***

Dear Ms. Briggs: Your contribution, “Alpha and Omega”, was the best part of the anthology largely due to your strong voice, however good prose was not enough to cover the relationship flaws. Anna is a young werewolf whose existence as a shiftling has been full of abuse. She believes she is a submissive werewolf because of the way she was treated. Initially, she was passed around the pack until the alpha’s mate stepped in to put a stop to it. Anna is “afraid of her own shadow” and has been made into this mouse of a woman by the abuse inflicted by her pack.

She sees a young man turned, caged and then found dead. She’s sure that her alpha is responsible. Despite her beaten down state, decides to call the Marrok, who has ruled all NA werewolves, even knowing that her actions might cause her to employ the use of the one silver bullet she owns. Charles, the Marrok’s son and enforcer, is sent out to clean up the mess. Upon meeting Anna, he knows that she is not at all a dominant but something completely different.

The worldbuilding is well done here providing a glimpse of a heretofore unexplored aspect of werewolf lore. There is little tension here as the outcome seems predetermined from the minute that Charles steps foot in Chicago. The big problems, however, are the relationship aspects. Charles is an alpha wolf who is finds, in Anna, his mate. Anna, despite her emotional and physical trauma, is able to respond to Charles’ physical demands in a relatively short amount of time. I recognize that this is an anthology but perhaps the characterizations of such a damaged individual like Anna should be saved for a longer writing form. B-

Dear Ms. Wilks: Your Lily and Rule books have been a wonderful contribution to the romance genre. The world that you have been creating is interesting and complicated and I sometimes wonder if you lose track of all the paranormal and otherworldy aspects that are included in your world. While the romance is this book is better than the other three, the world building was suspect at times, particularly at the end.

Kai Tallman Michalski is a woman with a different kind of magic that she hides from most people. Her city is filled with magic haters and to be thought of as a witch is to be in danger. Worse, Kai is being framed for murder. Her friend and good neighbor, Nathan, works to help her evade incarceration. Nathan, like Kai, has a secret about who he.

It’s hard to talk about this book with anything but generalities because alot of the magic of the story is due to the slow unfolding of Kai’s gift and Nathan’s true nature. Nathan and Kai are friends before the story starts and hold an unacted upon attraction for each other. Their tentative movements toward a more romantic relationship was endearing.

The trouble is that much is made of Nathan’s separation from his kind and the ending appears to be so contradictory to what Nathan had been telling Kai (and thus the reader) that it seemed more like a deux ac machina than anything organic. B-.

Dear Ms. Chance: Buying Trouble was my first introduction to your writing. While you have great ideas, the story faltered in the execution mostly because there was too much going on in such a short space.

Claire works as part of the security detail for an auction house that sells magical items. She’s a projective null and therefore can suppress magic around her, preventing any of the customers from using magic to run off without paying. One night, she finds herself for sale and her evil cousin Sebastian is there to buy here. Her cousin isn’t her only problem. She spots a Fey in the midst and knows that if either her cousin or the Fey get their hands on her, she’s toast.

While attempting to escape her “fate worse than death”, Claire gets her hands on a rune and is transported to Faerie world with the Fey. It just so happens that the Fey is a Light Fey and he’s not out to kill Claire, nor use her as a weapon. He wants the rune. While in Faerie, Claire finds that she has another complete magical ability that is brought out through intimate contact.

While there are parts that are funny and smart and interesting, most of the story is disjointed given the wealth of new worlds, creatures and magical beings that the reader is supposed to assimilate in short time. Further, each time Claire is in jeopardy, something coincidental happens and those particular bad guys aren’t seen again, losing any tension that was initially created. The plot arc appears to be Claire’s discovery of her true self, but it seems contrived, particular toward the latter half. C

Dear Sunny:

This contribution, “Mona Lisa Betwining”, is a continuation of the previous Mona Lisa stories. Mona Lisa is the Queen of Louisiana and ruler of approximately 400 full blooded Monere. Through sex, Mona Lisa gains the powers of lovers which is really convenient. Need to be faster? Sleep with a guy who is really fast. Need to be stronger? Sleep with a guy who is stronger. Essentially, there is no limit to what Mona Lisa can become so long as she chooses the right partners.

Of course, Mona Lisa plays the part of a sexual ingenue. “Too many men had been willing to wait for me–"first Amber, then my Demon Prince–"and still I did not know why. ” (you and me both, Mona Lisa). In “Mona Lisa Betwining”, Dontaine approaches Mona Lisa with a sort of a plea to bed her despite having been rejected by her before. Mona Lisa eventually beds him.

The writing is awkward at times. At one point you use the phrase “Crammingly so.” I didn’t even know “crammingly” was a word and I am not sure if it is, it was appropriately used. There is supposedly a plot of sorts in which Mona Lisa is confronted by Lucinda Darkly who is getting her own series but its a bizarre interlude that offers nothing to the tale. In all, this plotless, awkwardly written anthology is really nothing more than window dressing for one woman to have sex with many men, albeit reluctantly and sometimes drunk on the moon. It’s just not my cup of tea. D.

Best regards,

Jane

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Mona Lisa Awakening by Sunny
2. REVIEW: Blood Lines by Eileen Wilks
3. REVIEW: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

I tend to think the similar cover may backfire. I may see it and think, I’ve already read, bought, borrowed that book.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Cover of Night by Linda Howard
2. REVIEW: Cover of Night by Linda Howard: second opinion

Ordinarily I wouldn’t address my letter so familiarly given the fact we don’t know each other but your nom de plume is just one word: Sunny. Apparently, you are the wife of big name author, Da Chen. I assume the connection should be mentioned in the review because it is mentioned a number of times (4?) in the accompanying promotional literature. I would have probably bought this book because of its smoking cover and the cover quote by Patricia Briggs along with the Publisher’s Weekly review that says “Mona Lisa shares many traits with LKH’s heroines, including having lots of hot sex for good causes, but mercifully without their kvetching and self-doubt.”

However, a friend of mine who does not read books in the first person sent it to me because she knows I really enjoy the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K Hamilton. The Merry Gentry series is a story about a mixed race member of the Sidhe who is destined to be the one who ultimately brings life, fertility, and future back to the Sidhe. The stories mostly revolve around court intrigue and the fact that some in the Court want Merry to die. Her life is fraught with danger, particularly from her crazy Aunt who is the Queen of the Unseelie court. To protect herself, she is given the choice of handsome Guards with whom she must sleep. Many of the Guards joined her because she was a) willing to have sex with them and b) because the Queen is crazy and mistreats her guards often. As a result, Merry has a whole coterie of gentlemen whom she enjoys on a regular basis. When they join, their bodies glow and their powers are enhanced. This series, unlike the Anita Blake series, is still an autobuy because LKH writes good erotica in this series (as opposed to the terrible erotica in the Blake series). But of course, I am guessing that you know all this since your story reads like an ode to Merry Gentry.

Mona Lisa is a nurse in Manhatten. She has a special gift in that she can lay hands on a patient and sense their true ailment. One night she feels an inexplicably drawn to one patient. A gorgeous pale, male specimen by the name of Gryphon is laying in her hospital with a terrible wound to his stomach. The two of them are drawn to each other. It is determined that Mona Lisa, an orphan, is found to be one of the rare Queens of Monere. Monere are a people whose existence is owed to the moon. It was an interesting take on the vampire theme. Monere’s live in the night when the Moon is out. Their powers are derived from the Moon through Basking. A Queen is the only member of the Monere who can call down the Moon’s rays and through them, the entire people of Monere gain power and extended life. They are extremely pale, living solely under the moon, and enjoy the taste of other Monere’s blood (although blood drinking is not their source of nutrition). The Queens are not very nice people and they abuse the men and women who are subservient to them, particularly the men. But the men are drawn to the Queen’s because it is part of their genetic heritage to be beholden to a Queen.

The world building is unique, but the writing was clunky, the characters inconsistent, the villians overt, and the similarities to Merry Gentry’s series distracting (mixed race heroine to save the magical race, the bad Queens, the guards, the way their bodies illuminate during sex, the increase of power through sex, the fact that all guards want to copulate with the heroine, the importance of fertility, the danger from the Court). The initial chapter was filled with significant info dumping. The entire myth is laid out to Mona Lisa by Gryphon in their first meeting. There were a few too many shortcuts that cut into the plausibility of the story. For example, Mona Lisa knows she is different but hasn’t had any contact with anyone else who is different. When told the story by Gryphon of this fantastic race of beings, she goes from believing Gryphon to be mad to actually believing Gryphon in the space of about three paragraphs.

I had further problems with the book in that Mona Lisa is portrayed as a politically savvy individual as she attempts to navigate her way through powers of the existing Queens. There was no background given which would convince the reader that Mona Lisa had the capability of holding her own. Unlike Merry Gentry, who was raised in under the shadows of Court intrigue and was taught how to handle herself in those situations, Mona Lisa had no such background (again, seemed like a shortcut). This is an important point because much of the conflict arose from intrigue amongst the Queens.

Mona Lisa borders on a Mary Sue. Everyone loves her (even a male character who hasn’t loved in centuries). The only men who do not want to be in her service are the bad guys but they still want to fuck her. She is all good in a world that is virtually all evil. I found the immediacy in which the characters fell in love to lack believability.

The one other thing that bothered me throughout the story was the inconsistency in language. On one page you would have Mona Lisa speaking and thinking formally and the next she would be talking in vernacular. It appears you understood the difference in how the characters’ patterns of speech were significant because Mona Lisa mentions that she can tell the difference between the guards who have lived a long time because of the way they talk. I wish you had employed the same attention to detail in the pattern of speech of Mona Lisa.

I am sure that you got the “erotic” tag because it features a number of sex scenes, but the scenes were not innovative and at times were mechanical. Some of the words used to describe the sex scenes bordered on purpley. I was ever so grateful, though, that you refrained from using the word “spill” (an overused LKH adjective).

I am interested in the series because of the uniqueness of the worldbuilding and I honestly don’t mind that it has close parallels with the Merry Gentry series but the heroine’s inconsistent characterization (one minute extremely bold and another very traditional) and the clunky writing is keeping me from being really excited. To further hamper the story for me is the multiple “loves” that you are developing for the heroine. That’s not really what I am looking for these days in a book, but I can see its appeal to others. C-

Best regards,

Jane

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
2. REVIEW: CB – Port of Paradise by Lisa Marie Rice