Hunted by the others - Jess Haines

The Story: Shiarra Waynest is a private investigator in a city where humans live relatively well with the "Others" - vampires, werewolves, mages and other creatures with supernatural powers that appear long the way.

In this city, the "Others" conquered their rights, but in return they cannot cause any harm to anybody (for exemple, a vampire can´t bite a human unless theu both sign a contract allowing that.) Humans and Others can even get married and have kids.

Shiarra is in the middle of this confusion and although she doesn´t want get envolved with their issues, money speaks louder and she is hired by a female mage to find a powerful artifact that fell into the hands of a seductive and manipulative vampirem that puts her in a dangerous situation.

But Shia is not alone in this adventure. She counts on Sara, her human friend, Arnold, a nerd mage and Chaz, her handsome ex-boyfriend.

Will she be able to save her own life?

Minha Opinião: The girl, the vampire and the werewolf. Does it sound familiar? It may be, but I´m sure you´ve never read a story like this.

In Hunted by the others, the girl is brave, smart and even a little bold. The vampire is not so nice and the werewolf... he is another story. I promise I´ll mention him again in another paragraph *-*.

Jess Haines created a whole new world, full of fantastic creatures, where everything can happen... but somehow you start to believe in the things she write. You even start to ask yourself: "What if one of my friends is a vampire or a mage?" Who knows...

I really liked Shiarra, with her very human soul among so utopic beings. She cries, feels fear and asks for help when she needs it. But I also hated her reluctance in accepting Chaz back (the handsome werewolf). I´m in love with him and I beg the author: "Please Jess... I want more of Chaz in the next book!!!"

How many stars? ****

Soundtrack: It was not so easy! The book, despite of being a little dark is very funny too. So I chose Poison by Tarja Turunen that has both features.

You can buy it at Livraria da Cultura HERE

Almost to die for - Tate Hallaway

"The vampires.

Nikolai put a finger to his lips. "Don´t say their name, especially that one. Their hearing is incredible.

I halted my insistent march toward the road. "You sound like you know things about them."

"Are you kidding? My people have been hunters for centuries."

"Vampire hunters? You mean like Buffy?"

The Story: Being a teenager is not that easy. Specially when you´re not much popular at school and you´re not the prettiest. Just to make the situation worse, you´re the daughter of a witch, but you don´t know how to make any spell to scare your idiot colleagues from school. Oh! And I almost forgot... still there´s the fact that you have different eyes. One is blue and the other is brown!

Is this disgrace enough? I haven´t even started telling the worst about Ana´s story.

On her sixteenth birthday, she simply discovers that besides being the daughter of a witch, her father is the Prince of the Vampires, in other words, she´s a dhampir, half human and half vampire. And witches and vampires are enemies and the war between them is just starting.

O Romance: But not everything in Ana´s life is tragedy, my friends! As she finds out that she´s a dhampir, she starts to be disputed by two different boys - Nikolai, a male witch, that comes from a legendary family of vampire hunters, and Elias, the capitain of the knights that protect the prince and becomes a kind of a "bodyguard" of hers.

They both touch Ana´s heart in different ways. But what will happen if she has to chose between the two lives? Will it influence in her relations with Nikolai and Elias?

Minha Opinião: Join vampires, witches (two themes that I really love), two irresistible and good doses of humor. There´s no way to go wrong! "Almost to die for" is a successful union of great ingredients.

It´s easy to like Ana, that shy girl, with a weird family, that tries to fit in some group at school. She´s not ugly, but she´s screwed by the popular guys and she just wants to be normal.

Besides all that, on her birthday she will participate of her Initiation as a "True Witch", but she knows it will be a complete disaster because she can´t do magic and this is making her very nervous. There´s a lot of pressure over her. And exactly in that day, Ana discovers that she´s a Vampire Princess. Isn´t that a lot for a sixteen years old teenager´s mind? Yes, it it... but we´re lucky ´cause Tate Hallaway tells this story wonderfully and Ana seems to deal pretty well with all these things. The book is still a little dark but it´s light, what I really liked.

And I have to confess that I didn´t want to be in Ana´s shoes. Nikolai and Elias are wonderful! And would never know how to pick only one. Nik is that handsome boy from school, super-cool, that sings in a band, besides this is cute and gentle, that would even be able to go against family tradition and not hunt the Vampire Princess. Elias is the sexy guy, that would give his life to protect her... and he conquered me every time he called Ana: "My Lady" ou "Your Highness". What a hard life, isn´t it?
I loved it! One more book to the list of the great YA books that I´ve been reading.

Quantas estrelas: ****

Tem uma trilha sonora: It was hard to find the perfect song, but I chose For the heart I once had by Nightwish, ´cause it talks about a heart that has changed, becoming darker.

True Vision - Joyce Lamb

"He thought he´d feel some guilt. He´d just killed a woman. But it was a woman who deserved to die. Just like the other one. They´s both known, and he couldn´t have them, anyone, knowing. Couldn´t let the secret out. It would destroy them, and they´d worked too hard for too long to sit back and let the destruction begin.

No, the secret to success was destroying the enemies before they could destroy you."

The Suspense: She was just a journalist full of idealisms, living in a small town, where everything that was published in its principal newspaper was controlled by its advertisers, what prevented her to publish many things. But she made the mistake to provoke one of the most powerful man of Lake Avalon.

It would be enough for her to make some enemies. But everything went worst when she witnessed a hit and run and the victim gave to her, with only one touch, her psychic powers.

Now Charlie can touch a person and see something from its past. Besides this, she can feel exactly everything the person felt in this moment. And this is not a good thing.

And someone decides that Charlie is dangerous for its plans. Someone that doesn´t want her to discover a fatal secret in one of her visions.

The Romance: Noah Lassiter is a detective from Chicago, that arrives in Lake Avalon to investigate the death of her friend. Yes, the same woman that transferred her powers to Charlie and the one that had a strong conexion with her. He knew that the hit and run was a murder and he decided to find the killer. He didn´t expected to fall so hard for Charlie and to live a torrid romance with her, full of surprises.

Minha Opinião: Everyone that read my blog knows that Romantic Suspense is my favourite kind of book. But I´ve read so many things with this theme, that the books end up being too similar and with no surprises. It didn´t happend with True Vision! Definitely!

I loved every page and the reading was very pleasant. I´m surrendering myself more and more to paranormal romances and Joyce Lamb´s story came in a good time, which I´m avid for these things.

I felt a deep agony for Charlie. She received a gift as a "heritage" from the lady that died and wasn´t prepared at all for what would happend next. Each time that she touched a person, she entered in a memory and phisicaly felt the pains and emotions of this remembrance. And this was true for good and bad things. I cannot forget to mention the hottest scenes between her and Noah, where she could feel the same as him (If you know what I mean ;)).

I felt sorry for her, when she became exhausted after so many visions, but I got envy too, ´cause devoted Noah was always there, to help in her difficult moments. Their dialogs are great and I fell in love with their romance. And the suspense is very good too.

I really recomend!

How many stars: *****

Tem uma trilha sonora? Yes! I found the perfect one - No need to explain by Lacuna Coil.

"Take and hold this hand what you feel inside?

Is another dream, won´t you give me a part."