Bookish Escape {#11} : Dark Days w/ Jocelynn Drake! - TONIGHT!

 

One of my first UF series, which is also one of my favorites, ended =/. The Dark Days series by Jocelynn Drake is not only amazing, but it also offers two of my my favorite characters ever!  Mira and Danaus have grown and evolved so much together that is impossible to not fall in love with their story. With this story’s awesome conclusion in Burn the Night, were you happy with the way things ended?  Was there anything you ever wanted to ask Jocelynn about this fabulous series?  If so, now is your chance.  Now only do Jackie (from Literary Escapism) and I want to discuss this amazing series, but we’ll be doing it with Jocelynn Drake live!  Come join us at Talk Shoe on August 5th at 9pm EST as we get a few answers we’re dying to hear.

Call-in Number: 724.444.7444

Call ID: 93065

 

Burn the Night

The Great Awakening approaches . . .

After eons in exile, the naturi have broken their chains and now roam the Earth bent on revenge. It is the sworn duty of Mira, the Fire Starter, to protect the nightwalker race – though even she may be powerless to withstand the horrific onslaught. As Mira and her brave lover, the vampire slayer Danaus, stand ready to do battle, thousands of winged shapeshifters darken the skies. The war of ultimate extermination has begun, and the battleground is Mira’s home turf.

The humans don’t yet recognize the doom descending upon them. And the nightwalkers will surely perish unless they unite with outcast naturi who claim to want peace. But these unexpected “allies” are the same demons who have long worked for Mira’s destruction – and in these darkest of days the lines between friend and foe will blur treacherously before the bloody end of all things.

Warning: We will be focusing on the series, so spoilers are going to happen. We’ll try to keep the hardcore spoilers to a minimum, but there are no guarantees.

Haven’t read the series yet? What are you waiting for?! Here are the books, in order:

 

 

Nightwalker

 

For centuries Mira has been a nightwalker — an unstoppable enforcer for a mysterious organization that manipulates earth-shaking events from the darkest shadows. But elemental mastery over fire sets her apart from others of her night-prowling breed…and may be all that prevents her doom.

The foe she now faces is human: the vampire hunter called Danaus, who has already destroyed so many undead. For Mira, the time has come to hunt or be hunted.

But in a dimension just beyond the worlds boundaries, a banished race stirs dangerously, hungry for power, for domination, for vengeance. Already a protective seal has been breached: already blood flows like a river through the world’s great cities.

And only the collaboration of two sworn enemies can save humankind…and its ferel brethern..

 

 

Dayhunter

A new day dawns blood red

A master of fire, Mira is the last hope for the world. For centuries she has secretly enforced the history-altering edicts of the Triad. Now she and her unlikely ally—the human vampire hunter, Danaus—have come to Venice, home of the nightwalker rulers. But there is no safety in the ancient city, for the threat of conflict is in the wind . . . with unholy alliances and earth-shattering betrayals taking hideous form in the shadows.

Banished for eons beyond the world’s boundaries, the malevolent naturi prepare to feed once again upon a vulnerable earth—and treachery is opening wide the portal that will enable their dread re-emergence. The great battle that has always been Mira’s destiny is looming, and she must remain powerful in the face of a shocking revelation: that Danaus, the only creature she dares to trust, is something more than the man he claims to be . . .

 

 

Dawnbreaker

 

The dawn brings new terror for the creatures of the night . . .

Those of her race fear Mira for the lethal fire she bends to her will – a power unique among nightwalkers, both a gift . . . and a curse.

The naturi despise Mira for what she is – as they prepare the final sacrifice that will destroy the barriers between the worlds. And once the naturi are unchained, blood, chaos, and horror will reign supreme on Earth.

Mira can trust only Danaus, the more-than-mortal vampire slayer, though he is sworn to destroy her kind. And now, as the day approaches when titanic forces will duel under cover of darkness, destiny draws them toward an apocalyptic confrontation at Machu Picchu. But all is not lost, for a wild card has been dealt to them: a rogue enemy princess who can change the balance of power and turn the dread tide.

 

 

Pray for Dawn

 

Pray for salvation . . .
Pray for daylight . . .
Murder has pulled Mira out of the shadows and back into the living world . . .

As the fire-wielding enforcer of the nightwalker coven wrestles with the mind-destroying ghosts of her dark past, the slaying of a senator’s daughter in Savannah threatens to expose her kind to the brilliant light of day. The dawn of chaos has come. The naturi have broken free of their eternal prison to feed on the defenseless and unbelieving of an unprepared Earth.

Mira and Danaus – vampire and vampire slayer – must unite to prevent the annihilation of their separate races. But for Danaus the challenge is intensified, for he must also fight the bori who covets his soul. And Mira, the nightwalker he must protect – whose power is the Earth’s last hope – is rapidly going insane.

 

 

Wait for Dusk

There is no sanctuary in the night . . .

Feared even by her own kind for her mastery of fire, the nightwalker Mira is summoned by the coven to take her rightful place as Elder. But with this honor comes grave responsibility – a commitment to the annihilation of the unleashed naturi. For now the foul creatures walk the earth – and neither vampire nor human will survive their horrific onslaught.

A tide of blood is sweeping relentlessly across the European continent, as Mira is dispatched to Budapest for the most devastating test yet of her astonishing powers – and falls into a well-laid trap. With the dark secrets that haunt her growing darker by the hour, she must confront the terrible truth of her past and protect her fragile sanity in the face of unanticipated treachery – a betrayal by her trusted ally, her beloved enemy, the vampire slayer Danaus.

 

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Top 5 Sundays #43 – Books for an UF 1st Timer!

Hey there everyone! =) Top 5 Sundays time! YAY!

Let’s get right to it, shall we?

This week’s results:

Books for an UF 1st Timer! = 33 (68%)

Favorite 3rd Book in a Series! = 15 (31%)

The theme for today is:

Books for an UF 1st Timer!

But first, a little bit about this feature and the rules to join in…

Every Sunday I will post a TOP 5 list on the blog. It can be about anything and every week I'll have a new theme {You can vote on next week’s theme on my left sidebar!} and I will ad the Mr.Linky bellow the post so you can do a list with the theme and add you link to it.

Rules:

1. Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.

2. Mention this Blog on the post and link back to it.

3. Fell free to use the Feature's image (there is a smaller size version of it bellow)

4. After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5. If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week’s theme is Books for an UF 1st Timer!

I love Urban Fantasy so this was actually a pretty fun list to think about! I decided to classify them by the type of heroine in the series =D

*in no particular order

 

The Outsider! – The human heroine in the paranormal world.

This series has it all, but it’s more about Shifters and I love it!

 

The Insider! – The Vampire almost anti-heroine.

 

The Original! – No vamps or shifters, it’s all about Djinns and Wardens.

One of the most original Urban Fantasy series I have ever read!

 

The Insider/Outsider! – Heroine is paranormal but doesn’t really fit in.

 

On the fence! – Heroine is half human-half fey and doesn’t really belong to either.

 

Special Mentions:

 

Attention!

Please HELP!

If you have any theme ideas for the next Top 5 Sundays Posts, please leave them in the comments!

Your input would be much appreciated!

Now I can’t wait to see who is in YOUR List of Books for an UF 1st Timer!

Write you post and leave your link so i can check it out!

Hope you guys have fun with it!

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BHSV – Original Mira & Danaus Scene by Jocelynn Drake + 1/2 SIGNED Copies of “Wait For Dusk” Giveaway!

 

Jocelynn Drake is the author of the New York Times Bestselling Dark Days series, with the final book, Burn the Night, scheduled to be released on Tuesday, June 28. For this guest blog to celebrate summer, she is providing a small original snippet featuring the two main characters from the Dark Days series, Mira and Danaus, taking a look at Mira’s least favorite day of the year.

Jiggling his keys absently in his hand, Danaus walked up the front steps to the town house and unlocked the door. He paused at the security keypad near the door as he was shutting it and noticed that the alarm had already been turned off. A swift check with his own powers confirmed what he had already guessed; Mira was up and about for the night. He and Mira had been living together in her town house for a couple of months and it was still taking some adjustment on both their parts. While he had lived with the members of Themis at the Compound for a couple of centuries, this was still vastly different and far more intimate, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Standing at the foot of the stairs with his hand on the banister, Danaus scanned the house once again and was surprised to find that Mira was in the basement. Once she rose for the night, she turned off the security alarm and then went to the top floor for a shower and a change of clothes before heading into her office. She almost never returned to the basement unless she was going to bed for the day. Frowning, Danaus completed one last check to make sure that no one else was in the house before he pocketed his keys and descended the stairs leading to the basement.

Mira was pacing the living area, weaving her way around chairs and the sofa. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she chewed on her bottom lip, lost in thought. Danaus paused at the bottom step, watching her.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, silently coming toward her.

Mira’s head snapped up, surprised that she hadn’t heard his approach. She forced a smile on her lips and dropped her arms back down to her sides. “Nothing. Everything’s fine. What are you doing here? I thought you said you had to work tonight.”

Danaus’s brow furrowed slightly as he watched her. “Knox closed the place. I’ve got the night off.”

“Oh, that’s right. Full moon,” she murmured, turning back to her pacing. The Dark Room, where Danaus worked as a bouncer and bartender, catered to both the nightwalkers and lycanthropes of Savannah, but when the moon was full, the lycanthropes were absent as they retreated to a nearby stretch of woods so they could shift in peace.

“Knox has never closed on any other full moon,” Danaus countered. “Besides, when the moon is full, it’s the one night of the month that is popular among the nightwalkers. Are you honestly going to tell me that the American nightwalkers actually celebrate Fourth of July?”

Mira flinched at the question, scowling at Danaus over her shoulder. “Hardly,” she said with a snort.

“So, nightwalkers aren’t particularly patriotic.”

“It’s not that,” she snapped as she turned on heel to face him. “The nightwalkers in the United States were mostly American when they were turned. They still have a lot of patriotism and would prefer to celebrate the Fourth of July.”

“But…” Danaus prompted when she paused.

“But the night sky is filled with flaming balls of death!”

“The fireworks?” he asked, one side of his mouth crooking in a smirk.

“Yes, and don’t you dare laugh. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, nightwalkers aren’t exactly flame retardant. There are plenty of horrible things that could happen. A firework could go wild and strike someone. A house could get set on fire. Hell, after the firework explodes there’s a cascade of floating, burning ash that could fall on you. We don’t take chances. This is the one night of the year that you won’t catch a nightwalker outside.”

Danaus struggled to school his features in a vain attempt to suffocate the laughter that was bubbling to the surface, as he didn’t want to antagonize Mira much further. In all the centuries that he had hunted nightwalkers, he had never noticed that they were house-bound on the Fourth of July. Of course, he had spent very little time hunting nightwalkers within the U.S.

“What I don’t understand,” he started when he had his voice back under control, “is why you’re so upset.”

“All the reasons I just listed.”

Danaus couldn’t stop the little chuckle that escaped him as he finally stood before her. He reached for Mira, but she jerked out of his grasp and continued to glare at him. “Mira, love, you’re the Fire Starter. You’re the one person on earth who has nothing to fear from a little firework.”

“Nobody ever claimed that a phobia was rational,” she said tartly. “Besides, I’m not worried about just me. Nearly everyone I know is in danger tonight. Damn fireworks. What if something happens to Knox?”

Danaus captured her arms, holding her still when she would have started pacing again. “I’m sure this isn’t Knox’s first Fourth of July. He can take care of himself.”

“You’re an ass, you know that.”

Danaus just laughed as he bent down and dropped Mira over his shoulder. Despite her protests, he carried her into her dark, windowless bedroom and dropped her onto her bed with a bounce. As she was trying to right herself again, Danaus crawled onto the bed between her legs while placing his hands on either side of her head.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, staring up at him.

“I thought that since you’re obviously stuck in the basement for the night that we would start our own Fourth of July tradition,” he murmured as he lowered his head and nuzzled his neck. Mira relaxed against him, her hands going up to clasp the front of his polo shirt and pull it from where it had been tucked into his black slacks. “Just you and me. No fireworks.”

“No fireworks,” Mira repeated, running her hands along his chest under his shirt.

Danaus pulled slightly away from his love and stared down at her beautiful face. The earlier tension was gone and a smile toyed with her full lips. “Out of curiosity, if you hate the Fourth of July so much, what is your favorite holiday?”

“Halloween.”

Danaus threw his head back with a surprised laugh. “Halloween? With all those horrible costumes and people pretending to be vampires? I thought you’d be insulted.”

“Do you know how many drunken costume parties there are for Halloween? It’s like the city has lined up a freaking buffet. You almost never have to erase a memory because no one recognizes you in the costume and you just go with the flow of the alcohol. It’s wonderful.”

“Drunken costume parties?”

“And no fireworks.”

Danaus growled in the back of his throat as he wrapped his arms around Mira and rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him. “I’ll show you fireworks!” he growled into her neck while Mira squirmed against him. Mira laughed, throwing her arms around his neck. She welcomed the fireworks that Danaus brought into her life. It was going to be a good summer.

The End

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ARC Review: Burn The Night {Dark Days #5} by Jocelynn Drake

 

 

 

 

The Great Awakening approaches…

After eons in exile, the naturi have broken their chains and now roam the Earth bent on revenge. It is the sworn duty of Mira, the Fire Starter, to protect the Nightwalker race—though even she may be powerless to withstand the horrific onslaught. As Mira and her brave lover, the vampire slayer Danaus, stand ready to do battle, thousands of winged shapeshifters darken the skies. The war of ultimate extermination has begun, and the battleground is Mira’s home turf.

The humans don’t yet recognize the doom descending upon them. And the Nightwalkers will surely perish unless they unite with outcast naturi who claim to want peace. But these unexpected “allies” are the same demons who have long worked for Mira’s destruction—and in these darkest of days the lines between friend and foe will blur treacherously before the bloody end of all things.

From Goodreads.





 

• Publisher: Harper Collins
  
  


• Release Date: June 28th, 2011  
  
  


• My Copy: eARC received from NetGalley.
  
  


• Pages: 400
  
  


• Series: Dark Days Series
  
  


• Genre: Urban Fantasy
  
  


• Author's Website
  
  


• Pre-Order The Book:

Burn the Night: The Final Dark Days Novel

*Only minor Spoilers for the previous books in the series

Another bittersweet ending to one of my all time favorite series. What’s with 2011 and Urban Fantasy series coming to a close, huh? It this some kind of foreboding into 2012? Huh? HUH?

Joking aside, a couple of years ago when I got to start reading the Dark Days series and got to know the Savannah Master, Mira, learned about her past, her life, her friends and her enemies, I never could have imagined how things would have turned out for this awesome character and for the Vampire Hunter, Danaus.

I mean, if you read that first encounter between Danaus and Mira, you think that the closest they will ever get is to killing each other, cut to FIVE books later and these two “kids” are one of my favorite couples.  

Well, that isn’t to day that the road to happiness has been easy, or that Burn The Night closes off with them both riding off into the sunset for a Happily Ever After, but for a world full of vicious enemies, betrayal and constant violence, one has to grab happiness wherever one can, right?

Burn The Night is a fantastic ending to this superb series. It doesn’t really read like an ending though, ‘cause you just know that peace won’t last, but Jocelynn does wrap up all the loose ends and I doubt any fan of the series will be feel disappointed. There are a lot of surprises and amazing action in this novel, not to mention we finally get the romance we have been waiting for, for forever it seems LOL.

If you are a fan of the series I guarantee you’ll be satisfied by what Drake has done with these beloved characters, if you have yet to check this series out, I absolutely recommend the Dark Days books to any Urban Fantasy fan out there, it’s a must read!

 

Previously on the Dark Days Series:

 

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