* Anxiously Awaiting - Late June 2009

The books I am anxiously awaiting release are:

06/23/09 Finger Lickin' Fifteen (Stephanie Plum), Janet Evanovich
07/07/09 Branded by Fire (Psy-Changelings), Nalini Singh
07/07/09 Strange Brew (Anthology) Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris
07/07/09 Where There's a Witch (Bewitching Mysteries, No 5) by Madelyn Alt
07/07/09 Dragons Prefer Blondes (Caruthers Sisters Bk 2) by Candace Havens
07/21/09 Mercy Thompson Homecoming (Comic) Patricia Briggs, Francis Tsai
07/28/09 Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress, Bk 4) Jeaniene Frost
08/04/09 Bad Moon Rising (Dark Hunter Series) Sherrilyn Kenyon
08/04/09 Beloved Vampire (Vampire Queen Series) Joey W. Hill
08/15/09 By Blood We Live (Anth) Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Kelley Armstrong, Carrie Vaughn, etc
08/25/09 Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega, Book 2) by Patricia Briggs
08/25/09 Unbound (Anthology) Kim Harrison, Vicki Pettersson, Jeaniene Frost
09/01/09 Must Love Hellhounds (Anth.) Ilona Andrews, Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh
09/01/09 Doom With a View (Psychic Eye Mystery) Victoria Laurie
09/15/09 The Lost Symbol (DaVinci Code series) by Dan Brown
09/29/09 On the Edge (The Edge book 1) by Ilona Andrews
10/06/09 A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse) by Charlaine Harris
10/20/09 Divine Misdemeanors (Meredith Gentry #8) Laurell K. Hamilton
10/27/09 Bound to Shadows (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 8) Keri Arthur
10/27/09 Frostbitten (Elena & Clay) (Women/Otherworld) Kelley Armstrong
10/27/09 A Deep Kiss of Winter (Anthology) Kresley Cole, Gena Showalter
11/03/09 Blaze of Memory (Psy-Changelings, Dev's book), Nalini Singh
11/03/09 Apocalypse Happens (Phoenix Chronicles, Bk 3) Lori Handeland
11/03/09 Never After (Anth.) Laurel K. Hamilton, Yasmine Galenorn, Marjorie M. Liu, etc.
11/03/09 Skin Game by Ava Gray
11/24/09 Vampire Sunrise (Delilah Street: Paranormal Investigator) Carole Nelson Douglas
12/01/09 Angelic (Women/Otherworld) Kelley Armstrong
01/01/10 Kitty’s House of Horrors (Kitty Norville Bk 7) by Carrie Vaughn
01/26/10 Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals after Dark) Kresley Cole
01/26/10 First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, Bk 1) Jeaniene Frost
02/??/10 Silver Borne, (Mercy Thompson, Book 5) Patricia Briggs
02/23/10 Black Magic Sanction (The Hollows Rachel Morgan, Book 8) by Kim Harrison
03/??/10 The Spellmans Strike Again (Spellman Files, Book 4) Lisa Lutz
03/09/10 Werewolf Smackdown (Felix Gomez 5) Mario Acevedo
03/16/10 Voices of Dragons (new YA series) by Carrie Vaughn
Spring/10 Chaos Bites, (Phoenix Chronicles, Bk 4) Lori Handeland
April/10 Changes (Dresden Files 12) Jim Butcher
05/??/10 Magic Bleeds, (Kate Daniels Book 4) by Ilona Andrews
08/??/10 Alpha and Omega series, Book 3 Patricia Briggs
Summer/10 Skin Starved (Wicked Lovely Book 4) Melissa Marr
??/??/?? Not That Innocent (Anthlgy) Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kresley Cole...
??/??/?? Archangel's Kiss (Guild Hunter, Bk 2) Nalini Singh
??/?/?/?? Captured by Vengeance (Riley Jensen Bk9) Keri Arthur


Not all of the series I keep up with have another book listed as coming out. The authors have stated there will be more, but to my knowledge they haven't said when, or given a title name. I've listed those series below.

* Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman
* Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris
* Queen Betsy series by MaryJanice Davidson
* Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton
* Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich

Below are series I follow, but it is unclear whether there will be more books in the series:

* Bronwyn the Witch series by Candace Havens
* Nightcreature / Moon series by Lori Handeland
* Nadia Stafford series by Kelley Armstrong

You can read an excerpt of many of these books, to see my list of excerpts please go here.

If someone wants to send me an ARC of one of the books on my Anxiously Awaiting list, I will read it within a day or two of it arriving (assuming I'm home and I'm not sick or anything), and will get a blog post up of it as soon as I've finished reading it. You may send me a digital version at chained lightning at g mail dot com, or to send a hard copy you may contact me at that email address to ask for a shipping address. If you have an ARC you would like to send that is not on my Anxiously Awaiting list I will attempt to read and review it in a timely manner but it probably won't be placed topmost in my TBR pile.

Blood Trail (Blood Series Book 2) by Tanya Huff

Blood Trail, the second book in the Blood series, did not have a TV show made directly from it. There was a were-animal TV show that had a few similar elements, but the tone and plot was nothing like the book. So, I did not know "who done it" as I read the book, which probably made it a little more interesting. Although, I kind of guessed who was doing it pretty early on.

The relationships in the books are different than they were in the Blood Ties TV show, which adds a nice change. I like the way the relationships in the books are working out much better than I did the way the love triangle was handled in the show.

I noted in my review of Blood Price that since this series was written in the early nineties, that investigations are handled differently with the technology available today. There is legwork in the books that would only involve an online search in today's world. Blood Trail, more than the other, would have been written different had it been written today, because this crime could have been solved very quickly by an internet search.

Here's the blurb:

When a pack of werewolves is discovered on a London, Ontario, farm, Henry Fitzroy, a Toronto-based vampire and writer of romance novels, calls upon private investigator Vicki Nelson to help him trace the trail of destruction to the killers.

As with the first book, Blood Price, I'm also going to rate Blood Trail an 8 of 10, and for now I'll put the series at an 8 of 10. As with Blood Price, there were some very disconcerting typos. Could they not fix those in between re-publishing them?

Book Rating: 8 of 10
Series Rating: 8 of 10




The Blood Series
1. Blood Price
2. Blood Trail
3. Blood Lines
4. Blood Pact
5. Blood Debt
6. Blood Bank




Lifetime still has the episodes up, if you want to watch the TV series, go here. Or, you can follow the links above to buy the DVD's. It is kind of a pain to watch online with the commercials, and having to click between the online "chapters", but it's free.

Blood Price (Blood Series Book 1) by Tanya Huff

I've been meaning to read the Blood Series by Tanya Huff for years, every since I stumbled across the Blood Ties series on Lifetime Television and enjoyed it so much.

I recently found the omnibus books of this series, with two books per book, and decided it was a good chance to finally read the series.

I enjoyed the first book, Blood Price. The main plot was pretty close to the show's pilot episodes, with enough differences to keep it interesting. Blood Price was written (I believe) in the early 90's, which means Vicki has to do legwork where today she could just turn on the computer and log onto the internet. It means she has to buy a map. It means she doesn't use a cellphone, and that there are actually pay phones around when she needs one. But other than that, the time difference didn't really matter.

I enjoyed reading more of how Vicki felt, and more of how Henry remembers things from his past. They covered it pretty well in the show, but you always get more of it in the book.

Here's the blurb:

It began with blood and death. And Vicki Nelson, PI was at the scene. The victim had been brutally, inhumanly opened up. Messy work. She'd had to cover the corpse with her coat. It had sort of made her feel involved. Now Vicki is caught up in the deadly pursuit of a mass murderer with an inhuman appetite for mayhem and destruction. And her advisor on the case is doing nothing to dampen her growing sense of foreboding. But then, with a being of unspeakable evil stalking the city, only Vicki Nelson would ally herself to Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate child of Henry VIII and a five-hundred-year-old vampire.

I am amazed that Lifetime still has the episodes up, if you want to watch the TV series, go here. Or, you can follow the links below to buy the DVD's. It is kind of a pain to watch online with the commercials, and having to click between the online "chapters", but it's free. Still, I may consider buying the DVD's, as it would be nice to just lay back, chill out, and watch. I really did enjoy this series.

But, back to the books. What do I rate Blood Price? I think probably an 8 of 10. There were some typos that were pretty blatant, and that pulled me out of the fantasy. Not misspelled words so much as sentences where the author started to say something one way and then said it another but didn't go back and change the beginning of the sentence to fit the end of the sentence. Would it have been a 9 of 10 without the typos? I don't know, maybe, but maybe not. Would it have been a 9 if I hadn't seen the show already? That's actually a bigger possibility. I'm not sure, but I think maybe.

Book Rating: 8 of 10







The Blood Series
1. Blood Price
2. Blood Trail
3. Blood Lines
4. Blood Pact
5. Blood Debt
6. Blood Bank