In My Mailbox [1]

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren where you can learn about all the awesome new books I've picked up this week!

 Woot it's my first post of In my Mailbox! I'm so excited to show you what I got this week, which believe me is a lot. I get lots of books each week, I do hope I can read fast enough so I don't get a major pile up haha!


Here are the list of books I've recieve in the last week with a link to their goodreads page:

Bought:
Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Spirit of the Wolf by Vonna Harper

Primal Heat by Crystal Jordan

Cold Blood by Heather Hildenbrand

Devil's Ridge by X.Aratare

Won
Redemption by R.K. Ryals
Solstice by P.J Hoover

Sleepers by Megg Jensen

Buried by Marissa Farrar
Zombie's Don't Cry by Rusty Fischer
The Taming by Eric Walters and Teresa Toten
Indulge by Megan Duncan

Free
Priscilla the Great by Sybil Nelson

The Zombie Story by M.M Shelley

Shades of Gray by L.M Pruitt

Cursed by Danielle Gavan

Lord of Shadows by Nickie Asher



Holy Crap! 17 books in the last week *head desk* 

Spell Manga Review

Author: FujiYama Hyouta
Artist: FujiYama Hyouta

Genra: Yaoi

Year: 2003

Original Publisher: 

Movic

Volumes: 

 1 Volumes (Complete)

 Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher:  

June

Summery
When second-year college student Takamasa Natori gets dragged to a double date by his friend, Takeda, he meets Junpei Kisugi. The two hit it off instantly; and while both are guys, they are soon getting along as if they have known each other for years. But when Natori hears that Kisugi is bisexual, he doesn’t know what to think. The two remain friends but things heat up when Natori runs into Kisugi’s current and slightly jealous lover Tohru…


My Thoughts on the Manga

This is a sweet fun manga to read, I love how the plot was not to mention everything went real good for a one volume book. Sometimes with this type of plot one volume isnt enough to tell the story but they did good.

This characters of this manga are so cute, you have the main character Natori who at first thought his releationship with Kisugi was just friendship cause they got along so well. Though later you learn he started to develop feelings for Kisugi and soon confessed them to Kisugi. It was so cute and akward at that moment. I even felt myself blush at one part. Hey if a manga makes me go all crazy and headdesk lots  then it's a good story!

The romance in this story is between fast and slow, cause Natori was straight at first and Kisugi is bi but is already dating someone. Soon Kisugi starts to develop feelings for Natori and they start to go out. The didn't fully did it till the middle of the book and for a one shot manga that is good cause it isn't all at once. 

Manga Design
This manga has a great design, since most of the manga i posted so far are all from 2001-2004 this is the style at that time. There isn't a lot of detail in the design unless you look at the chapter pictures but it all works out. The design is simple but lovely at the same time. Sometimes there face's are missing eyes but it works with the style. There is not as much talking all on one page most of the time as you can see on the left lol, it's only since they are on phones that it's like that haha.








Overall
It's a great story, the romance is great and the plotline is great. You should diffently read this manga if your into Yaoi, if not don't read it.

Rating

4 out of 5 Howling Wolves

Devil's Ridge Manga Review

Devil's Ridge (The Dark Earth Series)
Author: X.Aratare
Designer: T.WolvPublished: 2011 by Raythe Reign Publishing
Release date: December 13, 2011
Genre: Yaoi
Website: http://raythereign.com/darkearthmanga/

Summery
Aidan has always dreamed of a different life, one that was somehow more than what he knew. Desperate times force him and his adoptive family to move to Grandfather Patrick's house on Devil's Ridge, a tiny, rural town, that is far more than what it seems.

On the Ridge, Aidan finds a world filled with magic, monsters and terrifying beauty. He has discovered his "different life" but it isn't at all what he expected, and not all of it is good.

With most of the townspeople involved in the Clan, a dark cult, and Grandfather Patrick as the Clan's head, Aidan knows he isn't just imagining that the whole town is out to get him. When Aidan is lured by an ancient force literally in his own backyard, he is rescued by the mysterious and handsome Asher Vane, who his grandfather calls a "demon". Is Asher something terrible? More importantly, is Aidan?

YAOI MANGA, M/M, ADULT, 18+

My Thoughts on the Manga
So where to start on this one, I had a few problems with this manga, problem is where to start haha. Anyways for starters it's not a real manga, it's design and published in america and it is read from left to right, like how comic books are read not like manga books. I would say this story is more of a comic type style then manga because it's not made/wrote/design in Japan and it's not read in the traditional style manga way. Another problem was how short it was, I expected it to be a long manga read, I didn't expect it to be so short in pages and still cost so much. I felt ripped off and I will explain why in the next paragraph.

The concept to this story was really well done, as far as I've read I really like the story. It worked with the characters giving a background story and explain about a cult that hated these people who were like fairies. Only one problem, the story is so fast pace, it wanted to get right into the main story but stopped right in the middle of something big. This book felt like more of a chapter then a manga to me. I was so annoyed by this on how fast it stopped in a middle of a climax scene. It just wasn't proper for the creators of this manga to do that. It made me feel like maybe i shouldn't have bought this manga for so much if it was going to let me down so much. Though I did love the characters and how they acted and I love the main character Aidan, he is such a cute boy. The plot for this story is also great, I just love how the plot made it so it gave a reason why they were near faeries.

Manga Design

The design of the characters and the detail in this manga was so great. This is one of the reasons why I don't out right hate this manga. The Manga has a North American feel to it but the design of the characters and the detail in everything. Just look at the trees and Car, the designer took time and patients to do even the smallest of detail. You can also tell on curtain pages how creepy it's meant to be and how beautiful it's meant to be on others. You can see they have great expression!

Overall

Overall I do reccomand to at least see the first few pages of this manga to see whether you would want it or not. If not, wait till volume two to come out because this would be just a huge dissappointment. It's a 6 volume set and I could already see so many cliffhangers in the future as the publishers make money. 

Rating
3 out of 5 Howling Wolves

Cold Blood Review

Cold Blood
Author: Heather Hildenbrand

ISBN: 2940013473843

Release Date: November 22nd 2011
Format: ebook

 Genres:

Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, 

Supernatural, Urban Fantasy

Series: Dirty Blood #2

Summery
Wood Point Academy is not at all what I expected. For one thing, it looks like a cross between military school and Buckingham Palace. Everyone stares, the floors shine so bright you can see your reflection in them from a mile away, and no one smiles. Unless they're kicking your butt in the process.

At least I've got plenty to take my mind off the fact that my psycho cousin, Miles De'Luca, keeps calling and declaring his love and promising to come for me just as soon as he's destroyed anyone standing in our way. Wes isn't going to like that idea. So between Miles, Wood Point's evil welcoming committee, and the drill sergeant hottie trainer from hell, I just keep asking myself, how did I end up here?

My thoughts on Book

 So after finishing Dirty Blood which is the first novel of the series I had to buy the second novel right away. I was not expecting this novel to be as good as the first one, it was more then good it was awesome! There was more intereaction with characters, good plot line though the location was different and the ending will leave you breathless and wanting more.

There was lots of new characters in this story, Cambria and Logan are Tara's friends at the hunter school. Both Cambria and Logan help Tara with Miles and don't care that she is a Dirty blood. I believe with out those two this book wouldn't have been as good. Then there was Alex, I knew when I saw a boy cameo in the first book where he saved Tara in the house fight and it showed how aw struck she was about this hunters eyes that he was going to appear in the second book. I knew it and guess what I WAS RIGHT ALEX IS THE HUNTER THAT SAVED HER. I'm so glad that he returned in the second book. You learn that his mom was killed by werewolves and that he was bitten so he hates werewolves and he couldn't stand Tara at first because of that. He is Tara's trainer at the hunter school and there was such great chemistry between them that I was addicted. I couldn't help but think they should kiss everytime they faught. Yes I am a Wes/Tara fan but for some reason I'm always drawn to the side guy. God he's so hot, I would love if he attacked me any day haha. Despite the hot chemistry between Alex and Tara, Tara still loves Wes and she is still with him even in the end of the book. (I'm pretty sure the book hasn't ended yet)

As for the plot it was great! Miles running around doing who knows what while leaving creepy messages for Tara. The whole school hating Tara cause she's a Dirty Blood, Victoria(new character at the school) causing her to have a mesiable time at school. Alex and his training and Vera in the mix. Everything about the plot was great! I couldn't have thought of anything better then this!

Cover Design

I just love the cover, no doubt about it. The background is great, it shows how the school looks like. It shows how it's located in a forested area which is exactly the same in the book and the girl infront looks ferce and the makeup around her eyes stands out really well. I like everything about this cover, the cropping of the girl and castle is really well done as well.

As for the title and font of the book, how the words "Book Two The Dirty Blood Series" is at the top left of the book. I think it should be with the rest of the title fit in somewhere there. It's too blended together with the green background that it's hard to see. On the other hand the title of the book is prefect and is the same font and style used in the first book of the series. The placement of Heather Hildenbrand is also prefect how if fits below the letters.

Overall

If you haven't read the first book go read that book now. This series is really well written. If you love werewolf novels this is a great add to your collection. The series so far is good and I was never bored with it at all. The new plot line mixed with the old leads to a great read and I reccomend this to everyone.

Rating

5 out of 5 Howling Wolves

Manga Review Freefall Romance/ Rakka Sokudo

Author: Fugiyama Hyouta
Artist: Fugiyama Hyouta

Genre: 18+ Yaoi

Year: 2004

Original Publisher: 

Frontier Works

Volumes: 

 1 Volumes (Complete)

 Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher:  

June

Summery

Nanase Youichi graduated from Kinsei Academy, which is popular for having a 90% gay student population. However, Nanase is straight as an arrow and managed to graduate with no one topping him, his nickname even used to be "The Iron Wall". But one day, his heterosexual business partner, Tsutsumi Renji told him that Nanase is attractive and can't help himself from wanting to touch him. Nanase allows Renji to touch him for only 3 minutes...

My Thoughts on the Manga

Yes this manga is a mature yaoi manga is a 18+ yaoi so if you haven't tried to read yaoi before I suggest not to start with this manga. As well as if you don't know what Yaoi means I reccomand looking it up so you don't have a heart attack hehe!

So in this manga it tells a story about Nanase and Renji, who are business partners together. Renji started to have feelings for Nanase and wanted to test it out to see if it was real. The whole story Nanase doesn't know if he can be gay or not because of his past beliefs. I really like this story, it tells of the struggle a person has when they have feelings for someone but they aren't returned right away.  You can see right away that Nanase doesn't right out hate Renji after learning that he has feelings for him and you see that he may actually have a bit of feelings for Renji even if he denies it.

The romance in here is a bit fast, but since Nanase is at first straight it's a rough romance at the beganning. It's not until like 60 pages in do you see the romance becoming faster and for a oneshot manga that is good. It's not to fast not to slow just perfect from what I see.

The manga though at the end leaves you hanging, it leaves you wanting more then there is. I haven't found to many manga's where I wish there was more but I kinda wanted to bite the mangaka(author) for ending it with only one volume. Though I guess if people like the mangaka they would look for more, maybe that's why who knows.

 

 Design

This manga has a grown up feel to the way the manga is design. The characters actually looked their age(27 and 25) and you see that it isn't one of those cute yaoi manga's either. The drawings are kind of layed back, as in sometimes there is lots of detail and in other times there is none but you can see there expression even if there is hardly any detail. The As you can see in the picture in the left, sometimes there is no eyes but with only a mouth you can still see what they are feeling. Sometimes the background is not even needed because of how much your focus on the characters, that's how good the manga is if you are only interest in the story and not the images. Believe me when I say, I've read manga that have really ugly drawings but the plot line is so good I can't put it down just for the design.



Overall
If your use to yaoi manga and want to read a great short story I highly suggest it. If your not looking for a oneshot yaoi manga then don't read it.

Rating 

4 out of 5 Howling Wolves

Review Die for Me

Die For Me

Author: Amy Plum

ISBN: 0062004018 (ISBN13: 9780062004017)

Release Date: May 10th 2011
Format: Hardcover

 Genres:

Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Fantasy, 

Zombies, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy

Series: Revenants #1 

Summery
My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.

Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.

Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.

While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?

My Thoughts on the Book
I first heard of this book when Colleen Houck author of Tiger Curse Series hosted a YA Scanvenger Hunt which Amy Plum was apart of. I won her book Die for Me and her Ark Until I die, even though I revieved her book a while ago I waited till now till to read it because it was a genre of book I've never read before so I put it on hold. Now since I've read it I'm glad that I did, this new genre for me was a great read, it's new and inventive as far as I can tell.

It starts off with us learning that the main girl Kate parents died and that she and her sister moved to Paris to live with their grandparents to get away from everything. I've never lost anyone close to me but the way each sister handles their depression seems to fit. It actually made me aware of how their situation was devasating to them. Though out the book you will see Kate wondering if she could really be with Vincent and worry about losing him like she lost her parents. 

Reading this book I was drawn to the characters. I love how Kate our main character acted. She acted like any other person who lost loved ones would act. She is scared of being in that scenario again and made it hard for her to be with Vincent but you can see how much she loved him and it hurt her to be away from him. Vincent is another story, though he is hot, when I mean hot I mean drooling Hot!! He's like any other boy of your dreams dark hair great body. I had only one problem with him, he is a damn stalker! that's the only issue I had with him. Through out the book it says how normal it is to stalk people after they saved them. I'm sorry but no it's not normal, if I was Kate I would be creeped out and stayed away. Dispite that I did like him and how much he loved Kate and how he wanted to let her choose whether or not she wanted to stay with him or leave him.

The Romance between Kate and Vincent is a cute slow process. You can tell that they are teenagers by the way they act, even though Vincent is 19. There is much teasing from Vincent's part but you can tell how much he likes Kate, even before they officially start going out. The officially start going out in the middle of the book and what makes it great was that their relationship is like any other real relationship it had it's bad points and good points.

Having the setting take place in Pairs made me so excited, because I've been to Paris before and I know how beautiful it was. I can still picture the effle tower at night and the bridge that over looked the river. I didn't go any further then that but being around that area made me believe the way Amy Plum discribed the areas Kate and Vincent traveled to. I just hopped to go back to Paris soon to travel around to those areas, especially that catacombs which is full of Skulls, hehe!. I'm not saying you need to be there to know what she's talking about, actually you can practically visualize where they go by her description alone.


Cover Design

The one on the Left is the new cover of Die for me, while the one on the Right is the old cover. I can tell you this I'm glad they went with the left, although the right cover does have more in common with the book then the cover on the left.

Left Cover

This cover is so beautiful when you hold it in your hands. The background red and stands out so much that it catches your eyes right away, the floorish's around the title adds to the design. The dress also is very beautiful on the girl (who I believe is Kate) who is looking over Paris. The faded effle tower right away shows you where this book takes place. This title font is perfect, it's in white which stands out against the red a lot, and it's evently space between the letters, although I would fix the Kerning(space between letters) of DIE, it's bothering me I think if they space the E a bit more it would be even spacing to the eye.

Right Cover

As for this cover, it's a bit of a newbi cover as in it's very fastly done. The title is what bothers me the most, there is no reason for there to be ghost letters under the title words. If they left that out it would have been much better in the design. This cover is really nice only problem is that it spoils the ending of the book. It is exactly what happens in the book minus a few details (which I'm not revealing hehe) and the dress is actually in the book. Having Yellow on blue though for the author name really doesn't work. In the end I'm glad they changed the cover to the one on the left, it works out for everyone and there is no spoilers.

Rating
4 out of 5 Howling Wolves

Extra:

Book Trailer

Dirty Blood Review!

 

Dirty Blood

Author: Heather Hildenbrand

ISBN: 1461065712 (ISBN13: 9781461065715)

Release Date: April 28th 2011
Format: ebook

 Genres: Shapeshifters, Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Werewolves

Series: Dirty Blood #1







 

Summery

I killed a girl last night. I did it with my bare hands and an old piece of pipe I found lying next to the dumpster. But that’s not the part that got me. The part that scared me, the part I can’t seem to wrap my head around and still has me reeling, was that when she charged me, her body shifted – and then she was a wolf. All snapping teeth and extended claws. But by the time I stood over her lifeless body, she was a girl again. That’s about the time I went into shock… And that was the moment he showed up.

Now, all I can do is accept the truths that are staring me in the face. One, Werewolves do exist. And Two, I was born to kill them.

My Thoughts on book
So I actually bought this book back in December 2011 and waited this long to read it. I so wish I didn't but now I can add it to my 2012 books. So what I found interesting was how fast the story got good, the main girl Tara kills a girl who turned into a wolf and attack her. She never thought anything like that existed before and was going into shock till our main boy Wes shows up. He tells her that the girl she killed was a werewolf. After that it just gets better and better, Tara learns that she is actually a Hunter and that Werewolves actually exist and that Hunters and Werewolves have been at war for a long, long time. She now has to choose whether she will go with the hunters or stay with the person her brought her into this world "Wes".

My god this book drew me in from beginning to end. The plot was new and different, I haven't yet read a werewolf novel where there has been a long fight between just werewolf and hunters. You can see that author put a lot of thought to the plot throughout the book. It actually took me two days to finish this book, that goes to show how I couldn't put the book down. 

The Characters are well written, from the main Characters to the side characters.  Tara is a tough girl and wants to show everyone that she isn't weak like most believe her to be. Just because she grew up not knowing what she was doesn't meant that they could protect her and though out the book she tells them that. Wes on the other hand, deals with how he is a dirty blood and also deals with his attraction to Tara. It annoyed me sometimes when he tried to keep his distance from Tara without telling her anything. I was like come on don't be such a idiot, but then again I understand because sometimes boys act like that, haha! Anyways did I mention how hot he is :Q___ from his gold eyes to his gold fur as a wolf he's all one hot werewolf! The description of him as a wolf is well written and I love how he sounds in the book. There there is the side characters, besides Jack and Fee the others are somewhat unknown since they are only side characters, but I guess it's alright that we don't know much of them. 

The romance in this novel is not as much as you may want but when the romance does happen you are glad that it did. The relationship between the two main characters is hot and you want them to be together despite Tara's hardheaded personalty and Wes belief that staying away is for the best.


Cover Design

Now I know that the one on the left is a poorly designed cover, bad Title font spacing and look/feel. Not to mention that the image of the wolf and tree and everything in the background looks so pixelated. What I would have done is fix the placing of the title and change the font, then made the wolf stand out more and not so pixelated. Get rid of the trees and birds and raise the cliff up higher towards the moon, maybe even having that as a background and placing  picture of a girl or something on top like the one on the right.

The one on the right is propularly design, the person in front show's fercness that the main character shows and there is a full moon in the background which connects it with werewolves. The Title font is so pretty, the kerning of the words and having blood in red gradient and the author name underneath it fits so prefectly. It's diffently the better cover of the two and I'm glad that the author switched to this one. Though I just notice tree's at the bottom left and really it doesn't need to be there. I also notice that the cropping of the hair looks weird and needs to be redone. 

Overall

Overall if your looking for a semi slow Romance, where the characters don't fall in love, or know they love each other right away. As well as a good plot about Hunters and Werewolves that this novel is for you, I really do reccomand this book to everyone who loves werewolves!

Rating
4 out of 5 Howling Wolves