Title: Lead Me On (Tumble Creek, book 3 )
Author: Victoria Dahl
Release: January 5th, 2010
Purchase this book: Amazon | Book Depository | Kindle Version
Goodreads Entry: here
Rating: 5 Stars

I have only just recently realized my love for contemporary romances, and usually its the strong overpowering alpha males that get my toes tingling. When I heard there was a skull tattoo in Lead Me On I knew that I had to read it. I mean how can a man with a skull tattoo not be a growling alpha male that would make my heart go pitter patter? I am happy to say that Victoria Dahl has shown me I don’t need a contemporary romance with an overbearing male to keep me interested.

Jane Morgan is reserved, immaculate, and the picture of professionalism. At the age of 29 she has left behind the troubled girl of her youth. She changed her name and her appearance, moved to a new town, and dates only men who would make good husband material. She often feels like a fraud but continues doing everything she can to convince herself she isn’t the girl she used to be.

William Chase likes to blow things up. He likes his worn jeans and boots, and he really really likes to blow things up. He is big, tattooed, manly…. when he walks into her office looking like a man out of her past Jane tries to convince herself she can’t have Chase. What would people think? Yet, she gives in to her desires and decides a one night stand would be the perfect treat for her birthday. Little does she realize that Chase is more than just sex on a stick.

Oh how I adore Chase. The thought of him with his tattoos wrapping around his arms and up along his buzzed skull gives me the tingles. I full expected him to be the growling tough guy who took charge, but instead I got a growling and sexy man who knew how to be compassionate, loving, and patient. I was so used to the tough alpha male who tries to deny his feelings and pushes the heroine away for her own good that Chase took me by surprise. Even when I thought he should walk away from Jane and her stubbornness, he hung in there and was honest with her about his feelings. As if Chase alone wasn’t enough to make me drool on my Kindle, the passion between Jane and Chase was scorching.

Her eyes flew to his tattooed skull. Jane licked her lips.
“You’r going to miss your chance, darlin’.”
He knew. He knew she wanted to nibble her way all the way up, wanted to lick him, wanted to look down and see that tattooed head between her thighs…God, he was so arrogant.

Um yes, please. I don’t want to give too much away, but a certain parking lot/truck scene will forever be annotated on my reader.

I will admit that Jane annoyed me a little. She comes across as shallow and uptight at first. She is far too worried about what other people think and I found myself frowning at her behavior on more than one occasion. She pushed and used Chase and I was worried he wasn’t going to push back. In the end tho, Jane grew on me. I get where she is coming from and some things are hard to get passed. She is flawed and there wouldn’t be a story to tell if she wasn’t.

I was originally going to rate this a 4 or 4.5 star book because of my annoyance at Jane’s issues. But the truth is that Lead Me On kept me awake until 3 am last night because I just did not want to put it down. The writing is smooth and flows easily. The story telling and character interactions were amusing and entertaining. Many times I simply typed “lol” next to a line because it got a smile out of me. Lead Me On gives you witty dialogue, sexy men, and a passionate romance that will keep you up all hours of the night – if that isn’t a 5 star romance than I don’t know what is!

Other Reviews:

Smexybooks – 4.5
FictionVixen – 4.5
Bibliophilic Book Blog – 5
Alpha Reader – 2

FTC Disclaimer: This book was acquired through NetGalley

Over in my left sidebar you may notice an interesting graphic of some peeps with weapons. That is there to represent my love of Vicki Pettersson and the “peeps” on her forum. They are a really awesome group of people who share my love of books and my pervy sense of humor, not to mention the tendency to “pre-lick” book characters in an effort to claim them first. Among my VPeeps is one Jeannie Holmes who just happens to be releasing her very first novel, Blood Law, through Dell Publishing this summer.

To celebrate she is giving away signed copies of Blood Law cover flats! You can see the many ways to enter here. Haven’t heard of Blood Law? Well take a look below and I hope you will add it to your “to read” pile!

I had totally planned on getting to this post yesterday, but homework and the kids took up too much time! My classes are kicking my butt right now and I took the kids out for a magic show and dinner last night. Late is better than never, so here I am, with my weekly wrap up.

My efforts to be organized this week….not successful. I will try again this week. Biggest fail? Actually cooking dinner every night. After a long day of kid wrangling and homework and volunteering at schools the last thing I want to do is make dinner and we have all been suffering because of it. But I need to get on top of it, so that is my goal this week!

The big blog world news this week –well besides MacMillan showing its ass and going toe to toe with Amazon — COVERS! There have been a multitude of covers released this week. I was going to post them all but Jackie over at Literary Escapism totally saved me some time and posted a cover wrap (and more!) here. Besides lots of new covers posted, we got some revised covers revealed.

Vicky Pettersson’s Cheat the Grave loses the sulking piece of man candy and some tattoos.

Original Cover	Revised Cover

Kelley Armstrong’s Waking the Witch also gets a new look, less motorcycle, more Savannah. I didn’t really have a preference at first but the more I see the new cover, the more I like it better.

Original Cover	Revised Cover

Additionally Richelle Mead posted that the Georgina Kincaid series is getting a cover makeover for the mass market edition of the series. I LOVE the new covers, so much better than the originals. Have no fear, the original cover style will continue on with the trade paperbacks.

Trade Paperback Cover	Mass Market Cover

I will be posting over at FictionVixen’s place this week about my “love story.” She is doing a whole month about love, make sure to stop by!

If you haven’t entered my contest to win an ebook copy of Crux by Moira Rogers….go ahead and click here now! You will not regret it! Deadline is tomorrow, February 8th. Don’t forgot that Moira Rogers will be answering all my evil questions on February 9th, please stop by and help me harrass celebrate them!

Speaking of the talented team of Moira Rogers, the Bree half of that duo posted one of my absolute favorite author takes on book piracy here! She is one smart cookie. Read it, you won’t be sorry.

By the way, the re-release of Happy Hour of the Damned is upon us and I hear that Mark Henry is making people pee themselves with laughter over on Bitten by Books. You can find a link to video blogs and interviews here.

Books read this week (and last week!)

Road Trip of the Living Dead by Mark Henry

Rust Belt by Jessica Freely

Broken by Shiloh Walker

Shades of Midnight

Books reviewed this week

Road Trip of the Living Dead by Mark Henry

Broken by Shiloh Walker

Shades of Midnight

Books added to my Kindle this week

Title: Shades of Midnight (Breeds, book )
Author: Lara Adrian
Release: March 2nd, 2010
Purchase this book: Amazon | Book Depository | Kindle Version
Goodreads Entry: here
Rating: 3 Stars

This may be one of the shortest reviews I ever write! The truth is, Shades of Midnight was just “ok” and I don’t have a lot to say about it.

Kade is a sexy Breed (aka alien vampire) warrior from the Order, an organization determined to keep humans safe from the knowledge and harm from the vampires that have gone rogue. He is sent to his home state of Alaska to investigate some brutal and suspicious human deaths. In Alaska he meets Alex, a woman with a frightening secret who finds herself in the middle of whatever is going on up there.

Unfortunately, I just didn’t latch on to Kade. He was sexy sure, but I was never invested in his character or his relationship with Alex. I felt like I “knew” him less than the previous Breeds featured in other books, as I have always seen him as a more secondary character. His unique talent was interesting, but not enough to really drag me into this story. Likewise, Alex was just “ok”. I didn’t love her and at a times I found her actions to be unlike her character and even bordering on the “too stupid to live” side.

The thing that I like about Lara Adrian’s Breed series, and the reason I will continue reading them, is the unique take on vampires. Her vamps are descendent of an alien race and very much alive. They are covered in ultra sexy dermaglyphs (tattoos) and growl and roar like my beloved shape-shifters.

Overall, Shades of Midnight is a mediocre installment to the Breed series. I wouldn’t pick this up as your first experience with Lara Adrian but if you are a fan of the series, I wouldn’t skip it.

Other Reviews:

Tori @ Smexybooks – 4
Dear Author – C+
Larissa’s Life – 3.5

FTC Disclaimer: This book was purchased by me

So I was procrastinating in my usual way ( chatting on MSN with Nat from WickedLilPixie) when she asked me if I wanted to join her in interviewing our favorite zombie diva, Amanda Feral. For those of you who have not gotten with the program yet and have no idea who Amanda Feral is, I direct you to my reviews of Happy Hour of the Damned and Road Trip of the Living Dead. Review of Battle of the Network Zombies coming soon! Thanks to Mark Henry for being so kind as to let her out of her cage and visit with us! Be warned, she has a foul mouth and no self control. Enjoy!

WLP: WickedLilPixie
KV: KindleVixen

WLP: KindleVixen & I are pleased to have none other than zombie extraordinaire, Amanda Feral here today. Amanda is the host of her own reality show out of Seattle. Thanks for stopping by today Amanda.

Should be interesting. (eyes the hosts) Perhaps. if you don’t bore me. You got in booze up in this shithole?

WLP: I finished your latest memoir, Battle of the Network Zombies, was it hard to write it? I mean you’ve been through hell and back, all in wicked shoes of course.

Hard to write it? Um. No. I have a great memory and whatever I don’t recall is probably too boring to mention, so I just make that shit up. Dialogue and whatever. ::sighs:: But yes, it’s been rough, thankfully I have my friends close by in case I need someone to ridicule. That always lifts my spirits.

WLP: Speaking of shoes, what are your go to “come fuck me shoes”?

Well, this year, to pronounce my willingness to procreate, I’m rocking Louboutin Pigalles. I find that men respond to seeing dead python on a nicely arched foot, please don’t skimp on a pedi, ladies–you don’t want those toes looking like you cling to branches with them.

KV: Since WLP already covered the “come fuck me shoes” – I might as well dive into what we all really want to know. Have you found a lube that works with the zombie lady parts? Maybe the KY warming? 

Listen. You don’t really want to know what lubes me up these days, do you? Let’s just say, after a couple of years rotting from the inside, a certain…natural…lubrication occurs. Now, that’s not to say that the reapers don’t provide me with some vaginal freshening—they do. But in the meantime, I get no complaints and far as I’ve seen…no dicks have been harmed—except for the ones that end up as snack food. Next question!

WLP: We know you love your designer clothing, so who is the designer of the moment?

Alexander McQueen definitely. Distorted herringbone is the new pattern. Make a note of it.

KV: I want to ask about Martin. Now that you confessed to eating him…. do you regret it? Did he taste any different being someone you cared about? Did you at least get a good orgasm from him first?

That! Was a mistake. In fact, it all happened so quickly how can I even be sure it happened at all? If you bitches are trying to rile me. It’s not working. ::sucks at her teeth::

WLP: I have to ask, is Wendy still sporting diapers? Can you at least get her into designer ones?

Oh poor Wendy. She can’t seem to work through that pesky eating disorder of hers. And while I’ll admit to a few indiscretions with a shot of espresso, a maxi pad seems to sop that coffee off my twat like a biscuit on honey.

KV: In Road Trip of the Living Dead you make an unexpected trip to an adult sex store where you introduced me to the wonders of the Fleshlight. Did you grab any souvenirs for yourself?

Uh no. Scott’s rough enough without injecting vibrating equipment into the equation. Something might fall off down there. And I’m fond of my nasty nugget, thank you. Though. I know a certain pixie who can’t for the life of her stop talking about Fleshlights. I think she’s been watching demonstration videos. Got one on order for the beau? Sicko.

WLP: Have any good Gil gossip; since he wasn’t around much in Battle of the Network Zombies, I’m a nosey bitch. I need to know more about Gil & the fleshlight! Did he get one?

Wasn’t around much? That’s just ridiculous. That I share my book with him, at all, is to show how generous I am. But yeah. Gil’s got himself this boyfriend, while I find the guy totally creepy in an ew-you’re-a-gross-insect kind of way, he’s totally into him and they make out in public until I want to vomit on them just to stop it. But he’s happy, I guess and that’s what matters, right?

KV: Now that you have been a zombie for a while, and are presumably adjusted…would you choose this life for yourself or is there another supernatural you would rather be?

I don’t really have any regrets. Would I prefer the cheaper self-healing of a vampire? Sure, of course, I would. Who wouldn’t? But there are advantages to my situation, not the least of which is an ability to shop at the beginning of trunk sales, while it’s still daylight.

WLP: What do you say to those readers who think you are “gross & disgusting”?

I say look in the mirror, bitches! I don’t pretend to be perfect, nor am I anyone’s “heroine.”

KV: Something I have been wondering…. obviously, and thank god, zombies can shower – but can you take baths? Or does that give you wrinkly old person skin permanently? 

I do prefer to stay out of the water. Particularly since seeing that 20/20 episode about the little fish that the Chinese use to eat dead skin on people’s feet. I suppose it’s the same response people had to the movie Jaws in the 70s.

WLP: How is Feral Inc. going? Is it still going? Should we start a charity?

I’m always happy to accept charity, my bar tab is usually quite extensive. But the business is still up and running. We’re in the entertainment industry now, as you might have guessed.

KV: Considering your bad luck with donut boxes and the nasty consequences of eating a donut as a zombie…do you still splurge in the bakery goodness on occasion? Just asking… some things are worth it.

That’s Wendy’s schtick. Sure. I still think about food. All the time, but donuts are strictly off limits. Now…donut shop customers, that’s another story.

WLP: What kind of human tastes the best?

The one’s that make it into my mouth. Mmm. (wait that sounded dirty) ::shrugs::

KV: In Happy Hour of the Damned it seemed that pre-zombie you were more of a loner, why do you think becoming a zombie changed that and drove you to create your own supernatural A-Team?

That’s tricky. Because it’s true, I was very much focused on my work and my social life was very…limited. But there was something…whether it was that I was so lost and clueless initially or that I’d lost my precious control and actually needed others to help me through for the first time, it’s hard to say. But it’s funny how that happened, huh?

WLP: What do you think of Mark Henry’s Save Amanda campaign?

He can do whatever he likes. I’ll continue to live my life whatever happens to the books. If it all goes tits up, I might put him out of his misery. That’s probably for the best, even with all the fat and gristle.

KV: How is it writing with Mark Henry? If he suddenly keeled over and died…. is there another author you would want to write your memoirs?

No. Not a chance.

KV: To say that you have a potty mouth is an understatement….. what is your favorite curse word?

Cunt. No, just kidding. I love saying that one, because it gets people going and I love to do that more than anything but, really, I’ve got to go with the old standby: FUCK.

WLP: Thanks for stopping by Amanda and more than likely causing irreparable damage to our readers, I wouldn’t have had it any other way!

Be sure to pick up the re-release of Happy Hour of the Damned, in stores now! Thanks to Nat for always being there to help me avoid my homework and inviting me to join her on this interview. She thinks we should tag team more often, I agree…. tho next time can we tag team a sexy man at least?

	Title: Happy Hour of the Damned (Amanda Feral, Book 1) Release: February 2, 2010 (re-release) Purchase this book: Amazon | Book Depository | Kindle Version
	Title: Road Trip of the Living Dead (Amanda Feral, Book 2) Release: March 1st, 2009 Purchase this book: Amazon | Book Depository | Kindle Version
	Title: Battle of the Network Zombies (Amanda Feral, Book 3) Release: February 23rd, 2010 Purchase this book: Amazon | Book Depository | Kindle Version