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REVIEW: Tangle Girls (anthology edited by Nicole Kimberling)

Janine — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:00:31 +0000

Dear Readers,

Back in July of 2008, I reviewed Tangle XY, an anthology of short speculative m/m stories. Earlier this year, Blind Eye Books, the publisher of Tangle XY, came out with Tangle Girls, an f/f anthology. As with Tangle XY, some (not all) of the stories are multicultural, and many have fairy tale or science fiction elements, but in this anthology the commonality all the stories share is the focus on girls who love other girls. Here are my reviews of the six stories:

“Raccoon Skin” by J.D. EveryHope

In “Raccoon Skin,” Sophia, a college student, arrives at her parents’ home on a pre-dawn morning. After seeing that her parents’ trash can that has been upended by a raccoon, Sophia goes outside to put it back up, and while there, she sees crows attacking a golden eagle. The eagle falls to the snowy ground, and Sophia chases the crows away. Just as she is debating whether to take the eagle inside, the bird shifts shape and turns into a human girl — and not just any girl, but Sophia’s girlfriend, Caterina.

Caterina and Sophia met in college and began dating, but Sophia never told Caterina that she hadn’t come out to her parents. Now it seems Caterina has also been keeping secrets: not only is she a shapeshifter, she is also a princess from another realm, and her younger brothers’ lives are in danger. Caterina wants to return to her land and rescue her brothers, but her injuries are serious. Sophia convinces her to ask Sophia’s parents for shelter and help and allow Sophia to save her brothers instead.

Caterina gives Sophia a ring which will open a path to Caterina’s world when dawn arrives. Just as Sophia is about to go through the portal, a raccoon speaks and warns her that Beyond, where she is about to venture, is a dangerous place. Her odds of success will be better if she and the raccoon trade skins.

Sophia agrees. Clothed as a raccoon, she enters Beyond and it is indeed a dangerous journey. Fortunately, the raccoon skin proves very helpful.

“Raccoon Skin” is a charming quest story that reminded me a bit of some of fairy tales I read as a child. I loved the way the mundane was transformed into the magical, and enjoyed the clever ways Sophia found to see past the deceptive illusions of the Beyond. It was also neat to see the traditional gender role upended, so it was a heroine who charged to the rescue. I would have liked to see more of Sophia and Caterina’s relationship, but on the whole, I really enjoyed the story. My grade for “Raccoon Skin” is a B+.

“Amazons” by Jesse Sandoval

“Amazons” was the reason I plopped down $12.95 for Tangle Girls. I loved Sandoval’s story in Tangle XY, “Los Conversos.” The setting of “Amazons” is unnamed, although the title of course alludes to the Amazon. As the story, which appears to be historical, begins, its unnamed female narrator is rowing a boat on a jungle river. She observes the crocodile beneath the water and the black snakes hanging from the trees above with respect.

Once I saw one of those snakes lift a grown man off his feet and swallow him whole. The man pissed himself as the snake wrapped herself around him as if she were falling in love. She opened her thin mouth and took him in a deep kiss. I watched her eyes the entire time. She had the mesmerized gaze of utter adoration, as if this man’s form, his meat and muscle, had entranced her and drawn her into an unthinkable action.

I remember seeing that same unflinching stare long ago, looking back at me from a silver mirror. My hands trembled as I tried to load the pistol, the slender bullets wavered and slipped between my fingers. Then I caught sight of myself in a mirror. I gazed into my own eyes, the wide pupils dilated, entranced with desire. My reflection knew that I was a murderess before I did. She passed that assurance to me in a glance. My fingers have never trembled since.

How did the narrator come to look in the mirror and see a murderess? Since this story is only six pages long, I don’t want to give it away, but the story begins in Europe, where the main character met a woman named Maria, with whom she shared slices of cake and stories about the New World.

The imagery in “Amazons” has a hallucinatory beauty that captures what it is like to be drunk on love, willing to do anything for the other person. The story is haunting and powerful, though I wish it were longer so that I could feel I really knew Maria. I can’t wait for Jesse Sandoval to write a novel or a short story collection so that I can drown in his gorgeous prose. Ms. Kimerbling, if you’re reading this, can you do anything about that? My grade for “Amazons” is a B+/A-.

“The Conclave” by Trent Roman

Tanya Drake has been dating Erin, a centuries-old fey, but the relationship is becoming frustrating for her. The two met at the private Catholic school in which Tanya was enrolled. It wasn’t long before they became lovers. But Erin has a habit of comparing Tanya’s lovemaking to that of lovers from her past, lovers as famous as Sappho and Gengis Khan’s concubines. Erin also disappears for days on end only to reappear expecting the relationship to resume as though she’d never left.

After one such disappearance, Tanya tries to question Erin and find out how serious she is about their relationship. To make it up to Tanya, Erin offers to sneak her mortal lover into “the biggest bash in two worlds,” a party for immortal beings known as the Conclave. What kind of adventures will Tanya have at the Conclave, and how will they affect her relationship with Erin?

“The Conclave” is written in a crisp, snappy style I enjoyed. I liked the way Tanya and Erin arrived at the Conclave, too. But though Tanya is said to be a high school student, the character comes across as older. Erin is jaded and doesn’t treat Tanya that well, taking their relationship very lightly, so it’s hard to care about her, but Tanya isn’t sure if she’s serious in her feelings for Erin, either, so it’s also hard to care about how the relationship will change.

I felt that essentially, nothing that is deeply important to the characters happened in the story, so nothing that happened was all that important to me as a reader, either. After “Raccoon Skin” and “Amazons,” it was hard not to be disappointed in this one. My grade for “The Conclave” is a C-.

“Under Suspicion” by Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon

Set on the spaceship Mastodon, “Under Suspicion” begins when a shipwide alarm sounds, alerting United Star Fleet Ensign Lily Branoch and her fellow crewmembers to an accident in the main hanger. In the process of helping to rescue people trapped under “cargotainers,” Lily encounters a beautiful marine whose name she doesn’t catch. She glimpses the woman again before she learns that she is Lt. Cruz-Ortega.

Lily is powerfully attracted to the woman, so much so that she can’t get the lieutenant out of her mind. But this distraction becomes a problem when Lily begins to suspect that the beautiful Daniella may be involved in a plot to smuggle weapons off the Mastodon. Could Daniella Cruz-Ortega’s lovely face be hiding treachery? And even if not, will Lily ever get up the gumption to ask her out?

“Under Suspicion” was an enjoyable story and it probably had the most relationship focus of any of the stories in this collection. Lily was likable and the enigmatic Daniella was compelling. The worldbuilding was solid and I liked the military atmosphere. My main complaint is that due to the nature of the plot, the relationship between the two women did not develop that much. Nonetheless it was fun, though I would have liked it to be a bit more substantial. C+/B- for “Under Suspicion.”

“Cupcake” by Erin MacKay

Erin MacKay’s “Cupcake” takes place in the future, on a colonized world. The viewpoint character is Stasya, a professional assassin. As the story opens, Stasya receives an assignment from Rupi, a man who has hired her to kill in the past. This time Stasya is astonished at the target, whom she describes as “just a…a cupcake.”

Mitusko Jennings-Villega’s husband wants to collect on his wife’s life insurance policy, but Mitsuko is constantly watched by her wealthy father’s guards. To kill her, Stasya has to infiltrate “High Street,” Mitusko’s rarified world of corporate celebrities. Yet once she meets Mitusko, Stasya is in for a surprise. Mitusko realizes she is an assassin, and she is willing– no, ready — to die. Will Stasya be able to kill the woman she is beginning to admire and care for?

“Cupcake” is written in clean, straightforward prose and while the worldbuilding isn’t completely fresh, it’s well-executed. The story felt a little oppressive to me (though not nearly as much as MacKay’s story in Tangle XY, “Crossing the Distance”), but on the whole I liked it.

Stasya is a compelling character, though I wish her past, and especially her reason for becoming an assassin for hire, had made her more sympathetic. Mitsuko isn’t as morally ambiguous, but her life hasn’t been very meaningful. Though neither character is always likable, the story still kept me involved, probably because of the danger and high stakes. My grade for “Cupcake” is a B.

“Dead and the President” by Tenea D. Johnson

Set in a dystopian future, Tenea De. Johnson’s “Dead and the President” begins when the consciousness of the main character, a young black woman named Dead, is inhabiting the body of the President. Dead intends to speak to the world from within his body, but the President pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head.

Dead then begins recounting her history to the reader. She was born in the Basin, where many people have inherited the special abilities given to blacks by a doctor who believed he was making genetic reparations. Dead’s talent is “phasing” into other people and controlling their actions.

Dead is a motherless twelve year old when she is tagged by the Internal Processing Department, which tracks those with unusual abilities, and uses her talent to escape. She ends up Topside, where life is much nicer and safer, but she can’t forget about the hungry kids she left behind in the Basin, and eventually, she hatches a plan to help them.

Dead has the potential to be a sympathetic character, and there were a number of relationships that could have been involving in this story, not just the sexual one Dead eventually has with another young woman, but also her friendships with a girl named Nina in the Basin, and with an elderly woman named Cecilia in Topside. But these pass by the reader quickly, like houses glimpsed briefly from the window of a moving car. It is hard to get invested in these people, even when they mean a lot to Dead, because we readers hardly get to spend time with them.

What gets the most attention in “Dead and the President” is the setting. Dead’s world is an interesting place, but I almost stopped reading a few pages in, when the unfamiliar terms became difficult to decipher. I still don’t understand exactly what a couple of them mean, even after reading certain paragraphs three or four times. Johnson has a nice writing style, and another thing I liked about the story was the way the futuristic setting reflected social and political injustice. This aspect of the worldbuilding was well handled and thought-provoking, but for me, it’s not enough to make up for what’s missing. C- for “Dead and the President.”

Overall, the anthology was a bit uneven, but still worth reading in my opinion, with four enjoyable stories and two weaker ones. I want to reiterate my plea for more fiction from Jesse Sandoval, who writes so beautifully. I will be keeping my eye out on future offerings from Blind Eye Books, too. My overall grade for Tangle Girls is a B-.

Sincerely,

Janine

This book can be purchased at Amazon. No ebook.

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Friday Film Review: Shaun of the Dead

Jayne — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:00:11 +0000

Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Genre: Romantic zombie comedy
Grade: Effing hilarious

When I looked ahead on the October calendar and saw that this last Friday would be the day before Halloween, I realized I needed some kind of horror film or monster film or, well you get the picture, to tie in with it. But since that genre isn’t something I normally watch and I wanted some romance in the film, I was a bit panicked. “What can I watch?” I muttered as I chewed a fingernail. A quick check of my Netflix queue and the day is saved. I’ll watch “Shaun of the Dead!” I said.

[[Show as slideshow]]

The plot is fairly simple. Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a 29 year old appliance salesman who’s having problems with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) who is dissatisfied with their relationship, primarily because it revolves around going to “The Winchester,” Shaun’s favorite pub, every night. She wants something different, a nice dinner at a nice restaurant somewhere other than the pub. But Shaun screws even that up and tops it off by giving her flowers, complete with card, that he’d bought for his mother. She dumps him and Shaun and one of his flatmates, Ed (Nick Frost), head to the pub to drown Shaun’s sorrows.

The next day, something weird seems to be going on in the streets of London. At first they’re almost deserted, though Shaun barely notices anything different until he and Ed see a young woman in their small flat garden. They eventually realize she’s a zombie then retreat inside where the telly news announcer informs London that zombies are taking over the country and the only way to kill them is to remove their heads or destroy their brains. Armed with this knowledge and some weapons improvised from the garden shed, they dispatch her and another zombie. Worried about Shaun’s mother (Penelope Wilton), Liz and whether or not they’ll have to kill Phillip (Bill Nighy), Shaun’s stepfather who’s apparently been bitten by one of the undead, the two devise a plan to pick everyone up and drive to the Winchester where they think they’ll be safe.

But with the numbers of the undead flesh eating zombies growing, is there anywhere in London that’s safe?

As I said, I don’t watch horror films beyond the occasional “Hammer” film so a lot of the delicious homages to the film genre passed right over my head. But don’t worry, you don’t need to be a fan to enjoy this film. Pegg and his co-writer Edgar Wright, who also directed the film, also include a number of other homages to British TV shows and video games. Again, if you catch these it’s great but you certainly don’t need to know all the references to have fun with the movie. I had a great time picking out various actors and trying to remember where I’d seen them (It’s “Dawn” from “The Office!”).

The gore is fairly low key and generally consists of face paint and off screen deaths until the final scenes at the Winchester. Here, with Shaun and the others using the namesake rifle from over the pub bar, things get bloodier. The death of one of their number who gets dragged outside by the zombies is fairly graphic but it’s over quickly. In the storyboard “Plot Holes,” which are part of the DVD extras, we learn that another person actually survives being hauled amongst the undead.

We never actually learn how the zombie apocalypse begins and the ending features a major deus ex machina, but the film is so funny and enjoyable that I don’t care. At times, such as when Shaun is battling his way to Liz’s flat, I was literally holding my sides laughing as I screamed, “It’s like whack-a-mole!” The scene in the Winchester when several of their hearty band bludgeon the zombie pub owner to the beat of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” is hilarious.

Recently, DA has received offers of a number of zombie books for review and Jane mentioned that zombies seem to be the new vampires of UF. Hopefully they’re not like these zombies or I’d have to ask, as an aghast talk show host character does in the film, “You sleep with that?!” But if you’re looking for a great film for Halloween, do check this one out. I’m off to watch it for a second time now.

~Jayne

FTC discloser – I rented this from a movie rental service though I plan to buy my own copy.

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REVIEW: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Jennie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:00:05 +0000

Dear Ms. Austen,

I will confess right off the bat that I’m one of those readers who never “got” you. I tried to read Pride and Prejudice years ago, but gave up after a few pages because of your writing style. What can I say – I had less patience in those days with long, indirect sentences which seemed to use 20 words to say what could be easily said in five (hah! I’m one to talk on that score…). I read Emma a few years ago and honestly did not care for it. It wasn’t so much the language this time; it was the fact that there seemed to be about a dozen main characters and only one of them (Mr. Knightley, of course) appeared to not be a complete and utter twit. Emma herself was dumber than a bag of hammers, and every other character seemed to fall somewhere on the continuum between “moron” and “get any stupider and we’ll need to water you twice a week” (to paraphrase the late, great Molly Ivins).

I don’t really like reading about stupid people, so Emma frustrated me. Nonetheless, I picked up a copy of Sense and Sensibility recently, and though I started reading with some trepidation I soon found myself enchanted with the writing and the characters (though many of them are hardly any sharper than those found in Emma).

Sense and Sensibility, for those readers who don’t know, is the story of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, sisters who encounter many obstacles on the path to true love. As with Pride and Prejudice, the title Sense and Sensibility is significant. Elinor, the older of the sisters, is ruled by sense – she is not given to great shows of emotion or passion, whereas Marianne, who to be fair is only about 17 during the time the story takes place, thrives on drama and grand expressions of emotion. Elinor is by far the more sympathetic of the sisters for most of the book, though some readers may, I suppose, find her coolness and perfection a bit off-putting. I found her very sympathetic, since as the reader we’re privy to her inner thoughts and realize how hard it is for her to maintain her calm facade at times.

The story opens with the death of Mr. Henry Dashwood, Elinor and Marianne’s father. Soon, their half-brother and his rapacious wife descend on Norland Park, the family’s estate, and take over the place. Mr. Dashwood had hoped to provide well for his second wife and their three daughters (Elinor and Marianne have a younger sister, Margaret), being that his son John was already wealthy from an inheritance from his late mother, as well as from having made a good marriage. But the estate had been passed down to Mr. Dashwood in such a way that he was unable to leave it to anyone but his son John, and so as an alternative he asked John on his deathbed to look after the interests of his stepmother and sisters. This leads to a rather hilarious conversation between John and his wife, in which they gradually whittle down the meaning of the promise John has made:

“Perhaps, then, it would be better for all parties if the sum were diminished one half. Five hundred pounds would be a prodigious increase to their fortunes!”

“Oh! beyond anything great! What brother on earth would do half so much for his sisters, even if really his sisters! And as it is — only half blood! — But you have such a generous spirit!”

Soon they have decided that this “generous spirit” only requires them to help the ladies find a suitable place to move to, and nothing more. In Mrs. John Dashwood’s opinion, the move cannot come too soon, for she is concerned about the connection forming between Elinor and her brother, Edward Ferrars, who is a frequent visitor at Norland. Mr. Ferrars is the eldest son of a wealthy family and his sister and mother have big plans for him that don’t include a quiet, modest non-entity such as Elinor.

Marianne also disapproves of the growing affection between Elinor and Edward, for entirely different reasons: she sees Edward Ferrars as too boring and passionless and cannot understand the attraction that Elinor feels for him. Marianne is not just set on being emotional and dramatic herself; she dislikes and distrusts anyone who does not wear his heart on his sleeve.

Soon the widow Dashwood and her daughters receive an offer from a distant relative for a situation in Devonshire: a comfortable and affordable cottage near the relative’s estate. They leave Norland with some regret (it has been their home for quite a while, after all) and embark on their new life.

Once settled in Devonshire, the Dashwood sisters meet a veritable host of new people, many of them very amusing (your gift for satire really shines in these characterizations, I think): Sir John Middleton, their jolly but rather silly benefactor; his wife, who thinks of nothing but her children, and Mrs. Jennings, the wife’s mother, vulgar and gossipy but with an unexpected heart of gold. They also meet several eligible gentlemen: Colonel Brandon, a friend of Middleton’s who takes an interest in Marianne (an interest not returned because she finds him to be even more of a dry stick than Edward Ferrars) and John Willoughby, a dashing young man who does attract Marianne’s notice.

There’s a lot going on in the plot of Sense and Sensibility; I haven’t even mentioned several major and minor characters (my favorite of which are probably Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, Lady Middleton’s sister and brother-in-law – he is gruff to the point of rudeness, a quality that his silly wife seems to delight in, insisting that he is “droll”). Nor have I really managed to dig very deeply into the plot. Suffice to say that there are a number of twists and turns to Elinor’s and Marianne’s romances; the story eventually moves to London and both sisters suffer a fair amount of heartache before each finds her Mr. Right.

I liked pretty much everything about Sense and Sensibility: the plot, which is intricate without being too convoluted (there are some unlikely coincidences of the sort that make the reader think that there must have only been a few dozen people in Regency England, but I can handle coincidences pretty well in a well written book – what might be unbelievable in a bad book feels symmetrical to me in a good one), the characters, several of whom have unexpected depth – even some of the villains are not entirely without nuance, and the writing, which is the very definition of droll (unlike Mr. Palmer). I loved this bit about Edward Ferrars’ controlling mother, who briefly disowns him:

Her family had of late been exceedingly fluctuating. For many years of her life she had had two sons; but the crime and annihilation of Edward, a few weeks ago, had robbed her of one; the similar annihilation of Robert had left her for a fortnight without any; and now, by the resuscitation of Edward, she had one again.

In spite of his being allowed once more to live, however, he did not feel the continuance of his existence secure, till he had revealed his present engagement; for the publication of that circumstance, he feared might give a sudden turn to his constitution, and carry him off as rapidly as before.

If I have any quibbles or criticisms of the book, it would be a slight sense of apprehension over the resolution of one of the romances (I don’t want to say more for fear of spoiling anyone – one of the pleasures of the book for me is that I didn’t know who would end up with who) and an occasional difficulty with the old-fashioned writing, which did feature the same long, indirect sentences that I tended to get lost in and have to reread to understand. Still, I feel such a sense of triumph and pleasure at being able to say that I am an official “Jane Austen fan”. I wonder which of your novels I should pick up next? I feel like I should try Pride and Prejudice again, but I know the story so well from film adaptions that I don’t feel as much of a sense of urgency. I’ve been warned away from Northanger Abbey, which doesn’t seem to be a favorite of even die-hard Austen fans. I’m thinking of either Mansfield Park or Persuasion. In any case, I am eagerly looking forward to reading your works again – no more trepidation for me.

My grade is an A-.

Regards,

Jennie

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CONVERSATIONAL REVIEW: Indiscreet by Carolyn Jewel

Jennie — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:00:00 +0000

PLEASE NOTE: this conversational review does contain some spoilers.

Jennie: I was one of many readers mightily impressed with Carolyn Jewel’s previous historical romance Scandal, which I read in January and graded an A-.

Janine: Totally with you on that. Scandal was one of the most impressive books I’ve read this year, and it’s stuck with me so much that I recently went back to my own review and raised the grade from an A- to an A-/A.

Jennie: I was very much looking forward to Indiscreet. While I had some problems with the second half of the story, overall, it did not disappoint.

Janine: Agreed again, although, as readers will see our opinions about what works in this book differ a bit more than they usually do.

Jennie: The book begins:

How everything started.

This incident took place at about two o’clock the morning of September 3, 1809. The location was the back parlor of a town house owned by the Duke of Buckingham but lived in by the Earl of Crosshaven on a ninety-nine-year lease, presently in its twenty-third year. It should be remarked that Lord Edward Marrack, the younger brother of the Marquess of Foye, was in attendance that night. Lord Edward had been something of a rake until his engagement to the daughter of a longtime family friend. The Earl of Crosshaven currently was a rake.

Several chapters start with this unconventional stage-setting device, and while it startled me at first, I found I rather liked it.

Janine: Although I liked the book very much, this device was one of the few things in it that did not work well for me. I was fine with it for the first chapter, but after that I often found these omniscient narration chapter openings distracting because I would get caught up in the action of the story and then would come a chapter break and this type of description and everything would come to a standstill. And often the information being given would be something I already knew, so it was frustrating — though not enough to seriously mar my enjoyment of the book.

Jennie: Hmm. Well, I think it worked for me for an unusual reason: it did take me out of the story (which is something I also don’t like, usually), but in a way that I found slyly amusing, a sort of wink and nod acknowledgement that it was just a story, after all.

I also liked the scene that follows this introduction, in part because I really wasn’t sure who the hero was or where the story was headed. The Earl of Crosshaven proceeds to boast that he has seduced Miss Sabine Goddard, a young lady recently come to town and one whose reputation had so far been spotless. Lord Marrack disapproves of his friend bandying the young woman’s name around; he doesn’t know her, but he does know that the boast will be all over town by the next day and that she is effectively ruined. His last thought is that her uncle, an eminent scholar who has recently been knighted (the reason for the Goddards’ presence in London), and Sabine’s guardian, will probably put her out on the street when he hears the story.

Janine: Yes, this was a very good scene and it intrigued me on multiple levels.

Jennie: Cut to a year and a half later, where the action has switched to Turkey. Lord Marrack has become the Marquess of Foye with the untimely death of his brother, and has fled England following the breaking-off of his engagement. He encounters the infamous Miss Goddard and her uncle at a party, and immediately finds himself drawn to her.

The scandal that Crosshaven’s lie produced has forced Sabine and her uncle, Sir Henry Goddard, to withdraw from English society, and they are traveling for a book Sir Henry is writing. Sabine acts as an assistant and to some degree a caretaker to her uncle, who is in poor health.

Contrary to Foye’s earlier speculation, Sir Henry Goddard did not turn his back on his niece after the scandal with Crosshaven erupted. However, Sabine is convinced that he does not believe her protestations of innocence, and indeed he does treat her interactions with men with suspicion. The affair has obviously strained their close relationship (Sabine’s parents died when she was very young; Sir Henry is the only real parent she has ever known).

Foye has been made cynical by the way his engagement ended. He is determined to marry an older, experienced woman if he marries at all; he’ll have no love match. His attraction to the young Miss Goddard (23 to his 38) is inconvenient for him, and he tries to fight it.

I know a lot of readers aren’t crazy about huge h/h age differences; honestly, in the past I’ve never been much bothered by them, and just as I began to get old enough to perhaps view them differently, they became a lot less common in romances. The age difference between Foye and Sabine in Indiscreet didn’t bother me, but the agonizing Foye does over it did annoy me. To be fair, I suppose that a hero that recognizes the potential problems and is concerned about them isn’t a bad thing. It’s just annoying because it’s not really a “problem” for which there is any resolution. He’s not going to get any younger, and she’s going to age at the same rate that he does. So the only resolution is for him to get over it, and the reader is aware of that from the start. Which makes any time spent on the issue feel like a bit too much.

Janine: I understand your perspective, but this didn’t bother me. I think I would have had a harder time with the fifteen-year age difference had it been presented as no problem whatsoever for either of the characters. As it was, the fact that Foye agonized over it made me like him better than I think I would have if he had been excited to have found himself a much younger woman.

Jennie: Yes, I’m not sure what sort of acknowledgement I would’ve preferred, because I think an acknowledgement was necessary. I just find that sometimes the more characters agonize over something that I know can’t really be overcome, the more annoyed I get. So I guess I prefer to have such agonizing be as succint as possible.

More interesting is Foye’s insecurity over his looks. He is not your typical breathtakingly handsome romance hero – his features are often described as “irregular”, and he’s a big hulk of a man. He’s somewhat self-conscious about his lack of beauty, and tends to be vain about his dress, which I found a touching detail.

Janine: I liked that very much too. Just in general I loved Foye — more on that later.

Jennie: Sabine, of course, has also been burned (and has her own set of insecurities, chiefly about being very well educated; when she first came to London she discovered just how unusual her interests made her). The fact that Foye was a friend of Crosshaven’s does not make her at all inclined to think well of him. In fact, when they first meet, she is afraid that he intends to expose her to the circle of expatriates and British military officers she and her uncle socialize with, or that he may proposition her. Thus, she’s extremely wary about the interest Foye shows in her.

Janine: I loved the tension that resulted from that. Foye and Sabine both had this heightened awareness of one another that was delicious to read about.

Jennie: Yes, and I loved the fact that as a result, Sabine’s awareness wasn’t based on attraction, at first. I find it so rare in a romance that either the hero or the heroine isn’t immediately attracted, that every instance thrills me a bit.

Through a series of meetings Foye and Sabine do come to a wary sort of understanding, and eventually, love. Nevertheless, there remain some significant barriers to their HEA. This all occurs in the first half of the book. The ease with which those barriers were swept away made me realize how flimsy they were to start with. (Which is often the case in a romance, if you think about it. I see it as an author’s job to make me not think about it.)

The second half of the book shifts from the interpersonal conflict between Sabine and Foye to a conflict that is almost entirely external and action-based. I liked this section less. I do sometimes like action, especially when it’s well written. But the lack of hero/heroine conflict in this section and the abrupt shift from small and internal to large and external left the book feeling unbalanced. I think it may have worked better if the sections were switched – at times the story was vaguely reminiscent of Laura Kinsale’s The Dream Hunter – a book I love. That book has the big action-adventure part first, and then the story shifted to a smaller, more character-driven tale. Somehow this works better for me.

That’s not to say that there is no interpersonal conflict in the latter half of the book, but it’s mostly beneath the surface and focused on the hero and heroine’s doubts and insecurities. I think it’s tricky to write “does s/he really want and love me?” hand-wringing in such a way that it’s not tiresome, and I did occasionally find it tiresome in Indiscreet.

Janine: Thanks for the shout out to Kinsale’s fabulous The Dream Hunter. I do agree that the two books were a bit similar. As for the internal conflict in the second half, I loved the subtlety and complexity of it.

As mentioned before I loved Foye. I loved the way he transformed, or rather, showed another facet of his personality, in the second half of the book. Where he had been a thoughtful, even sensitive man, he also showed that when it was necessary for him to have a harder edge and do what was necessary to ensure his and Sabine’s survival, he could do that as well.

I felt that Sabine’s response to that was fascinating. While she was grateful, she also wasn’t sure she recognized him as the man she’d fallen in love with, and this made her uncertain of her feelings for him and his for her. Foye sensed her reaction, and what’s more, he was also torn between his desire for her and his need to protect her good name. I thought that all this added layers of complexity to the story and I enjoyed it very much.

Jennie: You make a good point, and it reminds me of something I’d forgotten that I did want to mention. I thought that Sabine’s reaction to being disguised as a boy was very interesting and well-done. Her observations about the freedoms her disguise allowed her, in spite of the fact that her male persona was in a much lower social position, were really compelling and thought-provoking.

Janine: Agreed. It also highlighted Sabine’s vulnerability and added tension to the story. So overall, I liked the contrast between the first half of the book and the second, after I got used to it. My main issue with the second half was that it made me think of a friend of mine. She is Lebanese-American as well as a romance reader, and she often finds it difficult to read romances set in the Middle East due to negative stereotypes. As much as I enjoyed Indiscreet myself, I would feel leery about recommending this book to her, because none of the Turkish characters were fleshed out, including the villain.

Jennie: Hmm. Well, I did not feel that most of the Turkish characters conformed to any negative Middle Eastern stereotypes that I’m aware of. That said, I agree that they were not fleshed out at all. The story (and most of the characterization) focused on Foye and Sabine, so it wasn’t quite so noticeable to me that there weren’t any fully realized native characters. Though I was a bit uneasy at the “white slaver” aspect of the villain’s character, because that does conform to some stereotypes in my mind. So I can understand you having qualms about recommending it to your friend.

To get back to my complaints about the second half of the book, I want to be clear that I’m not saying it’s bad by any means; it’s really not. I have a lamentable tendency when reviewing to expound at length on the negative, and I don’t want to ignore the positives of what was overall a very good book. Indiscreet features excellent prose, sympathetic and well-drawn characters (even the villainous Crosshaven is allowed a small measure of redemption in the end), and an unusual setting. It’s really only the pacing and arrangement of the plot that I have any real issue with (minor complaints about hand-wringing aside).

Janine: I didn’t have a problem with the arrangement of the plot at all. There were a couple of happenings in the last chapter of the book that raised questions in my mind but to go into them would involve revealing some big spoilers, so I’ll refrain. Suffice to say that I thought the ending felt a bit rushed.

I want to take a moment to appreciate Jewel’s prose. Few authors do a better job of conveying a character’s interior thoughts and emotional responses. Take for example this excerpt, from Foye and Sabine’s first conversation, when Sabine is telling Foye’s fortune based on a reading of what remains in his teacup.

“Lady Foye, perhaps?” she said in a sweet voice.

“No,” he said after too long a silence. “There is no Lady Foye.”

She looked up, interested more by his flat tone of voice than by his declaration of bachelorhood. He wasn’t looking at her. His attention was interior, on some deep and private pain. She hadn’t expected to see anguish, yet that was what she saw in his eyes, and her heart pinched a little on his behalf.

“Another woman, then,” she said. Looking at Lord Foye, with his irregularly put together face, was suddenly too intimate an experience. His eyes were too raw with loss. Had she inadvertently reminded him of a lost love? “Someone who will love you, my lord. Exactly as you deserve.”

Without thinking, she leaned forward, peering into his face. Foye’s gaze came back to the present. Their eyes locked, and with no warning, her breath caught in her throat. Her skin prickled up and down her body, all in pointed awareness of the man sitting across from her. He wasn’t handsome. He wasn’t at all. But Sabine’s heart beat hard against her ribs as if he were.

She leaned away, still struggling to get enough air into her lungs. She felt she had not moved soon enough, that she had unwittingly allowed an intimacy she would never permit in actual fact. A spark of fear settled in her chest because even with the distance between them, she remained lost in his eyes. Lost.

It was Foye who broke their gaze. “What else do the tea leaves predict?” he softly asked.

I think that’s just marvelous writing, the kind that makes me want to savor every word. There is such a smoothness to the language here and yet it doesn’t call attention to itself because it directs all of our attention to the characters and what they are feeling. The result is some powerful emotion in the reader. This is a writer at the top of her craft, which is why, caveats aside, I highly recommend this book.

Jennie:I agree with you about the gorgeousness of the prose (and about the rushed ending, alas). My grade for Indiscreet is a B+.

Janine: Mine is a B+/A-.

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 a 6-7% affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link (or anything for that matter) 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.

ETA by Janine (in the way of FTC disclosure): I met Carolyn Jewel at RWA this past July and had the opportunity to tell her that I enjoyed Scandal.

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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!

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GUEST REVIEW: Demon Forged by Meljean Brook

Guest Reviewer — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:35:41 +0000

This guest review is brought to you by Jill Myles, author, friend and blogging partner of Meljean Brook. We will have a review of Demon Forged by Janet (aka Robin) next week.

****

Dear Meljean Brook:

I’ve struggled to write this review a little. In fact, this is the second time I’ve tried to write it on paper, and probably the ninth draft from my head.

Disclaimer – you and I blog together and we are friends, but…I was a friend to your series (does that sound lame? Can I say that?) long before we’d ever said hello. I was first introduced to the Guardians when Jane Litte of Dear Author raved about DEMON ANGEL. Hello, angel story? I am there. It wasn’t until much later that we became friends, but I wanted to throw this out in the open lest someone think I have bias, and I guess I do.

Some of your books I have loved more than others. DEMON BOUND was my absolute favorite, and some of the others were less…favorite… (I’m looking at you, DEMON NIGHT) but were still excellent reads. For me, your books are a consistent treat – when I want dense, layered storytelling, an epic plot and damn hot sex, I reach for one of your books. And when I told Jane how much I loved your new book and how groundshaking it was as a faithful reader, she invited me to come do this review.

So. Review.

I’m not so good with reviews so I’ll try and hit a laundry list of things. I like lists, you see. (Editorial note, lists have numbers or letters, Jill, or at least bullet points).

DEMON FORGED is the story of Irena and Alejandro, both Guardians. Irena can control and sculpt metal, and Alejandro can control fire. 400 years ago, they were lovers until a demon broke them apart. And naturally they are thrown back together again for the storyline of the novel. (I’m not going to recap the entire plot because I am really, really really bad at recaps. Honest. What you need to know is that Irena kicks ass, and Alejandro kicks ass, and at some point they both get together, kick other people’s asses, and then do hot, nasty things to each other. End recap.)

I know you have gotten crap in the past about your dense storylines. And it’s true – there is a ton packed into every Meljean Brook novel. This is no fluffy bunny tale that you can breeze through in an hour. Your novels are complex, detailed, layered in plot. The worldbuilding is incredible. I think you’ve thought of everything, and it shows. Can you pick up DEMON FORGED if you haven’t read the other books in the series? I think so. The story starts off following Irena closely. Will you be completely lost? Maybe for a brief while.

I have a small confession to make: I suck at remembering ongoing storylines. While I recall characters, I never remember what happened in the last book, so I basically start fresh with every novel as well. So while I do think some readers will be initially confused, trust Meljean Brook that she will lead you through the story and hook you in. (And if you need a bit more help, there’s always the Primer here: http://meljeanbrook.com/books/the-guardian-series/primer )

If you’re someone that has followed the Guardians series for a while, though, I have two words for you: HOLY CRAP.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

If books in a series were playing cards…you just played your ace, Meljean Brook. DEMON FORGED takes everything you knew about the Guardians and their world, shakes it up, breaks it, and then leaves you begging for mercy. This book was impossible to predict, and breathtaking with the way it steamrolled me right to the very last page.

(For those of you worrying, worry not! There’s a definite happily ever after and it’s a good one – it’s just everything else that goes BOOM.)

So I won’t spoil it for you, but just want to say that it was pretty awesome. And I probably cried 3 or 4 times at the end (one scene in particular between Colin and Savi left me breathless) but it was a good cry, not a devastating cry like I did at the end of the Disney’s Pocahontas movie.

(Forgive but never forget, people. Hero sailing away at the end? FAIL.)

I’m going to take a different angle from some of the other reviewers I have seen. While I fell in love with Alejandro from the first (and really, all of your heroes punch my buttons), I found Irena hard to love. She is stubborn like a mule, impossible to please, and tends to snarl at everyone. But by the middle of the book, I understood what made her tick. And by the end of the book, I was rooting for her, even though she wasn’t my favorite heroine of yours. Some people go for the anti-heroine and some people go for the pretty princess heroine. I’m a pretty princess heroine girl myself, but if I have to go for a nail-your-nuts-to-the-wall-and-make-you-like-it heroine, Irena does the job admirably well.

To be honest, the thing that stuck out in my mind the most in this book were the supporting characters. Michael and his hinted-at-heroine had me riveted. I lived for when Jake appeared on the page. And Rosalia won me over the moment she appeared on screen. Not that the rest of the book wasn’t good, mind you. But I really love some of your quirkier characters, and was just crazy about Michael. CRAZY.

Oh, and one more thing to mention. You write some really sexy stuff. Demon Forged is the hottest book so far. The scene with the forge is ONLY surpassed by the scene with the statue. Barely. Hot stuff. So, there’s my review for Demon Forged.

If you are a fan of the Guardian Series, you absolutely must pick up this book. Absolutely. In fact, go pre-order it right now.

If you are thinking about trying the Guardian Series but not sure if this is the right book to pick up, I say YES, but with a note of warning. You will be doing a little catching up in the beginning, but I feel that Brook is an author you can trust to bring everything full circle and make sense of things.

A solid A- from me. And the minus is because I have to be objective. Or something

~Jill Myles

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers starting tomorrow, October 6, 2009.

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REVIEW: Wicked All Day by Liz Carlyle

Jane — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:00:08 +0000

Dear Ms. Carlyle:

I have read you since your debut in 1999 with My False Heart. My False Heart remains high of my favorite romances of all time and it is the book against which I measure all of your other titles. The story was so fresh at the time. The heroine, Evie Artevalde, was not a virgin. The hero, Eliot, the Marquess of Rannoch, was a surly, disreputable lord. He lies to her. She turns him off but ultimately they have a memorable happy ever after. Wicked All Day tells the story of of Eliot’s illegitimate daughter, Zoë. Zoë’s mother was an opera dancer whom Eliot paid off. Eliott was not a good father. He had good intentions, but up until his marriage to Evie, he had left Zoë in the hands of a succession of governesses.

Zoë was incredibly spoiled because Eliott didn’t know how to be a good parent. His response to a governness that treated Zoë badly was to cast her out without a reference and order his servants to make sure that Zoë never had another unhappy day. Zoë grew up to be a flighty young woman who seemed to delight in breaking hearts and living on the edge of ruin (ironically, not unlike her father). Zoë snubs society’s conventions as much as she is able because they refuse to accept her. She’s a bastard, an illegitimate and despite the fact that she is beautiful and moneyed, the only offers she can get is from roues and ne’er do wells.

Rannoch, at his wits end and not wanting to see his daughter an outcast, has laid down an ultimatum to either marry a certain gentleman or to be banished to Scotland. This drives Zoë to engage in a reckless and selfish act with her best friend Robin, Lord Rowland. Robin and Zoë have been friends and instigators of each other’s bad behavior for years. While Robin usually doesn’t think of Zoë in a sexual manner, one night at a ball with a little too much liquor and the temptation of a beautiful woman begging him for physical attention, he can’t seem to resist.

Robin and Zoë are caught in a compromising position by Robin’s older brother, Stuart, the Marquess of Mercer, and his recently cast off mistress who is looking to cause Mercer grief. Robin and Zoë are thus affianced making everyone miserable. Robin realizes that he loves his mistress and begins a downward emotional spiral resulting in drinking, whoring, and arguments with Zoë. Stuart realizes that his constant animosity toward Zoë was tied up with his repressed sexual longing for her and his resentment of Robin and Zoë’s closeness. His emotional anxiety is worsened by the recognition that he now lusts after his brother’s wife to be.

And Zoë? She has to face up to her own demons. Her recklessness and selfish act has resulted in making everyone she loves miserable from her best friend, Robin, to her father, to Stuart, and everyone in their interrelated families.

“Robin, it isn’t just Mrs. Wilfred,” she whispered. Zoë gathered her reins in one hand, and tried to reach for him, but he nudged away. “Please, Robin. Don’t shut me out. We are best friends.”

He shook his head, and turned his face away, leaving Zoë with the most dreadful suspicion he was blinking back tears. “Listen, Zoë,” he rasped when he turned back around, “I don’t care if you were with my brother or not. And this bruise”—Here, he rammed a finger under his shirt collar and yanked it savagely down—“for this you can thank Jemima. She got a bit out of hand last night. Not that I took any pleasure in it.”

The bruise, Zoë realized, was just a small passion mark. “Robin, I don’t care to hear this,” she murmured, cutting an uneasy glance at Jonet.

“Don’t you?” His eyes were dark with pain, his voice rising, causing heads to turn. “Well, you can listen anyway. To say her talents were wasted is an understatement of epic proportion. That’s why I came home early. I thought, you see, that I owed my bride-to-be an apology.”

“Keep your voice down,” said Zoë quietly. “Yes, you owe me an apology, just as I owe you—”

What I found so interesting about these characters is that they aren’t so driven by their bad parenting but the constructs of society. In other words, would Zoë have been so capricious and reckless if she hadn’t been stigmatized as not worthy. Would Stuart, who was well loved by his mother, have been more apt to go after his heart’s desire if he wasn’t slotted into the role as older, responsible brother? Would Robin have offered for his mistress if he hadn’t, at some point, thought she wasn’t wife material because of her lower station and her widowhood?

All three have to breakthrough the expectations set upon them. For Stuart, it means abandoning his rigid principles. For Zoë, it is fulfilling obligations. For Robin, it’s coming to grips with responsibility.

There is no suspense plot. This is wholly driven by the characters and the society rules of the time period provide much of the conflict. Zoë’s reputation is still hanging by a thread and Stuart’s former mistress could bring ruin upon her even if Stuart married Zoë.

Family has always played an important role in Carlyle books and this one is no different. The familial interactions of Zoë’s family with Stuart’s provide real drama from the anger of Eliot toward Robin and toward himself to the dismay of Jonet, Robin and Stuart’s mother, over her worry that Zoë is marrying the wrong son.

One thing I loved was when both characters, independently, started changing their perceptions about each other and how what irritated them the most about the other was some of their greatest traits. It’s a beautifully written and crafted romance and one that I know I’ll revisit again and again. A-

Best regards

Jane

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REVIEW: Damned by Blood by Evie Byrne

Jane — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:48:00 +0000

WARNING: this review may not be work safe as it includes profanities and sexual situations. Carry on.

Dear Ms. Byrne:

I hadn’t even realized that this book, the third in the Faustin brothers trilogy, was set for release until I received the Samhain reviewer email. I jumped on the chance to obtain a review copy because I had enjoyed Bound by Blood quite a bit.

I thought this was a great, fresh vampire romance. It wasn’t fresh because the vampire myth held anything new. The freshness was totally based on the characters themselves. Mikhail is the eldest of the Faustin brothers. He and his family rule over the East. His mother calls him home to tell him of a prophecy of his mate. It is Alya Adad. I’ll just let the book do the talking:

Helena’s shrill whistle cut through the sludge of noise. Mikhail lifted his head and looked around the room with fresh eyes. In just a few seconds his world had collapsed and been rebuilt in a terrible new form. Helena threw out her arms in frustration. “Excuse me. I’m new here. Could somebody please tell me who this Alya Adad is?”

His father said, “The eldest child of Prince Zouhair Adad of Morocco.”

His mother said, “Mikhail’s first love.”

Gregor said, “She’s the fucking queen of the damned.”

Mikhail stood. That surprised them all, he could tell, and he hated their worried glances. He cast a long, slow gaze around his family circle, warning them against pity. “You should know her name, Helena. She rules the entire West coast. And we’re at war with her.”

Alya has fucked and killed her way to power, just like a man, and she holds it ruthlessly. She earned it the hard way and she isn’t ever going to give it up, not because Mikhail threatens to destroy her or because of some silly prophecy Mikhail’s mother might have spouted.

She has done her time on her knees and she is not about to submit to Mikhail. She knows what it is to be with a prince and they demand total submission. Some of her princes were kind and some were sadistic but they all preferred her with her neck bowed and her knee bent so even if she has some stirrings of attraction for Mikhail, even if perhaps she might want to bed him, love him, possess him, she won’t.

Mikhail tasted the blood of Alya when they were young and because of that he’s not had another woman who has satisfied him. Armed with the knowledge that she is his mate, he has decided to go and claim her; not because of the prophecy but because he acknowledges that he would rather take the chance of dying than living another moment without her.

So often when a warrior heroine is presented to the reader, she ends up declawed by her love for the hero. But in this story, Ayla is never diminished. She remains as merciless and ruthless as ever.

The setup is so perfect. Mikhail recognizes that power to Ayla means being in control at all times. For him, however, power means getting what you want. In this way, Alya and Mikhail can negotiate their relationship without compromise. Of course, getting there is no easy step because Alya, for all her outward power, is scarred from the rejection of her family and the deeds she’s done to get to the top. It’s not that she regrets her actions but she questions whether anyone can truly love her.

Mikhail isn’t into the sex games like Ayla, but again, Mikhail’s sole focus is convincing Ayla that they can be together. Ayla sets out the rules. These aren’t rules that she is making up, just to test Mikhail. They are rules that define her, that provide her succor and safety. She feels like she has earned the right to make these rules. If there was one area in which I think the book could have used some bulking up was in the exploration of the emotional transition of Ayla and Mikhail. We get a little bit and it’s all well done, but I feel like there definitely could have been more.

There is a suspense element that is added that doesn’t move the plot but serves as a catalyst for Ayla and her complicated feelings toward Mikhail.

There are so many great scenes and lines in this book.

She pointed at the sofa with her knife. He sat, and she stepped between his knees. Drawing her fingernail up the length of his shaft, she said, “Do you have a condom?”

Mikhail stared at her, blank, rendered an idiot by her touch.

She said, “I don’t. I haven’t fucked another vamp in a good ten years.”

Her toys couldn’t impregnate her. He could.

“I suppose you came here ready to start breeding.”

He snorted. No. Mostly he’d been thinking about survival. But yes, breeding seemed…dandy. Breeding seemed like a fantastic idea. His cock seconded the motion.

“Don’t tell me you don’t carry one? Or do you only do humans, too?”

“I haven’t fucked anyone in ten years, vamp or human.”
….

Alya recovered herself and crossed her arms. “So you come to me with my initial tattooed on your chest and ten years of seed stored up in your balls.”

“I thought I’d make myself irresistible.”

But the book takes you by the throat and doesn’t let go. I will give a warning that Mikhail strikes Ayla. They fight in hand to hand combat. I viewed this as a sign of respect. Ayla was a vampire that held the entire West. Mikhail understood that she was powerful and dangerous and she could kill him. This story never lets up on the intensity. I found it fresh and fabulous. A-

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased from Samhain (excerpt link because Samhain’s linkage for upcoming books breaks upon the book’s release) on September 22, 2009, as well as other etailers.

Note: While this book contains BDSM, it’s fairly non graphic so if the BDSM aspect usually squicks you out, it may not bother you in this story. Of course, I may be totally off base on my assessment about the graphicness of the BDSM but the story, at its core, is not a BDSM so I would hate for people to be put off of this story on that basis. You are free to come back to the comments and say I’ve totally mislead you though.

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REVIEW: Sindustry I

Joan/SarahF — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:00:02 +0000

Dear Authors:

I only opened this volume when Dreamspinner sent it to us because Madeleine Urban had a co-written story in it. I adore her longer co-written stories with Abigail Roux, and the volume started off with “Reluctant,” so I thought I’d have a great little story and then skim through the rest. Instead, “Reluctant” was truly awful and the rest of the stories saved me from chucking the volume off my computer.

At 332 pages, this is a seriously hefty volume (electronic, of course). And with only 12 stories, that’s between 25-30 pages a story, much longer than the usual short stories crammed into an anthology. This gives enough time to actually flesh out the characters, plots, and themes. Or time for the story to move from blah to boring and awful.

The theme for the volume is sex industry workers: both low- and high-end prostitutes and strippers, mainly. What was fascinating to me more than anything was how each story used the sex industry angle—as a meet-cute, as conflict, as a moral failing, as a perfectly legitimate profession, with or without comment. I’m strangely fascinated by this particular profession and by how the HEA is achieved or dealt with in light of the prostitution. I also love to see whether the prostitution itself is the conflict or just part of the story with conflict elsewhere. This volume certainly gave me enough to work with.

“Reluctant” by Rhianne Aile & Madeleine Urban
Gregory is recently divorced because he thinks he’s gay. His doctor (!) gives him the card of the high-end prostitute he employs and Gregory makes an appointment. He gets his first blowjob and a refund, then makes a “real” date with Rico, who has fallen in love with him. Considering this is the first story in a volume about sex workers, its complete lack of any exploration of the actual sex work and the effect it has on both worker and consumer is a glaring and incomprehensible error. Rico falls for Gregory. Why? No clue. Gregory falls for Rico because he’s hot and gives good head, apparently. No discussion at all of whether Rico will give up his very well-paying job, no discussion of anything besides a naughty meet-cute and some sex. Fail all around because even the sex was boring. Grade: D

“Stripped Bare” by S. Blaise
Luca is intrigued by the voice of the man calling to book him for a stripping gig for his sister’s hen party. Told in the first person, Luca chases a curiously reluctant Ethan until Ethan gives in a meets him, revealing his physical disabilities. I loved Luca’s relentlessness and his optimism as he works on bringing Ethan out of his shell. The conflict was of the “I can’t believe a gorgeous stripper like you would like someone like me” variety, but although there was nothing earth-shattering, it was a fun little read. Grade: B-

“Boomerang” by Rachelle Cochran
Chance works at the club Boomerang, moonlighting occasionally as a rent boy. He waits on a table with his old high school crush. They meet again and, after overcoming his uncertainty about Evan’s sexuality, Chance dives into a relationship with him. A nice, gentle, sexy story, in which Chance’s rent boy status is pretty much a non-issue. Grade: B-

“Fun and Games” by Lenore Black
I adored this sweet little story. Patrick is a video game designer, working the final kinks out of a game weeks before release. He’s not perfectly sculpted and toned—he’s a dork and kind of soft around the edges. His friends buy him a prostitute for his birthday, just so he’ll get laid. But Jack keeps coming back, “the gift that keeps on giving.” The connection between the characters, the fun they have and the affection between them makes this a gem of a story. Grade: A-

“How Could I Not” by Jamie Freeman
A complicated little story. Ben is set up on a job with Josh, a rich older man who wants Ben to fuck him while they watch a video montage of a guy who looks startling like Ben. Josh becomes a once-a-week client for Ben and they slowly build a real relationship. This sounds a little creepy, but the writing and the characterization is strong enough to make me believe in the romance. But then we drop a whole grade for “No condoms, just pull out.” Give me a fucking break. Grade: B-

“The Frost Affair” by Sasha Skye
This one’s a little different, in that the sex worker is not a rent boy, but the kept lover of a senator. The senator is trying to spice things up a little in their love lives, to make sure Grayson isn’t bored with his older lover—which means the sex is pretty hot and frequent. I enjoyed this story, although I spent the whole thing hoping that the Senator wasn’t one of those who was against gay rights but banging his boy on the side. But I did notice an entire lack of lube and some ATM action (Google it, but beware, NSFW), which just kinda grossed me out. Grade: B-

“The Stripper and the Hairdresser” by Bethany Brown
Can we have some conflict, please? Something to overcome? Something to make the characters grow? Something to draw the characters together. I mean, I know that most real-life romances are just “two people meet, are attracted, fall in love, and have a HEA/HFN.” But romance stories need a plot with a dark moment, to have any impact whatsoever. This story is indeed “The Stripper and the Hairdresser” and that’s pretty much is. OMG boring. Grade: D+

“A Muse” by Zahra Owens
Ack! Second person narration: “You are very direct and the guy who recommended you to me had told me that.” I don’t know why people do this. It might work for the author to write hir masturbatory fantasy in 2nd person, but it rarely works for the reader. First person can edge into bombastic and egotistical, but when you add second person too, it all gets a little too much for me. And seriously, “androgynous, but manly”?! You can’t have it both ways—you really can’t. And please, do some research: “suddenly grateful for high-end digital cameras with state-of-the-art screens that don’t require me to peer through tiny viewfinders and miss ninety percent of the action”: uh, no—high end digital cameras require you to look through the tiny viewfinder. Trust me. It’s the cheap ones that use the screen. All that aside…this is an interesting story about a fine art photographer luring a rent boy into being his muse which I would have liked very much if it weren’t in second person. Grade: C

“Fin de Siècle” by S. Reesa Herberth
The only historical story in the anthology, this is an amazingly well-written glimpse into the turn-of-the-century encounters between an artist and a prostitute in Paris. Gabriel becomes Jean’s muse and they tentatively establish a relationship. The atmosphere and feeling of the story are brilliantly done, melancholy yet optimistic. And I actually like that although Jean and Gabriel find their way to each other by the end of the story, there is no talk yet of Gabriel giving up prostitution. Very well done. Grade: A-

“Chat Line” by Clare London
The conceit in this story was unoriginal, carried on too long, and almost embarrassing. Jerry calls a sex line, thinking it’s a line for a company that provides domestic help. The miscommunication goes on for pages longer than its funny, moving far into boring. The phone sex is pretty hot, but the “I want to meet you after one paid-for conversation” was a little unbelievable. Grade: C

“As Beauty Does” by JL Merrow
A professor-student story that doesn’t squick me! Very English set, Nathan, a rent boy, has a regular blow-job customer every Thursday night. He discovers the guy is his English professor in one of his new classes, which makes things a little uncomfortable on Stephen’s regular nights. After Nathan is bashed and ends up in hospital with a broken jaw, he and Stephen begin to establish a relationship. Great story, fabulous characterization. I especially love the use of the characters’ own language choices and words to indicate who they are and how they feel: you can tell that Stephen is very definitely a staid English professor, Nathan a working class student, just from the way they talk. Grade: B+

“The Four Seasons” by Diana Copland
This story is so unrealistically suspend-all-disbelief, it’s just yummy, because wouldn’t it be great if the world were perfect like that? Law student Michael endearingly hits on a beautiful man in a hotel bar, but is gently turned down because Christian is a very high-end prostitute who tells him to call when he’s made partner. 5 years later, Michael sees Christian on a corner, selling blowjobs for $50 a pop. He takes Christian in, finds out how and why he sunk so low, tells him he’s worth something, a la Pretty Woman (“The bad stuff’s easier to believe” moment), and they make beautiful love. Michael, of course, wakes up alone. 3 years after that….well, you’ll have to read the story, but everyone ends up rich and happy and fighting for gay civil rights. It’s deliciously over-the-top but the affection and relationship between Michael and Christian is very well done. Grade: B

Overall, I enjoyed the anthology. Some stories definitely stuck with me (“Fun and Games,” “Fin de Siecle,” and “As Beauty Does” especially and none were truly horrific—they were just boring, more than anything else. But I have a strange fascination with rent boy/male prostitute stories, so my fetish is well-fed and happy.

Overall Grade: B-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

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REVIEW: Pleasure and Purpose by Megan Hart

Janine — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:00:20 +0000

Dear Ms. Hart,

Two of the many things I enjoyed about your erotic novella collection, Pleasure and Purpose, are the setting and the heroines’ background. All three novellas take place in a fantasy setting which resembles mid nineteenth century Europe in terms of its technological development. As far as I can tell, this world does not seem to contain magic, but underlying all the stories is a fascinating mythology that plays an important role in the characters’ lives.

It is the prevailing religious belief that each time a soul finds perfect solace, even if only for a moment, an arrow appears in the god Sinder’s quiver. According to legend — and many people’s faith — when the quiver is full, Sinder, his wife and his son, The Holy Family, will reunite, bringing peace and harmony to mankind.

To that end, the Order of Solace was created. The women who enter the order, called handmaidens, make it their task to bring solace to the patrons who engage their services. Sometimes doing that involves sex, but there is more to it than that. To give an idea of the handmaidens’ outlook, here are the five principles which comprise the tenets of the Order of Solace’s philosophy:

1. There is no greater pleasure than providing absolute solace.
2. True patience is its own reward.
3. A flower is made more beautiful by its thorns.
4. Selfish is the heart that thinks first of itself.
5. Women we begin and women we shall end.

If that sounds sexist, it sounded that way to me too, but the stories derive a lot of impact and depth from the heroines’ religious commitment to these principles, and the heroines themselves are far from wilting flowers.

“Stillness,” the first novella, begins when a handmaiden named Stillness Faine arrives at the home of Edward Delaw. Stillness has traveled far to bring Edward solace. What she does not know is that Edward doesn’t expect to be able to attain perfect solace. He has signed a contract with the order partly because his house is in chaos and he knows a handmaiden will make it a more peaceful place.

Peacefulness is something Edward craves in his soul. When they were young, Edward and his friend Cillian, the Prince of Firth, had sexual escapades with prostitutes. But one of these went terribly awry, and Cillian was sent to an asylum. Cillian returned half-mad, and it is now Edward’s job to watch him. Their friendship is a thing of the past. Cillian is intelligent enough to discern that Edward has rejected his own sexual need to dominate, and he taunts Edward with that need.

Edward and Stillness’ first sexual encounter is a bit rough, something Stillness enjoys very much, but Edward has trouble with. Gradually, though, he comes to see that pain play can bring Stillness not only pleasure but solace, and as he comes to care for her, he begins to accept his own sexual needs.

I enjoyed “Stillness” tremendously. Beneath her outer calm and submissiveness, Stillness is a wonderful heroine, clever, astute, yet also vulnerable. Although she was focused on bringing Edward solace and putting him first, she still had needs of her own, which gave her character dimension.

Edward, meanwhile, started out a bit less likable, but he grew on me more and more as the novella progressed. Despite being tormented by the past, and despite the fact that Stillness was there to serve his well-being, he quickly focused on satisfying her needs. Cillian, though not always as appealing, was intriguing, as was Edward’s friend Alaric.

Since I am not that knowledgeable about BDSM, I can’t say whether its depiction in this story was accurate, but I can say that I found this novella very hot. The sex was quite erotic to me, despite the fact that I am not usually a huge fan of pain play and am not always into male domination. If I had to guess at why, I think it was because I was rooting for Stillness so much that whatever gave her pleasure was sexy to me, and because Edward was so obviously concerned for her needs more than for his own.

Another thing I loved was the language, which was suitable to the historical feel of the fantasy setting. Here’s an example:

She returned her attention to the house. Spring green ivy climbed redbrick walls, and the gabled roof spoke of cozy, tucked-away garret rooms. Smoke from the chimney wisped its gray tail against the background of blue sky.

If I have a couple of minor criticisms it’s that I wanted to understand Edward’s reasons for engaging Stillness’ services a little better, and that the ending was a bit rushed. On the whole, though, this is an excellent story. A-/A for “Stillness.”

“Honesty,” the second novella in the collection, is about Prince Cillian. Having seen Edward attain solace, Cillian craves it for himself. He contacts the Order of Solace to request a handmaiden. Honesty, the handmaiden who is sent to him, arrives late due to a train accident, as well as hungry and fatigued.

Cillian, who is sullen and petulant most of the time, is in a worse mood than usual because of her late arrival, and his temper doesn’t improve much when Honesty is brought to his “playroom,” the place where he flogs willing women for sexual pleasure, and faints of hunger and exhaustion. After nursing her until she awakens, Cillian expects her to begin catering to his needs, and is chagrined when Honesty requests something to eat instead.

Honesty isn’t at all what Cillian expected. Instead of a submissive and gentle handmaiden who anticipates his every need, he gets a woman who isn’t impressed by his title and bluntly shares her opinions of him.

The truth is that Honesty is burned out, having spent a long time attending a dying woman. She feels she is not cut out to serve the order anymore, and hopes to fail in her assignment and be sent home. It’s not until she realizes how badly Cillian needs solace that she begins to want to at least try to help him attain it.

Honesty’s emotional depletion isn’t the only obstacle she and Cillian face. There is also the fact that Honesty isn’t drawn to pain play. In addition, Cillian still has issues to resolve with Edward, and a nobleman plotting against him.

I liked “Honesty” very much. Cillian and Honesty started out a bit less sympathetic than Edward and Stillness, but as they began to fulfill each other’s emotional needs, I grew to like them more and more. Edward and Stillness played a significant role in this story, and it was great to see them again, and through other characters’ eyes.

Although not as erotic as “Stillness,” and a bit less romantic to me, “Honesty” was a very engaging story. In some ways, Edward and Cillian’s relationship with one another was as integral to this story as Cillian’s relationship with Honesty. There was also a nice twist in the way Cillian found his solace. B+/A- for “Honesty.”

“Determinata” is the most unconventional of the three novellas. It is the story of Alaric, Edward and Cillian’s friend, who has been unlucky in love. Alaric’s fiancée, the Lady Larissa, has recently broken off with him, leaving Alaric so devastated that he became addicted to a drug called oblivion.

The story begins when its heroine, a handmaiden named Derterminata, or Mina for short, is given the assignment. The request for Mina’s services is unusual, because it was made not by Alaric himself but by Edward and Cillian. Even though one of Mina’s sisters-in-service expresses doubts about this, Mina herself is eager to travel to Firth and begin her work with Alaric.

Mina has a dominant personality and she is intrigued by Alaric’s profile and his need to submit. She is confident that she can bring him solace. As she leaves the order, a former lover of hers waits with her for the carriage that will bring her to the train station. Mina allows it because she understands that this means something to the man, but to her, their relationship is in the past, and she is unsentimental about such things.

I liked this contrast between Alaric and Mina; whereas Alaric had been devastated by the loss of love, Mina had never truly felt it. When they meet, Alaric is not interested in Mina or her services, and he tells her that he will never love her. Mina replies that she is not there for love, but rather, to give him solace. She makes it clear that that is all she is interested in.

But as Mina helps Alaric through drug withdrawal and gives him assignments that help him get stronger, things begin to change. Mina’s dominance and Alaric’s submission match up so well that they understand each other in ways that are new to both of them.

This was a lovely story. Alaric, with his need to please, was very much out of the usual mold of heroes, and I found him likable and sympathetic. Mina was more compelling, and an unusually strong-minded heroine. I really loved her. Edward and Cillian played a role in this story but the focus remained firmly on Alaric and Mina.

Though a couple of questions remained unanswered, and the story felt a bit too short, the ending was both surprising and touching. I loved how unusual Alaric and Mina’s relationship was, too, so “Determinata” gets an A- from me.

Overall, I think that Pleasure and Purpose may be my favorite of your books thus far, though I have not read your entire backlist. In comparison with your novels for Harlequin Spice, the novellas in Pleasure and Purpose don’t have quite the same degree of depth or emotionalism, but since they are shorter works, that is only to be expected. Also, in my opinion the heroines here are more sympathetic and the novellas are more uplifting, which, combined with the fascinating worldbuilding, made for terrific reading.

Readers may also be interested to know that whereas in the Spice novels the focus is more strongly on the heroines’ emotional journeys, here the heroes’ arcs get at least as much attention as the heroines’. In that sense, these stories may be more traditional, but the setting and the way faith plays a role in the characters’ choices also make these stories feel very fresh.

Perhaps because they are shorter works, the novellas are tight and fast-paced, something else I really liked. Finally, can I say how much I appreciated the happy endings? Although they are labeled as erotic novellas, to me these stories read as romantic too.

In conclusion, all I can say is that I enjoyed Pleasure and Purpose enormously. It is definitely going on my list of favorite books of 2009. My overall grade for the entire collection is an A-.

Sincerely,

Janine

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