Cyber party with great prizes!!!

Go over to the Nalini Singh’s blog. She's giving away lots of goodies in celebration of her upcoming release Branded By Fire on July 7, 2009.

You are still here? GO, GO, GO!!!


This was just a quick post, I'm in a hurry. Lots of good stuff happened over the weekend and as soon as I get some free time I'll post about it :)

Am I Moody?

Last evening I was driving in a car feeling like a sh** (pardon my French). Why? I don't know. It was a busy day. It was a national holiday and we had a big birthday celebration for my niece at my house. We had a barbecue and birthday cake. All in all 20 grownups and kids. Everything was fine, I was happy and we all got along. After all the cleanup I took a shower and went to some book signing (boring stuff, work - related). And that went fine, too. Afterwards I went for a drink with my boyfriend and then my mood snapped. I became cranky and went to bed angry. Nothing happened, one minute I was perfectly content and the next all hell broke loose :)

This happens to me on a regular basis (twice a month at least). It's not PMS related :), it just is.

Do you have these mood swings? Please say you do or I'll think I'm getting into premature menopauses :) Wait a minute; I do have hot flashes...

New Moon & some happy news

I saw this at Cecile's blog and I just had to put it on mine :) Thanks Cecile!

It looks great, doesn't it?

Also, I have happy news. Although it's not about me it did made my day. Him (being my other half :)) has won the first place in a cycling race. This is very happy news because he had a tough season and this was a major breakthrough!
My weekend consisted of lot of rain, reading and nail biting while I was waiting for news from the tracks.
Oh, another happy announcement - my older sister is pregnant and she'll make me an aunt for the fourth time (it's her second son, and my other sister has two girls). I can't wait for this little boy!
Hope you all had a great weekend (I'm sorry to ask this on Wednesday, but it's been a crazy week so far :)).

Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon - a review

Fantasy Lover is the first book in Dark Hunter Series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. This is series about Greek gods, demons, vampires, were-people but most of all about love and redemption. I started reading this series in the middle when I found a free e-book a year from now. It was a confusing way of entering a completely new world. I don't recommend it. But I was curious, and I started buying sequels. Yesterday I finally finished it. And what an irony - with the first book in the series.
Fantasy Lover kept me awake through the whole night. But I don't regret a minute of the lost sleep. It was great. It was heart wrenching and I cried a few times but I smiled too. It’s a book about lost youth and hard childhood. It asks the question about what we are prepared to do to earn love from other persons. It has a strong message about self-respect and a price of love.
S. Kenyon was an abused child and I think that's the reason why she can describe so well a suffering of unwanted child or even a grownup. Through all Dark Hunter series this theme is present. But that's the reason I just LOVE IT.

Here is the blurb:

Dear Reader, Being trapped in a bedroom with a woman is a grand thing. Being trapped in hundreds of bedrooms over two thousand years isn't. And being cursed into a book as a love-slave for eternity can ruin even a Spartan warrior's day.As a love-slave, I know everything about women. How to touch them, how to savor them, and most of all, how to pleasure them. But when I was summoned to fulfill Grace Alexander's sexual fantasies, I found the first woman in history who saw me as a man with a tormented past. She alone bothered to take me out of the bedroom and onto the world. She taught me to love again.But I was not born to love. I was cursed to walk eternity alone. As a general, I had long ago accepted my sentence. Yet now I have found Grace--the one thing my wounded heart cannot survive without. Sure, love can heal all wounds, but can it break a two-thousand-year-old curse?—Julian of Macedon

Although this is the beginning of Dark Hunter series, Dark Hunters themselves aren't mentioned yet. I loved Julian and all his good and bad qualities. I was a little suspicious about love-slave theme at first (hence the reason this was the last book in series I read), but there was no reason for suspicion - Kenyon is a great storyteller and she did it great, again. Grace is a great person who won't succumb to their mutual sex appeal just like that. She wants it to mean something. And it will mean a lot more then you or they expect at the beginning. This is the book that you read with your heart not your mind.
All in all - great read.

I give it 5 feathers:

There is another series called Dream Hunters which takes place in the same world as Dark Hunters and many of the characters appear in both. I strongly recommend both.

Here are all books in the both series (minus anthologies and free read that you can download on S. Kenyon’s web) - from my own bookshelf.

For more information about the book, other series and author please visit:
http://www.officialsanctuary.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/officialdarkhunter.

The new redesigned webpage is expected soon.
The next book in the series is called Bad Moon Rising and it will be available on August 4, 2009.

The first ROMANCE review

Ok, this is my first review in ROMANCE review contest. I like short and informative reviews myself so this is going to be one of them.

As a first, I read Elisabeth Naughton's book called Stolen Fury. I won this book in a contest. Ms Naughton not only sent the book to me in a very short time but also included mouse pad and some promo materials in the package. She also signed the book form me. Don't you just love when authors and people in general are generous? I was very happy to receive this presents. And I must confess that this had made me like the book more before I even started to read it. It's a first book in a new trilogy. Elisabeth was a new author for me, a discovery really!
Here goes the blurb:

"Oh, is he handsome. And charming. And sexy as all get out. Dr. Lisa Maxwell isn’t the type to go home with a guy she barely knows. But, hey, this is Italy and the red-blooded Rafe Sullivan seems much more enticing than cataloging a bunch of dusty artifacts.After being fully seduced, Lisa wakes to an empty bed and, worse yet, an empty safe. She’s staked her career as an archaeologist on collecting the three Furies, a priceless set of ancient Greek reliefs. Now the one she had is gone. But Lisa won’t just get mad. She’ll get even.She tracks Rafe to Florida, and finds the sparks between them blaze hotter than the Miami sun. He may still have her relic, but he’ll never find all three without her. And they’re not the only ones on the hunt. To beat the other treasure seekers, they’ll have to partner up—because suddenly Lisa and Rafe are in a race just to stay alive"

This is a fast paced book. The main characters, Lisa and Rafe, are very lovable from the start. You can really relate to them. I don't want to post spoilers here, so I'm sorry if this sounds wage. The issues both characters fight with are real and very common nowadays. But although Lisa is tough scientific woman with one goal in front of here, she's underneath very real. She's not soft and that's what I like about her. Although she's been through a lot, she's still strong and independent. It's such a relief to find a strong female character in romance book. Because, this is exactly that - a romance book. Rafe seems like a crook at first, but after you find out what are the reasons behind he's behaviour you just have to like him. There are a bunch of side characters, that aren't shallow but well written and developed, and if you are bad with remembering names (as I am) you will have to be concentrated while you read. I don't recommend reading it in bed because it will keep you wake till early morning hours. It's not one dimensional book, it has layers and the romance part is not in focus the whole time. At the same time, you are not bombarded with scientific stuff but only with necessary things to understand why things happen the way they do and why characters do them. Another thing I like is, although the fire between Lisa and Rafe burns from the beginning it still takes it's time. Nothing feels rushed but on the contrary very natural. The dialogs are well written and there aren't too many sex scenes. I would say this book has a right amount of everything; not too much of anything :) If you like adventurous stories with romance elements, this is the book for you. I recommend it highly.

I give it 5 feathers

The second book in the series is called Stolen Heath and it' comes out on July 28, 2009 and the third book is Stolen Seduction and it comes out in January 2010.
For more information and excerpts here's the link to Elisabeth's web site: http://elisabethnaughton.com/

P.S. You have probably already noticed that English is not my mother tongue, so I apologise for any and every mistake I made.

A day at a beach

I went to the beach today. It's only 45 minutes drive away from my house. It was great. The sea was a little bit cold because we had a rainy week. We went in the afternoon and after a quick swim I fell asleep. I have very light and sensitive skin, and guess what happened? I got burned! While I was sleeping the shade slipped away and my left arm and leg are red! And when I say red I mean RED! I really don’t know how I’ll wear a T-shirt tomorrow :)
All in all, it was a fun weekend - which was totally unexpected.
Have a great week!

Unplanned trip to the National Park

I had a great day. It didn't look like it in the morning. Day started like it was going to be really bad, but in the afternoon He asked me to go to the National Park that is 60km from the town where I live. Since it wasn't planned trip, we couldn't take a long tour through park. I've been there several times before, but my last visit was five years ago so I was very happy to go there. We arrived in the late afternoon and took an electric train to the most attractive part of the park. We usually walk the whole trail, but as I sad we had a late start. The only means of transportation in NP is by electric train and electric boat or, of course, on foot :)
Here's what you see when you get off the train

Then you have to go down this stairs and through the cave

This is me at the end of the cave And look at the view when you get out This is Him on the trail

The view of the waterfalls

The Great Waterfall And going home on an electric boat

We had a great weather, saw different kinds of fish, birds and ducks. It was a really great day. And I'm so exhausted, the fresh air just kicked me in the lungs and I swear they are bigger now. I have to go to sleep and rest my, now bigger, lungs. :)

Have a great day!

Gifts

Today, I went on a business trip and during the break in the meeting I went to a nearby shopping mall. Look what I bought: Two bunny baskets! They look so cute. They are birthday presents for my niece. But they are so lovely and pink (they go very good with the colour of my bedroom - lavender). I'm soooo tempted to leave them for myself :)
But I will be a grownup aunt and give them away.
I also bought another presents. Three milk cups. They are for my nieces and nephew because they stopped drinking from their bottles (all at the same time, as an agreement).
That's all from me. It's been a crazy weekend and crazier beginning of the week. We had a wind storm on Saturday. It wasn't raining but wind was blowing like crazy. We didn't have electricity on Saturday and some of the trees in the city park were broken. Luckily, nothing was broken around our house except a few tree branches. On Sunday I had to do all my housecleaning plus ironing which I hate to do. This is usually my grandma’s job but she's away for three weeks so I'm already behind whit it.
And on Monday and Tuesday I ran from one business meeting to another so I don't have anything exciting to blog about. I didn't have time to read or anything else.
Hope things will calm down. Also, Thursday is The Body Day (I hope this is a correct English term?) which is Christian holiday as well as national holiday. So I have an extra day free :) Maybe I'll catch up on my reading. . .

P.S. After closer examination, I'm not sure if those are bunny or dog baskets? What do you think?