comes from an ancient Roman bloodline of telekinetic assassins. A Sicari, he’s honor bound to kill only in the name of justice. But when the woman he loved was murdered, Ares broke the Sicari code and used his sword for revenge. Love cost him dearly once before, and he’s not willing to pay the price again. At least not until hot, sweet, delectable Emma walked into his life. Not only does she hold the key to a valuable Sicari relic, she might just hold the key to his heart.

Their dangerous passion will redeem an assassin's honor...

My review...

Emma is an archeologist and on a dig near Cairo when she once again must face a murder to someone close to her. The first murder she had to endure was that of her parents. But before her father is killed he leaves a coded message for her and she finds it right before someone tries to kill her. That's when a Sicari named Ares DeLuca tries to help her by telling her she needs to go into hiding because her life is in danger. But of course she isn't wanting to give up her whole life and Ares friends, the other Sicari are less than friendly to her when she first meets them because she is an outsider.

So many things happen while Ares is hiding her and we get to meet some of the other characters in the world of the Sicari. Including the bad guys, the Praetorians who want all the Sicari dead.
Monica Burns has made up a whole new world of hot heroes with smoldering eyes and telekenic powers. It's easy to tell that this new world took a lot of thought and time to make because it's incredibly believable. She even gives us a lesson in her own cross between a Latin and Italian language that the men seem to love to speak throughout the story. I even learned a few cuss words, even though I don't know exactly what they mean yet.

While reading this book I got a pretty good lesson in the Sicari way of doing things and their customs, while some of them may seem barbaric at first I understood why they are needed and why honor is so important to them by the end of the book.

I can't wait for more books in this series.

I'm Back!

Well, I'm finally back and this time for good...I hope. My daughter's boyfriend took parts from a couple of different computers and made me a new tower. He said my motherboard was fried and that's why my computer stopped working.

I've decided to name my new computer.....Frankenputer!

Because it's made up of parts from several different computers...get it...frankenstein...lol

See you in the ethers..

My computer is still acting up

Yeah this darn thing is still acting up, restarting on its own and crashing and sometimes not even letting me log on at all...but I'm online right now and wanted to say I'm still here! I miss talking with everyone and visiting the blogs the way I want to. Hopefully I'll figure this thing out soon.