Immortalis: Hunter and Prey Book Tour

Becoming a vampire saved Alyssa from death, but the price was high: the loss of everything and everyone attached to her mortal life. She’s still learning to cope when a surprise confrontation with Santino Vitale, the Acta Sanctorum’s most fearsome hunter, sends her fleeing back to the world she once knew, and Fallon, the friend she’s missed more than anything.

Alyssa breaks vampire law by revealing her new, true self to her old friend, a fact which causes strong division in the group that should support her most: her clan.
Worse yet, her revelation entangles Fallon in the struggle between vampires and hunters and The Acta Sanctorum is ready to attack again, with a new army of hybrid creations: the Frenzy Soldiers.

If Alyssa hopes to survive and keep her mortal friend safe, she’ll have to be willing to make a deal with the enemy, and regain her clan’s support. It will take everyone working together in a precarious truce to fight against the Acta Sanctorum’s new threat.

Book Information

ISBN: ISBN-13: 9780984419654
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Rising Sign Books
Publication Date: December 2010
Paperback , 300pp
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

About Katie Salidas

Author of the hot new Urban Fantasy series, Immortalis, Katie has always had a desire to entertain. Since, early childhood, she’s dreamed up fantastical characters and scribbled them into pages of various journals and notebooks. Taking an interest in vampires at an early age, she devoured every book, featuring those mysterious, blood sucking creatures, in any genre she could find. She claims that, of all the monsters out there, vampires had always been the most interesting.

It was only natural that a love of reading about vampires, and a love of writing turned into a desire to write her own stories.

A Las Vegas native, having grown up in the famed City of Sin, Katie loves to feature it as a recurring setting for many of her stories.

Find Katie Salidas at www.risingsignbooks.com

Blog
http://myimmortalstories.blogspot.com/

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/ksalidas?ref=profile

Facebook Author Fansite
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Katie-Salidas-Author/214780936916

Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/katelv

Brightly Woven

I have had this in my to read pile, and during this vacation I finally read, this book is a little gem of a book.


Sydelle lives in the desert with her family. She get asked to go with North Wayland to the capital to stop a war from happening. Sydelle is a weaver of fabrics and makes beautiful tapestries for the people in her town.


She dislikes North so much , and learns more about the wizards and magic that she wasn't even aware of in her world. Sydelle is also one of kind, and prays to goddess. There along the way they both learn about each other, and help each other with their problems. He has a curse, and she has some issues that she didn't know about it til she met North.

North has family issues , and loved his friend who will stand by til the end. I enjoyed this book very much , and love the cover of it. North has a wit, and he is so funny with Sydelle . I stayed up very late to finish this book.


Best Lines: He's just like a stallion. Wild and kicking on the outside, but a heart soft as satin on the inside. Just waiting for the right girl to break him in


Well, have you ever thought of bathing?' I asked, turning away. 'No one wants to hire a wizard who smells worse than their outhouse. And who knows what creatures are living in that hair?"


There is only Kissing through out the book.


Book Review=B

Won this book and this is my Honest Review

January Group Reads!

The votes are in, and here are the books we'll be reading together for Blog With Bite in January:

We'll be doing the review linkup the same way we did in December- reviews for both books should be linked up by January 31st.  This is a great opportunity to draw some attention to previous reviews that you've already written, too, so if you've read and reviewed these books already, don't fret! Link up instead!

When a Mullo Loves a Woman-Freatured Reviewer @My 5 Monkeys

Pearl is a student at College . There have been some murders happening around the town.  She has been seeing a mysterious man following her. When her boyfriend cancels on her she wanders around near a club and finds a book shop. At this shop she finds a necklace, and book.

Celeste is her room mate , and has some secrets from her too.

A Mullo is Psychic vampire who steals a Gypsy's power. Pearl is part gypsy and learns more about her mother.

This story takes place in the Monterrey Bay, and with all the locations. I remembered being down in that area with my family.

Celeste and Pearl hold a seance and Mr. M is there video recording the whole event. While there Pearl has another vision while having her necklace nearby. Pearl is able to into the past and learn more about her mother.

Pearl doesn't know much of her family history, and slowly comes to term with her destiny and knowing more about herself. Peal has an on /off again relationship with Evan . He plays a bigger role than what I thought.

I loved Adam and how the relationship slowly grew from him being Mr. Mysterious to more than a friend. He has been watching over her for some time. They are able to communicate telepathically . Adam doesn't want to fall in love with Pearl.

Best Line: Have you ever met someone for the first time, but in your heart you feel as if you have met them before.

Pearl and Celeste figure out who has been hurting their friends and save the day.

This was an interesting story , but I found sad that Pearl didn't know about her family history or her mother. Pearl learned some history from Adam, who has some secrets too. It seemed easy that her room mate knew about Mullo and magic. All the friends trying to figure out who was killing the students, reminded me of the scooby gang. I liked the story.




Book Review =C
BWB 2/4

Thanks to the author for the story and this is my Honest review

HBIC Review: Yours, Mine and Howls by Kinsey Holley

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Paranormal Element: Werewolves
Stalk the Author: Web | Twitter
eBook provided by author

PJVs QUICKIE POV:
I was sucked right into Holley's latest shifter filled masterpiece. From the start I was engrossed in Ally and maybe became a little obsessed. It was great. I can't wait to read more of this series!


REVIEW:
At the young age of 18, Allison finds herself in a trailer park in Lake Charles, Louisiana, alone, except for a five year werewolf named Dylan that she tends regularly for her inept cousin. As the boy sleeps in her room a fight breaks out between her cousin and her husband and it leads to her cousins death and the man barging into Ally's trailer...and ending her life. From there Ally's life is never the same.

Thirteen years later, Ally is in charge of an almost grown Alpha werewolf and has two Beta wolves along for the ride. She has to do something about Dylan and soon...and she also has to do something about a little tussle she got into with a man half her size that she happened to leave near death. Too many questions and too little time lead Ally to Colorado an Alpha Werewolf with a new pack and a lot of extra baggage. She plans on not liking him, she plans on leaving as soon as she can work up the nerve, but one look at Mr. Alpha Werewolf, Cade, Ally's insides turn to butter and her self-resolve melts away. Yet, with both of them lugging around enough emotional baggage to keep Southwest busy for days, can they dump it all to form some semblance of a relationship, or will testosterone and tough chick syndrome dash any hope of them being together?

I expected a great read from Kinsey Holley, after reading her novella Kiss & Kin, but I have to say, I think this one exceeded my expectations. It was the small things that made this into a very entertaining read. It was the description of Ally & Cade's reactions that just seemed so real. It was the cute behavior by Cade's child, Becca. I thought it was adorable that she believed she was a cat. It was the subtle play and hints of the world - without lengthy descriptions of hows and whys. The story assumed you already knew this, that you were a part of this world already and gave you enough information to figure it out yourself, but didn't narrate at you like you needed to be introduced to the world. It was subtle and made me feel like I was even more a part of the story. Ms. Holley can definitely tell a story and I'll be delighted when more of her work is released. Can't wait.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Adult content, descriptive sexual encounters. Fans of shifters and paranormal romance fans should enjoy. Could be a good transition novel because, while it is about werewolves the paranormal elements are that intense.

4/4 BWB rating

1/20 books

HBIC Review: Yours, Mine and Howls (Emily @ What Book is That?)

Title: Yours, Mine and Howls
Author: Kinsey W. Holley
Page Count: 402 pages (Word document format)
Genre: paranormal romance
Publisher: Samhain
Copy for review provided by the author in anticipation of an honest review.

50 words or less: Whenever you're having a bad day, just remember: you're not in charge of raising an orphaned alpha werewolf, you haven't died and been resurrected into a female werewolf who can't shift, your daughter doesn't think she's a cat, and nobody you know is secretly a few centuries old.  It. Could. Be. Worse.

Yours, Mine and Howls is a fun book with an interesting story, fun characters who don't always do what you'd expect them to do, a romance that comes to a slow boil, and enough adventure and family drama to grab your attention and hold on for dear life.  While there were definitely some parts of the story that were smoother than others, as a whole this was a thoroughly enjoyable book that was an excellent way to spend an evening after work.

Easily my two favorite elements of this story were a) the role that the hero's daughter, Becca, played in the starring couple coming together, and b) the interesting take on the role of the alpha and what that means for a relationship.  Lots of books include the element of the snarly, bossy alpha but not all of them take the tack that such an individual might be, shall we say, a complete pain in the butt to live with.

As a heroine, Ally is certainly made of strong stuff.  She's not afraid to take on responsibility; if anything, she has trouble letting other people be responsible for themselves when the time comes.  She takes on the task of raising Dylan, a young wereworlf orphaned by a horrifying instance of domestic violence, and keeps her small pack of four together until it becomes apparent that she can't provide the guidance Dylan needs.

Enter our hero, stage left.  Cade, Rocky Mountian Pack Alpha and owner of a successful horse ranch, agrees to take Dylan on as a ward and to help grow into a productive, happy young man instead of a derelict or a lunatic.  Cade didn't realize that the foster mother in the situation was Ally, strong woman and hottie extraordinaire.

Cade has a lot on his plate- raising his four year old daughter, Becca (yes, the one who thinks she's a cat,) running a business, keeping his pack together, and struggling for legitimacy from a hierarchy that doesn't take well to newcomers.  Finding out that Ally is his mate is the last thing he needs, but it's the key to solving all of his problems (including his Mommy issues- yikes!) and watching him unravel his emotional tangle made for a very entertaining read.

This is where the part about addressing the role of the alpha comes in.  Cade is a great leader and a powerful man with a tremendous amount of responsibility, as well as lofty goals and high hopes for the future.  This means that there are times that he can be, for lack of a better phrase, a righteous douche bag.  Ally takes it in stride, though- she doesn't freak out, she doesn't swear a blood oath of revenge, she doesn't even punch him in his overbearing forehead.  No, she calmly and quietly goes about her business, executing her plans as if all the drama didn't happen.  This doesn't resolve the issues, naturally, and these two do end up having to talk things out like adults, but it goes to show that neither of them is going to take this relationship lying down, and neither of them is willing to be steamrollered by the other.

My criticism of the story has to do with the way things wrapped up at the end.  So much of the book was devoted to the blossoming relationship between the main characters that the resolution to the story- the role of the fae, the role of Becca's semi-estranged grandmother, the role of Declan, the annoyingly smug Irish wolf, and the side plot involving Aaron's father, all kind of came out of nowhere to careen towards an ending.  When it was all over, a ton of elements and plot lines had been introduced and resolved, but I wasn't able to articulate what had actually happened, besides the happily ever after.

Beyond that, though, this was a really fun, spicy pepper of a book.  I'm pleased to read that there will be more books starring this cast of characters as there were a number of interesting secondary characters scattered throughout the book.  You can count me in for reading future installments for sure.

Overall Grade: A-
BWB Rating: 3/4

Welcome Kinsey Holley to BWB! {Guest Post}

When I decided I wanted to write a werewolf romance a few years ago, I only had one character and one idea to start with.

The character was a young woman I’d been carrying around in my head for a while. (What? No, believe me—this is totally normal for a writer.) She gave her life for a little boy she loved very much, by throwing herself in front of his drunk and violent werewolf stepfather.

The stepfather killed her, and it changed her whole life.

The idea was that, in my world, werewolves are out and living openly among humans. They’re fully assimilated into American society (the situation varies in other countries). There are no female werewolves, so werewolves marry human women, have kids—some werewolves, some not—and raise their families among humans.

And my werewolves would not be borderline psychopaths forever on the cusp of bloody rampages. I figured, if they’d managed to live and evolve alongside us in secret for millennia, legends and superstitions being the only hint of their existence, then they must have been good at passing for human, right? Which meant they could control themselves. Granted, alphas were more prone to violence than betas, but still—they couldn’t go around ripping chunks of flesh out of everyone who looked at them cross-eyed. People would have noticed a long time ago.

So once I had my heroine and my werewolves, I just had to write the story. It only took me two years and many nights on my sisters-in-law’s porches drinking wine or, when I got really stuck, margaritas, and asking them plaintively: But how did she die? What’s the big secret Cade’s mother was hiding? And what’s the deal with Declan?

They never told me—they always made me figure it out for myself. But they were good for feedback and constructive criticism, and the alcohol and food were always welcome.

Along the way I got frustrated and started looking for an excuse to stop. So when Samhain put out a call for a shapeshifting anthology, I thought why not, I’ve already got this cool world built, and Cade’s not doing what I want him to, so let’s put this aside and try a novella.

Kiss and Kin sort of fell out of my head. It came to me so much more easily than Rocky Mountain Howl, which is what Yours, Mine and Howls was called for two years before my editor decided it wasn’t romance-y enough.

And Kiss and Kin got published, and it sold very well for a first book and got good reviews. And that gave me the boost I needed to finish Yours, Mine and Howls.

It’s a little darker than Kiss and Kin. The characters are tangentially related to characters in Kiss and Kin, but the latter don’t make any appearances.

I don’t think it will take me two years to write the next book in the Werewolves in Love series. I’ve already got another novella, Ready to Run, scheduled for August release (Nick Wargman and his assistant TJ are in it).

I’ve just started writing Seth’s story—you’ll meet him in Yours, Mine and Howls. He’s a quiet one, but there’s a lot going on beneath the surface. Dec will get his own story, as will Michael.

And, yes, Nick and TJ too…

I really (really, really) hope you like Yours, Mine and Howls.

If you’d like to know the story of Cade’s nanny troubles, briefly alluded to in the book, you can go here and read Yours, Mine and Howls: The Nanny Years, for free.

Lastly, and most importantly, I’d like to thank Blog with Bite for highlighting Yours, Mine and Howls this month. I really appreciate it.

###

Kinsey Holley lives in Houston Texas, where a lot of people know about her Secret Romance Writer Identity. Hopefully those people don’t include her mother or the folks she goes to church with. She’s married to the Hub, mommy to the Diva, and works part time as a law librarian.

Kinsey takes her mail at kinseywholley@live.com, lives at www.kinseyholley.com and http://ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com, and hangs out way too much at

Twitter (@kinseyholley).

Pop round and say hi sometime.

Happy 2011! Vote for January's Young Adult Title!

You know the drill- new month, new books to choose from for our group review!  The competition will be fierce among the contenders, as this month, we're offering the nominees from the Goodreads Choice Awards as options for both the adult and young adult titles!  In the event that the book that was nominated was not the first book in the series, we've substituted the first book in the appropriate series for folks who want to start at the beginning.  It's going to be a tough call with this round of voting, I think. Regardless, as always, vote for the book that you personally want to read and review and be ready to link up your reviews for all to read and enjoy!  As always, cover shots go to Amazon for purchasing ease, descriptions are from Goodreads. Vote vote vote!

The Heroes of Olympus, Book One: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan- Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?
Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.
Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god.
Join new and old friends from Camp Half-Blood in this thrilling first audio book in The Heroes of Olympus series.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness- Todd Hewitt is the last boy in Prentisstown.

But Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in a constant, overwhelming, never-ending Noise. There is no privacy. There are no secrets.

Or are there?

Just one month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd unexpectedly stumbles upon a spot of complete silence.

Which is impossible.

Prentisstown has been lying to him.

And now he's going to have to run...

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett- "Another world is colliding with this one," said the toad. "All the monsters are coming back."

"Why?" said Tiffany.

"There's no one to stop them."

There was silence for a moment.

Then Tiffany said, "There's me."

Armed only with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany Aching, a young witch-to-be, is all that stands between the monsters of Fairyland and the warm, green Chalk country that is her home. Forced into Fairyland to seek her kidnaped brother, Tiffany allies herself with the Chalk's local Nac Mac Feegle -- aka the Wee Free Men -- a clan of sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men who are as fierce as they are funny. Together they battle through an eerie and ever-shifting landscape, fighting brutal flying fairies, dream-spinning dromes, and grimhounds -- black dogs with eyes of fire and teeth of razors -- before ultimately confronting the Queen of the Elves, absolute ruler of a world in which reality intertwines with nightmare. And in the final showdown, Tiffany must face her cruel power alone....

In a riveting narrative that is equal parts suspense and humor, Carnegie Medalist Terry Pratchett returns to his internationally popular Discworld with a breathtaking tale certain to leave fans, new and old, enthralled.

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken- Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him.

In return for this gift, Wayland North is offered any reward he desires—and no one is more surprised than Sydelle when, without any explanation, he chooses her. Taken from her home, Sydelle hardly needs encouragement to find reasons to dislike North. He drinks too much and bathes too little, and if that isn’t enough to drive her to madness, North rarely even uses the magic he takes such pride in possessing. Yet, it’s not long before she realizes there’s something strange about the wizard, who is as fiercely protective of her as he is secretive about a curse that turns his limbs a sinister shade of black and leaves him breathless with agony. Unfortunately, there is never a chance for her to seek answers.

Along with the strangely powerful quakes and storms that trace their path across the kingdom, other wizards begin to take an inexplicable interest in her as well, resulting in a series of deadly duels. Against a backdrop of war and uncertainty, Sydelle is faced with the growing awareness that these events aren’t as random as she had believed—that no curse, not even that of Wayland North, is quite as terrible as the one she herself may carry.

Intrinsical by Lani Woodland- Sixteen-year-old Yara Silva has always known that ghosts walk alongside the living. Her grandma, like the other females in her family, is a Waker, someone who can see and communicate with ghosts. Yara grew up watching her grandmother taunted and scorned for this unusual ability and doesn't want that to be her future. She has been dreading the day when she too would see ghosts, and is relieved that the usually dominant Waker gene seems to have skipped her, letting her live a normal teenage life. However, all that changes for Yara on her first day at her elite boarding school when she discovers the gene was only lying dormant. She witnesses a dark mist attack Brent, a handsome fellow student, and rushes to his rescue. Her act of heroism draws the mist's attention, and the dark spirit begins stalking her. Yara finds herself entrenched in a sixty-year-old curse that haunts the school, threatening not only her life, but the lives of her closest friends as well. Yara soon realizes that the past she was trying to put behind her isn't going to go quietly. 

Happy 2011! Vote for January's Adult Title!

And just like that, 2011 is here! That means it's time to kick off a new year here at Blog with Bite by picking the books we're going to read together for January!

This month, we're offering the nominees from the Goodreads Choice Awards as options for both the adult and young adult titles!  In the event that the book that was nominated was not the first book in the series, we've substituted the first book in the appropriate series for folks who want to start at the beginning.  It's going to be a tough call with this round of voting, I think. Regardless, as always, vote for the book that you personally want to read and review and be ready to link up your reviews for all to read and enjoy!  As always, cover shots go to Amazon for purchasing ease, descriptions are from Goodreads. Vote vote vote!

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith- Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his dying mother's bedside. Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire. Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.




Seers of Light by Jennifer DeLucy- Lillian Hunt has never truly lived. Always sensing more to the world than is easily perceived, she fears that her instincts are stubborn flights of fancy, or worse, mental instability. But some things—disappearing strangers, tangible dreams, and visits from malevolent creatures—cannot be ignored. Before it's too late, Lillian is ripped from the only existence she’s ever known and thrust into a reality that she always suspected, but could scarcely believe. She must learn the truth about who she is, the powerful beings that wish to destroy her, and the two men who would die to protect her.

Jennifer DeLucy has created a unique, enchanting tale of destiny and the ageless power of love in her debut novel, Seers of Light. DeLucy's novel charms readers with quirky characters, while sketching a haunting portrait of one woman's journey on the path of the supernaturally gifted. But be prepared. Once you've entered the world of Seers, you will never be the same.


Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie- Andie Miller is ready to move on in life. She wants to marry her fiancé and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, he asks one final favor of her before they go their separate ways forever. A very distant cousin of his has died and left North as the guardian of two orphans who have driven out three nannies already, and things are getting worse. He needs a very special person to take care of the situation and he knows Andie can handle anything.

When Andie meets the two children she quickly realizes things are much worse than she feared. The place is a mess, the children, Carter and Alice, aren’t your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. What’s worse, Andie’s fiancé thinks this is all a plan by North to get Andie back, and he may be right. Andie’s dreams have been haunted by North since she arrived at the old house. And that’s not the only haunting.

What follows is a hilarious adventure in exorcism, including a self-doubting parapsychologist, an annoyed medium, her Tarot-card reading mother, an avenging ex-mother-inlaw, and, of course, her jealous fiancé. And just when she thinks things couldn’t get more complicated, North shows up on the doorstep making her wonder if maybe this time things could be different between them. 

If Andie can just get rid of all the guests and ghosts, she’s pretty sure she can save the kids, and herself, from the past. But fate might just have another thing in mind…

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews- Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for magic… One moment magic dominates, and cars stall and guns fail. The next, technology takes over and the defensive spells no longer protect your house from monsters. Here skyscrapers topple under onslaught of magic; werebears and werehyenas prowl through the ruined streets; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst of knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds. In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, she must choose to do nothing and remain safe or to pursue his preternatural killer. Hiding is easy, but the right choice is rarely easy…

Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead- Succubus (n.) An alluring, shape-shifting demon who seduces and pleasures mortal men. Pathetic (adj.) A succubus with great shoes and no social life. See: Georgina Kincaid. When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid's life is far less exotic. Her boss is a middle-management demon with a thing for John Cusack movies. Her immortal best friends haven't stopped teasing her about the time she shape-shifted into the Demon Goddess getup complete with whip and wings. And she can't have a decent date without sucking away part of the guy's life. At least there's her day job at a local bookstore--free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can't.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle's demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help because Georgina's about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny...