Dear Author » angel

REVIEW: Obsidian Flame by Caris Roane

Jane — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:00:21 +0000

Dear Ms. Roane:

I tell everyone I know about your books. I even shared the story of Parisia and Micah’s with some random taxi cab driver in Chicage because the tangerine craziness is something that I can’t keep to myself (although in searching the DA archives it appears that I have not reviewed this masterpiece. Trust me, I will rectify that nonsense forthwith).

In the last book I felt a bit morose at how the females were portrayed. I noticed how each one of the women in power, particularly the crazy head woman in charge, was replaced by a man. This book was much more empowering for the women. Oh, Marcus is still in charge and Thorne, the hero, is taking a new position of leadership but I did feel that there was a lot of appreciation poured out for the women, particularly for Endelle.

The main love story is quite provocative and I wonder how readers will respond. The foreseeing heroine, Marguerite,was kept prisoner for more than a century in a religious institution where other seers were housed. At some point, Marguerite began to room with Grace and when Grace’s brother, Thorne visited, Marguerite brazenly came on to Thorne. Thorne responded and for a century, the two engaged in a secret physical affair. This relationship kept both of them sane during Marguerite’s imprisonment and Thorne’s endless fight on Second Earth against the death vampires.

When Marguerite is released, however, she leaves Thorne and runs away to earth. Marguerite wants to live and for Marguerite that means she wants to drink heavily and chase men. Thorne loves Marguerite, though, and abandons his position as the head of the Warrior Brothers, to follow her.

Marguerite feels a fondness for Thorne but she doesn’t think she loves him or at least doesn’t love him enough to want to abandon her plans to sleep her way around Earth. She begins by picking up a hot guy in a bar, Jose. Thorne watches her. Marguerite proceeds to have sex (good sex) with Jose but what she doesn’t realize is that Thorne has taken over Jose’s mind. (This happens in the first chapter and thus I don’t think it is much of a spoiler).

You crazy mofo. You went there. BRAVO. Seriously, bravo. Because having the heroine a) sleep with someone other than the hero and b) enjoy it is genre breaking. Plus, Maguerite’s sexual experience with Jose isn’t gratuitous. Maguerite is some nympho in name only. The barriers between her and Thorne’s expected HEA aren’t just for show.

I dn’t know if I’ve ever read a story like this before and it worked for me. Maguerite was desparate to have experiences. She loved men. In fact, it was her love of men that got her imprisoned in the convent in the first place. Her family was embarrassed and ashamed of her behavior. They beat her and then stashed her in a convent where she was beaten more. Her survival was based on her time with Thorne and her dreams of escape.

Thorne’s response to Maguerite is one of frustration and resigned acceptance. He loves Maguerite and part of what makes her amazing to him is her brazenness and lustiness. Thorne has to balance his love and lust for Maguerite with his possessiveness. Thorne is also increasingly disenchanted with the war. He’s done nothing but fight but his side hasn’t gained any ground. If anything, they were perilously close to losing the war. He isn’t sure what he is fighting for. But Thorne’s gift is to train and lead men and even though he’s battle weary, he can’t shut away those instincts.

In some ways, I found this to be a marriage in trouble story. The two had been together for a long time and while Maguerite had not gotten bored with Thorne, she was definitely curious about men other than Thorne. It takes her much of the book to come to appreciate Thorne’s worthiness as a mate for her; that mating with Thorne won’t tie her down; that whatever adventures she wants to explore, Thorne will be there to make sure they are enjoyed to the fullest.

Thorne’s response to Maguerite was always “yes, I want to do that too”. It wasn’t a resigned response nor did I feel Thorne was put upon (after all he was a grown man, several centuries old, and a leader of a powerful band of warriors. He could walk away if he wanted to) Nor did I feel like Thorne was settling for half a measure of Maguerite’s affections. Instead, I felt like Thorne was excited by Maguerite’s adventurism. His willing response was full throated.

Let’s be clear, though, this book is full of the crazy. There are weird foreseer dreams and a host of conveniences like stumbling upon a secret commune filled with warriors in training and other secret seers. There is the insane attention paid to the weeping wing locks which have to be as gross as it sounds.

He put his hand on her shoulder and folded off her robe. Her back was a mess. Her wing-locks were swollen and weep- ing. She wasn’t far away from a mount herself, but he knew of one sure way to keep the wings from releasing.He leaned over and began to suck. He started at the upper left wing-lock and gorged on the moisture that wept from the aperture.

I shuddered as I read about her non stop weeping wing locks and it wasn’t with desire. Certain writing tics have calmed down. The tendency of characters to use the dialogue tag “cry” is greatly reduced and by greatly reduced, my search function says 31 times. (This is a reduction, I swear). There is some anatomically impossible dual wing lock sucking along with some bizarre deep mind diving (done at the same time, like simultaneous orgasms).

The story has less battles but still enough scenes of the evil doers. All of them, however, are kind of surrounded by a rosy haze as if to say these creators of Death Vampires who are trying to destroy the other side aren’t so bad. That was a little too much for me to swallow at times. The backstories of Maguerite and Thorne are told in some terrible As You Know Bob fashion and there is definitely infodumping. Yet.

Yet, on many levels, this was my favorite Roane book. It took chances, particularly with the depiction of Maguerite. I felt that the mate bond was fully explored between the two. They both hated it and then came to appreciate it. Their love for each other was borne out of true emotion (okay, and lots of physical attraction) but their love was more than an instantaneous fated event. But the vaguely paternalistic tone wasn’t completely defeated. The women are primarily hearth and home folks while the men go out and fight the battles. Endelle, the most powerful woman, is subjected to some kind of horrible incidence from a man who professes to love her. Commander Greaves, the evildoer, is evil because of some poor relationship with his mother. While I acknowledge the problems, I can still appreciate that this book was different and fresh in terms of the relationship aspect. Maguerite is a fun heroine and Thorne, “I’m up for anything you desire” was sexy as all get out. B-

Best regards,

Jane

P.S. for those keeping track she smells like roses and he smells like cherry tobacco.

Amazon BN Sony Kobo

REVIEW: Demon Marked by Meljean Brook

Jane — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:00:11 +0000

Dear Ms. Brook:

This is the second to last book in the Guardian series. The hero is a human named Nicholas St. Croix who first appeared in Demon Blood as a demon hunter. Nicholas searches for the demon who impersonated his mother and drove his father to suicide. He believes that Ash, a halfling demon, can lead him to this villain. Ash has taken on the appearance of someone that Nicholas once knew and who he believed had been killed by his demon target. Ash, however, can’t remember anything of her time before the Nightingale House, a psychiatric hospital.

She doesn’t know if she was once this Rachel person that Nicholas claims to have cared about. She doesn’t know exactly what she is. She only knows that she scared the beejeesus out of the staff at the Nightingale House because she could clothe herself from thin air, scent the feelings of others, jump from high altitudes and sometimes she even turned red. The what question is part of the mystery that drives the plot and for a Guardian book, I found this plot to be fairly straightforward. Can Nicholas overcome his hatred of everything demonic to accept his growing feelings for Ash? Will Ash regain her memory? Is she Rachel reborn?

For the overarching series plot, Caelum is literally falling apart. The buildings are crumbling and the place is abandoned. Most of the guardians have ascended. Michael is gone and Taylor is supposed to be gathering new guardians as replacements but no human has offered up the requisite sacrifice in the last year.

The reveal of Ash’s identity is actually told early on in the story but in such a subtle way that I totally missed it on the first reading. Upon review, I felt foolish for having overlooked it but no part of the text is included just for fun. Instead, the clues about Ash and how she relates to the overall series arc are there to be found. It is part of what makes the series engaging and worth re-reading. But the inclusion of a big series plot with a complicated story arc can also lend itself to confusing a reader, particularly a reader who jumps in at the middle of the series. I don’t know that a reader can jump into this series although you have provided a great number of guides on your site for new readers.

I thought this was a good addition to the series because I was completely engaged when going in I thought I might skip to the Taylor/Michael bits. Nicholas was the billionaire asshole bent on revenge but for a good reason but his anger couldn’t stand up to Ash’s refusal to be upset or hurt by his attacks. Ash’s inability to be a good demon provides for several moments of comic relief:

“I’d rather be a clever demon. Perhaps that’s why it is taking me so long to come up with a plot against you. My standards are too high.”

Nicholas bit back his laugh. Damn it. How did she turn his anger and suspicion around so easily? In all probability, she was plotting to destroy him. He ought to be preparing for it, not finding humor in it.
“Have you been trying to think up many plots?”

“Not really.” She gave him a sideways glance. “It ought to be simpler now, knowing that I should think of something cliché. And you never answered me: Are demons all so obvious?”

At first glance, it seems that Nicholas has the bigger story arc. He goes from demon hunting man to caring so deeply about Ash that his decision is placing him at odds with the Guardians. Yet Ash is the one who had no memory, who is recreating her life as the book unfolds.

It was pointed out early in the story that Nicholas’ feelings for Rachel were that of guilt rather than lost love and there were efforts to show why Ash was connecting to Nicholas where Rachel could not. With Rachel, Nicholas would have always felt guilty. She wouldn’t have understood his quest against demons or his role in the larger world. Ash was part of that larger world. Nicholas didn’t have to care for Ash as he would have had to care and watch out for Rachel’s safety. Ash was self sufficient, both emotionally and physically, than Rachel.

In Demon Forged,

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

While I am anxious for Michael’s book, I didn’t find Demon Marked to be a half hearted effort to keep me entertained while I waited for the climax to the series. Instead, Nicholas St. Croix’s quest for vengeance is paired with a tender and engaging love story with Ash. I read this about the same time as Nalini Singh’s Archangel Blade and I found this one to be actually lighter in tone because of the humor. B

Best regards,

Jane

REVIEW: Archangel’s Consort by Nalini Singh

Jane — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:00:54 +0000

Dear Ms. Singh:

I feel like I am being a bit disloyal to the Psy/Changeling series by admitting that right now I am enjoying the Angel series more but it’s true. Even though we only get one book a year in this series (or maybe because we only get one book a year), I always wait impatiently for the next installment. There are a couple things I like about this series.

The worldbuilding is so intriguing. For those unfamiliar with this series, the world is comprised of angels, vampires and humans. There may be other stray beings around but those are the primary genetic beings. Angels are at the top of the hierarchy and they make the vampires, both willingly and unwillingly. Not every person is suited to be an immortal vampire and those that are psychologically incapable are rejected. This can lead to human pairings that result in one member being made a vampire and another not. Of course, there are other vampires that are made indiscriminately.

The angels are ruled by a number of Archangels, beings old and powerful. This conclave is known as the Cadre of Ten and they rule by geographic region. It is the only way that they can come to a peaceable resolution, knowing that if they did not have their own territory to rule, they would be in constant combat. Angels are born but births are rare. Raphael, the male protagonist of this series and ruler of North America, is the only progeny of two archangels. These angels, as many do, slowly went mad as they became older. His father killed many people. His mother actually intentionally dropped Raphael from a great height resulting in every bone of his body breaking. Raphael knows is that his mother is powerful, dangerous, and very likely insane. She is in a deep sleep and has been for centuries but recent events seem to indicate that she may be awakening. The purpose of her awakening is unclear as is her sanity and the threat she poses to Raphael and, more importantly, to his love, Elena.

Having read three Angel books from you, I can safely say that old angels are scary, dangerous angels. And this is where your attention to detail and plotting make such a difference. (And for those who haven’t read the first two books, you may want to look away as this is kind of spoilerish for the first two). The series is centered around Elena Deveraux, a former member of the Guild who police the vampires, either on their own but primarily at the request of the the vampires’ makers. Elena was particularly good at this because she is like a scent hound, able to pick up the scent of a vampire and track him via the scent. When Elena becomes near death as a result of attempting to carry out a task forced upon her by Raphael in book 1, Angel’s Blood, Raphael’s body unexpectedly produces ambrosia which transforms Elena from human to angel. But making Elena has created weakness in Raphael. The two are tied somehow and while Raphael’s power has strengthened Elena, her humanity has weakened Raphael. He takes longer to heal. He is more easily affected by attacks from others. Yet, her humanity might be the very thing that will keep Raphael from the path his father and possibly his mother has taken.

Archangel’s Consort opens with Elena still learning to be an angel, still weak. Her affinity as a tracker, however, hasn’t changed and she’s called in to investigate a killing of a child at a local private school, a school that her half sisters attend. As more vampires appear to go rogue and Raphael’s holding over Manhattan is challenged, Elena learns more about her family, an affinity that her step sister and she may share, and secrets her father has hidden deep.

If there is a theme to the book, it appears to be one about parents and their complicated love and jealousy for their children. Jeffrey, Elena’s despised father, had at one time shown genuine caring for her. Caliane, Raphael’s mother, tries to kill Raphael but does she do it out of love or jealousy? And for Elena and Raphael, they have to deal with what they are in relation to who their parents are. How much are the children the product of the parent or do they, as Raphael says at one point, make themselves.

As Elena grows as an angel, she has to learn some painful lessons. Her Guild is no longer her family. She has information, secret information regarding angels and vampires that she cannot share with them. She feels isolated even though she has found a true love with Raphael.

As with the other books, this is one part mystery, one part romance, one part urban fantasy. While I think the world is rich and the romance is satisfying, I did feel that there is a tendency to overdwell on some issues. There was a certain repetitiveness in passages that I could have done without. I do, however, like that themes and motifs brought out in Book 1 are carried forth in this book, indicating to me that you have a plan for this series which I appreciate as a reader. B.

Best regards,

Jane

REVIEW: Angel Vindicated by Viola Estrella

Jane — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:00:29 +0000

Dear Ms. Estrella:

I bought this book because it was the first digital first book to be nominated for a RITA. How exciting, right? I’m not sure if the RITA nomination inflated my expectations but I am sorry to say that my reaction is somewhat (okay, a lot) less enthused than that of the RITA judges.

Angel Vindicated appears to be the start of a series of books although I see nothing new coming down the pipeline as a sequel. Certainly the ending is ambiguous enough that it has all the signs of the start of some series. This is a straight up Urban Fantasy with the requisite loner heroine (even told in the first person) who believes no one really wants her but somehow has three of the hottest men around panting after her.

Abby Angel is a young Angel, only 28 years of age. She’s a bit insecure in her looks because while all the other angels are beautiful brunettes or blondes with luscious hair falling around their shoulders in soft curls, Abby has wild corkscrew red hair. The world building isn’t complicated nor is it well developed. It is set in modern day Denver. The Angels act as a fugitive apprehension service of sorts. Each district has a MOG or Messenger of God who acts as the seer for the community of Angels and ex-Angels she oversees. The Angels are females in charge of delivering a thumbprint to the heart of a demon. Three thumbprints and the demon is dispatched to hell. A demon is entitled to a thumbprint for “corrupting a human to commit a sin.”

The Ex Angels are male angels who do desk duty because it was determined that male angels were too aggressive for this work. Angels are made by the mating of angels. Once angels fall in love, they lose their angelic status (long life and wings) and live a normal life span. This is considered the pinnacle of angel existence–to settle down and have babies.

I will say I thought much of the book was meant to be farcical but I wasn’t sure if this part was because Abby Angel longed for this as well. She was envious of her sister’s good fortune and often wondered what made her defective that ordinary ex-angels didn’t want her.

But one particular ex Angel does want her, Judd. Even though Abby is blind to it, the reader is not. After all, he spends every spare minute with her, is concerned when she is out demon hunting, and is overtly jealous the time she spends with Simeon.

Simeon is the half demon who seduced Abby five years ago and now he is back in her life and her pants. Why Simeon decides he loves Abby is a mystery to me. We never see anything from his point of view and what we do see of him through Abby’s perspective gives you the idea that he enjoyed sexxing her up but not loving her.

Finally, there is human Kaleb who looks like Simeon, likes the same music as Abby, drives a hot car that Abby adores and conveniently for Abby, is not half demonic. He, too, thinks Abby is pretty neat stuff.

This book isn’t much about character growth or relationship developing. Instead it, like many of its UF bethren, focuses on the mystery (who is hurting the Angels) and the resolution to said mystery. At the beginning, Abby Angel is sent to give a thumbprint to a demon and instead four demons beat her up and leave her with a warning that things are going to change and Angels aren’t going to be policing demons any longer. Abby Angel seeks out the help of Simeon when the Angels in charge seem uninterested in her report. The resolution to said mystery is quite the deux ex machina. “Ask and you shall receive,” Matthew 21:22, plays a strong role.

There is no real explanation how angels and demons are made or unmade. I know that angels are born of angel and angel mating but there is early reference to how men used to be Angels and now they were desk jockeys and no longer Angels. They should have been ex-Law Enforcement Angels but they were referred to as “ex-angels”.

I was confused about how angel status was conferred and taken away and how and by whom. In the beginning of the story, Abby explains that there are three types of Angels. Then she goes on to say that only females were Angels. “It became evident several years ago that men didn’t make the best Angels. Too much testosterone and not enough patient had led to multiple reports of demon mistreatment.” There are a few male Angles of Death. At one point of the story, however, all the ex-Angels become Angels again and…yeah, maybe it’s “the Lord gave, and the Lord hat taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21 (who knew my familiarity with the Bible would come in so handy for reviewing sexy romance books!)

Part of my frustration with the lack of in depth worldbuilding was due to the fact that a) there wasn’t a ton of character development and b) the worldbuilding was very rudimentary so what was there should have been more consistent and more fully fleshed out.

I did wonder whether this was submitted as a novel with romantic elements and then was considered for a First Book Award because it is not really a romance. It ends with an unresolved triangle with her professing to be happy in Kaleb’s arms while intending to practice kissing with Judd to see where that may take them. . I probably won’t pick up a sequel if there is any. I’m just not that attached to any of the characters or interested in the worldbuilding. C-

Best regards,

Jane

Book link (no excerpt)

Kindle |Amazon | Nook | BN | Cerridwen Press

EC marks its books up high at Amazon and BN (list price $13) so it is far cheaper to buy it at Cerridwen Press.

REVIEW: Ecstasy Unveiled by Larissa Ione

Jane — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:00:37 +0000

Dear Ms. Ione:

Ecstasy Unveiled is the fourth book in the Demonica series. I’ve enjoyed all of the three previous books to varying degrees. The last one was my favorite and while I enjoyed this entry Wraith and Serena from Passion Unleashed remains my favorite couple. The action in this book is non stop and I never once wished I was doing anything but reading the book while the story lasted.

Loren is a half human, half Seminus demon and half brother to Eidolon, Shade and Wraith. Because he’s half, he’s never suffered from the inability to complete without his mate; unfortunately, Loren remains very inexperienced because he has another sexually related problem. The touch of his right hand or arm can kill and he’s especially dangerous when he lacks control over his body and emotions such as during climatic sexual moments. Loren’s had a lot of self pleasure but little enjoyment with the opposite sex. Oh, Loren, inexperience never looked so sexy.

Idess is a Memitim, the only class of angels born, not made. She is awaiting her ascension. While Idess is on earth she serves as a protector for Primoris. Primoris are humans or other beings who have the ability to change the outcome of humanity. Idess is impervious to most to most dangerous and receives brief infusions of power by drinking the blood necessary to flash from one location to another. Idess feels her time to ascend is near because she has only two Primoris.

One of Idess’ Primori’s is Kynan, a Marked Sentinel, and he was virtually impervious to all threats except those of angelic origin. Except for Lore. Lore brought Kynan back from the dead and therefore has the power to remove the gift of life.

Lore and his sister, Sin, are assassins in the service of assassin master, Deth. Lore abandoned Sin when they were younger because he was driven slightly mad when his demon side appeared when he was twenty. Sin got herself enslaved to Deth 30 years ago and so to save her, Lore agreed to serve as well. He had to perform a 100 kills and they would both be free.

His 100th kill assignment is Kynan. It Lore fails, Deth will cut off Sin’s arms and sell her to a different slave trader. So while Lore really doesn’t want to kill Kynan because it would mean the wrath of his brothers, he wants to save his sister.

If Idess can’t save Kynan from Lore then she will be forced to remain longer on earth. Then Lore becomes one of her Primori’s. So she has to protect Lore, prevent him from killing Kynan. Every one is going crazy at the hospital. The brothers are fighting. Shade wants to kill Lore. Sin has unleased a disease on the wargs. It’s really all going to hell in a handbasket. Oh and did I mention that Idess has to remain chaste in order to Ascend.

I kept wondering how you are going to get yourself out of the fixes that you had your characters in and for the most part I thought that the world building was extremely consistent there were a couple questions I had such as how a Memitim knows when the Primori has served his purpose. I think the world building is creative. The plot moved quickly without being too frenetic.

The wind down of the story was a tiny bit problematic. All of the resolution to the issues that you threw at your characters were resolved easily. I also felt that the sexual content in this book as compared to the previous ones was a little toned down. There was a lot of build up but the consummation scenes seemed rushed, as if you were laboring to fit everything into the book at the end. There were so many characters from previous books that are someone entering the series at this point might be very confused.

This is more of an action romance than one that is built upon the character introspection. Lore and Idess spend little time contemplating either their place in the world or their roles in each other’s lives. Nearly all of the conflict comes externally and once those barriers are removed, the two move on toward the cementing of the relationship. This isn’t a complaint, but an observation. This book is fast paced and fun. I fully enjoyed the book and look forward to more Demonica stories. B

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon
(affiliate link), Kindle (non affiliate link), BooksonBoard, or other etailers.

GUEST REVIEW: Gentlemen Prefer Succubi by Jill Myles

Guest Reviewer — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:00:14 +0000

FTC disclaimer: I won this ARC in the competition to write a review of Jane’s nonexistent weregerbil novel.

Review disclaimer: I don’t read a lot of paranormals, so take my judgments of the worldbuilding, mythology, etc. with a grain of salt.

Husband’s comment on the ARC cover: “‘Maybe bad girls do have more fun’? So, the guy on the cover is actually a bad girl??”

General summary for those who want to avoid spoilers: Jackie Brighton was living a perfectly normal life until the day she woke up in an alley and learned that, due to a series of bizarre events, she’d become a succubus. Now she’s adjusting to her new body and its needs, learning about an entire world of supernatural beings, and being pulled into intrigues that she really doesn’t understand.

This is definitely the first book of a duology if not series; don’t expect all the threads to be wrapped up at the end, and don’t expect a definitive HEA at this time. I enjoyed Jackie’s voice, found the worldbuilding interesting, and generally liked the writing. However, one of the male leads didn’t work well for me.

Possible spoilers below.

The worldbuilding generally works well for me, as far as the paranormal entities go. As I said above, I’m not a big paranormal reader, so I don’t know whether Myles’s mythology is fresh or derivative, but I found it interesting. The method of creating succubi — a combination of being drained by a vampire and sleeping with a fallen angel — was interesting (and explained why they weren’t all over the place). The side effect of being controllable by the angel and the vampire who create the succubus also added interest and tension.

Plot — the early part of the book is mostly Jackie learning about succubosity and meeting people. I put down the book about a third of the way through and forgot about it for a month and a half. But once I picked it back up and got a little further, the plot became more active and sucked (heh) me along. The Vampire Queen is definitely a scary adversary, as is Uriel. Jackie’s career turns out to be relevant to the plot, giving her some insights into the Vampire Queen and what’s going on. (I’d have been more satisfied at the end, though, if the climactic scene had been resolved by a definite action on Jackie’s part rather than an accident, and if there hadn’t been that blatant problem-for-next-book of Remy getting possessed.)

As for characters: Jackie reacts to being turned into a succubus in ways that I find eminently logical — initial disbelief, and various mistakes as she figures out how to use her new abilities. I like her general attitude; she doesn’t spend a lot of time moping or wondering “why me?” She tries things; she learns from her mistakes (and doesn’t excessively blame others for them, though I think she’s entitled to a few rounds of “Look, did you give me a copy of The Complete Guide to Succubus Life? No? Then stop being so shocked when I screw something up!”).

What especially strikes me about Jackie is how alone she is. Sure, there’s Remy, a fellow succubus, but learning succubushood from Remy is like learning algebra from a math professor who doesn’t realize that you’re deficient in basic arithmetic. (Speaking of Remy, I was very thrown on her introduction; I’ve only seen it as a male name in real life. Myles does give an explanation for the name later, but until then I was thinking she’d made a research gaffe.) Noah and Zane both have agendas of their own; other characters even more so. There’s no one who I really felt was firmly on Jackie’s side, looking out for her interests rather than primarily their own.
That’s especially true of Zane. Maybe I’m just not feeling the bad boy appeal, but Zane, while witty, didn’t charm me at all, and I didn’t buy Jackie’s decision to trust him. Noah may be less flashy, but I’m willing to believe that he won’t actively harm Jackie, even though he has the ability to do so; I’m unconvinced about Zane yet. (This might also be why the sex scenes, though hot, didn’t grab my emotions).

Still, Jackie’s short-term solution to Noah vs. Zane made absolute sense, and in this universe is especially workable. I’m curious to know whether Jackie will keep that up in the long run or whether she’ll end up relatively monogamous with one or the other. I’m also curious as to what Jackie’s going to do now that she’s been fired from the museum. I can’t yet see her following in Remy’s career footsteps (a very sensible career choice for a succubus, to be sure, but not one I see Jackie being comfortable with any time soon).

Overall, C+. It’s not quite my cuppa, but the writing style is enjoyable, and I like Jackie enough that I’ll check out the sequel if my library gets it.

~Castiron

Editorial note: I consider Jill Myles a good friend and thus I won’t be reviewing the book here on Dear Author. I am thankful that Castiron agreed to let me post this.

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

REVIEW: Quatrain by Sharon Shinn

Janine — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:00:05 +0000

Dear Ms. Shinn,

I remember being very excited when I first heard about your plans to write an anthology of four novellas set on four different worlds, the places first introduced in Archangel, Heart of Gold, Summers at Castle Auburn and Mystic and Rider. I’m happy to report that I enjoyed all the novellas in Quatrain to varying degrees. Here are my reviews of them:

“Flight,” the first novella, is set on Samaria, the world popularized by Archangel and its sequels. A few of Samaria’s people have wings and live in the high reaches of the angel holds. The angels, as they are known, also have the power to sing prayers for weather intercessions from the god Jovah. This makes them some of the most powerful people on Samaria, although they are as fallible as anyone else.

Even more powerful is the archangel, who rules all the angels. Since “Flight” takes two years before the events of Archangel, the archangel at this time is Raphael, a selfish and corrupt man. As the novella begins, Raphael and some of his fellow angels from the angel hold of Windy Point arrive at a farming community in Samaria’s Jordana province to pray for sunlight after many days of rain.

The story is narrated by Salome, a woman whose distant past was colorful but who has settled down and become a cook in the farm’s kitchen. Salome wants nothing more than to raise her niece, Sheba, in safety and peace, and thinks that one of Sheba’s best prospects is a devoted young man named David.

But Sheba is a pretty, flirtatious seventeen year old, not ready to settle down. She longs for romance and adventure as much as Salome craves security and safety for her. And no one represents romance and adventure more than the angels.

Unfortunately, Salome and Raphael are old enemies. Salome tries to remain hidden from Raphael’s sight during his visit, but when she slips into the kitchen for a nighttime meal, she finds him waiting for her. Raphael has recognized by Sheba’s resemblance to Salome that Salome must be nearby, and he wants to torment Salome with the power he holds over her.

During their conversation, another angel named Stephen is mentioned, and it becomes clear that Stephen and Salome were once romantically involved. In those days, Salome was an angel-seeker, a kind of groupie to the angels who hopes to bear an angel child. Despite her current bitterness toward angels, Salome is not entirely over Stephen, whom Raphael tells her left Windy Point for another angel hold following Salome’s departure.

Will Salome be able to protect Sheba from the glamorous lure of the angels? Will she reunite with Stephen and will they be able to forgive one another for past wrongs? And what of Raphael and the danger he represents? “Flight” answers all these questions.

While the novella contains a couple of romantic pairings, the central story is about Salome’s need to protect Sheba from Raphael and her own recklessness. For the most part, this story is well executed. Although I did feel that Salome had a change of heart that happened too quickly, otherwise her character was extremely well-drawn.

Salome and Stephen’s relationship felt a bit rushed to me, and it seemed like most of the interesting events in that relationship happened in their past and not during the course of the story, but I still liked Stephen a lot. The other romance (I don’t want to say too much about it) was touching and sweet.

Samaria is a fascinating place, and Raphael a delicious villain, the kind I love to hate. Sheba was a complex and believable young woman, and the secondary characters were all believable as well. As usual for me, I savored your prose. Although I would have liked more romantic developments in the two love stories, I enjoyed “Flight” and I give it a B.

“Blood” takes place on the world your readers have encountered in your novel Heart of Gold, which is peopled by three races, the gulden, the albino, and the indigo. As in Heart of Gold, the point of tension here is the difference between gulden and indigo societies when it comes to gender relations. Geldricht, the country of the golden-skinned race, has a patriarchal system while Inrhio, where the blue-skinned people live, has a matriarchal one.

The protagonist of “Blood” is Kerk, a gulden young man, who, as the novella opens, has just arrived with his family in the unnamed indigo city where it takes place. The differences between this city and Geldricht are so stark that at first Kerk can hardly take them all in.

Kerk is a kind of stepchild in his family (his exact relationship with them is revealed only gradually), and he knows his situation is therefore somewhat precarious. He is lucky to have survived to adulthood because before the age of twelve, children have no rights whatsoever in Geldricht. As the story reveals, the gulden’s social system works when the adult male in charge of the family is benevolent but fails when he isn’t.

Kerk’s stepfather Brolt has given Kerk a position in the family’s company. Kerk is hardworking and bright, but he worries that when Makk, Brolt’s biological son, reaches twelve, he himself will be displaced.

Although Kerk is close to Tess, his stepmother, he still remembers his biological mother, who took his baby sister and ran away when Kerk was seven. Such runaways are not entirely uncommon among the gulden. Women whose husbands or fathers are abusive sometimes leave their family and make for the indigo city, despite the grave dangers inherent in doing so.

Now that he is in the same city with her, Kerk can’t stop thinking of the woman who gave birth to him and raised him for seven years. He is determined to find her and try to reconnect.

When Brolt gives him a few days off from work, Kerk takes advantage of the opportunity to look for his mother. His search takes him to the Lost City, a place where impoverished gulden women and their children live. He doesn’t find his mother there, but an indigo woman confronts him about his presence in what is a refuge for women seeking to escape gulden men.

In the course of their argument, the woman explains that she aids the runaway women, and Kerk realizes that she might be able to help him find his mother. The two go to a cafe and the indigo woman introduces herself as Jalciana or Jalci for short. Jalci peppers Kerk with questions and he tells her a portion of his life story, but only a portion.

“Why did she leave your father? The usual reasons, I suppose?” He gave her a cold look. “What would those be, in your opinion?” She waved a hand. “Cruelty, abuse, starvation. Was your father a mean man?”

Kerk narrowed his eyes and did not answer. A gulden man did not disparage his father, not to anyone, even if his father was dead. Kerk would never speak a word of his father’s rages, his screaming fits, the beatings he had administered to his wife and his son.

Jalci agrees to help Kerk, and takes him to a compound of buildings. In the compound’s office, Jalci introduces Kerk to Del, a gulden woman whose first reaction to Kerk’s presence is hostile. Eventually, though, Del agrees to ask her contacts for information that will lead Kerk to his mother.

Afterward, Jalci takes Kerk to a community center where he sees young gulden boys playing the game of baltreck in the gym. The boys, who don’t see gulden men often, are fascinated by Kerk and want him to teach them to improve their play. Kerk is pulled into the game, and in the process, he sees how much these boys need a father figure, someone to teach them right from wrong.

As he returns to the compound periodically to inquire if his mother has been heard from, Kerk grows closer to the fatherless boys — and to Jalci. But what would his stepfather say if he knew that Kerk was going to such a place, and that after his visits there, he always dines out with a blueskin heiress? Is Kerk putting his position within Brolt’s company and the only family he has ever known in jeopardy by consorting with a young woman who behaves differently from any woman he knows? What about Tess, who has raised Kerk since age seven? How will she feel about Kerk’s search for his biological mother? And what will Kerk find at the end of that search?

“Blood” is a multifaceted jewel of a story. On one level it is about Kerk’s search for his mother, on another about his assimilation into the world of the indigo’s city, which is so different from Geldricht, and on yet another, it is about his growing emotional intimacy with Jalci. Ultimately, though, “Blood” is also about our universal need for connection and the way it can transcend our differences.

I loved everything about Kerk — his honor, his strength, his decency and his capacity for empathy. I loved the way he struggled to open his mind to encompass the differences between his culture and that of the indigo, and his willingness to do so. In fact the only criticism I have of the story was that I thought he was a little too quick to do so, and a bit too good to be true. But since he is now one of my favorites among your heroes, I can’t complain too much about this.

I also loved the gradual way the relationships in this novella unfolded, from Kerk’s family ties to his growing closeness to the boys at the community center and his coming to see Jalciana with new eyes.

As for Jalci, she was also likable, though impulsive and quick to speak her mind. I felt that she was what Kerk needed, whether he knew it or not. Like him, she was caring, strong-minded and empathetic, and if neither of them was what the other was used to in terms of behavior from the opposite sex, that was not just part of the conflict, but also part of the attraction.

Kerk and Jalci both represent their societies — Kerk the patriarchal gulden and Jalci the matriarchal indigo — but they are also the best of those societies. Although there were times when their differences tried their patience, they never asserted their superiority over the other, or tried to steamroll over each other.

The novella shows that sexism in either direction is not a good thing, and it is Kerk and Jalci’s ability to begin to negotiate a relationship of equals, one that is based on trust and admiration, that gives me a lot of optimism for their future, though I know they will face challenges.

My favorite scene in the novella was not a romantic one, but rather the scene in which Kerk’s stepfather learns about Kerk’s activities, and reacts to them. I don’t want to reveal what happens, but when I read this scene, I was completely enthralled.

The secondary characters in this novella were wonderfully well-drawn. The world in which the story is set is a complex, fascinating place in its diversity, and reading about it has left me greedy for more. More about Kerk and Jalci, more about Kit and Nolan, more about the gulden and the indigo, and what about a story featuring the albino? Please, write more. In the meantime, I give “Blood” an A-.

“Gold,” the third novella in this collection, unspools like a ball of magic yarn in the forest we readers first visited in Summers at Castle Auburn, some twenty years after the events of that story. Zara, the princess of the realm and daughter of characters from Summers at Castle Auburn, is traveling through the forest with a guardsman, Orlain, to the magical kingdom of Alora, which is hidden between the trees.

Zara has never been to Alora, but her great-uncle Jaxon lives there, as does his love Rowena, queen of the magical beings known as the aliora. Now Zara has been sent to Jaxon and Rowena because Castle Auburn may soon be attacked. Until they know the war is over, Zara’s parents want their children hidden in safety, so Zara and her brother Keesen are both sent away, in opposite directions, so that if one is captured the other may still survive.

But there is danger in going to Alora, because no human who has entered it has ever returned permanently to live among mankind. Jaxon is the only man who can move between the fey realm and the human one, but even he is always restless to return to Alora. To ward Zara from Alora’s enchantment, Zara’s mother, an herbalist, has given Zara potions which will remind her of home. She has also laden Zara with gold jewelry, since the aliora cannot touch the metal without feeling pain.

Seventeen year old Zara is concerned for her loved ones and filled with trepidation about visiting Alora. She does not want to forget her parents and brother, so she promises not to remove any of the gold pieces from her body, and to drink a vial of potion each night.

On the way to Alora, Zara and Orlain bicker, and Zara is miffed that the guardsman expects her to help him make camp instead of showing her the solicitude due a princess. Zara says she will marry for love, not politics, and describes the man she’ll give her heart to thus:

“He must be handsome and funny and intelligent and brave,” I burst out, goaded past endurance. “He doesn’t have to be noble, but he has to have an elegance of mind. And he will love me. He’ll shield me from the wind if it’s blowing and from the wet if it’s raining. He’ll–he’ll make great sacrifices to attain me, and he won’t care if those sacrifices put him in danger. It wouldn’t matter to him if I wasn’t a princess. He would love me just as much if I was a tavern girl. And he will never say an unkind word to me as long as he lives.”

There was as short silence after I finished up my list of attributes. “Well,” Orlain said. “I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to find him.”

The truth is that Zara is in love with Orlain, but she has no idea if he returns her feelings. Most of the time, he seems indifferent to her, but when Zara’s uncle Jaxon arrives and leads them to Alora’s borders, Orlain shows concern for Zara and promises to return once every ten days in order to see how she is faring, and bring her news of home.

Alora proves to be as ethereal and beautiful place as the aliora themselves, who look “as if moonlight had mated with a weeping willow and tried to produce a human shape.” They welcome Zara wholeheartedly and only her gold jewelry prevents them from touching her. But as she grows to know them, Zara feels horrible each time one of her bracelets burns an aliora’s skin, and she starts to remove her gold pieces.

Life in Alora is so contenting and wonderful, and Rowena’s son Royven begins to court Zara. Will Zara remember her love for her parents and brother, whose lives are in grave danger? Will Orlain return in ten days, as he promised, and if he does, will Zara still love him? Will she ever see Castle Auburn again?

I enjoyed “Gold” quite a bit, although it is not a perfect story. It is clear what Zara’s response to life in Alora will be from the outset, since it is heavily foreshadowed, and even if it weren’t, anyone who has ever read stories about humans entering fairy kingdoms would know what to expect. For this reason, I was more absorbed in the parts of the novella set outside Alora than in those set within it. I also wished that Zara had grown up a bit more during the course of the story.

But I loved the fairy tale feel of this novella. The descriptions of Alora were as magical as the place itself, and made me feel as though I, too, had entered an enchanted kingdom. I also loved the small fantastical details like the effects her mother’s potions had on Zara, and the way Alora’s borders shifted.

You have a knack for writing terrific, sympathetic male characters, and Orlain was one. Though a simple guardsman, he was also steadfast, loyal and determined. I wanted more of him, but Zara’s interactions with him were wonderful, and I enjoyed every scene he appeared in, so I give “Gold” a B+.

“Flame,” the fourth novella in Quatrain, is a prequel to your Twelve Houses series, which is set on a world where people with magical abilities, known as mystics, are sometimes persecuted for those talents. “Flame” takes place shortly before the events of Mystic and Rider, and Senneth, the heroine of that book, is also the main character here.

When the novella begins, Senneth, who has the ability to call forth and put out fire, is visiting with a relative named Evelyn in the province of Kianlever. Evelyn persuades Senneth to dress up for a dinner with guests of hers, which include a couple named Albert and Betony, and their neighbors, a brother and sister named Degarde and Julia. Julia’s toddler, Halie, is also present.

The conversation turns to Albert’s failed attempts at a trade arrangement with men from the nearby Lirrenlands. Senneth, who lived with a Lirren clan for a while, gives Albert pointers on earning their trust, and he asks her to join him on his next scheduled meeting with them, which is only days away. Because it seems rude to refuse, Senneth reluctantly agrees.

Shortly after that, the restless Halie catches her clothes on fire while running around and playing, and Senneth uses her power to put out the flames. There is some tension in the four guests’ reactions to the revelation that Senneth is a mystic, but they are also grateful to her for dousing the little girl before she can come to harm, and Senneth journeys with the group to their town of Benneld as planned.

Once there, Senneth is put in a quandary by Degarde’s fascination with her. He keeps asking her personal questions she does not feel comfortable answering, and wants to pursue a relationship with her, though she does not reciprocate his interest. Things get even more complicated when a fire bursts out in Benneld and Senneth’s abilities are revealed to the townspeople.

I enjoyed “Flame” more than I expected to. I am the kind of reader who prefers to read about new characters rather than revisiting protagonists from earlier works, and I also prefer other types of fantasy to high fantasy.

But “Flame” won me over — in fact I stayed up late to see how Senneth’s new acquaintances would deal with her powers. Senneth has always been a strong, self-reliant and sympathetic heroine, and the ominous sense of danger she faced kept me turning the pages even before that danger presented itself. I wasn’t sure which, if any, of Senneth’s new acquaintances could be trusted, and that made me keenly feel what it must be like to be a mystic in her position.

I did guess who the arsonist in the story was and there were a few scenes that were a bit similar to things we’ve seen in the other Twelve Houses books. But despite that, “Flame” really sucked me in, so I give it a B/B+.

To readers who are not familiar with your books, Quatrain will serve as an introduction to the angel series and the Twelve Houses series, as well as to the worlds of Heart of Gold and Summers at Castle Auburn. I would recommend though that readers who haven’t read the latter book do so before reading “Gold,” since “Gold” contains spoilers for Summers at Castle Auburn. I think for those readers who know these worlds, Quatrain presents an opportunity to revisit four magical places. I know I enjoyed the journey. My overall grade for Quatrain is a B+.

Sincerely,

Janine

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

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Amazon Affiliate link earns us an affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link. We love Sharon Shinn here and would endorse her without a free book (and that is the true test, is it not) but if you want to put money in our pockets feel free to use the links. We might get 50 cents or so!

Thursday’s Haiku Review Moment: A Witch’s Beauty by Joey Hill

Guest Reviewer — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:00:51 +0000

A long time romance reader was inspired to write me the occasional haiku review after visiting emilyreads.com. I asked whether she would do one for me once a week and I’ve finally bugged her enough that she’s given in. So Thursday afternoon check in for the Thursday Haiku Review Moment.

A witch’s beauty
Should be "A witch’s booty’
No legs need apply

David angel hunk
Mina is evil slam dunk
Or is she just sad?

Two tentacle legs
Virgin girly parts between
Of course, hero scores

Don’t get excited
Hentai fans! Sex is too tame.
Joey Hill, declawed.

World building is light
I have unanswered questions
Did not read book 1.

Still satisfying
Is it wrong I bought this for
Hardcore squid-leg sex?

C+

This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers someday but it’s not even out in Kindle.

REVIEW: A Witch’s Beauty by Joey W. Hill

Jia — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:00:51 +0000

Dear Ms. Hill,

I’ve been known to have an aversion to mermaid sex. But since I’m fond of your vampire novels, I decided to give your mermaid series a try. Jane reviewed the first book, A Mermaid’s Kiss, when it came out and overall, I agree with her assessment. In the hands of another writer, many of the unorthodox sex scenes would have made me stop reading. That said, I never finished the book. This wasn’t the fault of the writing or story but simply a mismatch of reader preference and character focus. I admit I’m not particularly interested in reading about couples featuring the disillusioned, world-weary warrior and the doomed, innocent virgin who falls for him. Many readers like that dynamic, however, so I encourage anyone interested in A Mermaid’s Kiss to check out Jane’s review.

A Witch’s Beauty is about Mina, the best friend of Anna, the heroine of A Mermaid’s Kiss. If I’d based the decision to trying the next book in this series on the first one alone, I probably would never have picked it up. But when I found out it was about Mina, Anna’s grumpy and sometime reluctant friend, I was sold. She was my favorite character from A Mermaid’s Kiss.

Mina is the descendant of the sea witch from the original Little Mermaid fairy tale. She is also the product of rape — a Dark One raped her mother, an act which resulted in her mother’s eventual madness and death. When Mina was a child, she cast a spell over the infant Anna to weaken the original sea witch’s curse. Unfortunately, the royal family misunderstood her actions and punished Mina by chaining her to weights and throwing her into a trench.

For one month, Mina remained in the trench while the ocean creatures slowly ate her alive. The royal family eventually realized their mistake and retrieved her but expected her to be dead. Much to their surprise, she was alive. But the damage had already been done. Mina had inherited the promise of immaculate beauty from her maternal line and one half of her body (the Venus half, as she calls it) remained unscathed. The other half, however, was terribly scarred, right down to the missing fingers on her hand. The scarred half of her body is also a physical reminder of her paternal side because the eye on that side is red like a Dark One’s.

After the events of A Mermaid’s Kiss, Jonah, the general of the angels, has assigned various angels to protect Mina. Because of her tremendous power, she’s a liability. Never has anyone bearing Dark One blood ever resisted the call of evil, and their worry is that she’ll become a weapon to be used against them. Mina doesn’t think very highly of this. Despite Anna’s persistent friendship, she’d rather be left alone. I can’t say I blame her. If my first act of kindness was rewarded by being thrown into a trench as fish food, I’d probably not like people very much either. So the angels Jonah sets guard on her come and go, one after the other, unable to deal with Mina’s temper and personality.

David is a human-born angel who’s been fascinated by Mina ever since he met her. Despite the fact that logic and evidence say otherwise, he believes Mina is someone worth saving. Perhaps it’s because David himself is an example of a lost soul finding redemption. David ended his life as a human by killing himself and it’s this darkness that empathizes with Mina.

Like the previous book, A Witch’s Beauty is a sort of updated fairy tale. It’s a reverse Beauty and the Beast story where the monster is the woman and the one trying to redeem her is the man. David’s struggle between following the orders given to him by Jonah and doing what’s right for Mina serve as the basis for the plot, especially when one of David’s choices (made in favor of Mina) results in disaster.

On the other hand, Mina’s raging conflict between the siren call of succumbing to the Dark One blood in her and her fierce desire to be under no one’s control was the most compelling part of the book for me. I loved Mina. I enjoyed the fact that she was perpetually grumpy and fiercely independent but still vulnerable because aside from Anna, she’s never known anyone who’d consider her a friend. Other mermaids revile her because of her physical appearance but that doesn’t stop them from going to her for potions. Angels hate her because of the blood in her veins but that doesn’t stop them from trying to see if there’s a way they can use her for their own benefit. All her life, Mina’s been treated either as an outcast or a tool and it’s those roles that she rejects.

As expected with a half-mermaid heroine, there are some unconventional sex scenes. The only difference here is that Mina doesn’t actually have a mermaid tail; she has two tentacles instead. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse. Oddly enough, it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would but I think that’s a testament to your writing ability to make me believe sex between a half-demon mermaid and an angel is almost normal. It helped that despite the heroine’s unusual appendages, the sex wasn’t as unorthodox as in the last book. There’s no pixie sex, for example. And along those lines, there wasn’t much emphasis on size differences or “little one” diminutives.

This was one of the more interesting redemption stories I read recently. I liked the fact that the usual roles played by the hero and heroine were switched, and I loved the fact Mina retained her sharp edges at the end of the novel. I love reading about the transformative power of love, but I admit if Mina’s personality had changed after she got her HEA, I’d have been very disappointed. The plot might not be the strongest but the relationship between Mina and David is more than enough to carry the book. B

My regards,
Jia

This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers someday but you can’t buy it in e now because, well, who knows.

REVIEW: A Mermaid’s Kiss by Joey Hill

Jane — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:00:28 +0000

Dear Ms. Hill:

This is one of those books in which there were moments where I thought to myself, if anyone but Joey Hill were writing this, it would be flung against the wall. However, the deliciously subversive retelling of the Little Mermaid made famous by Disney was quite fun and I ended up appreciating the chances that you took in the telling of the story.

This is a fairy tale with erotic overtones and thus there are unusual sexual situations which might not sit right with every reader, but because of the power of the narration, I allowed myself to be immersed in the author’s environment. It is a fairy tale about fantastic creatures and to force the characters into human form to make the sexual scenes more palatable would be to do a disservice to the spirit of the story. If the sexual scenes are there truly to advance the plot, then changing the characters into human form would be an unnatural construct. While I read some of the scenes with a vague sense of discomfort, I recognzied that there was beauty in which the scenes were told as well. In essence, they were a celebration of Anna’s form and almost necessary in this retelling of the Mermaid lore which begins with Anna’s foremother trading her fins for legs with disastrous consequences. There was a rejection of the idea that physical perfect rests solely in the human form.

Anna is a mermaid with a tragic destiny. As the one of the daughters of Arianne, Anna is cursed with a mission and a short life span to carry it out. Every daughter of Arianne dies before the age of twenty-one, part of the curse of the daughters of Ariannce. The following is a fairly long excerpt but I put it in spoiler mode for those who don’t want to read anything in advance:

“The original seawitch, Mina’s great, great-grandmother, gave my ancestor Arianne the spell of legs to win her heart’s desire, the love of a prince."

When Jonah nodded, indicating his familiarity with that part, Anna was glad she didn’t have to go back over the details. "Arianne failed and was turned to stone, as the legend and the reality go. But Neptune made a deal with the seawitch. He wouldn’t kill her painfully, and she would turn Arianne back into a mermaid." Anna’s lips twisted. "But something went wrong and the seawitch couldn’t lift the shape-shifting spell. Nor could Arianne control it. Throughout her life, she’d still shift unexpectedly from mermaid to human, and so had to live close to the land, else she would have drowned. Each time she shifted to human legs, she also experienced excruciating pain, as if stepping on razor blades when she walked. Even so, she danced on the beaches at night, remembering her prince. She left her daughter a letter which said the way he’d looked at her when she danced made the pain worth it to her."

"So who was the father of her child?"

Anna shook her head, curled her lip. "The prince, for all that he gave his love to another, had no problem lying with Arianne before he decided to leave her for his human bride. Arianne was carrying his child when she turned to stone. No one expected the child to live, but she did. It’s been the pattern ever since. No daughter of Arianne has ever found the happiness of enduring love, but she always finds herself with child at some point. But each child, while inheriting the ability to become human, also had different unique-abilities.

…

"Because the abilities were involuntary and caused harm to themselves or those they loved. The first daughter, if she got excited in any way-’too happy, too sad-’she would disrupt the waters around her violently. Tidal waves, tsunamis, waterspouts. That was why Neptune built the cottage for her. As long as she wasn’t in a large body of water, that wouldn’t happen. But before that, she wrecked ships, created storms that took lives. She rescued one man from her devastation, and was able to love him long enough to get with child before he discovered her nature and couldn’t accept it.

"Her daughter couldn’t speak except in song. The sound of her singing voice would put whoever heard it into a deep sleep from which they wouldn’t wake for days. Sometimes months. So she remained mute most of her life, desperately wishing to communicate, but only able to do so a moment or two before those to whom she wanted to talk so desperately were lost in slumber." Anna tried a smile, failed. "And so it goes.

"Neptune suspected it was a cruel irony orchestrated by the seawitch, because the deal between them included a blood oath that neither she nor her descendants would ever directly cause harm to Arianne or those descended from her again. But Mina told me the stone spell was never meant to be reversed and the magic simply took on an unpredictable life of its own."

In this fairy tale world, Angels exist to battle the Dark Ones, creatures who literally subsume their prey. Jonah was one of the battle commanders of the Angels and he had fought so many battles, lost ones so close to his heart, that he allows himself to be wounded in battle as a result of his disillusionment and falls to earth. Anna finds him and refuses to let him die. She is beset with awe over the Angelic creatures and to allow one to pass on without aid would be an anathema to her.

Anna and Jonah suffer from the same issues but manifest their problems differently. Anna believes that she has nothing to offer this world and sees in Jonah the attempt to make her short life worth something. Jonah, is deluded, beaten down by his immortality, his lack of connection. He’s not sure of his mission in life and loses faith. Jonah sees in Anna a purity of spirit that should be allowed to continue in this dark world. Both characters see themselves as doomed. Anna because of her familial curse and Jonah because of his position. Both want the other to live and prosper by making O Henry-ish sacrifices.

The erotic overtones are driven by Jonah’s need for healing which he spurs though “joining”. Joining, a physical and sexual thing, imparts strength, speeds healing. It is an elemental earth magic and designed to hide the two from the Dark Ones.

There are some irritants. Jonah refers to Anna constantly in diminutive terms. She has small hands. He calls her “little one” or “sweet little one.”

Her features were so fine, small. He put his finger up beside the line of her nose, just to judge, and it seemed the tip of his finger would almost cap it. Her lips were a tiny bow, and despite himself, he imagined what it would be like to stretch them-

I also found that the plot meandered a bit. It’s a road romance, as Jonah and Anna go in search of something to heal Jonah’s wounds, and as we readers journey with Jonah and Anna, the pace, timing and convenient events make the journey a bit bumpy. B

Best regards,

Jane

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

REVIEW: Warrior Angel by Margaret and Lizz Weis

Jane — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:00:55 +0000

Dear Mses Weiss:

When I first saw the promo that Margaret Weiss of the fantasy Weiss fame was going to be authoring a paranormal romance, I was quite excited. Sometimes paranormal romances are heavy on the romance but weak on the worldbuilding. Thus would not be the case with an author whose entire career has been made in the fantasy genre. Alas, either someone told you that romance readers are dumber than dirt or that is the understanding that you came to after gazing at too many covers filled with heaving bosoms and bare chests. I want you to know that you shouldn’t judge readers by the covers of the books that we read.

Derek de Molay is a Templar Knight who was tortured mercilessly in the Inquisition. When he passed over, he was given the opportunity to enter Paradise but had to repent of the sin of pride. Angered over this, Derek turns away and becomes a warrior angel, fighting demons in Purgatory. Derek doesn’t believe he’s a sanctimonious prick, but with passages like this, there can be only one conclusion:

Derek saw some of his comrades wilt at merely the thought of torture and eagerly confess to terrible crimes in order to save their own skins.

Now Derek is being sent to earth to monitor the activites of Rachel Duncan, a commodities trader with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Rachel is supposed to be a whip smart, savvy, woman who spends her days jostling for trade space. One day she never leaves the house for the Merc unless she looks like she steps off the pages of Vogue. The next, “She let herself go during the week because a manicure was too easily ruined in the pit.” As the story goes on, Rachel acts inconsistently with the presented characterization as she becomes more and more incapable of making any decision and is shown only to require constant rescue. Good thing Knight Derek is around.

Rachel is dating her rich and mysterious client, Andreas Zanus. It’s okay in her mind so long as she doesn’t sleep with him. When he whisks her off to Bangkok and Paris for dinners and weekends, she feels uneasy as much as she delights in it. She’s not sure whether Zanus is doing this just because he likes her or because he wants to sleep with her. Hmm, I just can’t figure that one out.

Part of the book reads like a school paper on the CBT.

The Merc was an impressive building located in the heart of Chicago, Rachel spent most of her time in the upper echelons of the pits. The pits were just that: sunken arena-type rooms where men–"and now women–"either placed trades for large financial corporations or were the in de pen-dent traders, the maverick cowboys of the Exchange. . . .She traded what was called the Paper. . .

Those had probably been around since 1898, when the Merc was the Chicago Egg and Butter Board.

Part reads like a perusal through the ads in Town and Country.

after a night drinking champagne cocktails (the European kind, made with brandy and bitters)
she loved all the amenities that came with a five hundred thousand dollar condo
Her parents …were currently cruising around the world on the Queen Elizabeth 2
quick leap through a spritzed cloud of Annick Goutal perfume.
Stuart Weitzman pumps
She owned her own car–"a Volkswagen Passat (you have a $500 condo and you drive a Passat, must have been a weird day for the Town and Country mag)
her one-thousand-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets
his Thomas Pink shirts pressed
Where to shop? When in doubt, a girl should wear Chanel.
She spritzed on new perfume–"Passion by Annick Goutal
added new earrings and a matching necklace from Tiffany & Co

(These references are in the first 4 chapters). I half expected color illustrations to appear on the pages opposite of the text. Worse, most of the book is spent with Derek and Rachel taking turns holding the Too Stupid To Live title. (TSTL). Derek often interferes with Rachel’s life, requiring another Angel to create diversions to get Derek out of trouble. Rachel sleeps with Zanus knowing that it’s wrong but can’t really say no. She’s whip smart and strong all right. Apparently the two crazy kids fall in love over a picnic after Rachel decides he isn’t crazy and Derek decides – well, he was in love with her from the moment he saw her designer clad, French manicured, Tiffany wearing, Annick Goutal smelling, European cocktail drinking person.

The tone of the book is Young Adult or even Middle Grade and most of the content is PG 13 until the lackluster but multi page sex scene in the end of the book. It brings to mind the criticism by the Washington Post of a well publicized novel:

It's hard to tell what audience the book could possibly be intended for: It's too sexed up for young adults, too juvenile for actual adults and too Encyclopedia Brown for anyone in between.

That’s how I feel about this book without the Encyclopedia Brown reference. D .

Best regards

Jane

REVIEW: Demon Angel by Meljean Brook

Jayne — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 22:00:50 +0000

Dear Ms Brook,

Jane’s been raving about this book for weeks now. I can almost see her bouncing up and down in her chair when she posts about it. Jane’s a hard sell so when we worked out that this would be our next dueling review, I was psyched. A little daunted by the length of the book (of course I left it to the last minute to read then write the review) but ready to go. I can honestly say I haven’t read many books lately that have kept me guessing and wondering “what’s next” but this is one of them.

You’ve created a unique and different world. One in which two different groups battle each other for human souls. The Guardians are former humans who, at the moment of their death, are transformed via a ritual into beings with eternal life. They try to circumvent the efforts of the second group thereby allowing humans to resist temptation and evil which saves their souls. Demons and minions of Lucifer are the second group. Though bound to respect human free will, they will tempt, sway and lure humans into death which then chucks their souls straight to hell. “Angel Demon” focuses on two main characters who are on opposite sides of the soul contest, Hugh who is a Guardian and Lilith who is a made demon.

Centuries ago, the two met when Hugh was still human and despite their differences, sensed an attraction to each other. It was beyond physical and it lasted for 800 years until Hugh grew fed up with the restrictions on his actions to save humans. He “fell” and was allowed to resume his human form, exactly the same age as when he first became a Guardian. One of his last acts as a Guardian was an attempt to free Lilith from the bond holding her to Lucifer’s service. Unaware that he failed in this, he’s surprised to cross paths with her again 16 years later in San Francisco where she’s living as an FBI agent. Lucifer is now trying to use human institutions and bureaucracies to plant his agents and further his take of souls. And a little pain and misery on their part never hurts his day either.

Hugh has made a life for himself as a college professor and gathered a coterie of student friends as well as a vampire friend who both he and Lilith know. The first inkling he has that some master plan against him is in the works is when several of his friends begin to disappear then reappear as corpses killed during grisly ritual slayings. Meanwhile, Lilith is investigating the sudden appearance of several Nosferatu in the city. They are former angels who fence-sat during the battle between Lucifer and his fallen angels and God. As punishment, they’ve been turned into tall, ghostly-white blood suckers. They aren’t supposed to be able to stand sunlight or stay awake during the day but, damned if that isn’t what the ones in SF are doing. Slaying them is one of the few things Guardians and demons have in common and Lilith is happy to dispatch a few while she tries to figure out why so many are gathering in the city.

Slowly Hugh and Lilith begin to figure out that someone has a plan. One which will end in Hugh’s death and his soul’s quick trip straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. What these two must do is figure out what the hell is going on, how the hell to thwart it and whether the hell to continue to fight their centuries long passion for each other or give into it with cataclysmic results.

This is a long novel. One that is chock full of plot and characters and I honestly haven’t even touched on a lot of what’s going on here. This review’d be 3 pages long if I attempted it. I like that there are layers to the characters and their actions. Readers shouldn’t just skim through this book as information is slowly revealed throughout which makes us engage our brain and really concentrate on the action. You pay the reader the compliment of not spoon feeding them with boring info dumping. I hate it when the action of a book comes to a dead halt for 2-3 pages of world-building information. You also don’t use the easy out of having one character in the book explain something to another, who should know it, in order to actually explain it to the reader. Yes, it is more work for the reader to slowly piece together all the various elements but it’s far more believable. You’re also lucky that your editor appears to have given you the space to slowly spin all this out, a luxury I realize authors don’t usually have.

I enjoyed the more gritty and realistic version of hell. It’s not supposed to be nice or cutesy (though I do like some books that feature this). Some of the features and punishments are incredibly inventive. Did you make these up or borrow from a source I should know (no, I’ve not read Dante or Milton, bad me)? Remind me never to make you mad! ;) I also adore Sir Pup, Lilith’s pet hellhound. I might have to start calling my dog that.

As I said earlier, this is an intricately plotted book but one that seems well thought out. It also has an interesting use of nosferatu vs vampires. One thing I really liked is that we can see that other characters are being set up for future books but it’s not intrusive to THIS book. They all have a reason for being in “Demon Angel” and the information revealed about them is enough for this book while still leaving some questions about them for their own.

So considering the above love-fest, why is my grade not an A? Well, maybe plot is too intricate in places? I lost track of what was going on a few times and had to backtrack. There were also times when I lost track of who was speaking or doing things in a scene and had to stop to try and figure it out. And sometimes there was just too much talking. Talk, talk, talk. Yes, it’s cerebral talk and made me really pay attention to catch all the nuances (good) but some scenes tended to drag a little (bad). And once Lilith and Hugh gave into their physical attraction, there were some moments of inappropriate lust towards the end.

Would demons be bound by humans’ free will? OK, I’ll accept it as part of your worldbuilding but I think it’s iffy. I also have some theoretical questions about Lilith’s original sacrifice and change to halfling. It was done during the Roman era before Christ…so how did Carthaginians know to sacrifice to Lucifer? Isn’t he a Judeo Christian concept? Or is he just the embodiment of all evil and his form/name have changed based on different religions? And why wouldn’t real angels show up to help thwart Lucifer’s plans? I know, I know, this is a book about Guardians but with hell up in arms and Lucifer making plans for massive expansion, I can’t see any beings who oppose him just sitting on their asses and singing hymns of praise to God.

Yet, this is a book which makes me think and think about it even days after finishing it. I was challenged to grasp all the subtleties and that’s never a bad thing. I think it will spark lots of debates. It’s an amazing first time book and one I did enjoy delving into. B+

~Jayne

Demon Angel by Meljean Brook

Jane — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:00:47 +0000

Welcome to our inaugural book club selection. I have been reading Meljean Brook’s blog for a while now and when I realized she had a single title release, I emailed her and begged for a copy of her book. She graciously acquiesced and fortunately for both of us, I really enjoyed this book. I’ve been talking it up because the world building in this fantasy romance was remarkable. It really made me think and pay attention which, because I am a lazy reader, I am not always compelled to do. Later today will be Jayne’s review and I hope readers spend the upcoming weeks reading this book and telling us all that you loved and hated. We would ask that any comments on the content of the book be saved for Jayne’s review. That way all the comments are in one place. Come back later and we’ll start up the conversation/debate/snarkfest/heated discussion/lovefest or whatever it turns out to be.