The Phantom King (The Kings #2) by Heather Killough-Walden

Siobhan Ashdown was born of magic; it rides her blood like a phantom, tainted and dark and unpredictable. She is a warlock, and the power within her is unlike any before known to her kind. So it’s no surprise that the most powerful of the demons who feed off of this warlock magic not only recognizes the enormous potential she represents but determines that he will possess her at any cost.Even if it means war with the entire supernatural world.
Thanatos has ruled Purgatory as the Phantom King since time immemorial. King of a vast plane of solitude, he is a free spirit, a lone rider, a tattooed man of wind and dust and nonexistent boundaries. Then he turns around one morning to find himself face to face with Siobhan Ashdown, a woman with hair as red and wild as his soul, eyes like melted gold, and a spirit as elusive as his own. Time stops, the world tilts, and the fact that she attacks him right off the bat does little to deter his romantic convictions.
Thirteen Kings are severed by lust and greed, an ancient vampire and his rogue creation lay claim to what is not theirs, the whisperings of war begin to shake the foundation of the supernatural world, and primordial evil awakens from its slumber to slither across the land in this second installment in the Big Bad Wolf spinoff series, The Kings, by Heather Killough-Walden.

Hi all! Just finished up this book tonight, The Phantom King... #2 in The Kings series by Heather Killough-Walden. Read, once again, but the quirky sounding Antony Ferguson. His reading didn't quite bother me this time around, which I think had something to do with the fact that he read the first book as well, and I listened to that one directly before this one. I recall not really preferring the first book, thought it might have something to do with "first book syndrome" lol! Even if they aren't a newbie author, sometimes books in a series just have that curse on them! ;) But... I am happy to report that I really did enjoy this book and it was much better than the first book, in my opinion. There still is a bit to learn and take in and REMEMBER (most importantly, I think) but it was pretty much all crammed into the first book, so with this one, you are kind of feeling like you know a bit more about the characters and whatnot. This is actually a really good start to series that I'm finding myself kind of excited to follow. There will obviously be 13 books in the series, if not more, based on "The Kings". Each of the kings rule over a paranormal type of myth/legend/creature... like the first one was the Vampire king... this one was the Phantom king, ruling over the dead and so on and so forth. In each book they are giving a bit more detail into the other kings and I'm finding myself looking forward to particular kings' books! Like the Frost king sounds interesting! ;) But like I said, this was about Thanatos, the Phantom king. And the name is either coincidence or a nod towards Death of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse... not sure if Walden meant it that way or not? But the way the reader, Ferguson, read Than's name literally almost killed me. Like every.single.time!!! Gah! Obviously, the reader is quite british and his accent is extremely thick and its just how he says certain words like GAR-AGE, oh my gosh, just kills me! And so of course this book has to be one of those cliche girl-loves-cars book (you know the ones I'm talking about...) so GARAGE was like every other paragraph... *sigh* so yeah, the reader slaughters the pronouncing of the name Thanatos, putting the emphasis on the wrong syllables and whatnot. Literally kills me!

Okay... moving along. So how do we get the sound of SHA-VON from the spelling of "Siobhan" I mean, like honestly? How does that even WORK?! Luckily I don't READ the books, I just LISTEN, but every time someone said her name in the book, the spelling immediately popped into my head... IDK. But those are just weird, goofy things about me. Those things have nothing to do with the book, LOL! :P I'm just a dork. Okay, so moving right along... oh! Speaking of moving along, this one (like the first book) went along mighty quickly. It was like one minute they meet, the next they bump uglies, then, TA DA, they are WED? WTF? And it even popped into her mind for a second that it sounds a little quick to her. But, she gives into the big hunka-hunka burnin' love! I have to admit, these books need more hot n heavy. They are a little TOO quick for me, barely registering at 7 hours total, so pretty short books, relatively, and though I really am starting to enjoy the really fantastic detail and writing style, there are still some parts that bounce back and forth between the present of the book or swap between points of view and "reverse" the plot to do so... it throws things off a bit. I understand WHY she does this in writing, but it sometimes doesn't really translate well when you have such a short book. Those moments could be skipped over and  and more chemistry between the characters could be built up. After getting over the shock of the complete non-existent bond between the Vampire king and his queen in the first book, I was surprised to see more interaction between Than and Siobhan (I can't even spell that without tripping out... but I digress...) and it was a nice change. Anyway. Enough late night rambling from me. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the books in this series! :)

Not too shabby... it's gettin' there...

See you guys next time! Not quite sure what's up next, I have a lot in my TBRP!

The Vampire King (The Kings #1) by Heather Killough-Walden

It was immediate for Roman. In three thousand years, he’d never lost control of his emotions, or his heart. But the moment he laid eyes on Evelynne Farrow, he knew she was the woman who haunted his dreams. And everything changed. 
Everything. 
Evie Farrow has always loved a good vampire romance. In fact, she makes a living writing them. While sitting in a coffee shop and working on her next mega-hot book, Evie is approached by a tall, dark, and handsome man who could have been pulled directly from one of her novels. 
Unbeknownst to her, Roman D’Angelo is exactly what he appears to be – a vampire, and not just any vampire, but the king of vampires. 
Unfortunately, while Roman is both ancient and invulnerable, Evie is flesh and blood. Just as Roman decides that he and Evie have a date with destiny, for reasons of their own, an ancient god and a homicidal vampire take an equally strong interest in her. To make things more complicated, there’s something very special about Evie. Something not quite human.
Can Roman fight off the incredible forces that would have Evie as their own long enough to win her heart, or will destiny betray him, and destroy everything he has ever dreamed of?

“Lalura had told him about her vision. Thirteen kings on a chess board – and thirteen queens….”

Hello, hello! I'm here with my review of the first book in The Kings series by Heather Killough-Walden, narrated by someone I've not listened to before; Antony Ferguson. I have to address the fact that I've NOT listened to this particular reader before, therefore my rating on that fact is reflected in my only having given this book 3 stars. It's not THE only reason this book is just so-so for me- there are many reasons, LOL! But, there is an extremely thick british accent going on here in Mr. Ferguson that some phrasing and words just threw me off and, well, quite frankly, annoyed the shit out of me! LOL! And, I just has a little sneak peek at the person who reads the second book in this series, and it's the same reader, which is kinda disappointing! :( Ah well. I was thinking about not imbibing in the second book because of the reader and I thought maybe it is just 'first book syndrome' where subsequent books would be much better, but I just am not sure at this point.

Why didn't I really enjoy this book so much? Well, setting the fact that the reader bothered me a bit, the plot was extremely confusing. There was just SOOOO much information thrown at me at once and there are even parts to it, that I'm like Wha?! What the heck is going on!? LOL! The lore is slightly interesting but also extremely confusing and it like almost forces you to take mental notes, or even written notes! *snort* It was THAT... what's the word? It was that extreme. Wayyyy too much to tell us for just one single book. I understand Walden wants us to know the history of her vampires and the warlocks etc, but it just came off as too much, too fast, way too fucking confusing! And if vampires weren't enough to contemplate and attempt to "believe" in, she throws this warlock twist, so you have massive amounts of magic flying around, this strange plot and all this information you're supposed to absorb... it was just odd. And how the whole story started was like the middle of the actual story, then the plot backtracked and explained HOW that situation came to pass or? I don't know... I'm still flipping confused! LOL! I sincerely hope this next book isn't set up that way and doesn't flood us with too much information, because that made it very detached feeling. It felt like "all business", no fun. And certainly no connection between the two main characters. I understood Roman's passion, he was a vampire, but it all felt very on the surface and I didn't even really KNOW how Evie even felt half the time, she just came off as a fishing bobber floating on the water, going whichever way the current went. I never once felt like there was a real connection between Roman and Evie, it was very odd that they were boinking at the end. Sorry... that was a total spoiler. But I waited for-freaking-ever to even get to "wet panties" and then luckily the last fucking chapter, there was some sort of turgid member action going on. Gah. It was bad. I don't even think this deserves 3 stars, but I'm too lazy to change the rating! LOL! Anyway. I'm giving book a go tonight before bed, and if it sucks as bad as this one... well, you'll be hearing about it, internets! :P

Barely...

See you next time!

Tiger Magic (Shifters Unbound #5) by Jennifer Ashley

He was once a captive, but his urges were never caged. Now he’ll release them on a beautiful stranger whose own secret desires are longing to be sated…
He doesn’t have a name. He doesn’t have a clan. The humans who held him prisoner for forty years have taken them away. He knew nothing but captivity until nearly a year ago, when he was released into the light. Now Tiger lives in the Austin Shiftertown, where he struggles to belong and searches for an identity.

Carly Randal thinks her fabulous life is complete—until her car breaks down on the side of the road, and a wild-looking Shifter is the only one to help her. Tiger takes one look at Carly and knows instantly—she will be his mate. As Carly is drawn into his Shifter world, she risks everything she has for that forbidden something she still wants: passionate love.

Hello, Hello! I'm here for my review of the 5th book in the Shifters Unbound series by Jennifer Ashley, read by Cris Dukehart- who read the other books in the series as well, which I've also read. It took me several books to really get into this series, but after 5 of them now, I can say that I really do enjoy it a lot! We got to meet the main character- Tiger, in the previous book to this one, book 4, towards the very end and it was a great book too, so I knew with the title Tiger Magic, that this would be enjoyable too! I loved getting to know Tiger a little more and think that whom he was paired with, Carly, was perfect. She was a great, well rounded female counterpart to Tiger. In the last book, we were in a different shifter town, well, actually the last TWO books took place in a different shifter town that had characters who knew one another/were friends, so the series has sort of hopped back and forth, which keeps things interesting, but on a sort of skimming the waters type scenario. You get a feel for the shifter towns and of the main characters homes and outlying homes of characters who play a small part in the books, but you're not completely overwhelmed and bogged down by details that might cause a person to become disinterested in the series. So I think Ashley does a fine job at these shifter books and I'm glad that I was able to take a good break between this book and the last, but not a long enough break that I forgot about the characters and little nuances of the towns. :) I wouldn't suggest anyone read this series back to back like I did the first 4 books, LOL! I got pretty tired of them pretty fast, but after a short break between 3 and 4 and then a longer break between 4 and 5, and this one brought the fondness back for sure! :) A great paranormal, shifter series! :)

Totally deserved:

I'm starting another book here shortly (I'm blogging this from bed!) and it's going to be:

The Vampire King (The Kings, #1)

Killough-Walden, Heather

Beautiful Bitch (Beautiful Bastard #1.5) by Christina Lauren

Just when Chloe’s career starts to take off, Bennett wishes it would all slow down long enough to spend a wild night alone with his girlfriend. But after he refuses to take no for an answer, Chloe and Bennett find themselves with two plane tickets, one French Villa, and a surprising conversation that, predictably, leaves them wrestling under the covers.

Hello guys! Me again! What?! back so soon, you ask? Well this goodie was only 3 or so hours via audiobook (a "novella" if you're reading it? IDK!) so it was a quick little listen and boy was it fun! It would have almost been better to have listened to this one BEFORE book #2- Beautiful Stranger as it mentions Max and Sarah in it, which was kinda fun. Not sure why they chose to release it the way they did, # 2, then #1.5... sort of strange... but it worked anyway! I'm madly in love with anything these two (Christina and Lauren) write, so for me, this was just fun and awesome, I really enjoyed the "quickie"! LOL! And it was that! It was read by the familiar Grace Grant, who reads the others, but this one was paired with a male reader named Kirby Heybourne, whom was a decent narrator. This was mostly from Bennett's perspective, so the reader did a fine job doing the male voice! Anyway, this was a super fun listen, once again, this series hasn't let me down. It's a shame it was just a little short story, but it was still great! :)

Absolutely deserves....

Next up....

Tiger Magic (Shifters Unbound, #5)

Ashley, Jennifer

Affliction (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter #22) by Laurell K Hamilton

Some zombies are raised. Others must be put down. Just ask Anita Blake.
Before now, she would have considered them merely off-putting, never dangerous. Before now, she had never heard of any of them causing human beings to perish in agony. But that’s all changed.
Micah’s estranged father lies dying, rotting away inside from some strange ailment that has his doctors whispering about “zombie disease.”
Anita makes her living off of zombies—but these aren’t the kind she knows so well. These creatures hunt in daylight, and are as fast and strong as vampires. If they bite you, you become just like them. And round and round it goes…
Where will it stop?Even Anita Blake doesn’t know.

Hello, hello! Here I am jotting down a few notes since I just finished book 22 (!!!) in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I'm subscribed to view updates from Hamilton on Facebook and have noticed over the last week + since her book has been released that she's very amendment about people NOT posting spoilers... so as much as I'd like to abide by her wishes, it's slightly difficult to review a book w/o posting a facts that people wouldn't know without having read the books themselves. In that case, I'm not sure why I do book reviews? I know there is a fine art to reviewing and well, you know me, not too classy, not too cooth, sooo.... I will try NOT to post spoilers in this review, but I can't promise much, there was a lot about this book that I'd like to share... a lot of meh, okay things and some not so okay things... so, without further ado... my review!

I've been listening to the stories Hamilton writes about Anita Blake for a couple of years now. I was a little late to the dance, so I had kind of O.D'd on the books via audio all at one time, up until, I think, Bullet (#19), it was... then I had to wait the year or so it took for her to create another book and get it published. So I've been patiently doing just that and here we are with Affliction. I was pretty excited about the release of this one as I absolutely LOVE Anita Blake and honestly think a tv series should be created on like, FX or some non mainstream tv channel like that. There is THAT much about her that's just been had, sooo many stories and details and the series is just so involved and all encompassing. I would honestly tune in each week to watch a tv series, BUT it probably would never be as juicy as her books are by way of the furry lovin' and all the "polyamorous"...ness going on! LOL! That word is just so silly. Call her what she is- a slut! And that's okay by me! ;) I recall the book before the last one, Bullet was a real disappointment for me, it wasn't fulfilling for me at all, and I remember strongly disliking it, then she released Hit List and I fell back in love! LOL! Most of her books are hit or miss, with the majority of them being a serious HIT for me, but her most recent ones you can tell she's just in a different place in her personal life (Hamilton is) and therefore her writing really reflects that. Some of her older books are much darker and much more emotional, and "believable" in a way (not that the situations or characters are believable, it's paranormal... but the raw emotions...), and things are clearly just really different these days in her writing. As fluffy and lovey dovey as I thought Bullet was, Affliction tried to get there, referring in several different spots in the book to "God" and angels and believing in a holy power etc, I just was left with a sour taste in my mouth when she had little tangents like that. If you all don't know, I'm passionately atheist and don't choose many books that refer to God, or have topics of religion in them, so it was a little meh for me, in this book. I think that coupled with the extremely intense threesome scene where one of Anita's sweeties (who is a self professed "sociopath"- which also rubs me the wrong way the way he describes himself as such and how much attention they actually put on that whole topic... weird.) went into a startling and kind of all of a sudden choke-fest. I guess that's a little spoiler-ish, sorry, but it really irritated me. I'm very open minded, and I'm pretty much down with alternative lifestyles (you HAVE to be, to read Hamilton's books, quite honestly) but there is just ONE thing that really bothers me in relations to "sex"... choking. It's sort of a sexy sexy pet peeve, I guess you can say. I just don't understand it at all. AT ALL! It turns me pretty cold and turns me off quickly. Not sure why! I just see no attraction in it and don't recall a book that's had a choking scene in it, ever, that I've read, but this one DOES and it's by one of my very favorite characters, so it really bothered me. Not sure why, but it did. :/ Otherwise, I really loved this book... oh wait! The ending! Seriously anti-climactic! LOL! There was a lot of hunting hunting, looking, searching... a lot of insinuated action, and then BOOP! All done! I was like, huh! It took her 80 some chapters to come up with this hair brained idea to do what she always does in every single book- raise zombies... ?! IDK, just kinda goofy and almost like Hamilton wasn't quite sure how or when to wrap up the book. It was like she hit a certain word count and was like Oh, I'm where I need to be, no use in going any further on words, lets wrap this baby up! LOL! It WAS good though, I really did like it. I liked how it played out, the travel involved and how the more familiar main sweeties took a bit of a back seat for others to step up into the limelight! It was nice! Kinda a bummer it took nearly 40 out of 80 chapters to get any sexy sexy, but once it got there, it was worth it! Hello shower scene with Anita, Dev and Nicky! MEOW! Holy smokes! But I expect nothing less from Hamilton when it comes to the sex! I recall in one book she literally wrote like 4 chapters straight describing just one sex scene- it was very... vivid, to say the least! Can't recall which book that was, since there's TWENTY TWO of them now! ;) But for anyone with a VERY open mind, the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by LKH are awesome books and I recommend them to anyone who will sit still long enough and who's got a love for the paranormal! :)

This deserves:  

... up next! No idea... you'll know when I know! :)

Pleasure of the Night (Dream Guardians #1) by Sylvia Day

There are sensuous pleasures that can only be tasted in the night . . . 
He comes to her in the twilight between sleep and consciousness to fulfill her secret desires. Lyssa Bates has never experienced such ecstasy, brought to her by a man whose deep, soul-penetrating blue eyes hold the promise of tempting intimacies and decadent pleasures. But this stranger, this lover, this immortal seducer is only a dream—a phantom of her nocturnal fantasies—until he appears, inexplicably, at her door in the flesh!
Lyssa aches for the reality of him, but there is grave danger in surrender. Because Captain Aidan Cross is on a mission, and the passion that consumes them both, body and soul, could have dire consequences in a world of dreams . . . and in the waking one as well.

Hello, hello! So... thought I would try out another Sylvia Day book... this is apparently an older one (2007?!) which I wasn't really aware of when I was browsing, I guess I don't pay attention to those details! LOL! There are only 2 books in this Dream Guardian series, so apparently this is it? Since book 2 looks as though it was published in 2007 as well! Hmph! Anyway, this one had an insane crazy cliff hanger ending, which makes me scramble for book 2, but no... it wasn't THAT good. I mean, I will read book 2 EVENTUALLY, but I have more pressing books to devour at the moment... So. Sylvia Day... she goes Gideon and Eva pretty well (Crossfire series)... VERY well actually, I'm pretty fond of them... and then there is her crazy angel theme'd books... *head shake* So this book sounded pretty interesting, and it WAS, but this was one of those "reader ruins the books" situation. Oh holy smokes! Shana Savage was the reader and I just have to say, Irish brogue is NOT her thing! Like... really, NO. It was killing me the whole time, I mean I think it would have really benefited from having a hearty male reader reading this like, oh say... Holter Graham or even the equally lovely Fred Berman, but this chick... yeah... it was NOT working out at all. It was the opposite of working out actually! *snort* The story was really interesting and neat, and like I said earlier, total cliff hanger ending, making it extremely difficult to focus on anything else, but reaching out for book 2 (hell, I MAY just give a go, not sure yet)... So the male character, Aidan, had sooo much potential, and the sexy sexy times were out of this world (though with too much repetitive phrases like *coughCOCKcough* which could have used some variety...) but the narrator just really killed it! :/ Sadly! It happens to good books sometimes! Anyway... not sure what's next... I got my hot little hands on LKH, so we'll see! ;)

Shitting reading aside, it was a good solid start to a pretty cool sounding series:

See you all next time!

Soon! Beautiful Bitch by Christina Lauren!

Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

Caroline Reynolds has a fantastic new apartment in San Francisco, a KitchenAid mixer, and no O (and we’re not talking Oprah here, folks). She has a flourishing design career, an office overlooking the bay, a killer zucchini bread recipe, and no O. She has Clive (the best cat ever), great friends, a great rack, and no O.
Adding insult to O-less, since her move, she has an oversexed neighbor with the loudest late-night wallbanging she’s ever heard. Each moan, spank, and–was that a meow?–punctuates the fact that not only is she losing sleep, she still has, yep, you guessed it, no O.
Enter Simon Parker. (No, really, Simon, please enter.) When the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink baby-doll nightie, confronts her heard-but-never-seen neighbor. Their late-night hallway encounter has, well, mixed results. Ahem. With walls this thin, the tension’s gonna be thick…
In her third novel, Alice Clayton returns to dish her trademark mix of silly and steamy. Banter, barbs, and strutting pussycats, plus the sexiest apple pie ever made, are dunked in a hot tub and set against the gorgeous San Francisco skyline in this hot and hilarious tale of exasperation at first sight.

Hiya!!! I just finished this AWESOME book by Alyce Clayton called Wallbanger. It was read by Heather Smith, who did a good, though sometimes over dramatic, job! This book was freaking great!!! I completely LOVED it! It was sooo funny and super clever. There were parts that irked me, like her referring to her orgasm as if it where a physical person... aptly named 'O'. The visual there was just corny and got kinda old, kinda fast, but I was able to easily look past it because of the super duper fun going on in this book! It makes me want to be single and on the prowl, hahah! (not really...) It was just really fun to live vicariously through Caroline, and this book was a great, light listen! Nothing heavy and overly dramatic, everything seemed completely possible and this kind of situation and antics probably occurs on a daily basis! LOL! One thing I couldn't quite grasp was Caroline loosing her 'O'... she said she had a really crappy experience with a "machine fucker" (haha! been there, known one of those types!) and after that she lost her 'O'. She claims she couldn't even masturbate... like what huh whaaaa?! I'm mid 30's... been around the proverbial block, but I can guarantee even with creepy craptastic sexual encounters (and boy have I had THOSE), I've never NOT been able to yanno, twiddle the who-ha. IDK, that was kind of goofy, but it was still fun to imagine!

Anyway, this was super fun, funny, light and a great time! I gave it:

Up next... not really sure, might be one of these:

The Vampire King (The Kings, #1)

Killough-Walden, Heather

Tiger Magic (Shifters Unbound, #5)

Ashley, Jennifer