Spaz Reviews: Envy - JR Ward

My latest review is up at Wicked Lil Pixie! Envy by J.R. Ward

This is a no-spoiler review, but assumes a familiarity with the first two books in the series.

Envy is the third book in JR Ward's Fallen Angel's series and arguably the best in the series. In the main arc of the series, Jim Heron is battling on the side of Heaven with the demon Devina over seven souls. After the first two books, they are now tied 1-1 and have 5 more souls to go head-to-head over. Jim is tasked with influencing a person at a crossroads in his or her life, helping the person take the "good" road while Devina influences the person to take the "evil" road. He'd focused on the wrong man in Crave, and had blown it. Now he is back in Caldwell, New York with his two fallen angel soldiers Adrian Vogel and Eddie Blackhawk. He has made it his mission to save Sissy AKA Cecilia Barten who was slaughtered by Devina in Covet, and whom he discovered was trapped and suffering in Devina's wall of souls in Crave. Continue Reading...

Dear M•A•C... The f-ck is this?

I love M•A•C makeup, and that is no secret. I get jitters when I approach their counter or store because all of the colors and packaging and endless possibilities make me giddy with happiness. Do I use it all? Neh, I use it when I need it, but I would say I am more a collector. I collect this makeup and treat it as My Precious, especially some of their limited edition pieces like Hello Kitty, Barbie, Disney Villains, to name a few.

They do outrageous things with their collections, too. Stuff that is edgy and often whacky, that you aren't really supposed to wear out in the normal world, but it gives you an idea of the overall look and shows off all the colors in the collection.

So when I opened my email this morning to M•A•C touting their new Fall colors, my jaw dropped to the floor and I stared. That was all I could do. Here is why:

Is it April? Is this a joke? Where do I even begin with this? I am not even sure what to look at first. What exactly are they trying to sell me on? The brows? They are uneven and shaded unevenly. The eyeliner belongs on a clown, and so does the lip color and lining. The blush? Is that supposed to be contouring or was it done by a makeup artist on the set of a zombie flick? What is the look they are going for here, who are they trying to appeal to? Are there any women or men out there who would want to even remotely come close to any part of this look? I would LOVE to speak to those involved in pitching and releasing this final ad to understand the thought process that went on surrounding this omgwtf mess.


Ohhhh, but THERE IS MORE. If you go to their website, they have two other looks as part of the "Fall Colour" collection. No, this is not a joke. 


M•A•C Fall Colour: Wild Colour described as "A wild, whimsical & wonderful palette. Stars Small Eye Shadows, Pigment, M•A•C Artist favourite Chromographic Pencil, & Lipstick."

M•A•C Fall Colour: Angel Flame described as "A glamorously arrestingly artistic assortment including an Eye Shadow Quad, Lipglass, Mineralize Skinfinish and the limited life re-appearance of the Jumbo Penultimate."

I just... I'm done. This blows my mind. This HAS to be part of the second Zoolander, am I right?


UPDATE: Mandi says that the person in these three M•A•C shots is the same, and is also the photographer, Cindy Sherman. She has provided these two interesting articles on them.
Cindy Sherman for MAC on Styleite
Cindy Sherman for MAC on guardian

Spaz Reviews: Spider's Revenge - Jennifer Estep

My latest review of Spider's Revenge by Jennifer Estep is up at Wicked Lil Pixie Reviews. Join me!

I always love how the books in the Gin Blanco series start. They have the best opening lines!

Old habits die hard for assassins.

And that is just what Gin Blanco is. She is the assassin known as Spider and she kills people. Spider's Revenge is the fifth book in the Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep, and it's official. Spider'sRevenge is my favorite book in the series. With that statement, I can easily lead in to saying that this series just gets better and better in its direction, and character development.

Continue Reading...

Spaz Reviews: The Hour of Dust and Ashes - Kelly Gay

My latest review of The Hour of Dust and Ashes by Kelly Gay is up at Wicked Lil Pixie Reviews! Join me!


The Hour of Dust and Ashes is the third book in Kelly Gay's Charlie Madigan series. I won't recap it because seriously the summary provided tells you pretty much exactly what happens. I always want to enjoy this series more than I do. It's good, and this is most definitely my favorite book in the series so far, but there is just what us bloggers overuse as "a connection" I am missing with Charlie. Not always. I enjoy the story and world building overall, but at times when I am reading a conversation between characters, it is like they are interviewing each other rather than having a natural conversation.
That being said, I absolutely love the development of Hank's character, as well as the hellhound Brimstone.
Continue reading...

Spaz Reviews: Archangel's Blade - Nalini Singh

My latest review of Archangel's Blade by Nalini Singh is up at Wicked Lil Pixie reviews! Join me!

This is what I'm talking about!! After the slight disappointment I felt over the last book in the series, this knocked my fuzzy socks off. This is Paranormal Romance at its best, seriously you guys. Archangel's Blade is the fourth book in Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series and a break from the first three in that it is Dmitri's story, departing from Elena and Raphael for a change (though of course they're in it!). Continue reading...

New Cover Alert! BITING COLD - Chloe Neill

Tor just released the new cover for Chloe Neill's Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires, #6), with an expected release of August 2012. What do we think? I just know I need Drink Deep like right now!

Guest Post at Fiction Vixen! Shadowman by Erin Kellison

I'm over at Fiction Vixen today reviewing Shadowman by Erin Kellison. 
Shadowman is the third book in Erin Kellison’s Shadow series. In this series there are three worlds: Mortality, where humanity lives; Shadowlands; and the Hereafter. Death, also known as Shadowman, lives in the dark and dreamy world of Shadowlands which can be as beautiful as it is horrifying. The building and melding of the three worlds is pretty fantastic, and enhances the feel of the experience.

I will start off by saying that I am really leery of reincarnation-themed love stories because there are a lot of moving pieces that can fail. When I realized very early on that this book would involve Thalia’s mother and Shadowman’s love Kathleen coming back somehow, I was nervous.
 Continue reading...

New Cover Alert! SACRIFICIAL MAGIC and other news by Stacia Kane

Sacrificial Magic set to release March 27th 2012

SACRIFICIAL MAGIC, Stacia Kane's fourth Downside book has a cover now! Woohoo! And here is the back cover copy: 
--
READING, WRITING, AND RAISING THE DEAD

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

--
She states that she is working on CHASING MAGIC (Downside book 5) edits, and working on a Downside novella, which showcases an eighteen year old Chess in Church training. She is also working on a Terrible's POV story and maybe stories for a few other Downside characters.  For all this and more, be sure to check out her website!! Stacia Kane

Spaz Reviews: Cipher by Moira Rogers

My latest review of Cipher by Moira Rogers is up at Wicked Lil Pixie Reviews! 

Cipher is the fourth book in the Southern Arcana series by the awesome writing duo that is Moira Rogers. Andrew Callaghan and Kat Gabriel experienced a life changing and traumatic experience just over a year ago that left them both emotionally battered and scarred... and left Andrew a newly turned wolf shifter. They'd always had a thing for each other, but were both young and hadn't had the chance to take things further. After the attack, Kat had to deal with everyone seeing her at the broken-hearted fool when Andrew's new strength and instincts needed to be trained and he had to learn discipline away from Kat. Just as dangerous, Kat's empathic abilities are deadly if she doesn't have the right training to keep the powers from bombing someone's brains out. And so instead of growing closer after the event, they went their separate ways no matter the heartache it caused. But now something is going on that brings them back together and it's a great ride! Continue reading...

Friday Cover Love

We've got a new cover by the awesome amazing Dan Dos Santos!!

Sins of the Demon is the fourth book in the Kara Gillian series by Diana Rowland. Blurb taken from Goodreads:
A LOUISIANA DETECTIVE OF SUPERNATURAL CRIME

The homicide beat in Louisiana isn’t just terrifying, it’s demonic. Detective Kara Gilligan of the supernatural task force has the ability to summon demons to her aid, but she herself is pledged to serve a demonic lord... in every way he desires.

And now, people who’ve hurt Kara in the past are dying from what appear to be strokes. To clear her name and save both the demon and human worlds, she’s in a race against the clock and in a battle for her life that just may take her to hell and back.

Spaz Reviews: Devil's Business - Caitlin Kittredge

My latest review of Devil's Business by Caitlin Kittredge is up at Wicked Lil Pixie Reviews! Join Me!

Devil's Business is the fourth book in Caitlin Kittredge's Black London series. Jack Winter is enemy number one in London after the events in the previous book. Everyone is gunning for him since he almost let Nergal's dragon loose on London's Black. Ben Mayhew is a P.I. in Los Angeles and has requested Pete (short for Petunia) Caldecott's help with solving some murders he believes are related to the Black. Pete reluctantly lets Jack accompany her to L.A. to investigate, also allowing the both of them to get out of dodge for a while. Turns out there are some new releases from Hell running around, and they are older and way more frightening than the former residents we have previously met.

Continue Reading...

Spaz & WLP Review: Blood Bound by Rachel Vincent

Our latest review of Blood Bound by Rachel Vincent is up! Join us!

WLP: I am a huge fan of Rachel Vincent's Shifters series, so when I learned of Blood Bound, the first in her new Unbound series I said "heck yeah!"

Spaz: Huge fan of her Shifters series as well, and didn't even have to read the blurb of Blood Bound or know what it was about to know that I would definitely be reading it. And YAY we got to read together!

Continue reading...

I'm Doing a GRIMSPACE & AFTERMATH Giveaway at WLP!

One of my favorite series in the whole wide world is the romance science fiction Sirantha Jax series by Ann Aguirre, y'all have heard right? So in celebration of Aftermath releasing this week, I am going to giveaway one copy ofGrimspace (Sirantha Jax #1) to a lucky reader who has not yet been able to start this series, and a copy of Aftermath (Sirantha Jax #5) to an existing Jax fan and doesn't have it yet!

Head to Wicked Lil Pixie Reviews to enter