{Tour Stop} Allegiance by K.A. Tucker **Meet Caden, Review & Giveaway*

Evangeline finally got what she longed for – the cursed pendant off her neck and Caden in her arms - only it has come at a steep price. An unknown poison now courses through her body, slowly morphing her into something no one but the Fates can foresee. She has her suspicions though...and, if she is right, it will spell certain ruin for her and Caden. She won’t last long enough to realize that though, if Viggo and Mortimer uncover the treasonous secrets she keeps from them– that Veronique is now free of her entombment and in the torturous clutches of the Witches and the Sentinel or that she is protecting a Sentinel within their very midst. Always the naive human caught in the midst of the vampires’ web of deceit, Evangeline is now weaving her own dangerous web in order to keep her friend alive, rescue Veronique, and stop a seemingly inevitable war from starting. But can her honourable nature handle the depths of duplicity for which she must go to be in league with the Vampires? Dark and gripping, full of angst-riddled scenes, Allegiance will have readers anxiously turning pages to find out if Evangeline can survive this spiralling disaster.

Release Date: September 25, 2012

Published by: Papoti Books

Review Copy:  Kindle

Review

  Action and suspense.  The two words that come to mind most frequently when I was trying to think of what I wanted to say here.  I enjoyed the first two books but hings really picked up and took off with this one.  And I mean picked up stared running!  Ya there was a few trips back and some spots where it was taken down to a jog so that the scenery and what was going on but it was never slow. 

  The story was just chalk full of progression.  I love it when I finish a book and can honestly say that it went somewhere.  Especially when the series gets onto the 3+ book.  This book however not only progresses story wise but there is also lots of character growth.  There is also loss and light throughout the story.  I think I actually seriously missed one of the characters but how realistic would it be if everyone lived right?  I know it's vampires and such but still it's not easy to let go of the ones you become attached to.  

  Evangeline has even more going on now than she did before.  Though she thought she was freed, not all is as it appears and life is much more dangerous now than it was.  Not only for her but for those around her.  My heart seriously goes out to that girl.  She trades one curse for another really.  The curse she now has and the secrets that she is keeping is driving a wedge between her and everyone else that was driving me crazy.  I know why she does it but I just kept on thinking that the truth would honestly set her free.  It was a big deal that didn't really need to be a big deal at all.  There are also some massive decisions that she has to make in this one and really I was happy with what she chose (minus the secret keeping).

  The romance is back and tense as ever.  Ya, I thought seeing the fact that Caden could restrain himself long enough not to eat Evangeline would free the tension but I was so wrong.  There is more than ever, due to the secrets and well a little something that I will not mention.  There also another couple added into the group and their attraction is clear as day and strong from the get go.  However it too gets tested and I was left for awhile screaming that it was okay and they would be back together in no time.  I really love that the relationships in these books aren't the main focus but they are always there in one way or another.

  Oh, there is also an addition to the team, well kind of.  He was never meant to be found and never meant to be around Evangeline but with he new problem and everything else going on, she finds him.  I do mean finds him.  Sophie had him hidden extremely well but not well enough I suppose.  This does provide some seriously comical moments for me that I am sure are meant to be serious.  I know twisted but really the guy is way too serious to take seriously for me.  Though what he can do and will do for Evangeline is 100% bone chillingly serious.

  This was by far my favourite book in this series yet!  As previously stated the development from the characters and the story itself is wonderful.  I also love that there are still new problems arising and that it isn't just the same thing over and over.  The ending left me smiling like a fool to start.  There is so much good in it but then you take the good with the bad right.  K.A. Tucker has created an engaging and addictive series and I am seriously looking forward to the next book and seeing Evangeline with her new "look".
  

Quotes

I let out a small groan.  Max was right, of course.  My stomach growled like it was going to turn zombie on itself, looking for food.

Unable to wrap my mind around the transformation, I shook my head, wondering if Sophie did in fact have an army-an army of Oompa-Loompas packed away in cupboards, waiting to serve her every whim.  It wouldn't surprise me.

"And then what?  With lurky lurker hiding behind curtains over there..." I mumbled, bitterness curling my nostrils.  "He's like herpes.  He's for life."

Max is not speaking to the traitor master right now.  Please leave a message and perhaps he will one day forgive her for her profound treachery. Beep!

I folded my arms over my chest, making it clear that this negotiation would be on my terms.  "You will give me two or I give you nothing and your balance be damned.  Read my soul, you crazy-ass faeries.  This ends here, one way or another."

MEET CADEN JENNINGS

Who is he? One of the vampires on Ratheus whom Evangeline befriends and falls in love with 

Age: 755, give or take a decade

Home: Ratheus

Appearance: jade eyes, unkempt chestnut brown hair, 6'2", muscular but lean, drop dead gorgeous

Personality: Calm and collected with spurts of playfulness tangled among guilt and fear for Evangeline

Strengths: Aside from vampire strengths, Caden is always the pragmatic guy in the bunch who thinks things through and reacts accordingly

Weaknesses: Evangeline and his sister Amelie. He'll do anything for them!

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am also giving away an e-copy on this stop.  Just comment below and I will pick a winner
he 19th.  Tell me why you would like to win.

Box-O-Books!!

BOX-O-BOOKS GIVEAWAY!!!!

So as the title states this is a Box-O-Books...  This isn't just any box of books though this could be your box of books!! Truth be told there are some in here I have doubles of and others that I haven't read and probably wont.  There are ARC's and Finished copies, New & Older books.  The Iron Witch, Venom and Pushing the Limits are the ones I am sharing with you, There are MORE!!  This box is too small for the ones I want to send out but there will be between 6-10 books in the box and maybe if the word gets out I will do 2!!! But that is only if word spreads and this gets big :D 

So all you have to do is enter in the form below! Good Luck!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Weekly Report: Random Signings + Shopping

Weekly Report is my way of showing you from week to week (most of the time) what new books I received and what has gone on in the past week.  

So basically it's a report for all the awesome that I got and shared!

(Originally I posted IMM by Story Siren.  This is just my version)

This week was a slow one to start and then it picked up

BIG speed.  However because the sale I attended was just 

today (yes I am writing this like 3 hours before it goes up) I 

am not posting all of the books.  In fact I will be spreading them 

out as I will be on a temporary ban :(  However I attended a

signing and am super excited to share that too!! So here we

go!!!!!

Received for Review

 The Infects by Sean Beaudoin
The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Touched by Cyn Balog

THANKS to Random House Canada for these!! I have 
already read Touched and I LOVED it!!! 

Bought as Gifts

Not going to go into detail as the picture shows it all.   I bought 

these for my little one and a friends!   Love finding good reads for kids

and my daughter like most little girls right now LOVES Katy Perry.

Cassandra Clare Signing!!!! 

So I was lucky enough to make it to the Cassandra Clare signing today!!! Freaking YAY!!   It was a long wait but worth it 100%.  

  The picture to the left (<----) is the pre-signing line up!  Easier on the arms and super organized.  No scrambling to get the books out and to Cassandra.

The picture below is of the lovely lady herself!  She is signing the girl ahead of me's books but still it's her!!!  

<--- My Clockwork Angel & Clockwork Prince books were personalized!! Thank you Kristie for taking one so that they could both be signed to me :)  You were awesome! 

Below is books 3-5 in HB signed.  I didn't take 1-2 because they were OB and I need to get HB copies.  Worked out well with the limit that was put in place in the end.  

  Thanks you to Chapters/Indigo Yorkdale & Simon & Schuster for this awesome event! 

Fact (Told by Cassandra herself):  She names her electronic devices. 

Yup, I thought that was a fun little fact :)

Giveaway starting TOMORROW

No I will not tell you everything in the box...  This is the newest few (maybe) and there are older ones in there.  They are both finished & ARC.  Look for it tomorrow...  Maybe later today!

Giveaway will be US/CAN.  Unless you have someone that

is in those places you can have it shipped to.

LOOK :)

Now normally I would list the goings on for the week.  Sadly I 

am not this week :( I have been up since 3am, went to bed at roughly 

11pm (if not later) and have been driving/standing/moving almost

all of that and I am tired...  I would however LOVE it if you would

visit some of the post & comment!  For every comment I will add

+2 points to the rafflecopter form for you!  Must be meaningful,

meaning no: cool, good review ect... I want to hear your thoughts! 

**REVIEW** Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. 
So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Release Date: July 5, 2012

Published by:  Orchard Books

Review Format: Paperback, 373 pages

Trailer

Interesting... Looked on Kendare Blake's site and this is the trailer there.

Creepy in its own way isn't it...

 Review

  Holy crap and all things awesome I hope you have had a chance to pick this one up!  I mean this is one that everyone and anyone that enjoys a good spook should have.  It will keep you hanging on every page and even getting goose bumps as Anna makes her entrance.  At that point I was seriously questioning how I had ever put off reading this book.  Don't make the same mistake I did and wait because you too will wonder why!

    Where do I start with the story really?  It's not even close to your basic tale of ghost and hunter. Truth be told its not even a typical novel.  Kendare Blake created this wonderful and gory world in which a person can become to halves in a matter of moments.  Spinning a tale with Anna being the destructive ghost and the possible love interest...  Ya that couldn't have been easy but you know what she pulled I off very step of be way.  This was not only done but it was believable and there were times I may av ounce myself forgetting just what Anna was.

  Cas an extremely well done character, he was crystal clear and easy to get a feel for.  He may not have been swoon worthy for me but he did demand to be know and read.  I constantly found myself wondering how he would proceed and what plan of action did he have next, when I had to put this book down.  Did I mention that this was also in Cas's POV and it was magnificently done at that.  Cas is cauky, witty and easy to like despite his detachment or attempted detachment from everything and everyone (minus his mother) that tries to get close to him.  I still am just blown away by him and his story, determination and dedication.

  Anna...  How do I even start with her?  She is broken and tortured and terrifying!  This girl has 
had one hell of a past, both figuratively and literally.  The thought of strolling into her house could strike terror into the strongest of souls.  However you do find out why and its horrible, she's sixteen and the  stuff she went through is the stuff of nightmares.  So the fact that she became the thing nightmares are made of isn't really a stretch.  Despite the fact that she's terrifying she has this inner strength that constantly shines through.  It starts with her not attacking/mutilating Cas and then pushes through more and more as the story progresses.

  There is also much to love in the secondary characters and the romance that lays under the surface of the pages to start.  Carmel and Thomas were down right wonderful in completely opposite ways.  This is kind of obvious with one being the virtually invisible and the other being the one everyone wants to be or be with in the school.  Despite the fact that they are opposites their common interest in Cas nd helping him gets them to put their diffences aside and maybe more than that.  The fact that they even stood by Cas as it became obvious that he was falling for Anna was inspiring because the chick is just scary as all hell.

  The fact that this is a ghost story really intrigued me as well.  I am a total in love with ghost stories real or not.  They have caught my attention since I was a child and they have also at times scared the crap out of me.  Anna with her high violence police and gory way of disposing those that cross her fit the "scare the crap out of me" group.  However I learned as I read that not all is as it seems and sometimes they are.  The biggest creep moment came closer to the end and let me tell you I had several lights on "just in case."  I totally prepared for the worst and wanted to hide Cas and his friends but being a book I couldn't and I pushed on.

To be honest I probably could go on and on about this book.  I could write a review a mile long  and still not feel like I mentioned everything I wanted to or properly expressed myself.  However the fact that you all don't want another novel has stopped me.  This book is brilliant, original and creepy.  I can't wait to pick up Girl of Nightmares and see where Blake takes this series!!!  I can tell you something though, it doesn't matter where it goes I will be sure to follow.

Quotes

The idiots would take Caper's side, and then I'd have to kill Casper and them after Casper bit their throats out.

Instead I find a ghost with the strength of a storm, black eyes, and pale hands, not a dead person at all but a dead goddess.  Persephone back from Hade, or Hecate half-decayed.

... But hey, at least we'll have this strange story to tell, love and death and blood and daddy issues.  And holy crap, I am a psychiatrist's wet dream.

I have to look well.  I have to appear confident.  Because my mother is worried to the point of prematurely greying, and Carmel and Thomas look way too pale, even for Canadian kids.

CONTEST FEATURE FRIDAY: The Lone Awesome!!

WELCOME!!  Thanks for stopping by to visit this weeks CONTEST FEATURE FRIDAY!! This is my way of sharing all of the awesome contests going on in the blogging community that I have seen/entered.  

This week I am featuring a blogger friend and just her!!!
She is such a wonderful, fun and positive person :D

Brittany from
Spare Time Book Blog
Brittany is celebrating 100 followers.  Actually she was celebrating 
almost 100 followers but has now surpassed that!  I would love to
help her get even more followers and trust me you want to follow her! 
There are reviews, memes and way more to love!  Click the button to visit
and follow!! Click HERE to go to the awesome giveaway!

The winner will get $15 from the Book Depository!!  And seriously

don't we all love books and the options that come with choosing!! 

So go ahead follow and good luck!!

Any good giveaways you know of that are going on? 

{COVER REVEAL} Rouge by Leigh Talbert Moore

I am super excited to share this beautiful new cover with you all!! 

After reading Leigh Talbert Moore's The Truth About Faking

she told me about this beauty and I was ecstatic!!!

I am so excited to share this one with you guys!! 

Trapped in the underground theater world of 1890s New Orleans, Hale Ferrer has only one goal: escape. But not without Teeny, the orphan-girl she rescued from the streets and promised to protect.
Freddie Lovel, Hale's wealthy Parisian suitor, seems to be the easy solution. If only his touch could arouse her interest like Beau's, the penniless stagehand who captures her heart.
Denying her fears, Hale is poised to choose love until an evil lurking in their cabaret-home launches a chain of events that could cost her everything.

Expected publication: November 11, 2012

About the Author

Wife and mom by day, writer by day, reader by day, freelance editor when time permits, chocoholic, lover of YA romance, lover of new adult romance, lover of great books, beach bum, occasionally I sleep. 

Find her:

Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Blog

**REVIEW** Asylum by K.A. Tucker

Tucked away in Sofie's wintery asylum with no hope of release for years, Evangeline must come to terms with her situation: the curse still plagues her, she's now hunted by a two thousand-year-old vampire, and the guy she's in love with tried to kill her. Plus, she's locked up with a cranky Max and the Forero kids—two people everyone seems to prefer dead over alive. Things aren't looking good.
Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, Sofie struggles to keep forty trapped and bloodthirsty Ratheus vampires at bay and a desperate Viggo from killing Evangeline's friends, all while hints stir outside the walls of the NYC vampire asylum of a war brewing between the Sentinel and the witches. 
Is there any hope for Evangeline and Caden? Can Sofie control the rival powers? Is the fate of Earth predestined?

Release Date: December 12, 2012

Published by: Papoti Books

Review Format: e-book (Kindle) 

REVIEW

  I had really enjoyed K.A. Tucker's Anathema and had wanted o tear into this one as soon as possible.  Sadly things didn't work out that way and I just got the chance recently.  This book brings you back to Evangeline, her curse, the boy she loves trying to kill her and all the other frustrations and worries she was left with in book one.  

  This story is kind of split.  This is due to the fact that Evangeline is at an unknown location and Sophie is back trying to deal with all of the vampires that crossed with Evangeline and have some serious blood lust problems.  We also see the ever loyal and friendly Leo, the still ferociously protective Max and thrown into the mix now there is the Forero siblings.  These characters are all with Evangeline and help create a much more tense and active atmosphere.  Both places are going through a struggle and you know it's only a matter of time before it all blows up.

  Evenagline is really growing on me now.  Not that I ever disliked her but I found her at times to be whiny and that drives me nuts.  Though she does sulk I can understand, she's stuck in the middle of nowhere and cannot contact anyone or leave.  Not to mention the fact that the guy she thinks is the love of her life tried to ...  Well that would be a spoiler if you haven't read the first book but its not good.  She does however stick to her guns and remain loyal and mostly positive throughout her long boring journey.

  Sophie is really evolving and the amount of true affection she carries for Evengeline is phenomenal.  She is willing to sacrifice a lot just to keep her safe even if  it means she can't see her.  The struggle lays in containing the new threat and figuring out who you can and can not.  This isn't as easy as you 
would imagine seeing she can use her talent to figure it out due to some 
boundaries that have been put in place.  Mage kind of played a role here but I 
don't want to ruin too much for you.

  Though all romance was kind of put on hold due to circumstances K.A. Tucker did the unimaginable, she threw in a friendship! *Gasp* I know right?!  She didn't throw in some other guy or guys that Eve would be torn over.  Instead she tossed in the unlikely friendship with Julian.  Though I was awkward to start it kind of developed into something that's easy and comforting.  This was not only refreshing but a great and suitable substitute for Eve's and Caden's separation.

  Though there was a chance taken with the changing POV's in this book K.A. Tucker seriously pulled it off.  It gave this novel an edge that th previous didn't have.  Also I needed it because let's face it how much action can happen up in the middle of nowhere.  You I'll be shocked and pleased with this read and be glad that the next book is out.  I know I was because I rushed into it from here!

Quotes

He may want to kill her, but he wouldn't break her heart-perverse but comforting.

"So, who else do we have here, Max?  Who else have I forgotten to ask about?  Is our Russian cook a unicorn?  What about the others?  Any of them moonlighting as a succubus or a shifter?"

He was worried.   And now so was I.  A jealous vampire was an irrational one.  Which made for a lethal one.