ARC Review: Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost

Once Burned

by Jeaniene Frost

(Night Prince # 1)

An ode to Vlad...

Because you are fierce as few others

Because you are caring to your friends and your people

Because you are a protector amongst villains

All that raw passion, sensuality and heat
You make me melt with just a touch, just a look or a simple word

There is no other like you

I bow to thee

You have my love, my heart, and even though you've found The One know that you will always be number one for me

~Love

Francesca

What can I say? I'm in love!  But I already knew that from the first moment I laid eyes on Vlad in the Night Huntress series.  My love for him has only grown with each of those books to the point that when he's not around I feel his absence.  When I found out that Ms. Frost was giving my boyfriend his own series, well... You can only imagine the fangirl screaming that caused.  Of course with any book that I go into with such high expectations I'm always scared.  And all I can tell you now is this book rocked my world!

But before I continue telling you all about Vlad, lets talk about Leila.  She wasn't what I expected in a very good way.  Her background is very interesting and she has some powers while she's still very much human.  Having worked and traveled with the circus because of an accident that left her in the predicament of shocking the ever loving mind out of anyone she comes in contact with and being able to see their darkest, deepest secrets by just a touch.  Tough to live with, yes, but very cool.  And oh the possibilities!  I also thought her personality was great!  Vlad needed someone with some spice and some kick.  I think she's the perfect blend.  She's funny, she's strong, she's independent.  But she's also vulnerable and soft.  The perfect female for Vlad...well, after me of course.

"Beautiful and diabolical. You make me impatient indeed to claim you." ~ Vlad

And I have to mention that my heart was beating faster when I started reading and the heroine was going by the name of Frankie.  I know, I know, her name is Leila, but when everyone was calling her Frankie I could just pretend that's how Vlad would call her and even though I've only had one person use that nickname for me, I'd take it gladly for Vlad.  See? Just another point that he really should've ended up with me!

The story was full of action and intrigue as Vlad is being targeted by his enemies and he has to not only protect himself and his people, but protect Leila since she's the one that revealed the plot to him.  I thought this was a job well done all around.

Especially with mixing enough romance in with this urban fantasy.  Ms. Frost has always been one for straddling that line between genres and I decided to go with an urban fantasy category for this book but just know that the romance is a big part of this story.  And oh what a wonderful part.  Vlad is smooth even when he's extra cocky about his own self (pun intended).  I wasn't expecting any less from Vlad because he just knows how to heat things up.

"I want to know what your end game is first." ~ Leila

Another flash of teeth, this time showing his fangs.  "To have you screaming my name within the hour." ~ Vlad

At the same time though, there was a tenderness and vulnerability to him that I always knew was there.  He's been hurt, he's guarded himself.  He's not an easy man to get close to and he lets Leila in.  It was beautiful and sweet to watch him change for her and show her the attention, care and respect her always gave her.  Always believing in her and not pushing her aside but wanting her to be better.  Vlad can make Leila stronger and she can make him whole.

"You're not just versatile and complex - it's like you're a schizophrenic!" ~ Leila

And then there's the Night Huntress cast.  Fun cameo appearances by Cat and Bones, as well as Mencheres and Kira.  Bones is just too much sometimes and the banter between him and Vlad is comical.  Yes, there's quite a bit of humor in this book as well.

Did I mention how perfect it was?  OK good because in case you didn't realize it yet, you have to get this book because it will leave you breathless and aching for more.  More story, more Vlad, just .... more!!!!!

"We are all more than the sum of our sins." ~ Vlad

"I' am so Googling 'Vlad Dracul' once this is all over," I stated. "Wikipedia knows more about his past than I do." ~ Leila

*ARC provided by publisher

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Booksonboard.com

Covers to Covet: Once Burned by Jeaniene Frost!

UTC is anxiously awaiting the release of Jeaniene Frost's upcoming release, ONCE BURNED. Night Huntress fans, you have a reason to rejoice because it's getting closer and that means Vlad will soon be in my hot little hands! What do you think of this cover? Are we liking it?

She’s a mortal with dark powers…
After a tragic accident scarred her body and destroyed her dreams, Leila never imagined that the worst was still to come: terrifying powers that let her channel electricity and learn a person’s darkest secrets through a single touch. Leila is doomed to a life of solitude…until creatures of the night kidnap her, forcing her to reach out with a telepathic distress call to the world’s most infamous vampire…

He’s the Prince of Night…
Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all—but whatever you do, don’t call him Dracula. Vlad’s ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him – a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.

Once Burned releases on June 26th

Read an excerpt

Purchase links:

Paperback

Kindle

Review: The Bite Before Christmas by Lynsay Sands and Jeaniene Frost

The Bite Before Christmas

by Lynsay Sands and Jeaniene Frost

(Argeneau Vampires # 15.5 and Night Huntress # 6.5)

The Gift by Lynsay Sands
3.5 Feathers

Following in the Argeneau Vampires series we now get the story of Katricia Argeneau, and forgive me if I was supposed to know who she is, I'm behind on my Argeneau reading; and Teddy Brunswick. Who is Teddy? I thought this was cute. He is the sheriff of Port Henry, he is an older gentleman, close to retiring age. He's never married, and now decides to go on a vacation for the Holidays instead of going to friends houses. Of course he gets help from Marguerite Argeneau, Matchmaker by Excellence.

She just happens to arrange for Katricia to be spending the Holidays in the house next to Teddy. See Marguerite has a good eye for finding people's life mates and as it turns out Katricia can't read Teddy's thoughts.

They end up stuck due to a snow storm and power outage, and even though Teddy knows about vampires he is not the most comfortable around Katricia. He shouldn't be noticing how enticing she looks in those leotards, or is it leggings she calls them?

This was a pretty sweet story but it wasn't anything crazy special. Not a lot of the crazy humor. ut I actually enjoyed it more than the last full length book I've read in the series.

Home For The Holidays by Jeaniene Frost
4 Feathers

OMG This is a MUST READ for Night Huntress fans! In my opinion this story could've been made into a full length book! There was so much potential and I think some things were over-simplified because it was a novella.

However, don't let that fool you. This story rocked! I don't want to give too much away, but basically here's what you can expect: Someone from Bones' past comes back, and brings back with him a curse that Bones's was not even aware of. The whole gang (almost) is under this spell and everyone is basically possessed and it's up to Ian and Cat to save the day.

Yes, Ian plays a pretty big role in this story. I love him! And we even get to see Ian make out with.... I won't tell you who!!!

This story might make you want to kick Bones in the balls, pull Mencheres hair out, kiss Ian to death and comfort Cat.

Purchase Links: Amazon

Reading on the Dark Side: Night Huntress

Night Huntress

by Jeaniene Frost

It's that time of the month again!  We are featuring another favorite series of ours that, if you haven't read you need to get to it immediately, and if you've read it, then you'll love what we've put together.



Name: Crispin Russell
Vampire Name: Bones
Books: The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost
Appearance: Brown eyes, pale perfect skin, naturally has slightly curly brown hair but keeps it short and platinum blonde. Sharp cheekbones and drop dead (haha) sexy
Previous Employment: Man whore and more recently Mercenary
Species: Vampire
Sire: Ian
Quote: "There is only one way to fight, and that's dirty. Clean gentlemanly fighting will get you nowhere but dead, and fast. Take every cheap shot, every low blow, absolutely kick people when they're down, and maybe you'll be the one who walks away."

Name: Catherine Crawfield aka Cat
Affectinately known as... The Red Reaper
Books: The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost
Appearance: Red hair and grey eyes that when pissed turn vampire green, clear pale skin and a killer body
Species: Half Vampire, Half Human
Family: Her mother Justine Crawfield, her father she has no idea but when she finds him, she is gonna kill him.
Quote: "I'm saying that I'm a moody, insecure, narrow-minded, jealous, borderline homicidal bitch, and I want you to promise me that you're okay with that, because it's who I am, and you're what I need."

Name: Baron Charles De Mortimer
Vampire Name: Spade
Book: Appears in the Night Huntress Series regularly but also has his own book: First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World #1)
Species: Vampire
Past: When they were human Spade, Ian and Bone's were all sent in the same convict ship to Australia.
Apperance: Inky black shoulder length hair, dark amber eyes and the pale perfect skin of a vampire.
Quote: "I wanted you to watch, so I stomped around the room to wake you before I got in the shower. Didn't you wonder why the light was on? It wasn't for me, I can see in the dark. And then I kept the water cold so the glass wouldn't fog."

Name: Denise MacGregor
Book: Appears in the Night Huntress Series but also has her own book: First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World #1)
Appearance: Hazel eyes and mahognany hair with a roses and cream complexion
Species: Human
Friends & Family: Became best friends with Cat after Cat saved her from a vampire attack, and she was married but her husband was viciously attaked and killed by zombies.
Quote: "A vibrator can last all night too Vampire!"

Name: Mencheres
Book: Apears in the Night Huntress Series frequently but has his own book: Eternal Kiss of Darkness (Night Huntress World #2)
Appearance: SEXY!!! Egyptian looking with golden skin and long black hair and coal coloured eyes he appears like he is in his mid 20's
Species: Vampire, one of the oldest
Classic Quote: "The shit’s gonna splatter, start buggin’, yo,"
Quote: Dead or not, you must be bored with women telling you how you look like the hottest, most exotic wet dream they’ve ever had. No wonder the thought of you, grapes, and some scented massage oils crossed my mind – and if you drop that towel again, I’m going to need a cold shower."

Name Kira Graceling
Book: Eternal Kiss of Darkness (Night Huntress World #2)
Appearance: Pale green eyes, curly shoulder length hair which is golden at the tips, slender body.
Profession: She is a Private Investigator, but she wanted to be a cop.
Species: Human, one of the rare humans that Vampires cannot read or control their mind.
Family: She has a sister called Tina who is terminally ill and a brother.
Quote: "First bubble baths. Now Disney parks. You're shattering every creep vampire myth I've ever heard."

Name: Vlad
Also known as...Dracula!
Appearance: Brown hair, and has a goate cooppery green eyes. Not exactly handsome but intriguing.
Books: He is the Night Huntress series BUT he is also getting his own series, the first book is Once Burned and is due out March 2012
Species: Vampire
Special Powers: He is a pyrokinetic, he can cast and control fire.
Quote: "You arrogant, overpublicized, showy old bat, what are you waiting for? Aren't you the king of all bogeymen? The legend children fear will devour them if they misbehave? Come on Vlad, live up to your reputation! If you can't burn to death one Egyptian vampire chained to a wall how did you ever drive the Turks from Romania?"
"Premature inflammation,” he replied. “Happens sometimes. Very embarrassing. I don’t like to talk about it."

Name: Ian
Appearance: Pale skin vampire skin, chestnut hair and turquoise eyes
Species: Vampire
Sire: Mencheres
Books: Ian is in the Night Huntress series from One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress #2) but is mentioned from the first book
Quote: Ian laughed. “Charles, mate, you fret too much. I’m a grown man, I am, and I can blood my handle.”
"Handle your blood?” Bones offered dryly.
Ian grinned. “Exactly."
"Before you go, mate, turn on the telly. Something raunchy, too. Think I’ll rub one off before I sleep."

Name: Tate Bradley
Appearence: Buzz cut brown hair and navy blue eyes, in his late twenties.
Books: He appears in all the Night Huntress Series book, we are hoping he gets a book of his own!
Species: Human
Profession: He works for the Military on a top secret project on Vampires, Cat is now his commander and they try and protect humans from naughty vampires.
Secret Crush: Okay it isn't so secret, but Cat

Name: Justine Crawfield
Books: Justine is in all the Night Huntress books
Species: Human
Family: Justine is Cat's mother and is Justine's only child.
Pet Hates: She HATES with a burning and fiery passion all vampires; including Bones.

Are you a fan? Show Your Love!

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Jeaniene Frost is graciously giving away any book from her backlist, winner's choice! IT'S SIGNED!  So if you want to win one of her books, all you have to do is:

1. Be a follower

2. Fill out the form below

This giveaway is international. 

Winner will be chosen via random.org

Good luck!  Contest is open until October 31!

NY Comic Con 2011

Under The Covers goes to NY Comic Con

Hello maidens!  I can't tell you all how excited I was to be able to get a ticket last minute to go to Comic Con, at least for one day!  So let me give you all a quick update.  I started out the day really early and was at the Javits Center 2 hours before the show actually opened.  Let me tell you that was not early enough, the line to actually get in was already massive!!!  So after standing in line in a cramped "basement" for two hours, along with hoards of people, we were finally let in!  By the time I practically ran to the Conan panel (which started at 10am) the line was already closed because the room would be over capacity!  So I missed the panel about the movie.  So next stop... pick up my ticket for my photo opp.  With ticket in hand the lady at Celebrity Authentics tells me to be back there at 1:30pm for the photo.

Started walking around the booths, and let me tell you there were sooo many vendors and so much cool stuff!  Of course I had a great time just looking at people's costumes!  Some were extremely well put together.  However, I did not understand the massive fascination with Pikachu.  Maybe because I never got into it too much, but THAT was the most popular costume!  I would say a good 30% of the people seemed to be dressed up, which I thought was pretty cool!  My favorite though... and no I didn't get pictures of any of those because I was running around... were the anime style outfits!  Those looked sooooo cute and sexy!  Even the steampunk outfits were crazy cool!  Definitely fun to see!



A couple of things to keep in mind if you are planning to attend the next one. You cannot do everything you want! It's almost impossible. I only got to do one panel, and if I had done one more I would've missed signings or something else. There's a lot of running around trying to be where you need to be at a certain time, a lot of standing in lines, and it's chaotic to figure out where you're going and navigate through so many people. So be prepared to go in a group so you can get more done and make sure you know in advance at least the times of the signings, panels and things you want to do and see.

No, there wasn't a lot of time for eating or even bathroom breaks! LOL

OK but enough of that!  Let me tell you about the BEST part!  The books!!!!!  Books.Books.And More Books!  The people at the publishers booths were extremely nice, I got lots of free goodies from Harper Collins, Penguin Group and Del Rey (I know I'm leaving some out)!  Special author appearances by MY FAVORITE urban fantasy ladies included: Jeaniene Frost, Marjorie M. Liu, Kristen Painter, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison, Alison Goodman and Sabrina Benulis.  And yes I got to meet most of them!  Yay me!  Totally starstruck!  And yes, I got to even take a picture with our Author of the Month!  Check out my pics:

Jeaniene Frost

Marjorie M. Liu

Alison Goodman

Patricia Briggs

They were all so extremely nice and funny!  The panel We're No Angels was a lot of fun!  We got to hear how the authors started writing, the writing process, the editing process, the publishing process.  The way their careers have changed their lives!  It was a great insight into some of my favorite authors out there as well as a great of learning about authors I haven't read before and now I can't wait to dive into!  I loved that Marjorie M. Liu made the decision of leaving behind her career as an attorney to become an author and had to downgrade her lifestyle to do what she loved, even though she was a bit worried about what her family would think about her writing steamy sex scenes in her books.  Jeaniene Frost admitting that she's a procrastinator with the Mañana Syndrome.  Kim Harrison admitting to not being afraid of writing crap and then throwing away a bunch of chapters that she wrote until the story started really flowing and coming to her.  Sabrina Benulis being influenced by anime and manga, I'm very curious to read her book now.  Kristen Painter was just so much fun!  Alison Goodman made her decision of becoming a writer when she was in college and it took a while for her family to accept that but they finally did; and how cool is it she was there all the way from Australia?!?  Patricia Briggs was amazing to hear, a lot of fun and I loved that she told the story about her husband calling her one day complaining about his job and she told him "You can quit now!".  They also talked about the difference in the styles of writing between male and female writers in UF and talked about favorite authors, Diana Gabaldon being one mentioned often.  And my favorite question from the audience... a guy that actually admitted he reads romance novels and wanted to know why the men are always so alpha!  ;)  Response, women like to read about the tortured alpha males, that are alrger than life, and the woman who can fix them.  I also got to meet the artist of the Dark Swan graphic novel, he was extremely nice!

I got a lot of free goodies!!!  Thank God I dragged my boyfriend along because he was carrying about 3 totes worth of stuff around for me, as well as standing in lines while I was in others so I could get everything done.  Isn't he sweet?!?! 

So you want to take a pic at my loot?

And yes.... you might be wondering about a certain picture there on that table *sigh* You know I love all the authors I met and heard speaking, and I got a lot of goodies, and all that was fine and exciting.... BUT, and please don't hold this against me, the best part of the show was Jason Momoa!  That was the photo opp I was talking about before, so let me finish the story.  I go back at 1:30 all excited to take my picture, and they're taking pictures with Rose McGowan.  So I asked what happened to Jason Momoa and they tell me his slot was 11:30 - 12:30.  So I started freaking out until someone there took pity on me and told me they would bring him back to take my picture!!!  Don't I just feel special?!!?  So even though I had to wait a little extra, meeting Jason Momoa and having this picture makes up for ANYTHING else, and yes this was my favorite part of the show!  *wipes the drool off the keyboard*  I was very proud of myself I could carry on a conversation with him, even as he was looking me in the eye, holding my hand, and speaking in his low sexy voice!  You just want me to stop talking now and show you right?

Jason as our Hottie of the Week (in June)