In Deity everything changes for Alex and the world around her, and the changes are not easy, they’re hard and heartbreaking, but also happy and exciting — pretty much everything all at once.

Since we first met Seth I’ve always kind of been rooting for him. Even so, it’s a tough love triangle because I really feel for and like both guys. If Pure could be considered Seth’s book then Deity is definitely what I’d call Aiden’s book. It draws the reader more towards Aiden’s camp and pushes us away from Seth. This sort of broke my heart. Without giving too much away, it just made me sad to watch the changes that happen to Seth and Alex as she grows nearer to Awakening as an Apollyon.

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Even with the hard, yet inevitable, changes that takes place in this book, Alex is still just as sassy as ever and I love her for that. She’s definitely going to need that moxie to get through the next couple of books I’m sure. But it’s not all bad, there are definitely some positive developments in this book as well. Even though I have always been a big Seth fan, I was happy to see the changes that happen within Alex and Aiden’s relationship too. I also loved that we actually get to know the very gods and goddesses who created Pures and Half-Bloods in this book. This was so cool to me and I hope that we get more of them in the last two books as well!

But still, this is probably the hardest book of the series for me so far. Not hardest as in the worst, but hardest as in the most emotional. While we’re still rewarded with witty and sarcastic tidbits, it’s definitely a turning point in the series and where the last two books in the series will go is really hard to tell at this point. I just hope that all the characters I love are still in one piece by the end of the war that’s fast approaching.

*SPOILER WARNING: this review contains spoilers for the series as a whole, and because of the way the last book, Drink Deep, ended, it may inadvertently contain spoilers for this book as well. So proceed with caution if you’re not caught up on the series and do not wish to read spoilers.

At the end of the last book, Drink Deep, I was feeling a lot of conflicting emotions about this series. I was happy that Neill brought Ethan back, yet unsure if he was really back, and also a little bit confused as to why she would kill him off only to bring him back again. I was also upset about how things turned out for Mallory and I was a little bit leery about proceeding with the series because I felt like the author just kept taking away core characters in one form or another.

But I’m happy to say that Biting Cold definitely renewed my faith in the series for the most part. While the story didn’t draw me in quite as much as the earlier books in the series, it did feel like the author was re-establishing the characters and setting the groundwork for some big changes; and those changes appear to include a renewed unity amongst the characters, which I was definitely happy to see.

Even though the story didn’t at first grab me as much as I’d hoped it would (especially given Ethan’s return), it did get pretty interesting for me a little more than halfway through the book. At this point the storyline took a turn which I found surprising and unexpected (in a good way).

The only disappointment for me was that this particular conflict was mostly resolved by the end of the book. I had hoped that there would be more of a rollover into the next book to create more of a larger-scale villain in the upcoming books. Even though that doesn’t seem to be the case, I am interested in seeing what develops from the issues revolving around the House in the next book.

Overall this wasn’t my favorite Chicagoland Vampires book, but it was definitely not my least favorite. I didn’t think the story and witty dialog was nearly up to par with the first three books in the series, but it’s a positive step forward after the last two books. Definitely more looking forward to continuing this series now.

I’m beginning to think that Lisa Kleypas is the kind of author that really grows on you with every book you read by her. When I started this series I thought it was okay. It was entertaining enough but I didn’t immediately grasp the reason for those who have the “Kleypas Craze”. But with each book in this series getting better and better I’m beginning to understand it a bit more.

Love in the Afternoon is without a doubt my favorite book in the series. Before diving into this one I was a bit leary that I would find Beatrix a little bit immature and annoying given her almost childish and innocent view of the world. However, I’m happy to say that I found her to be the complete opposite. She’s funny, endearing, and is almost more mature than others in society in the sense that she doesn’t see the need to let her reputation prevent her from enjoying life. “[She] doesn’t suffer from insanity, [she] enjoys every minute of it”, as Zarek from the Dark-Hunters would say. Because of these reasons and others, she very quickly she became my favorite Hathaway sibling.

I love that this book actually takes Bea and Christopher through this emotional bonding process they have while corresponding with each other during the war. Although Christopher believes he’s falling in love with someone completely different, it still made their relationship feel much more real. It definitely wasn’t love at first sight for them, more like love at first word. This was one of my favorite things about the book. It’s different for a romance, but it worked so well.

Even so, I wasn’t sure how Kleypas would play out the story once Christopher found out Bea was behind the letters, but I was pretty happy with how it progressed. Christopher goes through so much in the war and I really loved that Bea was the woman strong enough to get him through it. It was really touching to watch their relationship progress.

Now I’m a bit sad the series is over, but I’ll definitely be going on to read the Wallflowers series, which actually takes place in the same world, but before this series (timeline-wise). I’m hoping though that there will be another spinoff of this series perhaps about Audrey and her brothers/siblings. It’s been several years since she’s written these books though so I don’t know if that will actually happen. Hopefully! *crosses fingers*

Despite being about the paranormal genre’s favorite creature — vampires — there is nothing about Julie Kagawa’s Blood of Eden series that is the same as everything else you’ve read. It’s a unique paranormal-dystopian mixture of a world that almost stands within its own genre. But perhaps the novelty of it was limited to the first book for me, because I didn’t find this one nearly as exciting and engaging as the first book.

That’s not to say The Eternity Cure is a bad book. It’s not. In fact, I loved that we get some new characters and some villains turned friends. I also loved the adventure aspect of it — on the road and in search of something for most of the book. But for me this one just dragged a bit too much. I can’t even really pinpoint what exactly it was that didn’t grab me as much as the first book, but it just didn’t draw me in as much.

But some things haven’t changed. I still enjoy Allison’s voice and I think she’s a great character to read because she’s a good person right down to her very core, but she has some pretty serious internal struggles going on since she’s still a fairly-new vampire. I liked that in this book, rather than interacting mostly with humans, she’s mostly interacting with vampires. It’s a good contrast to her life changing from a human life to that of a vampire’s.

I also like that there isn’t really a love triangle. There’s still some romance going on, but it feels more genuine since she’s not torn in multiple directions. But I have to say I’m not really feeling the romance going on either. It’s not terribly boring and I don’t hate the guy, but it just feels a little lukewarm to me. I don’t really understand their attraction to each other other than being fascinated by each other fighting their instincts (different though they may be).

Still, I’m pretty interested in the Blood of Eden world as whole and I’ll definitely continue the series. But I just simply couldn’t get into this book as much as The Immortal Rules. Hopefully that will change with the next book.

P.S. Although this doesn’t have to do with the story, I sort of wish they would’ve stuck with the same cover-scheme as the first book. While this cover isn’t bad, I really liked the first cover more and this one doesn’t really match it in any way whatsoever. :-\

Slave to Sensation is the first book in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series. I’ve had this one on my to-read list for a long, long time so I’m happy to say that I’ve finally gotten around to starting it.

In this book we meet Sascha who is a Psy, which is essentially a race of very powerful psychics. But the Psy aren’t humans by any means. A long time ago it was decided that the Psy race was better off without emotions so their children have been bred from birth with the understanding that emotions make them weak and they are taught to push them down until they are seemingly non-existent. But Sascha has a secret — she can feel, and boy does it make her scared because if the Psy Council (of which her mother is a member) finds this out, then she could be sentenced to death. Unfortunately for her, meeting Lucas certainly doesn’t help her situation.

Lucas is a changeling, which is essentially a shifter. He’s a black panther shifter and in contrast to the emotionless Psy, Changelings are a very affectionate and emotion-driven race. So when Sascha and Lucas have to work together on a business deal it is bound to end up a bit interesting for both of them.

I really, really liked this book. One thing that I’ve learned about Nalini Singh from reading her Guild Hunter series is that she’s amazing at building incredibly detailed and remarkable worlds that are unlike anything you’ve ever read about and very easy to get lost into. While it could be argued that Changelings are nothing more than shifters, the Psy world and PsyNet is incredibly unique and unlike anything I’ve ever read about. It’s actually the kind of thing that is almost impossible to explain, but somehow Singh does it with such ease that I was able to picture even the most extraordinary things in this book.

So the world alone is one that made the book amazing right off the bat . But aside from that I enjoyed the relationship between Sascha and Lucas, which is playful at first but clearly grows into something deeper as the book progresses. I really felt for Sascha because she’s at risk of losing everything, including her life, if she were to give into her feelings for Lucas. But its easy to see why she would be willing to risk it all because the interactions not only with Lucas, but with his pack were truly endearing, especially those scenes with the cubs.

I’m definitely happy to have finally started this series. I was pretty sure I would enjoy it since I do love her Guild Hunter series, and I’m happy to say I was right. If you’re a fan of shifters, psychics, and amazing world-building, then I’d definitely recommend this series.

I haven’t done a Rockin’ Reads in almost a year so I started thinking about it the other day and decided that I would LOVE to do playlists for the Lux series books! Since the 4th book in the series, Origin, is coming out in August, I’m going to try to release a playlist for the first three books at the beginning of each month (June, July, August) until the release.

Should be fun. I had a lot of fun making this first playlist for the first book in the series, Obsidian. If you haven’t already read this series, you must! It quickly became one of my favorites and even though I only recently read them I already want to read them again and probably will before reading the 4th book when it comes out. If you’d like to read my reviews for them, you can check out all of my book reviews for the Lux series here.

Warning: DO NOT click on the “View Book Connection” links if you haven’t read the book. There are some MAJOR spoilers in some of them, so just to be safe, I’ve hid them all behind the spoiler tags. Looking at the lyrics is probably fine though (but don’t hold me to that). I mainly just hid those to keep the post from being so long!

For the first installment for the Lux series, I’ll be doing a playlist for the book Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout. When I first read this book I seriously didn’t put it down — at all. I literally sat down and read it from cover to cover…then picked up the second book and did the same.

One of my favorite things about this book and it’s sequels is the incredible sexual tension between Katy and Daemon. They are seriously on fire for each other but deny it so, so much. In their denial lies the emotions that they are both going through though. Although the book isn’t emotional and is actually very fun, I wanted to capture the feelings they’re both feeling throughout the book with this playlist.

The playlist is ordered in general the way I feel like they would’ve taken place in the book, although some songs could represent multiple points in the book.

I have also labeled each song as representing Daemon (D), Katy (K), or both Daemon and Katy’s (D,K) POVs.

Behind a spoiler tag I will tell you where I think the song applies the most, then I will also post the lyrics. Unfortunately, I cannot post full songs legally, but I will post a link to the song on Spotify, as well as on Amazon.

If you have Spotify, click here for the entire playlist.

• 1Code 64 – Leaving Earth (D,K)

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• 2Air – Sexy Boy (K)

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• 3Jude – The Asshole Song (D)

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• 4Garbage – Not My Idea (K)

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• 5The White Stripes – We’re Going to be Friends (K)

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• 6Secondhand Serendade – Stay Away (D)

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• 7B.O.B. – Airplanes (D,K)

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• 8Ellie Goulding – Lights (D,K)

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• 9Demi Lovato – Two Pieces (D)

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• 10Britt Nicole – Safe (D)

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• 11Goldfrapp – Ooh La La (D,K)

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• 12Britney Spears – Breathe On Me (K)

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• 13Rammstein – Rein Raus (D)

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• 14Taylor Swift – Tell Me Why (K)

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• 15Manowar – Battle Hymn (D,K)

  [[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

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• 16Evanescence – Bring Me to Life (D,K)

  [[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

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• 17The Velvet Underground – I’m Sticking With You (D)

  [[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

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• 18Lenka – Trouble is a Friend (K)

  [[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

  [[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

So there you have it. My playlist/soundrack for Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

I hope you enjoyed my song choices and please feel free to comment with your ideas for songs that would have fit well with this book and why!

Qhuinn and Blay’s relationship has been a back story going on in the BDB series since Phury’s book (book 6). So it’s a relationship that has been stewing and nearly boiling over for quite awhile. But for as long as it’s taken for the two males to get their own book it has been a journey in itself to watch them throughout the other books as well.

To start, I wanted to address some of the reviews I’ve read that have said that they were “robbed” of their page time and story. I have to totally disagree with that. First off, Qhuinn and Blay have gotten more page time throughout the entire series since they first made an appearance than the majority of any other characters to-date. Secondly, Ward has been following a similar format of multiple storylines and POVs for the past five books, including this one, sometimes from previous couples and other times setting up future couplings. So yes, there were your typical side stories in this one. But no, Blay and Qhuinn were not pushed to the background. They had a lot of page time, just as much as any other couple for the past several books has had.

The other thing I want to bring up in regards to the reviews I’ve been reading is how Blay and Qhuinn “don’t get together until the last 10 pages”. First off they “get together” plenty of times and of course their entire portfolio of issues are not going to be instantly resolved at the beginning of the book. How would that possibly make sense? No, they aren’t happily together for the entire book because they have to work towards that point. In what romance, from Ward or otherwise, do the couples get together for good at the beginning of the book? That just makes absolutely no sense.

Anyways, I just wanted to bring those couple of things up that I’ve read in several reviews because they really bugged me. I think so many people have put these two guys up on a pedestal so high that even Ward couldn’t make them happy with the outcome and I don’t think these types of reviews are really fair when it comes to the overall picture.

But I digress. For me personally the book absolutely did their story justice. Being that this is a m/m romance in a fairly mainstream series I was truly impressed that Ward didn’t hold anything back. I was halfway expecting fade-to-black scenes when it came to the sexy times. But no, Ward pulls out all the stops for this one and I was happy with it. Not just the sex, but also I think the last few hurdles that Blay, and especially Qhuinn, needed to overcome in order to be together for the long haul happened in this book and I thought it all was done very well.

Aside from Qhuinn and Blay we get more of Xcor and Layla’s POVs, which I personally enjoyed although I’m not sure how that relationship will play out in the long run. But my favorite POVs were some new ones: Assail and Sola, and Trez and his brother iAm. These two side stories I found particularly entertaining, especially Assail and Sola, who were playing a bit of cat and mouse — then cat becomes mouse and vice versa — for the majority of their portions of the book. I definitely am hoping that their story will be after The King because they’re quite a pair already.

Overall this was another BDB that I easily sunk my teeth into and didn’t let go until the very last page. I truly love the world Ward has created and really the next book cannot get here fast enough!

What did I learn from this last month? Well, mostly things I already knew. I gravitate towards my favorite categories and while I don’t dislike the other categories I tend to put them off. But, I did start the John Adams biography by David McCullough and while it is a huge (probably too large to start the genre with) book, it actually starts off pretty interesting and I was happy to actually be getting into it.

Other than things I can’t control like library books being due soon I’m going to try to get the categories outside of my comfort zone read earlier in the month rather than putting them off until later.

Here is my genre/category list for this month, June 2013, and the book(s) I plan to read for that category for this month:

1. (nonfic) Self-Help/Improvement:
   • Garden Makeovers by Liz Dobbs & Sarah Wood (currently reading)
2. (nonfic) Historical/Ancient/Biography (might separate later):
   • John Adams by David McCullough (currently reading)
3. (fiction) Classics:
   • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (read)
4. (fiction) Graphic Novel:
   • The Walking Dead, Vol 2: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman (read)
5. (fiction) Chick-Lit, Humorous, or Realistic (adult or young adult):
   • Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (new adult) (read)
6. (fiction) Historical Romance (adult):
   • Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas (read)
7. (fiction) Mystery (adult or young adult):
   • And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (adult) (read)
8. (fiction) Sci-Fi, Steampunk, or Dystopian (adult or young adult):
   • The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa (young adult) (read)
9. (fiction) Fantasy (non-urban) (adult or young adult):
   • Graceling by Kristin Cashore (young adult) (checked out)
10. (fiction) Urban Fantasy (young adult):
    • Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout (read)
    • Elixir by Jennifer L. Armentrout (read)
    • Apollyn by Jennifer L. Armentrout (checked out)
11. (fiction) Urban Fantasy (adult):
    • Biting Cold by Chloe Neill (read)
    • House Rules by Chloe Neill (checked out)
    • Fire Me Up by Katie MacAlister (checked out)
12. (fiction) Paranormal Romance (adult):
    • Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh (read)
    • Obsession by Jennifer L. Armentrout (on kindle)
    • Upon the Midnight Clear by Sherrilyn Kenyon (currently reading)
    • Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh (checked out)

It’s June 1st so it’s time for another Random Reads. It’s also been beautiful out lately (at least around here)! Have you guys been taking your reading adventures outside? I wish I could but we don’t have any good seating outside. We really need to remedy that!

Last month I picked Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck as my Random Read and I read it. It was okay, pretty much mediocre like I remembered it being when I read it in high school. I don’t really review classics on my blog so I’m not reviewing it here, but you can read my review for it on my Goodreads account here if you’re interested.

In short, Random Reads is a meme where we pick a random book from our shelf to read within the month. Feel free to do more than one per month, but since a lot of people have a lot of books to read each month, only one is “required” for the meme. I’m on Goodreads so I’m using a combination of the sorting feature and Random.org to pick the book I’m going to read.

Want to join in on Random Reads?

It’s easy…

1. If you’re on Goodreads enable sorting to your to-read shelf (you should see numbers next to each book now).
2. Go to Random.org and type in the Min as 1 and the Max as how many ever books are on your to-read shelf.
3. Scroll down to the book matching the number Random.org picks.
4. Link up to your Random Reads post (below). If you choose more than one book per month, be sure to put a number by your name in the list so it doesn’t look like a duplicate.
5. Read and be merry.

If you’re not on Goodreads just pick a random book from your list in whatever way you want to do it. You can use the method I used above or even just close your eyes and point randomly at a book on your bookshelf if you want (spin the bottle style). lol

Now onto this month’s Random Read! This month Random.org chose…

#307 on my to-read list, Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, and it’s been on my to-read list since February 28, 2013, so not too long.

I added this one when I was on a contemporary romance book adding kick. I’ve actually heard this is really really good so I was planning on reading it really soon anyways! Very excited for this one.

Random Reads Buttons

Here is the meme button you can use and it’s copy/paste code:

<a href=”http://imlovingbooks.com/features/random-reads” title=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com”><img title=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com” src=”http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7008/6433844057_a97e65e3b1_o_d.jpg” alt=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com” width=”300″ height=”220″ /></a>

Or you can use the longer “banner” version I used in this post instead:

<a href=”http://imlovingbooks.com/features/random-reads” title=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com”><img title=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com” src=”http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7016/6433844013_41d65693f6_o_d.jpg” alt=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com” width=”500″ height=”100″ /></a>

Link to Your Random Reads Meme

The DUFF, or “Designated Ugly Fat Friend” is about a girl named Bianca who, much to her surprise, is labeled by a particularly cocky guy named Wesley. After being called the Duff of her group of friends, she starts to wonder if maybe that’s true and begins looking at herself differently. But when her life brings on the drama, she finds herself turning to the very arse who called her that in the first place — maybe because he’s the one that’s there, or maybe because of something else.

When I first started this book I knew, just knew for sure, that I would not grow to like Wesley one single bit. What kind of guy deserves any such love that would so blatantly call you such a thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a female and I know other females and one thing that I’ve learned in my 27 years of being on this earth is that the one thing that is always consistent with every single woman I’ve ever met — we are all on some level insecure about ourselves. Those of us who have wavy hair wish it were straighter, those of us with straight hair wish it had more volume, and so on. We’re creatures of dissatisfaction. So it’s not much of a stretch to say that all of us have probably felt like the ugly one in the crowd, or the Duff, at one point or another — even if that’s not the case.

But the thing is that men and boys — like Wesley — just do not understand that insecurity, they’re just not programed the same way. So as the book progresses I found it harder and harder not to like Wesley. Yes, he can be an absolute prick at times. But it also becomes clear that Bianca needs someone who can keep her on her toes and allow her to be her snarky, sarcastic, and sometimes downrite pessimistic self. Like with most things people do, Wesley has his own reasons for being the womanizer he is and I think much to his own surprise, Bianca sparks something in him that he’s never been able to find before — something they both need from each other.

So this was definitely a very sweet and different kind of contemporary romance. The two start out absolutely despising each other and that passion turns into a connection that neither of them can run from. The DUFF is edgy, brutally honest, and I loved it from cover to cover. I also loved that the book actually has sex in it. Nothing too graphic, but I liked that the book was honest about the subject of teen sex rather than portraying all teens as angelic innocent virgins — because most of them, I’m sorry to say, are not. The only thing I would change? An epilogue or just one more chapter. We get a good, sweet ending, but I wanted just a tad bit more to finish it off.