Because it has been so quiet - how about some music

Magic Burns, by Ilona Andrews

This is the next one on the list and the second novel in the urban fantasy Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews.
"In the second book in the Kate Daniels series, Atlanta is threatened by a magic tsunami: monsters rise, magic runs deep, and a little girl is hunted by demons." - A quote straight from the publisher!

Ilona Andrews Rocks!

I have to say when I started on this one it didn't take forever to finish this one because it kept me going from page one to its surprising conclusion!  The bad guy was an upir, a demon/demi-god that had been around for a very long time and had set his sites on Kate Daniels as the one who would bear him the proper offspring, but Kate, and several other people, had some other ideas.

This urban fantasy had twists and turns, some of which were quite expected and others that were not.  The writing was fast paced and the language was good and didn't talk down to the reader once.  Kate was the sort of heroine that was both sensitive and plucky as well as needed a shoulder to cry on, she just didn't have the right one at the time, but, hopefully, Curran, the leader of The Pack, the lion you see in the cover art, will end up being the right shoulder and protector for her. 

I was so excited by this novel that I didn't even wait for my friend to get the second novel, Magic Burns, from the library or her bookshelf for me - I went straight out and purchased it for myself and began reading it yesterday. 

According to Ilona Andrews' website, the books are written by a husband and wife team.  This piece of information was a big shock for me.  Being a writer myself I'm not at all certain how this was accomplished, especially since I couldn't tell a break in the writing voice which you can usually get when two different people write one particular story.  I highly recommend this series, especially if you like entertaining light reads.  I give it a 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Hot Off the Presses for August

Since August is here the titles have moved from the sidebar to this cute little post to make room for some titles for September.  Hopefully the number of books read in August will be more than the ones kept track of for July!

August Releases

• Waking the Witch, Kelley Armstrong
• Kill Me Again, Maggie Shayne
• Tatiana and Alexander, Paullina Simons
• Captured by Desire, Kira Morgan
• A Little Bit Wild, Victoria Dohl
• Ruthless, Anne Stuart
• Swept Away By A Kiss, Katharine Ashe
• White Heat, Brenda Novak

As always, if you have any suggestions for reading material, not just romances, drop me a line!

Magic Bites, by Ilona Andrews Next on the List

Here is the next fare in the reading list.  It was loaned to me by a friend and I am ashamed to say I have had it for quite a while.  It was misplaced and now I have rediscovered it so decided it was now a good time to begin reading it and getting it out of the way before August fully arrived and I got behind on the August reading list.

According to the back of the book Patricia Briggs gave Ms. Andrews a complete thumbs up.  Since I trust Patricia Briggs' novels, why not trust her in her own reading style.  I have read the first couple of pages and I must say they open with intriguing action and the writing voice is strong. 

The main character of Kate Daniels "is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up...magical problems.  But when Kate's guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta's magic circles."  This is straight from the back of the book's blurb. 

Magic Bites is part of a trilogy.  The remaining two books are Magic Burns and Magic Strikes.  As we all know I don't normally read trilogies, but if this one is as good as the first two pages leads me to hope for, I may just be looking up the other two.  First, let's get this one read and we'll see how it goes from here.

RULE'S BRIDE was an Excellent Read

Finally finished Rule’s Bride, which is the final in the Bride Trilogy by Kat Martin. The trilogy is actually about the Dewar brothers and how they became happily married. It began with the oldest brother and concluded with the youngest brother’s marriage, Rule. Although I didn’t read either of the other novels in the series, just the last one, I was not at all lost in the novel itself and thoroughly enjoyed the novel completely. Each novel is a stand alone, for which I am absolutely grateful to Ms. Martin for her talent at creating such a wonderful world of characters that makes them familiar enough in this novel that you don’t see them as exact strangers, because they are important to Rule because they are his brothers, and, at the same time, their lives are separate from what is going on in his world and the world of this novel.

There was nothing overly surprising about the novel itself. It was a pleasant read. It had scorching love scenes, but as the story progressed there was a surprising introduction of a second love story which centered around the character of Caroline who just so happened to be the cousin of Rule’s bride Violet. I rather enjoyed the glimpses of Caroline’s story as well; and there was a murder mystery to solve with Rule being the main suspect in the murder investigation! AND an impending Civil War in the U.S.!
If not for life getting in the way, this would have been one of those reads where I would have picked up the book and read it in less than three days, but, alas, life did get in the way and I had to do other things other than just read; however, each moment I did get free, I did find myself stealing away into a quiet corner of sunshine to read a page or two here and there just to get a bit further into the story.

Kat Martin is one of my favorite authors in romance novels, and especially in the historical romances. In fact, she is one of the few writers of historical romances I actually will read any more because she makes them real and not just slapped together. Even if the “historical” parts are not completely accurate (I love history you see, especially the Victorian era) it doesn’t matter, because she gets the feel of the period perfect – at least for me.

I don’t suspect I will be going back and reading the other two novels of Royal’s Bride and Reese’s Bride but I’m definitely keeping them in my list of possibles – you never know when there might be a need for a good historical Victorian romance.

According the “Author’s Note” section at the end of the novel, the next novels for Ms. Martin is going to be a contemporary trilogy “centered on the handsome Raines brothers.” The first novel is going to be Against the Wind and will be set in Wyoming. Normally contemporary romances set my teeth on edge, but I just may give this one a chance. I haven’t read a true contemporary romance from Kat Martin. She does everything so well I can’t see how this couldn’t be anything except excellent!

Cherie Priest, a Writer of Note

Since this is a blog about books, I thought it would be good to blog about some authors/writers who are my favorites as well as their Internet/approachability. The first one that came to mind, for me, was of course Cherie Priest.


Cherie Priest is one of those writers I feel as if I have gotten to know since *before* she got anything published because of Livejournal. She had a journal there and so did I, as did a million other people. 

I had read her journal there for many weeks, perhaps months; her struggles as well as her stories of what she had accomplished in her writing and her adventures in living and life in general were real, because they were what she was going through at the time, and often mirrored much of the general populace, including myself here and there. When Cherie got her work published it was as if a friend had gotten her work published and I simply couldn’t have been happier, unless I had gotten something published of my own, of course.

The first thing published was FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS. I highly recommend it, as well as all of her works. Her take on storytelling is unique and her characters come alive. The heroes are heroic despite some flaws they might have and the villains are dastardly and have reasons for the villainy that, at first, you may not comprehend, but later you do and it makes it worse than just because they want someone to pay or they want to take over the world.

Cherie Priest is also a blogger/journal keeper and you can find her journal here. Her Internet presence is just as popular as her works are because, although her private life is indeed private, her work life is shared as you can tell by her journal and word counts.

Sometimes when the words don’t want to flow for me I often think I would like to be her when I grow up!

And Let's Add Some Qigong Into The Mix

Along with the lovely little Kat Martin romance currently being read, I am also reading this wonderful book.  As everyone knows, or should know by now, qigong is really important to me and since qigong is a learning process that can take many years, it is always wise to discover what other people have discovered.

In reading several previous books on qigong I have discovered some books that don't really make sense.  The Hubby had read this one before and I picked it up as soon as he had finished it.  I haven't gotten very far in this one yet, but I am already totally interested and have taken some notes.  It is an excellent book.

Welcome My Quiet Little Corner

Welcome all to the next installment of the little book corner of my world.  It really isn't a wild stretch of the imagination that it would be here, especially with as much reading as has been going on here of late.  Since the knitting blog should be for knitting, and The News should be for news and for qi gong and many other things, it is only right there should be a section just for books.  Plus, it is a wonderful place for me to keep track of the books I am reading, have read, and would like to read in the vastness of the publication world.

As some of you may know, the last book I was reading was this one.  Patricia Briggs and her Mercy Thompson series does not disappoint.  If you haven't read any of the books then I highly suggest you do so.  They are wonderfully adventurous with fantastic characters and scenarios that are both fantastical and yet believable. 

The character of Mercy Thompson grows from the beginning novel to this one.  She learns to love, to trust, and more than anything else she realizes just how much of a family she has around her and you, the reader pull for her to realize everything sooner than she does, and each step she takes is wonderful. 

Mercy's story is a love story, but it is a love story filled with magic and werewolves and vampires, but not the tween version that fills the movie theaters now but dangerous varieties that make you shiver if you don't know what you're doing and knowledge can be your greatest weapon as well as a curse because you just might know what could be coming next.  It is a wonderful book and I highly suggest you start at the beginning and catch up to this one.  You won't regret one page turned.  ISBN-10:  044101819X; ISBN-13:  978-0441018192


Now I am reading this book, Rule's Bride, by Kat Martin.  Sometimes Kat Martin's work leaves me smiling and other times her work makes me wonder why I even picked up the work at all; however, this book, from the very first little blurb I read in the Romantic Times Magazine to the very first chapter has kept me interested.  Yes, it isn't rocket science and it isn't going to change my life, but it is entertaining me.

Is all you're going to be reading romances? you ask.  No, my reading tastes are so eclectic I can honestly say I have no idea what I am going to be reading.  There will be some romances, of course, but it won't be the only thing that will be written about.  It will be an adventure for all concerned to see what will!