Angieville

I've seen this pop up hither and yon for awhile and been waiting for the official word to go up over at Hurog.com . It just did and I'm excited to post the cover of the sixth Mercy Thompson novel-- River Marked . We knew this one was going to delve a little deeper into Mercy's past, particularly the walker heritage and abilities she inherited from her father. And my little Mercy-loving heart does its little dance of joy at the thought. The cover reflects the Native American ancestry, for sure, and I'm noticing lots of feathers in her tattoos as well. Interesting. Personally I like that cover artist Dan Dos Santos subtly changes her tattoos with each cover to match the tones and themes of the individual books themselves. So what do you think? And if you haven't read this article over at Tor, in which Dos Santos and the real-life Mercy cover model Jaime talk about the creation process, I highly recommend you do. I had no idea there was an actual cover model and th

Retro Friday  is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc. Everyone is welcome to join in at any time! I include roundups from participating bloggers in my post every week. I had never read anything by Lynn Kurland prior to picking up Star of the Morning . I had never even heard of her before, due to the fact that she writes primarily historical romance and I just rarely find myself reading in that genre. But my eye caught on the cover as I walked through the romance aisle at Borders to get to the fantasy/scifi section. And something made me pause. It's always that dangerous pause that gets you, isn't it? If the book can just get a toehold on my attention, I'm so often a goner. I reach out, picked it up, and read the back and wondered. It's a fairly dreamy, idealized cover and not exactly my favorite.

Be still, my beating heart. It all started yesterday, when I ran across Becky's review of Venetia . I always enjoy Becky's reviews and I eagerly clicked on this one as I have yet to read any Georgette Heyer books and had decided a few months ago that  Venetia would be my first--and then promptly never got around to it. My eyes didn't even make it to the beginning of the review, however, as they caught on Becky's statement at the top that the version she read was actually the audio book as narrated by Richard Armitage . Ahem. A little quick investigating revealed that NAXOS AudioBooks has released two Georgette Heyer books narrated by Richard Armitage. The first was Sylvester , the second Venetia , and a third is on the way in August. These are abridged versions, which is unfortunate, but Becky mentioned in her excellent review that she read the book itself first and then listened to the audio book and they were both wonderful experiences. And the awesome thing

I know you've likely seen this cover already, but it's frankly too pretty not to post. Also, it's Donia. And I love Donia. This is the cover for Darkest Mercy --the fifth and final book in Melissa Marr 's Wicked Lovely series. And just for fun, I thought I'd post all five covers side by side here now, both to show the arc of truly lovely cover art for a series, and to try to determine which one is my favorite. First of all-- so pretty . This series has just had consistently gorgeous covers and I love seeing that, especially for a series I've followed and enjoyed (I should say that has inspired the full range of human emotions in me--which can only be a good thing--even when I'm railing against some bit of nonsense Keenan got himself up to). Second, as far as my favorite goes, it's definitely down to either the cover of Ink Exchange or the one for  Darkest Mercy . I love them both. But I think, I think , I'm gonna have to go with Ink Exchange . Bec

It's that time of year again. We welcome the wonderful Cleolinda's Eclipse in 15 Minutes . I laughed helplessly over her version of New Moon last December, and her Harry Potter parodies--especially The Prisoner of Azkaban in 15 Minutes --are screamingly funny. If you've seen Eclipse already, I do recommend going to read Cleo's version immediately. For all your sparklepush and the wereshove needs. Happy Wednesday! Oh, and if you saw the film (as I did), what'd you think?

A couple of months ago Ty over at  The Lit Connection  wrote a post on her favorite villains . What made me smile were the reasons she gave for crushing on these dastardly dudes so, among them because a good villain lives forever and because they have the best lines and are known for being the best dressers. You gotta respect those reasons. I started musing about who would make my own list, but the thing is these aren't just bad boys--these are the villains. These are the ones you run from not to. So I was firm with myself. This list must be comprised of characters I love to hate. Not characters I hate, then love. Or fall for in any way. That's not to say that my feelings about them are completely black or white; the best ones inspire a lot of gray. But these are villains and should be treated with utmost caution. So here they are, my top ten big bads, in the order in which I discovered them: The White Witch She was one of the first really big bads I ever encountered and

I am having difficulty believing it was almost a year ago that I read Going Too Far . It was a solid swallow-in-a-single-gulp read and, I have often thought of Meg's "I am full of fear" mantra and smiled. I'm happy it's received the welcome attention it has in the blogosphere and I knew her next romantic drama would meet with a host of eager readers. When I first read the synopsis for Jennifer Echols ' Forget You , I admit I was completely sucked in by the amnesia angle and the whole waking up to find you have a different boyfriend from the boyfriend you thought you had bit. I mean, who's not up for that? So many great possibilities when the protagonist herself doesn't know exactly what's going on. Plus, I enjoyed Ms. Echols' writing quite a bit in Going Too Far . And nearing the end of July as we are, this book was fast starting to sound like the perfect summer read to me and I looked forward to it with a high degree of anticipation. Zoey w

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out-of-print, etc. Everyone is welcome to join in at any time! I include roundups from participating bloggers in my post every week.  How about that cover! That cover had me at hello. With the crusaders coming on and the golden keyhole doorway? The title and tagline--"Two boys. One girl. The adventure of a lifetime"--didn't hurt either. I passed it on an endcap in a bookstore almost exactly four years ago. I actually completed an about face when I saw it, coming to a screeching halt to admire the general loveliness. The book actually came out in 2004, but it took me a couple of years to cotton onto it. I'll tell you one thing though--I didn't leave the bookstore that day without purchasing a copy. Blood Red Horse is the first in the De Granville Trilogy wri

I find myself curious this morning. When do you guys read? When do you find the time? Do you steal it in snippets or chunks? My husband gets asked this question a lot in relation to me. People know I read (a lot) but they also know I work full time, am Mom to two children, and have various and sundry other responsibilities that fill up my life. Naturally, they wonder when I do "all that reading." Aaron's answer is usually, "I have no idea!" The real answer is the obvious answer--late at night. The personal me-time reading comes after the kids are in bed. Of course, I get to read with them every day and, after the little girl goes down, the boy and I get a good, solid chunk of reading in before he gets in bed (and proceeds to read Calvin and Hobbes for another hour or so). Currently we're recklessly plowing our way through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and honestly it's hard to put it down each night, especially after Harry finishes that second ta

Whiskey Road is a perfect example of a book I might never have run across were it not for an unexpectedly fortuitous meeting of two like-minded bibliophiles. Herein also lies a lesson on the beaten path. How many times do we walk into the bookstore and head straight for the YA section or the mystery section or the scifi aisle? And we don't venture into other aisles full of different spines and stories. I ran into Karen Siplin on my first trip to BEA and we discovered we have nearly identical taste in reading material. With the possible exception of Richelle Mead 's Vampire Academy series. The jury's still out for me on that one. (Team Adrian!) But we became fast friends and I was eager to read her books after heading home again. I picked up Whiskey Road one evening several months ago not knowing what to expect and in the mood for something different and involving and good . Happily, it turned out to be everything I hoped it would be. All Jimi Anne Hamilton wants is to