I’ve never been a huge fan of the Intrigue line because I felt that even full length romantic suspense books struggled to fit both romance and suspense in one story, how could a compressed format do both topics justice? Under the Gun had a good balance of both the suspense (which was more of a whodunit) and the romance, in part because both were in full swing at the start of the book.

Luke Hathaway was jilted by Claire Samson, his one love, who then proceeded to marry another man a month later. Claire loved Luke, but he was always keeping something from her. At the last minute, she caved to her fears and gave Luke his ring back and decided to marry stable, wealthy Phil Samson. Only Phil decides to fake his death and pin it on Claire and now she looks for Luke to help her.

It wasn’t explained why Claire was so good at evading the law or why she thought Luke could help her other than he has a savior’s complex. I wasn’t super convinced at Luke’s easy forgiveness of Claire’s overthrowing him but it was a quick read with a decent suspense thread. B-

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Marchese’s Forgotten Bride by Michelle Reid

This is an amnesia story but this time it’s the hero who has amnesia. Allessandro Marchese is on hand to oversee the smooth assumption of his latest takeover. Cassie Janus is the single mother of five year old twins who nearly faints upon seeing Sandro again. She had had a romance with him and after she got pregnant, Sandro disappeared leaving Cassie alone and penniless. With her MBA, she’s managed to provide a good life for her children and she’s furious to see Sandro again. Further, she’s not sure if she really believes his crazy claims of amnesia. Sandro is manipulative and Cassie is helplessly attracted to him. For fans of the amnesia trope, this is fun to read about the hero with amnesia. All the good of an HP line is here without too much of the bad. It’s full of agnst and passion but not too much of the asshole hero and no doormat heroine (despite Cassie’s attempts to resist her own desire). B-

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The Doctor’s Pregnant Bride by Susan Crosby.

Ordinarily I stay out of this line. The doctor/nurse dynamic has never been one that interested me. Probably too many years of hospital related television dramas. Doctors never seem to have fidelity as part of their makeup.

Sara Beth O’Connell works in a fertility clinic whose research and results are under suspicion. She is asked by her best friend and boss to keep an eye on the clinic’s two main research doctors, one of whom is Ted Bonner. Ted plays the part of the absent minded professor, someone who is so focused on his job that he can barely remember to eat, let alone date. Most of the story involves Sara Beth becoming the focus of Ted’s attention, particularly while she decorates his bachelor bad at his invitation. There’s some clinic work, but the medicine is really a sideshow. I swear I read more about the two of them debating furniture pieces than about fertility science. It was rather a dull story and it didn’t inspire me to pick up others in this line. C

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Seeing the title of your book, I couldn’t WAIT to find out exactly why a modern woman in a paranormal would still be a virgin. Anecdotally, I’ve found that virgins in paranormals are rare, and finding one is like hitting the lottery, even more so if the reasoning behind the retention of virginity is plausible within the construct of the storyline. This one worked for me…sorta. This is the eighth book in the Love at Stake series and I haven’t read any of the previous books.

Olivia Sotiris is an FBI psychologist that’s been sent on a forced vacation to the Greek island of Patmos. She’s staying with her grandmother and attempting to forget a serial killer that has fixated on her, threatened her, and scared the daylights out of her. But since he’s in solitary confinement, it’s nearly impossible for Olivia to get her FBI colleagues to believe that the killer is the one psychologically toying with her. So she agrees to escape to Patmos, suffer her grandmother’s attempts at matchmaking and try to forget about her job and her troubles.

Robby MacKay has been sent to Patmos by his great-grandfather (?) to regain his strength and get out of his own way after his capture and torture by the Malcontents (which I believe happened in the previous book). Robby is so focused on killing Casimir, the leader of the Malcontents, that he could end up putting his family and friends in jeopardy. He’s refused any sort of help, so MacKay Security & Investigations has shipped him off to Greece to cool his heels.

Robby and Olivia meet on the beach at night (duh) and he is immediately taken with her. Olivia is both fascinated by and suspicious of Robby because he’s the first person she’s never been able to “read”. Olivia is like a human lie-detector, a psychic trait that has been passed down through generations (her grandmother has the same ability), and works for the FBI to ferret out killers, bad guys, and what have you. And here’s my problem: this vamp/psychic mixture comes very close to the Sookie Stackhouse books. However, TVATV is written in a completely different style from the Stackhouse novels, so I made an effort to overlook it.

Earlier, I noted that this was the eighth book in the series. There were secondary characters that had definitely had their own books in the past, but the way the book was written allowed it to stand on it’s own. While I enjoyed reading about Robby and Olivia’s relationship, there were a lot of fits and starts due to Olivia’s suspicion growing since she couldn’t read Robby’s truthfulness and Robby’s efforts to hide his Vampirism from her. I also spotted the bad guy as soon as the charater showed up in the book. This book felt a bit like “Vampire Lite”. So many of the paranormal books I’ve read have been heavy or dark with incredible amounts of worldbuilding. This was written more like a contemporary but there were a few curveballs, one of which is that some of the characters were Vampires and Weres. Vampire Lite isn’t a bad thing, but there was nothing compelling me to return to MacKay S&I and the Malcontents. C

~Shuzluva

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I think this is the first book I’ve read of yours and I read it because of the excerpt that was posted. The excerpt was intriguing.  Elizabeth Ashburton was attending a wedding of one of her closest friends at St. George’s.  Danger presents itself at the wedding and her only course of escape leads her directly into the arms of Rowland Manning, the bastard half brother of the groom.

Rowland is on the verge of ruin. He had been contracted by the calvary to provide in excess of eight hundred horses for the war against France.  Now that Napoleon is in exile and the war is over, Rowland is stuck with the stabling of 800 horses and no buyer.  If he doesn’t rid himself of these horses, Rowland will descend to poverty, a state which he had vowed never to revisit.

The  conflict that is set up requires Rowland to choose poverty and the love of Elizabeth over that of the finalized sale of his horses.  The story plays loose with history.  The villain of the set is one General Pymm who is said to have delivered the gold eagles directly from Napoleon and is considered to be one of England’s famous war heroes.  Prinny is set to award a duchy on General Pymm and Pymm is determined that Elizabeth will be by his side when this honor is bestowed.

Elizabeth is just as determined to avoid Pymm as she believes he is responsible for her father’s death in a battle at Badajoz.  (Very David and Bathsheba like here).  She feels safe at Rowland’s despite him pawing at her, locking her in a dank storeroom, demanding that she assist the stable cook, and never once treating her with any dignity.  Elizabeth whips up a meal for some thirty eight men in under two hours and after one well cooked meal, the stable hands at Rowland’s place are now her loyal followers.   Of course Elizabeth is irresistible to Rowland and vice versa.

This book appeared to be the last of a series or connected books pertaining to a group of widows.  There is a complete chapter toward the end of the story that provides closure to a number of relationships.  The problem is that this is my first entry to the series and I felt that there was a number of nuances that I was missing.  There were references to Rowland’s past as well, the death of his brother and sister, which may have been more fully fleshed out in previous books.

Another example, this group of widows is supposed to be fast friends, lasting over a long period of time (although how long and how they know each other isn’t revealed in this book). Yet there was little evidence of the strength of the connections.  The connections revolved largely around the hero and his acquaintances which happened to be the husbands of the band of widows.  It was very male focused.

Elizabeth seemed dim witted at times.  She’s trying to avoid being caught by a famous personage of the upper 10,000 yet she attends and stands up at one of the most heralded weddings and at the most famous wedding site: St. George’s thinking that she’ll never be caught here.  She relies on the largesse of a man she doesn’t know and who treats her poorly.  Her plans to seek refuge from the villain are never fully formed.   Why she would seek the aid of Rowland when she had many a moneyed and powerful connection through her friend’s marriages is really beyond me.  Well, it wasn’t beyond me. It was obvious that Rowland and Elizabeth be thrown together for the romance but the overt manipulation was annoying.

Rowland’s language veered from coarse to cultured with no consistent reason, i.e., when he forgot himself or when he became excited, just in general he would be saying “bloody gawdamned devil of a miracle” (intentionally misspelled to portray his uncultured speak?) and then he would be spouting off differently with his “shall nots”.

There were points in which the story could have been deepened, challenged, but these were whisked away without any inspection such as Rowland’s possible past as a prostitue.  Given that his mother and sister apparently died because of prostitution, wouldn’t his own activity caused him some agnst?  What was the point of bringing up these dark periods if they weren’t intrical to the storyline, character development?  It was like a dandy dressed up with a sword, all affectation and no bite.

There were times in which I enjoyed the prose and I felt that there were elements of likeability. Rowland was raised in poverty. His mother’s credo was “forget not, want not”.  Rowland lived a life of austerity so that he would never be impoverished again. But how about a downpayment for those horses?  How about a contingent plan?  Not much of a brilliant business man was Rowland.  I wonder how I would have felt if I had read the other books in the series.  Maybe more grateful and less critical?  C

Best regards,

Jane

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I have seen your writing described in many places in such high terms and with such delight (comparisons to Laura Kinsale have been made) that maybe I expected a little — or even a lot — too much from this book. I found it when I was looking through your backlist. The excerpt intrigued me and I was super-excited with the set-up of the book written by an author who I thought, by reputation, would be able to handle the implications of it. Yeah, not so much.

Andreas is a 25 year old, do nothing rich kid, titular heir to one of the corporate structures that runs the world in the post “plague years” near future. He finds himself at a cage match, randomly betting on a match with his friend, with blind stakes where the loser announces the stakes after the bet is over. Andreas wins an hour with the man he bet on after he beats his opponent into unconsciousness. Andreas is not quite sure what to do with Jabez so…they talk. Andreas finds out that Jabez is a fighter as a way to pay off his indenture for an armed robbery conviction. They do eventually get around to a blowjob, but Andreas is fascinated enough with Jabez to go back the next night and ends up saving Jabez after he wins his bout in a pyrrhic victory and passes out. So Andreas takes Jabez to his estate, gets him healthy, buys his indenture, hires him as a personal trainer and security consultant. And they fall in love with little to no angst about their complete opposite social levels — like, complete opposite: orphaned street mercenary and spoilt corporate heir.

And then there’s a whole storyline about saving the world and revitalizing the slum that comes out of nowhere and takes over the story in a way that’s just…oh, this story could have been so wonderful. And maybe I’m just looking for the wrong thing, and maybe I’m trying to tell people what to do again when I have no place to do it. But! As a reader who looks for deeply emotional stories that actually get deep into the issues brought up by the situations of the characters an author has created, I have to say, this story set up these characters as so different, so diametrically opposed to each other in situation and life experience and then it just snapped its metaphorical fingers and let the Power of Luurrrve (TM SBTB) work its magic and everything was better without anyone having to WORK for it. And that pissed me off.

One shouldn’t create a do-nothing, lay-about of a corporate heir whose father doesn’t think he’s worth anything and literally have him change the entire social order of his world without a huge shift in personality. Oh, hey, he suddenly realizes that people live differently from him. Oh, hey, he suddenly decides his friends are nasty little shits when he just loved them before because he was always a good guy, he just didn’t realize it. Oh, hey, in THREE DAYS of training he can begin to defend himself against a mercenary?! WTF?

And one shouldn’t create an illiterate street orphan, a criminal, a mercenary, a guy exploited and abused his entire life for rich people’s pleasure and have him end up the indentured servant of the wastrel corporate heir and have them fall in love without any resentment, without any angst or concern or apparently understanding of the vast differences in their experiences, their lives, their world views. And one shouldn’t have the corporate heir basically own the illiterate mercenary and then have him say “I don’t want you to feel beholden to me or under any compulsion like you have to give me sex,” and have the mercenary go, “Oh, okay.” And yes, okay, in this story, Jabez does a hot/cold, on-again/off-again “must protect myself emotionally for when rug gets pulled out from under me,” but I’m sorry, these two men are going to have so much to deal with and you gloss it all as unimportant and that just felt so blindly disingenuous to me that it made me crazy.

So I’ve got a couple of your books in my pile still, and I’m still interested in reading them, because your writing was mostly engaging, even if your plot and characterization was implausible, but maybe I’ll read them with much lower expectations.

Grade: C

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased at Loose ID and other etailers.

I haven’t always had the best of luck with the Harlequin Historical line, but always being in the lookout for new historical authors, I decided to give The Accidental Countess a try. I wish I could say that my experience was a resounding success, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. While I found the writing smooth, the characterization was flat and inconsistent (at times the hero and heroine behaved in wildly contradictory ways in order to further the plot) and the story uninvolving. Great prose can make up for a messy plot, for me, but simply decent prose can’t make up for lackluster characterization and plotting.

The story begins with Stephen Chesterfield, the Earl of Whitmore awakening in his country home, bruised and beaten and with no memory of how he came to be so. In fact, he cannot remember the previous several months of his life, months in which he apparently married his childhood friend and neighbor Emily, disappeared about a week after the wedding, acquired a mysterious tattoo on his neck and a nasty knife scar on his torso and got the crap beat out of him.

Emily is disappointed, to say the least, that Stephen remembers nothing of their marriage. She was already extremely disappointed in him, given that he disappeared shortly after their wedding, failed in his promise to protect her brother (who has been murdered) and apparently visited his mistress in London shortly before his disappearance.

Emily’s life has been a difficult one – her mother died early, and her father was something of a wastrel. Her childhood friendship with Stephen was one of the bright spots in her life, a life that has become even harder recently. Her whirlwind courtship with Stephen and brief marriage made her happy; not only did she fancy herself in love, but her marriage has taken her away from the decrepit ruin of a family home that she lived in. Since her brother’s death, she has inherited the care of his two young children, and if Stephen renounces their marriage, she doesn’t know how she and the children will survive.

I had a lot of problems with the plotting of The Accidental Countess – it felt haphazard to me. Plot points are built up only to have the resolution fizzle. For instance, Emily reflects portentously several times on an unspecified scandal related to the death of her father, which she feels is at least one of the roadblocks to her appearing in polite society. But the revelation that her father committed suicide because he was financially ruined feels anticlimatic, and seems mostly to serve as an excuse to have Stephen feel sorry for Emily and have the reader admire how plucky and long-suffering Emily is. I was unclear on when the suicide had even occurred; Stephen didn’t know about it but I couldn’t figure out if that was because of the amnesia or because it had happened after he disappeared. I’m guessing it’s the latter because there’s no mention of Emily being responsible for her niece and nephew when they married (though really, I was unclear that plot point as well).

Really, the whole resolution of the amnesia plotline felt similarly vague – there was no “aha!” moment where Stephen remembered everything. I suppose one could argue that’s more realistic, but amnesia is inherently unrealistic as presented in movies, television and books, and if I’m going to read an unrealistic and somewhat cheesy plot element, I at least want it to pay off in a dramatically satisfying way. A lot of the backstory simply has to be inferred. For instance, Stephen’s original reasons for the marriage are implied but never spelled out. I think some flashbacks from Stephen’s perspective (once he did remember) would’ve have really helped tighten and clarify the story.

One of my main issues with The Accidental Countess was that Stephen and Emily are constantly at odds, and their positions on various issues flip-flop willy-nilly. He wants her to come to London with him, but she doesn’t want to go. Later, he doesn’t want her there, arguing that she’s safer on his isolated estate (where she’s already been attacked once; his position made no sense to me) while she’s determined to follow him to London. He wants her to appear in society with him (even though he’s not sure he wants to stay married to her), but she’s terrified of being snubbed and refuses. Later, she insists on attending balls; now, he doesn’t want her to (again, supposed safety concerns; these felt particularly manufactured). I ended up with the sense that all of these conflicts were simply set up to keep Stephen and Emily at odds until the end.

Also, the “will they or won’t they?” tension regarding the consummation of Stephen and Emily’s attraction got very tiresome, very quickly. I can’t count the number of aborted seductions that occurred before they finally got onto it. Their marriage had already been consummated, actually, but Stephen doesn’t remember it of course, and it takes place pretty much off-stage except for a few recollections from Emily’s perspective, which I thought was an odd storytelling choice.

The mystery – who killed Emily’s brother and attacked Stephen, and the meaning behind Stephen’s mysterious tattoo – both confused and bored me. The resolution – involving damning evidence against the villains left in an unlikely hiding place – had me rolling my eyes.

Ultimately, I found The Accidental Countess to be very average; the flaws I have enumerated were not enough to tip the book over into “truly bad” territory for me, but neither were its scant virtues enough for me to grade it higher. For that reason I am giving it an average grade: C.

Best regards,

Jennie
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I realize it is a little late and possibly no one is in the mood for holiday stories, however, I thought it might be best to post the review now than wait an entire year.  This had an interesting setup: father’s girlfriend falls for son but thinks she might be a toy in their escalating one-upsmanship.

Alex Carradine left Chicago, his high profile Board of Trade job, and his father behind to take refuge in a ski resort. The ski resort is so remote that access to it is shut down during inclement weather (seems like a poor location to me when you are dependent on tourists). During the holiday season, his father, Mitch, ostensibly offers an olive branch by asking to come and visit over Christmas. Mitch is going to bring his girlfriend with him.

When the girlfriend arrives before Mitch, Alex realizes he has been set up, although he doesn’t know what game his father is playing. Angeline Kastakis is an associate in Mitch’s law firm. She isn’t in the same practice group but she’s always admired Mitch and when he starts flirting with her, Angeline is flattered. Mitch is someone that she aspires to be and his charisma and magnetism is untouched by his age. When he invites her to go away with him over the holiday, she thinks that he is moving their relationship into something deeper and more meaningful and she wants to explore that opportunity.

A snow storm erupts and prevents Mitch from joining Angeline and instead informs her that they will meet at the resort. Only the storm has shut down the resort leaving her alone with an angry Alex.

Alex had seen Angel a long time ago, right before he left Chicago. He saw her and wanted her. She was exactly his type and to find out that she is now his father’s woman is driving Alex crazy.

It was a bit of a hard sell for me for Angeline to put aside her relationship with the father to embark on a sexual repast with the son. I think the premise is that we know, through Alex’s eyes, that Mitch is a bastard and doesn’t deserve Angeline. However, I would have liked to have had more time pass between Angeline planning on a weekend sexual romp with Mitchell and actually having the sexual romp with Mitchell’s son.

The story was too short for the interesting conflict that was set up, at least too short for me to buy into any kind of real lasting relationship between the two of them. C

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at My Bookstore and More, Kindle, and other retailers. (no affiliate links).

I am a fan of your work. It’s in my bio, over there, on the right hand side—-> But this book didn’t work so well for me because, primarily, I felt Lucy was a wallower.  This is a story about loss and everyone’s attempts to recover from loss.  For some, the loss is part of their identity or has been for so long that a person can’t be mentioned without the reference to the loss.

This is the case for Lucy Lang and the women in her life.  Lucy is a widow and virtually all the women who are connected to her are widows.  Lucy, her mother, and her aunts all work at the family bakery and collectively the women are known as the Black Widows because each woman lost her husband at a young age and none of them have remarried. Lucy’s sister, Corinne, is obsessed with her husband’s health because she is convinced that he will die soon, just like all the other spouses in the family.

Ethan Mirabelli is the younger brother of Lucy’s late husband, Jimmy.  Ethan and Lucy have had a friends with benefits relationship as Lucy terms it, unable to acknowledge the two of them as “lovers”.  Lucy has decided that she is going to “break ranks” from her family and try to remarry and have a family.  She tells Ethan that they have to stop sleeping together.

Ethan, though, has played the role of the spouse for longer than Lucy’s marriage.  He stood by her through her seemingly never ending grief (she still counts the days of her marriage); he found her a new apartment; bought her games; cooked for her; listened to her; talked with her; held her while she cried; and satisfied her emotional needs.  Despite all this, Lucy is determined to find herself a husband and Ethan is not it.

Basically everyone in this story is caught in this perpetual cycle of grief.  It’s almost as comforting as Linus’ blanket.  It provides identities and belonging for the women.  It justifies Ethan’s ongoing, but sick relationship with Lucy.  It helps Lucy cling to the past and ignore the good things in her life.  Lucy watches her wedding video over and over, reliving the joy of the wedding day (although not the marriage itself) and then the subsequent grief of her loss.  She can’t give up the piercing sadness her loss brings to her.  It’s like the Bruce Willis character in Sixth Sense.

Despite Lucy’s declaration that she cannot bring herself to love anyone like she loved Jimmy, she finds herself dating a man that could be Jimmy’s ringer; while still engaging in some kind of relationship with Ethan. So despite never wanting to love again, she finds she cannot help but want Jimmy’s ringer.

For some reason, in order for Lucy to move on and to love again, she had to find out that Jimmy wasn’t the saint that she had created him to be.  This did not indicate that she had healed from her loss, but rather suggested that Lucy did not have the right to move on unless Jimmy was somehow flawed.

The story is emotional, mostly due to the fact that everyone is chronically sad throughout the story but I felt overtly manipulated into finding a HEA for Lucy and Ethan.   By her actions, Lucy wallowed her in grief. She worked with the Black Widows. She watched her wedding DVD constantly. She talked to Jimmy in her mind, sometimes believing her talked back to her. She refused to close the door on her marriage by not visiting his grave. She slept with his brother and dated his dead ringer. When given the chance for happiness, she turns away. Lucy, I felt, was in love with her grief more than she was in love with any one else.

The most authentic relationship was that between Corinne and her husband.  Ironically, Corinne’s obsession with her husband’s health was actually causing him stress related illnesses. In order for him to survive and their relationship to survive, Corinne had to start to let go of the control that she perceived she had over death.  C

Best regards,

Jane

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I think of myself as a big fan of the Beauty and the Beast tale, but I can’t help but wonder if we readers are being oversaturated with the retelling of this popular myth. Charming the Devil is the third entry in the Witches of Mayfair trilogy (and given that it is a trilogy, I assume that it is the last book in the trilogy but there are several plot threads that appear to be unresolved at the end).

Faye Nettles (not her real name, but I don’t know that we are ever given her real name) was found somewhere and taken in by Lord and Lady Gallo who own the Lavender House. The Lavender House shelters women who have gifts. Faye’s gift is one of truthtelling and it was sorely abused by someone in her past life. As part of the Lavender House, Faye is called upon to use her gifts to determine whether Rogan McBain was involved in the death of Lord Brendier.

Why the Lavender House is interested in Lord Brendier’s death remains a mystery to me in the end, as do many elements of the story. At one point, it was hinted that Faye is given this task merely so that she can prove to herself she is a woman of great strength and not the mouse she perceives herself to be. Yet, given all the dangers that Faye is put in to gain this knowledge, it seems that Lady Gallo plays very loose with her charges. Motivation of the characters often escaped me in this story.

The story had a very nice gothic feel to it, aided by the timidity of the Faye. She’s very uncertain of Rogan McBain, in part because of his large size. Men have never been kind to Faye and Rogan McBain has the ability to fell her in one blow. For Rogan’s part, he finds “faerie Faye”, as he calls her, fascinating but he’s also a little apprehensive for Rogan’s experience with women hasn’t been very good either. He has a strong protective streak, one that he’s tried to tamp down or eliminate, but to little success. This desire to protect the weaker, or the seemingly weaker sex, has gotten his heart broken and made him leery of permanent attachment to women.

Rogan and Faye are both like wounded birds and easily misunderstand the motives of others and intentionally mislead the other in trying to keep up their appearances. Faye is trying to show that she isn’t tenderhearted or weak (not understanding that the former does not imply the latter). Rogan is torn between wanting to protect Faye and not wanting to fall into another trap.

I found both Rogan and Faye to be very likeable. Rogan is described as so beast like, however, I envisioned pictures of Andrea the Giant. You, however, apparently see a young Gerard Butler. There was a definite disconnect between that vision and the description of Rogan as having “freakish size” or being referred to as a “big freak of a man” and having “timber sized legs”.

Part of my problem with the book is that it seemed very disjointed. There lacked smooth transition between scenes. One minute you would have two individuals talking and then next, one character would be in the backyard garden of a home at midnight. As I said previously, the motivation of the characters eluded me. Why were Faye and Rogan at ton parties? How did they go around blithely interrogating people? Why is Shaleena naked? (you can read the Shaleena naked scene here. I mean, the first scene produced questions that remained unanswered. I kept asking myself what the point was.

I have not read any of the other books in the trilogy and I admit to feeling disadvantaged because of it. Perhaps if I had read the three previous stories, I would have understood the role of the Lavender House and why Shaleena was naked. How people could just turn up in the garden at midnight and why Faye could roam the streets at dawn.

I liked the gothic appeal of it. I liked Faye and Rogan. I just felt like I had only been allowed to read half the story. C

Best regards

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon
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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.

When Zoe Archer offered ARC copies of your new two-novella book, Half Past Dead on Twitter, I enthusiastically requested one, with more than a little curiosity about how zombies would work in Romance. I would have to read substantially more books to fully quench that curiosity, but your novellas gave me a glimpse of the possibilities beyond the popular imagery of dying flesh and mindless subservience, neither of which figure to me as particularly romantic. While I must admit to being less than blown away by the volume as a whole, I did find the stories interesting in their refiguring of the zombie myth for genre Romance.

In Zoe Archer’s The Undying Heart, we meet Cassandra Fielding as she waits outside a tavern for the nefarious Colonel Kenneth Broadwell. As a member of the Blades of the Rose, Cassandra now understands that Magic does exist, even in mid-19th C England, and is too often used for dark purposes. In the case of Broadwell, as a member of the Heirs of Albion he exploits a magical “Source” by killing and turning his soldiers into zombies for England’s military success. And Cassandra has been dispatched to track and kill Broadwell, and hopefully to retrieve the Source.

Samuel Reed knows all about Broadwell’s zombie magic, having been turned by Broadwell to become part of his own personal zombie army. For some reason, though, Sam has been able to break the singular mind control Broadwell, as his maker, has over him, and he now hunts Broadwell to exact his revenge for the involuntary condemnation to the tormented life of the fully conscious but undead.

When Sam comes across Cassandra outside the tavern, both are stunned; she has long believed her brother’s best friend dead in battle like her brother, and he is amazed at the striking woman into which Cassandra has grown. Sam did not know of the crush Cassandra had on him while he was alive, and now that he considers himself a monster, he cannot imagine her desire to renew their acquaintance. Because while Sam may not be the flesh-dripping monster we are used to from the movies, he cannot quite pass for normal, either, despite Cassandra’s insistence on treating him as she would a living person. When the townspeople start to band together and arm themselves, Cassandra is flummoxed:

“Arming themselves,” she muttered. “I don’t understand.”

“They probably don’t even know why,” Sam rumbled. “Primal instinct. Something unnatural is in their home and they want it out.”

“But you haven’t done anything!”

“Doesn’t matter. You should run from me, get yourself to safety. They won’t bother with you.”

“Get it through your undead head,” she gritted, “I’m not leaving you.”

Thus do Cassandra and Sam set out together to defeat Broadwell, who they know is busy turning a shipful of drowned Royal Marines, and increasing the destructive powers of the dark Magic with his stolen Source.

I understand that this novella kicks off a series of Victorian-set novels set around the Heirs of Albion and the Blades of the Rose, so the focus of those will be more on the Magic elements than on zombies, per se. And there are many elements of The Undying Heart that are clearly intended to set up the series, from the unusual home of Blade member Honoria Graves – which is tricked out with some serious Steampunky equipment – to the novella’s climax, which revolves around Sam’s status as zombie, the nature and force of the Sources, and the whole concept of balance within the supernatural matrix of Magic.

I think that there’s a great deal of potential there, and if The Undying Heart is supposed to stand as a kind of teaser for the series, it’s a good one. But as a stand-alone story, I had some issues with both the zombie concept and the world building, as well as with the suspense aspect.

First, despite the fact that zombies do not lend themselves to romantic heroism, Archer works a little magic of her own in creating a zombie hero who is neither a mindless slave nor a decomposing pile of flesh and bones. To Cassandra’s eye, he is a decent approximation of his old self, and their previous acquaintance further eases her acceptance of the undead Sam. But those same clever work-arounds also beg a question: why a zombie hero if two fundamental aspects of the condition have been altered? Vampires offer immortality and the erotic feeding ritual; werewolves offer a sense of primal wildness and animalistic sexuality, but what do zombies uniquely offer as Romance protagonists? Certainly they offer a dilemma: how can you have lasting happiness between someone who is effectively dead physically and a mortal partner? But I think I might want a full-length novel to explore some of the more interesting issues at stake. For example, it was clever to introduce the uniform mind of the mob that chases Sam and Cassandra as a mirror of the mentally enslaved zombies; I would have loved if if this relationship had been drawn out a bit more. Also, the whole question of how one breaks that mental control is raised by Sam’s existence but not really answered beyond an assumption of his exceptional individual strength.

More specifically to the plot of The Undying Heart, though, pairing Sam and Cassandra up means that most of the suspense must be generated externally, and it must compete with the introduction of the Blades, the Heirs, the zombi and its origins in Caribbean vodou, Steampunk accoutrements, Magic more generally, and let’s not forget the romantic development. I give Archer a great deal of credit for not imparting all of this foundation as infodump, but at the same time, the limits of the novella make it difficult to create both breadth and depth in the story. And here, breadth exceeds depth to the point where I just didn’t feel a great deal of suspense in the chasing of Broadwell or the fate of Sam and Cassandra.

Further, I felt some of the moves were too predictable. For example, Sam and Cassandra race away from the mob, only to come upon an abandoned barn. Time for the first sex scene! Later, they arrive at a safe house. Time for another sex scene! Plus there is a magic hoo-haw moment that I really wish could have been avoided (if anyone wants a spoiler, pose the question in the comments, and I will answer it).

All of this was a shame for me, because the writing was thoughtful, nicely-worked, and sophisticated, and the setting interesting and intricately imagined. I just did not feel emotionally engaged in the story or in Cassandra and Sam’s developing relationship. I am, however, very interested in the Magic and Steampunk aspects of the upcoming series. Also, I think the mid-Victorian setting is ideal to explore the inter-relationships among magic, national power (imperialism, colonialism, nationalism, jingoism, etc.), and moral/spiritual balance, and this novella hinted at the richness of all this, hopefully to be explored more fully in future books. So while The Undying Heart was a C read for me, there were enough seeds sown for the rest of the series that I will definitely be picking up Archer’s upcoming full-length Blades novel.

In an unexpected and delightful transition, the second novella, Simon Says picks up in contemporary times, but with the tie-in of a military theme: Simon Blackwell has been bitten and scratched by some creature, and he is certain he is not going to make it out of his mission alive. Unbeknownst to Simon, though, he has a unique immunity to the venom of these monstrous beings, which makes him a perfect covert operative against them.

As a small band of zombies wander the land around Quantico Marine base, threatening both the enlisted and civilians living on and around the base, Simon hunts them every night, systematically eliminating these mindless, encroaching creatures. And in addition to his loyalty to the military and his special immunity, Simon has an additional investment in his mission: his former flame, Dr. Mariana Daniels, lives in the woods around Quantico. Except she has no idea Simon is back, having said an abrupt goodbye to him three years ago, thinking he was merely going on another mission, never to see or hear from him again. So when Simon limps into her clinic, his flesh torn and suffering significant blood loss, Mariana is understandably shocked. And when Simon’s wounds start healing within the hour, she adds curiosity to the shock, even as she grapples to tamp down the hurt she still feels at what she interprets as Simon’s cold rejection three years ago.

Simon has much that he cannot tell Mariana, but seeing her again in such close proximity makes all his feelings for her newly acute. Lust and respect and a belief that she is The One all impair Simon’s impartiality, compelling him to tell Mariana enough to make her more, not less, curious about why Simon is the way he is. He is also forced to blow his cover as the silent forest zombie hunter when one of the ragtag bunch ventures too close to Mariana’s house, frightening her with its inhuman face:

A second later she saw it, coming from the woods. It looked like a man in tattered camo fatigues, but its face … its face was … horrible.

Streaked with a grime that didn’t look like camo paint, bits of flesh hung off his jaw and gouges were taken out of his hollow cheeks. His eyes were vacant, staring. His jaw locked in position, seemingly unable to move.

Mariana stared. Her rifle lay in her arms, but she was unable to lift it – or even to think – as the thing came toward her.

Once it’s clear that Mariana is in danger, Simon’s inability to remain invisible and unknown disappears, and he feels the need to protect her must more personally. If she gets bitten by one of the zombies, she won’t simply die; she will become one of them, and Simon would have to destroy her, an absolutely incomprehensible possibility. And because Mariana is not one of those women who can manage a rifle in one hand and a machete in the other — that is, because she is unused to supernatural phenomema and is logically freaked out by what’s going on around her — her ability to protect herself is not at all guaranteed.

Where The Undying Heart is somewhat weighted down with mythology, magic, romance, and suspense, Simon Says is more straightforward and streamlined, even as it offers a creative take on the phenomenon that has created the zombie problem. Simon wants Mariana to move onto the base – to greater safety – until he has eliminated the zombie problem around her home. Mariana cannot imagine leaving Simon to fend for himself and possibly be destroyed himself, especially after being separated from her for three years. Consequently, the rest of the story is constructed within a horror-romance framework that propels both the relationship and the external conflict forward.

In many ways I think Simon Says is better suited to the novella format, although where the first novella seems chock full, this one feels a bit thin in some parts, leading me to question certain choices in the story. For example, Simon agrees readily to allow Mariana to remain in her isolated house, even though it should be obvious to anyone, especially Simon, that such an option is keerazy. That Mariana is not supernaturally endowed or bionically powerful is one of the more interesting things about her character (i.e. how does a normal person deal with phenomena beyond their experience?). And it’s also a little crazy for Mariana to be so certain she wants to remain, especially after she comes face to face with one of the zombies and has a very natural, very understandable, paralytic response. And beyond Mariana, why not evacuate the area in which the zombies are wandering? Certainly that could be done without alerting the population to the real reason for the move, especially since the land borders a military base.

Then there is the question of why Simon is fighting these zombies alone. His immunity makes his solo presence on the ground understandable (we are treated to an opening scene that brings home the horrors of falling victim to the zombies), but why aren’t there military personnel circling the area in helicopters, especially given the means by which Simon destroys the zombies, which would be available to someone hovering over the ground in a helicopter. There just seem to be certain orchestrated moves in the story that artificially perpetuate the suspense and the conflict, and which, ironically, undermine the horror of it all. For example, there are only a handful of zombies left, allowing for the possibility that Simon can actually handle the situation, but lessening the magnitude of the threat. And despite the need for secrecy, I felt that the safety of civilians was being genuinely and consistently threatened, such that I had a difficult time being afraid for anyone.

There are also some issues with descriptive language that frustrated me. For example, when I most wanted a scene to be drawn out, suspense to be building, it seemed truncated, and when I craved brevity I got extensive telling. Take this scene describing Simon’s destruction of one of the zombies:

He had to have shot the zombie in the back while it was still out in the yard. His rifle had a much longer range than her small pistol. He’d taken the shots from far out, maybe while running to her rescue. Her darts hadn’t had enough time to work. Simon’s darts had been there first, in the creature’s back, doing their job in the nick of time. Thank heaven.

Capping off what should be the most suspenseful and cathartic scene in the novella, this passage reads to me like a police report.

While on the other hand, some of the romantic language struck me as effusively clichéd:

They came together in a shower of passionate sparks that set them both aflame with rapture, flying higher and higher than ever before. Together. Forever.

If fate allowed.

As with The Undying Heart, Simon Says offers a creative interpretation of the zombie myth and blends it with genre Romance without invoking ridiculousness or provoking a total unwillingness to believe in the story and the characters. However, I had a similar response to Simon Says as to the first novella, which was an intellectual interest in the story without a strong emotional engagement. And ultimately, I found the story, and thus the volume as a whole, occupying the same grade range – C.

~ Janet

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

I have been curious about Harlequin’s NASCAR-themed Romances since they were first released, so when you offered Force of Nature to Dear Author for review, I jumped at the chance to read it. And while I don’t know a great deal about the line (I do know, for example, that the books are PG-13), I can see after reading Force of Nature that there are many potential stories related to the sport of stock car racing to tell. And while this one did not work for me as well as I had hoped, it had a number of very interesting elements I’d like to see more of in the genre as a whole.

Shelly Green is an up and coming NASCAR star driver, and she is currently the only woman driving in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Unwilling to allow her gender to upstage her driving, whenever she’s asked about her success, she insists that “my skills speak for themselves… Besides, the car doesn’t really care what chromosomes the driver’s got.” And she hopes that also applies to the owners of Pebble Valley Winery, who are looking for a driver to sponsor. Shelly, who has worked hard to get where she is today (her father is supposedly a driver, but her mother would never tell her who he was), is determined to win the sponsorship, so determined, in fact, that she flies out to Napa unannounced to talk owner Steve Clayton into choosing her. Clayton, a fellow-driver, co-owns the winery with Damon Tieri, a former Wall Street investment guru who doesn’t know a lot about NASCAR, however much he may know about ensuring the success of a winery. So with emerging stars – Shelly Green and Pebbly Valley Winery – what could go wrong?

Let’s start with the fact that it’s not Steve Clayton who ends up meeting Shelly, but Damon, who seems poised to let some unflattering stereotypes guide his first impression of Shelly. Despite that immediate attraction that signals ‘romance novel,’ he tells her that the winery is looking for someone “sophisticated … articulate and cultured,” right after she has described her youth in Alabama, raised by a single mother, not educated beyond high school, and unable to discern the difference between a choice of “still or mineral” water (she chose “plain”). Damon, with his Princeton education, Fifth Avenue New York address, dark good looks, and designer jeans quickly dismisses Shelly, letting her know she’s wasted her time, until, that is, she stuns him with her own dressing down:

“They don’t just hand you a NASCAR career on a silver platter, you know. You have to earn it. It takes years of dedication. Everyone on your team’s got to believe in you, trust in you one hundred percent. Racing isn’t about being sophisticated or cultured or…or articulate,” she sputtered. “It’s about winning. About respect. About skill. And that’s what I’m all about, Mr. Tieri. I’m the best there is. And if you’re not smart enough to realize that, then maybe you should go back to Wall Street where you belong.”

In many ways, what happens from here is extremely predicable: Damon realizes that Shelly may be more than an attractively petite blue-eyes blonde who seems to know little about anything but driving. He can’t help his growing attraction to her, despite the well-bred girlfriend he has at home – the one being increasingly displaced in his thoughts by Shelly. And, surprise!, the Wall Street investment wonk is really a human being! With feelings! While the girl driver is really a human being! With intelligence and depth! This aspect of the book, which encompassed much of the traditional Romance elements, was my least favorite. Damon’s lusting feels forced, orchestrated, and initially inappropriate, while the class stereotypes felt awkward, overdrawn, and borderline insulting to both characters (and, by extension, the reader). Shelly’s mother is a brash alcoholic who picks the absolute worst time to embarrass Shelly, for example, which touches on numerous cringeworthy stereotypes. And Damon has a ne-er do well brother whose “mistakes” have made Damon the focus of his parents’ expectations. All this and more seemed to pitch awfully low to my own expectations as a reader.

But then there were a number of elements to Force of Nature that were surprising, inspired, and nuanced. For example, Shelly is not a shoe-in for the sponsorship, and the awkwardness of that is dealt with very realistically. Because Damon continues to follow the NASCAR drivers from race to race, checking out prospective drivers and getting to know the sport better. Which means that he and Shelly have time to grow a friendship, one that remains relatively chaste while the sponsorship decision remains unresolved. I appreciated this, because so often Romance protagonists throw aside obvious, substantial risks and jump straight into bed. Perhaps the PG-13 nature of the NASCAR series has helped foreclose that option here, but regardless, I felt that the emotional aspects of Damon and Shelly’s relationship were well-handled:

“Thank you for flying me out here,” she said suddenly, turning to face him. “Even if I don’t get the sponsorship, I appreciate the confidence you’ve shown in me. Steve says…well, he says you’ve spoken very highly of me. I realize you don’t think my background is right for Pebble Valley, but you’ve really put yourself out there for me, and I appreciate that.”

He couldn’t help himself; he reached for her hand, taking it in his. It was cold, he realized, rubbing it between his palms. “Don’t thank me, Shelly. You’re here because you’ve earned it. There’re still other things to consider, other drivers to consider,” he amended. “But you’re here entirely on your own merit.” He took a deep breath, hoping to slow the burn that was spreading through his veins.

“I’m trying to do this right, Shelly. Keep it all business. I have to do it that way, can’t let my personal feelings get in the way here. I hope you understand that.”

One of the reasons I so appreciated this maturity is because the clichéd set up of country girl and city boy felt so predictable at the beginning of the book, and it was refreshing to see that Shelly and Damon were functional adults. I especially liked that Shelly was a woman who had true confidence in her driving and a real passion for the sport, because otherwise it would have been very difficult for me to accept and understand her success. Further, it keeps her from depending on Damon for his Wall Street/Fifth Avenue approval. While it is true that she appreciates the respect he shows her (and for a while is surprised by it, considering the first impression he made on her), she neither looks to Damon to feel better about herself nor becomes wrapped up in trying to show him up. Once we get past some of the stereotypes, Damon and Shelly become two grown-ups struggling with a realistic obstacle (the sponsorship decision) to their growing affection.

In the end, I’m not sure I totally bought into the relationship, not because I felt the relationship was badly developed, but rather because I really could never feel the passion between them. Much of Damon’s mental lusting seemed more programmed than naturally developing. As for Shelly, I could see her attraction to Damon, but she seemed to move awfully quickly from admiration and friendship to romantic love, and I had to imagine many of those steps happening for both characters off page. For the most part, their bond felt more to me like a very strong friendship than ‘can’t live without you’ love.

Ultimately, I’m glad that I read Force of Nature, because I have always been curious about the Harlequin NASCAR books, and I’d be interested in trying others. I wish the book had relied on fewer stereotypes, even as I admired the way a number of them were surpassed during the course of the story. And I wish more Romance novels would deal with class issues, because they are far from incidental, especially in the way they shape first impressions. And I’m glad my first impressions of the novel were at least partly overturned. C

~Janet

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format (couldn’t find the link at 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.

I remember a number of people raving about your debut in the If You Like Debut books thread. I bought the debut book, Knight of Desire, but by the time I got around to reading it your second book, Knight of Pleasure, was out. So I read that one first. While I felt that I would have appreciated some of the nuances in the character of Stephen, the hero, more had I read the first book in the series, I was not lost.

Lady Isobel Hume was married off the age of 14 to a neighboring lord with quite a bit of money and power. Her father promised her that when Hume died, she would have her independence. No one really thought Hume would live as long as he did. He eventually dies when Isobel is 22 and she finally thinks she is free. But somehow, because she and Hume did not have children, a bastard born to a woman of quality convinced Hume that he was Hume’s son. In Hume’s will, he leaves his entire estate to the purported son, Graham. Isobel is enraged and turns to her father for aid.

Her father turns to Bishop Beaufort, the uncle of King Henry, to have the property given back to Isobel. Bishop Beaufort gives her three choices: marry Graham, marry someone your father picked out (and didn’t he do a good job the first time), or go to Caen and marry someone politically advantageous to the Crown. Isobel chooses to go to the court of Henry and await a marriage to be arranged with a Norman lord.

Once at the court Isobel is reminded that she is to dutifully serve her King, particularly when her father did not. She is instructed to determine whether her new spouse will be loyal to the Crown or is fomenting some insurgency. Sir Stephen Carleton is appointed to be an assistant to the bailli of Caen. Stephen chafes at this because he is a knight.

When Isobel and Stephen first see each other, they are quite taken with one another, but they both know their duty. Further, when Isobel is introduced to her future mate, she is delighted. Philippe de Roche is wealthy, extremely handsome, attentive without being overbearing.

This is not a triangle though for Isobel’s heart is never engaged by Phillipe and he is often gone from Caen while Stephen is there. I liked that the story took place over a period of time. Isobel arrives in Caen in November 1417 and the story culminates in April 1418.

The best and worst part of the story was Stephen’s character arc. Stephen arrives in Caen believing he can never love a woman because the one woman he wants has already been taken. It’s his sister in law, apparently the heroine in the first book. Stephen was a young boy but he seems to believe that he won’t grow out of his “love” for Catherine. While I appreciated that he did, there wasn’t any internal recognition that his feelings for Catherine were simply infatuation. At one point, Isobel watches Stephen with Catherine and even Isobel sees his heart in his eyes, even after Stephen was supposedly in love with Isobel.  I really needed to see this issue dealt with but it never was. We are simply to assume that his feelings for Isobel overrode those longings for Catherine. “For the right woman,” he said, meeting his nephew’s eyes, “I would give up all the others without regret.”

As for Isobel, I felt like this was a case of making lemonade out of lemons.  A woman of that time period was chattel, to be used to gain money for the father or alliances with the king.  In trying to provide her a measure of independence, you gave her the ability to be a sword fighter and yes, this played a small role in the story, overall I found Isobel to be terribly bland.  The sword fighting thing felt so contrived and not well integrated into Isobel’s overall storyline.

The interaction between Stephen and his nephew were well done and the Isobel’s struggle as a woman, her futility for independence, was also well portrayed. There were definitely high points and I would read your work again. C

Best regards,

Jane

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

I came away from this book thinking that I should have liked the story more than I did and I wasn’t sure why.  Your prose is good, as always.  You have thoughtful characters.   I liked the premise – the story of a man whose honor was totally stripped away by a false accusation and how his life is redeemed.

Alexander Hayes has been dead to his family for the last five years.  He was reported to have died on the battlefield and letters were found in his affects containing correspondence with the French.  He was denounced as a traitor by Wellington himself.  Alex was not a traitor but discovered that he was suspected when he found a friend of his on the French countryside.  Alex was given the opportunity to spy for England so he changes his name and remains dead, cut off from his family, his friends, his home.  In the meantime, he seeks evidence to clear his name.

Then his brother dies and Alex inherits the title.  He must return home.  There he finds his beloved sister can’t even sit in the same room with him and tells him that he would have been better off to stay dead.  He displaces his cousin, a good man.  The entire village, no, the entirety of England, believes him to be a traitor.  Only his mother is filled with welcome.

Cressida Turner and her widowed sister, Callie, live in a small home near the Penford estate, the home of Alex.  Their father has gone missing and the family funds are perilously low.  Alex has been discharged by his superior to look into the matter and while Cressida first views Alex with suspicion she realizes that she has little choice but to allow Alex to assist her.

Both Alex and Cressida are understated characters.  Alex, in particular, seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of patience, particularly with his sister Julia.  When Alex does have a strong emotional response, it is all the more powerful because of the contrast.

I could see how the two were well matched.  Cressida, like Alex, was not particularly flamboyant.  She was the plainer of the two sisters and had not been able to make a match.  She’s resigned to be a spinster.

The story was not told in a linear fashion with the present time frequently interrupted to move backward to unravel the story about how Alex became known as a traitor.  I found that the backstory was interesting but really provided nothing to advance the story.  It didn’t provide me with any greater insight into Alex as a character.  It had nothing to do with Cressida and there was nothing in the flashbacks that provided keys to unlocking the present day mystery.  It fell a bit like filler to me.

There was early mental lusting by both Alex and Cressida which didn’t seem to match the overall tone.  Because both Alex and Cressida seemed to be restrained and because their initial meeting put each other at odds with one another, it was jarring to read about the tightening of Alex’s loins just looking at Cressida or Cressida’s thrill of appreciation at Alex’s blue eyes and sinfully handsome face.

I wanted to see more of how Alex dealt with the fall out of his treason.  Was his sister unmarried because of it?  We see small glimpses of it in his local church, but other than that, most of the story takes place at either Penford or Cressida’s home and the isolation makes you feel like there is no fall out, other than Alex’s sister’s issue with it.

Again, I liked the tone and I did like the characters but the whole story didn’t mesh well for me. I couldn’t connect emotionally. C

Best regards,

Jane

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 but I did purchase an ecopy for myself. 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.

It was actually part of the excerpt for the next book in the “Hightower Affairs” series which got me to get this one as well. If possible, I like to start at the beginning and that seems to be with this memorably Harlequin-esque title “Bedding the Secret Heiress.”

Gage Faulkner is the enemy—her half brother’s spy. At least that’s what newly discovered Hightower heiress Lauren Lynch keeps telling herself. Despite the thrill this pilot feels at the rich, gorgeous businessman’s sudden interest, she knows what he’s really after: proving she’s a fortune hunter.

Gage’s mind tells him Lauren is hiding something. His body tells him he wants her anyway. And her body…well, it tells him the feeling is mutual. The Hightowers want him to prove she’s a gold digger, but the pain in her eyes is real. The truth is crucial, and he’ll do anything to uncover it—even seduce her.

I’ve had a lot of luck with the Desire line. It’s kind of “Presents Lite.” Filthy rich men who aren’t quite the assholes that are so common as in that line while the heroines seem to have more strength in their spines. Well, I got the heroine I wanted but the hero….

I like the fact that Lauren is a pilot and a self made woman who wants nothing to do with the family she never even knew she had. Her stray cat mother strayed quite a lot in her loveless marriage but Lauren feels no need to pretend to love this woman she didn’t know was her mother until Lauren’s eighteenth birthday. Lauren’s practical side appeals to me and I love that she’s determined not to let her half-siblings get to her. Half-brother Trent is a real piece of work and I hope Lauren makes him grovel through fire, manure and rotten garbage at some point real soon. I have a feeling she can and will.

Gage turns out to be the sand in my vaseline. Sure, he’s long time friends with Trent and doesn’t want to see anything bad happen to the Hightowers who were kind to him when he was a poor student. So I can excuse his initial boorish, highhanded treatment of Lauren. But his continued preemptory demands on her time – despite anything that she might be obligated to do for him as one of her brother’s clients – got to be too much. His interrogating questions were nothing short of rude and my temper would have snapped with him long before Lauren’s did. There’s helping a friend and there’s being a boor. Gage crossed the line early in the book for me.

But the thing that I find impossible to forgive in him is the point at which his opinion of Lauren changed. If he had shown an inkling of believing her and in her before he was presented with incontrovertible proof of her integrity, were I Lauren I could have eventually forgiven him – after I watched him grovel for a good, long time. But no, he had to see written proof of her innocence of all the nasty things Trent was accusing her of and only then did Gage start to eat humble pie. God forbid he should ever doubt Lauren on anything again. He might go beyond hateful comments and chilling demeanor.

This is a relatively short book and the focus stays fixed on Gage and Lauren for most of it. Though Lauren works well for me, I’m afraid Gage needed a wallop to the head. C

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at eHarlequin.com 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 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.

I confess that I was at first taken aback by the length of this hardcover. I remember thinking unkind thoughts about this format when Janet Evanovich put out her first Christmas hardcover. Those have sold like crazy so I guess that readers are unfazed by the length of the story and the cost. After all, a story is a story, right?

When I started ICE, I began to get excited. A good category length Howard is worth hardcover pricing. I know that I would have paid quite a bit to read the Diamond Bay trilogy because it was so good. The first and second chapters read like a vintage category Howard romance and if it had kept in that vein, I would have been able to recommend this unreservedly. However, in keeping with your current writing voice, this book is far more focused on the action/suspense than it is on the characters and their relationship with each other.

The story takes place, mostly, over the space of one afternoon. There is an impending icestorm and military policeman, Gabriel, is home on leave. His father, the local sheriff, sends him to retrieve Lolly Helton from her mountain home because she won’t be able to survive up there if there is an icestorm. Gabriel is not thrilled about his father’s assignment. He wants to spend the afternoon with his son and he doesn’t really like Lolly. When they were in high school, Lolly always looked down her nose at him. Him! The highschool jock, son of the sheriff, friend to everyone; yet Lolly was always using her sharp tongue to cut him down. Still, Gabriel isn’t going to refuse to do what his father asks and heads up the mountain.

Lolly is preparing the family home for sale. Her parents have moved south and Lolly doesn’t live in the area. The local grocery store owner invites Lolly to stay with them over the icestrom and Lolly acquiesces. She knows the danger. She heads back up the mountain to get the supplies she needs. Her return to town is cut short when two meth addicts break into her home and prepare to rape, rob, and kill her.

It’s about the time when the meth addicts appear on the scene that the book kind of falls apart for me, maybe because I was hoping and anticipating Lolly and Gabriel interaction. no matter how hard you had Lolly explain everything to me, I was beset with questions regarding the plausibility of the suspense. For example, meth addict 1 is male and tries to rape Lolly only his girlfriend, Meth 2, comes in and starts to beat Meth 1 about the head. Why would Meth 1 think that he could get away with raping Lolly when his girlfriend was standing right there? Did he have a history of this? Was it simply to place Lolly in further sympathy with the reader? When they put Lolly in a room upstairs, it easily allows her to escape. Why not just tie her to a chair in the same room as the Meth heads? Or why wouldn’t they try to secure her in some fashion?

Now the answer may be that the Meth addicts are high and who can explain their actions, but they seemed capable of executing a plan (targeting Lolly in the grocery store and following her up the mountain, getting her to give them money, etc). It was no quick grab sort of thing.

Gabriel comes along and they try to escape together but they are found out by the bad guys so Lolly, Gabriel and the bad guys are running in the woods in the mountain during the icestorm. Only Gabriel and Lolly are affected by the cold. The Meth addicts seem impervious. Where Lolly is nearly hypothermic, Meth addict is able to plot, plan and carry out an effective threat to both Gabriel and Lolly’s lives.

The interaction between Gabriel and Lolly is quite brief and there is no real character development. The focus is squarely on the icestorm and the meth addicts and the danger the two pose for both Gabriel and Lolly. While the story ends with Gabriel and Lolly pursuing each other, I wasn’t convinced of much of anything at the end, least of all their ability to form a lasting connection. C

Best regards

Jane

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

Thank you for sending this novella to me for review. I know, having read erotic romance* for several years, that here is a real skill in delivering believable and sexy consummation scenes. You have that skill and I appreciated the delivery of that content. The overall construct, perhaps because of the length, was problematic.

Maggie Parker and Adam Richards were a couple until Maggie up and left one day, leaving Adam sleeping and a post it note breaking up with him.  She moved to Chicago to take a job with a magazine.  When Maggie’s sister gives birth to a son alone and abandoned by her husband, Maggie returns to her hometown near Washington, D.C..  Of course, that puts her back into proximity with Adam.

Adam feels like there was unfinished business between them and proposes that Maggie have sex with him until she leaves for Chicago again.  Adam wants to sex Maggie out of his system.  Maggie is given a remote assignment to come up with a story about Adam, race car driver who leaves it all behind to start a mechanic shop.

I wasn’t sure why Adam and Maggie started dating in the first place and I never got a sense of where their relationship was when she left.  They obviously had communication issues. Maggie never explained to him that she was searching for jobs outside the D.C. area and Adam never explained why he gave up competitive racing.  Some of the conversations they had was if they had never dated before.   Adam really didn’t see Maggie’s departure coming.  He was curiously even keeled about Maggie leaving him.  He was more frustrated and wondering if his strong desire for her had driven her away.

There are great little touches here and there that convey a lot of emotion and provide great setting but the coherency of the story lost me from time to time.  I was confused about how Maggie could maintain any journalistic integrity by sleeping with Adam and I was confused about Adam’s desire to both push Maggie away and sex them both into exhaustion.  For example, Adam swung back and forth after their first sexual encounter.  First he leaves her on the bed, wanting more and hoping that she is gone when he is done with his shower.   When she comes in to the bathroom to say goodbye, he draws her into the shower and they proceed to satisfy each other. I needed something to signal his own internal conflict if that is what you wanted me to read into this. If he wanted to fuck her out of his system, why did he engage in delayed gratification to heighten sensory satisfaction?

I did love the explanation of what the redline was and I wish that this were teased out even more. I thought it was an interesting concept that was brought up but never fully integrated.

There was a nice circling of around for Maggie, from running away to staying and deciding to risk Adam’s rejection in order to find out if they could be together.  As I said in my opening, your sex scenes are always well done and this book is no different.  I wished that there was more cohesiveness in the character motivations.  C

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Samhain in DRM Free multiformat.

* I’m not sure I would tag this an erotic romance. I didn’t find the scenes to be any more erotic than in a Blaze.

When Tina submitted a list of new books to Dear Author for possible review, “Falling Through Glass” grabbed my attention. Hmmm, time travel to 19th century Japan in the waning days of samurai warriors. Can’t get much more different than that.

Since I’m feeling lazy this morning. I’m just going to steal the blurb at Liquid Silver.

Los Angeles
Present Day

Japanese-American Emiko Maeda set aside her film school studies following the sudden death of her father. At odds with her mother and burdened with the guilt over her role in the tragic accident, she moves in with her uncle Jake and comes into possession of an antique mirror. While accompanying Jake to Japan on a film shoot, Emmi is caught in a freak storm and plunged through time–into Feudal Japan and the world of samurai.

Kyoto, Japan
1864

The city of Kyoto is ablaze with violence and on the brink of civil war. Nakagawa Kaemon is a young samurai with a secret. He gathers information on those who claim to “Revere the emperor” but harbor their own agenda to control the country. Kae is honor bound to execute anyone who poses a threat to the throne even if it is Emmi, the unusual young woman he has come to love.

The first 50 pages of this book almost lost me. Way too much telling and not showing. I had actually put the book down at this point only to rethink it the next morning. I want to promote different times and places in books so I hefted it up and kept going. I’m not sure if it was my determination to finish the book or at this point you started more showing and less telling but it’s then that things started to pick up and become more interesting.

But I have to ask, what is with heroine casually accepting that her Uncle Jake has time traveled? I’d be all “WTF?!” but she just brushes it off in the conversation almost like Jake was merely saying he’d gone to San Diego for the day. Then when she tells Kae she’s from the future, he does the same. Or at least initially, though later he does think a little on what she’s said. But it’s more that he wants to see this future than any freaked out, “OMG! (or Japanese equivalent), she says she’s from the freakin’ future!” Emmi’s g-g-g-whatever grandfather is the same. His “visions” were never actually explained to my satisfaction. Ditto how Emmi’s mother’s monk works in the story.

Emmi is young – and she does act it at times. Pouting when Kae leaves her alone, excited about her wedding night – let loose your inner slut!, hasn’t had her maternal hormones kick in yet as seen when she takes Matsuhito out slumming through the festival, worries about possible STDs after her hot wedding night. Emmi also creates a ruckus whenever she’s let loose. I just wish she’d take a little more responsibility for the people she injured and the property she destroyed. Instead she pouts some more and tries to put the blame on everyone but herself. It takes possible deadly consequences to others (Emmi have you ever heard of seppuku?) before she finally does realize when she’s done something wrong.

Lucky for Emmi that Kae can look deep into her eyes and “just tell” that she’s not a traitor. Which he’ll believe until she does something – yet again – to make him rethink his position on that. At one point, Kae thinks that he wished he had more time to just sit with Emmi and get to know her. So did I. These two fall in love fairly quickly given all the unusual aspects of how they meet and get to know each other.

At first, I wondered if we’d get Emmi’s view of how things differ from her world vs 1864. Specific things and not just, “wow I’m in the past.” I loved her thoughts on the Shimabara brothel district, the palace, the hair gunk and face paint, the whole physical process of dressing for the wedding and actually walking in her outfit. This made the story more immediate and interesting to me.

Along the same lines, the scenes of the fair when Emmi and Kae attend as well as when she takes Prince Matsuhito there, are fun and a wonderful way to “show” the past and how Emmi views it.

The use of the historical actions as a way to decide whether or not Emmi’d stay in the past or return to the present is great. With TT books, I dislike any lingering regrets of “should I stay or should I go?” You remove all doubts about this. I was a little lost at times with regard to the historical action going on at this point in Japan but not enough for the story to lose me.

I hope that she and Kae work out their differing views on marriage and a woman’s place in it. But hey, at least he’ll buy her lingerie! Oh, loved the haiku poem but did you not want to include any of Emmi’s crappy poetry?

Like Mrs. Giggles, I also got the impression that this is a sequel to some other book. That I was missing some information that would allow some of the incidents in this book to make sense. There is a lot I like in the story and I wish I could give this book a higher rating but with all the issues I have with it, I’m afraid not.

~Jayne

FTC discloser – A free copy of this ebook was provided to Dear Author by the publisher for a potential review.

This book can be purchased at Liquid Silver Books.

This is a witch/witch hunter paranormal and while witch stories are not proliferous within the paranormal sub genre, the underlying tropes are familiar.  Wing Slayer hunters, men chosen by the Wing Slayer to protect witches, must find their soul mirror or succumb to the rogue state where they live to slaughter witches. This story tries to inject new life into the soul mate saveth trope by placing into question whether love can overcome magical destiny.

Carla is a powerful witch who helps those rescued from cults to overcome brainwashing. She works at a local clinic with her good friend Max, a sociologist (and probably a Wing Slayer to be). Max was a caring, curious sociologist until he was unable to save someone from dying in a cult. Then he became romance hero material: “The curious sociologist in Max died, and this man, full of passion, grief, anger and guilt, was born.” Max is mentioned quite frequently but plays absolutely no role in this book despite having unrequited feelings for Carla. I can only guess that he is to be hero of his own book after suitably suffering enough angst and drama.

Carla was kidnapped by rogues, witch hunters who give into their desire for witch blood, and subsequently saved by Wing Slayer Hunters. Sutton West was one of the Wing Slayer Hunters who was involved in the rescue. Part of Carla’s blood got on Sutton and now he lusts after her.

Sex is what witch hunters use to suppress their desire for witch’s blood. At some point in a witch hunter’s life, his desire for witch blood overcomes him. The witch hunter can either choose to kill himself or go rogue. Going rogue means he becomes a very bad guy, hunting and killing witches randomly. This is bad because each witch is some witch hunter’s soul mirror. Find the soul mirror and the witch hunter is released of his curse to lust after witch blood and, I think, the witch hunter and the witch get immortality. It’s like the ultimate wedding present.  (If you are invited to the wedding at the gods present immortality to the participants, what’s the point of a toaster?)

Someone is taking mortal women, brainwashing them, and turning them into weapons against the Wing Slayer Hunters. Witches are also disappearing. On top of this, Carla’s dead twin is calling for her on the astral plane, a plane where Carla can reach people who are in comas and where Carla can have some sexy encounters with Sutton. I didn’t really understand the bounds of the astral plane but it’s probably unimportant in the larger scheme of things. Carla’s twin’s soul is trapped in a knife and the twin is calling out for Carla to save her.

Sutton has a strong desire for Carla and it becomes apparent that she is his soul mirror, or so they think, when the eagle tattoo on his back begins to respond to her. The problem is that Carla’s twin is reaching out to Sutton (whom she refers to as her Eagle) and Carla doesn’t know whether Carla or her dead twin is Sutton’s soul mirror. Further, if Carla bonds with Sutton, she will lose her connection with her twin. Sutton refuses to accept that Keri, the twin, is his soul mirror because he loves Carla. Sutton, beset by his insecurities about his lack of education and his rough manners, believes that part of Carla’s reluctance to accept him is because he is not good enough for her.

We don’t get to see Sutton fall in love with Carla. He simply is. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was, for all intents and purposes, infected with Carla’s blood because it was only after getting her blood on him that he started wanting her, only her.

Probably the best parts of this book was the interaction between Sutton and the other male Wing Slayer Hunters. They spent the better part of their downtime making fun of each other but when danger arose, they worked as a team.

While I appreciated the message here: that can love be the strongest magic of all, too much is controlled by the “gods”.  Prayer can result in miracles. I have nothing against prayer and the power of people’s faith, but the fact is that when prayer can result in getting around the rules of worldbuilding, it totally deflates the tension. Because I felt like the Wing Slayer could intervene and make changes for the better, I don’t really trust the worldbuilding in the story and I don’t see how I could buy into tension based on that worldbuilding in the future. Worse, I felt that the ending really, really defanged the spirit of the story that the mate bond could be overcome by choice. C

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers tomorrow, October 27 2009.

I confess to being reluctant to start this book. I’m not sure why. I think because there wasn’t anything about the description of the book or the cover that really stood out. It was a paranormal story about good demons and bad demons. Given that it was a free book, however, it didn’t hurt to at least read the first chapter. I was intrigued enough by the first chapter to continue given that the writing style appealed to me.

Ferris Archer is a former southern gentleman who is now one of the demon possessed. He and others like him have banded together to fight in the war against other demon possessed individuals and malices that populate the earth. Archer views himself not so much as a warrior, but a trash collector . Malices can be drained but they cannot be returned to hell and over time, just regenerate. To say that Archer is weary would be an understatement. He went from fighting in the Civil War to a non stop, centuries long battle against entities simply cannot be defeated. When others warn him that the battle is being tipped toward the evil, Archer doesn’t believe it. The battle has always be tilted against them. Their numbers are few and seem to be getting fewer all the time. Archer plays the ennui inflicted rebel quite well.

Sara Littlejohn is a thanatologist who suffers a terrible car accident, leaving her maimed and in pain for possibly the rest of her life. She is tempted by a demon in the form of Archer who promises her a pain free life. She invites him into her body in some strange dream sequence. (Archer previously appeared to her telling her, cryptically, to refuse the demon).

Sara’s demon is a rare and powerful kind and she is desirous because, well, I wasn’t quite sure. I think it is because she represents some rare connection to the other side of the Veil which separates Earth from hell.  Sara is being hunted by a djinn who wants to harness that connection.

Sara’s possession is different and there is little explanation why. It just is. There hasn’t been a female possessed in centuries. There’s some whisper of mated-talyan bond but again, no explanation why she is the first in the long line of many demon possessed individuals to be a) female and b) teshuva versus djinn.  Teshuva’s are good demon possessions (if there can be good demon possessions).  Teshuva demons are those who are repentant. Djinn are those demons who are not. Teshuva demons and their possessed gain redemption by dying in battle against the djinn.  The demons appear to be written as male in gender although it is referred to as “it”  in pronoun form.   The demons, even though they are sentient beings inside the body, have little impact on the characters in the book except through violence.

The extent of the demon possession is not fully explained for me.  Does the teshuva merely lie dormant until called upon? This wouldn’t be accurate since at one point Sara’s powerful demon cowers in the face of a djinn.  But while Sara and Archer have sex, there appears to be no connection or involvement by the demons.

There’s no rhyme or reason for why someone gets a teshuva or djinn, it seems. Is it because the soul is qualitatively good in some fashion? It seems awfully convenient that the good guys get the teshuva’s. Would a truly repentant demon possess a serial killer? Does the demon change their soul?

The style of the prose is engaging but the overall story was confusing and difficult to follow.  There was a tendency toward repetition (I don’t know how many times that Archer referred to himself as taking out the trash but it was too many).   I kind of felt like the romance between Archer and Sara was a default one.  Sara saw Archer first, became physically attracted to him, he helped her through possession and then they were a pair.  I am intrigued and will read the next book in the series, but I left this book with many an unanswered question.  C

Best regards,

Jane

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

Thank you for sending me your book for review.  It was recommended as an erotic shapeshifting romance.  I’ll confess that when I started it, I thought it was a werewolf book, but it is not.  The Pendragon Gargoyles myth is based on cursed (or blessed) creatures that turn to stone during the daylight.

Kennedy Beaumont is a bartender at a popular club called Pendragon.  She has the hots for one of the owners, Tristan Pendragon, but he’s never signaled a return interest and so Kennedy has just lusted from afar.  One night she is targeted by an unknown danger and Tristan helps to save her.  They are placed in such close proximity (her car) that Tristan’s longing for Kennedy cannot be suppressed.  Much to Kennedy’s surprise, Tristan has lusted in a reciprocal, but silent manner as well.

The length of the book is category and I felt it was too short for the subject matter.  Primal Hunger is the first book in the series, but it seemed like it was a middle book. There were references to other stories, occurrences and myths, none of which are resolved in this book.  The myth that we are told is one that is a bit complicated.  There are the Pendragons who shapeshift into animals as well as stone.  There are fae, dragons, wraiths, and illusion casting shapeshifting gargoyles.

Tristan and his family owe allegiance to King Arthur.  There are six daggers that are embued with magical abilities. In order to save his brother from eternal stone and to defend against Excalibur from falling into the hands of Morganna, Tristan and his family must recover the six daggers.   There is no effort to advance the search for the daggers or progress the myth along.  Instead the conflict is whether Tristan must give up one of his daggers to cancel out a death contract on Kennedy.

This leads me to the next problem I had with the story.  Each section of the book ends a bit abruptly and the next section starts, chronologically, some time after the end of the last section.  For me, it was confusing because I wasn’t always sure where I was in the story.  For instance, one scene ends with the couple going to bed.  The next scene, Tristan in the shower.  I wasn’t sure if I had missed part of the story and kept having to go back to see if I had missed something. It took me a paragraph or so for me to orient myself. This is not to say that I need each minute of the day of a character’s life to be narrated for me, but these were abrupt time shifts.

This habit of fast forwarding us and then having the characters discuss, either in dialogue or narrative, the events that occurred in the time lapse made me detached from the story. I felt like I never got to see the real action of the story.

This sense of disorientation was compounded by the fact that I did feel that parts were missing. In one scene Kennedy heads to “Tristan’s room” even though she is new to the house and hadn’t been to his room before (and no one pointed her there).  In another scene, Kennedy summons a fae with a charm that she took from Tristan’s room. We were never shown the scene where she found the charm, how she identified it as a charm or how she knew she could summon a Fae.

To be honest, Kennedy didn’t sound very bright at times.  Her actions were impulsive and lacked intelligence. True, she seemed more motivated by feeling and emotion than sense, but lack of foresight isn’t always connected with lack of intelligence.  I never really got a sense of who Kennedy was. (or who Tristan was for that matter).  What motivated her? Was she logical, moved by emotion?

The erotic part of the erotic romance was very well done. The scenes were hot and tasteful.  I really liked how you used the sexual tension to ratchet up the heat instead of just relying on the coupling.  The erotic part of the story gets a B, but the other parts a C-.

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Books on Board in ebook format only.

I don’t even know where to begin. While it’s true I’m a fan of your Black Dagger Brotherhood series, I stopped making any claims about its purported quality many books back. Romance? Unlike most readers who thought the first books were romance, only for later ones to shift into the urban fantasy category, I never believed the series belonged in the romance genre in the first place. So I took it with a very large, very heavy bucket of salt when I heard that your new series, starting with Covet, would be more romantic. Sorry, but it’s true.

Jim Heron is an ex-military assassin, jaded and cynical about life. He drifts from one place to the next, putting down no roots and trying to stay out of trouble. He’s currently employed as a construction worker but when the mansion he’s currently helping to build is completed, he intends to move on. Then on the eve of his fortieth birthday, he hooks up with a woman at the club, Iron Mask.

What he thought would only be a pleasant memory unfortunately leads to more, just not in the usual way. The next morning, the woman shows up at the construction site on the arm of his boss, Vincent DiPietro, who will one day live in the mansion Jim’s helping build. As expected, this is awkward but Jim takes graceless reactions to a new level: he gets into an accident on-site and electrocutes himself.

This sends Jim into the afterlife, sort of, where he meets four angels who tell him the score. This is the final end game between heaven and hell. Jim, because of the balanced amount of light and dark in his soul, is a sort of neutral player whose role is to save (or damn) seven souls. Best out of seven wins. If he saves more souls, the world and the people who live in it can continue on as we know it. But he fails and loses more souls instead, the world as we know it will cease to exist at all.

At any rate, Jim is sent back to earth with his new mission and his first assignment is none other than Vincent. And if the novel’s title is descriptive of anyone, it’s Vin. Growing up from virtually nothing, as an adult, Vin likes surrounding himself with the very best money can offer — furniture, cars, real estate, and women. One woman, in particular — his girlfriend, Devina, and yes, I am not joking; that is indeed her name. Vin plans to make things official and ask her to be his wife but even though he’s bought an expensive diamond engagement ring, he finds himself unable to pop the question. Something is holding him back. And he soon discovers what when he reluctantly goes to the Iron Mask with Jim and meets the head prostitute who works there, Marie-Terese.

A few years ago, Marie-Terese escaped a bad situation. She’s free of a controlling, abusive husband who lives on the wrong side of the law and now has complete custody of her son. There’s only one catch. She has to live under an assumed name to avoid the notice of her ex-husband’s former associates, and she has massive debt due to lawyer and private investigator fees. She’s managed to whittle down the debt but to do so, she’s had to work as a prostitute, a profession which is killing her slowly inside day after day. She swore she’d never get involved with men and especially not with anyone who reminds her of her ex, but then she meets Vin.

Jim thinks the way to save Vin’s soul is to matchmake him with his long-suffering girlfriend, Devina. But Vin finds himself falling in love with Marie-Terese and vice versa. To complicate matters even more, Devina is not at all who she seems, someone is killing people who get involved with Marie-Terese, and Vin’s long dormant psychic abilities have reawakened. And what those abilities are telling him is that Marie-Terese’s life is in danger.

If you find yourself thinking my summary of the book sounds convoluted, you’d be correct. But in my defense, I also happen to think it’s reflective of the novel itself. This book meanders. I can’t think of any other way to put it. We hop from one storyline to the next, and unlike the Black Dagger Brotherhood novels, I wasn’t invested in any of them. Or even one of them. Jim, Vin, or Marie-Terese? I couldn’t have cared less about anyone.

To be honest, however, I was most disappointed by Marie-Terese. I liked the brief glimpse we’d had of her in Lover Avenged but in that book, my impression of her was that of a no-nonsense, tough woman who has to do what she does to survive. In Covet, I find her tedious and annoying in her constant emo whining. I think I’m simply done with prostitute characters who feel sorry for themselves and self-flagellate every five minutes. In Marie-Terese’s case, it was made even more trying by the fact that for all she complained about her situation, she was in no way trapped by it. She had a standing offer from a good man who’d help her, no strings attached. It’s too difficult for me to feel sympathy for a character who chooses to martyr herself on the altar of the sex trade. Oh, and as an aside? Her real name? I must have different standards but with the way she went on about it, that wasn’t at all what I expected her “beautiful” real name to be.

For those readers who want to know, I wouldn’t consider this novel a romance. I think it’s even less of a romance than the Black Dagger Brotherhood books and I didn’t even think that was possible. But unlike the BDB series, this novel lacks the multi-layered background storytelling that keeps me reading despite a lack of interest in the main storyline. It’s trying to, I think, with the framework of Jim’s work to save seven souls and the “romance” storyline between Vin and Marie-Terese and the implication of Devina’s true loyalties, but it all reads as cursory and shallow. When I finished the novel, I’d be lying if my immediate reaction wasn’t, “…what did I just read?” Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t the dreaded WTF reaction. It was merely a slight sense of bewilderment. I asked part-time reviewer, Nonny, what she thought and she had much the same reaction. I wish I could articulate what exactly it was about the book that left me so unenthused but it’s fairly accurate.

I also have to get this off my chest. What was up with the Black Dagger Brotherhood cameos? Even though I had advanced warning this would be happening, I still found myself thinking it was self-indulgent. Trez, I could understand, because he owns the Iron Mask and Marie-Terese works there, but Phury? Butch? I know it was intended as an authorial wink of sorts, but they kept tossing me out of the book. It’s hard to suspend disbelief if I keep coming across passages in which the author might as well be yelling, “Hey, I write this other series too and this conspicuous character here is in it!”

As you can probably surmise by all this, I wasn’t too impressed. I’m still having difficulty reconciling the vampire cosmology and the Christian cosmology co-existing but that’s not too surprising. I’ve been having that problem since the introduction of Lassiter in Lover Enshrined. But despite all that, I already know I’m still going to end up picking up your next book, whether it’s a Black Dagger Brotherhood installment or the next novel in this angel series. There’s no denying that your novels are compulsively readable, and you’re still a habit I can’t break. C

My regards,
Jia

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