Guest Post: Tiffany Allee on Flying Pigs plus Giveaway

I’d like to welcome Tiffany Allee to Reading Reality today. Tiffany is the creator, or perhaps I should say perpetrator, of the new urban fantasy/paranormal romance series, The Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency. She’s here as part of the tour to promote the second story extracted from those Files, Succubus Lost. She’s going to tell us a bit about the process that all writers dread, that process of revising the scintillating and marvelous words that tripping out of our heads and onto our keyboards.

About those flying pigs…read her guest post, and you’ll understand.

Revisathon 2012

When I dreamed of being a writer—long before I ever took the steps to actually write with the goal of publication in mind—I envisioned many things. Words pouring from me that were perfection as soon as they hit the page. Sparkling characters. Movie deals. Stories that would make readers weep. A tweed jacket and a pipe. My name splashed on the headlines—in a good, non-scandalous way, of course.

I didn’t have a clue.

And the biggest thing I was wrong about was the first one. That I would write perfect first drafts. Of course, I don’t have any movie deals or tweed jackets yet, and I haven’t made anyone cry, but these are at least possibilities. Someday. The brilliant first draft on the other hand is as likely as pigs flying.

That’s not to say that some writers aren’t able to do this. But for most of us, it’s unrealistic. How many drafts do I go through to get from my first to the one that is actually published? This isn’t a question I really thought about with books before Succubus Lost. It’s the first story I had contracted before I wrote it, so I had a chance to really look at how much effort it took to get from idea to publishable draft.

I write fairly clean first drafts. Fairly. But they’re short. I tend to skip over details and descriptions. I mark spots with two Xs anytime I need to research something. I go back to those areas and do the research during the second draft, so that my speed isn’t slowed during the first. So I fill out all of these little things during the second draft. Then I read and polish and tinker for a third.

Then I send it to my critique partners, who send it back to me with wonderful advice and far too many jokes. Seriously, I can’t drink liquids while reading their comments. Another draft and round of polishes and it’s usually ready to send on to my editor.

I love my editor. She’s wonderful at what she does. And she works very hard to make sure my readers get the best I am capable of. She isn’t afraid to push me. So we go round and round. More drafts. More polishes. More fixes. And finally rounds of edits with other editors to make sure we’ve made the story sparkle. Then copy edits. Galleys. It’s exhausting.

And fantastic.

I can never again fool myself into thinking that I will ever be able to simply toss a draft out there without revising. But it’s worth every bit of effort to feel like I’ve told the story I set out to tell.

Do you write great first drafts (like some sort of rare unicorn), or do you only find your story a few drafts in?

Tiffany, thanks so much for giving us an insight into your writing process.

And I think I’m with the flying pigs on this one. My first draft is pretty good, but it still needs some work. And an editor. I’m great at editing somebody else’s work, and terrible at editing my own. What about  everyone else? Can you edit your own work, or do you need a different eye to see the flaws?

Now, about that giveaway! There’s still plenty of time to enter the tour-wide giveaway for a copy of Succubus Lost, and  the Salamander pin pictured just before the Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cover Reveal: Mystically Bound by Stacey Kennedy

Welcome, welcome, to the third book in the Frostbite series by Stacey Kennedy, Mystically Bound. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Frankly, after the way that Demonically Tempted ended, Mystically Bound can’t get here soon enough. The ending of Demonically Tempted just about killed me.

Here’s the blurb for Mystically Bound, just to whet your appetite:

Tess Jennings’ life is in chaos. Not only has her ghost lover, Kipp McGowen, crossed into the Netherworld, but she’s the newest member of a secret society. And they want her to start work immediately. Upon arriving at the Temple in New Orleans, she is presented with an offer she cannot refuse.

The Grand Master has been murdered and Tess must solve the crime by locating his ghost. The reward—a magical spell to save Kipp. But as Tess dives deeper into the case, the more danger surrounds her. Not everyone wants the murder solved, and she is caught in the crossfire.

Soon, Tess finds herself knee-deep in ancient magical rituals, a hunt for a spell, a race to locate a killer, and a journey to the beyond. Will Kipp finally take a living breath, or will Tess take her last?

If you’re not already a fan of Stacey Kennedy’s Frostbite series, what are you waiting for? (If you need a final push, take a look at my reviews of Kissed and Tempted.) Supernaturally Kissed and Demonically Tempted are a terrific blend of paranormal romance and urban fantasy. And all of us who are over here dying to know what happens next want the rest of you to come and join us in suspense.


 

Demonically Tempted

Demonically Tempted is the second book in Stacey Kennedy’s intensely amazing paranormal romance/urban fantasy Frostbite series. The events in Demonically Tempted directly follow those in the first book, Supernaturally Kissed. You should read Supernaturally Kissed before Demonically Tempted. All the 5 star reviews of Supernaturally Kissed were dead-on, it’s fantastic. And so is Demonically Tempted. You’ll be tempted to stay up late to finish it!

Right where Kissed left off, Tess Jennings sees ghosts, especially her ghost-lover, Kipp McGowan, a cop who is determined to continuing serving with the Memphis Police Department, even as a ghost.

But Tess is the only one who can see him. And Tess’ ability to communicate with ghosts is very useful to the cold-case squad. So many cold-cases involve old homicides, and so many victims, well, have the kind of unfinished business that results in ghosts. Ghosts that Tess can help.

Tess gets a job offer from the Memphis P.D. Which she really has no choice about taking. Her old job isn’t there anymore. She spent too much time working with the cops on Kipp’s case. She got fired.

But working with Kipp’s old squad is okay. They accept her and Kipp as a team. But, there’s a problem. The supernatural community is not so accepting. Kipp is a ghost. His issues are resolved. He should cross over. And he isn’t, hasn’t, won’t. Because of Tess.

Tess’ powers are untrained. She started seeing ghosts when she was seventeen, after a very near-death experience. The Police Department has brought in a medium, someone who has more experience working cases, to work with her. Dane Wolfe says he can train her, but something about Dane gives her the heebie-jeebies, even more than the ghosts.

And something is seriously up with the ghost community. There are lots of ghost coming to see her. Deliberately. There is a dark spirit terrorizing them. Tess didn’t even know the ghosts were organized, and now they’re passing the word around about her. They want her to actually “Ghostbust” a bad spirit for them. What’s up with that?

So the quiet life Tess had at the beginning of Supernaturally Kissed is toast. Instead, she’s a police consultant with a ghost-lover and a real would-be Ghostbuster for the good ghosts on the ghostly side of Memphis–something she didn’t know existed. And she feels guilty for keeping Kipp from crossing over. Because she loves him more than she’s ever loved any man, and it’s going to rip her apart when he leaves. Which is what is supposed to happen.

And she’s in the middle of her first real case, which is nothing like it appears to be. And might be part of the whole supernatural Ghostbusting-thing.

Maybe Tess should ask for her quiet life back?

Escape Rating A: This just keeps getting better. And darker and deeper. The urban fantasy mix-in of the cop shop is marvelous–all of Kipp’s squad trying to get used to Tess, and knowing that he’s there watching, but they can’t see him. Some of them answer the question they know he’s just asked, even though they can’t hear it. Now that’s teamwork!

There’s angst here, too. Tess and Kipp know this can’t last forever, and there are definitely problems. Their relationship is hot, but, their ability to physically interact is seriously limited. And they definitely love each other. They want to do what is best for each other, but don’t know what that is, since they have no clue what comes next. What happens to ghost, after?

Demonically Tempted ends on a scrape-your-jaw-off-the-floor cliffhanger. I wanted to reach through my iPad and shake the next book out of Ms. Kennedy right then and there. (This feature needs to be added to future iPads)

The cover reveal for Mystically Bound is tomorrow.

Supernaturally Kissed

Tess Jennings sees dead people. Ghosts. And they’re usually pretty clueless. No “Ghostbusting” required. Mostly they’re lost and confused and they need Tess to deliver a final message to somebody, or close out some unfinished business for them, or maybe just tell them they’re dead. Then they move on.

They aren’t supposed to spend an entire evening whispering dirty nothings into her ear. Not in a voice so sexy it ought still be doing phone sex, whether the operator is dead or alive.

But when Kipp McGowen, starts coming on to Tess in Supernaturally Kissed, the first book of Stacey Kennedy’s Frostbite series, he’s a ghost. The most deliciously handsome and mentally together ghost that Tess Jennings has ever seen. But definitely a ghost.

Kipp is a cop with the Memphis Police Department. And he needs Tess to help him solve one final case before he can “move on”, or whatever it is that ghosts do. He needs Tess to deliver all the information he has on the case that got him killed.

What’s weird about that case is that Kipp was working a cold case. It shouldn’t have gotten anyone excited enough to gun down a cop. But it sure seems like whoever murdered Hannah Reid five years ago must have gotten nervous about a cop asking questions about the old case. Even if the cop in question doesn’t know which rock he overturned that uncovered his killer.

Kipp didn’t see his murderer. It isn’t that easy. He wants Tess to go to the police station and talk to his partner.

Tess is NOT THRILLED. She knows what’s going to happen. The cops are going to be certain she’s a fake. Or crazy. Or both. She’ll be exposing her gift (or her curse, it’s all in the definition) and nothing good will come of it. At least not for her.

But Kipp is certain this is the only way he’ll get the resolution he needs to cross over. And Tess knows she won’t get him out of her life until he does. And dammit, she finds him amazingly, incredibly hot. Having him around, as a ghost, all the time, watching her, talking to her, in that sexy voice, describing all the things he’d do to her if he weren’t a ghost–she’ll combust.

She goes to the station. And it’s every bit as bad as she feared. Except that Kipp is there with her. Really with her. So it’s good. Even though it shouldn’t be. And that’s a problem.

Because he’s a ghost. And the longer he stays, the better they are together. The better they are together, the more difficult it will be when his case is finally resolved, whatever that’s going to take.

The more Tess works with Kipp and plays with Kipp, the more danger she is in. Working with the cops is dangerous enough, but the real danger, is to her heart. What happens if she falls in love with a ghost?

Escape Rating A: This is one of those times when the book is every bit as good as all the buzz you’ve heard. Everyone raved about Supernaturally Kissed and they were absolutely right. This story is a wow!

Tess is wounded and keeps to herself because she’s got a gift, or a curse. She can see ghosts, and she helps them cross over. Kipp is a ghost who needs her help. The only problem is that Kipp is her wildest dream of a man she would have wanted, if only he were alive!

Struggling with being a ghost, with needing to rely on others, and with the awareness that his time has already run out, makes Kipp into the man that Tess needs, except it’s already too late. Kipp’s a ghost. Resolving his last case is the loose end that keeps him from crossing over. When it’s done, he’ll be gone. But he’s a cop, and the case needs to be done so that Hannah Reid, the woman whose death he was investigating, has justice, and so that her murderer isn’t free.

It was never about Kipp. That’s what made him a good cop. That’s what makes him a good hero for this romance, in spite of being a ghost. Or maybe because he’s a ghost. A very hot ghost.

The Frostbite series continues with Demonically Tempted and the upcoming Mystically Bound (cover reveal tomorrow)

Guest Post: K. Reed on Chaos and Manners plus Giveaway

Today’s guest on Reading Reality is K. Reed, the author of the utterly fascinating (read the review) post-apocalyptic Regency romance Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire.

I will say that I picked up Dark Inheritance because a part of me was wondering “how did she do it?” and another part was wondering “why did she do it?” Reading the story itself takes care of the how, and I’m glad I did. it’s a wow!

For the “why”, we have Ms. Reed herself to answer that question!

 

 

Thank you so much for hosting me at your blog today, Marlene! I love that you’re a librarian and that you’ve worked in so many different places. Really gives you a perspective on places and things.

I love this question: There couldn’t be two more opposite images than the “ultra-ordered society of the Regency Era” and the “one half-step away from chaos” that the words Post-Apocalyptic or Dystopian bring to mind. Tell us how you reached the decision to combine those two opposites into a single story concept. Were there any other times and places in the running for your Fallen Empire series?

The world I created in Dark Inheritance…I am a huge fan of the Regency era, I love Jane Austen and so many other Regency authors. I wanted to enter into the historical market and Regency, regardless of the umpteenth time it’s been declared dead in the publishing industry, is still one of the most popular romance genres. Its popularity makes it attractive to historical writers to step into that genre, but it also means a lot of competition.

I wanted to step in. But I also wanted to stand out.

Aside from my love for Regencies and historicals, I enjoy reading many genres, including those that cover the post-apocalyptic. So, through a series of coincidences with what I had been watching (mainly the History Channel) and what I wanted to write (mainly Regency Romances) the world of Dark Inheritance presented itself.

It was exactly because of those rigid rules of society during the Regency Era, that I wanted to smash them and see what their echo in a world like the one I created, would wrought. The traditional Regency is the epitome of rigid rules, and when you alter them or veer them away from the historically known, you create a new world that awaits discovery. I hope you’ll take the time to discover what I’ve created in Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire.

Now then, the places and times for the series. Yes, I absolutely did wonder about other times. I debated between Victorian and Regency, and even wondered about the Colonial Era. For a while the Victorian Era was a frontrunner, mostly because at this time the British Empire’s reach spanned the globe.

In the end, I decided on the Regency Era because it was a much more insular society with incredibly specific rules I could toy with. I also wanted to center it in the British Empire specifically because of their legendary rules of society.

I admit to playing with the idea of a limited series of shorter books that take place within the Fallen Empire series but not set in England. One of the things I didn’t like about The Hunger Games was not knowing what went on in the rest of the world. Or even the exact boundaries of Panem. If I want to know what’s happening elsewhere, I hope others will also!

Ms. Reed, I certainly want to know what’s happening elsewhere. And I want another book in the series, so I can find out! Thank you so much for telling us some of the thoughts that went into the worldbuilding behind Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire.

Tour-wide GIVEAWAY!

Just in case, truly, just in case we experience some kind of apocalyptic event, Ms. Reed wants to make sure her readers are prepared.

So she has graciously agreed to award nine Post-Apocalypse survival baskets (each basket includes tea, a fan, a shawl, a bracelet and more) –Plus ONE Grand Prize basket will include a iPod Touch–to randomly drawn commenters during the tour!

This giveaway is open to US/Canada residents only.

Follow the tour and comment, the more places you comment (be sure to leave a comment here at Reading Reality), the more chances you have to win a basket. You do want to be prepared, don’t you?

May 14: Christine Young
May 15: Live To Read ~ Krystal
May 16: Books Reviewed by Bunny
May 17: Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer
May 18: Ramblings From This Chick
May 21: Queen of all She Reads
May 22: Immortality and Beyond
May 23: Writers and Authors
May 24: Books Are Magic
May 25: Megan Johns Invites
May 28: Novel Reflections
May 29: Reading Reality
May 30: A Case of Reading Insomnia
May 31: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
June 1: The Life (and lies) of an inanimate flying object
June 4: Reader Girls
June 5: Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess
June 6: It’s Raining Books
June 7: Dawn’s Reading Nook
June 8: Adventure Into Romance

Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire

Two flavors that taste surprisingly good together: the manners of the Regency period, dipped into the darkness that comes after the complete collapse of civilization that results from an utterly devastating plague.  In other words, what happens to the upper crust of the ton in a dystopian world?

Unlike Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, K. Reed’s Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire is not playing for laughs. Someone has unleashed a plague on England, and the population has been reduced to a mere remnant of itself. Only the strong survive.

There are no zombies, no vampires, no ghouls. Well, not in the classic horror sense. There are only men and women who have survived a deadly disease that seems to have struck down eight or nine out of ten. Civilization has collapsed. Whole towns have ceased to exist. It’s as if the Black Death struck full force in 1804 instead of the 1400’s.

The English blame Napoleon. If the same thing happened in France, the French probably blame the English.

But Grayson Merrick, Baron of Harwich, doesn’t have time to worry about who the French think caused the plague. He’s much too busy holding his own lands. He kept his coastal fief of Harwich together, and relatively safe, when most of the lands around him descended into chaos. It’s required iron discipline, and a will of adamant, but two years later, he’s carved a safe zone for his people and is bringing more villages under his protection each month.

Relative safety means that he has time to worry about the future, the future of England. Rumor says that the Royals are all fled, or dead. That the government is gone. He heard one fairly credible rumor that some of the governmment officials were still alive in London, and he mounted a expedition to check it out. He found London a burned out wreck, and no government left. Almost no one left alive except the rats.

The heart of the Empire is dust and ashes.

As he returns to Harwich Grayson decided to take his foraging party, (for that is what they are, it is not possible to go out into the countryside without searching for supplies) to the house of his former commander.

His commander has died of the plague. Everyone in that house has died of the plague. Except for one beautiful woman. Who has survived, and like all survivors, is probably immune. But she is weak and will slow them down returning to Harwich.

Grayson has always told his men not to take survivors. They can’t save everyone. They don’t have enough supplies. This is a brutal necessity in a world gone mad. But he wants this woman. She is the only thing, the only person, he has asked for, for himself, in the time since the plague, since he began saving everyone else.

His men make space in the carriage they are using to haul supplies, and they bring her back to Harwich.

Her name is Juliette, Lady Adair. They should have met in a ballroom. He should have been able to respectfully pay his addresses, before the world went mad.

That world is gone.

Instead, he installs her in his rooms, because they are the only place good enough for her. There are no proprieties any longer.

And the first thing she sees when she wakes up is Grayson whipping a man for being falling down drunk on sentry duty, and allowing bandits into the safe zone. The man chose the whipping, because it was a preferred punishment to being exiled. Exile is death in this terrible world.

And Juliette understands. Only the strong survive. She is one of the strong ones. She is a member of the British Government. The question is, whether or not she can trust Grayson with her secret.

And whether he can trust her with his.

Escape Rating A-: This is an a darkly fascinating alternate history. The reader does not know how the plague came about, because the characters don’t know. The world has gone mad. How do the strong survive? Who do you trust? Life still goes on, but what changes?

The description of this story was a post-apocalyptic Regency romance, and it kind of is, but more in an alternate history sense. Everyone remembers the mannered culture of the ton, but the sane people know it’s over.

There is a love story, and the lovers, Grayson and Juliette, both think about what things would have been like, if, but recognize that the world has shattered. They regret what they’ve lost, but mostly the people and how much easier life was. They are pragmatic. Very. And while it’s expected in the hero, it’s also excellent to have in a Regency heroine. A simpering miss would be dead. Literally.

Regarding the spying and skullduggery against the French, it’s absolutely fascinating that even with the plague, the enmity between France and England is eternal.

Memorial Day 2012

Memorial Day in the United States is a holiday that is intended to honor those who have fallen in the service of the United States while wearing the uniform of one of its Armed Forces. The Wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, pictured above, commemorates that fact starkly, listing the names of those who fell.

M*A*S*H, although it was set in Korea was commenting about Vietnam. But the line I remember best is when it took one of its early turns for the serious from the funny. When in a very bleak moment after hours of exhausting meatball surgery, Colonel Blake told Hawkeye, “Rule number one is young men die. Rule number two is doctors can’t change rule number one.”

The following poem is one I found in a thin, stained, stapled, well, calling it a paperback dignifies it considerably, from high-school. Variations of it still can be found on the net, all attributed to that great poet, Anonymous. Set at the time of the Vietnam War, it still chills.

But You Didn’t
Remember the time you let me borrow
Your new car and I smashed the fender?
I thought you’d kill me
But you didn’t
And remember the time I spilled my
Coke
On your new rug?
I thought you’d kill me
But you didn’t
Remember the time I flirted with the guys
to make you jealous?
I thought you’d drop me
But you didn’t
And the time you brought me to the beach
And you said it would rain?
And it did
I thought you’d scream I told you so
But you didn’t

I wanted to make all these things
Up to you
When you came home from Viet Nam
But you didn’t

The picture at the top of the post is from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and is part of Wikimedia Commons. The photographer is Hu Totya and the photo is used with permission.

 

What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? AKA The Sunday Post 5-27-12

It’s Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S. And Monday it is Whit Monday for some of my European friends at Book Lovers Inc., so it’s a three-day weekend for a lot of people.

So there will be lots of reading going on this weekend. At least at my house.

There will also be a lot of playing of Diablo III. Like last night until 2 in the morning. Galen and I both love a good dungeon crawl now and again, with serious hacking and slashing for flavor. And that pretty much describes every Diablo game. I play the barbarian, and he, as he so eloquently described it, plays the “squishy wizard”.

But this is the Sunday Post, so that I can describe what will happen at Reading Reality once the weekend is over. (Tuesday is Monday this week!) Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer is the host of the Sunday Post.

I use the Virtual Nightstand as a way of peeking into next week to see what I should be reading, so my next week’s schedule doesn’t pop up and shout, “Surprise!” this time next week. It also gives me a chance to talk about upcoming books that I thought were neat or cool enough to grab from NetGalley or Edelweiss.

Coming up this week…

Monday, May 28 is Memorial Day. Normally, there would be an Ebook Review Central on Monday, but ERC is taking Memorial Day off. It will return on June 4, with the Samhain April 2012 wrap-up.

On Tuesday, I’ll be hosting a guest post from author K. Reed about her post-apocalyptic Regency romance, Dark Inheritance, Fallen Empire, as well as a review of the book. I’m fascinated, because I never thought that those two tropes could manage to co-exist, the manners of the Regency and the chaos of a post-apocalypse. This should be awesome.

Thursday is another big day, with the cover reveal of Stacey Kennedy’s new Frostbite book,  Mystically Bound (after Supernaturally Kissed and Demonically Tempted) and an interview with Tiffany Allee about her latest book, Succubus Lost.

Then there’s the books I’ll be reading for next week. Also one that got itself moved to this week. A book blogger’s work is never done. But it’s so much fun!

My editor at Library Journal asked me to review the Carina Press Presents: Editor’s Choice Volume 1 with a May 30 deadline. She usually only gives me about a week to review a book. Lucky for me, the books she sends are generally very good, and are often books I’ve already picked up from NetGalley, like this one.

This Editor’s Choice volume is really three novellas in one, and the novellas are also available separately. So it’s Kilts & Kraken by Cindy Spencer Pape (finally something in her  Gaslight Chronicles), Slow Summer Kisses by Shannon Stacey (not Kowalski, but still contemporary) and Negotiating Point by Adrienne Giordano, the latest in her Private Protectors series. I forced myself to read some of the Giordano series to figure out what was going on there, and it was so hard (I’m joking, I’m really joking. They’re good.)

And the darn thing has a June 4 publication date, so I was going to be reading it anyway! Along with the Editor’s Choice Volume 2, which contains No Money Down by Julie Moffett, Dead Calm by Shirley Wells, Dance of Flames by Janni Nell and Pyro Canyon by Robert Appleton. I’m most interested in Robert Appleton’s Pyro Canyon, it’s space opera.

I have a tour book for Book Lovers Inc., Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies, by Cynthia Cooke. Reading Reality participated in the Cover Reveal on Mothers’ Day, so when the book came up for a tour at BLI, I was curious. It looks like an interesting and short romantic suspense story.

There will be a Goddess Fish tour at Reading Reality for Drowning Mermaids by Nadia Scrieva. This is paranormal romance, with, of course, mermaids. There aren’t a lot of stories using mermaids as the heroines, so my curiosity bump itched.

I’ll confess, I do have a problem picking more books than I have time for. I like having choices. And so I have too many choices.

Next week, the following books are being released, and I have review copies that I really want to get a chance to read.

The two highest on the hit parade are both science fiction. Worldsoul (see On My Wishlist #1 for description) by Liz Williams and The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett. These are two authors that I simply read everything.

This is also a week for books in pairs. Lady Amelia’s Mess and a Half by Samantha Grace and The Most Improper Miss Sophie Valentine by Jayne Fresina have the same feel to them, at least by title. But Regency romps can be heaps of fun. Maybe not back-to-back.

I’m so glad it’s a long weekend! What about you? What’s you Sunday up to this week?

On My Wishlist #11

What’s on my wishlist this week?

Okay, I’ll confess, the number one thing on my wishlist is to figure out what’s going on with the “On My Wishlist” meme.

It used to be hosted by Book Chick City and they did a fantastic job with it. At the end of March, they passed the torch to Cosy Books. And everything seemed to be going, well, quite cosily all through April.

But May 3 was the last On My Wishlist post that the new host posted. This is such a terrific meme, I hope that it continues. Or that the torch gets passed.

There are still books On My Wishlist. There are ALWAYS books on my wishlist!

I found out this week that the third book in Kendra Leigh Castle’s Dark Dynasties series, Shadow Rising, will be coming out on July 31. I loved the first two books, Dark Awakening  (review) and Midnight Reckoning (review). They’re paranormal romances, but with some interesting twists. And I always adore the interesting twists. For one thing, it’s about the resurrection of a dynasty, the Cait Sith. She had me right there, it’s the cat shifters. But the politics are convoluted and cool, too. I hope Shadow Rising pops up on NetGalley soon.

Nalini Singh’s new Psy-Changeling book, Tangle of Need (UK cover at right), releases on Tuesday. I’ll probably be waiting for it at midnight-oh0one to download. Almost certainly. And yes, I know I’ve said that before. This is my wishlist. (So there!)

And did anyone else notice how huge the list of Tuesday new releases is? And how wonderfully full of paranormal romance? Take a look at the Sunday Cravings post tomorrow at Book Lovers Inc. for the very full list.

I’d love to know what’s on your wishlist this week. Maybe we can make each other’s TBR stacks get taller? What do you think?

Stacking the Shelves #4

Compared to last week’s Stacking the Shelves, this one is one whole column less stacked. Really, truly.

And some of there are a couple of these that just kind of, well, showed up. I’ve gotten on some publishers’ lists to get print ARCs. At least, I think that’s how the print ARCs make their way to my doorstep.

The whole concept of the Stacking the Shelves meme is that we get to give a little bit of love to those books that make their way to us whether or not they will ever get full review treatment. Or, for that matter, whether or not we have a clue why they arrived in the mail.

Tynga’s Reviews hosts Stacking the Shelves. I am one of the many eager participants.

One egalley on my shelf this week that I’m beyond thrilled about is Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness. This is the sequel to The Discovery of Witches, which was awesome. Shadow of Night has been on my wishlist since I first heard about it. And officially since it first showed up on NetGalley, way back. But I didn’t get it from NetGalley. It turned up on Edelweiss, and I got it from there. So if you also want Shadow of Night, check Edelweiss.

From the Author or Publisher:
Decoy by Michaela Debelius
A Dark Anatomy by Robin Blake (print ARC)
The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams (print ARC)

From Sizzling PR:
The Dressmaker’s Dilemma by Theresa Stillwagon
Afterburn by Sonia Hightower
Guy’s Angel by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
City of the Gods: The Descendant by S.J. McMillan

From Bewitching Book Tours:
Succubus Lost by Tiffany Allee
Kidnapped by Maria Hammarblad

Purchased from Amazon:
Lover Unexpected by Brindle Chase
Eternal Kiss of Darkness by Jeaniene Frost (it’s on sale! for $1.99!)

Purchased from Audible
The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon. Narrated by Jeff Woodman and Rick Holmes (unabridged audiobook)

For Book Lovers Inc.:
The Blacksmith’s Lover by Heather Massey

From NetGalley:
A Lady Can Never Be Too Curious by Mary Wine
I Only Have Eyes for You by Bella Andre

From Edelweiss:
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

Everything is an ebook unless specifically stated otherwise. That’s why I’m always surprised when a print ARC comes in the mail.

I’m planning to treat myself to some of these for the Memorial Day weekend. What about you? Any special reading planned for the weekend? Or are you stocking up for the summer at the beach?

What stacking up on your shelves this week?