Kate Daniels and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

I'm reading my way through the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews which includes Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, a short story in the Must Love Hellhounds anthology, and a new book being released tomorrow titled Magic Bleeds. Kate is an ass-kicking mercenary-turned-cop in a world full of shifters, vampires, witches and demons where the world fluctuates between flares of magic and a normal state where technology actually works. Kate is a powerful magician who keeps her power very deeply hidden for fear of death if she's found out. She's tasked with assignments that always get her involved with the local shifter pack whose leader is Curran, the very strong and powerful were-lion. I love these books! I love urban fantasy books with a strong female lead character, so these are right up my alley. I definitely recommend them.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is the latest book by Seth Grahame-Smith who also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Like PP&Z, this book was decent but it didn't quite go as far as I wanted it too. It was a little on the dry side. I wanted something more; more crazy, more funny, more outrageous, more something. But I did enjoy reading it. It tells Abe's vampire hunting history, starting with the death of his mother from a vampire and delves into the 'real' reason for the civil war (lest you think it was merely about slavery). My favorite parts of the book were the old photographs touched up so show either the vamp-killing axe in Abe's hand or random vampires lurking in crowds. I would recommend you pick it up only if you have a real interest in reading this. If you pick it up as a casual read you may be slightly disappointed.

Robin Hood, John Adams, and Burned

Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, is a terrific interpretation of the Robin Hood legend for a smarter movie audience. If you're looking for another cute and predictable version like the Kevin Costner rendition you'll be in for a shock. I'm most impressed by the script. I love when people actually spend time developing a story and characters for an action movie. This movie sort of ended up being a prequel to what we think of as "the story" so I'm hoping there will be more movies to come in this franchise. Definitely go see this one.

I finally got around to renting the John Adams HBO mini-series starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. It was excellent! I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love when HBO takes on history because they breathe life into what textbooks portray as boring facts. If you haven't yet seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it.

I struggled through Burned, the latest book in the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast. It was terrible. The series started out okay, but they've gotten sloppy with the writing and the stories are almost non-existent. If you haven't yet started this series, don't. I'm dropping it altogether.

Iron Man II, Mercy Thompson, and other reviews

Oh, I have been so bad at keeping up with my blogging. Oops. Since I have a lot to blog I'll keep them all short.

Iron Man II was great! It's definitely summer movie time now that I've got my big blockbuster movie. I love how Robert Downey Jr. and Gwenyth Paltrow come across on screen. They're great together. Mickey Rourke is freaky looking on a good day, so with the addition of nasty teeth and a huge pile of tattoos he was positively nasty. AND there's actually a good plot! I liked the end of the first Iron Man film when Tony Stark admitted to being Iron Man instead of keeping a secret identity like all other super heroes. The plot is the fall-out of that scenario, which you could easily see happening. Definitely go see this one.

I also saw The Secret of the Kells, a beautifully animated Irish fairy tale about the creation of the book of Kells. It was nice break from the usual Pixar animation. I really enjoyed watching it and recommend that you give this one a try if you have the opportunity to see it.

I read the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha & Omega series, both by Patricia Briggs, and loved them! Briggs creates a rich and wonderful world of supernaturals which primarily focuses on the werewolf pack in the area in which our heroine, Mercy Thompson, lives. Briggs also dabbles a little in the Fae's who are much more terrible than the humans think they are, and, of course, vampires who are mostly evil except for Mercy's friend Stefan who drives a VW bus tricked out to look like The Mystery Machine from the Scooby-Doo cartoons. Anyone who reads urban fantasy needs to read these book. They're definitely among my favorites.

I read the latest in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Lover Mine, by JR Ward. Great book from a great series. All you vampire fans need to read this series. I also read Dead in the Family, the latest Sookie Stackhouse book by Charlaine Harris. I thought this book was good but not great. Harris managed to work in a storyline that covered issues from the Fae, vampires, and weres, which is no small feat. I recommend this series for those looking for lighter "beach read" type books. And I just finished Burned, the latest in the House of Night series by PC Cast. This YA series is getting annoying to read. She is unnecessarily dragging out the storyline which is making the books boring and tedious to read. If you haven't started this series, don't. Save your time and your money.