A Note:

6/2/13

I once told myself: IF I am accepted into grad school, this blog would no longer be updated. As it turns out, in April, I received news of my acceptance for the Fall 2013 semester, where I will attain a Master's degree of Science in Nutrition.

Running a blog, as many of you may already know, is a demanding side job once the excitement wears off. And once I fell out of the blogging community's loop (have you SEEN how many blogs there are now? Wow!), it was like the kiss of death. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get into a blogging routine once this happened due to the disconnect I felt from the community.

So I took a break. I struggled with the loss and with missing my blog. And then I realized I didn't have to run Book Faery to still be a book reviewer; I could read my books and post reviews online. I'm still a book review blogger, just not in the traditional sense.

I'll still be online. You can chat with me on Twitter, where I'll be posting links to my reviews and talking books. I'll also be posting links to nutrition articles. And if you'd like to connect with me where I guarantee I will post reviews, just add me as a friend on Goodreads.

So that's all, folks! It's been a fun and amazing journey, and I thank you all for listening to my thoughts about books. I hope we all can keep in touch elsewhere :)

Tori

Monday, August 1, 2011

BOTS 2: Sharon Ashwood





Darak and Dangerous
by Sharon Ashwood 

Darak appears in Frostbound: the Dark Forgotten. He’s no one’s sidekick—he gets involved in the story because of a promise he makes to a dead woman, and he ends up saving a queen. As usual, it’s his sense of right and wrong that forces him to join in the fray, despite his plan to stay on the sidelines.



Characters walk into my head without warning, often with their names, stories, and desires already formed. However, most hang around for a while before they start seriously badgering me for attention. I sometimes think they’re checking me out, waiting to see if I’m the author they want.

Darak stomped up and got in my face right away, fixing me with his ice blue eyes. He knows what he wants, and he takes it. The only one who can tell him to back off is the Nubian archer Nia, his second in command. She’s every bit as tough but she’s much, much prettier.

Darak is the leader of Clan Thanatos, a league of rogue vampires who were once enslaved as gladiators in ancient Rome. They killed the noble who turned them into undying warriors for his private games, and they have been on the run ever since, sometimes fighting as mercenaries, sometimes playing Robin Hood and lending their strength to a just cause. The crowned heads of the vampire world regard Darak and his followers as traitors and troublemakers—at least until they need someone to do a dirty job. Then Darak is a necessary evil.

Slave, rebel, warrior, champion—Darak has the makings of a highly romantic hero although he comes across as more tough than suave. He’s fiercely independent and hard to befriend. Blame it on thousands of years of struggling for survival—something that gives him a keen understanding for the unfortunate. He’s recently rescued Daisy, a fighting dog left to die when she lost one too many matches. Maybe he saw a piece of himself from back in his gladiator days.

Clan Thanatos was named after the god of death. It’s apt for Darak, who has the gift/curse of seeing the dead. Someone has to right their wrongs and grant their last requests, and it’s this gruff swordsman with the lame dog whom they turn to.

As for Darak + romance, so far that’s a conversation no one has the nerve to start. When he’s ready, I’m sure he’ll let me know.


Excerpt:

Darak tasted the evil that hung in the air and ached to smash it.

Pluto’s balls, some idiot went and got himself a spell book.

Wasn’t that just dandy? 

Who the hell in this backwater has that kind of power? For a pinprick on the map, Fairview was just full of surprises. Vampires standing for public office. Entire prison dimensions. And his personal favorite—invisible evil that set stuff on fire. 

Come for the election, stay for the magic of mass destruction.

Darak heaved himself to his feet, stiff from crouching on the peak of the cathedral roof like an oversized gargoyle. He dusted away the snow that had collected on his sleeves and scanned the horizon while he took a slug from his flask. 

The dark leathers he wore kept out the wind, but the cold seeped through seams and zippers. One of the old Undead, he could ignore it. What bothered him more was the smoke—not the comfortable scent of a hearth fire, but the reek of a burning building. The acrid stink had drawn him to the highest point he could find, and now he could see the source—a glowing maw of flame to the southwest, unnaturally fierce and bright. 

Who or what had caused it? Only one way to find out. Go to the source. 

Darak balanced on the roof’s ridge line, walking toe-to-heel along its length. Pride made him careful. Vampires could fly, but at close to seven feet and three-fifty, Darak was not exactly aerodynamic. Control was important, unless he wanted to drop like a bag of laundry. 

When he reached the roofline, he jumped, a streak of shadow against the black sky. The air rushed to meet him, snow stinging his cheeks. He landed lightly enough, boots skating on the frosty sidewalk. Pulling himself upright, he began walking toward the fire. 

Darak and his bloodsworn kin were Undead, but they bowed to no queen or king. It had taken them two millennia to gain enough strength for true freedom, and they’d done it by force of arms. The honest way. 

Darak didn’t like magic or the people who used it. Weapons were far more reliable. Nevertheless, it took a cartload of power to start a blaze like that. 



Power was interesting. 

Maybe Darak could use the fool with the spell book. If election fever turned bad, they might need an extra weapon in reserve. 

Or maybe he’d just tear off the fool’s head. 

That sort of thing was his specialty.




Giveaway

Win the book of your choice! Here are your options: 





Holly Carver is a witch who sometimes relies on the help of Alessandro Caravelli for her family's preternatural investigations business. Alessandro is the oldest and strongest vampire in Fairview, and he's made no secret of his desire for Holly. But while she aches to succumb to his suggestive wiles, she knows it would be an invitation to trouble.

Then Alessandro's queen, Omara, complicates matters when she turns up in Fairview to enlist his help. Sultry and manipulative, she is jealous of Alessandro's feelings for Holly, and demands he use Holly to trap Geneva, the most evil demon of all.  

   


Ex-detective Macmillan has a taste for bad girls, but his last lover really took the cake-and his humanity. Now a half-demon, Mac's lost his friends, his family, and his job. Then a beguiling vampire asks for his help to find her son. Suddenly, Mac has a case to work-one that leads him deeps into the supernatural prison where Mac learns that cracking the case will cost him his last scrap of humanity. 

  




Ashe Carver, monster-killer, has the scars to prove it. But faced with a custody battle, she's hung up her stakes and taken a job at the public library, determined to show the courts and her ten-year-old daughter that she's as good a mother as she is a hunter.

Easier said than done. There are lovelorn vampires haunting the library, a slime demon in the shopping mall, and her new-mom sister needs a hand with her ghostbusting biz. Then, after centuries guarding a supernatural prison, Captain Reynard strides into her world like a hero from the library's Must Reads. Smokingly gorgeous, passionate and courageous to a fault, he has only weeks to live unless Ashe finds the thief who took his soul.

Ashe picks up her weapons to save the day—but not every problem can be solved with a stake. With so much tragedy in her past, Ashe fears the disaster she sees ahead—and prays she doesn't fail everyone. Again.

Memories are the hardest monsters to kill.



 
  As a snowstorm locks down the city, someone beheads the wrong girl. Vampire-on-the-lam Talia Rostova thinks it was meant to be her. And now she's the prime suspect in her own botched murder and the prisoner of her smoking-hot-neighbor: a hellhound. And the hot-blooded Lore was bred to serve and protect, so he's not freeing Talia until he's sure she's the prey and not the hunter...


Giveaway Guidelines:

* Open Internationally
* Leave a comment with your email address AND which book you want
* This giveaway ends September 7th
* IMPORTANT: I will not be contacting winners! Be sure to check back after September 7th to see if you've won this or any of the other giveaways! 


Extra Entries:
* Link back to this giveaway on some social networking site or on your blog. Be sure to include the link to your post in your giveaway entry--and make sure that I can view it! (For every site you do this on, you'll receive one extra entry)

31 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've heard TONS of Fab-u-lous things about this series! I'm going to need Ravenous to get me started.

    kittn.paperbackdoll at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm really feeling the description of Frostbound. I'd like to go for that one! ^_^

    myneedtoread [at] gmail [dot] com

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would love to read this series but I'm missing the first book! I would love Ravenous!

    beckerjo at verizon dot net

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll go for Ravenous please since I live right beside Fairview in Dublin. :-)

    I used my google ID to comment.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Scorched sounds good to me! Thanks for the chance to win!

    andralynn7@ gmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Would love to finally be able to read Ravenous! Thanks for the giveaway!
    GFC Danielle West
    west.danielle.r(at)gmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Scorched please!

    tiahmichelle(at)gmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  9. I would love to win Ravenous. klaragon73@gmail.com.

    These books sound great.
    Kristin.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Frostbound sounds really good. I'd pick that one.

    gloominousxdoom(AT)gmail(DOT)com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow. I'd go for Ravenous.
    Thanks for the giveaway!

    nerakzkiexcore at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete
  12. ravenous to start the series pleeease :)

    stars__Cascade@hotmail.com - shadowsiniite@aol.com x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great giveaway :) Thank you for the chance ;D I think I would want Frostbound :D
    Love, Carina ~ carina-olsen@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. I enjoyed Frostbound so I'd like to win Ravenous.

    sgiden at verizon.net

    ReplyDelete
  15. I have read the other three in this series and LOVED them, so I will go with Frostbound. Love BOTS 2!!!

    OBoyledBooks [at] gmail [dot] com

    Michelle (@OBoyledBooks)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yay! Battle of the sexes is back. So much fun last year =) I'd love Ravenous if picked. Thanks Tori!
    +1 tweeted at http://twitter.com/#!/Tanya1224/status/98818615503101952
    Tanyaw1224(at)yahoo(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  17. I am so glad this is back! I loved it last year. I really want Ravenous & I have heard awesome things about Sharon.
    katybug2373@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  18. I would love Ravenous. Thanks!

    mpink22(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for the giveaway!
    I would love to win Ravenous.

    angeldream3[AT]gmail[DOT]com

    ReplyDelete
  20. Great excerpt.
    I would love to win Frostbound.

    Tweet http://twitter.com/elaing8/status/99302318633271296

    elaing8(at)netscape(dot)net

    ReplyDelete
  21. Tough choice with such great books, but I think I'd pick Frostbound.

    danaan at gmx dot at

    ReplyDelete
  22. I would love to win Ravenous!

    Thanks for the great post.

    musicalfrog@ comcast dot net

    ReplyDelete
  23. Thanks for the post and giveaway. This series sounds great. If I win, I'd like Unchained. (Email in profile.)

    ReplyDelete
  24. I love sidekicks, but even if Darak isn't one, he sounds like a great guy to have on your side.
    I'd love a copy of Scorched, since I have Ravenous.

    Barbed1951 at aol dot com

    ReplyDelete
  25. I would love to get Scorched
    flanagan@mebtel.net

    ReplyDelete
  26. Tweet:
    http://twitter.com/#!/beckerjo/status/104368104653594624

    beckerjo at verizon dot net

    ReplyDelete
  27. Would love to read Frostbound.

    Littopandaxpress(at)yahoo(Dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  28. Read Ravenous and fell in lust with the book! Now all in need is to get my hands on Scorched!

    pink_gyrl(at)hotmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  29. I'd go for Ravenous.

    lesly7ch(at)yahoo(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  30. This series has been on my wishlist for a while. Iwould love to have Ravenous. Thanks.

    rachaelmccully@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  31. Frostbound is on my wishlist and I would love thechance to win it.

    Cambonified (at) yahoo (dot) com

    ReplyDelete