Berkley Sensation, historical romance, July 2008
Connections: only very slightly related to The Spymaster's Lady, stands well alone

I absolutely loved The Spymaster's Lady, and was eagerly anticipating this release, but sadly, My Lord and Spymaster didn't live up to my expectations.

Jess Whitby's father has been arrested for treason, accused of being the notorious spy "Cinq." She's determined to prove him innocent, and she's sure Captain Sebastian Kennett is the real Cinq. But of course her attraction for him complicates her mission...

I was frustrated with the lack of believable motivation for the characters. We find out almost NOTHING about Jess until page 262, when she finally tells Sebastian how she came to work for Lazarus. I still know practically nothing about Sebastian himself, except that he's a bastard who had a hard life until he was taken in by his aunt, and he looks at Jess and alpha males, "Hnnngh. Mine," with no real reason for why he wants her. I totally didn't buy their chemistry.

If that wasn't bad enough, I can't figure out the damn plot at all. What's with the Irishmen? Who employed them? What happened in the past to make Sebastian the rich one and Quentin dependent on him?

I like animals, but the ferret thing struck me as unrealistic.

The speech patterns drove me insane. Particularly Josiah Whitby's. With Jess, he's all "thee" and "tha" but with Sebastian, he talks normally.

About the only thing I liked about this book was Adrian...and even he was being a little too obtuse for my taste.

I think that yes, my expectations were far too high after The Spymaster's Lady. I was mostly forcing my way through the book, telling myself, "Everyone else loved this book, what are you missing?" When I got to the bit about her going back to Lazarus, I got excited, thinking I was finally about to learn something of value, but after that, enthusiasm died off again.

I'll still read Ms. Bourne's next book -- hopefully it will line up with my expectations.

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

I have other Jade Lee books in the depths of my TBR, but good buzz and an intriguing back cover description led me to buy this book and read it first. I just hope this isn’t typical of Ms. Lee, because, well, I’m not sure if I was more aggravated or disappointed while forcing myself to finish The Dragon Earl.

The basic plot is that Jacob Cato’s entire family was slaughtered on a trip to China when he was a child. He was taken in by monks, and eventually trained to be one of them, living as Jie Ke. But before he is allowed to become a full monk, the abbot decrees that he must go back to England and claim his heritage. If he does, and he can truly reject the life he was originally meant to lead, then he can become a monk.

Evelyn Stanton is on the verge of marrying Jacob’s cousin Christopher when he returns. Apparently, as children, they were originally affianced. When news of the family’s deaths reached England, Evelyn’s marriage contract switched the Christopher, the new heir to the earldom. But she loves Christopher and is most upset that her perfect wedding is interrupted, true earl or not.

OK, folks, spoilers ahead, because I can’t vent my spleen without them. Consider yourself warned.

I can understand the abbot’s decree to ensure that Jacob isn’t truly destined for a life in England, but when his friend and superior monk Zhi Min then decrees that Jie Ke must also claim Evelyn as his, well, that’s just stupid and can only end in hurt for one or all of the people involved. It’s one of the most trumped-up contrivances I’ve encountered in a book.

But then there’s the way both Jie Ke and Evelyn completely change from the way they are presented. Evelyn becomes a hoyden who chafes at the restrictions of being a future countess. I can understand her longing for something more than life as a wife and caretaker of an estate’s people (people, I might add, Christopher calls “peasants,” which made me check the timing of the book -- are we in the Middle Ages? No.), but she suddenly becomes the TSTL uber-slut, all but throwing herself at Jie Ke with barely a thought for Christopher, the man she supposedly loves. And Jie Ke, after confessing that he’s had a few women but the experiences were straightforward and dissatisfying, suddenly goes down on Evelyn (the second day after meeting her, no less!) like a maestro. The next night, inexperienced Evelyn returns the favor. The “I love Christopher but I just can’t resist you” line was completely ridiculous.

But what I most cannot forgive is there is NO resolution whatsoever in the book. No news of whether Jacob will regain his title, although he does say if he does, he will renounce it, because although he no longer wants to be a monk, he doesn’t want to be an earl either. But, more importantly, there is no headway on who ordered the slaughter of Jacob’s family. He “gives up his revenge” to Christopher, meaning it’s now his responsibility to ferret out the villain, but we, the readers, learn nothing, despite the fact that Christopher has some mysterious conversation with his mother, disappears for two days, and returns with presumably some kind of news, but this gets upstaged by Jacob and Evelyn choosing each other, and we never get back to that point.

It’s all well and good for Jacob and Evelyn to decide they’re “choosing their paths” and those paths don’t involve their needing to know such things, but dammit, readers need to know. And frankly, so do they? What if whoever was behind the murders sees Jacob as a threat to the earldom, even though he claims he doesn’t want it? History could repeat itself.

So for the TSTL heroine AND hero and the complete failure at any kind of resolution...well, as I said, I’m not sure if I’m more aggravated or disappointed. Either way, it’s not good.

Review © 2008 by Riley's Reviews

Bantam, paranormal romance, June 2008
Connections: first book in the Dark Crescent Sisterhood series

Anna Windsor introduces a world in which witchlike woman known as Sibyls are pitted against a mysterious body called the Legion, who send elemental demons called Asmodai (reminded me a little bit of golems) after them. The three Sibyls in focus, are Riana, an Earth power and the "pestle" position of the trio, Merilee, an Air power and the "broom," and Cynda, a Fire power and the "mortar." Into their world comes their friend Andy, a police detective on whose cases they occasionally consult. But this time, on a consult about the ritualistic murder of a senator's son, Andy brings her partner, Creed, who, unbeknownst to Andy, is not quite human...and it's up to Riana and her Coven to decide Creed's fate.

While I wanted to like this book, several things kept me from doing so:

1. Even though this is the first book in the series, I felt like I was dumped in the middle...a little infodump/worldbuilding would have helped considerably, but instead, we were being treated as if we should already know this stuff.

2. Editing things: I noticed a mixup of the mortar and pestle terms a couple of times and a confusing sentence about the motherhouses, neither of which helped me orient myself in this world.

3. Creed and Riana just kinda go: hot, me want! There's no buildup, and despite the hawt secks, there's almost no chemistry. The day they meet, she grabs him by his balls to prove a point, then later that night, her entire Coven interrogates him naked, and then later-later that night, they mess around.

4. For all its length, there's a lot of dragginess in the narrative. Less angst, more action, or at least more discovery over what Creed really is, etc. I mean, I was on page 303 and still didn't know zip. Also, there's repetitiveness in the style: two pages apart in the same scene, Creed wonders at how the "other" seems to be helping him.

So the verdict is it could have been good, but it failed to work for me. I doubt I'll be reading the other books.

Review © 2008 by Riley's Reviews

Ballantine, historical romance, March 2008
Connections: third book in the Courtship Wars trilogy

A couple of weeks ago, I made a comment about this book and how I might have to force myself to finish it or just put it aside. Well, I did the former, and...I wasn't wrong.

Lilian is the last of the single Loring sisters. She's an outdoorsy hoyden who thinks all men are horrible beasts and will never, never, never get married. Heath Griffin, the Marquess of Claybourne, is the last single male friend of Marcus Pierce, the Earl of Danvers and husband to the first Loring sister, Arabella. So whether they fit together or not, they're stuck with each other. Heath comes across Lilian hiding out in the barn at Marcus and Arabella's wedding. She's slightly tipsy on champagne and slightly maudlin over the "loss" of her sister, and of course, he's enchanted and makes a pass at her.

What follows is a pretty predictable tug-of-war, both between Lilian and Heath and within Lilian herself. All men are beasts, but she's attracted to this one, oh noes! Like the rest of her sisters, Lilian comes with baggage, but hers is worse. She once intervened when she witnessed her father beat her mother. So unlike her sisters, who just thought that no man could ever be faithful because their father kepts hordes of mistresses, Lilian also thinks all men are brutes who will physically harm their wives, or any women under their care. The fact that the place she chooses to hide from Heath is her friend Fanny's boardinghouse for the demimonde doesn't help.

But what I found so frustrating is that Lilian was too bloody-minded. Even when she was a minor character in her sisters' stories, her adamant opposition to their happiness irked me. In this book, Heath bends over backwards to please her, to show her that he is nothing like her father. He proves himself over and over and over again, and still she pushes him away. All I could think while reading this was "Geez, you're dumb." I had the same thoughts about Heath. He's kind, adventurous, affectionate, a stallion in the sack, and he persists in chasing after a man-hating chit who repeatedly pushes him away. Apparently, he's a masochist.

As for the subplot with Fanny, the gaming hell owner who is obsessed with her, her childhood friend who also loves her, and the aging Cyprians she shelters, well, apart from finding the latter amusing, it really didn't do much for me. Though I think I could have been more interested if Fanny was the focus of this book rather than Lilian.

I can't help but wonder what went wrong with this third installment. This is a rare mis-step in Ms. Jordan's canon for me. About the most enthusiastic reaction I can offer is "meh."

Review © 2008 by Riley Merrick

Berkley, contemporary romance, July 2007
Connections to: loosely related to Causing Havoc, but stands alone

The Simon of the title is Simon Evans, Dean Conor's trainer and manager from Causing Havoc. When the book opens, we see him and the boys moving in a new mattress to surprise his fiancée. Seriously? OK, so you're big, tough guys, but are you too cheap to pay for delivery or something? I mean, they'll haul your old one away for you; it's a no brainer! This is just a cheap plot trick to get Simon to find racy photos of his gal with another guy jammed between the mattress and the box springs of the old bed. Exit Simon from the relationship, with a determination to come out of retirement and fight again.

Our heroine is Dakota Dream. No, I couldn't say that with a straight face. What IS it with Ms. Foster and porn-star-sounding names? In the Buckhorn Brothers series, it's Honey and Misty Malone, and now Dakota Dream? For crying out loud! Anyway, Dakota sings in bars but also volunteers to track down missing teens, to atone to her dead mommy for running away from home and eloping with a bad man when she was a teenager. Simon's not a teen, but her stepfather, Barnaby, preys on her dead mommy guilt to track Simon down and try to convince him to meet with Barnaby, who claims he's Simon's biological father. Simon wants nothing to do with Barnaby, but everything to do with Dakota and all that her porn star name implies. But he's also in training, so he initially rebuffs Dakota.

Enter Dakota's nasty, abusive ex, Marvin. He's the one pulling Barnaby's strings, but even aside from that, apparently he likes to show up and harass Dakota every so often anyway. Mysterious attacks on Dakota give Simon the flimsy excuse of keeping her nearby to "protect" her. Simon's the first man she's been attracted to since Marvin done her wrong, so of course they fall in love. Fin.

I can't begin to describe my issues with this book. OK, I guess I already started with Dakota's name. Her name isn't the only one I take issue with. Barnaby? Marvin? How can you be afraid of people with such weasely names? Hell, even Grover, Dean's uncle from the previous book, raised my brows as a name. Dean's uncle was a Muppet? Face it, Ms. Foster just picks weird names on a rather frequent basis. She also has lots of heroines with abusive men in their pasts. Not that these women don't deserve love and happiness and fantastic sex and all, but it's starting to be too repetitive of a note from the same author.

My second quibble is a big'un. While the steam factor is still present, Ms. Foster's plots are getting thinner and less logical all the time. With the way Dakota is presented, I'm having a hard time even buying the idea that she would let Barnaby push her around in the first place. Marvin, OK, that's understandable, but Barnaby? He seemed pretty useless, a plot tool to get Dakota within banging distance of Simon. I would have bought the plot better if she was a private eye who was determined to close all her cases rather than all the pathetic dead mommy guilt. Simon's motives for coming out of retirement are also pretty weak: he needs to blow off steam because of his ex cheating on him...but then the book makes a point of saying how he puts all emotions aside to fight. And, in fact, his breakup with his ex is very unemotional on his part, so where's this steam he suddenly needs to blow off coming from? Hurt pride, I guess, but again, it's just flimsy and I don't buy it.

I rated Causing Havoc as worth my time for the relationships and steam factor, but not Simon Says. Oh, the steam is there, as I said, but as relationships go, it's bad. Dakota at first hides the fact that Barnaby is her stepfather. Fine, but she hides it way longer than she needs to, and once she decides to tell Simon, she still waits two days longer than she said she was going to, which just seems to be a convenient plot scheme to make Simon find out from Barnaby himself and flip out. It's all very contrived and doesn't ring true.

I almost hate to say it, but I think my love affair with Lori Foster is over.

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick

Signet, paranormal romance, February 2007
Connections to: book #3 of The Darkwing Chronicles

If ever I was tempted not to finish a book, this one could have been it. Though I liked the two prior books in this series, this one was a major clunker in so many ways, I wondered if Ms. Russe was having a bad day or a bad case of missing the logic train when writing this one.

OK, your basic plot: Daphne Urban, vampire spy (more or less willing), and the rest of Team Darkwing are called into HQ to learn about their new case. They are to investigate a possible assassination attempt on presidential hopeful Joe Daniel. Since he’s an African American war vet turned peacenik environmentalist, assassinating him would be like killing MLK and JFK combined. The prime suspect is a person called simply "Gage." A new member has joined Team Darkwing: a darkly sexy vampire named Tallmadge. Daphne’s friend Benny calls dibs on him, but he clearly finds Daphne charming as well. Tallmadge is there very much against his will, and he would rather spend his time at "the club," an underground vampire paradise where anything goes and blood comes straight from a donor and not a blood bank. Daphne was once a part of this culture of iniquity, and she’s afraid of getting sucked back into it, but she’s forced to get involved to protect the very sheltered Benny.

Meanwhile, Daphne’s mother Marioza, the original vampire superspy (yes, both mother and daughter are vampires) who heads up some mysterious organization in the government, orders Daphne and her fellow team members Cormac and J on a side mission: to steal six cartons that were originally from the Vatican from the New York headquarters of Opus Dei. She won’t say why, other than to hint that it’s vital information about Daphne’s father, who was an Italian Renaissance Pope (one of the Urbans, hence her surname). The mission goes wrong and they only save three cartons, but those cartons contain a history of the vampire race (conveniently called The Darkwing Chronicles) and dossiers on vampires worldwide, including Daphne and her friends. Nothing on Daddy Urban, though, so Daphne feels manipulated by her mother's lack of information.

In her personal life, not only is Daphne battling her demons with regard to vampire vice, but she’s also dealing with heartache over her separation from her previous boyfriend, Darius, and starting a relationship with a human man she met in the last book. St. Julien Fitzmaurice.

So there’s the plot. From here on, there be spoilers. Big ones. You have been warned.

So much didn’t work for me in this book, but chief among them was Daphne herself. I didn’t remember her being this weak. She’s hung up on a guy who’s so clearly an asshole (Darius) that I have no sympathy for her. But while she’s wailing and moaning about Darius, she’s also flirting with Tallmadge, despite Benny calling dibs (this seemed out of character in itself, because Daphne values her friendships), almost kissing J, engaging in oral sex with a hospital-bed-bound Fitz (then feeling guilty for "cheating" on Darius), and being unable to resist Ducasse, a mysterious man who offers himself as a donor to her at the club – basically she's going after any straight male. All this is explained away by the fact that she was turned during late adolescence, so several hundred years later, she’s still ruled by her hormones. Funny, I didn’t notice that in the first two books. I ain’t buying it.

Intelligence gaffes are second on my list. First in the mission to Opus Dei, Marioza refuses all requests for more people, more research, and more time, which results in the team only able to rescue half the cartons. She also jerks Daphne around to no end on the subject of her father, which seems to have no purpose. Finally, it comes out that she suspected the identity of Gage all along. WTF? So why send Team Darkwing on wild goose chases? Why not say, "Hey, I think Gage is this Contessa chick I’ve dealt with in the past, and I’ve brought Tallmadge on the team to bring her in...?"

Joe Daniel was introduced as a character and then left pretty much hanging in terms of all the things we learned about him. I mean, how does he deal with a mole in his own campaign team? What about the pain pill addiction? And where did Gage freakin’ disappear to anyway?

The events at the club smacked of rape and made me extremely uncomfortable. Daphne was clearly under the influence of absinthe when she went off with Ducasse, and to read about that sexual encounter in graphic detail made me feel unclean. It wasn’t the least bit sexy. Nor was her encounter with Tallmadge.

Darius. OMG, how I hate this character, and he was barely in this book. I’ve never warmed to him, though I was willing to cut him some slack. We started off the series with Darius as a vampire-hunter who falls in love with Daphne, then that love turns to hate when she turns him to save him. Then in book two, the assholery begins. He joins a rival spy organization and plays Daphne while at the same time his slayer girlfriend tries to kill her. Then he goes off in a huff when Daphne refuses his offer to join his organization and their mission in Europe. With the slayer. But then he shows up again and gets jealous over Fitz? And when Daphne tells him she has to move on (the one thing I LIKED about Daphne in this entire book), he asks her to "leave the door open a little" for him? Gah. I did however, like the parallels between Daphne’s relationship with him and her prior affair with Lord Byron. Hopefully she’ll learn from the past and not repeat it.

The designer name-dropping was irritating, but mainly because it distracted from most of the scenes it was used in. It works in a fluffy vampire book from MaryJanice Davidson, but not in a darker book. At least, not for me.

Believe it or not, some things did work for me in this book. I loved Daphne’s pets. I was intrigued by the people who kept trying to steal her dog Jade – what’s their real purpose? Does it have to do with Jade’s former owner, or is Jade a pawn because she’s Daphne’s weakness? Hopefully this will be addressed further.

Finally, I absolutely loved Fitz’s reaction to Daphne’s big "I’m a vampire" confession. He’s a great character, and I hope he manages to wean Daphne off of Darius completely, because, really, the less Darius, the better.

Since I liked the first two books in this series, this book was a big disappointment. I wanted to like it so much, but too much was working against me here. I may give the next book a shot, I may not.

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick