This post should have been gracing the ROOB blog yesterday but Wednesday was a disastrous day for me and in the midst of firmware updating, guestblog requesting and interview preparing for ROOB this just slipped my mind.

But as the saying goes; ‘Better late than never’ is my mantra today as I catch up on various things I had planned to do yesterday. So here are a few hot upcoming releases I just had to share with you all :)


• Angela Knight – MASTER OF SMOKE: Book 11 in Mageverse series
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (January 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425239160
• ISBN-13: 978-0425239162 
• Pre-order

Comic book shop owner Beth Roman discovers a real-life superman battling a werewolf. After she spirits the handsome hunk to safety, she discovers he has no memory of who he was or why the werewolf wants him dead. Beth takes him in – and promptly becomes a target of the werewolf hit team that’s been sent to kill David. Luckily Beth, too, is a werewolf, so she’s up to the job of playing bodyguard.

And David’s body is a lot of fun to guard. He’s handsome and seductive, with a feral sexuality Beth finds impossible to resist.

Now if only they can stay alive long enough to find out why all these monsters want David dead…

• Emma Holly – DEVIL AT MIDNIGHT
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; Original edition (November 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425237818
• ISBN-13: 978-0425237816
• Pre-order

For years, mercenary captain Christian Durand has done everything he can to protect his men from his power hungry father. When a beautiful ghost appears to offer comfort, he assumes the strain has finally pushed him over the edge. The specter claims she’s his friend from another life--a tale the cynical soldier finds difficult to believe.

Grace Gladwell has her own experience with abusive fathers. Thanks to an accident with hers, one moment she's in 1950s America, the next, she’s in 1460, Switzerland, trying to convince a Medieval soldier that she's neither a figment of his imagination or an imp from Hell.

These would be challenges enough without vampire queen Nim Wei setting her immortal sights on Christian. When she threatens to help his father destroy them all, Christian must choose between his darker urges and a love that spans centuries…

• Emma Holly – ANGEL AT DAWN
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (January 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425239659
• ISBN-13: 978-0425239650
• Pre-order

No woman should forget her soulmate, yet Grace Gladwell remembers nothing of Christian Durand, the medieval soldier she captivated during a fractured moment in time—when she was just a specter, a heartbeat away from death. Then, Grace could have been Christian’s savior. Now, she’s a symbol of more betrayals than he can count. He knows he’d be better off not remembering . . . except for the scrap of his broken heart that still longs to believe in her.

Christian certainly shouldn’t get tangled up with his other nemesis, Nim Wei. Five hundred years haven’t made the vampire queen any more trustworthy. Now she wants to rule Hollywood as a film director, with Christian her next big star. Grace is her secret weapon in recruiting Christian to take the role. Hoping to direct herself, Grace has been playing unwitting student to Nim Wei’s seemingly kind mentor. One encounter with Christian’s smoldering bad-boy charisma convinces Grace her teacher is even smarter than she gave her credit for.

Too bad for all of them that fiction—and film—can be as strange as truth. Nothing and no one are what they seem in this seductive vampire movie, least of all the people who are trying to survive making it.

• Shayla Black – ENTICE ME AT TWILIGHT: Doomsday Brethren Series, Book 4
• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pocket; Original edition (October 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439166773
• ISBN-13: 978-1439166772
• Pre-order

In national bestselling author Shayla Black’s electrifying new novel, the Doomsday Brethren fight their mortal enemy for the newest weapon in a bloody magical war: the one woman a warrior shouldn’t claim . . . yet can’t resist.

Dangerously handsome Simon Northam, Duke of Hurstgrove, and his uptight brother Mason are hardly close, but crashing Mason’s wedding and stealing his fiancée further aggravate their sibling rivalry. Duke’s family has no notion he’s a wizard, so how can he explain that magickind’s fate lies with the beautiful, tenacious bride he longs to seduce? Felicia is an Untouchable, a rare human whose presence disables magic—even the impenetrable forces surrounding Morganna le Fay’s tomb. The evil witch’s malicious powers could propel nefarious wizard Mathias to ultimate world domination . . . if he can resurrect her. To conceal herself, Felicia must succumb to her smoldering desire for Duke, but he risks binding his life—and sanity— to a lover whose loyalties are forever torn. He faces a choice: betray his brother for ultimate survival . . . or lose the woman who tempts him beyond control.

• Jean Johnson – FINDING DESTINY
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (January 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425238628
• ISBN-13: 978-0425238622
• Pre-order

Sons of Destiny come four all-new novellas set in the same bewitching world of danger, passion, and providence…

The slave…Chanson, a privileged Arbran dyara, discovers an unexpected connection with the excitingly different Eduor, a bracingly sexy war-slave who desires his freedom. But what binds them together could also destroy them.

The knight…The Arbran diplomat Sir Zeilas must turn the Guildaran people—with their strange machines and weaponry—from former enemies into allies. But in the case of their intriguingly beautiful leader, perhaps something more intimate is in order.

The mage…Gabria never expected to become a Guildaran envoy to Aurul, or the subject of their seer king’s prophecies. But the most stunning surprise was what waited for her in His Majesty’s winter palace, and why.

The pirate…Captain Ellett would do anything for his king. Even hunt down the pirates plaguing the Jenodan Isles. But he never counted on the seductive powers of the pirate’s captain—beautiful, tempestuous, and impossible to resist.

Something that isn’t complete with a lot of info but this new trilogy really sets me on fire and I just had to share it!

Karin Tabke – Blood Moon Rising trilogy 2011

• Blood Law, Berkley Heat, May ‘11
(Blood Moon Trilogy #1)
• Blood Moon Rising, Berkley Heat, Sept ‘11
(Blood Moon Trilogy #2)

Blood Moon Trilogy #1
Berkley Heat (May 2011)
Trade Paperback – Erotic Paranormal

For all eternity, only one thing shall separate them—until the Blood Law is avenged…

The coming of the Blood Moon will lead two Lycan packs into war, spur two rival brothers into conflict, and spark an act of vengeance so evil that its effects will be felt for generations.

One woman stands at the center of it all…

As undisputed Alpha, Rafael must choose a life mate to preserve the dominance of his Lycan pack. He never suspected, his mate would be a human, the same wounded, girl-woman he seduces from the brink of death. Falon is a dangerous combination of Lycan and Slayer—beings bred to destroy his kind. Even more, she’s a mesmerizing beauty whose sensuality tempts the seasoned warrior to take unnecessary risks. The primal heat between them is irresistible, yet surrendering to it could destroy them both…for a vengeful foe stands ready in the shadows to fulfill what is rightfully his by Blood Law. 

Paperback: 416 pages
Bantam
ISBN-13: 978-0-4402-4577-3
ISBN-10: 0-4402-4577-X
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Book 1 in the Shadow Keepers series
Main Characters: Sara Constantine & Lucius Dragos
For Sale At: Book Depository Store

Summary:
Attorney Sara Constantine is thrilled with her promotion - until she finds out that she must now prosecute vampires and werewolves. The first defendant she'll be trying to put away? Lucius Dragos, the sexy stranger with whom she recently shared an explosive night of ecstasy.

When Lucius kisses a beautiful woman sitting next to him at the bar, he's hoping only to avoid the perceptive gaze of the man he's planning to kill. But what starts as a simple kiss ignites into an all-consuming passion. Charged with murder, Luke knows that Sara is determined to see him locked away - unless he can convince her that he's not a monster. And that might mean making the ultimate sacrifice.

REVIEW
The Paranormal Romance genre is going into a new direction and JK Beck is one of the leading ladies in doing so. Combine the booming Paranormal Romance Novels with the popularity of police law enforcement series on TV and you find a mixture that thrills the reader with suspense and love.

This was what first came to mind when I closed this book after reading it. I was a bit ‘warrior-band-of-brother-exhausted’ and JK Beck has blown new life into my love for reading about vampire’s, werewolves, demons and everything not so common to the human world.

At first it took me some getting used to the pace, world build up, and where this story was taking me, but once I went way down under and got settled into division 6 – PEC (Preternatural Enforcement Coalition), a whole new world of Paranormal Investigation’s, DA’s and their own Judicial System opened up to me, making my heartbeat rise and my longing to read on grow with each page I turned.

Straight away we’re thrown into a murder scene, which on the surface seems a slam-dunk arrest, but turns out to be a lot more complicated that it was at face-value.

Sara is a prosecutor and after her promotion is thrown into the paranormal world, she’s an honest woman, seeking out justice and not feeling ruled with the fact she had to prosecute someone for a crime they might have done according to the evidence on the surface. I found it a bit difficult to connect with her as a character at the start, but as the story progresses I felt she opened up more and more.

Lucius is a centuries old vampire, and within this series, vampire’s struggle with their inner daemon who is seeking blood/souls to feed of and have a craving need for violence. When I came across him the first time he didn’t come across as a straight forward villain to me, more like a rogue out loose in the paranormal world, with a big sense of responsibility, but not feeling sorry for the things he has to do (as an assassin for the Alliance), which aren’t quite so legal or by the book. What I found so great about him was that he didn’t apologize for it. It was either accept him for who he is, flaws and all, or don’t accept him and have it that way, but either way was fine with him. I absolutely loved that!

The love for each other was a built up from a one night stand and like an instant thing, and I would have loved to have seen more pages used for their actual love-relationship but there are only so much pages in a novel to write up. Throughout their encounters it is clear that there is more than just passion for each other so it was a believable development within this story.

Both Sara and Luke are brought into this story with baggage from the past to solve or lay to rest, making them characters that grow along in this story and in their encounters. Their past however, do make cause for obstacles and these could have gone awry leading their own life within the story, but JK Beck knows how to handle it and guide it into a great plotline.

Throughout this first installment in the Shadow Keepers series, quite a few secondary characters come to pass, all complex with a variety of paranormal powers, and I sincerely hope that in the next installments these characters will get a part as well or even their own story. The world build up was really well done, as well. It took some time getting into it, as it is very different from what I was used to reading, but once a bit more settled into the terminology and way of life, it all falls into place. It is definitely a world I want to continue reading about!

Some of the plotlines were predictable, but I didn’t see the major plotline coming, making this read a thrilling one until the end. Towards the end all small and big plotlines were completed leaving me satisfied as a reader. Though there was a point where I got a bit uncomfortable with reading on, which might be a break-point for some readers, I thought it great of JK Beck to not avoid this and use it in her story as it did have a purpose to things IMHO.

Quote of one of my favorite characters in this novel-Tucker-I just love his humor:
She peered at his shield and ID, then met his eyes, her own filled with confusion. "Homeland Security?"
She stared him down. "Are you shitting me?"
"No, ma’am," Tucker said. "We at Homeland Security do not have a sense of humor of which we’re aware."

This is definitely a strong, compelling and intriguing start of a new series, and I for one am looking forward to being taken back to the PEC and their paranormal investigations!

Time flies when you're having fun because once again it's my turn for Happy Abs Day. I keep saying this but these posts are even harder for me to do than writing reviews. I am just not that visually inclined and definitely challenged in the creative department. But I have managed to concoct something once again...*wipes brow*

This week I wanted to do a collage of black and white pics of abs and while browsing for those images I found a few special ones and decided to dedicate this week's Happy Abs to some celebs who have some great abs AND look yummy in black & white.



And for the fun of it, I haven't put names to the pictures. Some of course are easy to recognize but let's see if you can name them all for me?