Queued up: Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer
(Twisted Tales)
by Maureen McGowan

As we walk into the castle foyer we hear rumors about this princess...

Description from the amazon:
In this thrilling story full of adventure and romance, Sleeping Beauty is more than just a lonely princess waiting for her prince—she's a brave, tenacious girl who never backs down from a challenge.

With vampire-slaying talents that she practices in secret, Sleeping Beauty puts her courage to the test in the dark of night, fighting evil as she searches for a way to break the spell that has cut her off from her family.

In a special twist, readers have the opportunity to make key decisions for Sleeping Beauty and decide where she goes next—but no matter the choice; the result is a story unlike any fairy tale you've ever read!

--~ Blogosphere Book Giveaway ~--
Heads up: Book Flame will offer this book next month!

Travel there to signup for giveaway on May 18

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* This is currently available at NetGalley - got mine, get yours!

* Queued up - ebooks ready recently downloaded in my ereader

***~*~* Fairy Tales in Bruges (the sequel) schedule *~*~***

Queued up: Rage

Rage
by Jackie Morse Kessler

Description from the amazon:
Missy didn’t mean to cut so deep. But after the party where she was humiliated in front of practically everyone in school, who could blame her for wanting some comfort? Sure, most people don’t find comfort in the touch of a razor blade, but Missy always was . . . different.

That’s why she was chosen to become one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War. Now Missy wields a new kind of blade—a big, brutal sword that can cut down anyone and anything in her path. But it’s with this weapon in her hand that Missy learns something that could help her triumph over her own pain: control.

A unique approach to the topic of self-mutilation, Rage is the story of a young woman who discovers her own power and refuses to be defeated by the world.

This is currently available at NetGalley.

--~ Book Blogosphere Giveaway ~--
Jackie's series is currently on a blog tour - details here.

You can enter the Riders of the Apocalypse giveaway and win both Rage and the first book in the series, Hunger.

Three lucky winners will receive one copy each of HUNGER and RAGE along with postcards and a mini-poster!

To enter, send an e-mail to RageGiveaway@gmail.com. In the body of the e-mail, include your name and e-mail address (if you're under 13, submit a parent's name and e-mail address).

One entry per person and prizes will only be shipped to US or Canadian addresses.

Entries must be received by midnight (PDT) on 4/30/11.

Winners will be selected in a random drawing on 5/1/11 and notified via email.

Check out the tour schedule to read interviews and tidbits from Jackie.

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* Queued up - ebooks ready recently downloaded in my ereader

-/-/-|-\\- Women Wielding Blades schedule -//-|-\-\-

keyhole: mermaid

Alice find a most unusual Alice behind this keyhole...

Description from the amazon:
Shy, charming, peculiar, and web-toed, Alice Riley has suffered for years at the hands of her dead mother's self-righteous family, while she hides a bevy of secret abilities.

When Alice rescues a drowning child, her amazing talents are exposed. Alice can remain underwater for extraordinary periods of time, and she can locate submerged objects through some type of natural sonar ability. Her new fame/notoriety puts Alice in the national news, amidst allegations that she has somehow faked or manipulated the rescue for her own glory.

Alice is trapped and desperate until three amazing older women arrive in her hometown. They are the regal and flamboyant Bonavendier sisters--dignified Lilith, acerbic Mara, and whimsical Pearl--of Sainte's Point Island, their ancestral home off the coast of Georgia.

They've read Alice's story in the news and are convinced that she is their long-lost (and much younger) half sister, conceived in a reckless seduction their elderly father confessed to before he died.

Like Alice, the Bonavendier sisters have webbed toes and certain amazing abilities, though none of them have Alice's marked talent for finding things underwater. Alice is no oddity to them. They explain that--like them--she is descended from a mermaid.

Alice At Heart
by Deborah Smith

fyi: kindle version is currently free - go get yours

~^o^~ Alice in WhoLand schedule ~^o^~

Queued up: Valentine's Day of the Undead

If you enjoyed You Are So Undead To Me by Stacey Jay, you may get a kick out of this one. I think I will, because I like Megan's sense of humor.

Valentine's Day of the Undead
A Megan Berry, Zombie Settler, Short Story
by Stacey Jay

Description from the amazon:
Q: What could be worse than spending Valentine's Day alone?
A: Spending it with evil zombies!!

Megan Berry is no stranger to heartbreak, but spending Valentine's Day serving other happy couples hot dogs while mourning the loss of her one true love is almost more than even a highly trained Zombie Settler can handle. So when her recently estranged boyfriend, Ethan, texts her asking her to be his Valentine, she ditches her bodyguard and rushes to his side.

But soon, Megan's dreams of chocolates, flowers, and lingering make-up kisses take a turn of the rotted-corpse-and-maggot variety, and Megan fears that her first Valentine's Day with Ethan may be her last.

Excerpt: from Stacey's blog

February 14th, 9:36 p.m.

Are you lonesome tonight? Do you miss me tonight?

Elvis’s voice oozes from the speakers at the abandoned Sonic drive-in, echoing off the plastic overhangs covering the parking spots, syncopated by the harsh buzz of a broken electric menu. The street leading to the last burger joint before Carol turns into a maze of subdivisions is dark and still, and the only sign of life is a gathering of crows picking at a furry, dead thing beneath the sputtering streetlight at the corner of Main and Needle Lane.

Eerie. Creepy. With tremble on top.

The sign flashing orange in the drive-through window says the place is open, but apparently freezing cold weather doesn’t put the average Carol, Arkansas citizen in the mood to grab burgers and ice cream and eat in the car.

I cross my arms and huddle tight to the side of the building, taking comfort in the fact that I can hear people moving around inside if I really try. Otherwise, it would be easy to start dwelling on how much this moment resembles the beginning of a horror movie.

Girl alone? Check.

Usually cheery setting made creepy by the fact that it’s utterly deserted? Check.

Romantic old music that will be made scary as hell when played over footage of Girl Alone being hacked to bits by zombies/mutant wolf creatures/axe murderers/escaped mental patients possessed by demons/evil clowns? Check and check.

Of all those, zombies are the only thing I’m equipped to combat, and I’d be happy to avoid contact with the feral undead tonight.

I shiver. “Come on, Ethan. Where are you?” I check my phone again just to make sure that it’s really been thirty minutes since Ethan’s text. It has.

fyi: kindle version is currently available for $3.25

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* first spotted this at RhiReading

* Queued up - ebooks ready recently downloaded in my ereader

=== zombie cute schedule ===

Queued up: The Princess's Dragon

The Princess's Dragon
by Susan Trombley
Excerpt teaser: Chapter 1
The empty sockets of countless skulls stared down at the lone figure in the center of the tower room. The sullen afternoon sunlight filtered through the stubborn miasma of dust that drifted through the chamber crammed with dried herbs, unguents, and mysterious crumbling scrolls. Much like a wizard's workshop, the poorly lit room harbored a menagerie of the strange and bizarre, though most of the creatures there were already dead.

But this was no wizard's room; quite to the contrary, this laboratory belonged to a princess, one bound and determined to disprove the very existence of such nonsensical ideas as magic and myth. A princess as unconventional as the chamber where she idled away most of her afternoons studying the artifacts of nature and devising logical explanations for everything even remotely mysterious.

“Steady, steady…” The young woman didn’t realize she was whispering to herself under her breath. She carefully fitted the rare and expensive clear glass disk into the twisted frame of a close-viewing apparatus.

READ up to 3 chapters.

fyi: kindle edition is currently available for $1.99

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* Queued up - ebooks ready recently downloaded in my ereader

//\\//\\ dragons (and some fantasy) schedule //\\//\\

Queued up: Winter Wishes

Winter Wishes
by Moira Rogers
Vivi Andrews and
Vivian Arend
Just released: December 6, 2010
Because I really enjoyed my latest round of stories read by Vivian Arend and Moira Rogers, I picked up this up for my ebook queue which is filled with shifters, magic, angels and demons.

Description from the amazon:
A Twist on Tradition

A woman has the Christmas Eve from Hell. Two cat shifters play naughty games. And a witch brings out the beast inside the man. The magic of the season takes on a whole new meaning in these three fantastic—and festive—novellas from some of the best voices in paranormal romance.

Anthology includes:
stories are also available separately

Tangled Tinsel by Vivian Arend
Description from publisher's site:
She's the cat's meow, and he's ready to pounce!

Five miles of leather-clad leg is all it takes to lure Kyle Branegan out from his carefully hidden lifestyle as part of the Cougar Corp, a secret branch of the Shifter Enforcer League. He's hoping for a night of fun and frolic, cat-style, no strings attached. With a sultry swing of her hips, Eloise Scott tangles him up in her ball of tricks, and just when he thinks he's about to get lucky, she cuffs him—naked—to her bed.

An undercover cop in the human police force, El's been given a top-secret mission to keep the big cat under her paw until he's needed to testify in court in the New Year. Her decision to take him home for a quiet Christmas in her sleepy hometown turns out to be far more interesting than she expected. Her parents are suddenly rich, her old boyfriend is sniffing around and all six-feet-plus of sexy cougar male is sleeping in her bed.

And that's before they announce their fake engagement...

No Angel by Vivi Andrews
Description from publisher's site:
When Sasha's boyfriend, Jay, is sucked through a fiery vortex to Hell, an angel reveals that Sasha's been chosen as the Champion of Virtue in the battle for his immortal soul. As a perennial offender on Santa's naughty list, Sasha can't believe she's anyone's idea of a girl fighting on the side of the angels. But if she doesn't save Jay, he'll be stuck in Hell forever!

Jay—aka Jevroth—isn't surprised to find himself back in Hell. His visa to visit the mortal plane expired three months ago, but to steal more time with Sasha he's been ignoring his mother's demands that he come home to spend time with his new stepfather: Lucifer.

Sasha has until dawn on the twenty-fifth of December to fight the Legions of Hell and rescue Jay, or be trapped there for eternity herself. But now she must decide if the lying son-of-a-demon is even worth saving...

Freeze Line by Moira Rogers
Description from publisher's site:
She can't survive in his world; he can't stay sane in hers

A twenty-first century ice age dulls the magic that emanates from the earth. Shane Sullivan is a lone wolf above the freeze line. He has no desire to join the packs that range closer to the border, where feral instincts can turn a man into a monster. Not until the winter solstice, when he stumbles across a dying witch who needs his help to get back to her people—and her magic—in the south.

Nadia is a powerful woman in her own world, but she's been drained by her escape from captivity in a northern lab. She knows it's foolhardy to trust a werewolf, but he's her only chance to survive the vast white wilderness. The farther south they travel, the harder it is for Shane to keep the beast within under control, and as their mutual attraction intensifies, Nadia's no longer sure she wants him to.

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* available on net galley

* Queued up - ebooks ready recently downloaded in my ereader