19 December 2014

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

A purple-colored stomach with a dried flower laying perpendicular on it.

No one knows the dark desires of the soul better than #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. In Guilty Pleasures, she introduces Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. Anita's small, dark, and dangerous. But when the city's most powerful vampire comes to her for help, Anita is faced with her greatest fear--a man capable of arousing in her a hunger strong enough to match his own...

"Why should it surprise me that I was alive?...
There on the right side of my neck was the real thing...
Tiny, diminutive fang marks. Nikolaos [had] contaminated me...
I bet she thought I'd be scared of her. She was right on that.
But I spend most of my waking hours confronting and destroying things that I fear. A thousand-year-old master vampire was a tall order, but a girl's got to have a goal."

Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, book one) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Start date: December 18, 2014
End state: December 19, 2014
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Content warning: torture, sexual violence

The only reason the Anita Blake series made it on my reading challenge list was because of the rumors I had heard about the books. I’ve always been told that Laurell K. Hamilton writes graphic, detailed sex scenes. I was embarrassed the first time I ever read a story in which characters engaged in sexual acts, but I’ve come a long way since then. Now I love a well described sexual encounter and pray for them in the novels in which the characters have sizzling chemistry. I put the first book in the Anita Blake series on my list so I could try out the series to see if I liked it. After finishing the entire Hush, Hush series within the past three days (you heard read me right—I binged), I needed a satisfying sex scene to alleviate all that tension so I turned to the author I heard so much about. I won’t ruin the Hush, Hush series for anyone but if you’re looking for something steamy, you might want to look away from young adult novels. Silly me for not accounting for the target audience in my expectations of the books. Never again!

16 December 2014

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

A shirtless man with wings losing feathers as he falls from the sky.

A sacred oath, a fallen angel, a forbidden love

When Nora and Patch are forced together as lab partners, Nora would rather fall to her death than put up with his elusive answers to her questions, his teasing, and his infuriatingly handsome face and hypnotizing eyes. It seems Patch was put on earth just to drive her crazy.
But before long, Nora’s defenses start to break down as her curiosity about Patch heats up. Why does he always seem to be wherever she is and know exactly what she’s thinking? How does he know what to say to both attract and repulse her? And what is up with those V-shaped scars on his chiseled back?
As their connection grows stronger, Nora’s own life becomes increasingly fragile. Nora needs to decide: Is Patch the one who wants to do her harm or the one who will keep her safe? Has she fallen for one of the fallen?

Becca Fitzpatrick’s New York Times bestselling debut is a page-turning leap into the unknown world of fallen angels. Do you have someone to catch you?

Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush, book one) by Becca Fitzpatrick 

Start date: December 15, 2014
End date: December 16, 2014
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I have a confession to make, beautiful internet people. I'm a sucker for fallen angels. Any time I see a novel, short story, movie, or whatever about fallen angels, I have to read/watch it. If the surges in popularity of movies and books about vampires, werewolves, and zombies are indicative of anything it's that I'm not alone in my obsession with certain paranormal creatures. Some people can't turn down a book about magicians, I can't turn down a book about angels—especially fallen angels. If I knew the reason, I probably wouldn't be blabbing about it to the whole wide world but I don't. And I'll live in that ignorance for a while, okay?