Shuzluva: I’m in the same boat as Janine; I was *trying* to read two other books (one successfully, the other? Not so much) and when I got this ARC I took a deep breath and plunged right in. I’m excited to discuss the book with Janine since we share the same love of the series but have definitely disagreed about certain books and characters.

Janine: But first, a plot summary. Kiss of Snow begins with Hawke, the alpha of the SnowDancer wolf changeling pack chastising two of his young soldiers for getting into a fight while on duty. Maria is contrite but Sienna challenges Hawke’s authority. Hawke disciplines both girls but simmering under the surface is the unwanted sexual tension between Sienna and Hawke.

Longtime readers of Singh’s Psy/Changeling series know that Sienna is a member of the Psy, a race of psychics linked through a neural network called the PsyNet. Through a protocol called Silence, the Psy repress all emotions, but Sienna’s family, the Laurens, defected from the PsyNet when Sienna was deemed by the one of the leaders on the Psy Council to be too powerful.

Rather than watch Sienna and her younger brother Toby and cousin Marlee die, Sienna’s two uncles, Walker and Judd, risked their lives and disengaged from the net, and the family survived by forming its own psychic network and finding asylum with Hawke’s wolf pack.

All that happened when Sienna was sixteen. Now she is nineteen, nearly twenty, and in love with Hawke, a man who once mistrusted all Psy because of the damage they inflicted on his loved ones years before. But Sienna’s fascination with Hawke only hurts her, because Hawke, although powerfully attracted to her, resists his feelings with all his strength.

Between Hawke and Sienna stands more than one conflict. Most prominent is the difference in their ages — Hawke’s age isn’t given in this book, but I believe he is in his thirties, while Sienna is nineteen.

In addition, there is the fact that when Hawke was just ten years old, he suffered an almost unbearable loss — Rissa, the girl who would have become his mate had she lived to adulthood, died. The wolf changelings only mate once in a lifetime, and Hawke knows he cannot mate again.

Finally, Sienna is a cardinal X-Psy, which means she possesses lethal and limitless power. But that very power threatens to consume her and perhaps even those in whose vicinity she lives, including her family and Hawke’s wolf pack. No X-Psy is known to have lived as long as Sienna, and although she herself remains in denial, Judd fears she does not have much time left.

For all those reasons, especially the age difference, Hawke is wary of Sienna’s appeal to him. He tries to tell himself that she is off-limits, but her friendship with the leopard changeling Kit gets under his skin. When Hawke’s sexual hunger begins to affect the teens in his pack, he knows he must sleep with someone, but he does not intend that it be Sienna.

Sienna, angry and hurt after realizing this, decides to move on and goes clubbing with friends. After her dancing nearly incites a fight at the club, Hawke collects her and dances with her in the moonlight. Because he can’t stand to free her to be with someone else, but knows that he cannot give her all she deserves — the profound connection of the mating bond – Hawke sends Sienna mixed signals.

Sienna is torn and confused, but eventually she understands that she needs to fight for Hawke, as she’s seen her packmates do for their mates.

Meanwhile, things are heating up in the war between the members of Pure Psy and the changelings, and the coming battle threatens not just Hawke and Sienna, but all they hold dear.

Interspersed between Sienna and Hawke’s romance is a quieter romantic relationship that unfolds between Sienna’s uncle, Walker Lauren, and Lara, the wolf changelings’ healer. Lara and Walker were close friends until one night a kiss changed that. Walker drew away from Lara and his rejection hurt her, but six months later, the two still miss each other.

Also woven in is a thread about Alice Eldridge, a scientist who wrote a dissertation on the X-Psy over a century earlier, before the implementation of Silence. Alice’s emails to her father appear at the end of some of the chapters, as Alice gets closer and closer to uncovering what may or may not be the solution that could save Sienna’s life.

I’m anxious to hear what you thought of Kiss of Snow, Shuzluva. This book grabbed me by the throat and I spent every free minute reading it, even skipping dinner for hours because the story was so gripping.

Hawke and Sienna’s relationship has been building over the course of the series and this was the culmination not only of their unrequited feelings, but also of the first arc of the Psy/Changeling series itself, with hostilities between the series’ protagonists and the villains finally breaking out into war.

We were also treated to the birth of Luke and Sascha’s baby – and no, I’m not revealing the gender or name of the child in this review! Judd and the mysterious Ghost’s alliance took a very compelling turn, too, with the Ghost conflicted over whether to help Judd save Sienna when she could present a threat to his own plans.

For all those reasons I could hardly put this book down, and I was left reflecting on how well Nalini Singh builds her plot arcs and sets up her emotional payoffs. I think she is one of the genre’s best when it comes to plotting. This book was also, as you mentioned to me in an email, tightly written, and all of that made it a very satisfying read. I think it might be my new favorite in this series.

Shuzluva: First, thank you for the fantastic plot summary, Janine. I know I would have probably given something away that shouldn’t be discussed in a review, but my tendency is to overshare when I’m trying to make a point.

Janine: Thanks, but I’ve been known to give away spoilers too. I hope I haven’t done so in this instance.

Shuzluva: Regarding my immediate reaction to Kiss of Snow, I am in the same boat as you. I managed to read this book during every free minute I had and absolutely blew through it. That’s not to say this book is a light read. Things get hot and heavy in a number of ways and the reading is intense on both an intellectual and psychological level.

I actually found myself going back to re-read certain passages that had less to do with the emotional arc of the story and more to do with the nuts-and-bolts of Sienna’s designation, the movement towards open hostilities between the Psy and the Changelings (and humans), and certain tactical interactions between characters just to make sure I didn’t miss anything critical.

As I noted to you, the book is incredibly tight, with the primary story strongly interwoven with the secondary and tertiary plot lines so much so that no event or action seems extraneous or gratuitous.

Janine: Great point about the weaving of the plot lines. I loved the ways they impacted on one another.

Shuzluva: I have been fascinated by the progression of Hawke and Sienna’s relationship from the moment the two of them appeared on the page together way back when. While I don’t think of dogs as sensual creatures the same way as cats (and I’m a dog person, trust me), Hawke always appealed to me on a physical level, and from the very first, his antagonistic relationship with Sienna was a recipe for serious combustion. Their interactions are so hot that there were times I was sure my eyeballs were going to catch fire.

I have been driving myself crazy in terms of trying to figure out who the Ghost is. I have a pretty good idea, but I’m still not convinced. Judd Lauren’s alliance with him and their scenes are totally compelling. This will probably be one of my classic overshares: I cannot wait to see what happens next with the Psy Council and the repercussions it will have on the PsyNet.

One of the reasons this series works so well for me, and this book especially, is that the different characters appear without a hiccup in personality or voice. That is highlighted with the birth of Lucas and Sasha’s baby. The interactions between the SnowDancer and DarkRiver packs (and the reminders that they were once not allied with each other) were superbly done, and the focus shifted smoothly from one character to another and one situation to another. I know I’ve mentioned this before in my reviews of the Psy/Changeling series, but the characters are so well written that they each retain their individual personalities without becoming background wallpaper. With a cast that is now well over 50 characters, of which over half have been written about in significant detail, the ability to continue making all of them integral to the story is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Janine: Agreed, it is very impressive.

Shuzluva: Your use of “emotional payoff” hit the nail on the head. Kiss of Snow is a gripping read due to both the emotional and intellectual payoffs. For me, it’s definitely in the top three of the series.

Janine: It is easily up there for me as well. With regard to criticisms, I can find very few things to complain about. Singh has a tendency to use certain words and phrases a lot, but this is one of the things that give her writing style its vivid and distinctive quality which has grown on me over the course of the series.

Gender roles are a bit on the traditional side in certain regards in these books, too. The male protagonists are almost always dominant and lethal, while the women, though emotionally strong, shy away from killing. We hear about the maternal contributions of submissive females, but the submissive males don’t get much positive attention.

Some of the Psy/Changeling books I’ve liked best have been those where that hero/heroine dynamic is a little less conservative, such as Branded by Fire, with its sexually experienced heroine, or Play of Passion with its older heroine/younger hero matchup. But even though this book doesn’t fit that description, I enjoyed it so tremendously that I was only very slightly bothered by the fact that Hawke outmatched Sienna in many ways. More on the reasons why in a minute.

What about you, Shuzluva? Did this book have any drawbacks for you?

Shuzluva: I agree with you about the traditional gender roles in this series. The lack of a positive submissive male model was highlighted in Play of Passion, and I was definitely bothered by it as well as another plot point that had to do with gender roles in the same book. I know we discussed it in an email exchange, and while I loved Play of Passion, that particular point still sticks in my craw. If anyone would like to discuss it with me (I know I’m being somewhat vague here, but I don’t want to give away plot points that are well into a book) feel free to mention it in the comments.

In this particular book, the gender roles were in no way reversed, but perhaps better balanced due to Sienna’s abilities. You mentioned the males of the series being lethal, but Hawke admits he takes no pleasure in killing, which made that particular aspect of their relationship an easy read for me. I did have a bit of a struggle with the age gap between Hawke and Sienna (even though it’s unclear as to exactly what their age difference is), and frankly I wish that Sienna had just a couple more years on her. I’ll discuss that below.

Janine: Yes, let’s discuss the way Singh handled the age difference. As I read this book I compared it to Julie Anne Long’s What I Did for a Duke, where there was a similar age difference between the characters. The Long book had a more realistic treatment of that type of conflict, with the heroine at first dismissing the hero as much older, and only coming of age during the course of that story. Genevieve’s immaturity was an integral obstacle to the romance in that book.

By contrast, Singh chose to present Sienna very differently. Despite her youth and her sexual inexperience, Sienna lived through some horrors in childhood, and those things forced her to grow up early so that she is in some ways as strong and emotionally mature as Hawke.

I think it is perhaps a less true-to-life depiction because I believe that in real life someone who lived through the kind of abuse Sienna endured as a child would come out more damaged, and not necessarily strong enough to handle Hawke with all his possessiveness, dominant instincts.

But putting aside that caveat, I have to say that I really enjoyed the relationship between the two of them and didn’t care much that it wasn’t entirely realistic.

I loved that Sienna was vulnerable, but not as much as she was when she first arrived on SnowDancer land. I loved that she was mature enough to understand what was driving Hawke, while still being young enough to go clubbing in sexy jeans and dance on top of the bar when she thought he’d be sleeping with someone else.

And I loved that Hawke was so thrown by his feelings for her, so conflicted as to acting on them. I know that there are many readers who dislike big age differences, and often I do too. I also feel Singh walked a tightrope here, because Hawke would probably be too much for most thirty year old women, let alone a nineteen year old.

But ultimately this aspect of the book worked for me because Hawke wasn’t waiting for Sienna to grow up so he could jump her bones – he struggled as hard as he could to stay away from her, and only gave in when he realized how impossible that was for both of them.

Hawke’s internal struggle made it clear that his control over the situation had shattered, and in a strange way that shifted the balance of power between him and Sienna, so that despite the age and rank difference, to say nothing of his dominant alpha personality and greater sexual experience, there was a feeling of the two of them being on equal ground. He was in some ways just as powerless in the face of his need for Sienna as she felt with him early on in the book.

Shuzluva: You laid out Sienna and Hawke’s issues beautifully here. I think my greatest struggle was reconciling the Sienna I was reading on the page with her chronological age. On an emotional level she didn’t read like a 19 year old, especially a 19 year old that had been Silent for the majority of her life. I definitely had some trouble with this, and I realize that some of it has to do with my own view of age differences and maturity. And it bothered me as well that we don’t know how old Hawke is. I think it’s another indication of “it shouldn’t matter”, but it must for me because I’m thinking about it.

Janine: We agree on both these points. I wished Hawke’s age had been given in the book because I wanted to know exactly how many years separated him from Sienna’s, and I also felt that Sienna’s maturity wasn’t entirely realistic. But despite these issues, I enjoyed the conflicted, combustive chemistry between the main characters so much that I was willing to throw my reservations to the wind and fly with the story.

Shuzluva: What saved this for me was Sienna’s very age-appropriate reactions to Hawke (read: going clubbing in sexy gear to get him jealous) and her ability to slice down to the heart of the matter whether it was dealing with her own fears and feelings or Hawke’s. Sienna’s direct approach to the deepest emotional conflict was refreshing and her down and dirty confrontation with Hawke rang so true that I could almost hear the bells going off.

Janine: Terrific points about Sienna. How did you feel about Lara and Walker? That subplot didn’t grab my attention right away because at first their dynamic seemed a bit too similar to Hawke and Sienna’s, with Walker sending Lara push-pull signals and Lara being hurt by them, but once Walker started to open up to Lara, that relationship developed in a different direction from the Hawke and Sienna storyline and I started caring about them too.

Shuzluva: From Walker and Lara’s first interaction I knew we were going to be treated to a secondary romantic subplot. I admit that I mentally groaned when Walker began with the hot/cold crap and Lara acted wounded by his withdrawal. But I was curious about the one Lauren family member that seemed to be the least well drawn. I am thankful that Walker and Lara’s relationship went very differently than I had assumed (damn assumptions) and am now a huge Walker fan.

Janine: On another note, I really enjoyed the interactions between Judd and the Ghost. The Ghost remains as enigmatic as ever, and his actions in this book have made me even more interested in him than I was before. I hope he gets his own book eventually, and the same goes for Vasic and Aden from Judd’s Arrow squad.

Shuzluva: I mentioned my fascination with the Ghost above, and the confusion behind his loyalties and actions. With Hawke finishing his romantic arc, I find that I’m hopeful we will get another Psy-driven book (*cough* Kaleb *cough*) versus another SnowDancer / DarkRiver one.

Janine: Sounds good to me. There are some falcon changelings waiting for their turn, too.

It’s time to grade Kiss of Snow. I very rarely give A range grades to books unless I love the prose as much as I do the characters, and while I care about plot, which is one of Singh’s greatest strengths as a writer, it isn’t usually my highest priority as a reader or a reviewer.

Still, this book was such a roller coaster ride — with great pacing, emotional scenes that made me cry, happy moments that brought a goofy smile to my face, and scorching hot love scenes — that I can’t give it less than an A-.

Shuzluva: I am on the opposite end of the spectrum. If a book has an amazing plot and characters that are only likeable, I’m likely to give it a higher grade than if the reverse were true.

Beyond plot, I feel that a lot of components seamlessly came together in Kiss of Snow and the book provides emotional as well as intellectual rewards that are not solely dependent upon the main characters. And all the sexin’ didn’t suck either. Kiss of Snow gets an A from me.

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Related posts:

1. JOINT REVIEW: Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh (and Giveaway)
2. REVIEW: Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh
3. REVIEW: Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh

UPDATE: We’ve decouple the review from the giveaway because this is a book so many want to talk about. The review will be reposted on Monday in a new and separate post.

The winners have all been emailed.

1) Andy Swanson
2) Cath
3) Adrianne Robinson
4) Jenny
5) Sera
6) Nicola
7) sequoia
8) Erika

NOTE FROM JANE: We have 8 copies of the hardcover debut from a Dear Author favorite, Nalini Singh. These 8 copies we will give away on Sunday to a random commenter to this post. This book engendered such a strong response that Janine and Shuzluva decided to do a joint review. There may be some spoilers in this review and if you don’t want to be spoiled, just skip to the comments section and leave a comment as to why you want to read Kiss of Snow. I’ll tell you my reason. Because Singh delivered everything she promised when Hawke and Sienna were first introduced in the first book in this series, Slave to Sensation. I’ve told anyone who asked that yes, this book is worth the hardcover price.

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Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh
2. Wanna Win an ARC from Nalini Singh?
3. REVIEW: Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh

Other than Magic Mourns, the short story that was included in the Must Love Hellhounds anthology, I haven’t read any of your Kate Daniels series. I’m not sure why Kate Daniels unfortunately flew completely under my radar, but due to my giant, listing TBR stack, I doubt I’ll end up getting to it before I retire from my day job and my children are in college (read: not happening). While I may be late on The Edge bandwagon, I am happy that I jumped on with the second book.

I freely admit that what drew me to Bayou Moon was something in a blurb about William Sandine being a killer who plays with toys and action figures. Being a complete nerd and vinyl aficionado myself, there was no way I was going to pass up a book that feature a hero unafraid to show his less mature self. WHOOO! How little did I realize I hit the nail on the head with that thought.

William lives in the woods between the Weird (a magical world) and the Broken (mundane backwater South). An easy way to describe the Weird is it is a parallel world to our mundane one, but operates completely with magic and the fantastical, paranormal, what have you. Territory and power in the Weird are being fought for by nobles in the Kingdom of Andrianglia and the Dukedom of Louisiana. People like William live between the two worlds in the Edge. Those that are Edgers either don’t have enough magic to be welcomed into the Weird or they are outcasts from the Weird. Take a wild guess at which category William falls into.

William is a changeling, and all changelings in Adrianglia are separated from their families and bred as soldiers. After failing to follow orders, William is cast out into the Edge. I don’t want to ruin anything for those who haven’t read the first book here (and I haven’t but I picked up everything I needed to know from this book), so I’m not going to delve into William’s history too far. His lifetime of being trained as a tracker and killer precluded any sort of romantic or social interaction (along with being told that his attentions would be unwelcome by any female), so he is very much alone in the Edge in the beginning of Bayou Moon. William is approached by the Adrianglian Secret Service to go on a dangerous mission into the Mire, the swamps of the Edge that is between the Dukedom of Louisiana, the Broken and the State of Louisiana. He takes on the mission to try and get revenge against Spider, an agent from the Kingdom of Louisiana that kills changeling children.

Cerise Mar’s family were nobles, but they’ve been cast out to the Mire, and have claimed a huge portion of it for themselves. They may be poor, but the Mar family is large and they rely on each other. When her parents disappear, Cerise takes charge of the family and has to make some tough decisions. The family suspects that their rivals, the Sheeriles, are responsible for her parent’s sudden disappearance. Cerise is forced to travel to the Edge, and on her return, she and William’s paths intersect.

The book borders on epic in its scope; the worldbuilding is completely new and slightly complicated, and the characters don’t stay in one spot for long. However, Bayou Moon doesn’t slack on the development of characters or the story between Cerise and William. William may be a prime fighting machine, but his upbringing has stunted him emotionally and socially, and it’s both entertaining and painful to read as he works out what social nuance means and whether he reacts correctly or incorrectly in certain situations. His growth into a well-rounded person (character? changeling?) takes time and is believable. Cerise’s struggle to take up the family reins and effort to retain the control and respect of her unruly clan is well portrayed. Cerise is sure of herself but knows that she must prove that she can hold the family together. It was refreshing to have a heroine that could hold her own throughout the book and didn’t have quite as much growing to do as the hero. Cerise and William together…sometimes was explosive, but there were a few moments I felt like I was watching some really awkward interaction, and it felt slightly disjointed.

There were a couple of scenes toward the end of the book that frustrated me, but didn’t preclude me from enjoying the final chapters of the book, or the book as a whole. The secondary characters are superb and the tension (both romantic and action-filled) is strong throughout without having to be artificially manufactured. I’m going to pick up the first in the series and I hope that there’s another in the works. B+

~Shuzluva

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Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews
2. REVIEW: On the Edge by Ilona Andrews
3. REVIEW: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

The changeling William Wolf was introduced to readers in your earlier book, On the Edge. On your website, Mr. Andrews states in that book, William "lost Rose to Declan and did not save the day. This book [Bayou Moon] was his chance to be a hero, to get the girl. A damaged hero and a very odd girl, but still."

I enjoyed Bayou Moon, which takes place in the Edge, a strip of land between two dimensions, the Weird and the Broken. The Broken is our world, where there is no magic. The Weird is a magical realm, a mirror of the Broken in which two New World countries, Adrianglia and the Dukedom of Louisiana, are engaged in a cold war.

Bayou Moon begins when Nancy Virai, an Adrianglian spymaster, and her assistant/thug Erwin, arrive in the Edge to recruit William for a mission. William used to be a member of the Red Legion, an Adrianglian black ops army unit. But he was expelled from the Red Legion and adopted by the evil Lord Casshorn Sandine, who met his death in On the Edge. Since the events of that book, William, Lord Sandine, has been employed as a construction worker in the Broken and moping in his spare time.

Back in his Red Legion days, William had two encounters with a twisted, magically enhanced Dukedom of Lousiana spy named Spider. That William survived those encounters means he is the Adrianglians' best hope of defeating Spider and his covert organization of magically enhanced spies, the Hand. Spider and the other members of the Hand have infiltrated a part of the Edge which borders the Dukedom of Louisiana and is known as the Mire. Virai believes that they are searching for a magical item that could tip the balance of power between Adrianglia and the Dukedom of Lousiana, and mean all-out war.

William loathes Spider with his whole heart, since Spider is responsible for the murders of several Adrianglian changeling children (In Louisana, changelings are reviled so much that they are killed at birth, while in Adrianglia, many are abandoned by their parents and given over to the care of Hawk's Academy, the brutal orphanage where William grew up). Because he hates Spider so much, William agrees to infiltrate the Mire, learn what Spider and the Hand are seeking, capture that item, and if at all possible, kill Spider.

Meanwhile, in the Mire, Cerise Mar discovers that her parents have not returned from a ride to Sene Manor, an empty house that once belonged to Cerise's grandparents. When Cerise and two of her cousins ride to Sene, they discover that the house has been confiscated by the Sheeriles, a family with whom the Mars have a longstanding feud. The Sheeriles inform Cerise that the Hand has taken her parents, and they claim not to know the reason why.

Now Cerise and her family will have to fight the Sheeriles for Sene Manor, where there might be clues to explain the Hand's interest in Cerise's parents. But to prove that the Mars have the right to Sene, Cerise must travel to the Broken to retrieve a copy of the deed from her uncle.

Sneaking into the Mire from the Broken, William pays a man named Vern to guide him down a river to the town of Sicktree. Also on the same boat is a girl who looks like a hobo, and smells, to William's discerning nose, like a jar of moldy spaghetti sauce.

Partway through the journey, William and the girl lose Vern to a shark attack. Now the “hobo queen” is William's guide to Sicktree, and he does not trust her as far as he can throw a necromancer-controlled giant eel. But when he realizes the Hand's agents are after the girl, and that after washing off the spaghetti sauce, she smells delicious, William realizes that he has to stick close to her, and that that is exactly what he most wants to do.

For her part, Cerise, too, catches on to the fact that William is more than the spoiled blueblood he first appears to be. Unexpectedly attractive and proficient with a crossbow, William may be dangerous to Cerise's family. Can she trust him, and even if she can, should she risk her heart at a time when the lives of her family members are threatened?

Bayou Moon is darker in tone than On the Edge (One scene in particular is quite violent and not for the faint of heart) but it is still greatly entertaining.

William and Cerise seem right for each other. It was immensely enjoyable to see them begin to perceive they had met their match in the one they first dismissed as “Hobo Queen” and “Lord Bill.” As their strengths become apparent, they grow to admire each other more and more. Both are great with weapons and really respect each other's abilities in this arena. She has a huge family and he longs for family, a sense of belonging and being wanted and accepted, more than anything.

There is some delightful, laugh out loud humor in this book. I caught myself giggling and smiling several times. The novel had a terrific sense of adventure, particularly in the section of the book when William and Cerise were trying to reach Sicktree together, that reminded me of movies like “Romancing the Stone” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

The worldbuilding is superb; the Mire comes alive and I felt as though I could feel the humid air and murky water, and see the creatures that inhabited this world, from the Loch Ness monster-like rolpies to the legged eels.

I did catch one major inconsistency, though. Earlier in the book, it was stated and shown that exposure to the Hand's magic makes people sick at first, but later in the story, when many characters encountered the Hand for the first time, this was not the case.

If the world was believable for the most part, so was Spider. I especially liked it when he stated that he became a monster so his fellow countrymen would not have to. It's a rationale that many have used on a slippery slope to evil.

Most of the secondary villains among the members of the Hand reminded me of the supervillains in the comic books I read as a child. On their own they were menacing, but when they gathered together for a big showdown near the end of the book, it was too much to be wholly convincing. The Sheeriles were more interesting villains and I particularly appreciated the multidimensional Lagar, who had a humanity that he denied.

The Mars (Cerise's family) were colorful and lively. They were distinct from one another and I had no trouble telling them apart and remembering who each of them was, which is impressive since there were so many of them.

William's desperate need to be loved and accepted was so intense that at times it seemed a little over-the-top, but it was understandable given how barren his childhood had been, and it made me feel for him. Cerise was so attracted to William that I wondered why the women if the Broken and the other part of the Edge hadn't been, or if they had been but William simply didn't notice because he didn't believe anyone could want him.

Cerise was a wonderful heroine, strong, intelligent and responsible. I loved that she could still be smart alecky with Williams despite all the pressure she was under, and I especially loved the way she struggled with the difficulties of leading her family. Even when she fell apart on the inside, she knew she couldn't show it on the outside, lest her authority be challenged at a crucial time.

The attraction between Cerise and William was potent and the fact that their lives were in danger made me root for them as a couple even more. I wanted them to find some happiness in the midst of all the danger, and I was glad for them when they did.

In the last third of the book, a lot of attention is given to the magical item Spider is bent on acquiring, and to the history of this thing. This came up just as things were heating up between Cerise and William, and romance-lover that I am, I wanted more focus on their relationship and less on the history of this magical item.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

The final chapter and the epilogue have a very different feel from the rest of the story, and as a result, this book isn't as cohesive as On the Edge. The last conflict that came between William and Cerise near the very end of the book felt contrived to me. There is also a plot thread that is left unresolved. To me this was on the one hand this was somewhat dissatisfying, but on the other, encouraging, since I'm hoping for more books in this series.

Though it wasn't a perfect book, Bayou Moon was highly entertaining. I look forward to the next Edge-set book, and my grade for this one is a B+.

Sincerely,

Janine Ballard

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Related posts:

1. REVIEW: On the Edge by Ilona Andrews
2. REVIEW: Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews
3. REVIEW: Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

Wolfbreed is not a book I would ordinarily pick up despite my appreciation of the shifter mythology but I’m glad that I did.   Set in the Middle Ages, Wolfbreed ponders  the core of the werewolf mythology and that is who is the more beastly of creatures? Animals or humans.

When Brother Semyon von Kassel of the Order of the Hospital of St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem survives a brutal slaughter of his Order at the hands of an inhuman beast, he believes that he has been granted a gift from God.   When he finds a litter of ten, he brings this gift to his superiors.   Together it is decided that these babes will be fostered, trained and turned into the greatest secret weapon of the Church.

Brother Semyon is a sadist at heart.   He views these creatures as animals and exhibits a sort of unnatural glee at breaking them.   ”It is simple, my brother; punishment and reward, dominance and submission.   If every small sin is punished with an iron fist, they will not longer even conceive of large ones. … They obey us not to avoid pain, but because our approval is the only light and pleasure they are allowed in this world.”   Semyon, for all his belief that these creatures are animals, however, is not so repulsed that he does not avail himself of the girl beasts.

The Teutonic Order’s march in Germany to overtake the native pagan villages and turn them to Christianity is made easier when the trained beasts would “slip into its heart and tear it out.”   One the of survivors of the litter (because training was “hard”) was trained by Brother Erhard now Landkomtur Erhard.   Brother Erhard leaves Lilly in a keep kept by the Teutonic Order near one of the villages where Lilly first wrought death for her master.

This leads to a series of events that will bring Lilly into contact with Uldolf, the last surviving son of the former pagan chieftan. His family was killed eight years before and his arm torn off.   Uldolf grew up with his adoptive family, trapping animals and working leather with his one good arm.   When Uldolf finds a young girl in the woods, hurt and alone, he brings her back to his family.

The Order is desperate to find Lilly.   She represents a huge loss for the Church and they are rightfully worried about the danger she presents outside her confinement.   The search for Lilly starts to show cracks in the Church’s hold over the natives who have seen slaughter and oppression.

I had a couple of problems with the characters.   Initially, Lilly seemed almost simple minded, her thought process not shown to be mature.   Later in the book (but in a short time span) Lilly’s emotional status becomes quite complex as she grapples with her past deeds and juxtaposing it with the lessons of faith that she was taught while trained.   Part of this may be due to the fact that we get little deep point of view from Lilly until the end.   This does serve to keep the suspense up but also made some of Lilly’s actions seem contrived in beginning.   I did ask myself several times why the animals seemed to kill indiscriminately but would, from time to time, allow certain key people to survive to propel the story.

The relationship   between Lilly and Uldolph was a pivotal part of the story but I felt that their love for each other, particularly at the beginning, was missplaced particularly given Lilly’s state of mind.   She had been, essentially, brutalized at the hands of men for years and then brainwashed into being a mindless weapon.   It was a little hard for me to believe that Lilly had true feelings for Uldolph other than gratefulness.

The perversion of the Church, the challenge of faith, the capacity of forgiveness are all explored in this fantasy story.   I would recommend this to those who are intrigued by the shifter myth and the philosophical bounds.   It has a romance but while the relationship is core to the story, the romance is not.   Intellectually, this book gives a lot to ponder, but I remained detached emotionally.   B-

Best regards,

Jane

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

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1. REVIEW: Cross My Heart by Carly Phillips

Your Psy/Changeling series has me hooked. Set in a future and alternate Earth peopled by three races, humans, Psy, and changelings, the books feature dynamic characters, suspenseful plots and subplots, intricate world-building, and a lot of sexual and romantic tension. Though the world is dominated by the Psy, who are connected through a telepathic net, the changelings, who can shift form from animal to human, have slowly been gaining power, and it is they who are the focus of Branded by Fire, the sixth book in the series.

The story begins with a hot encounter between two changelings. Mercy, a sentinel for the DarkRiver leopard changeling pack, walks through the forest feeling the effects of eight months of abstinence. She is now the only one of the sentinels who is still unmated, and she worries she’ll remain that way. Mercy is dominant in her personality, and while she doesn’t want to walk all over a submissive man, she will also never allow someone else to boss her around. It’s a problem that other dominant females have sometimes been unable to resolve, and Mercy fears that even if she finds the right partner, she will resist the mating bond and roam away from him instead of accepting his love.

Just as Mercy is musing out loud that she would settle for a temporary lover to satisfy her physically, Mercy’s nemesis, Riley Kincaid, walks out of the woods. Riley is a wolf changeling whose rank in the wolves’ SnowDancer pack, lieutenant, is equal to Mercy’s leopard sentinel rank. Ever since Mercy’s DarkRiver leopard pack formed an alliance with Riley’s SnowDancer wolf pack, Mercy and Riley have been irritating one another, and now, Riley does not pass up the opportunity to taunt Mercy with his awareness of her physical needs.

A furious, frustrated Mercy attacks Riley and after he tries to subdue her without hurting her, things get sexual. Did I say this scene was hot? Scorching is more accurate. Even in bed (or rather, on the ground) Mercy and Riley vie for the upper hand, and the struggle for power turns them on more than they can stand to admit.

The next day they wake up feeling both satisfied and confused by the events of the previous night. After all, wolf and leopard are different animals. There may now be a truce between their packs, but cats and dogs are each other’s natural enemies. Not only that, Riley has always wanted a mate he could protect and keep safe, as he could not do for his mother or his sister Brenna, and Mercy will never allow any man to turn her into a submissive little wife. So why are they constantly thinking about each other, even on the trail of a rogue lynx changeling and on the search for the lynx’s brother, who has been kidnapped?

Branded by Fire may well be my favorite book in this series, and considering how much I enjoyed Caressed by Ice, that is saying something. I closed Branded by Fire at 11 PM, having skipped making or eating dinner until then so I could finish reading Mercy and Riley’s story. Sexy, intense and riveting, this book was also deeply satisfying. I couldn’t put it down.

I absolutely adore Mercy, who is not only strong and courageous but also loyal and generous. There is a scene in which Riley, after reliving his sister’s kidnapping in a nightmare, turns up outside Mercy’s house in the middle of the night, and she invites him to her bed, not for sex, but so that he can have the comfort of her company, without prying into his pain. The scene spoke volumes about the size of Mercy’s heart. For all that she knows that her toughness is her strength, Mercy also knows how to compromise without losing any of her self-esteem.

The latter is also true of Riley. Because of the hard time he gave Judd in Caressed by Ice, Riley started out with two strikes against him (in my book, anyway). I couldn’t blame Mercy for being annoyed with his taunts, either. But he won me over by making real sacrifices for Mercy, such as restraining his protective and possessive instincts so as not to lose her. By the end of this book, I also felt I understood his actions in Caressed by Ice better. I had forgotten, or maybe not known, that he raised his brother and sister from childhood, so it’s no wonder that what happened to Brenna in Slave to Sensation continued to haunt him even long after it was over.

In addition to Mercy and Riley’s romance, Branded by Fire also contains several intriguing subplots about the Human Alliance, the Psy Council, PsyNet, Lucas and Sascha, and Hawke and Sienna. The deeper into the series I’ve gotten, the more fascinated I’ve become with the complex tapestry you are crafting from these various, interwoven threads. I cannot wait for Hawke and Sienna’s book. I am so hoping these two will end up together. Please don’t make us wait too long to learn how things will turn out for them.

I do have a few minor criticisms. Besides the fact that it took me a little while to warm to Riley, I also felt that the writing wasn’t always smooth. There were POV shifts within scenes, and while I don’t always mind these, a couple of times I was confused as to whose thoughts I was reading. Additionally, toward the end of the book, I was so absorbed in the various plots that I felt somewhat impatient during the last couple of sex scenes, which did not hold my attention as strongly as the earlier ones.

But on the balance, I thought Branded by Fire was a deeply rewarding book. I don’t know you, but while reading Branded by Fire, I had the feeling that you weren’t holding anything back. There is a passion to your writing, and I don’t mean just the sex scenes — the whole book feels like it is written from a place of deep investment. I am now looking forward to November’s Blaze of Memory. B+/A- for Branded by Fire.

Sincerely,

Janine

This book can be purchased at Amazon on July 3, 2009, or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers on that same date (will update when link is available).

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh
2. REVIEW: Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh
3. REVIEW: Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh