Halloween Dracula

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!

Graphic found at Westside Update 

Honestly, I am not a shill for Not Quite Nigella website, but owner Lorraine Elliot knows food, photography, recipes, and best of all how to throw a great Halloween Party.

Follow this URL for terrific ideas for your own get-together.

Haunted House Cupcakes from Not Quite Nigela

More exquisite delights from Not Quite Nigela's wonderful food site. For those of you who like to bake as well as eat, blog owner Lorraine Elliott gives detailed instructions.

I cook once in a while but rarely bake. If a reader decides to try the recipe and would like me to do a taste test I'll send you my address :)

Happy Halloween!

LAST DAY FOR 4 CONTESTS ON PVN

Monthly contest for email subscribers - see right hand bar

Your Favorite Vampire(s) - Halloween Contest at PVN

Day by Day Armageddon 

Hellbound Hearts 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Spine-Chilling Book Giveaway from Hachette Books

Here's another Halloween giveaway thanks to Hachette Books!
Each winner will receive a box of the following 5 books. Three names will be chosen.

The Heretic's Daughter By Kathleen Kent

Sins of the Flesh By Caridad Piñeiro

When Ghosts Speak By Mary Ann Winkowski

BoneMan's Daughters By Ted Dekker

The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova

As a bonus  20 Random winners will be selected by Hachette to receive a galley of Ted Dekker’s next book, THE BRIDE COLLECTOR

To enter the contest:
*Leave a comment concerning Halloween = 1 entry
*Link to a blog or a social network - each link = 1 entry

*If your email is not associated with your ID, please put the address in your response
*Contest ends Nov 8, 2009 at 11:59 Hawaii Time
 [To enter you must be a US or Canadian resident. No PO Boxes please.]

For more PVN contest info look at the right hand column under:

Contests and Events on PVN

Review of Deadly Harvest and Deadly Gift

Deadly Harvest (The Flynn Brothers Trilogy 2)
by Heather Graham
Mira, 2008

Mary and her husband Brad were visiting Salem, MA, during the Halloween festivities. What better place to really get into the spirit of things. It was especially important now since not all has gone will in the recent months of their marriage. Brad had been unfaithful, but he and Mary decided that they wanted to stay together. This trip was to allow them to experience some fun with each other once again. Unfortunately All Hallows Eve turned out to be a night of true horror. While walking through an old cemetery, with many people around, Brad momentarily looses sight of Mary and cannot find her again. She has vanished. The police are called. They search everywhere. Still there is no trace. Suspicion falls on Brad, of course. He nearly goes crazy with grief. His friend and private investigator Jeremy Flynn shows up to do what he can for his former police diving partner. Arriving at the same time is Rowena Cavanaugh whom Jeremy met when they were both in New Orleans. She grew up in Salem. This is her homecoming.

Rowena and Jeremy have a strong attraction for one another and both become caught up in the case of Mary's disappearance. Even before returning to Salem Rowena began experiencing nightmares. She is running throughthe corn fields near harvest time and is fleeing for her life. Something evil is in pursuit. Then she comes upon a scarecrow with a head made from a skull with rotting flesh still clinging to it.

The suspense never stops. At one point I was so immersed in Rowena's nightmare that when my husband walked into the room I screamed. That, folks, is the sign of a thoroughly engaging story (since I don't usually react so vehemently when enters a room). This is a book that should have been mentioned in October's Scary book contest. Sadly it wasn't published until November.

Deadly Gift (The Flynn Brothers Trilogy 3)

by Heather Graham
Mira, 2008

I so thoroughly enjoyed the first two book in the Flynn Brothers Trilogy - see my review of Deadly Night (The Flynn Brothers Trilogy 1) - that I could hardly wait to read book three. Deadly Gift centers on Zach Flynn who has come to guard a close friend of the family. Sean O'Riley left for a trip to Ireland with his young trophy wife Amanda, a voluptuous airhead. The day after arriving in Dublin Sean becomes deathly ill and is hospitalized. Foul play is suspected. The nurse assigned to him is the stunning Irish beauty Caer Donahue. When Sean returns to his Newport RI home she travels along with him planning to stay until he fully recovers. Adding to the troubles, Eddie Ray, Sean's business partner, took out one of their charter, sailing boats and never returned. Later the boat is found empty and drifting.

What should add up to a great deal of suspense instead falls flat. None of the characters are very interesting. Caer, one of the more important characters comes across as colorless and taciturn. There are a multitude of characters besides those already mentioned: Sean's daughter Kate who naturally loathes the wife; Bridey, Sean's beloved aunt; Cal and Marni, business associates of Sean's; Caer's boss, the mysterious Michael, etc. Author Graham fails to breath much life into any of them, and the same can be said of the boring plot. This novel was a huge disappointment. I wish I could recommend it, but I can't.

Scary Book Contest EXTRA!! REMINDER

The Scary Book Contest just got scarier. Thanks to a spooktacular Hachette Book Group giveaway offer five lucky winners will each win a box containing 10 books - all of the spooky, scary variety.


Spooktacular Hachette Book Group Giveaway. In each box you will find:

THE HERETIC'S DAUGHTER By Kathleen Kent $24.99, 0316024481
Also available as an audiobook

ISOLATION By Travis Thrasher $13.99, 0446505544

THE 13 BEST HORROR STORIES OF ALL TIME By Leslie Pockell $21.99, 9780446679503

THE MONSTERS: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein By Dorothy Hoobler , Thomas Hoobler $14.99, 9780316066402

THE MYRTLES PLANTATION: The True Story of America's Most Haunted House By Frances Kermeen $7.99, 9780446614153

GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS: True Stories of America's Haunted Inns and Hotels By Frances Kermeen $7.99, 9780446611459

THE TERROR By Dan Simmons $14.99, 9780316017459
Also available as an audiobook

DRACULA By Bram Stoker $10.99, 0316014818
Also available as an audiobook

WHEN GHOSTS SPEAK: Understanding the World of Earthbound Spirits By Mary Ann Winkowski $24.99, 9780446581189

THE HISTORIAN By Elizabeth Kostova $9.99, 9780316067942
Also available as an audiobook

There is this caveat from Hatchett: shipping is restricted to the US and Canada only and no PO Box addresses are accepted.

If you do not have a US or Canadian address or have a PO Box, please contact me at paltner@verizon.net


The drawing for the five book offered by yours truly do not have these restrictions. Those books are:

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton

Child of the Night by Nancy Kilpatrick

Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Now with 10 prizes (5 from Hatchett and 5 from me) there's even more reason to let me know what is the scariest book you have ever read.

Leave your comments here.

Remember this contest will run until 11:59 pm on Oct 30. The 10 Winners will be announced on Halloween!

Best of luck to everyone!!

Scary Books - Contest

I would like to know what is the scariest book you have ever read and why. Maybe you feel there are several, but just pick one (Well, OK, but no more than two!) and write about it. This will enter you in a drawing to be held on Oct. 31, 2008.

[This contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone for participating]

This contest will run until 11:59 pm on Oct 30. Winners - that's right, Winners - will be announced on Halloween!

A drawing for 5 books will be held.


[This contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone for participating]

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton

Child of the Night by Nancy Kilpatrick

Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly

Dracula by Bram Stoker