Comic Book Tuesday #2: True Blood

You might remember this story, but the Southern Vampires Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris was my first trip in the land of current urban fantasy. Up until that point I only had the 70s image of a "modern" vampire, as portrayed by Anne Rice. About 2 years after I discovered Sookie Stackhouse, the TV show True Blood came out. I was in nerd heaven, not only because I was excited to see some of my favorite characters on TV, but also because it was a good story, that deserved some screen time. While I did give up on the show and I haven't yet finish reading the series, I still get a bit excited when I remember about Bon Temps and the characters that live there and around the town. So when I saw that there were some comic books with the TV show characters, I decided to try them out.

First, let me start by saying that the one thing I did not miss was the ever-present "Sooookeeeh" that Bill said about...oh, roughly 5 million times an episode. As far as story goes, both of them used the TV show depictions of the characters. Not that I mind, since we got to see the hunk that is Eric Northman in the first one *drool*. I did quite enjoy the Tainted Love story a bit more, as it was more centered on Jessica, at least the first issue. I really liked Jessica, even though she was a new character, that wasn't in the books, and while I was watching the show I wanted more scenes with her, as she was a really interesting addition to the story. And I am curious to see how the story in the comic book ends, so I plan on buying the rest of the issues.

Both books have really beautiful art and with both of them you can kind of see that the artists tried to make the characters resemble the actors. I was a bit disappointed by that aspect, but then again it is understandable that the characters would be drawn to resemble the actors playing them.

If I were to rate these first issues, I'd give them three cups each. I do however have to say that reading them made me want to go back and read the series from book one. And I do plan to re-read them soon.

Teaser Tuesday: Bloodcraft by Amalie Howard

Bloodcraft by Amalie Howard
Series: Bloodspell #2
Genre: Upper YA/NA (mature content), Fantasy
Publication: December 15th, 2015

Cover Designer: Alan Pranke

All magic has its price, and no one knows that better than Victoria Warrick. Gifted with a centuries-old blood curse, Tori has finally learned to master her blood’s demands and has emerged triumphant with Christian Devereux, a vampire overlord, at her side.

But the worst is yet to come …

In the infamous City of Lights, home to both the Witch Clans and the Vampire Council, Tori enrolls at the exclusive Belles Fontaines school in Paris, where she is faced with a devastating choice: choose Christian and be an outcast, or choose the coven and secure her place with the witches.

When the fate of the supernatural world is targeted by a sinister new threat, Christian and Victoria must unite their two warring species to defeat it. Their bond will be tested, twisted, and sorely weakened, and Tori will find herself in uncharted territory—a dangerous place to be when her blood’s magic has its own dark agenda.

But to save them all, she may have no choice but to invoke its deadly power.

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Teaser

Victoria shivered, wrapping her arms about herself and staring toward the forest lost in thought. She wasn’t afraid of Christian or the fact that he was a vampire. After all, she was more of a monster than he could ever be.  

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Book #1, Bloodspell

The spell was simple...

Cruentus Protectum (Defend the Blood)

But what do you do if your blood is your enemy?

Victoria Warrick has always known she was different. An outcast at school, she is no stranger to adversity. But when she receives an old journal for her seventeenth birthday, nothing prepares her for the dark secrets it holds -- much less one that reveals she's a witch with unimaginable power.

What's more, when she meets the dazzling but enigmatic Christian Devereux, she has no idea how much her life is about to change. Enemies will hunt her. Friends will turn on her. The terrible curse that makes her blood run black will stop at nothing to control her. And Christian has a sinister secret of his own...

Without knowing whom to trust, can Victoria survive her blood's deadly desires? Or will she lose everything, including herself?

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~ Purchase ~

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~ About Amalie ~ 

AMALIE HOWARD grew up on a small Caribbean island (Trinidad & Tobago) where she spent most of her childhood with her nose buried in a book or running around barefoot, shimmying up mango trees and dreaming of adventure. 25 countries, surfing with sharks and several tattoos later, she has traded in bungee jumping in China for writing the adventures she imagines instead. She isn’t entirely convinced which takes more guts.

An aspiring writer from a young age, Amalie’s poem “The Candle,” written at age twelve, was published in a University of Warwick journal. At fifteen, she was  a recipient of a Royal Commonwealth Society Essay Award (a global youth writing competition). A Colby College graduate, she completed simultaneous Honors Theses in both French and International Studies, and graduated Summa Cum Laude/Phi Beta Kappa. At Colby, she was cited for research and criticism in Raffael Scheck’s article, “German Conservatism and Female Political Activism in the Early Weimar Republic,” and his subsequent book, Mothers of the Nation. She also received a distinction in English Literature from the University of Cambridge (A-levels) as well as a certificate in French Literature from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. Traveling the globe, she has worked as a research assistant, marketing representative, teen speaker and global sales executive.

agold-authorShe is the author of several young adult novels critically acclaimed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, VOYA, and Booklist, including Waterfell, The Almost Girl, and Alpha Goddess, a Spring 2014 Kid’s INDIE NEXT title. Her debut novel, Bloodspell, was a #1 Amazon bestseller and a Seventeen Magazine Summer Read. As an author of color and a proud supporter of diversity in fiction, her articles on multicultural fiction have appeared in The Portland Book Review and on the popular Diversity in YA blog. She currently resides in Colorado with her husband and three children. She is represented by the Liza Royce Agency and is a member of SCBWI.

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Obsessed With Covers #26: Tower of Thorns, The Silver Tide, Paper and Fire

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

So, here are the prettiest covers I've seen this week.

Something you might not know about me is that I love tapestries. There's just something about the details, the colors, the shapes that attracts me. They're my favorite art pieces to see when I go to an art museum. Paintings too, but the tapestries....they're just so, so gorgeous. This cover reminds of that. There's a medieval feeling to it, to the rich colors in the background and the darker tones around the girl. There's a lot going on in this cover that I love, but I can tell you that I really want to see this cover in real life, mostly to see if the cover is just as gorgeous as it is on screen.




Tower of Thorns - Juliet Marillier

This cover makes me think about ink drawing, which is another art form that I really like. This reminds me of the art classes I had in middle school (aaaaages ago!) and the ways in which to create shadows with just one color. Strangely, I remember that class. I'm babbling, sorry. Anyway, I really love the artistry of this cover and I'd love to have this photo in a frame, somewhere above my shelves, because it is just gorgeous. And since this book is part of a series, I checked out the rest of the books and they have equally gorgeous covers. Guess there's a cover-buy in my near future.

The Silver Tide - Jen Williams

As was the case with the first cover of the series, the sequel has a gorgeous cover as well. The burnt shape in the middle makes me insanely curious, as I want to see what the dragons are doing or what are they protecting. It also makes me think that they're the ones who breathed fire on whatever it is that was underneath them, to hide some secret. Don't you just love it when a cover of a book tells a story itself? I really have to read this book, because I need to know what those dragons are doing.






Paper and Fire - Rachel Caine