Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur

Kissing Sin by Keri Arthur.

3/5 stars. 2nd book in the Riley Jenson Guardian Series.

(Note: Haven't felt like reading even though I have tons of books checked out or bought needing to be read, just can't make myself read lately. Though I did read this in one day, I think I'm in a paranormal romance phase, which that's only 2 of the books I have currently checked out. Even though I have the last book of the Hunger Games series checked out and still haven't touched it! Must be something wrong with me.)

So Kissing Sin continues with the mystery of who is making supernatural beings and kidnapping supernatural being and stealing their DNA, with Riley as their main target.

The book begins with Riley waking up naked and covered in blood in an alley way. She knows something is wrong; knows her wolf side is telling her to get the fuck out of there but she can't remember how she got there or why she is naked. She checks her surrounding and finds a dead man in shreds. She doesn't remember being in blood lust; doesn't remember killing this man.
Riley soon discovers she is in a town that isn't actually a town. There is nothing in the buildings, no people, no life...except the things searching for her. She runs into a stable and is greeted by horses. (Mentions horses and wolves don't really get a long.) Soon discovers that the horses aren't really horses, they are were-horses, basically shifters who turn into horses. The first horse she comes up to hides her from the people after her, she unchains the horses and they make their escape.

The horse that she is escapes is the sexy, "big" Kade, (who I believed to finally be her mate until I found out he was a horse-shifter, boo boo! The back of the book tricked me...) "He was just as magnificent in human form as he was in horse, his mahogany skin, black hair, and velvet brown eyes a truly striking combination." ..... "My gaze traveled down the length of him. It wasn't only his coloring that was magnificent. He was built like a thoroughbred--broad shoulders, powerful chest, slim hips, and long, strong legs. His rump and back still bore the barely healed whip scars, but he had the best ass I'd seen on a man since Quinn had walked in, and then out, of my life."

Kade and Riley manage to get farther away and end up in a small town. They take shelter in a house that looks like the people have been away for a while. They get cleaned up and then try to call people. Thus realizing they are farther away from where they live than they thought they were. Riley finally gets through to her boss, Jack (leader of Guardians - a strong, old vampire.) Once their help arrives, it not Jack that arrives with her brother Rhoan(Riley's twin brother, half-vampire/wolf, and Guardian), but Quinn (Ex-"mate", very powerful vampire). Riley is shocked upon Quinn appearance and wondering what the hell he is doing here, appearing before her again after he broke it off with her because according to him all were-wolves are "whores". (In this book, yes they are. My opinion at least.)

"I didn't hear the rest of his words. Didn't need to.
Because a second figure had moved into the doorway.
It wasn't Jack.
It was Quinn.
My heart did an odd little flip-flop, and for several seconds all I could do was stare. He hadn't changed any--though given it had only been a month or so since I'd last seen him, that was hardly surprising.
But oh, he looked good.
His body was athletic, lean but powerful. His burgundy sweater emphasized the width of his shoulders, while the tight fit of his jeans drew the eye to the long, strong length of his legs. His hair was night dark, longer now than it had been when I'd last seen him, and so thick, so lush. It was also unkempt, as if he'd thrust his hands through it many times. Those hands were currently in his pockets, and looked clenched. His skin was not the white of most vampires, but a soft, warm gold, simply because unlike most vampires, he could actually stand a lot of sunshine. His face...." (pg 57-58)

Now that she is out of the laboratory, she now has to go back there and find out who and what is there. Though deep down her stomach is clenching from the fear of going back there...even if she can't remember. She knows something bad happened there. After re-entering where she was kept, she passes out. She learns Quinn can enter her mind even if she doesn't want him too, when she thought he couldn't. Thus causing problems between the two even more, her thinking he lied to her. Along with the confusing part that he now wants her but still can't come to accept the nature of were-wolves.
They all head back to a safe house and begin to try to put the pieces together but Riley has one thing she has to do. She has a doctors appointment..the one appointment that could determine if she could have children or not. While walking into her doctors appointment, she runs into someone unexpected...Misha (her ex-mate, psycho cloned were-wolf who tried to impregnate her. He tells her he'll be looking forward to seeing her soon and that he is most fertile were-wolf out there. Riley gets the news that she has a year to conceive and have a child before her vampire side takes over and makes her infertile. She has a big decision to make, to bring a child into the world she is living in now or to give up the one thing every were-wolf wants. She makes her decision (I won't say what she choose.)

Either if she choose to have kids or not, it still leads her back to Misha because he knows who is behind all of the attacks on her and the DNA cloning going on. In order to get the answer she needs, she has to pimp herself out for answers to him. Thus beginning the unraveling of everything that is going on......

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Kissing Sin was just as good as Full Moon Rising, though the summary on the back of the book made me believe she finally found her mate, Kade. Though he wasn't her mate, I'm trying to find out who her soul mate is but I get stuck into thinking, "Does it have to be a were-wolf?" or "Can it be other supernatural creatures, like Quinn?"

I'm very naughty because in both this summary and the last one I leave out a male character that appears, because I love their interaction together, and I just might believe he is her soul mate, though I wouldn't be sad if she picked Quinn over the guy himself. Though deep down, I have this feeling that he might be somehow involved in all of this too. Cause apparently everyone Riley sleeps with is involved with this somehow. She needs to stop sleeping with everyone or she is going to end up dead.

Though I'm not sure this is ever going to be solved, seeing as the series is on book 9 and I've only just finished book 2. I can already tell this series will drive me crazy not knowing who is behind everything and who is her mate, which it already is doing. I'm not even sure if this book can hold my attention for another 7 books, because if this is the entire story line, I can see it getting very tiring, but I have hope in Keri Arthur, she won't let me down...I hope!

Oh, one last thing. I wonder who is on the cover, of course its Riley and some guy. But who is the guy? My instincts say Quinn cause the way his mouth is near her neck, but I'm not 100% sure. I must investigate.

Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur

Full Moon Rising by Keri Arthur.

3/5 stars.


Riley Jenson is half werewolf / half vampire, though she takes more to her werewolf side. She doesn't drink blood but she does have a few vampire abilities: night ray vision and blurring into shadows(basically walking in shadows where humans can't see you.) Riley is walking home one night when she senses something wrong in the air and heads to a club that is nearby, to find it completely quiet. She is just going to take a quick peak around until she smells him, Gautler, a rotten smelling vampire who works as a Guardian. He tells her there are humans in the building with rogue vampire in there and just walks off, leaving her to deal with saving the humans when she isn't even a Guardian herself.

After dealing with the situation in the club, Riley still feels that something wrong. And then it clicks. Her apartment is only a few blocks away...where her and her twin, Guardian brother, Rhoan, lives. She calls the head of the Guardians, Jack. He tells her he is on a mission and shouldn't be due back until tomorrow, though if she were a Guardian too, he would give her the information she wanted. But Riley doesn't want to be a Guardian, she doesn't want to have to kill people. After calling Jack she makes one more call to her friend Kelly but she doesn't answer. Riley rushes home and comes to a stop. A vampire who is naked, covered in mud and quite handsome is standing at her doorway. She asks him what the hell is doing there and he tells her he is looking for Rhoan and that's all he can remember.

The next day Rhoan is still not back, leaving Riley to go off on her own to find him because lately Guardians have been disappearing. She only has such limited time before she might never see her only pack member again....so off Riley goes!

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This book was okay. It was definitely filled with tons of sex scenes with the two were-wolves Riley is involved with, though once things started happening it got easy to predict stuff. At one part it got me thinking, that maybe that person who was found dead, really isn't dead because I can't think of anyone else being involved in all the scheming, unless Keri Arthur introduces the other person in the next book but it wouldn't make sense because we've met all the people Riley is closest too. Whatever, really, guess I'll see in book 2.

I really liked Quinn and Riley's relationship. I kept hoping that Quinn would be her life time mate, but apparently I was wrong or Arthur just hasn't told us yet. Or maybe there is an even sexier male lead going to appear soon. Hopefully he isn't as psycho as Talon!

Read the book. Its not bad at all. I don't know why I didn't rate it higher, maybe if Quinn was her mate then maybe I would've.

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost.

5/5 stars.

I put off reading this book for so long and I can only say the summary on the back of the book does not give it justice. This book was amazing. Thrilling. Sexy. Heart Pounding. Addicting. And me begging for book #2 to magically appear in my stack of books. Really don't want to spoil much of this book for people but I'll do my best to restrain.

Catherine Crawfield is half dead. Or I should I say she is half-vampire / half-human. Her mom was date raped 22 years ago and there appeared Catherine 5 months later. Catherine doesn't have many of the vampire traits except for: extra strength - not to standards of a full vampire, eye site and the glowing green eyes when upset/aroused/hungry. She has always been a kind of a loner, though not by choice. She was picked on as a child for always being weird, when she was 16 her mom finally told her what she was really was. After becoming a one night stand only for the guy she loved she killed her first vampire to get over the anger/pain. Her mother was proud of her and urged her to rid the world of "evil" vampires.

Cat has a special ability, she can tell if someone is a vampire or human, yet they can't pick up that she is half-vampire, presuming she is an easy score - both sexually and as snack. One night she is hunting for vampires where she runs into a vampire who blatantly turns her down. She goes into the bathroom to check her image to see if something was off and wonder why he refused her, the minute she leaves she notices he is gone. She eventually runs into another vampire and does the deed of killing him, chopping off his head and into multiple little pieces and then burying him. The next night she decides to go back out and runs into the man who she ran into the other night. He asks her if her offer "to fuck" still stands. She agrees. She tries really hard to get him to drive, seeing as her stake is in her other pant leg. They pull over and he demands she takes off her clothes and she says for him to take off his clothes at the same time as her. Eventually he punches her so hard she gets knocked unconscious.

She wakes up chained to a wall in only her panties and bra to see the man staring at her. He begins to interrogate her about who she works for and getting other answers from her. Her telling him she has killed 16 vampires and that she is half vampire. He doesn't believe her. Slapping her a few times and asking her who she works for, until her eyes glow green. After finally believing her, he gives her an ultimatum, work for him or die. She thinks it over and proposes her own idea. A fight. If she wins he's dead and she loses she works for him. I guess you can already guess the outcome. Oh by the way, his names is Bones, fitting isn't it? Anyways they begin hunting vampires together and finally decided to go after the big honcho after an event happens with him.

That's all I'm going to write. No point in giving you more, I don't want to spoil this book for you guys. SO READ IT! NOW NOW NOW NOW!

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This is a book that definitely should be read by vampire lovers, well people over a certain age I mean. Since there are sex scenes, which I might add were ...err....sexy ;). I really did love Catherine, seriously a book with a kick ass heroine having the same name as me, how could I not love it? Cat was everything I wanted, a complete total badass. I loved her and Bones together, I was literally giggling when I was reading this book. I get so immature when I read books, that I roll around on my bed when I read a part I really love, the inner child of me comes out and lashes out with giggles and tons of rolling and sighing.

I'm definitely buying this book for my collection, now the library just needs to hurry up and send me book #2, I'm number 22 in line. *sad face* Now get out there and get the book, no matter how you have to get it!!!

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.

2/5 stars.

I don't have much to say about this book. It wasn't that horrible but it wasn't all the impressing to me either. A ton of farmers lingo that I did not understand, I found myself rereading sentences a few times and still not making sense of what was written. I also did not love the characters names, nor did I really like how the book was written.

I guess I should start giving you a look at the book.

DJ comes from a family that rarely expressive anything, the way they express their-selves is with pure, utter silence. DJ is the heart of the family, the one keeping it together. Literally. She is running her father's farm after he had a hip injury. She had to drop off the basketball team and neglect her homework, resulting in her failing English. She lives in a rather small town where in another town they have their arch-rival in football, though they never really win. Except for the time one of her older brothers won and almost the time her other brother lost.

One day the arch-rival's QB (Brian) shows up on her farm and looks at it in total disgust. Their first day together, shit happens. Brian eventually gives up and leaves. Leaving DJ to finish the rest of the work all by herself. Later the arch-rival's coach shows up and asks her opinion on Brian and if she would mind training him before the season starts. DJ is shocked, though a little excited about the idea.

So I bet you guessed it. She starts training Brian. And of course they develop feeling for each other. Gosh did not see that coming. And then one day they are practicing with each other and Brian says he is really glad he isn't playing against her. Now I hope you thought what clicked in DJ's brain. She was going out for the team.

She gets her grades in check and asks the coach if she can try out. All is cleared. She tries out, after their first practice, *gasp* their is the arch-rival punks waiting for them and spot her. Her team-mates say she is going to cream Brian, his face is set in stone. Oh no! The drama! What will happen? Nothing but a football game, really.

The dramatics come out in the game. DJ is soo angry with Brian for ignoring her. I'll let you discover the ending for yourselves. Read it you want to. Try not to get bored or annoyed with her calling herself a COW the whole time.

Spirit Bound (Book #5) by Richelle Mead

Spoilers Spoilers!!!!

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead.

4/5 stars.

At then end of Blood Promise, Rose finds out Dimitri is still alive. And well out to get her.

"You forgot another lesson: Never turn your back until you know your enemy is dead. Looks like we'll have to go over that lesson again the next time I see you--which will be soon.
---------------Love, D."

With only about 2 1/2 months left of school, Rose's mind is already set. She will do about anything to find a way to turn Dimitri back to normal, even if it means breaking Victor, who if remember tried to kill her and Lisa.

Every week Dimitri sends her letters waiting for her to leave the safety of the wards so he can finally get her. With her final test to become a guardian approaching, she wonders how the hell she is going to break into a prison she has no clue where it is. When the test does finally arrive, Rose passes with flying colors. A short while passes and her and Lisa and all the other graduates head off to the court. There Rose's plan unfolds. She enlists the help of a few friends, not even bothering to tell them what she really has in mind. Only Lisa knows what's really about to go down.

After breaking into the prison and releasing, they make a mad dash to a small airport. After getting the information from Victor they head to Vegas, using the money once again Adrian gave her. Should mention, Adrian believes Lisa and her snuck out for a girls weekend. Once arriving in Vegas, they book a hotel and call up Victor's brother to get down to the cure for Dimitri. He eventually meets up with them, though without someone showing up before. Adrian, and he is furious! He can't see why Rose can't move on after they have been seeing each for about 3 months.

Victor's brother shows up and begins to tell them what they need to know. Though Adrian is very skeptical and believes people who are dead stay dead. Even Rose begins to think its hopeless because it can't be her to save Dimitri. It has to be the last person she wants to ever want to put in harms way, Lisa. She immediately says no and that Lisa can't do it. Lisa eventually gets mad and says to let her at least try. Rose still refuses saying she could barely punch someone and can't *spoiler spoiler* an item. (an item is not the spoiler, I just left out what she has to do to that item, etc etc.) While the conversation is ending, things take a turn for the worse. Dimitri and a gang of Strigoi show up. Rose and Eddie begin taking them on and eventually kill the others except Dimitri. While fighting, Eddie finally gets the position he needs to kill Dimitri, yet Rose shoves him out of the way. They make a mad dash for the outside once the police arrive, leaving Dimitri to kill the humans. And leaving Rose in a ton of trouble with Eddie for ruining their chance to kill him..they meet up with Adrian and Lisa, only to discover Victor and his brother made a mad dash for freedom at the first chance they got.

They head back to Court and eventually get reprimanded, well Rose gets in trouble for taking Lisa away when Victor had just escaped prison, by two humans and guardian. Revealing that their disguises worked and no one knew better. The Queen takes away Rose rights to go with Lisa to see the college and celebrate Lisa's birthday. After celebrating her birthday Lisa, Christian and her guardians are leaving a restaurant, they are ambushed by Dimitri and his Strigoi goons. The whole time Rose is watching through Lisa's mind. She takes off to get the guardians attention, they tell her they already know and are setting up a rescue mission immediately. Rose is floored they are actually going out there to save them.

Rose, a team of guardians and fire element wielding Moroi set off to rescue Lisa and Christian. After killing and fighting their way through Strigoi, Rose finally makes it to the room with Lisa and Christan and lets not forget Dimitri standing there. The engage in a battle, all the while with Lisa and Christian are scheming all by themselves, Rose can feel the pain Lisa is feeling from Christian burning the ropes. Its becomes to late for what Rose eventually learns Lisa is going to do. Lisa immediately stakes Dimitri, though struggles some to get into his heart. A burst of light explodes, knocking out Lisa's and Rose bonded; leaving Dimitri clutching onto Lisa crying. Everything rushes forward, they kill the remaining Strigoi and the guardians take Dimitri away. Leaving both Lisa and Rose asking to see Dimitri and trying to talk some sense into the guardians that he is no longer Strigoi.

After turning Dimitri back to a dhampir tons of events take place. The courts decision to change the age of Dhampirs becoming guardians and going into battle against Strigoi. A secret memorial for the fallen that saved Lisa and Christian. Dimitri being interrogated and telling Lisa he doesn't want to see Rose. Rose yelling at the Queen in front of everyone. Rose and Adrian ...err....er..I'll leave it at that. The Queen being......er...err.....yeah I'll leave it that too.

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This book had a lot of events I loved and hated. I hated the fact that Dimitri didn't want to see Rose at all, how he said he could never be with her after all that he had done to her. Lisa taking Dimitri's side, thus resulting and Rose doing stupid stuff. I'm dying for book number 6. Though I don't want it to end. After I finished this book, I went back and skimmed through all 4 books and read my favorite parts over again. I can't wait and see how Mead ends this series. Hopefully its not a total let down, though I doubt it will be. Seeing as all 5 books so far were freaking AMAZING.

Blood Promise (Book #4) by Richelle Mead

Spoilers will be here. I just can't help it with this series!

So here we go! Actually before I start, I should refresh your minds of book three, Shadow Kissed. At the end of Shadow Kissed we have Rose, Dimitri and some other Moroi's and Damphirs going to save the ones who were kidnapped by the Strigoi. Right as Dimitri is running out of the cave a Strigoi drags him away and changes him, leaving Rose devastated and remembering one thing, the promise they made to kill the other if they ever turned Strigoi.

Against all odds Rose abandons Lisa to go on mad hunt to kill Dimitri. The only lead Rose has it that Dimitri would head back to his homeland. Armed with the money Adrian gives her she sets off. Once arriving she has no luck so ever, because she can't even find her way to his village. Rose begins stalking out places where rich, powerful Moroi's hang out, hoping to get a hint to where this Dhampir village is. On one night she is leaving she believes a guardian(dhampir) is following her, she immediately picks up her pace and hides and pouncing on the unsuspecting human, Sydney. Though Sydney is no ordinary human, she is an alchemist (who clean up the Strigoi bodies for guardians). Add in some dialogue between the two girls and thus they are starting off together to Dimitri's home town. They end up getting attacked and thus the person resulting in Sydney helping Rose get there, Abe appears again and brings her to Dimitri's own house.

Upon arriving there Rose begins to settle in and dwell over the thought of telling Dimitri's family what really happened to him. Finally Rose gathers the courage to tell them and they begin a funeral. (Yeah I know he isn't dead.) Abe is also there to give Rose a final warning to leave Siberia. Abe eventually gets Rose word that she'll leave, though she Rose never says she'd leave Siberia, she just said she'd leave Baia. Along with other rogue Dhampir's, Rose sets off to a bigger city to hunt Strigoi in hoping to get to Dimitri.

After hunting a few Strigoi and releasing one, Dimitri eventually shows up. This is why she came to Siberia...to kill Dimitri, but she messes up and he knocks her out cold. She wakes up in a room and is now Dimitri's pet. I'll leave out all the goodies of that part. Don't want to spoil their interaction.

On a mad break for escape, Rose once again comes face to face with a chance at killing Dimitri. And this time she takes it. "I looked him in the eyes. "I will always love you." Then I plunged the stake into his chest. It wasn't as precise a blow as I would have liked, not with the skilled way he was dodging. I struggled to get the stake in deep enough to his heart, unsure if I could do it from this angle. Then, his struggles stopped. His eyes stared at me, stunned, and his lips parted, almost into a smile, albeit a grisly and pained one. "That's what I was supposed to say..." he gasped out. Those were his last words. His failed attempt to dodge the stake had made him lose his balance on the edge. The stake's magic made the rest easy, stunning him and his reflexes. Dimitri fell."

After killing Dimitri, Rose drags her body to the road and manages to get someone to pull over. She manages to get their cell phone and calls Sydney. Abe helps her once again by calling in two other people she met in Siberia that are like her and Lisa. She is getting healed when she decided to peak inside Lisa's mind to see how she is doing, only to find her in a struggling position. Rose immediately freaks out. Doing all that she can to get Lisa out of that situation, she gets help from her new friends to save Lisa, even all the way in Siberia. A few days later, Rose is back home. Sitting in the guardian's office being told she may come back to school.

Back only to remember to give Adrian a chance in a real relationship and the fact she abandon Lisa to go after Dimitri.

At the end, Rose gets two messages one from Abe telling her information she found out from somebody and from....dum dum dum....Dimitri. Along with the stake she staked him with, saying he was coming for her this time.

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I loved this book. I loved every minute Rose was with Dimitri. Even if he was a Strigoi! I loved them constantly fighting, the end fight was amazing. Though I couldn't believe she would actually stake him, I so would have went Strigoi for Dimitri!!! The only part I didn't enjoy was about Lisa, not that I hate her, just I love Rose's character way more than Lisa's.

Next post will be Spirit Bound!!