Book Review - Paranormal Fantasy: Vampires

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Volume 2 by Laurell K. Hamilton

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars


Excellent artwork and storyboard scripting!!! I managed to buy the book the day it hit the shelves and read it the minute I got home.

I now plan to put the paperback "Guilty Pleasures" in my TO-READ list. I’ve gotten the feel for Hamilton’s writing and I hope the book has a wee bit more romance in it than the graphic novel did.

View all my reviews.

Book Review - Paranormal Romance: Vampires

Lady & the Vamp (Immortality Bites, Book 3) by Michelle Rowen

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really sweet story if you like romance with little to no sex. This book should have been labeled as "young adult/teen".

Which is odd because the characters were written as much older; Michael Quinn (age 30) and Janie Parker ( age 25 ). What was most in abundance was verbal loquaciousness. Both characters (well Michael more then Janie) went on and on about their self loathing and doubt.

Overlooking that little annoyance I rather enjoyed reading it. The book was sharp, witty, and had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. A very good vampire book.


View all my reviews.

Book Review - Paranormal Fantasy: Vampires

Since not everyone maybe interested in signing on with GoodReads I thought I’d start posting my comments/reviews here on my blog as well.


Heroes (Laws of the Blood, Book 5) by Susan Sizemore

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can’t believe this but I actually liked this novel, even with the 4 previous strike outs. In this 5th book the writing was tight, the scenes and dialog flowed smoothly, and even the plot made sense. It’s just a shame that Sizemore’s last book in the series finally got me interested and caring about the characters. Even when she left me with a small cliff hanger/dangling plot thread at the end with the characters of Char McCairn and Jebel Haven.



I’ll have to email her and ask if she ever resolved the cliff hanger in a later novella. Cuz I sure would like to find out how the situation between Valentine, Geoff, Char and Jebel gets resolved.




View all my reviews.

Christmas Sampler 2003 Update and Page Loading Problems

As promised here’s my progress picture for parts 3 and 4. This will temporarily be set aside as I work on a birthday present for a girl friend. Her birthday is coming up in June and I’m going to stitch her a kitchen towel and potholder combo with a picture of blueberries. No worries about her finding out, as far as I know she doesn’t have internet access so my secret will be safe.

After that I’ll be working on Le Marquoir - Il était une fois replacing french knots with seed beads for part 4. Then it’s back to christmas sampler forcing myself to finish it.
Do you ever get to a point working on a project that you’ve had for so long that you start to wonder what possessed you to start it in the first place? That’s what I’m feeling about christmas sampler. There must have been something about it I liked back in 2003 when I started it that drew my interest, but for the life of me I can’t remember what. Now I feel like it’s a chore to finish the beast. But finish it I will, then it will either get rolled up and put away never to see the light of day, or it will get turned into a bell pull and only hauled out during December to be hung up on the wall.

As for the wonky page loading problems. I’ve gone out and bought myself a 3 inch thick Cascading Style Sheets book. Basically it’s a developer’s guide for CSS1 and CSS2. It may take me a while but I plan on teaching myself the basics and fix my blog myself. I guess it doesn’t pay to go copying and pasting other peoples code together when you have no idea what the hell you’re doing.

Well that’s it for this blog blurb.

Belated Valentine's Day and Fantasy Author Autographs

Greetings everyone two posts in as many days the mind boggles. ;-)

Well I managed to get to Wal-Mart today and there were no mini rose bushes to be had. So I hoofed it across the parking lot to the Home Depot Mega Store and lo and behold they still had a dozen left by the front entrance for $5 each. White, deep red, pale pink, and something that looked like bright pink tipped in orange. I got one 4 inch pot of the bright pink tipped in orange.





I had a friend of mine take pictures outside of his house to day. He cut off the bottom of the picture so you can't see my hand holding the bottom of the pot. I don't know what's up with that yellow bud in the bunch. Next.....

RADCON a Sci-Fi and Gaming convention was held this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Red Lion Hotel in Tri-Cities, Washington. One of the fantasy authors I read, Patricia Briggs, was going to be there this weekend but not in an official capacity.

As I live in the Tri-Cities I wanted Patty to sign the six books I have of hers. Problem - what if I'm not able to find her during the 3-day convention after shelling out over $30 admission fee.
Solution – Patty is good friends with the owners of the local new/used book store "Book Worm" and took the time to visit both branch stores and signed every new book they had on hand. Huzzah!!!

I missed her for a personal signing at the "Book Worm" because of a doctors appointment on Friday. But I made it over to the larger of the two stores before they closed that same day and picked up an autographed copy of each of the 6 books I wanted. Some of her earlier novels were there but I only had $50 with me at the time so I could only get the 6 I really needed. Yeah, I know $30 verses $50. But I figured I'd spend more on a sure thing, and get a second set, than to risk $30 and come away with nothing. Anyway here I am grinning like an idiot at my book acquisitions. The one in my hands is the anthology "On the Prowl".

Yes, definitely a late but still happy V-Day even if I had to buy it myself.

One Last Thing:
eHarmony.com sent me spam a couple of days ago saying – come take our personality profile test and check your matches for free this valentine’s weekend. So on a whim I did it today. I answered all the questions truthfully and the final outcome of all this was….. Soooo sorry but we can’t match you. They basically implied that I’m too old, too fat, unattractive and set in my ways. THANK YOU so much eHarmony for letting me know I’ll never find a husband, die an old maid, and never have sex with anyone for the rest of my life. That’s what you get for telling the truth….I should have lied through my teeth and been happy. ;-p [snicker]

SBQ Meme: Holiday Gifts... What ya get?

Today's SBQ was suggested by Renée and is:

Did you receive any stitching-related gifts for the holidays?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2007/12/sbq-holiday-gifts/

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Nope, no stitching related presents for me.

All I got was a card and some money from my sister, but it was enough for me to head straight to Hastings today and picked up My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon Anthology – edited by P.N. Elrod and Lynsay Sands' The Argeneau Series, all of them up through the latest - The Accidental Vampire. She's the latest on my list of newly discovered authors.

I've basically gone a little off the deep end in finding and buying books from new (to me anyway) authors. Here's the complete list so far.

Monica Ferris ……………. Mystery
Patricia Briggs …………… Paranormal-fantasy
Jim Butcher ……………... Paranormal-fantasy
Carole Nelson Douglas …. Paranormal-fantasy
P.N. Elrod ………………. Paranormal-fantasy
Tanya Huff …………….. Paranormal-fantasy
Elizabeth Amber 1 …....... Paranormal-romance (Erotica)
Amanda Ashley ............... Paranormal-romance
Alexandra Ivy .................. Paranormal-romance
Kathy Love ...................... Paranormal-romance
Katie MacAlister ............. Paranormal-romance (Humor)
Sharon Page .................... Paranormal-romance (Erotica)
Sara Reinke 2 .................. Paranormal-romance
Stephanie Rowe ……...... Paranormal-romance
Lynsay Sands 3 .............. Paranormal-romance (Humor)
Susan Sizemore .............. Paranormal-romance
Shiloh Walker 4 ............. Paranormal-romance (Erotica)

1: The Lords of Satyr Series
2: The Brethren Series
3: The Argeneau Series
4: The Hunters Series

And to think I started out with just reading Jim Butcher, Katie MacAlister, & Monica Ferris. Don’t however get me started on science fiction; big trekie fan here. I’ve got the original series, next generation, and all the spin-off series in my ancient paperback book collection. As well as the Babylon 5 series.

Later, Y’all……

Wow I’m a Silver Dragon and my 100th post!!!

To celebrate my 42 hour reading marathon of all 3 Aisling Grey books and thus finish my goal of reading *ALL* of Katie MacAlister’s adult romances ever published. I went to her Dragon Septs website and discovered which dragon sept was for me.

Which Dragon Sept is Right For You?

You are calm, understand the meaning of zen, are a poet, and value the time you spend with other people. You would do well with the Silver Dragon Sept
Take this quiz!

Here's a little added info on traits from www.dragonsepts.com/ handbook:
The silver dragons are renowned healers, and as such, are very much in demand in both the mortal and Otherworld. Some silver dragons also have empathic abilities, a trait that has been exploited by other septs. They have a particular affinity with nature, and many spend time with earthier beings such as wood sprites, elves, and sylphs. They are cautious and careful in battle and politics, and while they hold honor and loyalty to be among their most valued traits, they are formidable in their revenge if you cross them.

It was mon., tues., & wed. of last week that this marathon happened but I kind of let posting to my blog go until this Sunday. You’re probably scratching your head wondering how I could spend 3 days straight reading and not work. Well the simple answer is I’ve been laid-off for the next 6 weeks until the company work orders for circuit boards start coming in again. So in the mean time I’ll be at home doing a lot of reading and stitching.


Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! My 100th post. I can’t believe y’all have put up with my sometimes mindless drivel. To bad I don’t have any updates on my dragon to post, oh well, I’m sure to have something next weekend. Anyway, I’m off to watch my recorded episode of this weeks Doctor Who!!!

Later y’all

SBQ Meme: The Second Time Around????

Today's SBQ was suggested by Renée and is:

Would you ever stitch one of your BAPs a second time?
(This does not include starting over because of mistakes,
bad fabric, etc., rather stitching something from the first
stitch for a second time.)

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2007/09/sbq-seconds/

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I don’t know if you’d call it a BAP, but if I had the time and inclination I’d love to stitch “To Love And Cherish” by Sandy Orton again. For myself, if I ever got married. But since I haven’t had, nor can find, a boyfriend in the last 12 years I don’t think it’s going to happen.









On the Reading Front: I’ve finally finished Katie’s Adult Historical Romances. Now it’s on to the Aisling Grey series. Then I’ll have read every book she’s ever WRITTEN!!!!!

I’m a Katie Minion....

in the worst (or best) possible way. Case in point-yesterday. Saturday night 6pm I grab the next in my (to read) stack of Katie novels “Hard Day’s Knight”. 14 ½ hours later – Sunday 8:30am - I finish the book. What can I say, I read as slow as a snail and always read the r-e-a-l-l-y steamy parts over twice {wicked grin}. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t put the damn book down.

I love Ren Fairs and the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism)

Next, “Blow Me Down”, historical romance then paranormal dragon (Aisling Grey Series) romance books!
Then I’ll have devoured them all, until next month that is….

Just a Quick Note....

Well it's been 3 weeks since I poked my head in here. So far I've managed to read through 4 of Katie's books. The Corset Diaries, Men In Kilts, Bird of Paradise, & Improper English. To say the least I'm driving myself crazy, being that I don't have a boyfriend and no way to relieve the frustration except by other means which I won’t do or go into. {Wicked Grin}

Anyway, I have some good news on the stash front. Back in July I bought Needle Guardian by Teresa Wentzler from Patternsonline.com And just today after waiting almost 6 weeks I finally got the supplies from Paw Prints Cross Stitch in the mail. Wahoo!!

I am so itching to start this, I think just this once I'll fall off "The Wagon" and do this small project. I think that's what I need to get me back in the mood to work on my bigger WiPs.

Ta, All...

Turning Bookworm…

It seems I’ve shifted into a bit of a stitching slump, and have been more cheerfully engaged in reading Katie Macalister’s romance books. I was never interested in romance fiction before I picked up her book “A Girl’s Guide to Vampires”. The paranormal series is excellently written, well balanced with just the right “laugh out loud” moments in all the right spots.

Anyway, I’ve tried to work on Pamela Kellogg’s “Christmas Sampler 2003” but I just feel like I’m plodding along in my rotation. I just don’t seem to have any enthusiasm for stitching right now. So this will probably be my last post for awhile. Maybe if I put all my projects away for a couple of months the stitching bug will bite me in the ass once more. In the mean time, I’ll be devouring the rest of Katie’s adult Contemporary, Historical, & Paranormal romance books – that’s 12 books so it should take me a month if I pace myself.


Part 3 - Christmas Sampler 2003 – Well technically it isn’t really finished as I just couldn’t get myself to do the back stitching with the kreinik gold braid. Click pic for bigger image.

SBQ Meme: Just One More Stitch....

Today's SBQ is from Renée and is:

Do you consider yourself a "floss miser?"

The permalink to this post is:
http://blog.blondelibrarian.net/archives/2007/07/one-thousand/

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The answer to this question is – Yes, No, and Maybe.

If I’m stitching from a prepackaged kit - yes, I try my best to conserve the floss and not have much in the way of left over orts. I’m always panicked that I’ll run out of a certain high use color and I won’t be able to match it with the stock I have on-hand; considering that certain kit companies special dye their floss lots.

If I’m doing a chart with a lot of confetti stitching then yes, I’ll save the orts to finish up sections of the design.

If I’m using limited edition sampler threads like from “The Gentle Arts”, then that’s a definite yes.

If it’s plain old DMC or Anchor then no, unless you consider one - two inches left on the needle miserly.





Other news: I seem to have let my stitching slide this last week and a half. I got so caught up in reading about my favorite vamps in the Dark Ones series that I managed to polish off two books!!

"Bring Out Your Dead" in the Just One Sip anthology and
Even Vampires Get the Blues

I’m now at the lastest book in the series and I’m chomping at the preverbal bit wondering if Katie will have another Dark Ones book out this year. Who knew I’d fall so hard for vampire paranormal romances?!?! ;-)