Remember Me?

This is something that's been picking at my mind since the first time I read Kiss of the Night two years ago. 

What would anyone do to be remembered?

Both the protagonists of the novel wonder not how people will remember them, but also question who will remember them.

Cassandra is an Apollite cursed to slowly decay painfully on her 27th birthday, just as all her people do, but she is also the last living descendant of Apollo. If she dies, so dies the sun and pretty much all life on earth. 
As Apollo's last living descendent and the last surviving of her sisters, Cassandra understands that she is destined to die the slow and painful death of her people.  Yet she still holds on to some shred of hope that she could have a long normal life with a family and children of her own.  She tattooed teardrops on her hand to form a flower, one for her mother and each of her sisters.  But as the last surviving member of her family, there is no one to do that for her.  She has no children or a husband and if even if she did, any children she might have had at this point in her life would still be an infant when she dies. 

Wulf is a dark-hunter special case. No one remembers him 5 minutes after he leaves the room.  During the time that the book was set, the only person that can remember Wulf (aside from Cassandra) is his squire, Chris.  Although he is cursed with amnesia, Acheron eased this for him by allowing the blood descendents of his original squire to retain the memory of him, though it is also learned that fellow dark-hunters can also remember him.  At this point, should Chris die without procreating, Wulf will literally be alone in the world.  It acutally came down to the point where Wulf tried to get Chris to ask Britney Spears out!

After realizing that she's pregnant, Cassandra fully accepted the fate of her people knowing that her son would be able to live the long and full life she could not.  Wulf, also grateful that he would have a descendent of his own blood to remember him as well, promises her that he would make sure she is remembered.

I pondered at which is worse: dying in the prime of your life because of a curse that fell upon your people millenia ago or living forever but cursed in a way that no one can remember ever meeting you. In our world, we want to be unique and we want to do something so different that people will remember our names afer we go. For Wulf and Cassandra, from a shallow standpoint, it doesn't really matter what they do or don't do because no matter what, there isn't really anyone who would necessarily remember that they were there at all.  The best part was, they didn't let that bother them and with strength, hope and preserverance, they ended up with a happily ever after.

Still though, makes you wonder: how far would someone go to make sure you're remembered?

One Lovely Blog Award

So I went to check out my newly created blog last night and I just happened to find this little button on the comments posted by Danielle at The Upside of Insanity.

That's the link to her beautiful blog right there.  I would urge you to check it out if you want to look at her reviews on various teen and adult novels or if you need some suggestions for something new to read!

Thanks so much Danielle!



Here's how it works:

1.Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2.Pay it forward to fifteen other blogs you have newly discovered.

3.Contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen.

Now, the only thing is I don't actually subscribe to 15 different blogs.  On top of that the greater majority of the blogs I subscribe to are official blogs of various topics (Harlequin Books and Kleinfeld Bridal), but here are the two blogs that I have forwarded this award to.

1. Life IS Candy
2. Iva Messy

And the Fire is Lit....Again

Today, I got Sherrilyn Kenyon's August newsletter and I realized that it was the first one I've read in I don't know how many months.  When I saw that another hunter is getting his book in 2011, the fire started in me  I couldn't believe how long it's been since I got really really excited about a book at all to be honest. 

I remember first picking up this series.  I was working in a bookstore and my best friend/co-worker told me that if I liked romance novels, I would like Fantasy Lover.  She went over to the romance section, grabbed it and let me read the back cover.  It was unlike anything I've ever read in my life.  And when I saw the front cover, well let's just say that Julian (okay, fine, the model they used for Julian) sealed the deal.  Well, at the time, I was in my second year of college and I didn't want any distractions.  I just ended up buying all the mass market paperback copies of each novel available at the time - just so you know how many I bought, at the time, the next book coming out was Dream Chaser - and saved them all until the end of the semester when I would have four months of summer to indulge.  Mind you, that didn't stop me from also raiding the DH site and reading up on every single character profile and reading each excerpt available. 

All I can say about this series is that each and every character has worked their way into a special place in my heart.  These books are so much more than just badass vampires wearing leather, heroines with ideal figures, and crazy sex drives.  And they're not sappy crappy love stories either.  I find that each book has it's own unique story and taste to it, a commom theme that links each character, and they're relatable on a personal level as well.  No two characters are exactly the same and they all are so developed that it's almost as if they're real people themselves.

I think I just had a bit of a hiatus period when it comes to these books.  I'm an avid book collector and I get really really bored when I read the same thing over and over again.  Mind you, it's hard to get bored of Ms. Kenyon's writings.  But I can say that I'm definitely back and I'm not leaving until the final book (that's gonna be a while, isnt it?).

I would say give these books a try.  Seriously.  It's not just paranormal romance, or just horror, or just fantasy.  It literally is every genre rolled up into a single series.  Plus the New York Times didn't give her the #1 spot just because they felt like it either!  Believe me when I say, "you have nothing to lose!"