Archive for 'Anya-Bast'
 Hot for You by Jodi Lynn Copeland. This is a friends to lovers story (the first of two in the anthology). Carinna was a cocktail waitress at The Liege, a resort in Las Vegas. She likes her men like her martinis “dirty as a girl could get ‘em.” The man she want right now is her good friend, Jack. Jack is a local fireman who is working to parlay his mastery at the poker table into a classic car restoration business. Carrina loves Jack and Jack loves Carrina but Carrina can’t allow herself to have a relationship.
The story is told in alternating first person. I don’t mind this technique and I thought the author did a good job showing the distinct personalities through the varying narration but I did feel that Jack’s narration was a bit florid with unintentionally comic results:
The thought of her warm pussy sucking at my tongue had me returning to that fateful night four months ago.
“Pussy sucking” and “fateful nights” aren’t two phrases that I ordinarily would put together in the mind of one man. The paragraph goes on …
Dear Ms. Bast:
 I’ve read most of your backlist at Ellora’s Cave and really, your books have been the impetus for trying more. You have almost always been able to capture and convey the emotional connection while still bringing the heat. I think you are one of the best of the epublished authors and was not at all surprised that New York snapped you up.
Your strengths have always been the emotional connection of your characters; your weakness, world building. Most of your prior work that I have found so appealing have been your novellas. You pack a great deal of emotion in a short amount of space. Unfortunately, in novel length form, you seem to have lost your way.
Mira Hoskins is an air witch who had no knowledge of her powers. She was an ordinary woman, living an ordinary life: divorced and trying to make ends meet by waiting tables. Jack McAllister is a firewitch whose father is one of the worst, most evil men on earth. Crane, Jack’s father, killed Mira’s parents in a demon summoning when Mira …
Dear Ms. Bast:
 Tempted by Two is a sequel and features Miranda and Theo who appeared in Seduced by Twilight. Miranda is a counselor at a local woman’s shelter. This is not just a career for her, but a driving need. Miranda’s mother was beaten and ultimately killed by her abusive father. While Miranda has recovered and now seeks to help other women be free of domestic violence, she still shies away from permanent commitments.
Miranda has just started seeing Theo. Theo is a full blooded Tylwyth Teg, a five hundred year old fae. The only way for the Tylwith Teg to achieve full grasp of their powers is to form a triad. A triad doesn’t necessarily have to have a sexual bond but it commonly occurs when the triad involves members of the opposite sex. Theo recognizes that Miranda is his third and one that will complete him, not only bringing his powers to fruition but also fulfilling long dormant emotional needs. The problem is that Theo isn’t quite ready to impart to the third part of the …
Dear Ms. Bast:
 I’ve kind of marked you down as a go to read. When I am looking for a hot but emotionally satisfying story, I generally feel that you will deliver. Alas, this was a misstep. I looked at the copyright on this one and it says January 2006. I can’t help but feel that your writing today is leaps and bounds different than even a year ago.
Blood of the Damned is book 4 of the Embraced series. I’ve not read book 1 through 3 as, well, this blurb appealed to me more. Niccolo is a Vampir who’s speciality is execution. Tired of that life, he allowed himself to be imprisoned and was let out only when needed for a kill job. Jade, a half fae, half human and Priestess of the Morrigan is sent to collect him from prison for the vampire world (the Embraced) are in need of him.
Maybe it was a mistake not to read the three other books in this series because the amount of information that you give about Niccolo and Jade, their motivations, their backstory, other than their …
Dear Ms. Bast:
 This is a novella and when I first saw its release, despite my general appreciation for your work, I delayed in purchasing it because of its short length. However after trying to read a few other erotic romances and being disappointed, I broke down and bought it. Silly me. I should have known that it would be a good read with great sex between two likeable characters.
Ben is in NY for a business trip when he locks eyes with a woman and is intrigued, maybe more than intrigued but the moment passes when she walks away. About six months later, he returns to NY to work on a business deal and to meet Cindy, a woman he met online, to initiate her into the BDSM world. Ben had gained a reputation, both locally and online, for being a trusted Dom. Most of the women he had been with lately looked for very short term encounters and Ben has been feeling dissatisfied with his sexual lifestyle. At the hotel he smells the perfume of the woman he had spotted those 6 months ago.
Savannah, just out …
Dear Ms. Bast:
 If pressed, I would probably say that you are my favorite EC novelist. I am eagerly awaiting your Berkley releases. I bought Water Crystal during my Bast glom and thought, despite the title, that it was a contemporary given the cover. It is not a contemporary, but rather a futuristic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is a sore lack of futuristics in the romance genre and so when I come across a decent one, I am probably more forgiving.
This is a slightly futuristic tale which involves some heavy duty worldbuilding. I am sure that someone more sophisticated than I will find flaws but for me, the world you created seemed full to me. An alien lifeform, known as Kiran, came to Earth when their own world began to die. In order to inhabit Earth, these aliens cultivated freysis bacteria which is toxic to humans. Freysis was loosed into the water system and ecology took over forming a continuous supply of freysis. To humans, enough exposure to water, even in rain form, will be deadly. When a strange …
Dear Ms. Bast:
 Add me to your list of fangirls. Not the kind that pretends to be more than one person but the kind that haunts your blogs and marks down release dates for your books. The kind that gushes on the internet and in person at the bookstore about how hot, sexy and emotionally fulfilling your book is. That kind of fangirl. Let me say that you can send me an ARC anytime.
A Change of Seasons is a fantasy romance set in some medieval time period (horses, castles, keeps, etc. – think Lord of the Rings without the dwarves but with the hot guys like Legolas and Aragorn, if they were taller, better built, with wings, and looked alike. So maybe think TWO Sean Beans, with wings). Excuse me for a moment whilst I fan myself.
Moira, in A Change of Seasons, is endowed with magick as a result of being a direct descendant of the first born ones of New Ecasia. Moira is empathetic and as her magick grows stronger, she is forced to move to the forest away from the villagers. She begins to have powerful visions of two men: Lord Cyric and Lord Dain d’Ange. Lord Cyric’s visage is cold and cruel but Lord Dain’s is even more frightening. He is known as winged devourer of women (and not in a good way, IYKWM, and I think you all do).
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