In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi, the Story Siren, You can learn how to join here This is a chance to show the books that have come to you via the post, your email or from the library.  It's a way to highlight books even if you never get to review them.

This week was a good week for books for me, I got several books in various ways. Via the post from paperbackswap.com I completed my collection of the Vampire Diaries Series by LJ Smith. This was the last book I was missing from the original set.

I also got another book from my TBR Pile, I once owned all these books but when I realised I wasn't reading them I sold them and got books I did read. Le Sigh, the things a bibliophile will do.  Since I wished to read the book but not pay too much for it I book swapped a book I read but didn't like for this one.

Dark Guardian is part of the Christine Feehan series that I'm attempting to finish. From the library I also got another of the Dark series books. called Dark Symphony. Which although not apart of my personal collection, does help me knock another book off the TBR Pile

 Also from the library, I picked up a few to help me meet the goal listed on the In Death Reading Challenge.   I got the following:

Creation in death is the book where I stopped reading this series for a while, so I am picking up with Strangers in death so I can catch up with Eve & the gang.  The next adventure in the series is called Salvation which I also picked up:

I made sure to snag the next one as well that way there is no break up in the adventures of Eve and Roarke, it's called Promises. Yes I know I skipped the anthology stories but that's okay Ill get those later.

Then just for fun because I loved the book before this which is called On Strike for Christmas (which was made into a lifetime movie, which is how I learnt about her) I picked up Small Change by Sheila Roberts, as she is a new author to me this should be fun.

I purchased the book: First Grave on the Right on monday, I have been eyeballing it each time I walked into the grocers so I decided to get it. I will admit I picked it up because I loved her shoes. Yeah i got hooked by the cover.

 I'll do a review soon.

The Pile just keeps growing and growing and I haven't even set foot in a bookstore yet!!! I did peep some new books by Mary Janice Davidson that I can't wait to get my hands on, but first I must finish these and the others in the corner, oh and the ones I promised to read and review and ohh crap it looks like a big pile of reading has got to be done. Such a hard job, but someone has to do it.

What did you get in your mailbox this week?  Any books you have been dying for? Share in the comments please.
Happy Reading

Disconnected...

I miss my trees!!!

I feel lost, like huge pieces of me are missing & I have no idea where to even start looking to find them.  I can't explain what it is to be so disconnected, not just from the blog but from my life. I haven't been in the woods in months, I haven't been able to mediate outside because of the cold plus in the 'heart' of the city there are few places to go. I have been pulling lots of double shifts lately leaving my home before sunup and getting back after sundown, it's so not healthy.

I feel like I'm hiding from my life. Gods know when was the last time I just took a breathe.  When I lived at home the woods were right there I could just walk in and feel better, I know it's because I had roots there, I would walk in and sink deeply into the earth there and feel so energized, there are almost no real green spaces here to do so.

Le Sigh, I need some serious time with the earth. Yes.this winter has been mild, but the freezing cold weather has made it impossible to even be outside for a few minutes. I'm thinking I really need to make some serious connections to the earth around here. When I moved from my parents I let go of the connections I had there, released any of the dryads I had been working with and have yet to find some here. I think that's why I feel like I'm withering inside, I have no connections here to keep me grounded, at home I had made connections with the earth with the trees, with each of the plants that grew on my family's land.

I'm a witch for a reason, i need the earth the energy of creating something & I haven't been able to craft in a while. Not with words, and certainly not even with my yarns.  I went home recently and it felt nice, the land felt welcoming, but it wsn't the same anymore, my magic is no longer tied to this land. There have been a few changes in my home and the engery is different as well, not in a bad way, just different from when I was there. Even though I'm no longer there practicing in my bedroom it's still a good amount of stored energy there and my Mom likes the feel of the room so much she repainted and re-purposed the room as a guest/ craft room for herself. My dad says she spends a lot of time in there now.  Maybe that's it? Maybe because I now know I can't really return home & slide right back where I was before?

I don't know but I'm thinking it's time to stop hiding and find out. How are y'all doing? Feeling stagnant through this winter at all? Or are you powering through? If you are getting by can you share some secrets? Please?

Book Review: Dark Hunger

Book Title: Dark Hunger: Hot Blooded

Author: Christine Feehan

Publisher: Jove

Pages: 107

Cost; $ 7.99

How I Got it: purchased 

Description:In a dark jungle a beautiful activist liberates animals from a secret laboratory-and stumbles across an unexpected prisoner. She releases the Carpathian from his bonds-only to unleash his voracious appetite on herself....

My take on the book:
This is one of the stories that expands the world of the Carpathians. I actually really enjoyed this book more than any of the others. This female character comes packed and fully loaded as an equal to the Carpathian male, she's just as strong, just as brave and just as willing to protect those who need to be protected. Juliette is amazing,

She protected the women of her clan & her family, when she met her mate she was willing to meet him half way, but wasn't willing to just walk away from her family. Juliette's story brings two other women into the world who have a special talent and actually setup stories for other men to become mates to them.

I personally loved that she wasn't a 'brand-new' woman & that she wasn't without her own power.
I truly enjoyed this one & the one I will be reviewing next. These showed women who weren't completely out of their depths & weren't afraid of embracing the new men in their lives. They knew themselves and what they wanted & were willing to explore this. The Carpathian that she mates with is one of the better ones, he didn't just high jack her life, he actually cared about her desires.  Which is a great leap from the other cavemen from before, even though many of them changed once they really got to know their mates.

I enjoyed this one due to it's sensual & masterful love scenes.
Enjoy this one, Be Blessed

Book Review: Dark Secret

Book Title: Dark Secret

Author: Christine Feehan

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 383

Cost; $ 7.99

How I Got it: from personal library

Description:
Rafael De La Cruz has spent centuries hunting vampires with his brothers, and with each passing year his capacity to feel emotions has grown weaker and weaker until finally there's barely been a memory left-until only sheer willpower keeps him from turning into the very abomination he hunts. But it'll take more than will to keep him away from the woman who is meant to be his and his alone…

For five years, rancher Colby Jansen has been the sole protector of her younger half-siblings, and with fierce determination and work she has kept her family together and the ranch operational. Now, the De La Cruz brothers are threatening that stability. They claim that her siblings belong with their father's family, not with her. Colby vows to fight them-especially the cold and arrogant Rafael De La Cruz. But Rafael is after more than her family-he wants Colby and will not let anything stand between them. After ages of loneliness, the raw desire to possess her overwhelms his very soul, driving him to claim her as his lifemate…. (from Christine's site)

My take on the book:
I'm beginning to sense a theme in these books...centuries old Carpathian men who think they can get away with anything; young women yanked into a world they weren't aware of, & vampires hell bent on running amok. Throw in some smoking hot sex scenes, lots of magic, some adventure = pretty good story.

Colby?? Vacilitates between knowing her own mind & being childish, Rafeal?? Is just a Carpathian male. Together? they manage to bring out the best & the worst in each other. Rafael is doing his best when he discovers his mate is bossy know it all human who doesn't listen or do anything he tells her; Colby is an independent, stubborn young woman struggling to keep her head above water; she is however trying to do her best for her siblings & that means she's not exactly looking for someone to settle down with. She is about the business of doing what needs to be done.

Unlike so many of the other stories I both liked & disliked this story, there were moments where I wished to shake Rafael for the things he would do, he didn't really listen to her & was really only thinking of how the lifemate thing worked out for him, not so much about how it affected his lifemate.  I love the fact that they have to work to build their relationship, & that Rafael learns that eternity just may mean sleeping in the dog house for centuries, because Dragonseeker's can hold grudges for that long.  The realism within the story makes it even more amazing, seeing that Colby isn't just a random needs to be rescued young woman but a woman in charge made me like her. Although sometimes she did things that made me want to shake her as well.

I particularly like the villains in this story, before they were just there not really enhancing the story but just as a way to highlight the superiority of the Carpathian males who had found lifemates, now we are beginning to see some of what they were before they became vampires, I mean they are supposed to be once great Carpathians why all of a sudden they can't do anything except become cannon fodder??.

This book took you on a bit of a role coaster ride, but a good one, one you look back fondly on and may repeat in the future.This is a really good repeat read, & I find myself fast becoming obsessed with the Carpathian world. I really want to read Nicolas's story as well as Vikirnoff. I totally love that as the story goes on Mrs. Feehan enhances it by adding on more elements, more history, more families, while still mentioning the other stories, & the other great Carpathian hunters & their mates.

Overall 5/5 for the story
5/5 for the love scenes

Enjoy & Happy Reading my loves

In My Mailbox (3)

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. It's a chance to share your latest finds whether they came through the post or made it's way to you via the interwebs.

This week I didn't really have that many things make their way here, I did get the second book {in the original cover} of the hard to come by series by L.J Smith (I'm attempting to complete each author first then do random ones I have wanted for years).

This is called the Chase it's from the series she made called the Forbidden Game. It's a pretty compelling story & one I have remembered even now many decades later (oh Goddess I'm ageing myself with this LOL).

I also got for free on my Kindle for the PC the following books:

• Bring on the Blessings~ Beverly Jenkings 
• Horns of Power~ David Rankins
• Into the Free~ Julie Cantrell

I was also asked by a author to review their book which I will be doing but I won't do a reveal until a few weeks from now. My list just keeps growing. I'm going to have to get way better at reading so far I have read maybe seven books in two months, which for me isn't really normal so I'm going to have to get on it!!!

What books have you gotten recently? How are your challenges coming along?
Happy Reading & Be Blessed

Febuary Lovers: Mr & Mrs. Loving

Welcome to episode 1 of the February Lovers of 2012.

Have you ever seen a couple she beautiful, him handsome walking down the street, nothing about them is truly particularity different other than they are a interracial couple, maybe one is Caucasian & the other Black, maybe they are Asian & Black; whatever they ethnicity it's the love that shines through. You yourself (like me) maybe involved with a interracial relationship, I am a product of an interracial relationship, I like many of you have the right to these relationships due to those who came before us and fought for those rights.

Let’s be real the mixing of races here in America has not always been for love, or by choice. Many times it was the way to survive to make sure you progeny got a better life than you did, sometimes it was due to rape.

There are instances however that show us that it does happen for love, that there are people who would willingly stand up and fight for their heart’s true desire, and such is the case of Mr and Mrs, Loving. the couple from Virginia fled to Washington DC to get married due to the law on the books in Virginia which prevented the intermarrying of Caucasian and Blacks, this law called the “Racial Integrity Act” made it a criminal offence to knowingly have sex with another race, & a federal offence to marry another race. 

Arrested, tried and found guilty in Virgina they were sentenced to 1 year in jail or a suspended sentence if they left the state for 25 years; they took the suspended sentence and fled to DC, there they met with lawyers from the ACLU and on November 6, 1965, filed a lawsuit against the state of Virginia for violation of the 14th Amendment. As noted by the fact that you and I can date, have sex with and marry whomever we wish (I’m not discussing the LGBT community at the moment) you can tell they won.

On January 22, 1965  the case went before the Virginia Supreme Court, the judges upheld the Virginia Law.  The people who actually helped the ACLU team were the churches, the Presbyterian Church, then UU Association, & the Roman Catholic Church stepped into say

"laws which prohibit, inhibit or hamper marriage or cohabitation between persons because of different races, religions, or national origins should be nullified or repealed."^{[ (wikipedia/loving v Virginia)}

Prior to the Loving case, there were a few others that challenged the law including Pace v Alabama, Perez v Sharp, each laid the groundwork which allowed the Loving case to proceed to the Supreme Court; on June 12, 1967 the court ruled in favour of the Lovings with this statement: 

“Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State”

Despite the ruling, many of these laws remained on the books although un~ enforceable until Alabama repealed the law in 2000.

Yes you read that right, until 2000.  Now I didn’t mean to give you a history lesson, but every time I look at my partner, every time I look at my siblings & my Grandmere (or her pictures, since she has passed) I see the descendants of interracial love, and I am grateful everyday for these people.

Now to make this story even more personal, my favourite place to be during high school was the library, I volunteered there during my free periods and during my senior year when I only had homeroom & 1 other class, I was there all the time. My school librarian, one of the coolest women I knew and was very into discussing Black history with me, her name was Ms. Loving, as in the granddaughter of Mr & Mrs. Loving. When I saw the movie and went to school that Monday, she laughed when I walked in and said yes she had seen the show, she gave a talk during Black History Month and brought along family pictures, and shared those with us.
Talk about touching history, this is the story of a love that took on a state and went to bat for all those who couldn’t, This was a love that lasted until Mr Richard Loving preceded his wife into death in June 1975, and she later passed on May 2, 2008

Officially Loving Day is the day the courts overturned the rule, June 12th, but every Valentine’s Day, when my partners & I are enjoying this day for Lovers I always stop to light a candle for the ones who helped to make this love possible.

Even if your aren’t in an interracial romance, can you please light a candle today for all the lovers past and present who are in need of passion, comfort, Love and romance.

**If your in NYC they have a display of pictures from the Loving family, intimate portraits, why not take a look and see. Link is above with their names.**

Be Blessed, be happy, Be Love

Paranormal Telly: Lost Girl

OhhhhhhhhhhhMyyyyyFriggin Goddess I didn't know this show existed. How did I live without this show in my life??

I'm in love with this show. Sweet blessed Goddess, they even have the Morrigan. I'm talking about Lost Girl on Syfy, it began on a Canadian site called ShowCase (i'm so mad at all my Canadian friends right now for not telling me about this show, you guys suck). 

I haven't even finished watching the first episode and I can't wait for the next one, and it better be AWESOME. Thankfully like all the other shows I have ever talked about they have used 'new' actors, who don't have too big a name and are extremely convincing in their characters. I mean extremely, i could totally picture anyone one of them as Fae. The graphics aren't too shabby either, actually really enjoy them!!

Ok so let's get the show's synopisis from their own words:

There is something for everyone, the eye candy for men and women is very delightful, the mythological lore so far has been on point, the battle for your hands of power or the right ot choose your 'house" is also on point. To tell the truth some of it kinda reminds me of Merry Gentry series by Laurell K Hamilton, just without the Princess part, although the story arc could lead there you never know and she doesn't know she's Fae, she also has a human sidekick,

Kenzie, Bo's human

If this show ever gets cancelled *crosses fingers that doesn't happen anytime soon* I'm sure Mrs Hamilton will have a host of people to pick from who could capture her characters. 

Bo manages to create for herself a buffer zone and has some pretty powerful friends backing her, she still thinks too much like a human though & in the Fae world that will eventually come back and 1)haunt her because someone close will pay for her ignorance or 2) she'll end up dying. 
Can I say I'm in love with a siren? I wish they would cover his story a little more, 

I'm not too fond of the emphasis of Dark Fae/Light Fae as if the names actually show the inherit character of the Sidhe or even their magic abilities. Seelie/Unseelie either way the Fae aren't exactly friendly to humans and the ones that are, really aren't on the top of the totem pole, you can't get something for nothing & I hope like heck Bo learns that soon. She has people paying prices to keep her safe & she doesn't even seem to understand that or recognize the sacrifice, eventually she will have to learn & when she does?? That episode is going to be EPIC. 

I love the sensuality of the show & how Bo gets her feed on, she's a very lucky succubus. 
ok now back to the show!!! It shows on Mondays at 10pm on Syfy.

All images are found on Bing.com, Copyright belongs to Lost Girl show from Showcase & Syfy

Book Review: Dark Legend

Book Title: Dark Legend

Author: Christine Feehan

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 394

Cost; $ 7.99

How I Got it:  my personal library

Description:

He woke deep within the ground, and the first sensation he felt was hunger. An overwhelming hunger for blood that demanded satisfaction. But as he hunted the dark streets of Paris for prey, a voice called to him, soothing, calming, giving him the strength to control his craving.

Francesca Del Ponce was a healer, a woman who radiated goodness as powerfully as the sun did light. But surely his obsession with her would turn him as his twin brother had turned, leaving the world with two monsters instead of one. ---- from Amazon.com

My take on the book:
Out of all the books I have read so far in the series, I love Francesca the most. Unlike the other female characters who were matched young & are fledglings compared to their men, she has managed to stay hidden for over a thousand years & created a wonderful life for herself. She learned & cultivated her healing talents, she studied science & figured out a way to make herself almost human, in fact she accomplished something no other Carpathian had been able to do, walk in the sun. From the beginning of the book I was in love with her character & her mate coming to her when she needed him the most was totally awesome. I enjoyed reading about a truly (slightly lonely but still loving her life) independent Carpathian female who made such a huge impact in her own way.

Gabriel is learning all about the new world he has woken up in & luckily for him the first person he meets & the first to offer him aide is Francesca, his mate. He is the legendary half of the vampire hunter twins, who had for centuries were believed to have been destroyed. Some of his methods to keep his lifemate with him, I would call him out on for believing he has the right to do some of them, but when you consider the alternative you can see why he does it, although they border on this side of being chauvinistic.

There are only a few moments in the story where I felt like shaking her, in particular her reoccuring sense of guilt over not being able to love someone who wasn't her mate. I understand why she felt that way, but uhmmm it's been a while honey get over it. I enjoyed the added twist to the story in particular Lucian's story; I look forward to reading about Lucian, & hopefully Skyler will get her own book soon as well.

I give the overall novel 4/5
I also give it 5/5 for steamy & sensual love scenes

That's another one off the TBR List. How are y'all doing on your lists?
Be Blessed

In My Mailbox (1)

In My Mailbox is hosted by the Story Siren, it's a weekly check in of books you have purchased or received in your mailbox (or email) for the last week. It can be anything you are looking forward to reading.

I have been making it my mission these last few weeks, now that I have settled into my home to complete my collections of books. Some of which are books i loved when I was a teenager but never had the extra space to dedicate to just books.  I recently got the inspiration to increase my bookshelf space & while I do that I wish to have books to go on the new arriving shelves.  With that vein in mind I have been bookswapping over at the Paperbackswap website & collecting books to my collection.This week has been an awesome haul of books for FREE!!!

First things I got this week were:

Grandmother Time & To Ride a Silver Broomstick. I had these books in my collection years ago, but since I couldn't keep too many on hand I got rid of these to make space for others. I got these back because I wanted to have them back in my collections again & I now have the space for it.  I even got the silver book in the original kick ass cover.

I also received: Magical Household by Scott Cunningham, I also had this years ago, but I wasn't ready to embrace Cottage Witchery yet, so I never used it and passed it on. Recently I felt the need to get books that embraced my "new" since my path is ever evolving I decided to get that one as well.

I now have to add these into the TBR pile, whoo it just keeps growing and growing.
What did you get in your mailbox this week?? Share in the comments
Love and light

Imbolc Blessings

May the Goddess Bless You on this day. 

May Brigid bless the house wherein you dwell. 

 Bless every fireside, every wall and door.

 Bless every heart that beats beneath its roof. 

Bless every hand that toils to bring it joy. 

Bless every foot that walks its portals through. 

May Brigid bless the house that shelters you.

Image here

Honored and revered by the Christians of Ireland as "Mary of the Gael" here is a link about her and her traditonal prayers. The Poem above is taken from the comment section of the blog linked.