Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Book one in the new Blood of Eden series by Julie Kagawa .. from Amazon.com:
To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what–andwho–is worth dying for…again.

Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.

Vampires have taken over and the plague has turned people killed by vampires into Rabids.  People are chattel, forced to donate blood or live as scavangers, hanged for something as simple as digging through the trash for food.

Allie wants more, of course. After her friends are murdered by Rabids and she is nearly killed, Kanin turns her into a vampire, the thing she hates most, but she wants to live.  She ends up on the road, running for her life and runs into this group of people, led by a preacher, who are looking for Eden. Eden is a place where there are no vampires and people can actually live.

So... I love The Iron Fey series. I adore it. I wish I owned them all, I would make a shrine to them in my home. I cannot say the same for Blood of Eden. I mean, it got better towards the end, but sheesh halfway through the book I was still forcing my way through it. This book was released a year ago and I just finished it after trying to read it like four times.  Everyone knows I suck down new books by my favorite authors in a few hours. This is another big I'm Sorry! for not writing gushing things about one of my favorite authors.

I think that book two has a good storyline, just what I could tell from the end of the first book, so I am anxious to read it. I've got my fingers crossed that it flows a little better.

And I hear there is another Iron Fey book coming so WOOOHHOOOO!!! :) I do have a smile on my face!

The Wanderer by Robyn Carr

From Amazon.com:

Nestled on the Oregon coast is a small town of rocky beaches and rugged charm. Locals love the land's unspoiled beauty. Developers see it as a potential gold mine. When newcomer Hank Cooper learns he's been left an old friend's entire beachfront property, he finds himself with a community's destiny in his hands.

Cooper has never been a man to settle in one place, and Thunder Point was supposed to be just another quick stop. But Cooper finds himself getting involved with the town. And with Sarah Dupre, a woman as complicated as she is beautiful.

With the whole town watching for his next move, Cooper has to choose between his old life and a place full of new possibilities. A place that just might be home.

Woooohooo a new series from Robyn Carr!! I adore the Virgin River series and I was so excited about this book! Until I read it.. 

I hate doing this. I really don't like to say negative things about books, but this is the first time EVER that I did not thoroughly love a Robyn Carr book. 

The characters were likeable.  I liked Cooper and I liked Sarah. My biggest issue was, the two main characters didn't even meet until I hit the ads in the middle of the book! No way can two people actually fall in love in half a book, its not ... realistic. I will be the first to admit that I do not read for reality.  I read to escape the cruel world. But, this is a contemporary romance. It should have some realistic aspects, one of which is.. The main characters should meet early in the book.

My second issue, at the end where the naughty little teenage boy Jag was arrested for killing Ben.. it was so thrown together that I almost completely missed it!

I liked Mac and Gina's sub love story that was going on, but I wish Carr had just waited on this until their book "The Newcomber" comes out in June.  I did not feel like Carr introduced us to enough characters in this first book to make it have the same feel as Virgin River. I'm assuming that is the point she is getting to since the town is Thunder Point and two more books are scheduled

I'm really hoping that the next book is better. I'm really sorry I wasn't very nice about this one :(

Lover at Last by JR Ward

Warden, once again you have taken my breathe away. I absolutely adored LaL.  At first I was really iffy about reading a book about two gay guys. Yes I have been waiting for Qhuinn and Blay for what seems like YEARS, however it was surprise, given the sexual nature of your books, that they were not just a sub story. I knew I really did not want to read sex scenes between them. I have nothing against them, but I don't want an intimate look at their .. um.. bedroom scenes. I think Ward did a good job of... allowing me to skim over those scenes if I wanted to.
I loved the sub stories going on in LaL. I don't like to give much away, so I won't go into it all. I really can't say a whole lot more, because everyone knows I hate to write actual reviews.
But, I did very much enjoy LaL and THANK YOU WARDEN!! I cannot wait to hear who the next book is going to be about.. Although I feel something with Xcor.. evil that he is (Kenyon did a book for a bad guy once) coming in the next couple years.....
Oh, by the way, thanks for the very sublte cliff hanger in Lover at Last!! Its going to kill me to wait a year for the next book!

Jodi Picoult's "Storyteller"

I really have no words to describe how totally amazing I think this book is. It took me a little longer than usual to get into it, but it was totally worth it.

From Amazon.com
       Some stories live forever . . .

Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t, and they become companions.

Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity suddenly challenged, and the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. When does a moral choice become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?

So Sage thinks she is an awful person, but you don't find out why til later in the book. She hides behind baking bread at night so that people don't see her scars.  She meets Josef at a grief counseling support group. They become friends, but apparently he is just using her. Josef was an SS officer during WW II and he thought that because Sage's family were Jewish, that she was to. He wants her to forgive him his sins for what he did during WW II and then help him die. He is horribly guilt ridden and thinks that God is punishing him by making him live.. He has survived cancer twice, a car accident and more. He feels he cannot die. 

Sage decides to go to the authorities with Josef's story. She doesn't feel that, as a non practicing Jew, that she has the right to forgive Josef, but thinks he needs to be punished for his crimes.  

The best part of this story, though, is Sage's grandmother Minka. Minka is a survivor of Auschwitz. Picoult narrates Minka's story, from how life was before WW II, to how life was living in a concentration camp. I get chills when I think about it.

And the ending will surprise you, but its not one of her horribly tragic endings!! So, my suggestion.. read it!! It was amazing!