Rises The Night by Colleen Gleason

Prepare yourself for one of the best rides of the year with this book. Rises The Night, the second novel in Colleen Gleason's Gardella Vampire Chronicles series is phenomenal! I hate to say that I was surprised by this book, because that typically has a negative connotation, but this book was even better than the first...and I loved the first!

Everything is grander in this book. The scenery is more epic, the battles are bigger, the passion is more intense, the bites are bloodier, the plots are more complex, and the emotions are heavy. This book had my heart pounding at times and Colleen goes places that you think are off limits. This book really becomes a suspense/thriller at times.

I'm hooked on this series and I'm thrilled that we're promised three more books. I'm just upset that now we have to wait until February for The Bleeding Dusk, the third installment.

Rises the Night takes place a year after the events of The Rest Falls Away. An ancient evil has been discovered and brings our heroine to the city of Rome in the early 19th century where she once again must use her skills as a Venator, a vampire killer, to protect humanity. Sebastian fans will be pleased with this book as he gets much more time in the pages of this one.

As I said before about The Rest Falls Away, Rises the Night is one of the best books I've read this year. So much fun and a ride that anyone can enjoy. I'm hooked on this series and don't want to see it end any time soon. Colleen Gleason is a fresh voice in the horror genre (I'd rather call it horror than paranormal romance as a guy ;) and one that I look forward to reading for a long time to come. Extremely well written, always surprising, heart stopping at times, and always suspenseful. Give me more!

So Speaking Of Stuff.....

I went to Borders today! Why Borders instead of Barnes and Noble you might ask? Well I went to Barnes and Noble first and I'm just about fed up with the one here. I'm sure you all know that the reason I went to the bookstore today is because Colleen Gleason's new book Rises the Night is out in stores today!! Well, once again, Barnes and Noble didn't have it shelved! Our Barnes and Noble is horrible about this. Every time I want a book that is recently released, it's never on the shelves. I have to go to customer service and ask them for it and they have to go in the back and someone always comes back with this idiot grin on their face and says "oh, we didn't unpack those yet...here you go." So this time, I just left instead of asking and brought my business to Borders. I'm sick of it.

Borders was quite a nice experience today! I found all kinds of stuff as you can see by the picture. First and foremost is the reason I went. Colleen's new book, Rises the Night...second in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles. It is the sequel to The Rest Falls Away which was one of my favorite books of the year so far. If you haven't read it yet, I highly suggest it. It will appeal to just about anyone. You can read my review here. If you have read it, go out and buy Rises the Night!! Help Colleen make the best sellers lists. I read somewhere that first week sales matter the most and the book is only $6.99, so even if you think you may read it down the road, go out and buy it this week. And if you do buy it this week, take a picture of yourself with the book and send it to Carl at Stainless Steel Dropping for his contest and you may win an advanced reader copy of The Bleeding Dusk, the third installment in the series! I'll be jumping into Rises the Night as soon as this post is finished!

Another purchase was Marilyn Manson's new CD. I've been a fan of Marilyn Manson's for over 10 years now. It goes back to my goth days. It started out of shock value. He was, and still is to an extent all about the shock value, and so was I back then. And I guess my enjoyment of his music is still related to memories of teenage days. But I must say that his new album is really good! I was really surprised. I imagined that it would be horrible and almost laughable, but it's not at all. I'm really enjoying it. The title of the album is no less offensive than anything else he's done: Eat me, Drink me...I don't think he'll ever change in that way, and his voice is still bad as ever, but it works for him...and it works for me. I've seen him in concert a bazillion times, and the man is an amazing entertainer. He puts on a show like no other. His new video is very well done, but once again, a tad bit on the risque side. You can find it on his website. It's for the song Heart Shaped Glasses. It was shot by James Cameron believe it or not. I don't recommend watching it if your at work or around children. The opening 30 seconds had me thinking I was watching some kind of gothic, high budget soft-core porn....there's no nudity, but there might as well be. Aside from that, it's a really great video :p Maybe Quix will like it...there may be books involved :p

Next purchase - The new Realms of Fantasy! Amazing issue! The cover article is on the new Harry Potter movie and has a behind the scenes exclusive. There is also an article by Terri Windling of Endicott Studio on the themes in stories about Rapunzel. And there's a whole feature on Charles Vess and his art for Stardust!! yay!! And of course there are all the wonderful short stories including one by Tim Pratt.

I also finally got my hands on a copy of Geek Monthly! Another yay! This is one that I've been looking out for for awhile and that my Barnes and Noble apparently refuses to carry...but Borders had it :) This one came recommended by Carl, and I'm glad I finally found it!

Also picked up Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis and The Giver by Lois Lowry as both are books I'm reading for the Newbery Challenge. I'm guessing I'll officially start that challenge in July seeing as I still have to finish both the Once Upon a Time Challenge AND Banned Books Challenge this month. Phew!

I always tell the people at Borders "no" when they ask me if I want to sign up for their rewards card. I say no because I mostly shop at Barnes and Noble and always assumed that you had to pay for their rewards program like you do at Barnes and Noble. Well no one ever mentioned THAT IT'S FREE! So when I asked the lady today how much the program was for future reference and she said "it's free", I said "well sign me up then." So I'm now a Border's member too. Yay for Border's Bucks!

Getting Settled Back In

Today's been a day of playing catch-up...settling back in to normal life. I think I've about caught up on everyone's blogs. If I haven't, I'm getting there, I promise. Lord, you people write too much! :)

Lets see. I've gotten most of my thank you notes done today and mailed off which feels good. I hate that feeling of things left unfinished. Vice-versa, I love the feeling of checking things off of a list, so...check!

Had to go to the post office to get some stamps and while I was there I got a sheet of the oh-so-cool Star Wars stamps. I'm in love! If you haven't bought a sheet yet, I highly recommend that you go get some while they're available. They're every geek's dream.

While at the coffee shop writing thank you notes, I also decided to start on my Tiny Story for Carl's contest. This is going to be fun, but much more challenging than I thought. I have the idea. I've got the first line and the last line written and just those two lines constitute 20 words of the 100 word story. I'm in trouble. I would love to share it with everyone when I'm done, but I realized that I can't because one of the judges is Colleen Gleason and she occasionally stops by over here. Oh well..when the contest is over!

Speaking of Colleen, just a reminder to everyone that the new book, Rises the Night, comes out on June 5th! Very soon. I'm so excited about that one and it looks like there's going to be yet another "bonus read" added to the Once Upon a Time Challenge. I really need to start plowing through A Game of Thrones. I've barely read any of it. Maybe 130 pages on the plane. I got no reading done at all during vacation. At this rate I'll never finish the challenge. I'm loving what I've read of it so far though. Favorite character so far is Jon. We'll see if he remains a favorite. I'm enjoying Martin's writing a lot more than I thought I would.

One last thing. Nattie is a blogger who is hosting the Newberry Challenge. She's such a sweet person and before I went on vacation she was complaining of feeling bad. When I got back I was catching up on her blog and saw that she was diagnosed with cancer and is now undergoing chemotherapy. Please keep her in your thoughts. She's an amazingly strong person with an awe inspiring attitude and I wish her all the best.