Secret Vampire (Night World) by L Jane Smith

Today's the first day of LJ Smith Week!!! Hope you enjoy! Leave comments and please click on some ads if you have the time. :)

"It was the first day of summer vacation that Poppy found out she was going to die."

What do you think when you hear of Vampires? (If you think Sparkles just leave right now.) Well, what about lamia? I didn't think so. A breed of Vampires that are born that way. (A lot like in Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, except a lot of the color effects, like sunlight weakens, fangs, and they even have special powers.)

James is one of them. His life is pretty normal compared to most Vampires, he goes to school, dates and hangs with his best friend Poppy. That is until he finds out that she has Pancreatic Cancer, one of the most painful cancers known to man. He researches it (tearfully) and decides then that he refuses to let her die, mostly because of the obvious, he's in love with her.

So, he decides he's going to turn her into a Vampire, even if they'll kill him for it. THEY being the Night World, the secret world of Vampires, Werewolves, Witches and Shapeshifters. The Number One Rule, Humans are not allowed to know. Number Two (at least for Vampires) Humans cannot be changed into Vampires.

But, when The Night World is the least of their problems, James has to find a way to get Poppy back before The Night World catches up with her.

This is one of those books that I could not put down for two hours straight! It's a must read!

Remember, there's always a link to the amazon page for the book when you click on the picture! Don't hesitate!

September Calender

Here's the calender for September:

• Thursday, September 3rd until Thursday, September the 10th is L Jane Smith Week in honor of the series premiere of the Vampire Diaries on the CW
• Monday, September 14th until Monday, September 21st is Gossip Girl Week in honor of the season premiere of Gossip Girl.
• Wednesday, September 23rd until Sunday, September 27th is Bring Back Bard Week, a week devoted to continuing the Bard Academy Series by Cara Lockwood.

More information on these events as they draw closer.

L Jane Smith Week!

Annoucement!!!

There will be a new review everyday, starting on September 3rd until Septmber 10th. Most of the books will be from her Night Series since it involves Vampires, and the review of the first book of the Vampire Diaries series will be debuted the night before the pilot episode and the second the night of, since they are both printed togther now.

Here's the schduele:

• Thursday, September 3: Night World-Secret Vampire
• Friday, Septemeber 4: Night World-Daughter's of Darkness
• Saturday, September 5: Night World-The Chosen
• Sunday, September 6: Night World-Soulmate
• Monday, September 7: Night World-Huntress
• Tuesday, September 8: Night World-Black Dawn
• Wednesday September 9: The Vampire Diaries-The Awakening
• Thursday September 10: The Vampire Diaries-The Struggle

Stardust by Neil Gailman

"A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" Pointless, really... ”Do the stars gaze back?" Now that's a question." - Ian McKellen, Stardust Movie, 2007

To be honest, I was excited to read this because this is a tie for my favorite movie with The Princess Bride. And I was extremely disappointed.

The premise was exactly the same as the movie but there were a few key differences. Firstly, the characters first name is not Tristan but Tristran. His father is not a single father, but rather got married a few months before Tristran was born.

Before I go off into the bad points let me tell you a few reasons why I like it:

• The story was extremely unique and wonderful, interesting plot lines.
• Very understandable (especially since based in Victorian times) but still was true to the language.
• While multiple deaths, the dead Princes still come back from the after life to watch, showing that death might not be an ending but could be a beginning.

Now, the reasons why I was disappointed:

• The novel was quite dark while some tend to thrive on it, it only seemed to bring it down.
• Quite violent for a child/teen's novel.
• The explanations of things were jumbled and a little confusing (not even as confusing as Jurassic Park, which was written by a doctor).
• The ending isn't ended well.
• Instead of Tristran falling for Yvaine, it seems more like he went to her because he had no other choice because the girl who was orignally in love with got pregnant by some other guy.

There are many, many, many things that have to wrong before I can hate something, or even become disappointed by it but this novel seemed to manage it. Why is it that most books that seem to win so many awards and become movies and make authors popular don't seem to be that good at all?

I myself can not answer that but my recommandation, don't bother reading it and stick with the movie, while a little lengthy it will be a better use of two and a half hours than a week of getting through this novel.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

"There was a faint smell, too. A pungent odor that I'd never smelled before. Well, I'd smelled it faintly before, but now... now it was so strong. And getting stronger. I opened my eyes and forced myself to watch again. That aroma--it wasn't like I was sensing it with my nose. I felt it, somewhere deep in the pit of my stomach, or in the farthest reaches of the primitive part of the brain that we'd talked about in biology class. The part that controlled sex and aggression and...pleasure?"

-Jessica (Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey)

I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't really paying attention when I bought this book. It was on one of those Amazon things were they recommand the books that you should buy because of other books that you've read. I also really didn't look at the discription until I got it (I waited anxiously by the way!) and as soon as I did read it I assumed it would be some type of a Twilight knock off of someone who was trying to gain a fast rise to fame.

Boy was I wrong. As soon as I read the plot I knew it was something different that I was pretty sure I would enjoy. Besides the obvious plot that Jessica's guy, Lucius, is a vampire it turns out that he's not the only one.

(This book redefines the defintion of vampires as someone who was born undead instead of just turned that way. For men, the transformation from a child to a full vampire is simple, it happens when they reach the age of puberty but for girls it's a little more difficult. They're born that way but they still have to be bitten by a vampire in order to get your fangs.)

If finding out that she was a vampire wasn't bad enough, Jessica also learns that she is the descendant of one of the most powerful vampire families (Dragomir) and her decessed parents signed her up to be married to Lucius once she turned eighteen to end a feud between their two families.

Jessica doesn't want any of that. All she wanted was to spend her senior year gaining a social life, and getting together with Jake Zinn. Why should she have to change her whole life for people she doesn't even know and are crazy enough to think they're vampires?!

This book is fun and creative and I couldn't put it down for days. It's a wonderful first book for Beth Fantaskey and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.