The problem I’ve run into with reviewing this trilogy is discussing the book while trying to avoid spoilers. I’ve decided that it’s close to impossible.   You’ve been warned . . .

Saving Midnight begins soon after the events of the second.   Edmund has been rescued thanks to Graham, Pen, Estelle, Ben and Sally, but the two vampires Li-Hua and Frank have managed to escape.   To his dismay, Edmund discovers that while he was captured, Graham had been forced to feed off from Estelle, and that Estelle enjoyed herself.   Nevermind the fact that Estelle couldn’t help herself or had no choice but to assist Graham in such a manner, this knowledge is more than Edmund can deal with.   He’s angry that such a feeding took place, but he also feels guilty because he knows Estelle had no choice and that neither she nor Graham would betray him in such a way.   Instead of discussing his feelings with Estelle, he closes himself off from her and slowly drives himself mad.   His feelings bring forth all sorts of guilt that he has bottled up from his past- most of it not deserved.   Once again, I was glad that you had shifted the focus of the trilogy away from these two.   I found this entire plot development frustrating and bordering on the ridiculous. I’m not sure how much more I could take of Edmund’s self indulgent angst.

Saving Midnight once again features Durand, mercenary and rogue vampire.   This time he’s working for the Fitz Clares, trying to bring his former employers down.       I was particularly interested in his past relationship with the vampire queen, Nim Wei, and his resentment towards her.   I was glad for the opportunity to learn more about him and wouldn’t mind seeing him featured in his own book.   However, this isn’t his book.   Instead, it’s really Graham’s and Pen’s more than anyone else’s.

After she helps rescue Edmund at the end of book two, Pen goes back home where she discovers that her estranged mother has passed away.   She needs to visit her mother’s home and claim her inheritance or risk losing it to her viperous aunts.   I liked this little detour in the story. We find out that while she may have grown up with a father who loved and protected her, she was continuously belittled by a mother who   masked her venomous intent towards her with a Southern, sugary sweet charm.     It’s during a visit to her mother’s home that Pen is attacked by Li-Hua and Frank and we discover just how unusual a young woman Pen really is.

Li-Hua and Frank have given up their quest to discover the means to change a human into a vampire.   This time, they’ve managed to get their hands on an ancient vampire device that allows the user to suck the soul from their victim and to absorb that soul into themselves while also increasing their powers.   This means that Li-Hua and Frank have gone from dangerous to almost impossible to kill.   To make it worse, the rapid increase in power has driven them nearly mad.

Li-Hua and Frank were rather unpredictable to begin with, but you’d think the extra bit of craziness would make them two very difficult vampires to track down.   Not so.   In fact, it’s almost laughable how easy they are to find.   The FitzClare clan decide to travel to Chicago to search for the villainous duo and as soon as they arrive, a friend of Pen walks up and happens to have exactly the information they need to locate Li-Hua and Frank’s new lair.   I was kind of amused by how easy it fell together, but by this time in the story, I wasn’t really looking for a long drawn out chase scene either.

My major complaint with this book was Edmund’s psychotic spiral.   Not only was the entire thing easily resolved, but it was completely unnecessary in the first place.   Not necessarily a Big Misunderstanding, but just as frustrating.   What also became frustrating were the numerous sex scenes that broke up the action in Kissing Midnight and actually, throughout the entire trilogy. I know this is trademark Emma Holly, but it seriously got a little old after awhile.

I’m glad I read your upyr trilogy, but I’ll admit to experiencing some fatigue towards the end.   As I was reading the last hundred or so pages of Saving Midnight, I remembered thinking that it was almost like I was at the last mile of a marathon- or what I imagine a marathon would be like.   And while the marathon may ultimately be rewarding, it’s not always an enjoyable experience.

C+

:) Joonigrrl

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Breaking Midnight by Emma Holly
2. Review: Kissing Midnight by Emma Holly
3. REVIEW: Catching Midnight by Emma Holly

When I first decided to read and review your latest upyr trilogy, I had the idea that I would write a single review of all three books together. Two paragraphs in, I realized I was going to need more space than a single review allowed.

Breaking Midnight begins shortly after the ending of the first.   While Edmund was attempting to come to terms with himself and his relationship with Estelle, he is suddenly gifted with enough power to transition to Elder. During this transition, he is captured by Li-Hua and Frank, two unpredictable and very dangerous vampires.   Li-Hua and Frank chain him up, torture and starve him in an attempt to learn the secrets that only Elders know: how to change a human into an upyr.

Meanwhile, Estelle, Sally, Graham and Ben are doing their best to look for Edmund.   One night, Estelle dreams that she’s with Edmund, although a thinner Edmund than she’s used to.   After a few more dream visits, Estelle begins to realize that these aren’t simple dreams at all. Despite her best efforts, she struggles to uncover clues as to his location.

After closing Kissing Midnight, I was a little concerned where the second book would go. I wasn’t sure I could take more of just the Edmund/Estelle and Sally/Ben relationships.   Thankfully, book two introduces Pen Anderson, the daughter of Graham’s former boss at MI5.   Pen’s a prickly, independent young woman. Although she has always liked Graham, she doesn’t really think all that highly of him either.   Convinced that Graham needs her help in finding Edmund, she thrusts herself into the middle of the FitzClare family crisis regardless of whether anyone actually wants said help.

But Graham isn’t the same reliable, mild young man anymore.   Believing that the best way to help find his father is to become upyr, Graham turns to Edmund’s biological son Robin for help.   The change to vampire creates subtle but compelling differences with Graham: he’s taller, better looking, more commanding, and more confident.     And what he doesn’t need or want is his former boss’s annoying daughter involving herself in Fitz Clare business.

Like the other relationships, there’s not much anticipation or build up before Graham and Pen are jumping in bed. Or, rather, on the floor of a train.   Together, Pen and Graham find in each other the perfect sexual partner.   They can express their desires and needs to each other in ways they having never been able to share with anyone else.   Outside of bed is another story.   When not tearing each other’s clothes off, Pen and Graham are two very guarded individuals. Trust doesn’t come easily for either of them.     Pen is a bit of a mystery in book two, but for Graham, he is still dealing with the betrayal from his handler at MI5 and how easily he was fooled into turning against his father.

Breaking Midnight also introduces Durand, rogue upyr and mercenary. Durand somehow ended up working for Li-Hua and Frank, and is assigned to guard Edmund.   Durand is an odd combination of honorable and ruthless. It’s that hint of honor which is at odds with his current employment.   I liked this mysterious upyr quite a bit. In fact, whenever the point of view shifted back to Edmund, it was about Durand I was more interested in reading.

Of the three, Breaking Midnight was the most difficult to finish, and the one that took the longest.   Perhaps that’s because I found Edmund’s angst at the end of the first book and his subsequent capture a little contrived.   For me, his imprisonment by these two vampires was a little hard to follow for an entire book.   Breaking Midnight also features the rather convenient dream waking scenes so that Estelle is able to pin point Edmund’s location and narrow the search.   Of course, it also allows them to have sex even while they’re thousands of miles apart.   I probably could have done without the latter.   By the second book, Estelle and Edmund had become my least favorite couple and that’s including the icky brother sister Ben/Sally pairing.   It’s not that I disliked them. I just found them rather tedious.   I was glad that you shifted the book’s focus to Graham and Penelope and looked forward to learning more about where their relationship would progress.

C+

:) Joonigrrl

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Related posts:

1. Review: Kissing Midnight by Emma Holly
2. REVIEW: Catching Midnight by Emma Holly
3. REVIEW: All U Can Eat by Emma Holly

I’m a fan of your writing. Most of the time.   The problem is that while I’ve enjoyed many of your books, I often tend to drift half way through with either the characters or the story unable to retain my interest. With the publication of your new trilogy about the upyr released in three consecutive months, I decided to go ahead and read all three.   I’ll admit that I was a little daunted by such an idea.   And while I probably could have used a longer break between each book, the publication dates allowed the story and the characters to stay fresh in my mind.

The year is 1933.   Estelle Berenger has been in love with Edmund Fitz Clare since she was fifteen years old.   From the moment he appeared in front of her at school, asking the sullen teenager to look after his adopted daughter Sally, Estelle was smitten.   Although she doesn’t know it until later, Edmund is also responsible for saving her life shortly after they meet.   While in his wolf form, he jumped between her and a lightning strike. Estelle is unharmed for the most part except for a minor scar near her eye, a strong arm, and a "funny ear" which sometimes allows her to hear thoughts.

Through the years, Estelle becomes a good friend of the entire Fitz Clare family including Edmund, Sally, and Sally’s two adopted brothers: plain looking and dependable Graham, and good looking and protective Ben.   Because of her childhood accident, Estelle sees through Edmund’s glamour of aging professor to the beautiful and gentle, but slightly tortured man underneath.

Luckily, the point of view doesn’t stay focused on Estelle and Edmund the entire time. Theirs is a pleasant sort of romance, but kind of unexciting after they declare their feelings for the other. They’ve been in love and have desired each other for years, and after the book starts, quickly decide to cast their reservations aside.   It was unclear to me why they waited so long unless they needed the impetus of Estelle moving out of the Fitz Clare residence. But it seems to me, characters that react that strongly to each other probably wouldn’t have been able to keep their passions at bay for the two years that they lived under the same roof- at least not in an Emma Holly world.

A similar sentiment could be said about Sally and Ben- yes, that’s right, Sally and Ben.   They were raised together as brother and sister, but that doesn’t slow them down much. Hey, at least they waited until Sally was 17, I guess, but then again, I also wondered how they waited so long considering the relentlessness of their desire for the other.   I’ll admit to being more than a little icked out by this relationship.   Both were pretty quick to disclaim that they were only like brother and sister, but come on, really? Adopted brother and sister still counts as brother and sister in my book.   Seriously, um, gross.

Meanwhile, the story shifts back and forth to Graham who is in fact a secret agent working for an organization called MI5. Although his spy work, for the most part, had been pretty boring stuff, that quickly changes when he meets a beautiful woman who tells him of the existence of the upyr and gives him a new assignment: spy on Edmund.   The mystery woman, who is herself an upyr,   succeeds in thralling Graham into distrusting and doubting his father. And while Graham made me want to pull out my hair at times for being weak, for allowing himself to be thralled, and for believing the worst of a man who has done nothing but love him and shelter and protect him, he was, for me, also the most interesting of the Fitz Clares.

I wasn’t thrilled by the ending.   Edmund’s tortured soul and guilty conscious lead him to act rashly, and of course, someone is there to take advantage of that. Thus, the stage is set for book two.   For the most part, I was absorbed by the characters- albeit frustrating at times- and the story. I found myself struggling to finish the last part, but that may because I could see what was being set up for us for the next book. Overall, Kiss Midnight was a compelling, but somewhat unsettling book.

B-

:) Joonigrrl

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Catching Midnight by Emma Holly
2. REVIEW: Demon’s Fire by Emma Holly
3. REVIEW: All U Can Eat by Emma Holly

I’ve been stuck in a reading rut for months. Nothing has appealed to me.   Even books I was dying to get my hands on 6 months ago have languished away unread on my bookshelves.   After I explained my situation to Jane, she recommended your work and I’m glad that she did.   I   did have some trouble getting into the story and had issues with the characters, but ultimately it proved to be an entertaining book.

Kara Gillian is a Detective in a small town not too far from New Orleans. She’s also a summoner of demons.   Perhaps because of this, Kara has been fascinated for years by the unsolved Symbol Man murders and what she believes may be the involvement of the arcane arts in said murders.   When a body is found with strikingly similar injuries to the previous victims, Kara is pulled from her detective work in white collar crimes for her first homicide investigation.

While Kara is trying to stay one step ahead, or at least not too many behind, the Symbol Man and his steadily increasing body count, she’s also experiencing some demon trouble.   One night while attempting to summon a lower level demon, she accidentally pulls a Demon Lord through instead.   Beautiful in a typically exceptional sort of way, there wasn’t much to differentiate this Demon Lord at first from dozens of other urban fantasy characters.   One minute he’s threatening to rend the flesh from her bones and scatter her blood on the wind and the next he is seducing her in an inexplicably inexplicable about face. Although his reasons for doing so are finally answered at the very end, I spent the entire book questioning, and having substantial problems with this character’s motivation.   Growing bored with this generically powerful and oh so dangerous yet beautiful demon, he didn’t really spark an interest until about half way or even three-quarter through the book.

I find that I’m pretty amused by this trend of new demons in urban fantasies.   I guess my problem is not so much that authors are romanticizing demons, but that they are trying to make these romantic demons as undemonic as possible.   Take this one for example.   The word that you have created features an entire hierarchy of demons from 1^st level to 12^th level.   The lower level demons have smaller, reptilian bodies and are more simple and easier to control.   The higher level demons are larger, more intelligent, more powerful and difficult to control.   However, even these highest level demons are "monstrous in appearance"   with features such as a "flat nose set in a bestial face, a wide mouth accented with curved fangs, and a thick ridge crest that swept back over his head and down his spine."

And then there is the Demon Lord. Our protagonist had never heard of such a being before, and apparently he’s so high up on the demon hierarchy that he’s really no demon at all.   He’s angelically beautiful with satiny white blond hair and ethereal skin, and the "body of an Adonis."   I almost laughed out loud when I read this- it did not sound at all demonic to me. Create a powerful figure, use the demon mythology for a sense of danger and mystery, but put him in a beautiful human package so he appeals to our heroine and you’ve got the ultimate bad boy.   I would have been more interested to see what you would have done had this character followed the same set of rules that you created for the other 12 levels of demons.

I was pretty intrigued by the demon summoning and the questions it raised.   Our heroine has the power to summon, and so does her aunt, but why do they summon? And more importantly, just because they have the ability, what gives them the right? Should they be doing it at all? To summon a demon is to take away their free will and to force them to serve-even if on a temporary basis. The higher the level the demon, the more difficult it is to summon them and control them.   I was hoping our protagonist would consider the morality of her actions, but she does not.   Instead, she displays a cavalier attitude toward forcing her will on someone else.   This thoughtlessness continues even when she accidentally summons the Demon Lord and he threatens to kill her for her actions.   I kept waiting to find out that she had a strong motivation. Instead, we find out that:

"I summon… because I can," I temporized. "And I know that sounds corny, but it’s like a hunger . . . Usually I have some specific reason to summon a demon, like if I have a question that can only be answered by one of them, or if I want to learn how to do something arcane"   . . .

"So it’s all for information?" He sounded doubtful.

"Heck, no!" I laughed. "Come on, if you had the ability to summon a super-powerful arcane creature, wouldn’t you?"

And summoning is a pretty involved process. All sorts of ritual bindings, chanting and layers of protection are needed before a demon can be called and controlled.   That may be because "[t]he higher demons did not like being summoned. In fact, some utterly despised it, submitting only after intense and protracted battle with the bindings that the summoner had in place."

Uh, yeah, so they don’t like being ripped from their homes and enslaved against their will to do someone else’s bidding. I wonder why they’d have such a problem with that. And while I found all this interesting, I kept expecting Kara to be more thoughtful about the wrongness or rightness of all this- and unfortunately, she was not.

The heroine also tended to view the world in simplistic terms with a surprising amount of naiveté, and the narration and dialogue – both very awkward at times, reflected that.   I noticed this in particular with her interactions with the Demon Lord:

"He laughed and sat beside me on the bed again. "You are as clever as you are strong. It is no wonder I desire more of you." He reached a hand toward me and then paused, not yet touching me. His eyes met mine. "May I?"

That simple request sent an erotic rush through me that nearly knocked me over. He’s unspeakably powerful, yet he respects my boundaries."

At one point she even reflects upon the fact that the Demon Lord knew her better than anyone else, but come on! She spent what, a couple hours in his presence at most?

While I found the writing to be readable but awkward and the character development pretty weak, I was interested in the mystery and the murder investigation aspects of this story enough to finish out this book.   In particular, I was impressed by the police procedural and autopsy details. Again, I grew frustrated by Kara’s overly simplistic relationship with her fellow officers, and felt that her relationship with the FBI agent was far too rushed. Seriously, she spends a lifetime hiding her arcane abilities, and then confesses it all to a fed whom she just met? I just didn’t buy it.

Despite my issues with the story and the characters, I did find this to be an entertaining book. I’m not usually too interested in police procedurals, but the Symbol Man mystery and the addition of the arcane made for a quick read.   At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll continue on with your series.   I may wait to read reviews of your next book before committing to reading it myself.   However, I am glad that I read this one and I do think it will appeal to many fans of urban fantasy.
C

:) Joonigrrl aka Leslie

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: California Demon by Julie Kenner
2. REVIEW: Demon’s Kiss by Eve Silver
3. REVIEW: Surviving Demon Island by Jaci Burton

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of your writing. I was thrilled to beta read Magic Strikes about a year ago. I remember being very impressed by the quality of your manuscript and gave quite a bit of positive feedback. I was happy to discover that the changes made since then have only made it better.

Magic Strikes is the third book about Kate Daniels, kick ass mercenary, and Knight of the Order of Merciful Aid. Book 1 dealt with Kate’s quest to find her guardian’s killer, a search which brought her to the Pack and the Beast Lord’s attention. In Book 2, while Atlanta is gripped by an intense wave of magic known as a flare, Kate’s ties to the Pack continue to grow when she joins up with them to save the city.

Book 3 begins about two months after the events in book 2. Atlanta is still recovering from the backlash caused by the flare. Kate is keeping busy, running from one emergency to the next, and getting very little sleep in between. One such emergency pops up when she is called to rescue her werewolf friend Derek from the always-unpredictable Saiman. It seems that Derek was planning on stealing Midnight Games tickets so that he could speak with a girl on one of the participating teams.

The Midnight Games are an illegal tournament where individuals and teams, made up of the paranormal community, fight and kill for bloodthirsty crowds. Kate attends the Games with Saiman to offer her insight on a surprisingly skillful team known as the Reapers. When Kate is attacked after the Games, she begins to realize just how serious a threat the Reapers are. Her suspicions grow when she realizes that Derek is somehow involved.

However, Derek isn’t the only shape shifter acting a little strange. Jim, the Pack’s Chief of Security, hasn’t been himself lately. While returning home one night, Kate stumbles upon a shifter crime scene investigation. What’s odd is that Jim fails to report the crime to either the proper paranormal agency or to Curran, the Beast Lord. When the next attack hits a little closer to home, Kate must decide between confiding in Curran and trusting her friend and former partner.

The conflict in this book brought with it some very exciting developments. The Reapers are a satisfyingly dangerous group of villains. Their origins were intriguing as was their flat out creepiness. Unfortunately, the most interesting aspect about them is too spoilerish to discuss. But I will say that the catalyst behind the Reapers’ actions, and certain events which unfold right at the very end, have me eagerly awaiting book four.

I continue to love Kate more and more in each book. Her narrative voice, while still given to some snarkiness and frequent quips, has matured a bit. Part of that is due to her increased willingness to open herself up to other people. Whether it’s her protectiveness of her adopted daughter, her fear over a friend’s welfare or her ability to admit to a certain amount of vulnerability where Curran is concerned, Kate has become more likable for the small cracks in her armor.

The kickass uber powerful UF heroine is a character that many authors have tried on for size. And while I’ll admit to a certain amount of fondness towards said character, it doesn’t always work for me. Some authors walk the thin line of attitude and bitchy immaturity, with many falling on the side of the latter. What I like about Kate is that while she may give attitude, she does so for a reason and she does it with humor. And although she may have an array of ever increasing strengths and powers that could make some readers skeptical, she remains one of my favorites, because, as we see in this book, even our uber powerful UF heroine Kate isn’t invincible.

I haven’t really talked much about the Midnight Games, and I shouldn’t. The less said the better. They, of course, play a prominent role here with Kate becoming increasingly involved in conflict surrounding the tournament. I thought The Games were fun, intense, and intensely fun.

I very much enjoyed reading the first two books in your series, but this one is now my favorite. From the first page to the last, Magic Strikes was a riveting, heart pounding ride. Story lines advance, truths are admitted, intriguing characters are introduced and the romance between Kate and Curran develops a sweetness that is simply delightful.

The writing is concise, finely worded and carefully constructed. You pack more in a single page than some authors do in ten. In short, a thoroughly satisfying addition to your series. A-

~Joonigrrl

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
2. REVIEW: Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews
3. REVIEW: The Dream-Maker’s Magic by Sharon Shinn

Ella Varner is a survivor. She was raised by a psychologically abusive woman who possessed not a single ounce of motherly instinct. She did her best to protect herself and her sister Tara, but both were left with emotional scars. After years of therapy, Ella has managed to achieve a tenuous bit of happiness: she’s got a successful job as an advice columnist, a nice place to live in Austin, a great boyfriend, and friends aplenty.

Her life gets shaken up a bit when she receives a phone call one day. Long story short: her sister had a baby, didn’t want to take care of the baby, won’t tell anyone the baby’s father’s name, left baby with the emotionally damaging grandmother, and grandmother refuses to take care of baby. Ella doesn’t exactly want to get involved- she knows little about babies. Plus, her boyfriend runs at the first hint of responsibility so she’s got no help there. However, Ella decides to take Luke for a few days- just until she can track Tara down, and solve the mystery of the baby’s paternity. When Ella discovers that rich playboy Jack Travis may be the dad, she travels to Houston to confront him.

Ella credits her boyfriend Dane with helping her heal from her mother’s psychological and emotional abuse. And while that’s true to some extent, I also think her relationship with Dane was a crutch. Dane was the safe boyfriend. Her heart wasn’t at risk because her heart wasn’t really involved. She lived with him for years, mirroring his causes and interests and beliefs as if they were her own. She became the person that Dane wanted her to be.

With Jack, Ella’s heart is most definitely involved. She knows Jack isn’t going to be the safe boyfriend she’s used to.But unlike Dane, Jack doesn’t want to fit her into some mold.He wants to know the what and the why and the how. He encourages her to become her own person, questioning the beliefs she borrowed from Dane, not allowing her to take herself too seriously, and standing by her side throughout it all.

Jack is an interesting mix. He can be charming, but intense; old fashioned and modern; laid back, but possessive. Many of his scenes were read with a big smile on my face. However, I’ll admit that his knuckle-dragging scenes were some of my favorites.

“But he’s my-’” I stopped and stared at him in disbelief. “What is this? Jack, I live with him.”

“Not anymore. You live here. And-’” A short, gouging pause. “I don’t want you to have sex with him.”

At first I was more bewildered than angry. Jack seemed to have reverted to knuckle-dragging mode, which I had never seen before, certainly not with Dane. That Jack felt possessive, that he wanted a say in when I had sex or whom I had it with, was no less than astonishing. “You don’t get to be part of that decision,” I said.

“I’m not going to stand by while he takes what’s mine.”

Jack’s voice was soft, but it contained a savage note that caused all the hairs on my body to rise. “I’m not playing games. I’m trying to tell you how I feel.

And what about Luke? After all, the premise of the book does center on him. Actually, the scenes with Luke were some of my favorite parts of this story. You can’t help feeling bad for the little guy. His mom doesn’t have any motherly sort of feelings for him- doesn’t even want him, his grandmother would rather give him over to Social Services than take care of him for more than a day, and his dad is some mysterious, responsibility shirking rat. Luckily, he’s got a pretty darn good aunt- an aunt who grows to love him as her own even knowing that their time together is temporary and will come to an end very soon.

Tiptoeing to the side of the crib, I peeked in, expecting to see the baby sleeping. But he was staring up at me in that somber way of his.

“Aren’t you asleep yet, Luke?” I asked softly.

The second he saw me, he moved and kicked, and his mouth curled.

His first smile.

It startled me, that spontaneous reaction to seeing me. And I felt a lovely ache that went right down to my soul, and I forgot everything except that moment. I had earned that smile. I wanted to earn a million more from him.

Ella’s relationship with Luke was very sweet. With Luke, Ella has the opportunity to be the parent that she herself never had. She can ensure that he receives all the love and attention that was missing from her own childhood. Her love for Luke allows her to take a large step in healing from the wounds of neglect and jealousy and humiliation inflicted on her by her own mother. And in caring for Luke, she herself finds a happiness that she never truly had before.

In the end, I didn’t entirely believe that Ella was finished healing. She spent her childhood being told by her mother, among other things, that she was inadequate. So what does she do? She enters into a relationship with Dane and allows him to dictate her beliefs, likes and dislikes. And while her relationships with Jack and Luke have begun the healing process, I’m still convinced that there’s more she needs to work out. There are several scenes towards the end which also point toward this conclusion. These aren’t complaints. I found Ella a very interesting character, and I think it’s realistic that she wouldn’t just be perfectly healed and ready to have her HEA without having to worry about any lingering damage from her crappy childhood.

I was very satisfied with Smooth Talking Stranger.It wasn’t necessarily ground breaking, but it was a very enjoyable and surprisingly poignant contemporary romance.
B+
:) Joonigrrl/Leslie

Borders is offering 30% off this hardcover in conjunction with our Save the Contemporary Campaign.

Related posts:

1. Winners of Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
2. Save the Contemporary: Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
3. REVIEW: Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas

I count you as one of my favorite romance authors. I practically camp out at my local bookstore whenever your books are released. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get my hands on this one.

Georgie York is best known for her role as the spunky Scooter Brown on America’s favorite sitcom "Skip and Scooter." Although she no longer has the bright red Orphan Annie hair or the trademark curls, Georgie still reigns as America’s sweetheart. Even a series of box office flops can’t seem to diminish her public appeal.

It’s not just the poor box office numbers that are plaguing Georgie. She’s also got a Brangelina-esque problem to worry about. Her movie star ex-husband Lance Marks left her for sexy do-gooder actress Jade Gentry. Barely surviving the heartbreak of her husband’s abandonment and the subsequent divorce, Georgie is shattered to find out that Jade is also pregnant. With paparazzi everywhere, Georgie goes to Vegas for a change of scenery.

Bramwell Shepherd is the Skip to Georgie’s Scooter. His career is going nowhere fast, and he’s only got himself to blame. He follows Georgie to Vegas where the former co-stars attend a party together and unintentionally drink some sort of drug laced beverage. One minute, they’re drinking and gambling. The next, they’re waking up together only to realize they got married Ross and Rachel style. In an attempt to avoid more bad publicity, Georgie convinces Bram to agree to a fake marriage for one year in exchange for half a million dollars and better press by association.

Like many of your books, What I did For Love is about second chances. A second chance at love, a second chance at a career, a second chance as a father, and so on. Although it’s a theme that touches upon most characters, it was better executed with some than with others. After some initial misgivings and despite some irritation with cranky housekeeper Chaz, I enjoyed reading about her second chance at happiness. I also enjoyed the subplot with Georgie’s career driven father. Falling under the dislike category are the Brangelina ex-husband and new wife. For a man who has been the catalyst of Georgie’s own second chance at love, it was disappointing to discover this character was so absurdly shallow and cheesy as to call into question the intelligence of our protagonist.

I noticed something right away and it’s something that jarred me from the story. I found myself comparing Georgie and Bram to two of my favorite characters from Honey Moon. Just like Honey, Georgie became America’s sweetheart as the lead on a wholesome family tv show. Like Honey, she was infatuated with her jerk of a co-star.   Other similarities include growing stifled with her image and wanted a change in her career.

As for Bram, he wasn’t driven by the same demons as Eric Dillon, but he did show a similar selfishness and self-destruction in his youth. Like Eric, he too is trying to escape his past and atone for his actions. But while Eric acted liked an ass because he felt more than a little self-loathing, Bram’s destructive behavior in his youth was basically due to his desire to party too hard.

Like Honey and Eric, Georgie and Bram are an odd couple. Bram has his amazing good looks complete with chip on shoulder. Georgie isn’t conventionally beautiful, but she does have a likability that’s hard to resist. Both go their own ways only to be reunited years later and fall in love. There are of course many differences among them of which include the absence of Honey’s earlier May-December romance, roller coaster symbolism that’s kind of WTF, and the heavier tone that weighs down Honey Moon. But . . . it was just enough that I couldn’t avoid immediately spotting the similarities, making the comparison, and ultimately finding Georgie and Eric a little lacking.

Despite the comparisons, I did like Georgie and Bram to some degree. They’re by no means my favorite of your protagonists, but they each have a vulnerability that is compelling to read.   For example, we find out pretty quickly that Georgie hates Bram with a passion and has ever since their tv show years. But we’re also told that:

Georgie had loved Skip Scofield. She loved everything about him. His big heart, his loyalty, the way he’d tried to protect Scooter from the Scofield family. The way he’d eventually fallen in love with her silly round face and rubber-band mouth. She’d loved everything except the man Skip turned into when the cameras stopped rolling.

I love that description. It says so much about the 16 year old girl Georgie used to be. The girl who had trouble distinguishing between reality and fiction. The girl who hadn’t always hated Bramwell Shepherd, but who had, in fact, imagined herself in love with him.

However, that was years and several difficult life lessons ago. Georgie and Bram haven’t been secretly in love with or lusting after each other all this time. They went their separate ways when the show ended, and gladly. Years later, Georgie still hasn’t forgiven him for his behavior toward her. And while Bram’s resents Georgie out of some misplaced sort of jealousy, Georgie’s anger toward him is very much deserved. Their relationship from resentment to distrust to trust to love is accompanied by your trademark humor. It didn’t work for me as well as your other books, but it’s still a very quick and easy read.

Other readers may be more amused than I by the lengths Georgie and Bram will go to in order to advance their careers and save face in the public eye. They may also be amused by the Hollywood setting and by what seems like a realistic portrayal of paparazzi and life as a celebrity. From lunch at The Ivy to mansions in the Pacific Palisades, the Hollywood setting was convincingly executed.   However, this book didn’t entirely click for me for several reasons.   The Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie characters were jarring as was the inevitable comparison of Georgie to Jennifer Aniston.   This sort of thing may amuse others, but not me. And don’t even get me started on the SARS scare.

And although I appreciated Georgie and Bram’s vulnerability, I didn’t entirely sympathize with them. Georgie is a successful actress, she’s rich, and loved by millions, but she’s unhappy because the paparazzi have hounded her, turning her heartbreak over her divorce into a public scandal.   But, as it turns out, the ex-husband was a complete ass.   Why exactly was she so heartbroken? I would have been happy to be rid of the guy.   And yeah, she’s not happy with her career, but did I mention that she’s frickin’ rich?   Ok, so people don’t take her seriously as a dramatic actress. Too bad.   Do something instead of just complaining about it. I guess I’m just not enamored enough of the celebrity lifestyle to find Georgie’s utter devotion to saving her public image- lie though it may be- a little sad.

I admired Bram’s determination to get his career on track, but I had some trouble connecting with him too. Part of that is because he threw it all away years ago, something which he can blame no one but himself.   The other part is his use of Georgie to get ahead in Hollywood. It’s that mutual use of each other for their own careers that I found distasteful, and which prevented me from truly enjoying this story as I wanted to.

I would recommend this to your fans.   For anyone new to your work, I would advise them to start with one of your earlier books.

B-

:) Joonigrrl/Leslie

This book can be purchased in hardcover from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers beginning January 27, 2009.

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Dear Ms. Viehl:

I’ve been a fan of yours ever since I picked up Star Doc about 9 years ago. I haven’t been quite so thrilled by your Darkyn books, but have had some favorites such as 2008’s Evermore. Despite some frustration with the series, I was sad to hear that this was your final novel about the Darkyn and I was eager to see how you would conclude it all.

Stay the Night is Robin’s book. Well . . . sort of. Robin of Locksley-that’s right, I said Locksley- has been stealing from the rich for the last 700 years. With the help of his Darkyn powers of persuasion, he can charm just about anyone into doing almost anything.   The FBI has dubbed him The Magician for his most recent larcenous exploits involving the theft of priceless works of art.

Chris Renshaw is a special agent for the FBI. She was recently transferred to the Chicago office amid a scandal involving her partner’s firing and subsequent suicide. Chris   (you have a tendency to masculinize your heroines’ names: Alex, Nick, Chris, Jayr and Sam) knows that the Magician is somehow involved and is more determined than ever to bring this thief to justice. She leads the operation to find him and goes undercover as an arts dealer.

Christ meets Robin while conducting surveillance at a local bar. Robin’s attempts at seduction are successful and although we don’t know all that goes on in the bedroom (fade away), apparently "[s]he’d done things with him that weren’t even mentioned in the Kama Sutra." Whatever happened, Robin’s pride is hurt when he wakes up to discover that she has left him with nothing more than a thank you note. He realizes that she was all along resistant to the l’attrait, the seductive power shared by all Darkyn, and starts digging until he finds out her real identity.

The Feds decide to exhibit The Maiden’s Book of Hours in an attempt to draw out The Magician. Robin has been coveting the   ancient manuscript for hundreds of years and has every intention of taking it from the federal agents. Unbeknownst to him, someone else wants that book even more and will stop at nothing to get it. When The Maiden’s Book is stolen and humans and Darkyn lives are held hostage, Chris and Robin go to Rome to recover it.

Like all of your Darkyn novels, your story is told in multiple points of view. Besides Chris and Robin, the book shifts to at least 10 other characters including the series protagonists- Alex and Michael Cyprien. On the one hand, it’s nice to see a hero and heroine get a continuing story that goes beyond their HEA . I like Alex and Cyprien and enjoy reading about their romance and seeing their relationship grow in each book. But on the other hand, the romance between the hero and heroine in most of the other books doesn’t get as much attention as it needs.   As a result, it is often underdeveloped and flat- especially when compared to Alex and Cyprian’s relationship. This book is no different. Come on, Philippe and his lover had more chemistry in their one scene than Chris and Robin did in the entire book combined.

You try to create some relationship conflict by pairing Robin- the ultimate thief- with an upstanding law abiding federal agent. She blames Robin for her partner’s death. She’s upset with him and his ability to charm random bystanders into handing over whatever he wants- whether it’s a house, a car or a pass through customs. But besides some mild protestations, she never forces the issue and her ethical code and any possible conflict therewith eventually just takes a back seat to the rest of the action.

What is also annoying is your tendency to break up the pacing by switching to another scene just when things are starting to get good. Rather than keeping me in suspense, I grew frustrated with your frequent pov shifts. For example, you cut away from the bedroom scene between Chris and Robin only to switch to Gordon Middleton, customs checker at Heathrow Airport. You cut away from Alex just when she discovers that the Brethren have stepped up their attacks by using a deadly new heretofore undetectable weapon. It happens again and again throughout the novel, stopping the action each time it begins to picks up. Other readers certainly may have no problem with this and instead consider this to be skillful plotting, but basically it made me want to throw your book against the wall.   While I admire your ability to take us into various characters’ povs, I did not appreciate the frequency of such shifts or your timing.

I did enjoy this last Darkyn novel more towards the end. We find out the significance of The Maiden’s Book of Hours and realize the true purpose for which it was intended. The book’s purpose is intriguing and it made for some tense moments when we discover just how far a certain character will go to exact his or her revenge.

I know you had decided to conclude this series in part because you were worried about losing reader interest as well as just dragging out the story longer than you should. So while I progressed into Stay the Night, I was very curious as to what we’d see in terms of the war that has been brewing between the Brethren and the Darkyn. The Brethren have been the series antagonists from the beginning. They’ve tortured, killed, genetically altered and physically and emotionally scarred many of the Darkyn. Their attacks continue off page in this book with the introduction of a new threat. In fact, quite a bit of Stay the Night is spent with Richard, Michael and the other Darkyn lords deciding whether to wage war with their enemy. So what kind of resolution do we get?

Stay the Night is not exactly the novel I was hoping it would be.   Perhaps I had too high expectations with it being Robin’s story and the final one of the series.   You did create several very interesting moments towards the end and while I enjoyed the ongoing story with Alex, Michael and Richard and appreciated the rich and solid world that you created and continued to develop, this book’s weakest links were the underdeveloped Chris and Robin and their tepid romance.

C+

:) Joonigrrl/Leslie

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or ebook format.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Night Lost by Lynn Viehl
2. REVIEW: Dark Need by Lynn Viehl
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• Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
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• The Stone Key (Book 5 of the Obernewtyn Chronicles) by Isobelle Carmody
• Unlawful Contact by Pamela Clare
• The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran
•   The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison
•   Death Angel by Linda Howard
• Three Nights of Sin by Anne Mallory
• At the Bride Hunt’s Ball by Olivia Parker
•   Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas
• Evermore by Lynn Viehl
• Lord of Sword and Sky C.L. Wilson

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I read a book of yours for the first time almost a year ago. It was charming and light although not very memorable. I went on to read one more of your books before this one. I jumped at the chance to review Never Dare a Duke and anticipated another enjoyable reading experience. However, my intense dislike of the story and of the female protagonist, a dislike which I have rarely before felt for a romance heroine, left me wondering how this book could get published. To really discuss why I disliked this book so much, I’ve contained quite a few spoilers. Readers should beware.

You set the stage early on for Miss Abigail Shaw’s quest to ruin a man’s reputation. It seems that her father’s newspaper is losing some of its readership and may be in danger of shutting its doors. In a desperate attempt to sell more papers, Abigail decides to uncover some vague sort of scandal that occurred years ago involving Christopher Cabot, the duke of Madingley. Forget the fact that her father is an honorable man who refuses to publish gossip articles based upon speculation. Forget the fact that he chooses to publish newsworthy stories based on fact. Instead, Abigail decides to uncover what she speculates must be a truly scandalous story such that her father will be forced to publish it. Abigail will have then single-handedly saved the newspaper while also proving to her father that she is a talented journalist.

And why does she think there’s a gossip-worthy tidbit about the duke just waiting to be uncovered? Well, that’s simple. The Cabot family has had so many scandals that the odds were in her favor that the duke had done something. Abigail seems to resent the fact that "the duke was the only member of the Cabot family who portrayed himself as above the many scandals that seemed to follow the rest of his relatives." It’s not clear why Abigail reaches this conclusion at this point, having never met or seen the duke or his family before. She also seemed upset that he "had no reputation except that of a sought after, titled bachelor." Lucky for Abigail, her friend Gwen had somehow found out that "there were rumors that he was hiding a dreadful secret and that exorbitant money had been given to pay for secrecy." Abigail takes an instant dislike to the Duke for this so-called "dreadful secret" and decides that she will be the one to uncover it regardless of the harm it will do to him or his family. After all, "[n]o one is perfect, and no one should be allowed to deceive others."

Gwen asks Abigail to accompany her to Madingley Court where the duke’s mother is holding a house party. Believing that the duke won’t be there and hoping to question his family and servants, Abigail agrees to go in disguise. She soon discovers that either no one is willing to talk or there is nothing to talk about. In other words, she discovers nothing. Not one to be easily deterred, Abigail decides to search the house.

Before she can do so, Christopher arrives home. To defend himself from his mother’s matchmaking, Christopher and Abigail reach an agreement in which he will pretend to court her. She agrees to the charade so that she can get closer to him and his family, and learn more of his secrets. Although they realize this charade will most likely ruin Abigail’s reputation when they call it quits, Christopher pays little attention to the consequences and doesn’t seem to give much thought to the reason behind Abigail’s so called altruism.

The problem with Abigail was . . . everything. Every conversation she had-whether it was with the duke, his mom, his sister or anyone close to them- was just an attempt to ingratiate herself with them. Every smile, every laugh, every bit of interest she displayed in anyone was just an act to convince them to trust her with the duke’s secrets. Essentially, every conversation she had was a lie. It never seemed to dawn on Abigail until 2/3 of the book had passed that her story, if there indeed was anything to tell, would hurt the family, particularly the duke’s sister Elizabeth who recently had her coming out, and was hoping to find a husband.

And Abigail may very well be the worst investigative journalist in the history of journalism. She wouldn’t understand the idea of subtlety if it jumped up and bit her on the behind. She clumsily interrogates servants and family members. She gets caught eavesdropping time and time again. She gets caught questioning various people. She gets caught searching various rooms in the house. She even lies- badly- each time she’s caught. And what does her inept investigating uncover? Not a thing. She hears a few vague references to the past, but no real hints of what this possible scandal might be. Does that deter her? Of course not. After all, she still must save the newspaper even if it means contradicting everything her father stands for.

The romance, if you can even call it that, suffers from the selfishness of the two protagonists. They are essentially using each other for their own purposes. Neither has a care for the other’s well being, their reputation or the result of their actions. Intimate scenes usually ensue after Abigail is caught searching different rooms of the house. It got to be very predictable: she lies about her reasons for being there, the duke becomes mad because he knows she’s lying, Abigail pretends to be indignant that he won’t believe her lies, and suddenly the Duke is overcome with desire for her. Romantic? Not in any sense of the word would I describe this book as such. In fact, I was pretty disgusted by it all. Any sort of real understanding of the other doesn’t happen until well over 2/3 of the novel goes by. Even then, it’s half-hearted and rather ridiculous. When we find out that these two actually have something in common and that this common interest was enough to prevent Christopher from being mad at Abigail for trying to ruin him, it was enough to make me laugh out loud.

What may be so upsetting about Abigail’s characterization is that the she never really grasps the consequences of her actions. She succeeds in deluding herself into believing that the story must be written by her because "she could not let someone else steal her article idea- and treat the family far worse than she would." This kind of rationalization is what drives her character throughout the story. I honestly didn’t understand how I was supposed to relate to or sympathize with her.

Perhaps the most upsetting of all is that Abigail does not decide-on her own- to take the high road. She never reaches the conclusion that her investigation must stop. If that were so, perhaps I would have disliked her slightly less than I did. But that’s not the case. Instead, her investigation comes to a halt when someone uncovers her real identity. With no choice in the matter and no means to continue her investigation, Abigail "decides" to stop pursuing the story. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that she would have continued with the investigation had she not been found out.

And strangely enough, Abigail really does appear to believe that’s she’s redeemed herself by not following the story once she’s caught. She tells Christopher’s mother that:

"I didn’t write it, obviously, because once I grew to know and understand the duke, I could not betray him-or his family. I was foolish ever to think I could go through with it . . ."

"But it could have been you, Miss Shaw," said the duchess in an impassive voice.

Abigail could not hide her guilty blush. "Yes, it could have been, until I came to my senses."

This makes no sense! The fact is that Abigail didn’t make the right choice and she didn’t just come to her senses.   Instead, her purpose for being at Madingley Court was found out. By that point, she had no options left to her.   She could not write the story because she had never uncovered anything. This whole "came to my senses" bit is just nonsense.

Abigail proved time and time again to be one of the most unlikeable romantic heroines I have ever read. Some people may find that her actions right at the very end redeemed her previous conduct. Without giving away more spoilers, I’ll just say that I do not. My passionate dislike of Abigail ruined any enjoyment I may have had for the book. And while I occasionally felt bad for Christopher- that sympathy was usually fleeting as he too was guilty of much selfish conduct. Never Dare a Duke is certainly a book that I will remember for awhile, but for all the wrong reasons.

D-

:) loonigrrl

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

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I know you’ve written books for Ellora’s Cave, Kensington and Harlequin, but I was unfamiliar with your work. I was excited to read Red due, in part, to its post apocalyptic setting and I was intrigued by the idea of: "What if Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf turned out to be the same person?" However, as much as I wanted to like this book and its promising female protagonist, I just could not.

Gina Santiago, or "Red"- because of all the blood she spills-is a member of the International Police Tactical Team. IPTT is an elite law enforcement group designed to maintain order within and between the various Republics that make up this futuristic world. While on a patrol mission that goes awry, Gina literally sniffs out the dead body of a severely mauled woman. All signs point to it being a wild animal attack, but Gina has a feeling that there’s something more going on. She requests leave from the team Commander and goes to the nearest town of Nuria to begin her own independent investigation.

Morgan Hunter is the local sheriff of Nuria. He already knows about the deadly mauling of one local woman, and has no intention of revealing that information to anyone. When Gina arrives in town, Morgan tries to keep the town’s secrets while also shutting her out of the investigation.

The details regarding this futuristic world intrigued me. The story is set somewhere around the year 2160, 150 years after the last world war ravaged the earth and countries fell, Republics were formed and many places like Nuria were left with few people and little money.

As for the town of Nuria, it was almost a character of its own. Maybe that was because we get so few substantial characters in the town. There’s the coroner, the woman who rents Red a room, and Morgan’s cousin, and that’s it, besides the killer of course. As soon as Gina arrived there, I began feeling vicariously trapped and uncomfortable. The town seemed oppressive with its isolation and very little incoming or outgoing traffic. Perhaps it’s because:

Red smelled the dying town before she caught sight of any of the buildings. The odor of decay wafted in the air, polluting her nostrils and burning her throat. Located twenty miles north of what used to be Phoenix, Arizona, the municipality of Nuria resembled every other small dusty boundary fence town that was scarce on jobs and brimming with poverty.

Or maybe it was because:

At some point, the town must have had a booming economy, but you couldn’t tell that by looking at it today. The fringe owned it now. It wouldn’t be long before Nuria took its last breath and expired, swallowed by the ever-present boundary area and encroaching desert sands.

Or perhaps it’s because Nuria is a place populated by Others who don’t seem to like letting newcomers go once they’ve sunk their claws and fangs into them. These Others- werewolves and vampires- were created by scientists in the last world war. The idea that technology had evolved to the point where scientists could create super humans in the forms of werewolves and vampires was an interesting choice. Certainly the decision to create a scientific explanation was a conscious effort to break out of the typical paranormal mythology. However, a paranormal origin can be accepted in a way that a scientific origin cannot. And although I liked the idea at first, I found myself questioning the specifics of this scientific achievement. How is it possible that our technology advanced to the point of creating vampires, but didn’t advance the point where we could simply engineer human DNA to enhance our speed and strength? Why did scientists have to create vampires to give them such abilities? Couldn’t those abilities have been engineered without the additional characteristics of drinking blood or growing fur and claws?

Like the town, Gina’s relationship with Morgan felt like just another form of imprisonment. Their attraction also seemed more the result of a lack of available sex partners than anything else. Gina didn’t really have much experience with relationships. She didn’t fit in with the men in her team, and many of them didn’t seem to recognize her as a woman. Morgan, on the other hand, hadn’t exactly lacked for sexual partners, but wondered, "How long had it been since an unattached female entered his town, his territory?"

He became fixated on Gina’s role as an unattached women and later admits that "[s]he was stunning and unclaimed-’a very rare combination for a woman her age these days. One that made her more valuable than water in his mind."

We see this fixation later in the story as he tries to remember:

When was the last time a single female from the outside wandered into his territory? He considered the question a second before the obvious answer popped into his head.

Never.

Of course there was also the "customs of his people, which clearly stated that any unattached female other had to be claimed by someone in the pack or run out of the Republic of Arizona." Between the decaying town and the pack’s tradition of claiming any available female as soon as possible, I had trouble imagining Gina finding any sort of long term happiness with either Nuria or Morgan and just wanted her to leave as fast as possible.

The murder mystery probably won’t keep most readers guessing for long. Due to the fact that so few significant characters populate Nuria, it was pretty easy to guess the killer’s identity. We first see the killer from his POV in the beginning as he stalks and then kills a young woman when his wolfly attentions grow too . . . amorous. The story shifts back to his POV several times, often detailing rather graphic and disturbing scenes. If you’re into forced werewolf/human oral sex gone terribly wrong then this may be the book for you.

Readers may also have a problem with the killer’s over the top psychosis and the lack of explanation thereon. The killer goes from a normal law abiding citizen (from what we hear) to a sociopath with issues of entitlement and we never find out what happened to bring about this transformation. It’s possible that he was like this all along, but why did the bodies just begin showing up? He makes little effort to dispose of them so it appears this is a recent change in his personality, but again, we just don’t get very many answers. You hint that these killing urges are the result of a childhood story, but that too just lent a greater sense of the ridiculousness to this villain.

There are also several TSTL moments brought to you by Gina and Morgan. Both characters have specialized background, training and education in law enforcement. Like all characters with specialized training, I held them to a higher standard of conduct and intelligence. For example, I expect attorneys to know the law- or at least their specialty. I expect doctors to speak and act like doctors. And I expect law enforcement officers to be able to conduct an investigation. It’s that simple. If an eye witness to an attempted murder is almost murdered him or herself, then maybe these law enforcement officers should, well, investigate. What they should not do is abandon said character alone and defenseless at a hospital without any sort of consideration that the murderer has a vested interest in making sure the eye witness disappears forever. Honestly, it gets worse from there, but to discuss it in greater detail would give away too many spoilers. I will say that both Gina and Morgan revealed a very sloppy approach to investigation, seemingly determined to ignore all of the evidence before them.

When I finished the book, I was left with one other question. In the very beginning, Gina awakes in the middle of the night and discovers that she is fully clothed and wearing something of great concern to her. She searches her memory, but cannot recall where she had been or what she had been doing. Throughout the novel, she remains worried about her nocturnal activities. Of course, from the book’s premise we aren’t really surprised to find out what she’s been up to. However, the specifics of those activities were very disturbing and left me questioning the type of werewolves you had created where such an act is insignificant. It also left me questioning Gina’s status as "heroine" because ultimately, I wasn’t entirely sure if I felt comfortable standing in her corner.

In the end, the question on the front cover, "What if Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf turned out to be the same person?" cannot be answered. This isn’t a tale of the Little Red Riding Hood. And this really isn’t the tale of Red as the Big Bad Wolf. Gina Santiago shares little in common with the colorfully clad little girl other than her nickname. And while she may share more in common with the Big Bad Wolf, we don’t see much. Maybe we’ll see more next time. For now, it simply remains a disappointing premise in a book with far too many other problems.

D

:) loonigrrl

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells. No ebook format.

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Occasionally, a cover will do more to convince me to try a book than the summary on the back. A couple months ago, I came across this book online and halted in my tracks. The book’s description didn’t strike my "I need to read that immediately" chord, but I do tend to like vampire stories and there was just something about that cover that kept calling to me.

Angelica Belanov is the daughter of an English lady and a Russian prince. She also happens to be a very strong mind reader. So strong, in fact, that the thoughts of everyone around her frequently cause her a great deal of pain and discomfort as she knows of no way to block them out. Until recently, she’s lived a quiet life in the English countryside, reading books and playing her piano. That changes when her concerned brother decides to move to London so she can find a husband. Angelica has no intention of marrying, but unfortunately she receives word that nearly all of the Belanov family funds have been destroyed mid-transit from Russia. To save her beloved brother and herself from financial ruin, she realizes she must begin actively looking for a rich husband.

Alexander is a 500 year old vampire and a Russian Prince. Two hundred years ago, vampire slayers killed his sister. Mad with grief, Alexander hunted down and killed every last remaining slayer. His actions that night brought peace to the vampires. Two hundred years later, Alexander receives word that a vampire and a vampire slayer in London are jeopardizing that peace. His search to find the rogue vamp and the slayer takes him all over London including a party where he meets the beautiful Angelica.

I particularly enjoyed Ms. Hepsen’s take on vampire lore. Her vampires view their thirst for blood as a curse. They are born rather than created, and their need for blood along with their special abilities appears at puberty. We also discover that their race is slowly dying because fewer and fewer vampires live long enough to become fertile. Many among them hope for the coming of the Blessed: children born of a vampire and the rare human who will have all the benefits of being a vampire without their thirst for blood.

Despite liking the vamp details, I had several problems with the story. The first involved a big red herring. As the search for the rogue vamp and vampire slayer unfolds and tensions rise, the author spends a significant amount of time creating false expectations in the reader that are never explained or justified.

Second, there was Angelica’s imminent threat of poverty. I would have been ok with it had I understood why the funds were all being shipped over from Russia at that specific time. Angelica, her brother, and her parents lived in England for most, if not all, of Angelica’s life. We don’t get many details, but we are told that her parents died when she and her brother were "very young." Before that, her father’s "work kept him busy in London" and that their mother was an English lady who liked living close to home. Therefore, it was confusing why they waited all of this time to ship the entirety of their money over from Russia or why they would ship it all over at once. This little twist of course leads Angelica into a situation where she is (sort of) torn between the vamp who can’t marry her and the rich prospective husband who could solve her financial problems. However, it simply read as too contrived for me to sympathize with Angelica’s plight or to feel any sort of tension in her choice between the two men.

Third, there was Angelica herself. She improved with time and by the end I did like her, but she’s drawn with a rather heavy hand- particularly in the beginning. Within a few short pages we find out that she is not just smart, but very smart. She likes reading the newspaper every day. She raises topics such as philosophy for no other purpose than letting us know she has read philosophy. She can’t stay awake over breakfast because she spends all night reading. In fact, she has trouble talking with other women her age because all she thinks about is going home and reading her books. She’s a self-admitted bluestocking; she’s independent, spirited, and determined not to wed. Did I mention that she likes to quote? A lot. This becomes more apparent as the story progresses and we find that Angelica has a quote ready for any topic of discussion and isn’t afraid to use it. In fact, she gets in to a battle of wits/quotes with a random character, but that too sort of lacked any purpose except to remind us rather forcefully that Angelica is quite intelligent. Instead of being impressed by her intelligence I grew annoyed, and began wondering if she had an original thought in her head.

I liked Ms. Hepsen’s decision to set her story in 1871 England. I also liked her decision to make her protagonists Russian and thought it was a pleasant change from many vampire romances I’ve read. However, that decision also confused me. Beyond the prologue, their nationality had little, if anything, to do with the story, their characterization or their relationship. The meeting between our two protagonists in particular struck me as a little odd as well as the ending when we get a too late revelation about Angelica. If it weren’t for their names, I could have forgotten that they were Russian at all. Simple interactions lacked details in this regard and left me curious whether the author intentionally left out what could have been another layer to the story or whether she simply had a problem executing her idea.

Although I have complaints, I did enjoy Under the Blood Red Moon. It’s a pretty quick read and has some variations on vampire lore. Our protagonists are likable enough- despite Angelica’s annoying habit of quoting- but they’re not necessarily characters you’re going to remember very well in a week or two. The suspense regarding the search for the vamp and slayer is interesting although not particularly exciting. And finally, there are a few execution problems which prevented me from truly escaping into the story as I would have wished. While I didn’t love her first book and would have liked to have given it a better grade, I will be looking forward to Ms. Hepsen’s next work.

C

:) loonigrrl

This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Blood Moon by Deanna Lee
2. REVIEW: Blood Moon Over Britain by Morag McKendrick Pippin
3. REVIEW: Blood Drive by Jeanne C. Stein

After reading the first two lackluster books in your Hathaways series, I was thrilled to jump back into one my favorites with A Wallflower Christmas. I was a big fan of Secrets of a Summer Night (The Wallflowers, Book 1), an even bigger fan of It Happened One Autumn (The Wallflowers, Book 2) and a crazed-read-it-a-dozen-times-fan of The Devil in Winter (The Wallflowers, Book 3). Scandal in Spring (The Wallflowers, Book 4)? Ehhh . . . not so much. Although not as good as the first three, I found A Wallflower Christmas to be an enjoyable, albeit flawed, story.

A Wallflower Christmas introduces us to Hannah Appleton. Hannah is an intelligent girl of little money who has been acting as the chaperone for her spoiled and self-involved, but generally kind-hearted cousin, Lady Natalie Blandford. The book opens with our former wallflowers discussing the arrival of Lillian and Daisy Bowman’s older brother Rafe, and his prospective engagement to Lady Natalie. Reading this scene with its comfortable charm and easy wit had me reminiscing about the books I enjoyed so well, happy to be back reading about such beloved characters. I could almost imagine myself sitting there with them, chatting and scheming away. And when they decided to set their matchmaking skills on Rafe, I had a clear picture in my mind of them as they grew older, matchmaking for their grand children and great-grandchildren. However, as much as I liked the Wallflowers, they almost took up too much of the book. They pop up quite frequently, nudging our hero and heroine closer to their happily ever after, but ultimately leaving an insufficient amount of page time for the romance between Hannah and Rafe. Some of my favorite scenes were the ones with The Wallflowers. The problem is that I ended up looking forward to those scenes more than the Rafe/Hannah scenes.

Rafe Bowman is frank, intelligent, hard working, successful, and quite the rake. He had a lonely childhood, growing up separated from his brothers and sisters. His father constantly pushed him to excel in all matters only to find him lacking each and every time. His relationship with his father is the defining aspect of his characterization. As Rafe grew older he rebelled, striking out on his own and achieving success. Despite said success, and a great deal of wealth and independence, Rafe wants nothing more than joint proprietorship of the Bowman Company’s European operations. His father has informed him that the only way Rafe will become a joint proprietor is to marry Lady Natalie. So what does Rafe do? Despite all his prior rebellion and despite despising his father for the years of solitude and misery he was forced to endure, he agrees to go to England to marry Natalie. Occasionally, he reminds his father that he hadn’t actually yet decided to marry the lady in question, but other times he evidences a sort of apathy towards marriage and seems inclined to accept his father’s demands.

One of the problems with the story was a lack of a credible conflict. This was due, in part, to Rafe’s character development. On the one hand, he’s had absolutely enough of his father, and won’t put up with him any longer. But on the other hand, he’s going to put up with him just this one last time because he REALLY wants that joint proprietorship. I just wasn’t convinced that Rafe, who had grown tired of being ordered around by his father and who had consequently struck out on his own, would then turn around and allow his father to dictate who he would and would not marry. I thought Rafe would have had it out with his father at the first hint of a coerced marriage. Forget going to England. Rafe should have told his father where to stick it and stayed in America. Of course, we wouldn’t have much of a story, but at least that scenario would have been believable. As it was, though, Rafe, and the conflict needed some revamping.

Upon hearing about the possible engagement, the Wallflowers decide that Rafe needs to know more about Natalie. Accordingly to the Wallflowers, English ladies don’t reveal their true nature until after the marriage so they invite Hannah over for tea to quiz her on the future bride. Hannah, quickly deducing that this is more than just a social visit, isn’t exactly thrilled. She’s convinced Rafe is nothing more than an unprincipled, lecherous rake. She also knows, however, just how important it is to Natalie’s father-her uncle- that Natalie marry someone very rich. Apparently, your average rich chap won’t do. Instead, Natalie’s husband must be filthy rich so that dad won’t have to worry about her when he’s gone. Hannah reluctantly agrees to go, but remains convinced that the marriage shouldn’t take place. Upon meeting Rafe, she is instantly drawn to the handsome and charismatic man. She and Rafe exchange some words (not that many, actually), a couple barbs, and only a few pages later, he’s Kissing her with a capital K. The whole love/hate, or distrust/lust thing usually works for me- when there’s time to flesh it out. In fact, I think it’s done particularly well in one of my favorite books, The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn. Unfortunately, Ms. Kleypas’ story suffered from not only being very familiar (see the aforementioned book) but from being too short and rushed to allow this relationship blossom as it needed to. The story itself flows pretty quickly, especially when the Wallflowers are in it, but it was a story that could definitely have benefitted from a larger word count. Hannah goes from blindly disliking Rafe to meeting him to kissing him to falling in love with him all within a very short amount of time, and I just felt a little taken aback by her very abrupt change of mind.

Maybe there was just too much going on. It seemed that Ms. Kleypas was trying to give us enough of the Wallflowers to make us happy. And I truly enjoyed most of the Wallflowers’ scenes, particularly one towards the end involving a certain letter. I also loved the part about Rafe’s toy soldier- it may be my favorite aspect of this book. But between the too rushed romance, the conflict over Rafe’s dictatorial father, Hannah and Natalie’s disagreements about Rafe, and the Wallflowers frequent appearances to help things along, there were too many things going on given the book’s short length. In fact, a conflict is introduced between Lillian and Westcliffe, but that too doesn’t get much time and is resolved so quickly I wondered why Kleypas even bothered. Much of the conflict is resolved the same way: too quickly. Barriers to relationships seem to just disappear. Characters who wanted one thing no longer have a problem with just the opposite. And in the end, we get our rather unsatisfactory happily ever after. The story is certainly enjoyable, but the existent flaws on top of the more expensive hardcover price may leave some readers wishing they had waited until it came out in paperback.

C

:) Loonigrrl

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells. No ebook format.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
2. REVIEW: Mine Till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas
3. REVIEW: Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas

I’ll admit to being a little foolish. Ok, maybe more than a little. After finishing Lady of Light and Shadows and closing the book with a contented sigh, I thought to myself: “What could she possibly do next? Where could she go from here? How could this get any better?” What I found out was that the series, with King of Sword and Sky, actually got a lot better. The book begins a little slowly, allowing the reader to ease back into the story. From there, it starts to build, and then it builds some more until your heart is racing, your pulse is pounding and you’re turning the pages as fast as you can. It was, in a word, fantastic.

The book opens with Rain and Ellie traveling to the Fading Lands. Ellie, still grief stricken over the events in the last book, is not ready to leave her remaining family members behind. I was a little concerned now that Ellie’s fey nature had awakened that she would become this entirely confident, self-assured and bold Tairen Soul. I was worried that we would see this complete transformation and the shy, sweet and generous girl she had been in the first two books would be mostly gone. What I found was that we got a happy mix of the two. The old Ellie is still there, but she’s had to grow up fast. She has powers and a side to her that she was never aware of before. The Tairen in her is fierce and loyal, and very protective of her loved ones. No longer does Ellie see Rain as this near perfect and overwhelming creature from her dreams. Instead, she is his equal in every way and she isn’t afraid to stand up to him and challenge him if needed. In fact, Rain and Ellie’s relationship, and their feelings for each other, continues to grow. I was often left breathless by the sheer depth of their emotion for each other, and amazed by the skill with which Ms. Wilson has created such a continually interesting and exciting romance.

Upon arriving in the Fading Lands, Ellie learns that it’s not the haven she had expected and the challenges begin right away. It seems not everyone thinks that Rain’s beloved truemate is the blessing that she was foretold to be. In fact, some are convinced that they would be much better off without her. In the first two books, Ellie could do no wrong in the eyes of the fey- and I’ll admit to thinking that it got a little tedious at times. Rain adored her. Her quintet would have done anything to protect her. Marissya, Dax and all the other fey in Celieria felt the same. Gaelen, who had set out to kill her, ended up pledging his life to her. Even Rain’s rejection of Ellie at the end of Lady didn’t last very long. In this book, it soon becomes clear that Ellie will face many tests not just from the High Mage Vadim Maur and from within herself, but from the fey as well.

What I enjoyed so much about King of Sword and Sky, and the series thus far, are the characters. Whether it’s due to a lack of depth or originality, too often I close a book and feel that I never really got to know the hero or heroine- let alone the secondary characters. Here, the characters are substantial and diverse and each have a role to play as the story progresses. Some roles are more vital than others, but they’re not just background scenery kicking around for the hero and heroine to have someone to talk to.

And as for the High Mage . . . that is one truly evil character. Every time the point of view went to him, which it did quite often, I felt myself getting a little nervous. If you thought his actions in the first book were bad then wait until you read what happens here. We learn the horrifying lengths that he has gone to in his years of planning. And it has been years. It finally hit home to me just how long he’s had to sink his claws into Celieria, and how much can truly be accomplished in all that time. I actually had trouble reading these sections of the book in a way that I didn’t have even with the last one. Every time I saw that the scene switched back to Eld and the High Mage’s point of view, I turned the page with dread.

However, as difficult as it was to read, I also liked that we have this uncertainty over how bad things are going to get. I liked that we are kept guessing over who will live and who will die. I like that we don’t know what will happen to Ellie in the next book, or how the challenges to Ellie’s and Rain’s relationship may affect them. And that may be why I love this book, and this series so much. It’s just as much a fantasy as it is a romance. The fey world, their society and traditions are skillfully drawn. Their way of life is dying, and the sense of impending doom hovers in the horizon. The battle between good and evil will affect many, and there are no reassurances that the good guys will come out unscathed.

This time when I finished the last page, I didn’t close the book with a contented little sigh. This time, I uttered what could only be described as a strangled gasp of panic. I had to wait how long to read the next-and last- book?!?! How was I going to make it until then?!

A-

:) Loonigrrl

This book can be purchased on September 30, 2008, in mass market from Amazon or Powells. No ebook format.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Lord of the Fading Lands by C.L. Wilson
2. REVIEW: Lady of Light and Shadow by C.L. Wilson
3. REVIEW: King of the Last Days by Diana Norman

To say I was eager to get my hands on a copy of Wanderlust would be a complete understatement. I loved Grimspace. In fact, my only real complaint was that I wanted more. I wanted more Jax, more March, and more about how the big revelation regarding the Corporation would affect them both. But of course, those were answers left for another book. Although not quite as good as the first, I found Wanderlust to be a satisfying sequel with the same intriguing characters, and a skillfully constructed world that continues to grow even richer.

Wanderlust begins not long after Grimspace left off. The Farwan Corporation and its vast power over the universe are no more. The Conglomerate- a once useless organization of planetary representatives- has rushed in to conduct investigations and to seize control. Unfortunately for Jax, she soon finds out that she is broke and in need of employment. She also discovers that the Corporation’s research and training program have been shared with all interested organizations, thus destroying their monopoly on inter-planetary travel, and leaving Jax at loose ends. With no money and few choices, Jax accepts the Conglomerate’s offer to become an ambassador on an important mission to the planet of Ithiss-Tor.

Before she heads out, Jax gains an inkling of how dangerous the mission will be when her self-indulgent mother pops back into her life for the first time in 15 years. It seems that Ramona Jax landed herself in debt to the Syndicate, a powerful underworld organization led by the mysterious Mr. Jewel. Mr. Jewel gives Jax a choice: fail her mission or her mother will die. Of course, Jax isn’t the type to be threatened- even with her own mother’s life. As usual, she counters this serious situation with her own trademark sense of humor. It’s that sense of humor that kept me so engaged in the story, often grinning from ear to ear.

"Do you plan to accept the appointment?" She seems nervous, almost frightened, in fact. Her red-lacquered nails tap out a subliminal statement on the glastique table.

"I thought I’d become a junk dealer." Yes, I’m baiting her deliberately. "Maybe do salvage runs, or possibly just settle down on New Terra and go to work in recycling. Have some brats. Would you like that?" I ask March.

You’re so evil, he tells me silently.

Then he chokes out, eyes watering. "Whatever you want."

Shit, I wish I’d recorded that. I can think of any number of situations where playback would come in handy.

After surviving so much in Grimspace, you’d think Jax could catch a break. Unfortunately for her, there’s no letting up. This time around, she’s suffering from a mysterious illness that leaves her tired, fragile and nearly defenseless. She’s no longer capable of rushing right into all the action, but is instead forced to stand back and watch, often the one needing protection from others. Jax is worried that she could die and copes with this fear by distancing herself from March. The illness leads to even more complications until finally March makes an important decision that will have a great impact on their future. Without giving away too many spoilers here, I’ll just say that I wanted to see much more at this part of the book. I felt that March’s decision was believable in light of his history, but that his subsequent character development on Lachion was rushed. Maybe my problem was that so much of this happened off screen, but it was such a significant change in his character and I wish there had been more page time devoted to it.

Once in awhile you come across certain characters that just remain with you long after you’ve finished a book. For me, I found those characters in the cast of Grimspace and Wanderlust. In particular, I enjoyed getting to know more about the bounty hunter Velith and found his relationship with Jax both amusing and sweet. Jax and March, of course, remain my favorites. After the first book, I was worried that I would lose some interest in their relationship. They were so great together, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough for me. I really need conflict to sustain my interest in a romance. This may frustrate some readers who want their characters to have a HEA, but for me it’s imperative that there’s something more than just smiles and laughter and endless declarations of love. Luckily, there’s plenty of conflict. Jax and March each have their own set of demons to deal with. For Jax, it’s the loss of her lover Kai and learning to trust and to need someone again. For March, it’s his past and a debt that he feels obligated to pay back. Their conflict, a natural progression of the years of suffering and loss that have shaped them, was heart-wrenching and I found myself very caught up in the emotional angst of their relationship.

I had a little trouble getting into the first part of the book. The beginning moves a little slowly, particularly before they get off planet. There are also some plotting issues. Like the first, Wanderlust has an episodic narrative that breaks up the pacing of the book. I didn’t really notice it so much in Grimspace as I did here. Additionally, I had trouble understanding the relevance of certain events and grew increasingly impatient for the story to get back on track. As it turns out, those events lead to consequences that are in fact very relevant to the larger story, but it wasn’t until I had read  ¾ of the book that I began to see the big picture. Towards the end, I had to accept the fact that the series of events that seemingly just got in the way were in fact the actual story. I enjoyed the action, but definitely experienced some frustration as the book progressed.

Overall, I liked Wanderlust. A lot. I didn’t love it as much as Grimspace, but I’m very much a fan of this series, and can’t wait to see what happens next.

B

:) Loonigrrl

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Related posts:

1. GUEST REVIEW: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
2. REVIEW: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
3. GUEST REVIEW: The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James

***

Dear Ms. Kennedy:

I was very pleasantly surprised by Enchanting the Lady, the first book in the Relics of Merlin series. I found the characters engaging and the story charming. I’m always a little nervous when picking up the second book by an author that is either new to me or newly published. Would I like it as much as the first? Or would it disappoint and leave me questioning whether I should continue to read the author in the future? Unfortunately, Double Enchantment is one of those books that falls into the latter category.

The book is set in 1848 England "where magic has never died." Our heroine, Lady Jasmina, is a proper young lady. Raised by two very haughty parents, Lady Jasmina has lived her life trying to meet her parent’s high expectations and to uphold her family’s good name. Since she was ten years old, she’s been running the household for her aristocratic parents. Jasmina has become so convinced of her parents’ helplessness that she decided long ago to remain unwed in order to take care of them. Forever.

I’m going to be honest. I didn’t like the characters. At all. From the very beginning, they seemed determined to push all my buttons. The secondary characters are mostly either annoying or two-dimensional, or annoyingly two-dimensional. The main characters aren’t any better. We immediately learn that Jasmina’s mother has a bad habit of stealing jewelry. Instead of doing the sensible thing like confronting her mother about this problem or seeking her father’s help, Jasmina has decided that it’s best if she sneaks out of the house in the middle of the night, breaks into the rightful owner’s place, returns the jewelry, and sneaks back home- over and over again. This kind of self imposed, and completely unnecessary, martyrdom all in the name of upholding their family’s good name was irritating, to say the least.

I also found Jasmina’s interference in everyone else’s lives- and her firmly held belief that everyone needed her- to be unappealing. For example, minutes after meeting Sterling’s sister, Jasmina nearly begins crying and thinks "Sterling’s sister needed her so very much." Her inflated sense of self-importance had me torn between disgust and laughter. I understood that Jasmina is used to being the caretaker, even to the detriment of the people around her. After all, she’s been taking care of her parents, and enabling their bad habits, for years. Therefore, it’s understandable that her first reaction upon meeting someone else is to believe that they must need her to take care of them. However, that doesn’t make her likable. In fact, I just wanted someone to tell Jasmina off and let her know that they could run their own lives without her meddling.

Unfortunately, the premise of the story hinges precariously on Jasmina, the Enabler. When the book begins, our intrepid heroine realizes that her mother has "borrowed" a brooch, yet again. Rather than saying something along the lines of "Hey mom, I’m stepping out to return the necklace you stole/borrowed. I’ll be back in a few hours," Jasmina decides to complicate things unnecessarily. She creates an illusion of herself to sleep in her bed so that her mom doesn’t know she has left the house. It’s not until the next morning that Jasmina realizes her problem: the necklace that she returned last night was one of the powerful Relics of Merlin. By holding it in hand while chanting the spell, she had unwittingly created a real double of herself rather than a simple illusion. To Jasmina’s dismay, that double later goes on to flirt with all sorts of men, dance with nymphs, and involve herself in the mysterious workings of the evil Brotherhood. The double’s actions threaten to ruin Jasmina’s reputation, and she joins forces with our hero to find her.

Cut to Sterling. Like all baronets, Sterling is immune to the various forms and levels of magic wielded by the nobility. Baronets are also shape shifters, and are generally regarded with disdain, considered to be more animal than human. Sterling takes the form of a were-stallion and is given to frequent snorting, flaring of his nostrils, and tossing of his hair-regardless of which form he takes. My problems with Sterling began early. We meet him at a ball where he runs into Jaz- the Double, and the two share a dance. Their connection is seemingly instantaneous-despite little conversation- because "somehow, in the short span of a single dance, they’d passed the barriers of strangers into an intimacy he’d never felt with anyone before." The problem is that I want my heroes to be intelligent. I want them to be strong. I want them to be complicated and to be drawn to complicated women that challenge them. None of that applies to Sterling, whom I could only describe as weak and fickle. He falls in love/lust with someone who could barely think-let alone talk, he somehow marries her that same night and he is desperate to find her the next morning when she goes missing. Desperate, that is, until he meets Jasmina and forgets all about the absent Jaz. It was difficult to take him seriously.

A big problem with the romance between Jasmina and Sterling is that it was not believable. I was continually left wondering what they saw in each other beyond the superficial. Sterling’s attraction to Jasmina- other than the fact that she looked like Jaz- was baffling. She’s rude, and prejudiced, and is ashamed to be seen with him. She won’t introduce him to her parents and would never actually consider marrying a shape shifter. She’ll cut him dead one minute, lacking the courage to acknowledge him in public, and then burst in to tears minutes later, apologizing profusely. However, I also didn’t understand what Jasmina saw in Sterling either other than the fact that "[h]is lack of title, his ability to shift into a horse, and his tattered clothes only made him more appealing to her." Sure, she was drawn to his good looks, but he didn’t have much going for him besides that. Plus, all that snorting, nostril flaring and hair tossing just made him unintentionally humorous.

The lack of much dialogue- particularly substantial dialogue -between our hero and heroine significantly hurt the romance. They discussed their search for the Relic. They discussed their search for the missing Jaz. Sterling spoke to Jasmina about her good looks. Jasmina told Sterling that he was the bravest, greatest man she had ever met. But it was all superficial. They never got to know each other. The dialogue simply failed to advance their relationship. Unfortunately, the little that was there only served to reinforce how weak the romance really was.

This book took me far longer to read than I expected. I kept putting it down in favor of something else. There was just very little to keep me involved in the story. The world that I enjoyed in the first book- the one filled with magic where all members of the nobility can wield various forms of said magic- is still there. However, everything else about this book -from the romance to the characters to the plot with the villainous Brotherhood- was underdeveloped and uninteresting.

D+

:) Loonigrrl

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells. No ebook format.

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1. REVIEW: Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis
2. REVIEW: The Penny Tree by Holly Kennedy
3. REVIEW: Ebook Weekly: PRC, PDB, IMP, LIT. Double U Tee Eff – What Do All These Letters Mean?