Book Club: The Rest Falls Away

Happy Halloween!!!!!

The fabulous day of fun, fright, costumes, candy, and parties has arrived. It is also the day of the book club deadline. I hope you were all able to get your hands on a copy of The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason.

So what did you think?

Did you feel that the book was more like a romance novel or an Urban Fantasy? Will you be reading on to book 2?

What did you think of her Scooby Gang (her maid and maid's cousin)?

I know I have to ask... Max or Sebatian? Or are you the one sitting there loving deLacy?

Highlights? Lowlights?


Share with us, please. But whatever you do, NO SPOILERS FOR FUTURE BOOKS IN THE SERIES. If you do I will be forced to go Gardella on your ass and stake you. I'm just sayin'.

NaNoWriMo

I am SOOOOO not ready for NaNoWriMo to begin. Hell, I can't seem to focus on my current WIP. I need to buckle down and get some serious planning done tonight and tomorrow. I want to make November worth the insanity.

That being said, I will probably disappear a bit while immersed in the NaNo challenge. I hope you will all forgive the likely neglect here at What Women Read. For a while life is going to be all about what this woman is writing. I will try to keep you updated.

No worries, though. The book club post goes up tomorrow and I have a review of Lord of Scoundrels scheduled the first week of November. Man, I loved that book!

See y'all when I surface!

Meljean love

I heart Meljean. I do! I know many of you do, too. There is just something so lush about her writing. The characters she creates and the world in which they live are vibrant and real. Reading her work leaves me inspired to write, yet completely intimidated. Seriously, the girl is frickin' unreal!

I admit that I am late to the party where Meljean is concerned. Then again, when am I ever on the ball with book releases and trends in the industry? Never. That being said, I have only read Falling For Anthony, Demon Angel, and Paradise. I just finished Paradise (from the Wild Thing anthology) last night. The need to finish it may have contributed to me being late to a meeting (more about that meeting later.) I just could not put it down. Usually a novella leaves be feeling unfulfilled. I want more from the characters or the plot. Not so with this story. Lucas and Selah were wonderful. I completely believed the passion that developed between them, no matter how fast it happened. The vampire community in Ashland was hilarious. I have had vast experience with theater people. The fact that they were vampire theater people made me smile.

I am finding it difficult to be coherent with my thoughts on the book. I loved it. Lucas was this great, intense hero. He had the angst and tortured guilt that I just love in a romance. He was all that, and a vamp, yet managed to not be an Alpha hero. AND I STILL LOVED HIM! Me, the "I only break for Alphas" gal. The fact that he is not an Alpha is actually quite important when it comes to the nature of the vamp community that he leads. Selah is this combination of tough warrior and vulnerable woman. She is conflicted. She is being pulled in two different directions and it is killing her. She is 100% committed to the role of a Guardian, but something doesn't seem to fit.

I think the thing that I enjoy most about Meljean's books is that she doesn't take the easy way out with the HEA. It would be so easy to make all of the characters into Guardians at the end or to have all of the Guardians fall. With Hugh and Lilith (Demon Angel), they still have ties to their past. Lilith does not want to get married. In the end love wins out, but it is not a typical HEA. Lucas and Selah get their HEA (or perhaps more of a HFN), but it is not all tied up with a pretty, shiny bow. The book is a paranormal, but the HEA rings more true to me than those in many Contemporary Romances. There is an honesty to it that I appreciate as a reader. (Of course, I still love the rosy endings with the wedding and baby. I just like some realistic love endings, too. Gives a practical yet romantic single girl some hope.)

This novella is a must-read for me. If you have not yet jumped on the Mejean bandwagon... what are you waiting for?

Book club reminder!

Hey everyone. I just wanted to drop a quick reminder that the deadline for the WWR Book Club is next Friday. I will post a discussion thread for anyone who is/had read the book by that day. I am about 2/3 of the way through the book and can't wait to see what you all thought.

Happy reading!

Haunted Reading Recs from Those Who Write

We bibliophiles devour books by our favorite authors. But what are those authors reading? I took a deep breath and asked that exact question to some local and not so local authors. But being me I couldn't simply ask what books they like. Oh no, I had to keep with my theme of the month: Paranormal/Haunted Books. So here you are, the paranormal books that rocked our authors' socks.

Larissa Ione, author of Pleasure Unbound, recommends:

Full Moon Rising, by Keri Arthur – I picked this as a Haunted Reading Recommendation because it's gritty, scary, and each page is bursting with vampires, shapeshifters, and werebeasts. With all those creatures running around causing trouble, the book is absolute Halloween fun!

Kiss of Midnight, by Lara Adrian – I love the gothic feel of this book, the shadowy, dark details, the incredibly textured description. Then there are the vampires….yum! How can a Halloween read get much better than this?

If Angels Burn, by Lynn Viehl – I simply adore the atmosphere in this book. A scarred, scary hero, a strong heroine suddenly dumped into a dark, frightening world. The book is intense and mysterious, and again…vampires!

Jenna Petersen/Jess Michaels (Lessons From a Courtesan) says:

As a historical writer and fan, I rarely dip my toes into paranormal, but the books in that genre I’ve loved the most seem to all be written by Kathryn Smith. Her Victorian vampire series is spectacular (start with BE MINE TONIGHT) and her new Dream series is also outstanding (BEFORE I WAKE is out now, but I’ve already read the second… haha!).

Jade Lee (The Dragon Earl) shared:

It’s not romance, but I have been reading Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. It’s adventure urban fantasy. Dresden is a wizard in Chicago, and he’s funny, touching, and grip your pages exciting. I started ages ago with the short lived television show which I really enjoyed. Then I tried the first book, now a Dabel Bros comic (with an awesome prequel). Anyway, the first book was Storm Front, and it was good. The second book was Fool Moon, and it was better. After that…they just blew me away. He just gets better and better. I’m now on White Night, which is ninth in the series, and it’s still incredible. Awesome, awesome books and an amazing talent!

Also under the not-romance category the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine is really good. I’ve really enjoyed that. Same thing: adventure urban fantasy, but she’s got a bit more romance in there than Butcher. Actually, a lot more, but the series grows and it’s fabulous.

Under the romance side: I’ve also been reading Gena Showalter’s Lords of The Underworld series. Darkest Night, Darkest Kiss, and Darkest Pleasure are the first three books. If you enjoy alpha males and the “I see you, I want you, you are my destiny” thing, then these are the books for you. I do enjoy that type of set-up at times, so I really got into this series.

And finally, don’t forget my series! Dragonborn is a fantasy romance where a dragon hunter is tracking the last dragon egg to kill it and its owner. Then he falls in love with the woman who’s got it. He’s supposed to kill her, he has to kill her, he needs to kill her. Oops! Sort of puts a crimp in the love story! *grin* The next book Dragonbound comes out in April!

Jaci Burton (Riding Temptation) encourages us to read:

Jackie Kessler's Hells Belles - A wonderfully fun paranormal urban fantasy about a demon succubus on the run in human form trying to escape eternal damnation. I loved this book because it was funny, sexy, had a strong, kickass heroine who loves fashion (what's not to love about that?), plus a unique twist on Hell at the end that I found mind boggling. First in Jackie's Hell on Earth series.

Melani Blazer's Hot Rod Heaven - It's like Stephen King's Christine, only sexy and romantic instead of scary. A woman thinks her dead boyfriend is back, and that a car is stalking her. A seriously great read, with chills and beautiful, hot and sexy romance. (Available at Ellora's Cave in ebook and in print).

Meljean Brook's Demon Night. I know it's book 5 of Meljean's Guardian series (Really, if you haven't read this series yet you're missing out on something magical), but it's my favorite. Why? One word - Ethan.

Halloween meme

Naida over at The Bookworm is doing a month of Haunted posts ::waves!:: She just posted this meme and I thought it fit right on with my month of paranormal and Halloween lovin'. So here I go. You will now see just how big of a wimp I am.

Halloween Meme:

1. Do you watch scary films? Which are your favorites? I have to admit, I am a big wimp. I usually avoid scary movies like the plague. I blame my brother. I would come home from school and be ambushed by Freddy or Jason on the television. Eeek! I do enjoy suspenseful movies. Silence of the Lambs. Scared the crap out of me, and I loved it. The Exorcist is still one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. It is not about monsters of a serial killer. It connects to faith and religion. Depending on your beliefs, the possibility can be all too real.

2. What is your favorite scary book? I have not read that many scary books. I tried reading a Dean Koontz book once and had to put it down. I never finished it. Yup, wimpiest wimp alive. Otherwise I would have to say Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury is my all time favorite scary book. We had to read it in 8th grade English class. It has stuck with me all these years later. It is creepy, psychological, and had Carnies!

3. What scary book to film adaptation is your favorite? I loved the book and movie of Something Wicked This Way Comes. More creepy than scary, but damn good.

4. What type of scary films do you think are better...the older ones like Psycho or the newer ones like Saw? Definitely the older ones. Alfred Hitchcock was brilliant in his ability to scare the audience without explicit gore. The fear was all about the psychological aspects of the film. It is much more difficult to do this successfully. You don't rely on blood and body parts.

5. What is your fav Halloween treat? chocolate and caramel apples

6. What is your favorite Halloween costume? Do you still dress up for Halloween? Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I dress up every year. My friends always have a party, and I get to dress up for work since I teach in an elementary school. The mother of one of my students is a costume designer for local theater companies. She made my costume last year and is making one for me this year. I will be a fairy. :) My favorite costume was the one she made for me last year. I was Inara from Firefly/Serenity. She made the exact same costume that the character wore in the episode "Jaynestown". I absolutely adored it! See why:

Want to do this meme? Consider yourself tagged!

Vamps on Screen

My love of the paranormal, especially vampires, is not limited to the written word. Oh no, I love vampires in all mediums. Books, television, films. I enjoy them all. So today I give to you some of my favorite vamps of the big and small screen. Enjoy the pretties!



Buffy and Angel (of course!)









Mick and Beth (Moonlight... man, I miss that show)









Selene, because she is the most ass kickin'est female vamp out there









Do you have a favorite "live action vampire"?