I’ve signed up for another one! Sorry, but these seem fun. Read along with me.

The following guidelines come from this blog:

http://megantalksbooks.blogspot.com/p/2013-tour-of-paranormal-reading.html

Welcome to the 2013 Paranormal Reading Challenge hosted by Megan Likes Books and Auntie Spinelli Reads! There are so many awesome sub-genres of paranormal books, that it’s easy to find one you like and stick with it. So that’s why I decided to make a reading challenge with the goal of reading about all kinds of paranormal creatures.

The goal is to read one book featuring each of the following paranormal creatures:

Vampires
Werewolves/Shifters
Fey
Angels/Nephilim
Mermaids
Dragons
Zombies
Demons
Witches/Wizards
Ghosts
Aliens
Other (ie: sirens, unicorns, centaurs, timetravel etc.)

Guidelines:
1. This challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013.
2. You must have a blog to able to participate, since reviews must be added to the linky.
3. When you sign up with the linky, please put the link to your post about joining the Paranormal Reading Challenge.
4. You’re welcome to list your books beforehand or just add as you go.
5. Sign-ups are open until December 1, 2013
6. At the beginning of each month, I will post a kick-start post, each month featuring a different category of paranormal creature. This post will also include a linky to include your reviews from that month.
7. Each review you link will qualify you for an entry into the monthy giveaway and if your review includes the feature paranormal creature of that month, you get a bonus entry.
8. Each book can only count for one category, even if it contains more than one paranormal creature. For example, Twilight contains both vampires and werewolves, but you can’t use it for both the vampires and werewolves/shifters categories.
9. Everyone who completes the challenge will be entered into a grand prize giveaway at the end of the year.
10. If you read multiple books from one category, feel free to add them to the linkies. Don’t stop at just one!
11. Book can count for other challenges.

Its pretty late in the year, but luckily, I’ve read a few of these that can count. Book titles link back to the reviews.

January – Vampires– Ever After by Kim Harrison. There are vampires in it.
February – Angels/Nephilim– Angelfall by Susan E.E
March – Fey — Glass Frost by Liz DeJesus, it has fairies in it. Review to come
April – Demons– The Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent
May – Aliens– I’m counting the Mistborn series for this one as their planet is located in a different place than this one 😉
June – Zombies– Delirium series by Lauren Oliver (review to come) What? They even call the lobotomized people zombies, it works.
July – Witches and Wizards
August – Mermaids
September – Dragons
October – Ghosts
November – Werewolves/Shape-shifters
December – Other

This looks fun! I’m a bit late to the party, but the idea is to read as many fairy tales and mythology retellings as you can within a year and write reviews to them each month.

Here’s the rules…. the official sign up is here: http://anarmchairbythesea.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/announcing-telling-tales-challenge-2013.html

The challenge runs from January 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2013. You can sign up at any point throughout the year.
Again, any genre counts as long as it is in some way related to fairytale and/or mythology. Once again, if you are unsure, as long as you can make an argument for its’ inclusion, it counts!
Re-reads count, and you are more than welcome to overlap books with other challenges.
Please leave me your email address in the comments if you want to participate (I promise not to harrass you, it’s just so that people get a reminder every now and again about the monthly link ups, and also so I can contact you for competitions etc).
Please link up your reviews every month in the posts which will go up on this blog.
In your sign up post, please indicate the level you aim to complete. You are entirely welcome to change this as the year progresses. You can make your lists beforehand, or as you go. Whichever you prefer!
When you sign up, please leave the link to your sign up post, rather than just to your blog in general.
You don’t have to have a blog to participate – you can review on Goodreads, Amazon, wherever, just let me know where you will be reviewing!
That’s it!

The levels are as follows:

Pixie – read 2 books
Troll under the Bridge – read 5 books
Princess – read 10 books
Prince Charming – read 15 books
Evil Queen – read 20 books
Dragon – read 30 books
King/Queen of the Silver Screen – read any number of books and watch the film adaptations

.

I’m going for Princess level. My first book will be Persephone’s Orchard and that review will be posted this Thursday 🙂

Colleen won the anniversary giveaway! Congratulations Colleen!

Bookmarks are being mailed out tomorrow for those who requested them. If you have not gotten them by next-Monday, let me know and I’ll resend. If they are damaged at all, let me know and I’ll resend. Enjoy guys, and I’m looking forward to another great year 🙂

It’s a happy couple of days for me. Today is the Fourth of July which means fireworks! Yay! Also, Persephone has been out for an entire year!

It’s been a good year. I went from being unpublished, to having an entire trilogy come out. I’ve met really great readers and a ton of other writers. I want to celebrate.

So…giveaway. For those of you who have read my series, I’m giving away signed bookmarks. US only, I’m afraid. No requirements for that giveaway, just send me your address in a private message, and I’ll get a bookmark in the mail. But be sure to send our friends over to this blog, because I’m giving away my entire trilogy to one lucky winner. All you have to do is follow me on twitter, facebook, and this blog. Comment below (here at http://www.kaitlinbevis.com, not twitter, facebook or goodreads otherwise I can’t enter the entry into the random number generator), and I’ll choose a random winner at the end of the day Saturday. Winners will be posted Monday.

Enjoy 🙂 And thanks for making this a great year!

The ever after, the demonic realm that parallels the human world, is shrinking. If it disappears completely, so does all magic. It’s up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to avert catastrophe and keep life from changing… for the worse.

While saving the world is important, it isn’t Rachel’s only motivation. There’s also the small fact that she caused the ley line to rip in the first place, setting off a chain reaction of unfortunate events. That little mistake has made her life forfeit unless she can fix it. It’s also made her more than a few enemies, including the most powerful demon in the ever after—a terrifying entity who eats souls and now has an insatiable appetite for her. He’s already kidnapped her friend and goddaughter to lure her out, and if Rachel doesn’t give herself up soon, they’ll die.

But Rachel has more than a few impressive and frightening skills of her own, and she isn’t going to hand over her soul and her life without one hell of a fight. She’s also got a surprise: elven tycoon Trent Kalamack. With this unlikely ally beside her—a prospect both thrilling and unnerving—she’s going to return to the ever after, kick some demon butt, rescue her loved ones… and prevent an apocalypse before it’s too late. Or, at least that’s the plan…

My Review: I LOVED it! Love love love this whole series. I really love the slow reveals of this series. Rereading book one after this made me realize how much this world and all the characters in it have grown in such a realistic way. This book was nonstop action and I absolutely couldn’t put it own. Once again, I can’t wait for the next one.

Random number generator chose Rachel as the winner of the mythology blog hop. Thank all of you so much for commenting, and keep an eye on my blog for future contests.

So I had a great question from a reader last night, and judging by the crickets when I put the question on facebook to get reader opinions, a lot of people were wondering the same thing.

Here’s the question:

@AmandaLeannW: @KaitlinBevis I have a question for you about the ending of Hades last POV chapter in the Iron Queen, what’s he mean “what isn’t?”

Hades and Persephone come out of the events of this book in very different mental places. Persephone is in a place of strength. Her world has been rocked by all the events, no question, and she’s upset at how everything turned out, but she has confidence in herself, her identity, and her ability to handle anything life might throw at her next.

It’s really easy to focus on what Persephone’s been through, or even what Aphrodite’s been through. They aren’t quiet about it. But Hades plays it closet to the vest. So it’s easy to forget what he’s been through.

Hades HAD that confidence Persephone just found. But it’s been shattered In the last two years (in no particular order), he….
– fell in love with Persephone, the teenage daughter of another realm ruler
– his realm has been broken into by not one, but two demigods
– a teenage girl slipped past his security and left his realm
– his most trusted advisor/best friend betrayed him, leading Hades to kill his best friend but only after his wife went through all kinds of pain because of his insistence to use Reapers to guard her
– the man he hates most in the world that he thought was in his realm wasn’t, instead he was out, charming then abducting his wife, when Hades came to her rescue she ended up taking a knife meant for him that was made out of literally the only material in the universe that could kill a god.
– He saved her, but only by ripping her arm off while she screamed for him to stop.
-His second best friend kept vital information from him
– Demeter, a woman he kind of idolized/respected for keeping the gods sane and together before the rebellion, died.
– Persephone killed Zeus.
– He was honestly about to trap Artemis in the Underworld to trap Zeus, but he got away
– he missed the fact that Persephone hadn’t actually escaped Zeus’ realm, and gave her information that led Zeus to Apollo, nearly killed Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Demeter, Melissa, Artemis, and Ryan.
– missed the fact that Triton was in his realm (thanks to Cassandra)
– during that chat with Cassandra, he realized that he’s sat by and watched (if not directly participated) horrible things happen to people.

I’m sure I’m missing other traumatic stuff thats happened, but Hades is in a dark place. He’s feeling incompetent, and responsible for everything bad that happened. Persephone is back, so he is happy about that, but he can’t get past the feeling that everything that happened is his fault. He looks at her and sees all the ways he’s failed. He also worries that maybe the reason she’s been through so much is a price to pay for all the bad things he’s done. The scene is reminiscent of the dream he had where every time he touched Persephone it hurt her, only instead of her being hurt, he literally put blood on her hands. He’s worried his darkness is rubbing off on her, that he’s going to end up destroying her.

That self-doubt\trauma is going to reverberate through the next few books. Make no mistake, he loves Persephone, and he’s not planning on letting her go, he’s very happy with her. But there is a LOT wrong and the two of them are going to have to work through it.

*blinks at the list of what Hades has gone through.* Good lord, I’m sadistic.

Fatima and Cara 🙂 thanks for participating. Email me your prize choice at kaitlinbevis@gmail.com

This didn’t post yesterday! I don’t know why, but here we go.

The Iron Queen has finally been released, which makes this my last contest for this release. Make your own spoiler. How do you want the story to end? What do you think/wish would happen to my characters next. Post it in a comment, and I’ll choose a winner at random Monday morning.

Prizes…

A copy of any one of my books, you pick.
Own them all? I have bookmarks coming in, their just paper bookmarks with my web banner on it and a blurb for Persephone on the back. I’d be happy to sign and send one to you.
Don’t want any scrap paper? You can win an audio book of Persephone that will be finished….. at some point. I’ll send it as soon as its available.

Other announcements

To answer the question many of you have been asking, no, this is not the end of the series. The next arc of the Daughters of Zeus series is a trilogy narrated by Aphrodite. The first, “Venus and Adonis” is being worked on right now 🙂 check the home page for updates.

Quick note: Book titles should be underlined, but for some reason wordpress underline hates me and keeps doing weird things like

this

, so…sorry.

Second announcement: Work on Persephone the audio book has begun! I’m so excited! Though I hate my voice, so I kind of feel bad for anyone who listens to it, lol.

Have fun with the contest!

The title of each book Persephone narrates come from her titles. Her titles defined her in mythology. Her role and personality changed with each one. So, one question per book, first right answer on all three wins an ecopy of Iron Queen.

1) Persephone didn’t start out as Persephone. She had another name before she was abducted. What was it, and what did it mean? There are several variations on spelling, I’ll take any of them.

2) Who does the earth and sky bit of the title Daughter of the Earth and Sky refer to? Why do you think it was relevant for that book? That last question is opinion based, so any answer is right.

3) Who called Persephone the Iron Queen. Why?