Ruby's most expected books for 2012

I know it's probably too early for this list. I mean, there are another three weeks left of this year, but I like to be prepared. I was going through last year's list and I realized I didn't get to read all the books I had planned. Yet. I still have time, right? I know I probably won't manage to list all the books I can't wait to read in 2012, but I'll give you the Top 10. So here it is:


1. Lothaire by Kresley Cole

ALL FEAR THE ENEMY OF OLD

Driven by his insatiable need for revenge, Lothaire, the Lore’s most ruthless vampire, plots to seize the Horde’s crown. But bloodlust and torture have left him on the brink of madness—until he finds Elizabeth Peirce, the key to his victory. He captures the unique young mortal, intending to offer up her very soul in exchange for power, yet Elizabeth soothes his tormented mind and awakens within him emotions Lothaire believed he could no longer experience.

A DEADLY FORCE DWELLS WITHIN HER

Growing up in desperate poverty, Ellie Peirce yearned for a better life, never imagining she’d be convicted of murder—or that an evil immortal would abduct her from death row. But Lothaire is no savior, as he himself plans to sacrifice Ellie in one month’s time. And yet the vampire seems to ache for her touch, showering her with wealth and sexual pleasure. In a bid to save her soul, Ellie surrenders her body to the wicked vampire, while vowing to protect her heart.

CENTURIES OF COLD INDIFFERENCE SHATTERED

Elizabeth tempts Lothaire beyond reason, as only his fated mate could. As the month draws to a close, he must choose between a millennia-old blood vendetta and his irresistible prisoner. Will Lothaire succumb to the miseries of his past . . . or risk everything for a future with her?

2. A Hint of Frost by Hailey Edwards

Hope dangles by a silken thread.
Araneae Nation, Book 1
When the head of the Araneidae clan is found poisoned in her nest, her eldest daughter, Lourdes, becomes their clan’s new maven. If her clan is to survive, she has but one choice: she must marry before her nest is seized. All she needs is a warrior fierce enough to protect her city and safeguard her clansmen. Such a male is Rhys the Cold.
Born the youngest son of an impoverished maven, the only things Rhys has to his name are his sword and his mercenary reputation. His clan is starving, but their fondness for the flesh of fellow Araneaeans makes them unwelcome dinner guests. Torn between loyalty to his clan and fascination with his future bride, Rhys’s first taste of Lourdes threatens to melt the cold encasing his heart.
Amid the chaos of battle, Lourdes’s sister disappears and is feared captured. Lourdes and Rhys pursue their enemies into the southlands, where they discover an odd plague ravaging southern clans as it travels north, to Erania. Determined to survive, Lourdes will discover whether she’s worth her silk or if she’s spun the thread by which her clan will hang.
Warning: This book contains one mercenary hero with a biting fetish, one determined heroine who gets nibbled, and an answer to the age-old question, “What does dragon taste like?” Matricide and sibling rivalry are available upon request. The house special is revenge, best served cold.

3. Evermine by Hailey Edwards

He can be a slave to his past…or allow her love to free him.
Daughters of Askara, Book 2
There’s such a thing as too much change. Emma’s sister is mated. Revolution is brewing in her home realm. The last straw: her would-be mate is back from the dead and back under her skin—yet when it comes to the last five years, he’s not talking.
Desperate for a chance to start her own life, she answers the queen’s call to ensure equality for all of Askara’s newly freed slaves. It’s the perfect opportunity to escape a heartbreak in the making named Harper.
Harper loses a piece of his fractured soul when Emma walks away. His lies were meant to protect her from torturous years that drove him to the point of madness. Instead, when he comes to her a year later to help avert a crisis in a freed-slave community, the wedge those lies drove between them is firmly in place.
As their new lives collide with old wounds, they race to stop a threat that could not only destroy the queen, but send Harper back to the hell he escaped. Emma must decide if the man she still loves deserves equal rights to her heart.
Warning: This title contains torn pants, ripped gowns, and sand in uncomfortable places. It also includes one overcompensating villain, one gnarly priest, and two battered hearts willing to give this thing called love one last chance.

4. Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon

The world has fallen in love with Nick Gautier and the Dark-Hunters. Now Nick’s saga continues in the next eagerly anticipated volume...

Go to school. Get good grades. Stay out of trouble. That’s the mandate for most kids. But Nick Gautier isn’t the average teenager. He’s a boy with a destiny not even he fully understands. And his first mandate is to stay alive while everyone, even his own father, tries to kill him.

He’s learned to annihilate zombies and raise the dead, divination and clairvoyance, so why is learning to drive such a difficulty? But that isn’t the primary skill he has to master. Survival is.

And in order to survive, his next lesson makes all the others pale in comparison. He is on the brink of becoming either the greatest hero mankind has ever known.

Or he’ll be the one who ends the world. With enemies new and old gathering forces, he will have to call on every part of himself to fight or he’ll lose everyone he cares about.

Even himself.

5. Time Untime by Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Mayans aren’t the only ones with a 2012 prophecy…

Long before recorded history, there was a warrior so feared that everyone trembled before his wrath. Only a brutal betrayal by the one closest to him could defeat him. But not even death was the end of a man so strong.

The Time Untime approaches…

Kateri Avani has been plagued her entire life with dreams she doesn’t understand. Images of places she’s never been and of a man she’s never seen. Her quest for answers has driven her to Las Vegas where she hopes to finally silence the demons in her mind.

What she never anticipates is coming face to face with the warrior who has haunted her her entire life.

Ren Waya came back from the dead to keep the prophecy he began from coming true and ending the world. For thousands of years, he has fought the same evil that once possessed him. But now that evil has brought back the one person he can’t fight. The one person who once held the most sacred part of him.

His heart.

But if he doesn’t kill Kateri, the deadliest of evils will reemerge and destroy everyone else on the planet. It was a sacrifice he made once.

Will he be able to make it again?

6. Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward

Tohrment, the Brother who had it all, but lost everything to the enemy, is destined for a second chance at love and life. But will the past and his bitterness hold him back?

7. Taking a Shot by Jaci Burton

If you want to score, you have to get in the game…

The last thing Jenna Riley needs is more sports in her life. While her brothers are off being athletic superstars, she’s stuck running the family’s sports bar, whether she likes it or not. Then in walks pro hockey stud Tyler Anderson. As much as Jenna would like to go to the boards with him, she’s vowed to never fall for a jock—even one as hot as Ty.

Ty, intrigued by the beautiful bar owner, becomes a regular. He senses that Jenna wants to do something more with her life. And as he gains her trust, the passion between them grows, as does Ty’s insistence that Jenna should start living for herself. With his encouragement, Jenna starts to believe it, too…

But first, Jenna has to figure out what she wants, what she needs, who she loves, and if she has the passion and pride to take a shot at having it all—including Ty…

8. I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

I've lost it. The only thing in the world I wasn't supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It's been in Magnus's family for three generations. And now, the very same day his parents are coming, I've lost it. The very same day. Do not hyperventilate Poppy. Stay positive!!


Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry the ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her 'happy ever after' begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring but in the panic that followed, she has now lost her phone. As she paces shakily round the hotel foyer she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!

Well, perfect except the phone's owner, businessman Sam Roxton doesn't agree. He wants his phone back and doesn't appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and wading into his personal life.

What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other's lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents... she soon realises that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

9. Shadow's Stand by  Sarah McCarty

Husband of convenience. Lover by choice.

Shadow Ochoa is lying low in the western Kansas Territory, waiting for his fellow Texas Rangers—the Hell’s Eight brotherhood— to clear his name. That is, until he’s unjustly strung up for horse thieving...and pretty Fei Yen intervenes. Invoking a seldom-used law, the exotic lady prospector claims Shadow as her husband
and rides off with the bridegroom shackled to her buckboard.

Savvy, fearless Fei is single-mindedly devoted to her hidden claim and all it promises: wealth, security and freedom. A husband is just a necessary inconvenience and a name on paper to hold the claim she cannot.

Shadow isn’t a man to take orders from anyone, especially from lovely Fei—except that the daily friction between them ignites into nightly blazes of all-consuming passion. Soon Shadow is dreaming a little himself: of the life they could have if only Fei could see past the lure of independence. If only bounty hunters weren’t closing in on him. If only he’s left standing when the impending showdown has ended....

10. Kissin' Tell by Lorelei James

There's no cover yet for the next story in the Rough Riders series, but I still can't wait for it. I mean, it's a McKay story! *squees*


Anyway, this is a short version of my "Can't wait to read in 2012 books" list. It's bigger and I have this feeling that it will be getting bigger by the end of the year. So, have you decided already what you want to read in the upcoming year?

Things I've learned this year

I have to admit I didn't quite manage to be as organized in my blogging as I planned at the start of the year. My first mistake was to not write the reviews as I read the books. I've also learned that I need to have more diverse posts, not just memes and reviews. I need to interact more. I've blogged before, but it was my first blog was mostly filled with rants and talks between me and some dear friends of mine. Kind of like a public e-mail. But I do know that interaction is important, so I'll do more of that next year :D

Another thing I've learned is to respect schedules. I had a lazy summer, letting myself get pulled by that reading funk I get every year. You know, the one where no book is appealing enough. I promised myself I won't do that in the future. I'll search books that I hear a lot of talk about, at least to figure out why it's so liked.

Another thing this experience has taught me is to be very open-minded about the genres I'm willing to read. I've had a few pleasant surprises and I found that there are some genres that I actually enjoyed more than I thought.

Last but not least it's best for me to start reading challenges with less expectations. That way, they don't look so hard to fulfill.

So this is what I've learned this year from my book blogging. What have you learned this year?

Winter cleaning

So I realized my blog looks like a bomb went off on it, for some reason. Because of that I've decided to redo everything and to redesign a template. Let's hope it takes less time than the last time. I really hope it won't become something permanent, like every year Blogger forces me to do this LOL. That and I'm not very good with html, so I don't know if the problem is in the encoding or whatever the name. Anyway, I hope I'll be back in about a week or so. Happy reading until then!

Book Review: Cowboy Casanova by Lorelei James

Author: Lorelei James
Series: Rough Riders #12
My Rating: 5 cups
Blurb: (from Goodreads)

His rough touch makes her lose control…

In Sundance, Wyoming, you can't throw a boot without hitting a McKay cowboy, so Ben McKay is used to fading into the background. Except on weekends, when he's Bennett, imposing Dom at The Rawhide Club, surrounded by a bevy of female subs eager for the attention of his long…whip.

As for the curvy brunette eying him from across the room? He'll eat his Stetson if she's the experienced Domme she claims to be. Bennett offers her a deal—he'll let her call the shots for one night. But the next night he gets to prove to her how freeing it'll be when he takes the reins.

Ainsley Hamilton is amazed by how well Bennett read her every secret yearning during that one explosive weekend—and she's stunned when they come face to face in their everyday lives as rancher and new bank president. Now Ben's urging her to explore her submissive side outside the club, and there's something in his commanding gaze that makes it too easy to let him take control—of her desires and her pleasure.

Can Ben help Ainsley overcome her fear that a relationship built on dark sexual appetites won't survive the light of day?

I know I've said it before, but I feel the need to repeat myself: I don't think I've ever read about cowboys that are sexier than those from Ms. James' stories. I'm actually sure of it. That being said, I have to say I'm in a very happy place right now and I'm sure I'm not the only reader out there feeling the same way. I mean, let's face it! A McKay story is more than good. Two McKays getting their HEAs and I for one am in heaven! Yes, I'm addicted. There, I said it!

I loved Ben McKay. What's not to love? He's sexy, dangerous, dark, sensual... He's a Dom. But he's also a great listener, a great friend and brother and cousin, always having a good advice for everyone, always trying to calm his cousins or brothers when they get into a fight. He's also the type of hero I love, the one who makes mistakes and has the balls to admit doing them.

Then there's Ainsley, who's been hurt by the people who're supposed to care for her and accept her as she is and not judge her. So she's afraid of losing control and afraid to trust someone with a part of her that is so vulnerable. She's willing to change that though and I think that's all that matters.

The sex scenes were hot, the scenes with more than two McKay cowboys were sometimes funny, sometimes touching and sometimes sad, the scenes where Ben and Ainsley were acting like a couple were plain sweet. Here's another moment when I feel the need to repeat myself. Few authors manage to write series this long and make every character different and interesting at the same time. Lorelei James manages to do so and the fact that we get those little snippets of the old characters' lives is amazing. So I'll say it again: I hope this series never ends.

My Rating:

Fall Into Reading : Weekly Question (#3)

I'm finally on time with this question *pats self*. Fall Into Reading is a reading challenge hosted by Katrina at Callapidder Days. This week's question for the Fall Into Reading challenge is:

Where do you love to read? Do you have a favorite chair, a favorite room, a favorite place…somewhere that inspires you to put everything else aside and pick up a book?



There are few places that really get me into that reading mood. It doesn't have anything do to with noise or how many people are around me, it's mostly related to how comfy I feel.

Where I read: I love reading in my room, in bed, under a very warm blanket (if it's cold, otherwise no blanket for me :P). I love reading in bed because I can sit however I want for how long I want, especially since my bed in kinda huge.

I also love to read when I'm at the beach. The sound of the waves hitting the shore is the perfect soundtrack for almost any book. I also love reading when I'm on a bus or a train, even if I sometimes forget to check the station, see if I passed the one I was supposed to arrive to.

This might make me a bad student, but if the class is boring, I'll take out the book in my bag and start reading. I haven't gotten caught before, lucky me. But it's either be silent and read or leave the classroom and loose time doing nothing. I choose reading every time.

What inspires me to read: Well,  it depends. Like I said before, I love the sound of waves, so that's one source of inspiration. Also, the sound of rain makes me want to read. Old music makes a good soundtrack for books, mostly because some of them are slow and they don't distract me with catchy beats. I find it difficult to read when I'm feeling like I just got locked into an oven. If it's really hot outside, I can't exactly concentrate. I prefer either just warm or somewhat cold weather for reading. I know, I'm weird like that :P.

Where do you like to read?

Book Review: Make Me, Sir by Cherise Sinclair

Author: Cherise Sinclair
Series: Masters of Shadowlands #5
Blurb: (from Goodreads)

Her job is to make his life miserable. His job is to make her submit. Whose heart will surrender first?
Across the country, rebellious BDSM submissives are being systematically kidnapped, one from each club. When her friend falls prey to the slavers, FBI victim specialist Gabrielle volunteers to be bait in a club not yet hit: the Shadowlands.
She finds that being a bratty sub comes naturally, especially when she gets to twit the appallingly conservative Master of the trainees. But she soon discovers he's not as stuffy as she'd thought. Or as mean. She'd expected punishment, even humiliation, but she sure never expected to fall in love with a damned lawyer.
Courtesy of a prima donna ex-wife, Marcus loathes disobedient submissives. When the club owner insists he admit an incredibly bratty trainee, he's furious. But as he comes to know Gabrielle and sees the alluring sweetness beneath the sass, he starts to fall for her.
Unfortunately, Marcus isn't the only one who believes the feisty redhead is a prize worth capturing. And in the world of the slaver, such treasure is worth a hefty fee.

While waiting for the next Master of the Shadowlands Club, Master Raoul, to get his story, I've decided a little re-read is in order. Though I reread some of the scenes that I liked most in the series before, this is the third time I actually read the entire book, without skipping any scenes.

The thing I like most about Master Marc is that he is nowhere near perfect. Yes, he's gorgeous and yes, he's a successful lawyer. But he's the kind of guy that makes mistakes. I think the ones who've read the book can imagine the scene that made me want to shake the guy. And yet right after that he apologizes and tried to make things better. But, let's face it, all of Ms. Sinclair's heroes are charmers. What I totally loved about him was the fact that he surprised me so much. When he was first introduced, I couldn't see him as someone who could easily turn his dominant side off and just have fun. Maybe it was Gabi who made him be more playful.

Gabi is a very complex woman. I think she's the best friend someone can have, the kind of friend that would do anything for those she cares about, even if it means putting herself in danger. Gabi doesn't care that she has to face two sets of demons (the really bad guys and her past traumas), she all she cares about is her friend and rescuing her. I liked that about her. I also loved her sarcasm and her humor. I think she's the best girl for Marc. She forces him to relearn how to have fun and I'm sure Marc needed that.

We also get some glimpses into the lives of the couples that already had their stories told. I love it when an author manages to do that, when even if their book is over and they're not the main characters anymore, the past heroes and heroines aren't forgotten.

The next book in the series, To Command and Collar, is only 14 days away. I can't wait for Master Raoul's story.

My Rating: