Finished Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole. This is the latest book in her Immortals After Dark paranormal romance series.

In this one, Lucia the Huntress is a Valkyrie who’s known for her skill with a bow — and the agonizing pain that she experiences whenever she misses a shot. She also happens to be the mate of Garreth MacRieve, a Lykae prince (think werewolf). Garreth relentlessly pursues Lucia, who runs from him for a year before the two of them find themselves on a rattletrap boat headed deep into the Amazon. Garreth is happy that he’s finally caught up with Lucia and sets about seducing her. Lucia finds herself attracted to Garreth as well, but two big obstacles stand in the way of their happiness – Lucia’s vow of chastity and her mission to kill an evil god …

I like Cole’s Immortals After Dark series because it features magic, action, and memorable characters all tied together in a fun, sexy way. Her books are just entertaining reads, and Pleasure of a Dark Prince was no exception.

I liked Garreth a lot, especially how he woos Lucia with everything from a butterfly to a quiver that never runs out of arrows while they’re on board the boat (that quiver comes in real handy later on in the story, which I thought was a nice touch). I did get a little tired of Garreth thinking that he knew what was best for Lucia, that she wasn’t capable of handling danger, and his being ready to kill every guy who merely looked at her. But then again, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the alpha male character. The heroes in the IAD series are all seriously alpha, but the women are strong enough to handle them, so it usually evens out okay for me.

Lucia was also an interesting character. She was strong and capable but also still had some very real fears and hangups. Cole is really good at achieving that kind of balance with her female characters.

Another thing that I liked is that Cole rewound time a little bit and showed some behind-the-scenes action with Garreth and Lucia that was only hinted at in other IAD books. I thought it was interesting to see these events again from two different points of view. It’s a tricky storytelling device to pull off, though, and I did think that the action dragged a little bit at the beginning of the book, if only because I already knew how some things turned out from having read the previous books in the series.

This isn’t my favorite IAD book (I still like Bowen and Mari’s story the best), but it’s another solid addition to the series, and I’m already looking forward to the next book, Demon from the Dark, which comes out later this year. Thumbs up.

A mild spoiler: There is a doozy of an epilogue at the end of this book, which sets up what I’ve heard is going to be a trilogy of IAD books. I hope so!

Up next: Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins.

Books in my TBR pile: About 20.

What about you guys? Anyone reading anything good right now? Share in the comments.

So I’m sending out e-ARCs of Web of Lies and starting to book some guest blogs/giveaways. Today, I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to all the book bloggers out there.

I’m always surprised and humbled when folks want to read my books or when they ask me to do a guest post for their blog. It really is an honor to be asked to guest on someone’s site, and I always try to bring my A-game to any post that I write or interview that I do.

Most of the book bloggers that I know don’t get paid for their sites or all the hard work and long hours that they put into them. They read and review books, as well as work day jobs, take care of their families, and a dozen other things — all at the same time. For them, book blogging is a labor of love, just like it is for me here on my own blog.

So I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who’s had me on their site, or linked to my posts, or mentioned my cover art, or whatever. I really do appreciate it, both as a writer and a reader. I can’t tell you the number of great books that I’ve discovered by surfing various book blogs, and I hope some folks have thought the same about my books after reading about them somewhere.

Cheers to all the book lovers and bloggers out there. Keep on keeping on, and letting the rest of know about all the great books out there just waiting to be discovered. ;-)

Gah! I did it again. Once again, I forgot to post the description of the book along with the cover art — you know, what the book is actually about. Sigh. Anyway, here’s the back cover copy for Venom to go along with the preliminary cover art.

Warning: There are a few mild spoilers below for folks who haven’t read Spider’s Bite. You’ve been warned, so here goes:

It’s hard to be a badass assassin when a giant is beating the crap out of you. Luckily, I never let pride get in the way of my work. My current mission is personal: annihilate Mab Monroe, the Fire elemental who murdered my family. Which means protecting my identity, even if I have to conceal my powerful Stone and Ice magic when I need it most. To the public, I’m Gin Blanco, owner of Ashland’s best barbecue joint. To my friends, I’m the Spider, retired assassin. I still do favors on the side. Like ridding a vampire friend of her oversized stalker—Mab’s right-hand goon who almost got me dead with his massive fists. At least irresistible Owen Grayson is on my side. The man knows too much about me, but I’ll take my chances. Then there’s Detective Bria Coolidge, one of Ashland’s finest. Until recently, I thought my baby sister was dead. She probably thinks the same about me. Little does she know, I’m a cold-blooded killer . . . who is about to save her life.

Yep, that’s right. Gin’s long-lost baby sister Bria finally shows up in Venom. Huzzah! Much family drama ensues, along with the usual bouts of mayhem, mischief, and violence.

So look what showed up in my e-mail last week — the preliminary cover art for Venom.

So cool! So shiny! So cool! So shiny! Okay, I’ll quit gushing now.

Seriously, though, I think this is another awesome cover. What really impresses me about it are the colors — I can just imagine how pretty they’re going to look when the book is finally printed. And the title should really pop since it’s done in that light, glowing blue. And how neat is it to have the spider rune in the title and showing on Gin’s hand again as well?

As an author, you never know what you’re going to get when your editor sends you cover art. But I have to say that the folks at Pocket really keep impressing me. I’m already excited to see what they do for Elemental Assassin #4 and #5.

And you know what the best part is? The cover actually fits the book. Those riverboats you see in the background? Well, Gin gets on board one of them during the course of Venom. So consider that a little teaser for the book, which comes out Sept. 28.

Guess what I got in the mail? The bookmarks for Web of Lies. Huzzah!

And believe me when I say that these are some pretty nice bookmarks. They’re 2-by-8 inches on thick, sturdy, glossy paper. Kudos go out once again to Kelley and the other folks at Iconix, the company that prints my bookmarks. They really do put out a quality product.

As always, the bookmarks are free to readers, librarians, bookstores, or whomever wants a couple. However, I do ask folks to send me a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to get the bookmarks. This helps me out with postage costs.

So if you want to get some bookmarks, send me an e-mail at jennifer@jenniferestep.com, and I’ll tell you where to send your SASE. I’ll also be getting bookmarks made for Venom later on during the summer when the cover art is finalized.

In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the boomark goodness!