Movie 4 of 2010: Shutter

Creepy, yet fun. Wasn't sure what to expect with this movie going in, but turned out to be pretty good. I wouldn't necessarily say it was "scary", but definitely had a creepy and weird factor in parts of it. Definitely worth checking out at least once if you enjoy horror movies.

Book 10 of 2010: DemonFire by Kate Douglas

Tamed down only slightly from her Wolf Tales series, Kate Douglas has created a new series almost as spicy and fun-filled. Douglas' new DemonSlayers series has started off with a bang in Demonfire! The cast of Demonfire consists of a news reporter, a demon that has been tossed out of his previous world, a warrior from another world, a stray dog that seems to know what everyone is saying, and a small sprite that communicates with everyone through their minds individually. News reporter Eddy Marks first stumbles upon Dax, an exiled demon, she doesn't know what to make of him or the small sprite that is with him... and of course it doesn't help that she was distracted greatly, as he wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing and is extremely hot! She offers Dax her assistance and takes him to her home so he can explain what is going on. Dax tells Eddy that he is a fallen demon and was granted seven days to save the town of Evergreen. She has a hard time believing him until a concrete owl attacks them within Eddy's house. Dax and Eddy realize that they need more help, and go in search of the Lemurians, a race of mystical beings. They join forces with a warrior named Alton, and form a strong team to fight against the evil demons trying to take over Evergreen. They have less than seven days before Dax will be gone again... will they make it?

A superb cast... quirky dialogue... laughs at every corner... and, of course, smokin' hot sex scenes that only Douglas can write. Dax's character was probably my favorite as he was the most interesting for a couple of reasons. One reason was because he had a snake tattoo that ran a fairly good length of his body and seemed to come to life. It was what fed him his powers and also drained him of powers at times as well. Luckily, Eddy was able to help keep the snake under control to help Dax throughout his mission or he probably would've died early on. The other thing about Dax that I thought Douglas did a wonderful job at describing was how naive he was about this "new world" he had entered. It was like he was seeing everything for the first time. Douglas captured this so well and the way she described it, I could almost see myself looking through Dax's eyes while reading the novel. I was on edge throughout the entire book wondering what was going to become of Dax as he was supposed to be banished again from earth after his seven days were up. I had hopes that something would work out to keep him on earth, but didn't see any way for this to happen. I won't say if it worked out or not as to not spoil things for future readers, but I will say that I am really looking forward to reading the second book in this series, Hellfire, as this first one was spectacular! Highly Recommended!

Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations, Graphic Sex

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 9 of 2010: Valley of the Scarecrow by Gord Rollo

This is a book that I was helping edit. It won't be published until later this year, but it's a fabulous read. I definitely recommend everyone checking it out once it's released.

Book 8 of 2010: Sucker For Love by Kimberly Raye

Fifth in the Dead End Dating series by Kimberly Raye, Sucker For Love starts off with Lil Marchette hosting a special meet-and-greet dinner party for her Dead End Dating clients. The party seems to be a success, but then one of Lil's favorite clients, Esther, disappears, leaving only a bloody couch behind. Lil takes it upon herself to hunt down Esther and rescue her despite the warnings everyone has given her. In the meantime, Lil's mother is trying to do everything she can to prevent her brother's human wife from getting pregnant and keeps calling Lil to ask for her help. This is just one of many distractions Lil has during her rescue mission that set her back on time and make her wonder if she will find Esther and if she will be alive once she does.

Lil is definitely not your typical not badass vampire, but she sure tries! She may be afraid of losing a shoe or ruining one of her favorite outfits, but she will stop at nothing to save someone in need and that's what I love about Raye's Dead End Dating series. Despite the fashion references, her characters aren't complete idiots like in some books. Sucker for Love has a great setup and plot line, and there is a lot of buildup to the final chapters and resolution to the book. Lil deals with lots of challenges throughout the novel. I feel she has grown drastically in character within the last couple of books. If she hadn't, she would not have been able to handle the events of this particular book. Raye has done a wonderful job with the character growth of this series and I'm looking forward to what she has Lil getting into next. Highly Recommended.

Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 7 of 2010: Piecemeal June by Jordan Krall

Jordan Krall's first bizarro release through Eraserhead Press, Piecemeal June, is a strong first novel. It is the story of a guy named Kevin who lives above the town's one and only porn shop with his cat, Mithra. Said cat has a habit of bringing various things to Kevin, typically tarot cards, but one day he brings Kevin an ankle... and it's sweating! In the following days Mithra brings Kevin more body parts, and eventually Kevin has the complete makings of a full female. When he puts the female together, to his surprise, she comes to life and tells him her name is June. However, little does Kevin know, but Max Alexander, evil pornographer, and his three crab-human assassins are looking for June and will stop at nothing to get her back. Based on the blurb of the back of this book, I went into Piecemeal June thinking it might be heavy in regards to sex, but after reading it realized there honestly wasn't much to do with sex in the book at all. The book is actually more focused on a deeper love story between the characters in the book as you will see as you read it. Despite this being a "love story", however, Piecemeal June also is quite grotesque in parts. There is one character called Simon, the God of Whores, who is pretty darn foul! The scenes describing him and the things he does may make some readers retch a bit. For those accustomed to reading gross-out kinds of scenes, these parts shouldn't phase them one bit, but to others... I'm just giving fair warning that you might not want to eat right before reading this. All in all, this is a great first novel and I'm looking forward to reading the other works by Krall. Highly Recommended!

Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 6 of 2010: Zombie Bastard by Jerrod Balzar

Novello Publishers is known for publishing books in the comic horror sub-genre. Their latest release by Jerrod Balzar definitely falls into this category as it starts off with some crazy bathroom humor. Poor Trevor happened to eat some bad Chinese food right before receiving a phone call from his brother saying that his mother had been admitted to the hospital. In his rush to get out the door, he didn't take the time to hit the john and as soon as he hits the road, his stomach started rumbling. Driving through an area where there are no rest stops,e his options appeared to be either to run into the woods somewhere and drop his drawers, or else just have an accident in the car. When he had just about given in to the idea of cutting loose in the woods, he saw a light at the end of the tunnel... a gas station! Said gas station happened to have a really run-down restroom on the side of the building. Rushing into the single stall once the station manager came out, he didn't think twice about there being an audience outside listening to him "go" so he just let everything out. While he continued his business he heard another "guest" enter the room. Trevor heard some struggling over at the sink and the next thing he knew there was a zombie tearing the hinges off the stall door. That's a sure fire way to make someone crap themselves! Luckily, Trevor was in the right spot for that, but then the zombie went to attack and the chase was on!

Balzar has created a great piece of comic horror fiction with Zombie Bastard. Filled with bathroom humor throughout, it still has a great plot. The story behind how the Zombie Bastard came about is quite an interesting tale. Obviously it's about a bastard child, but there is a lot more to it than that, and Balzar describes the tale of the Zombie Bastard and the curse that was put on the town with added humor to give it more flair. The Zombie Bastard himself is an interesting character, as you discover from how he was "created", but one of my favorite characters in the book comes in to play towards the end... The Witch Bitch. The story really ties together when Trevor finally gets to meet her. There is a lot discovered with Trevor's visit to her house and The Witch Bitch amused me both in her actions and just her name alone. I found myself laughing throughout this entire book and would've finished it in one sitting (no pun intended) had I not been interrupted with other things going on in real-life. Definitely a must-read for the comic horror fans out there. Highly Recommended!

Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations, Bathroom Humor

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Movie 3a: Brain Dead

Movie 3 of 2010: Night of the Demons

This is an old 80s horror movie that I had never seen, but was suggested to me. It was a bit cheesy, but I actually enjoy cheesy movies so it was quite fun. Comic horror at its finest! I highly recommend this to people who love the sub-genre. It has some very weird scenes in it and also some intense moments. For a movie done in the 80s it was actually VERY well made I thought. I may actually re-watch this one again not too far down the road 'cause I enjoyed it that much! I also need to search out the sequel to the movie as I want to see what it's like & I've also heard there is a re-make of this one coming out so should be interesting to see what they do with it. Hopefully they don't ruin the original!

Book 5 of 2010: Tall, Dark, & Fangsome by Michelle Rowen

Sarah Dearly is back for her fifth and final adventure in Tall, Dark & Fangsome. Still battling with the nightwalker curse that was bestowed upon her in Stakes & Stilettos, Sarah is playing "servant" to one of her worst enemies, Gideon Chase. Gideon is a vampire hunter, but for the last several years he has been under the torture of hellfire. He thinks Sarah is his solution and that if she turns him into a vampire, he will conquer said hellfire and be immortal and whole again. In order to get Sarah to follow through with his plan, Gideon is now blackmailing her, threatening to kill Thierry, her loving boyfriend which means saying goodbye to him. It's a good thing the Red Devil from the previous novel is still hanging around town. It seems like he may come in handy once again... especially when Sarah realizes she may have figured out his secret identity.

Once again, I found myself fully absorbed into the words of Michelle Rowen. Her Immortality Bites series has been so much fun to follow from start to finish and I'm sad to see that it has come to an end. The storyline of this particular novel had plot twists that left me guessing about what was to come next and who was up to no good, and I truly enjoyed the suspense. Since this is the final book in the series, I had to think back and wonder about whether the book had wrapped up everything I wanted to know about nicely in the end, and the answer was, yes. I'm disappointed that there won't be more to come, as I'd like to see where all of the remaining characters go from here, but I like how Rowen tied up all of the loose ends in the final chapters of the series. I give her major kudos for that as I hate being left to guess at what might happen in the future for the characters! Now that this series has ended I will be awaiting Rowen's new series to see what she has in store for us with a whole new cast of characters. Highly Recommended!

Contains: Mild Sexual Situations

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

I also did an interview with Michelle Rowen that can also be found at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 4 of 2010: Wolf Tales X by Kate Douglas

No Cover Image yet unfortunately. And... I won't be reviewing this until after it's published, so I'll probably be re-reading it. With a book this good I really don't mind doing just that! ;)

Book 3 of 2010: Blood Bar by Norm Applegate

Norm Applegate's latest in the Kim Bennett series, Blood Bar, opens with Erin Roberts, a vampire hunter, killing a young role-playing vampire, Drach, as part of an attempt to avenge her father's death. Applegate then jumps to the main heroine of the story, Kim Bennett, who doesn't believe in vampires, but after being called to investigate the murder of Drach by his lover, her friend, Rose, she finds herself delving deep into the unknown and questioning her skepticism of the existence of vampires. Kim also stumbles into another mystery along the way involving a legendary Black Testament, an ancient vampire scroll that has been torn into pieces and scattered about the city. Kim races against the clock to locate all the pieces before Erin does, and is shocked at the discoveries hidden within the Black Testament.

A good mix of paranormal mystery and thriller lie within the pages of Blood Bar as the heroine searches out the answers to both the murder and the Black Testament. Also in the mix are some mild sex scenes as the two main female characters are both involved in the S&M world. The sex scenes, unfortunately, are randomly tossed in and are mediocre at best. Based on the cover blurb I had assumed a much more erotic read, so anyone looking to pick this title up based on those excerpts might want to pass this one up for something of a more erotic nature. The lack of editing was also troublesome. There were many typos and grammatical errors that could easily have been fixed with one or two read-throughs by an amateur proofreader. However, if you can overlook the lack of editing and mediocre erotic scenes, Blood Bar does have an interesting plot that, with some touch-ups, could have been a great story. Fans of the vampire sub-genre may feel it's worth picking up this novel to add another vampire title to their collection or "read list", though some, as I was, may be a bit disappointed.

Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations, Sexual Situations, Violence

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Movie 2 of 2010: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

I absolutely LOVED this movie!!! I wished there had been a bit more Johnny Depp, but Heath Ledger looked so much like Johnny throughout that it kinda felt like he was in it more. Was a fabulous cast though and I will definitely be buying the DVD once it comes out. A shame this movie is on such a limited release as I assume not as many people will get to view it in the theater as the movie is deserving of. It's definitely worth seeing on the big screen as it's a gorgeous film!

Movie 1 of 2010: The Boogeyman

Still trying to catch up on some of the "classic horror". This one was actually pretty good. I will get around to watching the sequel one of these days soon I'm sure as well. :)

Book 2 of 2010: How to Catch and Keep a Vampire by Diana Laurence

Lots of girls, and probably some guys too, have fantasized about meeting a real-life vampire. Heck, even I've wished vampires were real and I could one day meet my immortal lover and have him turn me so that I could truly stay at the age of 28 that I've been claiming to be for the past so many years. The question is, if vampires did exist, how would one go about winning the heart of said vamp? Diana Laurence attempts to answer this question as well as many others in How to Catch and Keep a Vampire, a book written in the style of a self-help book, even going as far as including "case studies". I've never been a fan of self-help books, and on such an off-the-wall subject like this, I really had my doubts on how this book could turn out to be good, but I tried to dig in with an open mind. Laurence threw in numerous jokes to help make the read light and fun throughout and played on many old vampire clichés throughout the book, but overall the book was still a bit dull. I also found Laurence's idea that it was a wonderful idea for a person to be dating both a mortal guy and an immortal guy at the same time a bit strange. If the whole point of the book was how to "keep a vampire", wouldn't said vampire be upset if he found out you were cheating on him with a mortal? Some people might find this book a bit fun if they have just barely touched on the vampire scene, such as Twilight fans, but die-hard vampire fanatics will likely be turned off.

Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com

Book 1 of 2010: Chanku Spirit by Kate Douglas

No image available... sorry! But this will be included in Sexy Beast VIII coming out this spring.

2009 - A Year In Books

Total Read in 2009: 80 (Technically 88 if you count the 8 other paranormal erotica novellas I read that were part of anthologies... I didn't add them though since I didn't read the 2 novellas by other authors within the same book)

The Breakdown:

Horror - 44
Paranormal Erotica - 10
Teen Paranormal - 8
Bizarro - 4
Urban Fantasy - 3
Paranormal Romance - 3
Teen Other - 3
Paranormal Mystery - 2
Fiction - 1
Graphic Novel - 1
Poetry - 1


Top 10 Books I Read in 2009 (I have posted a somewhat different list somewhere else, but that was prior to me giving this really detailed thought and I was also not done with reading all of my end-of-year books, so... this is the official. I also didn't include books that I re-read this year that were originally posted in the previous list that was posted. It was VERY hard to choose just 10 because I read a LOT of great books this year. Reviewing for MonsterLibrarian has given me the opportunity to try out some new authors that I haven't read before and I'm finding some new treasures out there. :) Two other books that I thought of putting on this list and didn't are books that I helped edit this year, but are coming out next year so figured I'd wait and add them to next year's list as I'm SURE they will make my list when I read them after publication.) Click on the book title/author name in order to go to that book's entry and read my review for the book.

10. Wolf Tales 9 by Kate Douglas


9. The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey


8. Strange Magic by Gord Rollo


7. The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton


6. Depraved by Bryan Smith


5. Succulent Prey by Wrath James White


4. The Resurrectionist by Wrath James White


3. Benjamin's Parasite by Jeff Strand

2. As Fate Would Have It by Michael Louis Calvillo


1. The 13th by John Everson



Top 5 Authors New To Me in 2009:

1. Wrath James White
2. Bryan Smith (in addition to Depraved listed above I also read his book Soultaker this year... also great!)
3. Michael Louis Calvillo
4. Lisa Morton
5. Shaun Jeffrey

2009 - A Year In Movies

So my movie blog didn't get kept up to date this year after February *blush*, but I did watch movies after that, granted not nearly as many as books I read. I'm just not a big movie watcher. Anyway... was just thinking back on what movies I really enjoyed this year and came up with my top 10. I'll try to do better with keeping my blog up-to-date next year. :)

1. Drag Me To Hell (this is the first horror movie to really creep me out since I was a little kid therefore it deserves the #1 spot in my opinion... though it seems to be a love it or hate it movie based on the opinions I've been seeing around by my friends)


2. Orphan


3. Coraline (not sure how close it follows the book since I read the book several years back, but it's a gorgeous movie!)


4. The Orphanage


5. Severance


6. Vacancy


7. My Bloody Valentine 3-D (never saw the original so can't compare it to that one... I know there have been complaints about it being crappy in comparison)


8. Tideland


9. Public Enemies (you didn't seriously think I'd make it through a top 10 movie list WITHOUT a Johnny movie, did you?!?!? *grin*)


10. Fright Night