Melissa Marr on BlogTalkRadio

Listen to Melissa Marr on BlogTalkRadio!

For a fresh, edgy, and electrifying look at the fantasy genre, join New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr on January 8, 2009, at 6:00 p.m. EST for a YA and Urban Fantasy show on BlogTalkRadio moderated by Eos Executive Editor, Diana Gill. Listen to Melissa Marr discuss Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, and her upcoming novel Fragile Eternity. Call (347) 826-9684 to ask questions live during the show!


Watch Melissa Marr's interview filmed in San Diego. I was fortunate enough to have met Melissa Marr and she truly is an awesome, classy woman and her writing continues to be the eloquent standard by which I compare all books fey. I value her literary instincts so last night I purchased Graceling by Kristin Cashore simply because of her comment on the back. If she loved it and shares it with her daughter, it must be good. Melissa Marr, my favorite. Can you tell?

Who's My Jamie?

Apparently I've been missing out on a very, very good thing- mainly Jamie from Diana Gabaldon's much loved novel, Outlander. Friends have recommended the book and it occupies a space on my overloaded and straining bookcase but I don't know why I've never cozied up with it.

Well, after seeing this I'm definitely going to be putting in some cozy time to find out who my Jamie will be. Does it really matter what motivates me to read? Call me the shameless hussy I am!


Truth is, after reading the book, no actor will be able to hold a candle to the Jamie of my imagination which I find is often the case when books are made into movies. But I wouldn't turn any of them away.

Here's another good video for the book. I'm definitely interested in meeting these characters. Can't wait!

The Vampire's Betrayal by Raven Hart

by Raven Hart doesn't disappoint. It's action packed with all manner of otherworldly events, so many that there's no rest for William Cuyler Thorne, Jack McShane or the human side of the family-voodoo priestess Melaphia and itty-bitty Renee. Even the 4,000 year-old Egyptian guard dogs get in on the action. A character I believed was only going to play a minor role when I began the series with The Vampire's Seduction has turned out to be quite wicked. This installment is filled with surprises, quite a bit of humor, and a scene that made me feel I was staked through the heart. 5 Stars for great character development, creativity and the mojo that makes the Savannah vampires something special. I can't wait to follow up with The Vampire's Revenge due out January 27th.

The Gargoyle With A Different Cover Is Still Just As Brilliant

This cover for The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson is beautiful. Found it on the the book's facebook site that's run by Brett, the author's high school friend. Below is recent news regarding the book, also from the facebook site.


Gargoyle jumps to 13 on NY Times Best Sellers List!

GARGOYLE NUMBER ONE!!!
on the Canandian Booksellers Association List.

The Gargoyle's second straight week on the Publishers Weekly Best Sellers List!

The Gargoyle is on the New York Times Best Sellers list for the second week in a row!

"The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson tops Maclean's fiction list
TORONTO — Here are the top 10 hardcover fiction and non-fiction books in Canada compiled by Maclean's magazine.
FICTION
1 (-) The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson


The Gargoyle debuts at number 14 on the New York Times Best Seller List the first week after its release!


The Canadian Booksellers Association reports that "The Gargoyle" debuted on The Canadian Bestsellers List at Number 6 !!

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

The Gargoyle is easily the best book I've read in my life. It's Andrew Davidson's debut novel and it's brilliant. I read it when it first came out and still can't write a review that does the book justice. As I've told so many others, if you only read one book this year, please let it be this one.

This is my choice for 2008 Literary Excellence.

(See, you can do things like that when you have a blog!)

***
From Amazon.com

An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time.

The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul.

A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love. He is released into Marianne's care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well. For one thing, the pull of his past sins becomes ever more powerful as the morphine he is prescribed becomes ever more addictive. For another, Marianne receives word from God that she has only twenty-seven sculptures left to complete—and her time on earth will be finished.

Already an international literary sensation, The Gargoyle is an Inferno for our time. It will have you believing in the impossible.

Books Read in 2008

1. Nymphos of Rocky Flatts (I believe I got dumber while reading this book. Ha!)
2. The Golden Compass
3. The Subtle Knife
4. The Amber Spyglass
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
6. Harry Potter (the second)
7. The Other Boleyn Girl
8. The Book of Flying by Keith Miller
9. Twilight by Stephenie Meyers
10. New Moon
11. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
12. "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore
13. " Eclipse" by Stephanie Meyers ( thus far completing The Twilight Series;
14. "Undead and Unwed" by Mary Janice Davidson (April 5, 2008)
15. "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley
16. "Tithe" by Holly Black 4/17/08
17. Hunger by Elise Blackwell
18. The Hidden by Kathryn Mackel
19. Minion by L.A. Banks 4/27/08
20. The Art of Mingling by Jeanne Martinet
21. Love + Sex with Robots by David Levy
22. Valiant by Holly Black 5/8/08
23. Ironside by Holly Black 5/10/08
24. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klaus
25. The Doctor's Wife by Elizabeth Brundage 5/23/08
26. Dark Lover by JR Ward 5/26/08
27. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr 6/6/2008
28.) Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost 5/5 stars
29.) Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch 3/5 stars 6/22/08
30.) Vampire Academy 3/5 stars 6/27/08
31.) looking for alaska by John Green 5/5 stars 7/1/08
32. Bloody Jack by Louis A. Meyer 5/5
33. One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost 3/5
34.) Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr 5/5 Stars July 15, 2008
35.) Wolf at the Door by Christine Warren 5/5 July 19, 2008
36.) The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
37.) Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt 5 stars 7/22/08
38.) Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires-Book One) by Rachel Caine 4/5 7/25/08
39.) Darkfever by KM Moning
40.) Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
41.) Dead Girls Dance by Rachel Caine 4/5 stars
42.) Curse of the Blue Tattoo, Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady by L. A. Meyer 5/5 stars 8/11/08
43.) The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson 5/5 Stars 8/15/08
Easily the best book I've ever read.
44.) Marked by the by P.C. and Kristen Cast 8/17/08
45.) Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning 5/5 8/20/08
46.) Beyond the Highland Mist by KM Moning 4/5 8/23/08
47.) Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon 3/5 stars 8/25/08
48.) Midnight Alley (Morganville Vampires, Book 3) 8/28/08
49.) To Tame a Highland Warrior by K.M. Moning 4/5 stars 9/5/08
50.) The Highlander's Touch by KM Moning 4/5 stars 9/9/08
51.) Into the Dreaming by KM Moning 9/11/08 4/5 stars
posted 4 months ago. ( edit | reply ) Evie ♥
52.) Faefever by KM Moning 3/5
53.) How to Marry a Millionare Vampire 3/5 Kerrelyn Sparks
54.) Kiss of the Highlander by KM Moning 5/5 9/25/08
55.) The Dark Highlander 5/5 9/30/08
56.) The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 5/5 stars
57.) The Immortal Highlander by KM Moning 3/5
58.) City of Bones by Cassandra Clare 4/5 stars Young Adult 11/11/08
59.) Storm Born by Richelle Mead 3/5 stars 11/15/08
60.) Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan 4/5 stars 11/17/08
61.) The Society of S by Susan Hubbard 3/4 stars 11/19/08
62.) A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton 2/5 stars 11/24/08
63.) The Vampire's Seduction by Raven Hart 5/5 stars 11/28/08
64.) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen 5/5 stars 11/30/08
65.) Feast of Fools (Morganville Vampire Series) by Rachel Caine 4/5 stars 12/2/08
66.) The Vampire's Secret by Raven Hart 5/5 Stars 12/6/08 Second in series-great plot, great story!
67.) Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater 3/5 12/7/08
68.) Impossible by Nancy Werlin 5/5 Stars 12/9/08
69.) The Vampire's Kiss by Raven Hart 5 Stars 12/15/08
70.) Under the Jolly Roger, another Bloody Jack Adventure by LA Meyer 5/5 stars 12/18/08
71.) In the Belly of The Blood Hound, a Bloody Jack Adventure 5/5 12/21/08 5 stars
72.) Need by Carrie Jones 3/5 12/26/08 3 stars
73.) In the Serpent's Coils 12/29/08 4stars
74.) Wondrous Strange by Leslie Livingston 12/31/08 5 Stars

Wondrous Strange by Leslie Livingston

Wondrous Strange (Wondrous Strange (Hardback))

Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken. . . .

For seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow, faeries are just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery, whose steel-gray eyes mask an equally steely determination to protect her.

Sonny guards the Samhain Gate, which connects the mortal realm with the Faerie's enchanted, dangerous Otherworld. Usually kept shut by order of icy King Auberon, the Gate stands open but once a year.

This year, as the time approaches when the Samhain Gate will swing wide and nightmarish Fae will fight their way into an unsuspecting human world, something different is happening . . . something wondrous and strange. And Kelley's eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her but to the heritage that awaits her.

Now Kelley must navigate deadly Faerie treachery—and her growing feelings for Sonny—in this dazzling page-turner filled with luminous romance.

Wondrous Strange is a richly layered tale of love between faerie and mortal, betrayal between kings and queens, and magic . . . between author and reader.

***

This is an excellent debut novel by Leslie Livingston, full of all the magic, treachery, romance and surprises one comes to expect in stories about the Fae. Don't think that this is just another fairy tale though. Livingston's prose is lyrical and magical and she makes this story her own. The vocabulary and descriptions are rich and satisfying as the author skips the use of slang and cliches, creating beautiful art with words. Kelley Winslow is a delightful character and Sonny Flannery will charm young and old alike. When you're dealing with the fae, nothing is as it seems. It's difficult to tell friend from foe and sometimes they are the same.

Livingston definitely did her homework. The scene explaining The Wild Hunt was nicely done but we also meet some new personalities from folklore for the YA audience: The Black Shuck, the Pict Sidhe or Boucca (some Moning fans will recognize this character as Adam Black-the original Puck although in this story they are not at all the same), and the Janus.

There are quite a few books out about the Fair Folk but they're definitely not all the same. Leslie Livingston, with her debut novel, ranks up there with the magical, classy writing of Melissa Marr but it's not dark and edgy. The book has great cross over appeal because it's intelligently written and timeless in the telling. The cover art is beautiful, reminiscent of Marr's books. Even the title has a Marr feel to it.

4 stars for this one and I can't wait for the sequel.