This blog isn't dead...

...it was just on an unofficial hiatus.

The more intense school and life gets, the more and more I seem to pull away from this community. I HATE that! But there is hope, and I'm sincerely hoping now that I have attended to all pressing matters, I will have time, and, more importantly, the energy to bring this blog back to life. I can't guarantee that this will work, but I'll try my damned hardest to make it so. I miss you all too much.

Be forewarned: I'm taking baby steps. No rushing this for me.

So here are my (temporary) start-it-back-up plans for Book Faery:

1. I will try to update this blog at least once a week.
   I used to post all my book reviews within the first week I felt motivated to come back, and then I would just... stop. I want to get at least one book review up per week. This is my goal for the time being until I get back into some sort of routine.
    
2. No more guest posts, author interviews, or giveaways.
   For now. One of the biggest turn offs for me was having to format all these posts, contact winners, contact authors, contact publicists, gather background information not included in emails, etc. For someone trying to ease him/herself back into blogging, I think it's too much all at once. And I've been quite guilty of agreeing to participate in a blog tour, only to become so overwhelmed with work that I wouldn't have the time to check my inbox for weeks on end. So if you're an author or publicist looking for free promo, I'm sorry, but you'll have to look elsewhere. If you want me to review your book, however, feel free to check out my review policy and contact me.
    
3. Less quantity, more quality.
   Guilty as charged. This is connected to #2. When I couldn't get books read, I would add a lot more filler content like press releases and author promo. Sometimes, that author promo did not interest me in the slightest, but I hoped against hope (despite better judgment) that maybe it would appeal to you readers. It wasn't right, and I'm done with that. If you want more industry-related news, there are plenty of other blogs who do it way better than I ever could.

So there you have it, my goals for Book Faery in 2013. Once I get back into the swing of things, hopefully updates will come more often. Thank you to all of you who have continued to support both me and my blog throughout the years, even through all these hiatuses. 

Tori's Review: Playing with Fire by Tamara Morgan

Released: August 7, 2012
E-book: 81 pages
Price: $2.99
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Source: Publisher
Genre: Paranormal Romance 
Series: N/A 
Buy: Amazon


Add this book to your Goodreads shelf

Fiona Nelson has always been one hot ticket—even before she took the conversion serum that gave her superhuman abilities. Fiona's powers come at a price: lack of human contact, or she won't be the only thing burning. When she loses control of her emotions, her fire powers run rampant...and she's hurt enough people already.

Including herself.

But when the man behind her conversion returns to blackmail her into helping him gain power, the only person she can turn to is Ian Jones, the man who broke her teenage heart. The man determined to expose the criminal known as Fireball, whose explosive escapades are just a little too close to Fiona's M.O.

Ian is convinced Fiona's dangerous, convinced she's Fireball, and convinced he'll damn himself if he doesn't resist a heat that's always drawn him to Fiona like a moth to a flame—but Ian has his own secrets.

And he'll learn far too soon what happens when you play with fire.

My Rating:

My Opinion:
I like novellas, I really do. What I don't always like about them is the fact that the romance sometimes does not work very well. For me, such was the case in PLAYING WITH FIRE.

I did not understand the attraction between Fiona and Ian. They supposedly have a rough high school past, but Fiona just finds him so delicious that, despite those harsh memories, she practically turns into a puddle of goo internally when they run into each other at the start of the story. "Okay," I thought to myself, "It can't be so bad, right? She just re-met some hottie with a body in the park!" My problem was that her memories of Ian turned me off from him almost instantaneously. If she felt she was so mistreated back then, why would she even give him a second thought so many years later? Is her self confidence that shoddy that she would settle for a jerk? Right from the start I was against this pairing, which did not bode well for the rest of the story.

Ian's character (and this is going from memory because it's been about a month since reading) was really not all that memorable, aside from the fact that he was like a stick in the mud and very broody. Fiona was a bit more likeable, but overall, these characters did not really stick with me.

What initially drew me in was the superpower approach the author took. I suppose I'm a sucker for humans with abilities such as controlling fire and the like. It was interesting, and I enjoyed the method of administering such abilities to the humans in this world. I think PLAYING WITH FIRE would have been more successful as an urban fantasy with a side of romance, as opposed to primarily being a romance. I felt like the interesting aspects of the novella were overwhelmed by lackluster characters. Too bad, too.


Series Order:
1. Playing With Fire

Tori's Review: Shadow's Claim by Kresley Cole

Released: November 27, 2012
Paperback: 496 pages
Price: $7.99
Publisher: Simon & Schuster 
Source: Bought 
Genre: Paranormal Romance 
Series: The Dacians 
Buy: Amazon


Add this book to your Goodreads shelf

Shadow's Claim features Prince Trehan, a ruthless master assassin who will do anything to possess Bettina, his beautiful sorceress mate, even compete for her hand in a blood-sport tournament—to the death.

He won't be denied...

Trehan Daciano, known as the Prince of Shadows, has spent his life serving his people, striking in the night, quietly executing any threat to their realm. The coldly disciplined swordsman has never desired anything for himself—until he beholds Bettina, the sheltered ward of two of the Lore's most fearsome villains.

She's bound to another...

Desperate to earn her guardians' approval after a life-shattering mistake, young Bettina has no choice but to marry whichever suitor prevails—even though she's lost her heart to another. Yet one lethal competitor, a mysterious cloaked swordsman, invades her dreams, tempting her with forbidden pleasure.

A battle for her body and soul...

Even if Trehan can survive the punishing contests to claim her as his wife, the true battle for Bettina's heart is yet to come. And unleashing a millennium's worth of savage need will either frighten his Bride away—or stoke Bettina's own desires to a fever-pitch...

My Rating:

My Opinion:
Bzzt, bzzt. Brain has short-circuited from the awesomeness of this book.

Okay, on a serious note, I don't want to write a fangirl review. BUT since I am a KC fangirl, I find it impossible to avoid. For that reason, I think it is safe to say that once again, Kresley Cole has written an amazing title that you would be silly not to read. These books just keep getting better, the characters are always unique, and there's always humor. Who doesn't enjoy a good old dollop of humor in their cup of romance?

I am intrigued to learn about the other Dacians now that we've gotten a taste of who each of these sexy vamps are through Trehan's story. I was particularly happy to see Lothaire make an appearance. I laughed my ass off in a lot of those scenes.

Another must read. I think you should read the IAD series first (just to attain a further understanding of this world), however, it is not entirely necessary to do so. You simply run the risk of not appreciating some of the characters as much as us IAD fans do.


Series Order:
1. Shadow's Claim