Must Read Monday: The Nadia Stafford series by Kelley Armstrong

Must Read Monday is a meme hosted by Jen from What's on the Bookshelf to showcase a book or series (old or new) that we recommend.

This week I’m picking an often ignored series from an otherwise insanely popular author.

Kelley Armstrong’s Nadia Stafford series.

Many of you have read her Otherworld and Darkest Powers/Darkness Rising series but this is an undiscovered gem IMO.

It is not paranormal like her other books (which I LOVE btw). It’s a series about a contract killer named Nadia Stafford. The writing is top notch, with an intriguing cast of characters and game changing twisty plots. Fans of Carolyn Crane’s Disillusionists trilogy should enjoy this series as well. There is a touch of romance but is more plot focused.

Honestly, although it’s one of my all time favorites, I was always hesitant to recommend the series to readers because Kelley stopped at book two in 2009 and it leaves things a bit unresolved (bk #2 Made to be Broken has a nice resolution – the bigger picture is what’s left open) BUT – I saw the best news ever on her twitter feed last week! She just completed writing book #3 to the series and will give it a proper conclusion when the book is released in the fall of 2013.

So guys!!!! this is the perfect time to get started on this amazing series!!! You won’t regret it!



Exit Strategy – Nadia Stafford Book #1
Bantam – July 2007

Regulars at Nadia’s nature lodge don’t ask what she does in the off-season. And that’s a good thing. If she told them, she’d have to kill them. She’s a hit woman for a Mafia family. Tough and self-sufficient, Nadia doesn’t owe anyone any explanations. But that doesn’t mean she always works alone. One of her contacts has recruited her in the hunt for a ruthlessly efficient serial killer cutting a swath of terror across the country. The assassin is far too skilled to be an amateur—and the precision of the killings is bringing the Feds much too close to the hit man community for comfort.
To put an end to the murders, Nadia will have to turn herself from predator to prey as she employs every trick she knows to find the killer. Before the killer finds her… ~ Goodreads

Excerpts and purchase links on Kelley Armstrong’s site here | Amazon



Made to be Broken – Nadia Stafford Book #2
Bantam – March 2009

Nadia Stafford isn’t your typical nature lodge owner. An ex-cop with a legal code all her own, she’s known only as “Dee” to her current employers: a New York crime family who pays her handsomely to bump off traitors. But when Nadia discovers that a troubled teenage employee and her baby have vanished in the Canadian woods, the memory of a past loss comes back with a vengeance, and her old instincts go into overdrive.

With her enigmatic mentor, Jack, covering her back, Nadia unearths sinister clues that point to an increasingly darker and deadlier mystery. Now, with her obsession over the case deepening, the only way Nadia can right the wrongs of the present is to face her own painful ghosts…and either bury them for good, or die trying. Because in her book, everyone deserves a chance. And everyone deserves justice. ~Goodreads

Read Chapter 1 or purchase on Kelley Armstorng’s site here | Amazon

I hope you give this series a chance if you love strong female characters, moral ambiguity, increasingly complex storyline and enough taut suspense to keep you at the edge of your seat. I’m going to have to do a re-read myself in preparation for the conclusion!

Sunday Ramblings…

Beau – staying cool poolside

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! It was weird celebrating on a Wednesday. Made for a strange work week. I could never tell what day it was. I spent the week watching HORRIBLE – cheesy SyFy movies like:

     
Sharktopus



& Piranhaconda!

Don’t judge me.

Anyhoo……Let’s get to winners and the wrap-up shall we??

WINNERS!
~ Saturday Spotlight giveaway: MARYBELLE
~ Free to a good home giveaway:  TAMARA
~ Team Kilt giveaway: ANA LUCIA

Wrap-up!
~ Book Blogger Confessions: Blogging controversies – great topic with interesting answers. Feel free to jump in with your thoughts!
~ Music: Linkin Park – Roads Untraveled
~ Review: Chasing Magic by Stacia Kane
~ It’s Team Kilt YA Crush Tourney time again! (Zach won round one so be sure to get ready for his second match up on July 25th!!!!)

Pick Your Book Giveaway! Choose any book that is released during the month of July!

Read:
~ Ward Against Death by Melanie Card – very good and nice change of pace from the typical angsty YA. Bad ass heroine and nerdy/cute hero.
~ Blazing Midsummer Nights by Leslie Kelly – from the Harlequin Blaze collection. Super quick, STEAMY read. A few (very short) odd dream sequences that didn’t seem to fit or add anything but still a great story especially if your looking for a good beach read.

Reading:
~ This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers – unlike any zombie book I’ve read so far. Zombie creepiness mixed with a psychological intensity.I’m really enjoying it so far!

New arrivals: I was a very good girl and didn’t buy any new books this week. So I instead I’m going to spotlight a few lesser known books that I got at BEA


Kiss & Make Up by Katie D. Anderson 
Amazon Publishing – October 2012

Emerson Taylor, a 16-year-old lip gloss addict with a secret gift: she can read the mind of anyone who kisses her. Though puckering up with brainy boys to get test answers helps her grades, a scholarship competition and a new crush compel Emerson to stifle her gift and study the honest – if old-fashioned – way. With support from her family, including her aunt/guardian who is in the cosmetics business, Emerson discovers that true beauty always wins out. ~ Goodreads

Super cute cover drew me right in but I can’t find the cover posted on line anywhere. Guess that means it will be changed by publishing time in October



Skinny by Donna Cooner
Scholastic – October 2012

Find your voice.

Hopeless. Freak. Elephant. Pitiful. These are the words of Skinny, the vicious voice that lives inside fifteen-year-old Ever Davies’s head. Skinny tells Ever all the dark thoughts her classmates have about her. Ever knows she weighs over three hundred pounds, knows she’ll probably never be loved, and Skinny makes sure she never forgets it.


But there is another voice: Ever’s singing voice, which is beautiful but has been silenced by Skinny. Partly in the hopes of trying out for the school musical—and partly to try and save her own life—Ever decides to undergo a risky surgery that may help her lose weight and start over.
With the support of her best friend, Ever begins the uphill battle toward change. But demons, she finds, are not so easy to shake, not even as she sheds pounds. Because Skinny is still around. And Ever will have to confront that voice before she can truly find her own. ~ Goodreads

The Scholastic representatives that I spoke with are in LOVE with this book. I am told you will need tissues while reading. Really nice cover and it sounds like a powerful story.

Sorry – no Free to a Good Home giveaway this week. It will be back next week! For now you can enter the pick your book giveaway (link above)

What are you reading this week? Any good recommendations? Do you have any good BAD movie rec's?

It’s That Time of year again Team Kilt!! (& a Giveaway!)

Credit: Men in Kilts

ATTENTION TEAM KILT

It’s time to do what we do best.

PARTY!!!

And VOTE for our favorite Scottish Lad

ZACHARY MOORE

from Jeri Smith-Ready’s Shade trilogy

Vote HERE right now!!!

Keep up to date with voting results and incentives all day:

~ Jeri Smith-Ready’s website | Twitter: @jsmithready

Find all incentives – including VERY limited edition print copies of Shattered, Zach’s upcoming novella

AND….AND….AND

another incredible incentive… head to Jeri’s post to find out but here’s a tiny clue:

“....in audio with accent."

~ Fictitious Delicious Zachary's advocates and Team Kilt Hub during the tourney | Twitter: @FictishDelish

~ Pinterest Team Kilt Twitter: @synfulsaleana99 <--- Saleana is our Pinterest guru! Send her your Team Kilt Avi’s, photos, videos and it will be pinned to the Team Kilt board!

We can’t forget the man of the hour can we??

Credit: @marisolgaddi

~ Follow Zach on Twitter: @moore_zachary & his friend (yes they ARE friends – at least in Twitter-landia) @keeley_logan (Logan has already posted a song front the Shattered soundtrack!)

SO ARE WE READY?

ARE WE READY?????

Credit: Jeri Smith-Ready

GIVEAWAY!


If Zach WINS this found of voting I'll give away your choice of one signed book (paperback) from the Shade trilogy or an "I Am Team Kilt" tote bag

This is open to international entries.

To enter VOTE FOR ZACH 

Then head back over here and let me know that you're now officially part of Team Kilt!
Leave a way for me to contact you if you win. (email - twitter handle etc)

I'll announce a winner after the tourney has ended.

Tune in Tuesday: Linkin Park–Roads Untraveled

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Ginger over at GReads! to share the music we're listening to and maybe discover someone new.

I love this new Linkin Park song – “Roads Unraveled” and the words….sigh……simple - dark - beautiful.




Weep not for roads untraveled
weep not for paths left alone
cause beyond every bend
Is a long blinding end 

Its the worst kind of pain I've known
Give up your heart left broken
and let that mistake pass on
cause the love that you lost
wasn't worth what it cost
and in time you'll be glad its gone


Weep not for roads untraveled
Weep not for sights unseen
may your love never end
and If you need a friend
there's a seat here along side me...
~ Lyrics007

Buy the CD LIVING THINGS

Book Blogger Confessions: Blogging controversies

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that posts the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month, where book bloggers "confess" and vent about topics that are unique to us. Feel free to share, vent and offer solutions.

Just keep it respectful - no bashing authors or other bloggers! If you want to participate just grab our button and include it in your post with a link to either Tiger's All Consuming Media or For What It's Worth. We will be providing a linky at the end of our posts so people can "hop" to see all the participants answers.

Question: Blogging controversies? How do you address them? Do you join the Twitter frenzy? Write a ranty post? Stay on the sidelines and hope they go away?
How do you think we should address plagiarism scandals? Bad author behavior? Negative comments on our blogs?


My answer today is quite different than what it would have been when I first started blogging two years ago.

I used to love ranting! I felt blogs were the perfect place to vent and get my opinion out there. A great venue to have a fun debate.

Then "blogger controversies" started popping up almost weekly. Mostly involving blogger vs author. I commented on all the posts at first stating my opinion - usually defending the blogger.

But I realized after a while that no one is really listening to each other. These are just shouting matches to see who yells louder. He who gathers the most defenders (commenters) wins.

Another problem is when you get involved in these battles - Twitter wars especially - you are usually commenting about something taken out of context. When you actually go back and read the original comment/post/twitter feed you realize the person didn't even say what you originally thought and you look like a raging lunatic.

As for bad author/blogger behavior I think we need to talk about it & I admire bloggers who are able to post about it in a way that furthers discussion about the topic at hand rather than making it personal.

I do find that no matter how well meaning our intentions are we are still taken out of context and we end up having to write another post explaining the previous post or add numerous updates to the bottom. I know I have to go back and explain the context of my tweets a lot.

When we write posts about plagiarism, bloggers behaving badly at ALA/BEA, author's responding badly to reviews it's hard not to get emotional. We put so much work into our blogs and it's horrible when an author goes off the deep end on us or another blogger behaves in a way that reflects poorly on ALL of us. How is that not personal??

I guess I wish we could find a way to discuss and not YELL about these topics. It would be great if we could educate and learn from these experiences instead. These controversies aren't going anywhere anytime soon and have to be addressed. I guess how to deal with them is the big question. We are a diverse and passionate group. Feathers will be ruffled. And I think that's ok. That's how things improve. I'm not against talking openly about anything. I just think it should be constructive. It seems we all have different ideas as to the definition of constructive though. I know I find that I may be sensitive to a post that people find very informative and vise versa.

Half the people who get involved in these frenzies don't even read the blog in question or have ever attended the events their commenting on. It's just that - a feeding frenzy. Maybe one day we'll be able to find that balance.

For specifics, I don't think I would care if an author left a nasty comment on my blog about one of my reviews. Sure it's not a pleasant experience but I didn't write the review for them. They are absolutely entitled to their opinion as well. It's poor form and doesn't make them look great but whatever. If they wrote something that attacked me personally I would delete the comment.

As tempting as it is to respond, other than a quick polite response, I would leave it alone. Any author engaging in that behavior is risking their own reputation and burning bridges if they ever want their book reviewed in the future. Bloggers see the crazy and then avoid the crazy. Like the plague. I see no need to feed into the drama. I said what I had to say….on to the next book. They don't need and shouldn't receive anymore publicity.

I would treat negative comments (by followers - not authors) on my blog the same way. I've had a few that try to negate my negative review. They irritate me, because seriously….it's just ONE opinion in the entire blogosphere…chill out. But again, they are entitled to their opinion so comment away. I wish they would be willing to actually discuss our differing opinions because that would be a great discussion but that's not really why they are commenting. They are mad that I don't agree. Oh well.

As for plagiarizing, I think the person in question should be called out publicly. You're stealing content from other bloggers and you shouldn't be allowed to sweep that under the rug. I believe the blogger in question should be able to respond and let their followers decide what they want to do about it but it should be made public. I don't like the frenzy that ensues, with #hashtags, name calling etc. That seems petty and overkill to me. We know what the person did and just stop following them. Glare a light on it so people know what happened and move on. I believe it actually drives even MORE traffic to the offending blogger. It once again divides everyone into camps. Attackers and defenders which detracts from the original violation - plagiarism. Instead it becomes about defending and responding to each sides supporters and name calling.

So I guess I've changed over the years from diving head first into all controversies to trying to choose my battles wisely. I'm still opinionated and will probably write a few ranty posts in the future that will leave me with my foot firmly planted in my mouth. I'm hoping with blogging age comes wisdom but we'll see.

What's your opinion on all the blogger drama llama?? Do you dive in or observe quietly from the sidelines?

Upcoming question:

July16th: What do we owe publishers and authors? If we accept ARC’s do we “owe” anything to them or just an honest review to our followers? As book bloggers are we obligated to do more than just review books? Post covers – participate in book tours – host guest posts - promote authors?