With two kinds of magick at odds inside her and two gorgeous men vying for her attention, Tammy Jo Trask is used to being pulled in opposite directions. But in the latest Southern Witch novel she’ll have to make some serious decisions—like how she intends to stay alive.
Tammy Jo’s romance with the wizard Bryn Lyons is on hold while her ex-husband is in town trying to remind her of the good old days. Choosing between them isn’t easy, and it doesn’t help that a skeletal creature is spying on her, a faery knight is hunting her, and she just made friends with Evangeline Rhodes—a rich witch who thinks her own family is trying to kill her.
When Evangeline disappears under suspicious circumstances, Tammy Jo is determined to find out what happened. As she uncovers a secret more dangerous—and personal—than she could have imagined, she also discovers that, in both love and magic, you can’t stay neutral forever.
My Thoughts :
The Southern Witch Series had been a favourite of mine but with no new release since 2011 I though this was one I wasn't going to see again. So my joy and elation at seeing book four being released was pretty big and I was pre-ordering Slightly Spellbound as soon as it was possible. I couldn't wait to catch up with Tammy Jo again and really wanted to have some time with Mercuito!
After the long gap between books I really could have done with a bigger memory jog as far as everything was concerned. The author did her best to fill in the gaps but I felt like I was drowning a little at the beginning. I instantly felt at ease with Tammy but the whole love triangle thing was a little murky and the family situation didn't really come back to me straight away. Also the previous magical history was lost on me. I had forgotten all about Tammy being half fae and wasn't sure what the amulet was that everyone kept mentioning. It didn't ruin the experience though and I found myself enjoying Tammy's mad-cap magical escapades.
The plot was slightly slow to begin with and I wondered where things were going. Tammy wondered as well and I was happy that she was as much in the dark as I was because there was lots going on but no real connection. It all came together in the end but it made the story drag on. The book felt a lot longer than it really was and there was lots of information to process as things progressed.
A few new characters joined the cast and I liked them once I found out who they were and why they were suddenly popping up. I look forward to seeing what happens in regards to all of them when the fifth installment comes out next year. The characters I have know since the series started were like old friends and it was good to catch up with them. I also look forward to having some more adventures with them. Especially Tammy's aunt who I am sure will get into even more trouble now.
A great story and a nice new installment in the series. I enjoy so many things about this unique series and Tammy's Ocelot familiar is just one of them. Her baking makes me hungry and wish for some recipes and the romance doesn't take over the story too much. Things are fun even when they are bad and the paranormal elements are different and unusual each time.
If you haven't already tried this series then make sure you give it a go someday. It has some bite but it is also very witty and cozy. The author has managed to impress me again and this series stays on my must read and pre-order list.
During a small-town skirmish, Would-Be Witch Tammy Jo Trask foils a kidnapping plot with a spell that shrinks her nemesis, Jenna, to a doll-sized diva. When the reversal spells to restore Jenna’s size don’t work, Tammy Jo and gorgeous wizard Bryn Lyons are forced to turn to the ghost of a Victorian-era prostitute who haunts Galveston Island.
Since Sullied Sal only appears to tourists during the yearly celebration of Dickens on the Strand when Victorian food, fare, and fashion are once again the norm, Tammy Jo and Bryn join the festivities. Unfortunately, being squeezed into a corset is just the beginning of the trouble in store for Tammy—and the island—when Tammy Jo and Bryn seek the advice of the gaudy ghost.
My Thoughts :
I am a huge fan of the Southern Witch series and it has been a long time since a new addition to the series has been released. So when I saw a new full length novel was due out this month and that there was a novella up for grabs, well I pre-ordered and bought them without thinking twice.
I was excited about Magical Misfire and maybe my expectations were a little high. After such a long break between books (the last book came out in 2011!) maybe I should have taken the time to read the series again before even attempting this short story. It wasn't badly written. The plot wasn't that bad. However I felt like I should have known what was going on from the beginning, like this was a continuation of a previous storyline, but for the life of me it wasn't ringing any bells and it just left me confused and frustrated.
Despite the disappointment I was happy to join up with Tammy Jo and Mercuito again and hope that the long awaited book #4 that is due out this month was worth the wait. I also hope that the next installment is set back in Tammy Jo's hometown with me being able to keep up with what is going on. Otherwise I fear my pre-order will be a waste of time because I will be forced to go back and start the series again from the beginning.
If you have never had the pleasure of reading this series then make sure you good. It is good fun Molly Harper style and if you start at the beginning you can't go wrong. Why there was such a long break between books is beyond me and I am sure there is good reason but hopefully it hasn't ruined the series but it really has been a great read until now.
You may know author Kimberly Frost for her fun, witty and magical Southern Witch series. Well Kimberly has something new out and it is totally different from her previous work. Darker, more Paranormal and definitely worth reading.
All That Bleeds released last week and I can only recommend you all give it a try. Kimberly has come up with a fresh new world with some interesting characters and I am looking forward to book two when it comes out.
So I invited Kimberly to Amberkatze's Book Blog to talk about her new baby so you can all get a better look at what All That Bleeds is all about. Make sure you read till the end because Kimberly is very generously giving away FIVE copies of her new book!
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Amber - Welcome back to Amberkatze's Book Blog! It is great to have you here as a guest again! Could you start things off by telling us a little about your new book, ALL THAT BLEEDS?
Kimberly – Thanks so much for having me. It’s always wonderful to visit here!
ALL THAT BLEEDS is the first novel in my Etherlin series. The new series is paranormal romantic suspense and within the backstory for the series there’s an event in the 1950s—a vampire “plague”—that changes the course of human history. The Etherlin stories feature archangels, human-vampire half-breeds, and descendants of the ancient muses.
Merrick, the love interest in ALL THAT BLEEDS has a very dark background. It’s impossible to intimidate him and for most people, it’s impossible to get close to him. When he meets Alissa he’s a syndicate enforcer who’s sent to kill a demon. Since they should never have met, their relationship grows in secret. He sends her gifts. She writes him letters. They’re star-crossed lovers with no apparent hope of ever really being together. But when she’s abducted and lands on his side of the wall that separates them, their romance begins. The fact that she’s in danger creates an opening for the “wrong man” to become the right one.
Amber - Where did you get the idea for ALL THAT BLEEDS? Did the idea just come to you? Or do you have a muse to help you?
Kimberly – A lot of things probably contributed. Some characters that I wrote about when I was a teenager inspired me to create Merrick and Alissa. I don’t have a live muse. It would be great if I did! I tend to think there’s a muse who lives in my subconscious. She helps me dig up the plot twists that I can never plan ahead of time.
Amber - Except for the obvious, it hasn't really been done before...Why Muses?
Kimberly – As a writer, I’ve always been interested in where creativity comes from and what influences our ideas. I’ve also always loved stories from Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology as well as various legends. At some point when I was thinking about writing a darker series, I flipped through a lot of my reference books including one on mythology. It occurred to me that modern muses might make interesting characters.
Amber – ALL THAT BLEEDS introduces a new world and some new paranormals. What exactly is the Etherlin?
Kimberly – It’s a pristine community in the Rocky Mountains that was founded by a group of muse descendants when they realized that their supernatural powers of inspiration were more potent when they were in close proximity. Because members of the “fallen” crave the muses’ blood, a wall is erected around the Etherlin and an elite security force is assembled to guard the Etherlin muses.
Amber - Alissa is obviously very pretty. Which famous person would you say she resembles?
Kimberly – There’s a Dutch model named Doutzen Kroes who comes to mind. She was the example I sent with the character description to the publisher when they were preparing to talk to the cover artist.
Amber - What kind of research did you do for ALL THAT BLEEDS? Anything interesting or was it totally boring?
Kimberly – I did a fair amount of interesting research, especially the history of post-war America during the time of the Red Scare.
I think my favorite research was on cocktails. Part of Merrick’s backstory is that his first job was as a bartender, and when the story opens he’s living in a penthouse apartment in the same building that houses his club, Crimson. I wanted his world to be very stylized and cool. And because he’s smooth, I pictured him mixing Alissa a distinctive drink.
While doing that research, I ended up on the website of a popular men’s magazine. It had a ton of colorful descriptions and historical anecdotes about various cocktails. The drink I had Merrick make Alissa is called a Maiden’s Prayer. The site also hypothesized that Hemingway invented the Scotch Lime, which is what I have Merrick drink.
Amber - A new book means new names. How do you pick the names for your characters? Do they have any special meanings?
Kimberly – I don’t spend as much time considering name meanings as many writers. I do use baby-naming websites to troll for character names, but I care more about how a name sounds and whether it feels right for the character than the actual historical meaning.
Amber – A lot of authors have 'soundtracks' for their books. Is there any music that influenced this book?
Kimberly – I don’t create soundtracks for the books, but I do tend to listen to music that “feels like the story” while I’m writing. For ALL THAT BLEEDS, it was rock because Merrick’s pretty bad to the bone.
More interesting was the music research I did while writing the second Etherlin novel, ALL THAT FALLS. I watched YouTube videos of great violin and guitar players. Have you ever seen David Garrett? He’s a gorgeous and extremely talented German violinist. He plays things like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on violin. I recommend checking out his rock symphonies.
I also read some nonfiction works about Eddie Van Halen, George Gershwin and his contemporaries, and Kurt Cobain. Music and dance are important parts of ALL THAT FALLS and doing the research was so interesting since that’s not a world I knew much about.
Amber – Will ALL THAT BLEEDS turn into a series or is it just a one off?
Kimberly – So far there are three stories in the Etherlin series:
TIED WITH A BOW Holiday Anthology – 11/1/11
“First Light” Novella (Etherlin #0.5 – Prequel to the novels)
“First Light”
Investigative reporter/muse aspirant Kate Devane has had recurring dreams of a gorgeous stranger ever since she found a battered antique ring. When she comes upon the dream guy half-buried in the snow, she’s anxious to find out who he is. Unfortunately his memory’s a blank slate. He doesn’t know who he is…or why the world’s most dangerous creatures are hunting him.
In a glittering community in the Colorado Rockies called the Etherlin, the descendants of the ancient muses live behind a wall that separates them from the world and the dangerous creatures who crave them.
Alissa North is inspiration made flesh, so she should never have met Merrick, a deadly half-vampire enforcer, but when they do meet, the connection is instantaneous, and an illicit flirtation is born. He sends her secret gifts. She writes him secret letters.
The long-distance friendship was never supposed to go any farther. But when she is kidnapped and thrown briefly into his world, everything changes. Now Alissa realizes he’s the only person she can trust, and Merrick finds he’ll do anything to protect her, even risk his life by crossing the wall.
As both worlds close in on them, Alissa knows that getting caught with Merrick could cost her everything she’s ever cared about, but giving him up proves harder than she ever imagined…
ALL THAT FALLS (Etherlin #2) - Scheduled for June 2012
(The blurb and an excerpt will be available on my website soon.)
Amber - What are you listening to and watching lately? Is there any music or other media that influences your writing?
Kimberly – In terms of other types of storytelling, I’m pretty into series television. I actually need to catch up. I turned off my cable and put my Netflix subscription on hold when I was swamped with deadlines last year. I’m only just now starting to catch up. For comedy, I loved the first three seasons of The Big Bang Theory. Psych and How I Met Your Mother also crack me up.
I recently watched the first season of Justified, which I enjoyed a ton. In the opening scene, Timothy Olyphant’s character reminded me (in the way he stares people down) of Merrick. All great writing, even if it’s well outside my genre, inspires me.
Amber - If you could be any famous person, alive or dead, who would you be? And why?
Kimberly – Wow, I’m not sure I want to go there. I’m just getting the hang of living my own life.
Amber - Are you working on anything else at the moment? Will Tammy Jo be coming back any time soon?
Kimberly – I just turned ALL THAT FALLS in to my publisher. My plan has been to do a Southern Witch novella next and to release it electronically as soon as it’s polished so that fans of that series don’t have to wait two years to see Tammy’s next adventure. I’m hoping to have the novella finished in time for a spring 2012 release, but that will depend on my schedule. Any of my readers who want to be sure that they don’t miss a release should sign up for my newsletter at my website. That’s the way that I announce new releases.
Amber - Thank you so much for being on the blog! I hope you will come by again sometime!
Kimberly – It was great! Thanks so much for having me. And I never like to come empty-handed, so if people visit the comments and tell me either (a) what their favorite cocktail is or (b) who their favorite dead author is and why, they’ll be entered to win a copy of ALL THAT BLEEDS. 5 commenters will win.
Yes you read correctly! Kimberly is giving away five copies of All That Bleeds!! That means there will be five winners this week!
How To Enter
Answer one of Kimberly's questions to be entered. Answer both for an extra entry!
No Answer = No Entry
'Please enter me' posts will NOT be counted as an entry
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The contest will stay open until Saturday 15th of January 2012 4pm CET and the winner will be picked by a randomizer. Entrants should check back to see if they have won. I do not hunt down winners and will pick new winners for any prizes not claimed within 7 days.
