Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – Spoiler Free I Swears!

K.C. — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:53:30 +0000

Genre: Young Adult

#3 in the Hunger Series

400 pages

Kill or be killed. The future is bleak, the United States has fallen and in it’s place exists 13 districts that serve as the Capitol’s resources for materials and products. Each year the children of all districts must enter a lottery. The winners, one boy and one girl, are to participate in the annual Hunger Games. The Hunger Games commemorates the terms of each district’s surrender to the Capitol and a reminder of their rebellion’s loss. The event is televised for all to see as their children fight to the death in a survivor-like reality show until one person is left standing. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Just as the town clock strikes two, the mayor steps up to the podium and begins to read. It’s the same story every year. He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained. The result was Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games. The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins.

Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion.

Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there’s nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen. To make it humiliating as well as torturous, the Capitol requires us to treat the Hunger Games as a festivity, a sporting event pitting every district against the others. The last tribute alive receives a life of ease back home, and their district will be showered with prizes, largely consisting of food. All year, the Capitol will show the winning district gifts of grain and oil and even delicacies like sugar while the rest of us battle starvation.

It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks, intones the mayor.

Katness Evergreen is just 16 years old. She lives in district 12 where she cheats the clutches of the capitol by illegally hunting. She hasn’t had much happiness in her life but she vows her sister Prim will have better. She has starved, she has stolen, she has provided for her family, all for her sister. What will she do when Primrose Evergreen’s name is called as district 12’s female tribute in the Hunger Games?

This is one of the most insightful, though-provoking, pieces of literature that I have read in a long time.. I enjoyed the intensity of the games, the brutality mixed with the grotesque. Children are paraded like Roman gladiators, plucked from their homes and made up as physical symbols for their district. The Capitol treats this as a time for celebration, jeering on the children as they murder one another, fighting to live. You see the determination, the innocence and cruelty of the games. That even though there is a victor, that person must live with the nightmare of what they have become, a killer. Victory is bittersweet as he or she must mentor future tributes, continuing the miserable cycle of child murder.

Although I liked Mockingjay, I felt it lacked the intensity of the first two books. Prepare yourselves because some serious sh*t goes down in this final installment – this is war and with war comes causalities. If I had to pick one aspect of Mockingjay that didn’t sit quite right with me, was the unresolved issue with Gale. I can’t go into detail without spoiling it for ya’alls, but I’d be interested if you also felt the same way… Also, I read this series back to back if I had waited over a year I might have been disappointed I think this is one of those books you’ll either love or throw against your day-glow wall in a fit of temper.

The Hunger Series stays with you long after you’ve finished reading the End. If you are looking for something different, emotionally gripping, and hopeful; run don’t walk to read this series.

PS Papa Smokin’ read The Hunger Games and gives his nod of approval – thats kind of a really big deal in man language.

PPS I highly highly recommend you read The Huger Games (1st book), probably one of my favorite books this year.

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Smokinhotbooks Reveals Their Guilty Pleasure Books Part I

K.C. — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:43:30 +0000

Guilty Pleasure Books: Books that make you turn red in the face if you’re asked what are you reading. Often they have interesting titles like “Deep Penetration’ Or Sammy and Her Two Boys etc.

I confess I read sci-fi smut. I even read really naughty, I wouldnevertellmymotherinathousandyears type of smut. My guilty pleasure books tend to involve futuristic settings where women are abducted by aliens and have to breed with multiple dudes (with built in French ticklers) just to ‘survive’. No one could say I would be guilty of being a cliche.

My current guilty pleasure books are Kaitlyn O’ Connor’s steamy sci-fi ebooks. I stumbled across this author many moons ago and have anxiously been awaiting another Enslaved III or Breeders V. This author had me at built-in French ticklers wee-wees. Now, in my defense these books actually are very well written with extensive world building and a dash o sweet naughty goodness. I don’t know what it is about kidnap fantasy erotica’s that take place on every planet other than Earth that get me, but it does every time. Every time I finish a book by this author I immediately online stalk Amazon to see when the next her next release will be coming.

KC and K-Khan confess to reading the below guilty pleasure books and we are not ashamed!

Dark Solstice

Kindle

Think if the HBO series OZ was set on another planet but instead of the prisoners doing each other the winner gets to ‘keep’ the main heroine for sexy time. She also gets to keep two guys instead of one. Hello, can anyway say spoiled much. Jeez save some hot alphas for the rest of us. I also love that my inner feminist goes into deep hibernation whenever I read this story and couldn’t be happier. Nothing says ‘honey I’m the one for you’ as when a crowd full of men fight to the death just to have a chance at sexy time with you. Men on the Earth plane have it so easy. All they have to do is throw a couple of Abe Lincoln’s (that’s $5 to our overseas friends), on some flowers and buy the cheapest box of chocolates Walgreens has to offer. Somehow I think I’ll have a hard time convincing Mr. Smokin to randomly select 5 strangers to fight in a gladiator game in order to win the prize of me. This request would probably have higher odds if I broke anniversary lingerie and love dice just to sweet the pot.

PS For some strange reason my inner feminist goes into deep hibernation when I read this story.

Dr. Rhea Landon knew shed been thrown into Phobos Prison to die. The most notorious prison in the solar system and one from which there was no escape, Phobos Prison housed the most dangerous predators in the solar systemand the few who survived more than a year were the worst of the worst.

Dragged into the arena where the warden held gladiator games for the entertainment of the staff and inmates, she was stripped naked and chained to a postoffered up as a prize to the winnerthe meanest brute among them.

When the dust settled, the iceman, John Raathe, was the last man standing.

When Night Falls

Kindle

This is the book where the Aliens have built-in French tickler wee-wees.

By the time the scientific expedition from Earth reaches Nardyl, they find devastation instead of the advanced civilization they had expected-a world where the survivors now live, or die, by the sword. Tessa becomes the spoils of war-the female taken captive by the strongest male. From the moment she sees them, Tessa is certain this race of beings has visited Earth in the distant past. Not only do they bear an unnerving resemblance to ancient man-s concept of evil in fleshly form-Satan-but Lucien possesses the power to bend her completely to his will and -possess- her with the carnal pleasure only he can give her-or withhold from her.

Genesis (Enslaved I)

Kindle

I read this one at least once a year. I love the setting – the main heroine is abducted by Alien traders that look like Kuppa to be used as slave labor like another alien race the Hirachi. This lucky gal also gets two dudes.

Bri’s uncertain of whether she finds it more unnerving or thrilling that Kole, a warrior well over six feet in height and built like the hulk, watches her with hungry, covetous eyes, until the slavers who captured her toss her into his habitat with him for breeding. Then she knows it’s both, but it’s even more unsettling to find herself the object of desire of two six and a half foot males-particularly since Kole and Dansk seem perfectly willing fight to the death to settle which of them gets to breed her. Rating: Contains graphic sex, graphic language, graphic violence.

My all time favorite guilty pleasure book from this author is….

The Portal

Kindle

Pssst there is an honest to got Liger in this one!

Dr. Alexis Conyers is amoung the scientists sent from the near future tom find a new home for mankind, but once her and crewmembers erect the Portal, none of the colonists their expecting arrive. When they decide to use the Portal to return to earth they discover that nearly a thousand year have passed and the world they return to as changed drastically. Mankind, except for a small enclave, has feld the Earth and humans are dispised by those abandoned – the beast folk.

It’s a Liger-man, Torin who rescues her form the Bear Clan, but although he knows she belongs with her own kind, he doesn’t really want to let her go and Alexis find herself toen between her love for three very different men – Lord Torin of the Lion Clan, Lord Joel of the human clan, and William Long, Joel’s second in command – all Alpha males determined to claim her for themselves – - when she dosen’t want to be ‘owned’.

Rating: Carnal Adult situations, adult language, graphic violence, multiple sexual partners, menage a trios.

Confess! What are your guilty pleasure books? We promise not to ‘out’ you on Facebook.

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September Book Releases Smokinhotbooks Can’t Wait to Get Their Hands On

K.C. — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:22:33 +0000

If you thought August was going to break your piggy bank better pawn your china because September has some awesome new releases that WILL be on my bookshelf.

Blameless by Gail Garriger

Genre:Horror/Paranormal

#3 in Parasol Protectorate

Release September 1st

I’ve been practically foaming at the mouth to read Blameless especially the way things ended with Alexia and Lord Maccon.

Quitting her husband’s house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London’s vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires — and they’re armed with pesto.

No Mercy by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Genre: Paranormal Romance

#20 in Dark Hunter Series

Releases September 7^th

Ladies and gentleman you can’t see it but I’m raising the roof. How excited are we to getting our hands on another Peliter story?! I have it on good authority there won’t be 200 pages of ‘flashbacks’ with this one.

BTW am I the only one that remembers the Amazon chikie-poo being a leisbian…?

Live fast, fight hard and, if you have to die, then take as many of your enemies with you as you can. That is the Amazon credo and it was one Samia lived and died by. Now in contemporary New Orleans, the immortal Amazon warrior is about to learn that there’s a worse evil coming to slaughter mankind than she’s ever faced before.

Shapeshifter Dev Peltier has stood guard at the front of Sanctuary for almost two hundred years and in that time, he’s seen it all. Or so he thought. Now their enemies have discovered a new source of power–one that makes a mockery of anything faced to date.

The war is on and Dev and Sam are guarding ground zero. But in order to win, they will have to break the most cardinal of all rules and pray it doesn’t unravel the universe as we know it.

Venom by Jennifer Estep

Genre: Urban Fantasy

#3 in Elemental Assassin

Releases September 28^th

All you need to know is that I’ve read it and yeah, be prepared to get your panties blown off ‘cause it’s that good. *coughs Jennifer Estep is coming to Smokinhotbooks in October with a Giveaway!)

What kind of assassin works pro bono?It’s hard to be a badass assassin when a giant is beating the crap out of you. Luckily, I never let pride get in the way of my work. My current mission is personal: annihilate Mab Monroe, the Fire elemental who murdered my family. Which means protecting my identity, even if I have to conceal my powerful Stone and Ice magic when I need it most. To the public, I’m Gin Blanco, owner of Ashland’s best barbecue joint. To my friends, I’m the Spider, retired assassin. I still do favors on the side. Like ridding a vampire friend of her oversized stalker—Mab’s right-hand goon who almost got me dead with his massive fists. At least irresistible Owen Grayson is on my side. The man knows too much about me, but I’ll take my chances. Then there’s Detective Bria Coolidge, one of Ashland’s finest. Until recently, I thought my baby sister was dead. She probably thinks the same about me. Little does she know, I’m a cold-blooded killer . . . who is about to save her life.

Double Cross by Carolyn Crane

Genre: Urban Fantasy

#2 in The Disillusionits Trilogy

Release September 28th

Gasp, I need to get my hands on Packard er…I mean Double Cross.

Justine Jones has lived her life as a fearful hypochondriac until she’s lured into the web of a mysterious mastermind named Packard. He gifts her with extraordinary mental powers-dooming her to fight Midcity’s shadowy war on paranormal crime in order to find the peace she so desperately craves.

But now, serial killers with unheard-of skills are terrorizing the most powerful beings in Midcity, including mastermind Packard – and his oldest friend and worst enemy, Midcity’s new mayor, who has the ability to bend matter itself to his will.

As the body count grows, Justine faces a crisis of conscience as she tests the limits of her new powers and faces an impossible choice between two flawed but brilliant men . . . one on a journey of redemption, and the other descending into a pit of moral depravity.

Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews

Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy

#2 The Edge Series

Releases September 28^th

Ok, it took me ten minutes to figure out that Bayou Moon did not have the same characters as On the Edge. But, I’m still excited * fist pump*

Cerise Mar and her unruly clan are cash poor but land rich, claiming a large swathe of the Mire, the Edge swamplands between the state of Louisiana and the Weird. When her parents vanish, her clan’s long-time rivals are suspect number one.

But all is not as it seems. Two nations of the Weird are waging a cold war fought by feint and espionage, and their conflict is about to spill over into the Edge—and Cerise’s life. William, a changeling soldier who left behind the politics of the Weird, has been forced back into service to track down a rival nation’s spymaster.

When William’s and Cerise’s missions lead them to cross paths, sparks fly—but they’ll have to work together if they want to succeed … and survive.

Honorable mention

Dark Peril by Christine Feehan (Carpathians #21)

Releases September 9 or Pre-order August 31

This one is about Solange (remember she was the jaguar that was abused…) and Dominic of the Dragonseeker lineage.

PS I’m still waiting for Skyler’s story, which seems like a chousand years (Hawaiian for mucho time)

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Demon From the Dark by Kresley Cole – What Would Ripley Do? (WWRD)

K.C. — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:12:42 +0000

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Series: Immortals After Dark #10

Pages:384

Amazon

Kindle

Favorite Quote: ‘Why don’t you put me in a minivan, zip me up in mom jeans and shoot me in the head’ Lanthe says to Carrow

———–> If you have not read previous book and don’t want to be spoiled look away right now.

Demon from the Dark introduces us to a new type of bad, an evil group of mortals who refer to themselves as the “Order”. The Order is not ‘in-hearts’ with anything or anyone who happens to be immortal and thus contrives a scheme to kidnap some of our fav Lorepeople. Carrow, bad ass witch extrodinaire, Regin-The Radiant, Lanthe (evil sorceress sissy to Sabine Queen of illusions aka Rysdrom’s wifey), Lotharie, the Lykae twins and a few of those that have been kidnapped. No one knows what the Order wants, least of all Carrow; but those trisky humans have got her by the short hairs. Do their bidding or they’ll kill someone very close to her. Nope, I’m not gonna tell you who that is, you’ll just have to read to find out. All Carrow knows is that she must descend into the demon realm, find a vemon (an abomination of demon and vampire), and convince him to come back and be taken by the Order.

Malkom

Malkom Slaine was born to a whore, sold as a child be be some sick vampire’s blood slave and was forced to kill his one and only friend in order to survive. Betrayed by his own kind and basically everyone else in his life, Malkom’s will has been forged by blood and torture, escaping and killing his his ‘vemon’ (demon/vampire) maker, he escapes to Oblivion where he lives like the beast he has become. Battered by life, hardened by betrayal, Malkom’s only connection to his humanity is through his thirst for vengeance.

When Carrow Graie had awakened from her abduction a week ago, she’d had a raging headache, cotton mouth, and a metal collar affixed around her neck.

Things had only gone downhill from there.

Tonight I might be hitting rock bottom, she thought as warden Fegley—a billyclub-carrying, no-balled loser—forced her down the corridor of cells to her doom.

“Dead Wicca walking,” the centaurs’ leader sneered from their cell as Carrow passed. He, like every other Lore creature imprisoned here in the immortal menagerie, suspected she was about to be offed.

“Shut the fuck up, Mr. Ed,” she said, earning a harsh yank on her collar from Fegley. Glaring at the mortal, she struggled against her cuffs. “Once I get my powers back, Fugley, I’ll curse you to fall in love. With your own bodily functions. If it comes out of your body, your heart will long for it.”

“Then I guess I’m lucky you’ve got this on.” Another jerk on the band at her neck—the mortals called it a torque. It mystically nullified her abilities and weakened her physically. Every species here had been hobbled in some way, making them controllable, even by mortals like Fegley. “Besides, witch, what makes you so sure you’re going to make it past the next hour?”

If these people execute me, I’m going to be sooo pissed. Unfortunately, that appeared to be in the cards. At the very least, she was about to be tortured or experimented on.

Hell, maybe then she could find out why anyone would have gone to the trouble of abducting her.

Will Carrow betray Malkom….

I knew I fell in love with Demon from the Dark when Carrow asked herself, What would Ripley do? As in bad-ass, ‘I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure’, alien ass-kicker Lt. Ripley. Instead of WWJD it is WWRD (and yes I’d buy the bumper sticker and matching bracelet is someone made one). This is by far, is my new favorite book of the series. Malkom’s story is not a pretty one, yet even in the guise of all that pain, he manages to still retain a shred of humanity when it comes to Carrow. I liked the fact that Carrow and Malkom spoke different languages. It added an interesting dynamic coupled with a great backstory, this book was by far the most riveting. And this is why I couldn’t put this book down. Hell, I even called my girls night out short so I could finish this book. I also confess to sneaking away during work hours and reading on my iphone in the bathroom stall. I’m not proud of myself.

This is one of the best IAD books of the series and if you haven’t picked up this book I WILL UNFRIEND YOU. I kid. I joke. Well…maybe, I might give you a bit of stink eye but I’m working on my passive aggressive tendencies. Smokinhotbooks says “Don’t miss out on this book” or she might be forced make you listen to the Barney Clean-Up song, with the matching dances.

Books in the Series I heart:

A Hunger Like No Other #1

Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night #3

Dark Desires After Dusk #5

Kiss of a Demon King #6

Pleasure of a Dark Prince #7

View Complete IAD List on Cole’s Website

Other Reviews:

Penelope’s Romance Reviews A+

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Petals and Thorns by Jennifer Paris – A Naughty Beauty and The Beast Tale

K.C. — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:37:27 +0000

Genre: Erotic Romance/BDSM Fantasy

Publisher Loose-ID

80 pages

Purchase at Loose-Id $4.99

book given for review

Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, beauty and the beast….Ok, I’ll stop now and put away my Belle Halloween costume. As you all may well know revisionist stories of one of my fav fairy tales makes me do the happy dance. Literally. Petals and Thorns is now my favorite beauty and the beast re-make of all time. Jennifer Paris weaves a vivid and cautionary tale of desire, seduction, some serious erotic naughty time and such colorful imagery, it’s as though the characters have actually come to life.

Paris does an excellent job of creating enough of a escapist fantasy that for those who don’t like to dabble in the dark side of BDSM can still enjoy the vivid imagery of the storytelling even if you do wince a bit at Amarantha’s sensually abused derrière.

If I had to pick one niggle I felt the Beast’s explanation on how he came to be was a bit rushed, as in the last few sentence and then boom the end.

This is a great erotic debut for this author and I for one can’t wait to read more!

Here’s a little taste…

The Beast slid back from the table and indicated that she should stand in front of him. Taking her by the waist, he lifted her to sit on the table. Drawing a silver chain from under the table‟s edge, he hooked it into a loop she hadn‟t noticed, sewn into the cuff just under the tender part of her wrist. The Beast drew the chain tight, pinning her hand to the table. He did the same with the other hand. Then he carefully swept her hair behind her shoulders so none of it hung forward.

Amarantha began to cry. “I‟m frightened,” she whispered.

“Are you? You know I won‟t harm you.”

“Do I know that?”

The Beast raised a gloved finger. Amarantha caught her breath. And gave a little cry when the cool leather touched her skin. With one fingertip, he traced concentric circles around and around her breast, coming ever closer to the nipple. Then stopped. He repeated the pattern on her other breast. Amarantha squirmed, tugging on the little silver chains. The Beast chuckled, then transferred to the other breast again. Incoherent whimpering sounds struggled out of her as he repeatedly tormented one breast, then the other. The music crashed and swelled around them, but the Beast never lost patience with his game. In the distance, the clock struck one.

The Beast seized her nipples in his gloved fingers and squeezed hard.

Amarantha screamed.

If you are looking for a vivid erotic tale of Beauty and the Beast, Petals and Thorns is a quick read that may fog up your Kindle screen. You’ve been warned.

Other Reviews

Katiebabs B+

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