Cover Madness Giveaway Hop (INT)

Cover Madness Giveaway Hop: Win: A £15 Book Depository book

Runs from July 1 until the 14th, 2013. Hosted by Alluring Reads and xpressoreads.

What it is:
Last year, Giselle of xpressoreads and Jenni of Alluring Reads noticed that there were so many pretty covers being revealed and they wanted to find a way to celebrate them. Through that, the Cover Madness giveaway was launched. The response was astounding and since everyone loved it so much they wanted to let everyone in on the madness! If you're not familiar with the giveaway you can have a look here. Basically what it is, is that they founnd a bunch of fabulously covered upcoming books (they tried to find recently revealed covers) and they threw a giveaway for a chance to win a pre-order of one of the pretties! They've done 3 very successful Cover Madnesses so far, and for the 4th they decided to invite us all along as well!

What you can win here at Cherry Mischievous:
You can win any book from Book Depository as long as the book has a great cover up to the amount of £15 (approximately US$20). It can be a pre-order or a book released already. The "definition" of a "great cover" depends on the "eyes of the beholder". That means if the winner thinks that it is pretty enough, then it is pretty enough!

To Enter: Fill in the rafflecopter form below to enter. If rafflecopter does not load in your browser, leave your email address in the comment section (in broken pattern same as my email below to avoid spam bots) and that will include you in the draw, however, you will not be able to take advantage of the optional entries offered in the rafflecopter. More entries means more chances of winning. Alternatively you can try and see if you could access the rafflecopter form HERE.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• The giveaway is open to international readers where Book Depository ships to. A list of countries where Book Depository ships to is here. Please check if your country is in the list to avoid disappointment.
• Ends on July 14.
• Winner will be announced soon thereafter. Winner will also be sent an email notification with this email address: cherrymischif-winnr [at] yahoo [dot] com, in which winner has to reply within 72 hours to claim the prize or another winner will be picked. Please check your spam folder.
• If you are under 13, you must have parent(s)/guardian(s) permission to enter.
• Please note that all entry possibilities in the rafflecopter, i.e., follow(s)/like(s)/post(s), etc., needs to be in a "public" setting where applicable so that it is viewable by me when checked.
• Email subscribptions and the like has to be "verified" subscriptions to qualify as an entry.
• Void where prohibited.
• Questions? Ask! cherrymischif-contstcontact [at] yahoo [dot] com.
• Please read the terms and conditions at the bottom of the rafflecopter for giveaway specific rules and the blog's Disclaimer as it forms part of the contest rules.

Now go, enter more giveaways:

HGBFH Winner

Help Good Books Find Homes (HGBFH) giveaway winner is:

miki

Congratulations to our winner!!!

Review: HOT SIX

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich
Book 6 of the Stephanie Plum series
Narrated by CJ Critt
Format: audiobook
Genre: crime fiction chicklit

About Hot Six:

Low-rent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum reaches depths of personal experience that other women detectives never quite do. In Hot Six, for example, a sequence of new and hideous cars bite the dust; she finds herself lumbered with a policeman's multiply incontinent dog; and she has several bad skin days. All this when she is trying to prove her distinctly more competent colleague and occasional boyfriend Ranger innocent of a mob hit; avoid the heavies trailing her in the hope of finding him; and cope with a wife-abusing bail defaulter with nasty habits, such as setting Stephanie on fire. The peculiar joy of this series is the comic sense of place; Plum's New Jersey is one where everyone you meet, even the most dangerous of criminals, was at school with you, or stole your mother's first boyfriend, or gave your great-aunt a middling good recipe for meatloaf. Evanovich has built up an attractive cast of comic characters with Stephanie's extended family and those of her two boyfriends, the dashing and sinister Ranger and Joe Morelli (the cop whose family are only too keen on his marrying Stephanie).

Source: Info in the About Hot Six was taken from at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6858.Hot_Six on 25/09/2012.

Review:

This is the book which made me stop listening to this series. At least for a while until I got over my annoyance at Stephanie's stupidity. In previous books, Stephanie was stupid but not as stupid as in this book. Here she was just too stupid to live (TSTL)! Anyway, not much going on in this book, just another Stephanie Plum installment. More of the same. However it is in this book that we see more action between Stephanie, Morelli and Ranger. Now that love triangle alone is intriguing enough to rev up interest in this series. But I think the biggest recommendation of this book is that if you read this book then you will understand subsequent events in this series better. And that's it! I haven't got much else to say about this book.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2.5
Character development = 2
Story itself = 2
Ending = 3
World building = 2.5
Cover art = 1
Pace = N/A
Plot = 2
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries

WW28: GREYWALKER

WW28 book offering: Greywalker by Kat Richardson

"What just happened? I lost a client and I don't have his number!"

Disaster scenario for a barely thriving private investigator who cannot even blame the tech guy because he is just doing what you asked him to do.

About Greywalker:

When Harper comes to in the hospital, she begins to feel a bit ...strange. She sees things that can only be described as weird-shapes emerging from a foggy grey mist, snarling teeth, creatures roaring. But Harper's not crazy. Her "death" has made her a Greywalker-able to move between our world and the mysterious, cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night exist. And her new gift (or curse) is about to drag her into that world of vampires and ghosts, magic and witches, necromancers and sinister artifacts. Whether she likes it or not.

Source: Info in the About Greywalker was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140099.Greywalker on 19/01/2012.

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!

• First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
• Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
• Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.

Review: PORTRAIT IN DEATH

Portrait In Death by JD Robb
Book 16 of the In Death series
Narrated by Susan Ericksen
Genre: SciFi murder mystery, police investigation, crime fiction
Format: paperback & (unabridged) audiobook

About Portrait In Death:

After a tip from a reporter, Eve Dallas finds the body of a young woman in a Delancey street dumpster. Just hours before, the news station had mysteriously received a portfolio of professional portraits of the woman. The photos seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary for any pretty young woman starting a modeling career. Except that she wasn't a model. And that these photos were taken after she had been murdered. Now Dallas is on the trail of a killer who's a perfectionist and an artist. He carefully observes and records his victim's every move. And he has a mission: to own every beautiful young woman's innocence, to capture her youth and vitality—in one fateful shot...

Source: Info in the About Portrait In Death was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/268604.Portrait_in_Death on 01/07/2012.

Review:

So this is book 16 in the series... I must have said most of what I can say about this book in reviews of previous In Death books. So what is different about Portrait In Death? This is the book which gave us more of Roarke's past and gives more diverse angles to the character. Consequently, it brought the character of Roarke closer to the reader. This is also the In Death series book where the villain is not always the villain as opposed to the previous books where the villains are easy to hate and we cheer Eve on for winning on the side of good again. For those two salient points alone, this book rates high for me.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 2
Pace = N/A (11hours & 56minutes audiobook)
Plot = 4.5
Narrator = 4

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Review: DYING BITES

Dying Bites by DD Barant
Read by Johanna Parker
Book 1 of The Bloodhound Files series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About Dying Bites:

Her job description is the “tracking and apprehension of mentally-fractured killers.” What this really means in FBI profiler Jace Valchek’s brave new world—one in which only one percent of the population is human—is that a woman’s work is never done. And real is getting stranger every day…

Jace has been ripped from her reality by David Cassius, the vampire head of the NSA. He knows that she’s the best there in the business, and David needs her help in solving a series of gruesome murders of vampires and werewolves. David’s world—one that also includes lycanthropes and golems—is one with little knowledge of mental illness. An insane serial killer is a threat the NSA has no experience with. But Jace does. Stranded in a reality where Bela Lugosi is a bigger box office draw than Bruce Willis and every full moon is Mardi Gras, Jace must now hunt down a fellow human before he brings the entire planet to the brink of madness. Or she may never see her own world again…

Source: Info in the About Dying Bites was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6295913-dying-bites on 26/09/2012.

Narrative Evaluation:

I decided to pick this series up just because I won Book 3 from a blog contest and thus sits in my TBR shelf occupying space I am fast running out of. But me being me, I cannot read a series by jumping to Book 3. I have to start from Book 1, thus this book got read. Plus the fact that I am an old Johanna Parker fan, so when I learned that she is the narrator for this audiobook, it got bought. This would also be the first Johanna Parker audiobook I've listened to which is not a Sookie Stackhouse book. And after listening to 11 Sookie Stackhouse books, Johanna Parker's voice is now associated with Sookie in my head. So much so that when I first listened to this audiobook I had a bit of a disorientation and Sookie's world merged for a time with Jace's world that DD Barant has created. Or maybe it is just a warning telling me maybe I ought to ease up on the urban fantasy books... Nah!!! Anyway the world building is wonderful and I would love to see more of this alternate universe of lycanthropes and pires!

It was interesting in the beginning and I was excited to listen to it. Then it kind of slowed down a bit in the middle and didn't pick up again until the very end. If I was reading this paperback without listening to the audiobook format, I would say that it was alright, but wasn't very fast.

At the end of it, I enjoyed this book and have the next book on request at the library already. So I would say, it's a good start to a promising series!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 3 (9 hours of listening time)
Plot = 3.5
Narrator = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Thank you to the RCT Library for letting me borrow this book!!

FTC Disclosure:
The audiobook format was purchased with personal funds. The paperback was borrowed from the library. No money received for this review.

WW28: THE HEIST

WW28 book offering: The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Nick's first thought was that another crew was ripping them off.

Thick, complicated plot in a rip-roaring ride!

About The Heist:

From Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, bestselling author and television writer for Monk, comes the first adventure in an electrifying new series featuring an FBI agent who always gets her man, and a fearless con artist who lives for the chase.

FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare is known for her fierce dedication and discipline on the job, chasing down the world’s most wanted criminals and putting them behind bars. Her boss thinks she is tenacious and ambitious; her friends think she is tough, stubborn, and maybe even a bit obsessed. And while Kate has made quite a name for herself for the past five years, the only name she’s cared about is Nicolas Fox—an international crook she wants in more ways than one.

Audacious, handsome, and dangerously charming, Nicolas Fox is a natural con man, notorious for running elaborate scams on very high-profile people. At first he did it for the money. Now he does it for the thrill. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail—particularly Kate O’Hare, who has been watching his every move. For Nick, there’s no greater rush than being pursued by a beautiful woman . . . even one who aims to lock him up. But just when it seems that Nicolas Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: he convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with Special Agent Kate O’Hare.

Problem is, teaming up to stop a corrupt investment banker who’s hiding on a private island in Indonesia is going to test O’Hare’s patience and Fox’s skill. Not to mention the skills of their ragtag team made up of flamboyant actors, wanted wheelmen, and Kate’s dad. High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day’s work . . . if O’Hare and Fox don’t kill each other first.

Source: Info in the About The Heist was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16169737-the-heist on 12/06/2013.

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!

• First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
• Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
• Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.

Review: SHADOW WALKER

Shadow Walker by Allyson James
Book 3 of Stormwalker series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback


About Shadow Walker:

Stormwalker Janet Begay returns home only to have the ground collapse beneath her - literally. After tumbling two hundred feet underground, Janet is rescued by her dragon boyfriend, Mick. But something dark touches Mick while in the sinkhole, and Janet might lose him forever unless she recruites the most unlikely of allies to stop the growing shadow.

Source: Info in the About Shadow Walker was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9670016-shadow-walker on 19/12/12.

Review:

I am a long-time Allyson James fan so I read her books even though some of it were dragging. And Book 1 of this series seriously dragged at times! However I'm glad that I persisted because subsequent books were very good indeed! Take this book for example, it has the same compelling story telling quality and wonderful world building which stays with the reader long after the book was read. In this book as well are revealed a few salient points in the series' over-arcing plot which made me like the world of Janet Begay even more!! Not to mention that there are dragons in it galore! And of course this book is about our favourite black dragon and the fight for his life! Although this book did drag about a couple of times in the first half of the book, but once it picked up it was fast all the way to the end. And of course the end is an HEA (happily ever after). I won't say any more about the ending or it would be a spoiler already. But this is one of the reasons I persist with this series even though it has a tendency to drag, is because the endings are always satisfying! Can't wait to read the next book, Nightwalker!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 5
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 4.5
Plot = 4

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Stormwalker Series: