From the biggest names in paranormal romance, this book is filled with over 25 stories about vampires! In the world of the undead there are strange codes of conduct, dark rituals and mating games. Lilith Saintcrow, Keri Arthur, Jenna Black, Rachel Vincent & Vicki Petterson are just a few of the great authors who contributed to this mammoth book. Vampire Romance is the name and that is exactly what you get in this huge anthology.
I could go into detail and review each individual story in this book but that would take a lot of time. The general conclusion is that this book was amazingly good for an anthology. Not only do you have a wide selection of super authors but there are also alot of brilliant stories. Some of the authors have even written stories with characters from their popular books while others show they can write something different for a change.
Sure some were not to my tastes, for instance I am not a historical vampire romance fan, however the book in general was of very high standard and a must read for any paranormal romance fans out there. This was the best anthology I have read in a while and I hope they do this kind of collection again. Of course there are some other authors I would have liked to see in this one but all in all the genre was represented very well. Oh but there were no male writers...
Morgan Kingsley is an exorcist with a demon of her own inside her. The demon, Lugh, is a king and he is prying into every area of Morgan's life. He wants Morgan to trust him and let him take over her body when he needs it but she has trust issues and who can blame her after all the things she has gone through. Although now things are getting more and more dangerous and there is a power struggle going on that needs Lugh's full attention. Can Morgan let him take over and do what he has to do?
Morgan has her day job to do and winds up getting involved in something more than suspicious. Did Tommy, the son of a wealthy couple who was against demons, really allow himself to be willingly possessed? Kidnapping, sexual depravity and torture are just a few of the bad things Morgan has to deal with on a daily basis. It is her job and a way to make a living but can she really pay what the devil's due?
This third book in the Morgan Kingsley series really set the stage for something bigger. I can see the pieces falling together and I know that the future books in this series will just get better and better because there is obviously more going on than we, the readers, can see right now.
Morgan has attitude and makes a great main character. The growing number of support characters keeps the reader on their toes. Good or bad is the question you have to keep asking yourself as the sides change and the story keeps unfolding. Hard, sexy and devilish this is a must read series. Being an exorcist is obviously hard work but reading about it is fun and addictive.
I want to thank Lynsay Sands again for being a guest here on Amberkatze's Book Blog and for offering such a great prize for the contest. I also want to thank everyone who came by to enter the contest! I hope you will all keep coming back to enter future giveaways!
So who won the signed copy of The Rigue Hunter? The randomizer picked -
Jodi!!!
Congratulations to the winner! Please send me your mailing address (Amberkatzes_book_bloggmx.eu) and I will pass on your details to Lynsay. The winner has 7 days to claim the prize or another winner will be picked.
Which brings me back to last weeks winners! I still haven't heard back from one of the winners so I will draw another winner!
The new winner of a Morganville Vampire book of their choice is -
It is time to announce the winners of the monthly draw! There were 2 books up for grabs and two lucky subscribers to the Amberkatze's Book Blog Newsletter get the books!
The Devil You Know by Jenna Black goes to the subsciber with the email address beginning with - Lady_Werewolf_By_Night.
Playing with Fire by Katie MacAlister goes to the subscriber with the email address beginning with - katfrench.
Congrats to both of the winners! Please email me (Amberkatzes_book_bloggmx.eu) with your mailing details and I will get your prize off to you. If either or both of the books haven't been claimed within 7 days I will draw another winner.
Thanks for subscribing to the blog! This months prize will be announced soon so keep checking in! If you haven't already subscribed to the newsletter then enter your email in the box on the sidebar <---
I feel absent this week. I have been reading but I just haven't had the time to make any real progress on any particular book. Work is busy and has been taking up more time than usual. So apologies for not posting as much. The weekend is nearly here and I hope to snuggle up in bed with some good reads.
In the meantime don't forget to enter this weeks contest to win a book signed by Cathy Clamp. Details, as always, can be found via the contest links on the sidebar.
Also I totally forgot to tell you all what this months monthly giveaway prize is. Well after long consideration I have decided to giveaway 2 books this month.
The Devil you Know by Jenna Black will go to one winner and Playing with Fire by Katie MacAlister will go to another winner. So sign up for the newsletter (link in the sidebar) to be entered into the draw.
Demons are feared by some but worshipped by others. Morgan Kingsley is one of the people who goes face to face with them and as an exorcist she knows how to fight them better than anyone. However she is also a woman with a secret. She is actually posessed and nobody can tell. She didn't ask to have demon inside of her but Lugh is there and even though he can't take full control of her Morgan is still stuck doing what he needs her to do.
Morgan is the main player in the demon war that is starting but right now she is busy with her family. It seems that she was experimented on when she was a teenager and more. Will she find out who used her and what they did to her? Or will The Jäger a rogue sociopath hunter find her first and kill her and Lugh? Whatever happens Morgan knows in her heart that she isn't going to like some of the truths she hears.
The Devil You Know'. is the second book in the Morgan Kinsley series. The Devil Inside really took my breathe away so I couldn't wait for this sequel to be released. After finishing this one though I have to say that I did enjoy it but I also have to say that it wasn't better than the first book. It is a great second book and was a great read but I felt it had a few things missing that the first book had. For instance this part didn't have as much heat in it and also Morgan doesn't work as an exorcist very much except for a passing reference now and again.
That aside I really like the characters in this book and the storyline is well thought out and is obviously taking the reader somewhere deeper. It is however a little tetesterone filled with Morgan being the only strong female in the mix. All in all this book was informative and I am sure it has paved the way for more action and demons in The Devil's Due which will be out later this year.
Time for the Jenna Black contest winner!! However first I would like to once again thank Jenna for taking the time to be interviewed and to also wish her a happy release week because her newest book The Devil You Know came out a few days ago. I am waiting for my copy to arrive but hopefully it will be here soon!
So the winner is -
Inara
Please contact me via email as soon as possible. I will have to pick a new winner if I don't hear from you within a week on this address -Amberkatzes_book_blog(at)gmx(dot)eu. If you already know which Jenna Black book you want please tell me your choice and send me your home address so I can get your copy out to you asap!
A new contest and interview will be posted later on but first I have to go and draw the winners for the Monthly Giveaway! Oh and Sunday Round-Up as well!!! I am sure I missed alot while I was away...
This week I am really over-joyed to have author Jenna Black on Amberkatze's Book Blog! Jenna is one of the authors I have been following since I got addicted to the Paranormal genre and I love her books. The Guardians in the Night series gave me a great dose of vampires but her new Morgan Kingsley Exorcist series really took my breathe away and the next installment The Devil You Know is due out this week!
If you haven't tried any of her books yet then you really need to read the interview and check out her site where you can read the first chapters of all her books!
So on with the interview! And keep reading till the end because there is a contest too!!
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Amber - So before I start asking the real questions maybe you can start off things by telling us all a little about your new book 'The Devil You Know'.
Jenna - My main character, Morgan Kingsley, is an exorcist who is possessed by Lugh, the king of the demons. Usually, when a person is possessed, the demon ends up in total control of the body, but that's not the case with Morgan and Lugh. For mysterious reasons, Morgan retains control, even though she's possessed. In The Devil You Know, Morgan and Lugh search for answers as to why she's so unusual, and Morgan discovers that much of what she knows about herself and her family is a lie.
Amber - 'The Devil You Know' is the second book in the Morgan Kingsley series and I know The Devil's Due is coming out in a few months. How many more books are there going to be in this series?
Jenna - There will be at least five books in this series.
Amber - You also write another paranormal series called 'Guardians of the Night'. Can you tell us a little about that series?
Jenna - The Guardians of the Night series are paranormal romances, set in a world where there are two kinds of vampires: Killers and Guardians. Killers, as you might have guessed by their name, feed by drinking human blood and killing their victims. Once they begin to kill, they become addicted to it and are unable to stop. Guardians are vampires who feed on animal blood. They are less powerful, both physically and psychically, than the Killers, but it is their mission to protect the human population from Killers. Their mission is complicated by the constant temptation to reach for greater power by making a kill.
Amber - What does the future hold for 'Guardians of the Night' series? Hungers of the Heart was the 4th book but is it the last?
Jenna - The future for the series is still unclear. There may or may not be more of them--though if there are more, there will still be a significant break between releases.
Amber - 'The Guardians of the Night' series and 'Morgan Kingsley' books are both paranormal but still worlds apart from each other. How did you come up with the ideas for the books?
Jenna - The Guardians of the Night came about when I read and was frustrated by a "reunion romance"--meaning the kind of romance where the hero and heroine were an item in the past, but for some reason broke up. In this book, the hero had left the heroine without a word, and she never knew what had happened to him until he popped back up into her life. I was unsatisfied with the reasons why he left in the first place--and especially for why he didn't tell her he was leaving--and I'd felt that way about many reunion romances I'd read before. I found myself thinking "I'll never write a reunion romance." Then I asked myself what explanation the hero could have had for his disappearance that would have convinced me it was okay for him to disappear without a word. I decided that if he were turned into a vampire, he'd never be able to explain it, so he could justifiably disappear. And that led to an entire world and an entire series.
The Morgan Kingsley series was inspired by books I was reading, too, though in a totally different way. I got totally hooked on the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton, and I noticed that for some reason, I wasn’t burning out on that series as I had on every other series I could remember reading in the past. (Generally, after a series hit five or six books, I’d find myself getting tired of it.) I tried to analyze what it was about the Anita Blake series that made it still hold my interest after so many books, and I decided it was the enormity and the intensity of Anita’s internal conflicts. The scale of those conflicts was so large that they couldn't be satisfactorily solved in just a few books, so I was still driven to keep reading.
When I set about to come up with my own urban fantasy concept, I started with the desire to build a really strong internal conflict to sustain the series. And that’s how I ended up with a possessed exorcist.
Amber - Are you like any of your characters? Do you base any of them on people you know?
Jenna - There are parts of me in all of my characters, but I don't have a character I would say I'm like. I also don't base characters on people I know, although I'm sure the people I've known through my life have heavily influenced me. It's just not a conscious influence.
Amber - What kind of atmosphere do you need to get your writing done? Lots of coffee and a quiet room? Or loud music and food?
Jenna - There is no particular atmosphere I need. I've written in lots of different situations. Generally, I'll write in a quiet room, though I will sometimes play music. But I've also managed to write in airports and at conventions and in all sorts of other places. It all depends on how motivated I am, which often depends on how tight my deadline is!
Amber - Do you have any other projects coming up or are you sticking to the Guardians and Kingsley for now?
Jenna - My agent is shopping a proposal for a young adult urban fantasy that I'd really like to write. I've been reading a lot of young adult UF these days, and I'm a big fan. (Actually, I'm pretty much a big fan of any kind of urban fantasy!) I don't know yet whether that idea will take off, but I hope so!
Amber - What kind of research, if any, do you do for your books?
Jenna - As little as possible. I hate research. I don’t have the patience for it, because writers always have these totally off-the-wall questions. Usually, when I have something I need to research, it’s not something I can just quickly look up. One example I’ve used when whining, er, that is, writing, about research is when Morgan, the heroine in my urban fantasy novel, had to use a Taser. Because the scene didn’t end after she fired the Taser, I had to figure out just what you do with the darn thing after you’ve fired it—whether there’s something you have to eject, whether you have to roll the wires back up and stuff them into something, that kind of thing. I looked all over the Internet and found tons of information about firing a Taser—but nothing about what happens afterward. It was one or two lines of my novel, but I didn’t dare get it wrong. And not being a research junkie, I really would have rather spent that time writing.
Whenever I can possibly get away with it, I’ll make things up rather than do research. Obviously, it’s not always possible (see above), and I do the research when I need to. It’s just not something I enjoy doing, or feel that I’m very good at doing.
Amber - You have some pretty hot scenes in your books. How easy or hard is it to write them?
Jenna - It's gotten easier over time. The first time I had to write a really hot scene, I was so inhibited about it that I kept popping up out of my chair and walking around instead of writing. I've gotten to the point where I write them with relative ease now, though I still struggle with some of the kinkier elements (and those of you who've read The Devil Inside know what elements I'm talking about). But I think pushing myself to write things that make me uncomfortable has made me a better writer. I seem to do my best work when I'm uncomfortable. Lucky me!
Amber - Would you ever like to see your books made into a TV series or film? Any particular actors/actresses you would like to see playing your characters?
Jenna - I actually don't think I'd want to see my books made into TV or film. The idea has a kind of visceral appeal--but then I think about what it's like to see the film or TV version of a book I've really enjoyed. Almost every time, the film or TV doesn't do the book justice and I'm disappointed. I think that disappointment would be even stronger as the writer of the book than it would be for a reader.
Amber - What authors do you like to read when you have time to read!?
Jenna - I like to read practically all urban fantasy authors. I particularly love Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, and Patricia Briggs, just to name three. A couple of days ago, I read THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer, and was blown away by it. I've really enjoyed her YA series, but this one is in a different league, in my opinion. Maybe it just pushed all my buttons, but it's a huge book, and I sat there and read it in one long sitting.
Amber - What are you listening to at the moment? Any great bands you want to share with us?
My music tastes are pretty eclectic--and eccentric at times. Lately, I've "discovered" country music. I'm not a fan of the more traditional country music, but I like some of the songs that are more on the borderline of pop or rock. I particularly enjoy Big & Rich (of Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy fame). Some of their lyrics make me laugh out loud, and they've got some great harmony. Because I love harmony, my absolute favorites are a cappella bands, such as Rockapella, baSix, and Ball in the House.
A huge thank you to Jenna for taking the time to answer my questions! I hope Jenna will come back again sometime in the future!
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The contest
This week sees the release of The Devil You Know and I had my copy on pre-order months ago. However some of you out there may not have even read the first book in the series. Maybe some of you haven't even read any of 'The Guardians of the Night' series!
So this weeks prize is your choice of Jenna Black book!
Two lucky people will get to choose one of Jenna's already released books (which includes The Devil You Know because when the winners are picked it will be out already) and I will have the book sent to them.
How to enter -
To enter this contest please post a comment on this thread telling me what paranormal type you prefer and why? Demons? Vamps? Faeries? etc
You can also sign up for the newsletter for an extra entry and if you post about this contest somewhere on the web (and leave the link in your comment) I will also give you a third entry.
The contest will close on Sunday the 3rd of August at 4pm CET. If you win you must be willing to give me a valid email address so I can contact you for your choice of book and mailing address. Any subscribers to the newsletter must have verified their email address or I won't enter them into the draw.
Just type in the author, book or keyword you are looking for and hit enter!
Previous Author Interviews & Guest Blogs!
Thank you to all the authors who have just popped in to comment, guest blogged or stayed around for an interview!
Here are all the previous author interviews & Guest Blogs!
From the biggest names in paranormal romance, this book is filled with over 25 stories about vampires! In the world of the undead there are strange codes of conduct, dark rituals and mating games. Lilith Saintcrow, Keri Arthur, Jenna Black, Rachel Vincent & Vicki Petterson are just a few of the great authors who contributed to this mammoth book. Vampire Romance is the name and that is exactly what you get in this huge anthology.
by Jenna Black goes to the subsciber with the email address beginning with - Lady_Werewolf_By_Night.
by Katie MacAlister goes to the subscriber with the email address beginning with - katfrench.
really took my breathe away so I couldn't wait for this sequel to be released. After finishing this one though I have to say that I did enjoy it but I also have to say that it wasn't better than the first book. It is a great second book and was a great read but I felt it had a few things missing that the first book had. For instance this part didn't have as much heat in it and also Morgan doesn't work as an exorcist very much except for a passing reference now and again. 
which will be out later this year. 
series gave me a great dose of vampires but her new 
was the 4th book but is it the last? 
by Kelley Armstrong
