The News is Back

Date 5 January 2009 - Jackie

Remember that Book Reviewers Meme that started at Grasping for the Wind and viraled out?  Well, The Crotchety Old Fan is going through all of those links and posting a review of the blogs.  He has completed the task and he created a page where you can see all of his reviews.

Interviews:

  • Yasmine Galenorn, author of Night Huntress (Sisters of the Moon #), by Anya Bast
  • Anya Bast, author of Witch Heart (Elemental Witches #3), by Yasmine Galenorn
  • Michelle Hauf, author of the Bewitch the Dark series, by Vampire Wire CONTEST ALERT - a lucky commentator will win the complete set of Bewitch the Dark.  Contest ends Saturday night.

Justin Gustainis is guest blogging over at Jeri Smith-Ready’s blog.  He’s talking about the future of urban fantasy and there’s a giveaway as well.  His new novel, Evil Ways, is up for grabs and the contest is open until Jan 9th.

Best Fantasy Stories has a Top 100 Fantasy Stories of 2008 and their list is pretty impressive.  Instead of listing out 100 novels/stories, they’ve actually separated it by categories within Fantasy. Side note - it looks like this list doesn’t include books only published in 2008, but what they’ve read in 2008.  Also, some books are in multiple categories.

In the paranormal world, you get a lot of stories about vampires, shapeshifters and witches, but there isn’t that much about the one supernatrual creature that a lot of people don’t necessary automatically fear - the gargoyle (at least I don’t - they are the natural protectors).  So when I hear about a story involving gargoyles, it catches my attention.  Which means I’ve found a new series - Les Gargouillen - by Vickie Taylor.  The third novel, Legacy of Stone, will be out sometime this year, however there are still the first two novels - Carved in Stone and Flesh and Stone - to read and have already been added to the TBR list.

I’m not one to get too involved in TV shows anymore, but after reading this list of upcoming 2009 shows, that might change.  The one that caught my attention was Merlin, a BBC series that’s being rebroadcast in the US.  Other than the fact that it is Merlin, what really caught my attention was who was playing King Uther - Anthony Head Stewart.

Carrie Vaughn is giving us her opinion (or at least the first part of it) on why Urban Fantasy is so popular right now.

Margaret Carter is guest blogging over at Paranormality about Sex and the Sympathetic Vampire.  CONTEST ALERT - There is an e-copy of Shadow of the Beast up for grabs, so head on over and check it out.

CONTEST ALERT - Patricia’s Vampire Notes has announced it’s January contest.  She’s giving away a copy of Night Rising by Chris Marie Green, which is the first novel in her Vampire Babylon series.

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At Grave’s End by J. Frost

Date 5 January 2009 - Jackie

I finally got my hands on the third installment of Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series, At Grave’s End and it was just as fantastic as I thought it would be.

It should be the best time of half-vampire Cat Crawfield’s life. With her undead lover Bones at her side, she’s successfully protected mortals from the rogue undead. But though Cat’s worn disguise after disguise to keep her true identity a secret from the brazen bloodsuckers, her cover’s finally been blown, placing her in terrible danger.

Okay, I know I don’t normally use the publisher’s blurb, but seriously, At Grave’s End was so awesome, I was afraid I was going to give something away.  Has it is, I’ll be adding a spoiler section after the main review just because of some of the events that have happened.

First off, we were given more phenomenal character development on everyone involved in Cat’s life.  Max, Cat’s father, makes an appearance and its the starting point for the obstacles that Cat must endure along with Bones AND her mother, Justina.  That’s right, Justina is in this novel a lot more than she has in the past and she was great.  If you’ve never been a fan of Justina’s before, then you need to read At Grave’s End because your opinion will change, I guarantee it.  We’re also given more tension between Tate and Cat with some unexpected events.

Overall, At Grave’s End rocked and I’m having a hard time not talking about the things I want to say. So I’m going to say that you need to check At Grave’s End because this series just keeps getting better and better. If you truly want to know how much I enjoyed this novel, and don’t mind a few spoilers, than continue reading below.

Read order:
Halfway to the Grave - excerpt
One Foot in the Grave - excerpt
At Grave’s End - excerpt
An Early Grave (7/28/09)

Also reviewed by:
Darque Reviews

—-SPOILERS—-—-SPOILERS—-—-SPOILERS—-

Okay, seriously, was there anyone else who flipped over Justina’s developments this time around?  I loved her character in At Grave’s End.  She finds out Don is Max’s brother and openly admits that Bones has treated Cat far better than anyone in her family.  Then there are the three scenes I love that have her in it:

  1. Chapter 8, page 85 - “Now that was informative.” were her first words.  “Catherine, you never told me that no matter how many times you sliced something off a vampire, it grew back.”
    That is brilliant.  Justina was able to get her revenge on the vampire that raped her and she ends up having a great time.  Regardless of the fact that she’s surrounded by vampires.  Plus she takes up Rodney’s offer of staying with him until the new compound and houses are arranged, which kind of leads into my next favorite scene…
  2. Chapter 13, page 143 - “I staggered.  “Mom?  You and Rodney?”  A scarlet blush graced my mother’s features.  “He was making me dinner,” she sputtered.
    If you’re reading this and haven’t read the rest of the series yet (naughty you, go out and get this series), then you probably need a little background. Rodney is a ghoul. Justina has hated Bones throughout this entire series because he’s a vampire and undead.  The fact that Justina was shagging Rodney just makes this hilarious, espcially Cat’s reaction: “I stared at her like I’d never seen her before. “Did Rodney like them?” I asked.  She huffed.  “Did he like what, Catherine?” “The balls on you, that’s what!” Seriously, after all the grief Justina has given to Cat over her relationship with Bones, for her to pull this is classic.  I busted out laughing as soon as I read this.  This whole scene is great.
  3. Chapter 14, page 151.  I really don’t have a single quote from this scene because they are all great and it’s more the exchange between Ian and Justina that is inspiring.  Finally, Justina gets her warped sense of justice twisted on her when she confronts Ian with turning Max.  The fact that Ian was able to use her same logic for his case was so perfectly done that it kind of made me like Ian more.

I’m starting to like Justina a lot more after reading At Grave’s End.  She becomes a lot more personable.

I will say, I was not amused when Frost tried to kill Bones off.  I was balling my eyes out while I was reading (at 11:30 at night) this scene and I couldn’t put it down because I couldn’t believe that she would kill off Bones. With more novels coming in the series, I didn’t think she would do that, but the evidence was so damning.  During this time, all the scenes with Cat and then having to face Bones’ line…it was so beautifully written.  I cried right along with Cat and got pissed off at Tate when he tried to step in.  That’s another part that I’m intrigued with.  The new developments of Tate and Juan.  It will be interesting to see if Tate shows up in future novels, because after the discussion between Bones, Cat, Tate, and Don, I wouldn’t be surprised if he disappears. I personally think that Juan is going to be freaking hilarious as a vampire.  Especially since he likes to oogle Cat, but he’s still completely harmless in his attention.  He’s definitely going to give Bones hard time, but he’s going to be laughing about it.

Alright, that’s all I’m going to say about At Grave’s End.  Although, I am interested in what everyone else thought.

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It’s the new year…

Date 1 January 2009 - Jackie

It’s officially been one year since I started Literary Escapism, however I’ve been reviewing novels since April 2006, and it’s kind of odd really.  I originally started this site as a way to exercise my brain since I wasn’t working.  My son was 10 months old and I was starting to miss the idea of a job (a year prior to this, I was used to working 70+ hour work weeks as a litigation paralegal), but I was no where near ready to actually go back to work.  I wanted to stay home with Ian, but I still needed, no craved, that extra mental exercise of a job.  I had started reviewing novels with American Bibliophile back in 2006, but they ended up going on a short hiatus and so I continued reviewing novels on my own blog.  After a while, that was all I was posting and that’s when it clicked…start a book blog.  That was all I was going to do…write a few reviews and share my love of the written word.  Now look where I am.  In barely a year, I evolved the site to what it is today.  I would have never dreamed that I would get to post interviews with authors or even receive ARCs for advance review.  I didn’t even think that was possible.  Now I know it is and it’s amazing.

In the last year, I’ve met some amazing people who love to review and read just as much as I do.  Between all the different challenges that are out there, Weekly Geeks and the Bookworms Carnival, I’ve found a whole community of avid readers that get me.  Maybe not me personally, but get the idea of a true bookworm.  Beacuse of this community, I started keeping track of my novels and I would never have guessed that I had read 134 novels, 53 of them being new authors, in 2008.  I haven’t changed my reading habits at all and so I never would have guessed that I would read this much.  The fact that I tried 53 new authors, authors of novels I was actually interested in, would never have happened either.

With that in mind, it’s time again for those challenges to appear.  Last year, I participated in 5 different challenges and completed 4 of those.  This year, I’m joining 6 different challenges and hosting my own for the first time.

  1. New Authors, which is hosted by me and runs Jan 1st - Dec 31st
  2. Support Your Local Library, which is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog and runs Jan 1st - Dec 31st
  3. Themed Reading Challenge, which is hosted by Caribou Mom and runs Feb. 1st to July 31st
  4. 1st in a Series, which is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog and runs Jan 1st - Dec 31st
  5. 2nds Challenge, which is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog and runs Jan 1st - Dec 31st
  6. Paranormal 999 Challenge, which is hosted by LibraryThing and runs Jan 1st - Sept 9th
  7. R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril IV Challenge, which is hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings and runs Sept 1st - Oct 31st (as you can see, this one won’t start for awhile)

Weekly Geeks is going to be back next week and I can’t wait to see what the new managing team has planned for it. As for the Bookworms Carnival, I’m on that managing team and I know it’s still just as popular as when I first signed up.

I’m going to try and put together more interviews for this coming year.  Last year, I conducted 4 of them and I’m hoping to do at least one a month this year.  No promises though.  I still haven’t figured out one for this month, but I do have someone in mind.  As for guests posts, I will never turn one away and have 5 scheduled already.  They’ll be coming up between now and March, so keep a lookout for them.

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Escapist Newsletter (Vol. 3 Issue 1)

Date 1 January 2009 - Jackie

Now on with the good stuff…Check out the shiny new cover for Devon Monk’s second novel in her Magic series, Magic in the Bone, which will be released on May 5, 2009. On top of this new goodness, Devon has also announced the title to the third novel, which will be, Magic in the Shadows.

Here are this month’s new releases:

Jan 5th:

Jan 6th:

Jan 20th:

Jan 27th:

Sherrilyn Kenyon has thrown up a snippet from her next story (I think it’s Dream Warrior, but I’m not sure) involving Nick and Ash and the new DOWs.  If you want to know what I’m talking about, you better go read it.

For those Battlestar Galatica fans out there, the Sci-Fi Channel has put into play a new television series called Caprica.  It’s the prequel to the events in Battlestar Galactic.

It’s been announced that Catherine Hardwicke will not direct the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Supposedly, the filming schedule isn’t going to work with her schedule next year, but there are a few doubts on that.

There’s been some great new preorder links up at Amazon.  Check it out - Bound by Shadows by Keri Arthur (8/25/09) and Deamfever by Karen Marie Moning (8/25/09).

There’s another article at Fangoria talking about more issues that the new director will probably end up dealing with in the sequel, New Moon.  One of the concerns is trying to expand the role of Edward Cullen (since we all know he disappears for the majority of the novel).  However, good news is both Pattison and Stewart are coming back (which would make a terrible movie if they didn’t).

Stephanie Meyer has confirmed that Chris Weitz (American Pie and The Golden Compass) has been named as the New Moon director.

For some of you die-hard Sci-Fi/Fantasy fans who may have not heard the news, legendary (or so I’m told) Forrest J. Ackerman (ultimate science fiction fan, publisher, author and agent) has passed away.  I’m not really familiar with him, but SciFiGuy has a lovely collection of Ackerman tidbits up at his site.

Now I am in heaven. Diana Gabaldon posted page 4 from the upcoming Outlander comic and it has better shots of Jamie. Ooh la la.  You can see the text associated with this over at her site.

Interviews:

I just came across this tidbit of information in the Sharon Shinn interview. Shinn is working with Laurell K. Hamilton, Yasmine Galenorn, and Marjorie Liu on an anthology that involves “feminist fairy tales with a twist”. That’s all I know, but I like twisted fairy tales, so it has definitely caught my interest.

Check out these shiny covers for a few novels being released next year: Jenna Black’s novel, Speak of the Devil (July 28, 2009), Rachel Caine’s Carpe Corpus (June 2, 2009), the anthology What Happened in Vegas…After Dark (May 1, 2009), and Charlaine Harris’ Dead and Gone (May 5, 2009).

Shiny news! Nalini Singh announced that we’ll be getting two Psy-Changeling novels in 2009.  Branded by Fire comes out July 7, 2009.  Now we’ll have Dev’s story, Blaze of Memory, out in November.  That’s so exciting.

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has the first and second excerpts from Bones of the Dragon, the first volume in Weis and Hickman’s new fantasy series, Dragonships of Vindras.

I also stumbled upon the information that Kim Harrison’s Black Curse tour has been hit hard by the recession.  What this means is she isn’t visiting any stores east of the Mississippi!  That sucks for me, but at least her fans out west will still be able to see her.

True Blood has scored a couple of Golden Globe nominations - Best Dramatic Series and Best Actress in a Drama (Anna Paquin).

Janet Evanovich announced the title to book 15 in the Stephenie Plum series.  It’ll be called Finger Lickin’ Fifteen and will be out sometime next summer (I’m guessing June).

Urban Fantasy Land had a Round-up of Holiday Well-Wishers for the month of December.  So if you’re not ready to throw out that Christmas tree yet, head on over for some more merriness.

Lilith Saintcrow will be a part of two upcoming anthologies. She’s currently working on two stories, the first one being The Heart Is Always Right, involving gargoyles, a Beauty and the Beast, plus vampires. This story is for the Supernaturals on Vacation anthology, which will be released sometime next year (exact date unknown). The other story, Say Yes, is for a YA vampire fiction collection. I’m not sure what the working title on this anthology is, so I’ll keep you posted as I learn more.

Here’s the next round of new covers: Lilith Saintcrow’s Redemption Alley (August 2009); Nalini Singh’s Branded by Fire (July 7, 2009); Anya Bast’s Witch Fury (June 2, 2009); and JF Lewis’s Revamped (March 10, 2009).

The Weekly Geeks community got together and voted on their Top 10 books published in 2008.

Keri Arthur, as well as Toni Andrews, Jenna Black, Rinda Elliot, Jackie Kesslar, Karen Mahoney, Devon Monk, Lilith Saintcrow, and Rachel Vincent, are all teaming up for another great group author blog. These ladies are the Deadlines Dames or they will be once they have their website running after the new year.  The website is due to premiere sometime this month, so keep your eyes out for it.

I was just made aware of an ongoing project taking place over at the Telegraph. Alexander McCall Smith, author of No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, is currently writing an online novel called Corduroy Mansions with new chapters being added daily. The project started in September and has plans to go until February 2009, so only about half the novel has been published.  You can also follow this project on Twitter.

Den of Geek has a pretty interesting article on the Top 50 Special Effect shots.  It looks like they are making their list to be “of all time”, because there are some older movies on the list as well.  I know that after reading it, I got the urge to go pop a few of these in the DVD player.

Here’s the cover for Marjorie Liu’s Darkness Calls (June 30, 2009).

For Justin Gustainis fans, I happened to have found out that the title of the third Morris Chastain Investigation novel will be Sympathy for the Devil.  No tentative release date yet, but it will be out sometime in 2009.

I came across this Top 10 Movies of 2008 list and I think I’ve only heard of 1 or 2 of them. With that said, I now have a list of movies I want to check out.  The curious thing is, The movie the Curious Life of Benjamin Button is listed as being a great movie, however, io9 has claimed that Fincher filmed the wrong aging backwards story.

So this article is old, a year old in fact, but I’m not posting it because of the topic.  No, I’m posting it because of the great debate between a book blogger and a newspaper book reviewer.  In actuality, it’s not really a debate, but it shows the difference between book bloggers who do it because they love to read and paid book reviewers who do it for the “free books”.  With that said, if you haven’t added Urban Fantasy Land to your Google Reader or RSS feed yet, then you really need to.

Suburban Vampire has an extensive list of upcoming 2009 vampire movies.  There’s a few I haven’t heard of so I’m going to be on the lookout for them.  She has also updated her list for all vampire movies over the next couple of years.

Here’s the cover for Kelley Armstrong’s The Awakening (April 28, 2009).

New Excerpts:

Buzzy Multimedia Publishing takes a look at the many faces of Fantasy.  They look at the varied tastes of Fantasy and even give some good examples.

I may have stumbled onto the title for Jackie Kessler’s fourth Hell on Earth novel, but I haven’t seen anything official yet.  It may be called Hell to Pay, but once I know for sure, I’ll pass it along.

There’s another new anthology coming out called Death’s Excellent Vacation edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner.  The only author I  know of that’s going to be in it is Jeaniene Frost, but once I know more, I’ll let y’all know.  Oh, it has a publication date of sometime in 2010.

I’ve never heard of the Virginia Festival of the Book, but Kim Harrison is going to be there March 18-22, 2009.

Last bit of news.  I just went through and revamped the Series page, so that’s a bit different.  I’ve added a few new series, but if I’m still missing any, let me know.  I’ve also retired my 2008 TBR list, so if you want to see it, you’ll have to click the link.  Otherwise, 2009’s is now active.

And as an end of year wrap up, I’ve read a total of 134 novels, with 53 of them being new authors.  That was a lot of books and everyone made it on here with a review.  I still have 165 new authors to try, so I’m sure that number will get higher in 2009 and that doesn’t include the authors I find after today.

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Happy New Year

Date 1 January 2009 - Jackie

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hopefully everyone is having a blast watching the ball drop. Another year has past and now it’s time for a new one. Oh boy. ;)

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