Mad Musings On: The Eternity Cure (The Blood Of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa

The Blurb:

Allison Sekemoto has vowed to rescue her creator, Kanin, who is being held hostage and tortured by the psychotic vampire Sarren. The call of blood leads her back to the beginning—New Covington and the Fringe, and a vampire prince who wants her dead yet may become her wary ally.

Even as Allie faces shocking revelations and heartbreak like she’s never known, a new strain of the Red Lung virus that decimated humanity is rising to threaten human and vampire alike.

Mad Musings:

Where to start, where to start..... 

I've literally just finished reading, and I still have tears in my eyes.  And I may have just woken up the house with my loud OMG that I just yelled....  But that's ok, they needed to get up anyways.... I need something to distract my brain...

This was an intense and thrilling ride through zombieland, where your enemies become your allies, and the unexpected shows up... well, unexpectedly!   And I had my suspicions that something wasn't quite right with a certain someone who appears out of the blue, and I was sort of right about that, but now I certainly understand why the title of the series is "The Blood of Eden".   And Allie certainly had to learn to be wary of anyone from her past, because maybe her former allies aren't exactly on her side any more either...

And then there's the devious, bad boy character that I can't help but to picture like this:

Get'em, Jackal!  LOL

Sooooo, Um,  Ms Julie Kagawa..... Um, When is the next book coming out??  Because I really need it YESTERDAY!!! 

Oh yeah, first THIS one has to come out ;)

The Eternity Cure is available on April 30th from Harlequin Teen

***** 5 stars

I received this ARC from Harlequin Teen on Netgalley for review purposes :) Thank you!

Mad Musings On: Beautiful Creatures By Kami Garcia And Margaret Stohl

THE BLURB: 

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

MAD MUSINGS: 

I used this book as an experiment of sorts - I wanted to see if watching the movie first would have any impact on whether or not I liked the book.  I did this because I was hearing from other people who love the series how disappointed they were with the movie!   I thought the movie trailer looked great, so I didn't want to go into it jaded.  So my Hubby and I went on a Valentine's date to see this movie on the opening weekend.  We both quite enjoyed it, although I had questions about some of the characters and the plot, which was to be expected.  

Well, not far into reading Beautiful Creatures, I could already see some of the differences, although to me it's minor things like appearances and, yes, the movie peeps combines a couple of characters into one onscreen person.    That happens more than once, as it turns out.  But I can also understand the reasons the movie bigwigs would do that - it makes the story less complicated by having to track fewer characters - keep it to the main people and the main story line!   Of course there's also the omitted scenes from the book that we always cry out "Why didn't they include this in the movie?"  Personally, I would've liked to see the Winter Ball scene - but I guess it doesn't really advance the main story all that much, so it ends up being deleted - maybe it'll show up in deleted scenes, when DVD release time arrives?  Time will tell...

So, about the book.... I really was surprised at how different Book Ethan was from Movie Ethan.  He was so funny in the movie, and not as much in the book.  But it was kind of cool to see the way the guy feels about a new relationship in a YA book for a change.    I mean, for the most part he wasn't even sure she was his girlfriend!  It makes me want to just whisper in his ear "Dude, you're spending all your time with her, kissed several times, and holding hands.... she's definitely a girlfriend YEESH!"

What I'm still confused about with the book, is the ending.  The movie has a totally different ending, which I though was pretty cool, but the book didn't even hint at that.  Where did producers pull that from?  Is it in the next book, Beautiful Darkness?   Well, I suppose I'm just going to have to read that one to find out....

**** 4 stars

**On a personal note, Margaret Stohl was another of the fabulous authors I had the privilege to meet at the Smart Chicks tour last fall.  She was a delight and kept us all laughing with her hilarious antics.  I was really hoping that some of her sense of humour would appear in her writing, and I was not disappointed :)

Mad Musings On: 'The Indigo Spell' By Richelle Mead

THE BLURB:

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood--or else she might be next.


Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, the Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive—this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone’s out for blood.

MAD MUSINGS:

Being a fan of Richelle Mead, and knowing her writing style, I was all set to read The Indigo Spell: the third book in the Bloodlines series.  I had my cup of tea, box of Kleenex, and Prozac prescription ready to go.  Richelle's #3 books are known to be heartwrenchingly traumatic to the extent that you are thinking about things for weeks afterwards.  For example, after reading Shadow Kiss, #3 of the Vampire Academy series (and the series that this sequel series is based on) , I was screaming at the book and was in a funk for at least a week - that's how much I'd come to love the characters.   And same thing with reading Succubus Dreams (#3 of the Georgia Kincade books).  Soooooo good......  

So I was expecting some really drastic wrench to be thrown down at the end of this book too.   Was I right?  Well, I'm happy to report that the prescription was not necessary this time around *WHEW*  but there were moments that had me squirming in my seat - some of it was good, and some of it was because poor Adrian doesn't seem to catch a break! 

Adriannnnnnnnn........ AD-RI-AAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNN  (Ahem-I just had to get that out)

I-LOVED-THIS-BOOK.  Richelle, you have done it again.  I'm so glad you have given us, the fans, a chance to love Adrian - because it was a really hard choice when he was 'the-one-who-got-away' in Vampire Academy.   Now, we don't have to make that choice.  And Sydney, poor little Sydney.  She's going to be unstoppable and I can't wait to see her kick some major Alchemist butt.... 

And thank you for not making us wait another year for The Fiery Heart ( Bloodlines #4) - waiting for the fall will be torturous enough!  Oh well, at least I'll have Gameboard of the Gods (Richelle's new Age of X series) to fall in love with verrrrry soon. :)

I can't gush about this enough....

***** 5+Stars

Mad Musings on: 'Shadow of Night' by Deborah Harkness

This series is beyond anything I've ever read! I've been totally drawn into this world since March - It consumes me! It probably doesn't help (or does it?) that I'm a part of a great All Souls group that are all just as obsessed as I am. Deborah packs so many 'Easter Eggs" into her books, we will probably never find them all, but we are sure up to the challenge of trying! I've learned, from this book, so much about Elizabethan England and Europe, than I never knew before. I feel like the main characters, Diana and Matthew, are personal friends of mine!

So anyways, Shadow of Night is #2 of the All Souls Trilogy (#3 title has yet to be announced...)and it continues right where the first story left off - with our friends literally stepping into the year 1590. Deborah weaves a wonderful spell with her attention to history, and her hidden eggs of information that you can research to find (hint: Google everything! All the names, anything that is particularly described... EVERYTHING!) One shining strand, which is the historical characters we meet (Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlowe, Henry Percy and Thomas Harriot are just the first of a long line up...) is cleverly intertwined with original threads of a paranormal, romantic, adventure timetravelling, bodice-ripper that happens to include strings of witches, vampires and daemons. And they are bound together in a knot so complex, I had to read the book twice in a row to 'get' it all!! 

I am in the process, just like I did for A Discovery of Witches, of building a pinterest board of many of the hidden eggs that I and others have found, and I'm also including many other links to places and objects that are found in the book - just because I wanted to actually see what, for example, a farthingale bum roll was, or what the streets of Elizabethan London looked like in 1590... Visit my pinterest page here :)

http://pinterest.com/tlmfarmgirl/shad...

- Did I mention the Deborah Harkness drops in every once in a while to leave me comments and hints or to tell me if I'm off track? I'd love to hear your comments on pinterest.... See you there!!

Here's the official book blurb:

"Together we lifted our feet and stepped into the unknown"—the thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestseller A Discovery of Witches

Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel,A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy and an international publishing phenomenon. The novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782.

Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending,Shadow of Night plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens.

Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries, delivering one of the most hotly anticipated novels of the season.  -