Suite Nineteen by Mel Bossa

Drawn by the promise of change, young medium Ben Lebeau, moves to the big city, into the Shilts Manor — an old textile factory turned trendy loft space. There he meets seductive Lennox Van Kemp and his clan of Métis — guardians of the oldest lie. Ben is pulled into Van Kemp's emotional circle, finally sating his most secret desires.

Against Ven Kemp's warnings, Ben befriends his neighbor Ezra Collins — a scarred man who has taken a vow of celibacy. As Ben tries to get closer to Ezra and earn his trust, he also struggles to escape Van Kemp's psychological grip on him. The harder Ben falls for Ezra, the more he suffers from hallucinations and memory losses. Soon, the Manor's walls begin to close in on him and Ben must rely on his psychic abilities to survive the assault on his mind.

As Ben and Ezra unravel Van Kemp's plans, they expose a spiritual conspiracy dating back to Christ — a conspiracy that will shake their very world and restore their Faith in humanity.

I liked the sound of this book, but re-reading the blurb, I just noticed that it gives away the one and only thing that book had going for it - the reveal of what Van Kemp and Ezra are. To me that seems strange to give away that in the blurb when, if you read the book, the whole Métis thing isn't revealed until the end.

I tried to like this book, I really did. The story sounded interesting but the 3 main characters - Ben, Van Kemp and Ezra - are annoying! They all seem exaggerated way too much. Ben is whiny and annoying, Ezra is moody and annoying and Van Kemp is pushy and annoying. Not a good combination of leads. It also took me a while to read since I didn't want to read it when I was at home, I was basically only reading it on my lunch breaks at work and I just couldn't work up the .... want .... to pick it up at home.


Book Depository: Suite Nineteen
Amazon UK: Suite Nineteen

Fireworks and Pets

It's getting to that time of year again. Guy Fawkes Night, Bonfire Night, 5th of November .... whatever you want to call it, it's a pain in the butt to all pet owners. Personally, my dog is fine with fireworks but, as a Vet Nurse, I see plenty of people coming in with their dogs and cats just prior to Bonfire Night to get medication for their pets.

Unfortunately, sedatives are only a short term fix. Ideally, if your dog or cat is scared of the noise, you need to work with them and get them desensitised to the loud bangs. For this, the Sounds Scary CD is ideal, you play the CD in the house over a long period of time and gradually your pet will become oblivious to the noises.

The CD used in conjunction with Adaptil (for dogs) or Feliway (for cats), is much better than loading them up with sedatives. Adaptil and Feliway should be used at least 2 weeks prior to the event.

Sedatives may make your pet sleep and look serene but they're still scared of the noises that are happening outside, so work with your pet in advance rather than leave it to the last minute and have to get sedatives from your Vet. Sounds Scary is available from the link above and Adaptil and Feliway are available from your Vet or any large pet shop.

Advice for dogs on the night of the fireworks:

• Make sure your dog is walked in daylight hours before the fireworks start
• Feed your dog as stodgy meal, like pasta etc. This should help your dog feel tired
• Shut all your curtains and put a CD or TV on.  Preferably bass heavy music as it should hide the noise of the fireworks
• Don't react to the noise of the fireworks or fuss over the dog if they do
• Don't take the dog out again until after you're sure the fireworks are finished
• Start working with the Sounds Scary CD so that the following year isn't as bad

Advice for cats on the night of fireworks:

• Make sure your cat is kept indoors during the day and at night
• Make sure your cat has a safe hiding place to go to if they feel scared
• Again, like with dogs, work with the cat and the Sounds Scary CD

Advice for small animals on the night of fireworks:

• Outdoor animals should have plenty of food and hay on the day and night of
• If possible, bring the animals inside but make sure they're not too warm.  If it's not possible to bring them inside, cover the hutch(es)with something heavy to block out any light flashes and dull the noise

I hope the above advice is helpful to some pet owners, I would also like to ask if anyone with pets could sign this petition to get pet safety advice put on fireworks.

Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac

Luke King knows a lot of things. Like four different ways to disarm an enemy before the attacker can take a breath. Like every detail of every book he's ever read. And Luke knows enough - just enough - about what his father does as a black ops infiltrator to know which questions not to ask. Like why does his family move around so much?

Luke just hopes that this time his family is settled for a while. He'll finally be able to have a normal life. He'll be able to ask the girl he likes to take a ride with him on his motorcycle. He'll hang out with his friends. He'll be invisible - just as he wants.

But when his dad goes missing, Luke realizes that life will always be different for him. Suddenly he must avoid the kidnappers looking to use him as leverage against his father, while at the same time evading the attention of the school's mysterious elite clique of Russian hipsters, who seem much too interested in Luke's own personal secret. Faced with multiple challenges and his emerging paranormal identity, Luke must decide who to trust as he creates his own destiny.

I enjoyed this book, even with the very annoying unrequited love between Lucas and Meena. I really don't get why YA books have to have that in there.

Spoiler alert!!!



So Lucas is a skin walker of Native American mythology. This book puts a good twist into the story though, the kids are born with their skin walker pelt. Lucas' is kept in storage until his parents feels he's old enough to know about his other half, when his dad gets kidnapped he follows the trail his father left him and finds his pelt, finally getting to join with his other half and become what he should be. With his newfound strength and skills, he sets out to rescue his dad, with some help from an unlikely place.

I really liked Lucas as a character (except for the pining) and I enjoyed Lucas' dad, more so after he admits to Lucas that he's been playing a part all these years and he's not really a drunk or a junkie. One thing I didn't like was how Lucas was described as his skin walker wolf, it sounds like he's like the wolfman of old mythology. I personally would have preferred if he's just changed into an actual wolf, but the wolfman thing worked with the story line so I can see why it was that way.

I'm looking forward to reading more.


Book Depository: Wolf Mark
Amazon UK: Wolf Mark

Gunshy by Seleste deLaney

Banished from Olympus with orders to restore love to the world, Eros starts with a match no one sees coming. No one but him.

Straight-laced principal Kira isn’t looking for love, especially not right after getting dumped. Then a chance encounter leads her to Jesse, and damned if she isn’t drawn to the bad-boy with a heart of gold. A night of reckless abandon leaves her confused. Was there something there, or did she imagine the connection between them?

Jesse knows lying to Kira is a mistake, but she's the first woman in a long time to see the man and not just the rock star. When his plan to come clean goes terribly wrong, Kira bolts, leaving Jesse in the dust.

Now Eros has to nudge the star-crossed lovers together and prove to Zeus that love does exist, even among the gun shy.

Buy the kindle from Amazon: Gunshy by Seleste deLaney or direct from Evernight Publishing: Gunshy by Seleste deLaney

A very short but hawt first book in a new series from Evernight Publishing. It's a multi-author series, so each book is written by a different author.

Eros gets banished from Olympus and has to restore love to humans. Judging by this story I'm guessing that each story will follow a different couple that Eros helps get together to prove to Zeus that he can still do his job.

I've read a lot of Seleste's books and I have to say, this is the first book of hers that has a lead male that I could find myself attracted to. Jesse is a big guy and he has tattoos and plays bass, what more could I want. I also liked Kira, as little as we got to know her in this short story she was a strong lead. I'll still read the rest of the series but Seleste was definitely the only reason I bought this. Got to support my buddies after all :D


Amazon UK: GunShy

The Shadowing: Hunted by Adam Slater

Once every century, the barrier between the human world and the demon realm begins to break down. Creatures gather, anxiously waiting to cross the divide, to bring death and destruction from their world to ours. This time is called The Shadowing.

Callum Scott has always known that there is a supernatural world out there — he’s seen ghosts for as long as he can remember. Lately, he’s had visions of children being brutally murdered by a terrifying creature. Then the visions start coming true, and Callum realises that he’s being hunted, too.

Driven by a dark destiny, he must stand against the demons that threaten our world. And The Shadowing is almost here. . . .


Release Date 13th September 2011

Loved this story and I loved the fact that the main character, Callum, and his female friend, Melissa, don't have a romance ...... and I'm going to say yet, as it still may happen. It seems that every YA I read has to have some romance blooming or already happening between the main character and a best friend or possible enemy or complete opposite schoolmate etc, so it was nice to read a story that had two friends of opposite sex and not have an under running love story happening at the same time.

The story was really well told and well paced. It was mostly from Callum's POV but some wee chapters were from the Hunter's POV as well. I like how this series is going to turn out, it's going to be a different bad guy every book and I can tell that they're not going to be fluffy or light reading. The bad guy (maybe gal, you never find out) was quite terrifying to picture and from the excerpt I read of the next book, it's going to be the same.

Recommended for any YA horror supernatural reader.


Book Depository: The Shadowing: Hunted
Amazon UK: The Shadowing: Hunted

The Postmortal by Drew Magary

The year is 2019 and a cure for aging has been discovered. After much political and cultural debate "The Cure" is made available to populations worldwide. Through fast-paced journal entries and blogger-style news story roundups compiled by an ever-watchful New York lawyer, John Farrell, readers experience a world where age-related diseases and deaths disappear altogether. But there are residual effects and THE POSTMORTAL forces us to rethink our idea of marriage if rendered indefinite and the allocation of precious resources in a world with exponential population growth. Ideological divisions manifest themselves in chilling ways in this new environment, introducing "pro death" anarchists who inflict ghastly punishments on those who dare to remain young. With the apocalypse on the horizon and regret creeping into everyday lives, living forever, as it turns out, isn't all it's cracked up to be.

This book is amazingly thought provoking and well written, everything about it makes you think. Would you take the cure? What happens to our family and all our loved ones? Does your idea of "love" change after being forced to consider an actual lifetime with the person you married? Would you ever consider giving a child the cure to make sure they stayed a child forever? All these questions are raised in this book and ultimately answered by John Farrell.

The book is written in the form of blog entries and newspaper stories and spans from 2019 to 2079 with John remaining at the cure age of 29 throughout. He has to face many disappointments and faces a lot of realities through his long life.

This book really made me question everything it raised. After the cure is discovered it meant everyone who used it wouldn't die of old age so the population exploded which meant people were struggling to survive. Money and jobs were scarce, as were places to live. Cycle marriages become the norm, where you only had to be married for a set period of time and at the end your marriage simply dissolved and you were free to marry another person. Pro-death anarchists terrorised and killed those who took the cure.

It really makes you think ..... would you take the cure if it were real? I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone.


Book Depository: The Postmortal
Amazon UK: The Postmortal

Incubus by Carol Goodman

In a town built on magic, be careful what you dream ...

Ever since moving to Fairwick to take up a teaching post at the local college, Callie has been having vivid, erotic dreams about a man made out of moonlight and shadows. Dreams she begins to fear as well as anticipate ...

She learns that her home - a Victorian cottage at the edge of a wood - is supposedly haunted. And then her new - and rather strange - colleagues tell her a local legend about an incubus demon with a human past who was enchanted by a fairy queen ...

It took me a loooong time to get into this book. It's really slow going and nothing really exciting happens until near the end. And even then, it's not really that exciting.

Huge periods of time pass between chapters and breaks and they're never really discussed. The story itself, is vaguely interesting but not overly so. And the characters aren't enough to hold your interest. Callie isn't strong enough for a lead character, in my opinion. She's sort of boring, a bit self obsessed and not very interesting.

This isn't really a book I'd recommend to someone, I bought it as an impulse buy but I wish I'd read some reviews first.


Book Depository: Incubus
Amazon UK: Incubus

Sad Monsters: Growling on the Outside, Crying on the Inside by Frank Lesser

Monsters have it tough. Besides being deeply misunderstood, they suffer from very real problems: Mummies have body image issues, Godzilla is going through an existential crisis, and creatures from the black lagoon face discrimination from creatures from the white lagoon. At heart, these monsters are human; after all, you are what you eat. Quirkily illustrated, Sad Monsters hilariously documents the trials and tribulations of all the undead creatures monster-mad readers have grown to love, from vampires and werewolves, to chupacabras and sphinxes, and even claw-footed bathtubs.

Release Date 27 September 2011

This book has some really cute drawings and funny little stories relating to monsters and the troubles they face every day.

For instance, did you know Godzilla questions his existence every day? Or that The Abominable Snowman wants nothing more than to work in the fashion industry?

What about the fact that if you stay abstinent in your teen years you get your very own unicorn as your BFF? I never knew that could happen.

There's loads of great little short funny stories and they're all giggle worthy. The illustrations are cute and funny and go well with the stories. This is a nice wee book for a quick read, and since it's all short 2 or 3 page stories, it's a book you're able to read in between other books. You can read one or two stories then put it down and pick it back up later without worrying about getting confused.


Book Depository: Sad Monsters
Amazon UK: Sad Monsters: Growling on the Outside, Crying on the Inside

Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls - a camp for troubled teens - and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren't just "troubled." Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches, and fairies train side by side, learning to harness their powers, control their magic, and live in the normal world.
Kylie's never felt normal, but surely she doesn't belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks, either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn't complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek's a half Fae who's determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin' hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Derek and Lucas couldn't be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.
Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear: Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs ....

So I heard of this book ages ago when I heard of the free e-novella Turned at Dark then I won Born at Midnight in a contest from a blog, which I would link to but I can't remember who they are, sorry. Unfortunately I also just discovered I can't read Turned at Dark because it's not available in my country ~ bummer! Sucky geographical limits.

Anyway, I started this book the other day and I absolutely loved it. Kylie is a nice YA lead and Derek and Lucas are your typical YA triangle material, completely different and both hot so it makes it difficult to choose.

The story is good, paced well and doesn't really have any boring bits in it. I liked the idea of Shadow Falls, a camp for supernatural teens just coming into their powers. And I loved Kylie's room mates, Della and Miranda, a newly turned vampire and a dyslexic witch. Kylie's struggle with finding out who she is and why she's at the camp is very well told. You really get into her head and she fluctuates between wanting to believe she is something and hoping that she's not (even though that would mean she's actually very ill).

All in all, a very good short read and a must for all fans of the genre. I'm going to try and get my greedy little hands on Turned at Dark and can't wait to read the next book, Awake at Dawn.


Book Depository: Born At Midnight
Amazon UK: Born at Midnight

Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong

Savannah Levine is in danger. That's not usually a problem. But, caught in the grip of a disturbing and violent murder case, Savannah swore to give up her unique gifts if it would save an innocent young girl. Little did she know that someone - or something - was listening ... Now she has no idea how to restore her powers, just when she needs them the most.

In this compelling, fast paced new thriller, Savannah has to face a host of deadly enemies bent on destroying not only her, but the very fabric of the supernatural world.

As dark forces gather, Savannah isn't just fighting for her life, but for everything and everyone she loves ...

You know, it seems completely pointless for me to write a review for a Kelley Armstrong book. Anyone that knows me, knows she's one of (if not my most) favourite author. It's hard for me to say anything bad about a Kelley Armstrong book, I love her writing. Kelley's books, for me, are a proper page turner. I read them all in one sitting and Spell Bound was no different. I got it through the door today, started reading it at about 12 this afternoon and have just finished it at about half 5.

This is the second to last book in the Otherworld series (nooooooooooooooooooooo) since Kelley plans on taking a break from it to focus on other projects. As much as this saddens me, I know she doesn't want to keep writing and having the series lose it's appeal (like so many other series out there). Also, she has promised it's not an end but a hiatus, she plans on writing short stories and novellas featuring the Otherworld characters so we're not completely losing them.

The 2nd in the Savannah trilogy picks up exactly where Waking The Witch left us with that horrid cliff hanger ending. Good thing is, this book doesn't end on a cliff hanger but Kelley does tease us a little in the last few pages. As is my usual for Kelley's books, I cannot wait to read the next one and I'm pretty sad that it's a whole year away!


Book Depository: Spell Bound
Amazon UK: Spell Bound