Demon From The Dark Kresley Cole

How does Kresley Cole do it?

I should have hated this book but again, Cole pulls it off.

CindyBlurb: Carrow the _____(crumb, can't remember her moniker) is a witch who has been kidnapped and pulled into a super secret, super hidden jail run by mortals who are gathering all sorts of lore creatures to dissect and learn about. Carrow can't use her powers (usually powered by happiness) because of a collar around her neck. Turns out all the lore are helpless with this thingamajiggi round their necks good or evil, allies or warring factions.

Carrow is normally a 'whatever' kind of woman and doesn't really sweat the small stuff. Until the small stuff comes in a package of Ruby, her 7 year old cousin whose mother was just killed. The Order (as these new baddies are called) what something from Carrow and in return they will release her and Ruby from the jail.

What do they want?

They want Carrow to go to hell.

Yep.

At least, I think I have that right. Basically another plane of existence that is hell like with drought, famine, fire and demons. There are a ton of new creatures also but vampires are also part of the landscape.

What is Carrow retrieving from hell? A Vemon - a creature that are only rumoured to exist by the lore but are believed to be mythical. But hey, whatever, Carrow needs to get the hell out of Dodge so to the hell plane it is. And the Order will turn off the collar do-hicky so she can use her powers. Woohoo. Except how much joy can there be in hell? Yeah.

The Vemon Malkom meanwhile was created by an Evil and has lived in isolation for much of his existence. He is a demon and vampire and believes he is an abomination to all. He has been betrayed by every single person he has ever met (yep, includes mommy) and killed his best friend in a fit of rage and betrayal. Malkom is way beyond acting even remotely human has become more of a Neanderthal over the past 400 years.

What's the only thing that's going to save Carrow from a gory death? She's Malkom's mate and he scents her as she approaches.

And the chase is ON.

Lord, there is so much I want to explain about the story and stuff but wow, it's just really involved and yet so simple.

So where did I have problems? Pretty much the first half of the book. Could I put the book down? No.

Explaination to follow - so hang on!

My problem head on was Malkom. He's 7 feet tall, got horns and sounds like a huge mother. In fact, I couldn't get this image out of my head.

Sorry, I find this guy freaky and not even remotely attractive. In fact, you need to add more hunch to his back and no wings.

This image fought along side an image of a seriously huge body builder - trust me, I was trying to find him attractive and even though I like leaner heroes I could at least work with a overbuilt man-like being.

None of my mental images were helped by the early interactions with Carrow. He's brutish and animalistic in the extreme and about rapes her the first time he catches her. Hell, he breaks her wrist in his enthusiasm. Yeah, not winning any 'ooohhh, you're so hot' kind of awards.

Carrow bolts and who can blame her. He follows. He catches and brings her back to his lair.

The good news is Carrow understands the things that neither of them can communicate because they don't speak each others language. Carrow knows only stupid stuff in Demonish and the Demon despises English so taught himself to forget all he learned. I guess 300 years is good enough to forget something you want nothing to do with.

For me there was definitely a vibe of Carrow being so much more intelligent than Malkom and I'm not sure she isn't even now.

Malkom became more of a character I could understand once he showed he had a logical side buried under all that brute strength but boy, he really had to concentrate to get there.

So why did I like this book?

I'm not sure I know but the last half was awesome.

I understand the allure of Beauty and Beast like stories but when the beast has very simplistic views of how things will be, I'm not so enamoured. Malkom did prove he could be logical but his beast side won out on more than one occasion. In the end, it was Carrow and even Ruby who made the book great. Seeing fleeting images of love stories coming and those that had already happened were also a great boon.

And since I'm not great with words, just know that after reading this story I want to read the few books I have in the series that I haven't read. Thankfully I can't find them at the moment so I can't gorge on them all at once and then have the great book blues.

Still, I may need to dig one out for next week.

B- (I have to say I would probably re-read this book as it was sexy as hell once my brain stopped trying to beat me up with the image above)

Edited: I found the three books I haven't read in this series and I'm fighting with myself not to grab them all up and gobble them down.

It Happened

I turned 40 the other day and the world didn't go rumbling off it's axis, dinosaurs didn't regenerate and the sun came up again.

So it's all good. I'm glad it's is over to be honest and I can get back to being just me.

Okay, I do have my family coming tomorrow for dinner and then Bob's family the next day but then I can check 'done' beside 'turning 40'.

I got a video camera (have these changed names? There is no tape in them but without the video it would just be digital camera which means stills) because :

MY GORGEOUS COUSIN IS PREGNANT & THERE WILL BE A BABY IN FEBRUARY!!!

She's also engaged to be married sometime after that but whatever, let's deal with the baby first.

For me it's a big deal although the rest of the family seems to be taking the whole thing hard. GC has Type 1 diabetes so there are concerns for sure and she's in high-risk management of the pregnancy so we're all praying hard. I think it's the fiance people are having a hard time with and I get it, but I won't steal the joy from GC. It's her life and who are we to judge.

So, it's the first baby as I don't have any and Billy didn't either. I'm excited about future Christmas' and holidays because there will be somebody there who will think it's all new and shiny.

And hey, we all need a little new and shiny in our lives.

Other than that bombshell things are going well.

I just finished Demon from the Dark by Kresley Cole and have written a partial review that I will post over the next few days. I want to dig out the newest Anne Stuart but I want to save it at the same time. So I'm flailing about what to read next but I'm thinking I need to hunt down the 3 Cole stories I haven't read but are in the TBR pile.

Okay, off to bed for me!

Logical Sense? Nope.

Strap in. This one is downright crazy.

Last night I discovered an item was at my local store. In fact, this store showed it's inventory for the stores all around my home and they all showed stock.

All of them.

And the numbers were such that I knew I would get this item.

Excellent.

Only surprise, surprise, not excellent at all.

Instead my anger has been simmering at such a rate that a letter will be written to the Owner of these stores very soon. In fact, I was sure she was going to get a phone call tonight. Cause in the end, there is no logical sense for what I'm dealing with.

We've all heard of 'lay down dates' or something stupid and moronic like that. I mean seriously, the concept defies logic.

I didn't say 'they' whoever the corporate 'they' is don't have a reason, I'm saying it is completely illogical.

But really, screw all that.

It comes down to this.

If you own a business and decide for whatever reason to put up your inventory stats on your website so that your CUSTOMERS know where to go to buy an item - THEN FRIGGIN' SELL IT TO THEM WHEN THEY SHOW UP.

I'm livid. Like seriously out of sorts and I don't get that bad that often.

Back before the internet and in-store computers I didn't know what was and wasn't in stock unless I made a trip to the store. And, get this!! If the store didn't have what you were looking for they would check the stock room.

No way!!!

They checked the stock room!?

Yep.

AND, if they had the item in the stock room they did this weird thing.

They sold it to you.

I know!!!

Such an odd concept.

Tonight a local store (who had 40 some odd 'items' in stock) refused to sell me the item because the 'release date' wasn't until next week.

Now, did I yell at the associate who was helping me?

No. It's not their fault. Not tonight (oy vey, the one from 3 weeks ago - I swear my hair was on fire).

She helpfully informed me that I could put the item on hold if I liked and me being me, said:

No thanks, someone will have the item out for sale.

To which she replied:

Oh, no, they shouldn't, they are all 'us' so they won't sell you the item.

Two phone calls later I found the store that would sell me the item cause you know what, it's on your friggin website showing you have stock.

You know what else happened?

I bought another 20 dollars worth of items at the other store.

Still, I have this foul taste in my mouth. I'm lit up about the way this was handled. I'm an avid itemer so yes, I will find the item or come back on the sale date.

You know who won't come back?

Those 10 other customers who were looking for a gift for a friend, colleague, child or whoever. You know those non-itemers. Those customers who would be just as happy to buy a different
item by a completely different manufacturer as long as it looks like the original item, who cares if it's a knock off.

Cause in the end, they don't need that one item.

You know, by that one creator.

That creator who would probably like to make the money than lose a sale or 10.

And why? Because some crybaby somewhere won't count sales before the release date.

I'm guessing this is because of some horribly convoluted math calculation that math geniuses the world over have been beating their brains out trying to solve.

"SHIT, how DO you count things that are sold before the sell date? HOW!? and OMG, which week of sales would we put that it!?"

The first week.

BOOM baby.

That's how you solve that math equation.

Seriously.

I can't believe there is this odd entity that doesn't want to separate me from my money. This entity has so much power it causes the creators, the manufacturers and the stores to all act like lunatics.

No, no, you keep your money, we don't want it yet.

Fine, how about you don't get my money at all.

Cause I met someone new and they were more than happy to take my money.

Idiots.


Edited: I will share with you the comparison I made to Bob tonight while trying to explain my frustration.

Imagine Home Depot got a load of specific 2x4's in stock but they refused to sell you any because they weren't allowed to sell them until next week.

Bob was sufficiently horrified and mumbled 'Home Depot would never do that to me'

And you know what, he's right!!

Anne Stuart's Ruthless

Sybil from TGTBTU was super kind and asked me to do a guest review of Anne Stuart's Ruthless.

Yes, the squeeeing was undignified when that ARC arrived but, I tried real hard not to gush my way through a review of *my* author.

If you don't trust me you can read the review here.

Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh

Okay, I love this series but I'm starting to find the sexual tension in the Psy books not so, uh, hot.

Cindy Blurb : Max Shannon is an excellent human cop and has even been noticed by the Psy who notice barely anything but themselves. Max has just caught a serial killer (Bonner) and is ready for the next stage of the case. Next stage? Justice Psy - J's for short - these are Psy who can get inside a criminal's brain and search out the true information of a crime from the distorted memory of the killer.

Sophia Russo is the J that shows up and is on the short list to be rehabilitated (basically stripped clean of everything - vegetablized). Apparently J's break and it's common for them to have to go to the rehabilitation center often for 'repair'. Sophia knows she doesn't have much longer and her cracks are obvious even to the medics but they want to keep her around as long as possible.

Max and Sophia notice each other and then work a case together. Sophia is all but dead and knows that she wants to explore the fascination she has for Max and hey, Max is already all for it.

And the dance begins.

Yep, there is a bunch I have left out buy hey, read the book. That said, how did I like it?

Ho-hum and I don't like saying it. I don't know, there is a sameness in the way a human/changeling has to approach a Psy and it has been covered in previous books in the series. It's slow because Psy are rarely touched so a simple kiss can cause them to black out. We've been there and seen it and sure, there are different Psy designation but we've seen the female Psy being seduced. Which might be why I loved Judd's book (male Psy) who had to overcome his sensations to be at least equal in dominance with his changeling mate.

Scary enough the parts of the book I really liked were with the secondary characters who have already had their stories told. In the end, I enjoyed the overall story arc about the Psy and what will come next in their fight for survival. Hell, I'm more intrigued now about members of the Psy council and I've always found those parts hard to figure out.

In the end, I think this series is supposed to be more about the Psy and their collective future but for me, it's more about the changelings and having read the excerpt for the next book all I can say is YEAH BABY!!

And Hawke and Sienna's book can't come fast enough.

All that said, this is not one of the books I'll remember in the series which makes me sad, but there it is. It's a good book but I felt I already knew the story.

C+

Just Because

Here's a picture of Em with all her fur grown back in.

I was just telling Ames that Em has either forgiven us for Pixie or is finally getting over her depression about Amber. I'm thinking both.

Em's fur has changed to the softest thing on the planet. Not only that but now she has brown spots in the black parts which is so cute.

She purrs like an engine still and will let me kiss her on the nose (Amber was never happy about that and Kitten has followed in her footsteps) and now she will get up on the desk when Bob is eating something and will eat from the other side. So she is definitely up to her old shenanigans. Maybe she feels Pixie needs to learn some new tricks.

August?

It's already August but I can't complain (except for that darn ear infection) because the weather has been pool friendly for the most part.

I learned yet another lesson this past week. Don't leave your only pair of ear plugs out in your goggles. Kitten can find anything and I guess the two tiny pieces of silicone did her in and setting them inside something probably added that extra ommph needed to make it just too inticing to leave be.

So tomorrow is 'buy a bunch of ear plugs' day so I can get back in the pool already!

I'm waiting for 11pm so I can call Bob before he goes to sleep. He's away for the week and will somehow end up in New York City at some point. Lucky guy. Course, I couldn't do just one day in NYC. I would want to plan it all out - so when my mother asked why I wasn't going with Bob on this trip I just said I needed to stay home with the cats. After all, it's a business trip and staying in a hotel for a few days, although nice, isn't the same as sitting on my duff at home with no one around to bug me. And it's pool season!

On the reading front I have started Singh's latest but I'm struggling with it. Nath has already reviewed the book (I only read parts of her thoughts so I didn't get spoiled) and mentioned that she wanted to see something a bit different and I get what she means so far. We'll see if I change my mind when I'm done reading. Bad to judge a book before you are finished but when you feel you've met these characters before it's hard.

Other than that, we're busy with peeps coming and going and trying to keep the house up to some standard of clean.

Oh, we have moved out of the master bedroom and into a front room so Bob can start demo. In reality it shouldn't be that much work - remove two built ins (lots of plaster dust I'm betting), tear up the floor and put down new hardwood, re-plaster, paint and trim. In the realm of reno-ing, this sounds fairly uncomplicated.

Bob says it will be done end of October.

I didn't ask what year.