Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Passport France was a lot of fun and we had two very special guest authors who were kind enough to offer a signed copy of their books for a couple of our lucky readers!

The food and Louvre in that order. I’m not a big francophile though.

I’ve never heard of this series before even though it’s on the 11th book and I’m a big mystery reader.

I just wanted to tell you all that I went yesterday to get this book because of this post. It sounds really good and like it will be a welcome change to my reading repitoire, but my book store didn’t have it so I ordered the first 3 books. Do they need to be read in order?

On Monday, Mona reviewed Dark Harmony by Lilly Cain

[A Dark Seduction Novel]

Running from a lover that has twisted her very nature, Lena Townsend hunts alone. Her mildly adventurous sexual life reached its pinnacle, and its end, when she met sexually dominant vampire Darien. He stole her life, and used her sensual nature to bend her to his will. In making her his own, he placed her in a position where she must constantly submit to him, yet be dominant to his pack. It’s a conflict that pulls her apart.

In leaving the pack, Lena strives for independence, but her vampire instincts push her to find more – to find a new pack, a new family. Alone, she cannot share what makes her vampire, and she cannot find a lover she can trust enough to reveal her submissive nature. In her escape Lena discovers a power that could save her – the ability to read and influence emotion. With this talent she might survive the loneliness.

Unfortunately, her old pack wants her back, no matter what.

Richard Heron has given up everything for his daughter since the murder of his wife, but what he misses most is the chance to explore his deeply sensual side once again. Once the owner of a popular S&M; club, and its favored dom, he left everything he was to shelter his family. Lena could offer him more than he ever expected, a level of sensuality he never knew existed and a love that could never die, but he must reconcile the danger she brings with his need to shield his family – especially when what killed his wife was certainly not human.

Read her review HERE

Then later on, Noa reviewed an ARC of the latest C.S. Harris Sebastian St. Cyr mystery – Where Shadows Dance

Sebastian St. Cyr proves his courage once again, with murder and marriage-in a brand new historical mystery.

Sebastian St. Cyr finds himself in the realm of international intrigue when he investigates the murder of a foreign office diplomat-a murder his reluctant bride-to-be, Hero Jarvis, knows something about. And when a second body is found, Sebastian must race to unmask a ruthless killer who is now threatening Hero’s life-and the life of their unborn child.

Read her review HERE

Thursday, Mona reviewed The Season of Risks by Susan Hubbard

The vampire sects are at war—and war among vampires is fought not with weapons, but with minds.

My name is Ariella Montero, and I know a secret. Telling it will change everything.

Half-human and half-vampire, Ari confronts the darker sides of vampirism, and herself, as the sects deploy new technologies to battle for influence and power.

But beyond these challenges lie greater risks: Ari’s relationship with Neil Cameron, the first vampire to run for the U.S. presidency, must be kept under wraps from even those she trusts most. When scandal inevitably erupts, Ari is forced to face the consequences of her actions, learning the hard way that love demands delicate negotiations between memory and desire.

Read her review of The Season of Risks HERE

Friday, Mona reviewed Tempt Me by Shiloh Walker

She’s a temptation he can’t resist…

Roxanne ‘Rocki’ Monroe’s life is full of secrets and hidden heartaches. Cole Stanton would love to heal her pain and chase away the ghosts of her past, but she’s just a complication he doesn’t have room for in his life.

Or so he thinks.

It doesn’t take Cole long to realize he’s more than willing to let temptation get the best of him, more than happy to deal with complications if that’s what it takes to get her.

What he has and what he needs are two different things…and what he needs is Rocki.

Read Mona’s review of Tempt Me HERE

Then Desi reviewed an ARC of Carrie Ryan’s The Dark and Hollow Places, the third book in her Forest of Hands and Teeth series due for release March 22nd 2011 and gave readers a chance to win an early copy!

There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister’s face when she and Elias left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the horde as they found their way to the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.

Annah’s world stopped that day and she’s been waiting for him to come home ever since. Without him, her life doesn’t feel much different from that of the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Then she meets Catcher and everything feels alive again.

Except, Catcher has his own secrets — dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah’s longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it’s up to Annah — can she continue to live in a world drenched in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return’s destruction?

On Saturday Mona reviewed Tulip Days by Rhiannon van der Munnik

Seraphina, a twenty four year old poet from California, has never doubted that she loves her Dutch husband, or that she will spend the rest of her life with him. But when his job brings them to the Netherlands, a chance meeting with her husband’s childhood friend (Jakob, a charming violinist) forces her to ask herself if the life she has is truly the one she wants. Spanning nearly a decade, delves into the aftermath of her decision, and paints a carefully constructed portrait of a young woman attempting to bloom amidst the raw and foreign landscape of Holland.

Read Mona’s review HERE

Then we shared a sneak peek at what we have planned for our upcoming Romantic Times Convention YA extravaganza!

Read the article HERE

On Monday Day will review the third of Jana Oliver’s Time Rover series, “Madman’s Dance”

History is melting down, courtesy of a multi-century plot to bring the Transitive shape-shifters to power. Only Time Rover Jacynda Lassiter can set things back on course, but that will be difficult. She’s been abandoned in a Victorian insane asylum with no memory of who she is.

Her two Victorian friends are facing equal difficulties: Dr. Alastair Montrose is caught between his duty to uncover the truth and powerful foes who wish it buried. Once lauded as a hero, Detective-Sergeant Jonathon Keats is on the run, framed for a woman’s heinous murder. Keats’ arch enemy, Desmond Flaherty, can prove him innocent, but the Fenian isn’t about to come forward, not with the life of his only daughter on the line.

If the anarchist’s cache of explosives ignites the biggest conflagration since the Great Fire of 1666, the future will change. There will be no sanctuary from the Madman’s Dance.

On Tuesday we will announce all the winners from Month of Love giveaways!

Then special guest, Virna DePaul will drop by the dollhouse with a guest blog and giveaway!!!

Wednesday Kitt will review Stacey Kennedy’s Magic Sword Series

Then Mona will review “American Vampire” by Jennifer Armintrout

Buried in the Heartland is a town that no one enters or leaves. Graf McDonald somehow becomes its first visitor in more than five years…and he was only looking for a good party. Unfortunately, Penance, Ohio, is not that place. And after having been isolated for so long, they do not like strangers at all.

Jessa’s the only one to even remotely trust him, and she’s desperate for the kind of protection that only a vampire like Graf can provide. Supplies are low, the locals are ornery for a sacrifice and there’s a monster more powerful than Graf lurking in the woods. New men are hard to come by in this lonesome town, and this handsome stranger might be Jessa’s only hope for salvation.

Even if she has to die first…

On Thursday Day will review Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Mercy Thompson’s life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she’s fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn’t exactly normal herself.

Then Mona will review The Guy Next Door Anthology
Three sexy new spring-fling novellas from three of today’s hottest contemporary romance authors!

Ready, Set, Jett by Lori Foster

A vacation from her no-strings romance with her sexy next-door neighbor. That’s what Natalie Alexander needs to get her head—and heart—together. But her solo trip south turns into a disaster when gorgeous Jett Sutter turns up with another challenge.

Gail’s Gone Wild by Susan Donovan

Single mom Gail Chapman insists on chaperoning her teenage daughter’s spring-break trip to Key West. But she never expects to face temptation—in the hunky form of Jesse Batista, the mysterious man in the cottage next door.

Just One Taste by Victoria Dahl
All-work-and-no-play businessman Eric Donovan won’t be distracted by a “businesswoman” who’s all wrong for him. Beth Cantrell owns a women’s erotica shop! And she has a juicy little secret. Can she tempt him to put pleasure before business for once?

Beware of a kiss under the full moon. It will change your life forever.

Celeste Parker is used to hearing scary stories about werewolves—Legend’s Run is famous for them. She’s used to everything in the small town until Brandon Maddox moves to Legend’s Run and Celeste finds herself immediately drawn to the handsome new student. But when, after an unnerving visit with a psychic, she encounters a pack of wolves and gorgeous, enigmatic Brandon, she must discover whether his transformation is more than legend or just a trick of the shadows in the moonlight.

Her best friends may never forgive her if she gives up her perfect boyfriend, Nash, for Brandon, who’s from the wrong side of town. But she can’t deny her attraction or the strong pull he has on her. Brandon may be Celeste’s hero, or he may be the most dangerous creature she could encounter in the woods of Legend’s Run.

Psychic predictions, generations-old secrets, a town divided, and the possibility of falling in love with a hot and heroic werewolf are the perfect formula for what happens . . . once in a full moon.

After tragedy strikes, Bree Penoyer’s feelings of guilt leave her speechless—literally. Tired of always being the good girl and just letting things happen to her, Bree decides it’s time to take life into her own hands. She dumps her lucrative but uninspiring career and her sweet but boring fiancé, and escapes to her late grandmother’s rustic cabin in South Carolina to find herself again.

Her solitude is immediately disrupted by her new neighbor, Hart Manning, a sexy but arrogant rogue who doesn’t seem capable of taking no for an answer. The last thing Bree wants is an affair, especially with a self-proclaimed womanizer like Hart. But she can’t deny he arouses her as no man ever has, and when at last she finds her voice, she’s very ready to say yes!

Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books—but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. we have lived among you without you knowing.

But they know.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.

I am Number Four.

I am next.