Half-Blood Legion RULES!!!

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

Can I just say I am so very glad I finally read this freakin' book??!! Again thanks to the ladies over YA-Sisterhood blog and the Heroine Tourney I simply HAD to read Half-Blood by Jennifer Armentrout. The teasers ALONE had me drooling all over myself like a third rate invalid on crack. It was ridiculous! I was voting for Alex just to read POV snippets from a book I never read, it was that awesome!!

Miss Jennifer caresses us with an intriguing world of Greek mythology, but not the kind that induces snores from the back of History class. This is much hotter!

Our girl Alex was torn from her training three years ago by her mother for mysterious reasons. Alex never felt right to ask so they lived in the mortal world until the badies come for her and her mom. She finds herself quickly fighting to stay alive, and thanking the gods she still retained some of her Sentinel training. When all seems to be lost the Sentinels find her, and with them the hotter than hot Pure Blood, Aiden.

Once back on campus at the Covenant (to-do school for the children of the gods; Hematoi (Pures) and their lesser halves, half bloods) Alex is faced with her past. She needs to prove herself to her uncle, who is now running the show, so she can stay in school/training in order to become a Sentinel. This is problematic as Alex not only has a bit of a problem with authority but her mouth does not like to stay shut when it really should. Luckily she has the lovely Aiden, a Pure who has embraced the life of a Sentinel, who steps up to the plate and offers to get her into shape before school starts.

Not really sure what to think of this set up as Pures and Halfbloods did not stick up for each other…like ever..Alex is left with a million questions, but she trains anyway. Life gets complicated, however, as Alex learns soul crushing news about her mom, finds herself impossibly attracted to the ever patient Aiden, discovers more impossible news about the world she thought she knew, her own secrets her mother thought she could hide her from, and what her ‘family’ actually wants her around for.

The nearly incestuous world of the Pures and Halfbloods I found amusing, but this was a great read. I was totally sucked into Alex’s world. It was incredibly fast paced and by the time I was halfway through I could not put it down.

Alex is my hero. Her snarky attitude had me cracking up. She comes off as this super bad ass sort of chick with nothing to hide, but she is actually got this super soft middle she fights hard as nails to hide. She is very ‘dude-like’ in this way. Very much like male characters in other YA reads. She is spunky and fearless in a way you want to smack her silly, but I adore her.

The chemistry between her and Aiden is totally smokin’ and I cannot wait for more. He is way too patient for his own good, but it is so very attractive. He honestly believes in Alex and that is another great trait. Aiden would literally walk through fire for Alex, even if it were not his element and would actually cause him harm.

The politics of the Pure world were well thought out and I liked that Halfbloods either trained to become Sentinels or they led a zombie-like life of servitude. The Pures are top of the food chain and everything else is secondary fish guts. The Greek gods are not in the picture, but I have a feeling they will be making a long overdue appearance in the future. You cannot leave your spoiled children (Pures) to make messes of the world and not expect to have to intervene at some point… Sooooo very looking forward to Pure this spring!!!

Carrier of the Mark has elemental power!

Their love was meant to be.
When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRÍs.
But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.

I have been itching to read Carrier of the Mark from newcomer Leigh Fallon for months now. I finally broke down and bought it the other day. Please don’t tell anyone I’m buying books again, my restriction has not officially been lifted. I stumbled across Miss Leigh via Twitter and then heard all the hub-bub with her break through Inkpop. The publisher had the first several chapters posted online as a free read, but that was not enough. I had to see more. 

Megan and her dad move Ireland where he got a job of a lifetime sort of offer. After Megan’s mom died they moved often when her dad started to get the itch. Now Megan finds herself in yet another new school, new town, and new friends to be made. She catches on quickly, but also finds the local boys to be rather captivating. Well, one in particular really; the mysterious Adam. 

The small town of Kinsale is full of crazy stories about Adam and his family, but Megan has a hard time putting them aside as just stories. Too many strange things happen when she is around Adam and his sister, Áine. The animals react to Áine and water has a mind of its own around Adam. Before long Megan is drawn into the mysterious Adam and learns the truth about his family’s mystery. Not only that, but she is an important part of it! Megan not only holds the Mark and is the forth element to join the DeRís family, but she is also a Carrier. 

Miss Leigh shows us a world of elemental magic ingrained in a Royal bloodline dating centuries. Those of the bloodline evoke their element early in life, but there are the chosen few who are led to their destiny. When the four elements are brought together, which has not happened in eons, the group becomes very powerful. Too powerful some would say. 

The Druid Order may not be trustworthy, the Fifth Prophecy looms over Megan’s head, members of the elusive hitmen squad called the Knox are closing in, and Megan is being pressured to evoke her element Air before the solstice. Unfortunately if she evokes she can very well lose Adam. And that is downright unacceptable! Adam frantically tries to find and answer in the Druid Scribes while Megan fights to control her element as it burns to break free. 

Carrier of the Mark was a wonderful read and I cannot wait to see what else is in store for Megan and Adam! The book was fast paced and I really did not get bored at all. There was a sort of rush feeling to some of it and I would have liked more detail in the story at times, but that’s me. Sometimes it just felt like Miss Leigh was trying to get so much into the story but not exceed a certain length.

The characters were wonderfully done and enjoyable. Megan is a sweetheart and Adam is total hotness incarnate. The connection between Megan and Adam seemed to get a little too intense too quickly though, but that could be because of the elemental mojo they have going on. I am certainly interested to see where it goes in future books...there will be future books right? Please?

Carrier of the Mark was not too much on the romance, which is nice sometimes. The romance was more sweet feeling to me than sexy hotness. Sometimes a girl wants a good cuddle… Don't get me wrong, I would totally love to be the recipient of some of those Adam kisses and caresses, but it was not overly done and very tasteful for a younger audience.

Kaylee can Scream for me any day!

I found myself in Target prowling the teen section and stumbled across Soul Screamers Vol 1. When I saw it I knew it had to be mine. See, thanks to the lovely ladies over at the YA-Sisterhood blog, and their awesome Heroine Tourney, I HAD to find out what the deal was with this Kaylee chick. She beat out my girl Aura Salvatore from the Shade series and I had to know what made her so awesome.

And so I did.

Soul Screamers Vol 1 is a 3-in-1 collection of My Soul to Lose, My Soul to Take and My Soul to Save. The first being a sort of short story/prequel thing and then the first couple books from the series. Convenient, yes, and I read the whole damned thing in like 3 days. Considering I work full time and have a wild and crazy 2 year old that is epic time. 

LOVE this series. Rachel Vincent totally pulled me into her world of bean sidhe (pronounced banshee) and the Netherworld. I can totally see why Kaylee was a favored heroine.

Kaylee Cavanaugh has panic attacks. Okay, not exactly panic attacks, but that’s what she calls them. Normal panic attacks don’t involve sickening dread, deafening screams that leave you hoarse, and the matter-of-fact knowledge that the person causing the panic attack is going to die.

Kaylee was raised by her uncle and his family after her mother passed when she was young and her father pulled a no-show dad number and took off to Ireland. Constantly in the shadow of her socialite cousin, Kaylee really didn’t register on many radars. That is until she discovers the truth behind her screams.

After an uncomfortable stint at the local psych ward Kaylee thinks she is pretty much crazy, or dying of a crazy brain cancer. Thanks to the hotness known as Nash Hudson (let me take a moment to get my hormones under control) she learns that she is not crazy, but part of a long line of  bean sidhes, a Gaelic group of folk that, when paired male and female, help souls cross over. The female holds the soul with her scream, or highly swoon worthy singing as heard by the male  bean sidhe, and the male directs the soul on where to go. Only problem is this sort of soul guiding really pisses off the resident reapers (as in the Grimm kind) who would much rather harvest the souls on their own.

In the prequel, My Soul to Lose, we see what happened at the mental hospital and why Kaylee is so determined to find a way to prove she is not crazy. It is heart wrenching to see the hurt and pain she went through there. To know her only family left her there to basically rot. Finally her uncle gets her out, but Kaylee is left with so many questions.

My Soul to Take kicks off about a year after the whole screaming episode that landed her in the hospital. Soon we are pulled into a world were girls are dying in mysterious ways and Kaylee is there bearing witness to nearly all of them. Her urge to scream for the souls nearly tears her apart. Her BFF Em is beside herself, but Nash comes to the rescue by calming Kaylee down. As a fellow  bean sidhe he has some special mojo at work. Together, Nash and Kaylee soon figure out there is a rogue reaper out there and they team up with Nash’s older, Tod, who just so happens to be a reaper-in-training to get to the bottom of things. Kaylee begins to tap into her abilities and Nash is there for her every step of the way. 

My Soul to Save takes us on another journey as Kaylee begins official  bean sidhe training with Nash’s mom. Nash and Kaylee are now attached at the hip and Kaylee’s dad has finally given in to attempt to be the dad he never was. Everything seems to be going well, but an old flame of Tod’s, a megawatt star called Addison Page, has apparently sold her soul to get the fortune and fame she has. The best part, she is destines to die and be reaped in just days. A mega media mogul has made a business of getting young stars to sell their soul for fortune and fame without really explaining the fine contractual print; their soul becomes essentially damned. The crew works tirelessly till the very last minute to save Addison and her little sister’s souls before it’s too late.

Miss Rachel has great style. The books were a wonderfully paced fast read, even if it clocked at 570 pages all together. The insight to the world of  bean sidhes, and the Gaelc background it came from, was fascinating. I have to say I am a HUGE sucker for anything Celtic/Gaelic. I am not certain how much was actually based on real Celtic folklore, but it was all very convincing.

Kaylee is adorable. She is good natured, but fierce in that ‘I’m not gonna take crap from you’ kind of way. She is loyal to her friends and family, but will not be a rug. It was great to see her kind of grow up with each book. She starts out thinking she is a sandwich shy of a picnic, but then finally embraces her lineage and her power.

Nash… Oh wow. I want a Nash of my very own. He is just as loyal as Kaylee and that totally shows in how he still stands by his brother. They are on different teams now, team  bean sidhe and team reaper, but he still obviously cares for Tod. Nash also believes in Kaylee…fiercely. There is just nothing in this world hotter than that.

The action was pretty much non-stop and I never felt like the story was too predictable. The swoon-worthy moments between Kaylee and Nash were awesomesauce and I often had to either take a deep steadying breath or fight the furious giggles festering in my belly. In the end I see why Kaylee's crew put up such a great fight for her. She is a wonderful heroine and has a great ‘I’m going to do the right thing even if it kills me’ attitude. I cannot wait to see how the rest of the series shapes up!

Another year comes to an end...RIP 2011 We loved you!

Here we are. It's December 31st, the last day of another year. It is also a time of reflection. No matter who you are or where you are in your life this is the day we look back at the past year and evaluate the choices we made, new discoveries, new friends, lost loves, and what grand adventures await us in the next year.

I would like to take the next few moments of your precious time to recap some of my fave 2011 moments. Just bear with my cuz I will likely get a little geektastic with some of this. But it cannot be helped, really.

First off I discovered my inner writer. WOOT! Who knew she was in there? I sure as hell didn't. For years I have lived in my own head, in my own little make believe world. Now I am in the process of sharing my world with others and it feels AWESOME!!! Why it took me so long to find this side of myself I will never know but good GAWD almighty am I glad I did.

Next up is my son, Boog. He graduated from toddler to preschooler. He went from being more self sufficient in his entertainment to discovering the wondrous world of Disney/Pixar and the Thundercats. He now likes to pretend play and it's the best thing ever! We hold 'swords' high and bellow in our best Thundarian voice, "Thundercats! HOOOOOOOOO!" Boog also finally 'got it' with Christmas this year. Seeing his face and the slight gasp of elation when opening presents from Santa was beyond wonderful. The appearance of a Sword of Omens and his very own Woody doll under the tree this year were a crowning mama moment.

Now for the geektastic moment.... NKOTBSB 2011! Yeah baby! Shush, no judging. I am slightly showing my age by expressing my obsession ..er.. stalkerness.. uh...passion... um love, for the fab boys from Beantown. That is New Kids on the Block to those of you not in the know. They made a comeback in 2008-2009 and then went all boyband crazy by joining up with Backstreet Boys in 2011. Oh yeah, I went to the concert in Nashville and nearly cried my joy. I did in fact lose my voice from my incessant screaming and was the butt of many jokes on the work front. Those haters just don't understand... *wink* I will eave you with a snip-it from my fave boys while I temporarily collapse is a puddle of reborn teen lust and angst...



But there was also those fab boys from the Irish Isles... The Script. I fell hard for these boys back in 2008, but finally got to see them here is Nashville this year. If you are not familiar with these hot Irish crooners let me share a tidbit... Feel free to swoon cuz I sure will be. Oi! I love these guys... Danny can SO drunk dial me anytime.



There was also the music...oh my the music!











I could seriously go on forever here but I will refrain. *giggle* For now I will dance around the living room like it's a Vegas night club. You are welcome to join me.

The movies!!! Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Transformers, Mission Impossible, Hangover Part 2, The Help... Again I could go on forever.

So what is next for 2012? I have no clue. Have I made any resolutions? Why yes! I will continue to feed my child's imagination, I will attend my first writer's conference in NYC next month (SCBWI babay!), and I will continue to work on my writing. I hope to join in with a good crit group so I can continue to improve my craft, I will finish making the final touches on my first novel and maybe, just maybe, I will be ready for submissions in 2012.

In any event I know without a doubt 2012 will be a great year and I am ready for all it has in store. Are you?

Clockwork Prince...I have no words. Wow.

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

Wow, I mean wow. I am not even sure where to begin this review. I finished Clockwork Prince a couple days ago and am just now getting to the review stage. There was just a desperate need to pull my shattered heart together before I could put this into words. For those of you that already read this wonderful book, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you have not, then please keep reading to find out why you should...

Cassandra Clare opens Clockwork Prince with a heart cinching prologue with Will Herondale making one of his shady purchases of the powder his best friend, and parabatai, Jem needs to stay alive. He is also in the market for another 'concoction' for indifference...for him. Only a fool would not know who he is needing indifference from and my heart broke in these beginning pages. 

It only went downhill from there. 

The Council is in an uproar after the failures of the London Institute in capturing Mortmain, or The Magister, and the questionable killing of deQuincey. The members, and more specifically, Benedict Lightwood, think our girl Charlotte is unfit to run the Institute. She is tasked with finding some concrete evidence, or get Mortmain himself, and bring him to trial basically. An impossible task, but Charlotte was giving it a go. 

Our team of Shadowhunters are all backing her and they set out to get the required information. The team meets obstacle after obstacle and we feel this is all going to end disastrously. We, the reader, are not far from the mark. In true Cassie Clare fashion the odds are piled up against our heroes Tessa, Jem, and Will. There are spies once again in the Institute, Jem's health seems to be in a more precarious balance than ever before, Will is fighting his feelings (and beginning to lose) and we are not entirely sure why, Tessa is left with more and more questions about her origins, and to top things off, Mortmain is one step ahead of them as always. Will's walls are cracking as he is faced with his family, Jem and Tessa become closer as Tessa continues to fight the feeligns that burn for Will, The Institute is betrayed by one of their own, The Lightwood boys may just have redeeming qualities after all, and sweet little Sophie is quite an unexpected joy. 

When we finally learn why Will is the way he is....wow. My heart broke. But it broke again as we see the truths behind what Will believed. Our poor, broken Will.... Will my heart ever stop aching for him? Probably not.

As always, Cassie's characters are wonderfully written. Fierce and caustic Will breaks your heart, gentle Jem warms your soul, and the quiet brevity of Tessa rings like a crystalline bell. Nate's reappearance is a double edged sword. His treachery is both sickening and pitiful. Charlotte and Henry "find" each other and bring new joy and Jessamine's narrow-mindedness makes you pity her. 

For being longer books, Cassie's world of Shadowhunters in Clockwork Prince is a fast paced read. The action does not seem to stop. As we have come to expect from her books, the plot twists are highly enjoyable and the love triangles rip your heart to shreds. Her beautiful world of Victorian London spills from the pages and paints your mind's eye with wonderful clarity. The subtlety of the steampunkish clockwork figures is magnificent and does not overpower the deeper parts of the story-line. 

All in all I am so addicted to Cassie's Shadowhunters and her world of Infernal Devices and Mortal Instruments. I can only wish I had found them sooner and they could go on forever. It is sad, almost, that the next installment will be the final book in the series. There are so many things we desperately need to find conclusion for and I hope that Clockwork Princess will be the icing on the figurative cake. If I know Miss Cassie at all, I would say it will be a delightfully scrumptious icing.

Did Clockwork Prince rock my world? Indubitably Richter scale says 10!

Southern living from a Cali girl

I have lived in Tennessee for about four and a half years now. DH and I moved here in the peak of the California housing crisis. Things were waaaaay too expensive to rent unless you wanted to live in an area where houses looked for like fortified fortresses. You know the kind; iron bars covering the windows, motion lights on every corner, a vicious Rot/Pit-bull crossbreed running yard surveillance, and a moat lined with electrified, razor edged, barbed wire. Okay, so I wasn’t serious about the barbed wire. Well maybe a little.

In any event, unless we wanted to live in a less than desirable area we would be looking to pay about $1000 in rent, and in many cases more. This was no bueno for our modest Sacramento income, plus having a large dog was a handicap, so when DH’s job decided to move to the South we signed up!

Hello Tennessee! The Volunteer State!

Since living here I have found a new appreciation for colloquialisms. In a big way. My grandmother was from Oklahoma, and my mother raised in Georgia, so I was not totally shell-shocked upon moving to the South, but still… The last couple years I have come to love certain things about Tennessee and the South in general…

Food: Oh good GAWD the food! White beans, collard greens, turnip greens, grits, fried okra, Bar-B-Q, fried pickles, fried green tomatoes, buttered biscuits, mashed potatoes you can stand a wooden ladle in, banana pudding, and gravy, gravy, gravy… It is heaven. I have also discovered Crisco is a necessity in every southern woman’s kitchen, corn bread is its own food group, and by GAWD if sweet tea is not how I normally take my tea!

Seasons: Holy crap there are seasons! If any of you have been to Northern California you will agree that there is not much in the way of seasons there. More so than Sothern Cali, but still bare minimums. Nor Cal is basically Summer and Winter with like 2 week breaks in-between the two. Winter is not bad, if you live in the valley or on the coast. Summer is generally horrible with regular 100 degree weather that ends in rolling blackouts across the state.

Tennessee has seasons! All four of them! I was amazed the first full year. Spring is full of fluorescent green grass, white, violet, and pink blossoms on trees, and hummingbirds. Summer gets sweltering in July and August when the heat index tips the scales and you wonder why in the hell you even bothered to shower that day. The nights make up for it with the lightning bugs and cicadas. Fall brings out the orange, pink, red, and bright orange leaves that, until this point had only seen in calendar photos, fill the rolling hills. Winter is milder than most places, but there is generally some snow. The perfect kind of snow; it falls, makes everything pretty and white, and then melts within a day. The only problem with snow in TN is people are less able to drive in the white stuff as they are when the roads are merely wet.

People: They are all really nice! A friend of mine (our husbands worked together) moved out here two years before us and she prepared me a little. When I pulled up to Tennessee I found that my neighbors DID openly talk to me, children ARE taught at an early age to say ‘yes sir’ and ‘yes ma’am,’ and I’ll be damned if people I do not know WAVE at me while I drive by! It was surreal for a bit.

And my favorite…Sayings: Oh LORD the sayings! Those subtle things that are different than what I grew up saying in good ole Cali. You do not have your picture taken, but made. You use a buggy at the grocery store not a shopping cart. Daffodils are Buttercups, ‘round yonder is actually a form of direction, and if you are so mad you could spit you might just be PIST! (Hard T there by the way)

Phrases, also part of sayings, brings me constant joy. I will leave you with a few I have learned over the years…

~~ “I would rather lay flat an’ pee straight up than… (enter activity)”

~~ “Well shit fire and save the matches!”

~~“I had to pee so bad I shot a stream a squirrel could climb!”

~~ “He/She was rode hard and put up wet!” (quite possibly my favorite. Had to ask for a translation the first time)

Love it.

NYC Bound Y'all!

Before I start to hyperventilate I thought I would jot a few notes about what I have just done. See I am not a huge risk taker. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a sissy-la-la type of chick, but not exactly Joan of Arc either. Well I just book a flight to the Big Apple for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Winter Conference 2012 next month!

 Holy…..crap! I’m going to NYC, the Big Apply, the Main Stage, the City, the Grand Gala of hub-bubs! If I were Catholic I would have my rosary in hand praying to each bead right now.

I’ve never been to New York. It’s always been kind of a fantasy to see a show on Broadway, to have official New York style cheesecake IN New York, the sit in Central Park and watch the world walk by… Well, now my little fantasy is coming true. And I am so totally freaking out!

I signed up with the SCBWI several months ago as a forward movement of my writing career. A step in the right direction, a commitment to it, a way of telling myself “I belong” to the wonderful writing community.

When I got the email about the conference a couple weeks ago my mouth actually began to salivate. I looked at my measly bank account (severely sickly looking after DH’s 6 month layoff) and nearly cried. “I wanna go… “ I kept telling myself. Sure it’s expensive and sure we can’t really afford this around Christmas, but gosh darnnit this was an investment to my career!

I declared to DH that my bonus from the day job was going to pay for my trip to NYC for the SCBWI conference. No choice in the matter, just told him. It’s MY bonus after all! Selfish? Maybe. Do I care? Nope. Like I said…an investment into my career. These conferences, I understand, are gateways to priceless information and by golly this conference would be dealing with the very subject matter I write!

So here I am. My hands are shaking and my brain has gone numb from the “oh my god – oh my god – oh my god” that keeps running through my head like a hyper-active gerbil on an exercise wheel. If it weren’t so freakin’ cold in my office right now my palms would be sweating! A lot!

I am so very excited to be surrounded by people who are writers, authors, illustrators, and the vibe that is NYC. Part of me, a large part, is also as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. This is huge. It will be a great learning experience and I so look forward to meeting people and maybe even make a few new friends. And hell! The one and only Cassandra Clare will be there! =^)

So Merry Christmas to me and a big self high five for making another step into my career as a writer!