Holy crumpets, so did I read an overload of Paranormal Romance in 2011, or what?! o_o Anyway, this is my fourth 2011 in a[n Abominably Large] Nutshell post and although I'm still talking about the Not So Young Adult books that I read last year, I've FINALLY reached some of the good ones!! :D

Sins of the Night (Dark-Hunter #7) - Sherrilyn Kenyon

Final verdict: AWWWWW!! (",) This book is such a wonderful change from the previous ones in the series. I love that the Dark-Hunter is a woman ... I love that Alexion is something we've never seen before ... I love the new demon, Xirena ... and I especially love the fact that Alexion and Danger are NOT handed a fairy tale ending, with everything including the kitchen sink tossed in (Sherrilyn Kenyon's usual MO :P).

Unleash the Night (Dark-Hunter #8) - Sherrilyn Kenyon

Dark Side of the Moon (Dark-Hunter #9) - Sherrilyn Kenyon

Were-Hunters are awesome. Nick Gautier is loathsome.

Kiss of Crimson (Midnight Breed #2) - Lara Adrian

Midnight Awakening (Midnight Breed #3) - Lara Adrian

Midnight Rising (Midnight Breed #4) - Lara Adrian

Have you exhausted the universe's supply of all things J.R. Ward?? Does this make you a Very Sad Panda?? Have no fear, Lara Adrian's here ... and her vampires are ALPHA, tortured, leathered, OH MY!! In happy news, Sterling Chase's book, Darker After Midnight, is almost out. In less happy news, I have to read Andreas, Random Eligible Bachelor #1 (Kade), Random Eligible Bachelor #2 (Brock), and Hunter's books first ... neither of which prospect fills me with joy.


Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter #1) - Nalini Singh

( ... and if you like this one, you'll LOVE Dragon Bound ... )

Branded by Fire (Psy-Changeling #6) - Nalini Singh

Oh, this book!! This book!! In my opinion, it's the VERY BEST in the series so far. Not only because Mercy and Riley have relatively *normal* issues and insecurities, although This Really Helps (:P), but also since (Insta-Love™ aside) they both have to struggle so hard to make a relationship work between them. In other news, Sienna wants Hawke ... Sascha has an emotional breakdown ... Hawke is going to kill Kit ... slowly ... we learn that Vaughn's Man Cave makes for quality office real estate ... Hawke wants Sienna ... and Amara reminds us why sociopaths ruled only by cold logic put the nut in peanut brittle when she experiments on herself (for lack of another test subject) and nearly dies.

Beneath a Rising Moon (Ripple Creek Werewolf #1)
- Keri Arthur

Beneath a Darkening Moon (Ripple Creek Werewolf #2)
- Keri Arthur

There's a WHOLE lot of lovin' going down in these books, but the main characters only sleep with each other during the full moon whatnot when they absolutely must have sex or else they'll moult all their fur and their eyeballs will pop out, unlike in Keri Arthur's other werewolf series in which the protagonist basically screws anything that walks. (Sometimes it's all about the small things ... :P)

This is the third of my 2011 in a[n Abominably Large] Nutshell posts and you're just in time to find out what so-so Not So Young Adult books yours truly waded through in 2011. None of these are likely to spin your world out of orbit, but they'll do a-okay when boredom sneaks up on you like a NINJA!! o_o

Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord
(Love by Numbers #2) - Sarah MacLean

This has such a fun premise, but it becomes rather clichéd and silly the closer it gets to the end. Isabel's wackiness loses its charm fast and the bottom line is that Nick's just no Ralston!! ;D If you're new to Historical Romance (don't be shy; so am I), though, you absolutely MUST read the first book, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake. It is pure brilliance and will turn you on to rakes for good. Yum.

Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart (Love by Numbers #3) - Sarah MacLean

Meh ... ton ... reputation ... good breeding ... blah, blah, blah ... what this one's missing is a RAKE!! :D

Caressed by Ice (Psy-Changeling #3) - Nalini Singh

In one word, this Paranormal Romance is a downer. What an incredibly depressing love story about a cold, cold man and a woman who might just be too broken for him to fix.

Mine to Possess (Psy-Changeling #4) - Nalini Singh

Um ... all I'll say is that I'm looking forward to book 6, Branded by Fire, since Mercy and Riley have - as far as I know - thus far managed to avoid being abused, tortured, abducted, or otherwise damaged and scarred. I think these books are beginning to traumatize ME.


Veil of Midnight (Midnight Breed #5) - Lara Adrian

I quite like the series as a whole, but for some reason this book took me Way Freaking Long to finish. I've deemed Renata just too badass to be relatable, so I'll leave the violence and wrist-slitting story line for another day - YAY.

Hostage to Pleasure (Psy-Changeling #5) - Nalini Singh

I don't really care for Ashaya and Dorian is SO VERY ANGRY right up until the last few pages, but his inability to shift came very close to thawing out my heart:

“Why are you sad, Dorian?"

He couldn't lie to her. "The leopard wants you to see it.”

Lover Eternal (Black Dagger Brotherhood #2) - J.R. Ward

Not even Hollywood can quite make up for two of my Book Pet Peeves appearing. If you want me to deal with the dying cancer patient, PLEASE stop wiping her memory, m'kay?!

Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood #3) - J.R. Ward

Wow. This is one for the Drama Llama. Z pushes Bella away .. she's forced into returning by one outside influence or another .. rinse .. repeat .. GARAM MASALA SHISH KABOB!! My heart is overflowing with So Much Sympathy for you, Z, but when you say love, I say DYSFUNCTION.

The Demon in Me (Living in Eden #1) - Michelle Rowen

This is more Urban Fantasy-ish Chick Lit than anything else, but if the name of the series doesn't already have you snorting tea out your nose, the story almost definitely will.

Wicked Pleasure (Castle of Dark Dreams #2) - Nina Bangs

Brynn and Kim are pretty damn MEH, but book 1, Wicked Nights, is the most hilarious (and WOWZERS sexy) stupid book I have ever read, and I do mean that as a compliment.

Hunter's Fall (The Hunters #13) - Shiloh Walker

Have I mentioned that I forking hate amnesia plot devices?! *scrolls up* To be fair, I haven't read any of Shiloh Walker's previous books, and I do get the feeling that Morganessa is a fan favourite, in the way of Acheron and Hawke (read: everyone else is just happy that the tortured heroine is GETTING a Happily Ever After). As for me, well, I'm not so easy to please, especially when the halfway mark has come and gone - in sixty-two different shades of melodramatic - and the happy couple STILL hasn't met. Dominic's delicious. The rest?? Straight up Nutella, sister.

Well, hello. You've landed on the second of my 2011 in a[n Abominably Large] Nutshell posts, and I'm almost done complaining about my least favourite Not So Young Adult books read in 2011 - ENJOY!! :)

Blaze of Memory (Psy-Changeling #7) - Nalini Singh

This was the first book in the series that I really could have done without. Maybe I read them all too close together ... maybe it's the fact that this story follows Mercy and Riley's one, which blew me away ... maybe I just don't believe that two people could ever fall in love under Dev and Katya's circumstances ... whatever the problem, the only part that worked for me was the ending. No, really, it was sweet.

Bonds of Justice (Psy-Changeling #8) - Nalini Singh

If not for Kaleb's nefarious doings and Nikita, this would have been pure torture. DOWN WITH THE PSY!!

Darkness Unknown (Paladins of Darkness #5) - Alexis Morgan

Well, this one's something special. Gwen has less personality than one of her alpacas and spends the majority of her time cooped up on her farm, knitting and doing various other such exciting things, while constantly worrying about whether she should whip up more nourishment for her strapping young man of a brother. The love interest, whose name I can't even remember, actually manages to be blander. Darkness Unknown also features a whole lot of "plundering", caves that are overrun by aliens, and the consumption of much peach cobbler, courtesy of Ye Olde Fifties Housewife. For your amusement, a quote:

As content as she looked, he almost hated to stop. But he'd promised her ice cream, and he wanted her to trust him on the small things so she'd think he was a man of his word. That way, when he did need to lie to her, she might not notice as fast.

Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood #6) - J.R. Ward

I've read Paranormal Romances up the wazoo, but haven't ever suffered through one quite as painful as Lover Please Just DIE, Already. On the plus side, Bella finally pops out her baby and lives to tell the tale, so Z can STFU and stop acting like a whiny little witch - PRAISE THE SCRIBE VIRGIN!!

Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake #1) - Laurell K. Hamilton

I don't understand what motivates ANY of the characters in this book (Anita detests vampires, yet frequents their strip clubs for bachelorette parties; the vampires complain that the police favour humans over them, yet randomly attack and / or enslave people, sometimes even in public), nor do I care to, but I can't say I'm surprised that the series eventually degenerates into depraved porn. When the wererats started touching themselves, I opted out in a hurry.

Gentlemen Prefer Succubi (Succubus Diaries #1) - Jill Myles

Chick Lit-imus Maximus. When obsessing over sex takes precedence to a character wondering why she's been left for dead in a dumpster, I'm outta there like a ten year old on rocket powered roller skates.

Nightwalker (Dark Days #1) - Jocelynn Drake

If you think you can't go wrong with a plot revolving around elves sacrificing vampires on Machu Picchu to bring about ARMAGEDDON, you're wrong. Can you say wordy and dull?! It doesn't help that the protagonist, Mira, reads like your typical cheesy villain, high as a kite on her own awesomeness and all about lording it over the plebs, until someone scarier shows up, her cue to collapse into so much snivelling mess.

I thought I'd start off the new year, as well as my shiny new blog (which is finally up and running - yay me ;D), with a bang, so WELCOME to the first of my 2011 in a[n Abominably Large] Nutshell posts!! (",) I'm kicking things off with the least enjoyable Not So Young Adult books I read in 2011 - ONWARD, HO!!

Bonded by Blood (Sweetblood #1) - Laurie London

Okay, so the cover is the best thing about this book (Holy Fanged Enrique Iglesias, Batman!!), which is pretty much Kiss of Midnight's lesser clone. If you're looking for angsty vampire men, Lara Adrian and J.R. Ward do them better.

Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Immortals After Dark #11) - Kresley Cole

I am a HUGE fan of Kresley Cole, but if sparks HAD to fly between Regin and the psychopath who repeatedly cracked open her rib cage and fondled her organs, I'd have preferred them NOT to be of the romantic kind. Strangely enough, vivisection is not my idea of a good time. It doesn't help that - since it runs parallel to Demon from the Dark - nothing new actually happens in this book, so reading it is about as painful as a vivisection. Maybe. Maybe not, but you get the point. On the plus side, Regin - Lucia's bratty little appendage - seriously comes into her own and might just be Kresley Cole's funniest character to date. The prologue's brilliant, too. Also, LOTHAIRE!! :D

Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid #1) - Richelle Mead

Richelle Mead's other series kick a whole lot of butt, but I couldn't for the life of me get into this book. It's slow, by which I mean Really Boring ... uninteresting, by which I also mean Really Boring ... and I never stopped wanting to slap Miss Whine Gum and Mr. Pathetic Loser upside the head.

Soulless (Parasol Protectorate #1) - Gail Carriger

Either this tedious book is overrated or Steampunk and I are not destined to elope anytime in the near future. This matter requires further investigation.

Red-Headed Stepchild (Sabina Kane #1) - Jaye Wells

This is one of those books that you should probably read in one go, because if you put it down, you're unlikely to pick it up again. It's not terrible ... or particularly memorable. I gave up on reaching the last page after a year and a half of it sulking on my shelf, half-read. I'd recommend Tempest Rising instead, which is written in a similar style, but also happens to be more amusing and nowhere near as trite.

The Scent of Shadows (Zodiac #1) - Vicki Pettersson

I started off with much love for this book, but Vicki Pettersson lost me somewhere between the part where Olivia met the window in a most spectacular fashion and the part where Joanna woke up with her face. It was all a little cray cray, even for me. The comic book superhero thing was taken way too far, to the point where the plot hit ridiculous and I could no longer relate to Joanna, because - after everything she'd been through - it would have been a mercy just to shove HER out a window, throw her a funeral, and let her rest in peace. If you're looking for awesome, you want this book: Mind Games.