In My Mailbox: 04/24/11 (Happy Easter!)

{ ++ } Kristi over at The Story Siren hosts this fun meme. It's a chance for book bloggers to speak out about the books we've ordered, checked out, or snagged off a library shelf. No matter how you come across those shiny new books, we all know we love to show them off and get pepped up to read them!

{ ++ } This week my box of books from Amazon.com arrived!  YAYS!

L-R: Kelley Armstrong's The Gathering, Laura Whitcomb's A Certain Slant of Light, Kelley Armstrong's The Reckoning, Allison Winn Scotch's Time of my Life, Jessica Andersen's Blood Spells, and Amanda Eyre Ward's Sleep Toward Heaven.

Strange things are happening in this claustrophobic town, and Maya’s determined to get to the bottom of them. First, the captain of the swim team drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. A year later, mountain lions start appearing around Maya’s home, and they won’t go away. Her best friend, Daniel, starts experiencing “bad vibes” about certain people and things. It does’t help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret…and he’s interested in one special part of Maya’s anatomy: Her paw-print birthmark.  @amazon.com

In sensuous prose, Helen, who has been dead for 130 years, describes what it's like to live as Light, clinging to a human host, then reentering an empty human body and becoming physically and emotionally attuned to the world. Helen is startled when she realizes that a student in her host's English class can see her. Their joy at finding one another turns quickly to love, and James helps Helen locate an empty body that she can inhabit. Fellow student Jennifer seems the perfect choice, but the unhappiness in her fundamentalist family, as well as the chaos of Billy's household, mix uneasily with the pleasures the spirits are rekindling. @ amazon.com

Fifteen-year-old Chloe Saunders and her friends Tori, Simon, and Derek are genetically altered supernaturals on the run from the evil corporation that created them. Hiding out with a family friend, they are trying to make sense of their predicament and discover what sinister plans the Edison Group has in store for them. As a powerful necromancer who can raise the dead in her sleep, Chloe struggles to control her abilities and figure out how to best use them to keep everyone safe. To further complicate matters (as if running for your life were not enough), Chloe wrestles with her feelings for Simon, a good-natured sorcerer, and Derek, a misunderstood werewolf. @ amazon.com

Jillian has what seems to be a perfect life—a beautiful house in the suburbs, a loving husband, and an adorable baby girl. But she also has a nagging feeling that something isn't quite right.  One morning, Jillian wakes up seven years in the past, in bed with Jackson, and she has the chance to live her life again—a do over, complete with the knowledge of what her future will become. Will she still quit her job right on the cusp of making it big? Will she run for the hills when she meets Henry or be drawn to him again? Or will Jackson's easygoing, wild lifestyle pull her back from her future baby, the adorable Katie?  @ amazon.com

Mayan lore and modern science warn that 12/21/2012 will bring a global cataclysm. Dark forces stand poised to crush mankind. The only hope rests with a secret group of modern magic-wielders called the Nightkeepers. But as Patience White-Eagle and her husband, Brandt, team up as a mated warrior pair, they will face a deadly threat that will test their powers-and their love... @ amazon.com

Karen Lowen is on death row for the murder of numerous men, all of whom (with the exception of one) she claims to have killed in self-defense. The innocent man who crossed Karen's path on that tragic night has left behind a grieving widow named Celia, who cannot find purpose in a life that is empty of her beloved Henry. Then there is Dr. Franny Wren, a consummate professional dedicated to preserving life--now stoically treating women destined to die behind bars. While Celia and Franny grapple with the weight of their hidden desires and lifelong regrets, Karen faces the cold reality of death row and the inevitable sentence that looms before her.   @ amazon.com

 
{ ++ } I am looking VERY much forward to reading all of these books.  My attention wandered from Kelley Armstrong's "Darkest Powers" series before I could get to "The Reckoning," so I will likely re-read the first two books - YAY - then finish the trilogy so I can move on the "The Gathering" - it's not a direct sequel series, but it is set in the same 'verse so to speak.

{ ++ } For now though, I'm off to get ready for Easter dinner with the family.  Happy holiday, ya'll!

In My Mailbox: 04/12/11

{ ++ } Kristi over at The Story Siren hosts this fun meme. It's a chance for book bloggers to speak out about the books we've ordered, checked out, or snagged off a library shelf. No matter how you come across those shiny new books, we all know we love to show them off and get pepped up to read them!

{ ++ } I'm a little late this week, but hopefully I can still join in the fun! I bought two new books this week, the third and fourth volumnes in a series I am greatly enjoying: Jessica Andersen's Nightkeeper's series.

When prominent Mayanist Ambrose Ledbetter goes missing, his daughter Sasha tracks his remains down to an ancient temple. Before she can recover from the shock, she is kidnapped. Slick and charming recruit Michael Stone rescues Sasha from her imprisonment and feels an instant attraction. But he doesn't dare get involved, with the threat of his dark side growing stronger and the powers of sorcery on the rise. Both Michael and Sasha will discover a new passion together and one they have to admit to in order to change their worlds...

According to Mayan doomsday prophecy, 12/21/12 marks the end of the world in a global cataclysm that can only be prevented by the Nightkeepers, magical warriors enlisted to fight the rise of the underworld demons. To fulfill the final prophecy the Nightkeepers must find their mates, but when Lucius and Jade are charged with rescuing the Mayan sun god, they try to ignore their growing attraction. Unless they can confront their own demons and accept that love isn't a weakness, even destiny might not be able to save them...

{ ++ } Needless to say, I am quite fascinated by this series, and anxious to start turning the pages of these books when I can!

Molli Reviews... Dawnkeepers

The countdown to the end of days has begun—and Only the Nightkeepers can stop the annihilation of all mankind...

Though a Nightkeeper, Nate Blackhawk refuses to allow others to control his fate. The gods have even tried to influence his love life, sending him visions of Alexis Gray, a sleek blonde who is everything he’s ever wanted in a woman.

The two warriors can’t deny their attraction. But a frightening vision leads Nate to distance himself in spite of the intense passion he feels. Thrown together once more, they must reassemble seven Mayan artifacts that hold the key to preventing the end of the world… 

@ amazon.com (summary from the book's page)
Pages: 455
Published: 01/06/2009; Signet
The Author: Jessica Andersen


The long story short: I looked forward to this book the whole time I was reading the first book, Nightkeepers, because I knew this book was centered on Nate Blackhawk - the rebel, the guy who takes nothing at face value, the one caught up in all this mythical, bigger-than-himself stuff, yet who balks it at every step, and Alexis, eager to believe in the almost-lost traditions, to advance herself in the Nightkeeper ranks, attracted to Nate but weary of being kept at arm's length.  And the book did not disappoint.  I'll go into the issues I had with it in the actual review, because there were some, but overall, this was a solid, enjoyable book!

Final Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5

 _______________________________

The Nightkeepers are the modern-day descendants of the Maya, and although there should be hundreds of them ready, trained, and waiting to stop the foretold doomsday in 2012 (the group in this series believes a magical barrier will thin, and their task is to stop demons from pouring through), due to a past king mistakenly leading his group in an attack he believed would shut down the barrier forever and thus, the 2012 end date would not matter, there are only a little over a dozen.

Nate Blackhawk is the most suspicious of the Nightkeepers.  Each of the Nightkeeper children who escaped was meant to have a winikin, or guardian who would act as a surrogate parent; Nate's winikin died leaving him alone, and shunted into the foster care system.  Nate grew up tough and alone, and though he is willing to accept some of the Nightkeeper's beliefs and missions, he is utterly closed off to love, much less to the idea that the fates could be telling him he is meant for fellow Nightkeeper Alexis Gray.  For the first half of the book, this emotionally stunted man does everything he can to push away Alexis, playing the part of a jerk so to speak, which only serves to hurt her again and again.

Alexis wants the power that her mother had, as an adviser to the king.  She wants to believe that she can be more, a warrior, a lover, a magic user.  She keenly feels the pressure she places upon herself to step up, and that more than anything, holds her back.  Alexis keeps giving Nate chance after chance, and can't understand why she can't let him go. 

The journeys these two make, both alone and together, are especially poignant.  Both of them have a lot of growing up to do, when the novel starts out, and by the end, it's truly rewarding to see the people they have become.  Both have their respective stumbling blocks, and it's real and meaningful to see them make progress in fits and starts, because this way the end results mean so much more than they might have.  I think I would have liked to have seen a little more on Nate's own internal changes, because I feel like he came the longest way so to speak.   I wanted to learn even more about his family, and more about Alexis's family, because in this series, history is so important.

While I loved their romance, I also love that it is not the entire theme of the novel.  Finding one's partner is important in these books; however, the main mission is saving the world.  We see the various Nightkeepers working together in this book, struggling to maintain a sense of teamwork as they do so.  This group may be bound by magic, but they have not automatically become best friends.  If anything, their internal conflicts make the story all the more interesting.  We follow Rabbit, the Nightkeeper with wild magic, and we learn the source of his different powers, as we see him struggle to find his place.  We learn a little more about the elusive Michael (whose story is told in the third book, that I plan to read soon.)  We see the main characters from the first book, Strike (the reluctant King) and Leah, his mate.  Lucius Hunt, Nightkeeper Anna's graduate student, comes back into play.  We see Brandt and Patience, the only Nightkeepers who are traditionally married, and their attempts to juggle their marriage with the needs of the Nightkeepers.  Everyone is involved in the quest.

Jessica Andersen has created a broad, believable world.  These people strive to win the day, they fight for the good, and with each book, I find myself cheering for them a little more.

Teaser Tuesdays: Dawnkeepers

{ ++ } I'm adding something new this week, all in the name of talking up whatever awesome book I am currently reading: Teaser Tuesdays!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

His own personal amulet-to-be-named-at-a-later-date, the medallion was a flat metal disk etched on each side with a design that looked like the hawk bloodline glyph if he tipped it one way, a man if he tipped it another.  It had been the only identifying thing he'd been wearing when he'd been dumped at Cicago's Lying-In hospital, aside from the words My name is Nathan Blawkhawk, which had been carefully printed on his forehead in pen.

                                                 - Dawnkeepers, by Jessica Andersen