Review: Halloween Fantasies - Katie Salidas

Touted as the sexiest party of the year, the annual Halloween Fantasy Ball is the one place a girl can let loose and succumb to her wildest fantasies.

Disguised as a sexy vampire huntress, Sasha captures the attention of Dante, a real life creature of the night. For Sasha, meeting bona-fide vampire is enough to fulfill one of her life long fantasies. She’s ready to go home a happy woman.

But Dante has other plans. It is after all, a night of fantasies, and he has a few of his own to share.

Visit Katie Salidas' Website for more information.


Review:
Halloween Fantasies is a thoroughly enjoyable erotic novella guaranteed to add a little spice to your holiday, in fact I think it might just have become my new Halloween tradition to read this story.

I don't want to give too much away about the plot because it is a short story and it would be too easy to give you spoilers but I this is the perfect read for when you're looking for something short and steamy for a quick read.  I often find the romance unbelievable when you're expected to believe the characters fall madly in love within a couple of pages so one of the things I liked the most about this novella is that it's about lust, attraction and fulfilling your wildest fantasies.  It is easy to feel the attraction between the main characters & I really hope that Katie will revisit Sasha and Dante in a future book / novella.

Although this does include a m/f/m menage it doesn't include any back door activity so even if that is something you'd usually be uncomfortable with I'd still recommend this if you like erotica.  This story would definitely count as one of my recommended reads and I know I'll be checking out anything Katie releases in the future!

Source: Received free from the author in exchange for an honest review

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Author's Animal Antics - Katie Salidas

Author's Animal Antics is a new regular blog feature here at Sarah's Book Reviews where I'm very excited to have some fantastic authors come and chat to us about their pets.  I'm thrilled to introduce the lovely Katie Salidas as my guest today...

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There is a saying that cats don’t have owners, they have staff. Boy is that true in my house. I can’t even begin to tell you where the shift happened. One day they are these cute little fuzballs begging for love and attention and the next day they are full-grown fuzzy overlords demanding food and grooming, and God forbid you don’t clean the litter box on time.

I have three: Boose, Shady, & Lurky. If I weren’t married with children, I’d say I was getting dangerously close to becoming one of those crazy cat-people. You know the kind. They have a house full of fuzzies… Kind of like chips, “You can’t just eat one,” cats are the same way. You can never just own one, or is it be owned by one… hmmm?

Boose, Shady & Lurky

Each one has a very distinct personality and their own idea on how they should be cared for. They all provide a different sort of joy in our family’s life, but it’s the oldest, Boose that gets the spotlight here.

She was originally supposed to be my husband’s cat. He had her for years before we met. In fact, he jokingly told me that, “I would be judged by his cat” when we first met.

Boose

I wasn’t worried, as soon as she saw me, she switched sides. She’s mine through and through. Which is probably a good thing because if she hadn’t endeared herself to me early on, I might have been tempted to make her an outdoor kitty. No, I’m not an anti-cat person. Boose just has a very annoying problem that can be difficult to deal with.

She is neurotic about cleaning. You’d think I’d be over the moon about that. Who doesn’t want a clean cat? The problem is, she’s a long-hair cat and that long hair doesn’t digest well. I think you see where this is going. I find little Boose presents all over the house. Like I said, if she hadn’t endeared herself to me early on, she’d be spending lots of time outdoors.

Let me just tell you, there is nothing like waking up in the morning and stepping in a fresh pile of regurgitated fur. Works better than coffee to get the blood pumping. Blech!!

Boose

But, sometimes we find inspiration in strange places. Boose, my writing buddy, who always sits below my feet while I type, gave me a flash of inspiration one day. I needed a catalyst, something to change the course of the evening for one of my characters in the recently released, Halloween Fantasies. As I watched Boose, leaving me yet another present, it hit me (no, not the hairball, thank goodness). Why not give Boose a starring role doing what she does best. So Sasha’s cat, also named Boose (what can I say, it’s a unique name I had to run with it), ruins her Halloween costume, thus changing the course of her entire evening and sets in play events that will allow her to explore her secret fantasies.

So, in an odd turn of events, Boose’s presents really did give me something after all, and not just another mess to clean up. Now, if I could just train her to heave hairballs in the trash I’d be all set.

 

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Thank you so much for visiting today Katie!  Katie Salidas is the author of the new urban fantasy series Immortalis.  The first book Immortalis Carpe Noctem is available now (this is a great start to a new series and you can read my review here) and the second book Immortalis Hunter & Prey is released in 2011.  Katie has also released an erotic novella called Halloween Fantasies & let me tell you this is the perfect quick read to spice up your Halloween!  I will be posting my review soon.

Find out more about Katie and her work here - Website / Blog / Twitter / Facebook / Facebook Author Page / Myspace / LinkedIn / Goodreads

For more information about the Author's Animal Antics feature click here

Review: Immortalis Carpe Noctem - Katie Salidas

Bleeding to death after a brutal mugging on the campus of UNLV, twenty-five year old Alyssa, is rescued by the cold and aloof, vampire, Lysander.  Taking pity on her, he shares the gift-and curse-of immortality.  She awakens as a vampire and is soon devastated by harsh realities of her new way of life: the loss of her friends, her independence, and her humanity.

As if having her humanity stripped away was not enough to make life interesting, Alyssa finds out her "turning", did not go unnoticed by the rest of undead society.  Old enemies; an ancient sect of vampire hunters, known as the Acta Sanctorum, as well as a powerful vampire mistress, each set plans in motion to destroy both Alyssa and Lysander.

Only by accepting her new found immortality, seizing the night, will Alyssa hope to survive.  She and Lysander must fight together against two sets of enemies bent on destroying them both.

Immortalis Series:
Immortalis Carpe Noctem
Immortalis Hunter and Prey (2011)

Visit Katie Salidas' Website for more information.

Review:
When Alyssa is walking home alone late at night she is brutally attacked by 2 muggers.  Lysander rescues Alyssa but she is so badly injured that she is almost dead leaving Lysander no option but to change her into a vampire or watch her die.  Waking up to discover she has been turned into a vampire comes as quite a shock to Alyssa - she had no idea that vampires even existed.  While trying to come to terms with her new life Alyssa also has to deal with a powerful vampire mistress who isn't happy that Lysander turned her without permission and the Acta Sanctorum - vampire hunters.  Will she survive long enough to learn how to use her new abilities?

I first heard about Immortalis Carpe Noctem when I saw it was going on a tour arranged by UK Book Tours, it wasn't a book seen before but it sounded interesting and I couldn't resist signing up to read it.  I'm glad I did as I've discovered a new author who I will definitely be keeping an eye on in the future.  This book is the first in the Immortalis series and I'm looking forward to reading future books as they are released.

I really enjoyed watching Alyssa deal with being turned into a vampire - she has been introduced to a whole new world without having any choice in the matter.  As Lysander says in the book "Becoming a vampire is easy.  Living with the condition, that is the hard part" I'm sure Alyssa would agree with this statement!  I've not really read anything that covers the issue of being turned without prior knowledge of what is happening and goes into as much detail as this book did.  I thought Katie Salidas did a great job of showing how hard that must have been for Alyssa.  She had no choice but to leave behind her old life, for their safety she could have no contact with her friends and wasn't able to return to her apartment.  Not to mention having to come to terms with needing to drink blood to survive.

I found it quite easy to relate to Alyssa and understand what she was going through.  She did complain a fair bit at the beginning but I think that was to be expected in the circumstances.  Lysander was a great character but at times he didn't make things easy for Alyssa.  He wanted to protect her but didn't always manage to explain his reasons to Alyssa which led her to feel suffocated by him.  I enjoyed watching the 2 of them interact with each other though and I really liked the Peregrinus - a travelling group of vampires who were friends of Lysander.

The action in the story was good but a little predictable in places, there was a good twist towards the end though.  Overall Immortalis Carpe Noctem was an enjoyable start to a new series. It's one of those stories that crosses the lines between paranormal romance and urban fantasy so I think fans of either genre would enjoy this book.  I'm looking forward to seeing what Katie Salidas comes up with next.

Source: Received as part of a book tour arranged by UK Book Tours, this book has already been sent on to it's next destination.

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Chrissie's Corner
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