Cover News - Conning For Keeps by Seleste deLaney

Lovers undercover ... Secret Agent Marissa Jones has a gift. A con artist to the core, after deep hypnosis she can turn into someone else entirely. Marissa's gift has gotten her into hot water over the years, but now more so than ever. With her smoking hot partner by her side, she needs to convince him that not only is she her true self, but also that she can be trusted — even in spite of her past.

... or traitors to the cause?Trevor Harris has his own issues with the mission, he's got revenge to seek, a cursed painting to secure, and Marissa's sugary-sweet alter-ego to ignore. But when he releases Marissa from her mental cage and things get a little too hot, he ends up finding out what falling for a con artist really means — bigger trouble than ever before.

The cover is in keeping with the first book in the series, Gaming for Keeps, with the target being front and centre. Besides that, there's not much else to say. The cover really doesn't give anything away, much the same as most Entangled books.

I'm lucky enough to have gotten an ARC from the author and can't wait to read this. It's release date is 3rd February 2014 and is being published by Entangled.

Goodreads page
Pre-order links
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon CA
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

300th Blog Post Contest

****THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED****

So as it's my 300th blog post, I thought I'd have a contest to celebrate it. But it's not going to be an easy one - oh no, no "comment to win" on here.

Below are some quotes - they are the first lines of the first books in some of my favourite series. Now, I have mentioned these being my favourite series at some point on here. Either in the review of one of the books or even in a specific Favourite Series post.

Let's begin!

1. I eyeballed the freezer, trying to decide what to cook for dinner that night.

2. "Bronwyn Alessia St.Vincent Clare!"

3. I have to.

4. The moment the door opened I knew an ass-kicking was inevitable.

5. Riley Blackthorne rolled her eyes.

6. "Come on!" Emma whispered from my right, her words floating from her mouth in a thin white cloud.

7. On the day Claire became a member of the Glass house, somebody stole her laundry.

8. Digging graves is hell on a manicure, but I was taught good vampires clean up after every meal.

9. No one knew better than Walter Rice that the only safe place was away from other people.

10. I felt her fear before I heard her screams.

And that's your lot. Some of them, I realise, are easier since names and such are mentioned but I feel they make up for the slightly harder ones of the list.

Rather than list the answers in the comments - which makes it too easy to cheat if you don't know the answer - I'd like you to email your answers to thoughtsofascot@gmail.com - I want the book titles, not the series.

The winner will be the person with all answers correct or highest number of correct answers. In the event of more than one winner, I'll randomly select a winner.

Now for the prize! The winner will receive their choice of the books to the value of £15 - open to any country that Book Depository delivers to.

So good luck to all who enter and the contest will run until 28th March.


****THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED****

My first video post

So this is the reason why I was having a wee shoofty through my books. I'm thinking of starting up video book reviews but just trying to see if they'd be liked or not. Please have a wee peek at my video and like it if you'd like to see more reviews done this way.

Oldest book in my collection (I think)

So I was having a wee shoofty through my books earlier (you'll see why in my next post) and I came across the following book. I believe it to be the oldest book I own, in the published sense but also in the sense of how long I've owned it.

It's a book called Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh. Look at the state of that cover? I've obviously owned this from before I realised how horrific it was to damage books.

Oh yeah, and apparently I thought it was OK to vandalise books as well. Look at that writing? So childish, lol.

Ok, so according to this picture, I've owned this book since at least 1991. So the reason the writing is so childish is because I was only 9. Actually 8, since it was August!
Why was I writing the dates in my books? I was playing libraries with my friends, I believe. There's a chance I've owned this book for longer. I honestly don't know.


So to my knowledge, this is my oldest books ~ in both senses.
What's the oldest book in your collection? Either the one you've owned the longest or the oldest published book?

Roald Dahl day

OK so technically it was yesterday as it's now after midnight but I was working tonight so I couldn't do anything for it.
This made me think about books I liked when I was younger, Roald Dahl or not. I still have some in my collection now. I don't know about anyone else but Roald Dahl was a mainstay in my school's library, right up to Primary 7. I highly doubt I've read all his books but I have definitely read a good chunk.

I still own George's Marvellous Medicine, Fantastic Mr Fox and James and the Giant Peach. Of the three George's Marvellous Medicine was always my favourite. I also loved BFG, The Twits, Matilda, The Witches and there was one particular compilation book I loved but can't remember what one (there must have been more than one).

Of the non-Roald Dahl books I loved as a kid, I still own Carbonel and The Chronicles of Narmo. I read all the Sweet Valley books over my lifetime and recently found out that they are being brought back out again! I also read all the point books, for example point horror, point romance etc. They were aimed at teenagers. I still own the Forbidden Game trilogy and still love Julian. I think he may have been my first literary crush.

What were your favourite books as a child?

Oh and I still love The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Review: Halfway to the Grave

Halfway to the Grave (Huntress book 1) by Jeaniene Frost

Half-vampire Catherine Crawfield is going after the undead with a vengeance, hoping that one of these deadbeats is her father – the one responsible for ruining her mother’s life. Then she’s captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter, and is forced into an unlikely partnership.

In exchange for help finding her father, Cat agrees to train with the sexy night stalker until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs. She’s amazed she doesn’t end up as his dinner – are there actually good vampires? Pretty soon Bones will have her convinced that being half-dead doesn’t have to be all bad. But before she can enjoy her status as kick-ass demon hunter, Cat and Bones are pursued by a group of killers. Now Cat will have to choose a side … and Bones is turning out to be as tempting as any man with a heartbeat.

First off I liked the characters. Bones and Cat work well together and there's a nice chemistry between them. Cat's mother and grandparents are kinda off putting but they're not main characters so I can deal with that.

My main problem with this book is Bones' language. The author seems to overuse any words she sees to be English, sometimes, in my opinion, out of context. It bugs me to the point that I'm still wondering whether I want to read the next book or not.

Overall, it's a great book and a great read. As I said Bones' voice can get annoying after time but it wasn't annoying enough to get me to stop reading.

Book covers

Not being able to keep a series looking in order in my bookcase annoys me. It annoys me when a series suddenly changes to hardcover. I know this is a good thing 'cos it means the author is getting more readers which I'm happy about but from a purely selfish point of view, it ruins my pretty shelves!
It also annoys me when a book comes out a lot bigger than the others. Mary Janice Davidson's Undead series and Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series come to mind here. It's not that the books are thicker or anything, they're taller and wider so look out of place on my shelves. The main reason this bugs me is that there's no reason for doing this. It means nothing and it also makes it look like a kids book because the writing is freaking HUGE in it!
The main thing that's bugging me lately is book cover designs getting changed midway through a series. That really pisses me off. Why the sudden need to change it if there's nothing wrong with it? This is in no way an author thing since not a lot of authors have a say in the cover.
One series springing to mind right now is Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series. Book ten has not long been released and apparently the UK publishers think it's time for a revamp ... why? I know loads of people who LOVE the UK covers, even more so than their own country's covers so why the need for a revamp? There is none!

Publisher's suck sometimes!

Books

I eventually plan on doing some book reviews up here but for now I think I'll recommend some series to read.

The Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong
There are ten books so far and one anthology. The series is based in present time and focuses on supernaturals living in human society.


Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris
Anyone familiar with True Blood may know this series. But the TV programme is absolute pants so don't judge the books by that. The series is about Sookie Stackhouse who is a telepath trying to cope with the burden of being able to read people's minds. Vampires are out in the public and living amongst us, Sookie gets caught up in their business after getting involved with one of the vampires.


The Kitty series by Carrie Vaughn
Follows the werewolf named Kitty through her life as a radio presenter.


The Shifters series by Rachel Vincent
The trials of the American werecat pride. It mainly follows Faythe, the youngest child and only daughter of the Alpha.


Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
Shifter Mercy Thompson lives a quiet life as a VW mechanic until she becomes involved with her werewolf alpha neighbour.


Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine
The town of Morganville in America is run by vampires and only the local residents know about them. College student Claire gets accidentally caught up in the vampire politics when she attends school there.


Hollows series by Kim Harrison
Since 'The Turn', all supernaturals have been living as part of our normal society. This series follows one witch Rachel Morgan and her vampire and pixie partners.


Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
Set in the Vampire Academy and follows Rose Hathaway, a dhampir training to guard her Moroi best friend.



That's not all but most of my favourites all in the same genre.