Lost in Books

Image by sara.musico via Flickr

From time to time, for lenghty periods of time, I am reading. During these periods I suffer from a severe writers' block and I read like a woman possesed. Well, I've been going through such a period and I think it enters its final phase, as I feel more and more often the urge to write something...
I am actually pleased with the books I read (well, most of them) and even though I don't like to write book reviews (sorry Simcha!) I am going to share with you the books that kept me away from the computer.

I think I'll begin with Ilona Andrew's "Magic Bleeds", the 5th book in the Kate Daniels series. I like the author (it is actually a tandem of authors, wife and husband) and I love the series. If you're interested, I read an interview with them at All Things Urban Fantasy blog. Take a look...There is even a giveaway.

This is what Goodreads says about the book:

"Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for the magic. When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it rose.

Kate Daniels works for the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid, officially as a liaison with the mercenary guild. Unofficially, she cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to handle—especially if they involve Atlanta’s shapeshifting community.

When she’s called in to investigate a fight at the Steel Horse, a bar midway between the territories of the shapeshifters and the necromancers, Kate quickly discovers there’s a new player in town. One who’s been around for thousands of years—and rode to war at the side of Kate’s father.

This foe may be too much even for Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. Because this time, Kate will be taking on family… "

Then, by chance I found Rachel Caine's "Morganville Vampires" , the first twoo books, on the Steimatzky's web site. Fell in love with them and read the other...I think I read 4 or 5 more, I don't remember exactly. Nice YA literature, with fangs...And in this series, the vampires are the baddies, as they should be...

Goodreads again: "From the author of the popular Weather Warden series comes the debut of an exciting new series set in Morganville, Texas, where you would be well advised to avoid being out after dark.

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood..." Interesting, huh?


Speaking of vampires, I also read Jeaniene Frost's "First Drop of Crimson. If you like Frost (The Night Huntress series) you'll love this one, too.

Goodreads, what esle? - "The night is not safe for mortals. Denise MacGregor knows all too well what lurks in the shadows - her best friend is half-vampire Cat Crawfield - and she has already lost more than the average human could bear. But her family's dark past is wrapped in secrets and shrouded in darkness - and a demon shapeshifter has marked Denise as prey. Now her survival depends on an immortal who craves a taste of her.

He is Spade, a powerful, mysterious vampire who has walked the earth for centuries and is now duty-bound to protect this endangered, alluring human - even if it means destroying his own kind. Denise may arouse his deepest hungers, but Spade knows he must fight his urge to have her as they face the demon nightmare together...

Because once the first drop of crimson falls, they will both be lost."

And in the line of speaking about new authors that I discovered, turing this weeks of feverish reading I came aquinted with Kerrelyn Sparks's "Love at Stake" series. I read the first three and the eighth books from the series. Although the title of the last book might put you off - "The Vampire and the Virgin" , urgh, what did she think? all and all it is an easy read, summer, beachy novels...

Moving on...I read also "Angelology" by Danielle Trussoni. It started promising enough for me to keep reading, but at a certain point I got bored, it was a bit repetitive. But I finished it. This book reminded me of Dan Brown, only with angels.
The review offered by Goodreads is a bit flamboyant, I think, but here it is:

"A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.
Genesis 6:5

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.

Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world."

I liked the cover, beautiful art...

I read also some chick lit, and I have to mention here Sinead Moriarty - "Keeping it in the Family, it is absolutely hilarious. Really, you have to read the book, it is chick lit at its best!
I almost forgot about Madeline Wickham (aka Sophie Kinsela). I read "The Gatecrasher" and liked it enough to look for more.

As you can see, I was pretty busy reading...I think I am going to take it easy now, I as feel a bit nauseous after I ingurgitated such a big amount of literature. I recommend you to try some of the books, you won't be dussapointed.
Have a nice week (here in Israel, the week begins on Sunday)!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fallen Angels (nytimes.com)