CELTIC NATION WEEKEND

Whew… just got back from the camping trip from the Celtic Nation Show. Which turned out to be not much of a show because of the rain!

And this is the fantastic view from the campsite. Celtic Nation has a website at: http://www.celticnation.co.uk/. The website probably hasn’t been updated for like the last three years or so though, so the info there was true about three years ago. But the vicinity of the location is more or less the same.

This is Mike’s zephyr. Sounds like a dragon to me! As in the dragon Zaphira in Eragon by Paolini…. And no, Mike’s zyphyr is not a dragon, it’s a Kawasaki motorbike. He built it himself.

Cherry
cherryville.me

MAGIC STRIKES

I read the book through in about 2-3 hours and I am not a fast reader (ordinarily). The book is that good that it keeps the reader turning pages and wanting to know whats next. I had also been eagerly awaiting the release of this book which had raised my expectations, still Ilona Andrews has not failed to deliver! A truly enjoyable series!!

Gist: Fantasy, changeling story with romantic element. Futuristic with magic. Protagonist is a kick-ass chick with a masterpiece “story-telling quality” + wonderful humor between the pages.

Third book of Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniels series:

Book 1 is Magic Bites
Book 2 is Magic Burns.

Verdict: A must read!!

Excerpt quoted from Ilona Andrews‘ site:

Drafted into working for the Order of Merciful Aid, mercenary Kate Daniels has more paranormal problems than she knows what to do with these days. And in Atlanta, where magic comes and goes like the tide, that’s saying a lot. But when Kate’s werewolf friend Derek is discovered nearly dead, she must confront her greatest challenge yet. As her investigation leads her to the Midnight Games – an invitation only, no holds barred, ultimate preternatural fighting tournament – she and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, uncover a dark plot that may forever alter the face of Atlanta’s shapeshifting community…

Source: http://ilona-andrews.com/index.php/kate-daniels/magic-strikes (05/05/2009).

Rating:5 cherries out of 5


Buy Link(s):

Cherry

LAND OF FALLING STARS

Land of Falling Stars Receives Big NOD from The Book Wenches

Reviewed by: Teagan

Rating: 4.5

The war is coming to an end, and all that Sophia Whitfield has ever known is gone. Her family is all dead, her home is falling apart, all the slaves have left but two. Her childhood friends went off and fought for different sides: Jesse, her betrothed, for the South and Gavin, her savior, for the North. Little does she knows that the Yank she just shot is Gavin, and he holds a secret that he must tell her. Gavin has always loved Sophia, from the time he saved her from drowning and even now with her bullet hole in his chest. When he found out she was betrothed to Jesse from infancy, he had to hold his feelings in check and not let her know of his love. Now Jesse is gone, and though Gavin is a broken man from what has happened in the war, he has come home to tell Sophia the news. Unfortunately, their desire that burns so hot for each other brings them together, and he hasn’t been able to tell her. Conflict upon conflict conspires to keep them apart, but can they find happiness even through it all?

A story that has the ups and downs of a roller coaster and keeps the reader hanging on with bated breath, Land of Falling Stars is captivating. I thrive on conflict in a story, and there is what I would term “superior” conflict here. My heart was contracting with the highs and lows of the emotions in the story. Never a dull moment. Gavin is particularly enticing; he is strong yet compassionate, and I couldn’t get enough of him. Sophia, on the other hand, tends to be childish and annoying at times. Thankfully, her personality is the perfect foil for Gavin’s and works well with the story line. The author has a great knack for weaving words together to bring a vivid picture to the reader’s mind. Ms. Diablo tells a wonderful story. –Teagan

Author’s website: ketaskeep.blogspot.com

Publisher: Ravenous Romance

Release Date: December 2008

ISBN: 978-1-60777-076-3

Length: Novel

Format: Electronic

Genre: Historical

Sensuality Level: 3.5

Posted By: Buy Land Of Falling Stars from:

THE WAY OF SHADOWS

Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

My Review:
Unpredictable. Action-packed. Makes a reader look forward to what is going to happen next. Story-telling quality is good. But the ending is a cliffhanger. The ending is the start of the next book, so you have to read the next book. The ending is the only reason this book did not garner a five-star rating.

Excerpt: The perfect killer has no friends. Only targets. For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art. And he is the city’s most accomplished artist, his talents required from alleyway to courtly boudoir. For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he’s grown up in the slums, and learned the hard way to judge people quickly — and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint. But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins’ world of dangerous politics and strange magics — and cultivate a flair for death.
Excerpt taken from the author's website at : http://www.brentweeks.com/books on 28/02/2009.
Cherry

Buy Link:

WW28

WICKED WEDNESDAYS (WW28)

This is the WW28 page for those new to WW28 and for those wanting to know about WW28.

Why Wicked Wednesdays? ... because on top of it being a weekly meme which happens on Wednesdays, it is also an opportunity to showcase your favourties! A shameless and wicked promotion of your favourite books, author or series!! This is also a combination of Tonya's Friday 56, a wishlist, and an avenue for you to promote the books you already have on your shelves! (Unfortunately Tonya of Storytime With Tonya and Friends no longer do Friday 56s... But we soldier on...) Here you only show what is in page 28 (theoretically). Which is hoping to hit the first chapter really. And viola! We have: WICKED WEDNESDAYS! Or in short WW28.

So, what do you do with it? You steal it!

• 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.

Theoretically, it is suppose to be a random book. But you can tweak that anyway you like :) And it is suppose to be only the first sentence of page 28... but it won't be wicked if you all follow the rules now would it? Feel free to bend the rules... So, after your "Page 28, 1st Sentence" (P28, 1S) post, you may post related thingies. I'll let you decide what "thingy" is to you. Open to interpretation people...

And why Wednesday? You ask. It is midweek, nothing happens on a Wednesday... people are usually gagging for the weekend to arrive! So.... lets make something happen on a Wednesday... makes the wait for the weekend seem a little less longer.

<center><a href="http://www.cherrymischievous.com/search/label/WW28" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjTxcBocREkpJ2Ae-NinbrFaFHr1o1UEh1AN6-bQJb1EZoL3moU27kVpvybHulQ6_n7q-4aFNp1a_rLWJxBvxly3CGQDc6hZ1FPOQIjOHWtw6mWdfwBfFtF1fN97TlsDU5kxzHYRBfF_2x/s512/WW28.jpg" height="280" width="260"/></a></center>

Amendment (02/06/2010): Righty-yo, your fine with paging numbers if your ebooks are in pdf format. Any other, and your screwed. So, my suggestion is hit Location 450 to 500 or thereabouts for your sentence.

Amendment (09/07/2011): And what would you do if your book is in audiobook format? Usually audiobooks comes in many parts, say, 9 parts. Or if bought as CD, then 9 CDs, etc. Just hit the middle of the first part. Usually your player also have a counter that looks like a bar at the bottom of the player with numbers counting how much you've listened to and how much you still have to listen to. Click the pic below to hugify and see the counter at the bottom better. If not sure, try to hit approximately at 1:30:00 of your counter. However, you can pick any line you want to present for your WW28. Remember, wickedness is encouraged here...

If you participate in WW28, place your site name and url in the MrLinky below to promote your WW28 offerings:


See samples of WW28 offering at:
http://www.cherrymischievous.com/2010/03/ww28-heist-society.html
http://theblackcell.net/blog/?p=1369&cpage=1#comment-138


*Amendments: Slight changes on wordings and additional info added on 17 Mar 2010 and 02 June 2010.
WW28 pic code added on 03 Nov 2010.
Further amendments on 09/07/2011, 28/05/2012 & 01/11/2012.

ACHERON

Sherrilyn Kenyon's Acheron

My review:
I like things to make sense and I like my stories to tie up. But this book has so many loose ends, it made me think that, one, S. Kenyon is losing her touch. Or, two, she was under too much pressure to write this book. Either way, this book did not rate very high. I would not recommend this book to a new S. Kenyon fan or anybody who has not read her work yet. It would put them off.For one, in the basketball court scene with Sunshine, where Tory commented:

"The tall blond who can't shoot hoops?"

How did Tory knew that Talon can't shoot hoops, when the description or any mention about him being unable to shoot hoops, was made after the comment.... duh...It lost me there for a second while reading that part, until I came to the "explanation" that Talon can't shoot hoops. It would have been nice to have that "explanatory line" before the comment so that the readers are not lost and the story lines make sense then. And, there isn't any snag in the flow of the story.

There are many other loose ends like that, but I won't give out spoilers. So, if you are a long time Dark Hunter fan already, borrow this book rather than buy. Not worth the money. On the positive side, it mentioned in the end, about Zarek and other Dark Hunters which went a long way into alleviating my ire.

Book info:

From the World of the Dark-Hunters comes the most anticipated book to date...Eleven thousand years ago a god was born. Cursed into the body of a human, Acheron endured a lifetime of hatred. His human death unleashed an unspeakable horror that almost destroyed the earth. Brought back against his will, he became the sole defender of mankind.Only it was never that simple...For centuries, he has fought for our survival and hidden a past he never wants revealed.Now his survival, and ours, hinges on the very woman who threatens him. Old enemies reawaken and unite to kill them both.War has never been more deadly... or more fun.

Above info was taken from the author's website at: http://sherrilynkenyon.com/book_profile.php?id=46.

Rating: 1 out of 5 cherries.

DARK LOVER

Dark Lover by JR Ward

My Take On This Book:
I've read this book a long time ago, so this is a retrospective reivew. This used to be my most favouritest of all time vampire series until they released Lover Enshrined. Dark Lover is the first of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (BDB) by JR Ward. If you love hero vampires and romance then you would love this series! However this particular book is not so fantastic. Don't get me wrong, it is a good read, but, it is not the best book in the series. Dark Lover is not the worst either. The greatest endorsement that I could say for this book is that it is the start of the Black Dagger Brotherhood! Overall, this book is just a 3.5 out of 5.

JR Ward has a website where you can get BDB candy at : http://www.jrward.com/. Miss Ward is also in MySpace at : http://www.myspace.com/jrwardbdb.

Cherry's Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Caption At The Back Reads:

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deathly turf war going on between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other - six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Yet none of them relishes killing their enemies more than Wrath, the leader of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

The only purebreed vampire left on the planet, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But when one of his most trusted fighters is killed - orphaning a half-breed daughter unaware of her heritage or her fate - Wrath must usher the beautiful female into the world of the undead...

Racked by a restlessness in her body that wasn't there before, Beth Randall is helpless against the dangerously sexy man who comes to her at night with shadows in his eyes. His tales of brotherhood and blood frightens her. But his touch ignites a dawning hunger that threatens to consume them both...