The Devil of Jedburgh By: Claire Robyns

The only thing worse than being hand-fasted to the Devil of Jedburgh was falling in love with him.

Raised on rumors of The Devil of Jedburgh, Breghan McAllen doesn't want an arranged marriage to the beast. The arrogant border laird is not the romantic, sophisticated husband Breghan dreams of—despite the heat he stirs within her.

In need of an heir, Arran has finally agreed to take a wife, but when he sees Breghan's fragile beauty, he's furious. He will not risk the life of another maiden by getting her with child. Lust prompts him to offer a compromise: necessary precautions, and hand-fasting for a year and a day, after which Breghan will be free.

For a chance to control her own future, Breghan makes a deal with the Devil. Passion quickly turns to love, but Arran still has no intention of keeping the lass, or making her a mother. He loves her too much to lose her. But when a treasonous plot threatens queen and country, Breghan has to prove only she is woman enough to stand by his side.

This was a pretty good story.  I am a complete sucker for anything to do with Scotland so I jumped at the chance to read this story from NetGalley.

Arran has a reputation, a HUGE reputation.  He is known as the Devil of Jedburgh. Breghan's father sets up a marriage between the two of them and being afraid Breghan runs from her house the night before the wedding.  She meant to cool her head and return but she gets shot by an arrow and is cared for by a gentleman and his two companions.   When she finds out that the gentleman that helps her is the one that she is to marry she decides to hide her identity and try to get away.  

I really liked Arran.  Of course he is a strong man and he leads his people fairly, even if there is a lot of fear involved.  He also has a lot of fears of his own.  He is deeply attracted to Breghan and he wants to be with her but he is afraid.  Breghan is so small of frame that his is afraid of ever letting her carry a child.  Then there is an insecurity of her using the handfasting to barter with her dad for  a future right to marry another man.

Breghan is the youngest in a large family of all boys.  She has been immensely spoiled by both her parents and all of her brothers.  She is quick to speak her opinion and is very sarcastic.  She hates the idea of being forced into marriage and to top that she is now joined with the subject of all her darkest nightmares. 

I loved reading the interaction between these two.  It was cute how both characters wanted the other but the misunderstandings and pride would get in the way.  This is a great romance and I loved that I could read their happily ever after.

Winner !!

Congratulations to our winner, Julci!!

I have sent you an email and you have 48 hours to relpy before I contact another winner. 

 

P.S.  Thank you to everyone for stopping by and sharing your favorite books and series, I have so many new books added to my to-read list!

 

Random Acts of Kindness Blog Hop

February 17th is Random Acts of Kindness Day and
what better way to celebrate
than participating in a giveaway hop!

For this blog hop I will be giving away either:

A $20.00 Amazon Gift Card (US Only)

Or

a choice of either

Wolves, Boys and Other Things that Might Kill Me By: Kristen Chandler

Or

Crossed By: Ally Condie

(Book choice is open internationally)

To be eligible for this giveaway you need to:

First, make sure you are a follower of this site by clicking on the blue "join this site" button (if your picture doesn't come up under followers you won't win the book).

Second, leave a comment with your favorite book or series and your email address so I can contact you in case you win.

This giveaway is running from right now through February 21, 2012 at 11:59 PM (Mountain Time). The winner will be drawn randomly using random.org and the winner will be posted on this blog some time on February 22, 2012 as well as sent an email. If I don't hear back from the winner within 24 hours of my email I will draw another winner.

There are over 100 blogs in this hop all giving away a book so make sure and visit their sites.

Dark Seeker By: Taryn Browning

She's the Seeker. He's the hunted. What's at stake could kill them both...

For 17-year-old Seeker, Janie Grey, ridding the Baltimore streets of the undead is an inherited duty passed down from her Cherokee ancestors. Seeker Training Lesson #1: Never trust the undead. After her father’s tragic death, Janie creates her own life lesson: Love isn’t worth the risk. Both lessons are easy to follow until she encounters the flawed Kai Sterdam. At first, she believes he is the hybrid she is trained to hunt. But, when he has human traits, she determines she doesn’t know what he is. As Janie’s intrigue over who Kai is pushes her deeper into his mysterious past, she discovers a shocking truth that is even more harrowing than the evil they are up against. It’s a secret Kai wants to keep hidden, especially from Janie.



This was a fun, quick read. Janie is a Seeker.  Her job is to protect humanity from vampires, demons and a half breed called Daywalkers. While she is out she runs across Kai.  He moves like a Daywalker and but he doesn't give off the same vibes as one.  Slowly she gets to know him and finds that there are more human traits to him.  As time passes Kai keeps coming out of nowhere and saving her life and soon they develop a friendship/partnership.  Together the two of them learn more about a new threat on her town and need to stop it before more people are in danger.

Janie is a strong girl and a bit reckless.  She has been training to be a seeker for the majority of her life and it is a job that she is very good at.  I like that she was able to go beyond what she has always been told about Daywalkers and she was able to get to know Kai enough to see that they really were on the same side and appearances don't always make the man.  Because of this trait she was able to gain more allies in her fight against the evil she needed to fight. 

Kai was awesome.  He was a great fighter with a dark past/secret that terrified him.  He made sure that he was always available to help Janie and he worked hard at keeping her safe.  I like that even though he wanted to protect her he also let her do things on her own. 

Some of the other characters were great.  There is a vampire named Tanya that I loved.  At first you just see her as a pretty face to stand beside the vampire leader but she was funny and could kick but in heels.  Her mom and her trainer were even pretty cool towards the end of the book.
This was a pretty good story and I have already recommended it to others to read.  Even better is that this is only book one in the series, book two is scheduled to be released this year!

New Books this Week...

Scarlet By: A.C. Gaughen

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.  It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.
Release Date: February 14, 2012

Arcadia Awakens By: Kai Meyer

To Rosa, the exotic world of Sicily, with its network of Mafia families and its reputation for murder and intrigue, is just that, exotic and wholly unknown. But when her life in Brooklyn begins to fall apart, she must travel there, where centuries of family secrets await her.  Once there, Rosa falls head over heels for Alessandro, whose handsome looks and savage grace both fascinate and unsettle her. But their families are sworn enemies, and her aunt and sister believe Alessandro is only using Rosa to infiltrate the Alcantara clan. And when Rosa encounters a tiger one night, a tiger with very familiar eyes,she can no longer deny that things are what they seem.
Release Date: February 14, 2012

Bewitching By: Alex Flinn
I go to a new school now, one where no one knows that I should have graduated long ago. I’m not still here because I’m stupid; I just don’t age.  You see, I’m immortal. And I pretty much know everything after hundreds of years, except for when to take my powers and butt out.  I want to help, but things just go awry in ways I could never predict. Like when I tried to free some children from a gingerbread house. And when I tried to play matchmaker for a French prince and ended up banished from France forever. Now a girl named Emma needs me. I probably shouldn’t get involved, but her gorgeous stepsister is conniving to the core. I think I have just the thing to fix that girl...
Release Date: February 14, 2012

The Vanishing Game By: Kate Kae Myers

Jocelyn's twin brother Jack was the only family she had growing up in a world of foster homes-and now he's dead, and she has nothing. Then she gets a cryptic letter from "Jason December"-the code name her brother used to use when they were children at Seale House, a terrifying foster home that they believed had dark powers. Only one other person knows about Jason December: Noah, Jocelyn's childhood crush and their only real friend among the troubled children at Seale House.  But when Jocelyn returns to Seale House and the city where she last saw Noah, she gets more than she bargained for.
Release Date: February 14, 2012






BOOKS RELEASING NEXT WEEK:

Fever By: Lauren DeStefano (Chemical Garden #2)
Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.  The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious.
Release Date: February 21, 2012

Faery Tales & Nightmares By: Melissa Marr
Dangerous promises and beguiling threats swirl together in a dozen stories of enchantments dark and light by Melissa Marr. Uncanny and unexpected creatures appear from behind bushes, rise from beneath the seas, or manifest from seasonal storms to pursue the objects of their attention—with amorous or sinister intent—relentlessly.  From the gentle tones of a storyteller’s cadences to the terror of a blood sacrifice, tales of favorite characters from Marr’s Wicked Lovely novels mix with accounts of new characters for readers to fall in love with...or to fear.  Lush, seductive, and chilling, Melissa's stories revel in the unseen magic that infuses the world as we know it.
Release Date: February 21, 2012

The Rogue Pirate's Bride By: Shana Galen

Passionate, action-packed Regency romance by RT Reviewer’s Choice award-winning author Shana Galen features the swashbuckling Sebastien Harcourt, marquis de Valere, and the nautical genius heroine destined to best him. After escaping France on a privateer’s ship, Sebastian becomes the notorious privateer Captain Cutlass. His reputation as a rogue precedes him and he’s undefeated in battle, until he crosses swords with the beautiful daughter of a British admiral. Raeven Russell is out for revenge, but now she’s not so sure she wants the dashing captain to change his wicked ways.




I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  The story is told from the point of view of Sebastien (Captain Cutlass) and Raeven Russell.  Raeven has lived most of her life on a ship with her father, an admiral for the British Navy.  The story starts with Raeven dressed up as a boy and challenging Captain Cutlass to a duel.  (for her to gain revenge for Captain Cutlass killing her fiance in a ship to ship battle)  At first Sebastian sees his young man and knows that there is no competition but doesn't want to hurt him so he tries to play is off, but he doesn't know that Raeven is serious.  As the fight gets more heated he finds out the the boy is actually a girl dressed up, he wins and takes her to his ship as his new Chamber Maid.  Of course she escapes and their fight is on hold until the soon to be future.

I loved the back and forth with Raeven and Sebastian.  Both of them have such strong personalities and instead of one personality becoming more dominate the writer made both of them play off each other and both became stronger through the story.   I really liked how Raeven wasn't useless like most women of that day would be in the situations she found herself in.  She was a hard worker and like to prove her worth to others around her instead of just taking from others to make her life easier.  Sebastien was a great hero.  He was a kind man and always thought of his men and also of Raeven.  He was also proud of her and she was strong and could take care of herself no matter the situation.

There are also some great secondary characters that stole my heart as I read about them.  Mainly Sebastien's old servant/now medic on the ship and Raeven's best friend and cohort, Percy.  I found that when I was at work I would think of where the story left off and I couldn't wait to get home and finish it.  There were many twists and emotions that this story took me through and I loved every minute of reading it.  Great Story!!

Note:  This is an adult romance novel and does have the steamier chapters not suitable for younger audiences.

Transcendent Anthology

Discover the secrets of a siren, fly with a hawk girl over the mountains of Montana, and flee supernatural party-crashers as the décor comes to life in this magical journey through paranormal stories.

Along the way, watch for ghosts in a haunted house, or ride through the moonlight with a stranger. Save a comatose boy who has lost his soul, and don’t forget to bring your garlic and wolfsbane—you never know when the shadows will snag you.

Transcendent includes eight stories of magic, love, death, and choice by some of the newest names in young adult fiction.

This was a great collection of paranormal short stories.  As I read I was wishing that some of the stories were made into more of a stand alone novel instead of a short story.  Here are some of my favorites:

Seduction of a Siren By: Lani Woodland and Melanie Piper
Okay, so Jason is ship-wrecked on an island and is saved by someone.  As he is looking around the area where he lies on the beach he hears her beautiful voice and turns toward her expecting a beautiful woman, instead he sees an incredibly distorted monster.  Parts of her body were skinny while others are voluptuous and her hair was part blond and part black strands with red.  As she reaches out to hold him he scrambles backward and trips over Trevor, the boy that is now dating the love of his life.  The "Woman?" now notices that their are two men on her island and seems confused and distraught that there isn't just one.Trevor loudly mentions how ugly she is and proceeds to make fun of her looks calling her a monster and she seems pretty upset and starts saying it is the boys fault.  As the boys make a plan to run Jason looks at her again and notices that instead of anger she seems more sad and helpless.  Wanting to make her stop crying he tells her that she has beautiful eyes, and that was actually the truth. 

Jason was a great guy, I mean a really great guy.  He did have his issues like all humans but he was mostly good.  He found a girl that was Scary as can be and he sits down with her and makes sure she feels pretty in any little way.  Trevor was a jerk.  Most of the story I hated him and if I am being honest I wished some bad things on him.  This is one story that I really, really wanted to be longer.  There was so much more that we could have explored, time in Greece before the shipwreck, time on the island, plans to get off the island and more.  Plus I would have loved a little more time to develop the relationships with Jason and the Siren (Ann)


Spectre By: Wendy Swore
Marcella and her friend Lissae are shopping for decorations for a party they are throwing while Marcella's parents are out of town.  Marcella is looking for the perfect theme and they are having a hard time finding it while in a store called Spectre. While shopping Marcella tells the employee that they are having a Homecoming party and need novelty decorations that have a "WOW" factor.  He has them follow him through the employee only door and they find everything Marcella is looking for from silken robes to scarecrows, plus the man offers to deliver, set up and take down in the price.  The party is ready.
The day of the party Marcella and Lissae go out to by last minute items and hurry home to decorate to find that it is all done and it all looks amazing plus with her student discount is only cost $50.00.  As Lissae looks out she notices that the scarecrows are all facing her now when she could swear they were facing the other direction just a minute ago...   With the party in full swing and everyone enjoying themselves Marcella and Lissae notice that there are a few party crashers wearing the silk robes that neither of them invited, and the party goes epic from there.
This is another story that would be awesome as its own stand alone novel.  Each new thing that would happen would have been great if given more time to expand and give more detail.  Plus there is a little romance with Lissae and Jack that I would have loved more info and time to make better.  Great story though!

Pumpkin Thief By: Evan Joseph
This story starts with Kira getting ready for a costume party and is finalizing her costume, Sally from Nightmare before Christmas, Very cool.  She turns to pick up her Jack-O-Lantern (Jack Skellington's face) for the contest at the party but it is gone.  Her friend Melinda mentions that on the way to her house she saw a guy with a pumpkin head and a cape and thought is was just his costume but he most have taken her jack-o-lantern.  They laugh a little about a man stealing a pumpkin and drive the few blocks to the party instead of walk because a man on a motorcycle was following Kira a few days ago.

At the party were it seems everyone but her had a date Kira is feeling a little uncomfortable and decides to go outside where their are less people making out.  While outside she starts to relax and enjoy the night.  Suddenly she hears noises behind some trees and a man on a horse is galloping toward her wearing her pumpkin on his head!

This was a great story.  Again, I loved the idea of this story and thought that if there were more detail and character development this could make a great stand alone.  Kira was in an already uncomfortable situation, being at a party were everyone was coupled out except her and in rides, quite literally, a hero to be with her.  The banter between her and Jim when they first met was smooth and easy to believe. 



All of the story's in this book had the paranormal elements and most had real romance elements.  Some were just a hug/kiss and others more of a love connection.  All of the books were clean as well so it makes this book easier to suggest to others to read as there is no swearing or sex.  Great job to all of the authors that contributed.

You can find it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Transcendent-Tales-Paranormal-Lani-Woodland/dp/0615572324/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327900862&sr=1-1