Books I bought this week…

I’m going to try to not buy so many books in the near future since I’m moving, but some days you can’t help yourself!

1. Inferno’s Kiss by Monica Burns

   

   The laws of desire…Dante Condellaire, heir apparent to the Sicari Lords, knows that being a true leader means sacrifice. For Dante it was relinquishing all erotic pleasures. But he never expected his willpower to be tested so fiercely by Cleopatra Vorenus, expert assassin of the Order, and daughter of the man he is positioned to succeed.

   The rules of battle…

   Cleo prefers working alone–until she meets Dante who shares her goal: to destroy a Praetorian stronghold where Sicari women are imprisoned for devious purposes. Bringing the mission off without a hitch pumps up more than their resolve. It sets off a sexual spark too combustible to ignore.

   Are all made to be broken.

   As their attraction flares like an inferno, the stakes are raised. So are the risks. Before the mission is over, Dante and Cleo will be plunged into a dangerous conspiracy where a traitor threatens the very foundation of the Order, as well as the fiery bond between Dante and Cleo–warriors and lovers now torn between duty and desire.

2. book

Books I bought this week…

While I’m off at FenCon, here are some reads to get you through the weekend!

1. Love’s Portrait by Monica Burns

   As a card carrying founder of the Cult of Monica Burns, you should be forewarned that I’m incredibly biased. I’ll also use any means necessary to convince people that reading her books is a good thing. Like, including links to the site where you can buy it for the incredible price of just $.99 for any ereader format. Yes, you really want this book!

   One woman’s rebellious act; One man’s quest for seduction; A portrait that ignites a scandalous passion. When Julia Westgard commissions a nude portrait of herself, the painting is much more than a rebellious act. It’s an attempt to regain her self-worth after years of a loveless, repressive marriage to her late husband. But the private portrait puts her directly in the path of Morgan St. Claire, one of the Marlborough Set’s most notorious seducers. A man who doesn’t take no for an answer. From the first moment Morgan sees Julia’s portrait, he’s determined to have her. But the woman he meets is a far cry from the image on canvas. What starts out as a simple exercise in seduction quickly evolves into a quest to reveal the true Julia. With each sensual encounter, he employs every erotic weapon at his disposal in hopes of making Julia see she really is the woman in Love’s Portrait.

Books I bought this week…

I haven’t been in a bookstore in weeks.  This last week Suz and I went and I got a bunch of books I’ve been meaning to purchase.  The first two below are ebooks.  The first one is a project to raise money for breast cancer.

So what are you reading?

Books I bought this week…

I only bought one book this week. Shocker, I know!  But it was a good one, like so good you should go buy it now.

“I’m a what?”

“A werewolf.”

“A werewolf who can’t remember he’s a werewolf because he has amnesia.”

That pretty much sums it up. The timing couldn’t be worse, too. Just when the pain of booting her asshat of a husband to the curb has started to lessen, Ella gets stuck babysitting his hairy amnesiac ass. Well…she is a psychiatric nurse, after all. In exchange for helping Crosby rediscover his inner werewolf, Ella has the pack’s word she’ll be granted a divorce. She’ll be free to move on. Maybe continue the Twitter flirtation she’s got going with @Hairofthedog. Hey, it’s a start.

But Crosby isn’t playing fair. No longer the Grand Poobah of Douchebaggery, with his memories gone, he’s more the charming, fun-loving man Ella fell in love with. How’s she supposed to hate him when he keeps smiling and charming and, oh yeah, screwing her six ways to Sunday? Though Ella’s body is game for more physical therapy, her mind hasn’t forgotten his betrayal. Crosby will need a damn fine excuse for what he’s done.

As it turns out, he has one—and it’s a doozy.

Books I bought this week…

So here are the books I’ve bought over the last two weeks.  Most of these I’m saving to read during my France trip since there will be a lot of time spent on planes and the train and waiting for my mom to do stuff with her bike that don’t involve me.

1. Turn It Up by Inez Kelley
   

   Dr. Bastian Talbot and self-proclaimed sex goddess Charlie Pierce heat up the air waves with their flirty banter as radio hosts Dr. Hot and the Honeypot. Off the air, they’re best friends…but Bastian wants to be so much more. He wants Charlie—in bed, and forever.Problem is, Charlie doesn’t do commitment. Sure, she’s had X-rated fantasies of Bastian, but he was always just a friend—until he impulsively proposes and unleashes the lust they’ve been denying for years. Charlie’s willing to explore where their wild chemistry leads, but she won’t marry him. And he won’t have sex with her until she accepts his proposal, despite her seductive schemes.What are Dr. Hot and the Honeypot to do? Ask their listeners for advice on how to tame a sex kitten and turn a perfect gentleman into a shameless lover. The Race to Wed or Bed is on…who will turn up on top?

   

2. Too Hot To Touch by Louisa Edwards
   

   HE’S GOT THE SIZZLE

   When it comes to competitive cooking, Max Lunden is no stranger to winning…though he’s never been great at working with a team. A master chef—and major hunk—he’s traveled the world, picking up new cooking techniques as well as beautiful women. But when the prodigal chef returns home to his family’s Greenwich Village restaurant, he discovers one too many cooks in the kitchen—and she’s every bit as passionate as he is…

   SHE’S GOT THE FIRE

   Juliet Cavanaugh used to have a crush on Max when she was just a teenager, hanging out at Lunden & Sons Tavern, hoping to catch a glimpse of the owner’s oldest, and hottest, son. Now a chef herself—competing in the biggest culinary contest in the country—Juliet will be cooking side by side with the one man she’s always admired…and desired. But despite their simmering attraction, Juliet is determined to keep her cool—no matter how hot it gets…

   

3. My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
   

   Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she’s a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who’s been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in an horrible car crash, but she doesn’t have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there’s a job waiting for her at the parish morgue–and that it’s an offer she doesn’t dare refuse.

   Before she knows it she’s dealing with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey–just when she’s hungriest!

   Angel’s going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in one piece. Because if she doesn’t, she’s dead meat.

   Literally.

   

4. Lucky Girl by Cate Lord
   

   Jessica Devlin isn’t looking for love. Heartbroken after being dumped by her unfaithful ex-fiancé, she’s determined to have a fabulous time during her vacation in England where she’ll be maid-of-honor at her cousin’s wedding. After working overtime as beauty editor of Orlando’s O Tart magazine, avoiding dating, and putting on ten pounds, Jess is ready to toss her past like an empty lipstick tube and party like a single gal.But when she steps into the church on her cousin’s wedding day, she sees the one man who could sabotage her plan—James-Bond-gorgeous Nick Mondinello. She’s never forgotten the London marketing exec who held her in his arms after her beloved grandfather’s funeral two years ago. Ambitious, and lusted after by women everywhere, Nick is completely wrong for guarded, Plain Jane Jess.

   Could Spy Man Nick ever fall for her? Nope. Not unless Jess is one lucky girl.

   

Books I Bought This Week

I haven’t done this post in a while!  I only bought one book this week, but it was a good one.

Sizzling attraction meets unstoppable adventure in Bianca D’Arc’s captivating new paranormal romance…

For Emily Parkington, the thrill of flying charter planes for Praxis Air has lately been tinged with dread. Mysterious cargo flights and a high number of fatal crashes lead Emily to suspect something sinister behind the scenes. And if her new colleague is involved, Emily won’t hesitate to turn him in, in spite of Sam Archer’s sexy charm and irresistibly easy confidence.

Enemy or potential ally? Sam can’t be sure of anything where Emily is concerned, except how much he wants her. Immune to the zombie virus created through military research, Sam is working undercover to find out if Praxis is trafficking forbidden technology. It was a potentially deadly assignment even before he found himself distracted by a woman he scarcely knows. And when a “controlled” experiment goes horribly wrong, there will be no limit to the danger they both face…or how far he’s willing to go to save her…

Books I bought this week…

That time again!  This was a book buying light week for me.

Hexed, the anthology with Ilona Andrews was my buy this week.

What did you buy?

Weekly Check-In

Despite this being the last few days of the Savvy Boot Camp, it was a lazy week.  I read Kiss of Snow instead of sleeping, and slept instead of writing, and as soon as the clock rolled over to June 1st all responsibility to write like the wind was gone.  We still don’t know the results for who won the boot camp, but it was a close race to the end.  June is the month that I want to do revisions rather than writing, but I’m still writing.  I got off to a good start, but I’ll talk about that below.

I haven’t been talking about A Round of Words at all, and for that I fail.  I haven’t forgotten that I’m working on that challenge, but I haven’t been as mindful of updating my progress on it.  I solved that yesterday.

Blogging.

Judging by the twitter conversations and the comments left on Suzan’s blog and here I would say that the Let’s Talk About Sex series is off to a good start.  We discussed underwear and what that says about your characters.  Suzan took the girly side and I discussed all things buff and hunky.  This week we’re talking about heat levels and language particular to the romance genre.  While a lot of people already know this stuff, not everyone does and it’s good to talk about it.  We’re also having a blast while we’re at it, so that’s all that really matters.

Revising.

I started revisions on Rescue Me – again.  These were pretty light, going over what one of my critique partners suggested.  A lot of it was grammar, and of that commas.  I have comma issues.  I conquer the apostrophe and now the comma and I are at odds!

I’m really happy with Rescue Me.  I have it up over at Book Country for review if anyone is a member there and feels like giving me some feedback.  I plan to submit it next month after I take my submission package class and hammer out the submission details.  I’m less confident about those, but that’s the reson behind taking the classes!

This weekend I broke open Decoy.  I’m almost halfway through it and hoping to be done with this first pass in a few days.  It’s kind of ugly at this point and there’s a lot of red, but I’m hoping that in the end it will pay off and it will rock.  I’m crossing my fingers that I finish this draft Tuesday or Wednesday and then the super picky stuff starts.

Plotting.

Um, I’m kind of stalled out on plotting.  I’m worried that letting an idea stew this much is a bad idea.  I get bored of the shiny and move on to something else.  I still like the idea and I want to write it but it’s not a driving desire of want any more.  I’m afraid that this is bad.  Very bad.

I replotted my superhero story I was supposed to write during Boot Camp.  It’s a whole new idea and more naughty than the original, but again I waited too long to write it.  So I’m going to write the naughty one and just go for it.  If it flops in the draft process it flops and I’ll move on.

I plan on doing more reading this month to get myself in a place to write certain things.  We’ll see how this goes!!!

Writing.

Yeah, so since it’s June I’ve slacked on writing….

Project: Booty-Call Bust
Genre: romance
Type: novella
Progress: I had an idea for this while watching Deadliest Warrior, of all things.  The story is actually at a very interesting part, so it shouldn’t be hard to jump back in and hopefully hammer it out soon.  My problem is that I’ve been distracted by being lazy.  And revising.  I’m going to attempt to write 1-2K a day on this a day this week in tandem to doing revisions.  It’s not a lot, I know, but I want to keep the ball rolling and finish this sucker.

What I read.

• Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh

Books I bought this week…

This was a huge release week.  There are three books in established series that I’ve been anxiously waiting.

• Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh – This is the tenth installment of the Psy/Changeling series, and Oh My God it’s so amazing!  I couldn’t have asked for a more exciting book.  The romance was sizzling, there was tons of tension and action.  Things have been building in the previous books and a lot of things really come to a head in this book.  You get the romance of the wolf changeling alpha with a rogue psy-x.  It’s incredible, I can’t gush about this enough.
• Deadline by Mira Grant – Feed, the first book in this series, was my favorite book of 2010.  The book blew me out of the water.  It’s a political thriller, plus post-zombie apocalypse.  I went in expecting a chilling zombie book and got way more than I bargained for.  Things happened in that book that many authors would shy away from doing – and it worked.  I can’t wait to curl up with this book over the weekend, granted I’ll probably be sleeping with the lights on.  Hello, zombies!
• Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews – The fifth book in the Kate Daniel’s book, this is going into uncharted water.  It is an urban fantasy series with a lot of magic and a dystopian element.  In the previous book there was a romance arc climax that’s been building through the previous four books and I’m excited to see how that plays out and how the series arc progresses.  You know from the previous book that Kate is going to get herself into loads of trouble.  Then there’s the novella that’s set right before this book that comes out on Tuesday of this coming week, and the big subplot bomb that happened in the previous book. There’s a lot of questions rolling around in my head that boil down to: What happens next?!?

So what are you reading this weekend?

Books I Bought This Week

I haven’t read as much as I wanted to, but that doesn’t keep me from buying books, lol!  In these high stress times I run to novellas because they’re short, I can get through them and still do things with my day, and feel productive.

1. Sanctuary by Sherri L. King – I searched ‘zombie’ at Ellora’s Cave and this came up.  It wasn’t m/m, f/f, or manage, so I grabbed it.  It is faeries and zombies.
2. Rowdy by Amarinda Jones – Again, I searched ‘zombies’ at Ellora’s Cave, it fit my parameters so I grabbed it too.
3. Enemy Games by Marcella Bernard – this is the second book in a series.  Great science fiction romance.
4. Feed by Mira Grant was on sale for like $3 in ebook stores so of course I grabbed a copy.
5. Apocalypse Scenario by Mira Grant – Short story put out by Orbit.
6. SEALed with a Kiss by Mary Margret Daughtridge – This is a series featuring Navy SEALs, it’s also up in stores for free right now which is a super smart marketing move to capitalize on the current popularity of that branch of the military.  I got it because it was free, and…. yeah.
7. Friendly Fire by Megan Hart – Novella from Carina Press about agents recovering from losing one of their own to friendly fire.
8. The Sevenfold Spell by Tia Nevitt - Novella from Carina Press.  This looks at the other characters in a fairy tale.  Like, what happens to all of the people who made a living when all the spinning wheels were destroyed because of Sleeping Beauty?  Haven’t gottent to it yet, but I’m looking forward to it!
9. Journeyman’s Ride by Marie Harte - Novella from Carina Press.  This is a steampunk story.  I don’t know any more than that about it, lol.