2012 Year in Review!! My top books and series of the year!

If you have any favorite reads for this year please share! 2012 has been quite a year for me. I’ve read some incredible books, some great books, some not so great books, some terrible books. But overall it contributed to read count of over 131 stories this year. It’s kind of funny because I feel like a slacker compared to some other Goodreads friends who I’ve seen read over 400+ books; one even read over 900. But good or bad, I’ll take it as a victory. Communiting to and from my job takes a good 2 hours of my day, which allows me to and dedicate most of that to reading. A broken iPod has helped quite a bit too, but Christmas kind of rectified that so I’ll have to see how my read count in 2013 compares. But in the meantime, I want to narrow things down and present my favorite urban fantasy/paranormal books of 2012.

1

Ever After ARC (The Hollows #11) by Kim Harrison

I debated listing this one because it technically doesn’t come out until 2013, but it rocked my personal socks this year, and I’m sure it will rock yours in January, so I’m going to list it.

2

All Dorina Basarab novels, including Fury’s Kiss by Karen Chance

Fury's Kiss, Karen Chance, dorina basarab

Though I was fairly familiar with its original sister series, Cassandra “Cassie” Palmer, I was really surprised to find that I love this series infinitely more. It’s got all of the pluses, none of the annoyances. Dory is a riot, but she kicks ass too. It just pains me that it take 2 years between books.

3

Wicked as They Come (Blud #1) by Delilah S. Dawson

Early on in the year this was my favorite book. The world was new, interesting and exciting. And Criminy was awesome! I definitely can’t wait for the next book featuring him and Tish, but much like Karen Chance, this author alternates from book to book.

4

A Perfect Blood (The Hollows #10) by Kim Harrison

Yes, the Hollows takes two spots on my list. In addition to the Ever After ARC, with all of the different publications this year from Into the Woods to Blood Crime to Trouble on Reserve to Trent’s POV from the paperback of A Perfect Blood, two spots can’t be surprising. However, while good, this book wasn’t quite in the same class as Ever After, but I did love it. And like most Trenchers out there, Trent’s POV left me speechless! Oh and it’s also pretty awesome anytime I can meet Kim Harrison!

5

Kingmakers (Vampire Empire #3) by Susan and Clay Griffith

This was another fantastic finish to a wonderful trilogy. I was fortunate enough to read the ARC for this series and I loved it! If only there was more!

6

Dead Morning Sky (Experiment in Terror #3) by Karina Halle

experiment in terror, dead morning sky, karina halle

I wanted scary and I got scary! Just a little more than I bargained for with the weird crap that was happening OFF the pages while reading it. And funny enough, there was no repeat of that peculiar activity after I was done. I have since stopped here, but there are definitely more books with Dex and Perry’s adventures. I plan to get to them after catching up with the Night Huntress series that I’m currently reading.

7

Ashes of Honor (October Daye #6) by Seanan McGuire

ashes of honor, seanan mcguire, october daye, toby daye

I read this book at a pretty difficult time. I started reading it and then I got my hands on the Ever After ARC. I was riding too much of a high for anything else to compare, including this. But in hindsight, this book rocks and I bet the next book will be my favorite of the series!

8

Tale of the Vampire Bride by Rhiannon Frater

Tale of the Vampire Bride, Rhiannon Frater

I was gripped from beginning to end on this one. It’s not an easy read, and do not mistake this for a romance. It’s more like one of those train-wrecks that you can’t look away from. Unfortunately the sequel was nowhere near as good, but I hope this series continues eventually. I would love to read a third book if it could get back to the level of book 1.

9

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

I have a bit of an aversion when it comes to the Young Adult genre, but this is an exception. I LOVED this book and I often find myself wondering how long it’d be until the second book is released. That’s definitely a sign of a book worthy of this list. Even better, it’s probably the best $0.99 I’ve spent on a book!

10

Love is Fear (Valerie Dearborn #2) by Caroline Hanson

Though this trilogy arc is complete, this book is probably my favorite of the three. I finished wanting more, more, MORE!

Honorable Mentions

Iced (Dani O’Malley #1) by Karen Marie Moning – I definitely didn’t inhale this one as fast as the original Fever novels, but it did leave an impression. Honestly though, I just want more Mac and Barrons!

At Grave’s End (Night Huntress #3) by Jeaniene Frost – The review is pending right now because I wanted to post this year in review first, but I did enjoy it the most of the three novels thusfar. This series isn’t really among my favorites, but it seems to be positioning itself in the tier of series that are right below my favorites. Not a bad place to be. There’s Bones to thank for that.

Fire Baptized (Habitat #1) by Kenya Wright – I inhaled this book as well. This fresh take on the urban fantasy genre was just what I needed at the time and unlike some series where the sequels don’t measure up, its sequel certainly did and I look forward to book 3!

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion – I enjoyed this book quite a bit, as well as the movie. It presented a different take on the genre that I found refreshing.

A Blood Seduction (Vamp City #1) by Pamela Palmer – an alternate Washington, DC gets some bonus points! This book introduced a pretty intriguing world. I read it in a day and enjoyed it, so that’s why it gets a mention. Just beware that this isn’t true romance. If you go in with those expectations you’ll likely be disappointed.

The Fire Lord’s Lover (The Elven Lords #1) by Kathryne Kennedy – I read this particular book in one day and I loved the world building and build up to the eventual romance. Unfortunately the sequels never really struck the same chord.

So all in all it’s been a good year! This blog has been good to me. YOU guys have been good to me. And I hope 2013 is even better!! The great thing about books is that there’s something for everybody. I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

December 29, 2012 | Categories: Blud, Cassandra Palmer (Cassie Palmer), Fever Series, Penryn & the End of Days, The Elven Lords, The Hollows (Rachel Morgan), Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Books, Valerie Dearborn, Vamp City, Vampire Empire Trilogy (The Greyfriar), YA (Young Adult) | Tags: 13 Hollows Books, A Local Habitation, A Perfect Blood, adele and gareth, adele and greyfriar, Algaliarept, An Artificial Night, And with Madness Comes the Light, Ashes of Honor, at grave's end, Avon, Big Al, Blood Crime, Blood Work, Blood+, Blud, Bones and Cat, caedmon, Captain America, Caroline Hanson, Casper, Cassandra, Cassie Palmer, cat and bones, Catherine Crawfield, Cecily, Cer, Cesare, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Clay Griffith, Come Alive, Criminy and Letitia, Criminy and Tish, Criminy Stain, Crispin Russell, Darkhouse, DAW BOOKS Inc, Dawn Cook, Dead Morning Sky, Dead Witch Walking, Declan Foray, Delilah Dawson, Dex and Perry, Dex Foray, Dominic and Cassandra, Dominic Raikes, dorina, dorina basarab, Dragonfairy Press, dystopian, Etienne, Ever After, Every Which Way But Dead, experiment in terror, Experiment in Terror series, fae werewolves, favorites, Fire Baptized, fire magic, gareth and adele, Giles, Giles and Cecily. Lady of the Storm, Giveaways, greyfriar and adele, Hagi, Haji, halfway to the grave, Harper Co, Harper Collins, Harper Voyager, Historical Romance, Host of the Hills, how many hollows books do we have left, how many rachel morgan books do we have left, Ian, Into the Hollow, Into the Woods, isaac marion, Ivy Tamwood, Jack and Valerie, jeaniene frost, Jenks, Juie and R, Julie, Julie and Perry, Karen Chance, Karina Halle, Kenya Wright, kill bill, Kim Harrison, King Cer, king of cats, Kisten, kit marlowe, Lady Cass, Lady Cassandra, Lanore, Late Eclipses, Letetia Everett, louis-cesare, louis-cesare and dorina, love is darkness, love is fear, love is mortal, love triangle, Lucas, Lucas and Valerie, Luidaeg, Lying Season, magic, MeShack, Metal Blonde Books, midnight's daughter, Mircea, Mircea Basarab, Mor'ded, morpho and murdoch, mysterious madam morpho, nicholas hoult, night huntress, October and Connor, October and Tybalt, October daye, Old Blood, On Demon Wings, one foot in the grave, One Salt Sea, Paranormal, paranormal african american heroine, Perry, Perry and Dex, Perry and Julie, Perry and R, Perry Palamino, Pet Shop Boys, Pocket Blood, Prometheus, Pyr, R, R and Julie, R and Perry, Rachel Morgan, radu, Red Fox, rhiannon frater, Rob Corddry, Robert Downey Jr, Rosemary and Rue, Saya, seam punk, Seanan McGuire, Shifter, Sourcebooks Casablanca, steam punk, steampunk, Susan Griffith, Sylvester Torquill, tale of the vampire bride, tantor media, The Avengers, The Benson, The Burning Bush, The Dex-files, The Elven Lords, The Fire Lord's Lover, The Hollows, The Kingmakers, The rift walker, Theresa Palmer, Tish Everett, Toby and Connor, Toby and Tybalt, Toby Daye, Trent and Rachel, Trent Kalamack, Trouble on Reserve, tybalt, Tybalt and Toby, Urban Fantasy African American Heroine, Valerie Dearborn, Vampire, vampire empire, Vampire King, vengeance of the vampire bride, Vintage, Warm bodies, warm bodies movie, Werewolf, Zulu | 7 Comments

The Mysterious Madam Morpho (Blud #1.5) – Love the cover, but more Criminy please!

This is a novella from the Blud series. As a follow-up to Delilah Dawson’s debut novel Wicked as They Come, to hold us over until the next book we get to revisit her alternative London and Criminy Stain’s caravan. Instead of Criminy and Leticia (Tish) getting focus, we meet Madam Morpho, a new addition to the caravan with a unique ability to re-animate butterflies, and we meet Mr. Murdoch, the mysterious engineer behind the caravan’s clockworks and staging. Morpho is running from her past, but is she valuable enough for the caravan and Mr. Murdoch to run with her?

I love this series for a combination of reasons, from the quirky steampunk London makeover to the blud bunnies to enigmatic Criminy himself. The first two are there in spades which is great, but I’ve unfortunately caught a case of Criminy fever and found myself missing his presence immensely this time around, Tish as well. The world building remains impressive, with enough imagination to satisfy any urban fantasy/paranormal/steampunk fan, but the romance itself came up a bit short for me. Insta-love stories never really do it for me, namely because I just can’t suspend my belief enough to completely buy it, and that’s what we see here. Granted, Ms. Dawson is only working with 100 or so pages so she has to move quickly. It’s just that it didn’t resonate with me very much and if I was going to read this for the romance, I think it would have enjoyed it more if it was Criminy and Tish, an establish ship that readers are already invested in. Nevertheless, it’s a solid read and I do recommend fans of the series give it a shot.

November 29, 2012 | Categories: Blud, Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Books | Tags: Blud, Casper, Criminy and Letitia, Criminy and Tish, Criminy Stain, Delilah Dawson, favorites, Letetia Everett, morpho and murdoch, mysterious madam morpho, Pocket Blood, seam punk, steampunk, Tish Everett | Leave a comment

Wicked as They Come – Winners Announcement!

Hi everyone! As usual, I wanted to thank all of you for participating, but now we have our 2 winners. If you posted in the comment section of the announcement thread, you were entered for a chance to win. I apologize for the late announcement, but my Internet connection has been on the fritz. Without further ado, the winners are:

sharonstogner

littleread1

Please check your emails ladies! Hope you enjoy! Thank you everyone for participating and I look forward to the next giveaway, which will be later this month!

May 7, 2012 | Categories: Blud, Giveaways | Tags: Blud, Casper, Criminy and Letitia, Criminy and Tish, Criminy Stain, Delilah Dawson, favorites, Letetia Everett, Pocket Blood, seam punk, steampunk, Tish Everett | 3 Comments

Review + Giveaway: Wicked as They Come (Blud #1) – My FAVORITE book of 2012 thus far!!

Yeah, those of you who follow me closely know I wouldn’t throw that out there lightly, but there it is! I’d heard good things about the series but I wasn’t in the hugest rush to read it. Man am I SO glad I got around to it!

Delilah Dawson introduces us to a new world through the eyes of Letitia Everett (aka Tish), a nurse who spends most of her time tending to patients in reality, including her terminally ill grandmother. That is until she stumbles upon this interesting ruby locket at an estate sale. Unbeknownst to her it happens to be enchanted, and once she falls asleep it thrusts her into an alternate world called Sang where she meets Criminy Stain, a rebellious gypsy Bludman (aka vampire) who has been waiting for her for a long time. After all, he’s the one that had the locket spell cast to deliver the love of his life to him.

He leads a travelling circus mixed with fellow Bludman and Pinkies (aka humans) alike. Tish will fit right in as she realizes her powers as a Glancer, where she can see into someone’s past and future with just one touch. It’s a valuable ability and she learns her own fate when she touches Criminy, seeing her ultimate doom. Anchored between both worlds through wearing the locket, she can decide what she wants, but when the locket is stolen she goes on a journey with Criminy to find it. They face many enemies by land and sea, their ultimate target being the evil and manipulative Magistrate who hates all Bludmen and has a plan to eradicate them all from Sang. If they succeed, she must decide on a normal structured life or an unpredictable destiny with the person she was least expecting to love. Is Tish meant for all of this?

I won’t answer that question here, but I can just say that I loved loved LOVED this book! Dawson has an amazing imagination and has crafted a truly unique world with the Blud series. I wasn’t sure how much I could get into the world-building because Steampunk novels can be too heavy on the details for my liking. But she was able to harness it and describe everything effectively while still keeping my attention. I seriously don’t recall being bored at all and that’s saying a lot.

I liked that the Bludmen are really different for a change. Instead of being at the top of the food chain and rich like vampires in normal series, their race is oppressed and their people are considered second class citizens. Let’s not even get into the topic of a Bludmen becoming involved with a Pinky. It’s super taboo and usually the two races aren’t attracted to one another (well, aside from Bludmen seeing them as food of course). Because of this I enjoyed watching the tensions mount between the two.

Criminy Stain. Just one word to describe him: AMAZING!! I just don’t know if we can get enough of this character. He is so unique in a genre where it’s only getting more difficult to separate the best from the rest. He’s a born leader, honorable and adventurous; he cares about his people and hates that they’re suffering, but even still he doesn’t become emo and self-loathing. He maintains a great sense of humor throughout it all. I probably haven’t read about a more dynamic character since Algaliarept from The Hollows. The only downside is that I’m not sure what the second book will have in store. The book doesn’t end in a cliffhanger, but I just can’t tell what’s going to happen next for him since the second book seems to shift focus. To ignore this character is to ignore a goldmine. He’s got potential to be a fan favorite, like a Jericho Barrons, Algaliarept, Jean Claude, Curran, the list goes on.

I think the love story between Criminy and Letitia is very well done and not too heavy on that sap. It’s definitely more of a romantic adventure so a lot of the focus is on the adventure side of things, which is just how I like it. All the while the feelings build allowing things to happen at the right time.

I really wish this series came out bi-annually simply because of him. Maybe we can coax the author into writing up some short stories or vignettes.

This series is one where I would love to see a movie adaptation created for it. It could be a big hit, seeing all of this come to life. I just can’t gush enough and I’ve decided to hold a giveaway right now! I can’t wait much longer for more of you to read it so….

Giveaway

I will select two winners for this and they may choose either the paperback or the ebook. I am collecting entries through May 4th. I will announce the winners on Saturday, May 5, 2012.

How to Enter (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY): My giveaways are only open to followers of Your Urban Fantasy who are 18 years of age or older. In order to enter YOU MUST COMMENT ON THE ANNOUNCEMENT POST! If you’re a new member, sign up on the right panel to follow my blog via email and/or Twitter. (Make sure you check your email to confirm your subscription. You should receive a notification immediately, so check your spam folder if you don’t see it right away). Current followers can just say so in their post and your entry will be added. Overall, there are up to 3 chances to win:

Follow this blog via email (THIS IS REQUIRED)
Follow me on Twitter (bonus entry)
“Like” Your Urban Fantasy on Facebook (bonus entry)

While I do appreciate RSS subscribers, I cannot confirm your status as a follower so your entry will not count (sorry!); however, you are welcome to sign up by email and Twitter or Facebook.