100 Book Challenge - Book 21 - Out of Time

Book 21/ 100

Book: Out of Time

Author: Monique Martin

ASIN: B0036Z9W00

Pages: 294

When Professor of Occult Studies, Simon Cross, finds an old watch amongst his late grandfather’s belongings, it throws him and his assistant, Elizabeth West, into an adventure that would not only change their views on the occult but their views on each other as well.

The watch is a time travelling device and it throws the two of them back it Manhattan in the 1920s, they have to find a way to blend in and survive until they can find a way back to their own time. Posing as a married couple they find jobs in a speakeasy part owned by a mysterious gangster. Jobs that lead them both closer to the answers they seek and closer to each other.

Rating… 4 out of 5 watches. While parts of the story moved a bit slowly, the overall story was entertaining, and you can’t help but grow attached to Simon and Elizabeth as their adventure unfolds. I’d recommend the book to anyone with a like of supernatural sci-fi.

100 Book Challenge - Book 20 - Moon Child + Bonus

Book 20/ 100

 

Book: Moon Child (Vampire for Hire #4) ASIN: B005CQ80R2 - ISBN: 978-1105798894

Book: Christmas Moon (Vampire for Hire Novella) - ASIN: B006HHDYPS

Book: Vampire Dreams (Vampire for Hire Short Story) - ASIN: B009D5IZAK

Author: J.R. Rain

Read as part of Samantha Moon by J.R. Rain (ISBN: 978-193785617-5)

** Moon Child **

Picking up exactly where the last book left off, we find Samantha Moon rushing to save her dying son the only way she can… By turning him into a vampire. And hoping the legend about a cure is real.

Now, legend has it that a special medallion has the power to reverse vampirism, a special medallion that had been around the neck of the vampire who had turned Sam, a medallion that had been sent to Sam by a vampire hunter who had killed that vampire. But how does one use the medallion?

With the help of Fang, Kingsley, Detective Hanner, a creepy mystic and an ancient book that was published today, Sam begins a quest to find the answer. But along the way she’ll encounter heartache and pain. But the medallion she holds is a highly sought after artifact, and there’s one who’ll stop at nothing to get it.

Rating… 5 out of 5 fangs. I think we’ve established by now that I love this series and highly recommend it. So I won’t go saying it again. *grin*HanHH

** Christmas Moon **

It’s Christmas time, and Samantha Moon has a client. A man has had a safe stolen. A safe that was passed down to him from his father, and grandfather before him, a safe that hadn’t been opened in all that time.

At the same time Sam has to contend with the amorous advances of her Guardian Angel (or Watcher as he calls himself). In usual Sam Moon style, she gets right to the bottom of things, and even busts up a small drug ring in the process.

Rating… 5 out of 5 fangs. A great wee novella and a little bit of fun to read.

** Vampire Dreams **

A dream, something Sam Moon just doesn’t do these days, leads her to a young waitress who is about to have a very bad evening…

Rating… 5 out of 5 fangs… An interesting little tale of Sam and her heroic streak.

Time Out: DC Comics Ame-Comi Girls

Okay, so I collect comics, and today I got some new ones and thought it was a good time to review a mini-series that I've been enjoying, given the mini has ended and the ongoing series starts soon...

The series is from DC Comics, and it's called Ame-Comi Girls. It began life as a solely digital series, but DC, following their plan, are bringing it to print.

The Ame-Comi universe is one of, if you'll pardon the term, girl power. In this universe only the females have any super powers, and so we have a few twists that you might not expect.

So, lets look at the major players in this 5 issue series... And I'll be taking quotes from Comic Vine...

Wonder Woman

The story of Wonder Woman begins with the US Government discussing Themyscira (home of The Amazons) and the possibility of first contact. Moving to the island itself we find Diana in combat training, against her mother's wishes. Soon the island is invaded by the armed forces of man, prompting The Amazons to fight back. The fight is won with the hero of the battle being Diana herself, despite being forbidden to join the fight. As a result of the fight the Queen decides it's time to form a pact with the world of man, by sending Diana (in a skimpy outfit no less) as an emissary. While addressing the United Nations Diana is attacked by Cheetah, with the help of her lasso of truth Wonder Woman wins but in doing so draws the attention of the villainous trio of Duela Dent, Catwoman and Poison Ivy!

Batgirl

This story opens on Barbara Gordon and Carrie Kelley prepare for a night out, at least that's what they tell Jim Gordon, in reality they're hunting the bad guys, like Poison Ivy! During the fight Catwoman and Harley Quinn arrive, and the tables turn. Batgirl is taken prisoner and hauled off to Duela Dent's lair, while Robin seeks out help from Steel.

In Duela's lair, Batgirl breaks out of her cell and begins investigating, she comes across a room with monitors showing several other super powered people, namely, Wonder Woman, Power Girl, Supergirl and Dark Supergirl.

Duela Dent

We open on a flashback to Duela's past, the accident that scarred her face (think Joker from the movie The Dark Knight) and how her father (The Joker of that universe, non-powered of course) was killed by Jim Gordon. So Duela set out to make Gotham pay (in a gorgeous outfit I might add) but is thwarted by Batgirl.

Cut to now and we find Duela's team facing Batgirl in Duela's lair. The fight that ensues sees Batgirl losing, and then Catwoman disagreeing with Duela, with her fists. Meanwhile Robin and Steel are on the trail of the villains following a homing beacon planted on Harley Quinn, with the help of The Flash.

We soon learn that Duela is working for another... Brainiac! As Brainiac tells them bad girls what's going on we learn that she created Earth and has come back to harvest the fruits of her labors... An act that convinces Catwoman she's on the wrong side, so she helps Batgirl to escape...

Power Girl

We open on Power Girl rescuing Jimmy Olsen from pirates before cutting to Kara giving a presentation at her corp. A presentation that's interrupted by the Silver Banshies, who proceed to attack Kara. As the battle ensues we find that the Banshies are working for another, one who has a grudge against the alien Kara/Power Girl. But with her strength Power Girl soon wins out and sends the villain and his robot to The Phantom Zone.

As she's helping with the clean-up Power Girl sees an object falling to Earth, to the Kent Farm no less! Following it Power Girl finds a pod containing none other than Kara Zor El, Supergirl! As the two Kryptonians are becoming reacquainted they're interrupted by Manhunters, a Mecha-Police empowered by The Guardians. The Manhunters are there to arrest the Kryptonians as their vessels violated several intergalactic travel laws.

A battle ensues where the Manhunters and the Kryptonians are evenly matched. The fight is interrupted by a bigger evil arriving... Brainiac!

Supergirl

We open on a flashback to Power Girl's and Supergirl's fathers arguing with the ruling body on Krypton before returning to the present and the battle between The Kryptonians and the Manhunters is called off and the charges against the Kryptonians dropped as the old adage is put into force, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The team begins to fight and are soon joined by the other super heroes, Robin, Steel, Catwoman and Flash. As the Manhunters and the heroes take on Brainiac's forces as Supergirl sends Power Girl after the control core at the center of the Earth and Supergirl herself goes after Brainiac!

But Brainiac is prepared for that, with Black Kryptonite gloves that turn Supergirl to evil! Now fighting for Brainiac, Dark Supergirl quickly dispatches the heroes only to be interrupted by Wonder Woman!

My Opinion

As I said, this series is all about Girl Power, and I love that idea. Not to mention that the outfits are GORGEOUS! I really can't wait for the on-going series to start.

100 Book Challenge - Book 19 - American Vampire

Book 19/ 100
Book: American Vampire (Vampire for Hire #3)
Author: J.R. Rain
ASIN: B004UHLW1K
ISBN: 978-1105089237
Pages: 306

Read as part of Samantha Moon by J.R. Rain (ISBN: 978-193785617-5)

Vampires, PIs, sick kids and kidnapped children, oh no!

Continuing on from the previous story in the series, we find Sam meeting her online confidant, Fang, and finding he’s a notorious convicted criminal, convicted of drinking a girl’s blood! But Fang is human, a vampire wannabe. A human who wants to become a vampire for real.

As Sam struggles to deal with that request, she finds her son becoming deathly sick, and the doctors have a hard time treating him. Sam’s developing psi abilities allow her to see the auras that surround people, and around her son she sees nothing but death.

While trying to determine if she should turn her son into a vampire to save him, Sam receives a phonecall from a frightened young girl, a young girl who tells Sam that her mom was killed by a bad man who is keeping her prisoner and hurting her.

Calling in some extra manpower, Sam works with the police, and three other PIs (all characters of the author), Jim Knighthorse, Aaron King (aka Elvis Presley) and Spinoza, to find the young girl.

Rating… 5 out of 5 fangs. I love this series, and the fact that it can crossover with the author’s other series, well, that’s just icing. It has the elements of supernatural, vampires, werewolves etc, but it’s obviously grounded in reality with the case of the little girl’s kidnapping and the sick son. Definitely worth giving the series a read if you can.

100 Book Challenge - Book 18 - Vampire Moon

Book 18/ 100
Book: Vampire Moon (Vampire for Hire #2)
Author: J.R. Rain
ASIN: B0046A9PC4
ISBN: 978-1257381067
Pages: 314

Read as part of Samantha Moon by J.R. Rain (ISBN: 978-193785617-5)

Vampires, werewolves, crime bosses and cheating sleazebag husbands, oh dear!

Samantha Moon (call her Sam) is a Private Investigator, a mom and a currently separated wife. She’s also a vampire. And she’s still coming to terms with all that means.

So we join Sam as she picks up the pieces after being kicked out of her home by her husband, who is disgusted with what she is. At the same time she is faced with two new cases to investigate.

A grieving widower whose wife died in a plane crash along with 11 other federal witnesses for a crime boss’s trial, a crash he believes was engineered by the crime boss himself. And it’s up to Sam to arrange the fitting justice for the criminal.

And then there’s the abused divorcee whose ex-husband has already tried to kill her twice, and succeeded in killing her father and crippling her mother. A woman who’s like a shell of a person, and in desperate need of comfort and friendship. And it's up to Sam to protect her from her ex and the hired assassins he's sending.

Along the way we find Sam beginning to accept who she is and even learn more about her condition, and find out more about her husband. We also learn more about her Instant Message confidant Fang and her werewolf squeeze Kingsley Fulcrum.

Rating… 5 out of 5 fangs. Much as with Moon Dance, this was an awesome read, and what’s more, it’s a book I wholeheartedly recommend. Now, I read this in the omnibus edition called “Samantha Moon” but seriously, if you like PI tales and vampires, get this book in any way you can. :)

100 Book Challenge - Book 17 - Ruby Red

Book 17/ 100
Book: Ruby Red
Author: Kerstin Gier
ISBN: 978-0-312-55151-3
Pages: 324

All her life Gwen has been raised with the knowledge that her cousin Charlotte was destined to be a time traveller, one born with the gene that allows them to move through time. Charlotte had been raised and trained for it since birth. So when Gwen suddenly finds herself back in time she’s forced to wonder who got their sums wrong and who had lied to her.

Gwen is completely unprepared for time travel, she’s had none of the training, knows none of the rules. She’s also unprepared to meet Gideon de Villiers, an obnoxious, know it all, who’s her time travelling companion, and quite possibly the love of her life.

Add in a secret society whose members include people like Sir Isaac Newton, a couple of rogue time travellers who don’t want the secret society to complete its mission, and a ghost who haunts Gwen’s school, and it all means Gwen has a lot on her plate.

Rating… Oh, 5 out of 5 stars, this was a great story, I admit it did take a little getting into, but once there you just gotta know what comes next. There’s a scene where Gwen takes an uncontrolled trip back in time and sees a girl who looks a lot like her! And be warned, there’s a twist at the end :)

100 Book Challenge - Book 16 - Doctor Who: Night of the Humans

Book 16/ 100
Book: Doctor Who: Night of the Humans
Author: David Llewellyn
ISBN: 978-1-846-07969-6
Pages: 247

For those who don’t know (Although I can’t imagine there are that many of ya) Doctor Who is a long running British science fiction TV series about an alien, The Doctor, who has a time machine, the TARDIS, that’s disguised as a 1960s style Police telephone box. The Doctor generally travels with companions, who are usually, but not always, human. And this year, 2013, is Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, so I couldn’t do this 100 Book Challenge without at least one Doctor Who book in it.

This book features The Doctor and Amy Pond as portrayed on TV by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.

Following a distress call from around 250,000 years in our future the TARDIS lands on a world made completely out of flattened space junk, called the Gyre, they soon encounter the hostile Sittuun, who take The Doctor and Amy prisoner, however as they’re being taken back to the Sittuun’s crashed spaceship, they’re attacked by a band of savages who kidnap The Doctor.

Amy soon learns that the savages are humans, humans who are descended from the survivors of a crashed human spaceship from ages ago, humans who have lost their knowledge of their past, who believe the Gyre is in fact Earth and their great god Gobo will soon come and take them to the sacred place called El Paso.

But of more immediate concern is the comet that’s scheduled to strike the Gyre and destroy it, sending debris out into space, to collide with the planets out there, including the Sittuun homeworld. Can Amy, with the help of the Sittuun, rescue The Doctor and save both the Sittuun and the humans? Well, with the help of the space swashbuckler Dirk Slipstream, maybe. But the question is, who can she trust?

Rating… Oh, 5 out of 5 TARDISes easily, although I did think that Amy’s characterization was slightly off from the TV portrayal, The Doctor though was spot on. The author managed to portray the sadness and the disbelief at the way things happen, as well as weave a nice little mystery into the book. I’d definitely recommend it to any Doctor Who fan out there.

100 Book Challenge - Book 15 - Moon Dance

Book 15/ 100
Book: Moon Dance (Vampire for Hire #1)
Author: J.R. Rain
ASIN: B002Q0Y27Y
Pages: 256 (Kindle Locations: 4702)

Vampires, Werewolves and Lawyers, oh my!

Samantha Moon is a crack private detective. She also happens to be a vampire and a mother and a wife. As Samantha struggles to keep her marriage afloat and cope with her husband’s growing revulsion at what she has become, she is handed a mysterious case that could end up helping her just as much.

Kingsley Fulcrum, a rather defence attorney, was shot, five times. In the head. And survived. Now he wants Samantha to find the person who did it. As Samantha throws herself into the case she’s hounded by thoughts of her husband and his possible infidelity, her guilt for taking advantage of an accident that killed a gang banger (not her doing) and a vampire hunter who wants to kill all the vampires.

She also finds herself attracted to her client, who, amongst other things, may very well be a werewolf. With the help of her government contacts and a local police detective she begins to piece together the attack on Kingsley and another semi-related death that could lead her to the truth.

Rating… 5 out of 5. This was a great read, I loved this book from early on. J.R. Rain certainly knows how to weave a mystery together, I seriously didn’t see the bad guy coming, although once you know who it is you do a good old facepalm because it’s so obvious. I’d definitely recommend the book, and more than that, I’ve ordered the omnibus edition with the first four books in the series! :)

100 Book Challenge - Book 14 - Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Book 14/ 100

Book: Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Author: Anonymous (formerly Belle de Jour)

ISBN: 978-0-446-54082-7

Pages: 291

I admit, I wanted to read this book because I love the British TV series starring Billie Piper. And although the book lives up to its steamy reputation, it was somewhat hard to get through.

This book is basically the diary of Belle de Jour, a university graduate who gets into the sex work trade after participating in a threesome where she was paid afterwards, the thrill of it is the key. Wherein we learn how she got into the job, her tips and tricks for great sex, the problems you can encounter, and of course how to fit a love life into the job.

As in a diary, the story is split into months, starting in November and going through to June, we find out about her past loves and partners, the crazy, weird, and downright dirty things her clients want to do.

Okay, rating… 2.5 out of 5, would I recommend it? I dunno, it’s an interesting view on the life of a call girl, and manages to provide some handy dandy tips for your sex life. The book also provides an A to Z of London Sex Work which lends to an interesting read on it’s own.