Twice the fun...

Or not, as is the case.
I've read tons of fiction books, and had become acquainted with the Mary Sue trope over the years, and although I've always been reticent to use the term, I had found a book series that screamed it at me while I read it. The Katherine Katt series by Gini Koch. I was so pissed off at the general "awesomeness" of the main character, who could do no wrong, and when she did she was quickly forgiven because all the men loved her (even the gay ones) that I quit reading the books.
Now you have to understand, whenever I begin to read a book that I consequently find "bad" (at least in my opinion) I still continued to read it all the way till the end, as a matter of principle, so that I could form a rounded opinion of it and really could say I did not like it at all when the trial was over.
The problem with books series is, there might be a book in there that is good, or bad, hidden among all the other ones, so you have to read them all.
Or so I thought.
I'd come to the conclusion that if I don't like the first 3 books of a series I really should stop reading it, and that's what happened with the Koch books.
I thought I'd learned my lesson and moved on, until I found myself  in the same position once again. This time it is the Real Vampires series by Gerry Bartlett. The premise promised, and as I continued to read the books I was let down over and over again, the main character is superficial to the extreme and stupid, but everyone else is always praising her good nature and intelligence (what?), once again all the males love her including the gay ones, and all the females cater to her (except the bad females because they are villains! <---- sarcasm font), also, there is no character development.
But I still continued to read until I remembered my 3 book deal. so yeah, I stopped reading at book 6. Oi vey.
I hope my teflon mind remembers in the future to stop reading at the third attempt.

So, books for this year...

That I plan to follow:

    * Timeless - Gail Carriger - 01 March 2012.
    * Soul Bound (blood coven) - Mari Mancusi - 06 March 2012.
    * Fair Game - Patricia Briggs - 06 March 2012.
    * Lover Reborn - J.R. Ward - 27 March 2012.
    * Wanted: Undead or Alive - Kerrelyn Sparks - 27 March 2012.
    * Under a Vampire Moon - Lynsay Sands - 24 April 2012.
     * Shine - Jeri Smith-Ready - 01 May 2012.
    * Sparks Fly - Katie MacAlister - 01 May 2012.
    * Black Dawn - Rachel Caine - 01 May 2012.
    * Tangle of Need - Nalini Singh - 29 May 2012.
    * Deadlocked - Charlaine Harris - May 2012.
    * Wicked Nights - Gena Showalter - June 2012.
    * Kiss the Dead - Laurell K. Hamilton - June 2012.
    * Thriteen - Kelley Armstrong - July 2012.
    * Lady Is A vamp - Lynsay Sands - 31 July 2012.
    * Kitty Steals the Show - Carrie Vaughn - August 2012.
    * Shadow's Claim - Kresley Cole - August 2012.
    * Biting Cold - Chloe Neill - August 2012.
    * A Tale of Two Vampires - Katie MacAlister - 04 September 2012.

Kiss of Snow

So I finished reading Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh and Summer's Crossing by Julie Kagawa.

First, a few words for the Iron Fey: loved Puck, as I knew I would, but really... I'm kinda getting tired of the love triangle, I hope it won't continue on "The Iron Knight". Other than that the novella was sweet. And I always forget to mention Leananshide, she's all kinds of awesome darlings! Even if she treats us humans like crap, but hey, she wouldn't be Fey otherwise.

Now for Kiss of Snow:
Right-o! Sienna and Hawke got their HEA. The surprise for me came with Walker and Lara though, get got 2 wolves popping psy cherries instead of one! LOL. I loved their story.
Meanwhile, as I kept reading, when Judd was telling Hawke of some of the torture Ming put nine-year-old Sienna through... I know it was wrong of me, but I laughed when he said:
"What better way to teach a child control than to put her in a room designed to blow up with her inside if she got something wrong."
LOL.
Speaking of Judd, so he knew who the Ghost is, told Hawke, and even the Ghost himself knows Judd knows... who the heck is he??!!?! I still think it's Kaleb, since he wants control of everything, and the Ghost seems to want that too, but there's no confirmation, argh!!
Anyway, dear niece suri, you were right, Judd kicked ass! when the Rats where commenting the battle, and what Judd was doing, damn! He's awesome ♥♥♥

But there's so many questions still in the air with the whole story, the future, it's frustrating!
And so we learn at the end that Hawke's last name is Snow, cute. I see what you did there, Ms. Singh. LOL.

Awake by Wendy Raven McNair.

Ok, so last night I finished reading the second instalment of Wendy Raven McNair's Asleep trilogy, "Awake".

It is SO GOOD. I love Adisa, she shines in a sea filled with selfish stupid YA heroines as a beacon of all that is good, and she's NOT a mary sue. A feat only a few writers can pull off.

I like that even when she's overwhelmed with adversity, overcome in one of her "rages", with everyone around her man-handling her, or keeping her in the dark, or basically using her for their own purposes, she still manages to think, to keep her priorities straight, to never lose sight of what she wants.
And when she makes mistakes she realizes them and she does her best to make it better, to apologize, to learn from the experience.
She doesn't lie to herself, even when she compartmentalizes, like Pearl.

Speaking of Pearl. OMG. I kind of figured Adisa would have to go to extremes to get out of Kubanza, but gosh, when the moment came... it had me in tears!
Also, I'm having a hard time making the Sps as the bad guys, as Adisa seemed determined to do in the beginning. It's not just "cultural differences" that separates earthbounds from them. It's so much more. It's gonna be pretty interesting reading how Adisa will make sense of both her heritages merged in herself, which is what I think will have to come next (after she saves Micah, of course, LOL).

And Micah *melts* that boy- sorry, that man... how dreamy can he be? even with the Sp. creepiness- sorry, cultural differences... LOL. I was starting to mourn when he became Guardian and the whole permanent shield, and then he goes and kisses Adisa like he used to... AWWWW!!!
Ok, that felt a bit like forced HEA, but the kids deserve it, dammit!
I mean, The Authorities making an exception just for him? it sounds too good to be true if you ask me, suspicious.

Anyway. This series rocks. That's the bottom line. Thank you dear niece for sharing it with me *hugs* ♥♥♥

P.D.: LOL, I'm ashamed to say... that I'm gonna have to google King Musa, just like Adisa. Oh, and the "cinnamon balls" joke, still cracks me up like a juvenile.

Shadowfever

It's Out it's out it's out it's out!!!!!!!!!!!!

BarronsBarronsBarronsBarronsBarronsBarrons

*dances around wildly*

I'm off to read this book YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

On ebooks.

I know ebooks have become kind of a controversial topic for the book community ever since they got more and more popular. Some authors (but mainly publishing houses) are completely against them due to their belief that file sharing is taking money away from them, others embrace the ebook challenge and point out that file sharing gives them much needed free publicity.
I'm not an author, so, as a reader, ebooks are a blessing to me.
I'm a bibliophile living in a country where books have become obscenely expensive.
What can I do? the public library here in my city sucks so much I get depressed just thinking about going there. So that's a No.
When I found ebooks online... heaven's clouds opened to let sunshine cover me.
And Yes, I will tell you, I download pirated ebooks. Free ebooks. I can't buy them online because for various real life reasons that are beyond my fixing I just can't.
So, downloading ebooks has become a sort of addiction for me. But there's always a dark side to every happy story, reading too much on your computer screen is bad for eyes, your back, your social life, the lot.
I have 442 ebooks downloaded, of which I have read about half on my computer.
My body is getting too old for that.
So last month, Christmas time, I was trolling every store that sold electronics in Chile (I was vacationing there) looking for an e-reader. I wanted to get a Kobo, but apparently they only sell those in, like, select stores in Canada or something.
What I found, that was affordable, and had what I wanted was this one:

Viewsonic ereader Veb620.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/ereaders/278587/viewsonic-veb620 

(read this review, it says everything I have to say about this specific model).

I like my ereader. I don't need it to connect online, or offer all the frilly stuff a kindle offers, almost all of my ebooks are PDF files so whatever ereader I got would have the same disadvantages, since PDFs have certain intrinsecal logistic dillemas that ereader software in general have not yet resolved.
I wish the screen would be bigger though, but with the same size of ereader, and I wish I could adjust the contrast, but all in all, I'm happy as a clam.
I can read my ebooks wherever, my eyes and back are grateful, and I don't have to worry about book storage anymore. Since our apartment is filled with books already...
All I can say to authors out there is this:
If I like your book, I will endeavour to buy it, even if I have to sell my left kidney. If I don't like your book enough to put my body in danger, I won't buy it. So there, I'm not "stealing" money from anyone, since for me money is very hard to come by to begin with, I have to be careful and selective on how I spend.
I also like thinking that I'm giving trees a respite.