Review: Blood Noir

Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. Mainly because it revolves around Jason.

Jason has been told that his father is dying from cancer, and wishes to see him one last time before he dies so that they can make up. Anita joins Jason posing as his girlfriend on this little out out town adventure. But as per usual in Anita's life, thing don't go exactly to plan. Someone from Jason's past is getting married in town. Unfortunately this someone is kind of a local and nearly a spitting image of Jason and it's going to cause major problems.

Most of the other characters aren't really in this book. Nathaniel is in the first dew chapters, Micah has a brief phone conversation with Anita at the start. Richard and Jean-Claude make more of an appearance in the middle-ish part of the book. This isn't a complaint. I love Jason, he's one of, if not, my favourite characters. We see a bit more of who Jason really is behind the happy exterior and the flirting.

If they didn't have enough problems as it is, Marmee Noir decides to mess with Anita and co. This creates some issues on a metaphysical level that Anita could probably do without. Resolving these issues won't be quick or easy either.

This book has plenty of action, plenty of funny moments and plenty of Jason.

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Review: The Harlequin

The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh so much ACTION!!!

There are some bad vamps in town. So bad that all other vampires are scared of them. The Harlequin. They send warnings in the form of masks. Anita just so happens to receive one of these masks while on a a date with Nathaniel, (they just can't take her anywhere, can they?)

The power that connects Jean-Claude, Anita and Richard increases drastically with some interesting results. There is the return of some characters that we haven't seen in a while, in the forms of Edward, Peter, Olaf and not forgetting the Cookie Monster better known as Haven (I'm with Anita on this one, Cookie Monster is a much better name!). Oh and Dolph makes an appearance.

There are an awful lot of near death experiences in this book and some not so near death. Anita and most the other characters seem to spend a lot of time in the hospital in this one.

I really don't want to give anything away, but I will say that what happens between Richard and Anita at the end is going to have some major effects later on. So you really need to read this!

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Review: Danse Macabre

Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There's a vampire dance company in town and Jean-Claude is throwing a big event inviting other Masters of Cities, with the thinking that it will make the travelling through territories easier or the dance troop. But of course with that many masters together it was never going to go smoothly.

This is really a book of character development. There really is very little plot in this book, and that may not be a bad thing. There are a lot of important developments between the characters in this book and if there was anymore plot, it would have just got in the way.

Anita may be pregnant. This really acts as a spring board for Anita to focus on how she really feels about each of the men in her life and how much she depends on them. It also reveals how the guys feel about Anita, and what everyone is willing to do and give up if there is going to be a baby. as well as this it prompts Nathaniel to reveal more about his past before he met Anita. I think until reading this, I had sort of seen Nathaniel as very young and still in need of a parental figure. I still felt this way regardless of the fact that we know he's 20 and that he's a stripper; there just always seemed to be an air of something that needed protecting and something almost childlike. This book really makes you realise he is most certainly not a child and is, in someways, probably more of a grown up than Anita is. As well as discovering more about Nathaniel, we learn how much Richard still wants Anita; still wants his Happily Ever After. I'm waiting for the book where Richard really opens his eyes and excepts life for what it is, when he wakes up and stops kidding himself; that would be a real interesting read.

We also discover, via shared memories, more about Jean-Claude. There are some interesting developments between Anita and Asher. There are some new powers pretty much all round too. Put all this together with the visiting vampires and having to make a public appearance and you're in for a really good book.

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Review: Micah and Strange Candy

Micah and Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

THIS IS NOT ONE BOOK!!!!

This book consists MICAH, a novella that follows on from Incubus Dreams, and STRANGE CANDY which is an anthology of short stories/ ideas that never happened. Not all of these short stories are set in Anita's world. Because of this I'm gong to go through the individual parts that make up this book, for the simple reason that I wouldn't give them all the same rating (It will also explain how this is on both my Favourites shelf and my Not-My-Kind-Of-Book shelf). I felt that Five stars overall was to generous, as there were some shorts that I didn't like, and yet three stars seemed to harsh as I didn't feel the it was just okay overall.

Micah. - 5 stars.

This is just over a hundred pages long and follows on from Incubus Dreams. Anita has to go out of town to work, and due to having to feed the ardeur needs to take someone with her. Micah is that someone. It gets pointed out that this is the first time that Anita and Micah have been truly alone together with none of their other friend around them. This means that Anita is forced to face up to exactly how she feels about Micah and it is also where we learn what the story of his past is.

I really enjoyed this short story. I feel that after reading it we have a better understanding of who Micah is as a person and what motivates and drives him. It also shows exactly how much that Micah cares about Anita, as well as highlighting how little they know about each others past.

It's worth picking this book up for this novella alone.


Strange Candy - Overall 4 stars. - contains 14 short stories all around the length of a an average chapter.

Those Who Seek Forgiveness - This is set in the world of Anita Blake. It could easily earn itself 4 - 5 stars. This shows how different the series could have been if Laurell K Hamilton hadn't tweaked the originall idea. It's about a zombie raising that doesn't go to plan. A very enjoyable short story.

A Lust Of Cupids - This is an idea that didn't go very far. Again I'd give it 4 - 5 stars. A very light hearted, enjoyable short story. Cupids go around hunting down people over the age of 30 and make them fall in love whether they want to or not. I would have been interested to see where this idea could have gone.

The Edge of the Sea - A very dark story in contrast to the previous one. I loved this and it could have made a good full length novel in my opinion. Definitely a 5 star story. A mysterious man that comes seemingly from the sea and lures people to their death.

A Scarcity of Monsters - This was again, a story that could have made a very good full length novel (dare I say series) this is about sea monsters. I really liked this story 5 stars hands down.

Selling Houses - 4 - 5 stars. This s set in Anita's world. However Anita nor any of the other characters, main, secondary or otherwise are in this short story. This looks at how the whole Vampires being legal thing effects people in other, more mundane lines of work, such as real estate. It was certainly interesting to see things from a different perspective.

A Token For Celandine - This was set in the world of the Nightseer. This is a book that I haven't read, and therefore I am unfamiliar with the world that it is set in and who and what the characters are. Because of this I found it really hard to get into the story that was trying to be told and therefore I didn't finish this short story. I would probably give this only the 1 star, simply because I wasn't drawn into the story and fond it really hard to understand the characters. I don't know whether this would still be the case however if I had read the main book in which this short story is set.

A Clean sweep - This was a cute superhero story that we all wish could be true. I feel that 3 stars is fair for this story. Its about a superhero that cleans your house. This is fairly sweet and enjoyable.

The Curse-Maker - This was also set in the world of Nightseer, though I managed to finish this story, I really had to force myself to do so. I just couldn't connect with the characters and the world that it was set in. Its about a Bard that has had a death curse placed on him and the other characters (with their talking sword) are against the clock to find the right person to lift the curse. I would give this 1 star, maybe 2 at a push; it's just not my kind of story.

Geese - This seemed promising at the start, but this was another story that I just didn't click with and lost enough interest in, that I didn't finish so it only gets 1 star from me. It's about a girl that has shape shifting magic and changed changed into a goose. It has something to d with her past; but I can't really tell you anymore as I never read enough.

House Of Wizards - I loved this story. I think that this could have made a good, funny series. This easily get 5 stars. It's about a wizard that brings his new wife that has no magic to meet his powerful magic using family and how she has to win them over. Very enjoyable.

Here Be Dragons - 3-4 Stars feels fair. This is a Sci-Fi story. I think that it could have done with a little more in the way of a back story to explain things a little more clearly. This was very dark story that revolved around a Government project that dealt with people (kids) that have the power to kill you in your dreams.

The next two stories Winterkill and Stealing Souls were both set in the world of Nightseer, and as I hadn't enjoyed the previous two short stories that were set in this world I decided not to read them. I therefore can't review or rate them.

The last story in this anthology is The Girl Who Was Infatuated With Death.- This is set in Anita's world and takes place before Narcissus In Chains. I would give this 4 stars as I found it quite enjoyable to read. Basically it's about a 17 year old girl that has disappeared with a vampire so that he can turn her and her mother has come to Anita for help. We also get a bit of Jean-Claude in this. Good story.


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Review: Incubus Dreams

Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First thoughts when I picked this up from the Library was 1)"Oh My God! it's the size of a house brick, 2)"Ooo that's a nice cover (that's me, always considering the important stuff...).

I really enjoyed this book. The plot as described on the back seems to be spread more throughout the entire book, rather than just the first chapter and the last 50 pages; is it spread consistently? No, but we do get brought back to the plot here and there, so it's a sleight improvement on that aspect of some of the previous installment in the series.

In this book I feel as though Anita really starts to come to terms with the fact that she has a somewhat functioning life. After a little heart to heart with a wise friend (a.k.a Jason) she evaluates her feelings towards Nathaniel and how much he means to her. This mean we see a lot more of his personality. There are more developments with her powers/magic (whatever you want to call it), which of course bring a new bunch of problems that Anita has to navigate. She also kinda makes up with Richard (sort of...a bit...I think....).

There is also a bunch of serial killer vampires that are praying on strippers, that Anita has to catch. So you can grantee that there will be another member of authority in law enforcement that Anita will rub the wrong way, which is always going to be somewhat entertaining for us, but cause problems when they meet Micah and Nathaniel.

If you've been reading the series so far then I highly recommend this book.

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Review: Cerulean Sins

Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was another of Laurell K Hamilton's books that have a description on the back that doesn't really depict what the book is about. I'm sensing that this is going to be a recurring thing with her writing, so I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. This is the only reason that it lost a star to have 4 out of 5. Please don't let this put you off.

This is still a very good book, that is worth reading; especially if you have been following the series so far. There is a lot of action and violence (as per usual), Anita has a client with a questionable motive, and enough vampire politics to make your head spin (or Anita's at the very least). Things go up a notch between Jean-Claude, Anita and Asher. This has some political effects in vampire land, with advantages and disadvantages depending on who's side your on. Dolph has some major issues that could have some devastating effects, I'm guessing we get so see the fall out of this in the next book. But best of all, we get to hear Jason talk like a grown up. Honestly, if I had to pick a favourite character, I would probably say Jason. For a some what secondary character he always seems to be the one that has the most sense about things, and see the situation for what it really is. I love him, never fails to make me laugh, but that's just me.

This book really sets things up for more dramatic vampire council related things to come. I think it's going to be really interesting to see how things go.

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Review: Narcissus in Chains

Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really good book over all. However, if you have to rate how great a book is, based on how much of the book revolves around the plot described on the back cover, then this wouldn't get many stars at all (I've only knock 1 star off for this, because like I said, it's still a very good book). You have the first 2 or 3 chapters on the plot and then nothing for about 400 pages. So from this 678 page book, I would say the only 200-250 of those pages contain the supposed plot. Now in that 400 odd page gap was a whole lot of character development. Ordinarily this may have been something that I would have complained about; but in this instance it was necessary. A lot happens that really need to to explained, and that is exactly what Laurell K. Hamilton has done; she set things in motion and then took the necessary time to explain and illustrate the consequences of this.

This is the installment where we discover how Anita plans to work things out with both Jean-Claude and Richard since deciding that she needs a break from things, so this is the first contact that she has with the guys in 6 or more months. Things happen that will have very long term if not permanent effects on the relationship between Anita, Jean-Claude and Richard. They will certainly have a major effect on Anita's life and any future choices that she has to make. From events that happen right at the very start of the book, the relationship that Anita and Richard have will change, as will Anita's relationship and status within both the Pack and her Pard.

We have a bunch (or should I say Pard) of new characters in this book. As Anita is human, and a "temporary" Nimir-ra for the wereleopards, she is interviewing for the real thing. Of course, not everything goes quite the way that Anita had planned, but she does find (in an unusual way) a Nimir-raj and his leopards to help her out. There are also some new wolves, and we meet the werehyenas.

This book has plenty of action, blood, violence, near death experiences, and Anita may or may not buy a fur coat (make of that what you will).

All in all a good book, an improvement on the previous (Obsidian Butterfly), I would recommend this if you have been reading the series so far.

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Review: Obsidian Butterfly

Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a good book.

This tells Edward's story. We find out where he lives and who he is when he's not helping Anita kill things. He's helping the local police on a case and calls Anita in for her expertise, because the number of victims has reached double figures and the cops are still none the wiser as to who or what is causing chaos.

However it only earned three stars form me as I felt that it was a bit slow to start; as in the first 200 odd pages could probably been condensed into 60 or 70 pages. There was a lot of debating who was more macho, and who's the better killer, and Edward not wanting to tell Anita the details of the case because he "doesn't want her to get stuck on the same ideas that the cops have already thought of". Once you get past the first 200 pages it starts to pick up a it more. Everyone focuses a bit more on the case and the story takes off.

There are none or the usual characters besides Edward in this installment. There's Edward and Anita, although there is one of the FBI agents that we have met in a previous book, but I'm not counting him. In this book Anita does a fair amount of contemplating on her relationship(s) with Jean-Claude and Richard, the whole do-I-don't-I-love-him/them? thing, I guessing we get to see the results of that in the next book. We get to see the softer side of Edward as well, I won't say anymore on that because spoilers.

Despite the slow start this is still worth a read; maybe not if you're the squeamish type. If you read the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay it won't seem as bad, but it's still pretty horrific. This still had plenty of action, violence, horror, some deaths and near death experiences. This felt like a bit of an interim kind of book, and I hope that the next one picks up more, and continues the flow of previous books in the series.

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Snail Mail

So we've been talking in the +Dead With Tequila Tomb about doing an email subscription newsletter thingy (If you follow me on twitter you already know this), but I was wondering what sort of things people might want to see in it. 

• Firstly if we did a newsletter would you sign up?
• We were thinking doing one either once a month or once every two months. What sounds better to you?
• We thought of announcing new items that are being launch in the store via a newsletter. At the moment if you want to receive an email when we add new items to the store you have to have either bought items from us previously or create an account on Storenvy and Watch our store and then Storenvy will send you an email. We understand that most people (ourselves included) don't want to create an account just to see new products that they may or may not intend to buy (It's like asking someone to create an Amazon account when they don't shop on Amazon) We thought that this would be a good way for people to stay in the loop without having to create any accounts that they don't want.
• As an when we do Giveaways, they would be announced here first.
• Sales would be announced here first (And maybe do sales that only subscribers will know about, just because they're awesome and deserve some special treatment :-P )

These are the ideas that we have so far. Suggestions are welcomed as are opinions on the ideas above; they can be left in the comments below you and message me on Twitter or message Dead With Tequila on Twitter (links at the top of the column on the right) failing that email you thoughts to deadwithtequila@gmail.com

Your thoughts and ideas really would be greatly appreciated. 

Also keep your eyes peeled for the Dead With Tequila Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale...details coming soon.

 

  

Tomb Trivia

HELLO!!! It feels like it's been ages since I posted any weird ramblings. I'm not going to include the book reviews that have been posted as they come via a link to Goodreads. If you're a bookworm, feel free to add me on Goodreads, I have discovered that the "Livvii's Quotes" bit on the right is a link to my profile there (who knew!?). Until recently, I was busy in the +Dead With Tequila  tomb trying to get everything done in time for us to reopen with all the awesome new stuff. But that's all done, and I've spent the last month doing all the marketing side of stuff, which always takes more time than you think. Thank you to all the awesome people that have been viewing the store and keeping us well over a thousand views a week. 

If you haven't taken a look in the store since we re-opened, then you're missing out, but you can easily fix that! (just click "Shop Dead With Tequila" in the bar at the top). If you have had a peruse at the store, what's your favourite thing? (I am genuinely interested). I'll also have you know that we are still not done with new items for the store. Yes, this does mean what you think it means; it means that there are even more new items that will eventually be coming your way. If you don't want to miss out on any new items that we add to the store, you can Watch the store and receive an email when anything new is added. You can do this by clicking "shop Dead With Tequila" and in the top right corner in the store front click "join Storenvy" then you can watch the store and never miss a thing!

Some boring  interesting facts from the Tomb:

• In making the new jewelry items so far for the re-opening we used upwards of 600 Jump Rings.
• Somewhere in the region of 2000 beads have been used on the new items so far.
• New items so far have used around 300 head pins
• The new necklaces and bracelets that have been made so far have used about 130 crimps.
• On new items alone, we used probably 150m of wax thread and 120m of organza ribbon on bracelets and necklaces.
• The new earrings made for the re-opening used up about 40m of chain.

Yes I did spend about three hours working this out. I was gonna do this really cool thing, and make some kind of infographic. R then pointed out (after I spent the 3 hours working it all out), that probably no one is going to care. I said "Well I spent three hours on this so I'm going to blog it whether anyone cares or not", R replied with "You are a silly bean."  For the record I am not a bean, but a flying donkey.

Now that the mad rush of photographing and uploading new items to Dead With Tequila is over, I really want to get back to working on my cartoon based collection that I started a while ago. Because we were trying to get everything else done before R went off to university, it got put one the back burner for a little while. The good news is, it now has a working title!!! Tomb Buddies. This may change between now and it being finished (god only know when that will be). There is  still so much to be done it's unreal, but it's going to be really cute, but keep the vibe of Dead With Tequila. It's a very monochromatic collection; very black and white. R has suggested having small hints of colour in there, but I'm not so sure. It's still early days yet, so I may change my mind on that one. Thinking about it now, they'd look great on t-shirts and bags. Of course there will be posters too. I also have a vague plan in mind about some book mark style thing with the characters, but that needs a bit of fine tuning yet. Perhaps when I've done a bit more to it all I'll share some "in progress" pics.   

I think that's everything for today. As usual, questions, comments, either below, or come find me on twitter. Failing that, carrier pigeons, magic carpets, unicorns and flying monkeys are also acceptable messenger services to be used.     

Review: Blue Moon

Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow...where do I begin??? This book was just jam packed with action, blood, gore, werewolves, power struggles (and I don't necessarily mean 2 people fighting for power) and bad guys.

Anita gets a phone call at 3 in the morning telling her that Richard is in jail, and being charged with rape. So Anita packs her bags and flies out of state to help get him out. But it was never going o be that easy was it? Due to vampire politics there is very little Jean-Claude in this book and a lot of Richard. Since Jean-Claude won't let Anita go save Richard alone, she ends up taking Jason, Asher, Damien and the wereleopards.

I suppose you could say that this book focuses on the relationship between Anita and Richard. This is where they can say all the things that they've been meaning/needing to say to each other and for lack out a better phrase, clear the air between them. It it also a chance to look deeper at Anita's role with in the pack as a human Lupa and highlights how much she still has to learn about their ways, as well as a place for her to learn more about being the equivalent of leader to the wereleopards. There are a lot of secrets revealed in this book that answer questions and raise new ones for Anita when it comes to trying to understand the powers and abilities she has gained through the bond with Jean-Claude and Richard. Anita also meets someone that can teach her to understand and control the new power that she has unlocked.

I liked how this book used the story line as a base to do some major character development. The plot of this book was in some ways secondary to the character development, and yet it didn't feel lost and forgotten about. if anything it acted as a reason to reveal things about the characters that we didn't previously know. Some of these things will, I suspect, will have a major affect on what happens in future books.

Loving this series. You should definitely give this series a read.

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Review: Burnt Offerings

Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow...There was a lot going on in this book.

So the blurb of this book talks about an arsonist burning down vampire owned businesses and it being down to Anita to stop the person that is doing it. Are there vampire businesses being burned down? Yes. Is it Arson? Yes. Is Anita called to help on the case? Yes. So what's the problem? you ask. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a problem but this, in my opinion really isn't central to 85% - 90% of the book. I would say a more accurate description would be: The vampire council is in town and causing havoc. Of course some cool writer person would say that in a lot more words, and make it sound all fancy if it was going to be the blurb for a book (obviously I'm not a cool writer person). The main focuses are definitely the fact that the vampire council is in town and what it means for the local vampires, lycanthropes and Anita; although the arson attacks are linked.

There are a whole host of new characters in this book. If you thought we had seen evil vampire so far this series, then think again as the bar has most definitely been raised. There are some new lycanthropes - mainly in the form of leopards/panthers. Some of these characters probably won't return because of either a) Their dead or b) There's not really anywhere for the character to go; not to say that they can't come back a lot further down the line. Some of the new lycanthrope characters could be very funny and could go a long way, so I look forward to seeing how they develop in later books. We also see a different side of Richard, not all of it good - lets just say he'snot so sweet when he's jealous.

Anita starts to gain more power through the bond between Jean-Claude, Richard and herself. This ends up effecting the way she is viewed within the pack, and as usual gets herself in more situations that she doesn't fully understand.

Overall this was a really good book. I think it's fair to say that the books are improving as the series goes along; you think you have just finished one really good book then the next one in the series somehow manages to top it. There was a lot of content to take in, and yet it wasn't so much that you started to loose track of things. I would recommend this book provided that you had read all of the books that came before it in the series.



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Review: The Killing Dance

The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There's nothing like being told an assassin is on the way to kill you to start the day off. Unfortunately, Anita is the target of said assassin, and it's down to Jean-Claude, Richard and Edward to help her live through the next few days.

In the beginning we are introduced to an old sick vampire that has come to get help from Anita; although she's not certain that she can help him. The way that things are set up, make you think that this is going to make up the majority of the story. It's not. But it is still relevant, and does link to the central plot of the story, just not in the way you think it will. (or maybe I should say, it didn't link in the way that I thought that it would). Anita leaves this meeting for a date with Richard; but it's when they arrive back at her apartment that everything hits the fan.

Cue assassination attempt number one. Attempt number two arrives while Anita is on her date with Jean-Claude. While hiding out, Jean-Claude, Richard and Anita test a theory about "magics"/powers and get a bit more than they bargained for. This leaves Anita with more questions about her abilities, which is sure to come into play in future books.

In this book characters were developed a lot more, and we got to sides of them that we hadn't seen before; The animal in Richard, and the human in Jean-Claude. It's action packed, with plenty of twists and turns.

Very much worth reading. (I suggest reading the books that came before, otherwise things may not make sense)




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Embrace the Donkey Life

So it was R's birthday last week and as she is at university now I didn't actually get to see her :( , but we did have this rather amusing conversation by text. This has now become an ongoing joke between us, and was to funny not to share. 

If you didn't think I was crazy before, you will now. This is also how most conversations go in the Dead With Tequila Tomb. 

(Orange = R , Brown = Me)

Yes. We are insane.

No. We are not sorry.

Review: Bloody Bones

Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fairies.

Nothing good every happens when fairies get involved, does it? Normally when I see that fairies are getting involved with story lines I back away slowly, because 9 times out of 10 the involvement of fairies is when a series starts to to take a turn for the worst, and things just get silly. So I was happy to see that the addition of Fae characters didn't distract to much from the normal feel of the series. In fact, the way that they had been incorporated worked really well and created some interesting twist that could continue to raise questions later on in the series.

Anita had to go out of town in this book to raise an entire cemetery of 200 year old corpses. There is a slight catch though; all of the graves are unmarked and the ground has been so disturbed that all of the bones are mixed up with no obvious way to tell who's bones are who's. Larry makes a return in this book, so we get to know him a bit better and see him grow as a person and have his morals challenged.

While out of town Anita and Larry are called to aid with a horrific murder, then later a second murder and kidnapping. Things quickly get out of hand, and the local cops stop listing to Anita. Out of options and needing to talk to the local master of the city, Anita calls Jean-Claude for his help. The relation ship between Jean-Claude and Anita develops more in this book because of the situations that they end up finding themselves in. We are also told about Jean-Claude past, and learn where he comes from. This isn't a huge chunk of the book or anything, but does come up in conversation between the characters. I though that was an interesting way of telling us about about a characters past. Most of the time authors like to do it as a kind of flash back and take up a chapter or 2 to tell us information that isn't necessarily vital to the story, just to give a history of a character; so I felt that this was very well done. It told us about his past while managing to stay in the present and keep it relevant to the current plot and events of the book.

We get to see more of Anita's power and abilities. Of course this gets her into all kinds of problematic situations. There's a lot of spilt blood, a few near death experiences, a vampire drunk on blood (this was rather amusing) and a lot of leather.

This was a really good book and worth reading if you've read the ones that come before. (I wouldn't suggest starting the series in the middle as it could be rather confusing)

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Review: The Lunatic Cafe

The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. In previous books we have been introduced to the Vampire "community" and it's hierarchy, and now we are introduced to the Weres. This brings some interesting characters to the table that can develop over time.

In this book the story revolves around a bunch of missing werewolves, and Anita is tasked with finding them. There are a couple of twists and turns thrown in so it's not completely obvious as to who is responsible. We start to find out about different power struggles in the Were community and get an idea of how it can affect Anita solving the case at hand, as well as how it affects her relationship with Richard. This also gives more of an insight into Richards character, as we start to learn more about him and his position with in the pack.

On top of all this there's a few fights, frights, near death experiences and some other close calls.

A really good book that I just couldn't put down. I do suggest reading the series from the start just so that you understand who the character are and how they interact as well as to get a feel for the setting of the stories.


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Review: Circus of the Damned

Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another good book that isn't too taxing on the brain.

In this book we get to delve a bit deeper into the vampire politics of St. Lois. There has been a shift in roles in the Vampire world Not mentioning names cause, you know, spoilers) and now there is some new guy in town. A vampire older than anything that Anita has ever seem before, and he's bought some friends that are of a species everyone thought of as extinct. On top of this, a new anit-vampire group wants Anita to assassinate the new Master of the city. Chuck in a handful of near death experiences and you have a pretty tasty read.

The Jean Claude/Anita relationship develops in this book and some new characters of the furry kind are introduced, which is sure to become something interesting in future books. This book again, has more of an equal focus on the plot and characters, (this was something I felt lacked in the first)

With this series you need to have read all of the previous books in order to understand what is going on, and the significance of the events and character relationships. You could easily get yourself confused if you haven't. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone that likes gore, sarcasm, and paranormal stuff in general.

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Review: The Laughing Corpse

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very good book. This one had more of a focus on the plot as well as the development of the characters and their relationships with one another. This was something that I felt the first book in the series was lacking a little bit; So I'm glad to see that the plot takes less of a back seat in this book

This had an interesting story line; Zombies make a nice change from the usual paranormal monsters. Some good twists and turns to keep you guessing, (but then I'm not one of these people that try and guess the ending before I get there). We also learn a little more about Anita's past and where she comes from, which is something that I would assume we get given a little more with each book, as this has a lot of potential to develop and effect the kinds of situations that she gets into.

Good book to pass the time with as it's only a quick read. I would definitely say that you should read book one (Guilty Pleasures) first, otherwise you could find yourself a little bit confused.

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Review: Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a light read for me. In truth it's probably a light read for everyone. Not that that's a bad thing. The short chapters mean that you can do the whole "Just one more chapter" thing when reading before bed.

I like the characters and how they have been written in a way that they can develop slowly over the course of the series. At the start it seems like the overall plot of the story is gong to be an interesting one; however the more and more that I read it became clear that the plot is really a secondary element to the book the the character development and relations being more of a primary focus. This is why I only gave this 4 stars; I would have liked just a little more attention on the plot as well as on the characters.

That said this was still a very good book that is definitely worth reading.

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And The Count Down Begins

R and my self have been working really hard in the +Dead With Tequila Tomb lately, whether we are ready or not the, end is near. In a little over a week and a half R goes off to university, and therefore we have to have everything finished before then. In an ideal world we could do with another couple of months to finish everything off; for no other reason than at the moment we are very stressed out, regularly repeating our new mantra of  "There's not enough time, oh God there's not enough time!"  and have pretty much been working in the tomb morning, noon and night and having dreams that we are still in the Tomb working away.  Have you ever been so stressed and panicked by what you're doing that you no longer no how to do what you're meant to be doing? that's how R and my self have been for the past 3 or 4 weeks and it is horrible.

I'll stop rambling now and start telling you about some really cool stuff from the Tomb.

So we have TEN, yes 10 new collections for you: Edgar Allen Poe, Down The Rabbit Hole, Light Years Away, Dreams Of Darkness, American Dreams, Pocketful Of Posies, The Kraken, Ancient Ruins, Dia De Los Muertos and Pandaemonium.

We are getting RID of postage charges!! (Whooo!!)

We have got some amazing new necklaces. Where we now have themed collections we ave got some amazing statement charms and things that are gorgeous and we can't wait for you all to see them.

Now for the really exciting stuff!!! We have decided to branch out and offer apparel items in the Dead With Tequila store. If you follow me on Twitter or just occasionally stalk your way through my feed (I don't mind a bit of stalking :-P ) you would have seen this pic that I shared yesterday

  
This is one of our Own Brand items that will soon be available to you from the Dia De Los Muertos Collection. This is the collection that will be the home to all of the Own brand items. 

So basically we have paired with a third party company that make, print, and ship the apparel items as well as the new posters directly from Los Angeles. We have tank tops, hoodies and posters so far.

This does mean that there will be shipping costs attached to the apparel and the new posters because they are the ones that deal with the order and they are the ones that set the shipping costs not us. There will be more info on the shipping costs of these items and size guide and things put on the Dead With Tequila blog site in the FAQ section, that will explain everything so no need to worry.   

Anyways...back to work. I can't wait for you all to see what we have been working on. If you end up reading a product description or something on the Dead With Tequila blog and there are mistakes or missing info, please let me know. the problem with working on something so much is you get so used to it you stop seeing the mistakes, so I'm counting on you guys.

You know the drill questions or comments can be left below, or tweet me, or send a magic carpet, carrier pigeon, flying monkey or unicorn.  

DEAD WITH TEQUILA: THE END IS NEAR

MESSAGE FROM DEAD WITH TEQUILA

CLOSED 

FOR

MAINTENANCE 

BOTH OUR STORENVY STORE FRONT AND THE MARKETPLACE STORE ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS AS WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF UPDATING THINGS.

APOLOGIES FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.

WE PROMISE IT WILL BE WORTH THE WAIT!

WHEN WE RE-OPEN THERE IS GOING TO BE LOADS OF NEW STUFF AVAILABLE.

THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING AND BEING PATIENT. 

NEW AND COMING SOON:
10 NEW THEMED COLLECTIONS
NECKLACES
TANK TOPS
HOODIES
TOTE BAGS  

Review: Dark Heir

Dark Heir by Faith Hunter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thought I'd leave a review until I had caught up with the series.....Now I'm caught up.

I loved this series (so far). I found very interesting and entertaining to see the duel consciousness between Jane and Beast, and how their perceptions of the world changed depending on who was playing Alpha at the time. I enjoyed how Faith Hunter adapted her writing style when writing from Beasts perspective; how the short and simple sentence structure communicates to the reader how Beast sees the world in simple animal terms and not the over analytical way that the rest of us as humans think.

Great vampires. Not overly stereotyped and not so different that you feel uncomfortable calling them vampires. They are mean, scheming, power hungry, politically driven, secretive, egotistical monsters that love to make Jane's life hard by not telling her all she needs to know to solve their problems.

This is a series well worth reading.

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Heads or tails?

So yesterday in the Tomb we started photographing some of the new collections. As these contain necklaces (yes we're branching out) we needed a way to display these....I came you with this....You don't really see it in the item pics but it makes me feel better knowing that it looks nice.

Here's a step by step/ in progress / stages ......whatever...Basically I took pics as I went along.

From Polystyrene to Paper Mache 

Paper Mache to white primer

Primer to drawing on a design

Designing...

...Designing

...Still designing

...Designing some more

Designing to Painting the coloured areas

...More coloured areas

...Even more coloured areas

...And even more...

...And some more just for good measure

And this is the finished item!!! Just had to do all the really fine black line detail (yay) and fill in the black areas

More detail...Why did I insist on so much detail?

More detail round the back.... A couple of people have said that it makes them think of Harlequin.....But you can make your own mind up there

...More detail again.....yes I like to make my own life hell...

And one form the top.

Hi, Just passing through

This is just a flying visit because I'm busy busy busy in the +Dead With Tequila Tomb.

Yes there is a lot of exciting stuff happening in the Tomb right now. We're have spent the last few weeks, especially the past two days working really hard on some awesome new stuff. 

I can confirm that within the last hour and a half we have finished the jewelry part of the Edgar Allan Poe collection!!! (does happy dance). There's some wire bracelets, elasticated bracelets, a couple of bag charms, earrings and...(drum roll please..) NECKLACES!!!!! They are totally gorgeous.. I've already finished a couple of poster designs and a tank top. Yes you read that right, a tank top...as in an item of clothing (Oooo!!) I'm working on even more designs for both t-shirts and posters and maybe even tote bags... I'm just gonna leave you to ponder that for a moment.

The Pandaemonium Collection is coming along nicely as well. Lots and lots of really bold colours paired with black. This is the next one that we are going to aim to finish. Hopefully.... we're waiting for some supplies, but they have to come from a supplier in China so are taking awhile to arrive, which is stressing R and myself out a little bit. If we don't get our stuff with in the next week or so we want to move onto the Down The Rabbit Hole collection. 

Down the Rabbit hole has some nice pieces in already. This is going to have clocks, and playing cards, and dice, some florals. It's going to be a very grown up version of the old story. The teacups are being swapped with martini and shot glasses...Make of that what you will.

The past couple of days have been really busy to say the least. We've started to make multiples of the same item (never more than 10 though) 

There's going to be some updates on how we list stuff in the store as well, but I'll tell you more about that another time..


Anyways...Loves you all, but now I have to dive back into the Tomb or maybe bed. Maybe I'll just sleep in the Tomb...Yeah, that sounds like a plan. 

Laters my lovelies.         

True Colours.

So +Dead With Tequila are considering branching out into tshirts and maybe some other stuff. So I was just curious as to what sorts of colours appeal to people.  The image below shows the colour options for the items we are considering. I'd love t know what you think.

Personally I'm leaning towards going with the Vintage Black and the Venetian Grey (potentially adding Purple Rush and Vintage Red into the mix) for the Women's tank top. Ultra Blue and Black for the hoodie. For the men's tank Black and Heather Grey.

Let me know what you think via the comments, on twitter, or by carrier pigeon.

Thanks xx     

It's Dead With Tequila's Birthday

Get 10% off in the store this Friday (July 31) with the discount code shown below!

It's a funny thing...

So a funny thing happened to me the other day. Funny (odd experience) Strange, not Funny Haha. I had logged onto +Dead With Tequila's Instagram account on my laptop just to see what had been going on, and like some posts (trying to maintain some form of a presence), and saw that a fairly big, well established design company that follows us (and us them :P) had liked some of our posts. Now you're probably thinking "Where you going with this Liv?"  and sure, people like our posts all the time so it shouldn't be so important that it deserves to have me write an entire blog post about it, right?

See this is the thing; for me and Carrie (for those that don't know, we make up the entirety of Dead With Tequila....yes, just the two of us [ear worm anyone...not sorry :P]) this really was a big deal. This was a people* who do this kinda thing, like selling art and designing PROFESSIONALLY  and they LIKE our stuff!!! It was really a moment of finally feeling like we are doing something right here, like this crazy little idea is more than just wishful thinking. Now, I'm not big on self doubt. Anyone that knows me, knows how stubborn and committed I can be. (I'm one of these people that gets tunnel vision. I get an idea in mind, and the rest of the world revolves around that idea until I feel as though I have achieved it to my own, astronomically high, satisfactory level.) I don't think I had realised, until then, that somewhere down in the deep, dark swirling abyss of my mind, that that irritating little voice had been whispering "What if your wasting your time?", "Maybe this isn't going to work out after all?", "What kind of idiot tries to build a brand with no money behind it?"  Well that Idiot would be me. Because, you know, I'm stubborn and lacking any ability to walk away from the challenge and give up.

This was a very weird feeling for me. I've never been someone that needs other people's opinions and approval to feel validated; I'm perfectly happy being a freak. May be it's because Carrie's in this with me? It's always easier to walk away from something when you're not letting anyone else down. I remember Carrie and I talking in her kitchen late one December night, when Dead With Tequila was still in it's developmental stages, and saying that this [Dead With Tequila] failing isn't an option. This is taken slightly out of context here. There was a rather long list of reasons for saying that; but the point is still the same. It's funny how you think about situations differently when you're not the only one involved, when you feel that you have some form of responsibility to take the brunt of bad situations so that it has a minimal effect on their day to day life.

We tend to find ourselves having discussions about 'business' at the oddest times and in the weirdest of places; like on the tube or on the way to Zumba or just a random one word text at half ten at night! We're really not serious people so for us to do the whole sit-down-serious-business-talk is still an alien experience for us. We much prefer our version: take up all the floor space with beads and equipment making stuff awhile having a semi serious discussion. Because multi-tasking is important when there's 2 of you with three hands between you to get things done. I think for us, it kind of feels like there's having the idea and going through the motions of having a business; technically falling into the category of a business, and then there's ticking the previous two boxes and feeling like you have a business. I think we definitely tick those first two boxes. Hopefully one day the whole concept will sink in. I tend to 95% of my time thinking about marketing, new designs, what materials we need to stock up on etc, 4% of my time doing marketing and 1% of my time creating and getting on with things like eating and sleeping. You would have hoped that by now with DWT taking up most my cognitive storage space that my brain would have got the message of "business". Yeah.....It hasn't.

I really love what we get to do with Dead With Tequila. I can honestly say that being able to run this little 'business' and being to do things that represent us as people and to be able to do it with my best friend in the world is probably my biggest achievement to date. But the one thing that really makes this so worth while for us is the support that all of you give us. It means so much to us when any of you like, share or even just follow us! It gives all of the hard work and energy that we put into this a purpose. We love each and every one of you, and we can't thank you enough for your support! We always want to know your opinions, even the bad ones! If we don't know what wrong we can't change or fix it! If anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear them too! There is so much going on in the Tomb right now that we are so excited to be able to share with you soon, so stay tuned!

Don't forget to check out the Dead With Tequila Store! (Had to get some marketing here some where!)

*Bad grammar intended :P

You know the drill!!! comments below....Twitter...come bug me :D

Change is Coming.....

So over the last couple of weeks we've been having some serious talks in the +Dead With Tequila Tomb.

The end of July will mark 1 year of Dead With Tequila, and we have decided that some big decisions need to be made about how we do things, both on Storenvy and in the Tomb.

Change is coming.

We have got so many new ideas, and feel that the way we currently operate just isn't gonna cut it for all the craziness that's in the pipeline. These new ideas and plans show more of who we are, both as individuals and as a brand; not that the items currently available don't do that, but the awesomeness that we have in store for you does so even more! We really want to develop our style and personality in this next year, and hopefully in doing so can grow our brand that is Dead With Tequila. We want to flaunt our dark and twisted, weird and wonderful, creative and quirky sides. So far we don't feel as though we've been able to do that. We want to make a statement. We want to be able to be like " 'Boom!' This is us. Yes, we're young and arguably inexperienced, but we've worked our asses off and created something pretty amazing with absolutely nothing at all, and we're proud of what's been achieved!"

That's really the truth of ALL of this...If you told me two years ago that I'd be here, running and creating a small business, I would have thought you were crazy. Believe it or not, this isn't a life long dream of mine. I haven't spent years of my life imagining what it would be like to run my own business with my best friend, and considering all the potential names for it. Dead With Tequila is really the result of me throwing away three years worth of work because I got sick, and to continue on studying was no longer going to be a viable option for me. Dead With Tequila only exists because, I happened to have the most incredible best friend, who was willing to take a chance with me, with this crazy idea, stand by me and help add to the craziness of it all. This was one of those times where neither of us had any idea about what we were doing, but being to stubborn to back down from the challenge, went ahead and did it anyway; and if we got stuck, well hey, that's why the world invented Google.

This first year of Dead With Tequila has really been about us finding our feet. Learning. We didn't have any aims or targets for the last year; the way we saw it, just opening the store was an achievement! Then the fact that we had more than 1 page view was a shock....Then actually making a sale....We refreshed the page about three time to make sure it wasn't a mistake! We couldn't believe it. Now that we feel we know what we're doing, understand how the relevant platforms work, we can now start putting all our plans into place. 

Some of these ideas that we have aren't new; they've been with us right from the start, unfortunately we had to learn to walk before we could run. This was probably the only time my mum got involved with the business side of things, (she runs about 3 for various people) other than educating me and Carrie on how tax works (still don't think I understand it!). Her advice was to pace ourselves, and in the process let our ideas develop. So, we've held back. We are now ready to start unleashing the crazy on you! 

The way that we group our items is going to be big change. Our products will no longer be grouped by type e.g. Wire Bracelet or Elasticated Bracelets etc. We have decided to create themed collections, any new products will be produced as part of a theme, meaning that we can really spread our creative wings. Some of the names that have been tossed around for these collections are just wicked! But you're just gonna have to wait to see what they are. We haven't quite worked out the finer details of how we are going to go about implementing this overhaul yet. At the moment it seems like the best choice is to close the store for a day or so. It's been discussed that we may release one of these new collections at a time, say one a month or something. The problem with this would be that some items may have to temporarily disappear. 

Some of the current collections will stay. Most likely the Accessories, Posters and Original Art mainly because the items currently in these collections won't fit with the new themes. Hopefully more of these collections will be raising money for other charities.     

So lots to be doing, sea things, evil bunnies, weird and wacky stuff!! I hope you're just as excited as I am about all this! 

As usual leave your thoughts, comments, suggestions, magical unicorns, flying monkeys etc. below or come and bug me on twitter ;D