The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am a Chinese Malaysian, born about a hundred years after the period this story takes place, and even I, jaded as I am about the state Malaysian is in now, find The Ghost Bride fascinating.

It's interesting to remember how people lived back then, before Malaysia was Malaysia, when it was still Malaya and under the British rule, how the various immigrants and cultures intersect.

What I enjoyed most is imagining how this story could have very well been my own family's story. Not the ghost bride part, of course. It is a rare occurrence in itself, but I believe by the time my own grandfather migrated to Malaysia, the practice of marrying a living person to a dead one had all but disappeared. I have heard of a recent case of a marriage between a dead Chinese couple though.

No, what I could imagine was the family intrigue, the head of the house with his many wives and concubines, the many children spawned between the wives and concubines, the family politics as the wives and children all try to win their husband/father's favor. The competition between the wives to produce a male heir, the hatred and jealousy between each wife and their children.

My own grandfather had three wives and a concubine. My father, the youngest son of the Second Wife, had 7 siblings by his own mother. I am not sure of how many children my grandfather had with his First and Third Wives, but there were many. His concubine produced one son.

Although I have heard many stories about my father's childhood, this book really brought to life my imagination of how my grandfather and his family lived, and I assure you, it was a lot more dramatic and quite frankly, uglier, than the family dynamics in the book. My uncle's second wife actually chased my mother around the house with a kitchen knife.

However, let's get back to the book; I loved the whole Ghost Bride theme, Yangsze Choo's depiction of the Chinese's beliefs about the different levels of Hell and burning offerings to the dead ancestors. I love how Choo brought the ghost dimension, the Plains of the Dead, and all the other ghostly denizens to life (no pun intended).

It felt a little bit like Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and is written just as well as Neverwhere was, perhaps even better. But I might be biased. However, Neverwhere is one of my favorite Gaiman books, and this is me giving really high praise to The Ghost Bride. I can't recommend this book enough.

It's amazing and I loved it.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Scarlet is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles series, I read the first book, Cinder, last year for a book club, and I loved it. Of course I had to read Scarlet!

Cinder, obviously, is a retelling of Cinderella, and Scarlet is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. All the important elements; the red hood, the grandmother, and the wolf, are still intact, but the story is told so very differently. Cinder's story is continued here as well, though it has gone beyond the original Cinderella story.

Well, truth be told, the first book, Cinder's story, was already way beyond the original Cinderella story. Cyborgs, aliens (well, Lunarians anyway), mind control, genetically modified creatures... it was so wonderfully creative and I thought Cinder's story was very masterfully crafted.

This second book, Scarlet, weaves Red Riding Hood's story into the already creative plot. It turns out Scarlet's grandmother is the pilot who smuggled Princess Selena, and Wolf is part of a pack of genetically modified soldiers who was working for the evil Lunar Queen Levana to find the Princess.

Wolf isn't all that bad though, I really liked him, even from the beginning. I liked the dynamic between Scarlet and Wolf, fleshed out so much more than from the old fable. Scarlet is another great addition to the cast of strong female characters.

What I liked about the Lunar Chronicles is that the female characters aren't portrayed as weak, stupid females who sit around waiting for their prince to come rescue them, but instead take charge of their own fate and make their own choices, and the way Marissa Meyer puts them all together into this remarkable world is just amazing to read!

I'm looking forward very much to the next books in the series, Cress, which is based on Rapunzel's tale, and Winter, which is based on Snow White. I can't wait to meet the new characters, and I can't wait to find out more about the old.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I haven't read such an enjoyable book in a long time. It was fresh and unique, and I really like all the different elements of the story.

It feels like some kind of historical novel when you first start the story and enter the old bookstore, a mystery with the puzzle solving and members of a secret society, then it becomes somewhat sci-fi with all the talk about Google and immortality, and then comes fantasy with the heroes trying to save the mission; the rogue, the wizard, and the warrior. I loved how the author put them all together.

Clay was a great protagonist, an anti-hero of sorts because he didn't really set out to do much except try to impress the girl, but in the end, he really rose to the occasion and saved the day.

I loved that the other characters were portrayed like characters in an RPG, each one playing an important role in a quest. They were real people living in the 21st century, don't get me wrong, but they all had their RPG roles to play in this mission, and I loved that.

This book is so quaint and modern at the same time, I loved the whole adventure. I love how different this book is, and how fun, mysterious, and smart it is. It's pretty much one of my favorite books this year. =)

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ok, first of all, I really loved this book, but I read it, or rather, listened to it as an audiobook. So to be honest, I don't know if it was the book itself I loved, or the way the reader read it. There were lots of vocal effects when he read all the different characters' dialogue, and while I didn't exactly imagine the affectations the way he did, it was interesting to listened to the book in this way.

This is only the third audiobook I've listened to in my life, and I have never had anyone read to me when I was younger, so I've had limited experience. The reader was very animated, and I loved that about the whole book. It wasn't monotonous, and the reader kept me interested in all that was happening.

It's hard to say if I would've liked this book if I'd read it instead of listening to it on audiobook, though I'm sure I wouldn't have disliked it. It was a fun enough book, made funner with the vocal affectations of the reader, but it might not have been as enjoyable if I only focused on the story rather than the telling of the story also.

I especially loved when at the end of the book, there was a song about Alice in Wonderland, I can't find the title or artist yet, but it's a great ending credit song. I felt like I had just watched an epic movie, instead of just reading a book.

Sorry I'm not much help with reviewing the actual book, but for the curious, you might like to try getting your hands on the audiobook, read by Gerard Doyle, and see how you like the experience.

ETA: Found out the song title and artist: Looking Glass by Hypnogaja!!

Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin

What is the book about?Well, the title kinda says it all, doesn’t it?

What did you like most about it? I loved that Evslin wrote the stories in a way that makes them very easy to read and understand. I got really engrossed in the stories of the Greek myths, and I really like the way he connected the characters from one story to another.

I’ve read about the Greek myths before but a lot of the time I get confused with who’s who. Evslin’s book made the distinction clearer and I felt that I really learnt a lot about the Greek myths from his book.

What did you like least about it? I wasn’t happy that it’s such a small book, only slightly over 200 pages. I wanted more. There were many Greek gods, heroes, and monsters that Evslin didn’t elaborate on. Most notably, Heracles.

I realize that Heracles’ story is very long, adding his and other stories would make the book huge, and apparently that’s not what Evslin was going for. Which is what sucks, because I loved the stories so much, and the way Evslin told them, that I really wanted a lot more.

Who would you recommend it to? If you love learning about the Greek gods and Greek myths, or if you just love great stories, this is a really great book.

Any additional comments? Now I have to find out if Evslin wrote any other books (ie. *thicker* books) on the Greek myths, and if he did, I am soooooo gonna check them out. =)

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey

This is another version of the Beauty and the Beast story. Rosalind Hawkins, or Rose, as she’s later called, is in a desperate situation and has to accept employment as a governess/translator/secretary to a reclusive employer, who was horribly disfigured in an accident.

Later on, we find out he’s not really disfigured in the sense we expect, but transformed into a half-lupine, half-human form. They fall in love, despite many enemies and dangers along the way.

This was a tough book to read. Not tough in the sense of challenging, but because it was a struggle to keep myself interested in it. It wasn’t boring, exactly, but it just didn’t hold my interest well.

Many times I wanted to give up on it, but it wasn’t all that bad and I did want to find out what happens in the end. Unfortunately, now I wonder if I wasn’t better off spending my time reading some other more interesting book.

The story is an interesting one, I’ve always been partial to the Beauty and the Beast story myself, and the added elements (pun intended) of magick, Masters of Elements, and the Elementals, did make the story a lot more interesting than it would’ve been.

Perhaps it was in the way the story was told. Perhaps there was too much magick history that we were subjected to, and perhaps a lot of it didn’t really make sense and weren’t very consistent. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is exactly that I don’t like about the book, but it may well be just me. I definitely hope that others who read it would like it a lot better than I did.

Night Mare by Piers Anthony

The first time I read a book by Piers Anthony, I was 14, and I couldn’t finish the book because someone stole it! I remember really enjoying the book and being frantic when the book disappeared (I was in school, i left it on my desk, and when I came back it was gone!).

The worst thing was I couldn’t remember the author’s name at the time, and I could only remember the word “gargoyle” on the title. So I spent more than 10 years wondering what book it was and if I could ever get it back.

I’m not sure how I found it, but finally I discovered that the book I’d been missing for so long was Piers Anthony’s Geis of the Gargoyle. So I got a copy from Bookmooch.com, and I read it, and loved it! I usually don’t like to read books in a series because there are too many to read and I simply don’t have the interest to read them all!

But the great thing about Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels, is that you don’t have to read all of them to enjoy a few of them. I’ve read two of them now, and my enjoyment of both wasn’t diminished just because I didn’t read the other books for backstories.

Night Mare can be enjoyed in and of itself, and I personally loved it. I thought it was hilarious! I love Piers Anthony’s humor and creativity, and of course, the puns, since Xanth is a world made up of puns!

More books by Piers Anthony:

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

 

This is another book that intrigued me because of another blogger’s review.

 

Ms Ulat Buku from Ulat Buku in the City reviewed this book a while ago, and I thought, hey, it sounds like a much better book than Meyer’s more famous Twilight series.

 

So I read this recently and what I thought is that it is definitely a much better book than the Twilight series. (I’ve only read the first Twilight book, and though I enjoyed it, I have no plans to read the other books in the series.)

 

In fact, I love this book so much that I think it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. As Ms Ulat Buku said to me, Meyer isn’t the best author, but she writes compelling books, and you can’t help but get sucked into the story.

 

I don’t think that the characters are similar to Bella and Edward at all, but perhaps I didn’t read enough of the Twilight series to be a good judge of that. All I can say is that this book is beautiful, and it lingers on my mind long after I’ve finished it.

 

I especially love the storytelling sessions, and the descriptions of life on other planets. I love how the story flowed, and how the people changed, and how beautiful the love the characters had for each other were.

 

I was happy with the ending, but so sad because it was ending. I wanted more, I wanted to know where they went from there, how they were going to live, what would happen next. I wish there was more, but if there isn’t, I’ll reread this book again one day, and enjoy it all over again.

Ironside by Holly Black

 

This book is the sequel to Tithe, where we first meet Kaye and Roiben, and which I absolutely loved.

 

At the end of Tithe, Roiben had overthrown the Queen of the Unseelie Court, and now Ironside begins at Roiben’s coronation.

Kaye is tricked into declaring her love to Roiben at the coronation, and he is forced to send her on what seems like an impossible quest.

 

Thinking that Roiben had rejected her declaration by sending her on a quest she could never complete, Kaye feels sorry for herself and makes a series of apparent mistakes, one of which is telling her mother that she’s actually a changeling and not the real Kaye that her mother gave birth to years ago. Kaye’s a pixie, and her mother is horrified when she finds out.

 

Meanwhile, the Queen of the Seelie Court plots to dethrone Roiben, and Roiben have to find a way to defeat her.

 

As with Tithe, I loved Ironside. Holly Black has an easy way of writing that makes it so enjoyable to read her books and get lost in a whole other world. I fell in love with Roiben in Tithe, and while we don’t see as much of him in Ironside as I would like, I’m still in love with him.

 

It took me a while to get a hold of this book, but I finally found it a few weeks ago at a bargain book sale. I’ll continue looking out for Holly Black’s other books, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy all her other interesting tales of the faeries!

Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

 

I found out about this book from a bookblog review, and then I checked out the Amazon.com reviews to make sure if it was really something I’d enjoy.

 

I have to say that I’m quite disappointed in this book, and I don’t understand all the good reviews it has gotten.

 

To be fair, it’s not a bad book, but it’s not good either. It has a good storyline, and Stiefvater’s writing is actually very easy to read and flows wonderfully. It has exciting moments and a great plotline, but the characters completely fell flat.

 

I’m quite a character-driven reader, and I need to like the characters to like the story. However, the characters in this book is so undeveloped that I find myself wondering who they are, why they do the things they do and just wanting to know more about them.

 

I never even knew Deidre was a 16-year-old girl until later in the story because she seemed so childish and immature, and I actually felt a uncomfortable when she shared a kiss early in the story with Luke. It was a steamy kiss, and I kept wondering, how old is she? Is she supposed to be kissing like this?

 

The other characters aren’t much better, and all through the book, I felt that they all were having some kind of identity crisis or other.

 

I do think that Stiefvater is a good writer though, and perhaps if she spent more time on character development, I would give her books another try.

Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee

 

I've been a huge fan of Tanith Lee ever since I read White as Snow, so I ordered this book from Amazon.com. The thing is, I had the book Drinking Sapphire Wine, and it included Don't Bite the Sun, but I hadn't read the book, and I didn't realize it was the same book.

 

I found it really curious that she titled the second part of the book Drinking Sapphire Wine, remembering that I had a book by the same name written by her. So I compared both books, and it turned out they were exactly the same!

 

It turned out that Biting the Sun is actually two books in one, Don't Bite the Sun, and Drinking Sapphire Wine.

 

Anyway, it was an amazing book (or books)! Tanith Lee creates a whole other world, Four BEE, where hedonism rules, and everyone can commit suicide and come back in a different body of their own design everyday.

 

They can get married, for a minute, a day, or a year, to whomever they choose. They can choose to have a female or a male body, or alternating between either as they wish.

 

The main character of the story is pre-dominantly female, though we never actually find out her name. She's tired with life in Four BEE, feeling that everything they do is meaningless and boring, and hating that the Quasi-Robots and the machines are doing everything for them, effectively rendering them useless.

 

Eventually, she rebels and find another way of life for herself and some other people, though of course, the process isn't immediately easy. I loved the story, and I love the whole concept of being able to commit suicide and coming back in another body, though of course, it wouldn't be such a great idea in reality. Tanith Lee works the concept well in the book though, and I'm an even bigger fan of hers now!

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

 

I've read this once before, and I've watched the movie starring Anne Hathaway too, but it was a long time ago, and something just made me feel like re-reading this book again.

 

Perhaps it's because I have been reading a lot of heavy books lately, and I desperately needed a light and fun read.

 

I'm not allowed to buy any new books until I've read the ones I already have, but I have few light and easy chick-lit, and reading heavy book after heavy book is taking its toll on me!

 

Thankfully, I've got this book on hand, although it's a re-read, but whatever saves my life, right?

 

Ella, who's under a spell to be obedient and do everything that's asked of her, falls in love with the Prince, and worries that she'll bring his doom if someone orders her to kill him. She has to find a way to break the spell, and avoid her ugly stepsisters' commands in the meantime.

 

This was a fun and funny read, and just exactly what I needed! I finished this book in one afternoon, and I was just happy that I could leave my other responsibilities aside for a while and immerse myself in Ella's world. I'd always preferred the book to the movie, and now after re-reading it again, I'm sure I definitely prefer the book to the movie.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

 

I've had this book on my shelf for quite a while. I bought the sequel Son of a Witch in a book sale earlier, and I didn't want to read that because I hadn't read this, so I ordered it from Amazon.

 

It still took me some time to get to this, but I'm so glad I finally did. This didn't look like a chunky book, but it is: 519 pages, and I enjoyed all of it.

 

There is a lot of depth and background to Maguire's Oz and the Wicked Witch of the West. You find out more about her, what made her a Wicked Witch, what's going on in Oz, and why things happened the way they did.

 

I've never actually read Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz, but I've watched the movies and I've always felt that the character of the Witch was very one-dimensional.

 

Besides, I love retellings of classic stories and seeing them from a whole other perspective. The Wicked Witch of the West came really alive for me in Maguire's Wicked.

 

We already know that the Witch inevitably gets killed in the end by Dorothy, so I should've been able to accept it, but I found myself grieving for her, and feeling so sorry for all the things she went through her whole life.

 

The only thing that gave me hope was that there was a sequel. Perhaps her life wasn't in vain after all.

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

 

This book was recommended to me by Amazon.com's 'Recommended for You' program, apparently because I'd been adding a lot of fantasy books into my wish list.

 

Un Lun Dun is about the world of UnLondon, where all the lost, broken, and unwanted things of London end up. There's a war brewing in UnLondon, and the citizens are counting on Zanna, the chosen one, to save them from the enemy, a sinister cloud called Smog.

 

Zanna's just an ordinary girl from London, she's scared and confused and not really sure what she's supposed to do. The only thing anybody knows is that Zanna was written in the Book of Prophesies as their savior from Smog, but is the Book really accurate?

 

Thankfully, Zanna's not alone, her best friend Deeba, goes along with her to the world of UnLondon to help defeat the evil Smog. What comes next is some interesting encounters with strange and wonderful characters, a surprising twist of events, a hero's quest, and a whole lot of excitement.

 

I found this book really entertaining, and very, very, creative. Mieville's mind really works in wondrous ways, and I'd probably never be able to come up with half the ideas and concepts she came up with in the book. I found the book to be reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's style, and well, everyone knows how much I love his books. Even the illustrations in the book were drawn by Mieville herself.

 

This is my first book by Mieville, but it's definitely not going to be the last. I'm looking forward to reading more from her.

 

More books from China Mieville:

 

 

Tithe by Holly Black

Rating:

This is my first book by Holly Black, and I really must say, why haven't I heard of her sooner?!

I mean, seriously, where have I been?! She wrote the Spiderwick Chronicles, and while I haven't read the books, I watched the movie and I absolutely loved it! I had no idea who she was at all, until now, and for someone who particularly loves the kind of stories she tells, that's really bad.

Well, the past is over, I know who she is now, and you can be sure I won't ever forget.

I love faery tales and Tithe was an enchanting story. Kaye and her rock star mother moves back with her grandmother and Kaye starts seeing her old 'imaginary' friends again, the faeries she used to know when she was younger.

She also meets a deliciously hot faery, Roiben, who could be dangerous but so thrilling to be around. They are on opposite sides of an apparent war between the Seelie and the Unseelie courts, and Kaye is supposed to be the sacrifice, the tithe, of mortal blood, that will bring change to the faery world.

The constant tension between Kaye and Roiben was sizzling off the pages, and the unintentionally silly antics of some of the little faes were adorable and humorous. I enjoyed Holly Black's telling of the story, although the first couple of pages were a little confusing, and the ending was perfect except that it left me wishing for more. I'd definitely be looking out for The Spiderwick Chronicles and more of her other books!

More books from Holly Black:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Rating:

Neil Gaiman is one of those authors whose books I buy simply because they've got his name on the cover. It doesn't really matter what the book's about, I know I'd love it just because he wrote it. Every new story he comes up with always seems fresh, new, and exciting.

He has created so many new worlds for the delighted child in me to play in; with the magical Princess Bride-like world of Stardust, the earth-as-the-gods'-playground theme of American Gods, the nursery-rhymes-turned-reality of Anansi Boys, and my favorite world of all, Neverwhere's surreal, darker version of Alice's Wonderland.

His latest work, The Graveyard Book, creates yet another delightful world, one that I never imagined I would like at all. You can probably guess from the title of the book that it's a world set in a graveyard. One whose inhabitants can be kind and charitable, loving and nurturing, irritable and old-fashioned, friendly and dangerous....

Supposedly listed as a children's book, Gaiman nevertheless has many adult fans, and though the book is written simply in Gaiman's easy manner - the reason I love reading his writing - the story itself is mature and sophisticated.

It revolves around a boy whom the graveyard's inhabitants named Nobody Owens, Bod for short, when a ghostly couple adopted him after his family was murdered. Throughout the book, we follow Bod as he grows up in this unusual setting and learns the ways of the dead while trying to live his life. It isn't easy as he has many dangers to avoid, both from the world of the living and the world of the dead. Worst of all, the man who murdered Bod's family is still out there, looking for Bod so that he can finish what he started.

In many ways, Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is sad and poignant, yet it has its funny moments and terrifying ones as well. I felt sad at the ending, but then I usually do whenever I finish one of Gaiman's books. The wonder of reading a Neil Gaiman story is well worth the pain of saying goodbye to it at the end though, so I'm pretty sure I'll keep reading Gaiman's stories as long as he keeps writing them.

More books from Neil Gaiman:

Another One Bites the Dust by Jennifer Rardin

Rating:

After waiting so long to read the sequel to Jennifer Rardin's Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Another One Bites the Dust has been well worth the wait.

We met and fell in love with Jaz Parks, the bad-assed, larger-than-life protagonist, and her sexy vampire boss, Vayl, in the first book of the Jaz Parks series. In the first book, they had to save the world from a deadly virus and the soul-feeding Tor-el-Degan. In the midst of their mission, sparks - both the romantic kind and the friction kind - flew between Jaz and sexy Vayl. Of course, they managed to complete their mission successfully, although not without some really terrifying scares. We also learn a little bit about our characters' dark pasts, in particular, Jaz's tragic history.

In Another One Bites the Dust, Jaz is back and badder than before, Vayl is his gorgeous, brooding self, and the other characters, the Seer Cassandra, brilliant Bergman, and rookie Cole, have much more prominent roles.

This time, Jaz and her team have to kill Chien-Lung, an insane and extremely dangerous Chinese vampire, who is made much more dangerous because of the dragon armor he stole that makes him almost invincible. He's not the only enemy Jaz and her team face though, there are more soul-feeders, this time in the form of reavers, who kill innocent victims and eat their souls.

Another One Bites the Dust is not as light-hearted as Once Bitten, Twice Shy. It's almost as if Rardin and her characters have agreed to get more serious and professional after the dangers they faced in the first book. Jaz is still the colorful, ass-kicking character from Once Bitten, Twice Shy, but slightly more serious and quieter than before. Perhaps it's due in part to her having to face her personal demons from her past, and having to make some painful choices to be able to move on with her life.

Rardin again brings her characters vividly to life with her exceptional writing skills. Another One Bites the Dust is just as entertaining, if not more, than Once Bitten, Twice Shy and well worth the read. The only thing I'm just slightly disappointed with is the lack of developing romance between Jaz and Vayl. It's not completely lacking, there's still chemistry, but I wish Rardin will take it to the next level already. I think I may be feeling more frustrated that nothing's happening yet than Vayl might be. But then again, he's a 300-year-old vampire, so I guess patience is probably one of his strong points.

I'm eager to read the third book, Biting the Bullet, after this. Hopefully, something will happen with Jaz and Vayl finally, and if not, well, I'll content myself with sitting on the edge of my seat rooting for Jaz and her team to kick all the bad guys' asses to hell and back. After all, there's still hope for romance in the fourth book, Bitten to Death, and the fifth book, One More Bite in the Jaz Parks series, which are due to be released this August and next January respectively.

More Books from Jennifer Rardin:

Authors and their comfort zones

Once upon a time there was an author who loved to write romance. She wanted all those happily ever after endings and when she sold her first two books she knew she was going to write more. When she wrote about the hero’s point of view in her first book she was told “you can’t do that” and she couldn’t understand why. Just as the heroine and hero couldn’t make love unless they had planned to get married very soon after and it was mentioned. So each time she was told “you can’t do that” she asked why and from then on, she did her best to break one or two “rules” and get away with it. Sometimes she did get away with it and sometimes she again heard “you can’t do that”.

She also knew she loved to write about things that go bump in the night and anything that couldn’t be properly explained. At first, she was told the paranormal ideas she had wouldn’t sell, but it didn’t stop her. After all, the time would come when she could write the books she well and truly loved to write.

So along the way she wrote about a psychic who watched a woman’s death through the murderer’s eyes, about a woman who hit 30 and had her dead parents come back with the intention of staying until she found the right man, about the daughter of a famous horror actor who lived in a house that had a few secrets and prompted questions of “could that be …?” About a woman who thought the life of a society belle was better than hers until she was killed and ended up in that woman’s body only to learn she was now a suspect in the belle’s fiancé’s death. Another woman who stumbled onto a small village that only appeared the month of December where Christmas was celebrated in a big way, a woman who almost gave up her life because she was slowly fading from life until she returned to her home town where no one knew her and a dark-natured homicide cop who has a long murdered woman haunting his house and he falls in love with her.

They were all practice works for what she really wanted to do. She wanted to leave that comfort zone and write a book that had all of those “you can’t do that” in it.

Thanks to a sassy witch named Jazz Tremaine, who’d been around for the last 700+ years, she was able to do just that. It wasn’t easy forgetting those old rules and just going for it, but she did it because the book deserved the absolute best she could give it. So this author worked hard, laughed, cried, sweated blood and discovered that writing about Jazz, Nick, Irma, and Fluff and Puff was the most fun she’d ever had. That author was me and the book was 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover.

Another form of living happily ever after since I’ve since sold three more books in my witch series. The second, Hex Appeal, will be out this November and Wicked By Any Other Name and Wishing You A Hexy Christmas in 2009.

It’s not easy writing outside your comfort zone. It’s like giving up that blankie that’s worn and soft and makes you feel better. But sometimes, jumping off that cliff and swimming through uncharted waters throws you into a whole new world that may be unfamiliar, but it can also be a lot of fun.

What about you? Do you like to venture into new territory or do you stay in your comfort zone?

Linda

Linda Wisdom, the author of the new paranormal romance, 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover, will be guest blogging here about her deliciously entertaining book this Monday, the 21st of April, so make sure you visit to see what she has to say.

50 Ways to Hex Your Lover features sassy witch Jazz Tremaine, her on-again, off-again sexy vampire lover, Nikolai Gregorivich, and of course, her always-hungry bunny slippers, Fluff and Puff, who are seriously adorable but dangerously quick to chomp on anything within the grasp of their sharp teeth.

The chemistry between Jazz and Nikolai sizzles throughout the book as they are forced to work together to stop a diabolical psycho who uses his powerful dark magick to steal vampires' and other magickal creatures' life forces.

Linda will blog more about the book on Monday, but I just want to say that it was one of the best and most entertaining paranormal romances I have ever read. All the characters are interesting and truly memorable, especially the annoying ghost Irma, Jazz's greedy employer Dweezil, and the truly foul Tyge Foulshadow. Nikolai is one vampire whose fangs I'd like to get on me, except that Jazz would kill me if I touched him, and I honestly wouldn't want her on my bad side.

Linda Wisdom's 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover is a real treat for witch and vampire lovers and it is full of fun and excitement on every single page. Read more about it this Monday when Linda guest blogs here.

I've always been partial to vampires. Sleeping during the day, coming out at night, biting unsuspecting humans and sucking their blood, having all sorts of powerful abilities...what's not to like about them? I wished I was a vampire more than a couple of times when I was a teenager, and any true vampire fan will have wished the same at least once in his or her life. But unless I meet a vampire who's willing to turn me into one, the only way I can fulfill my vampire wish is to read about them.

Jennifer Rardin's Once Bitten, Twice Shy has definitely given me a delicious taste of vampirism. It's fun, hilarious, exciting, and scary all at once. While the protagonist, Jaz Parks, isn't exactly a vampire, she's a foul-mouthed, wise-cracking, ass-kicking lady who kills bad guys. Besides, she hangs with a vampire: Vayl, a gorgeous, powerful, 300-year-old vampire assassin from Romania. That's almost as good as being a vampire.

Vayl's her boss...well, sort of. She's his bodyguard. Or, at least that's how it starts out. Amidst all the action and ass-kicking, there's a love story that unfolds beautifully. Jaz and Vayl find time to fall in love with each other while saving the world from a lethal virus and a soul-feeding Kyron known as Tor-al-Degan. The Tor-al-Degan is one scary demon who can destroy the world at the bidding of the Deganites. She (yes, it's a she) had been bound years ago, but the Deganites plan to bring her back, and Jaz and Vayl have to do everything they can to foil the Deganites' plan.

Rardin has done a wonderful job with Once Bitten, Twice Shy. Jaz Parks is a delightful character with a strong spirit, and the more I got to know her, the more I liked and admired her. Vayl is simply so delicious that I just wanted to sink my fangs into him, and the rest of the cast are so colourful and full of life that I wished I could meet them all for real.

What I liked most, though, is Rardin's humor. The narrative and conversations are filled with irony, sarcasm, and wit, and sometimes the things Jaz says and thinks to herself sound a lot like what I might think or say to myself. I laughed out loud at so many of the passages, and cringed more than once when the characters had to face the terrible Tor-al-Degan.

Rardin is a terrific writer, and I look forward to the second and third book in the Jaz Parks series. Another One Bites the Dust will be coming out this December, and Biting the Bullet will be out in February next year. More adventures with Jaz Parks? Count me in!