Funky Friday: Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks (cover)

Welcome to Funky Fridays! 
It is time we do something different to celebrate TGIF. Instead of focusing on the content of what we are reading (writing reviews, finding teasers to share, etc.), I thought I would start a meme on the covers of the books we are reading. There are some really amazing covers out there, and they really are worth sharing.

The Book Bites "Funky Friday" meme works like this:

• Every Friday, have a look at the books you have read in the last week and choose the cover you loved the most. If you aren’t a big reader (some of us are freaks of nature) think about the last 5 books you read, and choose one from those).
• If you know the name of the artist (it should be listed other side of the title page and is also sometimes on the back cover), please include it, so people can look into their art.  
• Think about why you liked it. Was it because you loved the artist, the concept, the model? Or maybe it was really in keeping with the spirit of the story?
• Find a picture of your favourite cover (scanned or online – if in doubt try fantasticfiction.co.uk) and share it with us. I recommend a minimum size of 200x325 so you can see the cover clearly.
• Tell us why you like it, what draws you to it, and tell us if it affected how you approached the book.
• Enjoy all the pretty covers! There are so many amazing, creative, inspiring and meaningful designs floating around the traps. Friday seems like a good time to celebrate this.
• Feel free to continue this on your own blog and share the funky Friday cover love! <3

The Book:
Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks
The Artist: 
Illustration: Steve Stone / Design: LBBG – Peter Cotton
The Cover:

Why I like it:
I love the overall design and layout, the contrasting colours and the depth of the illustration. I am fascinated by silhouettes! The only thing that detracts from the cover design is the shield in the lower third of the cover.

Book signing today: Keri Arthur & Tracey O'Hara

The last time I met Tracy O'Hara

I am very excited! My best friend Lillian has a work conference in Sydney, so she is currently driving to Brisbane and jumping on a plane. We are catching up for one night only and it will be terrific to see her. I never get to spend any time with my Queenslander friends or family any more, as I can’t afford time off to visit. That is hard because when I was a university student, I would spend 2-3 months a year with them all, before heading back to JCU. I see people maybe a handful of days a year, which is bloody difficult. So when I can snatch little visits like this, I do. We are meeting up at Galaxy (so she can max out her credit card and add to my store reward points), and then meeting authors Tracey O’Hara and Keri Arthur. I have met Tracey before, but as she has only one PnR novel published I don’t have anything else to get signed. I had a chap book she gave me, but it is in my stack of “filing” somewhere (N.B. “filing” is another name for a desk I can no longer see through all the papers, books and cds. I really need to buy a filing cabinet – I should do my tax return so I can afford one LOL). I've also just read the first of Keri Arthur's Riley books – I had read a sea dragon one previously which I wasn’t wowed by, but I really liked what I have seen of the Riley series so far. So I have read Full Moon Rising and a short story she shared a link to on twitter. I love it that there are Australian authors in a genre that appears to be saturated by Americans. I especially love how the Riley series is actually set in Australia! After Galaxy (shhhh there will be cake!) Lillian and I are going to this awesome Japanese restaurant in the city. It looks so authentic. It has bamboo partitions, low seating in sunken floors, and the best damn beef hot pot I've ever had. I even like their sake!

I have been writing this intermittently during the day (some days I like call waiting LOL) and it is now time to dash into the city. If you will be at the signing tell one of the staff you read Zja’s blog and I will say hi ;D

Teaser Tuesday: Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

A smile twitched his lips, but there was a coldness in his eyes that suggested he not only knew where I was going but had been waiting for it. And I knew in that moment that this was the reason he'd been trying to keep me talking before.
Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur

Manic Monday: Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur

Each Monday (or the closest I can get to Monday) I will be posting a Past/Present/Future Reading Post called Manic Monday. Don't hate me if I post it on a Tuesday - it just indicates how "manic" my Monday really was! If you want to see more of what I have been reading, I try and update my Goodreads account with each book I am reading.


What I just finished reading
Slave by Cheryl Brooks
Stars: 3/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
He may be the last of a species whose sexual talents were the envy of the galaxy. Cat is an enslaved warrior from a race with a feline gene that gives him awesome beauty, fearsome strength, and sensuality and sexual prowess unmatched by any other males in the universe. Even filthy, chained, and beaten, he gives off an aura of power and virility. Jacinth is an intergalactic trader on a rescue mission. She has spent years pursuing her kidnapped sister from planet to planet. Now her quest leads her to a place where all the women are slaves. "Jack" needs a slave of her own-one who can masquerade as her master. Enmeshed in a tangle of deception, lust and love, they must elude a race of violent killers out to destroy Cat, and together forge a bond stronger than any chains.

Why I picked it up: I asked Dan Dan for something light and trashy, after reading something slow and heavy. She delivered!
Why I finished it: The story was so bad it was nearly a satire! It makes me laugh because it is so blatantly trashy! I will never look at noses the same way ever again. In fact, I was watching Fröken Sverige on SBS the other night - a serious movie about a messed up girl. There was this sweet moment where one of her guys was talking about the wings of her nose, and I couldn't stop laughing.
I'd give it to: Anyone who is bored and likes trashy space romances. Basically anyone who wants to waste some hours they will never get back. The dialogue gets worse and worse the further the book goes along.

What I am reading now
Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur

Blurb from Goodreads:
In this exciting debut, author Keri Arthur explodes onto the supernatural scene with a sexy, sensuous tale of intrigue and suspense set in a world whe...more In this exciting debut, author Keri Arthur explodes onto the supernatural scene with a sexy, sensuous tale of intrigue and suspense set in a world where legends walk and the shady paths of the underworld are far more sinister than anyone envisioned.

A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, work for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to police the supernatural races–and protect humans from their depredations. While Rhoan is an exalted guardian, a.k.a. assassin, Riley is merely an office worker–until her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn’t be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the weeklong period before the full moon, when her need to mate becomes all-consuming.…

Luckily Riley has two willing partners to satisfy her every need. But she will have to control her urges if she’s going to find her brother….Easier said than done as the city pulses with frenzied desire, and Riley is confronted with a very powerful–and delectably naked–vamp who raises her temperature like never before.

In matters carnal, Riley has met her match. But in matters criminal, she must follow her instincts not only to find her brother but to stop an unholy harvest. For someone is doing some shifty cloning in an attempt to produce the ultimate warrior–by tapping into the genome of nonhumans Rhoan. Now Riley knows just how dangerous the world is for her kind–and just how much it needs her like .
^I am meeting Keri Arthur at Galaxy with Tracey O'Hara tomorrow, so I thought I should try her Riley series.

What I am reading next
I need to get my butt into gear and read On The Road for the Sutherland book club my friend has organised. This is like being back at uni. I am currently cramming two books LOL



P.S. - Who do you think the best Paranormal Romance authors are?

Funky Fridays: The Search by Nora Roberts (cover)

Welcome to Funky Fridays! 
It is time we do something different to celebrate TGIF. Instead of focusing on the content of what we are reading (writing reviews, finding teasers to share, etc.), I thought I would start a meme on the covers of the books we are reading. There are some really amazing covers out there, and they really are worth sharing.

The Book Bites "Funky Friday" meme works like this:

• Every Friday, have a look at the books you have read in the last week and choose the cover you loved the most. If you aren’t a big reader (some of us are freaks of nature) think about the last 5 books you read, and choose one from those).
• If you know the name of the artist (it should be listed other side of the title page and is also sometimes on the back cover), please include it, so people can look into their art.  
• Think about why you liked it. Was it because you loved the artist, the concept, the model? Or maybe it was really in keeping with the spirit of the story?
• Find a picture of your favourite cover (scanned or online – if in doubt try fantasticfiction.co.uk) and share it with us. I recommend a minimum size of 200x325 so you can see the cover clearly.
• Tell us why you like it, what draws you to it, and tell us if it affected how you approached the book.
• Enjoy all the pretty covers! There are so many amazing, creative, inspiring and meaningful designs floating around the traps. Friday seems like a good time to celebrate this.
• Feel free to continue this on your own blog and share the funky Friday cover love! <3

Yes, I am late! I had a big long weekend! Forgive me?

The Book:
The Search by Nora Roberts
The Artist: 
I left the book at home, and I can't find this online. I will update this later.
The Cover:

Why I like it:
I love the perspective. Normally, and especially on romance covers, the focus is on the person or couple. It normally has the same formula every single time. This cover is interesting because the focus is on the driftwood in the foreground, with the protagonist walking away from the viewer. It is visually appealing, which I also love. I would have an image like this on my wall as artwork. The book was published by Piatkus, which is one of my favourite publishers - they always have more attractive covers than the Americans!

Teaser Tuesday: Personal Demon by Lynn Viehl

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

Thierry’s thoughts curled like snakes in his head, alternately hissing and striking, from dawn until sunset. As soon as the sunlight had disappeared, Thierry left the alley and searched until he found a car with an ignition system he knew how to cross-wire.
Page 68 of Private Demon by Lynn Vielh
^They aren't the most scintillating of stories, but if you ignore some of the writing style the Darkyn series can be fun :)

Manic Monday: Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A McKillip

Each Monday (or the closest I can get to Monday) I will be posting a Past/Present/Future Reading Post called Manic Monday. Don't hate me if I post it on a Tuesday - it just indicates how "manic" my Monday really was! If you want to see more of what I have been reading, I try and update my Goodreads account with each book I am reading.


What I just finished reading
Night Pleasures by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Stars: 4/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
Dear Reader,

Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to be immortal? To journey through the night stalking the evil that preys on humans? To have unlimited wealth, unlimited power?

That is my existence, and it is dark and dangerous. I play hero to thousands, but am known to none. And I love every minute of it. Or so I thought until one night when I woke up handcuffed to my worst nightmare: a conservative woman in a button-down shirt. Or in Amanda's case, buttoned all the way up to her chin. She's smart, sexy, witty, and wants nothing to do with the paranormal---in other words, me.

My attraction to Amanda Devereaux goes against everything I stand for. Not to mention the last time I fell in love it cost me not only my human life, but also my very soul. Yet every time I look at her, I find myself wanting to try again. Wanting to believe that love and loyalty do exist. Even more disturbing, I find myself wondering if there's any way a woman like Amanda can love a man whose battle scars run deep, and whose heart was damaged by a betrayal so savage that he's not sure it will ever beat again.

Kyrian of Thrace

Why I picked it up: It was sitting next to my bed and I was bored.
Why I finished it: Because I love Sherrilyn Kenyon, and I have only read Kyrian's story a few times.
I'd give it to: Anyone who loves Sherrilyn Kenyon and anyone who likes reading paranormal romance.

What I am reading now
Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip

Blurb from Goodreads:
Deep inside a palace on the edge of the world, the orphan Nepenthe pores over books in the royal library, translating their languages and learning their secrets. Now sixteen, she knows little of the outside world—except for the documents that traders and travelers bring her to interpret.

Then, during the coronation of the new Queen of Raine, a young mage gives Nepenthe a book that has defied translation. Written in a language of thorns, it speaks to Nepenthe's soul—and becomes her secret obsession. And, as the words escape the brambles and reveal themselves, Nepenthe finds her destiny entwined with that of the young queen's. Sooner than she thinks, she will have to choose between the life she has led and the life she was born to lead...

What I am reading next
I need to pick up On The Road again. I reached page 21, and became distracted by new purchases from Galaxy. It needs to be completed by the 14th for the Sutherland Book Club (let me know if you are around Sutherland and want to attend a bookclub!). Oh, does anyone have suggestions of what I should choose for us to read in September? Austen is out, it needs to be a single book, not part of a series, and it needs to be something I am interested in, but haven't read yet *sigh* I am drawing a blank! My list of possibles are The Lace Reader, The Great Gatsby and The Historian. However, I was thinking maybe I should have a look at the steampunk genre? I haven't read many of those. Suggestions?



P.S. - Who do you think the best Paranormal Romance authors are?