Posts By: Giselle

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Review: Pretty When She Dies

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Pretty When She Dies
Rhiannon Frater
Series: Pretty When She… Trilogy #1
Release date: November 24th 2008

Goodreads / Purchase

Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry…

… in a new, horrific, unimaginable way…

Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature.

All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what’s worse is that he’s a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding. Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind.

But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation… or her death?

What would you do if you woke up buried in the ground? Well Amaliya first took a shower (duh!), then what comes next involves blood. Lots and lots of blood.

Left on her own to find out what she is, and how to survive it, Amaliya has a pretty rough beginning into her new vampiric life. However, she soon proves to be a pretty bad-ass heroine by, well… improvising. She’s a fighter through and through. Instead of whining about her horrible situation, she goes out there and figures it out. Embracing it, even. Which I found especially awesome. It’s not without a kill or two… or three, but eventually, she finds another of her kind. This is where Cian comes along.

Cian is centuries old, and the master of Austin. He doesn’t know what he’s getting into when he decides to take Amaliya under his wing. Let me just tell you, it gets hot. Very hot! That is, until Samantha – Cian’s human fiancé – and his servant Roberto comes along. Things get very cold, fast. Neither wants Amaliya around, so as you can guess, you can also expect plenty of back-stabbing and betrayals. As usual, good or bad, all the characters are incredibly well written and perfectly flawed. Even the side characters play a major role in the story. I can’t fail to mention Sergio and Grandma which, with their humor and charm, became instant favorites.

“It’s the irony of being a vampire. Being immortal and being terrified of death.”
-Quote in Pretty When She Dies


Gritty and dark, the vampire lore in Pretty When She Dies sticks to the original blood drinking, day sleeping vampires; they’re dangerous and violent. I loved the overall world building, in particular, the addition of necromancy (which means we also have some zombies!) that shakes it up a little giving us an extra twisted plot and epic fight scenes. This necromancer – they call him The Summoner – can not only call on, and control, an army of undead, he’s also a wickedly malicious and extremely old vampire. This makes him highly powerful as a villain. Believe me, he won’t fail to intimidate you. How about this: To lessen his boredom, he creates vampires to set free, stalk, then kill. That’s not barbaric at all… This book is definitely not without its fair share of action.

I continue to be blown away by Rhiannon’s crack-infused pages; keeping me glued to her words. Combining classic vampire lore, horror, and romance – she has given us another astonishingly compelling read.

5 Hot Espressos

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Waiting on Wednesday (34)

Posted by on 05/02/2012 • 50 Comments

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.  My pick this week:

Reaper L.S. Murphy Release date: January 7th, 2013 by J. Taylor Publshing Add it to your Goodreads

There’s no way sixteen year old Quincy Amarante will become the fifth grim reaper. None. Not over her shiny blue Mustang. Her Jimmy Choos. Or her dead body.

She’s supposed to enjoy her sophomore year, not learn about some freaky future Destiny says she has no choice but to fulfill.

It doesn’t take long for Quincy to realize the only way out of the game is to play along especially since Death can find her anyway, anywhere, anytime. And does.

Like when she’s reassuring…

Cover Reveal – 5 New Covers

Posted by on 05/01/2012 • 25 Comments

Breaking GlassLisa AmowitzRelease date: July 9th, 2013by Spencer Hill Press

Add it to your Goodreads

On the night seventeen-year-old Jeremy Glass winds up in the hospital with a broken leg and a blood alcohol level well above the legal limit, his secret crush, Susannah, disappears. When he begins receiving messages from her from beyond the grave, he’s not sure whether they’re real or if he’s losing his grip on reality. Clue by clue, he gets closer to unraveling the mystery, and soon realizes he must discover the truth or become the next victim himself.

Throne of Glass Sarah J. Maas Series: Throne of Glass, #1 Release date: August 7th, 2012 by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Add it to your Goodreads After serving out a year of hard labor in the…

Review: Inhale by Kendall Grey

Posted by on 05/01/2012 • 24 Comments

InhaleKendall GreySeries: Just Breathe, #1Release date: May 1st, 2012

Goodreads / Purchase

Strangers in reality, inseparable in dreams…

After years of suffocating under her boss’s scrutiny, whale biologist Zoe Morgan finally lands a job as director of a tagging project in Hervey Bay, Australia. Success Down Under all but guarantees her the promotion of a lifetime, and Zoe won’t let anything—or anyone—stand in her way. Not the whale voices she suddenly hears in her head, not the ex who won’t take no for an answer, and especially not the gorgeous figment of her imagination who keeps saving her from the fiery hell of her dreams.

Gavin Cassidy hasn’t been called to help a human Wyldling in over a year, which is fine by him. Still blaming himself for…

Spring Fling Giveaway Hop

Posted by on 04/30/2012 • 31 Comments

I haven’t done a giveaway hop in a long while but with all these awesome releases lately and 10% off The Book Depository, my affiliate account (aka everyone’s shopping sprees) is allowing me to participate in the Spring Fling giveaway hop hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Eve’s Fan Garden! There are close to 200 blogs participating, so lots of chances to win!

What’s up for grabs? One book of choice at The Book Depository up to a value of 10$.  Open Internationally as long as TBD ships to you (is your country on the list? Click here) Giveaway ends on May 7th, 2012 Use the Rafflecopter below to enter.

Make sure to hop along the other participants for more chances to win!Click here for…

Hemlock Tour Stop

Hemlock Tour Stop

Posted by on 04/30/2012 • 38 Comments

Kathleen Peacock is visiting Xpresso Reads today for the blog tour of her wonderful book, Hemlock. This is one of my top favorite reads of 2012 so I’m very excited to have her over for an interview. Let’s first have a look at my glowing review! =)

Hemlock Kathleen Peacock Series: Hemlock, #1 Release date: May 8th, 2012 by HarperCollins

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Mackenzie and Amy were best friends. Until Amy was brutally murdered.

Since then, Mac’s life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac’s hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy’s killer: A white werewolf.

Lupine syndrome—also known as the werewolf virus—is on the rise across the country….

Xpresso Weekly (1)

Posted by on 04/29/2012 • 110 Comments

Xpresso Weekly features blog news/happenings of the past week, and the bookish goodies received.

Hi guys!! Soooo, you may notice something is very different on the blog today! I am extremely thrilled with my new beautified blog a la Parajunkee. She’s amazing and I definitely recommend her to ANYONE looking for a design. She made this in less than a week! She freaking blows my mind! So anyways, I’m sure you’re all aware of the plagiarism story and can thus deduce why I’ve decided to move on from the In My Mailbox meme. I’m not going to be a broken record, so if you want to know the full story – click here. The opinions in PJs post mirrors my own, that’s all I’m going to say about it. All …

Fresh Batch (April 29th – May 5th)

Posted by on 04/28/2012 • 29 Comments

Exclusively titled for Xpresso Reads, Fresh Batch features the hottest releases of this upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

Sweet EvilWendy HigginsRelease date: May 1st, 2012by HarperTeen

Goodreads / Purchase

What if there were teens whose lives depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen angels in Sweet Evil.

Tenderhearted Southern girl, Anna Whitt, was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

A…