Halloween Doggies

So I don't have any human babies yet, but I am the proud momma of 3 doggies {two Teacup Chihuahuas and one mystery dog which we think is a Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound mix}

I thought it'd be fun to share a few pics of them in their costumes.

{Left to Right:  Cassie, Lady and Toby}

{The four-legged love of my life, Toby in his boo bandana}

{Lady in her striped skull sweater. She's got the cutest floppy ears.}

{And last, but not least, my teeniest munchkin, Cassie the Teacup Witch!}

And we got a visitor today :) The lovable Missie from The Unread Reader stopped by with her pooch Ozzie. 

 {Ozzie is a 10 year old Australian Cattle Dog, as known as Blue Heelers}

 {Ozzie was Witch's Best Friend to Missie's adorable cousin Kaycee.  That is one cute pair!}

Thanks Missie for stopping by today...I'd be happy to doggy sit anytime {Ozzie looks really sweet}  :)
Hope all your pets are enjoying Halloween as much as we are! 
♥Isalys

Cover Art: Darkest Secret by Gena Showalter

I usually don't reveal covers back-to-back because I like to space out my posts...but there was absolutely, positively NO WAY I could wait to share this cover with you all!!!

So Gena Showalter, who you all I know I'm a HUGE fan of, has just revealed the cover art and synopsis for the next LOTU book, The Darkest Secret {Amun's story}.

And ladies, feast your eyes on this YUMMALICIOUS cover!!!

The Darkest Secret (Lords of the Underworld #7)
by Gena Showalter

Good lord, is it me or did it just get a hot in here?!
Hello, arms, chest and "V" *wiggle eyebrows*

Scheduled to be released March 1, 2011 by Harlequin.
{March is wayyyy too far away!}

Synopsis:
Keeper of the demon of Secrets, Amun can manipulate the darkest thoughts of anyone nearby. But when new demons possess him, the immortal warrior must be chained and isolated to protect those he loves. Death is his only hope of release—until he meets Haidee, a fellow prisoner whose beauty and hidden vulnerability draw him into a reckless test of his loyalty.

Haidee is an infamous demon assassin, raised to despise Amun’s kind. Yet how can she hate the man whose touch sets her aflame? But to save him, she must give herself body and soul…and face the wrath of a powerful adversary sworn to destroy her.

Cover Art: Shimmer by Alyson Noel

Shimmer

Radiance #2 from The Immortals Spin-off Series
by Alyson Noel

Scheduled to be released on March 15, 2011

{Love the serene colors!}

Review: Devil at Midnight by Emma Holly

Title: Devil at Midnight
{A Novel of the Upyr}
Author: Emma Holly
Publish Date: November 2, 2010

by Berkley
Pages: 352, paperback
Reviewed by: Isalys
Reason for reading: Reviewed for The Season

Grace Gladwell is a typical girl in suburbia 1950. She’s sweet and pretty and Johnny is just crazy about her, but no one other than her mother know that Grace is the victim of her father’s drunken violent rages. He’s physically and verbally abusive. One night he goes too far when he catches Grace giving Johnny a goodnight kiss. He pushes her and she hits her head when she stumbles into the brick fireplace. Next thing she knows, she wakes up in an amphitheatre with a blond guy in a suit (very Meet Joe Black) who says he’s her guardian. He radiates patience, love and goodness. Never having known any of that, Grace asked him if she would ever get to meet her One True Love. He surprises her when he tells her that she’s already known a love like that.

Christian Durand is a young mercenary in Switzerland during the middle ages. Strong, loyal and compassionate – he’s easy to love. However, it seems he’s never been able to gain the love or approval of his father who continues to push him around. One day, he brings home a dog to join their hunting party, but the dog is young and playful and a distraction to some of the men. In place of the men who were caught “goofing around”, he takes a severe whipping as punishment. He is then forced to destroy the dog. (As a dog lover, this scene nearly broke my heart.)

Back at the amphitheater, Michael shows Grace this scene. Grace is overwhelmed by a fierce desire to comfort Christian so she asks Michael to send her to him. Grace is sent to Christian, but in the form of a ghost. Christian cannot comprehend how or why the specter of a beautiful girl suddenly appears to him. At first, he wants to be rid of her but after a short time together; he finds that he enjoys her company. She even manages to go corporeal from time to time so in those rare moments, they get to enjoy some very powerful and intimate time together.

A couple of days into her “visit” with Christian, he and several of their men are sent to accompany a mysterious minstrel on a journey to Italy. What no one knows is that the minstrel is no ordinary woman. She’s a powerful upyr (aka vampire) and she has set her eyes on turning Christian. With Grace’s love and support, he refuses Mistress Wei’s advances and soon learns of her real identity. What Christian has no control over is when and how Grace will appear to him or of the battle against his father that will cost him everyone he loves. He then makes a decision that will change the rest of his life…

To be quite honest, I was a little concerned about how the story would play out considering the interesting cast of characters. I couldn’t imagine how a mercenary from the middle-ages, a 1950’s ghost and a vampire would all fit together. However, it didn’t take me long to become fully engrossed in Grace & Christian’s story.

Christian was indeed easy to love. He embodied all the qualities that we look for in a perfect hero. Grace was stronger and more assertive than I initially expected her to be considering her violent past. It seems that she overcame her fears rather quickly. They shared a very powerful connection that transcended the 500 years between their lifetimes. The love scenes were more intense than I expected them to be – even when Grace wasn’t corporeal.

I debated on whether to give this novel an 8 or 9 and so I settled on a compromise of 8.5. Overall, the story was fast paced with a lot of passion, action and unique characters. I loved the emotional connection between Grace and Christian. I also enjoyed getting to know the background characters, particularly Christian’s friends. They were amusing, well-diversified and provided depth to Christian’s story because they were so much a part of his life.

I had a couple of concerns with this novel though. Christian and Grace were both quite young (under 20 years old) and I felt that their sexual relationship seemed almost inappropriate. I had to remind myself that the story took place at a time where people married young and this was the norm. My other concern was that although the differences in language between them were referenced, I think it could have been a bit more accurate to their respective eras.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the ending. I was a bit surprised by the turns that it took. It did, however, set up the follow-up novel, Angel at Dawn which I look forward to reading. The story will go from a historical to a more contemporary and I’m intrigued as to how the Emma Holly will accomplish this.

RATING: 4.5 of 5
HEAT LEVEL: 5.5 - Borderline Erotic

Wicked Winner #2

Once again, Happy Hump Day ya'll!

Thanks again for all those who stopped by and entered last week's contest. This week's lucky winner is...

aLmYbNeNr

Congrats Amber!! Random.org has chosen you to win our "Spooky Night In" Halloween Prize Pack #2 which includes a DVD of "Interview with the Vampire", a copy of "Crave" by J.R. Ward, a set of three Halloween socks, and a Halloween mug & dish set.

Hope you truly enjoy your spooktacular Halloween prizes =)

Teaser Tuesday 10.26.10

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading and it asks us to...

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share a couple of “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

Isalys's Teaser:

“How do you know what color my nipples are?” she said in a raw voice. “It’s dark in here.”

“You know I’m a very bad man, poppet. I may have peeked when you were asleep. Believe me, I’ve suffered for my sins. I haven’t been able to stop thinking of them in days.”

"Ruthless" by Anne Stuart

{Lord Rohan is definitely one of the naughtiest heroes I've ever read ... I'm such a smutty-smut-slut and I love it!}

New Releases 10.26.10

♥ Contemporary / Fiction ♥
None :(

♥ Historical Fiction ♥
None :(

♥ Biography / Memoir / Inspirational / Non-Fiction ♥


Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That? by Ina Garten
The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks
The Tattoo Chronicles by Kat Von D
Life by Keith Richards

♥ Mystery / Suspense / Thriller ♥

The Confession by John Grisham
Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

♥ Humor ♥
None :(

♥ Horror ♥
None :(

♥ Urban Fantasy / Sci-Fi ♥

Harvest Hunting: Otherworld #8 by Yasmine Galenorn

♥ Paranormal Romance ♥


The Wolf Prince by Karen Kelley
Drink of Me by Jacquelyn Frank
Ecstasy in Darkness: Alien Huntress #5 by Gena Showalter
When Wicked Craves by J. K. Beck
Stronger Than Sin by Caridad Pineiro

♥ Historical Romance ♥

Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sarah MacLean
{OMG, I sooo loved this book!! Definitely ♥♥♥♥♥ in my book!}

Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander
The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig

♥ Contemporary Romance ♥

The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde

♥ Romantic Suspense ♥
None :(

♥ YA ♥

Ghost Town (The Morganville Vampires #9) by Rachel Caine

Misguided Angel (Blue Bloods #5) by Melissa de la Cruz
The Emerald Flame (Warrior Princess) by Frewin Jones

Happy Shopping and Happy Reading!

Guest Blogger: Halloween with Paranormal Haven

Every Monday this month, we welcoming a Guest Blogger(s) to Book ♥ Soulmates.

This week we asked the lovely and very witty ladies from Paranormal Haven to tell us all about how they like to celebrate Halloween with the kids!

We want to thank Isalys & Vanessa for inviting us to join them during their Halloween celebration. Since our Halloweens are dedicated to Athenna's little ones (who are Stephanie's godchildren) we would like you to join us as we crack open the photo album and take a trip down memory lane. We wanted to show off past Halloween costumes worn by 4 of Athenna's 5 (yup 5) kids. Be warned, our sense of humor may seem a bit off.

Gabriel as Andy (2005)

Stephanie: I had no say in this costume. In fact, I was against it. It looks like Gabriel was too.

Athenna: I liked it and they both would have looked cute if they didn't cry when I put it on them.

Stephanie: There are no known pictures of Adrianna in her costume. She REALLY hated it!

Athenna: And she will probably thank me for that when she's older.

Gabriel as Donald Duck (2007)

Athenna: He was done with trick or treating. He decided to just take the whole bucket.

Stephanie: Ya, good luck getting this kid to share his candy.

Athenna: He learned his food sharing skills from you.

Stephanie: Yes, Stephanie does not share her food. (Fans of Friends got that one)

Cayla and Adrianna as angels (2008)

Stephanie: Ooohhh, how adorable! This is when Adrianna was 3. If I was to dress her now she would be wearing a lil' devil costume.

Athenna: If I remember correctly she said she got her attitude from you.

Stephanie: No comment!

Gabriel as a greaser (2008)

Athenna: Watch out John Travolta. You've got nothing on him.

Stephanie: The tattoo was a nice touch.

Gabriel Captain Hook (2008)

Stephanie: Costume looks perfect....until you get to the shoes.

Athenna: He didn't want to wear the boot covers and they didn't fit him.

Stephanie: That's right he is abnormally small like his mother.

Athenna: Just because he is foot shorter than everyone in his class doesn't make him abnormal.

Jayden as Mickey (2008)

Athenna: That was the best part of the costume, the little Mickey butt.

Stephanie: He could not have been less interested in taking pictures. Apparently grass is more entertaining than us.

Adrianna as Minnie Mouse (2008)

Stephanie: If she only would behave as adorably as she looks.

Athenna: She is really cute. We might have to lock her up during her teenage years.

Jayden as an old man (2008 or year of many costumes)

Athenna: Look at my little old man. Great last minute costume.

Stephanie: The bow tie and hair do really make the costume.

Athenna: You can't see them but I liked the penny loafers the best.

Adrianna as Little Red Riding Hood (2009)

Stephanie: I picked this one. Another adorable pick on my part :-)

Athenna: I still think she would have made a cute Marilyn Monroe!

Stephanie: Right. Dress her up as a sex symbol *rolls eyes*

Jayden Robin (2009)

Athenna: He really did like that costume

Stephanie: I bet you didn't know Robin wears Thomas the Tank Engine sun glasses

Athenna: If not, Robin should because he looks super cool

Thank you for enduring our humor and we want to thank our lovely hosts here at Book ♥ Soulmates for having us over.

Thank you ladies for stopping by and hanging out with us.  Athenna, I bet you have your hands full {I don't know how you find the time to blog too, lol} but your kids are absolutely adorable!  

If you'd like to see more pictures including what they will dress up as for Halloween this year, then make sure to check out their special Halloween post on October 31st!

Winners - Updated!

First and foremost, I owe you guys an apology!  I announced the winners for "Sin Undone" and "Seduced by Highlander" back at the end of September but I never submitted the winner's info to the publishing company :(  I hadn't heard back from some of the winners and then I just plum forgot!  Oops. 

I updated the original post with the winners of our last blog tour for "A Season of Seduction".  Once I hear back from ALL the winners, I'll submit the addresses and get you guys your free books!

1.Olivia J. {Emailed for Address}

2. Yadira A. {Submitted}

3. Melissa C. / Living on Love & Giveaways {Submitted}

4. Cecile S. / All I Want & More {Submitted}

5. Debbie L. / Debbie's Book Bag {Submitted}




1. Julianne D. {Submitted}

2. Tasha C. / Avid Bookaholic {Submitted}

3. Belinda B. / The Bookish Snob {Submitted}

4. Nicole S. /Books According to Nicole {Submitted}

5. Helen L. {Submitted}



1. Jena L. / Passionate Scribbles {Submitted}

2. Annie R. {Submitted}

3. Saranya K. {Emailed for Address}

4. Lori D. / Escape Between The Pages {Submitted}

5. Beverly S. / The Wormhole {Submitted}

Winners were chosen using random.org. We will email those who we do not have addresses for already. You have until next Friday to get back to us with your address (if we don't already have it). If we haven't heard from you by then, a new winner will be chosen.

If you are still interested in more giveaways, check out our giveaways page {here}!