Book Review- The Undead Next Door

The Undead Next Door
By: Kerrelyn Sparks













This is the fourth book in her vampire series that deals with Jean-Luc who is a sword welding Paris fashion designer who is being hunted by his arch enemy Lui who does everything in his power to destroy everything Jean-Luc holds dear including killing his current love interest Heather.

I've enjoyed reading the first four books in her series. The stories are interesting and each one is different then the other. She does a good job providing different male characters, mostly by providing them with different backgrounds. I have a hard time with her female characters as I feel that for the most part, they are the same base character.

Her storylines, not necessarily the action side, but the romance, also feels as if it changes little from each book. I will say that their wasn't any 'vampire sex' in this story (you'll have to read the story to find out what juicy little act it is, and its not what you think). I would recommend reading this book for some easy reading.

I give this book 3 out of 5 for bedroom steaminess and 3 out of 5 for storyline/romance.

Click here to visit Kerrelyn Sparks website.

Book Review- Iron Hunt

I've decided that I'm going to do each book review as its own post so that it is easier to find and access.

Iron Hunt
By Marjorie M. Liu






















This is the first in her Hunter Kiss series and was a joy to read. This story is based on a character named Maxine Kiss who has has five demons that stretch across her skin during the day and come alive at night. She is the last warden for our world and it is her duty to protect the people who live here from other demons who want to possess and destroy our world.

When I first started reading this book, I felt as if there was another book before this one that I had missed as there where parts of the story that I had no idea how they came about and felt as if they had happened in another book. This did not deter from the story and in fact made the series more interesting. The storyline was amazing and kept me interested and unable to put this book down. Maxine Kiss is a strong female character that has her weak points but has a strong support system and people and demons who lover her.

I would recommend this story to anyone. Five out of five for storyline.
Click here to visit Marjorie M. Liu website.

Writers Block

I've been thinking a lot lately on writers block and how to get around it. My first experience with writers block was in the fourth grade when I was writing my first story as part of a class assignment. It was on zombies. Interesting, considering that I don't watch scary movies. I got to a point in the story where I could not get any further. For the life I me, I could not figure out what to do next. I ended up dropping the story.

Since then, I've dropped a few more and I've come to the realization that most of my writers block is because I have no idea what should happen next or what the end result of my story should be.

A few ways that I've thought about fighting writers block:
1. Killing off a character (might throw some drama into the story as well)
2. Introducing a new character (could be tricky because they might take over the story briefly)
3. Move your character (have them travel to a new area in your story)
4. Have an argument between your characters, one of them main (argument should probably involve one of the main story point issues that will get resolved in the end)
5. Focus on building the 'support' of the secondary characters (this could be the romance between the characters or the supporting friendship that helps carry the character through the story)

I hope some of the above suggestions help you get past your writers block.