And the latest winner is...

Darbyscloset! Congrats, Darby. 

Darby chose the Women's Fiction pack from the remaining grab bags available. 

This next drawing is a little different. I have some Christmas/holiday themed romances here to give away and that will be the Nov 30 package up for grabs. Leave a comment here to enter and make sure to leave me an e-mail to get ahold of you by (or if you have your blogspot set up so that I can e-mail you that way, that works, too). 

After Nov 30, I'm going to take a break until the New Year. The remaining grab bags will go back in the pot along with whatever new ones I come up with. 

So, congrats again to Darby and good luck to everyone else! Get your names in for the Holiday grab bag (2-3 books at this point and a possibility of not one, but two winners this go around).

And sleep eludes me still

So it is now 7:06 am and I have been up for over an hour in spite of the sleeping pills that I took at 1am. It has snowed overnight, something I am none too pleased about, although it does give me an excuse to make some hot chocolate with vanilla mint sugar or one of my many new tea purchases. My cat is sleeping behind me, probably soaking in the space heater as much as I am (the other is sleeping in my spot on the bed - lucky her!). 

I so do not want to be awake at this moment. I would have been happier sleeping until at least 9 - I do have some catching up to do and it would be well appreciated to sleep the night through, oh powers that be. 

I started reading Hot Blooded by Lisa Jackson. This is the first of her New Orleans books and I wanted to go back to the beginning after enjoying Lost Souls so much. Reading order according to her website, if you are interested, is as follows:

Hot Blooded

Cold Blooded

The Night Before

Shiver

Absolute Fear

Lost Souls

Malice (forthcoming)

In Hot Blooded, a serial killer is stalking hookers in the Big Easy. His method is specific but his message has yet to be teased out by detectives. Meanwhile, celebrity radio talk show host Dr. Samantha Leeds returns from a trip to Mexico to find a threatening message on her machine and a mangled photo of herself in the mail. She begins to think that someone may be watching her home and following her around town. The police investigate, but so far have determined that it is a prank. Threatening calls to her show and more "messages" follow but Sam still can't figure out what this person wants from her. She becomes suspicious of everyone, including the hot new neighbor who has a hidden agenda of his own. Rick Bentz happens to be in on both the serial case and Sam's harassment case and suspects that there might be a link, but he's on shaky ground with the department already. Will they unravel the mystery before it's too late?

Relentlessly paced and absorbing, Hot Blooded will definitely make you a fan if you aren't already. Jackson's a new discovery for me - yes, I'd already heard of her but had not read her before - and has a ton of backlist for me to catch up on, and I love her treatment of my home state. I can't wait to finish so that I can move on to the next one. I want to be totally caught up by the time Malice is released - Bentz has some demons that are hinted at and I am dying to know!

And, here's a link to my other Jackson post about her latest new series that started with Left to Die which would be a perfect read for our first snow here in CO!

A Little Top Chef Talk

So last night marked the return of my favorite competitive cooking reality show. Yep, Top Chef is back. I hate watching people go home during the first few episodes. I mean, we don't really know who they are and they haven't really had a chance to show the judges what they're capable of. It's kind of sad. 

So last night I cooked Paprika Chicken and settled down for my show. The 17 contestants arrived and were immediately taken to a quick-fire challenge in three parts. We were given little snippet interviews with just some of the contestants, which is always another bothersome issue in trying to remember which of the contestants I actually like right off the bat. 

The first part of the quick-fire was to peel 15 apples with a paring knife. The first nine to complete the challenge were safe to move on to the elimination challenger and the first of those nine would have immunity for the elimination. Next, the remaining 8 contestants had to cut said apples in a brunoise - little even square bits. Four would be safe. 

The final four in the quick-fire had to each make something with the apples. Two of the ladies cooked - one had scallops and one pork chops. The other two made salads. Now, I'm not one to knock a good salad and they did only have 20 minutes in which to make their dish, but 1. I've seen the judges criticize people for not actually cooking on Top Chef before, and 2. you're trying to convince them to let you stay and your best showcase of your talent is a salad?!

The two salad folk were actually classmates, by the way, and the young lady was sent home. 

Then came the actual elimination. Each contestant had to draw a knife that listed a specific area of the Big Apple famous for a certain kind of food. There were two chefs per region, and like last year's showdown with classic dishes, the two with the same region were pitted against each other. The top dish of each pair would give that contestant a running for the winning spot of the challenge and the bottom dish would put them in the category of those under consideration of being sent home. 

Surprisingly, one of the top spots went to the non-classically trained Hawaiian who accidentally made a great Indian dish. The other two were Stefan, one of the only names I know thus far, who won the quick-fire and had immunity anyway (winner of the elimination as well) and the New Yorker who picked Little Italy. 

So, we've now got 15 contestants left and both Boulder chefs are still in the running. 

Now, if you're curious and can remember who everyone is, here's a Where are They Now post from Grub Street. 

Still Trucking Along

So yesterday I began reading Lilith Saintcrow's first Jill Kismet title, Night Shift. I wasn't on the ball at all, though, so I only got a third of the way through. Bad, Becky! I was doing so well reading a book a day. Ah well, I'll finish it today I'm sure. 

I'm not quite sure why I waited to read this one. I did buy it as soon as it came out and was super excited about it, but I think a combination of my total adoration for her Dante Valentine series coupled with not enough time in the world to read everything I want to get my hands on played a big part in this sitting on my bedside table for so long. 

But wait, you must be saying, if I liked the Danny Valentine books so much, how could I possibly wait to read more from Saintcrow? Well, because I was not sure if Jill would fill Danny's shoes for me. I know, I know, it was just enough apprehension to make me wait a bit longer. Plus, I'm not really one of those binge readers who has to read everything in the same genre all the time. In fact, I have to switch it up rather often so I don't burn out on a certain type of book. So Jill just had to wait a bit. 

I'm loving it, btw. Jill is every bit as strong as Danny and has her own special talents and issues. Waiting to see who will fill Japh's shoes - Jill's gotta have a love interest!

Anway, Jill is a hunter. Her job is to help the police with any "unnatural" cases, mostly dealing with the hellbreed - demons and all. In the beginning of Night Shift, Jill is called in on a case where five policemen, all responding to the same call, were found torn to pieces. A sixth is left in critical condition. No one knows what has happened, but Jill can smell hellbreed all over it. Then a couple of weres who work for the FBI show up and tell Jill they've got a rogue on the loose. Apparently, after speaking with her hellbreed connection, one of theirs has been working with the were for reasons unknown. All Jill knows is that the two of them are wreaking havoc in her town and it's her job to stop them. 

See, totally living up to expectations. Urban fantasy at it's best. Not sure about the timeline on the books. The Dante Valentine series was WAY in the future but the world still resembled our own for the most part. I'm going to link to Saintcrow's website, but as of this morning it wasn't loading for some reason. I'll let you guys have the option of trying, though, if you want to learn more. Check her out here. 

And don't forget, tonight's TOP CHEF!!!

Hello everyone!

Greetings from the should be in bed hour. Just a quick reminder, you have until midnight MST Friday to get your name in for the latest grab bag giveaway. Packages left to choose from are:

Sportsmen (2 contemporary romances with a sort-of sports theme)

Adventure (2 books)

Women's fiction (2 books) 

Hot Men (2 books)

Leave a comment here to enter and check back on Saturday the 15th to see if you've won (click the link to enter). The winner will be notified via e-mail as well if you've left me that option or if you have one registered with blogspot (and set to receive). 

Also, starting Saturday I will begin the last grab bag giveaway entry of 2008. I'll be giving away a pack of holiday romances to one lucky winner. 

So get your name in for this contest and remember to come back on Saturday to enter for your chance to win a pack of brand spanking new 2008 holiday romance titles courtesy of me. 

Good luck everyone!

Book 3 and the mountain of books is no smaller!

Yesterday I read Angela Hunt's The Face. No, it hasn't been on my bedside table all that long. In fact, the book was just released Nov 1. I was feeling guilty that I hadn't read it yet, though, and realized that reading only paranormal mysteries this week would probably burn me out. So I have to mix it up a bit and just grabbed. 

The Face is an interesting read for many reasons. First off, Angela Hunt is actually a prolific Christian author, something I knew going in but was only a little worried about. Mira picked up this title, however, so I figured it had to be either more along the thriller lines or the romance lines, and from the synopsis I knew it had to be thriller. The book does have a bit of a message to it. Ok, more than a bit, but it's not obnoxious or anything. Think of it more as a moral message rather than a biblical one. Plus the book got a pretty good review from PW before its release. 

The book deals with quite a few different elements and Hunt has obviously managed to juggle them like a pro. On the one end you have the medical aspects - Treacher Collins syndrome, facial implants, reconstructive surgeries... On the other, you have the CIA as a whole. And finally, there's the technical aspects. Sarah is a computer expert working on programs that require quite a bit of work for a layman to understand. Fortunately, Hunt has done all the work for us in that regard as she lays out the details in a way that even the most technically impaired person can understand with ease. 

Can you tell I'm not a Christian reader? I actually have no problem reading books with "messages," books that make you think about moral issues. My problem comes from, however, the fact that I don't want religion shoved down my throat (and I mean not one iota of offense to readers who DO read religious fiction, here). Readers like me,  trust me that you don't have to worry here. 

In The Face, twenty-one-year-old Sarah Sims has lived her entire life locked away at a covert CIA facility in Spain. Born with a life-threatening case of Treacher Collins syndrome, the CIA picked up the tab for surgeries that would allow her to see, hear, and basically survive on her own. The result is a face that has been patched together and is difficult for even her coworkers to look at. 

Renee Carey was fifteen when her beloved older brother died - just two days after losing his wife and baby girl. Or so she thought. Just after her mother's death, Renee receives notice of a storage facility that her mother had been renting. While cleaning it out, Renee discovers a letter that suggests that her niece did not die in childbirth after all, but that she was taken in by a member of the CIA. She applies and eventually gets clearance to meet her long lost niece and is determined to help her to live a normal life and to give her the love and family support she's missed out on all these years. 

Sarah agrees to undergo a very experimental facial implant, but the project that she's been working on, and the case that has consumed her fellow workers at the facility has reached a level of dangerous proportions. Sarah herself, unknown to much of the outside world, may even become a target. 

So, thriller, yes. Story about acceptance and love, yes. Good read? Definitely. It was fast and basically all consuming. I read it in just a matter of hours and really enjoyed it. 

TBR Stack Reading Marathon

Wow, I didn't realize how much that Stephen King cover messes with your eyes!

So, I'm sort of staying true to my attempt to chip away at the massive stack of books I've been hoarding. I did buy three more this weekend, though. Oops. 

Yesterday I read my very first Dirk & Steele book. My sister is in love with this series by Marjorie Liu. I gave her her first one and have bought her all the others since. When I expressed an interest in reading some of them myself, before sending them to her, I was immediately shot down. My orders were to send them to her so that she could read them first and then she would have our mom ship them back to me, and then I could ship them back after I was done. Not very cost effective, eh? Some say I should grow a pair and stick up to my sister. She is only 14 after all. I didn't know how quickly I would get to the books anyway so figured it would be just mean to make her wait that long for them. I'll have my shot at them next time I go home to visit. 

Anywho. I did get the latest one after said sister told me that you don't have to read the series in order. They're about a paranormal detective agency and each book is about a different couple. Some people reappear in other books, but essentially they can kind of be read as stand alones in any order. 

In The Wild Road, a woman wakes up in a smokey room with no memories. There is a not simply stating, "Run," pinned to her jacket and there are three dead bodies on the floor. She does run and ends up bumping into Lannes Hannelore, a man with a secret. Lannes is one of the last remaining gargoyles and he can't tell anyone out of fear that it will endanger himself and others of his kind. Lannes survived a horrific event and has closed himself off to everyone ever since. Now, however, he finds himself compelled to help this woman in spite of warnings from everyone else. 

Wild Road is a steamy read with a great paranormal twist. The fairy-tale quality of this read definitely makes me want to steal the others from little sis asap. Until then, though, I'll have to keep pecking away books I own (and try not to buy anymore! - aside from the new Jeffery Deaver and Stephen King, that is). 

So, if you've been curious about Marjorie Liu's series but afraid to start in the wrong place, your fears can be set aside. It seems there is no wrong place to start at all as long as you start somewhere!