Parajunkee's Vampire Challenge Possible List

The Parajunkee Review Challenge is to read and review 20 books featuring vampires. I have a few books in mind for this, and here are my choices. There are also a few open spots because I'm sure theres other vampire fiction out there.
1. Invincible, by Sherrilyn kenyon. I absolutely love Nick, and his backstory is so interesting. Its the second part of the series, that started with Infinity.
2. The Radleys, by Matt Haig. I read it earlier this year, and all I need to do now is reveiw it.
3.Glass houses, Morganville Vampires, Rachel Caine. Been meaning to read this for ages, but never got round to it.
4. Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey. After reading Jekel Loves Hyde, which was vaguely interesting, I want to read Fantaskey's debut novel.
5.Vampire Knight 11 by Matsuri Hino. This would be the latest one in the series, and the review will contain a lot of spoilers. I need to get the library to buy it now!
6. Trinity Blood. Cos its an interesting with a LOT of hype.
7.The Highgate Vampire by Asa Bailey. Apparently its based on a real legend. Looks fun
8. Rosario and Vampire vol 1.
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As you can see, there are a lot of empty spaces. Any ideas for vampire young adult fiction, romance an optional extra? Comment below on books to fill up my list, and your opinions on the books I'm going to read!

Nina xxx

Parajunkee's Vampire Challenge

Look what I found whilst searching through blogs! Parajunkee's Vampire Challenge. The aim is to read 20 books featuring vampires as main characters in 2011.

Yes, it could be said that its just an excuse to read more vampire stories. But seeing as I'd be reading them anyway, I may as well join up!

Nina xxx

Book Review- Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper

Title: Fallen Grace
Author: Mary Hooper
Series: N/A
Published by:Bloomsbury 2010
Length: 320 pages
Warnings: References to rape, pregancy, suitable for 12+
Other facts: Mary Hooper has also written other historical novels such as At the Sign of the Sugar Plum and At the House of the Magician, as well as contemperary novels like Megan
Summary by me: Grace Parkes is a fallen woman-she has given birth to a child without being married, and must now lay him to rest. After placing the body in an rich coffin to be buried with an unknown body, Grace and her sister are thrown out of their home by no fault of their own. They must now find ways to scrape by day by day. Enter the Unwins, a family dealing in death, who will doanything to cheat two young women out of what they rightfully own.

Review: I never properly enjoyed Hooper's other books, but I liked this one a lot. most likely becuase its set in a funeral parlour. I also normally don't like little rags to riches stories, but I think I made an exception for this. O like seeing the highs and lows in Grace's life, like how a poor Victorian girl's life would be. Grace is well characterised as a young determined woman. The harsh look at Victorian lives is filled with historical accuracy- correct to almost every last detail, with the author's notes at the end explaining everything. The whole thing had beautiful descriptions, painting lovely pictures in my head and bringing the story to life. The Victorian style calling cards, epitahs, newspaper clippings and so on heading every chapter are the beautiful final touches.
Overall: I give this Strength 5 tea beacuse it was so beautiful, had a lovely setting and I couldn't find anything to fault with it.

Book Review-Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Leviathan
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Series: Leviathan #1
Published by: Simon & Schuster 2010
Length: 448 pages
Warnings: None
Other factsWesterfeld has also written the Peeps and Uglies series, the Midnighters and a short story in Zombies vs Unicorns.
Summary from Goodreads: Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.
Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.
With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.
Review: The first thing that attracted me to this was the beautiful steam-punk cover to the second book, Behemoth. The blurb gave me high hopes, and I really wasn't disappointed. I didnt like  Westerfeld's Uglies series, but this is something completely different, and it fits steampunk perfectly.The idea of warships made of machinery and animals, cross dressing, lady boffins and world war 1 thrown together with humour was pulled off perfectly. I liked the strong personalities of all of the characters, from the main ones Alek and Devyn, to the extremely irritating  midshipman who is featured in a total of about two pages. Every single one is well fleshed out, believable and easy to connect with. So much happens in this book, that you would not believe that the second half of this happens over a time period of four days. Four days. You can fit a lot into four days in real life, but its unbelievable that that much could happen in said time period. That fact is a reminder of exactly  how fast paced and thrilling the whole thing is, ie very. To top it off, Keith Thompson's illustrations are extremely beautiful, breaking up the lines of text and adding that little finishing touch to the book.

Overall: This book gets strength 5 tea because it was so good, that I literally stayed up until midnight to finish this, and I'm sure you'll want to as well.

Nina xxx

Hello and Welcome

Hello and Welcome to our blog Death, Books and Tea.
This blog is a blog that will supply book reviews of books we read and want to share our opinions on.  We started it because we like sharing our opinions on books, and our book club tend to try and shout over us, because they are completely uninterested in our type of books.
Why? Most of the books that we read have hints of death in them. This is because we like horror and fantasy books. We also like reading stories about vampires, zombies, blood, adventure stories etc. We also like reading manga, of almost any genre. We like it even more if its both. And for some strange reason, we seem to be vaguely obsessed with the Victorian period.

And so a bit about us. There are two of us, and below are quick bios of each.
There is me, Nina, the one who will keep this site in shape. I like manga such as Death Note, Black Butler and Godchild, and I like books such as Darren Shan, The  Hunger Games, the parasol protectorate series and about half of the YA Paranormal romance out there today
There is Katy, who enjoys similar books to me but with out the romance stuff in it, and other things like Lucky Star, Bakuman, Strange Angels and the Los Angeles Beyond Birthday Murder Case novel.
There is Susie, who likes manga such as Vampire Knight, and books like the Wind Singer series and Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler.

 Please, you will have to excuse me and this random design whilst I continue organising icons, rating systems(cups of tea!) and other things. I'm still setting everything up! Until then, why not follow us so you're updated when we are ready, or just visit us again some day.

Thank you for stopping by and bothering to read this!

Nina xxx