Under the Covers: December 2011

Saturday, 31 December 2011

December 2011 Monthly Recap

Another year has gone by. Are you girls ready for 2012?? We are very happy at UTC that you've been with us in 2011 as we started our blog and have continued to support us. We hope that we keep bringing you content that you enjoy in 2012 and always feel free to drop us a line and let us know how we are doing or what you'd like to see. We love hearing from you and we love your comments! So keep them coming! So thank you!

Now, here's a recap of interviews and guest posts this month:
* Mary Abshire: Guest Post
* Zoe Archer: Interview
* Amanda Bonilla: Guest Post
* Thea Harrison: Guest Post
* Larissa Ione: Interview
* Alexandra Ivy: Guest Post
* Teresa Medeiros: Interview
* Carrie Ann Ryan: Guest Post
* Jill Shalvis: Guest Post
* Cherise Sinclair: Guest Post
* J.D. Tyler: Interview
* Christine Young: Guest Post

Thank you so much to all the wonderful authors for stopping by and we want to especially thank our Author of the Month, Larissa Ione and Gena Showalter for being such a wonderful author and being game with all the requests we gave her! You rock!

Reading on the Dark Side
Bring Me Home For Christmas is our Holiday special. We wanted to give you some help with your holiday reading. Click here

Love Is In The Air Blog Hop
We are hosting our very own giveaway blog hop for Valentine's day. If you have a blog and you'd like to host a giveaway for this hop, please be sure to sign up for it here.

UTC Best of 2011 Awards
The year is over and we are listing the best and worst of what we read in 2011:

* Suzanne and Annie's Picks
* Francesca and Angela's Picks

Mind Spill
What do you think we want from Santa? Dear Santa... I Want It All! Some of our wonderful authors this month wrote their letters to Santa, as well as their characters. Click here

Demon Fight Club
The Lords of the Underworld were battling the Demonica demons in some unique categories and the results are in:

Most likely to bring you breakfast in bed
Lore vs Lucien

And the winner is: Lucien with 58% of the votes!

Most likely to be on the cover of GQ

Eidolon vs Paris

And the winner is: Eidolon with 55% of the votes!

I would turn bi for...
Sin vs Anya

And the winner is: Sin with 55% of the votes!

Most likely to gut you where you stand
Shade vs Maddox

And the winner is: Shade with 57% of the votes!

Most likely to give you the best one night stand of your life
Wraith vs William

And the winner is: Wraith with 75% of the votes!

If you want to check out this fun post, click here.

Cover Art
We want to thank Trish aka Pickyme for letting us use her beautiful artwork of Harvester (Lords of Deliverance) in our December cover. Make sure you visit her blog, and follow her on Facebook, she does AMAZING work!
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Happy New Year!!!

Review: Shadow Heir by Richelle Mead

2.5 Feathers

Shadow Heir

by Richelle Mead

(Dark Swan # 4)

It is with great sadness that I write this review. Richelle Mead has beeen and, the events in this book aside, still is one of my favorite authors. I have seen her end two wonderful series now and she has done so masterfully. When I picked up Shadow Heir I was under the impression that this was the last Dark Swan novel, so I was expecting nothing less from her.

I was already going in with bitterness about certain things. #1 Kiyo - Throughout the series Ms. Mead has managed to get me to actually hate the Kitsune with a passion *pulls out her Kiyo voodoo doll and stabs his head repeatedly* and I was prepared to only hate him more in this book, there was no going back for me on that. Well, I wasn't disappointed on that! He's still a slimy piece of crap, a rat bastard, and it's infuriating to see Eugenie having to work with him when all I want is for her to stand up to him and get some retribution for all he's done to her. That didn't happen. Until the end, he still sticks it to her and she just stands there with her mouth open in shock. Oh by the way, I am writing this as a spoiler free review so maybe some of the things I say may sound a bit weird, you'll understand when you read the book.

Bitterness# 2 - Eugenie. Yes I went in already feeling sort of hate for the heroine. This has been slowly developing throughout the series and well, she didn't get any better in this book. She sits around moping and doing the whole woe-is-me routine. Get a grip, stop being so selfish and so stupid! Stop listening to the dumb Kitsune and start appreciating the REAL man you have by your side!! If not, I'll help Volusian kill you myself! *which I felt like doing repeatedly throughout this book*.

Now onto a better review of this book.

I wish the whole first 50% of this book would've been written in two chapters! Seriously I considered putting this as one of my few ever DNF books. Why? It is tediously boring, nothing happens, there's hardly any supernatural activity, nothing! Eugenie goes on fishing dates and I felt like I was reading a depressing women's fiction book instead of an urban fantasy.

Once there's something that starts happening, it is not to follow the storyline that we were dealing with from the beginning but a completely randomly thrown in storyline that takes over the rest of the book and really doesn't do anything to close the series, this was more like another adventure of Eugenie, the moron Queen! So I thought, perhaps, this could've been resolved faster so we would've seen something more in respect to an ending to the series.

Volusian - this storyline does deal in a small way with Volusian. I have to say I love the little guy! He is my favorite character in this series, apart from the all-perfect Dorian. We learn about his past, Eugenie has to go to his homeland and she couldn't accomplish what she needs without his help. So he gets closure and I really liked that part!

Dorian - I can't tell you enough how much Eugenie doesn't deserve this man. First of all, with Dorian what you see is what you get. You know he's sneaky and that he wants also what's in his best interest, but in this book he put Eugenie above anything and everything. My heart breaks thinking of the fact that for the most part, she only uses him when it's convenient and this didn't change.

What wouldn't I do for you? *tear*

And I think this pretty much brings me to the ending. OK, let me back up for the last 15%. Everything you thought, was wrong, everything that we believed should've been one way was another. In the last 15% of this book seems like all the loose ends that should've been tied throughout the series started rapidly weaving together. That's all I can say about that without giving stuff away. Just shock after shock.

Now for the actual ending. What.The.Hell.Was.That????? How can Ms. Mead end a series like that? Actually, it doesn't surprise me just because I've known all along that Eugenie is a selfish bitch! So we couldn't really expect more from her right? But I don't see how that can be an ending. No I cannot. Sorry. Very disappointing.

So why the 2.5 feathers if this is still very well written? 50% of the book was too slow, then from 60% on it was just ok. Too many issues where left unanswered. And you cannot end a series with those last few pages without expecting the reader to want to ring Eugenie's stupid neck! It is with great sadness I write this.

Purchase Links: Amazon

ARC Review: All I Want Is You by Sherrill Bodine

All I Want Is You

by Sherrill Bodine

Enemy lover storylines usually work well for me. Something about all that hate can really bring up some passion. Now I normally don't go for books with this much fluff, but sometimes you are just in the mood for that and I picked up this in one of those moods.

Venus is the owner of a vintage boutique. She is also the daughter of the ex-accountant for the Clayworth stores. Her father worked for the Clayworths since forever and one day he was fired, not too nicely, for hiding and stealing money. She has now made it her mission to clean her father's name and prove his innocence. Not only to get him his job back, but to make him feel better about himself.

She has always had a hate-hate relationship with Connor Clayworth, who now runs the store. So she sets her sights on him to find out what happened with this father. Her idea is that while in throws of passion he will spill all his secrets. But she wasn't expecting that plot to backfire when he ends up being really nice, and actually being attracted to her.

There is one more story in this book. A lost pendant reappears. Is it a copy or the true pendant stolen from Clayworth stores many years ago? Connor and Venus will be right in the sights of the thief and they have to draw him out to discover who committed the crime.

I actually did enjoy this book, so if you are feeling in the mood for this type of story, and yes there is steam, then give this book a go!

*ARC provided by publisher